"Royal in the Afternoon" | ||||
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Single by The Whitlams | ||||
from the album Torch the Moon | ||||
Released | February 2003 | |||
Recorded | 2002 | |||
Genre | Piano rock | |||
Length | 2:58 | |||
Label | Black Yak / Phantom | |||
Songwriter(s) | Tim Freedman | |||
The Whitlams singles chronology | ||||
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Audio sample | ||||
"Royal in the Afternoon" is a song by Australian band, The Whitlams. It was released in February 2003 as the third single from their fifth studio album, Torch the Moon . It received moderate success, peaking at number 66 in Australia in February 2003..
The song on Sunrise on 1 August 2008 to promote their latest release Truth, Beauty and a Picture of You . [1]
The Guardian described the song as, "A blokey rock song about leaving behind the life of a hellraiser for domestic bliss. Freedman sounds as if he is having fun as 'the mad king of it all', while Jak Housden provides the bouncy guitar." [2] The Sydney Morning Herald agreed the song was "bouncy" and said it was "sure to be a live singalong favourite". [3]
Chart (2003) | Peak position |
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Australian (ARIA Charts) [4] | 66 |
"Advance Australia Fair" is the national anthem of Australia. Written by Scottish-born composer Peter Dodds McCormick, the song was first performed in 1878, sung in Australia as a patriotic song. It first replaced "God Save the King" as the official national anthem in 1974, following a nationwide opinion survey. "God Save the Queen" was reinstated in January 1976, but a plebiscite to choose the national song in 1977 preferred "Advance Australia Fair", which was restored in 1984. "God Save the King/Queen" became known as the royal anthem, which is used at public engagements attended by the King or members of the Royal Family. The 1984 version of "Advance Australia Fair" has lyrics modified from McCormick's original and verses trimmed down from four to two. In January 2021, the lyrics were changed again.
Edward Gough Whitlam was the 21st prime minister of Australia, in office from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he was the head of a reformist administration that ended with his removal as prime minister after controversially being dismissed by the governor-general of Australia, Sir John Kerr, at the climax of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Whitlam is the only Australian prime minister to have been removed from office in this manner.
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Timothy James Freedman is an Australian musician, best known as the mainstay lead singer and keyboardist of the Australian band The Whitlams formed in 1993. The song "No Aphrodisiac", co-written by Freedman, was their break-through hit in 1997; their top four ARIA albums are Love This City (1999), Torch the Moon (2002), Little Cloud (2006) and compilation, Truth, Beauty and a Picture of You: Best of the Whitlams in 2008.
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