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

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.

#53 for 1990

#44 for 1994

#54 for 1990

#43 for 1992

#58 for 1998

#62 for 1999

(12 weeks on AMR)

#48 for 1996

#45 for 1994

#63 for 1999

#49 for 1995

#64 for 1999

#54 for 2000

#44 for 1991

#44 for 1992

#55 for 1990

#46 for 1994

#50 for 1995

#49 for 1996

#54 for 1997

#55 for 1993

#47 for 1994

#50 for 1996

#56 for 1993

#48 for 1994

#45 for 1991

#49 for 1994

#51 for 1995

#59 for 1998

#52 for 1995

#60 for 1998

(12 weeks on AMR)

#61 for 1998

#46 for 1991

#50 for 1994

#56 for 1990

#65 for 1999

#52 for 1989

#57 for 1990

#53 for 1995

#66 for 1999

#58 for 2000

#67 for 1999

#62 for 1998

#54 for 1995

#51 for 1996

#52 for 1996

#58 for 1990

#45 for 1992

#46 for 1992

#51 for 1994

#47 for 1991

#63 for 1998

#55 for 1997

#57 for 1993

#58 for 1993

#68 for 1999

#48 for 1991

#59 for 1993

#52 for 1994

#56 for 1997

#69 for 1999

#53 for 1996

#60 for 1993

#49 for 1991

#70 for 1999

#50 for 1991

#64 for 1998

#53 for 1994

#57 for 1997

#71 for 1999

#65 for 1998

It looks like Lisa Stansfield managed to get herself out of the one hit wonder bin here in Australia with this gem, although once again, that's mainly due to this being a sleeper hit despite it being very similar to her biggest hit "All around the world." The next time her influence would be felt was when Joanne covered one of her tracks during her time with Bluezone years after this became a hit for Lisa.

#66 for 1998

(9 weeks on AMR)

We finally have a second single from the Screaming jets to feature on this site, although this is a far cry from the grunge sound that "Better" resembles as this is more of a blues rock track for the band. It was a decent success upon its initial release, although the album it came from wouldn't be a success until the release of "Helping hand" which was released the year after this came out.

I'm as surprised as you are that Def Leppard were able to still find success during the midpoint of the 90's, although this did come from their greatest hits package so it was likely a success more through nostalgia of their back catalogue which we Aussies largely ignored during their prime rather than us feeling this hair metal track was worthy of being a success among the likes of RHCP and Offspring.

It looks like Extreme were able to have a second hit here in Australia just like they did in NZ and their native America, although we Aussies were a bit more confused with this second single than the kiwis and their fellow Americans were given how it was more of a sleeper hit for the band here than it was in those two countries. I guess they're another example of a band breaking through too late to have more of an impact in the music scene.