"Buy Me a Pony" is a song by Australian alternative rock band, Spiderbait and was released in September 1996 as the lead single from the band's third studio album Ivy and the Big Apples. "Buy Me a Pony" peaked at number 45 on the Australian chart.

"Buy Me a Pony"
Single by Spiderbait
from the album Ivy and the Big Apples
ReleasedSeptember 1996
StudioStudios 301
Length1:44
LabelPolydor Records
Songwriter(s)Janet English, Kram, Damian Whitty [1]
Producer(s)Phil McKellar, Spiderbait
Spiderbait singles chronology
"Sam Gribbles"
(1996)
"Buy Me a Pony"
(1996)
"Hot Water & Milk"
(1996)
Music video
"Buy Me a Pony" on YouTube

Details

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The track satirises the initial enthusiasm a label has for a band, and its subsequent reversal, inspired in part by the bidding war that took place to sign Spiderbait. In a 2016 interview, Kram said the song, "was kind of like a comic book version of how bad it can be, and the song still resonates with people today. But the label loved it, even though it was about them and everyone else - they had enough of a sense of humour to get it."[2]

Reception

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At the ARIA Music Awards of 1997, the song was nominated for Single of the Year, losing out to "Truly Madly Deeply" by Savage Garden.[3]

The song ranked at number 1 on Triple J's Hottest 100 in 1996.[4] It was the first song by an Australian artist to top the charts. Triple J Music Director Richard Kingsmill said, "After three years of doing year-specific Hottest 100s we were still sitting back waiting for an Australian song to reach number one, and we were thinking, 'Oh, it's still years away for a Hottest 100 song that's Australian'. But it wasn't!"[5] It was also the shortest song to ever win.[6]

Track listings

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Australian CD Single
No.TitleLength
1."Buy Me a Pony" 
2."Should Have Done What My Mum Always Told Me To" 
3."The Road to Urana" 
4."Beauregard Bennett" 

Charts

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Chart (1996/97) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[7] 45

Release history

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Region Date Format Label Catalogue
Australia September 1996 CD Single Polydor Records 5757572

References

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  1. ^ "ASCAP Repertory entry for this song". ASCAP. Retrieved 13 May 2021.
  2. ^ Patrick Emery (17 February 2016). "Fucken awesome". Beat. No. 1512.
  3. ^ "Winners by Year 1997: 11th Annual ARIA Awards". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA. Archived from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  4. ^ "Hottest 100 1996". Triple J. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 14 October 2019.
  5. ^ "In The Beginning". Triple J.
  6. ^ David James Young. "We Made You A Gigantic List Of Hottest 100 Trivia So You Can Impress Your Mates". Junkee.
  7. ^ "Spiderbait – Buy Me a Pony". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Retrieved 14 October 2019.