Song · The Stranglers
“Golden Brown” by The Stranglers
From the album La Folie (1981)
“Golden Brown” by The Stranglers appears on 12 radio countdowns from 6 stations between 1988 and 2026. It was first released in 1981 on the album La Folie. Its best result is #10 on the Virgin Radio Top 100 Brit Songs of All-Time (May 2005). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #1,765 alternative song of all time.
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"Golden Brown", the second single from the Stranglers' sixth album, La Folie, rode a harpsichord all the way to number two in Britain, the highest they ever climbed there. Dave Greenfield and Jet Black wrote most of the music, salvaging an unused section of "Second Coming" from their previous album, The Gospel According to the Meninblack, and Hugh Cornwell wrote the words. The band produced it with Steve Churchyard, and Tony Visconti mixed.
The rhythm is a puzzle box: a lilting waltz counted in threes, until the instrumental passages slip in an extra beat to make a phrase of thirteen, so the whole thing sways like it's had one too many. It sounds like a lullaby, but Jean-Jacques Burnel said it was really about the pleasures of heroin and romance.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 120 | Live 105 | Live 105 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1988) | 501 |
| 1989 | 82 | Triple J | Triple J Hottest 100 of All-Time (1989) | 100 |
| 1990 | 182 | Live 105 | Live 105 Top 300 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1990) | 299 |
| 2001 | 26 | Virgin Radio | Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 500 |
| 2003 | 1560 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
| 2004 | 21 | Virgin Radio | Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) | 500 |
| 2005 | 109 | Virgin Radio | Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) | 500 |
| 2005 | 10 | Virgin Radio | Virgin Radio Top 100 Brit Songs of All-Time (May 2005) | 100 |
| 2006 | 16 | Virgin Radio | Virgin Radio Top 500 Songs of All-Time (December 2006) | 500 |
| 2020 | 672 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2023 | 290 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 850 Songs of the 1980s | 850 |
| 2026 | 453 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs You Discovered on The Colorado Sound | 1055 |
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