Artist · chart history
Anything Box
Band Paterson United States Formed 1986
Anything Box formed in 1986 in Paterson, United States. Anything Box has 4 chart appearances on 4 radio countdowns from 2 stations on RockLists, spanning 1990–2003. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Living in Oblivion”, which appears on 3 lists with a best position of #43. The station that charted Anything Box most often is Live 105 (San Francisco, CA), with 2 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1990.
Anything Box got started in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1986 and later moved their base to Long Beach, California. They took their name from Zenna Henderson's book of short stories, The Anything Box, whose title story is about a girl who stares into an invisible box that turns out to be real, which is a pretty good description of what synth-pop at its best can do.
Their early sound was melodic, synth-driven dance music, all bright keyboards and heart-on-sleeve vocals, and "Living in Oblivion", from the Soul on Fire EP, remains the song they're best known for: a glossy, yearning new wave track that sounds like a dancefloor at closing time. Epic Records put it out. Claude Strilio, who also paints the band's much-praised cover art, is now the only member; Dania Morales and Paul Rijnders were long-time members, and Gary Strilio also passed through.
Later on they moved toward a mix of electronics and guitars, released a whole album in MP3 format in 2003, and in January 2018 put out Peace, a remastered version of their first album with new remixes of "Living in Oblivion" and "Jubilation".
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Anything Box on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Living in Oblivion | 3 | #43 | – | 1990 | |
| 2 | Living in Oblivion (Remix) | 1 | #1112 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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