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Song · The Smashing Pumpkins

“Drown” by The Smashing Pumpkins

Released 1992

“Drown” by The Smashing Pumpkins appears on 27 radio countdowns from 13 stations between 1992 and 2023. It was first released in 1992. Its best result is #9 on the Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1992. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #67 alternative song of 1992, #909 alternative song of all time and #455 of the '90s.

27countdowns
13stations
#9best position
0#1 finishes
2top 10 finishes
1992–2023years charted

Watch

Drown

Video from YouTube (The Smashing Pumpkins - Topic). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube

"Drown" was the Smashing Pumpkins' piece of the soundtrack to Singles, Cameron Crowe's 1992 film, issued on Epic that summer. Billy Corgan wrote the words and music not long after Gish came out, and the band first played it live on the tour behind that record. He produced and mixed it with Butch Vig, and the first take was cut at Waterfront Studios, Lenny Kravitz's place. What came out is woozy, dreamy and bruised all at once, the Pumpkins at their most hypnotic.

By mid-1992 it had turned into a modest radio hit, putting the band in front of plenty of new listeners just before they got to work on Siamese Dream. Corgan wanted a proper commercial single and was even willing to make a video, but when the soundtrack's third single came up, Epic, home to Alice in Chains and Screaming Trees, went with Screaming Trees, and he blamed that call for killing the song. It got a promotional single anyway, which reached 24 on the US alternative chart and stood as the band's highest-charting single up to then.

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 9 Live 105 San Francisco, CA Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1992 105
1992 38 WHFS Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1992 100
1992 77 CFNY 102.1 The Edge Toronto, ON CFNY Top 102 Songs of 1992 102

All-time and decade countdowns

Year#StationCountdownof
1994 12 Live 105 Live 105 Revolutionary 500 (July 1994) 500
1994 166 WOXY 97X WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1994) 500
1995 161 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1995) 500
1995 167 Live 105 Live 105 Revolutionary 300 (July 1995) 300
1996 163 Q101 Q101 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (1996) 500
1996 155 WOXY 97X WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1996) 498
1999 171 KROQ KROQ Top 300 Most Requested Songs of the '90s (Labor Day 1999) 300
1999 81 WHFS WHFS Top 500 Songs of the '90s (December 1999) 500
1999 151 Q101 Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) 1017
1999 233 WFNX WFNX Top 500 Songs of All-Time (June 1999) 500
1999 584 107.7 The End The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) 1077
1999 214 WOXY 97X WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1999) 500
1999 447 CFNY 102.1 The Edge CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (November 1999) 1002
2001 170 WBRU WBRU Modern Rock Top 500 (2001) 500
2002 9 WFNX WFNX Top 50 Grunge Songs of All-Time (June 2002) 50
2002 101 Fred (XM 44) Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) 2002
2004 295 107.7 The End The End Original Alternative 500 (May 2004) 500
2005 675 99X 99X Freedom of Choice 1000 (2005) 1000
2006 313 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 2006) 500
2006 410 Live 105 Live 105 500 Co-Op Countdown (Memorial Day 2006) 500
2007 225 KROQ KROQ Top 500 Most Requested Songs of the '90s (Labor Day 2007) 500
2008 405 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 2008) 500
2021 175 90.9 The Bridge 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '90s 908
2023 736 The Current The Current's 893 Essential Songs of the '90s 893

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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