Song · Pete Townshend
“Rough Boys” by Pete Townshend
From the album Empty Glass (1980)
“Rough Boys” by Pete Townshend appears on 14 radio countdowns from 8 stations between 1980 and 2026. It was first released in 1980 on the album Empty Glass. Its best result is #42 on the KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1980. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #42 alternative song of 1980.
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"Rough Boys" was Pete Townshend's first solo single, pulled in 1980 from Empty Glass, his third solo album, and it came out swinging. Chris Thomas produced; Townshend sings lead and plays guitar and synthesizer, with Kenney Jones on drums, Tony Butler on bass, John "Rabbit" Bundrick on keyboards and Peter Hope-Evans on harmonica. On the album sleeve Townshend dedicated it to the Sex Pistols and to his children, Emma and Minta.
The lyric's homoerotic charge is what people remember. Alice Cooper heard a sexual ambiguity in it, admitted he still couldn't say what Townshend meant and loved it anyway, and in a 1989 interview with Timothy White, Townshend himself called the song a kind of coming out. It was a minor hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
Classic Rock
Hard Rock & Metal
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 42 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1980 | 106 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 359 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1994) | 1000 |
| 1995 | 256 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1995) | 1000 |
| 1996 | 142 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1996) | 1000 |
| 1998 | 296 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1998) | 1000 |
| 1999 | 175 | KISW | KISW Top 1000 of All Time (1999) | 998 |
| 2011 | 408 | 97.9 The Loop | The Loop Rock N Roll 500 (2011) | 500 |
| 2019 | 783 | 102.5 KZOK | KZOK Top 1025 of 2019 | 1025 |
| 2020 | 673 | 102.5 KZOK | KZOK Classic Rock Top 1025 (2020) | 1025 |
| 2021 | 97 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '80s | 909 |
| 2022 | 996 | Q104.3 | Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2022) | 1043 |
| 2023 | 1014 | Q104.3 | Q104.3 Top 1,043 Classic Rock Songs of All Time (2023) | 1043 |
| 2023 | 849 | 101.5 WPDH | WPDH Top 1015 (2023) | 1015 |
| 2026 | 429 | KSHE 95 | KSHE 95 U-Man 500 (2026) | 499 |
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