For the longest time, this was the best charting song in Australia given how it slowly but surely managed to win over every possible demographic in our music scene during its time in the spotlight. I guess it started off as a fan favourite from the alternative scene before getting massive appeal from the dance floors before finally finding its way into several commercials for more mainstream audiences.
Now here's a song that brings me great joy that the internet expects me to hate with every fibre of my being (see how I was initially hostile towards music I didn't like?) we have this debut single from the Spice girls which is so much joyous fun that I don't even care that the lyrics don't make much sense once you read into them.
While I am a massive fan of this iconic Australian duo, I have to admit that I kind of agree with the criticism that people have given this track over the years. It does feel like an Air supply track if that duo existed past the early 80's and believe me, I'm no fan of those guys. That said, it does remain their biggest hit in their career worldwide, so obviously this had massive appeal to millions around the world.
Well, they did score a massive hit earlier in the decade by adding hip hop verses to a Bee gees classic, so why not repeat the formula by replacing "Staying alive" with one of Rod Stewart's more upbeat tracks from the 70's? The results were equally successful for the band as this too was a massive hit for them throughout the world.
Calling this a cover of the Hot chocolate classic is stretching it as much like many songs which incorporated 70's nostalgia to score a hit this decade, this song only uses the chorus of the original to connect the verses together. I'm guessing this was a success due to the original being used in the Full Monty which in turn allowed it to rechart in the band's native UK, I guess we Aussies wanted a new spin on the classic instead.
This is often considered to be Toni Braxton's signature tune, mainly due to how long it lasted at number one on Billboard as it stayed there for an impressive eleven weeks back in the day. I personally prefer her other ballads over this as I find that she's over singing too much on this track, "Breathe again" is a much better example of her powerful vocals put to good use.
To think this was the only success En vogue had in Australia as a lead artist, thankfully they did have a massive hit earlier in the decade as the featured artist on Salt n Pepa's "Whatta man" because they would've been one hit wonders with this theme to the film Set it off otherwise. I guess they owe their success here to the hip hop trio and the Hollywood flick now that I think about it.
This was easily Janet Jackson's biggest hit in Australia largely due to her hopping on the new age bandwagon with her album the Velvet rope (sort of at least) resulting in her connecting with a wide range of audiences at the time of the album's release. It may surprise you to learn that this was a difficult process in making the album considering its themes of spirituality and self-empowerment.
This seems completely out of place compared to everything else on this list, after all pub rock was a massive success throughout the 70's and 80's but by the 90's it had fallen out of favour for whatever reason. I think the people who were most surprised by this being a success was the band itself who never particularly displayed any desire to have any mainstream appeal.
This may be the best-selling song of all time worldwide; however, I'm ranking these songs based on their chart runs rather than actual sales. With that out of the way, this touching tribute to the (then) recently deceased Diana Spencer proved to be the final hit single that Elton John managed to achieve in his career.
Even though Ace of base were still making music during this point of the decade, it appears this German trio decided they wanted to steal the crown from the Swedish quartet of fusing reggae with europop which resulted in this huge success for them. It took a little while for this to take off in Australia, however once it did it felt like it would never leave the airwaves.
Now that the world seemed to have been reunited with what it considered to be the in trends of the moment, we have one of many tracks that became a success in Australia this year that likely wouldn't have had it been released earlier in the decade. Indeed, this was a minor hit in NZ several months prior to it becoming a huge success here to give you an idea of how the times were changing.
The last time anyone had heard from Matthew Wilder was with his version of this track from thirteen years prior, now all the sudden he was a well-respected producer for the likes of P Diddy and No doubt which would explain the popularity of this cover from Danish group Unique II. I have to say that the woman singing on this track is a far better vocalist than Wilder, yes, his lyrics are poignant, but he always sounded weird to me.
Well, I think this is the first song to become a success where a pony is used as a metaphor for one's family jewels, no wonder this managed to be a huge worldwide success for Ginuwine as I'm sure older audiences were trying to figure out what he meant by riding his pony throughout the lyrics. Like most RNB tracks this decade, this had a slight delay with its release in Australia due to our slow acceptance of the genre.
When the Notorious B.I.G (or Biggie Smalls if you prefer) was tragically gunned down this year, Puff daddy (now known as P Diddy) released this track that was an obvious tribute to his fallen friend that tugged at the heartstrings of audiences worldwide. I would be more moved with this track if A: the Police sample wasn't so egregious and B: if Diddy were on the same level as his former friend in terms of rapping.
I bet you're wondering why the heck Warren G decided to collaborate with Adina Howard (who my American readers know for her hit single "Freak like me" on Billboard) for this hip hop remix of Tina Turner's signature track. Well, it turns out this was commissioned for the Jackie Chan flick Supercop which was enough of a success worldwide for this to be a huge hit despite it flopping in America for some reason. This also served as the lead single to Warren's second album.
It took a while for these guys to find an audience with their debut album Yourself or someone like you, however once they did, they managed to achieve one of the biggest albums of the decade with how much radio latched onto their songs. This was the only song from the album to have that airplay translate to sales here in Australia, although admittedly even in their native America they didn't sell any copies of their singles because they weren't released as singles there.
This is one of many songs to never be released as a single in America and thus, wasn't able to chart on Billboard back in the day. I'm guessing this was to promote the album Tragic kingdom which I feel was unnecessary as the song was a huge chart topper everywhere else in the world as well as the album itself still being one of the most successful of the decade. Admittedly the song is more sombre than everything else on the album.
This is another song that should be much higher on this list due to its sales alone but isn't because it was pulled from shelves to promote the album (or in this case soundtrack) it came from. I honestly think it was for the best as I doubt many people would've even checked out the Men in black soundtrack if this theme song from the film's star Will Smith were able to remain on shelves indefinitely.
One of the sillier films to be released this decade is Con air, so much so that the Razzies hilariously gave it a special award for worst reckless disregard for human life and public property, to give you an idea of how insane the action and plot get in the film. Another aspect they didn't like was the theme song, even though it was also nominated for an academy award for Trisha Yearwood despite it originally being a song from Leann rimes.
This is an interesting entry for Dutch singer Whigfield, namely because she achieved massive success earlier in the decade in the UK with songs such as "Saturday night" and yet this didn't even touch the UK charts despite it being a huge hit in Australia. I guess the Brits had moved on from her style of Europop and EDM in favour of other European artists who failed to find success here in Australia.
Well, this was certainly a song that stirred up drama back in the day due to its title, true the word bitch has been stigmatised over the years as a derogatory term for a woman who's perceived to be a horrible person, however over the years women have claimed the word as their own in order to destigmatise it. That's clearly what Meredith is going for on this track whilst sounding like she's the mother of Alanis Morissette, that's me dunking on her age as she was pushing forty when this came out.
Much like the rest of their catalogue that wasn't their two Billboard chart toppers, this second single from Savage Garden has production I would firmly describe as well, savage. The lyrical content is also poignant as it depicts the observations Darren Hayes has made over a young woman who seems to have shut herself off from the world for various reasons.
This was the debut single for a band who would go on to have massive respect in the indie crowd but not when they initially broke through, mainly because two of the three brothers hadn't gone through puberty yet and as such people felt they were a bunch of teenage girls singing about their love rather than teenage boys. It's a stupid criticism I know because either way, they were a family act who played their own instrument singing about their love for their significant other.
This was the other big hit that Az yet managed to achieve worldwide, although this time we have them covering a Chicago track with the blessing of the band's lead singer Peter Cetera as he shows up on here to rerecord his chorus from the original while the RNB group cover the verses. It was a huge hit for them, although it likely spelled the end of their career due to them relying on nostalgia baiting.
Following the failure of his previous project Milli vanilli, Frank Farian created a new group in the form of this Hispanic trio from the American east coast who thankfully did sing every note on their music which means there wasn't any backlash towards the group that I'm aware of. This was among the earlier hits to emerge from the Latin craze that took the world by storm during the last stretch of the decade.
Well so much for these guys being a one hit wonder with "Barbie girl," this proved to be an even bigger hit in most parts of the world due to it not being pulled from shelves in order to promote their album Aquarium. As for the content, we have Lene imagining herself as a love interest for Indiana Jones which I'm sure was a major part of the songs appeal.
Another hit single that Bryan Adams managed to achieve this decade that was the theme to a popular Hollywood film, this time we have his contributions to the Mirror has two faces which happens to be a duet with the film's director and star Barbra Streisand to boot. The success of this duet led to her collaborating with Celine Dion on "Tell him" that served as the lead singer to Celine's next album.
This is a song whose popularity came right the heck out of nowhere, I'm guessing because it was the first time many people heard of a song from a female perspective sung by a man. The novelty of this allowed the song to be a massive worldwide success for White town, although it also sadly had novelty written all over it as they failed to find any success with their other singles and faded into obscurity.
This song is slightly different from album to single given how the production is more pronounced on the single version, however that's about the only main difference which was regardless enough for this to be the boy bands biggest hit in most parts of the world. I'm glad the music community has since come around on boy bands from this decade as even if they had a specific target demographic, their music was still enjoyable in its own right.
I'm not sure why the album cycle for the Spice girls was delayed here in Australia, whatever the case the third single was able to be a massive success here likely due to it being one of their sweeter ballads despite the lyrics being more suggestive than you might otherwise think. It was a Christmas number one in the UK months prior to it being released here, and as such is widely regarded as a Christmas track.
Although "Who will save your soul" was the song that finally got Jewel some much needed attention after over a year living poverty (I'm not even exaggerating when I say that) it was this second single that brought her mainstream success here in Australia likely due to it being her least pretentious song from the album. Unlike the other tracks which are meant to be critiques of the world around her, here she's trying to get with someone who feels is her soulmate which I guess is cute.
Wow is this song so much more over hated than it has any right to be, granted the meaning of the lyrics is lost as Lene's delivery fails to highlight just how sarcastic these lyrics clearly are (this is a diss track towards Matel in case you didn't know) however it's just so much innocent fun for people to get mad at. It could've easily appeared much higher on this list were it not pulled from the shelves in order to promote the band's debut album.
Babyface never had that much success here in Australia even as a producer, so to see him score a massive success with this duet with Stevie Wonder was a bit of a surprise given how Stevie Wonder hasn't had a hit since 1985's "Part time lover." The collaboration helped his album become a moderate success here, although it unfortunately failed to make Babyface a household name in RNB down under.
You'd think that this Italian group would've had more success here in Australia considering they saw massive success in the UK with their songs from earlier in their discography. This decade has been filled with surprises given how they weren't the only acts to make it big in the UK with songs that flopped here in Australia only to find success here with songs that weren't that big in the UK.
This was the lead single to the girls second album Spiceworld, it was clearly meant to signify that the girls were bigger than ever complete with a video that in all honesty was better than anything found in their trainwreck of a film of the same name. Here they infused Latin influences onto the production in an attempt to appeal to the rising popularity of the Latin craze which no doubt added to the song's success.
This was the lead single to Silverchair's second album Freak show, admittedly this album is a bit more mature than their last mainly due to the boys being closer to adults during its production.
Well so much for these kids being one hit wonders, this was the second single from Middle of nowhere and it's commonly accepted to be the best song from the album as it's neither juvenile nor a slow ballad which is commonly agreed upon as two major flaws from the album. Even so the trio are still regarded as a one hit wonder with their early entry to this day by modern music fans.
This was supposed to come out the previous year for the Spice girls here in Australia like it did in NZ and throughout Europe, I don't know why it was delayed as it ended up being a huge success once it was released here but that's what happened back in the day. This is one of the more recognisable tracks from their catalogue, again likely due to how catchy it is and how it expands on their theme of friendship.
This was the third mega hit in a row that Hanson were able to score in several parts of the world, although it's worth pointing out that this ballad was their second biggest hit in their native America as "Where's the love" sadly didn't do as well over there as it did internationally. I feel this was the song which sparked the backlash against these kids as the other two songs are at least a ton of fun to listen to.
This was the other big hit that Diana King managed to achieve in her career that was tied to a Hollywood film, this time we have the theme to My best friend's wedding which is a film about how Julia Roberts has to fight over Cameron Diaz over a guy she's known since childhood and was hoping to be the man of her dreams (it's much better than I'm making it sound.) Of course, this was going to be a hit regardless due to it being a cover of a Dionne Warwick staple.
This was the only notable success from Quindon Tarver, a teenage RNB singer who score a huge hit here in Australia with his version of the Prince classic and nowhere else in the world. This came from the second volume of the soundtrack which was a huge hit here which would explain this cover's success.
This was released as a song to cash in off of John Farnham's greatest hits trilogy that he released this year, although given how it has Human Nature on the track fresh off the success of their debut album, I feel there was little chance that this collaboration was going to fail upon its initial release here.
This was the only notable success that Leonardo's bride was able to score here in Australia, heck it suffered a similar fate to what Merril Bainbridge went through earlier in the decade as this was originally released the previous year to deafening silence only for it to be given a second wind this year. Sadly, this didn't lead to the band having international success like Merril did around this time.
This was a huge surprise success for Shania Twain given how this failed even in her native Canada, I'm guessing we Aussies caught wind of by far one of the sexiest tracks in her catalogue and thus made it a huge success for her just as the rest of the world had given up in making her third album a commercial success. This no doubt led to her next album being a huge success here even before it received its pop treatment.
This was the only hit single that Blur were able to score in Australia, likely due to it quickly becoming a sporting anthem due to the "woo hoos" that Damon Albarn would shout throughout the track. Even though they lost against Oasis as the kings of Britpop, they won where it mattered which was with their critical acclaim with the Gallagher's were quickly losing this year with their third album.
One of the catchiest pop rock tracks to make it big in Australia, there was no way this wasn't going to be a success here even if the rest of the world unfairly ignored Smash mouth due to finding them too silly to listen to. It could also be due to this song never being released as a single over in America, which means much like many entries on these last few lists, it had to contend with charting well on their airplay charts.
They did manage to have one of the most successful EDM albums of the decade with their breakthrough earlier in the decade, so it makes sense that the German trio would try to replicate that success with this song which they made a valiant attempt with as it was a huge hit for them here in Australia. Unfortunately, their time in the spotlight was up as newer EDM groups took over the mainstream.
It seemed like these guys weren't destined to have a successful career in Australia given how they released two songs from their debut album before it dropped to deafening silence, their fortunes changed when this third single became a hit once the album dropped and allowed said album to become a massive success for them. Even though they never saw international success, Human nature was a contender for the boy band wars in Australia as they competed with Backstreet boys and Five for the title.
This was the second big hit to come from No Mercy this year, proving that Frank Farian had achieved his redemption arc following the disaster that was Milli Vanilli from earlier in the decade. The album these two big hits came from was a massive success here, which led audiences to wonder what was next for this trio. It turns out that their curiosity floundered when they released their next album.
This was the lead single to the boy's album of the same name, I'm sorry but I just always found it hilarious that the first hit singles these guys had in Australia was with a song proclaiming that they were back. Of course, as far as their core fanbase was concerned, this was appropriate and hey "Quit playing games with my heart" was a huge hit in their native America and throughout Europe for what it's worth.
This was the only hit that Biggie Smalls had here in Australia, at least his rival 2pac managed to score one hit here during his lifetime with "California love." Indeed, I question if this even is a Notorious B.I.G track as this feels like more of a posse cut due to how much time both Diddy and Ma$e get on the track, although I get the feeling this song was only a hit due to the Diana Ross sample.
Here we have another contender for the best song of the 90's according to public opinion (no arguments here) although this has been mired in controversy as while the band did have permission to sample "The last time" from the Rolling stones, it was only for a small part of the track and not the basis of the melody which resulted in a lengthy lawsuit between them and the Rolling stones former management.
While it's not exactly a cover of the Bob Marley classic, the fact that Warren G sampled the chorus of the original (more specifically the Eric Clapton version) does leave people to believe this is a cover when in fact it's like his earlier hit on this list where it's just nostalgia baiting to connect his rhymes together. It appears we Aussies became fed up with this trend of nostalgia baiting as there weren't many hits like this after this year.
This took a while for it to find success here in Australia, again because RNB wasn't that big here in Australia until the second half of the decade. This song was likely a success thanks to the angelic chorus from an RNB group known as Kut Klose, a group that I and many others feel deserves better than to play second fiddle to Keith Sweat given how much better their vocals are than his on here.
These guys claimed that they always wanted to be throwback artists and only went the teen pop direction in order to build their audience so that they could find success with the music they wanted to make. I guess this was the best proof people had for this claim as this feels like a throwback song rather than something to compete with the boy bands of the era, although it makes you wonder why they waited nine years to finally make that transition in their career.
A word of caution when going through the lyrics of this seemingly upbeat track from Third eye blind, this is a song about a crystal meth addiction and the band has made little to no effort to hide the serious subject matter of the song other than putting it in one of the catchiest pop rock tracks to come out of the decade. This left them a one hit wonder in Australia, although they saw massive success in their native America.
If you can believe it, this wasn't originally released as the theme to Romeo + Juliet and was instead released as the Swedish band's lead single to their third album from the previous year. Somehow Baz Lurhman got a hold of this track and included it in his film adaptation of the Shakespeare play where it became a massive worldwide success for them, probably because people thought it was a No doubt track.
This was the breakthrough single of Daft Punk, a French EDM duo who would go on to be one of the most influential EDM artists of the 21st century thanks in no small part to a huge hit they had in 2013 with "Get lucky." Sixteen years prior, they had a massive hit in Australia with this track which became as such due to EDM still being a massive success in the music scene here during the late 90's.
Apparently, this was the theme to the film Nothing to lose, a buddy comedy about Tim Roth and Martin Lawrence robbing a bank that Tim works at due to shenanigans happening at his workplace. Honestly this feels out of place on that soundtrack as the lyrics are clearly meant to be about a fallen friend of Coolio much like "One sweet day" was for Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey two years prior.
I guess Mariah's popularity was beginning to dwindle here in Australia given that she had come off not one but two of the biggest albums of the decade, even so she was able to score a massive hit with this lead single from Butterfly which is an album about emancipating oneself to fly away into who they want to be. Naturally this album has resonated with audiences since its initial release, especially those who feel like they're trapped by society's regime.
This was a triumphant return to the mainstream from the Brothers Gibb as it had been ten years since they last troubled the charts here with "You win again," although it's worth noting that they came back with the type of adult contemporary they were competing against in their prime two decades prior. This was their last hit single before the tragic death of Maurice in 2003.
We have another double entry on this list, this time it's from Tori Amos who managed to score a UK chart topper with both of these songs which allowed her to finally score a massive hit in Australia with both of these songs. Naturally both of these songs could've charted individually and likely would've still appeared on this list due to how popular they were for her.
This was the fourth single that Savage Garden released from their self-titled debut album, as such it was an instant success here thanks to the production once again living up to their namesake and being savage compared to everything else that was popular around the time of its release. They would release one more single from the album with "Universe" before going back to make their second album.
This was the only hit for British DJ Blue boy, an EDM track that was a shoe in to become a success in Australia due to EDM still being at the height of its popularity during the late 90's. There's not much I could find out about the person behind this track, apparently their birth name is Alexis Blackmore, and they identify as a man, apparently that can be a male name even though I always thought it was a female one.
This was originally a hit for Candi Station two decades prior where it remains a disco classic to this day. Rather than use the original for the party scene where the two leads meet in Baz Lurhman's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, he instead got unknown American singer Kym Mazelle to cover the original which allowed her to finally score a hit single after almost a decade of no success in the music industry.
This was the last hit that MJ had in his lifetime, it feels odd that it would come from a remix album given how historians will tell you that he only released one studio album this decade. His popularity in the new millennium was non-existent due to the media frenzy he experienced throughout the 90's, between his failed marriage with Lisa Marie Presley and his bizarre sleepover parties he had with young boys.
This was an interesting year for Whigfield as she was able to score a second hit here in Australia and nowhere else in the world, I'm guessing because the rest of the world had moved on from her brand of dance pop whilst we Aussies had only just discovered her despite her massive success she had in Europe earlier in the decade.
Given how their American counterpart Az Yet were able to achieve massive success here in Australia this year, it only makes sense that British RNB group Damage would also see success here proving that we Aussies were slowly but surely becoming more susceptible towards RNB music and indeed music of colour in general as the decade was coming to an end. It was their only hit here despite them having a string of hits in their native UK.
This was the theme to Whitney's third and final film the Preacher's wife, I think by this stage audiences had grown tired of her attempts to be a Hollywood star and only supported her films in the hopes that she would return to making music full time. It turns out that this was around the time that she was facing serious relationship problems with her husband Bobby Brown due to their presence in the tabloids.
This was originally released as a bonus track from Bruce Springsteen's greatest hits package from two years prior, most likely as a way to capitalise off the film of the same name from 1993. It was given a second chance when it was included in the Jerry Maguire soundtrack where it became a massive success due to it being the soundtrack to Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger's romance in the film.
This was bundled with Jewel's earlier entry on this list in America, presumably to allow these songs to break records on Billboard which seems to be the reason for why the Billboard charts panned out the way they did throughout the 90's. Here in Australia, this was given a separate release where it managed to become a hit in its own right proving that we Aussies would've made Jewel a household name if we knew about her two years prior.
This was the lead single to the Velvet rope, although I wouldn't blame you for thinking her earlier entry was considering how that completely overshadowed this cover of the Joni Mitchell classic. OK so it's not really a cover as Janet only samples the chorus to the original while she and Q tip have original verses, much like a bunch of other songs throughout the decade that managed to get big with this formula.
This was the final hit that Faith no more was able to achieve in Australia, admittedly this was almost a decade after their final hit in their native America which gives you an idea of how much more popular these guys were here than they were in their homeland. Their lack of success back home led to them calling it quits the following year much to the chagrin of their Australian fanbase.
This was the second hit that Silverchair achieved from their sophomore album this year, it was a moderate success for the band as it was a more mature version of their original sound from their debut album.
This was a huge hit for Amber who managed to crack the Billboard charts with this EDM track thanks to her strong vocals as well as the campy nature of this track which I'm sure has made it a queer anthem over the years. There was little doubt that this would be a hit here in Australia given how the decade has been filled with dance tracks such as this, and indeed she would have another hit later in the decade with "If you could read my mind" as part of a supergroup.
Well, this certainly took its sweet time in becoming a success here in Australia, Deborah Cox is a Canadian RNB singer who got her start with this ballad about how she's in disbelief that her partner could possibly love anyone but her. This proved to be a huge sleeper hit for her here months after it became one of the biggest hits of the year in NZ, likely due to how people could relate to the lyrics.
This was the lead single to Celine Dion's album Let's talk about love, I'm guessing it was chosen as such due to the resurgence in popularity that Barbra Streisand had this year following the success of her earlier entry on this list. Of course, this songs legacy has long since been overshadowed by the albums second single which also serves as the theme to the blockbuster film Titanic.
This was the lead single to Tina's third album In deep, an album that didn't exactly live up to the hype that her previous album set up but was nonetheless a huge success for her here in Australia. I personally would've gone with "Now I can dance" as the lead single as that was more fun and a better album opener than this track.
It had been a while since Dannii Minogue troubled the charts with her pop music, so it seems inevitable she would follow in the footsteps of her older sister and move towards indie music during the second half of the decade. She did just that with this track which ranks among her more popular songs in her catalogue, although like Kylie she would return to bubble-gum pop in the new millennium.
Given how she received critical acclaim for her role as the titular Evita (a rare feat for Madonna in Hollywood) it only makes sense that her showstopping rendition of the signature track from the original concept album would be a huge success for her this year. This was pushed back as the second single due to the film wanting to push her Oscar winning ballad "You must love me" as the lead single from the album.
This was yet another double release that became a hit in the late 90's in Australia, although at least there's nowhere in the world where either of these songs were released individually so it's not like we Aussies bundled them together because we wanted to or anything. I guess "Who do you think you are" is the lead single from this release given how it's a disco revival track whereas "Mama" is one of the more subdue tracks that often slips under their radar.
Faithless were a British trio who scored a massive hit this year with a song that was originally released two years prior, heck it took a year for this EDM track to find success in their native UK as it was a hit the previous year for them in their homeland. While it's road to success was admittedly a circuitous one, it was inevitable considering that EDM was still very much the in genre of choice in Australia.
This was the final hit that the Smashing pumpkins were able to score here in Australia, mainly because this was a Razzie nominated theme to what is considered to be one of the worst films of all time Batman and Robin. Obviously, the theme was nowhere near as bad as the film and that the Razzie's simply hated everything affiliated with it, however this did leave the band with a bad reputation in the music industry.
There was still no shortage of EDM making it big in Australia this year, here we have a big hit from Italian DJ Brainbug who made it big with this song that feels like another entry into the DDR soundtrack that seems to be made to cash in on all of these songs from Europe throughout the 90's.
Well, this was the song that led off the album cycle to the first U2 album that was poorly received by critics, I get that U2's schtick had become centred on irony throughout the 90's, but they perhaps took it a bit too far when they released an entire album based around the pop rock of the day.
The legends are true people, there was a Christmas rendition of the Macarena that was a huge success here in Australia during the Christmas season of 1996. No wonder the trend became kitsch once every version of the dance dropped off the charts worldwide.
The last time these guys had any success here in Australia was eight years prior with their debut album Southside, here they are this year with the lead single to their critically panned album White on blonde which nonetheless has its fans to this day from people who refuse to believe it's as bad as people say it is. I'm guessing something that contributed to this reputation was the Wu Tang remix it received the following year.
This was the only notable success for the Wallflowers likely due to it referencing the Disney princes Cinderella in the lyrics which was receiving a resurgence in popularity this decade due to the Disney renaissance pushing all of its older characters back into the spotlight. This led their album to being a moderate success before they forever faded into obscurity.
This was the third hit from Silverchair's sophomore album, this was more of an acoustic ballad which is perhaps why it wasn't as big despite it having a higher peak position here than their previous entry.
I wondered how this sex jam from Quad city DJs was able to become a hit here in Australia given how rarely this type of music crossed over here, then I remembered that these guys provided the theme to Space jam which likely encouraged us Aussies to get in with what was the fuss about this track. All I have to say about the lyrics is that they aren't referring to a choo choo train when talking about riding one.
So much for Metallica pissing off their fans for selling out, although I guess that's more an American issue as here in Australia they were as popular as ever given how their lead single to Reload was a hit for them.
This was the breakthrough single for the Bloodhound gang, one of those comedy bands whose sense of humour is what I can charitably describe as an acquired taste. If your sense of humour lines up with theirs, then you'll likely have a ton of fun with their music and if it doesn't, it'll probably annoy you to no end. Unfortunately, my sense of humour doesn't line up with theirs, so you can guess how I feel about them.
Although this was an E.P from Spiderbait, the success of its title track ensured that they were able to score a hit from their third album Ivy and the big apples this year. Like many of their songs, this is a rather short track which is perhaps why the band felt it necessary to bundle it in an E.P as they felt they needed to give audiences their money's worth when buying a single from them.
This was the second single to come from Offspring's more mature album Ixnay on the hombre, it follows the success of the lead single "All I want" which helped branch the band away from their loser personas from their previous album Smash. It appears we Aussies were more interested in their loser personas as when they returned to that image on their next album, it wound up being their most successful here.
This was a sleeper hit for 3T here in Australia, likely due to how popular the trio was in the UK as opposed to their native America as well as how RNB was still far from the most successful genre in our mainstream. This was their final hit as the novelty of them being the next entry in the Jackson dynasty had worn off after this.
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