Song · Ben Lee
“Cigarettes Will Kill You” by Ben Lee
From the album Breathing Tornados (1998)
“Cigarettes Will Kill You” by Ben Lee appears on 4 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1998 and 2025. It was first released in 1998 on the album Breathing Tornados. Its best result is #2 on the Triple J Hottest 100 of 1998. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #138 alternative song of 1998.
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"Cigarettes Will Kill You" was the song that broke Ben Lee wide open, a cut from Breathing Tornados, the Australian singer-songwriter's third album, released in 1998 on Modular and Grand Royal with Ed Buller producing. Lee wrote it alone, words and music.
Its chords walk the same well-worn path as Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" and Toto's "Africa", which earned it a spot in the Axis of Awesome's "Four Chord Song" medley, and it showed up on screen in the 2002 Australian comedy Crackerjack. It reached 46 on the national singles chart in 1999, and Triple J's audience has never let it go: in 2025 it landed at 83 in the station's Hottest 100 of Australian Songs.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 2 | Triple J Australia (national) | Triple J Hottest 100 of 1998 | 100 |
| 1999 | 4 | WBER Rochester, NY | WBER Listener Countdown 1999 | 101 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 95 | Triple J | Triple J Hottest 100 of the Past 20 Years (2013) | 100 |
| 2025 | 83 | Triple J | Triple J Hottest 100 of Australian Songs (2025) | 100 |
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