Ranking the Hottest 100s - #99

The #99 position sees one of my least favourite songs to make the Hottest 100, along with three tracks that made my voting list at the time. This has resulted in different reactions each time, from the "why is it only at #99, it should be much higher!" during the early 00s, to "at least one of the songs that I voted for has made it" reaction of more recent years.



Songs in red are those that made my shortlist, at the time. Songs in blue are those where I voted for that artist, but for a different song, in that particular countdown. Songs in green are those where I have voted for that artist in other annual Hottest 100s. My voting goes back to 1998
22. Madison Avenue - "Who The Hell Are You" (2000)
21. Chemical Brothers -"It began in Afrika" (2001)
20. Muph & Plutonic - "Don't Worry About Nothin'" (2008)
19.  Angelique Kidjo - "Agolo" (1994)
18. Bodyjar - "Too drunk to drive" (2002)
17. The Wrights - "Evie" (Pt.1) (2005)
16. Dillon Francis featuring Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - "Without You" (2013)
15. Luscious Jackson - "Naked Eye" (1997)
14. Republica - "Ready to Go" (1996)
13.  The Hives - "Tick Tick Boom" (2007)
12. Audioslave - "Original Fire" (2006)
11. Superjesus  - "Saturation" (1998)
10.  Ball Park Music -"Trippin' the Light Fantastic" (2014)
9. Eskimo Joe -"Ruby Wednesday" (1999)
8. The Beards -  "You Should Consider Having Sex With A Bearded Man" {triple j recording}(2011)
7.  Shamen - "Ebeneezer Goode" (1993)
6. M.I.A. - "Bad Girls" (2012)
5. Tegan and Sara - "Hell" (2009)
4. Green Day - "When I Come Around" (1995)
3. Dead Letter Circus - "Big" (2010)
2. The Mars Volta  -  "Inertiatic Esp" (2003)
1. Butterfly Effect  - "Always" (2004)

With this, some of my biases are showing through pretty strongly, with alternative/rock taking thr first three positions, while more EDM orientated stuff and hiphop is toward the lower end. The Butterfly Effect in particular are one of my all time favourite bands, and will be ranked highly for each of the seven songs of theirs to place in the Hottest 100. Dead Letter Circus I'm cautiously optimistic will make the 2015 countdown; but this was it so far as The Mars Volta went (though they should have made it in 2004 with "The Widow" and 2009 for "Cotopaxi").

"Ebeneezer Goode" is a song that the elitist in me feels that I shouldn't like, both with the genre, and novelty drug-referency lyrics. But on listening to it again, they lyrics just stuck in my head ("Eezer Goode, Eezer Goode, he's Ebeneezer Goode"). At the time of writing at least, in a good way. The same could be said for "You Should Consider Having Sex With A Bearded Man". Novelty(-ish) songs have a place, indeed a proud tradition, of making the Hottest 100. But please, no more to finish at #1.

"Naked Eye" is one of a handful of songs to have the dubious distinction of appearing in multiple Hottest 100 countdowns (it placed at #82 in 1996), though I'm not sure what it kept out of the countdown (part of me likes to think it was "Everlong", but there's no basis for that thought).

Looking at the tail end, The Chemical Brothers are an act I'm very hit or miss with. A number of their tracks (thinking ahead, likely "Hey Boy, Hey Girl" and "Setting Sun") will feature towards the top of the positions, others, like "It began in Afrika" will do the opposite.

As for Madison Avenue - I'm not sure how this was voted in, while Queens of the Stone Age didn't make it for "Feel Good Hit of the Summer"? Also, how did it end up as the 8th highest selling song of 2000? Clearly, I was never the demographic that it appealed to.