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.
#1600
This was a massive success for Fine young cannibals for a few reasons, the first is how dynamic of a vocal performance Roland Gift gives throughout the track which highlights just how messed up he feels about the woman he's singing about. The second is for the video which is both hilarious and gives unique visuals to convey the lyrics about this relationship, no wonder it found a captivating audience worldwide.
#1599
It may shock you to learn that in their native America, Survivor aren't a one hit wonder. This is because even in America, this is the only song of theirs that has endured the test of time as opposed to their other tracks which people often tend to think are from the likes of Loverboy or Foreigner. In any case, we have this theme to the third Rocky film which was both a critical and commercial success for Sylvester Stallone.
#1598
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1597
This was originally released as the second single from Seal's second self-titled album, however it for some reason was a huge flop for him despite it easily being his best work (in my opinion of course.) Fortunately, it was given a second chance this year when it played over the end credits of Batman forever, a film that divides audiences to this day due to its campy tone clashing with the previous Batman flicks.
#1596
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1595
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1594
We have another song that has survived the test of time on this list, this time it's the biggest hit from Carly Simon who scored massive worldwide success with this lead single to her biggest album No secrets. There's been many rumours about who the song is about from James Taylor (which she's denied from day one) to Mick Jagger, however she's since confirmed it to be about Warren Beatty.
#1593
This is often considered to be one of the worst songs of the decade, mainly because it has a rather upbeat tone despise the really depressing subject matter of coping with death which even at the time rubbed audiences the wrong way. It was the only hit for the Canadian folk singer Terry Jacks albeit a huge one likely because of the backlash it received back in the day.
#1592
This was not only the second single from Nelly's sophomore album Nellyville, but also confusingly the lead single to Kelly Rowland's solo debut Simply deep which is weird because she doesn't contribute much to the song as it's mainly from Nelly's perspective. The dilemma in question is that Nelly is in love with Kelly, but Kelly is currently in a relationship even though she also has feelings for him.
#1591
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1590
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1589
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1588
OK I have a question for my readers, has anyone ever been able to understand a single word while listening to this song besides "likey boom boom down?" I guess it's lucky for Darrin O'Brien AKA Snow that A: he has a really good flow on this track B: the production is catchy as hell and C: that he had a rough upbringing that brought credibility to the rap game. Sadly, this was all cancelled out by unfair comparisons made between him and Vanilla ice at the time.
#1587
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1586
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1585
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1584
This was a massive success for Laura Branigan this year, likely due to how unique and powerful her vocals were but also for the lyrics which seem to depict a vein woman by the name of Gloria and the narrator calling out how her vanity has alienated her from anyone wanting to do anything with her.
#1583
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1582
Contrary to popular belief, this song wasn't written for the Jesus Christ superstar soundtrack even though this was released around the time the show premiered on Broadway and west end which would likely explain its international success for Norman Greenbaum. This is also the best proof I have that the 60's didn't end at the turn of the decade given how this feels like something made pre-Woodstock.
#1581
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1580
While many people (me included) will tell you that Bob Dylan isn't what you'd call an audibly pleasing vocalist, it's clear that the success of his music comes from his compositions and songwriting which are two aspects as to how he scored a huge hit with the lead single to this album. Naturally this made him a household name in Australia which allowed him to find massive success during the height of the Countdown era.
#1579
Well, this was a huge success on the AMR album charts, so of course it would feature again on this site. I'm mainly doing this to highlight just how different AMR was to the ARIA charts as one thing fascinating about the Australian music scene in the 90's is that we had two official charts tracking our popular music. With that said, this E.P's placing on both lists should give you an idea of how similar singles sales were to album sales.
#1578
This remains the most successful album to come from the Foo fighters, although given how they were one of the very few rock bands to still have success throughout the 2010's, it's possible that honour goes to Wasting light given how popular that was in 2011. This certainly has their most iconic song in the form of its lead single given how well it did even with the disadvantage of digital piracy eating up its success.
#1577
I'm a bit surprised that Gwen Stefani didn't do better on our digital charts back in the day, although the bulk of her hatedom would've been those who felt betrayed by her selling out from her time with No doubt so perhaps there was little chance she would do better on that format back in the day after all.
#1576
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1575
We have another British born south African artist to appear on this list, this time it's from Dave Mills who scored a massive hit here in Australia with this ballad to the point where he was convinced to move here following its success. This proved to be fruitless as he remains a one hit wonder here despite doing quite well in Africa with his earlier material that all failed to chart here.
#1574
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1573
This was originally released simply as "Mascara" where it managed to climb the charts following the success of the band's debut single "Weir," then their label decided to bundle it with "Leave me alone" which allowed both songs to top the Australian charts early on in the 00's and just in time for their debut album Reflector to be released.
#1572
Well, here's a song that had novelty written all over it and yet it managed to endure the test of time regardless, here's the breakthrough single for Mi-sex who were a NZ band looking to make it big in Australia so that they could take said success back home to their homeland. They struck big with this track given how the videogame industry had taken the world by storm by the time they released this as a single.
#1571
And who says joke songs have only become a recent phenomenon? OK so this was a huge success back in the day, proving that even back then, people thought that the idea of clowning on toxic narcissists like these guys do throughout the track was the height of comedy. I'm in no way saying this is a bad thing, rather I feel that people find this way funnier than I do.
#1570
This was the only notable hit single that Bob Geldof had with his band the Boomtown rats in Australia, granted they were close to inescapable in their native UK but here this track about a real-life school shooting was the best they could do. Nowadays Geldof is more well known for A: his performance in the theatrical adaptation of Pink Floyd's the wall and B: being the instigator of Live aid.
#1569
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1568
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1567
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1566
Well this is the sellout to end all sellouts, we have a band who began their career as actual hippies now singing about how corporatised the world has become set to instrumentation that has since become synonymous with the mainstream pop rock of the 80's. I get what they were going for here, and to be honest if you ignore the hypocrisy on display, this is still an awesome track from one of the older acts on this list.
#1565
This was one of only two hits that Drummond had during their time together, the other was "Kings of the world" which they achieved as Mississippi later in the decade which we'll be looking at much later on this list. It does seem like a coincidence that these guys would score a hit with a song that shares its name with Ross Wilson's first band from earlier on this list.
#1564
This was the only noticeable success that this brother duo had in Australia, although for what it's worth they were more popular in NZ given how the kiwis loved their RNB ballads this decade. I'm guessing this was a huge success here due to the rise in popularity of the genre itself rather than us making an exception to these two former members of Jodeci.
#1563
This was the first of several Billboard chart toppers for Deborah Harry and company, however it was far from their first big hit throughout the rest of the world as we Aussies allowed "In the flesh" to nearly top our charts two years prior whilst the Brits gave them a massive hit with "Denis" from the previous year. Still, it's good to know their experimentation with disco was what made them huge in their homeland.
#1562
While the title track to Madonna's fourth album was uncontroversial enough, after all it's merely about her questioning her own faith in religion as is the rest of the album, it was the video that got her in a lot of hot water when she released it this year. Suffice to say, Pepsi backed out of their sponsorship of her tour given all of the negative press the video received this year.
#1561
This was the debut single for the Pussycat dolls, a former burlesque troupe turned girl band who scored massive success with this track where even upon its initial release I remembered being widely mocked for how overconfident the lyrics are. I'm not that familiar with the Busta Rhymes feature as they never played it on the radio back in the day, I'm guessing to promote the song as a sexual fantasy for those attracted to the band members would have.
#1560
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1559
Rihanna certainly had success prior to this lead single to her third album, however it was the theme of friendship in the lyrics that allowed audiences to make this an inescapable hit and that she was in it for the long haul which wasn't a certainty prior to the song's release. Apparently, people have misinterpreted the song to be about sex, I guess I can see that although I won't burden my readers with that thought process.
#1558
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1557
This seems completely out of place compared to everything else on this list, after all pub rock was a massive success throughout the 70's and 80's but by the 90's it had fallen out of favour for whatever reason. I think the people who were most surprised by this being a success was the band itself who never particularly displayed any desire to have any mainstream appeal.
#1556
Another comeback to come in Cher's very rocky career, this time it comes with the introduction of autotune in the music industry as this becomes the first hit single anywhere in the world to incorporate the vocal effect which helped it stand out from its contemporaries back in the day. Nowadays this is known as the Cher effect, primarily by her haters who believe that she was never a good singer.
#1555
Here's a bit of a fun fact for you, this was Bryan Adams biggest hit in Australia that wasn't a tie in for a film, in this case it was a success due to it being the hit single from his highly successful greatest hits album So far so good which serves as a perfect gateway for getting into his work from the 80's and early 90's.
#1554
We have yet another band who thrived from the previous decade entering this one with a highly successful album, in fact this was by far the biggest album to come from the Angels which set them up for great success this decade that unfortunately didn't end up happening. Admittedly this is because they didn't release a new album until the end of the decade, so it's not like they were unfairly ignored.
#1553
If you're wondering what took these guys so long in finding an audience here in Australia, I think it's because we Aussies were sceptical of their musical talent initially given how they had sung with perfect American accents on record and yet could barely speak English in interviews. We gave them the benefit of the doubt this year by allowing this to become one of the biggest hits of the year, however our scepticism was proven right by the end of the year.
#1552
It may surprise you to learn that Beyonce had quite a few love ballads in her career prior to becoming the feminist icon that she's been since her third solo album I am Sasha fierce, this was one of them and arguably her biggest hit where she's not putting down a member of the male population as she teams up with Sean Paul of all people on this ballad about how much they're in love with each other.
#1551
This was the E.P that spawned Australian crawl's most popular hit single "Reckless," a song that earned that title due to it being one of the very few where audiences don't have a problem understanding what James is saying throughout the track's runtime. The success of this E.P allowed the band to have moderate crossover success in NZ.
#1550
In keeping with tradition of having a theme song to the FIFA world cup, French producer Bob Sinclar released this track which was sung in the persona of the mascot of the games Goleo IV (even though the cartoon lion is nowhere to be found in the video.) It was a massive worldwide success for him and led to his earlier entry on this list being an even bigger success here in Australia.
#1549
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1548
This may be the best-selling song of all time worldwide; however, I'm ranking these songs based on their chart runs rather than actual sales. With that out of the way, this touching tribute to the (then) recently deceased Diana Spencer proved to be the final hit single that Elton John managed to achieve in his career.
#1547
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1546
This is one of those songs that people mistake the meaning of what appears to be a song about lying to cover up getting caught cheating turns out to be a song denouncing these types of tracks in the third verse. The complaint people have about this track nowadays is that they consider it false advertising, after all, the featured artist Rikrok has far more presence on here than Shaggy does.
#1545
While this was far from the first song to combine hip hop with EDM, nor was it even the most successful as this would become common place throughout the decade, it tends to be the song most people think of when you tell them to name a song that is synonymous with this trend. Curiously this took its sweet time in getting a physical release in Australia, heck even America caught on to this before we Aussies did, and we're supposed to be the EDM crowd of the decade.
#1544
This song and the album that it serves as the lead single to almost didn't happen, mainly due to the girls needing to declare bankruptcy from their previous album despite how much of a success it was worldwide due to poor management of their earnings. Fortunately, the girls pulled through from that stumble and came back with what I and many others consider to be their best song.
#1543
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1542
Although Cliff Richard had scored a string of hits since his 1976 comeback with "Devil woman," it was this album that provided him with his first big success on the album charts here in Australia due to how popular both its singles were at the time. This set him up for even more success throughout the 80's and in the case in his native UK, well into the 90's as his popularity was officially revived by this point.
#1541
Much like Bob Seger, Boz Scaggs also seemed set in having a success decade as he entered it with a highly successful album in his catalogue. Unfortunately, he too was also unable to adapt to the MTV era which resulted in him being seen as yesterday's news soon after the album left the charts.
#1540
This was the debut album from a band that would go on to be widely despised when years later when they ruined the Joni Mitchell classic "Big yellow taxi" for the film Two weeks' notice. Before they were blacklisted in the music community for that, there were a well-respected band who score massive success with their debut album as well as having the first hit single worldwide that was never released as such in their native America.
#1539
It had been six years since George Harrison troubled the charts with his tribute to John Lennon "All those years ago," so to see him back in the spotlight with this album was a bit of a surprise for audiences even if it led to him forming the supergroup the Traveling wilburys by the end of the year. This remains his final album as he did devote a lot of his time to the group even after the death of its key member Roy Orbison.
#1538
This was more of a success the following year; however, it was a modest hit upon its initial release which makes it qualify for this list even if it's considered to be more of a 2010's release. This was mainly because its success didn't take off until "Sweet disposition" became a surprise hit in the UK as the decade was coming to an end, which in turn fuelled the success of his album back here for Temper trap.
#1537
This was the debut album from the British boy band Five, I would've said these guys were a little late to the boy band wars that began in the first half of the decade with Take that and East 17 except that they were more firmly in the second round of those wars with Backstreet boys and N sync. They came in second place in Australia due to how many hit singles they managed to achieve here back in the day.
#1536
This was a hit twice on our digital charts as it became a success upon its initial release as the theme to the first Transformers film and a second time when Linkin Park released their third album where it also serves as its lead single. Sadly, they didn't find much success with any of the other singles from the album regardless of which format we're referring to.
#1535
It took over a year for this album to take off here in Australia, this is despite the fact that the lead single was a massive hit upon its initial release which suggested that we Aussies had finally welcomed Robbie's solo career with open arms. Alas it was only when the second single finally became a success that this album managed to find an audience with us Aussies.
#1534
This saw a massive improvement in the rankings due to it being more of a sleeper hit here in Australia despite initially debuting high on our charts, I think this was the point where Good Charlotte was able to be taken more seriously in the mainstream which suggests their earlier catalogue may not have benefitted that much from digital sales unlike most other rock bands of the decade.
#1533
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1532
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1531
Bad company were a hard rock band who already saw success the previous year with their self-titled album in Australia, this was the follow up to that album which was an inevitable success for them despite the lead single being a massive flop here. Their popularity would quickly fade as the decade went on as did many bands and artists that made it big prior to the launch of Countdown.
#1530
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1529
If there's a version of this song without T-Pain's guest verse, then it clearly had little impact on the main song as this is the only version to become a hit on our digital charts back in the day. It was far more popular on our storefront than it was as a physical release as was the case for just about all of Chris Brown's songs throughout his career down under.
#1528
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1527
If you couldn't tell from the terrible pun in the title, this is a greatest hits package from Slade looking over the substantial amount of success they achieved in such a short amount of time, like most of these albums, it proved to be a curse for their future prospects.
#1526
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1525
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1524
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1523
While I can't quite call this a comeback album as AC/DC did see plenty of success throughout the 80's here in Australia, it is the first album they released that I would say was among the most successful of its time thanks to have a very distinct lead single compared to the rest of their catalogue. The album was the first to become a success over in NZ which led to the band having a great decade over there as well.
#1522
It seems odd that these guys would be able to survive the initial onslaught that the grunge scene had with the rest of rock music, however they did just that thanks to the lead single and its music video which features some of the worst CGI to come out of this decade. This allowed the band to hang in there while many of their contemporaries struggled to find success with their respective albums.
#1521
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1520
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1519
This was by far the biggest success that the Alan Parson's project had in their career, likely due to the title track being a huge success throughout certain parts of the world which proved to be a first for the duo. Like many prog bands from the 70's, these guys weren't able to sustain a career once MTV had taken over the music landscape, although they certainly tried throughout the rest of the decade.
#1518
It was surprisingly hard to dig up information about these guys, however they were a group of older musicians from America who scored a massive hit with this album here in Australia and presumably in NZ given how the title track was a massive hit on the Listener charts.
#1517
This was the album Madonna released to coincide with her book Sex, a book that was little more than a bunch of photos of her in sexually provocative positions that was meant to titillate the general audiences of the early 90's. While the album isn't as tasteless as the book, it does have a highly sexual nature which perhaps explains its bad reputation over the years as being an album for horny listeners.
#1516
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1515
Well, he may have had only one hit to his name by this point in time in Australia, however that didn't prevent this greatest hits package from becoming a huge success for the soul legend and right around Countdown was launching to boot. He did score a massive hit with his next album which proves that while he wasn't that popular on the singles chart here, he at least managed to connect with audience down under.
#1514
Ben Harper didn't have much success here in Australia prior to this life album, even with heavy endorsement from Triple J and how inescapable he was in NZ, he didn't bring in the big numbers like his main rival Lenny Kravitz did. The success of this album led to his next studio album being a massive success here two years later.
#1513
We have our final appearance from 10cc on this site as this was their first major hit here in Australia, although in their native UK, "Donna" has the honour of being their first big hit as that was their debut single which became a massive success for them in their homeland. This also means we have a different genre to look at from these guys as this was a glam rock track during the height of that genre's popularity.
#1512
(THIS IS THE ARIA ENTRY)
#1511
This had a bit of a slow rise to its peak in popularity here in Australia, I'm guessing this was due to it being huge in the indie sphere which had exploded in popularity around this time due to most of the digital downloads coming from that sector of the music industry down under. Once it did find its way to the mainstream, this proved to be one of the biggest hits of the decade for the NZ band.
#1510
Following the massive success of Rob Thomas's solo album from two years prior, he rejoined Matchbox 20 who released this song from their greatest hits album which proved to be their biggest hit here in Australia likely due to it being explicitly about how far they had come in their career since their initial breakthrough. Sure, you can argue that it's about a relationship, however that's my interpretation of the song.
#1509
This is the best proof I have that the Doors earlier entry wasn't necessarily a success due to the tragic passing of Jim Morrison given how this was a huge hit when he was alive and well, it failed to spawn that huge hit they had with their other entry but it was a success nonetheless.
#1508
This was the most successful album to come from the Doobie Brothers given how it spawned their biggest hit in their catalogue in the form of its lead single. Even though they had a very successful run this decade with their adult contemporary rock music, they would struggle to retain their popularity with their next album which resulted in them breaking up for most of the 80's, although they would eventually reform.
#1507
Elton John was certainly on a roll this decade as he was able to score massive success with his first new album of the 90's, although it would be his last successful album that wasn't attached to a soundtrack in his career as he largely focused on making soundtracks following the success he had with the Lion king two years later. It was not only a huge commercial success but also won him and academy award.
#1506
They may have only ever had one hit on the Australian charts, however Lighthouse family were able to at least score a massive hit with their second album here thanks to how inescapable that one hit was for them down under. The duo did try to recapture their international success going into the new millennium; however, their third album was a massive flop which led to their breakup in 2003.
#1505
Just like the previous entry, this album sat on shelves ignored for over a year before it finally found success worldwide with its lead single. Another thing this album has in common with Sheryl's debut is that Joshua was also in his thirties when he recorded it, perhaps this was a sign of agism initially being a barrier to success only for it to be torn down when audiences realise the good music they'd be missing out on.
#1504
This album was a huge success for Elton John following the success of his comeback album the previous year, although after this he would enter another dry spell as he would suffer from a drug addiction which affected his creativity and eventually his vocals due to developing polyps that he needed to have removed. He came back bigger than ever once the decade ended, but it was a rocky road for him to get there.
#1503
All three of Chris Brown's tracks from his second album managed to see more success on our digital charts than they did on our physical charts, this is to be expected of course given how well he and all of his knockoffs did throughout the 2010's on that format.
#1502
This is the last hit that Shaggy was able to achieve anywhere in the world, mainly because there's two versions of the song floating around which helped it become a hit here albeit slowly as the remix was released much later than the original version. Both versions have Brian and Tony Gold handling the chorus while Shaggy himself raps about how the woman in question turns him on.
#1501
This was the only hit that Heather Smalls and company were able to achieve in Australia, although they did make up for their lack of singles success by having two successful albums back in the day. I never understood why people took issue with Heather's voice, the best I could come up with was that she's been unfavourably compared to Sade Adu who also combined genres in her heyday. She combined rock with jazz whereas these guys combined rock with RNB.
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