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Nature's Best




  Name Nature's Best
  Artist Nature's Best series
  Type Compilation album
  Background darkseagreen
  Released 14 January 2002
  Length 115:56
  Label Sony Music New Zealand
  This Album Nature's Best
  Next Album Nature's Best 2


''Nature's Best'' is a two-disc compilation album of thirty New Zealand Popular Music songs, selected by a panel to have been the top thirty New Zealand songs of all time.

The genesis of the idea was the 75th anniversary of the Australasian Performing Rights Association (APRA) 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 (over quintuple platinum in the New Zealand market).

Subsequent releases followed: '' Nature's Best 2 '' and '' Nature's Best 3 '' followed later in 2002, comprising songs 31-65 and 66-100 of the official APRA list respectively. A DVD Release of music videos to sixty of the songs from the three albums followed in 2003, and a limited edition box set of the three albums and the DVD was released on 29 November 2005 . A selection of notable New Zealand songs more recent than the 2001 selection of the top 100 songs, entitled '' More Nature '' was released in January 2006.


TRACK LISTING


Disc 1

# Fourmyula - "Nature" ( Wayne Mason , 1969)
# Crowded House - "Don't Dream It's Over" ( Neil Finn , 1986)
# Dave Dobbyn - "Loyal" (Dave Dobbyn, 1988)
# The Swingers - "Counting the Beat" (Phil Judd/Mark Hough/Wayne Stevens, 1981)
# Split Enz - "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" ( Tim Finn , 1982)
# Bic Runga - " Sway " (Bic Runga, 1997)
#Dave Dobbyn with Herbs - "Slice of Heaven" (Dave Dobbyn, 1986)
# Dance Exponents - "Victoria" ( Jordan Luck , 1982)
# Straitjacket Fits - "She Speeds" ( Shayne Carter /Fits, 1987)
# Dragon - "April Sun in Cuba" (Paul Hewson/Mark Hunter, 1978)
#Split Enz - "I Got You" (Neil Finn, 1980)
# DD Smash - "Whaling" (Dave Dobbyn, 1984)
# Chris Knox - "Not Given Lightly" (Chris Knox, 1990)
# The Chills - "Pink Frost" (Martin Phillipps, 1984)
# Darcy Clay - "Jesus I Was Evil" (Darcy Clay, 1997)


Disc 2

#Crowded House - "Weather With You" (Tim Finn/Neil Finn, 1991)
#Pixie Williams & The Ruru Karaitiana Quartet - "Blue Smoke" (Ruru Karaitiana, 1949)
# Blerta - "Dance All Round the World" (Corben Simpson/ Geoff Murphy , 1972)
# Fur Patrol - "Lydia" (Julia Deans, 2000)
# Hello Sailor - "Blue Lady" ( Graham Brazier , 1977)
#Bic Runga - "Drive" (Bic Runga, 1996)
# DLT feat. Che Fu - "Chains" ( Che Ness /Darryl Thompson/Angus McNaughton/Kevin Rangihuna, 1996)
# The Mutton Birds - "Dominion Road" ( Don McGlashan , 1992)
# Shona Laing - "(Glad I'm) Not a Kennedy" (Shona Laing, 1986)
#Split Enz - "I Hope I Never" (Tim Finn, 1980)
# The Crocodiles - "Tears" ( Fane Flaws / Arthur Baysting , 1980)
# Th'Dudes - "Be Mine Tonight" (Dave Dobbyn/ Ian Morris , 1978)
#Split Enz - "I See Red" (Tim Finn, 1979)
#Dave Dobbyn - "Beside You" (Dave Dobbyn, 1998)
# Shihad - "Home Again" ( Karl Kippenberger / Tom Larkin / Phil Knight / Jon Toogood , 1997)