John Farnham’s Whispering Jack

Description

In 1986, the Australian singer John Farnham released an album that was to transform him from a faded pop star, who no record company would touch, into the most popular solo rock performer in Australia for a period of more than thirty years. Farnham is now ‘the singer’s singer’, and the biggest drawcard for arena concerts in Australia. Whispering Jack remains the top-selling album by an Australian in Australia, and constitutes the major turning point in Farnham’s bid to achieve credibility as an adult contemporary rock musician. The first single, ‘You’re the Voice’, has achieved such iconic status that it is routinely referred to as Australia’s unofficial national anthem. This book delves into that history and into that album to recover a crucial conjuncture in the development of Australian rock and popular music. Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: The backstory: From Johnny to John  The Australian music industry in the 1980s The changes in radio The task ahead Chapter 2: Whispering Jack – the album Good songs, good beats and the energy of rock The ‘whiz-bang’ album The voice So, let’s play the album Timeless Chapter 3: ‘You’re the Voice’ The unofficial national anthem Australian popular music and cultural nationalism Chapter 4: And then . . . The ‘ordinary’ rock star The Farnham audience Notes References Index