Artist · chart history · #237 in alternative artist polls
The Stranglers
Band Guildford United Kingdom Formed 1974
The Stranglers formed in 1974 in Guildford, United Kingdom. The Stranglers has 88 chart appearances on 51 radio countdowns from 15 stations on RockLists, spanning 1977–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Always the Sun”, which appears on 28 lists with a best position of #16. The station that charted The Stranglers most often is Fred (XM 44) (XM Satellite Radio (national)), with 16 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1987.
The Stranglers started in Guildford, Surrey, in 1974 as the Guildford Stranglers, a pub-rock outfit with a mean streak, and when punk exploded the press lumped them in with it. They never quite fit. Hugh Cornwell's guitar and snarl, Jean-Jacques Burnel's thick, melodic bass that practically led the band, Dave Greenfield's swirling keyboards and Jet Black's drumming made a sound older and stranger than the safety-pin brigade's, and nastier too: both singers growled, and the lyrics could turn downright misanthropic.
Rattus Norvegicus and No More Heroes both landed in 1977, stuffed with "Peaches", "Hanging Around", "London Lady" and the title-track sneer of "No More Heroes". Then the band did what nobody expected and got refined. "Golden Brown", from La Folie, is a woozy, lilting thing that made them a mainstream proposition, and Feline, Aural Sculpture and Dreamtime smoothed the edges further, with "Skin Deep" and "Always the Sun" trading menace for melancholy grace. Art rock, gothic rock, sophisticated pop: they tried it all.
That classic foursome held together until Cornwell walked in 1990. Paul Roberts took the mic, Baz Warne arrived later, Black retired in 2018 and Greenfield died in 2020, leaving Burnel as the last original still out on the road.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by The Stranglers on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Always the Sun | 28 | #16 | – | 1987 | |
| 2 | Golden Brown | 12 | #10 | – | – | |
| 3 | Skin Deep | 12 | #121 | – | – | |
| 4 | No More Heroes | 8 | #33 | – | – | |
| 5 | All Day and All of the Night | 3 | #124 | – | – | |
| 6 | Peaches | 3 | #699 | – | – | |
| 7 | London Lady | 2 | #21 | – | 1977 | |
| 8 | Hanging Around | 3 | #32 | – | – | |
| 9 | No Mercy | 2 | #719 | – | – | |
| 10 | 96 Tears | 3 | #846 | – | – | |
| 11 | Get a Grip on Yourself | 1 | #536 | – | – | |
| 12 | Big in America | 1 | #1276 | – | – | |
| 13 | Walk On By | 1 | #697 | – | – | |
| 14 | Nice In Nice | 1 | #687 | – | – | |
| 15 | Grip | 1 | #1784 | – | – | |
| 16 | Sweet Smell of Success | 1 | #1878 | – | – | |
| 17 | Bring on the Nubiles | 1 | #1879 | – | – | |
| 18 | All Roads Lead to Rome | 1 | #470 | – | – | |
| 19 | Man They Love to Hate | 1 | #481 | – | – |
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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