While I can't say that I've ever particularly cared for this remix of the 1983 hip hop classic from Run DMC by Jason Nevins, I will admit that it does bring me joy that everywhere in the world outside of their native America hopped on board with this track and finally allowed the men who broke down barriers between rock and hip hop a decade prior with "Walk this way" finally became megastars.
This is one of quite a few double entries we'll be looking at on this list, although in this case both singles bundled together could easily be separated into two entries given how they both appeared to be as equally as popular as each other here in Australia. This is particularly curious as punk rock was never that big here, let alone from local artists and yet these guys broke down those barriers.
I feel that even though both of these tracks from Green day contributed to the band's success with their album Nimrod, it was "Time of your life" that boosted the albums sales, specifically when it was used in the series finale of Seinfeld which only caused further upset with their fanbase who already felt it was a sellout from the trio. In Australia, rather than simply rereleasing the (at this point) one year old track, it was bundled with "Redundant" as a two for one deal that proved to be a wise decision for the band.
This was a humungous hit for Boyzone, possible due to it being written by both Jim Steinman and Andrew Lloyd Webber meaning that this was the boys attempt at appealing to fans of rock operas which would explain why their last album was so successful in NZ as well as their native UK. They decided to end things on a high note which meant that they broke up shortly after this became their biggest hit.
This was the big hit off of Shania Twain's biggest album Come on over in Australia, admittedly this is mainly due to how long this ballad about Shania being there for the love of her life stuck around on our charts upon its initial release more than anything. I'm guessing this ballad was what encouraged her to release a pop version of her album.
This was a huge comeback success for the Offspring following the mediocre reception of their previous album, it appears fans wanted to hear these guys talk about how much of a loser they believed to be so much that it not only became one of the biggest hits of the decade down under but also topped the Triple J year end charts for 1998.
This was the only noticeable hit for the English duo Lighthouse family outside their homeland, likely due to it sounding like something Simply red would've released earlier in the decade and that band's popularity dwindling out by this point in time. Strangely this wasn't among the biggest hits of the year in their native UK despite it easily being one of the biggest hits of the year in Australia.
I feel this song winning the academy award for best original song was what sunk Titanic's reputation back in the day, admittedly it did nothing to prevent the film from becoming the highest grossing movie of the twentieth century as people flocked to theatres to watch the film, but it did start this annoying backlash towards it and Celine herself that I'm glad the internet has long since moved on from.
This was the only noticeable success from Jennifer Paige throughout the world, which I find to be a shame because this was such a breath of fresh air from all of the kiddie pop of the day that I'm sure that was the reason why it was so big for her. I'm guessing this made it big due to an endorsement from the Lilith Fair crowd given how popular music made by women was around this time.
I've always felt that the name the Goo goo dolls was a comical one, after all that sounds like a name that should be affiliated with all of the teen pop that was becoming big this year. Alas this band was instead somewhere between grunge and post grunge and managed to score their one and only hit outside their native America with this theme to the Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan flick City of angels.
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.
This was a huge success for All saints all around the world, so much so that it became one of the few non-American RNB ballads to become a huge success on Billboard later in the year albeit with a different music video there than the one used everywhere else in the world. I always felt these girls didn't reach their full artistic potential until their second album released in the new millennium.
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.
Another comeback to come in Cher's very rocky career, this time it comes with the introduction of autotune in the music industry as this becomes the first hit single anywhere in the world to incorporate the vocal effect which helped it stand out from its contemporaries back in the day. Nowadays this is known as the Cher effect, primarily by her haters who believe that she was never a good singer.
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.
Many consider this to be the sellout of the century as Steven Tyler and company, while known for their sentimental side, are best known for their often-aggressive rock and roll numbers. Here we have their theme to the Bruce Willis flick Armageddon which happens to star Steven's daughter Liv Tyler, thus explaining why they contributed to the films soundtrack to begin with.
This was the only song to ever be released under this pseudonym, I'm not even exaggerating here, the French trio Stardust only ever released this one song before going their separate ways onto other projects. As EDM was the genre of choice in Australia, this was of course a massive success here regardless of who was responsible for its existence.
This was the only noticeable success that this brother duo had in Australia, although for what it's worth they were more popular in NZ given how the kiwis loved their RNB ballads this decade. I'm guessing this was a huge success here due to the rise in popularity of the genre itself rather than us making an exception to these two former members of Jodeci.
Shania had already created massive buzz in Australia from her previous album with the surprise success of "If you're not in it for love," so it makes sense that the lead single to her next album Come on over would spawn a massive hit for her in the form of this ballad which can best be describes as the solo version of Sonny and Cher's "I got you babe." It looked like this would be the only hit single from the album, but that changed towards the end of the year.
It appears we Aussies had finally embraced RNB of all types into our mainstream as this track from the British girl group Honeyz wasn't even the most successful track of theirs in their native UK. I'm guessing we gravitated towards these guys following the demise of Eternal around this time, although we quickly discarded them once TLC rolled out their third album.
I love "Islands in the streams," it's one of the rare country ballads I can listen to countless times without growing tired of. That should give you an idea of how much I dislike this track given how it blatantly samples the original in order give Pras Michel a solo hit following the demise of the Fugees. This was also the theme to the film Bulworth, hence why Warren Beatty appears on the cover with the three artists on this song.
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.
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 was initially a flop in Australia, presumably because with rare exceptions, non-English tracks tend to be failures in our music scene. That changed however when this became bundled with "Cup of life" which was the theme to the FIFA world cup for this year which in turn put Ricky Martin on the map and set him up as the leader of the Latin craze that happened.
Stars on 54 were a supergroup comprised of Ultra Nate, Amber and Jocelyn Enriquez, only one of which managed to find success in Australia prior to this collaboration and yet it was a huge success here. I'm guessing it was due to it being attached to the film 54 which I haven't seen but I've heard isn't very good, that or it could also be due to it being a cover of a Gordon Lightfoot track.
We've seen plenty of success stories to emerge from Neighbours in the music industry over the years, however after Kylie Minogue and possibly Delta Goodrem, Natalie Imbruglia wins the award for having the most international success from the cast given how inescapable this ballad was over in America. She accomplished this by going the Alanis Morissette route on her album by channelling her inner angst for a wider audience.
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.
I'm sure we're all familiar with "The girl is mine" from MJ and Paul McCartney, so here's the female equivalent which sees 90's child stars Brandy and Monica fight over this guy they both believe to be hers respectively in a way many feel Paul and MJ should've done sixteen years prior. It proved to be a massive success for the both of them as well as both of their first Billboard chart toppers.
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.
It looked like that Bryan Adam's time in the spotlight had come to an end when he released his third album this decade, mainly because he really did take his sweet time in releasing new music this decade despite him easily being one of the biggest artists of the 90's. This managed to take off for him more due to the presence of Sporty Spice who was all of the news around this time due to the drama going on with her band the Spice girls.
Well, I guess the second round of the boy band wars officially begun this year given how these guys were able to compete with the Backstreet boys for the affection of the teenage girls of the late 90's. Here they incorporate hip hop elements to their sound as opposed to their American counterparts who settled with RNB elements, I guess this did create a contrast between the two discographies.
This was the second hit that Steps managed to achieve this year in Australia, given how inescapable their debut single was due to every primary school teacher enforcing the choreography of that video onto their pupils, the band had little issues with finding success with their album here. At least none of their other videos had bizarre choreography to shove down the kids throats during P.E.
This was a bit of a sleeper hit in the band's native UK, probably because the Brits already had too many teen pop groups and felt that Steps didn't bring much new to the table. If you want to know how this became so huge in Australia, well we have the video to thank as the strange dance moves from the group inspired P.E teachers back in the day to include it in their dance routines which made this a surprise hit here.
This was the third big hit in a row for Aqua in Australia, although in some parts of the world "My oh my" was the third single meaning that we were among the first to have this be a huge success for them. I guess if there was a reason to dislike this song, it would be that it began the trend of comparing sex to candy given how the lyrics are sexually driven if you're familiar with double entendres.
This was the only notable hit that American RNB group Allure managed to have throughout their career, although like many RNB songs this decade, it took a while for this to become a success in Australia due to us slowly warming up to the genre compared to the rest of the world. This is a cover of a Lisa Lisa and the Cult jam track from the 80's, although I think it's safe to say that this is the more memorable hit.
This was technically the first song that the Spice girls released following the departure of Ginger Spice earlier in the year, admittedly the plan was to always have this as the fourth and final single from Spiceworld, however I get the feeling this wouldn't have been as big as it was if it wasn't for the drama going down with the girls prior to its release.
This was the song that saved Ricky's earlier entry on this list from being a flop here in Australia, although I should point out that while the AMR charts considered these to be two separate entries, ARIA bundled them together presumably to save up space on their charts to allow for one more song to chart on their charts. As I said earlier, this was the official theme to the FIFA world cup hence its success.
This was incredibly hard to come up with commentary, mainly because it's hard for me to talk about this family group without coming off as snarky and mean given how much I don't like their music. I guess if I had to say something positive about them, it's that their music is ultimately harmless as though their Celtic influences are egregious in their music, it's not like it makes their songs unlistenable.
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.
Natalie was certainly on a roll this year as she was able to find massive success with the second single from her album Left of the middle, this has a much more abrasive tone to her earlier entry which was a sign that she was channelling her inner angst in a way that was very common from around this time. While she didn't have any more hit singles here, she did find success internationally with her subsequent albums.
This was the third and final hit to come from Backstreet boy's second album Backstreet's back, it's a ballad that showcases what the boys were about which was being a white equivalent of Boyz II men as many of their tracks throughout their career were indeed RNB ballads rather than the teen pop we've been affiliating them with. For some reason, this took its sweet time in becoming a hit in their native America.
Well, here's the debut single for one of my least favourite groups to find success this decade, I know the Corrs get flack for having Celtic influences in their music but at least it enhances their songs rather than it being a gimmick like it is on B*witched's music. Remove the Celtic sound and you're left with an ordinary teen pop group who were competing with the likes of the Spice girls and Cleopatra for success.
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 lead single to Madonna's most critically acclaimed album Ray of light, an album which was a return to her indie roots after experimenting with her sound many times throughout the last fifteen years of her career. This would lead the album to be nominated for album of the year at the Grammys, although it lost to Lauryn Hill's only album due to hip hop being at the height of its popularity.
Well, if you thought that Kool and the gang's only hit in Australia was their version of this ballad, wait until you get a hold of this version from Dutch RNB singer Pappa Bear who managed to outdo the funk band with his rendition of the track. This became a success here in Australia due to it being one of the biggest hits of the decade over in NZ, proving how fondly remembered the original version was.
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.
One of the more promising Australian acts of the decade was Bachelor girl, a duo who scored their first hit with a song about how falling in love with a boy was the same thing as being brutally murdered in different ways. OK so it's dead simple to make fun of this song, however few have (to my knowledge at least) due to how heartfelt the vocals are as well as this being a staple of the 90's sound.
This was the first big hit that Usher was able to achieve anywhere in the world, although apparently it was with a remix as this sat on shelves for a while even in his native America before it unexpectedly took off over there. As with most RNB ballads of the decade, this was heavily delayed here in Australia, however that didn't prevent it from being a massive success here as evidence by its placement on this list.
This was the first of two hit singles that this Danish duo managed to achieve worldwide, it's a song that fits into the teen pop demographic right down to the two performers being teenagers on the track. Naturally this was a huge hit throughout Europe as well as in the southern hemisphere given how kid friendly tracks such as this was all the rage as the decade was coming to an end.
Well, this is a song where the boys wanted to get in on the rock crowd as this samples Joan Jett's "I love rock and roll" in order to help it compete with all the rock leaning teen pop that was getting big this year. Evidently this was the fourth single from the album internationally as we Aussies had to wait for the third single "Got the feeling" to be released the following year.
I guess now that he was an established Hollywood star, Will Smith have little issues with finding an audience around the world with his pop friendly rap tracks. Here he samples a Sister Sledge track to score a hit with a song that remains iconic to this day in his discography due to how incessantly catchy it is as well as how much fun he's clearly having both on the song and in the music video.
There seemed to be two lanes this year with popular music, the kiddie pop which dominated the first half of this list and the alternative scene which will dominate the second half of this list. Marcy Playground managed to appeal to those in the middle ground as this became a huge success for them in the alternative scene and also while charting along the likes of the Spice girls and Backstreet boys.
My UK readers will likely recognise this track as credited to Puretone, I'm not sure why this song was rebranded as such, but it ended up working out as this became a huge success for Josh Abrahams and vocalist Amiel Daemon. Amiel is perhaps best known for her hit single "Love song" from 2003, a hit she scored a year after this became a hit for her and Josh throughout Europe.
If you can believe it, this wasn't initially created for the Chef aid episode of South Park and was instead a DJ battle between Mouse T and Hot n Juicy that became a huge success throughout Europe before Trey Parker and Matt Stone discovered the track and included it in the episode. I'm guessing this songs success was what inspired the duo to release the Chef Aid soundtrack which became a huge success for them.
Here we have the title track from Madonna's magnum opus Ray of light, an album that sees her returning to her indie roots by having stripped back production after over a decade of releasing albums with bombast and glossy production. Here we have proof that a song can be as catchy as hell with minimal production, in fact I and many others would've had this be the lead single rather than her earlier entry.
P.M Dawn were all set to be one hit wonders in Australia given how none of their other tracks managed to crossover down under, however they were able to score a second hit seven years after "Set adrift on memory bliss" became a huge hit for them thanks to Prince Be from the duo crediting his solo hit to the project. As you can tell from the title, this is a song about how things are only getting better for him.
You'd be forgiven into thinking this was a late 90's cover of the Carl Douglas classic from 1974, heck Carl himself is back to rerecord the chorus of that track for the British hip hop group Bus stop. Alas the chorus is just here to connect their verses which technically makes this an original track that simply relies of nostalgia baiting its audience to make it a success.
We have one final double entry on this list, this time it's the third and fourth single from All Saints which were bundled together as they were both covers of popular tracks from yesteryear. I guess "Lady marmalade" fits in with the rising trend of vaudeville tracks becoming hits around this time, however their take on "Under the bridge" sparked outrage from Red hot chili peppers fans for ruining the original for them.
I'm not even sure what to make of this track, I guess it's cool that the video heavily promotes queer culture even if it stereotypes the LGBT community as sexually driven who will do it whenever wherever. It was a massive success for Wayne G and helped him become an in-demand producer over the years.
This was the only hit that German DJ Da Hool managed to score in his career, again we have an EDM song making it big in Australia which is nothing new at this point of the 90's. One thing I can say about this song is that according to ARIA it wasn't a hit at all, meaning that this song's appearance is based on how well it did on the AMR charts (which is how I base these rankings on this site.)
Following the success of No doubt and their album Tragic kingdom, it appears that the ska punk scene had little issues with finding success here in Australia which leads us to this breakthrough hit from the Mighty mighty Bosstones. This is one of those songs that was featured in just about everything you can think of back in the day, as such it's become more of a meme nowadays than a genuine hit single for the band.
Well at least there's one version of this track from the Beastie boys that made it big in Australia, unfortunately it comes to us from a German group who seemed to have missed the point of the original. Then again, a lot of people didn't realise that the original was being ironic towards frat culture as you often find it in soundtracks to frat movies, and the American trio have long since distanced themselves from it.
This was the second single to come from the Spice girls second album/soundtrack to their critically panned film Spiceworld, it's one of their rare ballads which obviously didn't win filmgoers over as it was nominated for a Razzie for worst original song this year (although so was Aerosmith's earlier entry so take that with a grain of salt.) Even with the backlash the girls were receiving, there was no signs of them slowing down this year.
This is my personal favourite track from the Spice girls, mainly because of how happy they are on here as well as them promoting a positive message about not getting too worked up over stuff that ultimately doesn't matter in the long run. Despite this being a huge success for them, tensions from the girls grew to the point where Ginger Spice could no longer handle the pressure and as such called it quits from the group.
While it wasn't the lead single to her indie album Impossible princess (that would be "Some kind of bliss") this was the big hit from the album which no doubt led to it being a huge success here. Despite winning over the alternative scene with this album, Kylie felt like she needed to return to form which resulted in her doing just that with her next album Light years.
Normally when a NZ artist crossed over to Australian from their homeland, it's with one of their albums as we Aussies tend to favour their broader work over the hit single which made them big in their homeland. This wasn't the case for Bic Runga who scored her only hit over here with this breakthrough hit she had in her homeland which didn't translate to the album being a huge success here.
Well, this was a bit of a surprise, the last time Kate Ceberano was heard from in the music scene was during her time as Mary Magdalene in the 1992 Australia revival show for Jesus Christ superstar. Fast forward six years and she's scoring a huge hit with this track likely due to how catchy the melody is as well as the sound in general being in vogue with the more mature artists from around this time.
This wasn't intended to be an LGBT anthem as it was simply another dance track that George Michael released this decade; however, it became one when it was revealed that he was gay against his will as the British tabloids discovered him at a gay bar around this time and outed him as a result. At least he was able to embrace who he truly was after the fact as otherwise that would've been a traumatic experience for him.
It looks like Des'ree was able to escape the one hit wonder bin in most parts of the world with this track, although I get the feeling she wishes this wasn't a hit for her given how it's often considered to be one of the worst written songs of all time. I feel she gives a compelling enough performance to overlook these ridiculous lyrics, although I've never been one for judging a song based on its lyrical content.
Well, I can certainly see where P Diddy earned his reputation of being a derivative producer when many of his own songs have him using such obvious samples, although he did do a great job for his clientele in the east coast hip hop wars such as Biggie Smalls and Ma$e. Here he samples the Led zeppelin classic "Kashmir" and even has the blessing of Jimmy page as he provides new vocals to go with this theme to the Godzilla remake.
Next were one of the more popular RNB groups of the 90's, even so I don't think they were expecting to score a hit in Australia with their Billboard chart topper due to how RNB had only recently become more popular here over the last few years. Indeed, the note for note cover that Blue made a few years later would be a bigger hit down under, although at least the original was a success this year.
This was originally the debut single for the Backstreet boys released three years prior, due to the success of their second album, their first album was given a second chance this year where it became a modest success for the boys. All of this led to them winning the boy band wars by their third album the following year.
One of the better animated films of the decade was the Prince of Egypt, it's an adaptation of the story of Moses from the bible which tells the story in a way that makes both Moses and Ramases sympathetic to the audience which made it become a critical and commercial success upon its initial release. The theme song came from two of the biggest divas of the decade which ended up winning an academy award for the film.
This was the second volume of the Unforgiven trilogy that Metallica released, as I said this was the biggest hit of the trilogy likely due to it being more pop friendly than the first entry from seven years prior.
We looked at the song this track remixes on my 1985 list, so now let's look at my and many others introduction to that classic which became a hit in the late 90's from this British dance group Dario g. Here the group takes the chanting from the original track and pairs it with production that makes it feel like an exotic track from Africa rather than a sombre ballad from a new wave band.
If you need proof that Aqua were indeed a real band who just happened to appeal to the youth of the day better than their peers, allow me to present to you the fourth song from their debut album which was so mature and unlike the rest of the album it came from that it was chosen as the theme song to Sliding doors starring Gwyneth Paltrow. The film has two stories that run parallel with each other based on whether or not she makes it onto a train, something that makes this ballad seem appropriate to soundtrack.
This was originally released as a B-side to "Where the streets have no name" all the way back in 1987, although it did receive a release here in Australia as a lead single back in 1989 likely to cash in off the success of Rattle and hum that it didn't end up accomplishing. It was given a second chance as a lead single this year when it was repackaged as a bonus track for their greatest hits album covering their 80's material.
This was a huge hit for Eternal months after it had already left the charts in NZ and their native UK, I guess we Aussies thought we were done with the trio from earlier in the decade but changed our minds when we realised how insanely catchy this track was from them. This is also the only hit single to have Bebe Winans on a track, I thought I'd bring that up since I've heard of him from different sources.
While they never had a hit single here in Australia, Grinspoon were able to make up for that by having a successful E.P chart with some of the more popular songs of the decade. I get the feeling that they were destined to have a ton of success with songs such as "Chemical heart" and "Hard act to follow" but didn't due to being victims of digital piracy throughout the 00's.
These guys had been active in the industry for exactly ten years when they finally had their commercial breakthrough this year, it's with a song you may recognise as the American theme to the TV drama House (it had a different theme depending on where in the world you're from.) I guess this was a success six years prior to the show premiering due to its music video which still haunts my nightmares to this day.
This was the highest charting song that Metallica had from their Reload album in Australia, it goes to show that as much as their fans hated this phase of their career, audiences clearly loved them due to how big they were.
I guess credit where it's due, this is a creative way to recontextualise the Jacksons song "Can you feel it" by having it be about a woman essentially decking someone for trying to steal her partner from her. It was a massive hit for the Dutch group mainly through nostalgia but also for audiences getting on board with the message of the track, although it was their only hit here in Australia.
You know that the Backstreet boys were the clear winners of the boy band wars when the young brother of one of its members was able to score a huge hit throughout Europe with his cover of an 80's classic. The sad thing is that the Jets original never charted here in Australia, meaning most of us Aussies likely don't realise this is even a cover to begin with. It's a shame because the original is a ton of fun.
There didn't seem to be any room for piano driven rock music in the late 90's, however Ben Folds Five proved otherwise as they managed to score a massive hit here in Australia with this track likely due to how well they were promoted on Triple J. This was their only hit here, although it remains one of the more popular tracks to come out of the second half of the decade from the rock scene.
This guys had been active in the industry for a decade before they finally made it big with their one and only hit this year, indeed this sounds like something that would've come out in the dying days of Countdown meaning this was a band who didn't evolve their sound when they first formed and got extremely lucky that there was already nostalgia for the synth pop of the 80's from around this time.
This was one of the more overplayed songs of the late 90's here in Australia, so of course it would be a massive success for Fastball given how it wasn't from a highly successful album of theirs. Evidently, they saw minor success in their native America after this breakthrough song, although they remain a one hit wonder here likely due to how incessantly catchy this is compared to their other songs.
This was the advanced single for Smash mouth's second album Astro lounge, although I feel this was more a success due to it being a cover of a Four seasons track which apparently was a popular thing to do around this time. This was the last song they released before they appeared on the Galaxy quest soundtrack with a song that has forever solidified them as a meme.
Alanis's second international album wasn't as well received as Jagged little pill, likely because it didn't have the same level of raw emotion as that juggernaut that still connects with audiences to this day. That said it was still a massive success and even has its fans nowadays, although this lead single was the only notable success to come from the album aside from its sales.
We have another song that's had its credibility taken away from it thanks to all of the terrible media it's been used in over the years, this time it's the only international hit that the Barenaked ladies were able to have outside of their native Canada. I read a joke somewhere suggesting they should've called this song seventeen weeks as it lasted one week on the Billboard charts, seventeen weeks being what a song needed to last at number one in order to break the record for the longest running chart topper at the time.
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