Business as Usual (Album)
| Business as usual | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men at Work studio album | ||||
|
Publication |
October 1981 (AUS) |
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| Label (s) | CBS / Columbia | |||
|
Format (s) |
LP |
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|
pop |
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|
running time |
38:11 |
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| occupation |
|
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|
Studio (s) |
Spring-Autumn, 1981 |
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Business as Usual is the debut album by the Australian band Men at Work . It was released in Australia in October 1981 and in the US in March 1982 .
success
As one of the most internationally successful albums by an Australian group, the album Business as Usual stayed at number 1 in the American album charts for 15 weeks from late 1982 to early 1983 and at number 1 in Great Britain for five weeks in early 1983. It was also at the top of the Australian album charts for nine weeks from December 1981 to March 1982. Business as Usual was one of the most commercially successful albums in the early 1980s, selling six million copies in the US and 15 million worldwide.
The song Who Can It Be Now? was first released as a single in Australia in May 1981, before the recording of the next album. The single reached number 1 on the Australian singles charts in August of that year.
Plagiarism dispute
In February 2010, a federal judge in Sydney ruled that the flute riffs from Down Under had plagiarized parts of Marion Sinclair's 1934 classic Australian song Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree . The federal court found that the copyrights had not yet expired (Sinclair died in 1988) and were now with Larrikin Music. According to the court, a significant part of Down Under was plagiarism. Larrikin Music claimed 60% of the royalties as compensation, but the court only recognized 5% on all profits from 2002 onwards, which was approximately EUR 670,000.
In October 2010, Business as Usual was listed in the book 100 Best Australian Albums .
Awards
- 1983: Gold record
- 1983: Grammy Awards , Best New Artists
- 1984: BRIT Awards , Best International Artist
Track list
| page A | ||
|---|---|---|
| title | text | length |
| Who Can It Be Now? | Colin Hay | 3:25 |
| I can see it in your eyes | Colin Hay | 3:32 |
| Down under | Colin Hay, Ron Strykert | 3:45 |
| Underground | Colin Hay | 3:07 |
| Helpless automaton | Greg Ham | 3:23 |
| Side B | ||
| People Just Love to Play with Words | Ron Strykert | 3:33 |
| Be good Johnny | Colin Hay, Greg Ham | 3:39 |
| Touching the Untouchables | Colin Hay, Ron Strykert | 3:41 |
| Catch a star | Colin Hay | 3:31 |
| Down by the Sea | Colin Hay, Ron Strykert, Greg Ham, Jerry Speiser | 6:53 |
Charts
| Charts | Top position |
Weeks |
|---|---|---|
 Australia (Kent Music Report)
|
1 | - |
 New Zealand
|
1 | 75 |
 Germany
|
15th | 59 |
 United Kingdom
|
1 | 44 |
 United States
|
1 | 90 |
Individual evidence
- ↑ release date Australia
- ↑ release date "Who can it be now?"
- ^ John O'Donnell, Toby Creswell, Craig Mathieson: 100 Best Australian Albums . Hardie Grant Books, Prahran, Victoria 2010, ISBN 978-1-74066-955-9 (English).
- ↑ 1 Golden Record 1983. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
- ↑ Past Winners Search ( English ) In: grammy.com . Retrieved May 9, 2012.
- ^ The BRITs 1984 . In: brits.co.uk . British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
- ↑ David Kent: Australian Chart Book 1970-1992 . Australian Chart Book, St. Ives 1993, ISBN 0-646-11917-6 .
- ^ Men at Work - Business as Usual. In: Charts.org.nz. Hung Medien , accessed October 20, 2015 .
- ↑ Business as Usual in the German charts
- ↑ Men at Work in the UK charts. In: Officialcharts.com. Official Charts Company , accessed October 20, 2015 .
- ^ The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7