CHART BEATS: A JOURNEY
THROUGH POP

Sometimes even the most successful music superstars can have off days. Or flop singles. During the 1980s, some of the biggest recording...

French musicians haven't ventured towards the top of the Australian singles chart that often. And over the years, those that have been successful locally have generally done so because they've used English lyrics in their songs, which Eurovision fans will know is the exception rather than the rule. Gibson Brothers: big hair, big hit This week in 1981, a trio of brothers from France crossed over to Australia with a single that contained lyrics both in English and their mother

Ah, remixes. It's a topic I've covered on more than one occasion in the past, but the power of the remix was never more evident than this...

Mi-Sex had done it in 1979 as had Split Enz in 1980, and in 1981, another band from New Zealand made it a hat-trick by going all the way...

One look at the new entries on the ARIA singles chart this week in 1996 tells you everything you need to know about how far Australia had come in embracing all different genres of music. Dance, rock, R&B, funk and whatever Def FX were... anything went. Unsurprisingly, my favourite of the new singles was the dance track, and although seeing club tunes on the top 50 was a regular occurence, Australia still lagged some way behind Europe in songs actually taking off here. As a re

From "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" to "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" , and "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)" to "La La La", music history is littered with songs that substitute sounds for actual words. And it's not just in the titles. Where would "Don't You (Forget About Me)" be without its "hey, hey, hey, hey" intro and "la, la, la" outro? "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" was taken from 'Zenyatta Mondatta' This week in 1981, a song with nothing but nonsensical syllables in its title debuted on the A

When I compiled my list of favourite girl groups , one common trait stood out: line-up changes. It is the rare girl group that gets to the end of its career with all its original members intact. One thing was certain with Eternal, and that was that nothing lasted forever This week in 1996, a British girl group that'd started out with four members returned to the ARIA singles chart minus one. And eventually, they'd slim down to a duo. But for now, they were about to embark on

Anyone who grew up with an older sibling will no doubt have had their taste in music influenced by them to some extent. That was...

A decade is a long time in music, and for an artist to be able to sustain peak popularity for that long is the exception rather than the...

There's a big difference between a covers band (think The Beatnix, Björn Again) and a band that has its biggest hits with remakes...

Nine new entries! That's what I call an exciting week in chart history. And the highest entry going straight in at number 1, no less —...

I'm sure I've mentioned this before — I'm nearing 700 posts, so it's likely — but I have many best of CDs in my collection that I bought for just a couple of songs. Sometimes, just for one track that, in the pre-iTunes era, it was impossible to get anywhere else. Stephanie Mills never knew Australian chart success like this before... or again This week in 1981, an American female singer arrived on the Australian top 50 singles chart with her only local hit — a song that pr0mp

Regular readers will know my disdain for novelty records, but there's a different type of novelty I am a fan of, and that's when an artist does something out of the ordinary or unexpected. Björk finally made some noise on the ARIA chart This week in 1996, a singer who'd developed a following with a series of critically acclaimed but commercially underappreciated singles broke through in a big way thanks to a song that, on paper, sounded like a crazy idea. The execution of her

How many bands from Tasmania can you name? Serious question, because I could only think of two: The Innocents, who we saw miss the top 50 back in 1980 , and one that made its debut on the chart as 1981 began. I googled "bands from Tasmania" and couldn't find any others I was familiar with. So, unless I'm overlooking someone glaringly obvious, this week in 1981 might just have seen the biggest national hit by a Tasmanian band in chart history. (Correct me in the comments if I'

Back in 1996, the ARIA chart still shut down at Christmas, meaning top 50 fans had to make do with an unchanged countdown for three weeks. And unfortunately, the singles chart for the three weeks ending January 7, 1996 was hardly what you would call exciting, with one new entry that spent a single week at number 50. There wasn't even a new number 1, with "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio featuring L.V. adding another three weeks to its tally, which now stood at 12 weeks, to fir

There are few music acts that can legitimately claim to have the word "mania" tacked onto the end of the name. The Beatles are one. And ABBA are another. ABBA were still surging on and on and on in 1980 After dominating the Australian charts in the second half of the '70s and causing an absolute frenzy when they visited in 1977, the Swedish quartet debuted on the top 50 this week in 1980 with what would end up being their last major hit here. Joe Dolce Music Theatre's "Shadda

In 1990, Tina Arena and Dannii Minogue both reached the top 5 of the ARIA singles chart, but (unless I'm forgetting someone) you have...

And so our look back at the ARIA singles chart of 1995 draws to a close with the final top 50 for that year, which featured two new...

Sometimes all it takes is a little patience. Twenty-two years' worth of patience. That's the amount of time between number 1 hits for the artist behind the highest new entry on the Australian singles chart this week in 1980. And his latest chart-topper had a similar subject matter to his original hit. Meanwhile, the patience of some Australians — myself included — was being tested as "Shaddap You Face" spent another week at number 1. It was enough to turn you to drink... Of

Songs shooting straight into the top 10 had become more commonplace by the mid-'90s. This week in 1995, a song entered the chart within...