Entered Charts:   16 April 1969
Entry Point:   39
Weeks In:   22
Highest National Ranking:   1

=====================

Well, if you got this far, you must have guessed that this would be number 1, wouldn’t you?

It’s got everything, hasn’t it. One of the very best songwriters in Australia at that time (Johnny Young – his third song in my top 11), one of Australia’s finest bands of the time (The Groop, featuring the voice of Brian Cadd), one of Australia’s pre-eminent record producers (still known as Ian Meldrum in those days) and of course, the exceptional musical skills and singing voice of Russell Morris.

It couldn’t possibly fail, could it. But it pushed the boundaries of sensible record production at the time, allowing a little over three minutes of ad lib at the end, culminating in a choris by Hitler Youth, calling out “Sieg Heil” as the last words of the song. a song that lasted 6 minutes and 20 seconds when records were only meant to go for a maximum of 3 minutes.

It is a masterpiece of the highest order. I continually quiz my children – who, of today’s artists, will write the next Stairway to Heaven, the next Bohemian Rhapsody or the next The Real Thing? That’s where it ranks in my estimation.

And, finally a couple of pieces of trivia about this record – it is the only known record on which Ian “Molly” Meldrum is heard singing (in verse two) and the female voice who sings the high note at the end of the song is Maureen Elkner who re-visited the charts six or seven years later with a song that missed the Top 30 by some distance – Rak Off Normie.

Outstanding, brilliant, one of a kind.

Entered Charts:   6 September 1984
Entry Point:   33
Weeks In:   7
Highest National Ranking:   24

=====================

Like Graeham Goble, Barnesy now clocked up three in the top 30, two in the top 10.

I love Cold Chisel and this is their finest, in my opinion. Hasn’t quite become the cliche that Khe Sanh has become but tells a real Australian story. I’ve spent a bit of my working life travelling to regional centres such as Grafton, the town this is reputedly about, and so I get the story. I understand that this how some people live out their lives.

In many ways, a sad story but one captured brilliantly by Don Walker and the Chisels. You can almost imagine yourself in the bar watching “a girl, she’s falling in love, near where the pianola stands with a young local factory out-of-worker, just holding hands“.

I’m not sure that you can capture the essence of Australian regional culture as it was in 1984 better than this song does. Great song. Brilliant song.

Entered Charts:   31 August 1972
Entry Point:   36
Weeks In:   19
Highest National Ranking:   5

=====================

Here he is again … the very excellent composition and singing skills of Graeham Goble. Three of the Radio Ga Ga Australian Top 30 were written and performed by Graeham, in three different guises (solo, Little River Band and, in this case, Mississippi).

When you get to this part of the countdown, what is there to say? I love the song, it reminds my of my childhood. Graeham’s a very talented musician and writer. Not much else to say about this one.

Number three and very well deserved. By my ranking, the best Australian song of the 1970′s.

Entered Charts:   30 September 1971
Entry Point:   39
Weeks In:   10
Highest National Ranking:   28

=====================

What a fantastic song … it captures the Australian music scene, as it was in those days, just brilliantly.

It’s a song that I hadn’t heard for years and years and years until our great FoRGGs (Friends of Radio Ga Ga) Graham and Sue made the request for Golden Miles by Healing Force. I tracked a copy down and wow … I’ll say it again … what a fantastic song.

The thing is, if a song sounds this good having not heard it for, let’s say 30 years, it must be something very special. I toyed with it being number 1 for a while but as you’ll see, I opted for three other songs to be above this one. No disgrace  when you see what I’ve chosen.

Get a copy and listen to it. I bet you can’t listen just the once. It’s on pretty high rotation for me now.

Entered Charts:   23 December 1964
Entry Point:   19
Weeks In:   14
Highest National Ranking:   1

=====================

Take a song that won the 1939 Academy Award for Best Original Song in a Movie and hand it over to one of the real hard rockers of the Australian music scene and surely you have a recipe for disaster.

Ah, well, no actually.

Thorpie takes this iconic song and makes it his own. For not the first time in this countdown, we find a cover version of a well known song being absolutely transformed for the better. By its ranking in this countdown, I am declaring it to be the best cover version ever by an Australian artist.

Without question, this is the song I get asked to play on the radio more often than any other Australian song.

Is it Thorpie as his best … lots of people would argue that he’s done better. But the combination of song, singer, production does it for me.

A very worthy start to the Radio Ga Ga Australian Top 5.

Entered Charts:   16 August 1978
Entry Point:   39
Weeks In:   2
Highest National Ranking:   39

=====================

We have already heard from Graeham Goble with some of his solo work (see number 30) but here is arguably his best known and most commercially successful composition, recorded and released by Little River Band in 1978 – Reminiscing.

To get a full appreciation of just how big this song was / is, BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) gives “millionaire” awards to performers  and composers who achieve one million plays on US commercial radio. Reminiscing received its fourth award in 2007.  Translating that into something more meaningful – if every one of those plays had occurred back-to-back, 24 hours a day, they would have stopped some time during last year. And that’s only the US up till 2007!

The song has been covered by Barry Manilow and John Lennon was a great fan. Sinatra said it was arguably the best song written in the 1970′s. LRB’s version went to number 3 on the US Billboard charts at a time when Australian acts just simply didn’t rate. They were the Aussie trailblazers and this was the song that did the trick.

Seems like my assessment is close to the mark!

Hear Graeham Goble’s Radio Ga Ga promo

Entered Charts:   N/A
Entry Point:   N/A
Weeks In:   N/A
Highest National Ranking:   N/A

=====================

What – the unofficial national anthem did even make it to the top 40 in Australia? No, it didn’t.

This was Cold Chisel’s first single, released in 1978 and while it made it to number 4 on their home town, Adelaide’s charts, the song was banned everywhere else and only managed to peak at number 43.

What can you say about this song that hasn’t been said before? Not much really.

If you know the song, you know what I mean. If you don’t, what part of overseas do you live in

Entered Charts:   1 October 1969
Entry Point:   39
Weeks In:   17
Highest National Ranking:   4

=====================

Another Johnny Young song, this time recorded by an entertainer who was seemingly everywhere in the late 1960′s and early 1970′s. From recording music, to hosting TV shows Ross D Wylie was Mr Everywhere at that time.

This, of course, leads to two questions:

• What did the D stand for?
• Where is Ross D Wylie now – last heard of running a record shop in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne

The song itself was a song of loneliness and the downside of being a star.

Beautiful melody, great words, terrific singer … just a great song that seems to have been forgotten, even by the classic rock and pop radio stations.

Tell you what Ross, you’re still getting a run on Radio Ga Ga – let’s know if you want to chat!

Entered Charts:   26/10/1988
Entry Point:   32
Weeks In:   6
Highest National Ranking:   25

=====================

Firstly, we should note the fact that this is the Masters’ second appearance in countdown, the first artists to achieve that distinction.

Looking at the title and the date, this song may be unfamiliar to you. In fact, the song’s chorus “Do what you wanna do, be what you wanna be” was often thought to be the title and, in fact, the song was recorded in 1970.

It didn’t chart nationally until 1988, when the band reformed and did a national tour.

Apart from the song being a ripping tune, highlighting everything that the Masters the masters of their craft, it has a fabulous sentiment in its chorus, as quoted above. If you can do what you wanna do and be what you wanna be without hurting anyone else, I reckon your on a winner.

Listen to this song and you’re on another winner.

Hear Jim’s Radio Ga Ga promo

Entered Charts:   11 March 1971
Entry Point:   32
Weeks In:   15
Highest National Ranking:   10

====================

Spectrum were one of Australia’s leading exponents of something called “progressive rock” in the early 1970′s. Some of their tracks went as long as 20 minutes with lots of creative and exciting musical interludes featuring organ, drums and guitar.

And yet the song that Mike Rudd, Bill Putt and the other Spectrum boys are most famously remembered for is a song that only goes for 4 minutes and features Mike on harmonica. I’ll Be Gone is, in Mike’s words, both “wistful and optimistic” and gives us all hope that one day “we’ll have money” and “we’ll have lovin’”.

This is one of the iconic songs of Australian music of the late 60′s and early 70′s and couldn’t be overlooked for a place in the Radio Ga Ga Australian Top 10.

If you want to see Mike and Bill perform this song, they are still performing regularly, primarily in Melbourne. Go to www.mikeruddbillputt.com for gig details.

Hear Mike’s Radio Ga Ga promo