Whether you’re spending your summer hiking dusty trails in the desert or leafy trails up north, out on one of our many lakes, ascending your way to a mountain campsite, sitting under the moon with friends, driving to your favorite statewide destination, or keeping indoors with a/c for a party, we’ve got the soundtrack for every Arizona occasion.
Whether you’re spending your summer hiking dusty trails in the desert or leafy trails up north, out on one of our many lakes, ascending your way to a mountain campsite, sitting under the moon with friends, driving to your favorite statewide destination, or keeping indoors with a/c for a party, we’ve got the soundtrack for every Arizona occasion.
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Whether you’re spending your summer hiking dusty trails in the desert or leafy trails up north, out on one of our many lakes, ascending your way to a mountain campsite, sitting under the moon with friends, driving to your favorite statewide destination, or keeping indoors with a/c for a party, we’ve got the soundtrack for every Arizona occasion.
Posted
OUR PANEL
Steve Stockmar (SS)
Philip Haldiman (PH)
Steve Chernek (SC)
SC and PH are Arizona natives, SS has lived in Arizona almost 40 years. All are involved in the Arizona arts community, all are career Arizona journalists, all are music followers and collectors (SC plays and records with bands).
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Arizona music. What constitutes “an Arizona song”? Lists far and wide have celebrated different variations.
Songs about Arizona? “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” is always near the top of any list. (Check out Isaac Hayes’ version as much as the Glen Campbell spin.) Kings of Leon’s gorgeous “Arizona” gets us every time. And don’t act like you haven’t sung Gordon Lightfoot’s “Carefree Highway” while passing underneath it on I-17.
Songs that mention Arizona? The Beatles famously name-checked Tucson in “Get Back,” as did The Grateful Dead in “Jack Straw.” As many people know the “Winslow, Arizona” line from the Eagles’ “Take It Easy” as have visited the actual corner for Instagram moments. Any road trip across the state is even better while listening to “Route 66” and its Flagstaff shout-out.
Bands from Arizona? Too many great ones to try and cram in – but, that doesn’t always mean your favorite Arizona artists actually made your favorite songs of theirs in Arizona.
With summer upon us, we’ve curated a different list.
We’re celebrating the best of the best songs that have been recorded in Arizona. Right here. In our backyard. The lyrics may not always paint pictures of Southwest desert sunsets but that’s okay. Oftentimes bands and singers were busy tending to other aspects of their Arizona lives that came through in song in the 68 years our list spans, from 1954 through 2022.
As for how our panel waded through generations of recorded songs to whittle down our Top 100, we did follow a couple ground rules.
First off: no YouTube videos, no bootlegs. No matter how special a fan-captured video performance might be, we’re talking about only officially released records, either from inside a studio or live.
Secondly, a band had to have created the song in our Arizona environment, which at times, as you’ll read, was an integral part of the creative process.
We sourced raw data (recording dates, locations, etc.) primarily from album liner notes, industry websites like Discogs and Bandcamp, from band websites, and record charts. In most cases we went right to the artists themselves as we have over the past few months to talk about what they remember from a particular record.
We love the songs presented here, but not just for the feisty grooves.
It’s our Arizona neighbors we celebrate; the creatives who felt inspired on our turf, whether it was recorded in well-defined studios, on stages throughout the state, or even, in some instances, in friends’ living rooms.
We send love and respect to all those bands and singers and producers and record store owners and music buyers over the past eight decades, on this list or not. We could easily pick 200.
If there was a jukebox marked for only songs made in Arizona, but it had just 100 slots for records, here are the ones we’re grabbing.
“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” – The Rolling Stones
1982
With a tour of 50 shows over three months in late 1981, the Stones had any pick of concerts from which to draw songs for their subsequent live album, “Still Life,” in ’82. They pulled the band’s most iconic hit from their Tempe show at Sun Devil Stadium for the album, complete with Mick Jagger ending the night’s closer with “Thank you very much Phoenix we’ve got to go!”
Recorded on Dec. 13, 1981, almost at the end of the tour, Tempe sparkled in the theatrical concert film of the tour, released the next year. The first 11 songs of the movie are from the Sun Devil Stadium show with a couple more from Tempe appearing near the end of the film. SS
We’re happy to defer to All Music’s definition of shoegaze music: “Long, droning riffs, waves of distortion, and cascades of feedback” where walls of guitars create “a wash of sound.” While the genre may have its origins in 1980s and '90s British indie rock, this Phoenix trio adds as much power punch as any band in the dreampop world.
Recorded over two days in 2016 at the audioconfusion recording studio in East Mesa, the whole album is a fuzzy celebration of neo-psychedelia in all its glory. SS
The Tempe rockers are back with a 2025 album (check out the atmospheric cut “Waves”), but their self-released, first full-length album, “The Elephant in the Room,” kicked off everything in the summer of 2012.
Laid down at STEM Recording in Paradise Valley — the vibrantly active studio founded by Dead Hot Workshop’s Curtis Grippe — the dual lead guitars, the harmonies, and the horns stabbing in all the right ways in all the right places set “Blue Sky” apart. And the band that had been playing regular gigs at Long Wong’s and at the Sail Inn reached big-time college radio airplay with this one, even as far as WNYU New York while the whole album was singled out at the time as a top digital download by Amazon Music Editors. SS
The eclectic music community in Prescott calls the Wes Williams Band among its own, and they recorded a memorable live night in that city for posterity as an album. The Baton Rouge, Louisiana-raised Williams moved to Prescott as a 20-year-old, as he told Matt Santos of The Mile High Show podcast, put together his band, and added all the right ingredients to blend Southern funk and jam band elements with pure soul sensibilities.
There’s a lot to unpack on the “Live at the Elks Theater” album. The slow burn of “Sedona Glow” with its gorgeous violin solo, or, as an encore, a cover of the Allman Brothers’ classic “Soulshine” to end the night. But to get moving and stirring, start with “Southern Girl” to feel the band’s full force. The recording also captures the atmosphere of the Elks Theater itself, built in 1905 one block east of Prescott’s historic downtown courthouse plaza. SS
It was a memorable time in the Valley of the Sun. 1989 saw the final taping of “The Wallace and Ladmo Show,” Dan Majerle was a Suns rookie, the Phoenix Cardinals were in their sophomore season here, the only baseball was A’s and Angels TV broadcasts on KUSK, and “cruising” around Metrocenter could get you a ticket.
Back when Gigi Dixon captured that spirit about going out on a Friday night. The feel-good country single came off her “Runaway Heart” album, recorded at Vintage Recorders in Phoenix. The multi-talented Dixon in later years would guest on other musicians’ records and she was a backing vocalist with “In The Flesh,” a Pink Floyd tribute show that ran in Arizona in the mid-2000s. SS
What started as brothers in the early 1970s performing at family gatherings, community dances, high school proms, and local fairs in their hometown of Cedar Creek, on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Gila County, has evolved into a second and third generation of family members still going strong as Apache Spirit at casinos, rodeos, and anywhere with a dance floor.
Parents Matthew “Midnite” Kane Sr. and Lee Kane and brothers Michael “McGhee” Ethelbah, Paschal “Pat” Ethelbah, and Gabriel “Apache Boy” Ethelbah formed the band’s first incarnation in time for their 1973 debut album, “Indian Cowboy,” and its catchy title track that celebrates both the family’s Indigenous and cowboy roots. SS
Hard rock, skater dudes, 1970s punk influences. Yep, you’re in.
The Tempe-based quintet is led by singer Michael Pistrui who you know from Valley grunge band Beats The Hell Out Of Me and their killer self-titled 1994 album. Fat Gray Cat debuted with a four-song EP in 2014 on AZPX Records and recorded at Mind's Eye Digital Recording Studio in Phoenix.
They describe themselves as The Damned meets the Talking Heads + Iggy and MC5, and each of those checks all the right boxes after listening. Start with “Drive Us.” SS
Whether it’s called chicken scratch (dance music developed by the Tohono O’odham people dubbed after the lines chickens make in the dirt in search of food) or waila (derived from Spanish for “dance”) no one in Arizona made listeners dance from sundown to sunup more than The Joaquin Brothers.
Their album, “The Joaquin Brothers Play Polkas & Chotis,” was one of the first waila releases by Canyon Records, founded in Phoenix in 1951 by Ray and Mary Boley and still going strong today celebrating Native American music. One listen to the precision of the horns on “Hohokam Choti” is all you need to know why. SS
Doo-wop was the sound of the 1950s and The Tads, who would emerge as one of most prolific Black vocal groups of the time in Phoenix, were at the forefront. Released as a B-side on Rev Records by musical entrepreneur Frank Porter, who reportedly recorded four songs by the Tads (who also went by The Dots) on a tape machine in the laundry room of his house on Stella Lane, the vocal stylings of Leroy Fullylove, Charles Fullylove, Emerson Bilton, and Robie Robinson gave this one its special magic.
Capturing the 1950s in all its glory, this one has had staying power, thanks especially to Fervor Records’ stewardship of The Tads’ catalog. The song has enjoyed a successful 21st century rebirth having appeared in shows like the Starz’ hit “American Gods,” the Netflix original series “Orange Is The New Black,” the Lifetime series “You,” and many others. SS
Arizona has 300-plus days of sunshine a year but that doesn’t mean gothic rock can’t thrive here. No one proved that more than Twenty Four Hour World, whose name is also styled at times as “24HR World.”
The alternative rock quintet featured Bil Yanok (guitar/vocals), Johnny Belluzi (guitar), John Saccoman (bass/trumpet), Tom Blackwood (keyboards), and Brian Ford (drums), and they self-released their album “Ruin” (on cassette) partly recorded at Cereus Recording in Phoenix and in Portland. If the track “Cold” sounds familiar, in 2024 DC Studios picked up the song to include in its Batman limited series “The Penguin” starring Colin Farrell. SS
