Harry Vanda and George Young
The story begins back in 1964 at an austere migrant hostel in Sydney, Australia. It was there that young Scottish kid George Young made friends with young Dutch kid Harry Vanda. They were misfits, (Harry barely spoke English and George's Glasgow brogue was so thick barely anyone could understand him) but they formed a friendship there and then that was to last through the decades.
It's now a matter of record that Harry Vanda and George Young created one of the great rock & roll bands of the 1960's - The Easybeats and wrote a string of classic hits that have stood the test of time.
“There was a desire to write our own songs and that was what set us apart” Harry Vanda reflects now. “Up until that time songs you heard on the radio came from somewhere mysterious. We thought ‘people actually wrote that stuff, how the hell did they do it?’ So we gave it a crack and started doing it ourselves.”
The Easys stormed to number one in Australia in May 1965 and the ferocious phenomenon of 'Easyfever' spiraled. Airports, TV stations, theatres and hire cars were reduced to rubble, fans were hospitalised and general mayhem reigned wherever they turned up. With their vital, urgent sound the Easybeats gave Australian music a new identity and confidence. The hits came in ceaseless cascade and overnight Australian pop and rock shifted from derivation and imitation to innovation. The stakes had been raised and Oz Rock would never look back.
The song that still stands as the team's most admired, acclaimed and recorded piece, the working class anthem, Friday On My Mind - a global hit for them. As Harry once put it, "Being hostel boys that's what you dream about all week - Friday."
Friday On My Mind gave them the clout to begin writing and recording songs of sometimes extraordinary grandeur. "We were fumbling, groping around for hit tunes that were different" George explained "The ultimate, as far as we were concerned, was to be totally original and get hits. Original in the sense of finding new drumbeats, new guitar styles, new melodies, new chord changes, that sort of thing." The standouts were many – Heaven & Hell, Hello How Are You?, The Music Goes ‘Round My Head, Come In You’ll Get Pneumonia and Falling Off The Edge Of The World which Lou Reed declared to be "one of the most beautiful records ever made".
Legend has it that when the BBC gave Good Times a spin, Paul McCartney, driving on a motorway, found a roadside phone to ring the Beeb and ask them to play it again.
Returning to Australia they put to use all they had learned from eight years of making music in London. In a new state-of-the-art recording studio in King Street, Sydney they began a blitzkrieg of Australian popular music in a manner that had not been experienced since ... well, the heyday of the Easybeats, Swiftly they captivated radio programmers with their song writing and production prowess sending Stevie Wright to number one with a three-part 11 minute plus single, Evie (Parts 1,2 & 3).
It's also a matter of record that in the 70's, Vanda & Young branched out as writer and producers. Working with hard rock acts like AC/DC, Rose Tattoo and the Angels, they created the blueprint for a generation of contemporary rock & roll bands. With radio-friendly pop acts like John Paul Young (Love is in The Air, Yesterday’s Hero, Standing in the Rain), William Shakespeare (My Little Angel, Can’t Stop Myself) and Mark (Show No Mercy) Williams - they've managed to score hit after international hit.
And alongside this staggering body of work, Vanda & Young maintained a steady output with Flash & The Pan. From Hey! St Peter and Down Among the Dead Men through European hits Waiting for a Train, Early Morning Wake Up Call, Midnight Man, Money Don’t Lie and Ayla.
The list of famous names who have sung a Vanda / Young composition is staggering: from David Bowie, Rod Stewart and Gary Moore to INXS and Grace Jones (not to mention John Farnham, Jimmy Barnes, The Divinyls and Meatloaf), their influence has crossed virtually every geographical and stylistic border.
In 2005 the Australian Performing Rights Association (APRA) voted Friday On My Mind as the most important Australian song written in the past 75 years.
Australia had great natural rockers from day one - musicians of flair and imagination who could set alight any dance floor and singers who could let rip with the best of them - what it did not have was innovative songwriters who could take their creations to the world and compete as equals. At least not until 1965. "We never looked back” once mused Harry Vanda. “We tried everything - it was trial and error all the way. If we'd stuck to a formula we could have lasted forever but it isn't in our natures to stand still."
The thing is, they did last forever, or at least their songs will.