PopArchives: The Blog: NEW ZEALAND

Showing posts with label NEW ZEALAND. Show all posts

08 September 2026

Introducing the N.Z. Hit Parade! (March 1966)

From 25 March 1966 New Zealand Listener magazine published a national Top 20 that is sometimes cited as the first “official” NZ chart.

It was probably no more official than the "official Top 40" of Melbourne radio station 3UZ. However, it was a well-organised chart in a prominent and respected publication, and in spite of its flaws it seems to have become the de facto chart for New Zealand at the time.

The Listener chart was compiled using coupons mailed in by readers who had filled them out with their five current favourite songs.

The ad in the Listener on 18 March 1966 went like this:

INTRODUCING
THE N.Z. HIT PARADE
Based on a Nationwide Voting Poll
YOU CHOOSE THE HITS!
Complete the coupon below and you take part in choosing
New Zealand’s Top Twenty.

That teaser included an unnumbered list of "leading discs of the moment" for inspiration, but the next edition on 25 March published the actual N.Z. Hit Parade. A Must To Avoid by Herman's Hermits topped the Top 20, leading a list of exclusively British and American records. (True, The Seekers at #3 were Australians but they recorded The Carnival Is Over in Britain, produced by its British composer Tom Springfield.)

Seven weeks later, in the 13 May issue, The La De Das' How Is The Air Up There became the first New Zealand record on the Listener chart, entering at #13 and going on to peak at #4.

UK record, NZ issue, NZ hit (discogs.com)

I-cannot-say-whether the readers' poll was the only source for the Listener chart or whether there were any adjustments before publication. Whatever the truth, NZ chart compiler Dean Scapolo believes that it was “not a good indicator” of what was actually selling. From April 1970 the Listener did use sales figures, but its charts were retired with the coming of official music industry charts in May 1975.

Warwick Freeman, another compiler, outlines the NZ chart scene before March 1966 when the Listener chart appeared:
❝ [New Zealanders] relied on local radio stations, television, record stores and other sources who compiled their own charts. A few of these charts were published, and in many cases lost, but others were simply written down in scrapbooks by keen listeners as the countdown was played on the radio or TV.❞

Another often-cited chart from before March 1966 was the Lever Hit Parade, a Top 8 that was sponsored by a detergent company, compiled by an advertising agency, and used by NZ’s state-owned commercial radio stations. Although its methods are not known it was not based on sales figures and probably used some kind of polling. There was also a genuinely sales-based chart published in Playdate magazine but only for a couple of months in 1960.

All of these sources have been used in compiling books of historical New Zealand chart data. Dean Scapolo’s Complete New Zealand Music Charts 1966 to 1996 begins with the Listener charts in March 1966. Warwick Freeman in New Zealand Top 20 Singles of the Sixties has additionally used a variety of sources from before March 1966 to retrospectively compile chart listings for the whole decade.

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Sources: 1. Flavour of New Zealand’s feature on NZ charts 2. Scapolo’s and Freeman’s chart books. 3. Listener archives at Papers Past (National Library of NZ).

Related: My post about retrospective Australian charts Toppermost of the poppermost: the charts.

03 October 2025

▶︎ Obscure Originators (35) Johnny Yukon

From my website's front page series about lesser known artists who performed the original versions of Australian or NZ records.

See also: the full collection of over 40 Obscure Originators features.

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Johnny Yukon's real name was Ben Gabus. He was from Texas, born in Galveston in 1931, but later lived in Lafayette, Louisiana where he could be heard regularly at the Jury Room Lounge. His composition Ride Away (With A Song In Your Heart) was released by Slim Whitman in 1954.

As Johnny Yukon, Ben recorded his own composition Made To Be Loved (1959). It didn't make him famous, but it charted #25 in Italy, and it had a good run Down Under through local cover versions.

In 1960 it was recorded twice in Australia: by top Sydney deejay John Laws, and by a new young talent called Adam, an alias of Ian B. McLeod, the enduring country music artist, producer and record label owner from Warragamba NSW.

Neither of those records was a commercial success in Australia, but in New Zealand it was recorded by The Keil Isles, also in 1960. They were a popular Auckland rock'n'roll band formed by Samoan-born Olaf Keil and his cousin Freddie Keil with a line-up that included other members of the Keil family.

Chart placings are hard to pin down for New Zealand in the 1960s, but Warwick Freeman's retrospective chart places The Keil Isles' version of Made To Be Loved at #2 New Zealand.

Ben Gabus released Made To Be Loved again in 1964, this time as Ben Gabus. This is sometimes mistaken for the original version, partly because of confusion between two record labels with the same name and catalogue numbers.

In his later years Ben lived in Lexington, South Carolina and ran the Ben Gabus Tree Service.

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For more about the song and Johnny Yukon, see The Keil Isles - Made To Be Loved.

13 June 2025

▶︎ Obscure Originators (33) Bobbie & Dude

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Country and pop singer Maria Dallas was a star in New Zealand. Her first single Tumblin' Down (1966, #11 NZ) won the prestigious Loxene Golden Disc Award, but her most successful single in NZ was Pinocchio (1970, #1), her fifth to chart Top 30 there.

In Australia, though, Maria's biggest hit was with Ambush (1967, #16), recorded in Nashville where she went after working in Australia for a while. The song stood out for its unforgettable rhythmic line at the end of verse and chorus: Your kissin’ leavin’ good-time days are dead. It was later recorded by Teresa Brewer (1975) and by Australian country artist Craig Giles (1993), but Maria's was the original release.

Ambush had been copyrighted a few months earlier by its composers, two sisters from the small Texas town of Moody, near Waco. As it happens, Maria Dallas was also from a small town, Morrinsville in New Zealand.

Bobbie Jo and Elizabeth Ann Brown had been singing from an early age in The Brown Sisters, a solidly booked country-gospel trio with another sister, Bettie.

Montreal, 1967

By the time of Ambush they were a duo called Bobbie & Dude. The stage name Dude was adopted by Elizabeth because it seemed to go better with Bobbie. They toured widely, and performed during Expo ’67 in Montreal where their only single had some radio airplay. As far as I can see they did not record Ambush themselves.

For a long time I knew almost nothing about Bobbie & Dude apart from their writing credits for Ambush and a few other songs. I was puzzled by the addition of Elizabeth Ann Brown to co-writer Dude Brown's name in Ambush's copyright registration, but I had never thought of searching for "bobbie and dude" in quotes.

As I have often typed here, Eventually, someone emails. This time it was someone who knew Elizabeth Ann well, and their tantalisingly brief words gave me the clues I needed.

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For more about the song and Bobbie & Dude see Maria Dallas - Ambush.

23 January 2025

▶︎ Obscure Originators (31) The Fun And Games

The Grooviest Girl In The World was a #3 New Zealand hit in 1969 for Hutt Valley band The Simple Image.

The original version was released in the US in 1968 by The Fun And Games, a six-piece band from Texas with four members who had been band-mates since their high school years in Houston. They included the Romano brothers, Joe and Rock, who both went on to successful careers in various branches of the arts (there is a Wikipedia page about Rock).

The Fun And Games 1969 [link]

The Fun And Games version of The Grooviest Girl In The World was produced by one of its writers, Gary Zekley. He is partly known for singing, co-writing and producing on the single Yellow Balloon (1967 #25 USA) and the subsequent album by The Yellow Balloon. These later became artifacts of the retrospectively named genre of Sunshine Pop.

The Simple Image were one of those fine New Zealand bands of the 60s-70s that topped the charts in New Zealand with records that were unfamiliar to most Australians. NZ artists such as The Simple Image, The Dedikation, The Avengers, and The Fourmyula had #1 or #2 NZ hits that never surfaced in Australia.

There's a twist to the story of The Grooviest Girl In The World that I discovered later. Although most Australians would not be able to hum the tune for you, a Boomer from South Australia might know it. The original version by The Fun And Games charted in Adelaide March-May 1969, peaking at #3. (That averages out to #72 Australia; in the US it reached #78 Billboard.) This is a surprising outlier which I suspect is down to radio airplay on Adelaide's 5AD.

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For more about the song and The Fun And Games see The Simple Image - The Grooviest Girl In The World.

07 April 2013

▶︎ Only in Melbourne (3) Al Wilson - Do What You Gotta Do (1968)

Only in Melbourne: tracks that didn't chart Top 40 in their countries of origin but did better in the capital of my home state, Victoria. See also: Bigger in Oz.

3. Al Wilson - Do What You Gotta Do
(Jim Webb)
USA 1968
Soul City single (USA) #761.
Liberty single (Australia) #LYK-2111
Liberty single (UK) #LBF 15044
Australian charts: #12 Melbourne (Ryan), #23 Melbourne (Guest) (#38 Australia).

Do What You Gotta Do has been recorded by many, but Al Wilson's version was the one I heard on Melbourne radio in 1968, and it remains the definitive version for me.

I probably heard it on 3XY which had recently switched to a pop format. If 3XY was pushing it, that might explain why it doesn't rate so highly on the chart collated by Tom Guest, whose data is purposely weighted in favour of the highest rating Melbourne station at that time, 3UZ.

Among Al Wilson's songs, Do What You Gotta Do hasn't always been easy to find. His four Billboard Top 40 hits appear often on compilations, especially The Snake (1968, #27 USA) and Show And Tell (1973, #1 USA), the songs he is perhaps best remembered for.

Once again, a song that sounds to me as if it should have been a big worldwide hit, but even in Australia, Melbourne was apparently the only city where it made an impact. A beautiful Jim Webb composition, produced by Johnny Rivers, it has everything: smooth, wistful soul vocals by Wilson - strong but gentle, sad but collected - and a flawless arrangement, with strings and horns by Marty Paich.

It was first recorded by Johnny Rivers himself, on his album Rewind (1967), and other musicians clearly appreciated the composition. Larry's Rebels had a #6 hit version in New Zealand in 1968, and at my page about the song I also list 1968 versions by Nina Simone, Bobby Vee, Clarence Carter, Paul Anka, and Ronnie Milsap, as well as later versions by B.J. Thomas (1970), Roberta Flack (1970), Tom Jones (1971) and Linda Ronstadt (1993). A version by The Four Tops charted #11 in the UK in 1969.

See also Strawberry Children - Love Years Coming, another Only in Melbourne song written by Jimmy Webb.

Chart positions from Gavin Ryan's Melbourne chart book, and Tom Guest's Thirty Years of Hits 1960-1990: Melbourne Top 40 Research.

29 June 2008

▶︎ Bigger in Oz* (9) Bulldog - No (1972)

Bigger in Oz: tracks that were more popular in Australia than in their countries of origin.

08 September 2007

▶︎ Bigger in Oz* (2) Acker Bilk - The Harem (1963)

Bigger in Oz: tracks that were more popular in Australia than in their countries of origin.

See also: Only in Melbourne.

2. Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Band - The Harem
(Dorothy Hodas - Mack Wolfson - Eddie Cooper)
UK 1963
Columbia single (UK) #DB7129.
Columbia single (Australia) #DO4447

UK charts: Did not chart Top 75

Australian charts: #2 Melbourne, #4 Sydney, #3 Adelaide (#7 Australia)

New Zealand charts: #1 [Freeman]
* In this case, it's Bigger in Oz & NZ.

I wrote about The Harem earlier, in connection with Time-out Instrumentals. Then, I said it was a standout amongst Acker Bilk's recordings, a stirring, whirling, percussive instro that builds to a climax.

This track is a bit of a mystery, not least because it is an outstanding instrumental by a popular artist that unaccountably failed to make the same splash on the British charts as it did in Australia.

Acker Bilk had ten Top 40 hits in the UK between 1960 and 1963, but this wasn't one of them. His Stranger On The Shore was a big hit everywhere (#2 UK, #1 USA) and he was popular in the MOR instrumental market. The odd thing is, Acker Bilk's countless albums and reissues have never been hard to find in the bargain bins, but I've never found The Harem on any of them.

A 1963 single of The Harem by Don Costa and his Orchestra on US Columbia #42705 is the same work, and appears to be the original version.

The authoritative 45cat.com has Don Costa's US release at April 1963, Acker Bilk's UK release at October 1963. It is an American composition, copyrighted in the US in March 1963. [Updated 20 Dec 2016]

We do know something about the writers' other works, thanks in part to ASCAP's database:

• Mack Wolfson (aka Maxwell A. Wolfson) built up a fair repertoire in the 50s and 60s. He often wrote with the prolific Tin Pan Alley composer Eddie White (Edward R. White)*, for example on Happiness Street (Corner Sunshine Square), recorded by Georgia Gibbs and Tony Bennett (both versions charted in 1956); C'est La Vie, a much-recorded song that was a #11 hit for Sarah Vaughan in 1955; Crazy Otto Rag by Johnnie 'Crazy Otto' Maddox, a co-write with the famous Hugo & Luigi that was heard in the film Reds; and Smarty Pants, on disco group First Choice's 1973 debut album.

• Eddie Cooper, not so prolific, also wrote with Eddie White: of his 13 compositions at ASCAP, 6 were co-writes with White. (There are 4 additional Eddie Cooper songs listed at BMI.)

• Dorothy Hodas (full name Dorothy Gertrude Hodas) has only one other song in her ASCAP repertoire, Love Of My Life, and that was written with Mack Wolfson and, yes, Eddie White.

For more on Eddie White, who at some time wrote with all three writers of The Harem, see my post Eddie White, songwriter and actor

The Harem could be a faux-Eastern genre piece, but it sounds as if it could be based on a folk tune. I believe I hear something reminiscent of Hava Nagila.

(UPDATE: See the comment below from Anonymous who suggests the Turkish song Usku Dara as a source. Listen to Eartha Kitt's famous version at Youtube.)

ASCAP shows an alternative title, The Harem: Schoene Geschic, which may or may not be a clue. Could Geschic be a database or dialectic truncation of Geschichte? Schoene Geschichte means Beautiful Story.

There are at least two 1960s guitar versions of The Harem, by Rotterdam instrumental group The Explosions (1964), and by New Zealand guitarist Graeme Bartlett, better known as Gray Bartlett (1963 or 64).

Australian capital city chart positions from Gavin Ryan's Australian chart books.

Dutch sleeveshot from plaatzegel.nl.

04 July 2005

▶︎ More on the Bearded Beetle

Broadcaster and radio historian Wayne Mac emailed to tell me the Bearded Beetle's name was Dave Dexter. He was the panel operator at 3DB who recorded a song called The Bearded Beetle with announcer Barry Ferber in 1964. No other details yet, except that Wayne believes Dave Dexter died in a car accident in New Zealand. I did find a reprinted magazine article from the 70s about Radio Hauraki, the pirate station that became New Zealand's first commercial station, and there is a Dave Dexter amongst the station's disc jockeys. (Not to be confused, I should hardly need to add, with Dave Dexter the Capitol Records producer and executive.)

18 June 2005

▶︎ Bizarro Shadows World Down Under

Standing in the shadow of The Shadows:
Melbourne band The Phantoms, from Canetoad's W&G Instrumental Story.

How many Australian and New Zealand bands of the 60s started out playing instrumentals in the style of the Shadows but transformed themselves in the wake of Beatlemania? See, for a start, The Strangers, The Questions, The Cherokees and The La De Das.

When a bunch of teenagers formed a band in the early 60s their main passion was often to emulate The Shadows or The Ventures (not only in Australia: see my post ¡Viva Los Shads!). Apache and Walk, Don’t Run were standards of the repertoire.

In Australia, this amounted to something like a movement, a phenomenon I like to call Bizarro Shadows World Down Under.

Aussies were always fond of a guitar-based instrumental. The Shadows were as big here as they were in the UK, and they were still charting alongside the Beatles into the mid-60s: their last hit in Oz was Bombay Duck in 1967 (#3 Adelaide, #10 Brisbane). The Americans preferred The Ventures, but we liked them as well: best of both worlds, down here. When surf music came along we took to it in a big way, and it melded in nicely with the guitar instrumental genre.

We also had our local heroes. Sydney steel guitarist Rob E. G. was often on the radio and the charts in the early 60s, often (but not always) with his own compositions: Railroadin', Si Senor (I Theenk?) and 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Zero. In 1963 Sydney band The Atlantics produced Bombora and The Crusher, two stunning examples of the surf instrumental that give Pipeline and Wipeout a run for their money. The Joy Boys - without Col Joye - had a national Top 5 hit in 1962 with Southern ‘Rora, inspired by, of all things, a new Melbourne-Sydney train service.

Melbourne band The Strangers first charted in their home town with a guitar version of Frankie Laine’s hit Cry of the Wild Goose (1963), a far cry from the soul-tinged vocal pop of 1968’s Happy Without You. Progressive New Zealand band the La De Das were, in their embryonic form, a high school band called The Mergers who played Shadows-styled instrumentals. At the website of guitarist Rod Stone, later with The Playboys and The Groove, you can hear a snatch of his 1962 version of Skye Boat Song, recorded in New Zealand as a 17-year-old in immaculate Shadows style.

It’s not that the instrumental bands didn’t sing at all, but looking back it’s hard to avoid the idea that it was cooler, even more manly, to pick out those precise guitar instrumentals than to sing soppy love songs.

There are a number of Bizarro Shadows World Down Under tracks on W&G Instrumental Story, released by the Australian reissue label Canetoad. W&G was a Melbourne record label.

Some of these tracks sound a bit cheesy, even clunky, at this distance, but that’s a feature of instro-guitar in general. Even so, there’s a good mix of remakes and originals that often stand up well beside their British and American models.

About half the tracks are by Melbourne showband The Thunderbirds, who were really too big, too brassy and too versatile to be put strictly in the mould of the Shads. Their version of The Rebels' Wild Weekend is an Aussie instrumental classic.

Otherwise, tracks by The Cherokees (Thundercloud), The Chessmen (The Rebel [Johnny Yuma]), The Breakaways (The Wheel), The Strangers (Undertow) and The Phantoms (Stampede) wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a Shadows or Ventures album.

When Beatlemania hit, many Aussie instrumental bands did just what the boys in my Australian town did: they shampooed their hair, brushed it down over their foreheads, and never again darkened the doors of traditional barbers’ shops.

Pictures of the Beatles before Ringo illustrate the contrast. Pete Best looked fine and he still had a loyal following. He had that detached, moody, brushed-back look that went back to James Dean and the late-50s teen idols, but (unless my perception is skewed by hindsight) he already looked oddly out of place.

More than just changing the idea of what looked cool, Merseybeat made singing an imperative. The Strangers developed a hip pop sensibility that gave them vocal hits in the late 60s with Melanie Makes Me Smile, Western Union and Happy Without You. The Cherokees dabbled in a number of styles, but they had their greatest success with the comic revivals Oh, Monah and Minnie The Moocher that for some reason never seemed out of place on the charts of the late 60s.

The Atlantics ventured into Brit Invasion recycled R&B with the likes of I Put A Spell On You, featuring Johnny Rebb, an experienced rock’n’roller who had joined the band, and Rob E.G. re-emerged as Robie Porter, this time singing on his records (When You’re Not Near). Sydney band, The Questions also hired a vocalist, and his name was Doug Parkinson.

You thought I was going to say, "And the rest is history...", didn't you?

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See also:
Cicadas and Flies: Bizarro Merseybeat World Down Under