Song · Altered Images
“Happy Birthday” by Altered Images
From the album Happy Birthday (1981)
“Happy Birthday” by Altered Images appears on 13 radio countdowns from 6 stations between 1981 and 2023. It was first released in 1981 on the album Happy Birthday. Its best result is #27 on the KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1989). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #1,682 alternative song of all time.
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Altered Images, the Scottish new wave kids, hit the jackpot in 1981 with "Happy Birthday", the title song of their album that year and a single that climbed to number two in the UK and sat there for three weeks. The band wrote it together, Clare Grogan among them, and it's a fizzy sugar rush of a record, all bright chiming guitars and giddy bounce.
The secret ingredient was Martin Rushent, who was having a big year producing the Human League and would be named Producer of the Year at the BPI Awards. He produced only this track on the album, but the results spoke loud enough that the band handed him the whole of their next record, Pinky Blue, in 1982.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | 50 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1981) | 50 |
| 1988 | 176 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1988) | 496 |
| 1989 | 188 | 91X | 91X Top 191 Songs of the 1980s (1989) | 191 |
| 1989 | 27 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1989) | 495 |
| 1992 | 198 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1992) | 500 |
| 1994 | 111 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1994) | 497 |
| 1995 | 167 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1995) | 500 |
| 1996 | 406 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1996) | 500 |
| 1996 | 287 | Q101 | Q101 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (1996) | 500 |
| 1998 | 264 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1998) | 488 |
| 2002 | 1674 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 668 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
| 2023 | 662 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s | 850 |
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