Artist · chart history · #603 in indie & aaa artist polls
Badly Drawn Boy
Solo artist Dunstable
Badly Drawn Boy is an artist from Dunstable. Badly Drawn Boy has 17 chart appearances on 15 radio countdowns from 9 stations on RockLists, spanning 1998–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “You Were Right”, which appears on 2 lists with a best position of #25. The station that charted Badly Drawn Boy most often is The Colorado Sound (Fort Collins–Denver, CO), with 4 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2002.
Badly Drawn Boy is Damon Gough, born in 1969 and hailing from Dunstable, a shambling, beanie-hatted multi-instrumentalist who turns bedsit melancholy into warm, ramshackle pop. The stage name comes from The Magic Ball, a TV show whose character he spotted on a television at a party in Trafford in 1995. A chance meeting with DJ Andy Votel at a Manchester bar led the two of them to start Twisted Nerve Records.
"I Need a Sign", from EP3 in 1998, was an early sign of what he could do. Then came The Hour of Bewilderbeast in 2000, a sprawling, rambling, wonderful debut album that flits from lo-fi folk to lush orchestral pop: "Once Around the Block" is a jaunty, strummed charmer, "Disillusion" bounces along on a loose, happy groove, and "The Shining" unfolds with a slow-dawning hush. In 2002 came "Something to Talk About" and "Silent Sigh", two of his sweetest and most tuneful songs.
On stage he's famous for going wherever the evening takes him, and he's as likely to spin a long yarn between songs as play the next one. The beanie habit started early on, when the gigs were constant and his hair wasn't always cooperating.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Badly Drawn Boy on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | You Were Right | 2 | #25 | – | 2003 | |
| 2 | Once Around The Block | 3 | #41 | – | 1999 | |
| 3 | Something to Talk About | 3 | #8 | – | 2002 | |
| 4 | I Need A Sign | 1 | #14 | – | 1998 | |
| 5 | Disillusion | 2 | #100 | – | 2001 | |
| 6 | All Possibilities | 1 | #460 | – | – | |
| 7 | The Shining | 1 | #436 | – | – | |
| 8 | Silent Sigh | 1 | #90 | – | 2002 | |
| 9 | Born Again | 1 | #800 | – | – |
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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