18 Aussie Hits – Like You’ve Never Heard Them Before

1. Elvis Costello

So Young

Elvis Costello’s Bluesfest return next year will mark 45 years since his first Australian tour. “Our first rather frantic tour of Australia was littered with incidents, including punch-ups at the airport with gangs of tabloid journalists,” Costello recalls. But he also fell in love with an Aussie song. “Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons were opening up the shows for us, and we dug ’em. In particular, I was very taken with the song So Young, and I started playing it in our set.

“We were actually going to release it as a single. Around 1979, we went to the Abbey Road studios – it was the first time we recorded at Abbey Road – and cut it. But I don’t think we did a very good version, so it got shelved as a single, and ended up coming out later, just as an ‘extra’ track.”

2. Mick Fleetwood

You Weren’t In Love With Me

Mick Fleetwood loved Australia so much he bought a house in Mittagong. On his first solo album, 1981’s The Visitor, the Fleetwood Mac drummer covered Billy Field’s Aussie chart-topper You Weren’t In Love With Me, abbreviating the title to You Weren’t In Love. Here’s Mick’s version, sung by George Hawkins.

3. David Lee Roth

Bad Habits

Mick Fleetwood wasn’t the only international star to cover a Billy Field hit. David Lee Roth did Bad Habits on his 2003 album Diamond Dave.

4. Belinda Carlisle

Stuff and Nonsense

Split Enz have inspired several covers, including Peter Andre’s take on Message To My Girl and The Wiggles’ version of Six Months In A Leaky Boat. Belinda Carlisle recorded Stuff and Nonsense for her debut solo album, 1986’s Belinda.

5. Antonello Venditti

Don’t Dream It’s Over

After Split Enz, Neil Finn’s Crowded House hit number two in the US with Don’t Dream It’s Over in 1987. Paul Young’s 1991 cover cracked the UK Top 20, while American band Sixpence None The Richer hit number 78 in the US with their 2003 version. And Italy’s Antonello Venditti re-wrote the song as Alta Marea on his 1991 album Benvenuti in Paradiso. The video featured a 16-year-old Angelina Jolie.

6. Antis

Down Under

If an Italian cover of Don’t Dream It’s Over surprises you, how ’bout a Lithuanian zombie version of Down Under? Antis re-worked Men At Work’s Aussie anthem as Zombiai in 1985. The chorus translates as “Live as clean as possible / Angry pests are on the watch in tundra / Listen, listen, do you hear / Zombies roll in and thunder.”

7. Long John Baldry

Come Back Again

Elton John is a big fan of Aussie legend Ross Wilson. Daddy Cool’s Eagle Rock inspired Crocodile Rock, and Elton produced Long John Baldry’s cover of DC’s Come Back Again, which was the opening track on Long John’s 1972 album Everything Stops For Tea. Listen closely and you might even hear Elton’s backing vocals.

8. Lacy J. Dalton

Working Class Man

Working Class Man is an unofficial Aussie national anthem. But it was written by an American – Jonathan Cain from The Babys and Journey. A year after Barnesy’s version hit number five in Australia, American country artist Lacy J. Dalton took the song to number 16 on the US country charts. “She was managed by a guy who used to manage Split Enz [Barry Coburn], a Kiwi guy, who took the song to her,” Jimmy Barnes explains. “She did a great version, but it’s got a real twang. I can’t listen to it, because every time I did, I’d start singing the song like that.”

9. Alan Parsons

You’re The Voice

Another Aussie anthem was written overseas. John Farnham’s signature song, You’re The Voice, was created by a bunch of English artists: Andy Qunta (who had been in Icehouse), Keith Reid (who wrote the lyrics for Procol Harum’s A Whiter Shade of Pale) singer Maggie Ryder, and Chris Thompson, who grew up in New Zealand and sang Manfred Mann’s cover of Springsteen’s Blinded By The Light. Nine years after Farnham’s smash hit, Thompson did his own version of You’re The Voice with Alan Parsons.

10. Lavrentis Machairitsas

You’re The Voice

American band Heart released a live version of You’re The Voice as a single in 1991. It reached number 56 in the UK and 65 in Canada. And how ’bout a Greek version? Lavrentis Machairitsas covered the song in 1993.

11. Iron Maiden

Women In Uniform 

Skyhooks were Australia’s biggest band in the mid-’70s. But there are few covers of Hooks songs. Does that frustrate songwriter Greg Macainsh? “No, because I find that songwriters who get lots of cover versions write almost a generic style of song, which is not something I gravitate towards. I like to have some kind of specifics in my lyrics. I’m into details. They don’t necessarily lend themselves to just anybody doing them.” But Iron Maiden did Skyhooks’ Women In Uniform in 1980. It reached number 35 in the UK.

12. Novaspace

Beds Are Burning

How does a song about Aboriginal land rights translate to Eurodance? See what Novaspace did to Midnight Oil’s Beds Are Burning in 2004. It became the German dance act’s biggest single, hitting number two in Austria.

13. London

Friday On My Mind

Friday On My Mind was Australia’s first international rock classic. There have been many covers over the years, by The Shadows, David Bowie, Gary Moore, Peter Frampton and Richard Thompson. But have you heard this 1977 version by UK punk band London? Produced and managed by Simon Napier-Bell, London featured drummer Jon Moss, who later formed Culture Club with Boy George.

14. The Clingers

Good Times

The Easybeats are one of the most covered Australian bands. Of course, INXS and Barnesy did their 1968 single Good Times. But the song was first covered by The Clingers, four Mormon sisters from Utah, who were called “the first all-girl band of rock ’n’ roll”. Their 1969 garage version was produced by Kim Fowley (who later managed The Runaways) and titled Gonna Have A Good Time.

15. Meat Loaf

Good Times

Meat Loaf also covered Good Times, re-working the song for his Welcome To The Neighbourhood album in 1995. Mr Loaf called his version Runnin’ For The Red Light (I Gotta Life).

16. Prljavo kazalište

Mountain

In 1994, Chocolate Starfish’s third single, Mountain, hit number 12 on the Australian charts. Four years later, one of the biggest bands in Croatia, Prljavo kazalište, had a Top 10 hit with their cover – Brane srusit cu sve.

17. John Denver

Chained To The Wheel

America’s John Denver was a regular visitor to Australia. He even married an Australian actress, Cassandra Delaney. Denver was a big fan of The Black Sorrows, covering three Sorrows songs on his 1991 album Different Directions – Chained To The Wheel, Hold On To Me and The Chosen Ones. Unfortunately for Joe Camilleri’s bank balance, Denver’s career was in a valley at the time, and the album failed to crack the US Top 200.

18. Anna Oxa/Anne Haigis

What About Me

And finally, what about Moving Pictures’ biggest hit? Well, Shannon Noll is not the only act to cover their 1982 chart-topper. Anna Oxa converted the song to Italian in 1983 – Senza di Me. And Anne Haigis did a German version the following year – Wer fragt nach mir.