Musical Monday - Down Under by Men at Work

#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: January 15, 1983 through January 29, 1983 and the week of February 12, 1983.

#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: January 22, 1983 through February 19, 1983.

#1 on the U.K. Chart: January 29, 1983 through February 12, 1983.

Americans love Australian music. The Bee Gees. Olivia Newton-John. The Little River Band. And so on and so forth. There probably isn't a musical act that shouts "AUSTRALIA" more clearly than Men at Work, and this song is their loudest assertion of that fact.

The song is also kind of nonsense, and the video is even more so, but it is the most entertaining glorious kind of nonsense one can find. Very few songs reached the top of all three charts I am tracking. A fair number reached the top of two, and of course, all got to the top of at least one. This is one of the songs that hit the top spot in all three. But for the sea change that is coming barreling down the pike (which will hit this list in just a few weeks), Men at Work might have set the musical tone for the entire remainder of the decade.

Due to the oddities of how music distribution worked, despite the fact that this song (and Business as Usual, the album it appeared on) were released in Australia in 1981, it didn't reach U.S. shores until late 1982, and of course, didn't peak until 1983. By 1983, Men at Work had recorded and released a second album - Cargo - which also produced a couple of hits, but none could match Down Under's success. The band disintegrated over the next few years, falling apart entirely about the time their third album was ready for release. In a sense, Down Under was simultaneously the band's greatest success and their harbinger of doom.

On a side note, this song was the subject of some legal controversy. The flute solo was found to have been pretty much lifted from an older Australian song from the 1930s, and the band's label was legally compelled to give a portion of royalties over the the songwriter's heirs. In short, one of the iconic songs of the 1980s was partially plagiarized from a song of the 1930s. I'm not sure what that means, but it is kind of depressing.

Previous Musical Monday: You Can't Hurry Love by Phil Collins

Subsequent Musical Monday: Africa by Toto

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Maneater by Hall and Oates

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Africa by Toto

Previous #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Maneater by Hall and Oates

Subsequent #1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? by Culture Club

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: You Can't Hurry Love by Phil Collins

Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: Too Shy by Kajagoogoo

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

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