Triple J Hottest 100, 2004

The 2004 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced on 26 January 2005. It was the twelfth such countdown of the most popular songs of the year, according to listeners of the Australian radio station Triple J.

Voters were limited to 20 votes each: 10 via SMS (charged at 30c each) and 10 via the Internet (no charge).

U2's "Vertigo" placed at number 38, despite having not been played on Triple J.

Triple J presenter Craig Reucassel encouraged voters to vote for the Media Watch theme music on the condition that his counterpart Chris Taylor would do a nude run through the Big Day Out if it made the hottest 100. While announcing the count, Reucassel called number 7 for the Media Watch theme, initiating Taylor on a streak through the music festival. Upon Taylor's return, Richard Kingsmill explained that Media Watch was ineligible due to not being recording in 2004 and announced the real number 7. Missy Higgins was also in the studio and Reucassel goaded her into accepting a similar challenge should she win the Hottest 100. Higgins grew increasingly nervous as the count continued.

From early in the voting process, it became very obvious that Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" would be the clear winner of this Hottest 100. Throughout the countdown, numerous references were made to this well-established fact, including announcers sarcastically claiming "Ha-ha! You thought they'd be #1" when "The Dark of the Matinée" was played at #50 as well a mock promotional piece heard in between in which votes for other bands such as Placebo were ignored in favour of Franz Ferdinand. When "Take Me Out" was officially announced as #1, it was reported that it had received more than double the votes of any other song. As with receiving more than double the votes, the presenters felt it sensible to also play a live version of "Take Me Out" directly after the studio version played at #1.

There were a record 475,000 voters that participated in the poll.[1]