Artist · chart history · #290 in alternative artist polls · #506 in indie & aaa artist polls
T. Rex
Band London United Kingdom Active 1967–1977 UK band
T. Rex formed in 1967 in London, United Kingdom and was active until 1977. T. Rex has 119 chart appearances on 93 radio countdowns from 38 stations on RockLists, spanning 1991–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Bang a Gong (Get It On)”, which appears on 68 lists with a best position of #42. The station that charted T. Rex most often is Virgin Radio (United Kingdom), with 18 appearances.
Marc Bolan started T. Rex in London in 1967 as Tyrannosaurus Rex, an acoustic psychedelic folk outfit, and he ran the show from first to last, the one member who never changed. Around 1970 he went electric. A Beard of Stars pointed the way, the name got shorter in time for the self-titled fifth album, and "Ride a White Swan" gave him his first real hit. Glam rock had one of its first true pioneers.
From 1970 to 1973 Britain couldn't get enough: 11 top-10 singles, and 4 of them, "Hot Love", "Get It On", "Telegram Sam" and "Metal Guru", went all the way to number one. Electric Warrior, in 1971, is the crowning moment, a number-one album at home full of sly, sexy boogie: the strutting "Get It On" (also known as "Bang a Gong"), "Jeepster", "Mambo Sun" and "Rip Off". Steve Currie on bass, Bill Legend on drums and Mickey Finn on percussion gave Bolan's elfin warble a hip-shaking bottom end. The Slider was their biggest album in America, and Tanx, in 1973, stirred soul, funk and gospel into the mix alongside "20th Century Boy" and "Children of the Revolution".
The spell faded after 1974, as the records drifted toward R&B and disco. Bolan died in a car crash in 1977, months after Dandy in the Underworld, and the band ended with him. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted T. Rex in 2020.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by T. Rex on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bang a Gong (Get It On) | 68 | #42 | – | – | |
| 2 | Get It On | 7 | #34 | – | – | |
| 3 | Jeepster | 11 | #335 | – | – | |
| 4 | 20th Century Boy | 14 | #83 | – | – | |
| 5 | Cosmic Dancer | 2 | #138 | – | – | |
| 6 | Mambo Sun | 5 | #501 | – | – | |
| 7 | Hot Love | 2 | #235 | – | – | |
| 8 | Children of the Revolution | 2 | #329 | – | – | |
| 9 | Life Is Strange | 1 | #1136 | – | – | |
| 10 | Telegram Sam | 1 | #531 | – | – | |
| 11 | Ride a White Swan | 1 | #355 | – | – | |
| 12 | Rip Off | 1 | #811 | – | – | |
| 13 | I Love 2 Boogie | 1 | #495 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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