The Hideaway 20: The 43 Most-Listened To Songs from September 2026

The Hideaway 20 recap for September 2026 features a three-way tie for the most-scrobbled song and a forty-way tie for the second-most-scrobbled song, giving us The Hideaway 43. 2,599 tracks were scrobbled during the 30 days of September, with 2,166 being unique songs, or 37.3% of The Hideaway House Blend. The fewest scrobbles were 15 on September 9th, while the most scrobbled day featured 189 tracks across thirteen hours on September 18th. The average number of daily scrobbles for the month was 87, while the average release year of the 43 tracks is 1984. It was a relatively slow month compared to the eight other months of 2026 so far, with only two months having fewer scrobbles: May and August. An unprecedented seven songs made encore appearances from previous Hideaway 20 countdowns this year.

For the first time in a couple of months, an interesting anomaly occurred while we were listening on Wednesday, September 30th. On my way to the car wash after a wonderful four days of rain, "Live Forever" by Oasis came on, and then, just as I was pulling into the car wash itself and "Live Forever" was ending, "Wonderwall" started playing – an Oasis double play! Two songs after "Wonderwall" on my way back home, "D'You Know What I Mean?" (my favorite Oasis track) began playing. Reshuffled the playlist and started all over again on Thursday, October 1st. We'll hear what happens and report it next month.

The first track scrobbled on September 1st, 2026, was Glen Campbell's "Galveston" from the album of the same name. It was the eighteenth time the track had been scrobbled since 2015. The final track scrobbled on September 30, 2026, was Tangerine Dream's "No Future (Get Off The Babysitter)" from the Risky Business soundtrack. It was the sixteenth time I've scrobbled the track since December 2023, when it was added to the House Blend playlist we listen to nearly every day.

Speaking of adding to the House Blend – something we do just about every week – we decided not to add any songs in September, so the playlist's population remained at 5,808 tracks. We kept a list of the songs we wanted to add and will add them as October goes on. At the top of the list is the 8:00 extended remix of "Take Me Home" by Phil Collins and his merry band of drum machines.

	September 2026 — Top 43 Most Listened-To Songs
rank	title	artist	year
43	Rough Boy	ZZ Top	1985
42	Maybe I'm Amazed (live)	Paul McCartney	1976
41	Remember The Audio	Monkey House	2022
40	Reflections	The Supremes	1967
39	Put the Message In the Box	World Party	1990
38	You Better Run	Pat Benatar	1980
37	Rock Me Gently	Andy Kim	1974
36	Sledgehammer	Peter Gabriel	1986
35	Flagpole Sitta	Harvey Danger	1998
34	Talk To Ya Later	The Tubes	1981
33	The Chain [live from The Dance]	Fleetwood Mac	1997
32	Cecilia	Simon & Garfunkel	1970
31	Levon	Elton John	1971
30	Video Killed The Radio Star	The Buggles	1979
29	Keep The Fire	Kenny Loggins	1979
28	A Love Before	Lindsey Webster	2018
27	The Witch Queen Of New Orleans	Redbone	1971
26	Heaven Must Have Sent You	Bonnie Pointer	1979
25	Leader Of The Pack	The Shangri-Las	1964
24	Just Another Day	Jon Secada	1992
23	Hotel California	Eagles	1976
22	Country State Of Mind	Hank Williams Jr.	1986
21	Rock Steady	The Whispers	1987
20	If I Had A Rocket Launcher	Bruce Cockburn	1984
19	Woman In Love	Barbra Streisand	1980
18	I'm Henry The VIII, I Am	Herman's Hermits	1965
17	Disco Inferno	The Trammps	1976
16	Money (That's What I Want)	The Flying Lizards	1979
15	I Just Want To Be Your Everything	Andy Gibb	1977
14	Just Can't Get Enough	Depeche Mode	1981
13	I'm Your Man	Wham!	1986
12	Tennessee Whiskey	Chris Stapleton	2015
11	Crystal	New Order	2001
10	That's Life	Frank Sinatra	1966
09	The Look Of Love USA Remix)	ABC	1982
08	19th Nervous Breakdown	The Rolling Stones	1966
07	The Story In Your Eyes	The Moody Blues	1974
06	Bulletproof	La Roux	2009
05	Tom Sawyer [Z-Trip Remix]	Rush	1998
04	You're My Home (live)	Billy Joel	1973
03	Fire On The Mountain	The Marshall Tucker Band	1975
02	I Won't Give Up	Jason Mraz	2012
01	Best of My Love	Eagles	1974

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For this month's flashback, we're hopping way, way back to 2016 for The Hideaway 29. There's a clear most-listened-to song, a clear second most-listened-to song, a seven-way tie for third, and a twenty-way tie for fourth. With an average year just below 1993, this is one of the newer, fresher countdowns we've featured, as most previous Hideaway 20 countdowns over the past 21 months have an average year between 1981 and 1985. The oldest song is from 1969, and there are five tracks from 2016, which boost the average. AC/DC has two songs on the countdown, with the Rock Shock Remix of "You Shook Me All Night Long" at #16 while "T.N.T." comes in at #12.

There are six songs by Enrique Iglesias on The Hideaway 29, including three songs from his 2001 album Escape in the Top 10. Guess I was in the midst of an Enrique obsession back in September 2016. I checked both August and October 2016; Enrique's tracks were nowhere to be found.

Five songs on the countdown are cover versions, with four of them in the Top 6. The outlier down at #18 is actually a medley of three classic songs. "Forever Country" was recorded in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Country Music Association Awards and features 30 artists, both past & present, taking turns "We Are The World"-style singing a mash-up of "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "On The Road Again", and "I Will Always Love You". Hideaway favorite Little Big Town somehow got the most screen time in the accompanying green-screen nightmare of a music video. Said video ends with Dolly Parton singing the last line, and damn, it hits really hard now.

The first scrobble of September 2016 was "You Can Do It" by Evie Sands. The track is from her 1975 album Estate Of Mind, though I played it off The Ladies Of Too Slow To Disco compilation from 2016. Unsurprisingly, this disappointing song hasn't been scrobbled in the past ten years.

The final song scrobbled in September 2016 was The Clash's "London Calling" from the 1979 album of the same name. According to Last.fm, that was just the fifth time I played the track after connecting to Last.fm to track my scrobbles, and I have played it 33 more times since then.

The Number One song on The Hideaway 29 is by my friend, Brandon Hixson, a fellow music lover I met through his YouTube posts of K-Tel album rips. He's the world's biggest Quarterflash fan and has posted many, many incredible videos, including his own annual Casey-style countdowns and K-Tel albums that never existed, before many of his posts were taken down by the copyright police. "Take The First Step" is still my favorite song of the many he has shared.

	September 2016 — Top 29 Most Listened-To Songs
rank	title	artist	year
29	Girl U Want	Devo	1980
28	Head Over Boots	Jon Pardi	2016
27	Clean My Wounds	Corrosion of Conformity	1994
26	Bailamos	Enrique Iglesias	1998
25	Days Gone Down (Still Got The Light In Your Eyes)	Gerry Rafferty	1979
24	Kickstart My Heart	Mötley Crüe	1989
23	Whole Lotta Love	Led Zeppelin	1969
22	Sister Golden Hair	America	1975
21	Duele El Corazón (English Version)	Enrique Iglesias	2016
20	Look Who's Lonely Now	Bill LaBounty	1982
19	The Edge of Heaven	Wham!	1986
18	Forever Country	Artists of Then, Now & Forever	2016
17	Cat People (Putting Out Fire)	David Bowie	1983
16	You Shook Me All Night Long (Rock Shock Remix)	AC/DC	1980
15	Bailando (Spanish Version)	Enrique Iglesias	2014
14	Undercover (Of The Night)	The Rolling Stones	1983
13	Barracuda	Heart	1977
12	T.N.T.	AC/DC	1976
11	Enter Sandman	Metallica	1991
10	Dani California	Red Hot Chili Peppers	2006
09	Love to See You Cry	Enrique Iglesias	2001
08	Like a Stone	Audioslave	2002
07	Escape	Enrique Iglesias	2001
06	Purple Rain	Dwight Yoakam	2016
05	Theme From S.W.A.T.	Rhythm Heritage	1976
04	Don't Turn Off The Lights	Enrique Iglesias	2001
03	If 6 Was 9	Axiom Funk	1996
02	Rock and Roll Love Letter	Bay City Rollers	1975
01	Take the First Step	Brandon Hixson	2016