Artist · chart history

Heaven 17

Band Sheffield United Kingdom Formed 1980 Sheffield, UK “new romantic” band

Heaven 17 formed in 1980 in Sheffield, United Kingdom. Heaven 17 has 47 chart appearances on 34 radio countdowns from 13 stations on RockLists, spanning 1981–2023. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Let Me Go”, which appears on 25 lists with a best position of #31. The station that charted Heaven 17 most often is KROQ (Los Angeles, CA), with 10 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1984.

47appearances

34countdowns

13songs charted

13stations

0#1 finishes

1981–2023years

Heaven 17 was what happened when two co-founders of the Human League, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, started over with their synthesizers. They set up in Sheffield in 1980 with Glenn Gregory as their singer, a rich, suave voice to set against the machines, and made records that sounded like a boardroom that had been turned into a dance floor.

Penthouse and Pavement, in 1981, is the manifesto: chilly synths wired to hard funk basslines, with "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" strutting out front and the title track and "Geisha Boys and Temple Girls" keeping the pulse. The Luxury Gap in 1983 went bigger and more lavish, from the soaring rush of "Temptation" to the slick drive of "Let Me Go", "Crushed by the Wheels of Industry" and "We Live So Fast". How Men Are followed in 1984, with "Sunset Now", and those first three albums remain their high-water mark.

For years they were strictly a studio creation, and they didn't play their first live shows until 1997. Marsh left in 2006, and Gregory and Ware have carried on as a duo ever since. On the countdowns, "Let Me Go" is the one listeners have held on to longest.

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

Songs by Heaven 17 on radio countdowns

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s	Peak year
1	Let Me Go	1,286	25	#31	–	1983
2	Fascist Groove Thing	136	5	#29	–	1981
3	We Live So Fast	95	2	#930	–	–
4	Temptation	95	4	#217	–	–
5	Sunset Now	71	1	#27	–	1984
6	We Don't Need This Fascist Groove Thing	66	1	#702	–	–
7	Geisha Boys and Temple Girls	43	1	#1161	–	–
8	Penthouse and Pavement	33	3	#436	–	–
9	(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang	32	1	#1371	–	–
10	Who'll Stop the Rain	20	1	#1632	–	–
11	Contenders	19	1	#829	–	–
12	Crushed By The Wheels of Industry	10	1	#901	–	–
13	Come Live with me	3	1	#1992	–	–

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.

81 83 84

Every countdown appearance

Year	#	Song	Countdown
2023	736	Let Me Go	The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s
2006	466	Temptation	Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2006)
2005	368	Temptation	Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2005)
2004	478	Temptation	Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2004)
2003	201	Let Me Go	Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003)
2003	702	We Don't Need This Fascist Groove Thing	Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003)
2003	930	We Live So Fast	Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003)
2003	1161	Geisha Boys and Temple Girls	Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003)
2003	1632	Who'll Stop the Rain	Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003)
2003	1830	Penthouse and Pavement	Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003)
2003	1992	Come Live with me	Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003)
2002	571	Let Me Go	Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002)
2002	1185	We Live So Fast	Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002)
2002	1371	(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang	Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002)
2001	217	Temptation	Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2001)
1999	687	Let Me Go	Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)
1999	829	Contenders	Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)
1999	179	Let Me Go	WLIR Top 300 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)
1999	868	Let Me Go	The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)
1999	365	Let Me Go	CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (November 1999)
1999	901	Crushed By The Wheels of Industry	CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (November 1999)
1999	90	Let Me Go	Channel 104.9 Top 101 Songs of the '80s (February 1999)
1998	150	Let Me Go	KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1998)
1996	257	Let Me Go	KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1996)
1996	81	Let Me Go	Q101 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (1996)
1995	280	Let Me Go	KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1995)
1994	310	Let Me Go	KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1994)
1994	252	Let Me Go	Live 105 Revolutionary 500 (July 1994)
1992	95	Let Me Go	KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1992)
1992	84	Let Me Go	Live 105 Top 300 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1992)
1991	98	Let Me Go	Live 105 Top 300 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1991)
1991	436	Penthouse and Pavement	WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1991)
1991	508	Let Me Go	CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (1991 Edition)
1991	924	Fascist Groove Thing	CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (1991 Edition)
1990	60	Let Me Go	Live 105 Top 300 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1990)
1989	443	Let Me Go	KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1989)
1989	456	Penthouse and Pavement	WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1989)
1988	384	Fascist Groove Thing	KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1988)
1988	425	Let Me Go	KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1988)
1988	31	Let Me Go	Live 105 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1988)
1988	480	Fascist Groove Thing	Live 105 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1988)
1988	55	Let Me Go	WLIR Top 200 Songs of All-Time (1988)
1984	27	Sunset Now	91X Top 91 Songs of 1984
1983	72	Let Me Go	KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1983
1981	47	Fascist Groove Thing	KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1981
1981	29	Fascist Groove Thing	John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1981)
–	148	Let Me Go	WLIR Top 200 Songs of the 1980s

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