"Beautiful People" is the 1979 debut single released by Australian

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Australian Crawl Australian Crawl (often called Aussie Crawl or The Crawl by fans) were an Australian rock band founded by James Reyne (lead vocals/piano/harmonica), Brad Robinson (rhythm guitar), Paul Williams (bass), Simon Binks (lead guitar) and David R ...

and the song later appeared on their debut album ''

The Boys Light Up ''The Boys Light Up'' is the debut album from Australian pub rock band Australian Crawl, which was released in 1980 and contains the title track, " The Boys Light Up", "Indisposed", "Downhearted" and their previously released debut single " Beau ...

'' (1980). It was written by

James Reyne James Michael Nugent Reyne OAM (born 19 May 1957) is an Australian rock musician and singer-songwriter both in solo work and, until 1986, with the band Australian Crawl. Biography Early years Reyne was born in Lagos, Nigeria. His father, Ro ...

and Mark Hudson, former bandmates. The music video for "Beautiful People" was filmed in 1979 at the then dilapidated and graffitied (but now renovated and heritage listed)

Bellevue House Bellevue House National Historic Site was the home to Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John Alexander Macdonald from 1848 to 1849. The house is located in Kingston, Ontario. Bellevue House was constructed around 1840 for Charles Hales, a we ...

Glebe Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...

Background

Australian Crawl caught the attention of

Little River Band Little River Band (LRB) are a rock band originally formed in Melbourne, Australia, in March 1975. The band achieved commercial success in both Australia and the United States. They have sold more than 30 million records; six studio albums rea ...

’s guitarist David Briggs, who helped them to a recording contract with

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

and produced their first single. "Beautiful People" was released in August, 1979 and peaked at No. 22 on the Australian Singles Chart. NOTE: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1970 until the

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing th ...

created its own

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabul ...

in mid-1988. The song satirised the vacuous elite of mid-1970s

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

's Toorak society: In 1975, Reyne was living in

South Yarra South Yarra is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Stonnington local government areas. South Yarra recorded a popul ...

, whilst attending

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

and playing drums for Archie Slammit and the Doors. ''The Making of "Beautiful People"'' (1979) was a mini-documentary broadcast on

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

(ABC) TV pop show ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

''. The film featured

Geoff Cox Geoff Cox (born 13 March 1951) is an Australian musician and media personality. He is often referred to as "Coxy". Cox is most notable for having played drums with Brian Cadd, and with the bands Cycle, The Bootleg Family Band and Avalanche. He ...

(who later hosted ''

Coxy's Big Break ''Coxy's Big Break'' was a daily travel show which premiered in 2004. It aired across Victoria at on Seven Melbourne and Prime. It had previously been screened nationally on Seven's HD channel, and was sold overseas. History Hosted by G ...

'') guiding viewers from the studio sessions to the pressing of the 7" vinyl, finishing with Australian Crawl's performance of the song on ''Countdown''. The Crawl made a memorable debut on ''Countdown'' performing "Beautiful People" because Reyne appeared with both arms encased in plaster. He was also shown in the official music video with his arms in plaster. He had been hit by a car in

Swanston Street, Melbourne Swanston Street is a major thoroughfare in the centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is one of the main streets of the Melbourne central business district and was laid out in 1837 as part of the original Hoddle Grid. The street vertically ...

breaking bones in both wrists, an episode chronicled in the song "Indisposed". Although "Beautiful People" only reached No. 22, it remains one of their most popular songs.

Track listing

#"Beautiful People" (James Reyne, Mark Hudson) - 2:56 #"Man Crazy" (Reyne) - 3:40

Charts

References

{{authority control 1979 debut singles 1979 songs Australian Crawl songs EMI Records singles Songs about Australia Songs written by James Reyne