There’s a long-standing hack joke in the world of stand-up comedy about how when a plane crashes, the only thing that survives in-tact is the black box – the recording device that preserves the trajectory of the entire flight. The punchline? “Why don’t they make the whole plane out of the black box?”
You might be wondering where this is going, so let’s cut to the chase: in 2023, triple j made a whole plane out of the black box. After some 15-odd years of the station’s flagship segment Like A Version (LAV) increasing in prominence and infiltrating the yearly Hottest 100 – including an LAV cover winning the entire thing in 2021 – the station decided to put together a countdown dedicated solely to the segment.
It’s intended to commemorate its 20th anniversary, although given it started in 2004 that means it’s only 19 — God help it. It’s also intended to reflect the power and clout it has come to hold over those years, from being a cute and intimate acoustic rendition on the fly to an all-important multi-cam experience with its own separate studio that now has the potential to make or break an artist locally — not to mention give them a song they’ll likely have to play in every set for the rest of their career.
Junkee has gotten under the covers with the Hottest 100 before, but never quite like this. It’s time to break down who came out on top in this very unique countdown – and, just as importantly, who didn’t.
Winner: DMA’S
So, let’s start at the top: with their first-ever Hottest 100 win, Sydney trio DMA’S brought it home with their cover of Cher’s game-changing 1999 single ‘Believe’. Since first doing the cover in 2016, it’s taken on a life of its own. It’s their most streamed song on Spotify by a considerable margin, even over their signature original song ‘Delete’, was the first Like A Version to chart in the top 10 of an annual Hottest 100 and has arguably become the Australian equivalent to Johnny Cash’s ‘Hurt’ or Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse’s ‘Valerie’: A cover so ubiquitous, some younger listeners might not have even realised it’s a cover.
There’s a few ways to read this one, which will be split twofold: good-faith and bad-faith. The good-faith reading of ‘Believe’ winning the countdown is that it’s symbolic of what Like A Version itself was originally about. In the presenters’ studio, with no big production, and an acoustic cover learned largely on the fly – lead vocalist Tommy O’Dell is infamously hunched over in the YouTube clip as he’s reading the lyrics off a piece of paper. Though they were on the rise around the release of their 2016 debut Hills End, they were far from the global entity that they are today when they walked into the triple j studio. They pulled the whole thing off with precious little fanfare, and here they are.
The bad-faith reading of ‘Believe’, by means of contrast, is that it’s a white-guy-with-acoustic-guitar cover at best, and an entirely straight version of a song widely considered to be a gay anthem at worst. For context, it’s worth remembering just how revolutionary ‘Believe’ was at the time of release — Cher’s unmistakable AutoTune voice pioneered a sound that would reverberate throughout pop music for the next 25 years, while its sonic roots in the thriving club scene of the time created a song that spoke the wider queer community at large that was still reeling from the AIDS epidemic of the late ’80s and early ’90s. What, exactly, could three bored-looking blokes strumming away uncover about ‘Believe’ that the original couldn’t? Honestly, only one thing: that fellow bored-looking blokes were “allowed” to like it now — because it’s the lads singing it, innit.
It’s an ick that lingers even if you buy the fact that DMA’s genuinely love the song, in a manner similar to what Lime Cordiale did to Divinyls’ ‘I Touch Myself’ — which reached the top five. What was once playful and passionate feels smug and almost mocking in the hands of the Leimbach brothers, and while it never gets quite that bad insofar as ‘Believe’ is concerned, there’s certainly a sense that they’ve put a grayscale filter on a neon-tinged song and straightened out its campness in the process. Much to think about, as Billy Ray Cyrus once said. Either way: millions of people have believed in ‘Believe’ for years, and after this weekend it’s clear they still do.
Loser: Denzel Curry
Sorry. Sorry. You’re probably furious seeing that combination of words as a heading, but Ricky Bobby made the rule, not us: if you ain’t first, you’re last. For the second time in a Hottest 100 countdown, Denzel Curry’s incendiary take on Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Bulls On Parade’ has kissed the ring but not taken the crown — first at number five, now here at number two. Regardless of what your take on ‘Believe’ is, listening back to Denzel’s cover makes you feel like demanding a recount. If ‘Believe’ is symbolic of Like A Version’s origins, ‘Bulls On Parade’ is symbolic of the segment’s sky’s-the-limit expansion that came with its arrival into a separate studio from the presenters.
When Denzel and co. came with it now back in 2019, the ABC studios hadn’t had its shit rocked like that since the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion sent Recovery into orbit over 20 years beforehand. Four years on, it could well be argued that Curry’s viral take on this rap-rock staple assisted in introducing a whole new generation to the legacy of RATM — which felt especially timely after their arena-filling (albeit tragically cut short) 2020s reunion. Whether it’s the matching of Zach de la Rocha’s original belligerent intensity, or guitarist Darren Hart thrashing into Tom Morello’s guitar work, or even Denzel throwing in one of his own verses over the guitar solo… the whole thing just feels electric. In a dangerous way, too; like a fence. If you touch it, you’ll die.
Winner: Gang Of Youths
Boy howdy did this lot make their presence felt in the countdown. Talk about Gang warfare, huh. The beloved Sydney expats were the only act with multiple Like A Versions under their belt to have each chart in the list, and were tied for being the most-covered artist alongside Paul Kelly and Tame Impala. They’re beautiful covers, too: Odette lends her impressive pipes to a stirring orchestral ‘Magnolia’, while Gretta Ray’s pop makeover of ‘The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows’ makes for an amazing technicolor dream. It’s quite the feat, and goes to show the impact the band have had on not only the segment but the music community at large over the past eight years or so.
As for the Gang’s covers themselves? Well, whether Dave’s cute campfire sing-along of ‘Why Does It Always Rain On Me?’ constitutes as one of the greatest moments of the segment’s 19-year history is certainly up for debate, but let us be clear: the top -10 ranking of band’s spirited and reverential rendering of The Middle East’s cult classic ‘Blood’ definitely isn’t. It’s one of those rare covers that reminds you why you loved the original so much in the first place, while simultaneously making the new version its own equally-impactful entity. It’s not only legacy-honouring, but legacy-making stuff.
Loser: Spod
There’s no real loser when Gang Of Youths are involved — if they’re eating, everybody’s eating. So we’re using this paragraph to give a quick shoutout to the godfather of Like A Version, semi-retired electroclash hero Spod. He touched it for the very first time all the way back in 2004 with a rendition of a Madonna song… can’t remember which one, though. Had a catchy title and everything. Anyway, the original recording sadly never made it through the wilderness — so Spod went into his shed in Tasmania and recreated the entire thing. Although he technically couldn’t be part of the countdown, and is thus a loser, Spod is our loser. Long may he get his fuck on.
Winner: Rap Reinventions
It’s a long-standing tradition within hip-hop to take pre-existing beats and instrumentals and rapping over them to forge a new version, and that has certainly carried over into artists within that genre taking to the Like A Version stage. Urthboy and Tuka appeared with both their original groups and as solo artists in the list — the former scoring the oldest entry with The Herd’s now-legendary take on Redgum’s ‘I Was Only 19’ from 2005, the latter reaching the top ten with Thundamentals and their reimagining of Matt Corby’s ‘Brother’. To extend the bond even further, the two blended their introspective and poetic lyricism with strange musical bedfellows for their solo entries — Urthy with Meg Mag’s ‘Roll Up Your Sleeves’ and Tuk with Angus & Julia Stone’s ‘Big Jet Plane’
Elsewhere, Allday added some climate-anxiety bars to Joni Mitchell’s ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ and Illy squeezed in as many Aussie music references as he could into one all-star medley. The pick of the litter, however, sits pretty at number five. From the opening shot of Briggs, Trials and Paul Kelly striding into the room to lay down an update of Kelly’s own ‘Dumb Things’, the whole thing just felt momentous. A.B. Original took a torch to their shitlist while Dan Sultan shredded away and PK added his unmistakable touch — and you’d best believe the nation at large was paying attention.
Loser: 1:1 Renditions
To clarify, there were a lot of very straight covers that made it into the countdown. It’s the fact they were winners that makes them the losers here — at least, from a creative standpoint. With all due respect to Spacey Jane and San Cisco over on the west coast, considering their perfectly pleasant shot-for-shot remakes of ‘Here Comes The Sun’ and ‘Get Lucky’ as the 14th and 35th greatest Like A Versions ever is utterly dumbfounding.
Elsewhere, it goes from being politely passable to cutting way too close. Tove Lo’s funeral-dirge photocopy of Calum Scott’s morose version of Robyn’s ‘Dancing On My Own’ felt like an utter betrayal of her usual pastel-pink pop, while the only notable thing about Hilltop Hoods’ painfully-daggy version of ‘Can’t Stop’ was having Party Dozen’s Kirsty Tickle on sax. The fact that got in over their original Like A Version – a lively take on the Beastie Boys’ ‘So Whatcha Want’ —really shows there’s no accounting for taste.
Winner: Indigenous Artists
‘Dumb Things’ didn’t come alone at the pointy end of the countdown insofar as Blak excellence is concerned. King Stingray’s bilingual banjo-lead take on Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’ and Beddy Rays’ searing rock-out of Thelma Plum’s ‘Better In Blak’ both took out spots in the top 20, having clearly made an indelible impression. At 47, Baker Boy brought the fire to Blur’s ‘Song 2’; at 76 (and sadly not the more fitting previous number), JK-47 offered some new insight into Tupac’s ‘Changes’. You’re looking at some of the best artists currently working on these unceded lands, carrying the songline tradition into the Hottest 100 while being unapologetic about who they are and where they come from. It’s really something.
Loser: Women
For the first time since 2015, there were no lead female artists in the top 10 of a Hottest 100. In fact, the only women in the top 10 at all were ex-Wiggle Emma Watkins on the drums for ‘Elephant’ and a few in the choir for Chet Faker’s ‘Lover (You Don’t Treat Me No Good)’. Two songs in the top 10 were performed by women originally — Cher and the late Chrissie Amphlett — but that’s not the focus here. Alex Lahey got very close, to her credit, with ‘Welcome To The Black Parade’ hitting lucky number 13 — and there were plenty of women guests in Dune Rats and G Flip’s all-star covers. Even so, this still feels like a pretty major oversight, no? And before any incels hop in the comments to say it’s a meritocracy, that and Lime Cordiale coming fourth can’t both be true.
Women have been fundamental to Like A Version since it started — after all, it was presenter Mel Bampton who originally brought in the segment to the station all the way back in 2004. A celebration of the segment with a countdown like this to feature essentially no women just doesn’t feel right. There’s no grand solution offered here, just an expression of disappointment.
Winner: Paul Dempsey
Tara-Lee Dawn’s top YouTube comment has now been immortalised through a recital by presenter Lucy Smith: “Paul Dempsey appears every five years or so out of the mountain mist with his guitar over his shoulder. He walks into the studio and lays a behemoth like this down, just to show the kids how it’s really done….and then once he hits the last chord, he takes a breath and walks back into the mountain mist.” Tara-Lee, wherever you are: Your legacy is intact, and so is Paul’s.
The 6’5″ Something for Kate singer has done his fair share of Like A Versions over the years, and he scored three overall placements across the countdown reflecting that. There’s no disputing the power of his solo run at Middle Kids’ ‘Edge of Town’, which has been viewed over a million times as Gen Z discovered the unmistakable voice of this former Hottest 100 silver medalist. Something for Kate’s throat-tearing acoustic rework of Calvin Harris’ EDM heater ‘Sweet Nothing’, featuring the late great John Hedigan on piano, shows off Dempsey’s jaw-dropping range as he takes on a Florence Welch vocal run without breaking a sweat. If we’re going to be picky, the band’s ragtag ‘Rock The Casbah’ would have been preferred over their fairly middle-of-the-road take on Taylor Swift’s ‘cardigan’, but the reality is that there’s no such thing as too much Paul Dempsey.
Loser: Middle Kids
An interesting fact that gets overlooked: Despite its stature within Australian music now, the original ‘Edge of Town’ was a slow-burner and never actually made it into the Hottest 100 itself. Dempsey’s cover, however, did. Go figure. They’d bounce back with ‘Mistake’ debuting at 64 the following year, but would have their comeback single ‘R U 4 Me?’ just miss the countdown in 2020 and rank 101st in the Hottest 100. 2021 saw them crack the top 40 with ‘Stacking Chairs’, so what of their next eligible shot? Unfortunately, despite a pretty great indie-rock renovation of Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘drivers license’, the Kids also missed out on a spot in this Hottest 100 as well. That Hottest 100 history again: Off, on, off, on, off. That must mean they’re a shoe-in for the 2023 Hottest 100, right? Remember, kids: today’s losers could still be tomorrow’s winners.
Winner: Regina Spektor
Having brought her Soviet Kitsch down under with radio staples like ‘Fidelity’ and… well, ‘On the Radio’… Regina Spektor had quickly developed a love affair with Australia by the mid-2000s. Neither she nor us, however, could have quite predicted what would happen next. Slinking into the saddle of a baby grand in the ABC studios circa 2007, Regina plucked a Lennon-penned Beatles obscurity out of thin air and made it so unmistakably hers that there’s probably a fully-grown adult reading this right now having the same existential crisis they did when they found out ‘Torn’ was a cover.
Rising to number 29 in that year’s Hottest 100, ‘Real Love’ would go on to be officially recorded for a benefit compilation of John Lennon covers three months after Spektor’s LAV. Pretty as the studio version was, it simply couldn’t match the magic of her alone in the halls of triple j. Getting in at number 99 might seem low, but given the overwhelming recency bias — and the fact only three covers from the 2000s got in — the contextual framework makes her unquestionably a winner. No need to be afraid.
Loser: Ben Folds
Although The Herd’s ‘I Was Only 19’ was originally credited as being the first Like A Version to get into the Hottest 100, that’s technically not true. Though it was indeed covered for the segment, it caught on so quickly that the group went into the studio to record an official version — featuring Redgum’s own John Schumann — and that’s what made it into the countdown. ‘Real Love’ was also later given this credit, although that’s untrue as well — not because it wasn’t the Like A Version… err, version… but because a different grand piano user got there before her.
The actual first Like A Version in an annual Hottest 100 came one year prior, when a suburb-rocking punk-rock sissy playing pied piper with a string of hapless interns took to the studio to deliver a stomping, clattering cover of The Postal Service’s ‘Such Great Heights’ that would elevate all the way to number 70 in the 2006 Hottest 100. Yes, the man who technically started it all — for better or worse — was honorary Adelaide citizen (and the 1996 Hottest 100 bronze medalist) Ben Folds. Not that you’d know it from this very countdown, however: the cardboard-box smashing, ringtone-blaring slice of piano-rock eccentricity was nowhere to be seen across the entire 100. A bloody shame, that.
Winner: Number 69
You always want number 69 to be nice, don’t you. It’s a coveted number. Thankfully, this 69er was an absolute doozy: Bad//Dreems leading an absolutely fantastic take on Warumpi Band’s seminal ‘Blackfella/Whitefella’ with an ensemble cast. Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil (who toured extensively with Warumpi Band) was on side to lend a helping hand, as were Warnindhilyagwa singer-songwriter Emily Wurramara and two members of Nunggubuyu band Mambali. Everyone involved threatens to steal the show at various junctures throughout the cover, but it’s at its very best when they’re presenting a bold, defiant united front. Always was, always will be.
Loser: Number 65 & Number 27
There were a few issues with the stream during the day — did anyone else hear nothing but abusive, misogynist bullshit when these two numbers were supposed to be playing songs? You’d think the station would have fixed that technical difficulty by now, considering they insisted it was fixed years ago. It’s like when your landlord is like “Yeah mate, there’ll never be a leak in that ceiling again” and then sure enough, the rain comes along and wouldn’t you know it: drip, drip, drip. It’s pretty simple, folks: if you have muck on your hands, then wash them thoroughly.
Winner: The Last Four Years
Hey, who remembers last year? The voters sure as shit did. A whopping 15 covers from last year made it into the countdown — three of which were already in the Hottest 100 of 2022 roughly six months ago, those being the Like A Versions of Dune Rats, King Stingray and Flume. Not to be outdone, 2019 impressively brought in 16. Throw in eight from 2020 (an understandable COVID-related dip) and another 13 from 2021, and that’s over half the countdown right there. That’s a majority shareholder. The best things are the things that have just happened, haven’t you heard?
Loser: Most Of The First Decade
Of course, recency bias is not a recent phenomenon: when the Hottest 100 was still an all-time list of songs from every year, 20 tracks in the 1991 countdown were released that year. When they ran another all-timer in 1998, a quarter of the countdown had been released in the last three years. So heavily imbalanced was the voting for the Like A Version 100, however, it made the whole thing feel like the segment’s early years didn’t stand a chance not least of all because many voters were either not yet born or barely comprehending of music as a concept in the mid-2000s. Feel old? You should.
Perhaps Double J could have run a countdown focusing on the first 10 years of Like A Version, and triple j could have handled the back half? We’re used to two countdowns now anyway with the Hottest 200, and it’s not like there was a lack of choice out of the literal hundreds of covers eligible for voting. Maybe something to reconsider if we’re gonna make this a regular thing.
Winner: Like A Version
By putting the station’s golden goose out on display like this, triple j have effectively made this once-fledgling segment a new barometer for success in the Australian music industry. It’s part of the story now, arguably as much as winning an ARIA or getting on the charts would be. A new setlist staple, a new entryway into a band or artist — who will be most likely Australian most of the time, for good measure — and a chance to discover some fresh new talent through the lens of the music that you already know and trust. What could possibly be wrong with that? Well…
Loser: The Hottest 100 & New Music
As the snake continues to eat its tail, and Like A Version continues to integrate itself into the time capsule of the annual Hottest 100, where does the buck stop? If songs that got in the Hottest 100 the year before are just getting covered the year after and getting voted in again, when do we lose sight of reflecting on the year in music as a whole and retreat solely into navel-gazing? Does the countdown lose a sense of credence if it’s caught inside its own bubble?
You could officially disqualify Like A Version covers from the annual Hottest 100 and reserve them solely for this countdown, but would that mean less voters for the actual countdown? We’re in a time where resistance to new music is getting stronger and stronger: The most popular album of the year is a re-recording of an album from 13 years ago, and arguably the most popular song of the year is a cover of a song from 35 years ago that’s already been covered literally dozens of times.
TikTok will make songs that are years – if not decades – old, the hot new viral sensation. We yell “play something we know” at artists, and ignore them if they don’t. We’re in deeply conservative times, and if we keep relying solely on the past for our music then we run a very real risk of losing what’s in front of us right now. “It’s not that deep,” you say. Maybe not right now, no. But the water is unquestionably lapping at our feet, and it won’t be long until we’re ankle-deep.
Do we sink or swim?
This opinion piece is written by David James Young, a writer and podcaster from Wollongong. He was formerly the co-host of the Hottest 100 podcast Hottest 100s and 1000s, which will share its final episode later this year. Find him on Instagram: @djywrites.
Main image credit: DMA’S