In the life cycle of the average pop song, going to #1 on the charts is far from inevitable. But even ascending the dizzy heights of the pop music summit is no guarantee of a big, timeless and/or fondly remembered hit. Conversely, neither does not reaching #1 necessarily mean sinking like a stone, never to be heard of again. It’s a complex and, at times, random equation. You might be surprised to learn that many of today’s most well-known and best-loved songs – the ones that get trotted out, almost by default, at birthdays, christmas parties, wedding receptions and wherever there’s a jukebox – have never actually been big chart hits. Some were only minor successes when originally released, while others were never released as singles at all. Why they became so popular years afterwards is sometimes as mysterious as why they were never deemed release-worthy to begin with.

A decade ago the music landscape was in flux. While legitimate digital sales account for 60% of all music sold in Australia today, in 2005 digital downloads were more a source of controversy than anything else. The number of paid download providers was gradually increasing, but the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) didn’t even bother publishing digital sales charts until June 2006, so – at least for the time being – the status quo was still largely unchallenged and music sales were still predominantly physical.

In 2005 most suburban shopping centres were still home to at least one music retailer. Historically, Australians had always bought more full albums than singles, and this was still very much the case ten years ago. And while our voracious consumption of CD Singles had waned somewhat from the halcyon days of the ’90s, throughout 2005 we still snapped up 7½ million of them.

Of those 7½ million sales, commercial pop was dominated by ten songs that sold more copies than thousands of other singles released that year. Where are they now? What became of these songs and the artists that performed them? Did we ever hear from them again? Or would we rather forget ever hearing from them in the first place?

#10. DON’T PHUNK WITH MY HEART Black Eyed Peas

Released: April 2005

Oz chart peak: #1 (3 weeks)

Don’t Phunk With My Heart was the first single from the Black Eyed Peas’ fourth studio album Monkey Business. It was their third #1 single in Australia and the first of two #1 singles from the album, with the album’s third single My Humps also hitting the top spot, while second single Don’t Lie and fourth single Pump It both peaked at #6. They’d already had four consecutive Top 4 singles – including two #1s – from their previous album and went on to achieve another four #1 singles from their following two albums.

Over four albums and eight years, the BEPs achieved a level of consistent and sustained success that’s rarely seen in pop music today. Indeed, until May 2015 BEPs held the record for the longest continuously charting single in Australia – a whopping 102 consecutive weeks for I Gotta Feeling between 2009 and 2012.

#9. FEEL GOOD INC. Gorillaz

Released: May 2005

Oz chart peak: #3 (5 weeks)

The totally ‘virtual’ (aka animated) band Gorillaz had previously charted in Australia during 2001 with two Top 40 singles (the first, Clint Eastwood, went to #17) and one Top 20 album.

Feel Good Inc. was the lead single from their second album Demon Days. They followed it up with two more Top 15 singles (Dare went to #11 and Dirty Harry peaked at #15).

Beyond 2005, Gorillaz haven’t had any other significant commercial success and no chart activity at all since 2010.

#8. NASTY GIRL Nitty

Released: January 2005

Oz chart peak: #1 (2 weeks)

Nasty Girl was the first single from Nitty’s début album It’s Not A Game. Nitty had no previous chart history in Australia but, nonetheless, Nasty Girl managed to hit #1 on début, primarily thanks to the wall-to-wall radio and video airplay it received after having gone to #1 on the U.S. Billboard chart in late 2004.

The song’s commercial success was arguably driven by its annoyingly toe-tapping chorus, an interpolation of The Archies’ 1969 hit Sugar, Sugar.

According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, Nitty apparently told the Australian music television show So Fresh that he ‘did not want to jump into rap as a mean, edgy type of rapper that is the current trend, but more of a nice guy rapper, with lighthearted songs and videos. He calls this style “playboy rap”.’ This could’ve been a career-limiting move, because after the follow-up single Hey Bitty went to #11, Nitty was never heard from again.

#7. LET ME LOVE YOU Mario

Released: February 2005

Oz chart peak: #3 (1 week)

Let Me Love You was the first single from Mario Lee’s second album and his first to chart in Australia. When it was released in early 2005 it was the subject of much online intrigue, with people all over the world trying to work out where the apparent ‘sample’, heard at the end of each phrase throughout the song’s verses, had been taken from. It seemed so reminiscent of *something*, presumably from the 80s but which nobody could quite put their finger on, that to this day the internet is still littered with hundreds of forum posts discussing its origin. There were countless suggestions that it had been lifted from Tina Turner’s Private Dancer or What’s Love Got To Do With It, both of which featured similar synth or woodwind lines; it was also suggested that it was from Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing, with which Let Me Love You shared a generally similar sound. It didn’t actually come from any of those songs, but nor did I ever find any definitive reference to it being a sample at all. Ten years on, I can only assume that it wasn’t.

Mario’s next two singles both hit the Australian Top 40 during 2005, followed by the first single from his third album in 2007. But in the subsequent eight years, there’s been nothing. But, as a sidenote, Let Me Love You was written by Ne-Yo, who’d already had some success as a songwriter and also went on to solo success as an artist, scoring three Top 10 singles in Australia between 2006 and 2012.

#6. SWITCH Will Smith

Released: March 2005

Oz chart peak: #1 (1 week)

Switch was the first single from Will Smith’s last studio album to-date, Lost and Found. It made the Top 10 in nine countries, but only reached #1 in Canada and Australia. Locally, it was Smith’s second #1 and his fifth Top 8 single.

Will Smith songs always tended more towards the comical or gimmicky and most of his biggest local hits borrowed heavily from the basslines, melodies and backbeats of other songs. Switch broke the mould somewhat, at least where his hits were concerned, in that it didn’t feature any recognisable element from any other song.

Will Smith hasn’t released any new music since 2005.

#5. OVER AND OVER Nelly featuring Tim McGraw

Released: December 2004

Oz chart peak: #1 (5 weeks)

Over And Over was Nelly’s seventh Australian Top 10 and third #1 single since 2001 and featured the vocals of American country singer Tim McGraw. Since Over And Over, Nelly’s only scored two further Top 5 singles in Australia – one in 2010 and the most recent in 2013.

Meanwhile, despite superstar status in the U.S., by 2005 Tim McGraw had never had significant local success, with only two of his seven albums since 1994 having scraped into the Australian Top 40. He’d also never featured on the local singles chart, suggesting that his presence as featured artist on Over And Over was, at best, a negligible contribution to its local success.

#4. AXEL F Crazy Frog

Released: July 2005

Oz chart peak: #1 (3 weeks)

There are few things I’ve ever loathed quite as much as Crazy Frog. Five years after a Swedish teenager recorded his vocal impression of a two-stroke lawnmower engine, in 2003 a so-called ‘artist’, who apparently had no knowledge of the noise’s background, came across the annoying sound and created an animated character to go along with it. Things took off the following year when the character was given a name and the Crazy Frog sound was marketed as a mobile phone ringtone. Perhaps inevitably, given the unfathomable success of the mobile ringtone, a Crazy Frog single was an obvious progression for the utterly pointless project.

Over eighteen months during 2005-2006, five Top 30 singles and two Top 40 albums charted in Australia under the Crazy Frog moniker. Axel F, a cover of the 1984 Harold Faltermeyer classic from the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack, was the first of them.

Mercifully, beyond 2006 the charts have never been troubled by Crazy Frog again.

#3. LONELY Akon

Released: July 2005

Oz chart peak: #1 (3 weeks)

Lonely was the third single (but only the second to chart in Australia) from Akon’s début album Trouble.

It was the first of five solo Top 10 singles in Australia between 2005 and 2008, while five others with Akon as featured artist also hit the Top 10 between 2005 and 2011.

The distinctive chorus of Lonely comprised of a re-pitched sample of the 1964 U.S. #1 single Mr. Lonely by Bobby Vinton. Despite the Chipmunk-esque tones, it was arguably a significant driver of the song’s local success.

#2. DON’T CHA The Pussycat Dolls

Released: April 2005

Oz chart peak: #1 (7 weeks)

Don’t Cha was the first of two #1s, the first of five consecutive Top 6 singles and the first of eleven consecutive Top 17 hits (nine of which went Top 10) for the Pussycat Dolls in Australia.

It went Top 10 in twenty countries and to #1 in fifteen of them. Ranked the second-highest selling single in Australia for 2005, it also sold more than three million copies in the U.S. alone and six million worldwide, subsequently becoming one of the best-selling singles of all time.

The PCD only ever released two albums. Despite achieving unusually consistent commercial success, their last single disappeared from the charts little more than four years after the début of Don’t Cha. As a going concern, the PCD were officially disbanded in late 2010.

#1. THE PRAYER Anthony Callea

Released: December 2004

Oz chart peak: #1 (5 weeks)

The Prayer was released a month after Anthony Callea was announced as runner-up of the second season of Australian Idol. He’d performed the song, to much popular and critical acclaim, about halfway through his three-month stint on the show. The single went to #1 on début, was certified 4 x Platinum by its second week in the chart and was ranked the 82nd highest-selling single of 2004 on the basis of a solitary week’s sales.

Subsequently, it became the highest-selling single of 2005.

Callea’s début album was released in March 2005 and was followed-up by a second album in November ’06. There was nothing further from Callea until 2013, during which he released two albums to only minimal success.

Arguably, Callea is now best known for touring RSL and Workers’ Clubs and for his annual Carols by Candlelight performance, often with his husband, fellow performer Tim Campbell.

 

So that’s it – the ten biggest sellers of 2005. How many of them do you actually remember? I’ll admit it right now – I had to go looking online for a handful of them just to remember what they sounded like!

And in case you’re wondering what the rest of the 2005 best-sellers list looked like, here’s all 100 of them. I don’t know about you, but there’s definitely more than a few outside the Top 10 that I still recall – and still enjoy – far more than some of the year’s highest sellers!

Pos	TITLE	Artist
1	THE PRAYER	Anthony Callea
2	DON’T CHA	The Pussycat Dolls
3	LONELY	Akon
4	AXEL F	Crazy Frog
5	OVER AND OVER	Nelly feat. Tim McGraw
6	SWITCH	Will Smith
7	LET ME LOVE YOU	Mario
8	NASTY GIRL	Nitty
9	FEEL GOOD INC.	Gorillaz
10	DON’T PHUNK WITH MY HEART	Black Eyed Peas
11	YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL	James Blunt
12	GHETTO GOSPEL	2Pac
13	1, 2 STEP	Ciara
14	ALMOST HERE	Delta Goodrem and Brian McFadden
15	4EVER	The Veronicas
16	THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR WALKIN’	Jessica Simpson
17	WE BELONG TOGETHER	Mariah Carey
18	BAD DAY	Daniel Powter
19	BEAUTIFUL SOUL	Jesse McCartney
20	VOODOO CHILD	Rogue Traders
21	HOLLABACK GIRL	Gwen Stefani
22	SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE	Kelly Clarkson
23	LONELY NO MORE	Rob Thomas
24	CANDY SHOP	50 Cent
25	INCOMPLETE	Backstreet Boys
26	RICH GIRL	Gwen Stefani
27	DAS KLEINE KROKADIL (CROCODILE SONG)	Schnappi
28	THE SPECIAL TWO EP	Missy Higgins
29	GET RIGHT	Jennifer Lopez
30	NUMB / ENCORE	Linkin Park / Jay-Z
31	BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS	Green Day
32	OBSESSION (NO ES AMOR)	Frankie J
33	GOLD DIGGER	Kanye West
34	RAIN / BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER	Anthony Callea
35	SHINE	Shannon Noll
36	DROP IT LIKE IT’S HOT	Snoop Dogg
37	SIGNS	Snoop Dogg
38	STOP THE MUSIC	P-Money & Scribe
39	PON DE REPLAY	Rihanna
40	WHAT YOU WAITING FOR?	Gwen Stefani
41	LOSE CONTROL	Missy Elliott
42	WONDERFUL	Ja Rule Featuring Ashanti
43	COME ON AUSSIE, COME ON	Shannon Noll
44	MY HUMPS	Black Eyed Peas
45	PHOTOGRAPH	Nickelback
46	UNTITLED (HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN TO ME?)	Simple Plan
47	EVIE PARTS 1, 2 & 3	The Wrights
48	DON’T LIE	Black Eyed Peas
49	HUNG UP	Madonna
50	SOLDIER	Destiny’s Child
51	MAYBE TONIGHT	Kate DeAraugo
52	I JUST WANNA LIVE	Good Charlotte
53	GIRL	Destiny’s Child
54	LA LA	Ashlee Simpson
55	I LIKE THE WAY	Bodyrockers
56	UNDERWEAR GOES INSIDE THE PANTS	Lazyboy
57	WELCOME TO MY LIFE	Simple Plan
58	LOSE MY BREATH	Destiny’s Child
59	THESE KIDS	Joel Turner & The Modern Day Poets
60	IT’S LIKE THAT	Mariah Carey
61	OH	Ciara feat. Ludacris
62	SHUT UP	Simple Plan
63	LIKE TOY SOLDIERS	Eminem
64	DARE	Gorillaz
65	RUMOURS	Lindsay Lohan
66	TILT YA HEAD BACK	Nelly Feat. Christina Aguilera
67	DO SOMETHIN’	Britney Spears
68	HAVE A NICE DAY	Bon Jovi
69	ASS LIKE THAT	Eminem
70	JUST A LIL BIT	50 Cent
71	PUSH THE BUTTON	Sugababes
72	LISTEN WITH YOUR HEART	Casey Donovan
73	MOCKINGBIRD	Eminem
74	TEN DAYS	Missy Higgins
75	HELL NO!	Ricki-Lee
76	WAY TO GO!	Rogue Traders
77	1 THING	Amerie
78	PONY	Kasey Chambers
79	POPCORN	Crazy Frog
80	SUNSHINE	Ricki-Lee
81	BETTER DAYS	Pete Murray
82	FLASHDANCE	Deep Dish
83	MIDAS TOUCH	Midnight Star
84	SHAKE IT OFF	Mariah Carey
85	POINTLESS RELATIONSHIP	Tammin
86	HEY BITTY	Nitty
87	WAKE ME UP WHEN SEPTEMBER ENDS	Green Day
88	OOH AAH	Tamara Jaber
89	SO GOOD	Bratz Rock Angelz
90	JUST LOSE IT	Eminem
91	TRIPPING	Robbie Williams
92	CAUGHT UP	Usher
93	CATCH MY DISEASE	Ben Lee
94	PUT YOUR HANDS UP	Random
95	HATE IT OR LOVE IT	The Game
96	THIS IS HOW A HEART BREAKS	Rob Thomas
97	SHE’S NO YOU	Jesse McCartney
98	WHATEVER WILL BE	Tammin
99	N DEY SAY	Nelly
100	WAKE UP	Hilary Duff

2005 ARIA End of Year Top 100 Singles Chart is Copyright 2005-2015 © ARIA – Australian Recording Industry Association Ltd.