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

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.

#75 for 1991

#78 for 1993

#79 for 1993

#81 for 1990

#80 for 1997

#65 for 1992

#89 for 1999

#82 for 1990

#83 for 1998

#66 for 1992

#81 for 1996

#76 for 1991

#81 for 1997

#78 for 1995

#83 for 1990

I guess ATB was able to score a second hit in his career with this follow up to his earlier entry on this list, although I say that knowing full well that many struggle to differentiate this with "9PM" given how similar the two songs are to each other. I guess that explains why this was more of a sleeper hit here in Australia rather than a genuine mainstream success like that song was.

#77 for 1994

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.

#84 for 1990

#67 for 1992

#78 for 1994

#82 for 1996

#79 for 1994

#68 for 1992

#77 for 1991

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.

#78 for 1991

This was the only success that Company of strangers were able to achieve here in Australia, it's another case of an Australian band that I'm sure were destined for great things only to have that reality taken away from them due to our music scene pivoting away from Australian artists when they first broke through. This is strange due to having both James Reyne and Daryl Braithwaite on vocals.

#80 for 1993

Janet Jackson was on a roll here in Australia when she released this track from her Janet album, I say this because this came out a year after "Again" meaning that the album still had life in it even with us Aussies a year and a half after its initial release.

This will be the only appearance that Malcolm McLaren will be making on this side of my site, I'm guessing we Aussies finally gave into his quirky brand of music enough to make this a success even if its success here pales in comparison to what he achieved over in NZ. At least this was a hit here as opposed to the UK where it was a complete failure for him.

#69 for 1992

It's easy to forget that Human nature found more success with their albums back in the day rather than their singles given how they were a boy band, however that was the case as this advanced single from their second album was only a moderate success for them despite coming off the massive success of their debut from two years prior.

#83 for 1996

You know that South Park was a cultural phenomenon when a joke song from one of its episodes manages to be a massive worldwide hit, although it appears we Aussies mostly passed up on this track from Chef in favour of making the soundtrack a massive hit. Still, this does mean that Isaac Hayes was able to have a second hit almost three decades after his first from his "Shaft" days.

This is the last hit single that Elton John had here in Australia that had no external reason for being as such, I bring this up because he owes his future success to Disney (specifically the Lion king) and Diana Spencer (specifically her death) as opposed to this being a hit purely through his name recognition. It would've been a good note to end on given how bouncy and upbeat it is.

It's a bit of a shame that the Hoodoo gurus 1989 album Magnum cum louder bombed here in Australia, however they bounced back with their 1991 effort Kinky thanks to this being its lead single which restored the band's popularity after a turbulent release. True to its title, this is a nostalgia laden song that harkens back to the glory days of hippy culture from the late 60's.

17 weeks

#90 for 1999

#82 for 1997

#83 for 1997

#84 for 1998

#79 for 1995

#70 for 1992

#71 for 1992

#84 for 1997

#80 for 1995

#80 for 1994

#81 for 1995

#81 for 1993

#81 for 1994

#85 for 1990

#79 for 1991

#91 for 1999

#85 for 1997

#85 for 1998

#80 for 1991

#82 for 1994

#86 for 1997

#82 for 1995

#84 for 1996

#86 for 1990

#87 for 1990

#81 for 1991

#87 for 2000

#83 for 1994

#83 for 1995

#85 for 1996

#84 for 1994

#87 for 1997

#82 for 1991

#88 for 1990

#86 for 1998

#72 for 1992

#82 for 1993

#86 for 1996

#85 for 1994

#84 for 1995

#88 for 1997

#86 for 1994

#85 for 1995

#73 for 1992

#74 for 1992

#75 for 1992

#87 for 1998

#87 for 1994

#86 for 1995

I guess RHCP was able to score a hit from their divisive One hot minute here in Australia after all given how this lead single from the album did stick around for quite some time on our charts back in the day, indeed the album has since seen a reappraisal as it being merely different from the band's catalogue rather than being a complete disaster like it was seen as back in the day.

#88 for 1994

#87 for 1995

#87 for 1996

#88 for 1996

Well, this may come as insensitive to some, mainly because this song which you can consider a remix of "Smells like teen spirit" was released mere months after the tragic death of Kurt Cobain which likely explains its success here in Australia and Tinman's native UK back in the day. It wasn't a mainstream success here mind you likely due to how much in poor taste it was to release this when they did.

#89 for 1994

#83 for 1993

#90 for 1994

#76 for 1992

Although it came close to appearing on this list, "The big l" ultimately didn't stick around long enough to be considered a sleeper hit here in Australia as opposed to the fourth single from Roxette's third album Joyride which had the misfortune of peaking during the Christmas period of 1991 to appear on one of my lists proper up until this point. This was their penultimate hit they had here before they released "How do you do."

#77 for 1992

It looks like Rick Price was able to score one final hit in his career with the lead single to his long awaited second album in 1995, although our music scene was unnecessarily hostile towards local artists by the mid 90's, this didn't prevent Rick from making his mark with this ballad which no doubt would've been as big as his first two hits from earlier in the decade had it been released at that point in time.

We've had quite a lot of representation from George Michael on this site, time now to give some attention to his former partner in crime Andrew Ridley who scored a moderate success at the start of the 90's with this gem. Admittedly this was only a success due to the novelty of that other guy from Wham finding success on his own, however it's still enough proof to discredit the A.V club declaring his album as inessential.

16 weeks