Artist · chart history · #352 in indie & aaa artist polls
Husker Du
Band Saint Paul United States Active 1979–1987
Husker Du formed in 1979 in Saint Paul, United States and was active until 1987. Husker Du has 64 chart appearances on 40 radio countdowns from 12 stations on RockLists, spanning 1985–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Makes No Sense At All”, which appears on 17 lists with a best position of #37. The station that charted Husker Du most often is WOXY 97X (Cincinnati, OH), with 15 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1985.
Hüsker Dü came roaring out of Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1979 as a hardcore punk band that played as if the tape were about to run out: Bob Mould on guitar and vocals, Greg Norton on bass and Grant Hart on drums and vocals. What set them apart was that there were 2 songwriters in the room, and they took turns at the microphone, Hart's higher voice on his songs and Mould's baritone on his, so every record played like a running argument between two sharply different sensibilities.
After Everything Falls Apart on Reflex in 1983, they moved to SST, and the Metal Circus EP, with "Real World", was followed by Zen Arcade in 1984, a sprawling, critically hailed record that refused to stay inside the lines of hardcore. New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig, both from 1985, buried pop melodies under the roar: "Celebrated Summer", "Makes No Sense At All" and "Every Everything" are hooks wrapped in barbed wire.
Warner Bros. signed them in 1986 for Candy Apple Grey and Warehouse: Songs and Stories, with "Could You Be The One" and "These Important Years", the band having crossed all the way from hardcore into alternative rock, and then it was over. Mould went on to Sugar, Hart to Nova Mob, and Norton to the restaurant business before returning to music in 2006. Hart died in 2017.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Husker Du on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Makes No Sense At All | 17 | #37 | – | 1985 | |
| 2 | Could You Be The One | 16 | #237 | – | – | |
| 3 | Celebrated Summer | 4 | #241 | – | – | |
| 4 | Don't Want to Know if You Are Lonely | 4 | #252 | – | – | |
| 5 | Every Everything | 2 | #701 | – | – | |
| 6 | These Important Years | 3 | #571 | – | – | |
| 7 | Hardly Getting over It | 3 | #659 | – | – | |
| 8 | Eight Miles High | 1 | #72 | – | – | |
| 9 | Flip Your Wig | 3 | #284 | – | – | |
| 10 | Up in the Air | 1 | #402 | – | – | |
| 11 | Real World | 1 | #522 | – | – | |
| 12 | Don't Want to Know | 1 | #622 | – | – | |
| 13 | New Day Rising | 1 | #267 | – | – | |
| 14 | Don't Wanna Know If You Are Lonely | 1 | #246 | – | – | |
| 15 | Something I Learned Today | 1 | #363 | – | – | |
| 16 | Sorry Somehow | 1 | #463 | – | – | |
| 17 | Sheena is a Punk Rocker | 1 | #1123 | – | – | |
| 18 | Crystal | 1 | #1605 | – | – | |
| 19 | Love Is All Around (Mary's Theme) | 1 | #1803 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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