Business as Usual (Men at Work album)

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Business as Usual
File:Men at Work - Business as Usual.jpg
Original Australian vinyl cover art
Studio album by Men at Work
Released 9 November 1981 (1981-11-09)
Recorded March–September 1981
Genre New wave, pop rock
Length 38:11
Label CBS / Columbia
Producer Peter McIan
Men at Work chronology
Business as Usual
(1981)		 Cargo
(1983)Cargo1983
Singles from Business as Usual
  1. "Who Can It Be Now?"
    Released: 6 June 1981
  2. "Down Under"
    Released: October 1981
  3. "Be Good Johnny"
    Released: April 1982
  4. "Underground"
    Released: 1982

Business as Usual is the debut album of Australian pop rock band, Men at Work, which was released in November 1981 in Australia, and April 1982 in the United States. The group members were Greg Ham on flute, saxophone, keyboards and vocals; Colin Hay on vocals and guitar; John Rees on bass guitar; Jerry Speiser on drums and backing vocals; and Ron Strykert on lead guitar and vocals. It spent nine weeks at the top of the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart from December 1981 through to March 1982. The Australian version had a black and white cover design; overseas releases had a similar design but in a black and yellow colour scheme. Business as Usual was one of the most successful albums internationally by an Australian group. It spent an unprecedented 15 weeks at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 from late 1982 to early 1983; and five weeks at No. 1 in the United Kingdom Albums Chart in early 1983. Business as Usual was also one of the highest selling Australian albums in the early 1980s, with 6 million copies sold in the US,[1] and 15 million sold worldwide.[citation needed]

The first single from the album, "Who Can It Be Now?", was released in Australia in June 1981, prior to the recording of the rest of the album. It reached No. 2 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart in August that year. The second single, "Down Under", which was issued in October peaked at No. 1 for six weeks. A third single, "Be Good Johnny", appeared in April the following year and reached No. 8.

In February 2010 a Federal Court judge in Sydney found that the flute riff from "Down Under" had been plagiarised from the Australian song "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree", written in 1934 by Marion Sinclair. The Federal Court determined that the copyright was still current (Sinclair died in 1988) and had been assigned to Larrikin Music. The judge found that "a substantial amount of the original song" had been reproduced in "Down Under". Larrikin Music had suggested 60% of the royalties would be appropriate compensation, but the court decreed they shall receive only 5%, and only on mechanical rights for the song since 2002, and on future profits.

In October 2010, Business as Usual was listed in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.[2]

Background

By early 1981, Australian pop rock group, Men at Work consisted of Greg Ham on flute, saxophone, keyboards and vocals; Colin Hay on vocals and guitar; John Rees on bass guitar; Jerry Speiser on drums and backing vocals; and Ron Strykert on lead guitar and vocals.[3][4][5] Hay was the group's main songwriter both on his own, with Strykert, or with other band mates.[3][4] The group signed with the Australian branch of Columbia Records, which issued their second single, 'Who Can It Be Now?, in June that year.[3][4] As record producer they used United States-born Peter McIan (Franne Golde, Serious Young Insects).[3][4][5] The track was one written by Hay alone,[6] and, in August, it peaked at No. 2 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart.[7][8]

The group had already returned to the studio to continue working with McIan, who produced their debut album, Business as Usual, which included the earlier single.[3][4][5] The second single from the album, "Down Under", appeared in October and was a reworked version of the B-side to their debut single, "Keypunch Operator", from the previous year.[3] "Down Under" was co-written by Hay and Strykert,[9] and became the group's first number-one hit in December – which stayed at the top for six weeks.[7][8] The album was released on 9 November 1981, it entered the top 50 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart in December peaking at No. 1 for nine weeks and appearing in the top 50 for 118 weeks.[7][10]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 4.5/5 stars[11]
Robert Christgau B+[12]
Rolling Stone 4/5 stars[13]

Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described Business as Usual: "Aside from the strength of the music, part of the [its] appeal was its economy. The production sound was low-key, but clean and uncluttered. Indeed, the songs stood by themselves with little embellishment save for a bright, melodic, singalong quality".[3] Gerry Raffaele for The Canberra Times felt "[it] generally stays at a high level, tight and jerky, although I still favour the tracks which have appeared as singles ... There is a delicacy about this music — and that is not a thing you can say about too many rock groups".[14]

Accolades

Countdown Music and Video Awards

Year Recipient/Nominated work Award Result
1981[15][16] Business as Usual Best Debut Album Won
"Who Can It Be Now?" Best Debut Single Won
Men at Work Best New Talent Won
1982[16][17] Men at Work Most Outstanding Achievement Won

Grammy Awards

Year Recipient/Nominated work Award Result
1983 Men at Work (performer) Best New Artist[18] Won

Brit Awards

Year Recipient/Nominated work Award Result
1984 Men at Work (performer) Best International Artist[19] Nominated

Track listing

Side one
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Who Can It Be Now?"   Colin Hay[6] 3:25
2. "I Can See It in Your Eyes"   Hay 3:32
3. "Down Under"   Hay, Ron Strykert[9] 3:45
4. "Underground"   Hay 3:07
5. "Helpless Automaton"   Greg Ham 3:23
Side two
No. Title Writer(s) Length
6. "People Just Love to Play with Words"   Strykert 3:33
7. "Be Good Johnny"   Hay, Ham 3:39
8. "Touching the Untouchables"   Hay, Strykert 3:41
9. "Catch a Star"   Hay 3:31
10. "Down by the Sea"   Hay, Strykert, Ham, Jerry Speiser 6:53
2003 Remaster Bonus Tracks
No. Title Writer(s) Length
11. "Crazy" (B-side from "Down Under" single) Strykert 2:37
12. "Underground" (live) Hay 3:42
13. "Who Can It Be Now?" (live) Hay 4:06
14. "F-19" (B-side from "Be Good Johnny" Australian single) Hay, Speiser 3:52

Both live tracks on the 2003 Remastered edition are from the 1998 live album Brazil.

Personnel

Production

  • Producer: Peter McIan
  • Engineers: Jim Barbour, Peter McIan, Paul Ray
  • Cover Illustration: Jon "JD" Dickson

Charts

Decade-end charts

Chart (1980–89) Position
Australian Albums Chart[7] 9

Certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
Australia (ARIA)[37] 3× Platinum 150,000
Canada (Music Canada)[38] 5× Platinum 500,000
Hong Kong (IFPI Hong Kong)[39] Gold 10,000
Japan (Oricon Charts) 266,000[24]
United Kingdom (BPI)[40] Platinum 300,000
United States (RIAA)[41] 6× Platinum 6,000,000

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone
xunspecified figures based on certification alone

References

General
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Specific

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Preceded by Australian Kent Music Report number-one album
21 December 1981 – 31 January 1982
15 February - 7 March 1982		 Succeeded by
The Best of Blondie by Blondie
Preceded by New Zealand Chart number-one album
7 February 1982 – 21 March 1982
11 April 1982
23 May 1982 – 30 May 1982		 Succeeded by
Jump Up! by Elton John
Cool Bananas by DD Smash
Dare by The Human League
Preceded by
American Fool by John Cougar
 Billboard 200 number-one album
13 November 1982 – 25 February 1983		 Succeeded by
Thriller by Michael Jackson
Preceded by
Signals by Rush
...Famous Last Words... by Supertramp
 Top Canadian Chart number-one album
13 November 1982
15 January – 22 January 1983		 Succeeded by
...Famous Last Words... by Supertramp
Hello, I Must Be Going! by Phil Collins
Preceded by
Raiders of the Pop Charts by Various Artists
 UK Albums Chart number-one album
29 January 1983 – 4 March 1983		 Succeeded by
Thriller by Michael Jackson
Preceded by Norwegian VG-lista number-one album
12/1983		 Succeeded by
The Final Cut by Pink Floyd

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  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 McFarlane, 'Men at Work' entry. Archived from the original on 13 May 2003. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Note: User may have to click 'Search again' and provide details at 'Enter a title:' e.g Who Can It Be Now; or at 'Performer:' Men at Work
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Note: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1974 until Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) created their own charts in mid-1988. In 1992, Kent back calculated chart positions for 1970–1974.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Note: User may have to click 'Search again' and provide details at 'Enter a title:' e.g Down Under; or at 'Performer:' Men at Work
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Business as Usual at AllMusic. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Rolling Stone review
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 9 May 2012
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.Note: user must select 'MEN AT WORK' from drop-down
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Enter Business as Usual in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Platinum in the field By Award. Click Search
  41. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH
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