Song · Blur
“Charmless Man” by Blur
From the album The Great Escape (1995)
“Charmless Man” by Blur appears on 7 radio countdowns from 5 stations between 1996 and 2025. It was first released in 1995 on the album The Great Escape. Its best result is #10 on the Virgin Radio Top 10 Songs of 1996. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #326 alternative song of 1996 and #3,332 alternative song of all time.
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"Charmless Man" sits fourth on The Great Escape, Blur's 1995 album, and in April 1996 it became the last single pulled from it, climbing to number five in the UK. Stephen Street produced it, John Smith engineered, and the music is credited to all four of them, Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree, with the words Albarn's alone. It's Britpop at its most jaunty, all bounce and sneer.
Jamie Thraves directed the video, with Jean-Marc Barr on screen. The real news was on the flip side, though: the B-sides "The Horrors", "A Song" and "St. Louis" were bare and scraped raw, carrying on the turn that "Stereotypes" had started and pointing straight at the rougher self-titled album Blur made next.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 10 | Virgin Radio United Kingdom | Virgin Radio Top 10 Songs of 1996 | 10 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 606 | Q101 | Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1017 |
| 1999 | 782 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (November 1999) | 1002 |
| 2001 | 230 | Virgin Radio | Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 500 |
| 2002 | 874 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 98 | Virgin Radio | Virgin Radio VR10x10 (April 2003) | 100 |
| 2025 | 59 | Absolute Radio | Absolute Radio 100 Ultimate Britpop Anthems | 100 |
Also listed as: Chamless Man.
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