The Hottest 100 of Australian Songs All Time - My Votes

The Hottest 100 of Australian Songs combines two of my all-time favourite things, so you better believe I haven’t thought about anything else for the past month.

My initial short list, which I believed was compiled with utter ruthlessness, was 156 songs. Oops. So yes, it’s been quite the process…

To get to the final ten, I decided on a few boxes to force me to narrow things down: equal representation of male and female led songs, as well as an even split across the decades.

And so, eventually and with extreme difficulty, I landed here:

‘Boys In Town’ by Divinyls (1981)

Chrissie Amphlett is the greatest Australian rock singer of all time, and she established herself in the pantheon immediately. Their debut single(!) is a desperate plea, an energetic anthem to escape. Nothing from the 70s squeezed into my list, but you can hear the best of Skyhooks, The Saints, The Angels and Renee Geyer rolled up in this one massive tune.

‘I Was Only 19’ by Redgum (1983)

I get it – the Hottest 100 is supposed to be fun. But sometimes you just need to feel, and this song never fails to send shivers down my spine and bring tears to my eyes. The most poignant and transportive Australian war song (sorry Khe Sanh), it’s haunting, poetic and stunning.

‘Under The Milky Way’ by The Church (1988)

A perfect song. No matter how many times it’s been played over the years, the myriad places it’s shown up, I’ve never tired of its cosmic hopefulness, it’s gorgeous yearning, it’s shimmering guitars. A genuine contender for greatest Australian song of all time, and one I think (and hope) will do extremely well in this countdown.

‘Hieronymus’ by Clouds (1991)

An absurdist masterpiece – honeyed vocals and pop-perfect harmonies shrouding dark, twisting lyricism. A nightmare wrapped in a dream. Early Nirvana meets The Bangles, somehow. Australian music in the 90s came to be dominated by Aussie alt-rock like Silverchair, You Am I, and Jebediah. ‘Hieronymus’ stands alone.

‘Pinstripe’ by Something For Kate (1997)

My favourite song of all time, I couldn’t leave it out (even if the only SFK song with any chance of making the final countdown is ‘Monsters’). It’s a six-minute monster of a track, traces of Nick Cave’s dark suburban poetry, soundtracked by the chunky riffs of Australian 90s alt-rock. No chorus. Just big verses, churning guitars, and Paul Dempsey’s propulsive, enveloping vocal.

‘Since I Left You’ by The Avalanches (2001)

Bubbly, and infectious, and gorgeous. A lush dreamscape that is both intricately woven and endearingly simple. Those angelic strings, that transportive hook, the flutes that stream in and out and slow dance with the violins. It doesn’t build towards some epic crescendo – it’s just four and half minutes of immaculate, ambient, delightful escapism.  It’s pure joy, the pure joy that comes from just loving music. It’s a paean to breaking free, to embracing new beginnings and seeing the world anew.

‘Lovesong’ by Amiel (2003)

I had one slot for 2000s pop songstresses, and in the end, Amiel won out over Queen Kylie, Missy Higgins and Kate Miller-Heidke. It’s not a happy song, but it’s so damn fun. It’s not complicated, but it’s universal, and gorgeous, and scathing. The kind of wonderous “fuck you” tune you can’t help but belt out in the car.

‘Edge Of Town’ by Middle Kids (2017)

It’s not fair to say this is Middle Kids’ peak – after all, they’ve become one of Australia’s best songwriting bands of the past decade. But with this debut, they instantly established themselves as a band of complexity and genius. ‘Edge of Town’ is a swirling rock odyssey of wondering and wandering, that builds to an explosively cathartic climax.

‘Final Form’ by Sampa The Great (2019)

The best Australian hip hop song of all time – inescapably funky and immensely powerful, Sampa The Great is an artist unbound by convention and genre. Her flow is inimitable, her lyrics exploratory and definitive and defiant, rhymes turning in on themselves and bubbling with suppressed energy. The sample that forms the hook, The Sylvers' 1973 funk track "Stay Away from Me" is perfect. An incredible journey that demands relistens.

‘Get Me Out’ by King Stingray (2021)

The 2020s are unlikely to be very well represented in the countdown – it’s too recent, the songs haven’t had the chance to simmer in the Australian consciousness and become classics. But I needed to celebrate the technicolour musical fireworks display that has been this half decade. I couldn’t go past the rollicking escapism of Yolgnu surf rockers King Stingray.

And a bunch more that I couldn’t squeeze in (in chronological order): ‘Horror Movie’ by Skyhooks (1974), ‘(I’m) Stranded’ by The Saints (1976), ‘Let There Be Rock’ by AC/DC (1977), ‘No Secrets’ by The Angels (1980), ‘We Have Survived’ by No Fixed Address (1982), ‘Man Overboard’ by Do Re Mi (1985), ‘Come Anytime’ by Hoodoo Gurus (1989), ‘The Ship Song’ by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (1990), ‘Treaty’ by Yothu Yindi (1991), ‘Chains’ by Tina Arena (1994), ‘! (Song Also Known As)’ by Regurgitator (1998), ‘Just Ace’ by Grinspoon (1998), ‘These Days’ by Powderfinger (1999), ‘Love At First Sight’ by Kylie Minogue (2002), ‘The Nosebleed Section’ by Hilltop Hoods (2003), ‘The Special Two’ by Missy Higgins (2005), ‘Carrion’ by Parkway Drive (2007), ‘The Last Day On Earth’ by Kate Miller-Heidke (2009), ‘Shooting Stars’ by Bag Raiders (2009), ‘Don’t Lean On Me’ by The Amity Affliction (2014), ‘Never Be Like You’ by Flume feat. Kai (2016), ‘January 26’ by A.B. Original (2016), ‘The Opener’ by Camp Cope (2017), ‘The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows’ by Gang of Youths (2017), ‘Better In Black’ by Thelma Plum (2019), ‘Gold Chains’ by Genesis Owusu (2021), ‘The Dripping Tap’ by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (2022), ‘Good Enough’ by G Flip (2023), ‘Exceptional’ by South Summit (2024)