John Farnham
John Peter Farnham is an Australian singer. Farnham was a teen pop idol from 1967 until the mid-1970s, billed as Johnny Farnham. He has since forged a career as an adult contemporary singer. His career has mostly been as a solo artist, although he replaced Glenn Shorrock as lead singer of Little River Band from 1982 to 1985.
In November 1986, his solo single "You're the Voice" peaked at No. 1 on the Australian singles charts. The associated album, Whispering Jack, held the No. 1 position for a total of 25 weeks. Both the single and the album had top-ten success internationally, including No. 6 in the United Kingdom and No. 1 in Sweden. Whispering Jack is the third-highest-selling album in Australian history, and remains the highest-selling album in Australia by an Australian act.
Farnham has become one of his country's best-known and most popular performers, and he is the only Australian artist to have a number-one record in five consecutive decades, with singles including "Sadie " in 1967, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" in 1970, and "Age of Reason" in 1988; and albums Whispering Jack in 1986, Age of Reason in 1988, Chain Reaction in 1990, Then Again... in 1993, 33⅓ in 2000, and The Last Time in 2002. Along with touring with numerous artists, including The Seekers and international acts like Stevie Nicks and Lionel Richie, he released various collaborative albums: Tom Jones on Together in Concert ; Olivia Newton-John and Anthony Warlow, including Highlights from The Main Event ; Two Strong Hearts Live ; and Friends for Christmas.
Farnham has been recognised by many honours and awards, including 1987 Australian of the Year, 1996 Officer of the Order of Australia, and 19 ARIA Awards, including his 2003 induction into the Hall of Fame. Starting in 1969, he was voted by TV Week readers as the 'King of Pop' for five consecutive years.
Aside from his recording career, Farnham performed on stage with lead roles in Australian productions of Charlie Girl, Pippin and 1992's Jesus Christ Superstar. He starred in his own TV series and specials, including It's Magic, Bobby Dazzler, and Farnham and Byrne, and as a guest on numerous other popular shows such as The Don Lane Show, Countdown and Hey Hey It's Saturday.
Early life
John Peter Farnham was born in Mile End Hospital, Dagenham Essex, England, on 1 July 1949, to John Peter Farnham Sr., and Rose Farnham. His sisters are Jean and Jacqueline, and his younger brother is Steven. Farnham spent his first ten years in the United Kingdom before his family emigrated to Australia in 1959 to live in Melbourne, Victoria. He attended school at Yarraman Park State School in Noble Park East, and Lyndale Primary School and Lyndale High School in Dandenong North.Musical career
1964–67: The Mavericks to Strings Unlimited
As Johnny Farnham he performed with local band The Mavericks on weekends, while still attending school, from 1964. The band had a five-song repertoire. In late 1965, he was asked to join band Strings Unlimited as lead singer; it was a band composed entirely of string-only instruments, and they had a regular booking at a local hotel.In 1966, after making the state finals of the Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds, they recorded a three-track demo tape with Farnham on vocals, Stewart Male on lead guitar, Barry Roy on rhythm guitar, Mike Foenander on keyboards, Joe Cincotta on bass and Peter Foggie on drums.
On 29 April 1967, Strings Unlimited performed as a backing band for pop singer Bev Harrell in Cohuna. Harrell's manager and then-boyfriend, Darryl Sambell, was impressed with Farnham's vocals and offered to become his manager. Initially performing in Sambell's home town of Adelaide, Farnham recorded a light advertising jingle "Susan Jones" for airline company Ansett-ANA and was offered a solo record contract working with EMI under house producer David Mackay.
1967–mid 1970s: Teen pop idol
Farnham's first commercially successful recording was a cover of American novelty song "Sadie "; Sambell had disliked it, as the lyrics were so persistent. However, EMI's in-house producer, David MacKay, insisted, and so the single was released in November 1967. The B-side, "In My Room" was written by Farnham. By arrangement with Sambell, Melbourne radio DJ Stan Rofe pretended that he disliked "Sadie" before playing it. The song gave Farnham recognition in Australia. Rofe continued the ploy on TV's Uptight and viewers responded with calls to play the song. It hit No. 1 on the Australian singles charts in January 1968 and remained there for 6 weeks. Selling 180,000 copies in Australia, "Sadie" was the highest-selling single by an Australian artist of the decade and became the biggest-selling single in Australia at that time. Rofe was a writer for Go-Set, a teen-oriented pop magazine. Another writer for the magazine, Molly Meldrum, praised Farnham's efforts. Go-Set ran a pop poll to determine the 'King of Pop', which was first won by Normie Rowe for 1967–1968. Farnham's 1968 singles were "Underneath the Arches" and "I Don't Want to Love You"; each peaked at #6.In 1969, Farnham released his album Everybody Oughta Sing a Song, which peaked at No. 12 on the Australian albums charts. His next single was a cover of Harry Nilsson's "One"; Farnham's version peaked at #4. When TV Week sponsored the 'King of Pop' awards, readers would forward their votes from coupons; Farnham won the most popular male award and was crowned 'King of Pop' five consecutive times from 1969 to 1973. He recorded a cover of the B.J. Thomas hit "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", which became his second No. 1 hit in December 1969 and remained at top spot for seven weeks into January 1970.
Farnham's next album, Looking Through a Tear, was released in July 1970 and peaked at #11. "Comic Conversations", his single from October, peaked at #10. During 1971, Farnham teamed up with Allison Durbin, who had been chosen as 'Most Popular Female Performer' at the 'King of Pop' awards for 1969–71. They released an album, Together, in September and a single, "Baby, Without You". in November, both peaked into the top 30 of their respective charts. As well as his singing career, Farnham performed in stage musicals, starting with Dick Whittington and His Cat in 1971, and on television variety shows either as a guest performer or as a host.
At 22, Farnham was appointed 'King of Moomba' in 1972, with Melbourne paper The Sun describing him as a "likeable English migrant" who is "King of Pop, King of Kids and today Johnny Farnham was King of Moomba." In 1972, Farnham had a top 5 national hit with a cover version of the title track from the David Cassidy international hit album, Rock Me Baby.
Another stage musical for Farnham was Charlie Girl in 1971. Jillian Billman was one of the dancers, and Farnham married her on 18 April 1973. Meldrum announced their wedding plans in Go-Set but Sambell denied the early reports, and, despite being best man at the wedding, was against Billman marrying Farnham. The clean-cut pop star had made several more albums and singles, but by the mid-1970s his recording career had begun to dwindle and he turned more to stage musicals and television. Farnham and 'Queen of Pop' for 1972–1973, Colleen Hewett, combined on the 1973–74 stage musical, Pippin, and its associated show album released in 1974. Also in 1974, Farnham and Hewett were co-hosts of It's Magic, a children's TV series on Channel Ten. He became familiar to viewers of Countdown when hosting its first colour transmission in early 1975 and introducing Skyhooks' performance of "Horror Movie".
Relations with Sambell became strained and in January 1976 they announced their split. Farnham first turned to Kenn Brodziak, producer of Pippin, for his management during 1976–78, and then to Danny Finley, Hewett's then husband, from 1978.
Farnham starred in a situation comedy series Bobby Dazzler as the title character during 1977–78, the pilot Me & Mr Thorne, and narrated documentaries including Survival with Johnny Farnham. Farnham was in financial trouble with unpaid taxes and the collapse of a restaurant venture with Hewett and Finley. Farnham's singing career was now confined to the cabaret circuit and stage musicals. In 1979, he changed his stage name to John Farnham.
1980–86: Little River Band era
Farnham met Glenn Wheatley, who was bass guitarist of 1960s rock group The Masters Apprentices, when both acts were managed by Sambell. Wheatley was now managing Little River Band, and Farnham signed with Wheatley in 1980. They decided his comeback single would be a reworking of The Beatles' "Help!", which was produced by LRB's Graeham Goble, it peaked at #8. Farnham was utilising a more adult contemporary pop style and the associated album, Uncovered, also produced by Goble, peaked at #20. The B-side of "Help" was another of Farnham's songwriting efforts "Jillie's Song", co-written with Goble.In recording the album, Farnham's studio band were guitarist Tommy Emmanuel, keyboardist Mal Logan, drummer Derek Pellicci and bass guitarist Barry Sullivan. They became his tour band until Logan and Pellicci returned to their LRB commitments and were replaced by Sam McNally and David Jones, respectively. In 1980, Farnham also appeared in a TV series entitled Farnham and Byrne with former Young Talent Time teen star and 'Queen of Pop' Debra Byrne. Three other solo singles followed in 1981, but none of them charted into the top 50.
In February 1982, after Glenn Shorrock had departed Little River Band, Farnham became their lead vocalist after recommendations by Goble and Wheatley. Farnham had initially resisted the idea of joining LRB, but Wheatley convinced him that Shorrock approved of the replacement. This continued Farnham's move away from cabaret and into rock music.
With Farnham, Little River Band recorded three studio albums, which had modest success, but it was not enough to pay back the advances the record company had provided. The first studio album, The Net, was already written, and Farnham had no say in the songs; he just had to record his lead vocals. In the US, charting albums with Farnham's vocals included Greatest Hits, The Net, and Playing to Win on Billboard Pop Albums chart/Billboard 200. While charting singles were, "The Other Guy", "We Two", "You're Driving Me Out of My Mind" and "Playing to Win". Farnham's biggest Australian hits with LRB were the 1982 single "Down on the Border" which peaked at No. 7 and The Net which peaked at No. 11 on the albums charts in 1983.
During this time, Farnham started supplying vocal tracks for films, including Savage Streets, The Slugger's Wife, and Fletch ; he later continued with Rad and Voyage of the Rock Aliens. "Justice for One" was co-written by Farnham, for Savage Streets and it was released as a solo single.
Little River Band recorded a concert in Melbourne that aired in the United States on HBO. The concert video was only one hour long, and it highlighted some of the songs from The Net as well as reworked versions of Little River Band classics such as "Cool Change" and "Reminiscing". "Please Don't Ask Me", a song written by Goble, and a non-top 50 single for Farnham almost three years previously, was played during the "Australian-themed" opening of the show. Despite positive Australian and US reviews and responses, this performance has not yet been released on VHS or DVD.
In an interview with Channel Seven, Farnham stated: "I'll be better off leaving, rather than putting myself under pressure that I've created." Through this matter, it became apparent to the band that Farnham was intending on leaving and Playing to Wins lead single "Playing to Win", a song believed by all to be the band's return to success, then started having authorship disputes. According to Farnham:
As a result, his relationship with the band was further sullied. To date, the royalties for the song are meticulously divided with different shares going to each of the song's contributors, including Farnham, Goble, Wayne Nelson, Stephen Housden, David Hirschfelder, Steve Prestwich and producer Spencer Proffer. Farnham would leave the group following the completion of their short Australian tour in April 1986. Their third studio album with Farnham as lead vocalist, No Reins, appeared the following month.