Wiggles’ Triple J Hottest 100 victory leaves music fans across the nation divided

The Wiggles’ win on Triple J has split fans into those who see the joke and listeners who long for a countdown that rocks.

The Wiggles line-up that covered the Tame Impala song Elephant last year. Picture: ABC

It’s certainly been a rollercoaster year for Australian music but whether The Wiggles winning ­Triple J’s Hottest 100 poll at the weekend comes at the top of the ride, or signifies a screaming fall to the bottom quickly became a matter of hot debate among the music-loving public.

The Wiggles notched the top spot on Saturday not with one of its own songs but with its take on Elephant, a single by Tame Impala first released in 2012.

Recorded in March at Triple J studios as part of the youth radio station’s long-running Like A ­Version cover song series, it marked the first time a cover had topped the Hottest 100, which began in 1993.

For some, it was all a bit of a joke – and a hilarious one, no less – that a children’s band covering a popular rock song reached No. 1: “Should have been higher” was one of the most popular responses to the result (including from The Wiggles social media account).

This Elephant was a faithful, if unflashy, take on one of the ­hardest-rocking tracks recorded by Tame Impala, aka Fremantle singer-songwriter Kevin Parker.

The three-minute Wiggly cover deviates into one of the group’s signature vocal hooks – “Fruit salad/Yummy yummy” – before returning to treating the original with due care and diligence. “We’re very honoured to be a part of it,” Anthony Field, aka the Blue Wiggle, told Triple J on air after the result on Saturday.

“I think this is one of the biggest things to happen to us.”

It might also be one of the biggest things to happen in Hottest 100 history, too.

Or at least since Taylor Swift was disqualified from the 2014 poll.

Kevin Parker of Tame Impala Picture: Nic Walker

Yet among all the laughing-crying emojis that greeted the news on social media, dismay among plenty of listeners was evident as a backlash grew on Sunday. Critics pointed out the song’s age and the list’s overall reliance on cover versions pumped out through Like a Version.

“Ah yes, the hottest song … of 2012. Except its worse now,” one disgruntled Twitter user said in response to The Wiggles’ victory.

A particularly disgruntled post on Sunday said: “Good way of getting people to never listen to Triple J again.”

For many serious music fans, the notion of a social media meme beating out new or original independent songs rankles. Perhaps more promisingly for the state of homegrown music talent, 18-year-old Sydney-born hip-hop artist The Kid Laroi, aka Charlton Howard, ranked at No. 2 for Stay, his frenetic song recorded with Canadian pop star Justin Bieber. And at No. 3 was Perth indie rock band Spacey Jane with its song Lots of Nothing; the group also reached No. 2 in last year’s Hottest 100 poll with Booster Seat.

Other cover versions polled strongly in the 2021 countdown, including songs by The Beatles (covered by Spacey Jane at No. 30) and Pink Floyd (covered by Ocean Alley at No. 54).

Tame Impala’s sole poll entry this year was a cover, too: its take on A Girl Like You by Edwyn Collins reached No. 66.

As a popular music poll, The Wiggles won because more people voted for it – or for the joke – than any other song.

It’s been a while since the nat­ional youth broadcaster’s annual countdown was seen as an arbiter of the nation’s music taste, bearing in mind there’s no guarantee an Australian artist will win.

Britain’s Glass Animals won the 2020 poll and Billie Eilish took it out the year before.

Indeed, when the Hottest 100 was first held in 1993, the winning song was comedian Dennis Leary’s Asshole. It’s worth remembering the song beat out the likes of Radiohead (No. 2), The Cranberries (No. 3), Rage Against The Machine (No. 6) and The Cruel Sea (No. 9).