Song · The Runaways
“Cherry Bomb” by The Runaways
From the album The Runaways (1976)
“Cherry Bomb” by The Runaways appears on 3 radio countdowns from 3 stations between 2012 and 2025. It was first released in 1976 on the album The Runaways. Its best result is #196 on The Colorado Sound Top 800 Mood Booster Songs. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #354 of the '70s.
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"Cherry Bomb" was the Runaways' first single, pulled from their self-titled 1976 debut on Mercury, and the story of its writing is a good one. Joan Jett wrote it with Kim Fowley, the band's manager at the time, and in the 2005 documentary Edgeplay, Fowley and lead singer Cherie Currie claimed it was knocked out quickly just so Currie had something to audition with, since the band couldn't play the song she had picked. Fowley, Scott Anderson and the band arranged it.
It stalled at 6 on Billboard's Bubbling Under chart, short of the Hot 100, but that snarling stomp refused to go away. VH1 later ranked it 52nd among the 100 greatest hard rock songs, and the screen kept calling it back: Dazed and Confused in 1993, Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014, The Boys in 2019, and a 2013 episode of Warehouse 13 with Currie herself as a guest.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 343 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Greatest Rock Songs (2012) | 885 |
| 2022 | 355 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '70s | 908 |
| 2025 | 196 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Mood Booster Songs | 800 |
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