Have you ever wondered what the Australian charts would look like if you were to combine the AMR charts with the ARIA charts? Between 1993 to 2007, a group of music historians did just that on their website known as Oz net music charts which sadly went defunct in 2008 due to ARIA completely taking over the music charts (although this was nine years after David Kent stopped releasing his charts publicly.) You can access the site through here to see what our music landscape would look like had ARIA not parted ways with David Kent throughout most of the 90's and 00's.
In honour of this site's achievements, I've decided to rank the biggest hits of this time period according to their charts (although I won't include songs from 2006 and 2007 as they would dominate the upper regions of this list and have also seen representation on my digital lists for the 00's.) As usual, I won't be making any new commentary here as there's nothing more, I can add to each of these entries I didn't cover when looking at them previously on this site. Also, this will differ from the site's official recap as A: they didn't update it after mid-2002 and B: it only covered songs popularity while they were in the top ten. Also starting with this list, I'm including songs that almost qualified for my main lists but didn't because they were pushed aside for all those "fan singles" that clogged up our charts during this time, I feel it's only fair to finally give these sleeper hits the attention they deserve on this site.
This was the only hit that Danish duo Junior senior was able to achieve here in Australia given how incessantly catchy the song remains to this day, indeed it was due to its catchiness that it found itself in just about every commercial you can think of which only lengthened its presence on our charts long after its initial release here.
Also, I need to talk about this even if it seems odd for me to do so, when going through the AMR charts of the 00's, this seemed to mirror the success that "Numb" by Linkin Park had, as such that song's placement on my official lists technically should've gone to this track even if I felt that David Kent mixed up these two songs when compiling his charts back in the day.
We have another sleeper hit for this list that I feel was as such due to it coming off as a guilty pleasure for us Aussies rather than out of genuine enjoyment for the song in question, although it appears the kiwis were more in love with this track unironically given its placement on that side of my site. With this entry, I've officially evened out Chingy's representation on both sides of my site.
This is the final new entry from the Divinyl's I'll be featuring on this site; it was the theme song to the theatrical release of Buffy the vampire slayer five years prior to when the TV series became a ratings juggernaut. It's actually bizarre that the show has eclipsed the film given how said film was a critical and commercial failure upon its initial release.
We finally have a second single from the Screaming jets to feature on this site, although this is a far cry from the grunge sound that "Better" resembles as this is more of a blues rock track for the band. It was a decent success upon its initial release, although the album it came from wouldn't be a success until the release of "Helping hand" which was released the year after this came out.
"Earth song" might've been the bigger hit that MJ had here in Australia, however his other song about the environment he released in the 90's also did decently well with us Aussies even if it took its sweet time in finding an audience with us as opposed to the rest of the world where it was an instant success for the king of pop.
Although this was originally intended to be the third single from Janet's album err.... Janet, it was also chosen as the theme song to her film Poetic justice which was panned by critics for her terrible acting. Despite that, the ballad received an Oscar nomination which explains why it was a Billboard chart topper for her, well that and audiences did appreciate the performance of her co-star Tupac Shakur.
This is another two for one deal as many people forget that RHCP's cover of the Ohio players classic was bundled with a song from Engelbert Humperdinck back in the day (side note, the fact that a song called "Lesbian seagull" is from one of the most chased crooners of the 60's boggles my mind.) This was of course taken from the theatrical film Beavis and Butthead released during the height of their popularity.
This is perhaps Jewel's most well-known song even though it was far from her biggest hit even on the Billboard charts, I'm guessing audiences passed this up back in the day in favour of her album to ensure said album didn't sit on shelves ignored for two years like her debut did. She would continue to find success going into the 00's, although nothing on the level she achieved with her debut.
Whereas the kiwis and Brits passed up this second single from Anastacia's debut album in favour of the album itself, it appears that we Aussies did have enough love for this track for it to be a sleeper hit even if we too made her album an instant success here due to her top entry on this list. It's interesting this is different from said single compared to "One day in your life" which is considered its unofficial sequel.
We're finally getting some representation from Michelle Branch on this side of my site as both entries she had on the NZ side of my site managed to be huge sleeper hits here in Australia for her back in the day. I'm genuinely shocked this wasn't a mainstream success here like it was in NZ and her native America given how perfectly it fitted in with the music landscape we Aussies cultivated at the time of its release.
Nelly was on such a roll around the turn of the millennium that he managed to score a major sleeper hit here in Australia with his posse group St lunatics much like how Eminem propelled the popularity of his posse D12. I guess in order to let people know this was his group, he was given a featured credit on the track which did wonders for him down under and virtually nowhere else in the world.
Here's the other big hit that Michelle Branch had here in Australia so soon after her first big hit, yeah it turns out that we Aussies were a bit iffy towards making her a household name even with the endorsement that Santana gave her with this collaboration back in the day. Again, I'm not sure why as Avril Lavigne and P!nk were able to find success around this time with little issue.
This feels more in line with Jewel's 90's material following the bizarre turn she made with "Intuition" from earlier on this list, although we Aussies were on board with her venture towards pop music at least with the album's singles as this too managed to linger around for quite some time on our charts due to strong radio play. Sadly, this would be the final hit she had anywhere in the world due to alienating her fanbase.
Well, I did mention this was a sleeper hit here in Australia, naturally it would make this list even though I'm still shocked that it didn't make my 2004 list proper on this side of my site. I guess we didn't have that much room for emo rock for it to compete with all the Australian idol contestants when it first came out otherwise it would've seen some level of mainstream success with us Aussies.
Yet another song I'm dumbstruck wasn't more of a mainstream success here in Australia given how vividly I remember this being flogged on our radio; I've avoided bringing up digital piracy with the new entries on this list as the fact they stuck around for quite some time suggests that they were victims of the format change here back in the day. Still, it's hard to come up with another explanation as to why they underperformed.
One more song to feature on this list that I vividly remember from back in the day, although considering this was the song that finally got Thirsty Merc's album off the ground here, I guess it makes sense it was only a sleeper hit given how we Aussies likely would've passed up this radio favourite in favour of making the album a huge success for the band.
Even though MJ wasn't anywhere near as popular here in Australia as he was internationally (throughout his entire career the more I think about it) that didn't prevent SWV from having a sleeper hit with this remix of their debut single thanks to the nostalgia we Aussies had for "Human nature" from his magnum opus Thriller. Sadly, this was the full extent of the trio's success with us Aussies.
While it didn't last very long in the upper echelons of our charts, this Billboard chart topper from 2Pac managed to stick around for quite some time for it to be a sleeper success with us Aussies. This sadly means that this was also the final hit the rapper had down under before his tragic passing, although at least this didn't rebound on our charts following the news of his tragic death.
Yet another song that I'm surprised wasn't an inescapable success here in Australia given how it's still a favourite with ad execs for their commercials to this day, indeed I'm dumbstruck how little success that Sheryl Crow had internationally outside of her debut album given how massive her sophomore album was in her native America. Even so, this was at least a decent success with us Aussies albeit as a sleeper hit.
The last time Underworld bothered the charts anywhere in the world was with their debut single "Underneath the radar," fast forward eight years and we have them finally escaping the one hit wonder bin with their theme song to the cult classic Trainspotting. This likely would've been more of a mainstream success here in Australia were it not for how popular the soundtrack was by the time it was released.
Yet another surprise I've made when going through the Australian charts of the 90's, I was five years old when this song came out and I can tell you this was overplayed to hell and back upon its release here. What's more curious is that the album it came from didn't even touch our charts until a year after its release, so you can't even say that this was the victim of strong album sales like most of the other entries on this list.
There weren't a lot of successful Australian shows geared towards children since the turn of the millennium, one of the lucky success stories was the Saddle club which ran from 2001-2009 which follows a group of country girls from down under and their adventures with their pet horses (look I didn't watch this back in the day, so I'm totally assuming this was what the show was about.) This was the theme song to the series which was a surprise sleeper success here likely due to the show’s popularity.
This is another entry that I'm surprised didn't spend too long in the upper echelons of our charts, although at least the popularity of this single allowed the album it came from to be a massive success here which is more than I can say for the previous entry on this list. That and the fact that its success in NZ is a better representation of its popularity here in Australia as far as airplay is concerned.
Much like Jet's new entry from earlier on this list, this is also a song I wasn't expecting to place on here given how it seemed to be allergic to the upper regions of our charts back in the day. Alas, this lead single to the breakthrough album of John Butler trio did appeal to our alternative scene back in the day, hence why it managed to stick around for quite some time on our charts.
This is the final new entry on this list (at least on this side of my site) it was the first hit that Pharrell had as a lead vocalist here in Australia given how he had already made his mark on the chorus to Snoop Dogg's "Beautiful" the year prior to when this came out. It's another song that was pushed aside here in Australia for all the reality show contestant’s Australian idol launched into our music industry.
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