Artist · chart history · #605 in indie & aaa artist polls
Kirsty MacColl
Solo artist Croydon United Kingdom
Kirsty MacColl is an artist from Croydon. Kirsty MacColl has 81 chart appearances on 52 radio countdowns from 14 stations on RockLists, spanning 1991–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “In These Shoes”, which appears on 18 lists with a best position of #2. The station that charted Kirsty MacColl most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 35 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1991.
Kirsty MacColl, the daughter of folk singer Ewan MacColl, grew up in Croydon and wrote pop songs as sharp and funny as anyone of her generation. Her first single, "They Don't Know", later became a hit for Tracey Ullman, and her own run of hits included "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis" and her cover of Billy Bragg's "A New England", a bright, chiming reading that turns up on The Real MacColl.
She sang on plenty of records produced by her husband, Steve Lillywhite, most famously the Pogues' "Fairytale of New York", where her voice cuts through the booze and bluster. Electric Landlady in 1991 took her somewhere new, and "Walking Down Madison" is its centerpiece: a slinky, loping groove with a streetwise, dance-floor pulse that became her calling card on alternative countdowns. Titanic Days in 1993 was darker and more bruised, with "Can't Stop Killing You" and "Big Boy on a Saturday Night".
Tropical Brainstorm arrived in 2000, and "In These Shoes" is a witty, swinging romp. She died in December 2000, and her death led to the Justice for Kirsty campaign.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Kirsty MacColl on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | In These Shoes | 18 | #2 | – | 2001 | |
| 2 | Walking Down Madison | 24 | #57 | – | 1991 | |
| 3 | Can't Stop Killing You | 7 | #1105 | – | – | |
| 4 | A New England | 8 | #286 | – | – | |
| 5 | Big Boy On A Saturday Night | 7 | #1554 | – | – | |
| 6 | England 2 Columbia 0 | 3 | #147 | – | – | |
| 7 | Caroline | 7 | #1652 | – | – | |
| 8 | Days | 2 | #433 | – | – | |
| 9 | They Don't Know | 2 | #462 | – | – | |
| 10 | Treachery | 1 | #511 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Featured on
Songs by other artists credited with Kirsty MacColl as a guest.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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