Sophie Ellis-Bextor ProfileMixtapes and compilations have existed throughout the annals of recording history but there was a special time in the 2000s when labels like Universal and Sony decided to team up and oust the independent record companies by dominating the CD compilation game that littered every Sanity in Australia.
It was a time where Jennifer Lopez, Rogue Traders, Ja Rule, Human Nature, Delta Goodrem, Ronan Keating, and Nelly Furtado occupied the charts only to be punctured by newcomers Lady Gaga, Leona Lewis, and Rihanna in the latter years.
The So Fresh series issued its first volume in September 2000, and new editions followed seasonally, with collections of the freshest tracks doing the round in Australia being compiled into frequent
If you were fortunate enough to have a television career on Neighbours or Australian Idol, you’d have a song or two on the back end of the catalogue and in its peak era even Big Brother contestants made the revered So Fresh seasonal editions.
It was a time where fads of big band numbers and Elvis Presley remixes graced us and then were lost to time, but what of the So Fresh hits that are still hits today? While So Fresh has evolved and remains with us in some form it is well beyond its peak era.
With that in mind, let’s revisit ten of the So Fresh hits from 2000-2008 that are still getting major radio play today.
It’s My Life – Bon Jovi (So Fresh: The Hits Of Spring 2000)
The very first iteration of So Fresh came to us in the spring of 2000. Big Brother housemates could still get utterly drunk live on television as reality TV was wild, untamed and unscripted, airport security was relaxed and the Y2K bug did not, in fact, destroy us all the way AI might nowadays.
In this pollinated haze of yesteryear Bon Jovi broke the sound barrier to the very first So Fresh compilation with It’s My Life and started the trend of various artists to come each season thereafter. It would seem that the feeling of now or never indeed never left though as Bon Jovi is still consistently heard on the radio all these years later.
The power anthem has remained popular and reminds us of the dying grungy pub rock of the 90’s and can often be found sung amongst busker and karaoke-enthusiast alike across the nation.
Teenage Dirtbag – Wheatus (So Fresh: The Hits Of Summer 2001 Plus The Biggest Hits Of 2000)
Our second addition to this list is another karaoke favourite among punters of the past-time, Teenage Dirtbag was the swan song of Gen X youth as elder Millennials came to enter the foray of adulthood armed with the newest of flip phones as they took their final Ansett flights post Sydney Olympics.
It is no wonder Aussies identify with the hit years later, Wheatus identifies the spirit of every Australian suffering main character syndrome: that they are the unlucky, outsider underdog who just needs a fair go.
Unlike the many hits of the fateful year of 2001 teenage angst is something we can dependably rely upon to always be fashionable almost as much as our ever-increasing desire to take nostalgic trips down memory lane to reminisce on our own moody youth under the tint of rose that buries and blurs the edges of the era and reminds us we too once had very little to do under the tyranny of our high school bullies.
Murder On The Dancefloor – Sophie Ellis-Bextor (So Fresh: The Hits Of Autumn 2002)
With the event of Saltburn and a certain triple j Like A Version cover it is no wonder Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s boppy disco-pop hit has resurged and sent Gen Z into revamped 2000s fashion frenzy that seemingly omits the thin eyebrows and skirts over jeans trends that populated and defined 2002 for the year it really was.
Murder On The Dancefloor was a hit for every senior primary school Blue Light Disco and was often accompanied by the I’m So Excited (The Bum Dance) song by The Sirens and Sarah-Marie Fedele from the first season of Big Brother, which also made an appearance in So Fresh.
If the parents of today were worried about their children having Drag Queens read them stories in a library they were clearly unaware of how sequinned and bunny-eared the school discos were back in the early noughties and we have these wonderful women to thank for our iconic, digicam-with-the-flash photos of our favourite costumes inspired by traditional primetime television and popular music videos.
Just The Way You Are – Milky (So Fresh: The Hits Of Summer 2003 Plus The Biggest Hits Of 2002)
Speaking of progressive messaging in the early 2000s Milky delivered a song of radical acceptance of being exactly who you are, even if it is in romance, came in hot for 2003 and is still spinning across radio stations the nation over.
Just The Way You Are continues the theme of disco never really dying in Australia. This upbeat banger stands in contrast to the many terrible messages that plagued the early 2000s and the early internet about body image and diet-culture, and just asked people to embrace exactly who they are on the dancefloor and allow themselves to be desired by others.
It’s no wonder in an era where body image has been disastrously shaped by Snapchat filters and the-grass-is-greener programming that social media infiltrates into our psyche’s that a song that uplifts us to accept ourselves and others for all our imperfections has a large listenership on the radio even decades later.
It’s time to just let it all go and dance it out to Milky, and maybe go a bit easier on yourself and believe you too are hot and deserve the attention as well.
All The Things She Said – t.A.T.u (So Fresh: The Hits Of Winter 2003)
This one is a no-brainer for anyone who tuned into HBO Max’s hit series Heated Rivalry which lit a fire under the bottoms of women and gays everywhere reigniting this hit song and sparking hockey enthusiasts and hockey cosplay at the clubs for months on end earlier this year.
It was a true arts and sports moment where two unlikely friends collide and economically stimulate all communities by tapping into the desire to feel seen and loved. If you were around for the inception of Nova FM in Perth you’d remember Big Brother season two alumni Nathan Morris – an openly bisexual man – playing All The Things She Said on rotation as the radio station was finding its feet.
Now, tensions came about when Julia Volkova made homophobic remarks years later despite the duo being marketed as a lesbian couple with no evidence of them actually being in a relationship but her co-artist Lena Katina has stood with the community in solidarity that people are “free to love who they love”.
Whether it was a marketing gimmick or not, All The Things She Said resonates with LGBTQIA+ people across generations and across the globe.
Hey Ya! – Outkast (So Fresh: The Hits Of Autumn 2004)
2004 was peak reality television in Australia. Big Brother had its first $1 million prize pool, Australian Idol had entered the public arena, naming Guy Sebastian its first winner with soon-to-be fellow So Fresh alumni Shannon Noll in second place, and it wouldn’t be long until more problematic series came and made us realise we might need a few considerations and ethical frameworks to apply to the entertainment sector.
One thing that has required no further consideration though was the undying prominence of Outkast’s song Hey Ya! which has never faded into obscurity. Coupled with other hits from Outkast like Ms. Jackson and Roses there is bound to be an obscenely drunk hens/bucks party any night of the week churning out their very own rendition of one of these numbers from the Outkast catalogue.
Another notable from this era is Dido’s White Flag which captured every single mothers heart at the time but perhaps doesn’t have the enduring legacy of our national booty-shaker anthem.
Have you found yourself shaking it like a polaroid picture only to be told that this would technically ruin the polaroid photo and that its best practice to not, indeed, shake it?
Mr. Brightside – The Killers (So Fresh: The Hits Of Autumn 2005)
No other song gets quite the radio play today as this clear-cut Millennial exposer when you’re in the club, getting even the most rigid, beige, introvert out in an absolute frenzy on the dancefloor of any club. This is of course, Mr. Brightside by The Killers.
It takes one to two notes into the song and suddenly everyone regardless of their ability to keep rhythm or dance will flood the space like they were a sleeper agent that has been awakened using an old hypnotherapy technique from last century.
This song feels like skinny jeans, dual-hair tones, and a fingerless glove and so it predestined the likes of Lee Harding and many other Idol alumni that led us through to the second half of the noughties where traditional 90s R&B/hip hop was replaced by something a bit more clubby and punk faded into emo with a tinge of 50s polka fashion having a quick moment in the spotlight before it fully formed into more popular hipster movement we define the next decade by.
Alas, this is not the era of stomp-clap-holler! This was the rise of dark, gothic inspired electric guitar and a slew of problematic artists we have, thankfully, not kept playing on the radio.
Who Knew – Pink (So Fresh: The Hits Of Spring 2006)
If ABBA had a chokehold on Australia decades after they split up then Pink can be described as the second coming of international artists that dominate the Australian landscape for eternity.
Not only does she appear on almost every single So Fresh compilation, love her or hate her, she has the ability to constantly tour and unite Gen Xers to keep her playing and sticking it to “the man”, whomever that man may be: the divorced partner, the government of the season or the adult children that don’t speak to them at the moment because there was a disagreement during the pandemic that remains unresolved.
It should also be noted that despite not being the most-played, during this time Black Eyed Peas came close to defeating Pink domination with Pump It, the Pussycat Dolls entered Don’t Cha into the fray, Bernard Fanning said Wish You Well, and many other bangers that still get played today, but Pink reigns supreme consistently.
Nothing feels more satisfying than being bruised-but-right in the divorce.
Umbrella (feat. Jay-Z) – Rihanna (So Fresh: The Hits Of Spring 2007)
2007 was many things, it was Channel 10’s slew of television presenters trying out the women’s mullet, a precursor to what would become The Project, The Biggest Loser being a socially acceptable show to watch while ingesting fast food and feeling at ease with criticising what people wore on TV from the couch.
It was also a time where stars came to light, and not always to their benefit. Our winner for 2007 is Rihanna with the iconic Umbrella which has been choreographed and performed by Tom Holland and Zendaya on the broadcast and retrospectively feels sad knowing the trauma Rihanna would be known to experience in this time of her life.
A close runner-up who also met an ill fate was Amy Winehouse with Rehab. Sadly, rehab would never be enough for those in the public eye under the constant scrutiny of the paparazzi and the public eye going well and truly beyond the bounds of human sanity.
Just ask fellow So Fresh alumni, Britney Spears, who rates highly in these later eras of the compilation but failed to beat this toe-tapping, puddle-splashing number that Kyle Sandilands so thoroughly criticised Australian Idol winner Natalie Gauci for on season five of the show for not adding the “ella, ella, ella” in her cover.
Regardless of what lyric has been skipped decades later we are still tuning into Umbrella.
Closer – Ne-Yo (So Fresh: The Hits Of Spring 2008)
In a year where many well-known artists of today began etching their first hits on So Fresh, think Lady Gaga, Leona Lewis, OneRepublic, MGMT, and Sarah Bareilles. But one artist kept producing the goods year in and year out, his name is Ne-Yo.
The R&B pop artist genuinely litters the 2000s seasons of So Fresh but the song that has stood out to audiences today is Closer and who doesn’t instantly feel the pull and obsession of their desires manifest in this upbeat, danceable number?
It’s a club banger that oozes the borrowed confidence to go out onto the dancefloor and be the person to make the first move.
In these later years, So Fresh had its pulse on the changing times and knew that to keep up with constant technological disruptions – remember Limewire? – that value had to be added to the compilation and so a DVD extension was added.
The compilation CDs of So Fresh still exist today but have changed in form from their glory days of the noughties.
