Counting Crows bridged the gap between alternative and classic rock when they appeared in 1993. The band were clearly indebted to stalwarts like The Band and Van Morrison. But lead singer Adam Duritz channelled angst like his alternative contemporaries.
The band formed in the Bay Area, San Francisco, taking their name from a nursery rhyme. Counting Crows were never my favourite band during their 1990s prime – I found Duritz’s self-importance difficult to stomach. But I’ve enjoyed listening through their discography recently -they have a lot of impressive songs.
Perhaps controversially, I haven’t included their breakthrough hit ‘Mr Jones’ on the below list. It’s been spoiled for me by overplay. Come to think of it, a lot of their hits suck. I’m not letting the cover of ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ or Shrek’s ‘Accidentally in Love’ anywhere near this list.
10 Best Counting Crows Songs
#10 Elevator Boots
from Butter Miracle, Suite One, 2021
The rest of the songs on this list are drawn from the band’s first decade as recording artists. But their 2021 EP Butter Miracle, Suite One is worth your time, returning to the classic rock sound of Hard Candy.
Verbose imagery like “He dreamed submarines in bottle green/Imaginary flight machines/But in blue jean flares he bubbled like a 7UP” recall Springsteen’s early, playful work.
#9 Omaha
from August and Everything After, 1993
There was no room on the list for fan favourites from the Counting Crows’ debut album. I couldn’t fit ‘Anna Begins’, ‘Round Here’, or ‘Einstein on the Beach (For an Eggman)’ (a non-album single from the August era) but I included this deep cut.
It sounds like the Counting Crows have cross-pollinated some classic rock songs. The verse melody sounds derived from Seals & Crofts’ ‘Summer Breeze’, while the descending bass hook is reminiscent of The Band’s ‘The Weight’.
#8 If I Could Give All My Love -Or- Richard Manuel Is Dead
from Hard Candy, 2002
At the start of their career, Counting Crows combined alternative angst with classic rock sounds. By the time of their fourth album, Hard Candy, the alternative edge was largely gone, leaving them as a classic rock-inspired band.
‘If I Could Give All My Love’ taps into a southern rock sound, like the Allman Brothers. There are stinging guitars, warm piano, stop-start dynamics, and a great use of Duritz’s upper register.
#7 St. Robinson In His Cadillac Dream
from This Desert Life, 1999
1999’s This Desert Life is my favourite Counting Crows album. The band are less serious than on their first two records, and ‘St Robinson’ is playful and funky.
There are creative textures, with the mandolin and organ. Duritz’s disdainful delivery of the line “I may not go to heaven/I hope you go to hell” is my favourite moment in the Counting Crows’ catalogue.
#6 Holiday in Spain
from Hard Candy, 2002
‘Holiday in Spain’ is simple, with little more than a mournful piano figure. It’s a fan favourite perhaps because Duritz is direct, not dressing up his thoughts behind flowery metaphors. It reflects a desire for escape and simplicity.
In 2004, ‘Holiday in Spai’was rerecorded as a duet with Dutch pop-rock group BLØF. This version topped the charts in the Netherlands.
#5 Rain King
from August and Everything After, 1993
I’ll let Mr Duritz explain this cryptic song:
“I read this book in college when I was at Berkeley called Henderson, the Rain King. And the main character in the book was kind of this big, open-wound of a person, Eugene Henderson, he just sort of bled all over everyone around him. For better or for worse, full of joy, full of sorrow, he just made a mess of everything. And when I wrote the song years later, it didn’t really have anything to do with the book except the book had kind of become a totem for how I felt about creativity and writing–that it was just this thing where you just took everything inside of you and just sort of [funny noise] sprayed it all over everything, and not to worry too much about it.”
#4 A Long December
from Recovering the Satellites, 1996
The second single from Recovering the Satellites features Adam Duritz at the piano. The accordion is a lovely arrangement touch, and the guitar solo is surprisingly caustic.
I never think of Duritz as a great lyricist, but there are some memorable lines in this song:
- “the feeling that it’s all a lot of oysters, but no pearls”
- “you look across a crowded room/to see the way that light attaches to a girl”.
#3 Mrs Potter’s Lullaby
from This Desert Life, 1999
‘Mrs Potter’s Lullaby’ was the second single. Lengthy and insular, it’s an odd choice for a single, but it’s one of the band’s best songs.
The song was written about actress Monica Potter, who appeared in late 1990s films Con Air and Patch Adams. The band invited Potter to the recording session, and an engineer presented Potter with a copy of an early take.
Duritz later announced the song was ruined by studio overproduction and would be scrapped. Potter gave him her copy of the early take, which was subsequently added to This Desert Life.
#2 Hanginaround
from This Desert Life, 1999
Producer David Lowery is known for his work with Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker. He brought playfulness to Counting Crows’ third album, as demonstrated on the lead single ‘Hanginaround’. It’s built around eight different piano loops, inspired by Brian Wilson’s Smile project.
Duritz told an interviewer “I wrote that song about when I was younger and the latter years in Berkeley and how I loved it there, but I was kind of going nowhere.”
#1 Angels of the Silences
from Recovering the Satellites, 1996
Counting Crows added lead guitarist Dan Vickrey after August and Everything After. His presence beefs up their sound, notably on the lead single ‘Angels of the Silences’. It’s a four-chord rocker, but the unusual chord sequence creates tension.
On Storytellers, Duritz explained that “this song in particular is about the difficulty in having faith in things, and finding things to have faith in, in yourself, in God, in like he said, a woman.”
Did I miss your favourite Counting Crows song?
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Now you are back in my wheelhouse!
G. I respect your opinion always. But I think you are a bit off the mark with this list in some respects.
Best CC songs of all time
1. Sullivan Street. Play it to yourself with no distractions.
2. Mister Jones. The song that made them famous. “Bright is my favourite colour “. It’s an epic lyric.
Kind regards, Andrew.
Sullivan Street’s a good one.
And I’d probably like Mr Jones way more if it was a deep cut rather than the big single. Came out when I was in my early teens, so got sick of it.
I think “Mr jones” is the best song of the 1990s. It’s great, but also very complex. He’s obviously just speaking to himself the whole time. I could be Bob dlylan…. .
I read that it’s about conversations he had with his friend in a bar. It’s very Van Morrison for me – especially the sha la las.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oqAU5VxFWs&pp=ygUXbXIgam9uZXMgY291bnRpbmcgY3Jvd3M%3D
Obviously Mr jones is himself. So he will never be lonely.
I remember seeing a live thing where he explains that the song isn’t about his genitalia!
I generally like Counting Crows and except for that 2021 EP have heard music from each of their albums. That said, the only one I’ve heard entirely is “August and Everything After.” I got it on CD around the time it came out because of “Mr. Jones.” I really loved that song then and can still listen to it despite its overexposure.
It looks like after 2014’s “Somewhere Under Wonderland”, Counting Crows ran out of steam on the new music front. I understand that after “Butter Miracle, Suite One”, there was supposed to be another EP, “Butter Miracle, Suite Two,” which would be combined with the first to become a full-length album, but I guess this hasn’t happened.
Perhaps becoming a winery investor and a podcast host became too much of a distraction for Adam Duritz to focus on new music. That said, except for during the pandemic, it looks like Counting Crows have been touring each year over the past 10 years.
It feels like most veteran bands should focus on touring rather than recording. Diminishing returns are pretty common after a few albums, and the public generally want to hear the classics rather than inferior new work. So I think scaling back their new work is a good idea.
Very solid list as usual, sir. A few of these would definitely make mine and I’m always glad to see Holiday In Spain get a mention. Oddly, Omaha is one I usually skip or pay little attention too and I really need to give Butter Miracle, Suite One a listen – I kinda drifted out after Saturday Nights / Sunday Mornings
Butter Miracle isn’t essential, but it’s a nice return to their core sound.
Thanks for reading!
Now you have me digging into the vault. “Paint myself in blue and red and black and grey”. It was only now that a friend pointed out that they are Picasso s coulours. I can be slow off the mark sometimes
My number one would be Mrs Potter’s Lullaby… the restof the list is fine…very solid.
I’m ok with Mr. Jones because I wasn’t listening to a lot of radio. When I heard it early one morning as I was waking up…I thought it was Van Morrison. I still like the song.
I loved that Mrs Potter’s Lullaby story about how they used Mrs Potter’s demo tape.
Mr Jones is very Van Morrison – which is interesting, because noone really sounds like Van Morrison.
Mr Jones just had that feel to it. I had high hopes for this band and they did release some good songs as you have here…but my interest just went down after a while. The amount of hype they recieved from RS didn’t do them any favors in America…they were almost known before they were heard.
Yeah, I heard Robbie Robertson was hyping them up. I think they’d lost their edge by their fourth album – it’s a bit too toothless, even though there are still some really good songs.
I didn’t know about Robertson hyping them. By the time I heard Mr Jones, when I found out who it was, I knew a lot about them because of RS. It sounds like they couldn’t sustain it… I also thought Everclear would last as well…so I could not pick them.
They made 3-4 pretty strong albums before they started to peter out – not a bad run, really.