Another week, another Canberra Top 40, pop pickers – and covers continue to dominate the charts.

John Howard and his version of On And On And On remains at Number One.

Peter Costello has the Number Two spot. He’s gone a bit indie, doing a version of Easy Money from Nick Cave’s latest. The lyrics spoke to him. They reminded him of Howard Government policy – rake in the taxes and then
“Easy money…

Rain it down on the wife and the kids

Rain it down on the house where we live

Rain until you got nothing left to give

And rain that ever-loving stuff down on me”.

Oddly enough, however, he left out the verse that says “Life shuffles past at a low interest rate”.

Music biz insiders continue to say that Coz has some intensely personal material in the can. Will it ever see the light of day? It took how many years for Smile to be released? Will we ever hear the recording where Coz does Moz – his take on The Smiths’ Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want?

Robert Hill’s Number Three, At Abu Ghraib, is clearly based on Johnny Cash’s legendary Folsom Prison recordings. Oddly enough, though, he’s spent hour after hour after hour denying it in God knows how many interviews.

Kim Beazley is at Number Four, doing Gary Glitter: I’m back, I’m back, as a matter of fact, I’m back.

Prolix as ever. Gary Glitter, of course, has made a number of comebacks – and where has it got him?

Most interesting of all, though, to Canberra music buffs is this week’s Number Five – Phillip Ruddock’s take on the Carole Bayer Sager/Marvin Hamlisch classic Nobody Does It Better:

“I wasn’t lookin’ but somehow you found me.
I tried to hide from your love light,
But like heaven above me the spy who loved me
Is keepin’ all my secrets safe tonight…”

Here’s hoping, hey Phillip?


Who’s hot, who’s not: The Rehame Top 40 Pols

Rank Name Mentions Rank LW Mentions LW
1 John Howard 3065 4026 1
2 Peter Costello 1191 992 4
3 Robert Hill 1127 71 30
4 Kim Beazley 871 1984 2
5 Philip Ruddock 768 56 38
6 Alexander Downer 760 260 10
7 Brendan Nelson 456 790 6
8 Tony Abbott 385 437 7
9 Amanda Vanstone 381 1583 3
10 Kevin Rudd 325 83 23
11 John Anderson 232 388 8
12 Robert McClelland 186 32 51
13 Nicola Roxon 170 3 130
14 Jim Lloyd 143 949 5
15 Julia Gillard 137 150 17
16 Anthony Albanese 136 6 106
16 Wayne Swan 136 247 11
18 Ian Campbell 135 15 71
19 Warren Truss 125 124 18
20 Jenny Macklin 119 200 13
21 Kerry Nettle 110 82 24
22 John Tierney 105 0 185
23 Mark Vaile 93 172 16
24 John Faulkner 86 1 160
25 Lyn Allison 78 114 21
26 Bob Brown 69 70 32
26 De-Anne Kelly 69 65 35
28 Malcolm Turnbull 65 188 14
29 Kelvin Thomson 59 77 26
30 Wilson Tuckey 54 35 48
31 Fran Bailey 52 2 137
31 Sharman Stone 52 56 38
31 Tony Smith 52 28 56
34 Chris Ellison 51 188 14
35 Peter Slipper 47 6 106
36 Catherine King 41 3 130
36 David Jull 41 2 137
36 John Forrest 41 29 55
36 Martin Ferguson 41 36 46
40 John Watson 40 12 77