What is the greatest Australian single of the last 25 years?

Idont know if the Liars count

my folks took a trek to engalnad for dad to work when i was in third form and i had to go to school (southbourne btw) and howzat was no.1 in england. i had to explain the meaning of the word "spunk" as i recall. to a guy named steve ridout. on a bus.

Unquestionably.

omg i love this song

The Stems - "At First Sight"
God - "My Pal"
The Triffids - "Beautiful Waste"
Plus what Alba said.

and rightly so!

wtf, bro? course i am!

best single and best cover in wetsuits = Say Goodbye by Indecent Obsession

I can see the bass player from Ch@d's Tree from my desk! if I stand up

-- QUeen Gonne love you for the rest of my night (da...), August 1st, 2005.
love this cd and the cover.were they sponsored by mambo for queensland tour ?

loved melodian records.

GoBs, 'Cattle and Cane'
Do-Re-Mi, 'Man Overboard'
Craven Fops, 'Mustard / When A Whiskey Buys a Whiskey'
Severed Heads, 'Goodbye Tonsils'
Australian Crawl, 'Reckless'
Tactics, 'Coat-tails'
The Church, 'Almost With You'
Thug, 'Dad'
Paul Kelly, 'Sweet Guy'

But, actually, the real answer is 'Samurai Stomp' by Samurai Trash.

the few actual pop songs (kylie, veronicas) on the list got there because they were truly gigantic hits, sivan doesn't have anything that compares to those and is super recent

yeah, makes sense

Double J is counting down 200-101 in tiny instalments all the week.

The likes of "Don't Change", "Cattle & Cane" and "Blackfella/Whitefella" ended up in the #190-200 bracket. Oof.

Never knew what Triple J was, other than some live versions of songs I like from 'Triple J Sessions.' Streaming it now for the first time!

This is apparently where they'll incrementally reveal the rest of the #101-200, should you wish prolong the misery lol. (Should be 10 more after 4pm AEST.)

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/doublej/music-reads/features/hottest-100-australian-songs-200-101/104701408

Same Tina Arena. I think sic is having a dig at me having a dig at the Crowdies.

― assert (matttkkkk)

I was just goofing on my own defense of the Crowdies


also surprised that Australia seemed to care about Silverchair long after everyone with sense had forgotten they existed.

― czech hunter biden's laptop (the table is the table)

oh boy just wait until you hear about how America hangs onto caring about American bands that nobody else heard to begin with!

186. Helen Reddy — 'I Am Woman'

OMG. This didn't even cross my mind. Respeck!

The top 1000 aussie songs of all time!

Fuck I can’t believe that Triple M doesn’t have ‘Rain’ by Dragon, what is WRONG with this country (yes, quite a few things, I know)

*Triple M list

Dragon may fall on the wrong side of the, um, Split Enz/Crowded House divide. ie. Australian residents for significant spans of time, but formed in NZ, and key members tended to be NZers right through.

Because I seemingly can't go 5 posts without a Go-Betweens reference in thread, the above reminds me that Robert Forster found Dragon (Marc Hunter specifically) illustrative of one his amusing "rules of Rock'n'Roll".

I turn a corner and face a street with the slight curl of a horseshoe to its shape, lined with an impressive run of terrace houses. As I proceed, I see at the far end of the street, 80 or 90 metres away, a tall, thin man approaching. We are like two gunfighters in a Western, advancing from either end of town. The drama of this little scene reinforced by the fact that no one else is around. We keep on walking and when he is about 20 metres away, I realise that the person in view, sharing this early morning street with me, is Marc Hunter, the lead singer of Dragon. He is an inch taller than my six foot three, his black hair is short with a red streak, his high-cheek-boned, feline face is handsome and relaxed, and he is wearing a black velvet jacket, open shirt and tight jeans. He is ramrod straight and his chin is high. He looks fucking incredible. I have just had time to clock all this when he is upon me, giving a nod and a smile as he passes. I know that he doesn’t know who I am. Another realisation comes seconds later, a mental zap that he has sent from his mind to mine. I get it. Being a rock star is a 24-hour-a-day job.

He didn’t have to look so good so early – he just can’t help it. There could have been a stage and 10,000 people positioned at the end of the street, and he wouldn’t have had to break stride – a check of the hair, perhaps – to strut to the microphone and perform a full show with his band. He was prepared and it wasn’t just the clothing – it was something more important than that, easy to miss when blinded by the bling and clichés of rock stardom, the limousines, entourage, groupies, the tattoos and luxury hotels – it’s to do with attitude. A haughtiness, a regal grab at life, a mood, that doesn’t just come on at six o’clock in the evening when showtime is close. Rock stars are ready at breakfast. He was probably only going to the shop to get milk and the paper, and yet there could have been a gaggle of teenage fans waiting at the corner – the ego allows for that situation – or a passing stranger like me, and he wasn’t going to let us down; we’d get the full show too – even at 7 am. That’s the lesson he flashed in passing, and if I hadn’t have been there, he would have been looking as good, still happy to groove on his own aura.

I love that bit - is that the same article where he talks about how to have good hair?

Somehow never knew that Dragon were NZ! Thank you for educating me

some stats on votes

164. Tina Arena — 'Chains' !!!

Curious whether Danii Minogue and Jamie Redfern et al got any votes now.

oh my god, I just checked and there are songs by Jet and Wolfmother in the 100. Wolfmother. And Jet.

Chains is an incredible song sorry

OTM

Just quietly, I like to see Italian sisters doing well on principle lol. But really didn't anticipate her being *that* close to contention in a list dominated by tepid 21st century Triple-J-core and boomers wielding electric guitars.

Not super-enormously displaced from the 100, it turns out:

159. Troye Sivan — 'Rush'

But neither was:

147. Nikki Webster — 'Strawberry Kisses'

TIL the Bee Gees are not actually Australian

The triple J list is kinda bad.

As for my favorite Australian single of the past 25 years I’ll pick

Jack J - Thirstin

Or “something (on my mind)”

I fell for their scam and tuned to Double J for one bracket. 140-131 might be the blandest stretch yet. Haha, wait, actually "Smoko" is #131, finally saving me from coma, at least.

lol BlueJuice

the "long Howard Era" of Australian music has a lot to answer for

Literal LOL

Interesting to only now see these Lime Cordiale chaps show up. I'm mainly conscious of seeing them pop up a *lot* in the annual Hottest 100's, but they don't seem to have much of profile outside the JJJ ecosystem. (Or do they?) Perhaps not all that much durability within that context either? (Unless perhaps they reign over the mysterious #101-130 zone here lol.)

Google has noticed me paying way too much attention to this nonsense and pointed me to this thing on brand relationships that helped some tracks. I feel a little unclean now.
https://themusicnetwork.com/creative-placements-impacted-the-hottest-100-of-australian-songs/

124. The Saints — '(I'm) Stranded'

122. Archie Roach — 'Took The Children Away'

In a list created by committee (even a Triple M committee) these surely tick some boxes (first generation punk and indigenous anthems) and make your list look a bit less weird, at least. Nice that the masses placed them fairly proximate to the 100 here.

I'd like to think that Shannon Noll, like Nikki Webster, resulted from some sort of coordinated troll campaign lol.

So Sia and a (second) Kylie Minogue track are what *just* missed the 100. And apparently Skyhooks, the first band ever played on JJ(J), just missed the 200, at #201.

Mildly infuriating to finally confirm that nothing from my ballot appeared in the 100-200 range and in the process be reminded of the existence of that cloying-as-an-insurance-jingle Birds of Tokyo thing (#108) lol.

wow i mean i guess this exercise has been pretty informative to me inasmuch as i had no idea people were so enduringly fond of dire corporate landfill indie tunes in this country, but i guess people can be nostalgic for anything (says the guy who owns an uncomfortable number of Mondo Rock cassettes)

there's nothing triple j loves more than the direst landfill indie, sadly

My most unfortunate nostalgia is possibly for the period in childhood when they went national and seemed, for a time, like a decent adjunct to 3RRR/3PBS locally, which *still* inexplicably makes me *want* to give Triple-J the benefit of the doubt somewhat, but ... yeah. *shudder*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukNOaKeUEQY

this is still the most loathsome song triple j has ever exposed me to

Okay yeah, I probably like some of the gawky antecedents of this sort of silliness admittedly but it doesn't add up to much and it's hard to imagine it rewards repeat exposure lol. Commenter seems OTM: "not gonna lie, if someone sent me messages of just 'do do do do do'- I’d block them."

These results were completely baffling. I keep thinking i'll see some stat : inxs wins with 0.93 of the vote, closely followed by someone else on .0926 of the vote.

Not sure what the best thread for this is, but from over the ditch it's interesting looking at the Triple J "top 100 Australian songs" thing in a way I think I'd find exasperating for the NZ equivalent* [...]

* (which would probably be all Six60/LAB and maybe Dave Dobbyn rather than the Flying Nun overseas people would vote for/expect)

― etc, Monday, 7 July 2025 23:21 (eleven months ago)

Speak of the devil - Radio New Zealand is doing one of these, where you can only vote for eight songs from a (mildly baffling) 1000 song shortlist ... I quickly brainstormed eight songs and none of them were on the list, lol.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/music/waiata-100-what-is-aotearoa-s-favourite-song

https://vote.rnz.co.nz/

"You Let My Tyres Down" - Tropical Fuck Storm

It's surely against the spirit of the NZ poll but I could happily vote for veritable truckloads of songs from that shortlist. I'm a bit excited lol. Though eight (8) slots is... a curious decision. Am certainly curious about the results, at the very least.

(I have an unhealthy attraction to these things admittedly -- eg. I voted in the ABC classical thing last week despite Mozeethoven placing in much the same configuration every frickin time -- so perhaps it's a blessing that I'm on the wrong side of the Tasman.)

Dirty Three - Great Waves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7zS1sGTSZQ

Dave dobbyn - slice of heaven

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Dpqz9eFj4

my god, I have not heard that in 35 years. Footrot Flats: The Movie!

I hear it several times each week thanks to the terrible radio station we have on at work

Seems one can vote for 10 tracks in the NZ poll and there's *some* provision for write-ins.

Random thoughts on listening to the start of their handy playlist earlier:
- "Splat" is their sole Bailter Space pick. Does it stand out as a bona fide domestic unit-shifter or something?
- I have an enduring soft spot for Bic Runga's "Get Some Sleep" and I don't care who knows it. Interesting that the list-makers' prefer 5 *other* BR songs.
- If I was allowed, I feel like I could happily put Blam Blam Blam's "There's No Depression..." at #1, now that they've reminded me. Still awesome.

Yeah, oops, ten songs not eight.

re: "Splat", I think a bunch of their selection criteria were Spotify plays - "Splat" shows 212k plays with "Untied" next at 81k; that's the only logic I can see for the non-single Bachelorette track they chose (which was used in Grey's Anatomy / Sex Education so has much higher #s that her actual singles).
Agree on "Get Some Sleep" - ditto on the Clean selections ignoring everything after the first flush.

May I direct "Slice of Heaven" enthusiasts/haters toward Donk Dobbo?

Okay, yeah, surveying digital activity would make sense!

My thoughts remain with NZ today. Is it weird to be fantasizing about a futile write-in vote for THIS, of all possible Flying Nun things? (A "just a jingly-jangly thing where I can barely even make out the lyrics but wouldn't mind if was three hours long" sort of schoolkid favourite lol.)

all the longlist's beths picks are wrong! it should be "out of sight" or "silence is golden"!

xp sounds a bit like No Age!

* refreshes memory of No Age *

Incidentally, every time I click on this thread I think about the original question in the terms of *present* 'last 25 years' then realise I have little sense of what is/isn't a 'single' in the 21st century and then kinda shrug my shoulders.

Was thinking the same xps

Would definitely have Dying To Believe in there and Jump Rope Gazers seems a strange choice based on their repertoire