UPDATE - JANUARY 25 2010 - We realise that a lot of people reading this will have found this archival relic through search engines, but we've left it as it is was when it was first published during the countdown for the Hottest 100 of all time in July 2009.
.....................
Have you figured out what's going to be number one? It's certainly been more than interesting being drip fed the "bottom 80" of Triple J's Hottest 100 of all time this week. There's some wonderful inclusions, and - as anyone would hope - a wildly unpredictable mix of music championed by the Js and public radio, along with a range of more overtly "mainstream" tracks.
If it all means anything, it's that Triple J has a refreshingly broad audience. And just as we discovered 20 years ago, this is not the kind of list that could have been generated by a commercial FM audience.
But how does this help us figure out what's going to make it into the Top 20? With any luck, there's still going to be room for some surprises. Still, the punter in me can't quite help myself. As well as treating past charts and what we know about this year's list as my form guides, I've been following the posts on the Top 20 prediction thread of Triple J's site, which include some apparently informed speculation about the breakdown of the top 20 tracks by decade, and I've come up with this.
20 - Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
19 - Weather With You - Crowded House
18 - Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
17 - Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve
16 - Lullaby - The Cure
15 - Power and the Passion - Midnight Oil
14 - Dancing Queen - Abba
13 - Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush
12 - Young Folks - Peter, Bjorn, and John
11- The Ship Song - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
10 - Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
9 - Sympathy for the Devil - Rolling Stones
8 - Paranoid Android - Radiohead
7 - Under Pressure - Queen and David Bowie
6 - Primary - The Cure
5 - Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers
4 - Wonderwall - Oasis
3 - Last Goodbye - Jeff Buckley
2 - Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
1 - Smells Live Teen Spirit - Nirvana
I could be outrageously wrong of course. So if you want to engage in some wild predictions or even resort to a flurry of wishful thinking, send your submissions to us here at Upstart before midday Sunday. Lawrie Zion
Email this article
Tags: Hottest 100, Lawrie Zion, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Triple J, Upstart



2 Comments
My Prediction:
1. Nirvana – Smells like Teen Spirit
2. Oasis – Wonderwall
3. The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army
4. Jeff Buckley – Hallelujah
5. Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
6. Radiohead – Creep
7. Joy Division – Love Will Tear us Apart
8. Coldplay – Clocks
9. Jeff Buckley – Last Goodbye
10. Rage Against the Machine – Killing in the Name of
11. Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven
12. U2 – One
13. metallica – One
14. Radiohead – Paranoid Android
15. Radiohead – Karma Police
16. Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun
17. The Verve – Bitter Sweet Symphony
18. OutKast – Hey Ya
19. Pink Floyd – Another Brick in the Wall Pt II
20. John Lennon – Imagine
Top 15 I’d say would be shoe-ins
Disappointed in the lack of Aussie bands likely to get anywhere neat the top. Guess I can’t be one to talk, 9 of 10 of my votes were British songs, with the last vote to the French
How come Wonderwall get’s a bit of upward traction?
One Trackback
[...] Lawrie Zion, the originator of the Hottest 100 back in 1989 has had a crack at the Top 20. [...]