''Desperate'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

and second overall album by Australian rock band

Divinyls Divinyls () were an Australian rock band that were formed in Sydney in 1980. The band primarily consisted of vocalist Chrissy Amphlett and guitarist Mark McEntee. Amphlett garnered widespread attention for performing on stage in a school unifo ...

, released in 1983 by

Chrysalis Records Chrysalis Records () is a British record label that was founded in 1968. The name is both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders' names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis. It started as the Ellis-Wright Ag ...

. The album contains the singles "

Science Fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

" and " Siren (Never Let You Go)" and " Casual Encounter". The international version included the single "

Boys in Town "Boys in Town" is the debut single by Australian rock band Divinyls, released in 1981. The song was written in 1979 and was used on the soundtrack of the 1982 film '' Monkey Grip'', along with several other Divinyls tracks written and recorded fo ...

" from '' Monkey Grip''.

Background

Divinyls formed in 1980, founded by

Mark McEntee Mark McEntee ( ; born 16 July 1955) is an Australian musician, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the Australian rock band, Divinyls. Early life McEntee was born in Perth, Western Australia, and went to Christ Church Grammar Sc ...

and fronted by lead singer

Chrissy Amphlett Christine Joy Amphlett (; 25 October 1959 – 21 April 2013) was an Australian singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the frontwoman of the rock band Divinyls. She was notable for her brash, overtly sexual persona and subversive hu ...

. After scoring several gigs, they were discovered by Australian director Ken Cameron. This led to Divinyls providing the entire soundtrack for his film '' Monkey Grip'' (1982). Amphlett was also given a supporting role in the film, playing a temperamental rock singer loosely based on herself, fronting a band played by other Divinyls members. In the film, the band performed their debut single "

", as well as other songs "Only Lonely", "Elsie", "Only You", "Girlfriends" and "Gonna Get You", the latter being the first appearance of them in the film. The soundtrack '' Music from Monkey Grip'' was acknowledged as a Divinyls album, and when released in 1982, it made the top twenty-five of the Australian Albums Chart. "Boys in Town" was a success in Australia where it made the top ten, peaking at number eight in 1981. The next year, "Science Fiction" was released and was also a success, peaking at number thirteen. When ''Desperate'' was released, it climbed the albums chart and eventually peaked at number five. In addition, it proved to be among the top twenty most successful albums of 1983, ranking in at number seventeen according to the

Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report (AMR) in July ...

end of year chart. The track listing of ''Desperate'' differed between the Australian release and the international version. Because Divinyls had already released the ''Monkey Grip'' soundtrack, which contained the songs performed in the film, in particular the single "Boys in Town", they were not included on the original Australian release of ''Desperate''. This meant that "Science Fiction" was released as the official lead single. On the international release of ''Desperate'', some of the songs from the ''Monkey Grip'' soundtrack were included as official album tracks, such as "Boys in Town", "Only Lonely", "Only You" and "Elsie". The majority of the songs on ''Desperate'' were written by Amphlett and/or McEntee except " Siren (Never Let You Go)", which was written by band member Bjarne Ohlin, and "I'll Make You Happy", which was a cover of the original 1966 song by

The Easybeats The Easybeats were an Australian rock band that formed in Sydney in late 1964. They enjoyed a level of success that in Australia rivalled The Beatles. They became the first Australian rock act to score an international hit, with the 1966 sing ...

. Caroline Records announced that a remastered CD version of the international version of ''Desperate'' album was released on 5 February 2008. In 2020, Rubellan Remasters released a remastered CD version of ''Desperate'' that compiled all the songs from both versions. "Ring Me Up" was used in the teen comedy film ''

Sixteen Candles ''Sixteen Candles'' is a 1984 American coming-of-age comedy film starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling, and Anthony Michael Hall. Written and directed by John Hughes in his directorial debut, it was the first in a string of films Hughes ...

'' (1984).

Track listings

Australian release

International release

Charts

Weekly Charts

End of year charts

Certifications

Personnel

Christina Amphlett Christine Joy Amphlett (; 25 October 1959 – 21 April 2013) was an Australian singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the frontwoman of the rock band Divinyls. She was notable for her brash, overtly sexual persona and subversive hum ...

– lead vocals *

– lead and acoustic guitars, backing vocals * Bjarne Ohlin – keyboards, backing vocals, guitars *

Rick Grossman Richard Grossman is an Australian rock musician who has played bass guitar for two iconic bands: Divinyls and Hoodoo Gurus. Hoodoo Gurus' status on the Australian rock scene was acknowledged when they were inducted into the 2007 ARIA Hall of ...

– bass *Jeremy Paul - Bass * Richard Harvey – drums ;Technical *

Bob Clearmountain Bob Clearmountain (born January 15, 1953) is an American recording engineer, mixer and record producer. He has worked with many major acts, including Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Toto, Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams, with whom he has a very ...

– mixer * Jeff Hendrickson – engineer * Malcolm Pollack – engineer *

Mark Opitz Mark Opitz (born 1952) is an Australian record producer and audio engineer. He started his career with Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in 1971. He has produced AC/DC, the Angels, Australian Crawl, Cold Chisel, Divinyls and INXS. H ...

– producer

References

{{Authority control 1982 debut albums Divinyls albums Chrysalis Records albums Albums produced by Mark Opitz