In this episode, we’ll explore the phenomenon of particular Aussie songs becoming even more popular and significant, years after their release. I’m calling it “The Horses Effect,” after Daryl Braithwaite’s 1991 hit, The Horses, which enjoyed a cultural revival more than 15 years after its release, and is today firmly entrenched as an unofficial Aussie anthem.
Find the episode playlist on the Spotify Cara Diaria artist page. Send questions or compliments to mykindofscenepod[@]gmail.com.
Sources
In this episode, we’ll explore the phenomenon of particular Aussie songs becoming even more popular and significant, years after their release. I’m calling it “The Horses Effect,” after Daryl Braithwaite’s 1991 hit, The Horses, which enjoyed a cultural revival more than 15 years after its release, and is today firmly entrenched as an unofficial Aussie anthem.
Find the episode playlist on the Spotify Cara Diaria artist page. Send questions or compliments to mykindofscenepod[@]gmail.com.
Sources
Intro 00:00
Welcome to My Kind Of Scene, where we uncover the past and present of Australian music.
In this episode, we’ll explore the phenomenon of particular Aussie songs becoming even more popular and significant, years after their release. I’m calling it “The Horses Effect,” for reasons that will become apparent very soon, if they’re not already.
To explore my first real experience of this phenomenon, let’s go back in time.
The Horses 00:43
It was the late-2000s; I was in my auntie and uncle’s gorgeous backyard on Sydney’s northern beaches, at an engagement party for my younger cousin Jimmy and his fiancée Kate. The night was winding to a close – many of the older adults resting sore feet over a glass of red, while the younger guests – Jimmy and Kate’s mates and a large group of cousins – showed off our moves to Britney, Blur and Beyonce.
As we dropped it like it was hot and proved our hips didn’t lie, I could sense there would only be a few songs left on the DJ’s playlist. I was surprised to hear the opening strains of a familiar song – one I hadn’t heard in many years. Piano chords, a warm, rhythmic marimba ostinato punctuated by some glassy tuned percussion, a shaker, and a little low, muted guitar. Certainly not a current chart-topping booty-shaker. “We will fly way up high…” the slightly husky male vocal rang out.
Wait, was this Daryl Braithwaite? With the song that even my prepubescent self had realized was a guilty pleasure when it first came out back in 1991? Indeed, it did seem to be.
Expecting the dance floor to clear, I was shocked to see my cousin and his mates cheer, as if this was the song they’d been waiting for all night. They moved towards each other, forming a large circle, schooner-bearing arms looping over each other’s shoulders. They swayed as they sang along to every word, crescendoing to a deafening footy shout by the time the chorus rolled around. “That’s the way it’s gonna be, little darlin’, we’ll be ridin’ on the horses, yeah, yeah.” Some of the oldies even joined in, remembering Braithwaite’s hit from their younger days. I was shocked. This song I hadn’t heard or thought about in well over a decade was the feelgood anthem of the night, connecting everyone with a sense of nostalgia and intimacy. “And if you fall, I’ll pick you up, I’ll pick you up!”
How the hell did this happen?
My earliest memory of “The Horses” is from early 1991, in my suburban Melbourne living room, age 12. Best friend Bianca and I ran a record label out of this living room. We used our Care Bears ™ phones to receive orders (from each other, disguising our voices) and my parents’ double tape deck, purchased duty free on a trip to Fiji, to dub cassettes for our imaginary customers. Our hottest seller was “CB Mix” – a mix-tape of our favorite songs, creatively named after our two first initials. Hot on its heels was Daryl Braithwaite’s 1988 comeback album, “Edge”, aided by a string of hits including “As the Days Go By” and “One Summer”. This cassette was one of the few legitimately purchased, not dubbed, albums in my possession. We couldn’t afford to buy a lot of tapes, but this was a rare intersection of current music both my mum and I liked. She remembered Braithwaite from his 1970s glory days with ARIA Hall of Famers, Sherbet, whose teen-oriented rock singles like “Summer Love” and “Howzat” dominated Australian charts through the decade.
So, when I saw Braithwaite’s new single, “The Horses” for the first time on the weekly music video countdown show Video Hits, I knew CB Records would have to brace ourselves for some big orders! The song had a very earnest quality which I could sense wasn’t as cool or legit as other hot singles of the time, say, Young MC’s “Bust a Move,” Madonna’s “Justify My Love,” or Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby”. But the song’s hooks were irresistible. Plus, the video was gorgeous, with the handsome Braithwaite singing heartfelt phrases on a stunning golden sandy beach under blue skies, interspersed with a hot, blonde dad frolicking with his cherubic little bub. The call and response portions of the song featured a beautiful brunette female singer with modelesque looks. Later I would find out she actually was a model, and not in fact the singer at all. Model Gillian Mather was lip-synching the vocals of New Zealand singer Margaret Urlich, who reportedly opted not to appear in the music video.
At the time, Urlich was establishing herself as a solo artist. She had just released her own debut solo album, “Safety in Numbers” which spawned four Australian singles, including “Escaping” and “Number One (Remember When We Danced All Night)”, both top 10 hits in New Zealand. The album would go on to earn Margaret Urlich the ARIA Award for “Breakthrough Artist – Album” in 1991. In today’s pop landscape of collabs and featured artists, a budding star like Urlich would jump at the chance to be recognized for appearing in a single by a more established artist at the peak of their successful comeback. But at the time, the decision was apparently made to distance Urlich’s image from this collaboration. I guess she and her team wanted to establish her as a legitimate solo artist, not someone’s backing singer. But her part in “The Horses” ends up reading more duet than backing vocal, and I think it would have given Urlich’s burgeoning career even more of a bump if she were commonly recognized as the contributor.
Anyway, Daryl Braithwaite’s single “The Horses” obviously caught the attention of more than just 12-year-old me. Entering the Aussie charts in March ’91, it reached the number one position on May 19th. While it only held the top spot for 2 weeks, the track was in the top forty for almost half a year, and help drive album “Rise” to be Australia’s top-selling album of 1991.
What many Australians didn’t realize at the time, and most probably still don’t, is that this iconic hit was actually a cover. Written by American singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones and founding Steely Dan member, Walter Becker, “The Horses” was included on Jones’ 1989 album, "Flying Cowboys". Her version was later included in the 1996 film, "Jerry MacGuire".
Speaking to The Herald Sun in 2020, Braithwaite revealed “The Horses” almost didn’t get made. After hearing the original version of the song, Braithwaite pitched it to his team at the record label, who appeared perplexed by this oddball choice. Daryl convinced them that he should record it, and the rest, as they say, is history.
But his recording has endured long beyond what even Braithwaite, as a fan of the song, anticipated. On “The Horses” 25th anniversary in 2016, he issued a statement saying he’d heard the song by accident, and that he never would have thought that 25 years down the track it would be liked by so many people for different reasons. Indeed, at the time, a Sony executive said “The Horses” was more popular now than ever.
What has made the song so continuously beloved?
There’s a great ABC video on YouTube that breaks down the qualities of the song that make it so appealing. There’s the steady beat, clear bassline and pleasing spread of instruments that fill out the harmony. There’s the way the verse gives way to the prechorus a bar earlier that you’d expect, drawing you forward toward that uplifting chorus. There’s the key change that lifts us from the B major verse up to the E major chorus. The video also gives a lot of credit to the use of marimba in the arrangement. Apparently, everything’s better with marimba.
I would add a couple of factors to the list. One: the vocals. Daryl Braithwaite and Margaret Urlich’s warm tones blend beautifully together, and the call and response feel of their lines in the chorus make it so fun to sing along to with friends. And two: the lyrics. While many Australians know the words to this song verbatim, few could tell you what it’s specifically about. Those lyrics are so non-specific, they can be applied to anything. Braithwaite himself acknowledges this ambiguousness as the song’s special sauce.
<Quote> “I receive messages from people saying how they relate to The Horses, whether it’s the birth of a child, or a funeral, or a wedding. The way most people interpret it, is more joyous. I see it the same way.” <Unquote>
The payoff line of the chorus, “And if you fall, I’ll pick you up,” taps into the Aussie spirit of mateship, making us all feel like someone’s got our back. I would credit this as a big part of the song’s popularity at weddings, celebrations and messy pub nights.
Of course, the song contains one key word that has made it a perfect match for a particular Australian pastime – horse racing. In 2010, Braithwaite performed an extended version of “The Horses” at Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival event, The Cox Plate, with enthusiastic crowd participation.
Another sport has played a key role in reviving, or sustaining, the song’s popularity. For several years, “The Horses” was sung by the players of Aussie Rules football team Hawthorn after a big win, following a spontaneous rendition by former Hawk Brent Guerra in 2013, after a 50-point victory over the West Coast Eagles. The same year, Braithwaite performed this unofficial anthem at Hawthorn’s Grand Final dinner.
Technology has also played a role in the longevity of “The Horses”. Downloads and streaming render it readily available for parties, shared playlists or just belting along in the car. The song has had 55 million listens on Spotify – about 55 times more than any of the other tracks on Braithwaite’s “Rise” album. And meme culture has embraced “The Horses,” with many popular meme formats lending themselves well to the ironic and not-so-ironic celebration of the classic hit.
So, all these factors have combined to establish “The Horses” as an absolute Australian classic; beloved by Aussies of all ages, even those who weren’t yet born when Braithwaite sang plaintively on that beautiful beach alongside the frolicking hot dad and miming model.
This has had me pondering over what other Australian songs have experienced the Horses effect – being resurrected or embraced by future generations of Aussie fans.
One that was played immediately after “The Horses” at the party I mentioned, back in the late-2000s, was John Farnham’s “You’re the Voice.” Again, the entire young millennial audience knew all the words and belted them out like it was their local footy club song. The reason this didn’t shock me as much as “The Horses,” is that “You’re the Voice” was obviously an anthem from the moment it was released. Even I knew, as a grade two-er back in 1986, belting it out with all my friends at our primary school disco, that Aussies would be raising our voices to “You’re the Voice” for decades to come. Actually, the song did have a formal comeback in 2012, thanks to a Ford TV commercial. “You’re The Voice” re-entered the singles chart, more than 25 years after it originally topped the chart.
In the same category of songs that have endured, but never really went away, I count classics like Cold Chisel’s “Khe Sanh,” Men at Work’s “Down Under,” AC/DC’s “Long Way to the Top” and Hunters and Collectors’ “Throw Your Arms Around Me”.
So, what other songs have been more or less forgotten, but then had a surge in popularity later?
Friday on My Mind 17:46
The Horses Effect is a hard topic to research. So, I did it a very unscientific way – by asking my family. For listeners who don’t know me personally, I’ve got a huge extended family – a great source of info, especially about Australia in the 60s, 70s and 80s.
One act that came up multiple times was the Easybeats, a seminal 60s act that reportedly had a resurgence in the late 70s to early 80s.
For those unacquainted, The Easybeats formed in Sydney in late 1964, its members all having migrated to Australia from England, Scotland and the Netherlands. Inspired by the British Invasion, the Easybeats’ success in Australia, dubbed “EasyFever,” rivalled that of The Beatles, scoring 15 top-40 hits during their 6-year existence and touring Europe supporting the Rolling Stones. The Easybeats were one of the few rock acts in Australia at the time to write and record original material, and became the first Aussie rock act to score an international hit, with the 1966 single "Friday on My Mind”. Speaking of the Beatles, the track was recorded at Abbey Road in London, after the band moved there in 1966. Legend has it, that on hearing the song on his car radio, Beatle himself Paul McCartney immediately pulled over to call the BBC and request they play it again. They did.
The tribute to the drudgery of the working week and anticipation of weekend good times was covered by David Bowie in 1973 and Peter Frampton in 1980, which may have fed its revival amongst young people in the 70s and 80s. “Friday on My Mind” was also introduced to the next generation in the 1990s via a series of humorous, cinematic TV commercials for Big M flavored milk. In 2000, the most unlikely pairing of pop rising star Vanessa Amorosi and mid-career country stalwart Lee Kernaghan recorded a – sorry! – bloody awful version, that was featured on Channel Nine’s weekly Friday Night Football Rugby League broadcast. In May 2001, as part of the Australian Performing Rights Association’s 75th anniversary celebrations, an industry panel voted “Friday On My Mind” the Best Australian Song of All Time. At the ceremony, the song was performed somewhat shambolically by Sydney alt rockers You Am I, with Easybeats guitarist Harry Vanda guesting on guitar – it’s worth checking out on YouTube for Vanda’s facial expressions as he hits, or misses, those guitar licks.
“Friday on my mind” apparently wasn’t the only Aussie song from the 60s that enjoyed a renaissance.
For the majority of baby boomers, growing up through the birth of modern rock, there seems to have been little nostalgia for what came before. But as the 70s gave way to the 80s, the very youngest baby boomers and oldest gen-X-ers coming of age were rocking out to hits from a decade or more ago, by The Seekers <I’ll Never Find Another You>, pre-disco Bee Gees (To Love Somebody), The Twilights <Needle in a Haystack>, and the Mixtures <Pushbike song>, who you might remember from our “Under Cover Down Under” episode. The Mixtures had a hit with a cover of Mungo Jerry’s “In The Summertime,” during the 1970 radio ban. Their follow-up single, “The Pushbike Song”, was a number one Australian and number two UK hit, and found its way onto dance floors in beer halls a decade later.
This cohort of Boomer-cusp-X-ers also revered a couple of enduring songs from the late 60s & early 70s that have continued to be rediscovered by future generations.
The Real Thing 23:21
“The Real Thing” was the debut solo single for Melbourne singer Russell Morris, and is regarded one of the classic psychedelic singles of the sixties.
The groundbreaking track was written by Johnny Young – yes, the guy that my generation knows as host of TV’s Young Talent Time in the eighties. Those a little older than me might be familiar with Young’s previous career as a pop-star in the mid-60s. This is his hit single from 1966, “Step Back,” funnily enough, written by the Easybeats’ Stevie Wright and George Young. In ’67 Johnny Young traveled to the UK where he learned the basics of songwriting from his roommate… none other than Barry Gibb, of Bee Gees fame. Back in Melbourne, Young was noodling on an idea after a gig with his band, and developed it into “The Real Thing.” Ian “Molly” Meldrum, who at the time was a young music journalist and critic, writing for weekly newspaper “Go-Set,” heard the band playing the song backstage at a TV show and decided it would be the perfect single for Russell Morris, who had caught his ear as frontman of the group “Somebody’s Image.” Meldrum had championed the band and became the producer for Morris’ first solo single.
They enlisted the services of engineer John L Sayers, who had credits for Johnny Farnham, John Williamson and Max Merritt & the Meteors under his belt, and recruited members of Melbourne bands The Groop and Zoot to provide the instrumental backing, and vocalists from Wild Cherries and The Chiffons.
Meldrum, Morris and team transformed Young’s original acoustic ballad into a heavily-produced epic that challenged radio programmers, being the longest pop single recorded in Australia to date (and by the way, the most expensive, coming in at $10,000). Reportedly, it was never meant to be that long, but the band continued to play at the end of the song and Meldrum and Sayers captured the extended jam, later editing sections of it together with sound effects, such as Meldrum’s filtered voice reading aloud the warning on the back of the recording tape box, a Hitler Youth choir and an atomic bomb explosion.
Fortunately, the Beatles had set a precedent for long singles with “Hey Jude” the previous year and the song overcame its length challenge to become Australia’s number 1 single of 1969.
As well as finding renewed popularity amongst older Gen X-ers at the dawn of the 80s, the song found new recognition again at the turn of the Millennium. In the year 2000, “The Real Thing” featured in an Aussie Rules Football ad campaign and on the soundtrack of the movie The Dish. Midnight Oil and Kylie Minogue each separately recorded cover versions the same year. In 2001, it was named by APRA as one of the top 30 Australian songs of all time, and in 2013, “The Real Thing” was added to the National Film and Sound Archive’s Sounds of Australia registry.
Because I Love You 28:16
Another song in the Sounds of Australia registry, sitting just two spots below “The Real Thing,” is “Because I Love You” – a song by The Masters Apprentices, a band originally formed in Adelaide as the Mustangs in 1964. They changed their name the following year, released their debut self-titled EP in ‘66, and then relocated to Melbourne in 1967, where they enjoyed success for the next few years. By the time they recorded this timeless tune, they’d formed their classic lineup, featuring frontman Jim Keays (Keys), Doug Ford on guitar, Colin Burgess on drums and Glenn Wheatley, who cut his teeth as the bass player and de facto manager of the band, later launching the careers of the Little River Band, John Farnham and Delta Goodrem. This lineup won a trip to England in the prestigious Hoadley’s Battle of the Sounds band competition in 1969.
Like The Easybeats’ “Friday on My Mind,” “Because I Love You” was recorded at Abbey Road studios, and if you listen carefully, you can hear Paul McCartney’s white grand piano being played in the background. The song’s mellow, romantic verse juxtaposes with the more strident, assertive chorus. The lyric about freedom and independence was a call to action for the Woodstock generation, fed up with compulsory military conscription and the oppression of women. The single was released in in December 1970 and became the band’s fourth consecutive top 20 hit, ushering in a new era of Australian rock.
The song was rediscovered by a new generation in the late 80s when the classic Masters Apprentices lineup reformed for a "Hey Hey It’s Saturday" TV special. The re-recorded version was featured in a prominent jeans commercial at the time and the song climbed back into the ARIA charts, peaking at number 30.
Of course, while the youth of the 70s and 80s were re-discovering old hits, they were also crowning new classics that would be resurfaced and reinvented by future generations.
Love Is In The Air 32:59
The 1978 John Paul Young hit, “Love is in the Air,” actually has a strong connection back to the Easybeats, being composed by the group’s Harry Vanda and George Young. George was no relation to John Paul Young, but he was the older brother of Malcolm and Angus Young, of AC/DC fame, whose early work Vanda and Young produced.
Like the three Young brothers, John Paul Young was a Scottish immigrant to Australia, whose family arrived by ship in Sydney on Australia Day, 1962, when he was 11. Another fun fact – he went by the name John Paul Young, Paul being his Catholic confirmation name, to avoid confusion with… that’s right… Johnny Young. It seems like if your first name was John or your last name Young, you were pretty much guaranteed a music career in the 60s and 70s.
John Paul Young was one of the first stars launched by the music TV show Countdown in the mid-70s, often being featured as a performer or guest host. Between 1975 and ‘77, he had 6 consecutive top-20 hits, including “Standing in the Rain,” that became a club hit in Germany. His previous hits had been more rock-oriented, but this track had more of a disco influence.
“Love is in the Air” was actually recorded as a follow up to this song, According to John Paul Young, the German scene at the time was <quote> electronic mania, all clicks and electronic buzzes. So George and Harry gave it the treatment <unquote>.
The experiment worked, and “Love is in the Air” became a worldwide smash, reaching the top 10 in at least as many countries, peaking at number 3 on the Australian charts, and earning John Paul Young the prize of "Most Popular Australian Single" at the 1978 King of Pop Awards.
Almost 15 years later, in 1992 – which, by the way, is very consistent with the timing of the other revivals we’ve discussed – Australian director Baz Luhrmann reinvigorated the song and John Paul Young’s career by featuring “Love is in the Air” in the finale scene of his debut feature film, Strictly Ballroom. The use of the song capitalized on nostalgia for the disco era, while introducing the uplifting classic to a whole new generation. In ’92, the Strictly Ballroom mix of “Love is in the Air,” with its updated ‘90s beat, hit the same chart position as the original, peaking at number 3 in Australia.
Never Tear Us Apart 37:16
Our next rediscovered song, originally a number 14 Australian hit in 1988, found an even higher chart position during its comeback more than two decades later.
“Never Tear Us Apart” was the fourth single released from INXS's sixth and most successful album, Kick. The song was written by the group’s keyboardist, Andrew Farriss – one of the three Farriss brothers, Andrew, Tim and John, who founded the band, alongside bassist Garry Gary Beers, guitarist and saxophonist Kirk Pengilly, and singer, Michael Hutchence, who wrote the lyrics to this song. The band members met and started playing together in high school in the late ‘70s with various names and lineups, before being approached by Midnight Oil’s manager, Gary Morris, and becoming their regular support act. A member of the Oils’ crew actually suggested the name change to INXS, reportedly inspired by English band XTC. The name and lineup would remain consistent for the next 20 years, until Hutchence’s death in 1997.
A strong work ethic, ambition and quality songwriting helped INXS rise through the ranks during the early 80s, regularly breaking into the Australian top 40 with their singles and albums. Their first and only Australian number one was 1984’s “Original Sin,” which was produced by Nile Rogers, co-founder of American disco act Chic, who was fresh from producing albums for Debbie Harry and David Bowie and had remixed a single for pop duo Hall & Oates the previous year. Rogers brought in Daryl Hall to sing on the chorus of “Original Sin”.
INXS also started to make an impact on the US charts through the mid-80s and finally reached number one there in 1988 with the lead single from the Kick album, “Need You Tonight”. The song was a top-10 hit in at least 9 countries and has actually itself had a couple of revivals over the years. Australian electronic rock group Rogue Traders remixed “Need You Tonight” in 2003, renaming it as “One of My Kind.” The remix reached number 10 on the Australian singles chart and number one on the dance and club charts. Once again, this was 15 years after the original was released – apparently the prime window for a revival.
Following the Australian screening of the mini-series, “INXS: Never Tear Us Apart” in 2014, “Need You Tonight” charted again, reaching number 28 on the ARIA singles chart. But it was the mini-series’ title track, “Never Tear Us Apart” that had the biggest renaissance, reaching number 11 on the singles chart, surpassing its original position of number 14. In fact, “Never Tear Us Apart” has been possibly the most rediscovered and reinvented of INXS’s songs over the years since its release.
In 1999, Tom Jones and Natalie Imbruglia duetted on an almost trip-hop version for Jones’ hit album, Reload… by the way, the 34th album of Tom Jones’ long career.
Two years later, English producer Tall Paul released a dance remix called “Precious Heart,” credited as Tall Paul vs INXS. This reached number 27 in Australia and number 14 in the UK, as well as number 2 on the UK Dance and number 6 on the US Dance Club charts.
INXS themselves released a reimagined version of the song in 2010, featuring French singer Mylène Farmer and American singer-songwriter Ben Harper on vocals.
In 2012, British singer Paloma Faith recorded a lush, soulful cover for a department store advertisement. The version reached number 16 on the UK singles chart.
And remember how we talked about Aussie Rules team Hawthorn spurring a revival of Daryl Braithwaite’s “The Horses”? Well, “Never Tear Us Apart” received a similar treatment, albeit less organically, when the Port Adelaide AFL team decided to adopt an unofficial anthem, following a 2012 trip to Liverpool, England, for an exhibition match. Moved by the crowd’s pre-game rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” management decided to play “Never Tear Us Apart” before Port Adelaide matches. Whether it resonated because of the history of the Port Power club, whose entry into the AFL had created something of a rift with the traditional Port Adelaide Magpies club, or just because it’s a bloody good song, I’m not sure, but fans enthusiastically adopted the tradition, which continues to this day.
I Touch Myself 46:30
Regular listeners will know that I have a goal of bringing a diverse perspective to this podcast, shining a light on women and gender non-conforming artists, as well as other under-represented groups that make up the Australian music scene. It’s not always easy. The early days of the Australian pop and rock industry were incredibly white-male-dominated. Since this episode focuses on hits from the past that have been revived, it’s been challenging to find diverse options. For years, it was a boy’s club, with very few exceptions.
So, I want to round out our episode with a song by a group whose front person not only found a way to break into that boys’ club, but also broke down many barriers and taboos once she got there, redefining Australian rock music and giving women agency and permission to talk about their bodies and sexuality in a way they never had in public.
The Divinyls – by the way, a brilliant combo of the words “Divine” and “Vinyl”– formed in Sydney in 1980. Its core members were Mark McEntee, a guitarist who grew up in Perth and was an original member of soft rock outfit, Air Supply; and Chrissy Amphlett, a singer and stage actress born and raised in Geelong. As you may remember from our episode “From Old Man Emu to Ol’ Man River,” Chrissy’s cousin was singer Patricia Amphlett, or Little Pattie, who started out in the 60s with surf-pop hits, moving through adult-contemporary, country and jazz genres over subsequent decades. So, performing was in the family, and Chrissy did modelling work as a child to help make ends meet.
Chrissy and Mark formed the Divinyls with Jeremy Paul, a former fellow Air Supply member, who introduced the pair. Performing around Sydney, the group started to get a reputation for their hard rock, enhanced by Chrissy’s notorious onstage persona. In her memoir, Pleasure and Pain, she speaks about the crippling shyness she experienced as a young singer, and how adopting a fierce and provocative persona allowed her to feel less vulnerable. At the time, the only role models on the rock n roll scene were men. Inspired by Angus Young at an AC/DC concert, Amphlett started to adopt the performance look of a school tunic over a Peter Pan collar white blouse, ripped stockings and suspenders. This stage persona, she dubbed either “The Monster” or “The Schoolgirl,” allowed her to feel invisible and free. She was wild and unpredictable, at times launching herself at her bandmates, or going through audience members’ bags and throwing their belongings at them, smearing their lipstick on her face.
Early Divinyls hits included debut 1981 single “Boys In Town”, which was recorded for the soundtrack of the Australian film Monkey Grip and peaked at number 8 on the singles chart. “Science Fiction” reached number 13 the following year and in 1985 they were back in the top 20 with “Pleasure and Pain”, which reached number 11 in Australia and 8 in New Zealand.
But it was another 5 years before the Divinyls had their first Australian number 1 and worldwide hit. Having changed labels to Virgin Records, Amphlett and McEntee went to Los Angeles to work on their self-titled fourth album. They collaborated on some songs with professional songwriters Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, who have gifted the world with such women-led classics as “True Colors,” “Eternal Flame” and “Like A Virgin.”
Steinberg had the beginnings of “I Touch Myself” in his notebook; Amphlett liked it immediately. The four worked on it together and the resulting single climbed the Australian charts for 10 weeks, before replacing Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” in the number one position in February 1991, remaining there for 5 weeks. (Side note: this was just a few short months before Daryl Braithwaite’s “The Horses” completed its ascent to the number one position) “I Touch Myself” reached number 10 in the UK singles chart, and, despite its controversial reception in the US, received extensive airplay on modern rock radio, helping the track climb to number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The international success of “I Touch Myself” was also fueled by the song’s provocative music video, directed by then up-and-coming filmmaker Michael Bay – now one of the most commercially successful film directors in history – whose blockbuster hits include Armageddon, Pearl Harbor and the Transformers series. Through the video, reportedly filmed in a nunnery in Pasadena, California, a sensual and self-possessed Chrissy Amphlett brought a new face and voice to the modern, sexual woman, and helped to destigmatize female self-pleasure.
“I Touch Myself” was nominated for three MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year, and despite pre-dating the internet, has received over 37 million views on YouTube to date.
“I Touch Myself” has made a few memorable appearances in film and television over the years. In 1997, the song soundtracked an unforgettable scene in the spy spoof, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, where Austin, played by the brilliantly cringe-worthy Mike Myers, uses his sexy dancing as a weapon against the deadly fembots, resulting in their heads exploding.
As recently as 2020, a cover version by a Belgian women’s choir was featured in the season two opener of British high school comedy-drama, Sex Education, highlighting the moment when sexually ambivalent lead character Otis is finally able to touch himself.
But there are two even more notable ways this classic Divinyls song has been revived since its release.
The first one I want to mention is happening right now. At the time of recording, almost halfway through 2022, “I Touch Myself” is in the top 20 songs on TikTok Australia – one of very few songs more than a couple of years old to receive this honor on the video-based social platform, populated primarily by 16-24 year-olds. The song has been adopted by users as a shorthand meme for anything or anyone that gets them excited. It’s also been parodied by young women, re-enacting themselves lip-synching to “I Touch Myself” as a primary school kid, completely oblivious to the song’s meaning. And it’s been mimed and danced to by countless women who just want to feel sexy.
But the most powerful resurrection of “I Touch Myself” began in 2014, a year after Chrissy Amphlett passed away from breast cancer. Amphlett had also suffered from multiple sclerosis, and the combination of the two illnesses ultimately claimed her life. She was passionate about spreading awareness for how self-screening for breast cancer can save lives, and recognized the link between this and her band’s hit song.
<Quote> “I Touch Myself is so appropriate now, more than ever. You know, it really should be the breast cancer song.” <unquote>
So, on the first anniversary of her passing, a project was launched in her honor – the “I Touch Myself Project.” Ten of Australia’s leading female singers across generations performed a moving, stripped-bare reinterpretation of the song. The singers – Connie Mitchell, Deborah Conway, Kate Ceberano, Katie Noonan, Little Pattie, Megan Washington, Olivia Newton-John, Sarah Blasko, Sarah McLeod, and Suze DeMarchi – each bring their own distinct vocal quality and emotion to the song. It’s an incredible curation of Australian talent, and I find it particularly moving when Olivia Newton-John, herself a breast cancer survivor, comes into focus. Their important message reportedly reached over 400 million people worldwide. But it didn’t stop there.
In 2016, the “I Touch Myself Project” partnered with Berlei to create The Chrissy Bra, which was designed to remind women to touch themselves when getting dressed every day, and included a version designed specifically for women who have undergone breast cancer surgery. The Chrissy bra was modeled by women of Australian rock who have walked the trail blazed by Chrissy Amphlett – Abbe May, Katy Steele, Montaigne, Ngaiire, Little May, Virginia Lillye, Catherine Britt, Thelma Plum and Christa Hughes – and proceeds were donated to the Breast Cancer Network Australia.
The 2018 iteration of the “I Touch Myself” project reached over a billion people across 95 countries and featured one of the world’s greatest influencers, American tennis star Serena Williams, singing an abridged version of the Divinyls hit, while staring down the barrel of the camera and covering her bare chest. It’s a rare moment of vulnerability for the powerhouse sport star, who said on Instagram, <quote> “Yes, this put me out of my comfort zone, but I wanted to do it because it’s an issue that affects all women of all colors, all around the world. Early detection is key – it saves so many lives. I just hope this helps to remind women of that.” <unquote>
It's pretty incredible that this cheeky song, fronted by one of Australia’s first and finest rock divas, can go on to have such an impactful legacy, helping to detect and treat a disease that affects one in eight women. Chrissy, we thank you.
So. These are the songs I’ve discovered from Australian rock and pop history that have experienced the Horses effect. I’m sure you’re right now thinking of more tunes that I’ve missed – perhaps a song you discovered in your parents’ record collection that you and your friends rocked out to. Or maybe a song from your youth that you’ve noticed your kids paying their respects to. Send your suggestions over to my kind of scene pod at gmail.com. You know I’m always open to a sequel.
And all of this has me thinking… which Aussie hits of recent years might experience a Horses style revival in the future?
[Snippets of songs play: Dance Monkey – Tones & I; Riptide – Vance Joy; I’m Good – Hilltop Hoods; This City – Sam Fischer; Losing It – Fisher; Mess Her Up – Amy Shark]
Outro 01:03:22
Thanks for listening to My Kind Of Scene. This episode was written, recorded and produced by Cara Diaria. Theme music by Cara Diaria. Source links are in the episode notes. You can find a playlist of the songs from this episode on the Cara Diaria Spotify page. If you’re enjoying the podcast, please rate and review us, and tell your friends.