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.
Also to note, I’m using the chart run from the AMR charts for this list as I feel that’s a better representation of how long these songs stuck around for back in the day as opposed to the ARIA charts. As such, many songs that refused to die on the latter charts will be appearing much lower on this list due to them going away much quicker on the former charts (particularly from late 1997 and early 1998.) The exception of course being from 1999 as David Kent ceased publication the final week of 1998 and has only reproduced top twenty charts from that point on, meaning I had to use ARIA charts for songs that charted in 1999. That said, I’ll bring up how long a song from 1998 charted on the AMR charts before it ceased publication as a bit of a fun fact even though I’ll be using its ARIA run to determine its placement on this list.
This was the song that saved Screaming jets second album, likely because it was more in line with jazz rock rather than their usual grunge sound from the rest of the album. Even so, this struggled to reach the upper echelons of our charts even though the album no longer had any issues with selling like hotcakes when this hit our airwaves.
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.
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
#14 for 1992
#31 for 1993
#18 for 1994
#19 for 1994
#11 for 1995
#34 for 1998
#32 for 1993
#12 for 1995
#19 for 1996
#17 for 1989
#17 for 1990
#18 for 1990
#30 for 1999
#22 for 2000
#13 for 1995
#20 for 1996
#20 for 1994
#14 for 1995
#19 for 1990
#12 for 1991
#21 for 1994
#35 for 1998
#31 for 1999
(4 weeks on AMR)
#32 for 1999
#15 for 1995
#33 for 1999
#15 for 1992
#33 for 1993
#27 for 1997
#21 for 1996
#28 for 1997
#36 for 1998
#13 for 1991
#16 for 1992
#22 for 1996
#29 for 1997
#22 for 1994
#23 for 1996
#34 for 1999
#20 for 1990
#14 for 1991
#23 for 1994
#16 for 1995
#35 for 1999
#15 for 1991
#30 for 1997
#16 for 1991
#36 for 1999
#17 for 1995
#18 for 1995
#17 for 1991
#37 for 1998
#37 for 1999
#21 for 1990
#19 for 1995
#38 for 1999
#20 for 1995
While it's true that "Stay" remains the song that everyone affiliates with Shakespear's sister to this day, it's worth noting that their debut single was also a decent success for them back in the day likely due to the star power that Siobhan Fahey had following her departure from Bananrama. As you can imagine, this was completely different from anything she has released with her former band hence its mixed reception upon its release.
#21 for 1995
Although this was a huge hit in NZ and only a sleeper hit here in Australia, it's worth pointing out that this second single from their album Permanent shade of blue was released much sooner here there it was over there which likely suggests that the RNB ballad would've likely fallen into obscurity over there were it not a radio hit over here.
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.
I wasn't expecting to feature so many sleeper hits from the EDM genre on this list, here we are with U.S.U.R.A's one and only hit which we Aussies curiously passed up back in the day as this only makes the cut due to its refusal to die on our charts. Admittedly the Italian house scene didn’t have as much love from us Aussies as the rest of the EDM scene did for whatever reason.
26 weeks
#39 for 1999
#19 for 1989
#22 for 1990
#22 for 1995
#24 for 1996
#23 for 1990
#18 for 1991
#19 for 1991
#24 for 1994
#23 for 1995
#38 for 1998
#40 for 1999
#31 for 1997
#39 for 1998
#40 for 1998
#41 for 1999
(10 weeks on AMR)
#32 for 1997
#42 for 1999
#43 for 1999
#24 for 2000
#24 for 1995
#20 for 1991
#24 for 1990
#25 for 1990
#33 for 1997
#25 for 1995
#25 for 1994
#26 for 1995
#26 for 1990
#34 for 1993
#35 for 1993
#27 for 1990
#41 for 1998
#17 for 1992
#28 for 2000
#18 for 1992
#25 for 1996
#34 for 1997
#26 for 1994
#44 for 1999
#35 for 1997
#45 for 1999
#28 for 1990
#46 for 1999
These guys are best known for their big hit in their native America "I believe," however five years later they scored a huge sleeper hit here in Australia with this gem making it one of the first hits going into the 00's here. I'm not sure why we gravitated towards this and not their big American hit given how they both sound similar to each other and have the same spiritual lyricism to boot.
#36 for 1997
This is another song that took a while to find success here in Australia back in the day given how it was the debut single from Joshua Kadison, although it did eventually crossover here when it became a surprise hit for the singer/songwriter in the UK of all places which eventually led to the success of his earlier entry on this list.
I'm a bit surprised that this was a sleeper hit here in Australia considering that it didn't even chart in NZ where this brand of new jack swing was more in vogue even during the late 90's, then again, this was from a British boy band and is a cover of a song from a decade prior that did quite well on Billboard and on the British charts but not in the southern hemisphere.
#37 for 1997
#29 for 1990
If this entry from R.E.M seems random to you, that's because this was the theme to the Andy Kauffman biopic Man on the moon which allowed it to become a sleeper hit here in Australia just as the decade was coming to an end. I guess this makes it the second song the band wrote for the comedic legend as well as their first hit given how "Man on the moon" failed to become a hit here back in the day.
Although these guys only had two mainstream hits here in Australia, this was a massive sleeper hit for the Smashing pumpkins here due to it being the lead single to their magnum opus Mellon collie and the infinite sadness given how we Aussies passed it up in favour of making the album an instant success here.
#38 for 1997
25 weeks
#42 for 1998
#27 for 1994
#27 for 1995
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