Biggest comebacks in Australia

This list will cover the albums which brought an artist back from the brink of obscurity, ranked of course by how successful the album itself was. To qualify for this list, an artist had to have had a noticeable absence in the Australian mainstream or come back from an album that had threatened to end their career due to either critical reception or audiences not being invested in said album.

While it wasn't a complete failure, P!nk's third album Try was a commercial disappointment to the point where it suggested that she would be a relic of the early 00's by the time that decade came to an end. This album proved otherwise as it not only restored her popularity worldwide, but also outsold everything she made prior combined proving that her career was indeed far from dead.

The last time anyone truly cared about John Farnham even in Australia was the late 60's following the success of his novelty track "Sadie the cleaning lady." Fast forward nearly two decades and he manages to have the bestselling album of the 80's with this album which is as far away from the novelty of his early work as you can get.

Although Elton John saw moderate success with his albums following his temporary split with songwriter Bernie Taupin in 1976, none of those projects could even compare commercially and especially artistically to what he achieved in the first half of the 70's. The two made up and put together this album which seemed to pick up where the two left off from their 1975 effort Captain fantastic.

The last time anyone cared about this guy's solo career prior to this grammy award winning album being one of the biggest of the 80's was with his 1973 effort There goes rhyming Simon. That's a thirteen-year gap between these two projects, which makes this pioneer for African influence rock and roll more than worthy for an appearance on this list.

Most bands and artists will be making this list by releasing an album that expands on their previous sound, these guys however regained their mainstream popularity by returning to the sound that made them big in the first place. Admittedly the less said about their mid 80's material the better other than it being a valiant attempt to change with the times.

OK so this is more of a soundtrack than an album, however Whitney was the executive producer on here and her previous album I'm your baby tonight thought a critical darling, did leave many people wondering if her time in the music scene was up. Fortunately, this album's success restored any doubts people had about her singing career.

We won't be seeing a lot of entries on this list from bands that didn't have much success with their singles throughout their career, however I'd be remise not to include this album from Jamiroquai given how much of a commercial disappointment their previous album was compared to their breakthrough during the 90's. It put the nu disco band back in the spotlight thanks to how inescapable they were on the radio.

Even if you want to consider the Batman soundtrack his own album and not something he was commissioned to make by Tim Burton, the fact that the album he released before this was the ill-fated Graffiti bridge soundtrack was enough to cause alarm for his fans who felt he wouldn't be able to transition from the 80's to the 90's. Fortunately for him, he did just that by forming a new backing band for this album.

It looked like these guys would be forever known as a 90's band given the failure of their 2000 album Warning, this wasn't helped by them having to start from scratch with their follow-up album due to the master tapes of that album being stolen during its production. What they came back with was an album that was highly critical of the American government which of course won over a bunch of new fans.

If I were ranking this list based on how unexpected a comeback was, this would rank near the top of the list because they last time these guys troubled the charts prior to this album was in the late 70's. Some of the people who were charting when this came out weren't even born when they were last popular, that's how unexpected this albums success was for Santana and company.

The second half of the 80's wasn't particularly kind to Elton, more so for his own wellbeing as between his drug addiction and him having to deal with losing his iconic falsetto that made his 70's work so iconic, he simply wasn't doing well in his personal life. He channeled this frustration into this album just as the decade was coming to an end which resulted in people becoming reinvested with his art and wellbeing.

One of the more poignant comebacks to appear on this list, it really did seem like Bryan Adams would forever be a one album wonder with Reckless as it took him six years to find another hit anywhere in the world with this album given how much of a failure Heat of the night was.

Although this album's change in musical direction from Nelly's earlier work did alienate the one or two fans her second album had, it brought in a whole bunch of new fans to compensate for that albums failure which unfortunately didn't stick around for her fourth album later in the 00's.

I seriously cannot overstate how noticeable this guy's absence was throughout the 80's, he released his final album of the 70's and it was a massive success and here's hit first album of the 90's which was also a massive success for him. It was a short-lived comeback, but one he clearly earned from his fans.

MJ had been missing in action on the Australian charts since his 1972 chart topper "Ben" from the film of the same name, to see him back in the spotlight with the first of three albums he made with Quincy Jones must have been a surprise for Australian audience but one they embraced wholeheartedly.

Regardless of how you feel about this album, there's no denying that it reinvigorated the success of the band in question who had been absent from the mainstream since the start of the decade.

This serves as a comeback for both Meat loaf and Jim Steinman as both men hadn't bothered the charts for twelve years before they patched things up and released this album together, you can even consider this a comeback for rock operas in general as there certainly wasn't any indication this was going to succeed going into its release.

If I were purely judging this list based on albums, this wouldn't count as Shaggy didn't have a successful album prior to his magnum opus from the start of the 21st century. It makes the list due to him being one of the more successful artists of the 90's here, which came to an end in 1997 when his fourth album not only failed to chart here, but also failed to produce a hit single like his first three albums did.

And now for the opposite approach to what qualifies for this list, despite failing to spawn a hit single upon its release, this album from AC/DC makes the cut due to it being a surprise success for them after almost a decade of obscurity from the mainstream.

This is one of the more heartwarming comebacks on this list, mainly because Daryl Braithwaite really did seem like he was yesterday's news for the longest time, heck he found himself becoming a tradie once the hits with Sherbet dried up and yet here he is with arguably his most successful album.

I know that this is a stretch since the obvious reason why Bette Midler was MIA on the charts was due to her focusing on her acting career, however there's no denying that save for a cover of a Rolling stones track from five years prior, there wasn't much love for her music career throughout the world that this soundtrack managed to correct just as the 80's was coming to an end.

Well, here's the album that many consider to be the quintessential comeback of all time, although technically I'm cheating by having this on here as the only previous success Tina had in Australia was with "Nutbush city limits" with her ex-husband Ike Turner. Even then that was due to us showing our support for her leaving her abusive partner more than anything. Still, there's no denying that she rose from the ashes with this album.

This was a comeback that was inevitable for this list, Alice Cooper hadn't troubled the charts since the late 70's and with adult contemporary ballads to boot. This wasn't just a comeback for him, it was a return to form hence why he was able to make a huge impact with this album during the height of hair metal.

This was an album whose success came out of nowhere when it first came out, Tracy's first two albums were huge, but her third album was a commercial failure which was a good indication that her time in the spotlight was up which that album proved otherwise.

Here we have another heartwarming success story as these guys saw tragedy to their band in the mid 80's when one of their members passed away, however the LGBT band were able to pull themselves together just as the decade was coming to an end and released this fun album which continued their career where it left off a decade prior.

This was the second comeback album that the Bee gees had in Australia given how ESP from a decade prior spawned their only 80's hit "You win again." Here the Brothers Gibb have long since moved on from their disco days and are making adult contemporary that won the hearts of arguably the same fanbase they had back in the 70's.

I know that saying David Bowie had a comeback in his career is sacrilegious, however aside from "Heroes" nearly cracking the top ten, he hadn't had a hit in Australia since "Sorrow" from his album Pin ups and his albums weren't selling very well here either.

I know this is kind of cheating as it's not like these guys went away throughout the 80's, however this was their first album since Face to face to be a massive success for them as well as their first since Dark room to spawn a hit single for them. I feel like those qualifications make it a worthy entry on this list.

Technically his contributions to the Traveling wilburys was his comeback in Australia, however this had his name on the cover which means that this was the album to bring Roy's career back into the spotlight albeit months after his tragic passing. The last time anyone had cared about his music was when the 60's had ended and he scored his biggest hit with "Penny arcade."

While it didn't spawn any hit singles for him, the fact that Neil Diamond was able to score a huge comeback with this album more than qualifies it for this list. He was having hits before many of the people this was charting with were even born, that's how impressive this albums success was.

Most people who make a blunder like American life would be permanently blacklisted from the music industry altogether, Madonna was super lucky that she A: was the queen of pop and B: came back with something as fun and A-political as this disco album that she was able to recover from such a blunder.

This is on here more for the fact that Daniel Johns saw massive failure with his side project the Dissosiactives between this and their previous album Dioarama, I'm technically cheating as that album was the band's most successful in their catalogue and there was only a five-year gap between these two albums, however I'm counting it for Daniel's side project.

Did you even know that these guys released two albums in between their debut album and this Grammy winner? Naturally this would've been a flop for them also were it not for two factors, their Grammy win and "Africa" becoming a huge worldwide success for them.

This is kind of cheating as technically Joe Cocker had a massive hit with the An officer and a gentleman soundtrack, however the last time he made a splash in the mainstream on his own merit was way back in the early 70's. He had certainly won over a new fanbase with this album given how long it had been since he had an adorning fanbase.

It may have been a short-lived comeback, however Bonnie's time in the spotlight seemed to be up when she failed to score another hit following the success of "It's a heartache." A change in management led to her going in a new direction with this album which suffice to say proved to be a wise decision for her.

This is another short-lived comeback given how Bon Jovi didn't exactly stick around in the 00's at least as far as their popularity was concerned, however there was doubt they would ever reform given how they were on an extended hiatus from the midpoint of the 90's to the start of the 00's.

While he did see success with his previous album from 1994, the fact this covers album was a huge success as the 90's was coming to an end was a massive achievement for Tom Jones and set him up for success in the new millennium that he never ended up achieving.

I normally wouldn't include an alternative album on this list as alternative bands usually don't do well enough to warrant a comeback in the first place, however Grinspoon was a rare exception as their first album was a massive success for them as was this third album of theirs despite the failure of their second album.

I know that technically MJ's earlier appearance on this list was the comeback he needed in Australia, however this album was the first anyone cared about his family act in a decade as they did have a huge hit in 1970 with "ABC." Like MJ, their success was more permanent this time around as it lasted well into the mid 80's.

It's a bit of a stretch to say this was a comeback for Chris Rea considering he was only a one hit wonder prior to this album's release, however there's no denying that this was a comeback as "Diamonds" was a modest success back in 1979 and this album did spawn a second hit for him here.

No list of comebacks would be complete without this entry from Mariah Carey, it looked like there was no coming back from the failure of Glitter from 2001 given how much of a failure Charmbracelet was for the pop diva just a year after the film's release. She obviously had other plans as she managed to earn her redemption ark by releasing this album under an alter ego who had emancipated herself from her creative bankruptcy from earlier in the decade.

The last time these guys had any impact on our charts was with their 1985 effort Head on the door, although neither of the singles on here were as big as "Close to me," they remain fan favourites in their discography to this day due to them being much happier songs in their catalogue. This change in direction set them up for success in the 90's that didn't happen after the album had peaked.

Well, I and many others might not be a fan of their post breakup period, however there's no denying that this was a huge success for a band who had been inactive for fourteen years. Heck it even served as a comeback for Jimmy Barnes who really struggled to retain his popularity during the second half of the 90's.

I still don't know why Alicia's second album flopped here in Australia considering that her third album was a success as if it were the follow up to her debut album from six years prior, I guess having a popular bootleg on your album is a recipe for its failure given how often I heard "Karmastition" on the radio during what was meant to be the height of that album's popularity.

Another band who was able to successfully come back after time apart as if nothing happened between their hiatus, here we have Dragon who picked up where they left off six years prior and well into the MTV era. This proves that they were able to captivate audiences with their music so long as each member was still a part of the band and not striving for solo success.

While she did have success with her standards album in 1983 in Australia, that's still a six-year gap between when that became a success and when she scored her final hit with this album with the assistance of Aaron Neville who appears on several tracks on the album. The fact that her last hit was back in 1977 should be an even bigger incentive for this to appear on this list.

It does pain me to put this on the list as Temperamental is a great album from the Divinyls, however it not only failed to spawn a hit for them but also suggested that their time was coming to an end just like the 80's were. Fortunately, they had other ideas as Chrissie Amphlett doubled down on her sexual appeal on this album which helped it become a massive success both here and internationally.

They were never among the biggest artists in the music scene in Australia, however this 1993 effort from the Pet shop boys did come out of nowhere when it spawned two hits for them that year. I feel this was more due to the EDM scene catching on and that these guys were shoe ins for lighting up our dance floors more than anything.

While it didn't spawn a hit single for her, there's no denying that Tina was able to recapture the success she had from the 90's with this album after exactly a decade of having little to no success throughout the 00's.

Hoodoo gurus is another band that looked like they would be trapped in the 80's as their final album of the decade Magnum cum louder was a huge flop for them, fortunately they bounced back with this album proving that albums failure was more of a fluke than anything as they did see success going into the 90's after all.

The last time George Harrison had proper success in the mainstream was with his album Living in the material world from 1973, basically fourteen years had passed since he last troubled the charts worldwide save for that touching tribute he made for John Lennon earlier in the decade. This was an album custom made for lists like this as seeing him back in the spotlight after all those years was a touching surprise for his fans.

While they weren't exactly failures here in Australia, the second and third albums from these guys didn't bring in the numbers of their first album from the start of the decade. Here Chrissie goes in a more mature direction by ditching her "one of the boys" attitude which clearly wasn't serving her anymore which resulted in this technically being their most successful album.

Well, this list would be incomplete without one of the most heartwarming comebacks of the 90's, indeed Cher hadn't had a hit in Australia since her theme to her film Mermaids which was a good seven years before she released this album which introduced the world to autotune with its title track.

They may not have necessarily wanted to make this album; however, the careers of Cheap trick were on the line whether or not this album succeeds and so they played it safe with this album which of course became their biggest album due to it being an adult contemporary album rather than their most traditional arena rock.

Well, he certainly took a while to transition from disco to RNB, however once he did Billy Ocean found little trouble in finding success on the charts worldwide like he did during the height of disco's popularity. He would have three highly successful albums in the 80's beginning with this comeback of his.

It may have been a brief comeback for them, however the years with John Farnham as their lead vocalist weren't kind to Little river band which is perhaps why it was for the best that John left the group and Glenn returned as both parties seemed to be better off with this arrangement.

Well, this came out of nowhere for Sade, I doubt they minded that they were back in the 90's given how they seemed out of place in the 80's with their unique brand of jazz RNB rock. Like I said, they seemed like a warmup for M People who would take over the rest of the decade with a similar formula these guys had.

Madonna songs ranked

This is another subjective list of mine, although in this case it's due to me ranking all of Madonna's hit singles given that A: I'm a huge fan of the queen of pop and B: how diverse many of her songs are throughout her career. Suffice to say that this list is my personal opinion of her music and as such shouldn't be taken with any form of authority besides maybe that of a fan exploring what they like about her songs.

Well, there had to be something that sucked about A league of their own, granted to do feel the melody is really pretty on this track, however Madonna's checked out vocals are at their worst on here and it just feels like a drag. No wonder this wasn't nominated for an Oscar (although that might be due to Aladdin and the Bodyguard sweeping the nominations) despite this being a Billboard chart topper.

A trend that Madonna picked up in the 90's was how she would over sing on her ballads, to me it sounded like she was yawning half of the time which didn't do much to invest me into these tracks. This is one of the more egregious examples of this phenomenon hence why I'm not a fan of it.

This is where Madonna's over singing is at its most pronounced as it really does seem like she's yawning on this track rather than giving it the subdue performance that the lyrics beg for, I'm still convinced this would've been long forgotten were it not for its usage in F.R.I.E.N.D.S for the record.

I'm honestly not that impressed with this track outside of the video, yes, those visuals are striking to this day, however the song itself is just noise to me and feels out of place on the album it named after.

Well at least this cover has a beat to it unlike her previous three entries, still the fact that Madonna chose to cover one of the most culturally significant songs of all time for a film as offensive as The next best thing is (and not for its depiction of the LGBT community which strangely wasn't offensive) is about the most tone-deaf thing Madonna could've done at this point in her career.

I know that on a technical level this is an outstanding ballad, however I've never been that big on the original and I don't listen to Madonna's music for technical excellence. I won't put it last because it deserves so much better than being outranked by the dreck we've looked at so far on this list.

Yeah, the lyrics aren't going to win Madonna any feminism awards anytime soon, however there's no denying this is an otherwise fantastic vaudeville track from the queen of pop that perfectly fits in with the context of the film. For what it's worth, Madonna's character Breathless Mahoney is a femme fatale so even in the film, she was only pretending to be a sex diva longing for the mistreatment of a man.

Sure it's far from the worst song in her catalogue, however this was made to be a sexually provocative track more than anything which means it doesn't have the same universal appeal as her more definitive classic. Even so it's still catchy and I'm sure people still find it titillating to this day.

I always felt this song was over hated, although that might be my bias towards it and its video as I remember both of them being the coolest thing back in the day. I think people's hatred for this theme has less to do with the song itself and more to do with Madonna's overall music style at the time which people retroactively don't like.

This had to be bundled with "Into the groove" in order for it to be a success for Madonna in certain parts of the world, I can see why as it's one of her more cloying tracks and if there's a mode from Madonna, I'm not a big fan of, it's whenever she feels the need to be cloy in her music.

This is another ballad from Madonna I feel is a bit too cloying to be among my favourites from her, don't get me wrong it's catchy, but it's not among my favourites as is the case for many of her fans.

Of all the songs from Madonna's career I find to be a bit cloying, this is my favourite as she at least manages to display her vocal talents which she once had. It's true, she was able to hit those high notes with minimal effort back in the day, although she's since lost that ability due to her relying on studio trickery to hit those notes for her.

This is sort of cheating as Madonna is merely the featured artist on this track and she doesn't really add much to the song all things considered, however I'm sure I'll get a few "why didn't you include this" comments if I don't have it on here so here we go. It's a song that exists more for the publicity of the album it came from, however there have been worse songs in both artists careers in my opinion.

I know that this song can feel annoying if you don't realise it's meant to be satire of the rich and famous (not helped by Madonna herself becoming everything she criticises in this song over the years) however I do get the joke and find myself enjoying this for what it is more than I care to admit.

This is the most recent song to appear on this list, suffice to say that Madonna will always have a chance to make a song I like so long as she continues to make music (even if nothing she's released since this is anything I like.) Here we have an environmental track about how she and Justin Timberlake are going to save the world, sure it's narcissistic, but the chemistry they have is undeniable and for a good cause.

While this is a good choice for the lead single to Ray of light, I feel that the album had better options including its title track. Admittedly I feel the album is best enjoyed from start to finish rather than for its individual singles which is a rare phenomenon in Madonna's catalogue.

I'm not the biggest fan of Madonna's ballads for the most part, however when she gets it right like she does on this sole ballad on her Erotica album, you can rest assure that I'll be revisiting it again and again.

As a song, I think this is excellent much like 90% of the entries on this list, as a single however, it feels a bit weird as do all of the tracks from Confessions on a dance floor save for the lead single which at least had a clear end point to justify it as the single.

This is one of the more cloying songs from Madonna's catalogue, although there's no denying that it's a ton of fun to sing the lyrics over karaoke which makes this a huge guilty pleasure for anyone who isn't a diehard fan of the queen of pop.

I know Madonna doesn't have many fond memories during the production of the film of the same name (or indeed during this phase of her life in general) however the Latin flavoured production combined with the lyrics has always been a huge draw for me and I'm sure audiences of the day. It was a huge hit back in the day and one I hope one day she's come around on.

It takes a while to get into this track as I can admit that I didn't like this at first, however once you do, you'll find a highly sexy track from one of the most beautiful women in the world that does so much more than shock the prudes in the audience. As an extra fun fact, this was written by Lenny Kravitz to give it that extra layer of seductiveness.

I've got to hand it to Madonna, she makes for a surprisingly good RNB singer as evidence of her lead single to her album Bedtime stories. The groove on here is slick and works wonders with her more seductive voice, I guess this could've also been on her previous album Erotica with how titillating she is on here.

Guys I know this is a classic and believe me I do love this Latin flavoured track from Madonna, I just don't think it's among her best which is why it isn't any higher on this list. That said this is a compelling tribute to her Hispanic heritage as she incorporates a Spanish guitar and Spanish lyrics throughout the track that helps it stand out from all of the synth tracks from when it was released.

I honestly don't get people, sure this is an Avant Garde track from the queen of pop, but I've loved this song since the day I first heard it back in 2000 and no amount of internet discourse is going to diminish that love I have for this track.

This was the song that opened up the film Who's that girl, it's one of her catchier numbers and the cartoon it soundtracks proved to be more entertaining than the movie itself which seems to be little more than Madonna screaming for an hour and a half. It's a song that had more effort put into it than anything involved with the movie it was made for.

This is an example of a ballad done right from Madonna, I really do feel invested in the relationship that she paints out in this song thanks to her tender vocals as well as the production being catchy whilst still being a ballad. I have no idea how this works for the film it's written for but I'm sure it's an effective scene it's used in.

Simplicity can often go a long way in having a song be great, this song is the first to feature Madonna playing the guitar (she was previously a drummer before she became the queen of pop) which shows that while it's clear she was just starting out, she picked a catchy guitar lick to build the song upon which I and many others enjoy to this day.

One of the rawer performances that Madonna gives on record, here we have a ballad written for a long forgotten 80's flick no one remembers that regardless allowed this song to top the charts worldwide for her. This ballad likely led to the creative direction of her next album which she dedicated to her then husband Sean Penn.

This was the song that began it all for the queen of pop, although it needed two attempts to make it big in Australia considering it was a huge flop for her in her native America. Most people likely won't realise this is her debut single, although it's a strong start to her career given how she was "burning up" for the love of her life on this track.

This feels like it belongs on Ray of light, although it was actually written for the second Austin Powers flick for a scene that works remarkably well with the song in question. While the song is fantastic, I can't deny that part of my love for it comes from the video where she's shaking her groove thing to mini me in a 60's themed club.

Well, "Gimme gimme gimme" is one of my favourite songs from Abba, so naturally this lead single to Confessions on a dance floor would be among my favourites from the queen of pop given how it opens up an album that's meant to be one long track as opposed to individual songs. The alarm clock at the end of the track is the perfect way to end the song, which makes it the best single from the album by default.

This one took a while for me to fall in love with as my introduction to it (as with many of these songs) was on the Immaculate collection where it succeeded "Into the groove" on the album. Fortunately, I grew to love this haunting ballad that was written for her (then) husband's film At close range, it's a bit depressing if you're not in the right mood but it really speaks to you if you are.

I'm raking this song based on the live version given how I much prefer that over the album version which I feel is a bit too cloying even on the album. The live version is a more rock-oriented track as opposed to the album version which is pop and also doesn't have as many lyrics in the outro as the live version does. She's also less shrill on the live version than she is on the album version for some reason.

We're getting closer to the top of this list, so expect to see some surprises such as this title track from Ray of light not appearing any higher on here. It's a song that's both catchy as hell as well as her exploring her newfound spiritualism following a decade of her being a hardcore atheist. She's not religious by any means, but she obviously needed some comfort in this world which she found here.

A song that advocates for a teenage girl to decide whether or not she wants to keep her child after getting knocked up, while I can comfortably say that I will never find myself in the situation painted out by the lyrics, I do sympathise with everyone who has found themselves in this situation and have done for most of my life given how I've been listening to and loving this track since I was a very young child.

Well, this is the song that people accuse Lady Gaga of stealing from, although to be fair it's more the album version as there's different versions of this track depending on what we're looking at. For the sake of my sanity, I've gone with the single version as that's the one that most people would've heard of, although special mention goes to the album version for its bombastic production and the Immaculate collection version which also has slick production.

Admittedly most of Madonna's music doesn't require you to think that hard about it, however this title track from her fourth album is the rare exception to that rule as it opens up and album that's all about exploring her faith in religion only to conclude that she no longer has that faith. It's a song that a fellow Christian turned atheist can fully relate to.

Few artists are able to get it right with their earliest work, so it gives me great pleasure to rank this holiday classic from the queen of pop as one of her best songs as it's not only catchy, but also proof that at least once upon a time she had an amazing voice as there's no vocal filters on this track like there are with most of her other songs throughout her career.

This is one of my favourite songs from Madonna purely due to how much shameless fun it is, it's catchy as hell as well as it having a theme of exploring the unknown in a relationship. It was the highlight from her Erotica album for me and it appears to be well remembered by her fanbase even to this day.

You better believe that a dance craze is among my favourite songs to come from Madonna's catalogue, from the various shout outs to Hollywood legends she gives to the iconic line "strike a pose," this is a Madonna track that will live on in pop culture long after Madonna's relevancy dies out.

I bet you weren't expecting to see this so high on the list, indeed Madonna's love letter to the Mer people of the day (I still can't get over the music video) proved to be more compelling to me than most of her other ballads combined due to how in love she sounds on the track. It's also catchy as hell thanks to the laid-back production allowing the ambience to carry her passionate vocals throughout its runtime.

This is easily the best song Madonna has ever released, it's well performed, tells a heartwarming tale about how she's not going to be alone while she's dancing and it's just catchy as hell to boot. One of these days I'll have to watch Desperately seeking Susan to see how this film fits into the story because I get the feeling it's the only reason why it was a critical and commercial success back in the day.