Songoftheday 9/23/17 - I close my eyes and see you before me, think I would die if you were to ignore me...
from the album Divinyls (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12
Today's song of the day comes from the Australian band Divinyls, who came together in Sydney in the early 1980's. With lead singer Chrissy Amphlett, guitarist Mark McEntee, keyboardist Bjarne Ohlin, and bass player Jeremy Paul (who was a member of an early incarnation of Air Supply), they put out their first single, the post-punk rage of "Boys In Town", in 1981, and it became a big hit locally at #8. But by the time of the release of their debut studio record Desperate, Paul had bounced, but they managed a second Australian top-40 hit with "Science Fiction" (#13).
In 1985, Divinyls came out with What A Life, their first record to get worldwide attention. The single "Pleasaure And Pain", co-written by song doctor Holly Knight, was their first to chart in America at #76 (and peaking on the Mainstream Rock radio chart at #12), while going to #11 Down Under. After another less successful album, the band, which by then was really Amphlett and McEntee, left their label for Virgin Records.
Their first album with the new imprint, the eponymous diVINYLS, changed their sound to a quirky but sexual modern rock outfit, and that was exemplified by the saucy first single "I Touch Myself". Written by the duo along with Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg (who wrote Madonna's similarly salacious "Like A Virgin"), the ode to jackin' it was racy but clean-worded enough to attract attention but surprisingly not censors....
"I Touch Myself" became Divinyls' sole top-40 pop hit in the U.S., reaching the top-5 in May of 1991. The song also reached both the Mainstream (#35) and Modern (#2 for two weeks) Rock radio charts in Billboard magazine. Internationally, the record topped the Australian singles chart for two weeks, and made the top-20 in Ireland (#8), the UK (#10), Canada (#13), and New Zealand (#17). A second single from the album, "Make Out Alright", reached #19 on the Modern Rock list but failed to nick the pop chart in America. The following year, a cover of the Rascals single "I Ain't Gonna Eat My Heart Out Anymore" from the original Buffy The Vampire Slayer movie reached the top-20 in Australia, but fighting with Virgin kept them from continuing any international success. They switched to BMG for a local-only release Underworld, which returned them to the top 20 in Australia with "I'm Jealous". Splitting up for nearly a decade, Chrissy took on the role of Judy Garland in the original Australian production of the Peter Allen bio-musical The Boy From Oz. Amphlett and McEntee reunited in 2007 and were going to record a new album, but circumstances including Chrissy's multiple sclerosis diagnosis sidelined that. In 2013, she developed breast cancer, and unable to do chemo due to the MS, she succumbed to the disease.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's Divinyls appearing on the Arsenio Hall show to promote the single...
...and again in 1991 in concert...
After Chrissy's death, a group of female singers (including fellow cancer warrier Olivia Newton-John) paid tribute to her and helped raise Breast Cancer Screening awareness with a cover of the song... (NSFW at the end)
And finally, from a show in 1993...
Up tomorrow: R&B vocal group sees cranial literature.
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