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The Beginnings of the Music Industry in Australia |
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The Beginnings of the Music Industry in Australia |
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"A legend in his own lifetime....a man who really knew no peers.....a man of vision...... a man with a dream.....a man of incredible perception..... a man of action.... a man for whom nothing was impossible. John's legacy to us is that the world should know and accept our best entertainers as worthy equals." ............by Ingrid Berg, as the industry honoured John in 1979 by renaming one of the 'Mo' Awards the "Johnny O'Keefe Encouragement Award".
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Australia had produced some of the world's most famous musical artists - people like Melba, Oscar Asche, Percy Grainger and Peter Dawson - but even by the middle 1950's Australia had not yet produced a music industry. There had been just one recording company, the HMV-Parlophone-Colombia-Regal Zonophone combine, which was to be ultimately the EMI Empire. It had recorded only a few Australian artists, among them 'the king of Westerns, Tex Morton, who in his prime had outsold Bing Crosby in Australia.' The rest of the Australian musical scene seemed to consist of Symphony Orchestras, the Jim Davidson Dance Band and other similar groups playing in dance halls and nightclubs, and small groups - usually featuring piano, drums, sax and maybe a violin - playing at country and suburban dances.
Radio was dominated by American and some English artists. Australia was constantly being brainwashed that only the overseas artists had talent. The Australian Broadcasting Control Board had brought in a regulation forcing radio stations to play a minimum of 5% Australian compositions in their programmes. So buried away in the most unpopular listening times we had continual repeats of 'Granada' while the stations complained that the only records available were by Australian hill-billies. When Festival started recording, things improved to a degree with artists like Les Welch, their first, and Darryl Stewart whose version of 'A Man Called Peter' sold 100,000 copies.
It was into this scene that the great Johnny O'Keefe was to make his professional run.
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Controversy raged over Johnny's early career as a recording artist. However there's no doubt that You Hit The Wrong Note Billy Goat (1957) came first. It wasn't the greatest composition in the world, and sales were relatively modest, but the original pressing has now become a collector's item and the few discs still in existence fetch fancy prices whenever they change hands. Johnny received the words and music for Billy Goat through the post from his most influential mentor, rock superstar Bill Haley.
After recording Billy Goat, Johnny tried his luck with Love Letters in The Sand and Little Bitty Pretty One. Failing to rouse much enthusiasm, then came Wild One, which burst over Australia with all the drama and pyrotechnics of an exploding star. By March 1958 the single was figuring prominently on all the pop charts.
Several months later he hit the jackpot again with So Tough, which had That'll Be Alright on the flip side.
The vehicle that afforded him his ride to the top was Six O'Clock Rock, the country's first nationwide TV rock program, which aired for the first time on 28 Feburary 1959.
His name became a household word and sales of his records zoomed... so much so that when figures for the sales of records from the previous year were released there seemed to be only two Australian vocalists in the hit business - Johnny O'Keefe and Slim Dusty. Between them they recorded five of the best selling records of 1958. Johnny's were So Tough, That'll Be Alright, Wild One and Over the Mountain. Slim weighed in with Pub With No Beer and Answer to the Pub With No Beer.
Although Johnny remained at the top in Australia for many years, touring with such names as Ricky Nelson, he tried his luck overseas a number of times but never managed to generate much interest. But here in Australia he was firmaly established as Australia's King of Rock 'n Roll turning out hit after hit.
Life dealt Johnny O'Keefe some enornous blows including breakdowns and a serious car crash which saw him almost lose his life. In the mid 60's there were signs that his popularity was slipping and in 1965 his name failed to appear in the charts for the first time since they were instituted. That particular year it was Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, Normie Rowe and The Seekers.
Johnny's hit parade drought broke in 1969 with the re-release of She's My Baby but it was another 3 years before he made the charts again with a re-release of So Tough. Johnny O'Keefe never again made Number 1, but he did score with Mockingbird in 1974. It was his 29th hit in what has come to be recongnised as the 'Rock 'n Roll Era' - a record for a home-grown artist. And he remained in contention for 11 long years, a performance bettered only by the Bee Gees.
When Johnny O'Keefe died on 6 October 1978, at the age of 43, a big part of Australian musical history died with him. He was the country's first rocker and the first local pop idol in today's sense of the word. He was Australia's answer to America's Elvis Presley.
He put down more than 500 tracks and his record sales topped the $5 million mark. The simple fact of being Johnny O'Keefe generated upwards of $13 million a year.
He was a phenomenon in the Australian music industry. Every singer who followed owes a debt to Johnny O'Keefe. When he died he left thousands of mourners, his fans ranging in age from the very young teeny-boppers to today's grandmothers. That was the spread of his appeal and influence.
The greats of the very early rock 'n roll era also paid tribute....Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Paul Anka and a score of others.
The fact that Johnny O'Keefe survived and fought for the top spot for nearly a quarter of a century is in intself a tribute to his ability.
At his funeral his former teacher and lifelong friend, Brother Frank Marzorini best summed up the Great JO'K.
"I knew him as a brash young man who took over the microphone at school dances. I once told him, 'O'Keefe, one day you'll lead a revolution.' But I didn't know what kind of a revolution it would be."
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