Artist · chart history
The Darkness
Band Lowestoft United Kingdom Formed 2000 UK rock band
The Darkness formed in 2000 in Lowestoft, United Kingdom. The Darkness has 58 chart appearances on 56 radio countdowns from 30 stations on RockLists, spanning 2003–2025. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “I Believe in a Thing Called Love”, which appears on 49 lists with a best position of #9. The station that charted The Darkness most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 11 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2004.
Nobody saw the Darkness coming, and that was half the fun. Formed in Lowestoft in 2000 by the brothers Justin Hawkins, on vocals and guitar, and Dan Hawkins on guitar, with Frankie Poullain on bass and Ed Graham on drums, they played hard rock with a glam rock grin and meant every note of it.
Permission to Land, in 2003, was the breakthrough. "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" is all squealing guitar, strutting riff and a vocal that goes for the rafters, and "Growing On Me", "Get Your Hands off My Woman" and "Love Is Only a Feeling" kept the party going. The album went quadruple platinum in Britain, and in 2004 they walked off with 3 Brit Awards: Best British Group, Best British Rock Act and Best British Album.
Then it came apart. Poullain left in 2005 and former guitar tech Richie Edwards stepped in; One Way Ticket to Hell …and Back arrived that November but sold poorly, Justin Hawkins left after rehab for alcohol and cocaine, and Atlantic dropped them in 2006. The rest carried on as Stone Gods while Justin fronted Hot Leg. The original four reunited in 2011, and Hot Cakes, Last of Our Kind (with Rufus Taylor soon behind the kit), Pinewood Smile, Easter Is Cancelled and Motorheart have followed.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by The Darkness on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I Believe in a Thing Called Love | 49 | #9 | – | 2004 | |
| 2 | Growing On Me | 4 | #41 | – | 2004 | |
| 3 | One Way Ticket | 4 | #88 | – | 2005 | |
| 4 | Nothin's Gonna Stop Us | 1 | #94 | – | 2013 |
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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