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“It could be the little song that saved Neighbours”

Legendary vocalist Barry Crocker recalls it took just an hour record the Neighbours theme, but Reg Grundy loved it.

Legendary singer Barry Crocker was thrilled to wake to the news yesterday that he had gone to the top of the UK charts.

Aggrieved Neighbours fans had taken to social media to demonstrate their devotion through iTunes digital downloads. And it worked.

The 86 year old crooner had overtaken Ed Sheeran, Adele and Liam Gallagher to nab top spot, creating unexpected headlines.

“It was fantastic. I was expecting another call of that time and the last person I thought would be calling me would be Peter Ford. But it was was lovely news to wake up to,” he told TV Tonight.

“As the old saying goes, ‘Expect the unexpected!”

The retired singer originally sang the Neighbours theme in 1985, which was used on air until 1992. Composers Jackie Trent & Tony Hatch called him one night to record a demo.

“I was sitting home watching television, and I got a call from Tony Hatch. We didn’t live all that far apart and he said, ‘What are you doing? We’ve just written the theme we are going to submit for a soap they’re talking about doing,'” he recalls.

“I went over at 9 or 10 o’clock and he played the song. He already had the backing put down, so I just sang it and then double tracked it. I did a couple of stings and he just packaged it up.

“Next morning it was on Reg Grundy’s desk as a submission along with a whole bunch of others. Reg liked it. He said, ‘That’s that’s the one for me.’ And Tony said, ‘Okay, we’ll put it down properly now because that’s just a demo.’ But Reg liked it just the way it was.

“It happened very quickly and it was a very easy job for me to do. It probably took about an hour of my time.

“If Reg were alive today, he’d be absolutely thrilled that Neighbours was #1. Absolutely.”

Over the years, the theme song has been covered by stars such as Dame Edna Everage, Des O’Connor and the Neighbours cast. The lyrics were even quoted by John Smith, then British Shadow Chancellor, in a House of Commons debate on Government economic policy.

The song was regularly part of his cabaret act and Crocker maintains that it never bothered him to be associated with it. It was especially popular when he performed it in the UK.

“I went over there for a brief holiday and put on a couple of shows and my billing was ‘Starring the man who sings the Neighbours theme!’ They’d go nuts and I’d have to do it twice!” he remembers.

“But it was always a pleasant little tune. When Ella Fitzgerald was touring England, someone said, ‘Who are your favourite singers?’ and she was supposed to have said ‘I like the man who sings the Neighbours theme.’ That was a nice little kudos to have.

“When I was in Las Vegas, Frank Sinatra gave me the thumb and four fingers sign saying I was alright, although I wasn’t singing it then. They’re great moments when your illustrious peers give you an accolade.”

Indeed Crocker’s showbiz career extends back to 1955, performing the club circuit in Melbourne before US and UK work. TV beckoned in the mid-1960s.

The Barry Crocker Show and Say It With Music were on Channel 10. Then I went across to Nine and took over The Sound of Music from Bobby Limb, which won me a Gold Logie, and 3 other Logies. US appearances would include The Jerry Lewis Telethon, The Peter Marshall Show and The Dinah Shore Show.

Bruce Beresford’s 1972 movie The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, alongside Barry Humphries, turned blue songs such as “My One Eyed Trouser Snake” into the Australian vernacular. Outrageous in tone, it was also a box office smash.

“I can’t not feel proud about it, because it was the first Australian film to make a million dollars in this country, the first Australian film to make a profit. We sort of kick started, in a sense, the industry again, because people said, ‘We can make money with Australian films.’ All the great films that came after it were all tied, in a sense, to Barry McKenzie,” he maintains.

Prior to retirement his TV work included Paul Fenech comedies Housos, Pizza, Swift’N’Shift Couriers and ABC2 comedy series, Strange Calls.

So iconic is the Neighbours theme tune, Crocker even included a swing version on a 2008 album.

‘People can find it on Spotify, I guess, on the Reflections album. The album is more or less reflecting over my life so Neighbours had to have a little tick in there.”

But when I ask if he has any interest in performing Neighbours at the Logie Awards, he politely declines.

“They can show clips. It would take me a couple of months to get into singing form again to do it.”

Crocker, who has no idea if he will benefit any royalties from the current chart boom, hopes it will do its bit for the show’s perilous future.

“It could be the little song that saved Neighbours. I’d love it for people to jump on board. Someone will say ‘Listen this has still got legs, so let’s pick it up,'” he suggests.

“Hopefully it will be picked up, continue on and keep a lot of people in work.”

8 Responses

  1. Hate to suggest this might be a bit of a damp squib, but I’m very familiar with music charts worldwide and I’m yet to find any sign of the Neighbours theme in any official UK Chart, beyond historical references to its lowly peak of #85 in 1988. Neither this week’s UK iTunes chart (as referenced on another site), nor this week’s Official UK Singles Chart, both released yesterday, include the Neighbours theme anywhere, much less at #1. Nice story but, unless I’m missing something obvious, it’s not supported by any of the readily-available UK Chart resources that I’ve seen.

      1. Yes. Seems this must’ve been a one day iTunes chart peak (still haven’t found definitive source reference) but it appears to’ e had zero impact on the full weekly UK iTunes chart. Oh well. Like I said, (conceptually) it was a nice story 🙂

        1. As David mentioned it was iTunes and Amazon’s official digital download charts. Multiple sources have shared the official screenshots of it moving up the charts. I don’t think there will be any thesis reports released on it.

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