Artist · chart history · #702 in indie & aaa artist polls
Frank Black
Solo artist Boston United States US singer, songwriter & guitarist
Frank Black is an artist from Boston. Frank Black has 40 chart appearances on 31 radio countdowns from 14 stations on RockLists, spanning 1993–2024. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Hang Onto Your Ego”, which appears on 16 lists with a best position of #96. The station that charted Frank Black most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 21 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1994.
Frank Black, born in 1965 and better known to Pixies fans as the man doing all that screaming, went solo when the band fell apart in 1993, and the first thing you notice is how much he's reined in the yowl. The self-titled Frank Black album that year trades the Pixies' shrieks for something more tuneful and measured, though "Hang Onto Your Ego" and "Los Angeles" still crackle with that loud-quiet push and pull.
His head is still in the clouds, sometimes literally. The lyrics are cryptic little postcards about surrealism, UFOs, science fiction, surf culture and the bloodier corners of the Bible, all bent around odd time signatures. Teenager of the Year, in 1994, is a big, sprawling grab bag, with "Headache" as its sweetest hook and "(I Want to Live on an) Abstract Plain" as its oddest, and The Cult of Ray followed in 1996 with "Men In Black".
Later he formed a band, the Catholics, and got into recording live to two-track, warts and all. The Pixies regrouped in 2004, and in 2013 he declared the solo career finished, going by Black Francis from then on.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Frank Black on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hang Onto Your Ego | 16 | #96 | – | 1993 | |
| 2 | Headache | 12 | #45 | – | 1994 | |
| 3 | Los Angeles | 6 | #69 | – | 1993 | |
| 4 | I'm Not Dead (I'm in Pittsburgh) | 2 | #339 | – | – | |
| 5 | If Your Poison Gets You | 1 | #527 | – | – | |
| 6 | (I Want to Live on an) Abstract Plain | 1 | #826 | – | – | |
| 7 | Men In Black | 1 | #484 | – | – |
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.
Comments
Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about Frank Black.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.