What was the top rock song of 1992?

Combining 7 year-end radio countdowns, the top rock song of 1992 is "Friday I'm in Love" by The Cure, which appeared on 6 of the lists.

Year-end consensus · All Rock Formats · seven countdowns combined

The best rock songs of 1992

Seven radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 1992: KROQ, 91X, Live 105, Q101, WHFS, CFNY 102.1 The Edge and John Peel (BBC Radio 1). Combining every list, the top rock song of 1992 is “Friday I'm in Love” by The Cure, which appeared on six of the seven countdowns and was voted number one by one of them. Five different songs were voted number one somewhere: “Under the Bridge” by Red Hot Chili Peppers (3 stations), “One” by U2, “Creep” by Radiohead, “Friday, I'm in Love” by The Cure and “Geek Love” by Bang Bang Machine. U2 was the year’s most-charted artist, with eight different songs placing 27 times across the countdowns.

7countdowns

300songs charted

5different #1s

Top 100 songs of 1992

All 300 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 1992 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Friday I'm in Love The Cure	572	6	#1	1
2	Under the Bridge Red Hot Chili Peppers	571	6	#1	3
3	Drive R.E.M.	553	6	#3	–
4	One U2	552	6	#1	1
5	Jeremy Pearl Jam	539	6	#2	–
6	Tomorrow Morrissey	530	6	#6	–
7	Hit The Sugarcubes	456	6	#3	–
8	All I Want Toad The Wet Sprocket	451	5	#6	–
9	Divine Thing The Soup Dragons	420	6	#8	–
10	Come As You Are Nirvana	412	6	#4	–
11	Weirdo The Charlatans	409	6	#16	–
12	Digging In The Dirt Peter Gabriel	403	5	#12	–
13	Blood Makes Noise Suzanne Vega	390	6	#20	–
14	A Letter to Elise The Cure	389	5	#3	–
15	Lithium Nirvana	384	6	#11	–
16	These Are Days 10,000 Maniacs	382	6	#9	–
17	Born of Frustration James	376	6	#3	–
18	Even Flow Pearl Jam	372	4	#8	–
19	We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful Morrissey	352	5	#22	–
20	Hunger Strike Temple of the Dog	351	4	#11	–
21	Mysterious Ways U2	348	4	#2	–
22	Not Enough Time INXS	347	5	#13	–
23	Something Good Utah Saints	341	5	#31	–
24	Helpless Sugar	340	6	#9	–
25	N.W.O. Ministry	338	6	#13	–
26	Even Better Than The Real Thing U2	332	6	#23	–
27	Black Metallic Catherine Wheel	323	6	#19	–
28	Walking On Broken Glass Annie Lennox	309	5	#29	–
29	Would? Alice In Chains	303	4	#13	–
30	Two Worlds Collide Inspiral Carpets	302	4	#5	–
31	Suck My Kiss Red Hot Chili Peppers	294	5	#30	–
32	Pretend We're Dead L7	294	4	#15	–
33	Revolution Earth The B-52's	282	5	#13	–
34	Midlife Crisis Faith No More	277	5	#12	–
35	Nearly Lost You Screaming Trees	277	6	#27	–
36	Alive Pearl Jam	276	4	#6	–
37	Somebody To Shove Soul Asylum	274	6	#35	–
38	High The Cure	263	4	#32	–
39	100% Sonic Youth	260	7	#23	–
40	The Sweetest Drop Peter Murphy	255	3	#4	–
41	Sheela Na Gig PJ Harvey	245	5	#2	–
42	Why Annie Lennox	244	3	#19	–
43	Take a Chance on Me Erasure	240	4	#23	–
44	Jesus Built My Hotrod Ministry	237	3	#3	–
45	Breaking the Girl Red Hot Chili Peppers	236	4	#26	–
46	You Think You Know Her Cause and Effect	235	3	#18	–
47	Mrs. Robinson The Lemonheads	230	5	#19	–
48	The Life of Riley The Lightning Seeds	230	5	#42	–
49	What Are We Gonna Do? Dramarama	228	3	#24	–
50	It's A Shame About Ray The Lemonheads	222	4	#18	–
51	Far Gone and Out The Jesus and Mary Chain	221	4	#5	–
52	Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses U2	216	3	#14	–
53	Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead XTC	214	4	#21	–
54	Temple of Dreams Messiah	207	5	#42	–
55	Love The Sundays	207	4	#36	–
56	You're the One for Me Fatty Morrissey	205	4	#25	–
57	Face To Face Siouxsie and the Banshees	204	4	#15	–
58	Dizz Knee Land dada	201	5	#25	–
59	Pleasure The Soup Dragons	195	5	#39	–
60	Not Sleeping Around Ned's Atomic Dustbin	195	5	#19	–
61	Caribbean Blue Enya	193	3	#28	–
62	Stay Shakespear's Sister	188	2	#7	–
63	Teen Angst Cracker	186	3	#16	–
64	Bad Luck Social Distortion	184	5	#22	–
65	Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now) Cracker	184	3	#14	–
66	Drown The Smashing Pumpkins	181	3	#9	–
67	Black Pearl Jam	179	4	#41	–
68	For Love Lush	176	4	#40	–
69	So What'cha Want Beastie Boys	168	3	#39	–
70	Into The Fire Sarah McLachlan	164	3	#47	–
71	Walk On The Ocean Toad The Wet Sprocket	160	3	#15	–
72	Trying To Throw Your Arms Around The World U2	158	3	#49	–
73	Trout Neneh Cherry	155	4	#39	–
74	Dyslexic Heart Paul Westerberg	155	5	#24	–
75	In Bloom Nirvana	155	3	#48	–
76	Zoo Station U2	148	3	#42	–
77	Jump Around House of Pain	148	3	#34	–
78	Silent All These Years Tori Amos	147	4	#10	–
79	Disappointed Electronic	144	3	#21	–
80	Spiritual High Moodswings	137	4	#43	–
81	Girlfriend Matthew Sweet	137	3	#12	–
82	Good Stuff The B-52's	137	3	#32	–
83	Crucify Tori Amos	136	2	#34	–
84	Galileo The Indigo Girls	127	2	#35	–
85	Dragging Me Down Inspiral Carpets	117	2	#21	–
86	Happiness in Slavery Nine Inch Nails	117	3	#46	–
87	Visions of You Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart	115	2	#33	–
88	Someday? Concrete Blonde	115	3	#53	–
89	Free Range The Fall	115	2	#6	–
90	Only Love Can Break Your Heart St. Etienne	113	2	#46	–
91	Uh Huh Oh Yeh Paul Weller	112	2	#43	–
92	When She Begins Social Distortion	111	3	#50	–
93	Constant Craving KD Lang	110	3	#63	–
94	Physical Nine Inch Nails	102	2	#52	–
95	Creep Radiohead	100	1	#1	1
96	Geek Love Bang Bang Machine	100	1	#1	1
97	Just One Fix Ministry	95	2	#20	–
98	Come Play With Me Wedding Present	94	1	#4	–
99	The Witch The Cult	93	1	#8	–
100	Smells Like Teen Spirit Nirvana	92	1	#9	–

Every station’s number one of 1992

Station	Number one song	Countdown
KROQ	Under the Bridge Red Hot Chili Peppers	KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1992
91X	One U2	91X Top 91 Songs of 1992
Live 105	Creep Radiohead	Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1992
Q101	Under the Bridge Red Hot Chili Peppers	Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1992
WHFS	Under the Bridge Red Hot Chili Peppers	WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1992
CFNY 102.1 The Edge	Friday, I'm in Love The Cure	CFNY Top 102 Songs of 1992
John Peel (BBC Radio 1)	Geek Love Bang Bang Machine	John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1992

All 1992 countdowns in this ranking

About the 1992 ranking

Radio stations count down their listeners’ favorite songs at the end of every year. Each station’s list reflects its own audience, so a song that ruled Los Angeles could miss the top ten in Chicago. To find the songs that defined 1992 everywhere, RockLists gives every appearance percentile-based points (a number one earns 100, the last position earns close to zero) and adds them up across all seven qualifying countdowns. This ranking combines every rock format on the site. Read the full methodology.