Artist · chart history · #201 in alternative artist polls · #863 in indie & aaa artist polls
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Band Boston United States Active 1983–2022
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones formed in 1983 in Boston, United States and was active until 2022. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones has 160 chart appearances on 104 radio countdowns from 40 stations on RockLists, spanning 1993–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “The Impression That I Get”, which appears on 70 lists and was voted number one three times. In total the artist has topped 3 countdowns. The station that charted The Mighty Mighty Bosstones most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 35 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1997.
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones formed in Boston in 1983 and spent their whole career proving that ska horns and hardcore punk could share a stage without killing each other. Dicky Barrett's gravel-gargling bark was out front from day one, with Joe Gittleman on bass, Tim "Johnny Vegas" Burton on tenor sax and, as a full-fledged member, a dancer: Ben Carr, the official Bosstone, whose job was to move. The 4 of them were there for the whole ride, while guitarist Nate Albert, saxophonist Kevin Lenear, trombonist Dennis Brockenborough and drummer Joe Sirois were all in the band through the '90s.
They're often credited with inventing ska-core, that mash-up of skanking upbeats and hardcore fury, and with helping create the whole American ska punk sound. Starting with the debut Devil's Night Out in 1989 they toured and recorded without letup, building up a crowd and a reputation: More Noise and Other Disturbances gave them "Where'd You Go?", the Ska-Core, the Devil and More EP had "Someday I Suppose", and Question the Answers brought "Kinder Words" and "Pictures to Prove It". In 1995 they turned up as the frat-party house band in the movie Clueless.
Then came 1997 and Let's Face It, which went platinum and made them the unlikeliest pop stars in America. "The Impression That I Get" is the reason: a bouncing, brass-bright sing-along, its horn line as friendly as a slap on the back, with Barrett's sandpaper voice somehow making it even catchier. "The Rascal King" and "Royal Oil" kept the party going, and the band helped carry third-wave ska into the mainstream.
Pay Attention followed in 2000 with "So Sad to Say", and A Jackknife to a Swan in 2002. They went on hiatus at the end of 2003, got back together in 2007 and put out 4 more studio albums between 2009 and 2021, and for years hosted the Hometown Throwdown, an annual holiday-season festival in Cambridge and later Boston. The band finally called it quits in 2022.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Impression That I Get | 70 | #1 | 3 | 1997 | |
| 2 | The Rascal King | 22 | #10 | – | 1997 | |
| 3 | Someday I Suppose | 12 | #74 | – | 1993 | |
| 4 | Kinder Words | 14 | #1020 | – | – | |
| 5 | So Sad to Say | 9 | #59 | – | 2000 | |
| 6 | Where'd You Go? | 4 | #133 | – | – | |
| 7 | Impression I Get | 1 | #9 | – | 1997 | |
| 8 | Where Did You Go? | 1 | #43 | – | – | |
| 9 | The Final Parade | 1 | #10 | – | 2021 | |
| 10 | Pictures To Prove It | 7 | #1670 | – | – | |
| 11 | You Gotta Go | 2 | #60 | – | 2002 | |
| 12 | I Don't Believe In Anything | 1 | #33 | – | 2021 | |
| 13 | Royal Oil | 2 | #71 | – | 1997 | |
| 14 | 1-2-8 (live) | 1 | #60 | – | 1998 | |
| 15 | Wrong Thing Right Then | 2 | #81 | – | 1998 | |
| 16 | Let's Face It | 1 | #678 | – | – | |
| 17 | Move | 1 | #82 | – | 2022 | |
| 18 | I Don't Want To Be You | 1 | #83 | – | 2022 | |
| 19 | The Impression I Get | 1 | #86 | – | 1996 | |
| 20 | Simmer Down | 1 | #445 | – | – | |
| 21 | Impression That I Get | 1 | #88 | – | – | |
| 22 | Like A Shotgun | 1 | #89 | – | 2011 |
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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