Song · Siouxsie and the Banshees
“Hong Kong Garden” by Siouxsie and the Banshees
Released 1978
“Hong Kong Garden” by Siouxsie and the Banshees appears on 8 radio countdowns from 4 stations between 1978 and 2023. It was first released in 1978. Its best result is #22 on the John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1978). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #3,017 alternative song of all time.
Watch
Video from YouTube (MsVader). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Hong Kong Garden", put out by Polydor in August 1978, was the first single Siouxsie and the Banshees ever released, and it announced them with a clang. John McKay had the bones of it a year earlier under the title "People Phobia", and the rest of the group got their first listen on the road, riding the tour bus; the finished song credits all four of them, McKay, Siouxsie Sioux, Steven Severin and Kenny Morris, and it comes out jagged and chiming, all brittle guitar and forward march.
The name belonged to a Chinese take-away in Chislehurst, and the song is Siouxsie's snapshot of the ugliness that broke out there whenever skinheads showed up. It reached number 7 in the UK, The Independent later rated it among the most important of the early post-punk hits, and Q put it on its 2005 list of the greatest guitar tracks.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | 22 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1978) | 50 |
| 1979 | 48 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1979) | 50 |
| 1980 | 47 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1980) | 50 |
| 1982 | 46 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1982) | 50 |
| 1994 | 133 | Live 105 | Live 105 Revolutionary 500 (July 1994) | 500 |
| 2002 | 1487 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 1217 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
| 2023 | 283 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places | 800 |
Also listed as: Hong Kong Garden" (7.
Comments
Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about "Hong Kong Garden" by Siouxsie and the Banshees.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.