In 2019, I published the book Charting the Classic Rock Hits 1962-1981 (click here to order on Amazon). The idea was to create a companion piece to the rock chart created by Billboard magazine in 1981. That chart tracked mainstream rock songs. I created a system to weigh different songs and see how they might have fared had their been rock charts dating back as far as 1962.
Similarly, Billboard started a chart in 1988 to track modern rock songs and I developed a system to weigh how songs might have fared had such charts existed as much as two decades earlier. Up until late 1976, results were spotty so I’ve used the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the U.K.” as my starting point to track songs that might have been #1’s on an alternative rock track through the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Modern rock, also known as college rock and later as alternative rock, was a reference to rock music that was a little left of center. It grew out of garage rock in the mid-‘60s and, with the arrival of the Velvet Underground, a new off-the-beaten-path form of music was born which would come to be known as proto-punk (Velvet Underground, the Stooges, New York Dolls). The ‘70s saw the arrival of glam (David Bowie, Queen, T-Rex) and punk (Sex Pistols, The Clash, Ramones). By the early ‘80s, a more synth-driven form of music known as new wave (Talking Heads, Duran Duran) emerged. The ‘80s then saw the explosion of college rock (U2, R.E.M., Depeche Mode, The Cure, INXS).
As the genre developed in the ‘80s and into the ‘90s, it became harder to distinguish “alternative” rock from “mainstream.” Originally, though, the idea was that alternative rock was built on punk and new wave and the kinds of off-kilter songs beloved by college radio stations. Nonetheless, you’ll still see a fair share of major hits on this list as some of the acts embraced by the alternative crowd would find mainstream success even in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Note: dates indicate when the song was first released or charted. Asterisks (*) indicate that the song was an album cut and the date is therefore the date of the album’s release. Two asterisks (**) indicate the song hit #1 on the Billboard modern rock chart.
Check other lists based on charts, sales, and airplay here.
- 1/6/78: Kate Bush “Wuthering Heights”
- 2/18/78: Talking Heads “Psycho Killer”
- 4/7/78: The Police “Roxanne”
- 6/15/78: The Undertones “Teenage Kicks”
- 9/21/78: * Ramones “I Wanna Be Sedated”
- 9/23/78: The Buzzcocks “Ever Fallen in Love”
- 1/21/80: Split Enz “I Got You”
- 2/1/80: Blondie “Call Me”
- 2/9/80: The Vapors “Turning Japanese”
- 2/16/80: The Romantics “What I Like About You”
- 5/3/80: The English Beat “Mirror in the Bathroom”
- 5/31/80: Dead Kennedys “Holiday in Cambodia”
- 6/28/80: Joy Division “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
- 8/1/80: David Bowie “Ashes to Ashes”
- 8/8/80: Queen “Another One Bites the Dust”
- 8/13/80: Devo “Whip It”
- 9/19/80: The Police “Don’t Stand So Close to Me”
- 10/19/80: U2 “I Will Follow”
- 1/9/81: Blondie “Rapture”
- 2/2/81: Talking Heads “Once in a Lifetime”
- 6/6/81: Men at Work “Who Can It Be Now?”
- 6/12/81: The Specials “Ghost Town”
- 6/20/81: Squeeze “Tempted”
- 6/27/81: Psychedelic Furs “Pretty in Pink”
- 7/8/81: R.E.M. “Radio Free Europe”
- 7/13/81: Duran Duran “Girls on Film”
- 7/17/81: Soft Cell “Tainted Love”
- 8/15/81: The Go-Go’s “Our Lips Are Sealed”
- 9/7/81: Depeche Mode “Just Can’t Get Enough”
- 9/13/81: J. Geils Band “Centerfold”
- 9/25/81: The Police “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”
- 10/10/81: Tom Tom Club “Genius of Love”
- 10/23/81: Men at Work “Down Under”
- 10/26/81: Queen & David Bowie “Under Pressure”
- 11/81: Black Flag “Rise Above”
- 11/27/81: The Human League “Don’t You Want Me?”
- 12/5/81: The Police “Spirits in the Material World”
- 12/12/81: Joan Jett & the Blackhearts “I Love Rock and Roll”
- 1/29/82: The Jam “A Town Called Malice”
- 3/27/82: A Flock of Seagulls “I Ran (So Far Away)”
- 4/17/82: The English Beat “Save It for Later”
- 5/4/82: Duran Duran “Hungry Like the Wolf”
- 5/31/82: The Clash “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”
- 6/11/82: The Clash “Rock the Casbah”
- 6/25/82: Dexy’s Midnight Runners “Come on Eileen”
- 7/17/82: Yazoo “Don’t Go”
- 7/31/82: Psychedelic Furs “Love My Way”
- 8/21/82: Joe Jackson “Steppin’ Out”
- 9/6/82: Culture Club “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?”
- 9/18/82: Yazoo “Situation”
- 9/20/82: Tears for Fears “Mad World”
- 9/25/82: Wall of Voodoo “Mexican Radio”
- 10/2/82: Pretenders “Back on the Chain Gang”
- 10/16/82: Romeo Void “Never Say Never”
- 11/6/82: Thomas Dolby “She Blinded Me with Science”
- 11/6/82: A Flock of Seagulls “Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)”
- 11/12/82: Madness “Our House”
- 11/27/82: Billy Idol “White Wedding”
- 1/14/84: Talk Talk “It’s My Life”
- 1/21/84: Eurythmics “Here Comes the Rain Again”
- 1/20/84: Echo & the Bunnymen “The Killing Moon”
- 1/27/84: Cyndi Lauper “Time After Time”
- 3/10/84: Icicle Works “Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream)”
- 3/12/84: Depeche Mode “People Are People”
- 4/16/84: Duran Duran “The Reflex”
- 5/14/84: Wham! “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”
- 7/21/84: Cyndi Lauper “She Bop”
- 7/24/84: George Michael “Careless Whisper”
- 8/20/84: The Smiths “How Soon Is Now?”
- 9/4/84: U2 “Pride (In the Name of Love)”
- 10/19/84: A-ha “Take on Me”
- 11/19/84: Tears for Fears “Shout”
- 12/1/84: Dead or Alive “You Spin Me Round Like a Record”
- 12/1/84: David Bowie & Tina Turner “Tonight”
- 12/3/84: Wham! “Last Christmas”
- 1/9/88: INXS “New Sensation”
- 2/20/88: Midnight Oil “Beds Are Burning”
- 3/5/88: The Church “Under the Milky Way”
- 4/6/88: Tracy Chapman “Fast Car”
- 5/28/88: Big Audio Dynamite “Just Play Music!” **
- 6/11/88: Robert Palmer “Simply Irresistible”
- 6/12/88: Crowded House “Better Be Home Soon”
- 6/25/88: INXS “Never Tear Us Apart”
- 7/9/88: Psychedelic Furs “All That Money Wants” **
- 7/18/88: Siouxsie & the Banshees “Peek-a-Boo” **
- 7/30/88: Tracy Chapman “Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution”
- 8/1/88: Mudhoney “Touch Me I’m Sick”
- 8/23/88: Jane’s Addiction “Jane Says”
- 9/10/88: Edie Brickell & New Bohemians “What I Am”
- 9/12/88: Michelle Shocked “Anchorage”
- 9/19/88: Erasure “A Little Respect”
- 9/24/88: Julian Cope “Charlotte Anne” **
- 9/26/88: U2 “Desire” **
- 9/88: Dinosaur Jr. “Freak Scene”
- 10/22/88: U2 “Angel of Harlem”
- 10/22/88: U2 with B.B. King “When Love Comes to Town”
- 12/24/88: Sonic Youth “Teenage Riot”
- 10/31/88: The La’s “There She Goes”
- 11/5/88: They Might Be Giants “Ana Ng”
- 11/12/88: R.E.M. “Orange Crush” **
- 12/3/88: R.E.M. “Stand” **
- 12/3/88: R.E.M. “Pop Song 89”
Related Dave’s Music Database Lists:
First posted 3/27/2025; last updated 4/5/2025.
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