A muttley collection of dog-related songs from a pack of Australian artists

Check out these 30 pawsome songs on Spotify about man’s best friend – the furry, loveable, loyal canine.

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There are as many different song genres as there are dog breeds.

But a surprising number of songs on this pawesome playlist are drop dead rockers – Powderfinger’s Bernard Fanning conjuring his inner Bowie on “Like a Dog”; The Angels salivating on the lascivious “Dogs Are Talking”; Bon Scott claiming “every dog has his day” fronting AC/DC on “Dog Eat Dog”; and the runaway freight train which is Cold Chisel’s “Houndog”, ensures there will be no sleeping dogs lying in the midday sun after this one has played.

Parcel (brown dog), Dave Faulker and Fiddle (black dog). Picture: Adam Yip

And what canine collection would be complete without a tear-jerking country ballad about man’s best friend.

This one is courtesy of Slim Dusty regaling all with the tale of “old Sniff the mangy one-eyed dog”.

His country cousin Adam Harvey is then banished to the “Doghouse” after misbehavin’ for “runnin’ with the pack”.

Mallrat brings us in to present with her piano ballad to her beloved Labrador “Charlie”, which placed third on Triple J’s Hot 100 last month.

Musician Paul Mac with his dog George Michael at his home studio ahead of release of his album 'Mesmerism'. Picture: Hollie Adams

You will also find cover versions – with Barnsey growling out the original “Hounddog”; Farnsey laying in to Led Zeppelin (probably one of the few people whose set of pipes can match Robert Plant’s); and Dan Sultan taking on … Florence and the Machine.

Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson are as “Sick as a Dog”; Nick Cave drowns his sorrows at the “Thirsty Dog”; Hunters and Collectors’ Mark Seymour indulges in a little reverse anthropomorphism in “Dog”, and Victorian rockers The Fauve’s claim that “Dogs are the Best People”.

Singer-Songwriter Dan Sultan with his dog Sloaney. Picture: Aaron Francis

And it sounds like the pawfect note to end on. Enjoy!

Disclosure: “To this day people insist the song was ‘written about a dog’,” Dave Faulkner said, from Hoodoo Gurus about “My Girl”. It is not. But the clip with the greyhound is so iconic we thought it worthy of inclusion anyway.

Check out the Dogs of Oz Spotify playlist here.

Originally published as A muttley collection of dog-related songs from a pack of Australian artists