"Run to Paradise" is a song by Australian hard rock group The Choirboys which reached No. 3 on the Australian

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 ...

Singles Chart in December 1987. The related '' Big Bad Noise'' album peaked at No. 5, and was the twenty-first highest-selling album of 1988 in Australia. In New Zealand, "Run to Paradise" attained No. 13 on the

RIANZ Recorded Music NZ (formerly the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ)) is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell recorded music in New Zealand. Membership of Recorded Mus ...

Singles Chart. Released in the United States in 1989, it appeared on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

and

Mainstream Rock Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada. Format background Mainstream rock stations represent the middle ground between classic rock and active rock ...

charts. The song was re-worked for a 2004 release credited to Nick Skitz vs. Choirboys and reached No. 16 on the

ARIA Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

. In January 2018, as part of

Triple M Triple M is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo. The network consists of 40 radio stations broadcasting a mainstream rock music format and 5 digital radio stations. The network dates back to th ...

's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "Run to Paradise" was ranked number 24.

Background

The song is about misspent youth, though upon release in 1987 it was widely believed to be about heroin use due to the lyrics “You don’t need a friend when you can score / You run to paradise”. Songwriter

Mark Gable Mark Dixon Kitchen (born 8 September 1950), known professionally as Mark Gable, is an Australian musician who serves as the frontman and a founding member of the rock band The Choirboys. The band was formed in Sydney in 1979. Mark was born in ...

said: “It’s not specifically about heroin, … it’s more about misspent youth, the waste I saw in the ’70s on the northern beaches of Sydney. It’s more about being on the dole, surfing instead of working, smoking dope and drinking, people getting trashed in pubs on the weekend.” The Choirboys signed with

Mushroom Records Mushroom Records was an Australian flagship record label, founded in 1972 in Melbourne. It published and distributed many successful Australian artists and expanded internationally, until it was merged with Festival Records in 1998. Festival Mu ...

and released "Fireworks" in May 1986, they also opened for

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Ori ...

on their tour of Australia. Brad Carr left the group to be replaced on lead guitar by Brett Williams (ex-Brakes) as they supported

Bon Jovi Bon Jovi is an American Rock music, rock band formed in 1983 in Sayreville, New Jersey. It consists of singer Jon Bon Jovi, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, guitarist Phil X, and bassist Hugh McDonald (American musician), Hugh McD ...

's tour in 1987. They recorded their second album '' Big Bad Noise'' with producers Peter Blyton ( The Radiators, Machinations) and Brian McGee (

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

Cyndi Lauper Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper Thornton (born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. Her career has spanned over 40 years. Her album ''She's So Unusual'' (1983) was the first debut album by a female artist to achi ...

). The next single "Run to Paradise" reached No. 3 in December. In New Zealand, it attained No. 13 on the

Singles Chart. Released in the United States, it appeared on the ''

and peaked at No. 33 on the

chart in 1989. ''Big Bad Noise'' peaked at No. 5 on the Kent Music Report Albums Chart in April 1988, and was the twenty-first highest-selling album for the year in Australia. Other singles from the album included "Boys Will Be Boys" and "Struggle Town" reaching No. 14 and No. 34 respectively. The song returned to the Australian singles charts in Australia in July 2004 when dance producer

Nick Skitz Nicholas Agamalis, better known as Nick Skitz (born 1968 in Sydney, Australia of Greek descent), is an Australian DJ and dance music producer. His career in dance music started in the early 1990s. Since 1995, his ''Skitzmix'' series of com ...

asked Gable to sing "Run to Paradise" on a dance reworking. The song, billed as "Nick Skitz vs. Choirboys", debuted in the top 20 of the Australian singles charts and stayed in the charts for six weeks before leaving the top 50. Jay Parrino performed the song during the semi-finals of '' Australia's Got Talent 2009''. With his 'one-man-band' act he recorded live drums into a loop station then played guitar and sang over the top. This arrangement has a swinging 12/8 shuffle feel which is different from the original.

Track listing

Australian 7" vinyl #"Run to Paradise" (Mark Gable, Brad Carr) – 4:08 #"Struck by Lightning" (Gable, Ian Hulme, Lindsay Tebbutt) – 3:32 Australian 12" vinyl #"Run to Paradise" (Gable, Carr) – 4:08 #"Struck by Lightning" (Gable, Hulme, Tebbutt) – 3:32 #"One Hot Day" (Gable, Carr) – 3:28 US 7" vinyl #"Run to Paradise" (Gable, Carr) – 4:08 #"Gasoline" (Gable, Carr) – 3:56

Personnel

Choirboys *Brett Williams – lead guitar *

– lead vocals, guitar *Ian Hulme – backing vocals, bass guitar *Lindsay Tebbutt – drums Production details *Producer – Peter Blyton, Brian McGee, Choirboys *Engineer – Greg Henderson, McGee, Mike Duffy **Assistant engineer – Angie Cooper,

Paula Jones Paula Corbin Jones (born Paula Rosalee Corbin; September 17, 1966) is an American civil servant. A former Arkansas state employee, Jones sued United States President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment in 1994. In the initial lawsuit, Jones cite ...

, Mark Thomas, Kathy Nauton **Cutting engineer – Rick O'Neil *Studio –

Studios 301 Studios 301 is an Australian recording studio and is both the longest-running professional recording studio in the southern hemisphere and the largest studio complex in Australia. History The studio was founded in 1926 under the Columbia Gra ...

, Rhinoceros, Festival, Glebe Studios, Alberts and Platinum Studios **Mixing studio – Rhinoceros *Cover design, inner sleeve – Studio David (David Wardle, Therese Strelein, Rebecca Strelein) *Cover photography – Sue Stubbs

Charts

Weekly charts

Nick Skitz vs. The Choirboys version

Year-end charts

References

;General * Note: Archived n-linecopy has limited functionality. * ;Specific {{Authority control The Choirboys (band) songs 1987 singles 1987 songs Mushroom Records singles