Artist · chart history

The Whitlams

Band Australia Formed 1992

The Whitlams formed in 1992 in Australia. The Whitlams has 16 chart appearances on 11 radio countdowns from 2 stations on RockLists, spanning 1996–2025. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “No Aphrodisiac”, which appears on 4 lists and was voted number one once. In total the artist has topped 1 countdown. The station that charted The Whitlams most often is Triple J (Australia (national)), with 15 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1998.

16appearances
11countdowns
11songs charted
2stations
1#1 finishes
1996–2025years

The Whitlams came together in Sydney in late 1992 with a piano at their heart: Tim Freedman singing lead from behind the keys, Andy Lewis playing double bass and Stevie Plunder on guitar, singing lead as well. Undeniably, in 1995, carried the wry "I Make Hamburgers", but the band was soon marked by loss. Plunder's body was discovered below Wentworth Falls in January 1996, and Lewis died in February 2000.

Freedman kept going, the one constant through every lineup change, and his rueful, piano-driven songs found a bigger audience with each record. Eternal Nightcap, in 1997, gave the world "No Aphrodisiac", "Melbourne" and the "Charlie" songs, and reached number 14 on the ARIA albums chart. Love This City, with "Chunky Chunky Air Guitar", climbed to number 3 in 1999, and Torch the Moon went all the way to number 1 in 2002. "Blow Up the Pokies" and "Fall for You" both peaked at number 21 on the singles chart, and Little Cloud reached number 4 in 2006.

The best-known version of the band had Warwick Hornby on bass, Jak Housden on guitar and Terepai Richmond on drums, the longest-lasting lineup they ever had, and Ian Peres joined on bass, keyboards and backing vocals in 2022.

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

Songs by The Whitlams on radio countdowns

#SongStrengthListsBest#1sPeak year
1 No Aphrodisiac
218
4 #1 1 1997
2 Thank You
111
2 #37 – 2000
3 You Sound Like Louis Burdette
106
2 #43 – 1997
4 Buy Now Pay Later (Charlie No 2)
64
1 #37 – 1998
5 Chunky Chunky Air Guitar
63
1 #38 – 1999
6 Fall for You
61
1 #40 – 2002
7 Duffy's Song {I Will Not Go Quietly}
59
1 #42 – 2001
8 Melbourne
58
1 #43 – 1998
9 Charlie No 3
45
1 #56 – 1998
10 I Make Hamburgers
22
1 #79 – 1996
11 Blow Up The Pokies (I Wish I...)
17
1 #84 – –

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.

Every countdown appearance

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