Song · Suede
“The Drowners” by Suede
From the album Suede (1993)
“The Drowners” by Suede appears on 11 radio countdowns from 5 stations between 1992 and 2022. It was first released in 1993 on the album Suede. Its best result is #15 on the John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1992. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #108 alternative song of 1992 and #2,344 alternative song of all time.
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"The Drowners" was how Suede introduced themselves: their first single, out on Nude Records in May 1992, and later a fixture of their self-titled 1993 album. Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler wrote it, and it's glam theatre reborn with a sneer, Butler's guitar jabbing out the riff while Anderson croons high and teasing, the lyric slippery enough to keep everybody guessing.
It was no smash at first, but radio kept coming back to it until it became one of the band's defining songs, and both NME and Melody Maker named it single of the year. Even the sleeve made a statement, an old photo of the model Veruschka body-painted into a man's suit. NME later placed it at 104 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 91 | Live 105 San Francisco, CA | Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1992 | 105 |
| 1992 | 15 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1992 | 50 |
| 1993 | 75 | Triple J Australia (national) | Triple J Hottest 100 of 1993 | 100 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 927 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 2000 |
| 2000 | 978 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000) | 2001 |
| 2001 | 977 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 2002 |
| 2002 | 977 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002) | 2003 |
| 2003 | 962 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003) | 2004 |
| 2004 | 962 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) | 2005 |
| 2005 | 963 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) | 1994 |
| 2022 | 467 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 900 Songs of the '90s | 900 |
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