Song · The Pogues
“Dirty Old Town” by The Pogues
From the album Rum Sodomy & the Lash (1985)
“Dirty Old Town” by The Pogues appears on 13 radio countdowns from 4 stations between 1989 and 2026. It was first released in 1985 on the album Rum Sodomy & the Lash. Its best result is #163 on The Colorado Sound Top 850 Cover Songs. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #3,236 alternative song of all time.
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Ewan MacColl wrote "Dirty Old Town" back in 1949 about Salford, the industrial corner of Lancashire where he grew up, for Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop play Landscape with Chimneys, and by the folk boom of the 1960s it had become a club singer's staple. The Pogues took it on for Rum Sodomy & the Lash in 1985, with Elvis Costello producing and Nick Robbins and Paul Scully engineering.
It suits them to the bone, a hard-bitten portrait of a grimy industrial town. Their version is one of the recordings that made the song famous well beyond the folk clubs.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 205 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1989) | 500 |
| 1991 | 258 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1991) | 500 |
| 2002 | 1666 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 784 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
| 2019 | 584 | WYEP | WYEP Big Spring Countdown 2019 | 1017 |
| 2019 | 584 | WYEP | WYEP Labor Day Weekend Countdown 2019 | 1099 |
| 2022 | 187 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Colorado Sound Songs of All Time | 1055 |
| 2023 | 494 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s | 850 |
| 2023 | 827 | WYEP | WYEP Countdown to Fall 2023 | 1229 |
| 2023 | 176 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places | 800 |
| 2024 | 163 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 850 Cover Songs | 850 |
| 2026 | 665 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
| 2026 | 668 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs You Discovered on The Colorado Sound | 1055 |
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