Song · XTC
“Towers of London” by XTC
From the album Black Sea (1980)
“Towers of London” by XTC appears on 4 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1989 and 2003. It was first released in 1980 on the album Black Sea. Its best result is #356 on the WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1991). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #3,600 alternative song of all time.
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"Towers of London" was the second single lifted from Black Sea, XTC's 1980 album on Virgin, and Andy Partridge wrote and sang it. Steve Lillywhite produced with Hugh Padgham engineering, and the BBC-2 documentary XTC at the Manor caught the band cutting it in the studio. Partridge admitted later that he may have been rewriting the Beatles' "Rain" without quite knowing it: he was after guitars that clang and collide, a great droning din. It reached No. 31 on the UK singles chart.
The connection to "Rain" took on a sad weight soon enough. The night after John Lennon was killed, XTC played a gig in Liverpool and performed both songs as a tribute to him.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 361 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1989) | 500 |
| 1991 | 356 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1991) | 500 |
| 2002 | 1176 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 1141 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
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