Kylie Minogue - Locomotion

Locomotion/Glad To Be Alive


"Locomotion", Kylie's first single release, spent seven weeks at number one on the Australian singles chart, and was the highest selling single in the country for the 1980s. This version of "Locomotion" is often aired on VH-1 Europe, so in the 1990s and 2000s it became more popular than the UK/Europe SAW version, released there.

Dragon - Celebration

Celebration/Blue Blue Is The Radio



Dragon were one of the great bands of the Seventies originally from New Zealand where they had released 2 albums but were virtually unknown here. The group had moved to Australia to try their luck and after the huge success of the 1977 single April Sun In Cuba #2 we claimed them as our own. Celebration was released in 1987 and climbed to #11 on the charts the song was lifted from the album Bondi Road #18. The B-Side was a non album track but has since been released as a track on the Tales From The Darkside compilation.

Wa Wa Nee - One And One (Ain't Good Enough)

One An One (Ain't I Good Enough)/Rubber Cookie/Mind Over Matter/Playtime


Led by the songwriting team of Paul Gray and Steve Williams, the band signed with CBS Records in 1985. Wa Wa Nee had four singles in the Australian top 40 from their debut album release of the same name. They included "Stimulation" which reached number 2 nationally in Australia in 1986, "I Could Make You Love Me", reaching the Top 5 in the same year, and both "One And One (Ain't I Good Enough)" and "Sugar Free" making the Top 20. "Sugar Free" also reached the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 top 40. This, however would be their only success in America; "Stimulation" was released as the followup single, but only reached #86, culminating their chart career there.

The band's self titled debut album went platinum in Australia despite only reaching #29 on the charts.

Their follow-up LP, Blush was released in late 1989, and spawned two more Top 100 hits in Australia - "Can't Control Myself", and the religiously motivated "So Good" (even though the music video bordered on the pornographic). The album however, received a luke-warm response, and the band has not charted in Australia since. This post "One And One (Ain't I Good Enough)" made it to #19 in 1987 .

Johnny Chester - Love In The Meantime

Love In The Meantime/Aint Nothing New/FreedomTo Stay/Goodbye Forever Again/I Find I'm Thinking 'bout You Again/You Bring Out The Devil In Me/Living The Words Of His Song/Rough Around The Edges/Falling Together/Three's A Crowd






Johnny Chester With a recording career that began in 1961 and continues even stronger today, Johnny Chester is one of Australia's most enduring recording artists.
His singing career started in 1959 when at the age of seventeen he began running a dance in the St Cecilia's Church Hall in Melbourne's suburban West Preston. With his mum selling tickets, his dad on the door and great support from the teenagers in the area the local dance soon grew too large for the venue and so was moved in late 1960 to the much larger Preston town hall.
Here with the enormous support of legendary radio disc jockey Stan 'The Man' Rofe the dance became the most successful of its time and Johnny soon came to the attention of W&G Records. This was all during the time in Melbourne when rock'n'roll was king.
During the 60s, whilst establishing himself as a recording artist and songwriter, he hosted two national television series for the ABC. He toured with a host of overseas stars including the Beatles, Roy Orbison, Dion and the Everly Brothers and worked as associate producer of the national 'Kommotion' Televison show and a disc jockey on Melbourne's number one radio station 3UZ as well as doing an entertainment tour of duty for the Australian and American forces in Vietnam.
During the 70s we saw a major musical transition take place as Johnny Chester moved via a varied but well charted course in to Country Music. Winning along the way three consecutive Golden Guitars at the Australasian Country Music Awards for Male Vocalist of the Year and many other accolades as well both here and overseas. He continued to tour with his own show and with international acts like Kenny Rogers, Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, Roger Miller, Charlie Pride and Freddy Fender. He also hosted two more national television series for the ABC. From 1989 to 1991 he hosted several weekly radio programs including his 'Soundabout Club' and his 'World of Country Music' for Radio Australia, our international broadcaster.

Don Lane - Strictly For The Birds Art

I was looking through one of my local Op shops last week when I found this one and I thought great another Don Lane album to add to the collection but when I got it home and had a look at it noticed some songs looked familiar and sure enough exactly the same album as the previously posted self titled 1968 release but different packaging. This would be the original as the 1968 version is a Music For Pleasure release this is the second time I've come across this as another Don Lane post turned out to be the same as one that Ozzie Music Man had posted but his did differ slightly as it had a couple of bonus tracks I wonder if this has happened with other Don Lane albums. As I have already posted the music in the other post I thought I would at least post the artwork for those interested.

Young Talent Time - Young Talent Time

This is the first Young Talent Time Album in all there were 16 albums released, this is the second one that I have posted here on Music That Made Australia What It Is Today and I have a few more that I will post in the future.

INXS and Jimmy Barnes - Good Times

Good Times/Laying Down The Law



In 1986, Jimmy Barnes recorded two songs with INXS, an Easybeats cover "Good Times" and "Laying Down The Law", which he co-wrote with INXS members Andrew Farriss and Michael Hutchence. "Good Times" was used as the theme song for the Australian Made series of concerts that toured the country in the summer of 1986-87. Australian Made was the largest touring festival of Australian music talent that had ever been attempted to that point. Barnes and INXS headlined and the rest of the line-up featured Mental as Anything, Divinyls, Models, The Saints, I'm Talking and The Triffids. The shows began in Hobart, Tasmania on 26 December and concluded in Sydney on Australia Day, 26 January 1987. A concert film of this event was made by Richard Lowenstein and released later that year. "Good Times" peaked at No. 2 on the Australian chart and several months later was featured in the Joel Schumacher film The Lost Boys, allowing it to chart Top 40 in the US.

Mike McClellan - Laughing In The Dark FLAC

Good Companions/Rock'n'Roll Man/Lovers And Strangers/Laughing In The Dark/The One I Love/Burning Your Bridges/Hold Tight/I Got Over You ( A Long Time Ago)/Sad Songs/All I've Got Is Love


Mike McClellan is an Australian singer sogwriter and was born in Melbourne, Victoria on August 24th, 1945. In 1974 Mike McClellan signed with EMI and made his first gold album, "Ask Any Dancer" ''Song and Dance Man', a single cut from it, also carried off a gold, and the music business industry voted it 'song of the year'. He made two more albums with EMI, 'Until the Song is Done' in 1976 and, 'An Evening with Mike McClellan - Live' in 1977. For his next album, his second 'gold' - 'Laughing in the Dark' he parted company with EMI and released it through Albert Productions in 1980. The album was produced by George Young and Harry Vanda (who made their name as members of the Easybeats) along with Mike. Some of the notable musicians on the album are tommy Emmanuel and Kirk L'Orange guitars Warren Morgan piano. This album has my favourite Mike McClelland song "The One I Love".

Angry Anderson - Bound For Glory

Bound For Glory (Angry Anderson)/Determination (Tommy Emmanuel)



These 2 songs featured on the charity album "Aussie Gold" an album put out to help raise money for the para-olympics in 1992. Bound For Glory was on Angry's "Blood From Stone" album and originally a hit for Angry in 1990 while "Determination" was taken from Tommy's 1992 album of the same name.

GANGgajang- Sounds Of Then

Sounds Of Then/House Of Cards (Live)



Ganggajang (styled as GANGgajang) are an Australian rock band who formed in 1984. The three principal figures in the original lineup were former Riptides frontman Mark "Cal" Callaghan and two former members of popular Australian hard rock band The Angels, bassist Chris Bailey and drummer Graham "Buzz" Bidstrup."Sounds of Then" aka "This is Australia" is a 1985 song by Australian band Ganggajang from their self-titled debut album, Ganggajang. "Sounds of Then" was written by frontman Mark "Cal" Callaghan. Whilst the 1985 release of "Sounds of Then" was not an initial commercial success, it has become the band's most popular and recognisable song and reached its peak when it was used as Nine Network's station ID promotion in 1996. The B-Side, "House of Cards", was recorded live for 2JJJ.

Wallis and Matilda - Clancy Of The Overflow

Clancy Of The Overflow/Solar



For nearly 30 years Wallis and Matilda have moved the emotions of Australians of all ages with their inspired musical interpretations of the works of A.B. (Banjo) Paterson.

Beginning with the all time Classic, Clancy of the Overflow, and moving on to a stunning rendition of The Man from Snowy River and other famous works this band has carved itself an important niche in the history of Australian music. The release of Clancy of the Overflow in 1980 led to a flood of correspondence from grateful Australians -- retired drovers, school teachers, cattlemen, teenagers, disc jockeys and ordinary suburban Aussies. Such was the stunning popularity of their debut album, Pioneers, that Wallis and Matilda have headlined the Australia Day Concert at Tamworth four times, most importantly in Australia's Bicentennial year, 1988. They have also performed many concerts in their own right throughout Australia.

Kerri-Anne Kennerley - Kerri-Anne

Kerri-Anne Kennerley, known by her initals as KAK, has rarely been out of the public eye since her first television appearance in 1967 at the age of 13 on the children's shows The Channel Niners and Everybody's In on Brisbane's QTQ 9. Her audience stayed with her when she crossed to The Saturday Show on Network Ten, and when she tackled the New York cabaret circuit as a 19 year old singer.

Upon her return to Australia in 1981 after a five year stint in the US, Kennerley met her future husband. In that year she landed her first adult role on Australian TV, as the dowdy Melinda Burgess in TV series The Restless Years, a teen-oriented soap opera. She hosted the daytime TV program Good Morning Australia a role she held for 11 years. During the 1980s Kennerley also performed as a singer, and released a self-titled album (Kerri-Anne) as well as a Christmas album in 1985. Her cabaret singing style was parodied by singer and comedian Gina Riley on the TV comedy show Fast Forward. She also appeared on the television show and later record album Andrew Denton's Musical Challenge with a rendition of the AC/DC song Dirty Deeds.

From 1996 until 1998, she was the compere of the daytime-variety TV show Midday. Her hosting duties on the show earnt her three Gold Logie nominations. Once Midday finished in late 1998, she joined the What's Cooking program in 1999. This role, however, (and the program itself) only lasted a few months. Both 'Midday' and 'Whats Cooking' aired on the Nine Network.

In 2001, she shifted to Channel Ten to host Greed. It was a flop and lasted a handful of episodes.

In 2003 Kennerley returned to the Nine Network where she has hosted Kerri-Anne (formally titled 'Mornings with Kerri-Anne') ever since. She has garnered considerable media attention from the program's dance instruction segments featuring prominent Australian politicians – Peter Costello and the macarena, Cheryl Kernot and the Cha-cha-cha and Kevin Rudd and the rumba. Her more memorable interviewees included the normally reticent Priscilla Presley who discussed her ex-husband Elvis and daughter Lisa Marie. American TV actor John Stamos who appeared on her show in June 2007 was arguably her most challenging interview. Two years later Stamos conceded he was drunk, which confirmed media speculation raised at the time. Kennerley also persuaded Russell Crowe to hurl himself against a wall on her show.

By one account Kennerley's annual salary for 2009 was A$500,000, and she was allegedly offered a reduced amount when her contract came up for renegotiation in October, 2009. She is one of several of Nine Network's stable of stars whose contracts are being cut in an attempt to rein in operating costs at the network.

Rose Tattoo - Rock And Roll Is King

Rock And Roll Is King/I Had You First



Rock And Roll Is King is taken from the 1981 album Assault and Battery the band at this time were Angry Anderson - Lead vocals, Peter Wells - Slide guitar & vocals, Mick Cocks - Lead & rhythm guitar, Geordie Leach - Bass and Dallas "Digger" Royall - Drums, it made #60 on the charts and the B-Side is a non album tune.

Peter Allen - I Could Have Been A Sailor

I Could Have Been A Sailor/Don't Wish To Hard/Two Boys/Angels With Dirty Faces/Don't Cry Out Loud/If You Were Wondering/Don't Leave Me Now/I'd Rather Leave While I'm In Love/We've Come To An Understanding/Paris At 21




Peter Allen (10 February 1944 – 18 June 1992) was an Australian songwriter and entertainer. His songs were made popular by many recording artists, including Melissa Manchester and Olivia Newton-John, Elkie Brooks, and one, Arthur's Theme, won the Academy Award. In addition to recording many albums, he enjoyed a cabaret and concert career, including appearing at Radio City Music Hall riding a camel. He married Liza Minnelli but this ended in divorce .He was born Peter Richard Woolnough in Tenterfield, New South Wales, Australia. Allen began his performing career with Chris Bell as one of the "Allen Brothers", who were a popular cabaret and television act in the early 1960s in Australia.

Allen commenced releasing solo recordings in 1971, but throughout his career achieved greater success through his songs being recorded by others. He wrote "Don't Cry Out Loud," recorded by Melissa Manchester, and "I'd Rather Leave While I'm In Love," recorded by Rita Coolidge. One of his signature songs, "I Go to Rio," was a moderate hit in America for the group Pablo Cruise. Allen scored his biggest success with the song "I Honestly Love You," which he co-wrote with Jeff Barry and which became a major hit in 1974 for Olivia Newton-John. Her single reached number one in the United States and in Canada and won two Grammy Awards, for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for Newton-John.

In 1976, Allen released an album Taught By Experts, which reached number one in Australia, along with the number one singles "I Go To Rio" and "The More I See You". Although his recording career in the U.S. never progressed, he performed in Atlantic City and Carnegie Hall. He had three extended sold out engagements at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, where he became the first male dancer to dance with the Rockettes and rode a camel during "I Go to Rio."

His most successful album was Bi-Coastal, (1980) produced by David Foster and featuring the top hit "Fly Away," which, in 1981, became his only U.S. chart single, reaching #55 on the Billboard Hot 100.

He co-wrote the song "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" with Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager, and Christopher Cross, for Minnelli's 1981 movie Arthur. The song reached number one in the U.S., and the songwriters won an Academy Award for Best Song. He actually wrote one line for the whole song: "When you get caught between the moon and New York City" from an earlier song that he and Bayer Sager co-wrote. He and Bayer Sager also co-wrote "You and Me (We Wanted It All)" which was recorded by Frank Sinatra. A video of Sinatra singing the song at Carnegie Hall was included as part of the Sinatra: New York cd/dvd package, released in late 2009.

Allen performed on Australian Television at many important occasions: in front of Queen Elizabeth II in 1980 at the Sydney Opera House, before Prince Charles and Princess Diana, once in Melbourne and again in Sydney, at the opening of the Sydney Entertainment Centre, where he unveiled for the first time his Australia "Flag" shirt, and the 1980 Australian Rules Grand Final in Melbourne. His "Up In One Concert" of 1980 was a huge ratings success across the country. When Australia won The America's Cup, he flew to Perth to sing before an audience of 100,000. In 1988 he opened for Frank Sinatra at Sanctuary Cove, Queensland. In America he appeared at the 30th Anniversary of Disneyland. He returned to recording on Arista with an album entitled "Not the Boy Next Door" (1983).

In 1990 he recorded his final album on RCA, Making Every Moment Count, which featured Melissa Manchester and Harry Connick Jr. One of his songs, I Still Call Australia Home, became popular through its use in television commercials, initially for National Panasonic, and then after 1988 for Qantas Airlines.This has since become an unofficial anthem for Australians abroad.

Warren Williams - Just Like A Child

Just Like A Child/Where My Baby Goes (She Goes With Me)




Born in Sydney on April the 5th, 1940. The fourth son of five sons to Helena and John Williams he grew up in Matraville in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. His mother Helena was a well known classical piano and music teacher and from a young age taught all of her sons to sing.
From the age of four Warren competed in the Sydney Eisteddfod and won many gold medals as a boy Soprano. During his high school years at Randwick Boys High School he was the lead vocalist in many school musicals. It was then that Warren decided that he wanted to pursue a career as an Opera singer. This ambition was soon to change when in 1956 as a 16 year old, Warren went to see the movie “Blackboard Jungle” which featured the song “Rock Around The Clock” by Bill Haley and the Comets. From that moment on he decided that he wanted to be a Rock ‘n’ Roll singer. He immediately bought himself a guitar and with a group of friends formed his first band called “The Squares”. They began to play at local youth halls and got their first regular dance at the Mascot Masonic Hall. Here hundreds of teenagers would come to watch The Squares play every Friday night. It was at this time that Rock ‘n’ Roll exploded into the Australia and dancing had become a favourite pastime for local teenagers.
In June of 1957 his solo career was launched when the King of Australian Rock 'n' Roll, Johnny O’Keefe came to Mascot to see him perform. O’Keefe was so impressed by what he saw that he offered the Warren an appearance on his television show “Six O’clock Rock”. On July 4 this performance made the young singer an immediate success. He was soon offered a recording contract with Australia’s leading record company Festival Records, and under the guidance of O’Keefe recorded his first hit record, the self-written “Where My Baby Goes” which shot to the top of the charts in late October 1957. O’Keefe soon discovered Warren’s classical training and came up with the concept for him to record famous classical songs in a pop style. A string of hits followed including “A Star Fell from Heaven” and “Girls Where Made to Love and Kiss”, both of which became top ten hits in the national charts. He followed these records with another self written song called “Just like a Child”. Throughout the late 1950’s and early 1960’s he toured the country with some of America’s biggest recording stars of the time including Little Richard, Fabian, and Jerry Lee Lewis. He appeared regularly at the Sydney Stadium and featured in a huge concert to 100,000 people and Sydney’s Hyde Park. During the 1960’s he was a regular on national television shows including Australia’s most popular show of the time “Bandstand”.
Throughout his life Warren has continued to perform in the music industry and and has donated his services to numerous charity events.
In 1985 he was rewarded with the release of an Album of his recordings to commemorate his work with Festival Records as a part of a collection known as “The Festival Files”. Then in 1995 he was honoured with a special display celebrating his contribution to Australian music at the Power House Museum in Sydney. He has also been nominated for seven Australian entertainment industry “Mo Awards”. Today Warren Williams continues to perform and is recognised for his life long achievements in music.    

New link added 31.10.2018

Judy Stone - Favourites

We Two Will Love/Mare Mare Mare/ I Am Only A Woman/ Where Are The Clowns/ Take Me Home Country Roads/ Day By Day/Would You Lay With Me In A Field Of Stone/The Traveller/Everybody's Reachin' Out For Someone/Until It's Time For You To Go/Welcome Home



Not necessarily a Best Of more as the title suggests her favourites released in 1975, the majority of these tunes are from her two albums "Pure Stone" 1971 and "In A Field Of Stone" 1974 but there are two tracks on here not on those albums "We Two Will Love" and "Where Are The Clowns" these were singles released in 1975.

Young Talent Time - The Young Talent Team

Young Talent Time was an Australian television variety program screened on Network Ten, running from 1971 until 1988. The series featured a core group of young performers and a weekly junior talent quest. The Young Talent Team regularly performed popular classics along with the top hit songs of the day. The program was the creation of host Johnny Young and launched the careers of a number of Australian performers including Tina Arena and Dannii Minogue.
Young Talent Time was produced by Lewis-Young Productions (the production partnership between host Johnny Young and his friend and colleague Kevin Lewis) and was taped mainly at the studios of ATV-10 in Nunawading, Melbourne although occasional shows were taped at the TEN-10 studios in Sydney or on location. One memorable aspect of the show was the regular closing number, where Johnny Young would croon the Beatles' song "All My Loving" (with which he had an Australian hit in the 1960s), accompanied by the entire cast, in an almost lullaby style, individually wishing all of the cast good night.

Liv Maessen - Snow Bird

Snow Bird/Are You Going My Way




Melbourne singer Liv Maessen started her career in 1969 when she appeared on the popular TV talent quest New Faces where she took out second place in the series final, for which she won a recording contract with Ron Tudor's independent production company June Productions. Her first single was "The Love Moth". Released on the Polydor label in Dec. 1969, it scraped into the bottom end of the national Top 40 in April 1970, peaking at #39. Liv's second single, issued in April 1970, was a cover version of Mary Hopkin's Eurovision entry and UK hit "Knock, Knock, Who's There?". Liv's version quickly shot to the top of the Aussie charts. It became her most successful recording and one of the biggest Australian singles of the year -- it peaked at #2 nationally in June, stayed on the chart for an extraordinary 23 weeks and earned Liv the unique distinction of being the first Australian female singer ever to be awarded a Gold Record, for sales of over 50,000 copies. For her third single Liv recorded a fine rendition of Anne Murray's US hit "Snowbird" (Aug. 1970). It made the national Top 20, but this proved to be her last chart hit.

New Link Added 24.07.2020

Mondo Rock - State Of The Heart

State Of The Heart/Mona Lisa (She Smiles)




Mondo Rock are a rock band from Melbourne, Australia, most prominent in the early 1980s. The band was formed in late 1976 by singer-songwriter-guitarist Ross Wilson. Mondo Rock rapidly became one of the most successful Australian chart acts of the period, scoring four consecutive Top 5 albums and a string of Top 40 singles—including three Top 10 hits—between 1980 and 1985. Mondo Rock's first major hit, "State of the Heart" (Oct. 1980), peaked at #6 on the national chart the B-Side "Mona Lisa (She Smiles) is a non album track.

Lucky Starr - Blow Up Your TV

Blow Up Your TV/Give Me Wheels



Leslie Morrison (born 29 December 1940), better known by his stage name Lucky Starr, is an Australian singer. He released the tongue-twisting, "I've Been Everywhere" as a single in 1962, written by singer-songwriter Geoff Mack, which name drops numerous Australian towns. He began his rock 'n' roll career in 1957 as lead singer of The Hepparays. He was a regular on Bandstand and Six O'Clock Rock, and took over from Johnny O'Keefe as host of the latter for a season in 1960.

This single was released in 1973 and was produced by Digby Richards who also penned the B-Side. Lucky started out as a Rock 'n' Roller but these days sings Country a genre which many of his contempories have turned to.

Digby and Lucky