Artist · chart history
Billy Talent
Band Mississauga Canada Formed 1993 Canadian punk rock band
Billy Talent formed in 1993 in Mississauga, Canada. Billy Talent has 58 chart appearances on 30 radio countdowns from 12 stations on RockLists, spanning 2003–2021. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Try Honesty”, which appears on 13 lists with a best position of #13. In total the artist has topped 1 countdown. The station that charted Billy Talent most often is CFNY 102.1 The Edge (Toronto, ON), with 39 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2007.
Billy Talent spent the better part of a decade grinding it out before the wider world knew their name. Benjamin Kowalewicz, Ian D'Sa, Jonathan Gallant and Aaron Solowoniuk met at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Secondary School in Mississauga and played as Pezz, working the Toronto indie underground until 2001, when legal trouble over that name forced a new one. A connection of Kowalewicz's in the A&R department at Warner Music Canada did the rest.
The 2003 debut, Billy Talent, is post-hardcore sharpened for the radio: Kowalewicz's shrill, sneering yelp riding D'Sa's jagged riffs, with "Try Honesty", "River Below" and "The Ex" snapping like live wires. Billy Talent II in 2006 went bigger and darker, from "Devil in a Midnight Mass" to "Fallen Leaves" and "Red Flag", and they toured it for 20 months. Billy Talent III and Dead Silence kept the fire stoked.
The same four have been the band all along, though Solowoniuk's long fight with multiple sclerosis forced him to sit out the sessions for Afraid of Heights, released in 2016, with Jordan Hastings stepping in on drums, and he has been on hiatus since. Crisis of Faith arrived in 2022.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Billy Talent on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Try Honesty | 13 | #13 | – | 2003 | |
| 2 | Fallen Leaves | 5 | #10 | – | 2007 | |
| 3 | River Below | 6 | #12 | – | 2004 | |
| 4 | Devil In A Midnight Mass | 5 | #3 | – | 2006 | |
| 5 | Rusted from the Rain | 3 | #7 | – | 2009 | |
| 6 | Surrender | 4 | #1 | 1 | 2007 | |
| 7 | Red Flag | 5 | #38 | – | 2006 | |
| 8 | Devil on My Shoulder | 4 | #38 | – | 2009 | |
| 9 | The Ex | 3 | #26 | – | 2004 | |
| 10 | This Suffering | 1 | #26 | – | 2008 | |
| 11 | Viking Death March | 1 | #15 | – | 2012 | |
| 12 | End of Me | 1 | #9 | – | 2021 | |
| 13 | Diamond on a Landmine | 1 | #45 | – | 2010 | |
| 14 | Saint Veronika | 1 | #57 | – | 2010 | |
| 15 | Turn Your Back | 1 | #63 | – | 2008 | |
| 16 | Nothing to Lose | 1 | #125 | – | – | |
| 17 | Louder Than the Dj | 1 | #19 | – | 2017 | |
| 18 | Surprise Surprise | 1 | #47 | – | 2012 | |
| 19 | Pocketful of Dreams | 1 | #85 | – | 2010 |
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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