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.
#600
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#599
This albums success may seem a bit confusing considering that Gary Moore's band Thin Lizzy never saw much success in Australia, however he did make a pretty rocking cover of "Friday on my mind" a few years prior which while not a mainstream success, did linger on the charts long enough to become a sleeper hit down under. Of course, this was the album which spawned his biggest hit as well as finally breaking him into the mainstream.
#598
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#597
The last time that these guys bothered the charts was at the start of the decade, so to see them back in the spotlight nearly ten years later was a bit of a surprise to say the least. This didn't spawn any hit singles for the band, however considering their existence was pushing forty years at this point, the fact they were able to have a bestselling album was impressive in of itself.
#596
It had been two decades of silence from Santana when they released this lead single to their comeback album Supernatural this year, it's hard to say if the album would've been a success without this track given that many people attribute this as a Rob Thomas solo project more than a Santana track with Rob's vocals on it. What I do know is that it made both Santana and Matchbox 20 international superstars.
#595
Yep, this comedy routine wound up being the biggest hit single of the year in Australia. Bear in mind this was back in the day where comedy tracks were considered to be singles and thus were able to chart along the likes of everything else that will appear on this list. As for Austen Tayshus himself, this was the only notable success he managed to achieve throughout his career as far as the Australian charts are concerned.
#594
Following the huge success of their now self-titled album, Icehouse released their sophomore album which was an immediate success for them here in Australia and an even bigger success for them over in NZ. This success led to the album being released in the UK where it did fairly well as the second single managed to crack the top twenty there. This led to them experimenting with their sound for the next two albums.
#593
There was no stopping Black Sabbath during the first half of the decade given how this is the second of three appearances the death metal band will be making on this list, I guess a downside to Countdown was that the program unintentionally made prog and metal uncool during the second half of the decade.
#592
After finding success with the likes of Axiom and the Twilights, keyboardist Brian Cadd finally branched out on his own with this album which proved to be a massive success for him and led to success with his next two albums, one of which we'll look at in a bit.
#591
I think it's safe to say that the digital format had a wide variety of music fans during the second half of the decade given how Leona Lewis was able to achieve equal amounts of success on that format that she achieved with her physical sales here in Australia.
#590
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#589
To date, this is P!nk's biggest hit largely thanks to how bombastic it remains in her catalogue which many fans (me included) feel is where she's at her best. It was the lead single to her breakup album Funhouse which she made while she was separated with her husband, although the two managed to patch things up during its production which I guess makes it the opposite to an album like Rumours from Fleetwood mac.
#588
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#587
It could be just a coincidence; however, this album became popular worldwide around the time the Moody Blues scored a massive hit with a live rendition of "Nights in white satin" which would explain the success of this album given how it failed to spawn a hit single for them here.
#586
Given that Nelly already saw massive success (if not a bit delayed here in Australia) with his debut album, it only makes sense that his second album would be even more successful especially in his native America where it spawned not one but two Billboard chart toppers for him. It led to many copycats in the hip hop game (most notably Chingy) which led to his eventual backlash.
#585
It took a while for this album to find the success it wound up deserving, mainly because the lead single didn't exactly light up the music scene here in Australia for Moving pictures. Fortunately, their second single did which resulted in the album itself being a massive success for them. Despite this success, the band would only release one more album to deafening silence before calling it quits and member Garry Frost forming a new band 1927.
#584
This is the first of three albums that MJ made with Quincy Jones, and while it's easily the most dated of the three due to it being primarily a disco album as opposed to the other two with more timeless elements to them, it didn't stop it from succeeding during a time where disco was becoming a bad word in the music industry. This even revived the careers of his family act the Jackson five in Australia.
#583
This is yet another album that took its sweet time in finding an audience back in the day, I'm guessing because the lead single was originally meant for the cult classic Clueless which must have initially alienated its eventual fans from thinking it was a mere pop album and not a ska revival record. They were eventually won over with the centerpiece of the album "Don't speak" which is a perfect showcase of Gwen's stellar vocals.
#582
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#581
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#580
Leona Lewis was the winner of the 2005 season of X factor UK, although her debut album failed to make any waves outside of the UK likely due to international audiences finding it too dull to have any merit to it (that's how I feel about her entire discography I'm afraid, but I digress.) She won a massive international audience with the lead single to her second album, heck it even became a Billboard chart topper for her.
#579
This was the first big hit that the Black-Eyed Peas had in most parts of the world, likely due to the inclusion of Justin Timberlake on the chorus as well as it being their first single where they included Fergie as an official member of the group. The song is also one of their rare conscious hip hop tracks given how it's about the racial injustice of the world and them pleading for there to be racial harmony.
#578
This is a bit of an outlier for Midnight oil's discography as they made the strange decision to not release any singles from this album, I'm guessing to ensure that it would be a success without any hindrance from audiences wanting to buy the singles instead. If you couldn't tell from the cover art, their topic of the day was environmentalism which even back then was of major concern in the mainstream media.
#577
Not counting the greatest hits package from the brothers Gibb, we already looked at, this is the most successful Australian album on this list which goes to show how unpopular our local music scene had become during the first half of the decade and why Countdown's premiere was so important towards its revival.
#576
I told you this song was inescapable on our digital charts when I featured it on the NZ side of my site, although I guess I should now explain why it was popular worldwide given that we've established the reason for its absence on this side of my site. This was a song that was overplayed to death upon its initial release due to its sombre tone which made it perfect for soundtracking some of the most melodramatic movie trailers of the day as well as easily fitting in with the emo scene which was completely inescapable during this point in time.
#575
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#574
Yikes that is some seriously horrifying album art, it appears I'm not the only one who has this opinion as Pink Floyd were forced to issue another picture for the album art back in the day which while more generic, did the job in helping this album become a huge success for them. Nothing would top the success of their previous album Dark side of the moon, but they were really tempting fate with this picture, weren't they?
#573
This was the first album from Led Zeppelin to not be self-titled, suffice to say that if the band was worried about giving their albums a different name prior to this album, then they had nothing to worry about given how inescapable it was upon its initial release.
#572
Now normally I'm not the biggest fan of country music, in fact when it comes to either loving or hating the genre, I'm more towards the hate camp even if I don't hate a lot of country songs out there. With that said, I have to say that I adore this collaboration between Kenny and Dolly, the two have amazing chemistry and it rightfully allowed the song to linger on the charts for quite some time here in Australia.
#571
This was the debut single for the very first band to be "unearthed" by Triple J, the band in question would go on to see several ups and downs in their career mainly due to the antics of their frontman Daniel Johns, however they do remain one of the more fondly remembered Australian bands to emerge from the decade for a good reason.
#570
This was far and away the most successful Triple J album during the 90's, it was twice as big as the rest of the albums so far and was a sign that the stations influence was only going to continue to grow I the new millennium. Unfortunately, I don't know if this is true for sure as this was the last year where the AMR charts existed as they ceased publication in 1999, as such I'll be using the ARIA album charts from here on out which unfortunately excludes all of these albums from their rankings.
#569
If you're wondering how this guy managed to thrive during the Countdown era in the Australian music scene, it might have something to do with this album being produced by Band lead singer Robbie Robertson, a true selling point of the album seeing as though this fact is plastered on the album cover.
#568
So, we all love this movie again, right? I'm just checking because for a little while, this film like so many others who achieved its level of success received a ton of backlash from hipsters who hate anything that achieves overwhelming mainstream success. The film is of course a classic as it tells a compelling romance that took placed on the doomed vessel whilst being (reasonably) respectful to those who unfortunately lost their lives in the journey.
#567
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#566
So Dirty dancing is a film you either love or hate, you love it because it's a heartwarming tale about two very different people falling in love with each other by bringing out the best of each other and you hate it because it's false advertisement as it baits and switches you with a love story rather than a raunchy dance flick. The film was critically acclaimed and even a huge box office success hence the success of its soundtrack.
#565
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#564
Well, the less said about American life the better, so let's do what Madonna wants us to do and pretend that ill-conceived political album doesn't exist and move on to this album shall we? Here we have a disco album that's meant to sound like it was made in the 70's, that is, it's an album that's edited in a way to sound like it was one long track rather than a bunch of tracks which won back many of her fans.
#563
This was the first album that was a massive success for the Eagles in Australia, although they did achieve success in their native America during the first half of the decade meaning these guys were unfairly ignored here until Countdown came along. While their albums were inescapable, the same can't be said for the songs themselves as they didn't chart very well during the height of Abba and Sherbet.
#562
I'm a bit surprised this wasn't even more successful here in Australia given how inescapable the singles were back in the day, strange that we could go from hip hop albums not even charting here to this highly successful debut from 50 cent being somewhat of a commercial disappointment in such a short amount of time but oh well. He would continue to have success with his second album later in the decade.
#561
Following the success he had with "Love generation," Bob Sinclar released this track which heavily samples "Gonna make you sweat" from C+C Music factory which became a hit here in Australia. I will say that it was a slow rise to its success given how it lingered in and out of the top twenty at first before finally reaching the upper echelons of the charts several months after its initial release.
#560
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#559
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#558
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#557
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#556
This was the only successful album to come from MGMT, it was their debut album and one that promised them a healthy run in the 2010's that didn't come to be due to rock music being blacklisted in the mainstream of music in favour of the club boom. Still, they had acquired a healthy fanbase with this album likely due to the psychedelic imagery in their videos as well as Triple J heavily promoting them.
#555
This was the first solo album from Stevie Nicks following a string of highly successful albums with Fleetwood Mac, I've heard people refer to this as an album filled with her songs that the band weren't able to fit into their album and I can certainly see that listening to the album. It remains her biggest solo album worldwide except for here in Australia where her third album Rock a little wins that honour.
#554
This was the second album that Stevie Nicks released between the two albums she made with Fleetwood Mac, I'm guessing she was delaying the inevitable by dragging her feet to reunite with the band for their album Tango in the night. Here she doubles down on her pop direction which while it alienated many of her international fans, won over a bunch of fans in Australia as it remains her most successful solo album in her career.
#553
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#552
This was the breakthrough album of one of the heaviest bands in the metal scene Metallica, although given how this wasn't as heavy as their earlier work, one would be excused for thinking that this was a sellout album even though it's still much heavier than most of what was coming out at the time. Their true sellout period came later in the decade when they released Load and its sequel Reload, both of which were meant to cash in on the adult contemporary of the 90's.
#551
This was a humungous hit for Boyzone, possible due to it being written by both Jim Steinman and Andrew Lloyd Webber meaning that this was the boys attempt at appealing to fans of rock operas which would explain why their last album was so successful in NZ as well as their native UK. They decided to end things on a high note which meant that they broke up shortly after this became their biggest hit.
#550
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#549
This was the first volume of the Guns n Roses Use your illusions era, it wasn't as successful as their earlier entry despite it having the songs that would make up the Illusions trilogy which showcased a storyline that was paired with high budget music videos for the singles on the album. Even though it wasn't quite as successful as their earlier entry, it was still one of the biggest albums of the decade.
#548
Well this was a surprise entry, mainly because the last time anyone had heard from Daryl Braithwaite was when his former band Sherbet called it quits a decade prior due to them struggling to retain their popularity after their international breakthrough with "Howzat." Here we are ten years later and we have a very different man to the one who won the hearts of Australian teenage girls all those years prior, basically following in the footsteps of John Farnham and making adult contemporary for older audiences.
#547
Chris Isaak hadn't troubled the charts since 1999 when "Baby did a bad bad thing" became a surprise hit due to it being chosen as the theme to Eyes wide shut, the success of this greatest hits album suggests that fans might not want new material from the crooner, however they still vibe to his older material, making him a legacy artist by this point in time.
#546
It took a while for this debut album from Alicia Keys to make it big here in Australia, likely due to the lead single not being among the biggest of the decade like it was internationally as well as RNB albums in general not doing so well down under over the years. It was eventually a smash hit this year thanks to the radio overplaying her other singles from the album, making audiences want to check out what the fuss was about.
#545
There's little surprise that this is the most successful album in Olivia's career, after all it's named after her biggest hit and was obviously meant to shed her girl next door image in order for her to appeal to the MTV crowd. That said, this isn't too far removed from her earlier work, and admittedly it's possible that this being her biggest album did lead to her rapid decline in popularity as the decade went on.
#544
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#543
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#542
For the longest time, this was Lady Gaga's biggest hit given how it remains her most iconic work to this day. Of course, her biggest hit is now "Shallow" from a decade later, but that was more due to it rebounding on the charts due to it winning an Oscar for the pop star. There's an urban legend that the chorus actually goes "fu fu f**k her face" as opposed to "po po poker face" which perhaps is why this remains her most iconic work to this day.
#541
Here's an album that promised so much for the person who brought it to life only for said individual to crash and burn with their subsequent releases, Billy Field had huge success with this album and the songs from it despite it sounding very different to what was coming out at the time. I guess the novelty of this album wore off with his next album as that failed to do much to retain his relevancy.
#540
Coyote ugly is a film that remains divisive to this day, mainly because people either find it an inspirational story about how a songwriter made it big in the music industry or cliched to the point where they find it impossible to take seriously. I'm in the former category, although I'll admit my love for the film mainly stems from the catchy numbers that are brought to life by Leann Rimes.
#539
With the overwhelming success he achieved with his last album, it makes sense that Jimmy Barnes would aim even higher with his second solo album by recruiting Diane Warren to co write many of the songs on the album. While this album was a huge success for him here in Australia and NZ, it wound up backfiring for him internationally as it failed to dent any charts in the northern hemisphere.
#538
This was released five years into Elton John's career and suffice to say that given how quickly he rose to popularity in this time, it serves as the perfect recap of his career up until this point. It also kind of set him up for failure during the second half of the decade as he wouldn't reach the dizzying heights of his popularity again until almost a decade later.
#537
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#536
I should forewarn my readers that many songs that have multiple versions of them will be placed much lower than you would otherwise expect on this list due to each version of these songs charting separately on our digital charts. This obviously wasn't the case for this track as no one cared about "Sexy chick" back in the day, however I feel this is a good place to mention this on here.
#535
Also known as "Sexy chick" which was the version that played on the radio, this is a collaboration between French DJ David Guetta and Akon which became a massive worldwide hit for the two likely due to it being one of those songs that's so ridiculous that it's impossible to take seriously. Now that's not to say that I like this song because I certainly don't, however I can see why people enjoy this albeit ironically.
#534
This was a huge hit for Sherbet even before the release of Countdown, meaning that they didn't necessarily need the show to promote their music in order to become the biggest local band of the decade here in Australia. Even so, having the show promote their music certainly didn't harm their popularity as they went on to score a string of hits from their subsequent albums.
#533
This was the only hit that the Scissor sisters managed to have here in Australia, although considering they named themselves after a sexual act often used between two women, it's impressive they had any success in the mainstream at all anywhere in the world. Then again, it seemed like it was impossible for this to fail given how it's a throwback to the 70's disco (particularly in the style of Leo Sayer) which was all the rage at the time.
#532
Does anyone even remember the film, Loser? True to its title, the film follows two teenagers who feel like outcasts in the world and eventually find and fall in love with each other. The theme song from American band Wheatus basically describes the plot of the film in the lyrics, which I'm guessing is why it managed to be more popular even at the time than the film was as it contained its premise in a short amount of time.
#531
It's easy to forget that this was the theme song to Step up 2, a dance flick that I'm sure many have forgotten about since the series was never a critical darling and seemed to serve as little more than a platform for Channing Tatum to become a Hollywood star. It appears we Aussies were a bit slow in making this a phenomenon like it was worldwide given how it wasn't even released until this year despite it already being a success the previous year internationally.
#530
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#529
Although David Bowie had achieved sound success prior this this covers album, this was where he became a household name worldwide likely due to it spawning his biggest hit in the form of the lead single, I'm not kidding by the way as he never had a bigger hit throughout his career.
#528
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#527
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#526
This was the biggest hits in Australia during the first half of the decade, in fact it came close to being the biggest hit of the decade overall given its refusal to die on our charts back in the day. I feel this is the best indication of how widely different our music landscape was from the pre-Countdown era to the post Countdown era given how this definitely wouldn't have touched our charts later in the decade.
#525
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#524
There weren't any signs of this band slowing down as this album continued the success they achieved throughout the first half of the decade, the only thing I can add to this entry is that its success led to them calling their tour Wings over America which in turn led to them naming that their live album from said tour.
#523
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#522
Although the band had two albums that were decently successful prior to this album, this was the moment where Glenn Shorrock and company went from just another pub rock band from Australia to international superstars given how inescapable the lead single was here and that it even did decently well internationally for them. Their international success would continue to grow after this album.
#521
People are divided on Grease to this day, on the one hand there's people who think it's a timeless classic complete with catchy as hell music and a compelling narrative (such as me) and on the other there's people who think it's an overrated mess filled with cliche storylines and awful characters. One thing audiences of the day could agree on is that this duet between its two leads was a masterpiece as it was a huge success for them worldwide.
#520
8 mile is a film that was well received by critics and audiences alike as it was an autobiographical account at how Eminem came to be who he was as a person as well as his rise to stardom, basically it was a film that was the Purple rain of the 00's which led to many copycats throughout the decade (most notably from his protegee 50 cent.) The soundtrack was released during the album cycle of his earlier entry on this list.
#519
For nearly thirty years, this was the final album that the Eagles released in their catalogue, although I doubt they were planning for this to be their final album given what was in store for them during its promotion. They were supposed to give a concert in their native California to with a government official in the audience, and yet the behind-the-scenes drama got so out of control that they ended up embarrassing themselves during the show.
#518
One of the most critically acclaimed films of the 70's was the Sting, a gangster film set in the 30's which harkens back to the era of filmmaking resulting in its critical and commercial success. Another factor into its success was the soundtrack which does an excellent job in recapturing the feel of the 30's thanks to the attention to detail that its composer Marvin Hamlisch put into crafting it.
#517
Cat Stevens was on a roll when he released this album even if it failed to produce a hit single for him like his previous entry did, in fact only that album managed to give him one hit single let alone two here in Australia to give you an idea how much more of an album artist he was down under.
#516
Well at least this album saw Rod Stewart experimenting with his sound for a change, even if it was to allow him to get on board with the disco scene that was taking the world by storm upon its initial release. This would be the last mega successful album in his catalogue until his 1991 effort Vagabond heart, meaning the 80's was an off period for the crooner.
#515
This was Don Mclean's only album to achieve notable success here in Australia, mainly for the title track which was one of the biggest hits of the decade but also likely for the second single which remains a favourite on oldies stations as well.
#514
There was a lot of controversy surrounding this theme song to the comedy classic Ghostbusters, namely that Ray Parker jr stole the melody from Huey Lewis and the News "I want a new drug" which resulted in a lengthy lawsuit between both parties. As for the film itself, it's remained a comedy classic for a reason as the premise is inventing, the jokes are hilarious and the visual still hold up to this day.
#513
This remains the biggest album in Barbra Streisand's career in Australia, presumably due to the involvement of the Brothers Gibb throughout its production (Barry even appears on the cover art with her.) This is her only successful album to not be affiliated with her acting career in any way as the rest of her discography consists of soundtrack from her films as well as her covering songs from Broadway productions.
#512
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#511
It's been a while since we last looked at these guys on one of these lists, indeed their second and third albums didn't exactly bring in the numbers to be among the more successful albums of the decade like their debut and fourth album. Here Chrissie Hynde returns with a much more pop friendly album compared to her earlier work which while it alienated some of her older fans, brought in a bunch of new fans who were on board with a more mature side of her.
#510
This was the album that made Gary Glitter a household name following a long and rocky road to stardom throughout the 60's, from his campy stage antics to the anthemic tracks found on here, it's little wonder he captivated audiences during the early years of glam rock.
#509
This was released just before the tragic death of Jim Morrison, meaning that it's hard to tell if its success was in its own right or out of respect for his (then) recent passing, either way it remains a classic in the band's catalogue to this day.
#508
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#507
Following his departure from N Sync (as well as their eventual demise) Justin Timberlake decided to embark on a solo career which began with this album that needed a bit of incentive from audiences around the world to become a hit given how it was released the previous year initially to deafening silence. It was once the second single caught on that it began rising up the charts for the former boy band member.
#506
This was the first of many albums where Rod Stewart fancied himself a throwback artist to the music of the first half of the twentieth century, it's kind of like Jimmy Barnes' Soul deep series except Rod is covering jazz numbers rather than Motown and RNB tracks. This was by far the most successful of the series even though it needed some incentive from us Aussies to make it big initially.
#505
This will be Black Sabbath's final appearance on this list, it was another huge success for them during the first half of the decade which further goes to show how popular metal was before Countdown swept it all away in favour of our local music scene (a mixed blessing to say the least.)
#504
This was the first concept album that Rick Wakeman released, naturally it's about the many wives of Henry VIII who each have their own song dedicated to them on the album, its strange premise made it the least successful out of Rick's solo outings.
#503
Well, this was a bit of a surprise, I know Joe Cocker saw massive success with his involvement on the An officer and a gentleman soundtrack, however I don't think anyone was expecting this album to be so huge given how the last successful album he had was during the first half of the 70's. This album does contain some of his more iconic work, so I guess it makes sense why we Aussies gravitated towards it.
#502
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#501
Although he had already achieved moderate success earlier in the decade with his greatest hits package It had to be you, I don't think anyone could've predicted just how successful this jazz album from the Hollywood actor turned musician would be in Australia and NZ this decade. Unfortunately, this was a mere one off for him as his subsequent albums failed to find much of an audience here.
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