John Farnham

John Farnham is nothing less than an Australian treasure.

Since the late 1950s, the likeable, charismatic star has entertained countless Australians of all generations, selling millions of records along the way.

But his extraordinary story is as much about tackling adversity as it is about topping the charts, and with his recent cancer scare, Farnham has no doubt further cemented his place in Australian hearts as his numerous fans and the media proclaim him a legend and icon.

Jane Gazzo, author of John Farnham: The Untold Story, explores the songs which have become soundtracks to our lives.

Johnny Farnham was just 18-years-old when he entered our hearts with an almost novelty song titled 'Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)'. His boyish, blonde good looks and innocent charm were perfectly suited to the medium of television and he quickly became a constant on our screens appearing in everything from variety shows to light entertainment spectaculars.

Like so many quintessential rockers who have had a resounding impact on Australian music – Jimmy Barnes, Doc Neeson, Colin Hay, Stevie Wright, Angus and Malcolm Young – Farnham migrated to Australia with his family as a Ten Pound Pom. The year was 1958 and he was nine-years-old.

Originally hailing from Dagenham, Essex, he began his working life as a plumber's apprentice in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, before being talent-spotted when he was singing in the country Victorian town of Cohuna.

At the age of 16, Farnham was performing with a cover band called Strings Unlimited when a man approached him and said: "I like the way you sing. I can make you a star."

That man was a former hairdresser by the name of Darryl Sambell who instantly became his manager, despite having very little showbiz experience. The odd duo became a formidable team and set out to find a song Farnham could record to launch his career.

Sambell came across a demo sent from America called 'Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)' written by John Madara, Ray Gilmore and David White. The trio had been writing songs for almost a decade and had chart success with well-known 'doo-wop' hits in the early to mid-60s such as 'At the Hop' by Danny and the Juniors, 'You Don't Own Me' by Lesley Gore and 'The Fly' by Chubby Checker.

How 'Sadie' travelled across from Philadelphia, where the trio was based, to a recording studio in Melbourne remains a mystery, but Farnham quit his plumbing job just two days before 'Sadie' was released. It went to the top of the charts in 1968, knocking off The Beatles' 'Hello Goodbye/I Am the Walrus' and Slim Dusty's 'A Pub with No Beer' and became the biggest selling Australian single of the decade.

Normie Rowe, another teen idol, was the reigning King of Pop at the time, but once 'Sadie' surpassed sales of his version of 'Que Sera Sera', Farnham was given the honour, and was crowned TV Week's King of Pop five times from 1969-1973; the longest reign in the award's history.

"I would never have recorded a song like 'Sadie'," said Rowe in 2014. "I can remember thinking, 'how are you going to follow it?'"

At the time, Rowe felt it was always a challenge for any artist to move on after releasing a novelty song, but fortunately Farnham followed his debut single with a succession of more serious numbers and possessed the charm and talent to back them up.

Some of those singles included the Harry Nilssen penned 'One (Is the Loneliest Number)', which reached No. 4 on the Go-Set charts in 1969 and 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head' which hit the top spot in January 1970 where it stayed for seven weeks.

Farnham became a household name and was so popular that an ice-cream called King of Pop was released in 1970. At the time, the only other cultural icon to achieve this feat was Mickey Mouse.

In 1974, a new television show on ABC would revolutionise Australian culture. Originally given a six-week run, Countdown went to air for the first time at 6:30pm on Friday 8 November.

The line-up was an all-Australian celebration and included Farnham singing the rocking number 'One Minute Every Hour'. Other guests included Sherbet and Linda George.

"I actually remember being on the first episode," Farnham told ABC TV. "I was so nervous. It was national TV. I used to carry a tape deck with me so I could play the song over and over again in the dressing room so I wouldn't make a complete idiot of myself."

Farnham also hosted Countdown on the historic day in March 1975 when colour television was officially launched in Australia. He would go on to appear on countless other TV shows throughout the 70s including variety shows such as The Don Lane Show, Farnham & Byrne with Debra Byrne, a sit-com called Bobby Dazzler with the late Maurie Fields and even hosted a short-lived run of the talent show Opportunity Knocks.

By the late 1970s, Farnham had parted ways with his flamboyant manager Darryl Sambell and on advice from another showbiz impresario, Kenn Brodziack who had famously brought The Beatles to Australia, changed his name from Johnny to John. He was ready to enter the next phase of his career.

The story of one of Australia's biggest and best loved songs begins in John Farnham’s lounge room in Bulleen, Victoria, and it almost never happened.

In 1985, producer Ross Fraser had just applied the finishing touches to what would become the album Whispering Jack, but he felt it needed one more song. He found a demo tape sent from England and was debating whether to play it to Farnham or not. After some deliberation, Fraser drove to Farnham's home thinking of ways he might convince him that this song should go on the album. When Farnham heard 'You’re the Voice', he felt the track had been written for him. He had a once-in-a-lifetime song.

Farnham’s manager at the time was Glenn Wheatley.

The pair first met when Wheatley was bass player for The Masters Apprentices in the 1970s. He would then go on to manage and launch Little River Band, making them one of the first Australian acts to achieve American Top 10 chart success.

Wheatley made the decision to manage Farnham in 1980 after seeing him perform a lackluster show at the Twin Towns in Tweed Heads, where he went backstage and told him: "John, we’re going to start again." This involved getting Farnham working again; first a brief stint in Little River Band replacing Glen Shorrock, followed by his solo album Whispering Jack.

Initially, Wheatley had a tough time getting any record company interested in it. He tried all the major labels who felt Farnham was washed-up and well passed his use-by-date. He was 37-years-old and under no illusions that if this album failed, he would be back at the Twin Towns, RSLs and nightclubs once more.

Without any record company support, Wheatley made the courageous decision to mortgage his house to fund the record – the only collateral being Farnham’s voice and his unwavering belief in him. As Farnham would later quote: "Glenn put his money where my mouth is."

With Fraser's intuition to play Farnham the demo and Wheatley's support, the gamble paid off. In 1986 'You're the Voice' topped the Australian charts for seven weeks – from 3 November to 23 December. It also gave Farnham his first No. 1 in 17 years – the last being 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head.' Whispering Jack went on to break all sales records in Australia and would sell over 1.7 million records worldwide.

At the 1986 ARIA Awards, Farnham cleaned up with six wins for Whispering Jack including Highest Selling Album, Album of the Year, Best Male Artist and Single of the Year. Farnham has since won 21 ARIA Awards including his 2003 induction into the Hall of Fame.

Capitalising on the album's phenomenal success – it is believed that 1 in 4 households owned a copy – Farnham and Fraser repeated their winning formula with the follow-up album, Age of Reason. The pair went through hundreds of demo tapes to find the right blend of songs to record, and one stood out. It was written by Dragon's Todd Hunter and his partner, former XL Capris guitarist Johanna Piggott. It was about the birth of their first child.

"It was really about the feeling of hope for the future embodied in a new baby," says Piggott. "That all the wisdom and love from the past that had been passed onto us through the generations could be made into a new time."

That song, 'Age of Reason', not only gave Farnham's follow-up album a title, but his next No. 1 single in July 1988 where it stayed for four weeks. The album also went on to become the year’s highest seller. In the same year, Farnham became the first recipient of ARIA’s prestigious Outstanding Achievement Award given periodically in recognition of excellence in the recording industry.

A no-expense spared video was made for 'Age of Reason' directed by Steve Hopkins who had recently worked on Hollywood movie Highlander. Shot at Sherbrooke Forest in the Dandenong Ranges and Cathedral Point in Victoria, it was Farnham's biggest video production to date, with some 120 kids from the Victorian Children's Choir featured as extras, as well as a six-year-old Robert Farnham – Farnham's eldest son. The most iconic scene in the video showed Farnham singing on top of the mountain ranges, where he had to be dropped by helicopter, surrounded by a blue-sky backdrop. It was a fitting image for a man who almost literally was, at that time of his life, on top of the world.

Building on the success of Whispering Jack and Age of Reason, Farnham did something a little differently with his next release Chain Reaction. He wanted to take a risk and decided to steer away from songs which had been submitted by other writers. Instead, he focused on writing his own material "over a couple of bottles of red."

The title track however, was written by the Eurythmics' Dave Stewart and Siobhan Fahey, formerly of Bananarama. The country-rock inspired song was a departure from his previous work and Farnham did initially worry about how it would go down. The day before its release he thought about phoning his record company and stopping it all together. However 'Chain Reaction' went Top 5 and was also his only other song, apart from 'Sadie' and 'You're the Voice', that went gold.

Perhaps the key to Farnham's legacy and never-waning popularity is that he is both a great solo performer and team player. Over the years, Farnham has shared many stages with the likes of Olivia Newton-John, Anthony Warlow, The Seekers, Jimmy Barnes, Tom Jones, Stevie Nicks and Human Nature among others. He's been Australian of the Year, Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar and even one of our star performers at the Sydney Olympic Games opening ceremony. In 1996 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his service to the Australian music industry and community organisations.

Generations of fans have grown up with Farnham. We have seen fashions, music and lifestyles change over the decades, but Farnham has remained a constant. Like a favourite uncle we look forward to catching up with once-a-year, he has always been there, somewhere, with his voice and charisma, to take us away with a joke and a song.

Perhaps it was Lionel Richie who said it best after performing with Farnham in 2014:

"John knows exactly who he is. He's actually been around this long because he puts on a helluva show. He's a master showman and will give the crowd every ounce of his energy. When I would see him come off that stage, he was dripping wet. That means he gave you 120 per cent of what he does. He is the mountain top."

The Australian Music Vault is proud to welcome John Farnham into the exhibition. See Farnham’s King of Pop crown, ARIA Hall of Fame award, and jacket worn in the 'Age of Reason' video in The Real Thing display case, which explores the Australian sound.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jane Gazzo

Jane Gazzo is a broadcaster, TV presenter, music journalist and published author who began her career in radio, aged 16. Since then, she has presented nationally on Triple M and Triple J as well as BBC Radio 6 in the UK and has hosted television shows such as Recovery on ABC TV. She spent eight years as a presenter on Foxtel's Channel V, where she reported from music festivals, red carpet events and hosted live TV shows, interviewing some of the biggest and best names in the music world.

In 2018 Jane became Chair of the Australian Music Vault Advisory Group and in 2020 she hosted ABC-TV's flagship music show THE SOUND and co-founded the popular Facebook site Sound As Ever (Australia Indie 90-99). Her revised edition of John Farnham: The Untold Story (Penguin) is now available.