Australian Music Archives

Heading to the winter of '63, we'll hear some moments of historical significance and some moments of oddness! The first chart success for The Bee Gees, The Battle of The Blue and The Grey, and Barry Gibb's first chart success as a composer for another artist, Col Joye's Starlight of Love, provide the historically significant moments. Darryl Stewart, star of Bobby Limb's Sound of Music, provides the oddness with, I Watch The Surf, the vocal version of The Denvermen's Surfside! Johnny O'Keefe hits with another double-sided No. 1, Move Baby Move/You'll Never Cherish a Love So True. Jay Justin reaches No. 4 with his biggest-ever hit, Proud of You. And, plenty for instrumental fans, with chart entries from Rob E.G., The Phantoms, The Denvermen, The Vibratones (genesis of The Aztecs) and plenty more: Enjoy!

Onto 1963 and the first quarter, with the biggest hit going to The Delltones, now with lead singer Col Loughnan; Come a Little Bit Closer. The Denvermen kick things off with the soothing surf sound of Surfside, a summer before the main surf era in Australia, the summer of 1963/4. A solo debut for Colin Cook hits in January; It's Up To You. And plenty of instrumental action from The Thunderbirds, The Marksmen and a version of Mary Had a Little Lamb (yes-no typo!) for Melbourne band, The Premiers! Enjoy!

The last quarter of 1962 is full of Australian artist chart successes. Yet again, Frank Ifield scores the highest position with Lovesick Blues reaching No.2. Johnny O'Keefe chimes in with a couple of entries including a double-sided hit written by New York songwriter Alice Evelyn. Some very strong instrumentals appear, including The Chessmen (without Johnny) and The Rebel (Johnny Yuma), and The Phantoms with Stampede which, 12 months later, would be referred to as "Surf Music". With the nuclear threat very prominent, Kevin Shegog comes to the rescue with "Fallout Shelter", although it's not the shelter that will save you but rather......take a listen and enjoy! And, Merry Christmas for 1962 with The Joy Boys' Xmas Guitar!

Returning to the Singers Series and Part 1 of the Johnny Rebb Project: The Early Years with his band, The Rebels. For Donald James Delbridge, the story began with a sole Columbia release in 1958 before being signed, with The Rebels, to the Leedon/Lee Gordon label. This episode will chart the successful 45/EP releases of this period and Johnny's only-ever LP release, Some Swing Some Sweet. This is a real Australian success story, the course of which will be charted in future episodes.

Part 2 of The Bee Gees on Australian Television, highlights the surviving performances from 1964-6. It's fascinating to listen to the development of The Bee Gees as performers, when we move through these years. The performances come from four programs; Sing, Sing, Sing, Bandstand, Reg Lindsay's Country & Western Hour and, It's All Happening. Performances include the "Johnny O'Keefe and The Bee Gees" rendition of "Glad All Over", a hillbilly, stomping version of "The Battle of The Blue and The Grey" (including backing by a fiddle and piano accordion!) on Reg Lindsay's C&W Hour and, a remarkable rendition of The Rolling Stones' "Out of Time", with Robin on lead vocals. Again, thanks and kudos to the various You Tube Creators whose preservation work has made this episode possible. Enjoy the "Development of Brilliance"!

This is a short episode because for some odd reason there were not many Australian artist Chart successes in the second quarter of 1962; eight to be exact! And all of those artists had already tasted Chart success. However, a few genuine big ones among the eight; Today's Teardrops - Col Joye with The Joy Boys; Si Senor (I Theenk) - Rob E. G.; Have You Ever Been To See Kings Cross - Frankie Davidson and, Get a Little Dirt On Your Hands - The Delltones; all Top 10 hits! You may only need one cup of coffee to get through this episode.

Quite a bit of twistin' happening as we set out to explore Australian artists success on the charts in 1962; January-March in this episode. Some instrumental success for The Marksmen & The Dave Bridge Quartet also features. The very first Australian version of "Shakin' All Over" hits for Johnny Chester & The Thunderbirds and, of course, the big one for Lucky Starr, "I've Been Everywhere!

Episode 4 of the "Groups" series, brings us to The Bee Gees on Australian TV, Pt.1. We'll hear the first ever appearance of The Bee Gees on Sydney TV (They had previously appeared on Brisbane TV but the episodes are lost.). Most of the episode will focus on 1963 and The Bee Gees first series of appearances on Bandstand, hosted by the late Brian Henderson. This episode is published the day after Brian's sad passing. Audio of Brian introducing The Bee Gees is included. This episode would not have been possible without the work of those You Tube contributors who have preserved the episodes. As the sound is captured from original TV performances, there will be some variable quality. Please bear this in mind because, even though everything is refined through Audacity, sometimes "you can only do so much". Enjoy 'The Birth of Brilliance'!

Episode 2 of The Little Pattie Story is titled, "The Pop Years", covering the period 1965-6. These years were a time of significant change in Australia; the advent of the British Beat boom was shaping musical trends whilst Australia's growing involvement in Vietnam was the political focus of the time. In this episode, we'll hear Pattie's version of a Lennon-McCartney rocker, "I'm Down" from the "Pattie" LP and we'll recount the story of Pattie's Vietnam concert party trip; quite a life-changing moment. Also we'll hear a couple of well-remembered Pop hits and Pattie's excursion into the Japanese market, including a song sung in Japanese. Enjoy The Pop Years!

Leaving the Chart Series for the next three episodes and returning to the Singers Series. Episode 2 in this series brings us Part 1 of The Little Pattie Story: The Stomp Years. Little Pattie's canon of recordings is so great that there will be four episodes of The Little Pattie Story. In this first episode we trace Little Pattie's four 45s released in 1963-4 and hear a couple of tracks from her first LP titled, "The Many Moods of Little Pattie". A word for listeners who may be 'first-timers': Chart listings are taken from David Kent's epic work, "Australian Chart Chronicles 1940-2008" and thus, are on a national basis. The starting-point? Something about a blonde-haired surfer who could stomp.....