Awesome Aussie Songs

I Honestly Love You by Olivia Newton-John

It's with a heavy heart we release this episode on the Queen of Australian music, Olivia Newton-John.

Around 6 months ago we spoke to Olivia's friend and band leader Chong Lim about Olivia. 

I Honestly Love You won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year 1974. The song was co-written by Jeff Barry and fellow Australian icon Peter Allen.

Rock & Roll (I Gave You The Best Years Of My Life) by Kevin Johnson

Kevin Johnson is one of the countries finest singer / songwriters. While he has had plenty of success in Australia, it is on international scene where his thought provoking music has been truly appreciated.

Kevin has made the charts in the US, UK and across Europe and his songs have been covered by the likes of Tom Jones and Mac Davis.

Rock & Roll (I Gave You The Best Years Of My Life) is one of the most covered songs ever written by an Australian, in this episode we speak with Kevin about his career and how he came to write a classic song.

Woman You’re Breaking Me by The Groop

The episode is on The Groop and their song Woman You’re Breaking Me.

As a recording act, The Groop had two distinct periods featuring various different members. The Groop Mark 1 was a folk band and spanned 1964 to 66, while The Groop Mark 2 1966 to 69, had a pop rock sound.

Our Special guest is former member of The Groop and one of Australia’s greatest songwriters, Brian Cadd.

Needle in a Haystack by The Twilights

When looking back at the biggest bands of the mid to late 1960’s in Australia, The Easybeats and The Masters Apprentices immediately spring to mind and rightly so, both these bands were absolutely massive, however, ranking right alongside them in the popularity stakes was Adelaide band, The Twilights.

The Twilights had 9 singles make the charts over a 2 year period including a No.1 hit with Needle in a Haystack. As well as a No.1 hit record, they also had another 4 singles make it into the Top 5 on the National Charts.

It wasn’t just on the charts that the Twilights excelled either, they quickly gained a reputation for being one of finest live bands in Australia. This is further highlighted by the fact they would go onto become the national winners of the prestigious Hoadley Battle of the Sounds competition in 1966.

The winners prize included a trip to London for the band and a recording session at Abbey Road Studios - and as luck would have it, The Beatles just happened to be down the hallway recording Penny Lane.

Our special guests are former Twilights, Australian music icon Glenn Shorrock and Grammy Award winner, Terry Britten. 

 

You’re the Voice by John Farnham

 John Farnham is an Australian music icon. In this episode we take a look at the highest selling Australian single of all time, You're the Voice.

Our special guest is Farnsie's musical director, keyboardists and right-hand man, Chong Lim.

I’ll Be Gone by Spectrum

This episode is on Spectrum and their No.1 smash hit, I’ll Be Gone.

Spectrum formed in Melbourne in 1969 with Mike Rudd providing vocals, guitar and harmonica, Bill Putt on Bass, Drummer Mark Kennedy & Lee Neal playing Keyboards.

One of the highlights of the episode is the original demo for I’ll Be Gone, and it’s quite different to the song that we now know and love.

We also take a look at Spectrum’s alter ego band, The Indelible Murtceps – and yes, cleverly Murtceps is Spectrum spelt backwards.

Our special guest is Spectrum’s (and the Murtceps) Mike Rudd.

Love Junk by Johnny Diesel

This episode is on Diesel and his first solo single Love Junk.

Love Junk was the first release from his hugely successful debut solo album Hepfidelity.

Our special guest is the man himself, Diesel.

 

Bombora by The Atlantics

This episode is on the legendary band The Atlantics and their instrumental classic, Bombora. We speak with The Atlantics lead guitarist Jim Skaithitis.

When it comes to surfing, Australia has always been at the forefront of the sport and that’s no different when it comes to surf music, with Sydney band The Atlantics leading the charge.

The instrumental rock craze was inspired by the UK band The Shadows – there was Shadow-wanna be bands spring up all over the globe.  The Shadows inspired a generation of up and coming musicians. Rather than kids now wanting to be Elvis, suddenly every kid wanted to be Hank Marvin and become a guitar hero.

While The Atlantics were unabashed fans of The Shadows, their own original and innovative sound saw the band stand out from the rest. Over the years The Atlantics have gone onto gain their own international acclaim and are now ranked among the finest bands of the surf rock genre.

I Was Only 19 (A Walk in the Light Green) by Redgum

This is our 50th episode at Awesome Aussie Songs and we are proud to release an episode on one of the most important songs ever written in Australia, I Was Only 19 (A Walk in the Light Green) by Redgum.

Our special guest is the writer of this iconic song John Schumann.

Here is the link to songs updated film clip from the movie  Danger Close
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNTb9_zTvcQ

 

Girls Like That (Don‘t Go For Guys Like Us) by Custard

Long before Bluey, the Emmy Award winning animated series and in a time prior to becoming an international cartoon-voicing mega star, Dave McCormack fronted one of the coolest bands in the land, Custard.

In this episode, we take a look at Custards biggest hit Girls Like That (Don't Go For Guys Like Us).

The video for the song won an ARIA Award and in the annual Triple J Hottest 100 for 1998 Girls Like That came in at No.3 

You can check out the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoW_fqr86JU

Our special guest is Dave McCormack.