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Cover of diVINYLS by The Divinyls
Cover: diVINYLS

Song · The Divinyls

“I Touch Myself” by The Divinyls

From the album diVINYLS (1990)

“I Touch Myself” by The Divinyls appears on 36 radio countdowns from 18 stations between 1991 and 2026. It was first released in 1990 on the album diVINYLS. Its best result is #12 on the Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1991. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #20 alternative song of 1991 and #558 alternative song of all time.

36countdowns
18stations
#12best position
0#1 finishes
0top 10 finishes
1991–2026years charted

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I Touch Myself

Video from YouTube (Divinyls - Topic). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube

"I Touch Myself" was the lead single from Divinyls' self-titled fourth album, issued on Virgin, and it's a pop song about exactly what the title says: desire and female self-pleasure, sung without a blush. Chrissy Amphlett and Mark McEntee wrote it with the songwriting team of Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg, and David Tickle produced with the band.

The trick is in the delivery. The track purrs along on a glossy, slinky groove, and Amphlett sings it with a wink and a pout, turning a subject pop usually tiptoes around into a singalong. It went to number one in Australia and number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and Michael Bay's video picked up 3 nominations at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards.

Australia has never let it go. Triple M ranked it at 60 among the most Australian songs of all time in 2018, it placed 54 in the Triple J Hottest 100 of Australian Songs in 2025, and in 2023 Billboard counted it among the 500 best pop songs ever.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.

RockLists rankings

Alternative & Modern Rock

Indie & Adult Alternative

All Rock Formats

Year-end countdowns

Year#StationCountdownof
1991 25 KROQ Los Angeles, CA KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1991 107
1991 19 91X San Diego, CA / Tijuana 91X Top 91 Songs of 1991 91
1991 12 Live 105 San Francisco, CA Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1991 105

All-time and decade countdowns

Year#StationCountdownof
1991 397 WOXY 97X WOXY Modern Rock 500 (1991) 500
1994 218 Live 105 Live 105 Revolutionary 500 (July 1994) 500
1995 237 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1995) 500
1996 153 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1996) 500
1999 410 WHFS WHFS Top 500 Songs of the '90s (December 1999) 500
1999 327 91X 91X Fat 500 Songs of All-Time (July 1999) 500
1999 757 Q101 Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) 1017
1999 240 WLIR / WDRE WLIR Top 300 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) 300
1999 727 107.7 The End The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) 1077
1999 364 CD101 CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) 2000
1999 743 CFNY 102.1 The Edge CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (November 1999) 1002
2000 364 CD101 CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000) 2001
2001 364 CD101 CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) 2002
2001 754 WFPK WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time 2000
2001 418 WBRU WBRU Modern Rock Top 500 (2001) 500
2002 364 CD101 CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002) 2003
2002 1072 Fred (XM 44) Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) 2002
2003 364 CD101 CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003) 2004
2003 444 Fred (XM 44) Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) 2044
2004 364 CD101 CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004) 2005
2005 366 CD101 CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005) 1994
2007 609 CD101 CD101 Top 2008 Songs of All-Time (December 2007) 2008
2008 591 CD101 CD101 Top 2009 Songs of All-Time (December 2008) 2009
2009 603 CD101 CD101 Top 2010 Songs of All-Time (December 2009) 2010
2010 623 CD101 CD101 Top 2011 Songs of All-Time (December 2010) 2011
2011 642 CD101 CD101 Top 2012 Songs of All-Time (December 2011) 2011
2013 663 CD101 CD101 Top 2013 Songs of All-Time (December 2013) 2012
2014 686 CD101 CD101 Top 2014 Songs of All-Time (2014) 2013
2018 60 Triple M Triple M Ozzest 100 (2018) 100
2021 466 90.9 The Bridge 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '90s 908
2023 545 The Current The Current's 893 Essential Songs of the '90s 893
2025 54 Triple J Triple J Hottest 100 of Australian Songs (2025) 100
2026 614 KXT KXT 917 Song Countdown 917

Charting alongside it in 1991

Best songs of 1991 →
  1. 1Smells Like Teen SpiritNirvana
  2. 2Losing My ReligionR.E.M.
  3. 3UnbelievableEMF
  4. 4Kiss Them for MeSiouxsie and the Banshees
  5. 5RushBig Audio Dynamite
  6. 6Give It AwayRed Hot Chili Peppers

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