Album · Gary Numan
The Pleasure Principle by Gary Numan
The Pleasure Principle is an album by Gary Numan, released in 1979. 2 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 68 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Cars”, on 66 lists with a best position of #11.
The Pleasure Principle, the first solo album from Gary Numan, came out on Beggars Banquet on 7 September 1979, barely six months after Replicas, his second and final album with Tubeway Army. Stepping out under his own name, Numan kept the chilly mood and sharpened it into something even more mechanical and alien: cold, clipped, humming with dread, like new wave piped in from a space station.
The centerpiece is "Cars", his biggest hit, a pulsing, robotic glide that sounds like the future arriving on schedule. "Films" works the same icy glide. The album went all the way to number one on the UK Albums Chart.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from The Pleasure Principle on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cars#461 of all time | 66 | #11 | – | 1980–2025 | |
| 2 | Films | 2 | #1266 | – | 2002–2003 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.