What’s the greatest Slim Dusty song of all time?

From A Pub With No Beer to Lights on the Hill, Australians are being invited to settle a great musical debate as Slim Dusty’s 100th birthday approaches.

Ask a room full of Australians to name their favourite Slim Dusty song and you’re likely to start an argument: a friendly one, mind you, but an argument all the same.

For some, it will always be A Pub With No Beer. Many will swear by Lights on the Hill, the haunting classic written by his wife, Joy McKean. Then there’s Duncan, The Biggest Disappointment and G’Day, G’Day, songs that have found their way into the Australian memory.

Now, more than two decades after his death, the country is being asked to make its choice.

To mark what would have been Slim Dusty’s 100th birthday on June 13, 2027, EMI/Universal Music Australia and the Slim Dusty Estate have launched Slim Dusty 100, a nationwide fan vote to determine the 100 most-loved songs from his extraordinary catalogue.

And with more than 1,000 recordings to choose from, narrowing the list down to just 10 favourites might prove harder than it sounds.

A chance for fans to have their say

Voting opened this week, with fans invited to nominate their 10 favourite Slim Dusty songs. The 100 songs receiving the most votes will form a special collection released on vinyl, CD and digital formats, with the final countdown revealed on June 13 next year.

It’s a fitting way to celebrate a performer whose relationship with his audience was unlike almost any other in Australian music.

For generations of families, Slim was a familiar voice on long drives through the country. His records played in kitchens, shearing sheds and living rooms. His songs told stories about people and places that rarely found their way onto the pop charts.

He sang about ordinary Australians, often with a cheeky sense of humour, and made their experiences worth singing about, and while the music industry has changed beyond recognition since his first recordings, the affection for Slim has never quite disappeared.

The unlikely hit that conquered the world

It’s hard to imagine a song called A Pub With No Beer becoming an international sensation, yet that’s exactly what happened in 1957.

Based on a poem by Queenslander Dan Sheahan and adapted into a song by Gordon Parsons, the recording was originally released as a B-side to Saddle Boy.

But listeners had other ideas.

A Pub With No Beer became a phenomenon, making Slim the first Australian artist to achieve a gold record. It climbed to No. 3 on the British charts and reached No. 1 in Ireland.

For a young country singer who had grown up on the NSW Mid North Coast, it was a monumental achievement, and the song’s appeal wasn’t difficult to understand. It was funny, unmistakably Australian and built around a predicament that pubgoers everywhere could appreciate.

Nearly 70 years later, it’s still the song many Australians immediately associate with Slim Dusty.

But will it win the public vote?

The woman behind some of Slim’s greatest songs

Any celebration of Slim Dusty’s music would be incomplete without Joy McKean. His wife, musical partner and one of Australia’s finest country songwriters, Joy helped shape the sound and storytelling that made Slim a household name.

Her composition Lights on the Hill, a moving account of a truck driver’s life on the road, won the first Golden Guitar for Song of the Year at the inaugural Country Music Awards of Australia in 1973.

It became one of Slim’s signature recordings.

Their partnership extended far beyond the recording studio. Together, they spent decades travelling Australia’s highways, performing in country towns and building a remarkable connection with audiences. Joy died in 2023, aged 93, almost 20 years after Slim’s death.

There’s something particularly touching about the possibility that a song she wrote could top the centenary countdown.

From Kempsey to the Sydney Olympics

Born David Gordon Kirkpatrick in Kempsey, NSW, on June 13, 1927, Slim began recording professionally in 1946. Over a 57-year recording career, he released more than 100 albums, earned 38 Golden Guitars and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1988.

He was appointed an MBE in 1970 and an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1998.

In 1999, he was named the inaugural Senior Australian of the Year.

Then came another unforgettable moment.

At the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, Slim performed Waltzing Matilda before a stadium full of spectators and an enormous international television audience. There he was, in his trademark hat, singing a song Australians had known all their lives.

It was a moment that seemed to bring together his long career and the country whose stories he had spent decades telling.

Slim died on September 19, 2003, aged 76.

So, which 10 songs would you choose?

Is your favourite is one of the obvious classics? Or is it a lesser-known recording that takes you straight back to a particular time, place or person?

That’s the beauty of this centenary celebration. The final list won’t be decided by music critics or record company executives and it will be shaped by the people who have listened to Slim’s music for decades.

Fans can cast their votes through the official Slim Dusty 100 voting website, with voting scheduled to close in November. The results will be unveiled on what would have been his 100th birthday.