Artist · chart history · #262 in alternative artist polls
Adam & the Ants
Band London United Kingdom Active 1977–1982 English new wave band
Adam & the Ants formed in 1977 in London, United Kingdom and was active until 1982. Adam & the Ants has 89 chart appearances on 50 radio countdowns from 14 stations on RockLists, spanning 1980–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Antmusic”, which appears on 34 lists with a best position of #2. The station that charted Adam & the Ants most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 34 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1981.
Adam & the Ants began in London in 1977 as a punk band, and by 1980 they'd been torn down and rebuilt into something gloriously theatrical. The first version, with Dave Barbarossa, Matthew Ashman and Leigh Gorman behind Adam Ant, was poached away in January 1980 by manager Malcolm McLaren to form Bow Wow Wow, leaving Adam alone with his ambitions.
He found a new partner in guitarist Marco Pirroni and a drummer-producer in Chris Hughes, and the new Ants built their sound on the thunder of Burundi drums: tribal rhythms pounding under twangy guitar and Adam's yelps and war whoops. Kings of the Wild Frontier in 1980 was the blueprint, with "Antmusic", "Dog Eat Dog" and the title track all stomping and swaggering. Prince Charming in 1981 went bigger and camper still, with the swashbuckling "Stand and Deliver" and the title song's grand pantomime.
The band was huge at home, and in America MTV played the videos and even put Adam on air as a guest VJ, which tied them to the Second British Invasion. It all ended in March 1982, when Ant broke up the band to go solo, though he kept Pirroni by his side.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Adam & the Ants on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antmusic | 34 | #2 | – | 1981 | |
| 2 | Stand and Deliver | 27 | #11 | – | 1981 | |
| 3 | Prince Charming | 12 | #24 | – | 1981 | |
| 4 | Dog Eat Dog | 5 | #43 | – | 1981 | |
| 5 | Goody Two Shoes | 1 | #124 | – | – | |
| 6 | Kings of the Wild Frontier | 4 | #30 | – | – | |
| 7 | The Magnificent Five | 2 | #899 | – | – | |
| 8 | Physical (You're So) | 1 | #1149 | – | – | |
| 9 | Friends | 1 | #77 | – | 1981 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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