Who is Australia's best ever singer/songwriter?

[CURVE]

Mike Chapman (born in Queensland)needs more credit for all the amazing 3-4 minute pop songs he wrote/co-wrote (50 top 10’s in total)
Simply the best
Love is a battlefield
Mickey
Livin next door to Alice
Ballroom blitz
Devil gate drive, can the can
He took Blondie to new levels producing Parallel Lines, he produced My Sharona

‘Simply The Best: The Mike Chapman Story’ — Documentary About Prolific Songwriter And Producer To Be Exec Produced By Debbie Harry & Chris Stein From Blondie

‘Simply The Best: The Mike Chapman Story'; Documentary About Songwriter And Producer To Be Exec Produced By Debbie Harry & Chris Stein From Blondie

deadline.com

Can't sing for shit though.

On the recent Blondie release "Against The Odds" there is a demo of him singing "Hanging On The telephone", and he may be the only person in the universe with a worse voice than mine.

 

[Shai]

Having a chat with my mate about this the other day - Nick Cave is no doubt an outstanding lyricist, but I reckon 95%+ of the public couldn't name a single song of his and his most well known song has 7 million spotify hits. Compared to the likes of Sia who has over a billion hits on spotify for multiple songs riddiled with catchy hooks, and has penned many songs for other artists that people don't even know she wrote.

So in your opinion who is Australia's best ever singer/songwriter? Does it come down to spotify hits, catchy hooks or does it come down to the quality of lyrics and musicianship, or perhaps the musican's scope of work? Cave has produced film scores for example...

Yeah, music for films is an entirely different matter. Kudos to Nick but I don't listen to anything he's been involved in, for example The Bad Seeds.

For me it would be the late 70's/early 80's writers but the range goes much further back for 'hidden gems'.

 

[ye olde mole]

I'd give it to Barry Gibb who has plenty of mentions already, and I'll add one more to the honourable mentions that I can't see mentioned previously.

Colin Hay

 

[rocker_oz33]

Hay good in men at work.
His solo stuff didn't take off .

Iva Davies .
Pete Murray.

 

[Vdubs]

12 months later, I'll stick with Felix Riebl
Riebl's childhood was surrounded by music: his uncle, Thomas, was a professor of viola at the Mozarteum Salzburg, and family members, including his cousin Misty who was an aspiring artist, studying at the Victorian College of the Arts would regularly take him to sit amongst the Vienna Philharmonic.[11]

Of his family, Riebl said in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald that

"My sister is a classical pianist, my brother's a singer, and dad's brother is quite a famous viola player in Austria. We listened to a lot of music and we danced a lot and sang a lot. The older I get, the realisation comes that a lot of this starts early in the family."[12]

Riebl's younger brother, Max (1991–2022), sang and played trumpet on the song "Miserere" on The Cat Empire's second album Two Shoes.[13][14]

Felix is hugely talented and clearly underrated. CAT EMPIRE if anyone is not aware.

 

[smasha]

Mike Chapman (born in Queensland)needs more credit for all the amazing 3-4 minute pop songs he wrote/co-wrote (50 top 10’s in total)
Simply the best
Love is a battlefield
Mickey
Livin next door to Alice
Ballroom blitz
Devil gate drive, can the can
He took Blondie to new levels producing Parallel Lines, he produced My Sharona

‘Simply The Best: The Mike Chapman Story’ — Documentary About Prolific Songwriter And Producer To Be Exec Produced By Debbie Harry & Chris Stein From Blondie

‘Simply The Best: The Mike Chapman Story'; Documentary About Songwriter And Producer To Be Exec Produced By Debbie Harry & Chris Stein From Blondie

deadline.com

Grew up with Can The Can and I think most Aussie 70's families had a Sweet Greatest Hits in their collection.

 

[smasha]

Mike Rudd from Spectrum/Ariel.

Oops just remembered his Kiwi born.

 

[TimZoo]

Dave Faulkner from the Hoodoo Gurus,Just has a good ear for a melody

 

[The Casey Cat]

I find it hard believe that no one has mentioned Ross Wilson, Eagle Rock, Cool World, Almost the entire "Living in the 70's" album, Daddy Cool, State of the Heart, A Touch of Paradise, Million Dollar Riff, Come Back Again, to name a few.

As mentioned by Plugger on the page before, the popular Mondo Rock songs were actually written by Eric McCusker.

 

[CliffMcTainshaw]

As mentioned by Plugger on the page before, the popular Mondo Rock songs were actually written by Eric McCusker.

I think the only Mondo Rock song I mentioned was Cool World, which Plugger identified as being written by Ross Wilson.

 

[Sporno 4 Pyros]

Dave Faulkner from the Hoodoo Gurus,Just has a good ear for a melody

100% this
Good ear for melody and I can’t think of many other musicians who write a better bridge/middle 8 than Dave

 

[Running Dog]

If the 'singer/songwriter' has to be the same person then it's Richard Clapton for me, on the strength of the songs. But if we can nominate singers separately then I can't go past Renee Geyer and Doug Parkinson.

 

[TimZoo]

If the 'singer/songwriter' has to be the same person then it's Richard Clapton for me, on the strength of the songs. But if we can nominate singers separately then I can't go past Renee Geyer and Doug Parkinson.

He's a legend,produced Inxs early stuff as well

 

[Monocle]

My two
Paul Kelly
Richard Clapton

Nailed it for me was coming on to post the very same.

 

[james Dean]

Nick Cave for me.

 

[mr bagcroft]

Daniel Johns.
And Ill hear no arguments, the gap is not small.