Song · Moby
“That's When I Reach For My Revolver” by Moby
From the album Animal Rights (1996)
“That's When I Reach For My Revolver” by Moby appears on 5 radio countdowns from 5 stations between 1997 and 2024. It was first released in 1996 on the album Animal Rights. Its best result is #92 on the WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1997. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #393 alternative song of 1997 and #5,485 alternative song of all time.
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Moby's "That's When I Reach for My Revolver" landed in 1996 on Animal Rights, and it's a cover with a pedigree: the song belongs to Mission of Burma, whose Clint Conley wrote and sang it, and it first appeared on their 1981 EP Signals, Calls and Marches. Moby made his version practically single-handed, producing it, singing it and playing bass, guitar, keyboards and percussion, then engineering and mixing it with Alan Moulder.
Released as a single between "Bring Back My Happiness" and "Come on Baby", it got to number fifty on the UK Singles Chart. The title toys with a much-mistranslated quotation about reaching for a gun at the mention of culture; the original line, from Hanns Johst, threatens to take the safety off a Browning.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 92 | WHFS Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD | WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1997 | 100 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 813 | 107.7 The End | The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1077 |
| 2002 | 1586 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2021 | 625 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '90s | 908 |
| 2024 | 512 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 850 Cover Songs | 850 |
Also listed as: That's When I Reach for My Revolver.
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