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

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.

#30 for 1990

#21 for 1991

#22 for 1991

#19 for 1992

#31 for 1990

#32 for 1990

#26 for 1996

#39 for 1997

#47 for 1999

#40 for 1997

#28 for 1995

#27 for 1996

#33 for 1990

#28 for 1996

#29 for 1995

#29 for 1996

#41 for 1997

#20 for 1992

#28 for 1994

#21 for 1992

#36 for 1993

#34 for 1990

#23 for 1991

#35 for 1990

#22 for 1992

#36 for 1990

#30 for 1995

#42 for 1997

#30 for 1996

#31 for 1996

#43 for 1998

#48 for 1999

(10 weeks on AMR)

#24 for 1991

#29 for 1989

#37 for 1990

#38 for 1990

#25 for 1991

#26 for 1991

#32 for 1996

#43 for 1997

#23 for 1992

#39 for 1990

#29 for 1994

#31 for 1989

#40 for 1990

#41 for 1990

#30 for 1994

#31 for 1994

#31 for 1995

#24 for 1992

#37 for 1993

#33 for 1996

#25 for 1992

#27 for 1991

#28 for 1991

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.

#44 for 1997

#34 for 1996

#44 for 1998

This is another song that I'm surprised was merely a sleeper hit here in Australia given how I feel this would've been a perfect candidate for a song that dominated our charts despite only achieving sound success in Alisha's attic's native UK back in the day. They tried to replicate the success of this ballad for a few years before finally calling it quits in the early 00's.

#45 for 1998

#49 for 1999

It looks like the Divinyls were able to keep things together for one more album as this was the lead single for said album which came a good five years after their big international breakthrough form the start of the 90's, although it's worth noting this came out a full year prior to when the album was released which admittedly was fairly typical for the band throughout their career.

While it didn't quite make the cut for my 1995 list on this side of my site, it appears we Aussies were intrigued by this RNB cover of the Bee gees classic enough for it to be a sleeper hit down under back in the day. Naturally it did take a while for this to see the light of day here as opposed to in NZ where it was an instant success months before it was released here.

#32 for 1995

In case you're wondering who Stevie V is, he's the main member of this group with V being short for his surname Vincent. True to the name of the band, this track does seem like an adventure as it splices together different samples which made it a massive success in their native UK as well as a decent sleeper hit here in Australia thanks to it being released at the right time.

It's hard to say if this was always meant to be a single from Garbage's second album, however it was definitely pushed as one when it was chosen as the theme song to the Adam Sandler flick Big daddy. The success of the film (commercial that is, although I can see Sandler fans coming back to it from time to time) allowed it to float around for quite some time here in Australia, giving the band their first big hit down under.

It's hard to think that these ladies were in danger of being a one hit wonder with "Push it" given how long it took for them to release their more iconic work from their discography, what's even harder to think is that this new jack swing track is what got them out of said bin given how this was released before their iconic "Let's talk about sex" both here and in the UK.

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.

#45 for 1997

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.

Six years after scoring his big breakthrough with "Jump around" as the main member of House of pain, Everlast decided to embark on a solo career whose popularity began and ended with this ballad that still receives a ton of airplay to this day on stations. I'm actually surprised it wasn't more of a mainstream hit here in Australia like it was in his native America given how vividly I remember it from back then.

#46 for 1998

Given how much of a big hit this was for Emilia worldwide, it makes sense that we Aussies would check out what all the fuss was about by making this a sleeper hit for her months after its international success. It does feel out of left field with all the other entries on this list which explains why it didn't appeal to us Aussies that well.

24 weeks