Song · Boomtown Rats
“The Elephant's Graveyard” by Boomtown Rats
From the album Mondo Bongo (1980)
“The Elephant's Graveyard” by Boomtown Rats appears on 9 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1999 and 2005. It was first released in 1980 on the album Mondo Bongo. Its best result is #192 on the Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #1,803 alternative song of all time.
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"The Elephant's Graveyard" came off Mondo Bongo, the Boomtown Rats' fourth album, and went out as a single billed as "The Elephants Graveyard (Guilty)", reaching number 26 in the UK in January 1981 in the wake of "Banana Republic". Bob Geldof wrote the words and the music, and Tony Visconti produced it with the band.
It also caught the Rats near the end of a chapter: Mondo Bongo was the last record they made as a six-piece, since guitarist Gerry Cott left not long after it came out. The album split the critics along national lines. The British papers were sniffy, the NME writing it off as hollow pop and Sounds calling it self-indulgent, while American writers generally took to it; Rolling Stone heard an intoxicating blend of pop and punk.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 1052 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 2000 |
| 2000 | 1052 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000) | 2001 |
| 2001 | 1056 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 2002 |
| 2002 | 1055 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002) | 2003 |
| 2002 | 192 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 1040 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003) | 2004 |
| 2003 | 229 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
| 2004 | 1040 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) | 2005 |
| 2005 | 1040 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) | 1994 |
Also listed as: The Elephants Graveyard.
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