Under the Milky Way

This haunting song was by far the biggest hit by the Australian new wave band The Church, although they've had a long career. Steve Kilbey, the band's frontman, co-wrote this song with bassist and then-girlfriend Karin Jansson. The pair was visiting Kilbey's mother in New South Wales when an after-dinner smoke (a "special musicians' jazz cigarette") under a blanket of stars inspired the ethereal tune. As for the song's meaning, "It's not about anything," Kilbey told the Guardian Australia. "Like all my songs, it's a portal into your own mind where I give you a guided meditation. It's a blank, abstract canvas for people to lose themselves in."

Kilbey wrote the song near the end of the recording sessions for Starfish, and the rest of the band didn't like it. Fortunately, the band's manager sensed its hit potential and insisted they record it. His hunch was proven correct when Arista head Clive Davis praised the song during a listening session. Kilbey recalled to Elsewhere: "All his henchmen shook my hand and said, 'It's a hit' and they made it a hit."

The success of the single proved to be a blessing and a curse for the band. "It changed everything in our lives, it put me on a new level of temptation and opened more doors that maybe shouldn't have been opened... and made a lot of money and so we did a lot of touring," Kilbey told Elsewhere. "But saying that, the guys in the band all hated each other and they all hated me. Instead of being grateful that I'd written this song which had dragged them into the spotlight they were sort of envious and miserable about it as well."