"God's Top Ten" is a song by Australian band

INXS INXS (a phonetic play on "in excess") were an Australian rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. The band's founding members were bassist Garry Gary Beers, main composer and keyboardist Andrew Farris ...

, which was released as the fifth single from their eleventh studio album, ''

Switch In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type ...

'' (November 2005). The album was the first with new lead singer,

J.D. Fortune Jason Dean Bennison (born September 1, 1973), better known by his stage name J.D. Fortune, is a Canadian singer and songwriter best known for his six-year tenure as the frontman of the Australian rock band INXS. He received worldwide recognition ...

, winner of the '' Rock Star: INXS'' competition. The single was released in 2006, but only in Poland and Canada as an airplay single, where it peaked at No. 18 and No. 88 respectively.

Song information

"God's Top Ten" was written by

guitarist and keyboardist,

Andrew Farriss Andrew Charles Farriss (born 27 March 1959) is an Australian rock musician and multi-instrumentalist best known as the keyboardist, backing vocalist, and main composer for rock band INXS. Farriss released his debut studio album in 2021. Caree ...

, and is predominantly about the late INXS frontman

Michael Hutchence Michael Kelland John Hutchence (22 January 1960 – 22 November 1997) was an Australian musician, singer-songwriter and actor. Hutchence co-founded the rock band INXS, which sold over 75 million records worldwide and was inducted into th ...

(1960–1997), his partner,

Paula Yates Paula Elizabeth Yates (24 April 1959 – 17 September 2000) was a British television presenter and writer. Yates is best known for her work on two television programmes, '' The Tube'' and ''The Big Breakfast''. She was the girlfriend of musicia ...

(1959–2000), and their daughter, Tiger Lily. Andrew and Tim Farriss (his brother, on guitar) have both separately said in TV interviews that this song is actually a gift for Tiger. In addition to new lead singer,

J. D. Fortune ''J. The Jewish News of Northern California'', formerly known as ''Jweekly'', is a weekly print newspaper in Northern California, with its online edition updated daily. It is owned and operated by San Francisco Jewish Community Publications In ...

's vocals, "God's Top Ten" also features the vocals of his fellow '' Rock Star: INXS'' contestant

Suzie McNeil Susan Jane "Suzie" McNeil is a Canadian pop rock singer and songwriter. After garnering attention as a contestant on Rock Star: INXS in 2005, McNeil began pursuing a musical career and released her debut album, '' Broken & Beautiful'', on Apri ...

. Jane Stevenson of the ''

Toronto Sun The ''Toronto Sun'' is an English-language tabloid newspaper published daily in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The newspaper is one of several ''Sun'' tabloids published by Postmedia Network. The newspaper's offices is located at Postmedia Place i ...

'' reviewed ''

'' (November 2005) and described this track "A pretty piano hook kicks off this soulful, strings-laden tribute to he couple and their daughterwith McNeil and Fortune trading verses and singing together". During a radio interview with the BBC, Andrew changed the lyrics around to the song from "When you hear his songs, on the radio, I don't need to tell you what you already know" to "When she hears his songs on the radio, I don't need to tell her what she already knows" and also changed "He's on God's top ten, where heaven never ends" to "He's on God's top ten, he'll always be my friend". The term "God's Top Ten" was also used in the band's song "Here Comes", off their album ''

Shabooh Shoobah ''Shabooh Shoobah'' is the third studio album by Australian rock band INXS. It was released on 13 October 1982. It peaked at No. 5 on the ARIA Albums Chart and remained on the chart for 94 weeks. It was the band's first album to be released worl ...

''. The lyrics read "Here comes my kamikaze, Here comes God's top ten, Nothing to be done to stop it, Nothing to get in its way".

Charts

References

{{authority control 2006 singles INXS songs Songs written by Andrew Farriss Songs based on real people Songs about musicians 2005 songs Song recordings produced by Guy Chambers Epic Records singles