Bill and Boyd | |
---|---|
Origin | Wellington, North Island, New Zealand |
Genres | Pop |
Years active | 1959 | –1989
Labels | Stetson, Peak, Philips, Sunshine, Fable, EMI |
Past members |
|
Bill and Boyd were a pop music duo from 1959 to 1989 consisting of William "Bill" Cate (10 October 1940 - 29 November 2020) and William "Boyd" Robertson (born 1941), both on lead vocals and lead guitar, which started recording in 1960. They began their careers in Wellington, New Zealand before relocating to Sydney by 1964. In 1968 they toured United States supporting The Supremes and Herb Alpert.
Bill and Boyd's highest-charting single, "Santa Never Made It into Darwin", peaked at No. 2 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart in early 1975. It was a charity single in support of rebuilding Darwin after its devastation by Cyclone Tracy on the previous Christmas Eve – Christmas Day. At the Country Music Awards of Australia of 1976 "Santa Never Made It into Darwin" won the APRA Song of the Year for the duo and Cate its writer. Their self-titled album from 1975 reached No. 1 on the New Zealand Albums Chart, while "Put Another Log on the Fire" reached No. 5 on the related New Zealand Singles Chart and No. 23 in Australia. The duo continued together until 1989. Cate formed a self-titled trio.
William "Bill" Cate (1940–2020) and William "Boyd" Robertson (born 1941) both attended Naenae College, a secondary school in Lower Hutt, in the mid-1950s. [1] [2] [3] They started practising pop music in Robertson's bedroom and recorded a home version of "Angel" in about 1956. [1] They formed a duo, Bill and Boyd, with both on lead vocals and lead guitar. [2] [3] They began public performances at local halls including a residency at Lower Hutt's Town Hall. [3] Their early repertoire was cover versions of overseas artists, especially The Everly Brothers and Elvis Presley. [2] [3] In 1959 they supported local rock and roller, Johnny Devlin, in Wellington. [3]
By 1960 they had signed with Peak Records label, and issued five singles over the following year including "Fall in Love with You" and their cover of "Corrina, Corrina". [2] [3] Late in 1961 they switched labels to Philips Records and two years later relocated to Auckland. [2] During 1963 they toured with Peter Posa, Max Merritt and Dinah Lee. [2] By 1964 they had relocated to Sydney with the release of their single, "Chulu Chululu", receiving attention in Australia. [2] The track was co-written by Cate and Robertson. [4] In the early sixties they had three hit singles on the Lever Hit Parade, the biggest, a cover of the Everly Brothers hit "Cathy's Clown" which went to number one in 1960.
Through the late 1960s they released further singles, extended plays and albums, gained popularity, toured the club circuit and regularly appeared on national TV shows, Bandstand and Six O'Clock Rock . [2] [3] During February 1966 they supported an Australian tour by folk-pop group, The Seekers. [5] The Canberra Times ' Garry Raffaele caught their performance in Canberra and felt the duo were "more suited to night-club work although they were very well received by last night's audience. Their boy-next-door image even allowed Boyd to get away with a couple of slightly queer jokes". [5] In September 1967 Bill and Boyd's version of the Fiddler on the Roof track "If I Were a Rich Man" was issued on Sunshine Records and peaked at No. 24 on the Go-Set National Top 40. [6] In 1968 they toured United States supporting The Supremes and Herb Alpert. [2] [7]
By 1970 they had signed with independent label, Fable Records, which released Bill and Boyd's version of "It's a Small World". [2] [8] On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 1974 Cyclone Tracy devastated the Northern Territory capital, Darwin. Cate wrote "Santa Never Made It into Darwin", [9] which was released as a charity single in January the following year by Bill and Boyd to support the city's rebuilding. [2] It peaked at No. 2 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. [10] and sold 50,000 copies in eight weeks. [11] At the Country Music Awards of Australia of 1976 "Santa Never Made It into Darwin" won APRA Song of the Year for the duo and Cate its writer. [12]
A follow-up single, "Put Another Log on the Fire", was a cover version of Tompall Glaser's hit from the same year. Bill and Boyd's version reached No. 5 on the New Zealand Singles Chart, [13] and No. 23 in Australia. [10] [2] The duo's self-titled album was issued in December 1975 and peaked at No. 1 on the New Zealand Albums Chart. [13]
In June 1976 visiting US artist, Glen Campbell, hosted Down Home, Down Under on Nine Network with guests including the duo alongside Olivia Newton-John, John Meillon and Sherbet. [14] Bill and Boyd continued performing on the club circuit until 1989. [3] In 2003 Bruce Ward curated a CD compilation album, The Very Best of Bill and Boyd which was issued by EMI Music New Zealand. [15]
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |
---|---|---|---|
NZL [13] | AUS [16] | ||
Swingin' Together |
| - | - |
Songs for a Cloudy Summer Afternoon |
| - | - |
Interfusion Talent Plus |
| - | - |
Bill and Boyd |
| 1 | 83 |
Companions |
| - | - |
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certification |
---|---|---|---|
AUS [16] | |||
Dreamin': 18 All Time Greats |
| 41 |
|
The Very Best of Bill and Boyd |
| - |
Title | EP details | Peak chart positions |
---|---|---|
AUS | ||
Chulu Chululu |
| |
If I Were a Rich Man |
|
Year | Single | Chart positions | Certification | |
---|---|---|---|---|
AUS [6] | NZ [13] | |||
1960 | "Cathy's Clown" | 1 | ||
1961 | "Surrender My Love" | 7 | ||
1962 | "Double Trouble" | 8 | ||
1967 | "If I Were a Rich Man" | 24 | ||
1970 | "It's a Small World" | 51 | ||
1975 | "Santa Never Made It into Darwin" | 2 |
| |
"Union Silver" | 98 | |||
"Put Another Log on the Fire" | 23 | 5 | ||
1976 | "Questions" | 84 |
Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
---|---|---|---|
1975 [19] | "Santa Never Made It into Darwin" | Song of the Year | Won |
The Country Music Awards of Australia (CMAA) (also known as the Golden Guitar Awards) is an annual awards night held in January during the Tamworth Country Music Festival, celebrating recording excellence in the Australian country music industry. They have been held annually since 1973. [20]
Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
---|---|---|---|
1976 | "Santa Never Made It into Darwin" | APRA Song of the Year | Won |
The Australian Entertainment Mo Awards (commonly known informally as the Mo Awards), were annual Australian entertainment industry awards. They recognise achievements in live entertainment in Australia from 1975 to 2016. Bill and Boyd won 9 awards in that time. [21]
Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result (wins only) |
---|---|---|---|
1975 | Bill and Boyd | Vocal Duo of the Year | Won |
1976 | Bill and Boyd | Vocal Duo of the Year | Won |
1977 | Bill and Boyd | Vocal Duo of the Year | Won |
1980 | Bill and Boyd | Vocal Duo of the Year | Won |
1981 | Bill and Boyd | Vocal Duo of the Year | Won |
1982 | Bill and Boyd | Vocal Duo of the Year | Won |
1983 | Bill and Boyd | Vocal Duo of the Year | Won |
1984 | Bill and Boyd | Vocal Duo of the Year | Won |
1991 | Bill and Boyd | 1&2 Man Band of the Year | Won |
The Dingoes are an Australian country rock band. They were initially active from 1973 to 1979, and reformed in 2009. Initially based in Melbourne, the band relocated to the United States from 1976. The most stable line-up comprised John Bois on bass guitar, John Lee on drums, Broderick Smith on vocals and harmonica, Chris Stockley on guitar, and Kerryn Tolhurst on guitar. Mal Logan on keyboards joined after Stockley was hospitalised when shot in the stomach by Melbourne drug-dealer, Dennis Allen, who was attempting to gate crash a party. The Dingoes' debut single, "Way Out West", was released in November 1973, and peaked in the top 40 of the Australian Kent Music Report singles chart. Subsequent singles were "Boy on the Run", "Smooth Sailing", and "Into the Night", which did not reach the top 50. They had three top 40 albums, The Dingoes in 1974, Five Times the Sun in 1977, and Orphans of the Storm in 1979.
Cheryl Lau Sang, known professionally as Samantha Sang, is an Australian singer. She had an earlier career as a teenage singer under the stage name Cheryl Gray, before adopting the stage name she is more widely known as in 1969. She first received nationwide recognition in Australia in 1967, after releasing the top ten single "You Made Me What I Am".
Kevin Nicholas Borich is a New Zealand-born Australian guitarist and singer-songwriter. He was a founding member of The La De Das, the leader of Kevin Borich Express, and a founding member of The Party Boys, as well as a session musician for numerous acts.
Beeb Birtles is an Australian musician, singer, songwriter and guitarist. He has been a member of various Australian groups including Zoot (1967–71), Mississippi (1972–74), Little River Band (1975–83) and Birtles Shorrock Goble (2002–07). He has also worked as a solo artist, including releasing an album, Driven by Dreams (2000). In 2004, Birtles and other members of the classic line-up of Little River Band were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Kevin Stephen Johnson is an Australian singer-songwriter. Popular in the 1970s, his biggest hit is "Rock and Roll ", which peaked at No. 4 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart in 1973. He also had a top 20 hit with "Bonnie Please Don't Go" in 1971. "Rock and Roll" is one of the most covered songs written by an Australian with 27 different artists recording the song in 1975 alone. Covers of "Rock and Roll " came from fellow Australians, Col Joye and Dig Richards, and from international artists, Mac Davis, Terry Jacks, Gary Glitter, Joe Dassin, The Cats and Tom Jones. Davis' rendition became the highest charting version on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching No. 15 in 1975.
William Bruce Field is an Australian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has run his own recording studio and has worked as a producer. His solo first album, Bad Habits, reached No. 1 on the Kent Music Report. His top-20 hit singles are "Bad Habits", "You Weren't in Love with Me" and "True Love".
"Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)" was Australian pop singer Johnny Farnham's first solo single. The novelty song was released in November 1967 and was No. 1 on the Go-Set National Singles Charts for five weeks in early 1968 (six weeks on the Australian charts in 1968 based on the Kent Music Report). It was the largest-selling single in Australia by an Australian artist in the 1960s. "Sadie" sold approximately 183,000 copies in Australia and was the highest-selling Australian single until "Up There Cazaly" was released in 1979. It was also released in New Zealand, Denmark and Germany. The B-side, "In My Room", was written by Farnham. The A-side's label includes the acknowledgement "Vacuum cleaner solo: Mr. Jolly".
"Summer Love" is a song by Australian pop group, Sherbet and was released in March 1975. It became their first number-one hit on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. The song was promoted on the newly aired ABC TV pop series, Countdown, which gave it wide exposure. From early 1975 the group made more appearances on the show than any other band in the programme's history. In October, at the King of Pop Awards, "Summer Love" won the Most Popular Australian Single, the band won Most Popular Australian Group and their lead singer, Daryl Braithwaite, won the King of Pop award.
David Hirschfelder is an Australian musician, film score composer and performer. As a musician he has been a member of Little River Band and John Farnham Band. He has composed film scores for many films, including Strictly Ballroom, Australia, The Railway Man, The Water Diviner and The Dressmaker. He was nominated for Academy Awards for his scores for Shine and Elizabeth.
"Tojo"a.k.a."Tojo Never Made it to Darwin" is a song by Australian rock group Hoodoo Gurus. It was released in June 1983 as the second single from their debut studio album, Stoneage Romeos. It was written by their lead singer-guitarist, Dave Faulkner. It was also featured on their first album Stoneage Romeos (1984), which was produced by Alan Thorne. Tojo in the title refers to the World War II Japanese General and Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō.
APRA's Top 30 Australian songs was a list created by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) in 2001, to celebrate its 75th anniversary. A panel of 100 music personalities were asked to list the "ten best and most significant Australian songs of the past 75 years". The top ten songs, in numerical order, were announced on 28 May 2001 at the APRA Awards. The next twenty were not ordered and had been released nearly four weeks earlier, on 2 May, in a media statement by APRA representative Debbie Kruger.
Ross Edwin Ryan is an American-born Australian singer-songwriter and producer. His signature tune, "I Am Pegasus", was released in September 1973, which peaked at No. 2 on the Australian Singles. Its parent album, My Name Means Horse, was released in February 1974, which reached No. 3 on the Australian Album chart.
Vanda & Young were an Australian songwriting and producing duo composed of Harry Vanda and George Young. They performed as members of 1960s Australian rock group the Easybeats where Vanda was their lead guitarist and backing singer and Young was their rhythm guitarist and backing singer. Vanda & Young co-wrote most of the Easybeats' later hits including their international hit "Friday on My Mind" and they were the record producers for the group from 1967. Young was the older brother of Malcolm and Angus Young of the hard rock band AC/DC and also the record producer behind several of the band's biggest albums. The "Guitar George" and "Harry" who are mentioned in the Dire Straits hit song "Sultans of Swing" are George Young and Harry Vanda.
Sunshine is the third studio album by New Zealand rock band Dragon, it was their first album after they had relocated to Sydney, Australia in May 1975. Sunshine was released in February 1977 by CBS Records and peaked at #24 on the Australian national albums charts. The album was certified gold. The single "This Time" had been released in late June 1976, which peaked at #26 on the Australian national singles charts. The second single "Get that Jive" was the best charting peaking at #13 and the third single "Sunshine" reached #36. The album had US and International releases in 1978 on Portrait Records, with "This Time" called "In the Right Direction" and an alternative cover used.
"I Send a Message" was the second single released by Australian rock band INXS from their fourth album The Swing. The music video was directed by Yamamoto San and filmed in Tokyo at the city's oldest Buddhist temple in Main Old City Park.
Douglas Wesley Ashdown is an Australian singer-songwriter who had a minor hit in Australia with "Winter in America", also known as "Leave Love Enough Alone", which also reached No. 13 on the Dutch Singles Chart in 1978.
Philip John Manning is an Australian blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. Manning has been a member of various groups including Chain and has had a solo career. As a member of Chain, Manning co-wrote their January 1971 single "Black and Blue" which became number one on the Melbourne charts and also Judgement, which reached number two in Sydney. The related album, Toward the Blues followed in September and peaked in the top 10 albums chart.
Marty Rhone is an Australian pop singer-songwriter, actor and talent manager. In July 1975 his single, "Denim and Lace", peaked at No. 8 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. He had another hit in June 1977 with "Mean Pair of Jeans", which reached No. 10. As an actor, he appeared on the Australian stage in Godspell (1972–73); on TV in Number 96 (1974) and Class of '75 (1975); and in the London theatre production of The King and I (1979–80) alongside Yul Brynner.
Chulu Chululu sometimes referred to as Chululu is a Fijian song that has been covered by a multitude of artists ranging from Peter Posa to Bill Sevesi & His Islanders. An English version of this song was a hit for Bill and Boyd.
"Santa Never Made It into Darwin" is a charity single, recorded by Bill and Boyd. It was written by the band's William Cate. Funds raised supported the Australian city of Darwin, Northern Territory, following the damage wrought by Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, 1974. The song peaked at number 2 on the Australian singles chart. At the 1975 Australian Record Awards it won Song of the Year. It also won APRA Song of the Year at the 1976 Country Music Awards of Australia.
First recording made by Bill & Boyd. It was made from a tape they recorded on an old Phillips machine in Boyd's bedroom in Naenae in the mid 1950s
Notes: Originally recorded and released by Stetson Records, and Stebbing Studios between 1961 and 1978