VA - Triple J: Hottest 100 - Collection (1994-2016)

The Hottest 100 began as an idea in 1988 when 2JJJ staffer Lawrie Zion suggested polling listeners to discover their favourite songs. They called it the Hot 100 and started the first poll in 1989, the same year the station went national. Listeners submitted their 10 favourite songs of all time via the postal system. This was very labour-intensive to tally, and it wasn't until March that the results were announced.

Joy Division topped the first countdown with the classic "Love Will Tear Us Apart". Something about the song resonated with listeners so much that it won the following year's countdown. It was only beaten in 1991 by Nirvana's "Smells like Teen Spirit", which went on to take out top place in the 1998 and 2009 Hottest 100 of All Time polls as well. After 1991, the poll took a year off as the station decided to change the rules so the same tracks didn't win every year.

The Hottest 100 is triple j's annual poll of your favourite songs. We hold a vote at the end of every year and then play the countdown on January 26. It goes pretty well with the summer weather and barbeques.

The poll's been going since 1989, and used to be an all-time thing where you could choose any song from any year. Now we only do those ones on special occasions, so the annual countdowns will always be fresh.

The poll came back in late 1993 with a new name and new rules. The freshly-named Hottest 100 was relaunched as a yearly poll of the top tunes from the past 12 months. Denis Leary's comedy anthem "Asshole" made it to number 1 in the new countdown, followed by The Cranberries' "Zombie" for 1994 and Oasis' "Wonderwall" the next year. While Britpop was topping the polls, US artists dominated the countdown overall.