FORGET Taylor Swift for a sec. If Tay takes out No.1 in today’s Triple J Hottest 100, it won’t be the first boilover.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Granted, the following tracks didn’t win, but they’re still ... Five Songs That Weirdly Made the Hottest 100.
■ East 17 - Deep, No.78 in 1993
A UK boy band probably won’t feature today, unless there’s a guerilla One Direction campaign we’re unaware of.
■ Kylie Minogue - Confide in Me, No.3 in 1994
Kylie, in fact, cracked the countdown twice more, with Nick Cave duet Where the Wild Roses Grow, and Did It Again.
■ Salmon Hater - 6.66, No.26 in 2002
Triple J hosts Adam Spencer and Wil Anderson created a fictional metal band, Salmon Hater. Spencer, a numbers man, came up with the title of the single: 6.66 – One Hundredth of the Number of the Beast. The fans approved.
■ Pauline Pantsdown - Back Door Man, No.7 in 1997
However staunchly you opposed the One Nation leader, how this slop made the top 10 is beyond us.
■ Enya - Orinoco Flow, No.48 in 1990
Fans voted for their favourite songs of all time in the first three countdowns and in this one they liked ... Enya. ‘‘Sail away, sail away, sail away ...’’
STEVE St John went on Google like anyone would, needing to know what was happening to his body, but also dreading knowing.
The NewFM breakfast host, friends insisted, had something stress-related. Or maybe RSI. Not this. Not Parkinson’s.
‘‘My brother-in-law came with me for the diagnosis because I needed someone who wouldn’t fall apart, who’d ask the hard questions,’’ says St John, 46. ‘‘The hardest part was telling my mother.’’
That was in September, though St John, who has lost a mate to motor neurone disease, knew something was wrong a year ago. He told listeners last week that, at 46, he has early onset Parkinson’s disease.
The support from listeners has been ‘‘overwhelming’’, and St John’s breakfast colleagues Kim Bauer and Melanie Sargeant have been ‘‘rocks’’, but one message has stood out.
It was a text from Graham Nickisson, the Westpac Rescue Helicopter crewman and childhood friend of St John’s, recalling how they used to play in the park and how people would be with him through this.
‘‘Some days I wake up and I think I can’t get up and be funny on the radio today,’’ says St John.
‘‘I’m just going to embrace it, accept it, be as positive as I can, and that’s all you can do.’’
THIS burger, pictured, will be a hot ticket item today. This should concern all of us.
The ‘‘True Blue’’ from The Grill at Wests New Lambton, contains beetroot, bacon, sliced cheese, barbecue sauce and, wait for it, a party pie. Sigh.
Email Tim on topics@theherald.com.au or tweet @TimConnell or phone 4979 5944