The Alternative Number Ones: The Charlatans’ “Weirdo”

In The Alternative Number Ones, I'm reviewing every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs, starting with the moment that the chart launched in 1988. This column is a companion piece to The Number Ones, and it's for members only. Thank you to everyone who's helping to keep Stereogum afloat.

There was already a band called the Charlatans. There would have to be, right? Charlatan is about the most romantic synonym for liar that we have, and nobody was going to let that name sit on the table. The other Charlatans were good, too. They were a San Francisco band in the mid-'60s moment that garage rock turned psychedelic, and they had a fun look where they all dressed like riverboat gamblers. Their song "Codine" popped up on the Nuggets box set, and it's an absolute jam. Because of the San Francisco Charlatans, the '90s Charlatans will live forever in my head as "the Charlatans UK."

"The Charlatans UK" is one of those goofy-ass legal-compromise band names that always seem cheap and chintzy, like "the London Suede." But because I knew them as the Charlatans UK -- I might've even owned a T-shirt with the "UK" printed on it -- these Charlatans' Britishness has always been central to their identity, at least in my mind. These Charlatans managed to stay around for a very long time, bridging the gap between the Madchester moment and the Britpop era that followed.