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Song · Frankie Goes to Hollywood

“Two Tribes” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood

“Two Tribes” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood appears on 36 radio countdowns from 11 stations between 1984 and 2023. Its best result is #1 on the WOXY Top 10 Songs of 1984. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #1 alternative song of 1984, #957 alternative song of all time and #77 of the '80s.

36countdowns
11stations
#1best position
1#1 finishes
2top 10 finishes
1984–2023years charted

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Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Two Tribes

Video from YouTube (FGTHVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube

ZTT let "Two Tribes" loose in the UK on 4 June 1984, before it found a home on Welcome to the Pleasuredome, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood's follow-up to "Relax" is an anti-war song with a wicked grin, its lyric cheering on nuclear war with nihilistic glee. Holly Johnson, Peter Gill and Mark O'Toole wrote it; Trevor Horn produced it as pure excess, a pounding bass line and funk-bred guitar riff crashing into Russian classical grandeur.

Pushed along by a pile of remixes and ads casting the band as Red Army soldiers, it entered the UK chart at No. 1 on 10 June and stayed nine weeks running, the longest reign of any UK number one in the 1980s, while "Relax" climbed back to No. 2 behind it. The writers took the 1984 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.

RockLists rankings

Alternative & Modern Rock

Indie & Adult Alternative

All Rock Formats

Year-end countdowns

Year#StationCountdownof
1984 6 KROQ Los Angeles, CA KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1984 106
1984 16 91X San Diego, CA / Tijuana 91X Top 91 Songs of 1984 91
1984 1 WOXY 97X Cincinnati, OH WOXY Top 10 Songs of 1984 10
1984 25 John Peel (BBC Radio 1) John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1984 48

All-time and decade countdowns

Year#StationCountdownof
1988 137 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1988) 496
1989 372 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1989) 495
1989 462 WOXY 97X WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1989) 500
1991 459 WOXY 97X WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1991) 500
1991 711 CFNY 102.1 The Edge CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (1991 Edition) 1002
1992 174 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1992) 500
1994 300 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1994) 497
1994 355 WOXY 97X WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1994) 500
1995 410 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1995) 500
1996 139 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1996) 500
1996 466 Q101 Q101 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (1996) 500
1996 329 WOXY 97X WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1996) 498
1998 250 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1998) 488
1999 490 WOXY 97X WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1999) 500
1999 1705 CD101 CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) 2000
1999 560 CFNY 102.1 The Edge CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (November 1999) 1002
2000 478 WOXY 97X WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2000) 500
2000 1705 CD101 CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000) 2001
2001 475 WOXY 97X WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2001) 498
2001 1705 CD101 CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) 2002
2001 143 Virgin Radio Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) 500
2002 1697 CD101 CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002) 2003
2002 614 Fred (XM 44) Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) 2002
2003 1682 CD101 CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003) 2004
2003 554 Fred (XM 44) Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) 2044
2004 1682 CD101 CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) 2005
2004 148 Virgin Radio Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) 500
2005 1681 CD101 CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) 1994
2005 258 Virgin Radio Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) 500
2006 441 Virgin Radio Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2006) 500
2021 819 90.9 The Bridge 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '80s 909
2023 694 The Colorado Sound The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s 850

Charting alongside it in 1984

Best songs of 1984 →
  1. 2Pride (In the Name of Love)U2
  2. 3RelaxFrankie Goes to Hollywood
  3. 4The Wild BoysDuran Duran
  4. 5The Killing MoonEcho and the Bunnymen
  5. 6TendernessGeneral Public
  6. 7Master and ServantDepeche Mode

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