Song · System of a Down
“Sugar” by System of a Down
From the album System of a Down (1998)
“Sugar” by System of a Down appears on 14 radio countdowns from 8 stations between 1999 and 2023. It was first released in 1998 on the album System of a Down. Its best result is #6 on the WBER Listener Countdown 2000. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #125 alternative song of 1999 and #4,151 alternative song of all time.
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Video from YouTube (systemofadownVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Sugar" was the song that kicked the door in for System of a Down, the first single off their self-titled 1998 debut on American Recordings. Rick Rubin produced it with the band and slipped in some piano, Sylvia Massy engineered and David Sardy mixed, but nobody sanded down the madness. Serj Tankian raps the verses, then lurches into death-metal growls and shrieks with Daron Malakian barking behind him, while the riffs jerk and stutter and John Dolmayan drives the whole thing into a closing stretch that speeds up until the wheels come off.
It worked. MTV kept playing the video, and the song shoved the band to the front of the metal pack: opening slots for Slayer and then Metallica on the Summer Sanitarium Tour, a second-stage spot at Ozzfest, and their first headlining run.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 67 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1999 | 107 |
| 1999 | 99 | Live 105 San Francisco, CA | Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1999 | 106 |
| 1999 | 73 | K-Rock New York, NY | K-Rock Top 92 Songs of 1999 | 92 |
| 1999 | 82 | WFNX Boston, MA | WFNX Top 99 Songs of 1999 | 99 |
| 1999 | 70 | WBER Rochester, NY | WBER Listener Countdown 1999 | 101 |
| 2000 | 56 | WFNX Boston, MA | WFNX Top 100 Songs of 2000 | 100 |
| 2000 | 48 | WBCN Boston, MA | WBCN Top 104 Songs of Y2K | 102 |
| 2000 | 6 | WBER Rochester, NY | WBER Listener Countdown 2000 | 100 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 284 | Q101 | Q101 Top 300 Party Songs of All-Time (July 2004) | 300 |
| 2006 | 240 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 2006) | 500 |
| 2006 | 442 | Live 105 | Live 105 500 Co-Op Countdown (Memorial Day 2006) | 500 |
| 2007 | 311 | KROQ | KROQ Top 500 Most Requested Songs of the '90s (Labor Day 2007) | 500 |
| 2008 | 344 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 2008) | 500 |
| 2023 | 409 | 105.9 The X | 105.9 The X July 420 (2023) | 420 |
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