All titles in the ‘Song’ genre
29 titles - sorted alphabetically or by year
1890s
The Hen Convention music – 1897
The oldest surviving Australian sound recording is a novelty song featuring chicken impersonations.
The Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Strait music – 1898
Yamaz Sibarud is a traditional song performed by ‘Maino of Yam’, recorded during an anthropological expedition to the Torres Strait in 1898.
Fanny Cochrane Smith’s Tasmanian Aboriginal Songs music – 1899
These are the earliest recordings of traditional Tasmanian Aboriginal songs and language.
1910s
The Landing of the Australian Troops in Egypt historical – c1916
A short commercial recording dramatising the Australian troops arriving in Egypt, before Gallipoli.
1920s
1930s
Along the Road to Gundagai music – 1931
This is a famous recording of one of Australia’s most popular songs.
Wrap Me Up With My Stockwhip and Blanket music – 1936
New Zealand-born Tex Morton created an awareness that country and western music could be an Australian form as much as it was an American form.
Give a Little Credit to your Dad; Lonesome for You, Mother Dear music – 1939
Two songs by then unknown country singer Buddy Williams, recorded in 1939.
1940s
Swanston St Shamble; Two Day Jag music – 1944
The first published recordings of Graeme Bell’s Dixieland Band made in Melbourne in 1944.
1950s
Maranoa Lullaby music – 1950
Harold Blair was the first Aboriginal Australian to achieve recognition as a classical singer.
Jack Luscombe music – 1953
An oral history containing the first recorded collection of Australian folk song.
Tribal Music of Australia music – 1953
These are the first commercially available recordings of Australian Aboriginal music.
A Pub With No Beer music – 1957
Slim Dusty’s original recording from 1957 of one of his most famous songs.
1960s
Georgia Lee Sings the Blues Down Under music – 1962
Georgia Lee was the first Indigenous Australian female singer to release an album. This was also the first Australian album to be recorded in stereo.
I’ll Never Find Another You music – 1964
A 1964 song by The Seekers, written and produced by Tom Springfield, which became the first million-selling record by an Australian band.
Friday on My Mind music – 1966
‘Friday on My Mind’ was the first international pop hit by an Australian band, and a landmark in the distinguished career of songwriting team Harry Vanda and George Young.
1970s
Eagle Rock music – 1971
Dancing the Eagle Rock was one of Australia’s favourite pastimes in the early seventies and it still is today.
I Am Woman music – 1972
‘I am Woman’ by Helen Reddy was a worldwide hit and the first song by an Australian artist or composer to reach number one in America.
Most People I Know (Think That I’m Crazy) music – 1972
The song ‘Most People I Know (Think That I’m Crazy)’ saw the coming of age of Australian rock music.
The Loner music – 1973
‘The Loner’ by Vic Simms is regarded as Australia’s great lost classic album of Aboriginal protest songs.
Living in the 70’s music – 1974
Unrestrained by cultural cringe, the title song of this Skyhooks album captured what it was like growing up in the suburbs of Australia in the 1970s.
1980s
Down Under music – 1981
Released in 1981, this catchy pop song was written as a light ‘tongue-in-cheek’ dig at Australian values and became a number one hit in Australia, the UK and US.
We Have Survived music – 1981
The No Fixed Address version of Bart Willoughby’s ‘We Have Survived’ has became an unofficial anthem for Australia’s Aboriginal community.
Jailanguru Pakarnu (Out from Jail) music – 1983
'Jailanguru Pakarnu’ ('Out from Jail’) was the first rock song recorded and released in an Aboriginal language (Luritja).
Rebetika: Songs of Greece music – 1986
Rebetika music evolved in the 1920s, combining jail songs and hashish-smoking songs of the Greek underworld with music brought to Greece by refugees from the Greek-Turkish War.
I Should Be So Lucky music – 1987
The second single from Kylie’s debut album, Kylie (1988), penned by English pop writing-producing phenomenon Stock, Aitken and Waterman.
1990s
