greatest australian singers...

[CRAZY-HORSE]

The Sports were a popular Australian rock group that performed and recorded between 1976 and 1981.
Based in Melbourne, Victoria, the group released a number of successful singles and albums. Their sound fitted well with both 1970s British pub rock bands (such as Brinsley Schwarz) and British New Wave (such as Elvis Costello). Their best known songs include "Boys (What Did the Detective Say?)", "Don't Throw Stones", "When You Walk in the Room", "How Come", "Who Listens to the Radio?", "Perhaps" and "Strangers on a Train".

Albums/EPs

• Fair Game (EP) - Zac Records (1977) (limited to 500 copies)
  
• Reckless - Mushroom Records (1978) #43 AUS
  
• Don't Throw Stones - Mushroom/Arista/Sire (February 1979) #9 AUS #194 US
  
• So Obvious (EP) - Stiff (1979)
  
• O.K., U.K.! (EP) - Mushroom (August 1979) #40 AUS
  
• Suddenly - Mushroom/Arista (1980) #13 AUS
  
• Sondra - Mushroom (May 1981) #20 AUS
  
• The Sports play Dylan (and Donovan) (EP) - Mushroom (1981) #70 AUS
  
• All Sports - Mushroom (1982) #35 AUS
  
• Missin' Your Kissin' - Raven (1987)
  
• This Is Really Something - Mushroom (1997)
  
• Definitive Collection - Festival (August 2004)
  

Singles

• "Boys! (What Did the Detective Say)"/"Modern Don Juan" - Mushroom (March 1978) #55 AUS
  
• "When You Walk in the Room" - Mushroom (July 1978) #42 AUS
  
• "Who Listens to the Radio?" - Mushroom/Ariola (November 1978) #35 AUS, No. 50 US
  
• "Reckless"/"Mailed it to Your Sister" - Mushroom (1979)
  
• "Don't Throw Stones"/"Terror Hits" - Mushroom/Arista (March 1979) #26 AUS
  
• "Suspicious Minds"/Bruises" - Mushroom (April 1979) #74 AUS
  
• "Poor Mouth"/"Heart of Darkness" - Mushroom (1980)
  
• "Strangers on a Train"/"Can't Ever Decide" (live) - Mushroom (March 1980) #22 AUS
  
• "Perhaps" - Mushroom (April 1980)
  
• "Stop The Baby Talking"/"Big City Lights" - Mushroom (October 1980)
  
• "How Come"/"Drug Sluts" - Mushroom (March 1981) #21 AUS
  
• "When We Go Out Tonight"/"Some Brass Thing" - Mushroom (July 1981)
  
• "Sunshine Superman"/"Cargo Cult" - Mushroom (November 1981) #72 AUS
  

Solo careerAfter The Sports had disbanded in late 1981, Cummings spent 1982 co-writing tracks with Ian Stephen (The Armchairs), and waiting out his contract.[SUP][3][/SUP][SUP][4][/SUP] He released his debut solo single, "We all Make Mistakes" on Phantom Records, in January 1983 and followed with "Stuck on Love" in September.[SUP][3][/SUP][SUP][4][/SUP] Cummings' debut album, Senso, released by Regular Records in August 1984, was produced by former bandmate Martin Armiger,[SUP][4][/SUP][SUP][7][/SUP] and recorded with session musicians including, Armiger, Joe Camilleri and Pendlebury from his earlier bands.[SUP][3][/SUP] Senso spawned two dance pop singles, "Gymnasium" (July 1984) and "Another Kick in the Head" (October), with a non-album single "What am I Going to Do?" following in 1985.[SUP][3][/SUP]
His second album, This Wonderful Life released in September 1986, was a more personal and less busy recording,[SUP][3][/SUP] which was produced by Cummings[SUP][7][/SUP] and provided two singles, "Speak with Frankness" (July) and "Love is Crucial" (October).[SUP][3][/SUP] Cummings dueted with Pendlebury (by then ex-Slaughtermen alongside Ian Stephen) on "She Set Fire to the House" with John McAll on Piano released in September 1987.[SUP][3][/SUP][SUP][7][/SUP] For his third album, Lovetown released in January 1988 on Rampant Releases, Cummings formed Stephen Cummings' Lovetown (aka Stephen Cummings and Lovetown) with Rebecca Barnard on backing vocals, Mick Girasole (also in The Black Sorrows alongside Camilleri) on bass guitar, Peter Luscombe (also The Black Sorrows) on drums, Shane O'Mara on guitar and Pendlebury on guitar.[SUP][7][/SUP] It "was a very subtle, alluring, personal and mostly acoustic album [...] full of conversational, narrative vignettes".[SUP][3][/SUP] The album, produced by Mark Woods and Cummings,[SUP][7][/SUP] provided two singles, "Some Prayers Are Answered" in February and "My Willingness" in May.[SUP][3][/SUP]
Cummings changed labels to True Tone Records for his next album, A New Kind of Blue, which was released in March 1989 and produced by Cummings and O'Mara.[SUP][7][/SUP] It spawned three singles, "A Love is a Life" in October 1988, "Your House is Falling" in February 1989 and "When the Day is Done" in July. The album provided Cummings with his only Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Award, winning "Best Adult Contemporary Album" in 1990.[SUP][15][/SUP][SUP][16][/SUP]
For his fifth solo album, Good Humour, Cummings returned to his earlier dance and funk sound from his Senso album,[SUP][3][/SUP] using a backing band of Barnard, O'Mara and Nick Smith (ex-Kevins) on backing vocals, with additional session musicians from Sydney jazz outfit The Necks, and Robert Goodge (I'm Talking) on guitar, drum programming and co-production (for two tracks).[SUP][3][/SUP][SUP][7][/SUP] The album, produced by Cummings and O'Mara,[SUP][7][/SUP] peaked at #40 on the ARIA Album Charts in March 1991.[SUP][17][/SUP] "Hell (You Put Me Through)", which peaked at #33 after its January release,[SUP][17][/SUP] was followed by a cover of Sly Stone's "Family Affair" and then "Stand Up (Love is the Greatest)".[SUP][3][/SUP] Cummings has supplemented his income by writing advertising jingles: he co-wrote Medibank Private's theme "I Feel Better Now", with Goodge.[SUP][3][/SUP][SUP][4][/SUP]
Cummings' next album, Unguided Tour, produced by Cummings and O'Mara for Polygram Records,[SUP][7][/SUP] was issued in 1992 and provided three singles.[SUP][3][/SUP][SUP][7][/SUP] Steve Kilbey of The Church produced Falling Swinger, Cummings' seventh solo album released in August 1994.[SUP][3][/SUP] The single, "September 13" appeared in July and is titled for Cummings' birthday, which he shares with Kilbey.[SUP][3][/SUP][SUP][18][/SUP] Later in 1994, the Toni Childs and Cummings duet, "Fell from a Great Height", was released as a single, it later appeared on Childs' compilation album, Best of Toni Childs in 1995.[SUP][7][/SUP] Kilbey also produced Escapist in September 1996,[SUP][7][/SUP] which contained "countrified ballad `Everything Breaks Your Heart' to the psychedelic-tinged mantra `Sometimes'".[SUP][3][/SUP] Also in 1996, Cummings published his first novel, Wonderboy,[SUP][19][/SUP][SUP][20][/SUP] which deals with relationships especially those between a father and son.[SUP][21][/SUP]
On 14 November 1998, Cummings and, a briefly reformed, The Sports performed at the Mushroom Records 25th anniversary concert. His next solo album, Spiritual Bum, had Cummings as record producer and was issued in June 1999.[SUP][3][/SUP] He returned to an acoustic, melancholic sound.[SUP][3][/SUP] Cummings also had his second novel, Stay Away from Lightning Girl, published in 1999, which described an aging musician and his band.[SUP][3][/SUP][SUP][22][/SUP][SUP][23][/SUP] In 2001, he released Skeleton Key followed by Firecracker in 2003, Close Ups in 2004, Love-O-Meter in 2005, Space Travel in 2007, and Happiest Man Alive in 2008. On 1 May 2009, his memoir, Will it Be Funny Tomorrow, Billy? : misadventures in music was printed,[SUP][24][/SUP][SUP][25][/SUP] which his publishers described as a series of anecdotes from his childhood through thirty years of the music business and his family relationships.[SUP][/SUP]

[CRAZY-HORSE]

my thoughts:

was never really a fan of The Sports or Cummings as a solo singer but i dont mind a few of his singles...
saw him live a few years ago as support act for Elvis Costello, he put on a half decent set but not enough to inspire me to go start buying his albums,
below is a link to one of The Sports biggest selling singles...there is a lot of Elvis Costello happening in the track...

[video=youtube;TAVzYLPgUlc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAVzYLPgUlc[/video]

[CRAZY-HORSE]

number 37: SLIM DUSTY



David Gordon "Slim Dusty" Kirkpatrick AO, MBE (13 June 1927—19 September 2003) was an Australian country music singer-songwriter and producer, with a career spanning nearly seven decades. He was known to record songs in the legacy of Australian poets Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson that represented the Australian Bush Lifestyle, and also for his many trucking songs. Dusty was the first Australian to have a No. 1 Hit song with Gordon Parsons ("A Pub with No Beer").[SUP][1][/SUP] He received an unequalled 37 Golden Guitar and two ARIA awards and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and the Country Music Roll of Renown. At the time of his death at the age of 76, Dusty had been working on his 106th album for EMI Records. In 2007, his domestic record sales in Australia surpassed seven million.
In 1951, Dusty married singer-songwriter Joy McKean and, with her help, achieved great success around Australia. In 1954, the two launched a full time business career, including the Slim Dusty Travelling Show. McKean was Dusty's wife and manager for over 50 years. Together the couple had two children, Anne Kirkpatrick and David Kirkpatrick, who are also accomplished singer-songwriters.[SUP][4][/SUP] McKean wrote several of Dusty's most popular songs, including: "Walk A Country Mile", "Indian Pacific", "Kelly's Offsider", "The Angel Of Goulburn Hill" and "The Biggest Disappointment".[SUP][5][/SUP] Although himself an accomplished writer of songs, Dusty had a number of other songwriters, including Mack Cormack, Gordon Parsons, Stan Coster, and Kelly Dixon, who were typically short on formal education but big on personal experience of the Australian bush. Drawing on his travels and such writers over a span of decades, Dusty chronicled the story of a rapidly changing postwar Australian nation. Nevertheless, the arrival of rock and roll music saw major metropolitan music radio stations abandon support for country artists, and despite record sales in the multimillions, after the 1950s, Dusty was rarely heard on-air outside regional centres in Australia.[SUP][6][/SUP]
Dusty's 1957 hit "A Pub with No Beer" was the biggest-selling record by an Australian to that time, the first Australian single to go gold, and the first and only 78 rpm record to be awarded a gold disc.[SUP][7][/SUP] Over the course of his career, he collected more gold and platinum albums than any other Australian artist. (The "Pub with No Beer" is a real place, in Taylors Arm, not far from Kempsey where Slim was born).[SUP][8][/SUP] In 1959 and 1960, Dutch and German cover versions of the song became number one hits (even evergreens) in Belgium, Austria and Germany, brought by the Flemish country singer-guitarist and amusement park founder Bobbejaan Schoepen.
1964 saw the establishment of the annual Slim Dusty Australia-round tour, a 48,280 kilometres (30,000 mi) journey that went on for ten months. This regular event was the subject of a feature film, The Slim Dusty Movie, in 1984.
Dusty recorded not only songs written by himself and other fellow Australian performers but also classic Australian poems by Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson, with new tunes to call attention to the old 'Bush Ballads.' An example is The Man from Snowy River by Paterson. In 1970, he was made a member of the Order of the British Empire for services to music.[SUP][9][/SUP] In 1973, he won Best Single at the inaugural Country Music Awards of Australia at the Tamworth Country Music Festival (McKean won Song of the Year as writer of "Lights on the Hill"). In all, he won a record 35 "Golden Guitars" over the years.
Slim Dusty and his wife were patrons of the National Truck Drivers' Memorial located at Tarcutta, New South Wales. The General Manager of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, invited him and his wife to perform in 1997, recognising 50 years contributing to Country Music. The following January, he was awarded an officer of the Order of Australia for his service to the entertainment industry.[SUP][10][/SUP]
Dusty recorded and released his one hundredth album, Looking Forward, Looking Back, in 2000. All 100 albums had been recorded with the same record label, EMI, making Dusty the very first music artist in the world to record 100 albums with the same label.[SUP][11][/SUP] He was then given the honour of singing Waltzing Matilda in the Closing Ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, with the whole stadium (officially 114,714 in attendance, the largest in Olympic history) singing along with him

Dusty died at his home in St Ives, New South Wales, on 19 September 2003 at the age of 76 after a protracted battle with cancer.[SUP][12][/SUP]
Thousands gathered at St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney, on 26 September 2003 at a state funeral attended by the Prime Minister of Australia John Howard, and the federal opposition leader Simon Crean. Anglican Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen's tribute included leading the congregation of family, statesmen, fans, and musicians in the singing of "A Pub With No Beer". The funeral featured tributes from Slim's children as well as words from other national music stars (Peter Garrett and John Williamson) and music from Graeme Connors, Kasey Chambers, and Troy Cassar-Daley. Thousands of fans travelled from around Australia to stand outside the cathedral.[SUP][13][/SUP]
At the time of his death, Dusty had been working on his 106th album for EMI. The album Columbia Lane – the Last Sessions debuted at number five in the Australian album charts and number one on the country charts on 8 March 2004. It went gold after being on sale for less than two weeks.
Columbia Lane is a tribute to the laneway juxtaposed to Parramatta Road in Strathfield (near the railway bridge link), where the EMI studios once stood (now Kennards Hire), and it is where he traversed to begin his music career.
In 2004, Tamworth hosted the "Concert for Slim" as a memorial tribute featuring more than 30 Australian musical artists including Paul Kelly, Keith Urban, Lee Kernaghan and Kasey Chambers[SUP][14][/SUP]
In 2005, a statue of the "Cunumulla Fella" was unveiled in Cunnamulla, Queensland, in tribute to Dusty and Stan Coster and to the iconic song of that name performed by Dusty with lyrics by Coster.[SUP][15][/SUP] The song recalls Coster's days working as a sheep-shearing "ringer" around Cunnamulla in the 1950s. Dusty recorded the song and it became an enduring country music hit, later covered by Lee Kernaghan. The statue was unveiled by country music personalities Anne Kirkpatrick (Dusty's daughter), Jayne Kelly, and Tracy and Russell Coster.[SUP][16][/SUP][SUP][17]

Slim Dusty was Australia's most successful and prolific musical artist, with more Gold and Platinum albums than any other Australian artist.[SUP][19][/SUP] Slim Dusty was also:[SUP][11][/SUP]

• The first Australian to receive a Gold Record.
  
• The first Australian to have an international record hit (A Pub with No Beer).
  
• made a Member of the Order of the British Empire and an Officer of the Order of Australia for services to entertainment.
  
• The first artist broadcast from space when astronauts played his rendition of Waltzing Matilda from Space Shuttle Columbia as it passed over Australia on its maiden flight in 1981.[SUP][20][/SUP]
  
• The winner of an unequalled 36 Golden Guitar awards from 72 nominations at the Tamworth Country Music Festival. (see http://www.country.com.au/cmaa-awards/winners-archive)
  
• One of the earliest members of Australia's country music Roll of Renown.
  
• The achiever of more Gold Record and Platinum Record Awards than any other Australian artist.
  
• Inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and the ARIA Special Achievement Award
  

[video=youtube;ERkZfL8lob8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERkZfL8lob8[/video][/SUP]

[CRAZY-HORSE]

my thoughts on Slim:

by far my favourite Aussie singer...
Slim stayed true to his traditional country sounds throughout his career,never trying to modernize his sound to 'fit in' with changing trends in country music...
he remained with Columbia Records for his entire career releasing over 100 albums...which is a world record by any artist....
this is country music at its finest IMO,and his material is equal to that of any US artist including Hank,Cash,Willie,George,Kris,Waylon and Merle,
superb artist,great songwriter...and an allround nice guy in real life apparently!

[Music Head]

^^
never heard of him till I was introduced by CH with a double compilation

I love it

[SteveO]

Slim Dusty , will be checked out by me for sure!!!!!...thanks guys!

[CRAZY-HORSE]

number 36: OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN



Olivia Newton-John, AO, OBE (born 26 September 1948) is an English-born Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles[SUP][1][/SUP] and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles (including two platinum) and 14 of her albums (including two platinum and four double platinum) have been certified gold by the RIAA. Her music has been successful in multiple formats including pop, country and adult contemporary and has sold an estimated over 100 million records worldwide.[SUP][2][/SUP] She co-starred with John Travolta in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Grease, which featured one of the most successful film soundtracks in Hollywood history.
Newton-John has been a long-time activist for environmental and animal rights issues. Since surviving breast cancer in 1992,[SUP][3][/SUP] she has been an advocate for health awareness becoming involved with various charities, health products and fundraising efforts. Her business interests have included launching several product lines for Koala Blue and co-owning the Gaia Retreat & Spa in Australia.

Newton-John released her first solo album, If Not For You (No. 158 Pop), in 1971. The title track, written by Bob Dylan and previously recorded by ex-Beatle George Harrison for his 1970 album All Things Must Pass, was her first international hit (No. 25 Pop, No. 1 Adult Contemporary ("AC")).[SUP][12][/SUP] Her follow-up single, "Banks of the Ohio", was a top 10 hit in Great Britain and Australia. She was voted Best British Female Vocalist two years in a row by the magazine Record Mirror. She made frequent appearances on Cliff Richard's weekly show, It's Cliff Richard,[SUP][13][/SUP] and starred with him in the telefilm, The Case.
In 1974, Newton-John represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Long Live Love". The song was chosen for Newton-John by the British public out of six possible entries. (Newton-John later admitted that she disliked the song.)[SUP][14][/SUP] Newton-John placed fourth at the contest held in Brighton behind ABBA's winning "Waterloo". All six Eurovision contest song candidates were recorded by Newton-John and included on her Long Live Love album, her first for the EMI Records label.
In the United States, Newton-John's career floundered after If Not For You. Subsequent singles including "Banks of the Ohio" (No. 94 Pop, No. 34 AC) and remakes of George Harrison's "What Is Life" (No. 34 AC) and John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" (No. 119 Pop) made minimal chart impact until the release of "Let Me Be There" in 1973. The song reached the American Top 10 on the Pop (No. 6), Country (No. 7),[SUP][15][/SUP] and AC (No. 3) charts and earned her a Grammy for Best Country Female[SUP][13][/SUP] and an Academy of Country Music award for Most Promising Female Vocalist.[SUP][12][/SUP] The album, Let Me Be There, charted No. 1 on Country Albums for two weeks as well as No. 54 on the Billboard 200.
The Long Live Love album was released in the United States as If You Love Me, Let Me Know with the six Eurovision songs dropped for four different, more country-oriented tracks intended to capitalise on the success of "Let Me Be There". The title track was the first single reaching No. 5 Pop, No. 2 Country[SUP][1][/SUP] (her best country placement to date) and No. 2 AC. The next single, "I Honestly Love You", became Newton-John's signature song. Written and composed by Jeff Barry and Peter Allen,[SUP][13][/SUP] the ballad became her first No. 1 Pop (two weeks), second No. 1 AC (three weeks) and third Top 10 Country (No. 6) hit and earned Newton-John two more Grammys for Record of the Year[SUP][16][/SUP] and Best Pop Vocal Performance-Female. The success of both singles helped the album reach No. 1 on both the Pop (one week)[SUP][17][/SUP] and Country (eight weeks) Albums charts.
Newton-John's country success sparked a debate among purists who believed a foreigner singing country-flavoured pop music did not belong in country music.[SUP][11][/SUP] In addition to her Grammy for "Let Me Be There", Newton-John was also named the Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year in 1974, defeating more established nominees Loretta Lynn, Canadian Anne Murray, Dolly Parton and Tanya Tucker.[SUP][18][/SUP] This outrage led to the formation of the short-lived Association of Country Entertainers (ACE).[SUP][19][/SUP] Newton-John was eventually supported by the country music community. Stella Parton, Dolly's sister, recorded "Ode to Olivia" and Newton-John recorded her 1976 album, Don't Stop Believin', in Nashville.[SUP][18][/SUP]

Olivia Newton-John in 1978


Encouraged by expatriate Australian singer Helen Reddy, Newton-John left the UK and moved to the United States. Newton-John topped the Pop (one week) and Country (six weeks) Albums charts with her next album, Have You Never Been Mellow. The album generated two singles – the John Farrar-penned title track (No. 1 Pop, No. 3 Country,[SUP][15][/SUP] No. 1 AC)[SUP][20][/SUP] and "Please Mr. Please" (No. 3 Pop, No. 5 Country, No. 1 AC).[SUP][20][/SUP] Newton-John's pop career cooled with the release of her next album, Clearly Love. Her streak of five consecutive gold Top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 ended when the album's first single, "Something Better to Do", stopped at No. 13 (also No. 19 Country and No. 1 AC). Although her albums still achieved gold status, she did not return to the Top 10 on the Hot 100 or Billboard 200 charts again until 1978.

[video=youtube;QbOK5dpRuvw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbOK5dpRuvw[/video]

[CRAZY-HORSE]

my thoughts on Olivia:

always thought she had that cliched "girl next door" quality about her...
pleasant enough songs back in the early days but i went off her when she released that stupid "physical" song back around 1980ish...then "magic" and finally ELO's "xanadu" track, and havent card for her since...
"grease"...didnt see that movie until some twenty years after its release, love it now though, some terrific songs on her part in it...
shes obviously had a bit of hard life what with surviving breast cancer and the mysterious dissapearance of her 2nd husband some years ago, but she still tours and makes albums(her last one was a christmas album with John Travolta in 2012...
as i stated, liked her early material but thats really it.

[Music Head]

once again we agree
hated Physical
and Heart Attack

[CRAZY-HORSE]

Damn you....i had forgotten about Heart Attack and wishing you hadnt bought it up!!!