The best 35 Australian songs that changed the nation’s music landscape
These are the 35 songs that changed Australian music, and have been sung by millions over and over. But who’s your favourite?
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They are 35 songs that changed Australian music, from pioneering rock to banging dance. But which would you pick as the best Australian songs of all time?
Here’s our list, have your say in our online poll below.
FRIDAY ON MY MIND – THE EASYBEATS (1966)
Friday On My Mind turns 55 this year and still sounds fresh and energetic – it would not only launch Australia as a viable rock export, but also the career of Harry Vanda and George Young as writers and producers. It’d go on to be covered by David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen, but the incredible original and its prototype working-for-the-weekend message, delivered perfectly by Stevie Wright, is never bettered.
THE LOVED ONE – THE LOVED ONES (1966)
Many discovered this Australian classic through INXS, who recorded it twice, most lucratively for their million selling album Kick. The Melbourne band, fronted by the late Gerry Humphrys, were inspired by the Rolling Stones and the Animals. Their jazz background, and their trademark organ, quirky feel that made this song stand out.
THE REAL THING – RUSSELL MORRIS (1969)
Written by Johnny Young, nabbed by producer Molly Meldrum for Russell Morris – the latter would combine to take the song into the musical stratosphere. It’s a warped psychedelic trip that stretched for nearly seven minutes and still has the power to transport you elsewhere.
BECAUSE I LOVE YOU – THE MASTERS APPRENTICES (1970)
Recorded at Abbey Road and boasting use of Paul McCartney’s piano, the simple but universal message in this song has kept it relevant, while the summer of love feel and that gorgeous tune is of its time but also timeless.
EAGLE ROCK – DADDY COOL (1971)
This song turns 50 this month and still manages to defy being defined by when it was released. From that dirty blues riff to the insistent groove, Ross Wilson knew how to make rock music you could dance to from the get-go. This would go on to inspire Elton John’s Crocodile Rock, chart multiple times and be discovered by new generations (some without pants for mysterious reasons).
I AM WOMAN – HELEN REDDY (1972)
Tragically losing Helen last year has made the world rediscover I Am Woman. Listening to it now you hear a woman with a proudly Australian voice, when that was probably a detriment in the US, tapping into the burgeoning Women’s Liberation movement. It was not only pioneering lyrically, she became the first Australian to win a Grammy.
LIVIN’ IN THE 70S – SKYHOOKS (1974)
Carbon dated in the decade it documents, there’s an array of today’s bands currently trying to nail this blend of psychedelic, funk, pop and rock as well as the Hooks did. With modern ears you hear how good the musicians were, how crisp Ross Wilson’s production was and what a vocalist Shirley Strachan (“I feel like a good time that’s never been had”) was.
IT’S A LONG WAY TO THE TOP (IF YOU WANNA ROCK AND ROLL) – AC/DC (1975)
Songs about being in a rock band can suck. Not this one, from the pen of Ronald Scott. Taken from their second album, this was from a man who’d already tried to make it with other bands. AC/DC looked like his ticket but they were still far from fame.
LOVE IS IN THE AIR – JOHN PAUL YOUNG (1978)
We love music because of how it makes us feel. This song supplies instant joy. From the genius team of Vanda and Young, their take on disco is magical – all stirring strings, soaring melodies and that majestic chorus that just uplifts you.
BOYS IN TOWN – DIVINYLS (1981)
This was their first single; lesser bands would have struggled to match a song this flawless. It’s all there from the outset – Chrissy Amphlett’s commanding vocals and presence, the urgent music and attitude. This song turns 40 this year and could still blow away any rock tunes released today.
GREAT SOUTHERN LAND – ICEHOUSE (1982)
Homesick after touring the first Icehouse album, Iva Davies wrote a love letter to Australia without cultural cringe and with the state-of-the-art Fairlight synthesiser. It’s moody and experimental, but with a big booming pop chorus that made it an anthem.
OVERKILL – MEN AT WORK (1983)
Nothing against the overplayed Who Can It Be Now or Down Under, but have you heard Overkill? Colin Hay was trying to follow up a huge debut album and was writing about ghosts, anxiety, insomnia and depression back in the early 80s, wrapping it in the most beautiful melody and vocals and a ripper guitar solo.
THROW YOUR ARMS AROUND ME – HUNTERS AND COLLECTORS (1984)
Ironically the underground band would split up under the pressure of chasing success when they had this classic in their arsenal the whole time. Maybe it’s more special considering it never charted higher than No. 34 (through a live reissue in 1990) but has forged its own path into our cultural DNA, from beloved cover versions (Crowded House, Pearl Jam) to insurance ads.
FLAME TREES – COLD CHISEL (1984)
Sure Khe Sanh is a stone cold classic but it’s perhaps overplayed. Flame Trees is a band not only with a few more miles on the clock but about to call it a day. It’s a Steve Prestwich tune, with Don Walker writing lyrics about his youth in Grafton (where the flame trees are a native) and Jimmy Barnes delivering them with one of his most evocative vocals. And it really comes to life as a communal anthem live.
YOU’RE THE VOICE – JOHN FARNHAM (1986)
It’s not known as the other national anthem for nothing. Yes, you’ve heard it a million times. Yes, he’s got other songs just as good (Age Of Reason, Playing to Win) but You’re The Voice was a moment in time that changed our culture. He was broke and washed up, he knew this was a powerful song he could nail. And it’s that voice, and that message, that has made this song relatively immortal in the world of modern music.
DON’T DREAM IT’S OVER – CROWDED HOUSE (1986)
Stevie Nicks would introduce Neil Finn, when he was in Fleetwood Mac and got to sing this with them, by pointing out it was a ‘one in a million years’ type of songs. As usual, she was right. It’s also a very Neil Finn song, filled with all the wonder he pulls out of nowhere.
NEED YOU TONIGHT – INXS (1987)
Very difficult to pick just one INXS song, but Need You Tonight is pure INXS. There’s the funk groove from listening to Chic, Michael Hutchence’s sultry vocals that make this song drip with raw sex appeal, that rock guitar riff … the one introducing Dua Lipa fans to INXS as we speak.
BEDS ARE BURNING – MIDNIGHT OIL (1987)
Midnight Oil put Australia’s treatment of our Indigenous citizens and land rights inside their biggest global hit. Right there in the killer chorus Peter Garrett sings “it belongs to them, we’re gonna give it back”, all over radio, all over the world. If you’re going to mix rock and politics, why not do it with a classic song?
UNDER THE MILKY WAY – THE CHURCH (1988)
This song is timeless. Under The Milky Way has in-built intrigue and mystique that has never aged, which is why it’s still being covered and still being used in TV shows and movies. It’s a gentle song but it’s not passive, it’s just beautiful.
TO HER DOOR – PAUL KELLY (1987)
How do you choose one Paul Kelly song? This is everything Paul Kelly does better than just about anyone in just over three minutes — a story that carries you along like a great book, a rollicking tune and when it ends you feel better than when it began.
TOOK THE CHILDREN AWAY – ARCHIE ROACH (1990)
Write what you know they say. So Roach’s very first single tells his story of being part of the Stolen Generation – “snatched from our mother’s breast, said this was for the best.”
TREATY – YOTHU YINDI (1991)
Written with the band plus Paul Kelly and Peter Garrett and inspired by the lack of progress on a treaty between Indigenous Australians and the Government at the time, it was a dance remix from Melbourne’s Filthy Lucre dance crew that saw Yothu Yindi become the first Aboriginal act to score a mainstream hit in Australia. It then crossed into the US dance chart, without compromising on singing in Yolngu language or losing any of the didgeridoo or percussion. Politics you can dance to.
CHAINS – TINA ARENA (1994)
Fact: Chains should be held in the same sky-high regard as You’re The Voice, Khe Sanh and The Horses. Firstly, it is a vocal masterclass. The pure power and precision in Arena’s delivery is something to behold. And it’s because she’s telling her own truth. And it takes a singer of Arena’s skill bring you along with the song’s build and then soar over the epic key change.
TO THE MOON AND BACK – SAVAGE GARDEN (1996)
Truly, Madly, Deeply was the big romantic ballad, but there’s something about To The Moon and Back that captures the wide-screen vision of pop that Savage Garden bottled. It’s a mini-epic, anchored in their beloved 80s with nods to Michael Jackson and Peter Gabriel, full of wonder and longing and Darren Hayes’ built-for-the-masses vocals.
INTO MY ARMS – NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS (1997)
“I don’t believe in an interventionist God, but I know, darling, that you do,” is one of Nick Cave’s most Nick Cave-esque opening lines. This stark piano ballad is a pure, direct hit of Cave into your system and has been used at both weddings and funerals (he sang it at his friend Michael Hutchence’s memorial) and it speaks volumes of a song that can have that scope.
DON’T CALL ME BABY – MADISON AVENUE (1999)
A very happy accident: vocalist Cheyne Coates recorded a rough demo on a cheap microphone thinking a famous singer would handle the finished version. But the grit and energy is just what this disco-fuelled slap-down needed. Built around a deep bassline and DJ Andy Van’s house beats, it’d put Australian dance music on the global map. Plus it still slaps to this day.
MY HAPPINESS – POWDERFINGER (2000)
Arguably their biggest song, it’s classic Powderfinger – slightly dark subject delivered with a cracking tune and huge chorus so it works as an anthem. They played it remotely on their iso-reformation last year, which is as close as we’ll get to hearing in a crowd again for now.
FRONTIER PSYCHIATRIST – THE AVALANCHES (2000)
Fashioned together from samples (everything from Divine in the movie Polyester to old 60s orchestral records they’d found in second hand bins) this was turntable art and was refreshingly bonkers and fun. It still sounds like little else, 21 years on.
CAN’T GET YOU OUT OF MY HEAD – KYLIE MINOGUE (2001)
It doesn’t have a chorus, has a dark edge and a trancelike feel yet this may well be the perfect pop song. Kylie heard the demo of this song, could picture what she could do with it – which is turn it into a quintessentially Kylie song.
BREATHE ME – SIA (2004)
Sure there were big pop hits after this, but you wouldn’t have Chandelier without Breathe Me. This was early, broken Sia — Breathe Me is both hard to listen to but cathartic. Plus, that voice.
STRAIGHT LINES – SILVERCHAIR (2007)
Silverchair had a very accelerated growth, going from the basic grunge of Frogstomp to the sweeping grandeur of Diorama in just over five years. Written with Julian Hamilton (The Presets) Straight Lines just builds and builds to this glorious rock/dance hybrid that was so flawless the band struggled to top it and are still on that indefinite hiatus.
MY PEOPLE – THE PRESETS (2008)
A cultural shift. In the ’70s,‘80s and early ‘90s it was all about pub rock. But this was the generation who grew up embracing club music and DJs as their music. The Presets had the right song at the right time – an anthem of unity that was not only an absolute banger, but was also written about the government putting asylum seekers in detention centres (”locked up with all of my people.”) The line “so let me hear you scream if you’re with me” became a real double-edged moment.
WALKING ON A DREAM – EMPIRE OF THE SUN (2008)
Basically an Australian supergroup (Luke Steele of The Sleepy Jackson and Nick Littlemore of PNAU) who managed to make what dreams must sound like - future nostalgia way before Dua Lipa. An instant mood changer, this song was so immense it launched an entire side-hustle for two already very busy men that continues to this day, keeping the same ethereal aesthetic.
SWEET DISPOSITION – THE TEMPER TRAP (2009)
The vocal gives you goosebumps. The guitar riff gives you flashbacks. The drop gives you life. This is one of the most special songs to ever come out of Australia. Period.
SOMEBODY THAT I USED TO KNOW – GOTYE FT KIMBRA (2011)
One of the first Australian acts to reach the billion-view club on You Tube, this song changed everything. Made in Mornington, it didn’t sound like anything else on radio at the time, and was more of a conversation than a traditional pop duet. Incredibly intimate on every level, that’s what captured the world’s attention. How do you follow one of the most unique break-up songs of all time? Gotye’s still taking his time to do it correctly.
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