Nature's Best


Nature's Best is a two-disc compilation album of thirty New Zealand popular music songs, selected by a panel as the top thirty New Zealand songs of all time.

Selection

The genesis of the idea was the 75th anniversary of the Australasian Performing Right Association in New Zealand in 2001 and the selection of the top 100 New Zealand songs of the past 75 years. A list of over 900 candidate songs was prepared, and voting was open to APRA members and an invited academy. The list of the top 100 songs was announced in stages in 2001, with the number one place going to the 1969 song "Nature" by Fourmyula.
A collaborative effort by representatives of major record companies and APRA - most notably Mike Chunn - took place to produce an album of the top 30 songs from this selection. The resulting album was named Nature's Best after the title song, and was released in January 2002 on the Sony Music label. Sales were extraordinary - in the first four months after its release, over 100,000 copies were sold.

Followups

Subsequent releases followed:
  1. "Nature" - Fourmyula
  2. "Don't Dream It's Over" - Crowded House
  3. "Loyal" - Dave Dobbyn
  4. "Counting the Beat" - The Swingers
  5. "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" - Split Enz
  6. "Sway" - Bic Runga
  7. "Slice of Heaven" - Dave Dobbyn with Herbs
  8. "Victoria" - Dance Exponents
  9. "She Speeds" - Straitjacket Fits
  10. "April Sun in Cuba" - Dragon
  11. "I Got You" - Split Enz
  12. "Whaling" - DD Smash
  13. "Not Given Lightly" - Chris Knox
  14. "Pink Frost" - The Chills
  15. "Jesus I Was Evil" - Darcy Clay
  16. "Weather with You" - Crowded House
  17. "Blue Smoke" - Pixie Williams & The Ruru Karaitiana Quartet
  18. "Dance All Around the World" - Blerta
  19. "Lydia" - Fur Patrol
  20. "Blue Lady" - Hello Sailor
  21. "Drive" - Bic Runga
  22. "Chains" - DLT featuring Che Fu
  23. "Dominion Road" - The Mutton Birds
  24. " Not a Kennedy" - Shona Laing
  25. "I Hope I Never" - Split Enz
  26. "Tears" - The Crocodiles
  27. "Be Mine Tonight" - Th' Dudes
  28. "I See Red" - Split Enz
  29. "Beside You" - Dave Dobbyn
  30. "Home Again" - Shihad