October 16 – Effort Went Into The Songs, Not The Title

A few casual listeners back in the ’80s might have thought INXS was some kind of overnight sensation that arrived with “Need You Tonight”. Of course, that was far from the case. The Sydney sextet had quite a slow, gradual path to worldwide stardom, playing countless shows in their Australian homeland before even putting out an indie record in 1980. they took an important step forward on their career on this day in 1982, with the release of their third album – but first with widespread international distribution – Shabooh Shoobah. Most agree, it was a better album than their previous pair, and a better album than record title!

They’d built up a following at home, and sold decent quantities for an indie act in ’80-81, so they recorded a new single, “The One Thing.”

It had a clean, modern sound and great groove, and that in turn got the big labels interested. Warner Brothers signed them to a contract for a good chunk of the world, on various labels it owned including WEA and Atco; somehow the UK and all of Europe saw them come out on Polygram simultaneously. They went back into the studio about six months after doing “The One Thing” and recorded the other nine songs, all self-written, mostly by keyboardist Andrew Farriss and singer Michael Hutchence. They worked with another Aussie rising star, producer Mark Opitz, who’d later win the Australian award for producer of the year twice running in the late-’80s. “Mark was the first producer (to) capture some glimmer of what the band felt like it was like live,” Tim Farriss said, which was to say clean-sounding but energetic and even a bit loud at times.

Although few of the album cuts really resonated widely at the time or later on with the masses, the singles really introduced INXS to the world…and the world paid attention. Although the media didn’t seem to pay as much attention as the newbie fans did. Rolling Stone did review it, giving it a middling 3-stars, saying “perhaps it is too glib to dismiss INXS as the next Duran Duran, but (it) has all the hallmarks of current British pop.” It’s not entirely clear whether that was seen as a good thing or not, or if the mag even knew they were Australian rather than English. Then again, it was easy to miss that; unlike the Aussie pop-new wave sensations of the day, Men At Work, INXS certainly didn’t wear their nationality on their sleeves, something which might have worked in their favor years down the road. Allmusic would give it a similar grade later on, deciding that beyond the title (“one of the most annoying titles ever!”) they were getting better but “INXS wasn’t quite there yet” although “there’s a smart, slick punch to this album that suggest later-period Roxy Music crossed with a younger, brasher energy.”

“Black and White,” the third single off it made the Australian top 30, but the two that preceded it got them fans far and wide. “Don’t Change” hit #14 at home, and garnered some North American airplay on college radio but “The One Thing” was the one thing they needed – not only a hit at home, but a top 40 hit in North America, with it reaching #2 on Billboard‘s rock charts. It helped the album squeak into the American top 50 and go gold in the U.S., while back down under, it reached #5, stuck around on the charts for 94 weeks and got them their first platinum record…later double that in fact. As big as that was, their follow-up, the Swing, would end up doubling those sales levels around the globe, making them something of an overnight sensation after about seven grueling years.