10 Best Singles From The Golden Age Of Punk

The golden age of punk ran from 1976 to approximately 1978, with a handful of exceptions. 1976 was effectively year zero, the time when all of the heavyweights either formed a band or shifted their existing bands into the Sex Pistols' slipstream. There were a number of key influencers who'd been stirring things up, notably the likes of Dr Feelgood, The New York Dolls, The Stooges and The Velvet Underground, but the bands they influenced quickly found their own unique mojo.

The essence of a great single has never really changed: a great tune, a memorable chorus, a distinctive sound and the ability to instantly place you in the spot where you were when you first heard it, every time it comes on the radio. All of the entries on this list tick every one of those boxes and then some. There are enough classics to fill a top 100, but with the proviso of one entry per act, this is a pretty definitive rundown.

Given how many great acts didn't make the cut - Generation X, Television, Buzzcocks, Siouxsie, Sham 69, Wire and The Ruts to name just a handful - it is testament to how great punk was and how timeless the best of the music was. Here's the ten best singles - not necessarily the ten best bands!

The Jam's debut single was an action-packed explosion of raw energy that combined the best of all of their influences, particularly Dr Feelgood and The Who. Even the song's title was taken from an old Who song. What The Jam brought to that mix was their own unique sonic blast of punk-fuelled aggression.

Paul Weller's slashing guitar and feedback-laden lead break channelled vintage Townshend, but the ferocity of his vocal attack topped anything The Who's Roger Daltrey ever offered. The Jam had an astounding run of peerless hit singles, each as good as the last - what separates 'In The City' is the fact that it was the first time most of us had ever heard the band.

Whilst 'This Is The Modern World', the band's second album, was admittedly low on fire and brimstone, it was unlikely that anything could match the incendiary power of the debut album, also called 'In The City'. That debut album is one of the absolute punk essentials, and one of the few albums from the era that reproduced a band's live sound effectively on record.