The 10 Best Songs by The Seekers

With the recent passing of Judith Durham, it’s fitting to look back on the ten best songs from Australian folk band The Seekers. The Melbourne quartet sold more than 50 million records with 1960s hits like ‘I’ll Never Find Another You’ and ‘Georgy Girl’. While their commercial peak was in the mid-1960s, they’re less edgy than folk-rock contemporaries The Byrds and Bob Dylan. They’re more comparable with early 1960s acts like The Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul & Mary, with their traditional folk covers.

I’m qualified to write this list because my parents were Seekers fans, and I listened to them on long car trips. As a testosterone-filled teenage boy, I was appalled by Athol Guy’s upright bass and the absence of a drummer. Now I appreciate their harmonies and talent. They’re too straitlaced, however, to convincingly deliver Dylan’s counter-cultural anthem ‘The Times They Are a-Changin”.

The Seekers were phenomenally successful in their prime. The BBC broadcast their final show of the 1960s as Farewell the Seekers. Their posthumous compilation The Best of The Seekers topped the Australian charts for an eye-watering 17 weeks. Australian Post even commemorated The Seekers.

After their initial breakup, Durham went solo, while guitarist Keith Potger formed The New Seekers. Woodley briefly made children’s toys before heading back into music. The multi-talented Athol Guy has enjoyed pursuits as diverse as the high jump, TV host (on the fabulously named A Guy Called Athol), and three terms as a liberal MP. Durham rejoined The Seekers in the 1990s, although this list only draws on their 1960s heyday.

10 Best Songs by The Seekers

#10 I Wish You Could Be Here

written by Paul Simon and Bruce Woodley, from Come The Day, 1966
Seekers guitarist Bruce Woodley collaborated on several songs with Paul Simon in the mid-1960s. Simon lived in London after the failure of Simon & Garfunkel’s debut.

The pair wrote Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Cloudy’ as well as another song on the list below. The Seekers’ take on ‘I Wish You Could Be Here’ is relaxed, with Woodley on lead vocal. It was never a single, but was the b-side of ‘See You On The Other Side’.

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#9 When The Stars Begin To Fall

Traditional spiritual, from Introducing The Seekers, 1963
Most of the songs on this list are from later in the 1960s, but ‘When The Stars Begin to Fall’ comes from The Seekers’ 1963 debut. It’s an African-American spiritual, better known as ‘Oh Lord, What A Morning’.

Durham’s clear, ringing voice suited this traditional song.

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#8 Red Rubber Ball

written by Paul Simon and Bruce Woodley, from Come The Day, 1966
Woodley and Simon’s respective bands both recorded ‘Red Rubber Ball’. However, it’s best-known as a #2 Billboard single for Pennsylvanian band The Cyrkle.

“The morning sun shining like a red rubber ball” is an awkward simile by Simon’s standards. Simon later told Stephen Colbert that he wrote it to receive a £100 advance from The Seekers.

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#7 I’ll Never Find Another You

written by Tom Springfield, non-album single, 1964
The Seekers’ 1960s career is entwined with Dionysius P. A. O’Brien, better known as Tom Springfield. O’Brien had previously enjoyed success in The Springfields alongside his sister, Dusty.

He went on to a career as a songwriter and a producer in the mid-1960s. Springfield furnished The Seekers with a succession of hits. ‘I’ll Never Find Another You’ was the UK’s second highest-selling song of 1965.

Q: Why did the ram lose his joy?
A: Because he heard The Seekers singing “I’ll Never Find Another Ewe”!

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#6 Morningtown Ride

written by Malvina Richards, released by The Seekers in 1964 and 1966
Political activist Malvina Richards wrote ‘Morningtown Ride’. She launched a career as a singer-songwriter in her late forties. Her protest songs include ‘Little Boxes’ and ‘What Have They Done To The Rain?’. Confusingly, The Seekers and The Searchers both recorded the latter.

She also wrote children’s songs, most notably the sleep metaphors of ‘Morningtown Ride’. The Seekers’ charm suits kids’ material.

Coincidentally, Seekers’ guitarist Keith Potger held his third wedding on the Mornington Peninsula, south of Melbourne.

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#5 Someday, One Day

written by Paul Simon, released 1966
Paul Simon wrote ‘Someday, One Day’. It was his first success as a songwriter in the UK, and his first hit without Art Garfunkel.

The Seekers were fortunate to enjoy songs from Tom Springfield and Paul Simon, but they missed out on a potential hit from the pens of the Brothers Gibb. The Bee Gees wrote ‘Massachusetts’ for The Seekers, but were unable to contact them. They instead recorded it themselves, scoring a UK #1 hit.

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#4 A World Of Our Own

written by Tom Springfield, from A World of Our Own, 1965
The Seekers’ fourth album is spearheaded by their second big Tom Springfield hit. As AllMusic writer Richie Unterberger notes, The Seekers’ hits often overshadow their albums – “the rest is rather ho-hum fare in the style of Peter, Paul & Mary with a slightly more prominent beat.”

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#3 Georgy Girl

written by Tom Springfield and Jim Dale, from Come The Day, 1966
‘Georgy Girl’ was The Seekers’ last monster hit, even succeeding in the US. It reached #2 on the Billboard charts, stuck behind The Monkees’ ‘Daydream Believer’. ‘Georgy Girl’ is the jauntiest song ever recorded, opening with its distinctive whistling riff.

The Lynn Redgrave film seems like an unlikely vehicle for the wholesome Seekers. Wikipedia notes that “the plot follows the story of a virginal young woman in 1960s Swinging London who is faced with a dilemma when she is pursued by her father’s older employer and the young lover of her promiscuous, pregnant flatmate.”

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#2 The Carnival Is Over

written by Tom Springfield, non-album single, 1965
Springfield derived his third Seekers’ hit from an old Russian folk tune, ‘Stenka Razin’. The original tells of a cossack who drowns his new wife, a Persian princess, after his men accuse him of unduly mellowing out.

Springfield’s less controversial lyrics and a change to 4/4 time were wildly successful. ‘The Carnival Is Over’ topped the UK chart for three weeks in late 1965, keeping The Who’s ‘My Generation’ from the top spot. ‘The Carnival is Over’ topped the charts in the UK but failed to make the US top 100.

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds covered ‘The Carnival Is Over’ on 1986’s Kicking Against The Pricks. Cave told Tracee Hutchison, “some songs had just kind of haunted my childhood, like ‘The Carnival is Over’, which I always loved.”

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#1 Come The Day

written by Bruce Woodley, from Come The Day, 1966
Outside writers dominate this top-ten list. My favourite, however, was penned by Seekers guitarist Bruce Woodley.

It’s a gospel-flavored track that suits Durham’s voice – she effortlessly hits those impossibly high notes with her pure soprano. ‘Come the Day’ doesn’t appear on many of the group’s compilations, but it plays to their strengths with its ascending melody and driving guitars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkLculwds9k

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