Song · X-Ray Spex
“Oh Bondage Up Yours!” by X-Ray Spex
Released 1977
“Oh Bondage Up Yours!” by X-Ray Spex appears on 12 radio countdowns from 6 stations between 1977 and 2023. It was first released in 1977. Its best result is #38 on the John Peel's Forgotten Fifty of 1977. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #38 alternative song of 1977, #3,372 alternative song of all time and #38 of the '70s.
Watch
Video from YouTube (X-Ray Spex - Topic). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Oh Bondage Up Yours!" was X-Ray Spex's first single, out on Virgin in September 1977, and it goes off like a fire alarm in a shopping centre. Poly Styrene wrote it and sang it, having been fired up by the Sex Pistols in Hastings in July 1976 and jolted into writing the song after catching them again the following month. Her target was the whole buy-it-and-bin-it culture, consumerism as a set of chains, and she turned the fight against it into a feminist battle cry she later described as a plea for liberation.
It never troubled the charts, and it didn't need to: critics hold it up as British punk in its purest form. A live take from one of the band's earliest gigs had already surfaced on The Roxy London WC2, and the noise it made got them a one-single deal with Virgin.
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 | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | 38 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's Forgotten Fifty of 1977 | 61 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 138 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2000) | 500 |
| 2001 | 140 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2001) | 498 |
| 2001 | 1758 | WFPK | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2000 |
| 2002 | 486 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2002) | 500 |
| 2002 | 1824 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 480 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2003) | 500 |
| 2005 | 493 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2005) | 500 |
| 2006 | 472 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2006) | 499 |
| 2022 | 630 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '70s | 908 |
| 2022 | 220 | KEXP | KEXP Top Songs of the Last 50 Years (1972-2022) | 491 |
| 2023 | 581 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of All Time | 909 |
Also listed as: Oh Bondage! Up Yours!; Oh Bondage! Up Yours; Oh Bondage Up Yours.
Comments
Log in or create a free account to join the conversation about "Oh Bondage Up Yours!" by X-Ray Spex.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.