Songoftheday 9/9/14 - Hey here is the story forget about troubles in life, don't you know it's not easy when you gotta walk upon that line...

INXS - "What You Need"
from the album Listen Like Thieves (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's Song of the Day comes from the Australian alternative rock band INXS, who got their first taste of big American success in 1983 with their top-40 pop hit "The One Thing". The following year, the band released The Swing, which was hugely popular in their home country but surprisingly performed modestly in American and Britain, despite having Nile Rodgers of Chic on board to produce the first single "Original Sin" as well as red-hot hitmaker Daryl Hall singing back-up.

For the band's next effort they enlisted a new producer (for them), Chris Thomas, who had already been success with funky alt-rock bands like the Pretenders and Roxy Music. The result was Listen Like Thieves, and while the first single "This Time" stalled out at #81 in the U.S., the second single, "What You Need", proved to be their big breakthrough. Like The Fixx's "One Thing Leads To Another", this song written by band keyboardist Andy Farriss and lead singer Michael Hutchence was an immediate winner with its bassline/rhythm guitar groove that rivaled any R&B station out there...

"What You Need" climbed into the top-5 on the American pop chart in April of 1986, while reaching #3 on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Rock radio chart. The record even made the dance club list at #20. Internationally, as the single peaked at #2 in their native Australian (and #14 in neighboring New Zealand), the band was still getting resistance in the UK, stopping short at #51, though at least it was their first single to made the chart in Britain.

I remember buying the 7" vinyl single for "What You Need", transfixed by the groove of the song, and that certainly was the thought of many new American fans, who set the stage for their eventual mega-stardom on the Kick record.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Here's INXS performing on the MTV Music Awards in 1986 (it sounds like Hutchence is singing to a backing track)...

Now the band completely live on their 1988 tour...


And lastly from their Wembley arena gig in 1991...

Up tomorrow: A heartland rocker sings an domestic advertisement for his genre.