Over the weekend, as predicted by 100 Warm Tunas, The Wiggles took out Hottest 100 glory, with their Like a Version cover of Tame Impala‘s ‘Elephant’ placing first in this year’s countdown.
Beating out The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber‘s mega-hit collaboration ‘Stay’, Spacey Jane‘s ‘Lots of Nothing’, Olivia Rodrigo‘s ‘good 4 u’ and Billie Eilish‘s ‘Happier Than Ever’, the Wiggles’ win marks the first time a Like a Version has taken out the top spot. The closest came a couple of years back with the Hottest 100 of 2019, when Denzel Curry‘s cover of ‘Bulls on Parade’ by Rage Against the Machine came in at number five.
Now, Tame Impala bandleader Kevin Parker has responded to the win. “If someone told me back when we released ‘Elephant’ that in 10 years time The Wiggles were gonna cover it and it was gonna get top 10 Hottest 100, I would have told you you were out of your mind,” Parker said in an interview with triple j.
“I would have told you that’s a ridiculous idea and I wouldn’t have believed you. If a fortune teller told me that was going to happen I would ask for my money back.”
Parker says he was told ahead of time that the children’s group were planning to cover Tame’s Lonerism cut back in March of last year – “I’ll believe it when I see it” was his response.
“So, when I heard it, I was like, ‘This is real, oh my God.’ It was pretty amazing. I was still in disbelief when I was watching it. They made it their own which I guess kind of showcases the genius of the Wiggles. They really gave it a new personality, a new animal personality.”
Kev goes on to describe how he and his bandmates returned the favour last Halloween, dressing up as The Wiggles for their performance at Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco that evening.
“We got the costumes, we got everything, and we kinda just had that moment before we walked out onstage, all dressed as The Wiggles, kind of going, ‘Are we really going to do this?’ But as soon as we got on stage it was such an event. Such a kind of hilarious but magical thing, and we kind of just went all into it, it was really fun.”
The band’s Anthony Field, Murray Cook and Lachy Gillespie were in the triple j studio when their win was announced over the weekend, with Cook describing the moment as “pretty surreal.”
“It’s just been unbelievable,” Cook added. You can’t help but feel, just, thank you to all the people that voted, and Kevin Parker for writing that amazing song.”
