50 Years - 95 Songs

50 Years - 95 Songs The 95bfm NZVAPOR Top 95

95bFM, New Zealand’s oldest independent broadcaster, celebrated its fiftieth birthday this year with a countdown of listeners’ voted 95 favorite 95bFM songs of all time.

Last done in 2009 to celebrate the station’s fortieth, the list has changed in many ways since then. What remains the same, however, is the number one track - once again, Darcy Clay’s self-recorded 1996 pop masterpiece ‘Jesus I Was Evil’.

The NZVAPOR Top 95 songs offers a snapshot of 95bFM’s diverse sound and listenership; where homegrown music stands alongside that of the rest of the world. Mixing genres, and generations, the NZVAPOR Top 95 reflects music that is challenging, forward-thinking, and just bloody good.

The list is over two-thirds New Zealand music, with the top ten being exclusively Kiwi - including groundbreaking Otara hip-hop from Sisters Underground, two tracks of esoteric folk from Aldous Harding, 2019 Taite Music Prize winner Avantdale Bowling Club, rap icon Dam Native, and a selection of Flying Nun classics.

With new tracks from Miss June, MELODOWNZ, and milk, sitting comfortably next to classics from Straitjacket Fits, Sonic Youth, and Skeptics, if the NZVAPOR Top 95 shows anything it’s that New Zealand music history is still being written today.

1 Darcy Clay - Jesus I Was Evil
2 Sisters Underground - In The Neighbourhood
3 Chris Knox - Not Given Lightly
4 Aldous Harding - The Barrel
5 Straitjacket Fits - She Speeds
6 Dam Native - Behold My Kool Style
7 The Chills - Pink Frost
8 Aldous Harding - Horizon
9 The Clean - Anything Could Happen
10 Avantdale Bowling Club - Years Gone By

11 Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
12 Voom - B Your Boy
13 Snapper - Buddy
14 Headless Chickens - Gaskrankinstation
15 Look Blue Go Purple - Cactus Cat
16 LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean
17 The Mint Chicks - Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!
18 Coco Solid - ABC
19 3Ds - Outer Space
20 Miss June - Best Girl

21 Polyester - Different For a Boy
22 Skeptics - Agitator
23 The Chills - I Love My Leather Jacket
24 Beats International - Dub Be Good To Me
25 The Smashing Pumpkins - Drown
26 Fugazi - Waiting Room
27 Sonic Youth - Kool Thing
28 HEX - Sight Beyond The Line
29 Marlon Williams - Party Boy
30 milk - Sugar Glider

31 Voom - Beth
32 Collapsing Cities - Seriously
33 Fat Freddy's Drop - Hope
34 Kane Strang - My Smile Is Extinct
35 Sagat - Fuk Dat
36 Pixies - Debaser
37 The Breeders - Cannonball
38 Church & AP - Ready Or Not
39 The Beths - Happy Unhappy
40 Head Like A Hole - I’m on Fire

41 Princess Chelsea - Cigarette Duet
42 The Mint Chicks - Blue Team Go!
43 Jane's Addiction - Jane Says
44 Straitjacket Fits - A.P.S.
45 Darcy Clay - Jolene
46 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Stagger Lee
47 P.H.F. - I Hate Myself
48 Iggy Pop - The Passenger
49 SJD - Tree People
50 Pixies - Gigantic

51 Joy Division - Transmission
52 Miss June - Twitch
53 DLT - Chains feat. Ché-Fu
54 Courtney Barnett - Avant Gardener
55 Skeptics - AFFCO
56 David Bowie - Heroes
57 The Beths - Future Me Hates Me
58 Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Can't Keep Checking My Phone
59 Bressa Creeting Cake - Palm Singing
60 Public Enemy - Don't Believe The Hype

61 Bailter Space - Splat
62 Connan Mockasin - Forever Dolphin Love [Erol Alkan Rework]
63 Lawrence Arabia - Apple Pie Bed
64 Ché-Fu - Misty Frequencies
65 Gordons - Adults and Children
66 Beastwars - Damn the Sky
67 King Kapisi - Screems From Da Old Plantation
68 Beastie Boys - Sabotage
69 My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes
70 Hans Pucket - Straight to My Heart

71 Home Brew - Basketball Court
72 Kurt Vile - Loading Zones
73 MELODOWNZ - $on of a Queen
74 Beck - Loser
75 Goat - Let it Burn
76 imugi - Greensmoke
77 JessB - Set It Off
78 OutKast - SpottieOttieDopaliscious
79 Queen Neptune - The Queen's Speech
80 Hallelujah Picassos - Rewind

81 CHAII - Digebasse (Enough)
82 Underworld - Born Slippy (Nuxx)
83 Street Chant - Less Chat, More Sewing
84 Garageland - Fingerpops
85 Parallel Dance Ensemble - Shopping Cart
86 PJ Harvey - Down by the River
87 The Bats - North by North
88 The Stooges - Search and Destroy
89 Massive Attack - Teardrop
90 SWIDT - Little Did She Know

91 Bic Runga - Drive
92 The Cure - Boys Don't Cry
93 The Fall - The Classical
94 Burial - Archangel
95 Fanau Spa - Breakfast

The 95bFM Top 95 was broadcast live from 7am - 7pm on Friday 27th September.
The 95bFM Top 95 was proudly supported by NZVAPOR - Only a Fire Should Smoke.

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