Artist · chart history · #255 in alternative artist polls
Sparks
Band Los Angeles United States Formed 1970 US rock and pop duo, The Mael Brothers
Sparks formed in 1970 in Los Angeles, United States. Sparks has 59 chart appearances on 26 radio countdowns from 9 stations on RockLists, spanning 1981–2024. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Cool Places”, which appears on 13 lists with a best position of #39. The station that charted Sparks most often is KROQ (Los Angeles, CA), with 36 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1981.
Sparks are the Mael brothers of Los Angeles, and nobody else sounds remotely like them: Russell out front with a voice that has range to burn and the nervous energy of a wind-up toy, Ron hunched over the keyboards playing intricate, rhythmic figures behind a deadpan scowl. They started out in the Pacific Palisades in the late '60s under the name Halfnelson, and by 1974 "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" had carried their brainy, theatrical glam to number 2 in Britain. In 1979 they threw in their lot with Giorgio Moroder, and "The Number One Song in Heaven" and "Beat the Clock" swapped the guitars for pulsing electronic disco.
The early '80s found them fronting a band again, with Leslie Bohem on bass and Bob Haag adding backing vocals, and cranking out twitchy, wisecracking new wave pop on Whomp That Sucker, Angst in My Pants and In Outer Space. "I Predict" finally got them onto the American Hot 100 in 1982, and "Cool Places" brought in the Go-Go's Jane Wiedlin to sing along on a bouncy slice of synth-pop. The words are half the fun: acerbic, clever and fond of a film or literary reference.
They have never stood still since. Lil' Beethoven in 2002 rebuilt them around repetition and orchestral arrangements and won the critics back, FFS in 2015 teamed them with Franz Ferdinand, and in 2021 they wrote every song in Leos Carax's Annette, which earned them a César for its music, while Edgar Wright told their story in The Sparks Brothers.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Sparks on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cool Places | 13 | #39 | – | 1983 | |
| 2 | I Predict | 5 | #7 | – | 1982 | |
| 3 | Tips for Teens | 4 | #67 | – | 1981 | |
| 4 | Music That You Can Dance To | 4 | #33 | – | 1986 | |
| 5 | All You Ever Think About is Sex | 4 | #88 | – | 1983 | |
| 6 | Upstairs | 3 | #28 | – | 1981 | |
| 7 | Mickey Mouse | 3 | #60 | – | 1982 | |
| 8 | So Important | 3 | #47 | – | 1988 | |
| 9 | Funny Face | 2 | #15 | – | 1981 | |
| 10 | Angst in My Pants | 4 | #73 | – | 1982 | |
| 11 | Pretending to be Drunk | 2 | #52 | – | 1984 | |
| 12 | Tryouts For the Human Rave | 1 | #357 | – | – | |
| 13 | This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us | 2 | #965 | – | – | |
| 14 | Modesty Plays | 1 | #170 | – | – | |
| 15 | I Wish I Looked a Little Better | 1 | #252 | – | – | |
| 16 | I Married a Martian | 1 | #59 | – | 1981 | |
| 17 | Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat | 1 | #71 | – | 1984 | |
| 18 | All That | 1 | #69 | – | 2020 | |
| 19 | Just Got Back from Heaven | 1 | #430 | – | – | |
| 20 | Eaten By the Monster of Love | 1 | #95 | – | 1982 | |
| 21 | Popularity | 1 | #495 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Featured on
Songs by other artists credited with Sparks as a guest.
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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