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Song · Big Audio Dynamite

“Rush” by Big Audio Dynamite

From the album The Globe (1991)

“Rush” by Big Audio Dynamite appears on 51 radio countdowns from 19 stations between 1991 and 2025. It was first released in 1991 on the album The Globe. Its best result is #5 on the Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1991. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #5 alternative song of 1991, #317 alternative song of all time and #323 of the '90s.

51countdowns
19stations
#5best position
0#1 finishes
4top 10 finishes
1991–2025years charted

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Big Audio Dynamite - Rush

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"Rush" came off The Globe in 1991, the fifth album from Big Audio Dynamite, by then running as BAD II, and it's a trimmed-down rework of "Change of Atmosphere" from the previous year's Kool-Aid. Mick Jones wrote it and produced with Olimax and DJ Shapps, and he put it together like a crate-digger's scrapbook: the keyboard figure from the Who's "Baba O'Riley", the organ from Deep Purple's "Child in Time", a drum break from Tommy Roe's "Sweet Pea", and scraps of Pigmeat Markham, the Sugarhill Gang and even Peter Sellers.

The result is a sunny, rolling dance-rock groove, and it spent four weeks at number one on Billboard's Modern Rock chart, the biggest hit there all year, and topped the charts in Australia and New Zealand. In Britain it rode along on the other side of the Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go", which went to number one.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.

RockLists rankings

Alternative & Modern Rock

Indie & Adult Alternative

All Rock Formats

Year-end countdowns

Year#StationCountdownof
1991 7 KROQ Los Angeles, CA KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1991 107
1991 7 91X San Diego, CA / Tijuana 91X Top 91 Songs of 1991 91
1991 5 Live 105 San Francisco, CA Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1991 105
1991 6 CFNY 102.1 The Edge Toronto, ON CFNY Top 91 Songs of 1991 91

All-time and decade countdowns

Year#StationCountdownof
1992 444 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1992) 500
1994 214 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1994) 497
1994 267 Live 105 Live 105 Revolutionary 500 (July 1994) 500
1994 276 WOXY 97X WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1994) 500
1995 349 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1995) 500
1996 125 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1996) 500
1996 130 Q101 Q101 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (1996) 500
1996 272 WOXY 97X WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1996) 498
1998 189 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1998) 488
1999 172 KROQ KROQ Top 300 Most Requested Songs of the '90s (Labor Day 1999) 300
1999 125 WHFS WHFS Top 500 Songs of the '90s (December 1999) 500
1999 326 Q101 Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) 1017
1999 148 WLIR / WDRE WLIR Top 300 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) 300
1999 318 WFNX WFNX Top 500 Songs of All-Time (June 1999) 500
1999 1072 107.7 The End The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) 1077
1999 80 CD101 CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) 2000
1999 791 CFNY 102.1 The Edge CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (November 1999) 1002
2000 80 CD101 CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000) 2001
2001 80 CD101 CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) 2002
2001 212 WBRU WBRU Modern Rock Top 500 (2001) 500
2002 80 CD101 CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002) 2003
2002 290 Fred (XM 44) Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) 2002
2003 80 CD101 CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003) 2004
2003 681 Fred (XM 44) Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) 2044
2004 139 Q101 Q101 Top 300 Party Songs of All-Time (July 2004) 300
2004 264 107.7 The End The End Original Alternative 500 (May 2004) 500
2004 80 CD101 CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) 2005
2005 78 CD101 CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) 1994
2005 745 99X 99X Freedom of Choice 1000 (2005) 1000
2006 387 Live 105 Live 105 500 Co-Op Countdown (Memorial Day 2006) 500
2006 57 107.7 The End The End Top 107 Resurrection Songs (December 2006) 107
2007 423 KROQ KROQ Top 500 Most Requested Songs of the '90s (Labor Day 2007) 500
2007 487 CD101 CD101 Top 2008 Songs of All-Time (December 2007) 2008
2008 472 CD101 CD101 Top 2009 Songs of All-Time (December 2008) 2009
2009 193 Live 105 Live 105 Memorial 500 Song List (2009) 500
2009 464 CD101 CD101 Top 2010 Songs of All-Time (December 2009) 2010
2010 459 CD101 CD101 Top 2011 Songs of All-Time (December 2010) 2011
2011 447 CD101 CD101 Top 2012 Songs of All-Time (December 2011) 2011
2013 442 CD101 CD101 Top 2013 Songs of All-Time (December 2013) 2012
2014 440 CD101 CD101 Top 2014 Songs of All-Time (2014) 2013
2021 732 90.9 The Bridge 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '90s 908
2022 129 The Colorado Sound The Colorado Sound Top 900 Songs of the '90s 900
2023 761 The Current The Current's 893 Essential Songs of the '90s 893
2023 350 The Current The Current's 893 Essential Songs of the '90s 893
2023 1001 WYEP WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023 1229
2024 400 WYEP WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years 1049
2024 339 KEXP The Best Opening Tracks of All Time 738
2025 742 The Colorado Sound The Colorado Sound Top 800 Mood Booster Songs 800

Charting alongside it in 1991

Best songs of 1991 →
  1. 1Smells Like Teen SpiritNirvana
  2. 2Losing My ReligionR.E.M.
  3. 3UnbelievableEMF
  4. 4Kiss Them for MeSiouxsie and the Banshees
  5. 6Give It AwayRed Hot Chili Peppers
  6. 7SexualityBilly Bragg

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