Song · Iggy Pop
“Bang Bang” by Iggy Pop
From the album Party (1981)
“Bang Bang” by Iggy Pop appears on 3 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1981 and 2003. It was first released in 1981 on the album Party. Its best result is #39 on the KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1981. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #39 alternative song of 1981 and #3,918 alternative song of all time.
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"Bang Bang" is Iggy Pop doing what the label asked, on his own terms. Arista wanted a single, Iggy had promised them a commercial record, and so for 1981's Party he and Ivan Král wrote this one, with the spark, he claimed, coming from reading The Right Stuff in a local bookstore. He had hoped Phil Spector or Mike Chapman would produce it; the job went to songwriter Tommy Boyce instead.
What came out is post-punk scrubbed up for the clubs, and the clubs noticed, sending it to number 35 on Billboard's Club Play chart. Pop told the whole story later in his autobiography, I Need More.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | 39 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1981 | 106 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 275 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1988) | 496 |
| 2003 | 619 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
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