“Anarchy in the U.K.” by The Sex Pistols

"Anarchy in the U.K." was the Sex Pistols' debut single, dropped on EMI on 26 November 1976, and it's the sound of a fuse being lit under the whole British music business. It later turned up on Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, but on its own it was a declaration of war.

Chris Thomas produced it, with Bill Price at the controls, and the trick is that it doesn't sound cheap: the guitars come in as a thick, grinding wall, the drums pound like boots on a staircase, and John Lydon sneers over the top like a street-corner prophet who'd rather spit than preach. The music is credited to Paul Cook, Steve Jones, Lydon and Glen Matlock.

John Peel's listeners voted it the greatest record of all time in his year-end poll four times between 1978 and 1982, Rolling Stone later ranked it 56th among the greatest songs ever, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame counts it among the songs that shaped rock and roll.

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