Song · Murray Head
“One Night in Bangkok” by Murray Head
Released 1984
“One Night in Bangkok” by Murray Head appears on 13 radio countdowns from 6 stations between 1985 and 2026. It was first released in 1984. Its best result is #24 on the KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1985. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #65 alternative song of 1985 and #2,776 alternative song of all time.
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Video from YouTube (ChessVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"One Night in Bangkok" is Murray Head's 1984 calling card, and it came straight out of Chess, the concept album that grew into a stage musical by Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Tim Rice. Head, the English actor and singer, spits the verses in a clipped, sardonic half-rap, while Swedish singer Anders Glenmark swoops in to belt the chorus over a slick, pulsing pop machine.
The joke is in the split. The chorus sells the city as a neon thrill ride; Head's American sneers at all of it, from the red-light district to the Chao Phraya River and the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, and decides none of it beats a game of chess. Thailand's Mass Communications Organisation didn't laugh, banning the song in 1985 for misrepresenting Thai society and slighting Buddhism. Elsewhere it was a smash, topping the charts in West Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and beyond and climbing to number 3 in America and Canada that May.
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 | 24 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1985 | 107 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 407 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1989) | 495 |
| 1992 | 427 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1992) | 500 |
| 1995 | 106 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1995) | 500 |
| 1996 | 290 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1996) | 500 |
| 1998 | 405 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1998) | 488 |
| 1999 | 684 | Q101 | Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1017 |
| 2002 | 1812 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 1005 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
| 2021 | 826 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '80s | 909 |
| 2023 | 413 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s | 850 |
| 2023 | 95 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places | 800 |
| 2026 | 572 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
Also listed as: One Night In Bangkok.
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