{"id":23334,"date":"2025-07-26T10:16:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T10:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/23334\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T10:16:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T10:16:13","slug":"live-updates-the-hottest-100-of-australian-songs-is-topped-by-inxss-never-tear-us-apart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/23334\/","title":{"rendered":"Live updates: The Hottest 100 of Australian songs is topped by INXS’s Never Tear Us Apart"},"content":{"rendered":"

1m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 10:14am<\/p>\n

Goodbye from me\"Dan<\/p>\n

Well that was the best Hottest 100 I’ve ever heard, and I started listening to them back in… well let’s just say I’ve heard a few.<\/p>\n

Thank you so much for joining us, and a special huge thank you to everyone who voted in this countdown. Getting to celebrate Australian music is the best thing about working in the triple j and Double J family and we’re so glad you all joined us for this special event.<\/p>\n

It’s triple j’s 50th anniversary this year, so stay tuned for lots more celebrations of Australian music in the coming months!<\/p>\n

Someone just delivered me a tumbler of sparkling wine so I’m going to go and sing Australian songs with my colleagues and we’ll probably stay up too late talking about how much we love Australian music.<\/p>\n

I cannot adequately thank the esteemed Velvet Winter and Alister Newstead for their company and hard work on the blog today. And thanks so much for all your comments.<\/p>\n

Make sure you join us on Double J for the 200-101 next week!<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

7m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 10:08am<\/p>\n

Big love for our #1\"Velvet<\/p>\n

We’re sticking around for a little longer so keep those reactions coming!<\/p>\n

Thank you INXS ….love you…Never tear us apart….thank you – Jewels<\/p>\n

The best! Never Tear Us Apart \ud83d\udc97 – Jo<\/p>\n

So happy with number 1, what a song! – Phillip<\/p>\n

We\u2019re all still a bunch of old softies, Go INXS and Never tear us apart\ud83d\ude0d – Kamikaze<\/p>\n

10m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 10:04amThe Hottest Australian song of all-time, according to you\"Al<\/p>\n

The people have spoken and INXS’s 1987 single Never Tear Us Apart has been crowned Australia’s favourite song in this special edition of triple j’s national music poll.<\/p>\n

So how did a tender ballad approaching its 40th anniversary resonate with so many people?<\/p>\n

Because it’s truly stood the test of time, scoring everything from film and TV, sporting events, and of course, your many memories and milestones.<\/p>\n

Here’s a deep dive on the whole thing, have a read:<\/p>\n

14m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 10:00am<\/p>\n

#1: INXS \u2014 Never Tear Us Apart (1987)\"Velvet<\/p>\n

What a song! What a sax solo! What a countdown!!<\/p>\n

\"\"20m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 9:55amWe almost never had The Nosebleed Section…\"Dan<\/p>\n

It took band mates\u00a0MC Pressure and\u00a0DJ Debris\u00a0to convince Hilltop Hoods’s member Suffa that they had something special with their biggest song The Nosebleed Section.<\/p>\n

“I was thinking it didn’t fit in with the other songs,” Suffa told triple j back in 2012.<\/p>\n

“We try to make really cohesive records where every track feels like it comes from the same place and maybe that one stuck out a bit, but it stuck out in a good way.”<\/p>\n

The song has appeared in three Hottest 100s before. This is its highest ever placing, beating the #4 placement it got in 2013’s Hottest 100 of the Past 20 Years.<\/p>\n

21m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 9:53am<\/p>\n

#2: Hilltop Hoods \u2014 The Nosebleed Section (2003)\"Velvet\"\"<\/p>\n

30m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 9:45am<\/p>\n

Everything you need to know about Untouched\"Dan<\/p>\n

Wondering how and why The Veronicas’s 2007 song Untouched made it so high? Our pal Courtney Fry from triple j has you covered.<\/p>\n

31m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 9:43am<\/p>\n

#3: The Veronicas \u2014 Untouched (2007)\"Velvet<\/p>\n

YES, MY BEAUTIFUL BRISBANE GIRLIES!!<\/p>\n

\"\"33m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 9:42amNever underestimate the power of Scar\"Al<\/p>\n

Legitimately, the biggest sing-along all day at triple j HQ goes to\u00a0 Missy Higgins’ breakout song . People are even doing the piano part!<\/p>\n

Plus, as Zan Rowe and Lucy Smith pointed out on air,\u00a0 Missy herself was singing along, cat in her lap.<\/p>\n

The recent ARIA Hall of Fame inductee<\/a> wrote it when she was just 19, regarding the pressures of others trying to push towards a different musical sound and identity. Like ‘a triangle trying to squeeze through a circle’ as she sings.<\/p>\n

“It’s a post-it note in my heart to always trust myself,” she says on-air of her 2004 single.<\/p>\n

It still resonates all these years later, all across Australia, the perfect introduction to a gifted melodist and eloquent lyricist, who excelled at penning songs that sound familiar, and always hit close to home.<\/p>\n

41m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 9:33am<\/p>\n

#4: Missy Higgins \u2014 Scar (2004)\"Velvet<\/p>\n

Where are all the amazing female Australian artists? Come on Australia, it it all blokes on their guitars? <\/p>\n

– Jane<\/p>\n

Here ya go, Jane! One of our finest!<\/p>\n

\"\"45m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 9:30amDon’t Dream It’s Over shot Crowded House to fame\"Dan<\/p>\n

It was voted in at #76 in the 1998 and #50 in the 2009 Hottest 100 of All Time countdowns, now Crowded House land at #5 in today’s Hottest 100 of Australian Songs.<\/p>\n

“After six months of the first Crowded House record coming out there was still nothing really happening with it, it was kind of a slow bloomer,” Neil Finn told Double J’s Henry Wagons in 2014.<\/p>\n

“But Don’t Dream It’s Over kind of developed a momentum of its own. You had a sense of events unfolding rapidly that you could just hopefully enjoy \u2013 and I mostly did \u2013 but there’s suddenly an intense focus of attention on you and a busyness that you have to adapt to.<\/p>\n

“You have to be smart enough to enjoy those moments when they happen. A lot of people recoil in horror at the sudden amount of attention and focus on one particular song, which is kind of like having one of your children picked out and feeling a little upset for your others.”<\/p>\n

Read all about this incredible Australian (fight me)\u00a0band here:<\/p>\n

45m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 9:29am<\/p>\n

#5: Crowded House \u2014 Don’t Dream It’s Over (1986)\"Velvet\"\"48m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 9:26amYour top 5 is about to begin!\"Velvet54m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 9:20amThe brilliance of My Happiness\"Dan<\/p>\n

Another previous Hottest 100 winner, Powderfinger’s 2000 hit My Happiness is beloved by everyone.<\/p>\n

We asked a bunch of Australian musicians what it is about this song that makes it such a force.<\/p>\n

Some people say it’s the guitar line, some say it’s the sentiment, and some just really love the slinky in the film clip.<\/p>\n

55m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 9:19am<\/p>\n

#6: Powderfinger \u2014 My Happiness (2000)\"Velvet<\/p>\n

Brb, crying my little eyes out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

59m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 9:15am<\/p>\n

Flame Trees brings the feels\"Dan<\/p>\n

Flame Trees is the best song about going back to your old hometown. If you\u2019ve ever done that then this just hits. <\/p>\n

Shoutout to anyone in Grafton listening to this. Especially if you ever knew Don Walker.<\/p>\n

This is the only back-to-back of the countdown and if you didn’t hear Jimmy Barnes’s reaction on air then we highly recommend you go back and have a listen. Beautiful stuff. We love ya, Barnsey.<\/p>\n

1h agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 9:14am<\/p>\n

#7: Cold Chisel \u2014 Flame Trees (1984)\"Velvet\"\"1h agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 9:10amKhe Sanh belongs to all of us\"Dan<\/p>\n

Khe Sanh has become something of a totem for the Aussie pub rock tradition. Initially banned by just about every radio station, except Double Jay, it is now practically considered an Australian anthem.<\/p>\n

The song is classic Don Walker. Told from the perspective of a freshly returned Vietnam veteran, it hints at the ill-effects of war \u2013 PTSD, returning home to broken promises, the unshaking restlessness and malaise \u2013 but is delivered with the same steely resolve expected from men of the era.<\/p>\n

I asked Walker about the song’s legacy and whether he feels like he owns it.<\/p>\n

“If I hear Khe Sanh on the radio, or if I hear a bunch of people singing it \u2013 which I can quite often do anonymously \u2013 it never crosses my mind that they’re singing my song,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think about that at all. It’s like another entity out there.”<\/p>\n

1h agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 9:06am<\/p>\n

#8: Cold Chisel \u2014 Khe Sanh (1978)\"Velvet\"\"<\/p>\n

1h agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 8:59am<\/p>\n

Christmas never sounded so good\"Dan<\/p>\n

With apologies to Bucko and Champs, How To Make Gravy is the Australian Christmas song.<\/p>\n

It is compulsory to have it on your Christmas playlist, it inspired a film of the same name, and every time the 21st of December rolls around, it just seems to get bigger and bigger. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty you can read about this song, but I\u2019ll never tire of Max Quinn\u2019s investigation into who really made the gravy that fateful Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1m agoSat 26 Jul 2025 at 10:14am Goodbye from me Well that was the best Hottest 100 I’ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,23410,21091,23407,23415,23414,44,23413,23412,23411],"class_list":["post-23334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-songs-hottest-100","tag-hottest-100","tag-hottest-100-of-australian-songs","tag-hottest-100-start-time-2025","tag-how-to-listen-to-hottest-100","tag-news","tag-triple-j-hottest-100","tag-triple-j-hottest-100-australian","tag-when-does-triple-j-hottest-100-start"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}