As far as the world is concerned, this is the biggest album of the decade due to how inescapable it was particularly in MJ’s native America, although in Australia both John Farnham and Dire straits did outperform this album which only makes it the third biggest of the decade here. Was there any chance this album was going to fail given what’s on here? Many credit it for breaking down racial barriers in the music industry that were unfortunately prevalent up until its release.
Although these guys achieved some buzz earlier in the decade, this was the album which broke them into a wider audience which is funny because the name of the album is an obvious reference to Countdown which due to technical errors during a scheduled performance they had on the show, resulted in the band’s infamous hatred of the program. It could also be they felt their appearance on the show would compromise their politically charged lyrics they often used in their music.
Well this saw the band go in a different direction to what they were used to, admittedly even the greatest bands have to change their sound or else risk alienating fans in favour of more experimental acts. This paid off in a big way for Mark and company as the album was their most successful at the time of release, in fact it’s second only to Brothers in arms as their most successful in their career.
This album had a bit of a delay to its release in Australia for some reason, I’m guessing because we were initially sceptical of these guys taking over the mainstream with their synth driven music only to be won over once their heavily delayed third single became a hit for them here. The real triumph this album had was when it became a huge success over in America thanks to “Don’t you want me” topping the Billboard charts.
How bittersweet must this album’s success been for Roxy music, after all they were always planning on going their separate ways regardless of how this album was received after its release and yet it remains their most popular album in their catalogue. I guess they wanted to ensure fans that there wasn’t any animosity between them and that their demise was to allow Bryan Ferry’s solo career to succeed this decade.
This was the only album that Goanna released during their brief time together to receive any major success, presumably due to the theme throughout the album being about aboriginal rights which Midnight oil would tackle later in the decade with their album Diesel and dust. I’m not sure their second album flopped a few years later, but it led to them calling it quits as a result.
Following the huge success of their now self-titled album, Icehouse released their sophomore album which was an immediate success for them here in Australia and an even bigger success for them over in NZ. This success led to the album being released in the UK where it did fairly well as the second single managed to crack the top twenty there. This led to them experimenting with their sound for the next two albums.
This was the album that finally gave Cold chisel international appeal given how the big hit on here “Forever now” proved to be even bigger in NZ than it was over here (possibly due to it being the lead single there and second single here.) This was the penultimate album the band released before they went their separate ways, their final album being a huge success albeit not to this degree.
Livie was at the height of her popularity when she released the third volume of her greatest hits series, although it’s worth noting that internationally this was only her second volume given how First impressions was released exclusively in Australia and NZ. Her career would come to a crashing halt when she starred opposite John Travolta for the second time in the critically panned Two of a kind.
It looked like the magic was beginning to wear off on these guys as this proved to be less of a success than their previous album Tusk despite it being a return to form with their sound, I guess the success of Stevie Nick’s solo album somewhat discouraged people from checking out what fresh drama the band had to offer on here. Fortunately for the band, they recovered later in the decade with Tango in the night which was filled with drama, thus making this albums lack of success that much more puzzling.
I guess this was Paul McCartney looking to change with the times given how this feels like it’s the most dated album in his entire catalogue. Of course, the real sticking point for most audiences is that it features arguably his worst song in the form of its lead single, specifically how he and Stevie Wonder believe that they can solve racial discrimination just by making a song about it.
I guess a change in imagery was what these guys needed to survive the into the MTV era given how the band ditched their clown get up when promoting this album. Granted it wasn’t a permanent solution as the band would struggle to find success with their next album and would go their separate ways two years after this came out, however it’s likely this process wouldn’t have taken as long as it did if they stuck to their guns.
Joe Jackson is another English piano man who managed to find success over the years, OK he only found success with this album likely through the strength of its lead single which seems to question the relevancy of toxic masculinity that’s instilled on boys while they’re growing up. While he had moderate success with his other albums, none of them reached the dizzying heights of success as this album did.
This was by far the biggest success that the Alan Parson’s project had in their career, likely due to the title track being a huge success throughout certain parts of the world which proved to be a first for the duo. Like many prog bands from the 70’s, these guys weren’t able to sustain a career once MTV had taken over the music landscape, although they certainly tried throughout the rest of the decade.
This was released on the second-year anniversary of John Lennon’s death; I suppose this was delayed avoiding coming off as a cheap cash grab off his legacy like so many Beatles compilations that came out at the time. It’s up to you whether or not this should’ve been released given the obvious circumstances of its success.
Given how Stevie Wonder was one of the hottest names in music during the first half of the decade, it only makes sense that his greatest hits package would be a massive success here in Australia even if it became a success twice during its run down under for some reason.
There was no stopping these guys from making it big in the mainstream in Australia, true this didn’t have a hit single on here like their previous two albums, but who cares when it was still a huge success for the band? Unfortunately, their popularity quickly began to dwindle after this album as despite scoring a huge hit with their Semantics E.P the following year, they weren’t able to achieve much success with their subsequent albums.
Named after the second single from his 1971 album Teaser and the firecat, this greatest hits package was released a decade after that album where it became a huge success for Cat Stevens likely from fans who were already feeling nostalgic for his work. It’s worth noting that while he saw massive success during the first half of the 70’s, the second half saw his popularity dwindle quite a bit here in Australia.
This was the breakthrough album from INXS, sure they had some buzz prior to this album but none of their earlier material found much success in the mainstream for some unknown reason. This is where their chart dominance would begin as it would spawn some of their more easily recognisable hits as well as set the band up as a force to be reckoned with from their subsequent follow ups.
You’d think this would be the moment when Split enz called it quits given what they named their greatest hits package, alas this was more a way of letting their fans know that Tim Finn would be going solo this year as he would release his solo album to massive success shortly after this came out. For what it’s worth, it was the end of an era as the band would struggle for success after this came out.
This was originally released at the start of the decade to deafening silence here in Australia, however it was given a second chance when Hot Chocolate scored a massive comeback here thanks to a memorable appearance on Countdown with their (then) most recent album which helped stretch their popularity here this far into the 80’s.
This was the final album that Supertramp were able to score success here in Australia, hey at least they were able to survive the initial hurdle of the MTV era given how this managed to spawn them their one and only hit here which is something that didn’t happen throughout the 70’s. They would try to soldier on as MTV grew in popularity, however they couldn’t find any success which led to them breaking up.
This was a moderate success for Billy Joel given how it was sandwiched between two of his biggest albums in his career, indeed it didn’t have that Billboard chart topper that Glass house or An innocent man had but that didn’t mean audience didn’t gravitate towards it back in the day as they clearly did.
This was a good year for many artists who wouldn’t see much success in any other year, ABC was one such act as they achieved quite a lot of success from their debut album before never being heard from again here in Australia. Of course, they had plenty of success internationally as they would have hits over on Billboard from their subsequent follow ups, it’s just none of them made it big here.
They were off to an amazing start with their debut album from the end of the previous decade, so to see these guys fail with their second and third album must have been a shock to the band given how much buzz they had going into the 80’s. Indeed, their fourth album was all set for failure even with the success of its lead single, however it then won the Grammy for album of the year which boosted its sales.
Autumn of this year was an interesting time for the Australian music scene if this album is anything to go by, after all it collected some of the biggest hits of the year and was able to become a huge success in its own right.
You’d think that these guys would’ve been among the most successful bands of the decade given how synonymous they’ve become with the 80’s, although they were huge with their albums and singles, they weren’t as big as their reputation would suggest. Here they have their second album which fully embraced the MTV trends by having flashy music videos to go along with their bombastic new wave tracks.
Well, he may not have had the magic that Bernie Taupin gave him through his song writing, however that didn’t prevent Elton John from finding success during this perceived dark period as evidence by how popular this album was for him. I’m guessing this did as well as it did in Australia due to him being a regular on Countdown as he did perform the lead single to this album which made it a huge hit.
There was a lot of hype going into this concert given hot it was the official reunion for Simon and Garfunkel, needless to say these expectations were met effortlessly as the duo gave such a compelling show that audiences welcomed them back with open arms. There was talk of the two making new music together following the success of the show, however they remembered why they disliked each other and went their separate ways again.
This was the only notable success that Hall and Oates had outside of their native America when it came to their albums, although at least they had better luck with their singles internationally including the lead single on this album which is perhaps what made it a success here in Australia and over in NZ for the duo. It does make you wonder why they weren’t able to achieve more success with their albums back in the day.
Well, I guess we had an album about being hooked on classics, so why not have an album about being hooked on swing music? That was the premise for this group of session musicians who collected a bunch of swing tracks and mashed them together throughout this album.
It took him nearly ten years, but Richard Clapton was finally able to find success with one of his albums in Australia. I’m not sure why it was this one and not one of his 70’s output given how he was more popular in that decade due to his regular appearances on Countdown, I’m guessing this was due to a memorable performance he gave of the lead single to this album which boosted its sales.
The spring of 1982 was a hectic time in music here in Australia, although this album did struggle in the rankings due to the stiff competition that it had with other albums around the time of its release that also looked over the big hits of spring that year.
The spring of 1982 was a hectic time for Australia, as such this compilation album billed as a summer release became hit during the early months of this year due to choosing some noteworthy songs to appear on the album.
This was the debut album of Culture club, one of the most popular bands of the 80’s despite having that popularity largely confined to their earlier entry on this list. Indeed, this was an album that needed the success of their second album to make it big here in Australia, although once their second album took off, it was considered to be among their greatest work.
This was a greatest hits album that was released exclusively in Australia and NZ mere months prior to the death of Karen Carpenter, meaning we have another successful album to become as such due to the death of an artist involved with its creation. I’m guessing this was planned on having an international release back in the day but was cancelled out of respect for Karen’s passing.
This greatest hits album looked like it was going to be a flop here in Australia as it originally came out two years prior for Don McLean, however it was given a second chance when “Castles in the sky” was released as a single ten years after it appeared as the B-side to “Vincent” thus allowing it and the album to become a success for the singer/songwriter.
I guess Steve Miller had at least one more successful album in him when entering the MTV era of music, although it’s worth noting that his only other successful album was with Book of dreams from 1977 which this was very different from so perhaps this was a success due to a change in sound. It certainly gave him his biggest hit here with the title track which is an accurate reflection of the album.
It may surprise you to learn that the Church wasn’t among the most popular bands of the decade in Australia considering how well loved they remain in the alternative scene to this day, that said they did leave their mark on our scene due to their regular appearances on Countdown as well as their music being able to stand out from all the other MTV driven albums from this time.
There have been a lot of love themed greatest hits albums to become a success over the years in Australia, here we have Cliff Richard’s album of that vein following the success of his most recent album from around this time. It feels weird that this was the peak of his popularity, however “Wired for sound” does remain his biggest hit in Australia for what it’s worth.
This was a compilation album looking over the biggest hits of winter of this year, it was released during our spring where it was a huge success thanks to the excellent choices on display on the album.
This was the only successful album that Dexy’s midnight runners were able to achieve in Australia, although they saw massive success earlier in the decade with their debut album due to it spawning a massive hit over there with “Geno” that unfortunately never crossed over here. I guess the big difference was that they traded their more punk edge from their debut for Celtic influence which better connected with audiences.
I guess the success of his Oscar winning ballad with Jennifer Warnes didn’t come completely out of nowhere as this managed to be a moderate success for Joe Cocker just before the release of that single from the film and Officer and a gentleman. In fact, were it not for that ballad’s success, it’s likely this would’ve been even bigger as he curiously omitted it on the track list here.
Now that the compilation albums were taking off in our mainstream here in Australia, it only makes sense that we’ll be seeing far more of them as we go further into the decade on my site. Here the people who assembled this album got together a good selection of songs that made it big during the summer period of 81/82.
The name of this album implies that it would have a rock theme to it, while there are plenty of rock songs on here, it’s actually a collection of some of the biggest hits of winter of this year in Australia which helped it become a massive success due to the good choices to be found on the album.
It seems fitting that Madness would suddenly find success here in Australia around the time they released their first greatest hits package, it almost seems convenient that this would become a success in lieu of their previous albums due to a memorable episode of Countdown where they performed all their latest singles to promote the album. In any case, this was the full extent of their popularity here in Australia.
The summer of 1981/1982 was an impressive time for music in Australia if this album is anything to go by, as such it became a success during the autumn of this year due to how many great selections are available on its track listing.
This was the second volume for the Eagles greatest hits package following their first volume from 1976, admittedly this was released more in response to the band breaking up at the start of the decade rather than it being released six years after its first volume. It was a success given how they infamously declared that hell needed to freeze over for them to reform, that of course happened in 1994.
It had been six years since T Rex had broken up due to the death of their lead singer Marc Bolan, as such they decided to release this greatest hits package which became a moderate success here in Australia proving that they would’ve thrived in the 80’s had Marc had lived to see this decade.
There were talks of Deep purple reforming around this time which no doubt inspired us Aussies to check out this greatest hits package from two years prior to rediscover their back catalogue, indeed the rumours were true as the band would reform two years after this and have been going strong to this day.
This peak during the Christmas period of 1982/1983 here in Australia, as such it wasn’t able to make it on a yearend list for Neil Diamond and thus excluded on this site up until now. It was the final album from his discography that found any success even in his native America, proving he didn’t last very long in the MTV era of music.
These guys were on a roll when they released their second album of the 80’s, although it didn’t spawn a huge hit for them which is perhaps why it wasn’t as big as the two albums it was sandwiched between. Still, this did make them one of the more popular Australian bands of the early 80’s which was a great time for the Australian music scene both locally and internationally.
You’d think that this breakthrough album from Simple Minds would’ve been more of a success here in Australia given how it not only managed to spawn two of their more memorable hits from their catalogue, but also due to the band appearing on Countdown earlier in the year to promote their previous album. Alas this wasn’t the case, although it did quite well over in NZ for some reason.
This was the only successful album that Iron Maiden were able to achieve here in Australia, mainly for a memorable performance on Countdown with the singles from the album which helped them breakthrough the MTV crowd with their brand of 80’s heavy metal. Their popularity would only sustain them for this one album here, although they did see a rise of success in their native UK as the decade went on.
This is the sequel to RPO’s earlier entry on this list, suffice to say that the novelty was already starting to wear off with listening to them mash up classical music given how much less successful this album was worldwide.
This was a live album that the Rolling Stones released following the success of their American tour from the previous year, it did decently well here in Australia proving that the band were still able to find an audience in the southern hemisphere in the MTV era.
This was released during a time where exercise records were making it big in America, as such Richard Simmons decided to release a parody album of these records which ironically made it the most successful of these albums here in Australia.
This was released on the eleventh anniversary of Daddy Cool’s biggest hit “Eagle rock,” as such it allowed the song to become a minor hit this year (odd as this usually happens on the tenth anniversary of something’s release) which in turn fuelled the success of the album.
This is the final taste of success Marcia Hines had in her career, one thing you’ll notice going through my site is that an artist releasing a greatest hits package is generally a sign that they’re anticipating a turbulent time in their career with there being little chance of them overturning said turbulence which happens to be the case here.
The Jacksons were on a roll during the first half of the decade, as such we have this live album being a massive success here in Australia which is slightly odd given how it wasn’t very popular in NZ or even their native America despite the band being more popular in both of those countries up until this point.
This album manages to collect the biggest hits of the summer of 81/82 here in Australia and market the collection as the songs of autumn, it was a modest success due to this tactic but could’ve been more popular as evidence by the other entries on these lists.
This was released on the tenth anniversary of the album; it does remain the BIGGEST album of all time in Australia (albums from Spotify streaming not withstanding) so naturally its success was warranted this year.
Following the demise of Led Zeppelin from the start of the decade, Robert Plant decided to embark on a solo career which was off to a sound start with this album given how it was a modest success for him worldwide. He would have much better luck with his second album the following year where it became a huge success for him.
I guess Luciano Pavarotti was more popular prior to him teaming up with Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo throughout the 90’s if the success of this greatest hits album was anything to go by here in Australia.
This was the only notable success for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts here in Australia, although at least they only appeared on Countdown long after the albums success in order to promote their back catalogue here in Australia. Still there was little chance this was going to fail here due to combination of Joan’s sexual appeal and the pop punk of the record to give it a sense of female empowerment.
From what I can gather, Starstruck is one of those cult classics from this decade that wasn’t well received from critics due to the plot being nonsensical (I haven’t seen it for myself.) I will say that the soundtrack is a good representation of its success given how it’s a collaboration with its star Jo Kennedy and the Swingers which is perhaps how it and its lead single managed to become a success here.
This is the only notable success that Dionne Warwick had here in Australia, at least if we don’t include her charity single “That’s what friends are for” from a few years later as she curiously didn’t have that much success down under back in the day. You can thank the brothers Gibb for that as they wrote and performed on many of the tracks on the album including the title track which became a huge success for her.
Slim Whitman was a country legend who was among the most popular artists of the mid twentieth century worldwide, as such it makes sense that this greatest hits album was a success this year given how it collects twenty of his most iconic songs from his heyday.
This was a compilation album which collects all of the biggest Bond themes at the time of its release, I’m guessing it was a success here in Australia due to the (then) recent success of the latest Bond theme from Sheena Easton this year.
Although he only ever achieved two hits in his career as a lead artist, Peter Allen was nonetheless able to score a modest hit with this greatest hits album this year proving how well loved he was during his lifetime.
This will be the only album from Kim Wilde to appear on my site given how she was far more of a singles artist than she was an album’s artist, indeed this feels like it was only a success here in Australia due to this being an excellent year for artists who scored multiple hits from one album to have said album be a modest success.
While this album wasn’t a huge success here in Australia like it was in Yazoo’s native UK, it did manage to produce two of the more memorable hit singles here this year which I’m sure was a neat consolation for the duo who didn’t find any success at all with this album over in NZ. They would release one more album before going their separate ways due to creative differences they had with each other.
I guess we Aussies weren’t that impressed with this supergroup given how this is the only notable success that Asia managed to achieve back in the day, it’s not that we were against supergroups as this will be far from the only appearance of one on my site, rather we didn’t care for these guys like those in America did around this time.
From what I can gather, Julie Anthony was one of the many singers who tried to replace Judith Durham when the Seekers reformed in the mid 70’s. This was the only success she had as she released this covers album likely to cash in on the workout trend that was taking the mainstream by storm thanks to the likes of Jane Fonda and other fitness experts.
I guess we Aussies passed up this solo effort from Phil Collins in favour of its lead single where it became his biggest hit by this point in his career but solo and with Genesis, although it was enough of a sleeper hit for it to qualify for this list which is more than I can say for his (then) latest album with his band which was a complete flop here.
