Artist · chart history
Manic Street Preachers
Band Blackwood United Kingdom Formed 1986
Manic Street Preachers formed in 1986 in Blackwood, United Kingdom. Manic Street Preachers has 41 chart appearances on 30 radio countdowns from 14 stations on RockLists, spanning 1991–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next”, which appears on 18 lists with a best position of #3. The station that charted Manic Street Preachers most often is Virgin Radio (United Kingdom), with 16 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1998.
The Manic Street Preachers blew out of Blackwood, Wales, in 1986 with eyeliner, slogans and a punk band's appetite for making enemies. James Dean Bradfield sang and played guitar, his cousin Sean Moore drummed, Nicky Wire played bass, and Richey Edwards joined on guitar in 1988. Their androgynous glam look was half the provocation; the other half was songs steeped in boredom, alienation and despair. "Motown Junk" gave them their first charting single in 1991, and Generation Terrorists and Gold Against the Soul followed.
The Holy Bible, in 1994, was the last album with Edwards. He disappeared in February 1995 and was eventually declared legally dead in 2008. The other 3 took half a year off, then, with his family's blessing, carried on, and the band that came back had traded the punk sneer for something broader and grander. Everything Must Go went to number 2 in Britain in 1996, with "A Design for Life" as its towering centerpiece.
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours went all the way to number one in 1998, and "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" became their first number-one single, with "You Stole the Sun From My Heart" hot on its heels. By then the Manics were a pillar of the Cool Cymru moment and a festival headliner at Glastonbury and Reading.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Manic Street Preachers on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next | 18 | #3 | – | 1998 | |
| 2 | A Design for Life | 9 | #2 | – | 1996 | |
| 3 | You Stole the Sun From My Heart | 2 | #5 | – | 1999 | |
| 4 | She Is Suffering | 2 | #425 | – | – | |
| 5 | If You Tolerate This?/td> | 2 | #252 | – | – | |
| 6 | If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next | 1 | #184 | – | – | |
| 7 | Stay Beautiful | 1 | #53 | – | 1991 | |
| 8 | Your Love Alone Is Not Enough | 1 | #64 | – | – | |
| 9 | (I Miss The) Tokyo Skyline | 1 | #524 | – | – | |
| 10 | You Stole the Sun | 1 | #358 | – | – | |
| 11 | This Is The Day | 1 | #727 | – | – | |
| 12 | Found That Souls | 1 | #193 | – | 2001 |
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.
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