"Under the Milky Way" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by the Church | ||||
from the album Starfish | ||||
B-side |
| |||
Released | 15 February 1988 [1] | |||
Recorded | 1987 | |||
Studio | Los Angeles | |||
Genre | ||||
Length |
| |||
Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) |
| |||
Producer(s) |
| |||
The Church singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Music video | ||||
"Under the Milky Way" on YouTube |
"Under the Milky Way" is a single by Australian alternative rock band the Church, released on 15 February 1988, [1] and appears on their fifth studio album Starfish . The song was written by bass guitarist and lead vocalist Steve Kilbey and his then-girlfriend Karin Jansson of Curious (Yellow). It peaked at No. 22 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart, No. 24 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 and No. 25 on the New Zealand Singles Chart; it also appeared in the Dutch Single Top 100. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1989, the song won 'Single of the Year'. It was issued simultaneously in both 7" vinyl and 12" vinyl formats by Arista Records (internationally) and Mushroom Records (Australian region).
In 2006, the song was remixed and released as Craig Obey vs the Church. It peaked at number 91 on the ARIA charts. [5]
In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "Under the Milky Way" was ranked number 33. [6]
In 1987, the Church travelled to Los Angeles to record their fifth studio album, Starfish , and worked with producers Waddy Wachtel and Greg Ladanyi. [7] [8]
The Church's line-up for the album was Steve Kilbey on bass guitar and lead vocals, Peter Koppes on guitars, Marty Willson-Piper on guitars, and Richard Ploog on drums and percussion. [7] [8] However, while recording "Under the Milky Way", the band were unable to get a drum track which sounded right with Ploog, so they played to a click track and later session musician Russ Kunkel was brought in to add drums and percussion. [9]
"Under the Milky Way" was written by Kilbey and Karin Jansson of Curious (Yellow). [10] [11] Kilbey and Jansson had become friends in 1983 and lived together in Australia from 1986. [12] Kilbey said, "I smoked a joint and started playing the piano and she came in the room and we just made it up." [13] According to a press release issued with Starfish, the title is from an Amsterdam music and cultural venue, Melkweg (Dutch for "Milky Way"), which Kilbey used to frequent. [14]
I just stumbled upon it and for some reason it has struck this wonderful sense of universality with people that most of my songs don't.
Steve Kilbey [11]
"Under the Milky Way" features a 12-string acoustic guitar melody, along with a solo composed with an EBow on a Fender Jazzmaster and recorded on a Synclavier, leading to a sound reminiscent of bagpipes. [9] In October 1990, Jansson told John Tingwell of Drum Media about songwriting with Kilbey, "it's a very spontaneous thing. It's not as if someone has put us together to write a hit song. It's more like sometimes when we write together, a song comes knocking on the door". [12] While in September 2008, Kilbey discussed the track with Iain Shedden of The Australian . [11]
Willson-Piper said, "'Milky Way' is perfect really, in the way that it crosses over from our past records. It's still this very beautiful, textured song, which is what we write, but it doesn't challenge people to find out its deepest hidden meaning the way our other songs have in the past." [15]
"Under the Milky Way" was released on 15 February 1988 in both 7" vinyl and 12" vinyl formats by Arista Records (internationally) and Mushroom Records (Australian region). [1] [16] The Church's fifth studio album, Starfish, was issued simultaneously with the single. In April the single was released in several formats worldwide including 7", double 7", 12", CD single, and compact cassette, using at least five different cover art designs. [17] The 12" B-sides were "Musk" and "Warm Spell", whereas the 7" B-side was "Musk". [17] Different Spanish versions added either "Anna Miranda" or "Perfect Child". The music video for the song featured on the Church's video compilation Goldfish (Jokes, Magic & Souvenirs).
An acoustic version was initially released as a single in multiple formats including 7" vinyl, CD single, and others. It also appears on the "Sum of the Parts" promotional release and the 2 CD re-issue of the Starfish album.
On the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart "Under the Milky Way" peaked at No. 22. [18] However, it was not the band's highest-charting single: "Almost with You" (1982) and "Metropolis" (1990) charted at No. 21 and No. 19, respectively, on the Australian charts. [18] In the United States it reached No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 [19] and No. 2 on the Mainstream Rock chart. [20] Other charting peaks include No. 25 on the New Zealand Singles Chart, [21] No. 69 on the Canadian RPM 100, [22] No. 70 on the Dutch Single Top 100, [23] and No. 90 in the United Kingdom. [24]
At the ARIA Music Awards of 1989 "Under the Milky Way" won 'Single of the Year', [25] though Kilbey refused to attend the award ceremony. He said, "You will note that I didn't collect the award. I don't give a fuck about winning that award. I've been a big critic of the Australian music industry. I think the whole thing is utterly embarrassing and repulsive." [13]
In 2006, Kilbey said of the recording, "It's actually flat lifeless 'n' and sterile. Great song, sure, but the performance, the sounds are ordinary. We coulda got that in Australia in a week or two for a 20th of the money we spent. Hey, it's sold almost a million in the US alone, but we'll never see any money 'cause it cost so much to make". [26] Kilbey's assessment ignored its second life as a much-licensed track. In December 2011, he told News Limited reporter Cameron Adams:
In 2001, the song was featured on the soundtrack for the film Donnie Darko . In 2006, it was performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Kilbey said after the performance that it was as if the song had been made for the occasion, though in his blog he was critical of the Commonwealth Games as an event. [28] In September 2008, readers of The Weekend Australian Magazine voted it as the best Australian song of the last 20 years. [11] Sheet music for "Under the Milky Way" was published by Hal Leonard.
In October 2010, the Church's Starfish was listed in the top 40 in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums . [29] The authors, John O'Donnell, Toby Creswell and Craig Mathieson, described "Under the Milky Way" as "[The Church's] signature track ... [which] caught them at their peak of guitar-fuelled creativity ... [it is] the elegiac centrepiece of the record ... sounded like an induction, with its soft, monkish keyboard washes and ringing guitar chords, but it never reaches the point of transition where one world gives way to the next ... possibly concerned with drugs, but it transcends any single setting or worldview". [29]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Under the Milky Way" | Steve Kilbey, Karin Jansson [10] | 4:57 |
2. | "Warm Spell" | Kilbey, Marty Willson-Piper, Peter Koppes [30] | 4:35 |
3. | "Musk" | Willson-Piper, Richard Ploog, Kilbey, Koppes [31] | 3:55 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Under the Milky Way" | Steve Kilbey, Karin Jansson | 4:05 |
2. | "Musk" | Willson-Piper, Richard Ploog, Kilbey, Koppes | 3:55 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Under the Milky Way" | Steve Kilbey, Karin Jansson | 4:57 |
2. | "Anna Miranda" | Marty Willson-Piper, Richard Ploog, Kilbey, Peter Koppes, Jansson [32] | 2:57 |
3. | "Antenna" | Koppes, Kilbey, Willson-Piper, Ploog [33] | 3:51 |
4. | "Destination" | Willson-Piper, Ploog, Kilbey, Koppes [34] | 5:51 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Under the Milky Way" | Steve Kilbey, Karin Jansson | 4:57 |
2. | "Perfect Child" | Kilbey, Richard Ploog, Marty Willson-Piper, Peter Koppes [35] | 2:53 |
3. | "Musk" | Willson-Piper, Ploog, Kilbey, Koppes | 3:55 |
4. | "Warm Spell" | Kilbey, Willson-Piper, Koppes | 4:35 |
Chart (1988) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australia (Kent Music Report) [36] | 22 |
Canada ( RPM ) [22] | 69 |
Netherlands (Single Top 100) [23] | 70 |
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ) [21] | 25 |
UK Singles (OCC) [24] | 90 |
US Billboard Hot 100 [37] | 24 |
US Mainstream Rock ( Billboard ) [19] | 2 |
Chart (2006) | Peak position |
Australia (ARIA) [5] (as Craig Obey vs. the Church) | 91 |
"Under the Milky Way" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Sia | ||||
Released | 26 January 2010 | |||
Recorded | 2009 | |||
Length | 3:34 | |||
Label | Rhino Records (Warner Music Group) | |||
Songwriter(s) |
| |||
Sia singles chronology | ||||
|
Sia recorded "Under the Milky Way" as a non-album single. [38] It was released on 26 January 2010.
In 2016, Metric released a cover of "Under the Milky Way" for the AmfAR AIDS charity's benefit album The Time Is Now!. [39]
Strawpeople recorded a cover for the album Broadcast (1994). It was released as a single and peaked at number 113 on the Australian singles chart in November 1995. [40] [41]
Steven John Kilbey is an English-Australian singer-songwriter best known as the lead singer and bass guitarist for the rock band The Church. He is also a music producer, poet, and painter. As of 2020, Kilbey has released 14 solo albums and has collaborated on recordings with musical artists such as Martin Kennedy, Stephen Cummings and Ricky Maymi as a vocalist, musician, writer and/or producer. Ian McFarlane writes that "Kilbey's solo recordings [are] challenging and evocative. They ran the gamut of sounds and emotions from electronic and avant-garde to acoustic and symphonic, joyous and dreamy to saturnine and sardonic".
The Church are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1980. Initially associated with new wave, neo-psychedelia, and indie rock, their music later came to feature slower tempos and surreal soundscapes reminiscent of alternative rock, dream pop, and post-rock. Glenn A. Baker has written that "From the release of the 'She Never Said' single in November 1980, this unique Sydney-originated entity has purveyed a distinctive, ethereal, psychedelic-tinged sound which has alternatively found favour and disfavour in Australia." The Los Angeles Times has described the band's music as "dense, shimmering, exquisite guitar pop".
Deadstar were an Australian pop rock band formed in August 1995 by Peter Jones on drums and percussion; Caroline Kennedy on lead vocals and guitar; and Barry Palmer on guitar and bass guitar. They released three studio albums, deadstar, Milk and Somewhere Over the Radio. Two singles reached the top 100 on the ARIA Singles Chart, "Run Baby Run" and "Deeper Water", both in 1999. The group were nominated for three ARIA Music Awards. The group disbanded in 2001.
Indecent Obsession were an Australian pop rock band formed early in 1987 in Brisbane with founding mainstays Daryl Sims on drums and Michael Szumowski on keyboards. By 1988 the line-up also included Andrew Coyne on lead guitar and David Dixon on lead vocals. They released three studio albums, Spoken Words and Indio, both reached the top 50 on the ARIA Albums Chart. In 1990 Spoken Words was repackaged for United States market as Indecent Obsession, which reached the Billboard 200. In May 1989 they issued their debut single, "Say Goodbye", which peaked at No. 6 on the ARIA Singles Chart – their highest position in Australia. Their second single, "Tell Me Something" (September), reached No. 17 nationally. When issued in the US it peaked at No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100. It reached No. 1 in Indonesia and Hong Kong, and Top 10 in Japan and South Africa. For the Asian market the band used the shortened name, Obsession. In 1992 they were the first Western act to tour South Africa after the lifting of the cultural isolation during the apartheid era. They were "greeted by screaming fans and scenes of mass hysteria", both their second album, Indio, and one of its singles, "Kiss Me", peaked at No. 1 on the relevant South African charts. By 1993 Sims and Szumowski were joined by Mark Gray on bass guitar, Richard Hennassey on lead vocals and Graham Kearns on lead guitar. The following year they issued another studio album, Relativity, before disbanding a year later.
Starfish is the fifth album by the Australian rock band The Church, released in February 1988 by Mushroom Records in Australia and by Arista Records internationally. The band's international breakthrough album, Starfish went gold in America and has remained their most commercially successful release. The album sold 600,000 copies in the United States alone. The first single, "Under the Milky Way", charted on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #24, and at #2 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, leading to significant exposure of the then relatively underground Australian act. In Australia "Under the Milky Way" climbed to #22, and Starfish reached #11 on the album charts.
"Hail Caesar" is a song by the Australian rock band AC/DC, which was written by members and brothers, Angus and Malcolm Young. It is from their 1995 album Ballbreaker and was issued on 19 February 1996 as a single. The lyrics, "All Hail Caesar", are a reference to the salute given to Roman general Julius Caesar. An edited version of the song at 4:30 appeared only on promo releases of the single. Commercial single releases and the Ballbreaker album contain the full version at 5:14. The single reached the top 100 ARIA Singles Chart.
...ish is the debut album by Australian pop rock band 1927, released on 14 November 1988, which peaked at number one for four weeks in early 1989 on the ARIA Albums Chart. The album remained in the top 50 for 46 weeks and reached No. 2 on the 1989 ARIA Year End Albums Chart. The album was awarded 5× platinum certification – for shipment of more than 350,000 copies. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1989, 1927 won 'Breakthrough Artist – Single' for "That's When I Think of You" and 'Breakthrough Artist – Album' for ...ish. At the 1990 ceremony the group won 'Best Video' for "Compulsory Hero", which was directed by Geoff Barter. In 1999 rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, described the album as "brimful of stirring, stately pop rock anthems". As of 2002, it was in the top 10 of the most successful debut albums by Australian artists.
The Collection is the second compilation album by Australian band Divinyls, released on 6 December 1993. The album does not include any of their 1980s singles, which were released on a different record label. The album failed to enter the Australian ARIA top 100.
Cherry were an Australian pop music group from the late 1990s. The five founding vocalists were Amy Canto, Empress Camielle, Hayley Toomey, Gerri Mackay and Zoe Trilsbach. Two of their singles reached the ARIA Singles Chart top 60, "S.O.S." and "Saddest Song". Amy and Zoe left the group, which continued as a trio but disbanded soon after in 1999.
"Original Sin" is a song by Australian rock group INXS, released as the first single from the band's fourth album, The Swing. It was written by Michael Hutchence and Andrew Farriss, and produced by Nile Rodgers.
"1000 Miles" is the fourth single by Australian rock band Grinspoon from their third studio album New Detention. It was released on 18 August 2003 by Universal Music Australia, which reached the ARIA Singles Chart top 100.
"The One Thing" is a song by Australian rock group INXS, released in July 1982 as the first single ahead of their third studio album, Shabooh Shoobah, which appeared in October that year.
"The Dead Heart" is a song by Australian rock band Midnight Oil. It was first released as a single in Australia in 1986 and in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1988 after it had been included on the 1987 album, Diesel and Dust. It peaked at number four on the Australian singles chart and at number 11 on the U.S. Mainstream rock chart.
Touch is the second studio album by Australian rock band Noiseworks. It was released by CBS Records on 14 November 1988.
"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.
"Science Fiction" is a song by Australian rock/new wave group Divinyls, which was the lead single from their first studio album Desperate. Released in December 1982, "Science Fiction", peaked at No. 13 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. The B-side, "I'll Make You Happy" is a cover of The Easybeats 1966 hit.
The Honeymoon Is Over is the third studio album by Australian indie rock band The Cruel Sea, which was released in May 1993. The album was produced by the band, Tony Cohen and Mick Harvey for Red Eye Records. It peaked at No. 4 on the ARIA Albums Chart and has sold over 140,000 copies. Its lead single, "Black Stick" was released ahead of the album in March 1993 and peaked at No. 25 on the related Singles Chart. The title song, "The Honeymoon Is Over", was released in July 1993 as a single and reached the Top 50. It was followed by a cover of Tony Joe White's 1969 song, "Woman with Soul", in October which peaked at No. 64. The final single from the album, "Seems Twice", was issued in February 1994 and peaked at No. 90.
"Burn for You" is a song by Australian rock band INXS that features on the band's fourth album The Swing. It was the third single to be released from the album and peaked at #3 on the Australian chart in August 1984, remaining there for two weeks.
"Simple Man" is a song by Australian rock-pop band Noiseworks. It was released in May 1989 as the third single from their second studio album Touch (1988) and peaked at number 47 on the ARIA singles chart.
"In My Youth" is a song by Australian rock-pop band Noiseworks. It was released in August 1989 as the fourth and final single from their second studio album Touch (1988) and peaked at number 44 on the ARIA singles chart.