Artist · chart history · #480 in indie & aaa artist polls
David Sylvian
Solo artist Beckenham United Kingdom
David Sylvian is an artist from Beckenham. David Sylvian has 5 chart appearances on 3 radio countdowns from 2 stations on RockLists, spanning 1991–2020. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Orpheus”, which appears on 1 list with a best position of #341. The station that charted David Sylvian most often is CFNY 102.1 The Edge (Toronto, ON), with 3 appearances.
David Sylvian, born David Alan Batt in Beckenham in 1958, first turned heads in the late 1970s as the singer and main songwriter of Japan, with a deep baritone, a quirky way with a song and an androgynous look that made the band an influence on the early-1980s new wave crowd. When Japan came apart, he went solo with Brilliant Trees in 1984.
His solo work drifts through art rock, jazz fusion, pop and ambient haze, and 1987's Secrets of the Beehive is the hushed centerpiece: "Orpheus" is chamber pop for the small hours, all brushed textures and that dusky voice. "Before the Bullfight" and "Blackwater" work the same spell, and 1999's Dead Bees on a Cake returned with "I Surrender".
Sylvian's list of partners reads like a map of adventurous music: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Robert Fripp, Holger Czukay, Jon Hassell, Bill Nelson, Fennesz. He recorded for Virgin and later for Samadhi Sound, and his more recent pieces lean into minimalism and free improvisation.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by David Sylvian on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orpheus | 1 | #341 | – | – | |
| 2 | Blackwater | 1 | #632 | – | – | |
| 3 | Before The Bullfight | 1 | #828 | – | – | |
| 4 | I Surrender | 1 | #1889 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 1889 | I Surrender | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time |
| 2006 | 483 | Artist ranking | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Artists (2006) |
| 1991 | 341 | Orpheus | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (1991 Edition) |
| 1991 | 632 | Blackwater | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (1991 Edition) |
| 1991 | 828 | Before The Bullfight | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (1991 Edition) |
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