Every New Zealand #1 single… 7 Black or White by Michael Jackson Topped the NZ chart: for 8 weeks from 24 November 1992. Michael Jackson Michael Jackson was the eighth of ten children, growing up on Jackson Street in Gary,…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 9 Blue Velvet by Bobby Vinton Topped the NZ chart: for 3 weeks from 17 October 1963. Bobby Vinton was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, the son of a bandleader. He learned the clarinet and studied…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 9 19 by Paul Hardcastle Topped the NZ chart: for 5 weeks from 7 July 1985. I was surprised that there’s a 5-week number-one hit from the 1980s that I’d never heard before. But I’d…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 1 I Swear by All-4-One Topped the NZ chart: from 10 July 1994 for five weeks The third quarter of 1994 may be the most toothless in the history of the New Zealand singles chart.…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 3 Just Lose It by Eminem Topped the NZ chart: from 5 November 2004 for five weeks I’ve never devoted much thought to Eminem. I was almost through my teens when his breakthrough The Slim…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 10 Killing Me Softly by Fugees Topped the NZ chart: from 2 June 1996 for three weeks The Fugees topped the New Zealand singles charts with their cover of ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’.…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 2 Freaks by Timmy Trumpet and Savage Topped the NZ chart: from 17 November 2014 for five weeks After years of bickering over the racehorse Phar Lap, pavlova, and Crowded House, ‘Freaks’ is a lovely…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 6 Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run) by Billy Ocean Topped the NZ chart: from 9 December 1984 for six weeks Billy Ocean is best known for a string of hits in the…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 3 Paloma Blanca by George Baker Selection Topped the NZ chart: from 1 August 1975 for five non-consecutive weeks Dutch musician George Baker scored hits in three different decades. 1969’s ‘Little Green Bag’ is an…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 8 Is It Over Now? Topped the NZ chart: from 6 November 2023 for 1 week It’s a little perverse for the randomiser to suggest a Taylor Swift song for this column when she’s just…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 9 Where Did Our Love Go Topped the NZ chart: for 1 week from 17 September 1964. The Supremes were massively successful in the 1960s. They scored twelve #1s on the Billboard charts, the most…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 5 In the Shadows Topped the NZ chart: for 1 week from 23 August 2004. In the last column, I covered ABBA’s ‘Fernando‘. This week the randomiser threw up another track from Scandinavia, from Finland’s…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 9 Fernando Topped the NZ chart: from 4 June 1976 for 9 weeks 1976 was the year of ABBA in New Zealand. The Swedish quartet topped the singles chart for 15 of 45 possible weeks…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 4 Beautiful Liar Topped the NZ chart: from 23 April 2007 for 1 week Beyoncé and Shakira were two of New Zealand’s most successful chart stars in the first decade of the 21st century. Between…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 9 Chains Topped the NZ chart: from 4 August 1996 for 5 weeks ‘Chains’ is like New Zealand hip-hop and soul’s equivalent to Queen and Bowie’s ‘Under Pressure’. Two musicians from different bands quickly improvised…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 3 Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree Topped the NZ chart: from 1 June 1973 for 10 weeks The past is a foreign country. It sounds irredeemably corny now. But ‘Tie a…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 6 I’m Your Man Topped the NZ chart: from 16 February 1986 for 1 week Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael met at Bushey Meads School. They formed a ska band with school friends, before paring…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 8 With You Topped the NZ chart: from 18 February 2008 for 4 weeks Chris Brown was one of the most successful singles artists on the New Zealand chart during the first decade of the…
Cleveland, Ohio, has a rich musical history. It has a celebrated orchestra and it hosts the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It also birthed Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, the Raspberries, and Joe Walsh’s James Gang. It still seems an unlikely birthplace…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 1 Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!! Topped the NZ chart: from 8 August 1999 for 1 week Danski and Delmundo were Danish DJs in the early 1990s, and named their project The Vengaboys. In 1997 they used…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 3 Star Crossed Lovers Topped the NZ chart: from 12 June 1970 for 4 weeks (non-consecutive). I’d never heard of Craig Scott before. But apparently he was a heartthrob for New Zealand woman of a…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 9 Joanne Topped the NZ chart: from 25 December 1970 for 1 week. One of the more surprising number one hits in New Zealand was ‘Joanne’. It’s a 1970 single from former Monkee Michael Nesmith.…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 6 The Last Waltz Topped the NZ chart: from 10 November 2015 for 2 weeks. I’ve covered Mr Humperdinck on this site before. His 1967 b-side ‘Ten Guitars‘ became an unexpected staple in New Zealand.…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 5 Love Yourself by Justin Bieber Topped the NZ chart: from 7 December 2015 for 10 weeks. Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber was discovered via YouTube. His mother had uploaded videos of Bieber singing onto…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 8 End of the Road by BOYZ II MEN Topped the NZ chart: from 18 October 1992 for 7 weeks. Philadelphia vocal harmony quartet Boyz II Men were successful on the New Zealand single charts…
Every New Zealand #1 single… 1 Axel F by Crazy Frog Topped the NZ chart: from 18 July 2005 for 11 weeks. 2005 just might be the worst year for #1 singles in the history of the NZ chart. There…
Every New Zealand #1 single… Lovesick Blues by Frank Ifield Topped the NZ chart: 10 January 1963 for 1 week. 3 The early 1960s are notable for a power vacuum in rock and roll. Many stars of the 1950s saw…
It’s challenging to write about Canadian sisters Kate & Anna McGarrigle without discussing their family connections. The nature of this B-side makes it impossible. Kate McGarrigle was married to singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright III, known for songs like ‘Dead Skunk’. The…
Before he became Patti Smith’s lead guitarist, Lenny Kaye compiled the 2 album set, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era. Released in 1972, the two-LP set covered American garage rock and psychedelia from the years 1965-1968 and was…
New York’s Talking Heads are one of my favourite bands of the new wave era. David Byrne was the nervy frontman, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth were a funky rhythm section, while Jerry Harrison filled out their sound on keyboards…
Ron and Russell Mael grew up in Pacific Palisades, California, surfing and modelling for mail order catalogues. They both studied film in college, but gravitated to music, recording their first record as Halfnelson in 1971, with Todd Rundgren producing. The…
The four members of 10cc were all veterans of the 1960s music scene. Graham Gouldman was a successful songwriter, penning The Hollies’ ‘Bus Stop’ and ‘For You Love’ for The Yardbirds. Eric Stewart played with Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders.…
Van Morrison’s enjoyed a long and prolific career. Like Neil Young, he’s continued to released a new studio album almost every year, even long past retirement age. Such is the breadth of Morrison’s discography, the two albums he made with…
Introduction New Zealand is presently enjoying a strong crop of female singer-songwriters. Along with Hollie Fullbrook of Tiny Ruins, we also have the weirdness of Aldous Harding and the imagery-laden writing of Nadia Reid. Pop superstar Lorde isn’t a singer-songwriter but shares the…
The Boo Radleys emerged in the shoegaze scene of the late 1980s. They came from Wallasey, a town just across the Mersey from Liverpool. They shifted closer to pop/rock in the 1990s, and achieved critical acclaim, particularly for their 1993…
The classic lineup of Nirvana – Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl – first recorded together on the first day of 1991. They ran through seven tracks, all captured in just one take. Cobain later added vocals to two…
My favourite Jackson Browne song is the title track to his third album, 1974’s Late for the Sky. I’ve never fully understood its meaning. There are dark themes throughout the album – the closing track ‘Before the Deluge’ is apocalyptic.…
Growing up in Auckland’s North Shore, Don McGlashan and Harry Sinclair deferred their chosen careers when they returned from their OEs. McGlashan was a musician. He had already drummed for the Auckland post-punk trio, Blam Blam Blam. He penned the…
They’re barely known outside New Zealand, but The Dance Exponents were reliable hitmakers in the 1980s. They kept enjoying success through the 1990s after they shortened their name to The Exponents. They weren’t edgy or pretentious, a pop/rock guitar band…
Irish rock band U2 peaked with their 1987 album The Joshua Tree. Their fifth record, it combined Bono’s fervour with a sweeping sound from The Edge’s effect-laden guitar and atmospheric production from Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. It’s also the…
Moody Glasgow pop band The Blue Nile have such a slim discography that everything they’ve recorded is to be treasured. Starting with 1984’s A Walk Across The Rooftops, they’ve only recorded three further albums, along with a solo record from…
In January 1994, Straitjacket Fits played their last gig at the Big Day Out festival. Disillusioned by the music industry, Shayne Carter returned to Dunedin and spent years largely away from the music industry. He later described this period to…
Ringo Starr had the most to lose from The Beatles‘ breakup. John Lennon had already launched a solo career with ‘Give Peace a Chance’ and ‘Cold Turkey’. George Harrison had a stockpile of songs that would form the basis of…
Aimee Mann scored her only hit single with her first attempt. She fronted Boston new wave band ‘Til Tuesday, whose debut single ‘Voices Carry’ reached #8 on the Billboard charts. Despite the immediate success of ‘Voices Carry’, it took a…
The streaming era has scattered previously held views on the hierarchy of popular music. Despite a critical pasting, Queen have emerged as the dominant classic rock band. The number one spot on the Billboard 100 in early 2022 has largely…
While it has a comparatively minuscule population base to draw from and is located in the deep south of New Zealand, Dunedin’s Flying Nun record label produced a string of critically acclaimed and influential guitar bands throughout the 1980s including…
Famously, The Monkees started as a band created for a TV show – they were sometimes referred to as the Prefab Four. But as their career progressed, they asserted more influence over their career. On their third album, Headquarters, The…
New Zealand indie band The Phoenix Foundation was formed by Wellington High School students in 1994. The group features two singer-guitarists – Polish-born Luke Buda and Samuel Flynn Scott, the son of a prominent NZ cartoonist. Conrad Webbe on keyboards…
Nebraskan singer-songwriter Josh Rouse is undervalued – his thoughtful and tuneful songs could have been hits in another era. He released some great records in the early 21st century – the concept album of Under Cold Blue Stars, about a…
Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor was born in Auckland, New Zealand, the daughter of a poet and a civil engineer. She grew up immersed in poetry and literature. She built a profile through SoundCloud and talent shows, and in June 2013,…
Lots of dedicated music fans are sniffy about mainstream pop music from the 21st century. And if there’s anything worse, it’s 21st-century mainstream pop that was pre-fabricated for a TV show. Girls Aloud originated from the reality show Popstars: The…
Marlon WIlliams grew up in Lyttleton, New Zealand. He toured Europe as a member of the choir of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament and started playing guitar in high school. His band The Unfaithful Ways, formed with two friends…
Breaking up Split Enz, Neil Finn retained drummer Paul Hester from the final Enz lineup and created a more streamlined band. They recruited Australian bass player Nick Seymour (brother of Hunters and Collector’s lead singer Mark) and secured an American…
The Beach Boys spent the first half of the 1960s becoming more sophisticated. Under the leadership of Brian Wilson, they grew from emulating Chuck Berry on ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.’ to creating masterpieces like Pet Sounds. When Brian Wilson’s mental health suffered…
One of the most misleading album titles in popular music is Ween’s 12 Golden Country Greats. The country part isn’t misleading; Dean and Gene Ween actually recorded an entire album in Nashville with notable musos like Charlie McCoy and Bud…
Against all odds, Phil Collins made a strong start to his tenure as Genesis’ lead vocalist. Recorded after Peter Gabriel left to pursue a solo career, 1976’s A Trick of the Tail was an impressive record. Collins couldn’t replicate Gabriel’s…
I’ve already covered the Split Enz and Crowded House catalogues separately – this page covers Neil and Tim Finn’s solo albums and duo projects. I’ve only covered a handful of Tim’s solo albums, but I’ve written about most of Neil’s…
The Beths are from Auckland, New Zealand, where they met at jazz school. Guitarist Jonathan Pearce stated that playing jazz provided a “very clear idea of what we didn’t want to do”. Instead, the quartet reverted to the music they…
By the time Jimi Hendrix released debut album Are You Experienced?, he certainly was experienced. After a stint in the army, training as a paratrooper, he played with the Isley Brothers, Little Richard, and his own band Jimmy James and…
As I wrote in an earlier Syd Barrett post: When people talk about wasted potential in rock and roll, it’s usually premature deaths like Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, or Kurt Cobain. But Pink Floyd’s original leader Syd Barrett also belongs on the list –…
I’m just the right age to have accumulated a collection of friends who were obsessed by The Smashing Pumpkins. One friend went for at least two years where he listened to at least one Pumpkins song every single day. Another…
Los Angeles power-pop band Weezer have pumped out records since 1994, but they’re largely beloved for their first pair of albums; 1994’s Weezer and 1996’s Pinkerton. Both records featured bass player Matt Sharp and were the only records Weezer made…
Emerging in the late 1960s from Los Angeles, Spirit were an odd band even by the standards of an era when rock was in its infancy and genre rules hadn’t yet ossified. Spirit’s members ranged in age from 16 to…
Many significant UK rock acts from the 1960s and early 1970s were deeply rooted in the blues. Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, and Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac were among many young bands steeped in blues tradition. Queen took…
Iron Maiden’s third album, The Number of the Beast, was made under time pressure. The group had five weeks to record their first album with new lead singer Bruce Dickinson. The single ‘Run to the Hills’ was released in advance…
Van Morrison is a prolific recording artist, releasing more than 40 studio albums during his solo career, as well as fronting Them in the 1960s. He recorded a lot of non-album material, but his only non-album b-side that I’m aware…
Scott Walker is one long-time favourite artist who I’ve barely mentioned on this site (edit – I have now). Born Noel Scott Engel, in Ohio, he moved to London and fronted vocal heartthrob group The Walker Brothers. When the trio…
Chicago’s Jamila Woods is a writer and a recording artist, and as such she’s able to sing eloquently about racial issues. Her second album, 2019’s Legacy! Legacy!, was a neo-soul masterpiece, so recently I’ve gone back to her 2016 debut…
Don McGlashan kicked around the arty end of the New Zealand alternative scene during the 1980s. He played the drums in Blam Blam Blam, providing lead vocals for the iconic and ironic ‘There Is No Depression In New Zealand’. On…
There was a lot of great pop music in the 1960s, and Birmingham psychedelic rock band The Move are overlooked among the rush. They never made an impression in the US where the band they morphed into, Electric Light Orchestra,…
Sometimes a record is so jammed with great songs that something worthy has to be shipped out to a b-side. Despite its huge success, Peter Gabriel’s So isn’t one of those records. Singles like ‘Red Rain’ and ‘Sledgehammer’ are terrific,…
Faith No More have covered a lot of ground over their career – in particular, 1995’s King for a Day… Fool for a Lifetime utilises a different genre for every track. Mike Patton is one of the most talented vocalists…
Arnold Dorsey struggled to break into the music industry until he was advised to adopt a more interesting stage name. Dorsey took the name Engelbert Humperdinck from the German composer of Hansel and Gretel. Already in his early thirties, the…
Universally beloved soul singer Bill Withers passed away this week. He came from the small coal mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, and spent his early career in the Navy. His career as a professional musician was notably short…
Power pop band Fountains of Wayne was formed by Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood – they took their name from a now-defunct lawn ornament store in New Jersey. Apart from one fluke hit (2003’s ‘Stacy’s Mom’) they were never huge…
Emma Paki was born in Whakatane, the New Zealand town closest to where White Island erupted in December 2019. She was born to a Maori heritage; and received her first guitar at the age of 8. Paki’s debut single was…
‘La Bamba’ is a traditional Mexican folk song, from the state of Veracruz. Ritchie Valens, a 17 year old rising star, converted the tune to rock and roll. It’s one of the best known Spanish language tunes in the rock…
Neil Finn joined the band Split Enz as a guitarist when he was still a teenager. His brother Tim was the band’s leader, writing most of their material, but Neil Finn wrote many of the band’s successful singles in the…
It’s a long way to the top (if you wanna rock ‘n’ roll), and Australian hard rock band AC/DC spent much of the 1970s building their profile. They cracked the big time with 1979’s Highway to Hell, which peaked at…
Of all the b-sides that I’ve covered in this series, Elvis Presley’s cover of ‘Mystery Train’ is the most iconic. It was voted on a 2003 Rolling Stone as the 77th greatest song of all time, an astounding feat for…
Marillion were named after JRR Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, and were formed in 1979. Early Marillion were often compared to the progressive-rock era of Genesis – lead vocalist Fish’s theatricality was similar to Peter Gabriel. The core lineup of guitarist Steve…
Patti Smith was one of the first punk artists to make a record. 1975’s Horses, produced by John Cale, was a confronting album. Musically it drew from 1960s garage-rock, while lyrically it was provocative. Smith was clearly influential on an…
The Cure have been around for more than forty years, with leader Robert Smith the only constant member. The band formed in Crawley, West Sussex, in 1976, and have covered a lot of ground over their career, from the Gothic…
The b-side is often a British commodity, but one American artist was the equal of any British artist with the quantity and quality of his outtakes. Prince was so prolific that he released 70 official non-album b-sides, as well as…
Canadian power-pop band The Pursuit of Happiness scored a surprise top 40 hit in 1986 with their independent single ‘I’m An Adult Now’, helped by a low-budget, self-produced music video. The Toronto-based group signed with Chrysalis Records to make their…
The Kinks formed in Muswell Hill, London, in 1964. They launched their career with hard-driving rock and roll like ‘You Really Got Me’ and ‘All Day and All of the Night’, songs that are considered as landmarks in the development…
In The Beatles, George Harrison often suffered the indignity of being limited to two songs per LP. It worked fine at the start of the group, when he was the junior partner in the band. By the end of The…
Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is one of the great cult records. Issued in 1998, it’s full of enigmatic lines, like “Now she’s a little boy in Spain/Playing pianos filled with flames”, and Jeff Mangum’s raw…
Cat Stevens‘ work has endured because his low-key songs are relateable and accessible. Stevens has explored different styles over the course of his career – he started as a teen pop idol in the 1960s, and moved towards progressive rock…
The Police were arguably the greatest singles band of their era. In the late 1970s and early 1980s they released a string of great songs – ‘Roxanne’, ‘Message in a Bottle’, ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic’, and ‘Every…
American rock icon Bruce Springsteen celebrated his 70th birthday this week. This means it’s half a lifetime since he released his most commercially successful album, 1984’s Born in the USA. A decade earlier, 1975’s Born to Run had launched Springsteen…
It’s the year of Our Lord 2019, and we’re rapidly approaching peak-rock-star-death era. The Cars’ mastermind Ric Ocasek passed away earlier this week. I was surprised to learn that he was 75, older than many of the stars that he…
Aside from their debut, each of The Go-Betweens’ studio albums follows a set formula – exactly ten songs with five written by Robert Forster and five by Grant McLennan. The pair anchored the Australian indie guitar band over two stints…
In 1978 New Zealand art-rockers Split Enz were in crisis. The group had lost key original members like Phil Judd and Mike Chunn. Their art-rock was out of step in the late 1970s, pushed from the mainstream by punk and…
Neil Young first rose to prominence in 1960s folk-rock group Buffalo Springfield, playing lead guitar on their breakthrough hit ‘For What It’s Worth’ and writing ‘Mr Soul’ and ‘Broken Arrow’. Young’s Buffalo Springfield work isn’t his earliest recorded legacy –…
John Flansburgh and John Linnell have been making nerdy pop music as They Might Be Giants since 1982. The Massachusetts pair released their debut album in 1986. One of their best known songs is their 1990 cover of ‘Istanbul (Not…
