Song · Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
“Perfect Skin” by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
From the album Rattlesnakes (1984)
“Perfect Skin” by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions appears on 11 radio countdowns from 8 stations between 1985 and 2024. It was first released in 1984 on the album Rattlesnakes. Its best result is #88 on the KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1985. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #176 alternative song of 1985 and #3,025 alternative song of all time.
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"Perfect Skin" was the debut single from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, released on Polydor in May 1984 and later the calling card for their debut album Rattlesnakes. Back in 1983 Cole knocked it together in a single weekend at Glasgow Golf Club, where his parents lived and worked, demoing it in his own room on the Portastudio, DX7 and drum machine the band had just bought with their publishing money. A record deal with Polydor followed soon after, and Paul Hardiman produced the finished track.
It's a bright, jangling rush of a song, all bookish wit and sharp guitars, and Cole admitted the words mattered less for their meaning than for the mood they made; he also said he owed it to "Subterranean Homesick Blues". It reached 26 on the UK chart and stuck around the top 100 for ten weeks.
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 | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | 88 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1985 | 107 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 467 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1988) | 496 |
| 1988 | 475 | Live 105 | Live 105 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1988) | 501 |
| 1989 | 438 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1989) | 500 |
| 1991 | 446 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1991) | 500 |
| 1999 | 877 | Q101 | Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1017 |
| 1999 | 320 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (November 1999) | 1002 |
| 2002 | 864 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 1117 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
| 2023 | 514 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s | 850 |
| 2024 | 904 | WYEP | WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years | 1049 |
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