Song · Toy Dolls
“Nellie the Elephant” by Toy Dolls
Released 1984
“Nellie the Elephant” by Toy Dolls appears on 13 radio countdowns from 5 stations between 1983 and 2022. It was first released in 1984. Its best result is #36 on the 91X Top 91 Songs of 1983. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #36 alternative song of 1983, #2,475 alternative song of all time and #407 of the '80s.
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Toy Dolls turned "Nellie the Elephant", a children's song Ralph Butler and Peter Hart wrote in 1956 about a make-believe elephant, into a punk rock stampede. They first tackled it in 1982 and put it on the 1983 album Dig That Groove Baby, then re-cut it in 1984 at a faster clip, with Michael Algar the only member left from the original lineup.
That souped-up version, issued as a single in late 1984, went all the way to number 4 on the UK Singles Chart. It's a gleefully daft record: a nursery-rhyme melody hot-wired to buzzsaw guitars and a breakneck beat, like a school assembly taken over by the kids in the back row.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | 56 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1983 | 107 |
| 1983 | 36 | 91X San Diego, CA / Tijuana | 91X Top 91 Songs of 1983 | 91 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 83 | Live 105 | Live 105 Top 500 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1988) | 501 |
| 1990 | 270 | Live 105 | Live 105 Top 300 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1990) | 299 |
| 1991 | 200 | Live 105 | Live 105 Top 300 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1991) | 302 |
| 1992 | 420 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1992) | 500 |
| 1992 | 169 | Live 105 | Live 105 Top 300 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1992) | 299 |
| 1994 | 366 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1994) | 497 |
| 1994 | 470 | Live 105 | Live 105 Revolutionary 500 (July 1994) | 500 |
| 1995 | 442 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1995) | 500 |
| 2002 | 1805 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 284 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
| 2022 | 491 | X96 | X96 Top 500 Alternative Songs of All Time | 500 |
Also listed as: Nellie The Elephant.
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