One Vegemite Sandwich, Hold the Vegemite!

It's been said that "a fingerful of vegemite is like like a meaty, salty punch in the face"...and that's pretty much how I would describe it.  It was in Massieville, OH sometime in the nineties when a guy from New Zealand who was 6'1" and a bit doughy, to be honest, offered ME a vegemite sandwich.  I gladly accepted it and excitedly took a bite.  It was...not good.  In the interest of detente, I finished it before remembering that there were no strained relations between the U.S. and New Zealand.  I vowed that day to never eat it again...and I never have.

I learned something else from that guy, too.  I learned that New Zealanders DO NOT like to be mistaken for Australians.  I assume that works the other way, as well, although I'm not sure about that.

Nevertheless, a number of Australians found prosperity in the (other) land of plenty in the eighties.  Some like Olivia Newton-John, AC/DC and Rick Springfield first became famous in the U.S. LONG before MTV killed the radio star.

Others became stars as a direct result of the aforementioned Music Television.

Several would enjoy limited success on the U.S. charts.

A few eighties Aussies, though, have continued to make viable music into the 21^st century.  I've talked at length about Rick Springfield in recent posts and I'll be spotlighting AC/DC soon, but there are a few others.

Kylie Minogue hit the U.S. Top 40 three times in the eighties with “I Should Be So Lucky”, “The Locomotion” and “It’s No Secret” – all three were from her 1987 debut album “Kylie”.  She wouldn’t hit the chart again until 2001 when she stormed back with this top ten hit:

Since then, she’s only hit the Top 40 one more time but has topped the U.S. Dance Chart 6 times.

INXS was a hit-making machine in the late-eighties, reaching the top ten 5 times with songs from 1985’s “Listen Like Thieves” and 1987’s “Kick”.  The hits would be fewer and further between in the nineties with only 2 more top ten hits, both from 1990’s “X”.  Fate would deal a seemingly fatal blow to the band in 1997 with frontman Michael Hutchence’s death.  However, the band would embark on an American Idol-esque search for a new lead singer in 2005, eventually choosing Canadian J.D. Fortune.  Their lone album with Fortune, “Switch”, put them in the U.S. Top 40 again later that same year:

Unfortunately, friction between Fortune and the band led to him leaving for good in 2011.  The band would announce their retirement in 2012.

Crowded House appeared to be destined for superstardom when their debut single “Don’t Dream It’s Over” hit #2 on the U.S. Top 40 in 1986.  Their chart success would be short-lived, though, with only one more top forty hit, the #7 “Something So Strong”.  Their second album, 2008’s “Temple of Low Men”, was a commercial disappointment.  Subsequent albums would also fail to generate Top 40 hits, although the band enjoyed a degree of success on the Modern Rock chart in the late-eighties and early-nineties.  After a hiatus of nearly a decade and a half, they would return in 2007 with an album very reminiscent of their self-titled debut.  “Time on Earth” was their first since the suicide of drummer Paul Hester in 2005.

None of its singles charted in the U.S., but it was their highest charting album since the eighties.  I highly recommend it if you're a fan of the band.  It's easily their second-best.

Midnight Oil had one of the most prolific runs of all the Aussie acts, releasing an album every 2-3 years from 1978 through 1998.  Though they only had one U.S. Top 40 hit, 1987’s “Beds are Burning”, they enjoyed tremendous success on the Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts.  In 2002, after a 4-year hiatus, they returned with “Capricornia”.  The album failed to chart in the U.S., although the first single received considerable airplay.

I still can’t get that Kylie Minogue song out of my head.