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Cover of It’s a Shame About Ray by The Lemonheads
Cover: It’s a Shame About Ray

Song · The Lemonheads

“It's A Shame About Ray” by The Lemonheads

From the album It’s a Shame About Ray (1992)

“It's A Shame About Ray” by The Lemonheads appears on 36 radio countdowns from 17 stations between 1992 and 2025. It was first released in 1992 on the album It’s a Shame About Ray. Its best result is #18 on the WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1992. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #52 alternative song of 1992 and #557 alternative song of all time.

36countdowns
17stations
#18best position
0#1 finishes
0top 10 finishes
1992–2025years charted

Watch

The Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray (Official Video)

Video from YouTube (firerecords). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube

The title track of the Lemonheads' 1992 album It's a Shame About Ray began with a newspaper. Evan Dando was in Sydney with his friend and sometime co-writer Tom Morgan when the two spotted the phrase in a local paper and liked the sound of it. Dando already had the music, and he remembers the whole thing coming together in half an hour or an hour. It was the first song the pair ever finished together, and they hauled it straight down to a friend's record store to play it for him.

Pinning down what it's about is part of the pull. Dando has called it spooky, a song about a person who vanishes, and gray and open-ended besides, which gives the tune a shadow it never quite shakes. He produced it with the Robb Brothers.

It went out as a single in October 1992 and made the UK charts, and critics have been kind to it ever since.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.

RockLists rankings

Alternative & Modern Rock

Indie & Adult Alternative

All Rock Formats

Year-end countdowns

Year#StationCountdownof
1992 75 91X San Diego, CA / Tijuana 91X Top 91 Songs of 1992 91
1992 44 Live 105 San Francisco, CA Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1992 105
1992 18 WHFS Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1992 100
1992 41 CFNY 102.1 The Edge Toronto, ON CFNY Top 102 Songs of 1992 102
1993 73 KROQ Los Angeles, CA KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1993 107
1993 84 Q101 Chicago, IL Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1993 101

All-time and decade countdowns

Year#StationCountdownof
1994 282 Live 105 Live 105 Revolutionary 500 (July 1994) 500
1995 155 Live 105 Live 105 Revolutionary 300 (July 1995) 300
1999 354 Q101 Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) 1017
1999 146 WFNX WFNX Top 500 Songs of All-Time (June 1999) 500
1999 419 CD101 CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) 2000
1999 551 CFNY 102.1 The Edge CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (November 1999) 1002
2000 233 WOXY 97X WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2000) 500
2000 420 CD101 CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000) 2001
2001 235 WOXY 97X WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2001) 498
2001 420 CD101 CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) 2002
2002 420 CD101 CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002) 2003
2002 1417 Fred (XM 44) Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) 2002
2003 420 CD101 CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003) 2004
2004 420 CD101 CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) 2005
2005 423 CD101 CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) 1994
2005 725 99X 99X Freedom of Choice 1000 (2005) 1000
2007 414 CD101 CD101 Top 2008 Songs of All-Time (December 2007) 2008
2008 445 CD101 CD101 Top 2009 Songs of All-Time (December 2008) 2009
2009 442 CD101 CD101 Top 2010 Songs of All-Time (December 2009) 2010
2009 661 WYEP WYEP 913 Essential Songs 913
2010 451 CD101 CD101 Top 2011 Songs of All-Time (December 2010) 2011
2011 460 CD101 CD101 Top 2012 Songs of All-Time (December 2011) 2011
2013 465 CD101 CD101 Top 2013 Songs of All-Time (December 2013) 2012
2014 457 CD101 CD101 Top 2014 Songs of All-Time (2014) 2013
2019 600 KEXP KEXP Listeners' Favorite Songs of All Time 627
2021 81 90.9 The Bridge 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '90s 908
2022 177 The Colorado Sound The Colorado Sound Top 900 Songs of the '90s 900
2022 1132 WYEP WYEP Countdown to Fall 2022 603
2023 464 The Current The Current's 893 Essential Songs of the '90s 893
2025 287 WFPK WFPK Top 500 Songs of the '90s 500

Also listed as: It's a Shame About Ray; Its a Shame About Ray.

Charting alongside it in 1992

Best songs of 1992 →
  1. 1Friday I'm in LoveThe Cure
  2. 2Under the BridgeRed Hot Chili Peppers
  3. 3DriveR.E.M.
  4. 4OneU2
  5. 5JeremyPearl Jam
  6. 6TomorrowMorrissey

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