Artist · chart history
The Heartbreakers
Band New York United States Active 1975–1990 1970’s punk band
The Heartbreakers formed in 1975 in New York, United States and was active until 1990. The Heartbreakers has 3 chart appearances on 2 radio countdowns from 2 stations on RockLists, spanning 2001–2002. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Born to Lose”, which appears on 2 lists with a best position of #1191. The station that charted The Heartbreakers most often is Fred (XM 44) (XM Satellite Radio (national)), with 2 appearances.
The Heartbreakers were born out of two walkouts in the same week. By early 1975 the New York Dolls were coming apart under poor sales and internal friction, and in March, midway through a Florida tour, guitarist and singer Johnny Thunders and drummer Jerry Nolan quit. Back in New York they found Richard Hell freshly out of Television, fed up with what he saw as that band's pretensions, and he signed on to sing and play bass. The trio played its first show on May 30 at the Coventry, a club in Queens, then went hunting for a second guitarist and landed Walter Lure. (Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, for the record, didn't start gigging until 1976.)
Hell didn't last past 1976, Billy Rath held down the bass, and the band, sometimes billed as Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, spearheaded punk's first wave while recording for Track Record.
L.A.M.F. Revisited, from 1984, is the place to hear "Chinese Rocks" and "Born to Lose": loose, loud, sneering guitar rock played as if the night would never end and nobody had any plans for the morning. The name finally ran out of road in 1990.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by The Heartbreakers on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Born to Lose | 2 | #1191 | – | – | |
| 2 | Chinese Rocks | 1 | #1218 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Featured on
Songs by other artists credited with The Heartbreakers as a guest.
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 1218 | Chinese Rocks | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) |
| 2002 | 1400 | Born to Lose | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) |
| 2001 | 1191 | Born to Lose | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time |
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