Album · Public Image Ltd.
First Issue by Public Image Ltd.
First Issue is an album by Public Image Ltd., released in 1978. 2 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 19 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Public Image”, on 18 lists with a best position of #9.
First Issue, Public Image Ltd's debut, came out on Virgin on 8 December 1978, less than a year after John Lydon, the former Johnny Rotten, walked out of the Sex Pistols. Anyone expecting more of the same got a shock. Lydon had gone looking for something he called anti-rock, and with Keith Levene, a founding member of the Clash, on guitar, Jah Wobble on bass and Jim Walker on drums, he found it: an abrasive, bass-heavy racket that wanders off into dub, reggae and Krautrock, with Lydon wailing over the top.
"Public Image" is the one track that still snarls like punk, and it's the one rock radio still spins. The album reached number 22 in the UK and went silver, but most critics hated it at the time, and a planned American release was scrapped and took 35 years to happen. Hindsight has been kinder: it's now counted among the records that invented post-punk.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from First Issue on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Public Image | 18 | #9 | – | 1978–2022 | |
| 2 | Annalisa | 1 | #215 | – | 1989 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.