Hits of Australia and NZ: Hits of the 90's Australia III

I've decided to rank the songs of the 90's based on how long they charted here in Australia, this is to give an idea of which songs became a success despite being pulled from shelves and which ones persisted with no resistance from our music scene. I've also included a few new entries from post 1992 given how I covered the lower half of the charts from the pre-Oz music charts era already on this site and thus wanted to give these entries some representation on my site. I’ll also spare my return readers commentary for songs that appeared on my other Australian list for the 90’s on this site and only include commentary from entries that are either new to this list or marked their debut on my Oz music charts list or the 1980-1992 list.

#32 for 1997

#36 for 1998

#27 for 1999

#14 for 1992

#16 for 1995

#28 for 1999

#33 for 1997

#22 for 1996

#20 for 1989

#22 for 1990

#26 for 1993

#34 for 1997

#37 for 1998

#15 for 1994

#23 for 1990

#27 for 1993

#23 for 1996

#35 for 1997

#24 for 1996

#28 for 1993

#24 for 1990

#16 for 1994

#21 for 1989

#25 for 1990

#38 for 1998

#26 for 1990

#10 for 1991

#29 for 1993

#36 for 1997

#17 for 1994

#39 for 1998

#29 for 1999

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.

#11 for 1991

#37 for 1997

#38 for 1997

#18 for 1994

Well, I did mention this was a moderate success here in Australia when I mentioned it on the NZ side of my site, so here we are with the one and only hit that Skid row managed to achieve outside of their native America likely due to it being similar to what Bon Jovi or Def Leppard would release from around this time. I get the feeling these guys would've had more luck internationally had they broken through sooner.

I really wasn't expecting to feature a song from the Hunters and collectors on this site given how they were always more of an albums band when it came to their success here in Australia, however this song did allow their album Cut to become a massive success for them right when the purge of Australian music took place in 1993 due to how long it managed to stick around on our charts back in the day.

It's tough to say when post grunge took over from grunge music in the mainstream, one of the earliest examples of the former genre gaining traction here in Australia comes from this one and only hit that Belgian band K's choice had here. This definitely feels like it's a bit ahead of its time and easily would've been as big as some of Nickelback's hits throughout the 00's had it released later than it did.

Maybe dolls were similar to that of Baby animals (right down to the bizarre band names) in that they were a pop rock band that saw moderate success right before Australian bands had a hard time with finding success in the mainstream. Here they are with their only notable single that did fairly well despite failing to appear on the upper half of our charts during its chart run.

If you can believe it, this anti-drug track was actually the Verve's biggest hit in their native UK rather than their earlier entry on this list, heck it lasted quite some time here in Australia and even charted higher in NZ despite it falling off the charts rather quickly over there. Naturally its lack of success in the southern hemisphere was more due to high album sales rather than our disinterest in the track.

27 weeks

#17 for 1995

#30 for 1993

#19 for 1994

#30 for 1999

#22 for 2000

#20 for 1994

#40 for 1998

#31 for 1999

#32 for 1999

#27 for 1990

#12 for 1991

#31 for 1993

#21 for 1994

#22 for 1994

#33 for 1999

#15 for 1992

#25 for 1996

#16 for 1992

#32 for 1993

#39 for 1997

#13 for 1991

#26 for 1996

#27 for 1996

#40 for 1997

#17 for 1992

#23 for 1994

#34 for 1999

#33 for 1993

#14 for 1991

#18 for 1995

#25 for 1989

#28 for 1990

#35 for 1999

#28 for 1996

#36 for 1999

#19 for 1995

#18 for 1992

#20 for 1995

#41 for 1997

#34 for 1993

#42 for 1997

Well, this song's absence on this side of my site was certainly felt, wasn't it? Here we are with the second single from Jagged little pill which was somewhat sidelined here in Australia back in the day likely due to the album taking off when it reached the upper echelons of our charts. I guess it was also due to it being her big breakthrough in NZ given how it was her biggest hit over there.

This is a bit of a surprise to me, mainly because we have a Jamaican artist scoring a sleeper hit with a reggae track here in Australia and in the UK but not over in NZ for whatever reason. I'm not sure why the kiwis passed this up considering how they allowed Inner circle to be one of the biggest names of the decade over there, however they did despite the enjoyment we Aussies had for this track.

#29 for 1990

#37 for 1999

#35 for 1993

#38 for 1999

#21 for 1995

#43 for 1997

#15 for 1991

It's a bit staggering how this only barely failed to appear on both side of my site up until this point given how I can imagine this being one of the most inescapable songs of its time given how iconic that chorus remains to this day, admittedly it took a while for the world to gravitate towards these guys given how hip hop up until this point was either hardcore gangster rap or cartoonish pop rap.

#41 for 1998

#22 for 1995

#44 for 1997

We didn't see many songs of this ilk back in the day here in Australia, at least songs that saw any kind of success as we have two Australian DJ's collaborating with each other on what's known as a DJ battle where they bounce samples off each other to the pleasure of their audience in the EDM scene.

This was the other big hit that Korn had from their magnum opus Follow the leader, as I said earlier, it allowed the lead single from the album to rebound on our charts given how it was more of an immediate success here despite also failing to crack our top twenty. As it turns out, we have TRL to thank for why these guys were big, meaning they were somewhat of a predecessor to Limp bizkit in the nu metal scene in that regard.

It only seems fitting that this would be a sleeper hit here in Australia given how inescapable the Trisha Yearwood version was down under from way earlier on this list, this also managed to get Leann Rimes out of our one hit wonder bin that "Blue" threatened to trap her in to boot. In her native America, this was one of the biggest hits of the decade likely due to Billboard unofficially bundling this with Trisha's version.

Before there was Killing Heidi, we had the Superjesus as the Australian band with a kick ass female frontwoman in our alternative scene. This was their first big hit that they had which they released months prior to their debut album which was also a massive success for them, although Ella Hooper and company did unfortunately steal their thunder going into the new millennium.

26 weeks