This is my biggest project yet! I've decided to rank all the biggest songs and albums to make it big here in Australia by how well they did on our charts from 1970 to 2009. The reason I'm not including the 2010's and beyond is because let's face it, I want this list to be a celebration of all the biggest and best songs to appeal to us Aussies and I feel that the vast majority of songs and albums that made it big after 2009 won't have the lasting cultural impact that even amid level hit from 1973 still has decades later. I'll be including stats from both the ARIA AND AMR charts meaning that all singles from mid-1988 onwards as well as albums that charted between mid-1988 and late 1998 will have two entries on this list to showcase how well they did on each chart (you'll know the difference when an entry has THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY rather than my commentary on it.) One final thing, this will be presented as a countdown, meaning that I'm breaking tradition by having each entry be more successful than the last as opposed to the opposite like every other list on this site.
#3300
Even though this was meant to be Janet's spiritual album, it was apparently a very difficult production due to a lot of personal drama she was going through at the time. It appears that it was worth persevering through those inner demons as she released what's often considered to be her finest work thanks to the direction the album takes, it's also one of her most successful largely thanks to the second single dominating the charts worldwide.
#3299
Although they would achieve massive success with their third album, it was the second album from Eskimo Joe that first brought them to the mainstream thanks to how popular the trio was on Triple J upon its initial release. They were another Australian act who I believe were done dirty by the act of digital piracy as I could've sworn they were much bigger with their singles then they ended up being.
#3298
This was the second album from British boy band Five, it was released fairly late the 90's and find most of its success in the early 00's thanks to their cover of a Queen classic. It helped the British lads come in second place for the boy band wars behind Backstreet boys in most parts of the world, heck they even had one more album after they ended that achieved sound success.
#3297
They managed to score a massive hit with their most recent album Ghost nation, so it only seems appropriate that these guys would release a greatest hits package to detail a new chapter in their discography given how it was also the start of a new decade in their career. Indeed, they would see success this decade as their next album Cut would spawn their biggest hit with "Holy grail."
#3296
This guy scored a massive success eight years prior with "Baby don't get hooked on me," it was by far one of the cheesiest songs of the 70's that seemed destined to trap him in the one hit wonder bin. He was able to escape from that bin with this track due to a performance that had Kenny Rogers on stage with him.
#3295
Shortly before she became one of the more popular female artists of the decade worldwide, Tina Charles began her career as one third of the British disco trio 5000 volts who scored a massive hit with this track about burning up for the love of their lives. Nowadays there's a more popular track with this title from Bruce Springsteen which has a very different premise to this track from the disco trio.
#3294
This was originally released in 1999 to deafening silence worldwide, I'm guessing because it has one of the most messed up videos of all time that was likely inspired by the cartoon series Angela Anaconda (anyone remember that show?) as well as it being little than Fatman Scoop shouting throughout the track. It was given a second chance towards the end of last year where it became a worldwide smash.
#3293
This was a rare hit from a Canadian band to be a hit in their homeland, I'm guessing this was due to the presence of Bryan Adams who provides backing vocals to this track. This was able to crossover to America and eventually Australia due to it sounding like something from Reckless, although this was the only notable success that Glass tiger managed to achieve outside of their homeland.
#3292
Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu originally began his career as a member of Yothu Yindi from the early 90's, meaning he found success with them all the way back then with their breakthrough album as a vocalist and a multi-instrumentalist on the album, making him one of the first aboriginal (or first nations if you prefer) to find success in the Australian music scene. Fast forward seventeen years and he finally scored a hit with his first solo album.
#3291
This was released initially to moderate success for Seal, I'm guessing fans were already on board with him moving on from EDM to RNB despite him naming this after himself just like his earlier album. It received a massive boost in popularity when the second single was played over the closing credits of the Batman forever film and thus became a massive worldwide success for him.
#3290
EDM might have been the genre of choice in Australia when it came to our singles chart, however it wasn't the case for the albums given how few EDM albums we've looked at so far on these lists of mine. One of the notable exceptions came from the Real McCoy who scored a massive hit with their album due to how many singles came from it, indeed they were the most successful EDM act of the decade until Aqua came along.
#3289
We have two entries from Chicago on this list, this one is their fifth self-titled album which was a bit of a comeback for the band given how their fourth entry was a complete dud for them here in Australia. They would struggle for success following this album but came back stronger than ever later in the decade.
#3288
It looked like the Cure would be stuck in the 80's as far as us Aussies were concerned, even their American breakthrough from 1989 wasn't enough to have us convinced that they had any place in our music scene now that the Countdown era was well and truly over. They won us over with this album likely due to it being a much brighter look at their catalogue as well as the success it had in America.
#3287
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3286
Following the success of their earlier entry on this list, it appears that Chicago decided to double down with their change in music direction as they released their eleventh album which was a huge success compared to many of their pre sellout entries from earlier in the decade.
#3285
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3284
This was the second greatest hits album that Kenny Rogers had success with in as many years in Australia and NZ, although this time it was the one he released in his native America so it makes sense why it would be a success in the southern hemisphere as it contained his first Billboard chart topper as a bonus track.
#3283
INXS were on a roll when they released this greatest hits package towards the end of the previous year, it had its success roll over to this year due to how inescapable the band still were during the mid 90's. Unfortunately, this would be the final bit of success they would achieve during Michael Hutchence's lifetime.
#3282
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3281
Given how he had won an academy award the previous year for his work on the Philadelphia soundtrack, this seemed as good as time as any for Bruce Springsteen to remind fans of his back catalogue with his greatest hits package which allowed the album to become a huge success for him.
#3280
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3279
We looked at the Jim Capaldi version of this Everly brothers track earlier on this list, now let's look at the version that is trying to copy which was originally released two years prior to deafening silence for the Scottish band Nazareth. I'm guessing this was given a second wind due to it becoming a surprise hit for them over on Billboard, either that or there was a competition to see which one of these songs were better.
#3278
Delerium was a Canadian EDM duo who scored massive international success with this track featuring the vocals of Sarah McLaughlin, Sarah herself was a popular Canadian artist who made adult contemporary ballads that helped her stand out in her native Canada. Neither artist saw any international success outside of this dance track, in fact this mainly became a success due to the multiple remixes that were floating around at the time it its release.
#3277
Here we have another contender for the best song of the 90's according to public opinion (no arguments here) although this has been mired in controversy as while the band did have permission to sample "The last time" from the Rolling stones, it was only for a small part of the track and not the basis of the melody which resulted in a lengthy lawsuit between them and the Rolling stones former management.
#3276
If you're wondering why there was a huge gap between this and "What a girl wants" (which we'll get to in a bit) that's because there was a song released between these two Billboard chart toppers called "I turn to you" which was a massive flop worldwide for the (then) Disney star. I'm guessing this was chosen as the fourth single from her debut album to showcase what a powerhouse of a vocalist she is.
#3275
This was one of the more popular disco tracks to emerge from this decade, it comes to us courtesy of this family group who obviously wanted to become the new Jackson 5 (or I guess Jackson nine in this case) with this upbeat song about shaking your groove thing. Unfortunately, this was their only hit even in their native America as other disco acts came in to replace them on the dance floors.
#3274
It looked like that Lenny Kravitz would be yesterday's news following the commercial failure of his fourth album Circus, indeed his fifth album titled 5 (clever name mate) looked set to fail until he scored a surprise hit with this radio juggernaut. This no doubt led to him covering the 70's classic "American woman" which he submitted for the Austin Power Spy who shagged me soundtrack.
#3273
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3272
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3271
Before Hannah Montanna, there was Lizzie McGuire which was a Disney show about a teenage girl dealing with her day-to-day struggles. It starred Hilary Duff in the title role who would go on to have a singing career once the movie premiered in theatres this year, this being the biggest hit in her career likely due to the success of the show and the film she starred in.
#3270
Flo Rida was on a roll when he released his second big hit of the year, although given that it had a guest verse from Timabaland, I'm sure it would've been a success even if he didn't have the biggest hit of the year with his entry from the start of this list. His fortunes would change for the worse when he released his third single with Will I am, although that's mainly because "In the ayer" was poorly received by the internet.
#3269
You may recognise this woman as one third of the popular German trio the Silver convention who were scoring massive worldwide success from around this time, although in Australia this was the biggest hit any of the members were able to achieve likely due to how she screams throughout the track. I'll be honest, I crack myself laughing whenever I find myself listening to this track due to how random her screeching is.
#3268
Although they already achieved a huge hit the previous year with their cover of Redbone's "Witch queen of New Orleans," the Chantoozies were still seen as little more than a group of models singing covers of older songs until they released this track which seemed to silence their critics by bringing them into the big leagues in the music scene. After all this was one of the biggest hits of the year and allowed their album to be a huge success.
#3267
Following the breakthrough success of Parallel lines in their native America, Blondie no longer had any issues with finding success worldwide with their subsequent follow ups including this album which managed to rebound on our charts here in Australia when they released their theme to the Richard Gere flick American gigolo at the start of the 80's, meaning this became a success twice down under.
#3266
Steely Dan is perhaps best known nowadays for their infamous Grammy upset at the 2000 awards ceremony, however back in the day they were a well-respected band who scored massive success in their native America throughout the 70's with their brand of adult contemporary and soft rock. This was their only massive success here in Australia which came right before they first called it quits.
#3265
This was the only notable success that these guys managed to achieve with one of their albums, although I did say when discussing their big hit that they were the victim of having each of their songs sounding similar to each other which is perhaps why they weren't as big as you would otherwise expect them to be. That said, they've remained in disco royalty since their initial breakthrough for a reason, those songs are catchy to this day.
#3264
It took five years for them to follow up American idiot, however Green day was able to retain some of their success as the decade was coming to an end with this entry proving that their fanbase hadn't abandoned them despite how long they had to wait for another album from them. It's lucky they didn't delay this album to the new decade considering how rock music became poison to the mainstream in the 2010's.
#3263
This was the unofficial soundtrack to Maximum overdrive, a film that's been described as beyond over the top even by the standard's of 80's horror flicks. Naturally the soundtrack is what people remember most about the film (well that and its premise thanks to the Simpsons satirising it a decade later) it even gave the band a hit single for them which is the first they had since the start of the decade.
#3262
This was the only notable success that Elvis Costello had in the music industry, mainly for its lead single which remains a staple on oldies stations despite a controversial lyric where he uses a racial slur at one point (the slur is edited out on the radio.) Elvis is best known for being a punk rocker even though this album is more in line with what would eventually become new wave.
#3261
I'm a bit surprised this wasn't an even bigger success for Barbra Streisand given how it contains her feminist duet with Donna Summer among the track listing, perhaps we Aussies were only interested in Donna's transition towards female empowerment throughout the 80's as Barbra's next album would see her working with the brothers Gibb with a heavy theme towards love.
#3260
As far as I can tell, this is the only version of this track that exists meaning that it was less popular on our digital charts as it was as a physical release despite being the perfect candidate for a song that would've done better on the former's format given how it was a rock track with an in-demand rapper.
#3259
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3258
It was a new decade and yet it appears that the EDM scene hadn't quite reached the end of its popularity in Australia as this trance single from Alice Deejay proved to be a massive success for them during the early months of the 00's. I'm guessing the reason why they didn't stick around for the rest of the decade was because they angered rock fans by titling their album who needs guitars anyway, that's a recipe for disaster.
#3257
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3256
This is another song that arrived a little late to the party here in Australia, I'm guessing because T-Pain wasn't a big deal here in Australia until this year where this and Flo Rida's track from the start of the list made him an overnight sensation despite both tracks having him without autotune. As for this song in particular, this was the lead single to Chris Brown's second album which also remains his most popular in his career.
#3255
It seems strange that this was the only genuine hit that MGMT managed to achieve here in Australia, mainly because I do remember hearing both "Time to pretend" and especially "Kids" a lot on the radio back in the day given how they were both used in commercials like this was. At least the album this came from was a massive success, and hey, they were well loved on Triple J as well.
#3254
It's hard to believe that these guys were considered to be rock dinosaurs when this became a hit for them, after all they had only been active in the music industry for fifteen years by this point. I'm guessing that's how the youth of the day referred to them when they scored a massive hit with this disco track, after all they hadn't had a hit in five years, and this was the perfect comeback for them.
#3253
This was the third single to be released from Taylor's second album, it's a song that took a while to take off here as her earlier entry was a bit of a sleeper hit down under, however once it did it encouraged us Aussies to check out her album which in turn helped it become a huge success as well. She would return later in the decade with a cover of a Barry White track that would become her biggest hit here.
#3252
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3251
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3250
This is the last hit that everyone involved with this track had here in Australia, although in their native America, R Kelly would have one more hit with "Same girl" with Usher later in the decade. I guess the controversial RNB singer was added to the track to help break up the monotony of this being the third collaboration between Ja Rule and Ashanti as it's yet another "thugs need love too" anthem the pair made.
#3249
So, this was the biggest hit that Gloria Estefan achieved in her career, scratch that it's just about the only hit she managed to achieve here as she didn't even find much success during her time with the Miami sound machine let alone her solo career. I think this was a hit due to it being the theme to the Sylvester Stallone flick the Specialist, even though it was originally a song by Vicki Sue Robinson of "To sir with love" fame.
#3248
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3247
Now I know I should think this cover is awful especially since I'm a huge fan of Fleetwood Mac, however anything that makes me think of the band and especially Stevie Nicks is a win in my book which means this cover is fine with me. It was a surprise hit for the Dixie chicks given how they were on the cusp of getting cancelled when it was released due to them dissing the (then) current president.
#3246
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3245
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3244
Even though the big hit from Welcome to my nightmare in Alice's native America was "Only women," this was the big hit he had here in Australia proving that we Aussies were more interested in him being a rebel for the youth of the day rather than him speaking on behalf of women around the world about domestic violence. That said, Alice's softer side would eventually lead to him having his biggest hit here.
#3243
This was the biggest hit of Peter Andre's career outside of Australia, surprisingly this wasn't among the bigger hits of the decade here despite it being the biggest hit over the decade over in NZ for reasons I couldn't seem to ascertain. The song features a guest verse from Bubbler Ranx which was a fairly uncommon troupe in the 90's, in fact this is arguably one of the songs to popularise it in the new millennium.
#3242
This was the lead single to Billie Piper's second and to date final album, it was a massive hit here in Australia given how she finally found success the previous year with the fourth single from her debut album. It remains the final hit in her career to date as she would abandon her singing career in favour of acting which led to her being cast as one of the more beloved characters in the Doctor who franchise.
#3241
This was the big breakthrough hit that David Essex had in his career, it's a bit of a far cry from all the other songs we've featured so far on this list given how this feels more in line with the glam rock scene of when it was released rather than the more pop friendly tracks from the second half of the decade. Interestingly enough, it remains his only hit in America despite how much bigger his later catalogue was over this.
#3240
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3239
Although "Breakaway" was the first song from Kelly Clarkson to showcase a more personal side of her, that was also the theme to the second Princess diaries flick which obviously didn't convince anyone that she was anything more than the winner of a reality series. Those preconceptions were shattered when she released the second single from the album of the same name which has become an anthem for breakups.
#3238
Enya had a surprisingly good decade as she managed to rack up three successful albums in the 90's, so much so that this greatest hits package she released became a massive success for her proving how popular she was in the new age genre. Unfortunately, the new age genre was beginning to lose its popularity as less people wanted to meditate to music from the likes of her and Enigma.
#3237
This was a success twice here in Australia, the first time was upon its initial release thanks to the hype these women had going into this album that their previous album had given them earlier in the decade. The second came when it rebounded several months after its initial release thanks to them appearing on the Slumdog millionaire soundtrack with an Oscar winning song that was included on the deluxe edition of this album.
#3236
You'd think that J-Lo would've had more success throughout the 00's with her albums given how inescapably popular she was with her singles, indeed her second album was only a success upon its initial release given how it's true popularity would come with the remix it received the following year thanks to two of those "remixes" (a term I use loosely in this case) being Billboard chart toppers for her.
#3235
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3234
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3233
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3232
Well at least David Bowie was able to achieve some degree of success here in Australia during the height of the Countdown era, although it may surprise you to learn that Bowie didn't achieve that much success here save for his Pin ups album from 1973 as well as his Let's dance album from a decade after that.
#3231
This is the closest to an album from Jay-z that will be appearing on this site, it was a live recording of both artists appearance on MTV where they would mash up their respective catalogues to create a concert that was well received on the program. As such, the album (really E.P if we're being honest) was a massive hit for them and likely continued the popularity of Linkin Park into the second half of the decade.
#3230
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3229
Although they had moderate success throughout the decade with their earlier albums, it was this album from the Hilltop hoods that finally made them a household name as well as finally putting Australian hip hop on the map as it allowed fellow rappers such as 360 and Illy to find success throughout the 2010's. The trio themselves would also find a ton of success with their subsequent material as a result of this album's success.
#3228
This was the lead single to P!nk's fourth album I'm not dead, an album that reassured her fans that she wasn't out of ideas and that she had new life in her music which seemed to be the case as she's still going strong even to this day (as of this writing.) Here she has a message to girls to not follow the trends of the moment and that it's a good thing if they consider themselves as outcasts.
#3227
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3226
This was originally released a decade prior to deafening silence for Arrow, a Caribbean singer who wanted to make it big in the English-speaking market but failed for whatever reason. It was given a remix which helped it climb the charts both here and, in the UK, although it was only a hit here due to it being perfect for our dance floors and even TV commercials which centre around red hot deals.
#3225
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3224
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3223
These guys were about a year off from experiencing the 90's and yet it appears they were already sick of the 80's, I guess the rest of the world was as well given how this managed to become a huge hit for them. Interestingly this was a Billboard chart topper for the English band despite this flopping in their native UK, perhaps it was due to the American flags that were waved so patriotically in the video.
#3222
Well, you don't make an album as successful as the Party album and instantly go away from the mainstream, so here's the lead single to the Vengaboy's second album which was a massive hit worldwide likely due to the video which has it presented as if they're in a German beer house. It would be their final hit here in Australia as the novelty of their music quickly grew stale down under.
#3221
I guess now that he was an established Hollywood star, Will Smith have little issues with finding an audience around the world with his pop friendly rap tracks. Here he samples a Sister Sledge track to score a hit with a song that remains iconic to this day in his discography due to how incessantly catchy it is as well as how much fun he's clearly having both on the song and in the music video.
#3220
Much like the rest of his album, this was initially a flop for Bobby Brown likely due to us Aussies not being interested in the drama he had with his former band New edition. His fortunes changed when he released his theme to Ghostbusters II which helped this upbeat track from his album become a surprise success as the 80's was coming to an end, this allowed the album to also be a success for him.
#3219
There was a bit of a stumble for David Bowie during the album cycle for Let's dance, that being "China girl" underperforming on our charts and thus being unable to appear on this list. Fortunately, he recovered with the third single (fourth if you count "Cat people" from the previous year) which helped him retain his popularity thanks to how catchy it is and how charismatic his performance is.
#3218
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3217
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3216
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3215
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3214
While this wasn't John's first hit single in Australia as he did find success in the late 70's with "I need a lover," it was his first hit internationally thanks to how anthemic this track is as well as heartland rock in general being more successful in the 80's than it was in the 70's. No doubt this led to Bruce Springsteen seeing massive success later in the decade with his magnum opus Born in the U.S.A and its singles.
#3213
It may surprise you to learn that the song this remixes "Valerie" wasn't a hit anywhere in the world back in the day (not even the popular remix five years after its initial release that you still hear on oldies stations) which means this was likely many people's introduction to that classic given how popular this version was for the Swedish DJ.
#3212
This was released as a song to cash in off of John Farnham's greatest hits trilogy that he released this year, although given how it has Human Nature on the track fresh off the success of their debut album, I feel there was little chance that this collaboration was going to fail upon its initial release here.
#3211
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3210
This was the first hit that Miley Cyrus had in her career, mainly because it was the first song she released as herself rather than her Disney alter ego Hannah Montanna in a way to distinguish herself for when she inevitably left the company in the new decade. It was originally released as a bonus track from her alter ego's second album, however it was a hit by it being the lead single to her first album as Miley.
#3209
I always thought that the lyrics to this classic were "play that f**king music," I guess it goes to show you show closely I'm paying attention to lyrics whenever I hear songs on the radio casually. Named after a box of cough drops, these guys score a massive hit with their autobiographical song about how they came to record music predominantly made by musicians of colour only to score massive success with the tale.
#3208
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3207
Well, I suppose that this song's popularity wasn't that surprising considering how Good Charlotte were able to make it big with their brand of emo earlier in the decade, although I never minded those guys unlike Simple plan who I've never liked even back in the day. In any case, we have this song from their first album which took a while to take off here but was a massive success once it did.
#3206
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#3205
Although their other big hit from this time left these guys as an international one hit wonder, they were able to score a second hit with this song due to the video being filmed while they were on their Australian tour. This no doubt led the song to be even bigger here than their earlier hit, although it did their albums no favours as it unfortunately crashed and burned here like it did everywhere else.
#3204
This was the other hit that Vicki Lawrence had here in Australia, again it was far more a success with us Aussies than it was with her fellow Americans, suggesting that it was a hit here due to a tour she had rather than her involvement with the Mary Tyler Moore show.
#3203
Although he saw massive success with Cold Chisel from earlier in the decade, there didn't seem to be any guarantee that Jimmy Barnes would find success on his own given how none of the songs from his debut album Bodyswerve became huge hits for him down under. Fortunately, this lead single from the reissue of that album was a huge success here likely due to the backing vocals from Kim Carnes of "Bette Davis eyes" fame.
#3202
This feels like a song from Janet's next album the Velvet rope, I'm guessing she released this as a single from her greatest hits album to test the waters to see if her audience would be interested in her going in this direction. It turns out that they were interested as this became one of her biggest hits worldwide, although it could be due to the music video which sees her dancing on several famous landmarks.
#3201
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
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