The chart-topping impetus of New Zealand artists in the late 60s continued into 1970. The new decade got off to a fantastic start with the very first New Zealand No.1 also being the first to be written by a local. One of the most beloved songs in the great New Zealand song canon, 19-year-old Wayne Mason’s ‘Nature’ is an ode to the healing power of mother earth. Lifted from the Fourmyula album Creation and actually released in 1969, the song hit the top spot in February 1970, where it remained for four weeks. Selected as a single – to Mason’s surprise – by producer Peter Dawkins, it still sounds gorgeous today: its “doo doo doodoo” chorus and crowning line “nature enter me” are hard to resist singing along to. Nearly a quarter of a century later the song demonstrated its enduring appeal when a harder-rocking version by The Mutton Birds also became a hit, reaching No.4. ‘Nature’ was voted New Zealand’s number one song of the last 75 years by APRA members in 2001.