Red Hot Chili Peppers Top 50

If my announcement that my next top 50 would be the Red Hot Chili Peppers is anything to go by, they're definitely a band that polarise opinion.  Some of you were really looking forward to this one, others poured scorn on them as a one song band or a bit of a joke.  Probably a hint of truth in both of those criticisms, but as I'm here doing this chart I obviously see it from a different angle.  Yes, the lyrics were quite often daft rhymes and in-jokes that most people wouldn't dare utter in public, but despite the socks, lightbulbs and flaming helmets etc. they have always made people move and have always been extremely good at the art of "the song", as many of the higher entries in my chart demonstrate.

I may have heard bits and pieces here and there but I first got into the Red Hot Chili Peppers when I saw a piece on Raw Power in 1992 promoting 'What Hits?', which showed clips from videos throughout their career so far.  I promptly bought said album (nestling in the chronological paper record of my early collection between 'Stigma' by EMF and 'Broken' by Nine Inch Nails) and took it from there.

Alongside listening to the songs, as a 14 year old I remember studying the sleeve and working out which member was which and who were those people who didn't look like Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante, Hillel Slovak, Chad Smith or Jack Irons?  Buying 'Blood Sugar Sex Magik' shortly after and trying to match the tattoos on the inner sleeve to the band members.  Buying the first four albums and discovering that, despite being in the original lineup, that Slovak and Irons weren't on the first album and first two albums respectively and that the mystery men were Jack Sherman and Cliff Martinez.  All the details that matter, all before Google was around to help me out.

Those first two albums, the first self-titled from 84 and 'Freaky Styley' from 85, were very patchy, hence their under-representation here.  'The Uplift Mofo Party Plan' was where the "proper" lineup came back together and where they hit their stride, but Hillel Slovak's tragic death interrupted that progress.  Enter Frusciante and Smith and the classic line-up was born.

Career highs of 'Mother's Milk' and 'Blood Sugar Sex Magik' followed and fame was assured, but the guitarist curse struck again as Frusciante departed from the limelight and after a few stops and starts Dave Navarro finally joined for the underrated 'One Hot Minute' album.  Some good songs were produced with Navarro but he never really fit in and it wasn't long before Frusciante was back and the band were reinvented.

Out went the brash funk-rock and bravado on the whole and in came a slightly introspective twist which reintroduced the band to the mainstream with a series of hit singles and the ever-bonkers videos that accompanied them.  I'm sure there were many that abandoned the band at this point, but just as many (if not more) would have joined the story and, like me years before, delved into the rich and variable back catalogue of an excellent band.

1. By the Way

2. Otherside

3. Higher Ground

4. Knock Me Down

5. My Friends

6. Under the Bridge

7. Give it Away

8. Jungle Man

9. Backwoods

10. Blood Sugar Sex Magik

11. I Could Have Lied

12. Breaking the Girl

13. Taste the Pain

14. Stone Cold Bush

15. Suck my Kiss

16. If You Have to Ask

17. Soul to Squeeze

18. Nobody Weird Like Me

19. Parallel Universe

20. Fight Like a Brave

21. Nevermind

22. Warped

23. Me and My Friends

24. Sir Psycho Sexy

25. The Righteous and the Wicked

26. Funky Monks

27. Apache Rose Peacock

28. My Lovely Man

29. Aeroplane

30. The Greeting Song

31. The Power of Equality

32. Can't Stop

33. Cabron

34. Coffee Shop

35. Naked in the Rain

36. Catholic School Girls Rule

37. Good Time Boys

38. Around the World

39. Californication

40. One Big Mob

41. Get Up and Jump

42. Subterranean Homesick Blues

43. Shallow Be Thy Game

44. Dani California

45. Johnny, Kick a Hole in the Sky

46. Organic Anti-Beat Box Band

47. Behind the Sun

48. Scar Tissue

49. Subway to Venus

50. No Chump Love Sucker

By Era

Red Hot Chili Peppers 1

Freaky Styley 3

The Uplift Mofo Party Plan 7

Mother's Milk 8

Blood Sugar Sex Magik 15

One Hot Minute 6

Californication 5

By the Way 3

Stadium Arcadium 1

I'm With You 0

Others 1