I wanted to do a follow up to my OZ Media list by covering the thirteen years prior to when those charts were calculated, the problem of course is that no such alternate charts exist which combines the ARIA and AMR charts of 1988-1992 (as well as there being no alternate charts here prior to that since the Go-set charts ended in 1974.) As such, I've decided to rank the biggest hits of the 80's and early 90's based on how long they charted here back in the day, this means I'll be including several songs which were sleeper hits here during that time that failed to make my official lists due to charting mostly outside of the top twenty here back in the day. As usual, any commentary from returning entries on this list have been unaltered as I feel the change of their placements on this list compared to my earlier lists should speak volumes as to how their success played out here upon their initial releases.
This was the only hit that John Farnham had for almost ten years as his last hit was from 1973 and his next one wouldn't come until he joined the Little river band later in the decade. This is a cover of the Beatles classic, although aside from replacing the voices of Paul and John with his own, he admittedly doesn't add much to this track which is perhaps why it's been lost to the sands of time.
Even though this has remained a classic on oldies stations over the years, I can't help but feel this was only a success for the Travelin wilburys due to the recent passing of Roy Orbison given how this was released around the same time his own song had become a success from earlier on this list. This would be the last we Aussies would hear from the supergroup, although they did release a second album the following year.
Bryan Adams was on a roll this year when he released the fourth single from his comeback album Waking up the neighbours, this was after the failure of the third single "There will never be another tonight" which signalled that he wouldn't have much success from the singles due to how big the album would be. This song proved otherwise and even led to him scoring another hit on Billboard with "Do I have to say the words."
This was the big hit from I'm talking due to it being the lead single to their debut album, evidently the songs they released the previous year were from an E.P which is why none of them appear on their album they released this year. I think they were trying to win over an international audience as there's a remix of this track that was done by Stock Aiken and Waterman, this remix was a flop unfortunately.
This was the final hit single that Rod Stewart was able to achieve in Australia throughout the 80's, mainly because it was a chart topper for him in his native UK likely due to him experimenting with new wave with this track. Indeed, he wouldn't trouble the charts again until the early 90's where he returned to his adult contemporary sound that he scored massive success with throughout the 70's.
This is the rare track to not have Fred Schneider's vocals, normally songs with Katie on the lead has him singing backup vocals but here it's all Katie and Cyndi Wilson as they sing about "roaming" from one relationship to another which is what they accuse their partners of doing. It was a massive success for the band and no doubt made Katie an in-demand vocalist for the likes of Iggy Pop and R.E.M.
Well at least this song has far less baggage attached to it thank her earlier entry due to the music video not depicting anything contentious, although it might be due to how safely it was marketed that resulted in it not being as successful as "Physical" for Olivia Newton John anywhere in the world despite this also being a sex jam that remains a bop to listen to even to this day.
Even though their earlier entry on this list was indeed one of the biggest hits of the decade here in Australia, it appears that we Aussies could only extent our love for them for one album and this throwaway track which became a success just as the year was coming to an end. At least they were able to score a minor hit over in America before they forever faded into obscurity.
This will be the only appearance from the punk band the Damned on my site, it was mainly a hit here in Australia due to them being one of the last international artists to perform on Countdown where they admittedly gave a rather compelling performance of this cover of the 60's classic from Barry Ryan on the show. It was also a decent hit in their native UK, which is proof that punk rock was still a thing over there.
Shona Laing was a NZ songwriter who broke through in her homeland as a child start in 1973 with her hit single "1905" before fading into obscurity over there, however she eventually came back this year with this folk track thanks to it being one of the last songs to be performed on Countdown which allowed it to be a success here and, in her homeland, before she once again faded into obscurity.
If you're wondering where this track came from, it was the theme song to a film that starred Cyndi Lauper known as Vibes which was so poorly received that it's now long been lost to the sands of time. Indeed, this has gone down as one of Cyndi's worst songs (not just because of that strange title) as she likes to pretend that this doesn't exist, suggesting that she has bad memories of making the film in question.
Well Queen was one of the biggest bands in the world, so why not have a band named King try their hand at success? This was said band's one and only hit which was a massive hit in their native UK as well as it being a decent hit here in Australia likely due to the novelty of Freddie and company having competition in the realms of royalty in the music world. Sadly, this would be King's one and only hit as they called it quits the following year.
This is the final new entry on this list given how everything after this was pulled from shelves for whatever reason back in the day, here we have the lead single from the Eurhythmics’ album Savage which continues to be polarising to this day due to how out of place if feels from their discography. Also, the less said about Annie's image makeover she underwent on the album cycle the better.
14 Weeks
There haven't been that many Olympic themes to make it big over the years, in fact this is technically the biggest hit to spawn from the games as the only other big hits I can think of to be affiliated with the games are "Absolutely everybody" and "Moscow." Even then those songs weren't officially affiliated with the games and only were due to the Australian press. In any case, we have this duet between opera singers Jose Carreras and Sarah Brightman singing a song that translates to "friends for life."
This was the only hit that country star James Blundell managed to achieve in his career, even then this was largely due to the involvement of James Reyne who was still one of the hottest Australian singers around this time. Admittedly this allowed Blundell's third album to be a huge success following the success of this cover of the Dingoes track, however neither of them found any success after this.
Following the demise of his band, Stuart Goddard AKA Adam Ant launched his solo career which was off to a good start with this track about how he felt like he had been a goody two shoes up until this point in his career. Although this promised him massive success throughout the rest of the decade, it never came for him even in his native UK as he never had another hit after this.
While this song does rely on cheap nostalgia baiting with what it used as the melody, I will admit that Dimples D makes the sample work on this track given how she promoted this song with the parenthesis "A witch for love." This is an obvious reference to how cunning the genie often was in I dream of genie, and indeed the lyrics of this song indicate a cunning side of the female rapper that helped it retain its popularity once it exploded this year here in Australia and over in NZ.
This was the lead single MJ's masterpiece Thriller, I get why it was chosen as the lead single considering it was a collaboration with his then BFF Paul McCartney, however many will agree that any of the other songs on the album would've made for a better lead single and no doubt would've made it an instant success as opposed to it having to work its way to being the biggest album of all time.
This was the lead single to Kylie's third album which was the first in her catalogue that never saw a release in America due to the failure of her second album on Billboard. This is also one of the last hits that Stock Aiken and Waterman had before they broke apart from each other, although by this point, I think people had affiliated this sound strictly with Kylie due to how much she owns these tracks.
The legends are true, Mel Brooks did in fact have a hip hop hit back in the day with a song about the joys of being Adolf Hitler. Obviously, this song is meant to be satire as if there's a bigger hater of the third Reich than Mel Brooks then I've yet to come across that person, however it's a bit shocking to see this man in his forties score a hip hop hit in Australia with this theme song to his remake of the film of the same name.
In Australia, this was the second single from Abba's penultimate album Super trouper, I bring this up here because everywhere else it was the title track which was a massive UK chart topper for the Swedish foursome. This wasn't quite as huge here likely due to it not being among their more memorable tracks, however it was a hit proving that we Aussies still loved the band until the bitter end.
It seems odd that George Harrison would be the only member of the Beatles to record a tribute for John Lennon following his death from the previous year, although I guess both Paul and Ringo still had complicated feelings about him around this time given how they never made up with him during his lifetime following the bands demise. George would disappear from the music industry for a while before coming back in 1987.
Even though it remains one of her more iconic songs in her catalogue, "Wouldn't change a thing" was too much of a "fan single" to qualify for my site which isn't the case for the third single from her second album which stuck around for quite a bit going into the 90's. I should also mention the album cycle's strange fascination with putting her in a cowgirl getup as the album doesn't have a cowboy theme to it.
This was the theme to the Bond film of the same name; it remains the most successful Bond theme of all time due to it being the band's second Billboard chart topper as well as the only Bond theme to top the Billboard charts. It appears that this song had cursed everyone involved with the project as Roger Moore would step down as the titular character after this and Duran Duran would never again have a hit in Australia.
This was the final hit that Queen was able to score during Freddie Mercury's lifetime, I get the feeling this was only a success for them due to this being released at the end of the decade and fans wanting to give the band one final hit for them to close out the decade as a relevant band. Indeed, their last hit was from five years prior when their album the Works spawned two of their bigger hits for them.
This was the lead single from Cargo in America, as such it's the reason why it was the big hit in America as opposed to their earlier entry which was a massive flop for the band on Billboard. The success of the song here in Australia was inevitable as the band were still on top of the world as far as we Aussies were concerned this year, although aside from "Down under" recharting this year, it would be their final hit.
Well, he may have lost the magic he had with Bernie Taupin from earlier in his career (don't worry he'll get it back later in the decade) however that didn't mean that Elton John wasn't able to achieve success as indeed this was a huge hit for him worldwide as was the album it serves as the lead single to. He would go on to have many highs and lows throughout the 80's, making it a very unpredictable decade for him.
This was the second solo hit that Jason Donovan was able to achieve in his career, although his success in Australia was noticeably pitiful compared to how well he was doing in the UK due to how much the Brits were in love with his role in Neighbours. This is another song that's hard for me to talk about without being mean as it's gone down in infamy as one of the worst songs to come out of the 80's.
This has to be one of the most incessantly catchy songs to become a hit throughout the 80's, this is due to the charismatic performance of Limahl as well as the instrumentation that his band Kajagoogoo (man what a stupid band name) provided for him on this track. For whatever reason, this wasn't that big of a hit here in Australia which is why it appears much lower on this list than you would otherwise expect.
This is often forgotten about in Madonna's vast catalogue, mainly because it charted around the same time both of her movie themes were dominating our charts in addition to this being the fourth single to a very successful album which prevented it from becoming more of a success even without the competition. There are also two versions of this track as the album version is very different from the live version that serves as its official music video.
This was obviously meant to come out three years prior but was understandably delayed due to the tragic death of John Lennon shortly after it was recorded, it was a huge hit here in Australia due to his fans wanting to find out what he had in store for his album Milk and honey even if it's long since been forgotten in his catalogue due to the lack of legacy it and the album has had over the years.
It looked like we Aussies wouldn't be interested in the works of Fine young cannibals given how their first two singles underperformed on our charts (admittedly this was more due to how much competition they had at the time) however this third single from their debut album managed to become a hit for them here likely due to it being a cover of an Elvis Presley classic that connected well with us back in the day.
Following the commercial disappointment of "What do I have to do" (which sadly won't be appearing on this list) Kylie decided to have the fourth and final single from Rhythm of love have a guest rap verse that didn't appear on the album on the single which paid off as it was able to become a success for her here and in the UK. Said rap verse has largely been lost to the sands of time due to it not adding much to the track.
One of the funniest films to ever be released is Monty Python's the Life of Brian, a film that admittedly caused controversy back in the day due to it mocking Christianity which got it banned by many Christian groups in several countries (then ban has since been lifted.) The film ends with this novelty track that was so popular here in Australia that it became a genuine hit eleven years prior to doing so in the UK.
This was only barely a success here in Australia for INXS, I'm guessing because this felt different from what the band had released prior to this point which must have caught us Aussies off guard when it first came out. It's since become one of their signature tracks over the years as has all of the tracks from their album Kick, proving how timeless each of these songs have become compared to many of the entries on this list.
This is the last hit that Culture club were able to achieve in their initial run together, it was a more stripped back ballad from the band given how they were no longer the biggest name in music and thus decided to move away from the new wave sound that made them big initially. They would break up shortly after their fourth album was released due to it being a commercial disaster for them.
13 Weeks
Well, we have a second hit to come from the cartoon rabbit who felt the need to mashup a bunch of songs from yesteryear into a hit single, at least this was their final hit single here in Australia unlike in their native UK where they scored a third chart topper there with another one of these mashups.
This was the only song that the 12th man released in his catalogue, here he samples the Nine news cricket theme and recruits someone by the name of MCG Hammer (get it, Melbourne cricket ground Hammer?) to rap over the beat while he does his usual impersonations of cricket commentators throughout the track. It was a surprise hit for him and likely resulted in his comedy albums finding success throughout the 90's.
There were no signs of Kylie's popularity slowing down going into her second album, that is unless you're from America where it was such a failure that she wouldn't be able to release anything over there for over ten years due to being dropped from her American label. I guess the hits from her second album were more of the same from her first, hence why they got fed up with her when the rest of the world didn't.
Well, here's the other half of Duran Duran scoring their big hit this year with the song I mentioned earlier on this list, although it's worth noting that they didn't achieve the same level of success as the Power station did given they had replaced Simon with Robert Palmer on their songs. Still, this was a decently big hit for its time, although this was the last hit any of the members would have here.
This was the only other hit that Joan Jett managed to score in Australia, I'm guessing because it was a cover of the Tommy James classic of the same name which was also a huge hit here back in the late 60's. One thing interesting about this track is that Joan doesn't change the pronouns in the sex jam, leading to a long-standing rumour that this was her way of confessing she was in fact a lesbian.
This was a one-off project for INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence, I'm guessing he wanted to make a name for himself away from his band, so he released this in an attempt to do so following the failure of his solo single "Room for the memory" two years prior. It was a huge success for him both here and NZ, although he would dissolve the project and return to making music with INXS the following year.
Well, you know that Sesame Street was a phenomenon by this point in time when there's a popular hit single that remixed the theme song that the show uses to open up every episode. It became a huge worldwide success for the British EDM group likely due to the nostalgia people have for the show, although it hasn't received any love since its initial release this year.
So, I feel there was a bit of a minor controversy with this song, mainly because Baby animals had a song from around this time known as "One word" which had a similar chorus to this track (lyric wise that is as the two songs have different tempos.) Naturally this was the big hit as U2 were on top of the world by this stage, although Baby animals had the bigger album which I guess was their consolation from us.
While this isn't a Stock Aitken and Waterman track like all of Kylie's previous efforts, two out of the three men did produce this track, meaning that it was in the same ballpark as her earlier catalogue even if the trio were officially no more by this point in time. The song and album it came from has largely been forgotten over the years due to how much of a commercial failure said album was back in the day.
I haven't seen the Goonies (nor do I plan on doing so) so I have no idea how accurately this theme song reflects the film as it appears that fans feel it's a terrible theme due to how wacky Cyndi makes it out to be in the song and especially the video. It's one of two songs in her catalogue that she seems to have regretted making as it hardly ever appears on her greatest hits compilations despite its initial success.
12 Weeks
Well, we had "Beat it" from MJ the previous year, now let's look at the Weird al parody that put him on the map by ripping off that classic from the king of pop (which his permission of course.) This was a surprise chart topper for the comedian here in Australia, likely due to how instantly funny we felt this song was, although it was one of the weaker chart toppers here due to how quickly it fell on our charts.
This was the last hit that Wham had together before they officially went their separate ways so that George Michael could pursue a solo career and Andrew Ridgely could become a race car driver (no really, he gave up music for that.) Reportedly this was a song inspired by their Chinese tour which should give you an indication of how out of control their popularity was around this time.
9 Weeks
This was a protest song about ending the war in Croatia which had begun this year due to them wanting to be independent from Russia, they earned their independence in 1995 once the USSR disbanded later in the decade due to them being affiliated with the cold war which had ended this year. It was a bittersweet hit for Tomislav Ivčić as he would pass away two years later before the war had ended.
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