I've decided to rank the songs of the 90's based on how long they charted here in Australia, this is to give an idea of which songs became a success despite being pulled from shelves and which ones persisted with no resistance from our music scene. I've also included a few new entries from post 1992 given how I covered the lower half of the charts from the pre-Oz music charts era already on this site and thus wanted to give these entries some representation on my site. I’ll also spare my return readers commentary for songs that appeared on my other Australian list for the 90’s on this site and only include commentary from entries that are either new to this list or marked their debut on my Oz music charts list or the 1980-1992 list.
Also to note, I’m using the chart run from the AMR charts for this list as I feel that’s a better representation of how long these songs stuck around for back in the day as opposed to the ARIA charts. As such, many songs that refused to die on the latter charts will be appearing much lower on this list due to them going away much quicker on the former charts (particularly from late 1997 and early 1998.) The exception of course being from 1999 as David Kent ceased publication the final week of 1998 and has only reproduced top twenty charts from that point on, meaning I had to use ARIA charts for songs that charted in 1999. That said, I’ll bring up how long a song from 1998 charted on the AMR charts before it ceased publication as a bit of a fun fact even though I’ll be using its ARIA run to determine its placement on this list.
#16 for 1999
The last time Underworld bothered the charts anywhere in the world was with their debut single "Underneath the radar," fast forward eight years and we have them finally escaping the one hit wonder bin with their theme song to the cult classic Trainspotting. This likely would've been more of a mainstream success here in Australia were it not for how popular the soundtrack was by the time it was released.
I'm a bit surprised this wasn't a mainstream success here in Australia given how A: it remains a staple on our radio to this day and B: it being well received back in the day despite coming from a highly successful album. I guess this was the full extent of the band's popularity here as not only was this the only song to chart for a considerable time here, but the album it came from was their only successful one as well.
This is another EDM track that was a huge bomb on the ARIA charts but did fairly well on the AMR charts, as such it was a shoe in for this list as it didn't quite rack up the points from the latter charts to qualify for a year end list of mine but was definitely noteworthy to appear on this list alongside the other near hits that appear on here.
This is the only hit that Eagle eye cherry had in his career, I'm a bit surprised at this given how he's the half-brother of rapper Neneh Cherry who saw substantial success throughout the 90's worldwide. I'm even more surprised this was a sleeper hit here in Australia at the time given how it seemed to be inescapable on the radio when it was first released.
We have another brand-new entry on this list, this time it's from the Verve pipe who scored their one and only hit worldwide with this post grunge track which is usually attributed as the song that kickstarted the genre following the demise of grunge from earlier in the decade. Despite their failure to score a second hit even in their native America, these guys are still active as of this writing.
30 weeks
#19 for 1997
#26 for 1998
#6 for 1992
#12 for 1996
#20 for 1997
#13 for 1996
#6 for 1990
#4 for 1991
#17 for 1993
#18 for 1993
#17 for 1999
#27 for 1998
#18 for 1999
(10 weeks on AMR)
#14 for 1996
#19 for 1999
#15 for 1996
This is a bit of a surprise to me, mainly because we have a Jamaican artist scoring a sleeper hit with a reggae track here in Australia and in the UK but not over in NZ for whatever reason. I'm not sure why the kiwis passed this up considering how they allowed Inner circle to be one of the biggest names of the decade over there, however they did despite the enjoyment we Aussies had for this track.
People like to say that Nimrod was a flop for Green day as it only became a best seller when two of its singles were bundled together to promote the series finale of Seinfeld a year after its release, for the most part that's true, however the lead single was a huge sleeper hit for the band here in Australia which was more success that their previous album Insomniac achieved upon its initial release.
#19 for 1993
#21 for 1997
29 weeks
#20 for 1999
#18 for 2000
#12 for 1989
#7 for 1990
#28 for 1998
#21 for 1999
(14 weeks on AMR)
#20 for 1993
#6 for 1994
#5 for 1991
#7 for 1992
#5 for 1995
#22 for 1999
#21 for 1993
#7 for 1994
#8 for 1992
#22 for 1993
#8 for 1994
#23 for 1999
#8 for 1990
#16 for 1996
#9 for 1990
#24 for 1999
#6 for 1995
#23 for 1993
#10 for 1990
#7 for 1995
#11 for 1990
#9 for 1992
#12 for 1990
#25 for 1999
#8 for 1995
#29 for 1998
#17 for 1996
#30 for 1998
#22 for 1997
#31 for 1998
#10 for 1992
While it didn't last very long in the upper echelons of our charts, this Billboard chart topper from 2Pac managed to stick around for quite some time for it to be a sleeper success with us Aussies. This sadly means that this was also the final hit the rapper had down under before his tragic passing, although at least this didn't rebound on our charts following the news of his tragic death.
#9 for 1994
#26 for 1999
From what I can gather, this only took off here in Australia due to it being chosen as the theme song to the 1996 film Flipper rather than there being any hype for Shaggy's second album here. To this day, I'm not sure why this and "Boombastic" from earlier took so long to connect with us Aussies as he didn't have any issues winning us over three years prior with "Oh Carolina."
#32 for 1998
Well, I did mention this was a moderate success here in Australia when I mentioned it on the NZ side of my site, so here we are with the one and only hit that Skid row managed to achieve outside of their native America likely due to it being similar to what Bon Jovi or Def Leppard would release from around this time. I get the feeling these guys would've had more luck internationally had they broken through sooner.
#10 for 1994
#6 for 1991
#11 for 1994
It's tough to say when post grunge took over from grunge music in the mainstream, one of the earliest examples of the former genre gaining traction here in Australia comes from this one and only hit that Belgian band K's choice had here. This definitely feels like it's a bit ahead of its time and easily would've been as big as some of Nickelback's hits throughout the 00's had it released later than it did.
Before there was Killing Heidi, we had the Superjesus as the Australian band with a kick ass female frontwoman in our alternative scene. This was their first big hit that they had which they released months prior to their debut album which was also a massive success for them, although Ella Hooper and company did unfortunately steal their thunder going into the new millennium.
28 weeks
#12 for 1994
#9 for 1995
#23 for 1997
#24 for 1993
#27 for 1999
#13 for 1990
#25 for 1993
#13 for 1994
#28 for 1999
#14 for 1994
#18 for 1996
#10 for 1995
#11 for 1992
#24 for 1997
#14 for 1990
#7 for 1991
#26 for 1993
#8 for 1991
#12 for 1992
#25 for 1997
#9 for 1991
#15 for 1994
#27 for 1993
#13 for 1992
#28 for 1993
#29 for 1993
#15 for 1990
#16 for 1990
#16 for 1994
#33 for 1998
#29 for 1999
(16 weeks on AMR)
#10 for 1991
#30 for 1993
#17 for 1994
#11 for 1991
#26 for 1997
It's a bit staggering how this only barely failed to appear on both side of my site up until this point given how I can imagine this being one of the most inescapable songs of its time given how iconic that chorus remains to this day, admittedly it took a while for the world to gravitate towards these guys given how hip hop up until this point was either hardcore gangster rap or cartoonish pop rap.
This was the song that saved Screaming jets second album, likely because it was more in line with jazz rock rather than their usual grunge sound from the rest of the album. Even so, this struggled to reach the upper echelons of our charts even though the album no longer had any issues with selling like hotcakes when this hit our airwaves.
I really wasn't expecting to feature a song from the Hunters and collectors on this site given how they were always more of an albums band when it came to their success here in Australia, however this song did allow their album Cut to become a massive success for them right when the purge of Australian music took place in 1993 due to how long it managed to stick around on our charts back in the day.
If you can believe it, this anti-drug track was actually the Verve's biggest hit in their native UK rather than their earlier entry on this list, heck it lasted quite some time here in Australia and even charted higher in NZ despite it falling off the charts rather quickly over there. Naturally its lack of success in the southern hemisphere was more due to high album sales rather than our disinterest in the track.
