Artist · chart history
Rockpile
Band United Kingdom Active 1976–1981
Rockpile formed in 1976 in the United Kingdom and was active until 1981. Rockpile has 8 chart appearances on 8 radio countdowns from 4 stations on RockLists, spanning 1980–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Teacher Teacher”, which appears on 4 lists with a best position of #46. The station that charted Rockpile most often is The Colorado Sound (Fort Collins–Denver, CO), with 3 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1980.
Rockpile were a British band that lived a double life. In the late '70s Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe, both singing, with Edmunds and Billy Bremner on guitars, Lowe on bass and Terry Williams on drums, were one of the tightest outfits going, steeped in pub rock, rockabilly and power pop and laying down the groundwork new wave would build on. But most of what they cut came out under somebody else's name.
They recorded close to five albums' worth of material, and only one of them, Seconds of Pleasure in 1980, actually said Rockpile on the cover. Tracks on Wax 4, Repeat When Necessary and Twangin... came out as Dave Edmunds solo records, and Labour of Lust went out as a Nick Lowe album, with more stray Rockpile tracks scattered across other Lowe and Edmunds releases. They also backed Mickey Jupp in 1978 and Carlene Carter in 1980.
Seconds of Pleasure is worth the wait: "Teacher Teacher" is all chiming guitars, shoulder-to-shoulder harmonies and a chorus that hits like a jukebox punch, and "Little Sister" proves they could rip through a stripped-down rock and roll stomper just as easily. The band was finished by 1981.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Rockpile on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Teacher Teacher | 4 | #46 | – | 1980 | |
| 2 | When I Write The Book | 3 | #621 | – | – | |
| 3 | Little Sister | 1 | #101 | – | 1981 |
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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