Artist · chart history
Motorhead
Band London United Kingdom Active 1975–2015
Motorhead formed in 1975 in London, United Kingdom and was active until 2015. Motorhead has 60 chart appearances on 53 radio countdowns from 17 stations on RockLists, spanning 1990–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Ace of Spades”, which appears on 52 lists with a best position of #3. The station that charted Motorhead most often is Studio Brussel (Flanders, Belgium), with 26 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2002.
Motorhead were loud, fast and rude, and they never saw a reason to be anything else. Lemmy Kilmister started the band in London in 1975 with guitarist Larry Wallis and drummer Lucas Fox, but the lineup that made the racket famous was Lemmy growling over his thundering bass, "Fast" Eddie Clarke slashing on guitar and Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor bludgeoning the drums. Overkill and Bomber, both from 1979, set the template, and Ace of Spades in 1980 perfected it.
The title track is the one everybody knows: a gambling song taken at breakneck speed, with a riff that barely stops for breath. Lemmy always insisted this was rock and roll, not heavy metal, and he had a point. The punks loved them as much as the headbangers did, and the band paved the way for the NWOBHM kids and handed a blueprint to speed and thrash. The songs dealt in war, sin, excess and the abuse of power.
Guitarists and drummers came and went, including Brian Robertson, Pete Gill and Würzel, and Orgasmatron in 1986 showed they could still hit like a freight train. From 1992 the lineup settled on Lemmy, Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee, and it stayed that way to the end. Lemmy, the only constant member, died in December 2015, and the next day Dee and Campbell called time on Motorhead.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Motorhead on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ace of Spades | 52 | #3 | – | – | |
| 2 | Louie Louie | 1 | #160 | – | – | |
| 3 | Orgasmatron | 1 | #367 | – | – | |
| 4 | Killed By Death | 1 | #520 | – | – | |
| 5 | Overkill | 1 | #37 | – | – | |
| 6 | Shut Your Mouth | 1 | #61 | – | 2002 | |
| 7 | Stone Dead Forever | 1 | #726 | – | – | |
| 8 | Just Cos You Got the Power | 1 | #892 | – | – | |
| 9 | Beer Drinkers. | 1 | #959 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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