The Real Thing (Russell Morris song)
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"The Real Thing" is the debut single by Australian singer Russell Morris, released in 1969. Written by Johnny Young and produced by
Ian "Molly" Meldrum Ian Alexander "Molly" Meldrum AM (born 29 January 1943) is an Australian music critic, journalist, record producer and musical entrepreneur. He was the talent co-ordinator, on-air interviewer, and music news presenter on the former popular mus ...
, it was a huge hit in Australia and has become an Australian rock classic. It also achieved success in the
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, reaching the top of the charts in
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,
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, and
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. In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "The Real Thing" was ranked number 34.


Conception and recording

Johnny Young wrote the song for his and Meldrum's friend, singer Ronnie Burns. Young originally envisaged it as a slow acoustic ballad in the style of
The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
' " Strawberry Fields Forever", but when Meldrum heard Young playing it backstage during a taping of the TV pop show ''Uptight'', he determined to secure the song for Morris, reportedly going to Young's home that night with a tape recorder and refusing to leave until Young had taped a "demo" version of the song for him. In collaboration with studio engineer John Sayers, Meldrum radically transformed "The Real Thing" from Young's original vision of a simple acoustic ballad into a heavily-produced studio masterpiece, extending it to an unheard-of six minutes and forty seconds in length and overdubbing the basic track with many additional instruments, vocals and sound effects. According to Sayers, the song's innovative arrangement and production developed fortuitously during the recording of the backing track at
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. The track used the services of The Groop as backing band, with vocal contributions from Danny Robinson (
Wild Cherries The Wild Cherries were an Australian rock group, which started in late 1964 playing R&B/jazz and became "the most relentlessly experimental psychedelic band on the Melbourne discotheque / dance scene" according to commentator, Glenn A. Baker. ...
), The Chiffons,
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, Sue Brady and Judy Condon. Guitarist Roger Hicks from Zoot composed and played the song's distinctive acoustic guitar intro, and Billy Green (now known as Wil Greenstreet) played electric lead guitar and sitar. "The Real Thing" was originally only intended to be the standard duration for a pop single at that time - around three minutes - but once that point had been reached in the recording session, the backing band continued to play. Impressed by what they heard, Meldrum and Sayers kept the tape rolling until the band eventually 'broke down', thereby capturing an extended ten-minute 'jam' based around the chord changes of the chorus. This inspired Sayers and Meldrum to create an entirely new arrangement and during additional sessions they created an extended 'outro' for the song by editing various sections of the studio 'jam' together and combining them with additional voices, instruments and sound effects. The final product was a swirling psychedelic collage of music and sound effects which included deliberate edits and instrument 'dropouts' of the backing track (anticipating the Jamaican dub experiments of the 1970s) and an ominous spoken-word "buyer beware" message (suggestive of the LSD 'trip' experience) which was, in fact, Meldrum's heavily filtered voice reading aloud from the product disclaimer on an
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recording tape box. The final edit was further processed by applying the then-novel studio effect known as flanging, in which two identical copies of the recording were played together but slightly out-of-phase with each other, producing a rich 'swooshing' sound effect around the music. The children's choir singing toward the end was sourced from an archive recording of a WWII
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choir singing "Die Jugend Marschiert" (Youth on the March) and the song concludes dramatically with the children's choir shouting "Sieg Heil!" immediately followed by the cataclysmic sound of an atomic bomb explosion. The single is reported to have cost A$10,000, a typical budget for an entire album at the time, making it the most expensive single then recorded in Australia. "The Real Thing" became a national number one hit for Morris in mid-1969 and is widely considered to be one of the finest Australian pop-rock recordings of the era. ''The Real Thing'' was added to the
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's Sounds of Australia registry in 2013.


Track listing

7" Single # "The Real Thing - Parts I & II" ( Johnny Young) - 6:12 # "It's Only a Matter of Time" (
Hans Poulsen Hans Sven Poulsen (born Bruce Gordon Poulsen, 7 March 1945 – 17 February 2023) was an Australian singer-songwriter and musician of Danish descent who was popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and known for his eccentric hippie style.McFa ...
) - 2:58


Personnel

* Russell Morris – vocals * Brian Cadd – Hammond organ, piano, megaphone voice track * Richard Wright – drums * Don Mudie – bass * Roger Hicks – acoustic guitar * Billy Green – electric guitar, sitar * The Chiffons – Maureen Elkner, Sue Brady and Judy Condon *
Ian Meldrum Ian Alexander "Molly" Meldrum AM (born 29 January 1943) is an Australian music critic, journalist, record producer and musical entrepreneur. He was the talent co-ordinator, on-air interviewer, and music news presenter on the former popular mus ...
– producer *
John L Sayers John L Sayers (d. 14 September 2021) was a New Zealand-born Australian recording engineer, producer and studio designer who engineered and/or produced many classic Australian rock and pop albums and singles from 1969 to the present. Sayers is o ...
– engineer


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


In popular culture

In 1998
Australia Post Australia Post, formally the Australian Postal Corporation, is the government business enterprise that provides postal services in Australia. The head office of Australia Post is located in Bourke Street, Melbourne, which also serves as a post o ...
issued a special edition set of twelve stamps celebrating the early years of Australian Rock 'n' Roll, featuring Australian hit songs of the late 1950s, the 1960s and the early 1970s.
"Each of them said something about us, and told the rest of the world this is what popular culture sounds like, and it has an Australian accent."
Morris's version of "The Real Thing" was featured on the soundtrack of the 2000 Australian movie, ''
The Dish ''The Dish'' is a 2000 Australian historical comedy-drama film that tells the story of the Parkes Observatory's role in relaying live television of humanity's first steps on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. It was the top-grossing ...
''. The
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also used a new recording of the song for its television advertisement campaign for the 2000 season, declaring Aussie Rules as 'The Real Thing' as opposed to
Rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
. Australian performer
Kylie Minogue Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She is the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time, having sold over 80 million records worldwide. She has been recognised for reinve ...
released her cover version of the song in 2000; it is featured on the soundtrack to the movie ''
Sample People ''Sample People'' is a 2000 Australian film, directed by Clinton Smith. It is about the entanglements of twelve people in one weekend in Sydney. The film was originally going to be made for $60,000 but prior to filming it was decided to seek ...
''. Australian rock band
Midnight Oil Midnight Oil (known informally as "The Oils") are an Australian rock band composed of Peter Garrett (vocals, harmonica), Rob Hirst (drums), Jim Moginie (guitar, keyboard) and Martin Rotsey (guitar). The group was formed in Sydney in 1972 by ...
also released a version in 2000 as a single from their compilation album '' The Real Thing''. In May 2001 the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), as part of its 75th Anniversary celebrations, named "The Real Thing" as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time. Between 2004 and 2008, the song was used extensively in an advertising campaign by
Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
n Tourism Commission ( Tourism WA) promoting the State both nationally and internationally. In 2005 and 2006, while South Sydney's NRL team was sponsored by Real Insurance, this song was used as the theme song when they ran on the field. This song was used by the
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for its
AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...
coverage in 2007. More recently in 2018, Australian public television broadcaster ABC has used part of the Morris "The Real Thing" to promote its television news services. In 2013, this song was used in Subaru BRZ,
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and Subaru Forester commercials.


Covers

The Australian psychedelic/electronic/trance band Third Eye (a project of
Ollie Olsen Ollie Olsen is an Australian multi-instrumentalist, composer and sound designer. He has performed, recorded and produced rock, electronic and experimental music since the mid-1970s. His post punk groups included Whirlywirld (1978–80), Orches ...
who had previously been in Max Q with
Michael Hutchence Michael Kelland John Hutchence (22 January 1960 – 22 November 1997) was an Australian musician, singer-songwriter and actor. Hutchence co-founded the rock band INXS, which sold over 75 million records worldwide and was inducted into th ...
of
INXS INXS (a word play, phonetic play on "in excess") were an Australian Rock music, rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. The band's founding members were bassist Garry Gary Beers, main composer and keyboar ...
fame) released a version of the song that charted at #76 in October 1990 in Australia.
Midnight Oil Midnight Oil (known informally as "The Oils") are an Australian rock band composed of Peter Garrett (vocals, harmonica), Rob Hirst (drums), Jim Moginie (guitar, keyboard) and Martin Rotsey (guitar). The group was formed in Sydney in 1972 by ...
covered and released a version of the song from their album '' The Real Thing'' in 2000.
Kylie Minogue Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She is the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time, having sold over 80 million records worldwide. She has been recognised for reinve ...
released a cover in 2000 for the film, ''
Sample People ''Sample People'' is a 2000 Australian film, directed by Clinton Smith. It is about the entanglements of twelve people in one weekend in Sydney. The film was originally going to be made for $60,000 but prior to filming it was decided to seek ...
''. Stoner rock band Shellfin covered "The Real Thing" on their 2015 album ''Cities Without Names''.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Real Thing, The 1969 songs APRA Award winners Russell Morris songs Number-one singles in Australia 1969 debut singles EMI Records singles