''Looking for Jack'' is the debut solo

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

Men at Work Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1978 and best known for breakthrough hits such as " Down Under", "Who Can It Be Now?", " Be Good Johnny", " Overkill", and " It's a Mistake". Its founding member and frontman is C ...

lead singer

Colin Hay Colin James Hay (born 29 June 1953) is a Scottish-Australian musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. He came to prominence as the lead vocalist and the sole continuous member of the band Men at Work, and later as a solo artist. Hay's music ha ...

(under his full name), released in March 1987.

Reception

In their retrospective review, ''

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

'' criticised the album's "big drum sound and big rock arrangements", which they said "threaten at times to overshadow Hay's songwriting and singing." However, they praised the title track and "Circles Erratica" as highlights of Hay's career.

Track listing

All songs written by

, except where noted. ; Side A #"Hold Me" – 4:09 #"Can I Hold You?" – 3:35 #"Looking for Jack" (Jeremy Alsop, Hay) – 4:10 #"Master of Crime" – 4:57 #"These Are Our Finest Days" – 4:07 #"Nature of the Beast" (Jeremy Alsop, Hay) – 4:50 ; Side B #"Puerto Rico" – 4:28 #"Ways of the World" – 4:05 #"I Don't Need You Anymore" – 3:04 #"Circles Erratica" – 4:02 #"Fisherman's Friend" – 5:31

Personnel

Musicians

*Colin Hay - acoustic guitar,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

12-string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in o ...

, Synclavier *Jeremy Alsop - bass, keyboards, synthesizer guitar *David Bitelli - baritone saxophone,

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

*Mike Brittain -

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...

*Raul d'Oliveira -

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

* Herbie Hancock -

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

*Ginya Joseph - vocals *

Chris Laurence Chris Laurence (born 6 January 1949) is an English musician. Born in London, he studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and primarily works with jazz and classical music. In the classical world he was principal double bass with th ...

- double bass *Joe Legwabe - vocals *Dee Lewis - vocals *

Linda Lewis Linda Ann Fredericks (born 27 September 1950), better known as Linda Lewis, is an English vocalist, songwriter and guitarist. She is the eldest of six children, three of whom also had singing careers. She is best known for the singles "Rock-a- ...

- vocals * Helen Liebmann -

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...

*Martin Loveday - cello *

Ashley Maher Ashley Maher is a Canadian singer and songwriter who has meshed the rhythmic impulses of West Africa and Latin America with Western song structures. Biography Ashley Maher was born to British parents in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and moved to Lo ...

- vocals *

Noel McCalla Noel McCalla (born 5 November 1956, in London, England) is a British rock singer. He was the lead vocalist for the rock group Manfred Mann's Earth Band from 1991 until 2009. Early life McCalla was born to Hubert Sylvester McCalla, a minister in ...

- vocals *

Russell Hitchcock Russell Charles Hitchcock (born 15 June 1949) is an Australian musician and lead vocalist of the soft rock duo Air Supply. Early life Born in Melbourne, Hitchcock attended South Brunswick State School, and later studied at Princes Hill High ...

- vocals *

Robbie McIntosh Robbie McIntosh (born 25 October 1957) is an English guitarist. McIntosh is well known as a session guitarist and member of The Pretenders from 1982 until 1987. In 1988 he began doing session guitar work for Paul McCartney joining his band fu ...

- guitar, electric guitar *Morris Michael - vocals *

Robin Millar Robin John Christian Millar, CBE (born 18 December 1951) is an English record producer, musician and businessman, known variously as 'The Original Smooth Operator', 'The man behind Sade', and 'Golden Ears' Boy George. He was born in London to ...

- keyboards *Nicky Payne - tenor saxophone *Nick Pentelow - tenor saxophone *Rufus Sefothoma - vocals * Steve Sidwell - trumpet *Richard Taylor -

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

*Rick Taylor - trombone *

Chad Wackerman Chad Wackerman (born March 25, 1960) is an American jazz, jazz fusion and rock drummer, who has played with Frank Zappa and Allan Holdsworth. He has worked as a band member, session musician, sideman, and leader of his own ensembles. He is th ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

, drums *

Paul "Wix" Wickens Paul Wickens (born 27 March 1956) is an English musician, composer, and record producer, professionally known as Wix. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Wickens has worked with artists including Nik Kershaw, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Bon ...

- organ, Hammond organ

Production

*Producer:

*Engineer: Tim Kramer *Assistant engineers: Dave Anderson, Phil Legg, Nick Sykes *Mixing Engineer:

Warne Livesey Warne Livesey (born 12 February 1959) is an English/Canadian music producer, mixing engineer, songwriter and musician. He has produced Midnight Oil, The The, Matthew Good Band and Deacon Blue. Life and career Warne Livesey started his career in ...

*Arranger:

*Photography: David P. Bailey *Studio artwork: Bill Smith

Charts

References

{{Authority control Colin Hay albums 1987 debut albums Columbia Records albums Albums produced by Robin Millar