"Evie" is a

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 ...

song performed by Australian singer and former frontman of

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 ...

Stevie Wright Stephen Carlton Wright (20 December 1947 – 27 December 2015) was an Australian musician and songwriter who has been called Australia's first international pop star. During 1964–69, he was lead singer of Sydney-based rock and roll band the E ...

. It was written by

Harry Vanda Johannes Hendrikus Jacob van den Berg (born 22 March 1946), better known as his stage name Harry Vanda, is a Dutch Australian musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as lead guitarist of the 1960s Australian rock band the Easy ...

and George Young and released as a single in 1974. It has been suggested that it is the first 11-minute song to chart at #1 anywhere in the world. The song features three parts—Part 1, "Let your hair hang down"; Part 2, "Evie"; and Part 3, "I'm losing you"—and some critics consider it as one of the most perfect rock n' roll songs ever. Part One (when they meet) is a guitar driven, hard rocking and bluesy, swaggering and swayful song. Part Two (the marriage) is more piano and string based, a much softer emotional ballad style. Part Three (the death of Evie in childbirth) is more of a disco-rock style, being quicker, relatively urgent and guitar driven track with a strong vocal. 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, "Evie" was ranked number 17.

Background

In 1973,

Vanda & Young Vanda & Young were an Australian songwriting and producing duo composed of Harry Vanda and George Young. They performed as members of 1960s Australian rock group the Easybeats where Vanda was their lead guitarist and backing singer and Young wa ...

returned to Australia from the UK. Stevie Wright had found life difficult since the Easybeats disbanded and had developed a

heroin addiction Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a substance use disorder characterized by cravings for opioids, continued use despite physical and/or psychological deterioration, increased tolerance with use, and withdrawal symptoms after discontinuing opioids. Op ...

. "Stevie was still a great performer, still a great singer," George Young says. "So Harry and I got to work to see if we could come up with something that could put him back in the charts.""Stevie was still a great performer, still a great singer," Young says. "So Harry and I got to work to see if we could come up with something that could put him back in the charts." Vanda and Young signed Stevie Wright and began working on the '' Hard Road'' album together. The song features

Malcolm Young Malcolm Mitchell Young (6 January 1953 – 18 November 2017) was an Australian musician who was the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and songwriter of AC/DC. Except for a brief absence in 1988, he was with the band from its beginn ...

AC/DC AC/DC (stylised as ACϟDC) are an Australian Rock music, rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm Young, Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and Heavy metal ...

on guitar. Young plays the guitar solo in Part One, while the solo in Part Three is played by Harry Vanda.

Reception

The song was released in April 1974. The single version was divided across the A and B sides and peaked nationally during July. It remained in the charts for 26 weeks, the biggest Australian single of the year and the only pop song over six minutes to reach No 1.

Famous performances

In June 1974, Stevie Wright performed the song at

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...

in front of 2,500 people, with over 10,000 having been turned away. For this performance Wright's band included Harry Vanda, George Young and Malcolm Young. This was the first time that Stevie, George and Harry had appeared together after the breakup of the Easybeats five years previously. On 4 November 1979, Wright took part in the "Concert of the Decade". He performed the song on the steps of the Opera House in front of 100,000 people. Wright also performed the song during the 2002 Long Way to the Top tour.

Personnel

– vocals * George Young – bass *

– lead guitar *

– rhythm guitar *John Proud – drums * Tony Currenti – drums (part 3 only) *Warren Morgan – piano,

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

*Richard Dakin – piano *Paul Bagshaw – strings

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

, 3

The Wrights version

Australian

supergroup Supergroup or super group may refer to: * Supergroup (music), a music group formed by artists who are already notable or respected in their fields * Supergroup (physics), a generalization of groups, used in the study of supersymmetry * Supergroup ...

the Wrights recorded a cover version of the song and released it as a single on 28 February 2005. It debuted at its peak of number two on the Australian

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 March 2005 and spent 14 weeks in the top 50. It was certified gold by the ARIA and was Australia's 47th-most-successful song of 2005.

Track listing

CD single # "Evie (Part I (Let Your Hair Hang Down))" – 3:48 # "Evie (Part II (Evie))" – 3:27 # "Evie (Part III (I'm Losing You))" – 4:03

Charts

Certifications

Other cover versions

Suzi Quatro Susan Kay Quatro (born June 3, 1950) is an American singer, bass guitarist, songwriter, and actress. In the 1970s, she scored a string of hit singles that found greater success in Europe and Australia than in her homeland, reaching No. 1 in th ...

recorded a cover version of part one that appeared on the European version of her album '' If You Knew Suzi...'' in 1978. Pat Travers Band recorded a shortened version for their 1978 album, "Heat in the Street".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evie 1974 singles Stevie Wright (Australian singer) songs Songs written by Harry Vanda Songs written by George Young (rock musician) Number-one singles in Australia 1974 songs Albert Productions singles