Triple j‘s 1997 Hottest 100 countdown — considered the most popular Hottest 100 of all time — is about to be revisited.
Double J has announced it will be replaying the 1997 Hottest 100 on Sunday, 28th January (a day after the 2017 Hottest 100 drops on triple j), continuing a tradition which saw the station replay the 1996 Hottest 100 last year.
1997 is usually considered the most popular Hottest 100, as it was the year which had the most songs featured in the 2009 Hottest 100 Of All Time. 12 songs from 1997 were included in that countdown, including hits from the likes of Radiohead, Tool and The Verve.
1997 was also the second time an Australian act topped the countdown, with The Whitlams’ ‘No Aphrodisiac’ claiming first place after Spiderbait’s ‘Buy Me A Pony’ did the same thing in 1996.
In second place (fittingly) was Blur’s ‘Song 2’, with Chumbawamba’s ‘Tubthumping’ at number three, The Verve’s ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ in fourth place and Pauline Pantsdown’s ‘Backdoor Man’ at five.
“There’s an argument to say this is the most significant Top 5 in Hottest 100 history,” Hottest 100 expert and triple j‘s occasional guest Patrick Avenell tells Music Feeds.
The 1997 Hottest 100 also includes the only song to have ever been voted into the countdown but omitted from its broadcast (well, aside from the whole Taylor Swift thing), after Pauline Pantsdown’s satirical song ‘Back Door Man’ (ridiculing politician Pauline Hanson) was banned by a Queensland court after triple j played it a bunch of times over the course of 11 days.
“Another oddity towards the start of the countdown is ‘Did It Again’ by Kylie Minogue,” says Avenell.
“Yes, triple j played Kylie Minogue for a brief period in the mid-’90s. But not many other female singers: amazingly, only four solo women artists made the countdown, with Kylie joined by Diana Ah Naid, Imani Coppola and Robyn Loau in her company. Compare that to the plethora of fantastic solo female artists triple j now champions and you can see some progress, slow though it may be, is happening.”
To vote in the 1997 Hottest 100, listeners had to ring a special 0055 phone number and say their votes down the line for around 50 cents — with the bill payer’s permission of course.
“Because there wasn’t a voting list per se, nor streaming services providing 24/7 access to every song ever, votes were highly concentrated on singles,” Avenell says.
“That is a contributing reason to 1997 having the most different artists in the countdown — 88 — and no artists had more than two tracks in the 100. 34 of the 100 tracks were Australians — that’s around half the norm these days — meaning that an American or English person could peruse the list and obligingly nod their head and agree that it is an accurate representation of music, or at least English-language western music, for the year.”
Caz Tran will host Double J‘s rebroadcast of the 1997 Hottest 100, which will kick off at midday on Sunday, 28th January.
Check out the full list of songs from triple j‘s Hottest 100 of 1997, below.
Triple j’s Hottest 100 Of 1997
01. The Whitlams – No Aphrodisiac
02. Blur – Song 2
03. Chumbawamba – Tubthumping
04. The Verve – Bitter Sweet Symphony
05. Pauline Pantsdown – Backdoor Man
06. Blink-182 – Dammit (Growing Up)
07. Radiohead – Paranoid Android
08. Marilyn Manson – The Beautiful People
09. Radiohead – Karma Police
10. Jebediah – Leaving Home
11. Smash Mouth – Walkin’ on the Sun
12. Ben Folds Five – One Angry Dwarf And 200 Solemn Faces
13. Silverchair – Freak
14. The Superjesus – Down Again
15. The Living End – Prisoner Of Society
16. Quindon Tarver/Lee Perry – Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)
17. Cordrazine – Crazy
18. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Into My Arms
19. Regurgitator – Every Day Formula
20. Cake – I Will Survive
21. Foo Fighters – Monkey Wrench
22. The Verve – The Drugs Don’t Work
23. Spiderbait – Calypso
24. Korn – A.D.I.D.A.S.
25. Green Day – Hitchin’ a Ride
26. Nine Inch Nails – The Perfect Drug
27. Silverchair – The Door
28. Dana Lyons – Cows With Guns
29. Third Eye Blind – Semi-Charmed Life
30. Tool – Forty-Six & 2
31. Faith No More – Ashes To Ashes
32. Pendulum – Coma
33. Jebediah – Military Strongmen
34. Grinspoon – Dcx3
35. The Sundays – Summertime
36. Ween – Mutilated Lips
37. The Mavis’s – Naughty Boy
38. Metallica – The Memory Remains
39. Something for Kate – Captain (Million Miles)
40. The Bloodhound Gang – Why’s Everybody Always Pickin’ On Me?
41. Beck – Deadweight
42. Cornershop – Brimful of Asha
43. Ammonia – You’re Not The Only One
44. The Tea Party – Temptation
45. The Cure – Wrong Number
46. The Bloodhound Gang – Fire Water Burn
47. Filter And The Crystal Method – (Can’t You) Trip Like I Do
48. Custard – Anatomically Correct
49. The Living End – From Here On In
50. Arkarna – Eat Me
51. Everclear – So Much For The Afterglow
52. Garbage – #1 Crush
53. The Whitlams – You Sound Like Louis Burdett
54. Everclear – Everything To Everyone
55. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Love Rollercoaster
56. The Prodigy – Funky Shit
57. My Drug Hell – Girl At The Bus Stop
58. Diana Ah Naid – I Go Off
59. White Town – Your Woman
60. They Might Be Giants – New York City
61. Chemical Brothers – Block Rockin’ Beats
62. The Smashing Pumpkins – The End Is the Beginning Is the End
63. Grinspoon – Repeat
64. Faith No More – Stripsearch
65. The Lemonheads – Outdoor Type
66. Powderfinger – JC
67. The Offspring – I Choose
68. Jamiroquai – Cosmic Girl
69. Ween – Waving My Dick In The Wind
70. Reef – Place Your Hands
71. Robyn Loau – Sick With Love
72. Front End Loader – Pulse
73. Live – Lakini’s Juice
74. Rage Against the Machine – The Ghost of Tom Joad
75. Space – Female of the Species
76. Imani Coppola – Legend Of A Cowgirl
77. The Cardigans – Lovefool
78. The Mark of Cain – Degenerate Boy
79. Portishead – All Mine
80. Ben Harper – Faded
81. Kylie Minogue – Did It Again
82. Primus – Shake Hands with Beef
83. Lard – I Wanna Be A Drug-Sniffing Dog
84. Dave Graney – Feelin’ Kinda Sporty
85. Brainbug – Nightmare
86. Blackeyed Susans – Smokin’ Johnny Cash
87. Sneaker Pimps – 6 Underground
88. Beaverloop – Nothing
89. Dandy Warhols – Last Junkie on Earth
90. Pennywise – Society
91. Blue Boy – Remember Me
92. Sidewinder – Titanic Days
93. Skunkhour – Weightlessness
94. Rebecca’s Empire – Way Of All Things
95. Faithless – Don’t Leave
96. Local H – Bound for the Floor
97. Arkarna – Futures Overrated
98. Daft Punk – Da Funk
99. Luscious Jackson – Naked Eye
100. Effigy – I Give In
