Kylie Minogue, banned drugs and sex songs, and 19th century “exotic” dancers…harumph!

In 2007 the Australian National Film & Sound Archive set up a “hall of fame” for recordings that comprise the history of the recorded sound in Australia. They call it “Sounds of Australia” and each year they induct notable recordings into it. This year’s entries have just been announced and its received a lot of publicity because Kylie Minogue’s recording of “I Should Be So Lucky” is one of them. Anything the lovely Kylie touches causes a flurry of internet activity and this is no exception. In many of the internet posts the other 9 inductees are ignored and forgotten. Here are the nominations for three of them:

1. The first recordings of indigineous Australians in 1898 by the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits under Alfred Cort Haddon, who also took the following footage.

“The Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Strait in 1898, led by Professor AC Haddon, was the first British expedition to use the phonograph for research purposes. These are the first audio recordings of the songs and music of Indigenous Australians. The recordings were transferred to magnetic tape from wax cylinders by the British Institute of Recorded Sound in 1978. The collection features songs and speech from Mer / Murray Island, Mabuiag / Jervis Island, Saibai Island, Tudu Island and Iama / Yam Island. The original wax cylinder recordings are in the collection of the British Library and 38 can be heard on the Library’s Archival Sound Recordings site. Copies are also held by AIATSIS as collection BNA 01.”

2. I’ll Never Find Another You — The Seekers

“After some success in the Melbourne folk clubs and an LP on W&G Records, The Seekers set sail on a cruise ship (employed as entertainers) in early 1964 as a way of getting to the UK. Within a few months they had been signed to Columbia Records and recording at Abbey Road Studios. Their first single for Columbia was I’ll Never Find Another You, written by Tom Springfield (brother of Dusty) released in December 1964. By February it was No. 1 on the British and Australian charts and reached No. 4 on the American charts. They were the first Australian group to have a top five hit on all three charts at the same time, and the single eventually sold 1.75 million copies.”

3. Living in the 70s — Skyhooks

“Skyhooks’ debut album was notable for having six of the ten tracks banned on commercial radio for drug and sex references, however You Just Like Me ‘Cos I’m Good In Bed was the first song broadcast on the ABC’s new youth station 2JJ in January 1975. Regardless of the controversy it was the first successful Australian pop record to set songs in a local, suburban setting — as one writer has put it ‘legitimising Australian songwriting’ with Balwyn, Carlton and Toorak mentioned in three of the song titles. The album entered the charts in October 1974, where it stayed in the top 100 for 54 weeks and was the best selling album in Australia in 1975. The best selling single from the album Horror Movie also reached No. 1 nationally.”