Song of the Day — January 14
“Good Time” — INXS & Jimmy Barnes — 1986
“Good Time” — INXS & Jimmy Barnes — 1986
14.January.2021
INXS & Jimmy Barnes
“Good Times”
1986
Before AC/DC, INXS, or Kylie Minogue, The Easybeats were Australia’s biggest pop music international export. The band scored a huge hit in 1966 with “Friday On My Mind.”
The Easybeats original version in 1968 of “Good Times” failed to do too much. The song didn’t get a boost even with the aid of Steve Marriott of Small Faces, who guested on lead vocals for the track. The band was beginning to see their popularity wane.
It would take another 18 years for the song to find the right synergistic combination.
[Fun Fact: The Easybeats guitarist and songwriter George Young would go on to have a notable career as a producer, including producing the first few albums by his younger brothers Malcolm and Angus’ band, AC/DC.]
In December of 1986, INXS entered a studio with fellow Australian Jimmy Barnes. The goal? To record a song that could be used to promote the Australian Made Festival summer concert series. The resulting song, “Good Times” was so good that it became the theme song.
Keep in mind during the mid-80s, movie soundtracks were a dime a dozen with the ultimate goal of marrying the MTV generation with Hollywood. Sometimes it worked, other times it did not. For every Footloose or Top Gun, there was a Rocky IV.
In any event, The Lost Boys soundtrack defied logic. It was modestly successful. The songs were effectively used in the movie. More interestingly, the soundtrack serves as one of the demarcation points when popular music became a little more “alternative.”
By 1987, INXS had broken through to American audiences and were at the cusp of achieving tremendous fame. Naturally, “Good Times” was a solid choice to be part of the soundtrack. The Lost Boys soundtrack would not only bring bands like INXS and Echo & the Bunnymen to a larger audience, but it also helped young actors like Keifer Sutherland and Jason Patrick reach a larger audience.
In addition to INXS and Barnes's cover of “Good Times,” Echo, and the Bunnyman cover The Doors “People Are Strange.” The soundtrack is a mix of newer “alternative” acts and some older acts like The Who’s Roger Daltry and Foreigner’s Lou Gramm. The soundtrack almost serves as a gaslighting attempt to bridge the generational canyon between Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers (who still had yet to be named).
It didn’t work, but it was a good try.
Appropriately, it is “Good Times” that opens the album.
This collaboration with INXS would be as close as a hit in America that Barnes would see. However, coupled with his first band Cold Chisel, Jimmy Barnes remains one of the most popular and best-selling Australian music artists of all time.
If this song doesn’t get your foot tapping and your butt moving, I don’t know what would.