One of the best Hottest 100s ever had some major - Double J

It sounds like a lot, but 100 songs really isn't enough to fully capture the best musical moments of a year.

Every year, good songs miss out on a spot in the Hottest 100. Sometimes, great songs miss out.

Sure, it's easy for us to look back in hindsight and question why we chose to include the Skeewiff remix of 'Man of Constant Sorrow' instead of Hot Hot Heat's 'Bandages'. Or why we went for five Powderfinger songs (no shade) but could only vote in one Outkast song (don't try telling me 'Roses' and 'The Way You Move' didn't deserve a guernsey).

Truth is, we did what we did. Tastes change, some songs age better than others, and sometimes things just don't go your way.

That said, here are seven tunes that we'd love to hear in the 2003 Hottest 100 if it were being counted down today.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – 'Maps'

Now, before you shout blue murder that this indie rock staple was overlooked, it's worth noting that besides The Strokes, the whole early '00s NYC indie boom didn't immediately gel with Hottest 100 voters.

Interpol and TV On The Radio didn't make the cut until their second albums, The Rapture only made it in 2008 after featuring in Grand Theft Auto, and LCD Soundsystem? Jack all until 2010!

So, while 'Maps' has gone on to become one of Yeah Yeah Yeahs' most beloved and best-known tune, behind 'Heads Will Roll', (their highest ever H100 ranking, at #11 in 2009, fyi), most folks Down Under were slow to pick up on the band's now-classic 2003 debut album Fever To Tell.

That's a damn shame, because 'Maps' is a stunner. A tender yet spiky ode to unrequited love that's simple in construction yet is so much more than the sum of its parts, it also proved that the iconic Karen O could do vulnerability just as brilliantly as she did sweaty chaos.

Adding to the legacy of 'Maps' is the fact that it's been covered several times and inspired both a pop makeover in Kelly Clarkson's mega-hit 'Since U Been Gone' and a lyrical nod from none other than Beyoncé in 2016's 'Hold Up', which landed Bey in the Hottest 100 for the first time. Consider it some sort of justice for Yeah Yeah Yeahs' romantic triumph. – AN

Jay-Z – '99 Problems'

triple j, and white Australia at large, has always had a strange relationship with hip hop. The station didn't even get a show dedicated to hip hop until 2004, so I guess that helps explain this glaring omission…

Still, it's wild that a bona fide titan like Jay-Z didn't even get a look into the Hottest 100 until 'D.O.A. (Death of Auto Tune)' cracked #89 in 2009 (and not 'Empire State of Mind'!?). That's a lot of classic Hova albums and moments that got passed by. And '99 Problems' is arguably the biggest and most impactful of them all.

The Rick Rubin-produced banger has been widely acclaimed as not only among Jay's best work but one of the best songs of the decade. And you only need to hit play to understand why.

Jack White once described the track to Zane Lowe as "the story of America … in a nutshell."

Pity he – and countless others — didn't find room in their Hottest 100 ballot for '99 Problems'. – AN

The Sleepy Jackson – 'Good Dancers'

We already knew that Luke Steele was destined for very big things by 2003. He was writing some of the most interesting and beautiful indie rock songs of anyone on the planet by this point, first evidenced in The Sleepy Jackson's 2002 EP Let Your Love Be Love and then in their 2003 album Lovers.

And while we did vote the excellent 'Vampire Racecourse' in at number 91 (SHOULD. HAVE. BEEN. HIGHER), we never gave the incredible 'Good Dancers' its proper due.

This gloriously hazy piece of indie pop both felt classic and forward-thinking, its weeping guitars and strings calling to mind late-era Beatles and Steele's creative approach to melody and composition very much setting him apart from other creators of the time.

Interestingly, that number 91 spot was the only placement The Sleepy Jackson ever achieved in a regular Hottest 100 (though Lovers was ranked the 78th best Australian album in 2011). The mind boggles.

Steele's highest ever Hottest 100 placing was in 2008, when Empire of the Sun's 'Walking on a Dream' took the number four spot in the countdown. We're not saying 'Good Dancers' deserved a spot in the top ten, but it did deserve more than we gave it. – DC

Fountains of Wayne – 'Stacy's Mom'

The triple j audience love a tongue-in-cheek tune. And the presence of Butterfingers' sarcastic 'I Love Work', 'Russell Crowe's Band' by Frenzal Rhomb, Belle And Sebastian's 'Step Into My Office, Baby' and not one but two servings from novelty rockers Electric Six are just a handful of examples that proves it.

How come, then, there was no love for 'Stacy's Mom' in 2003? A sterling example of horned-up, tongue-in-cheek power pop as there's ever been. The most popular song for Fountains of Wayne by a vast stretch, the track's high chart rankings and huge streaming figures might fool casual fans into thinking the American band was a one-hit wonder. Not the case at all.

They're a criminally underrated act with five albums of incredibly consistent quality to their name, and for some, 'Stacy's Mom' was the gateway. The song's thirsty lyrics and memorable music video belie the impressive pop craftsmanship of the band's bassist and co-writer, Adam Schlesinger, (RIP).

In any case, 'Stacy's Mom' possesses the exact balance of novelty and catchy guitar-driven goodness that was Hottest 100 catnip during the late '90s and early '00s countdowns, yet failed to make the cut.

It seems fans of cougar centric pop must've taken a year off after voting in The Androids' 'Do It With Madonna' in the previous year, only to return for Scissor Sisters' 'Take Your Mama' in 2004. – AN

Erykah Badu – 'Love of My Life Worldwide' (featuring Queen Latifah, Bahamadia and Angie Stone)

Plenty of songs have been anchored beautifully by a sample from 1979's 'Funk You Up' by trailblazing female hip hop group The Sequence. Nowhere has that interpolation felt more fitting than on this all-star banger from some of neo-soul's most vital voices.

As esteemed as Texan neo-soul trailblazer Erykah Badu may be, she never had a song take a strong enough hold in Australia to get her a spot in the Hottest 100. That is a real shame. If the world were a more just place, then this scintillating 2003 song would have stormed the countdown that year.

This song is actually a remix of a song that Badu released the year earlier on the soundtrack for a film called Brown Sugar, and while that version (which features a verse from the great Common) is incredible, there's something about this crew of incredible artists working together that takes it to a new level.

Badu calls on a cast of stars so formidable that it actually becomes a bit overwhelming. After her own killer verse, she brings in Queen Latifah, then Angie Stone, before Bahamadia delivers one final blow and Badu brings us home, riffing on the decades-old hook with the elegant flair we expect from her.

It's perhaps not a surprise that it didn't make it in, but I'd argue the countdown would've been better if it did. I would have also settled for her 2003 single 'Back in the Day (Puff)'. Instead, we just need to figure out a way to get Erykah into the countdown one year. – DC

The Postal Service – 'Such Great Heights'

Right now, there's a certain breed of indie fan who is green with envy that over in the US, The Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie are currently doing a 20th anniversary tour celebrating their respective albums Give Up and Transatlanticism.

Taken together, these two releases represent a Pitchfork-and-The O.C.-aided golden age of US indie for some, where alternative bands were courting mainstream appeal without sacrificing their street cred. And thinking back on the era, it feels like 'Such Great Heights' in particular was a poster boy for this idea.

It's a charmingly accessible gem that proved The Postal Service was a winning combination, a one-off partnership between Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard and dntel's Jimmy Tamborello, which saw the former's bookish observations on life and love take on a new dimension alongside the starry-eyed electronic production of the latter.

Although it felt inescapable in the early '00s, in reality the song only gained a much wider audience in later years as a fixture of soundtracks, commercials, and CD mixes shared between fledgling lovers. Oh, and there was also Iron & Wine's stripped-back cover version for Zach Braff's 2004 indie film hit Garden State.

But Hottest 100? Well, nope, except for Ben Folds' Like A Version, which did in fact make the cut a few years after the fact, reaching #70 in the 2006 countdown.

In another case of being late the party, Death Cab For Cutie didn't make a Hottest 100 until their sixth album, with 2008's 'I Will Possess Your Heart' at #36. – AN

Johnny Cash – 'Hurt'

Released in late 2002, Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' 'Hurt' was a critical and commercial success. Alongside its moving, award-winning music video - released seven months before Cash's death - 'Hurt' is revered as the swan song of a stone cold American music legend, to the point that its original composer, Trent Reznor, once famously said "that song isn't mine anymore."

It was super producer Rick Rubin (here he is again) who prompted Cash to cover 'Hurt', originally written as the anguished, haunting closer to Nine Inch Nails' 1994 masterpiece The Downward Spiral, transforming it from a bleak paean of self-harm and heroin into something majestic yet mournful. The country music icon's weathered voice and venerated status give the song a whole new meaning, elevating its sense of tragedy into something poignant.

Cash's passing in September 2003 prompted a reappraisal of his legacy that was yet to truly reach triple j listeners. Sad facts: the mourning regrets of a faded music star just wasn't as exciting as what Jet, The White Stripes, and even The Cat Empire were getting up to.

Thankfully, 2009's Hottest 100 of All Time countdown sought to correct the history books, with Cash's 'Hurt' landing at #60. – AN

Hear the Hottest 100 of 2003 on Double J from 10am on Saturday 3 February. Listen right here.