Song · Billy Bragg
“Greetings to the New Brunette” by Billy Bragg
From the album Talking With the Taxman About Poetry (1986)
“Greetings to the New Brunette” by Billy Bragg appears on 10 radio countdowns from 5 stations between 1986 and 2026. It was first released in 1986 on the album Talking With the Taxman About Poetry. Its best result is #38 on the Triple J Hottest 100 of All-Time (1989). In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #170 alternative song of 1986 and #3,699 alternative song of all time.
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"Greetings to the New Brunette" followed "Levi Stubbs' Tears" as the next single off Talking With the Taxman About Poetry in 1986, and it finds Billy Bragg with company in the room. He plays acoustic and electric guitar himself, Johnny Marr adds his own electric guitar, John Porter handles bass and slide, and Kirsty MacColl's voice sits right alongside Bragg's.
Porter produced it with Kenny Jones, who also turns up among the percussionists with Simon Moreton and George Shilling. As a single it only scraped to 58 in the UK that October, but it has had a longer life than that number suggests: David Tennant picked it as one of his Desert Island Discs in 2009.
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 | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | 41 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1986 | 50 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 356 | Live 105 | Live 105 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1988) | 501 |
| 1989 | 38 | Triple J | Triple J Hottest 100 of All-Time (1989) | 100 |
| 1990 | 59 | Triple J | Triple J Hottest 100 of All-Time (1990) | 100 |
| 2009 | 155 | WYEP | WYEP 913 Essential Songs | 913 |
| 2019 | 672 | WYEP | WYEP Big Spring Countdown 2019 | 1017 |
| 2019 | 672 | WYEP | WYEP Labor Day Weekend Countdown 2019 | 1099 |
| 2023 | 575 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s | 850 |
| 2024 | 191 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years | 1049 |
| 2026 | 978 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
Also listed as: Greetings To The New Brunette.
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