Rush‘s 1980 hit “The Spirit of Radio” is still receiving acclaim, despite debuting 46 years ago.
In April 2026, Ultimate Classic Rock featured the tune, off the band’s seventh record, Permanent Waves, on the publication’s list, “Top 100 Rock Songs of All Time.” The ranking also included rock songs like “All Along the Watchtower” by The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1968), “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana (1991), and “Hotel California” by the Eagles (1976), with “Strawberry Fields Forever” by The Beatles (1967) taking home the number one spot.
According to Ultimate Classic Rock, “The Spirit of Radio” deserved the list’s 49th ranking as it’s a solid prog rock track that also marked the start of the band dipping their toes into the mainstream.
The song, penned by Rush members Neil Peart, who died in 2020 at the age of 67, Alex Lifeson, now 73, and Geddy Lee, also 73, secured the number 51 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1980, two months after Permanent Waves‘ debut.
In a 2009 interview with Louder, Lifeson discussed the creation and recording of “The Spirit of Radio” with his bandmates. According to Lifeson, Peart’s lyrics were “really a statement of where radio was going, where it had been.”
“Growing up in the early 70s, FM radio was such a free forum for music; you’d have DJs who would play stuff for an hour,” said Lifeson to Louder. “They’d just talk about the songs; there were no commercials or anything. So free-form, really a platform for expanding music at the time. And then it was moving more towards a format, and away from that freedom, becoming more regulated, more about selling airtime. It just speaks about that, really.”
In addition, he shared details as to how the band recorded the 4-minute-and-56-second track.
“I’m sure we did it in the control room, because that’s how we worked: on a stool, sitting behind Paul Northfield, who engineered the record, with Terry [Brown, producer] there, giving Paul a kick in the back of his chair every so often when he drifted away,” said the guitarist with a laugh during the 2009 interview.
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