Artist · chart history · #876 in indie & aaa artist polls

Stan Ridgway

Solo artist Barstow United States

Stan Ridgway is an artist from Barstow. Stan Ridgway has 21 chart appearances on 19 radio countdowns from 8 stations on RockLists, spanning 1986–2022. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “I Wanna Be A Boss”, which appears on 9 lists with a best position of #240. The station that charted Stan Ridgway most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 7 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1989.

21appearances

19countdowns

8songs charted

8stations

0#1 finishes

1986–2022years

Stan Ridgway, born in 1954, has a voice you could pick out of a lineup: dry, deadpan and made for telling stories in which things are about to go badly wrong. He was a founding member and the first lead singer of Wall of Voodoo, the band that got going in 1977, and when he went solo he took that knack for dramatic, cinematic narratives with him.

The solo records are an eclectic bunch. The Big Heat, in 1985, gave us the title track and "Drive, She Said", little noir movies set to music. Mosquitos followed in 1989 with "Goin' Southbound", and Partyball arrived in 1991 carrying "I Wanna Be A Boss". "Don't Box Me In" turned up on countdowns the next year. Along the way he recorded for I.R.S. Records and Restless Records, played guitar and banjo as well as singing, and spent time in another outfit called Drywall.

He has also built a second career writing music for film and television, which makes perfect sense: his songs always sounded like they came with their own camera angles.

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

Songs by Stan Ridgway on radio countdowns

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s	Peak year
1	I Wanna Be A Boss	698	9	#240	–	–
2	Going Southbound	83	2	#48	–	1989
3	Don't Box Me In	83	2	#1097	–	–
4	Drive, She Said	60	3	#78	–	1986
5	The Big Heat	31	1	#348	–	–
6	16 Tons	25	1	#1502	–	–
7	Camouflage	17	1	#418	–	–
8	Goin' Southbound	9	1	#1868	–	–

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.

86 89

Every countdown appearance

Year	#	Song	Countdown
2022	418	Camouflage	X96 Top 500 Alternative Songs of All Time
2006	879	Artist ranking	WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Artists (2006)
2005	313	I Wanna Be A Boss	CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005)
2004	309	I Wanna Be A Boss	CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004)
2003	309	I Wanna Be A Boss	CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003)
2003	1278	Don't Box Me In	Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003)
2003	1868	Goin' Southbound	Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003)
2002	309	I Wanna Be A Boss	CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002)
2001	309	I Wanna Be A Boss	CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001)
2001	1097	Don't Box Me In	WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time
2001	1502	16 Tons	WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time
2000	297	I Wanna Be A Boss	CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000)
1999	296	I Wanna Be A Boss	CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)
1996	241	I Wanna Be A Boss	WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1996)
1994	240	I Wanna Be A Boss	WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1994)
1991	413	Drive, She Said	WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1991)
1989	48	Going Southbound	KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1989
1989	78	Going Southbound	Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1989
1989	348	The Big Heat	KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1989)
1989	430	Drive, She Said	WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1989)
1986	78	Drive, She Said	KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1986

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