What is the highest-charting punk song of all time?
It’s a cliché because some clichés prove true: punk steadily became a symbol of the system it once rebelled against. In fact, even in the world of academia, it is used to explain how capitalism can effectively nullify and commercialise protest movements against it.
However, what is often not discussed is the inverse inference: can a movement really meddle with the system unless, to some extent, it becomes mainstream? Would we still be talking about punk as a profound rupture if it had remained just a few hundred kids in an inner-city pub?
That’s a mystery that the Sex Pistols ensured would remain hypothetical when they bounded onto the scene and changed music forever. They made the movement so hard to ignore that the mainstream had no option but to recognise them, and, indeed, reckon with them.
They were even discussed in parliament and threatened with a treason prosecution. This was in 1977, not 1877. While any sane mind might’ve thought popping Johnny Rotten in the gallows for singing a risky song was obviously mental, the heat was legitimate enough for their label, EMI, to drop them, fearing the wrath of boycotts and beyond.
Alas, all of this seemed to work in their favour, creating – to use the horrid parlance of our times – a ‘viral’ moment. Love it or loath it, ‘God Save the Queen’ could not be ignored. And while EMI might have feared that they might not be able to even place the single on shelves, the will of about one half of this scissored isle demanded that it was stocked immediately.
The punk song that rose to second on the charts
The song was snapped up in a flurry by those with a rebellious streak. It rose rapidly, causing uproar, but in a manner that feels strangely fateful, it only got to number two. Punk was pippped by polished commercialism even in the very moment that it was being coerced into the capitalist machine.
Amid the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, it was Rod Stewart’s ‘I Don’t Want to Talk About It’ that the nation chose to support – a song that, by rights, should’ve also been banned by the BBC for being in bad taste. That never happened, and it topped the charts.
Although punk might have become increasingly commercial ever since 1977, no other punk song would ever surpass ‘God Save the Queen’ in terms of chart position. It remains a perfect depiction of the movement itself. Within a year, the band would be no longer, and the spanner that changed the world would become just another cog.
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