Artist · chart history · #144 in alternative artist polls
The Chemical Brothers
Band Manchester United Kingdom Formed 1989 British electronic music duo
The Chemical Brothers formed in 1989 in Manchester, United Kingdom. The Chemical Brothers has 162 chart appearances on 124 radio countdowns from 32 stations on RockLists, spanning 1996–2025. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Block Rockin' Beats”, which appears on 53 lists with a best position of #19. The station that charted The Chemical Brothers most often is WBER (Rochester, NY), with 24 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2005.
The Chemical Brothers are Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, a Manchester duo who set about bolting hip-hop breakbeats onto rave-sized electronics until the whole contraption threatened to explode. They started out as the Dust Brothers, then changed the name to stop being mixed up with the American production team of the same name, and titled their 1995 debut Exit Planet Dust as a wink at the switch.
Big beat was the sound, and they carried it right into the pop charts. Dig Your Own Hole, in 1997, and Surrender, in 1999, both went to number one in Britain, and "Setting Sun" and "Block Rockin' Beats" both topped the British singles chart: huge, rubbery beats, sirens and squalls of noise, the rock crowd and the rave crowd shoved onto the same floor. "Block Rockin' Beats" even won them a Grammy in a rock category, Best Rock Instrumental Performance, and later came more Grammys, for "Galvanize" and for dance/electronic albums.
They never worked alone for long. Noel Gallagher, Beth Orton, Bernard Sumner, Q-Tip, Beck, St. Vincent and Aurora have all stepped up to their mic, and through Push the Button, We Are the Night and Born in the Echoes the duo kept stretching the sound toward psychedelia, house and pop.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by The Chemical Brothers on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Block Rockin' Beats | 53 | #19 | – | 1997 | |
| 2 | Galvanize | 22 | #8 | – | 2005 | |
| 3 | Let Forever Be | 17 | #35 | – | 1999 | |
| 4 | Setting Sun | 14 | #26 | – | 1996 | |
| 5 | Go | 5 | #5 | – | 2015 | |
| 6 | The Golden Path | 7 | #11 | – | 2003 | |
| 7 | Wide Open | 6 | #35 | – | 2015 | |
| 8 | Hey Boy, Hey Girl | 4 | #27 | – | 1999 | |
| 9 | The Salmon Dance | 2 | #4 | – | 2008 | |
| 10 | Do It Again | 3 | #5 | – | 2007 | |
| 11 | Skipping Like a Stone | 3 | #21 | – | 2023 | |
| 12 | Das Spiegel | 1 | #3 | – | 2009 | |
| 13 | Star Guitar | 2 | #42 | – | 2002 | |
| 14 | Come With Us | 2 | #82 | – | 2003 | |
| 15 | No Geography | 1 | #12 | – | 2020 | |
| 16 | The Test | 2 | #80 | – | 2002 | |
| 17 | Live Again | 1 | #22 | – | 2024 | |
| 18 | Where Do I Begin | 1 | #240 | – | – | |
| 19 | Free Yourself | 1 | #23 | – | 2021 | |
| 20 | We've Got To Try | 1 | #25 | – | 2019 | |
| 21 | Surface To Air | 1 | #65 | – | 2005 | |
| 22 | The Boxer | 1 | #66 | – | 2005 | |
| 23 | Swoon | 1 | #46 | – | 2010 | |
| 24 | Leave Home | 1 | #385 | – | – | |
| 25 | Out of Control | 2 | #412 | – | – | |
| 26 | The Weight | 1 | #61 | – | 2024 | |
| 27 | Believe | 1 | #80 | – | 2005 | |
| 28 | All Rights Reversed | 1 | #81 | – | 2010 | |
| 29 | It Began in Afrika | 1 | #99 | – | 2001 |
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.
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