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Selecter
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Artist · chart history

Selecter

Band Coventry United Kingdom Formed 1979

Selecter formed in 1979 in Coventry, United Kingdom. Selecter has 31 chart appearances on 20 radio countdowns from 4 stations on RockLists, spanning 1999–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Too Much Pressure”, which appears on 18 lists with a best position of #301. The station that charted Selecter most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 20 appearances.

31appearances
20countdowns
3songs charted
4stations
0#1 finishes
1999–2026years

The Selecter came out of Coventry in 1979, right at the birth of 2 Tone, and they looked like the future: black and white, men and women, all on one stage. Pauline Black and Arthur 'Gaps' Hendrickson shared lead vocals, Neol Davies and Compton Amanor played guitar, Desmond Brown worked the Hammond organ, Charley 'Aitch' Bembridge played drums and Charley Anderson held down the bass.

Even the name came from the start of the movement. "The Selecter", written by Davies and John Bradbury, was the flip side of the Special AKA's "Gangsters" in 1979, the first 2 Tone single, which made them one of the founding acts. Too Much Pressure, in 1980, is the proof of what they could do: tight, jittery ska with an edge of urban tension, from the title track to "On My Radio". Several UK top forty singles followed, but the original lineup lasted only a year, and even with new players the band was finished by 1981.

They came back in 1991 with Black and Davies joined by Bad Manners members Martin Stewart, Nick Welsh and Perry Melius. Davies left in 1993, and Black carried on until 2006. By 2011 a separate version featuring Davies was on the road, and that June Black won the rights to the Selecter name. Her lineup kept releasing records, reaching a 16th studio album, Human Algebra, in 2022.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.

Songs by Selecter on radio countdowns

#SongStrengthListsBest#1sPeak year
1 Too Much Pressure
510		 18 #301 – –
2 On My Radio
402		 11 #801 – –
3 The Selecter
81		 2 #570 – –

Albums with charting songs

Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.

Every countdown appearance

Year#SongCountdown
2026 801 On My Radio The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs You Discovered on The Colorado Sound
2025 301 Too Much Pressure The Colorado Sound Top 800 Mood Booster Songs
2023 618 Too Much Pressure The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s
2022 1051 On My Radio The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Colorado Sound Songs of All Time
2021 383 Too Much Pressure 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '80s
2013 2005 Too Much Pressure CD101 Top 2013 Songs of All-Time (December 2013)
2011 1926 Too Much Pressure CD101 Top 2012 Songs of All-Time (December 2011)
2010 1848 Too Much Pressure CD101 Top 2011 Songs of All-Time (December 2010)
2009 1802 Too Much Pressure CD101 Top 2010 Songs of All-Time (December 2009)
2008 1770 Too Much Pressure CD101 Top 2009 Songs of All-Time (December 2008)
2007 1800 Too Much Pressure CD101 Top 2008 Songs of All-Time (December 2007)
2005 1058 On My Radio CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005)
2005 1326 Too Much Pressure CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005)
2004 1059 On My Radio CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004)
2004 1326 Too Much Pressure CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004)
2003 1059 On My Radio CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003)
2003 1326 Too Much Pressure CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003)
2003 1237 Too Much Pressure Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003)
2003 1488 On My Radio Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003)
2003 1861 The Selecter Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003)
2002 1074 On My Radio CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002)
2002 1341 Too Much Pressure CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002)
2002 570 The Selecter Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002)
2002 1149 Too Much Pressure Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002)
2002 1556 On My Radio Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002)
2001 1075 On My Radio CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001)
2001 1342 Too Much Pressure CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001)
2000 1073 On My Radio CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000)
2000 1342 Too Much Pressure CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000)
1999 1071 On My Radio CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)
1999 1342 Too Much Pressure CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)

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