Artist · chart history · #298 in alternative artist polls · #871 in indie & aaa artist polls
Hoodoo Gurus
Band Sydney Australia Formed 1982
Hoodoo Gurus formed in 1982 in Sydney, Australia. Hoodoo Gurus has 91 chart appearances on 45 radio countdowns from 13 stations on RockLists, spanning 1985–2025. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Miss Freelove '69”, which appears on 19 lists with a best position of #44. The station that charted Hoodoo Gurus most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 42 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1989.
Hoodoo Gurus came out of Sydney as Dave Faulkner's band, with Faulkner writing the songs, singing them and playing guitar, and the classic lineup filled in around him with Brad Shepherd on guitar, vocals and harmonica, Rick Grossman on bass and Mark Kingsmill on drums. In a town full of bands trying to sound like Detroit, the Gurus were a magpie outfit, grabbing '60s power pop, garage punk, hard rock and a funky, psychedelic kitsch and gluing it together with hooks and a grin.
Stoneage Romeos, with "I Want You Back", came in 1984, and from then on they kept touring the States, while Mars Needs Guitars! ("Bittersweet", "Death Defying"), Blow Your Cool! and Magnum Cum Louder made the mid-to-late '80s their peak. "What's My Scene?", from 1987, was their biggest single at home, a top-3 hit that later got rewritten as a rugby league theme. American college radio fell for them hard: "Come Anytime" went to No. 1 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks, and "Miss Freelove '69", a strutting, swaggering rocker from Kinky, made it to No. 3.
Crank and Blue Cave followed, and in 2007 the ARIA Hall of Fame took them in, praising them as one of Australia's smartest and most exciting bands.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Hoodoo Gurus on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miss Freelove '69 | 19 | #44 | – | 1991 | |
| 2 | Bittersweet | 16 | #58 | – | 1985 | |
| 3 | I Want You Back | 17 | #223 | – | – | |
| 4 | 1,000 Miles | 7 | #287 | – | – | |
| 5 | 1000 Miles Away | 7 | #1154 | – | – | |
| 6 | What's My Scene | 7 | #31 | – | 1987 | |
| 7 | Come Anytime | 4 | #33 | – | 1989 | |
| 8 | Death Defying | 2 | #194 | – | – | |
| 9 | Out That Door | 2 | #510 | – | – | |
| 10 | The Right Time | 1 | #36 | – | 1993 | |
| 11 | Poison Pen | 1 | #1179 | – | – | |
| 12 | Another World | 1 | #78 | – | 1989 | |
| 13 | Good Times | 1 | #69 | – | 1987 | |
| 14 | In the Middle of the Land | 1 | #1641 | – | – | |
| 15 | Waking Up Tired | 1 | #83 | – | 1996 | |
| 16 | Party Machine | 1 | #1839 | – | – | |
| 17 | Like Wow-Wipeout | 1 | #1998 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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