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

When you think of outstanding Australian music, you should find it hard to surpass this. In fact in the Radio Ga Ga Top 30 Australian Countdown, I did … in fact only The Real Thing (Russell Morris), Flame Trees (Cold Chisel) and Kings of the World (Mississippi) were ranked higher. At the time I wrote:

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.

There’s not much else to say is there except to tell you that in the meantime, I’ve managed to get my hands on a copy of the 7″ vinyl of this song and it sounds brilliant!

So, to coin a phrase, until the next Radio Ga Ga countdown, that’s all she wrote … see ya.

Entered Charts:  2 August 1973
Entry Point:  22
Highest Position:  11
Weeks In: 10

One of those songs that I had forgotten until recently … in fact, brought back to my attention in a 1970′s top 5 countdown special I recorded with Steve Scanes, author of The Book: Top 40 Research.

He describes it really well … everything about the song is “big”. Big sound, big film clip, big performance … big!

Another one of those songs that makes it eally hard not to sing along and feel better as a result. Can’t go wrong …

Roy Wise, who headed up Wizzard, also went on to form Electric Light Orchestra with Jeff Lynne.

Entered Charts:  14 November 1979
Entry Point:  20
Highest Position:  1
Weeks In: 18

Really different song, with a really wacky film clip … that’s how I remember this song.

It is a nostalgic song (as Barry Humphries once said “Nostalgia is not what it used to be”) harking back to the days where music was purely audial – no film clips required to promote the music. Hence radio was king, as also celebrated in another favourite “Radio Ga Ga”.

This film clip was the first clip ever played on MTV (in 1981) and was also played as the one millionth clip on the same station. When VH1 was rebadged as MTV Classic, guess which song they played?

Just a great song another that accompanied me on the journey through the latter stages of year 12.

Entered Charts:  25 February 1970
Entry Point:  32
Highest Position:  1
Weeks In: 18

What a catchy, upbeat, happy song this is … and no doubt loved by Rosemarys all over the world.

Edison Lighthosue were a group of UK session musicians led by singer Tony Burrows who had some minor success with a number of other groups over the journey. This grouping, though, named after the Eddystone Lighthouse in Cornwall, struck gold in 1970 with this song. Certainly a bit bubble-gummish, but still a great song.

Today’s challenge is to listen to the song and walk away sad. Bet you can’t.

Entered Charts:  21 June 1967
Entry Point:  39
Highest Position:  2
Weeks In: 15

I was chatting to someone the other day and we agreed that you hear The Real Thing by Russell Morris and you think of 1969. You hear Procol Harum’s Whiter Shade of Pale and you think of 1968. This song IS 1967. I use these three songs as the theme to my Sixties Trip segment on Radio Ga Ga.

McKenzie, who started life as Philip Blondheim, got to know John Phillips (later to become part of The Mamas and The Papas) and formed The Journeymen. After performing together for three years, McKenzie decided he wanted to perform by himself and disbanded the group. Phillips formed the Mamas and The Papas and headed off to California, where two years later, McKenzie also moved.

The song was written by Phillips and he plays guitar on the track.

McKenzie joined forces with Phillips and Mike Love from the Beach Boys in the 1980′s to re-form a version of the Mamas and The Papas and co-wrote the Beach Boys hit, Kokomo.

Try listening to San Francisco and not thinking of the beach, hippies, VW Kombi vans. Bet you can’t.

Entered Charts:  14 March 1974
Entry Point:  33
Highest Position:  1
Weeks In: 21

Another one of those songs that take you back to a particular place and I don’t know why

I remember playing a game of football against Norwood High School at their oval in Mullum Road in North Ringwood and coming off the ground caked in mud. Don’t ask me why this song reminds me of that game … it just does.

Quite a sad song really but one should have kicked started a successful chart career in Australia for Canadian Terry Jacks. His other link with Australia is that he had a hit in Canada with Rock and Roll I Gave You The Best Years of My Life, written by Australian performer and friend of Radio Ga Ga, Kevin Johnson.

Entered Charts:  N/A
Entry Point:  N/A
Highest Position:  N/A
Weeks In: N/A

If it didn’t chart, how come it’s consdiered a hit? A good question, well phrased!

In 1968, songs were being released at different times in different states of Australia and if they charted locally at different times, they would often miss the national charts. Such was the case for David McWilliams and the Days of Pearly Spencer, which reached number 20 in Melbourne during 1968.

I suspect that I hadn’t heard this song since my childhood and about six months ago it featured on another of 3WBC’s very excellent programs, Winds of Change – Psychadelia and Beyond (5:00pm every Saturday). It was like a bolt from the blue – a song that had been sitting in my sub-conscious for so long and – bang – it was right there and feeling very, very familiar. Thanks, Uncle Gav!

The chorus sounds like it is being sung through a megaphone when in fact, it is the singer, who had been at home with the flu, rang the studio and sang it over the phone. That’s the true story, despite what you might read on Wikipedia and other sites.

Great song, albeit a little short of duration (2:26)

Entered Charts:  10 May 1978
Entry Point:  29
Highest Position:  2
Weeks In: 15

Like yesterday’s song, this one is often best remembered for its introduction – its haunting saxophone riff that lingers throughout.

Gerry Rafferty had some success with Stealers Wheel (Stuck in the Middle With You – 1973) but this was a fully-fledged solo career as so it qualifies for One Hit Wonder status.

Baker Street was released at a time when the Grease and Saturday Night Fever soundtarcks were all over the charts and was kept out of the national number one position by “You The One That I Want”

A little known fact is that Scotsman Rafferty was a close friend of comedian Billy Connolly up until Rafferty’s recent death, having started out in music together as the Humblebums.

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

Photo finish between this song and the one from yesterday and ironically I ran into Ross Ryan (see yesterday) at a Spectrum gig in Camberwell!

In the end, I gave the boys from Spectrum the nod because Mike Rudd introduced me to Ross and not the other way around

There are few songs that jump out and grab you by the throat in the first bar or two but this is certainly one of them. With Mike caressing that famous harmonica riff so brilliantly, it can be no other song. It has been covered so many times that Mike has commissioned an album of the covers – I’ll Be Gonz.

It’s just one of the true Aussie classics – snuck into the Top 10 in the Radio Ga Ga Australian Top 30 Countdown in January 2011.

Entered Charts:  25 October 1973
Entry Point:  36
Highest Position:  1
Weeks In: 25

Here is a song that dominated the Australian charts at a time when I was moving from primary to secondary school. It stayed in the charts for six months – no mean feat.

Wind the clock forward 35 years and I’m sitting across the radio desk from the man himself, chatting about his career and, specifically, this song. He calls it his “albatross, foot-in-the-door” song. He says that it’s not one of his best songs but it is one of his best records, thanks to the work of Peter Dawkins who produced the record.

Ross lives locally and was the first artist to be inducted to the Radio Ga Ga Dead Set Legend Hall of Fame. I caught up with him at a gig the other day and he tells me he has started the rehearsals for his new album. Can’t wait!