INXS -- Need You Tonight

A few weeks ago, I was watching a film as a part of a series of documentaries for the annual "Bell: Let's Talk" project for putting a huge spotlight on mental illness. The movie was "Mystify" regarding the life and death of Michael Hutchence, the lead singer for the Australian band INXS. The style was very interesting in which the movie seemed to move forward based on mostly home movie footage (some by the late Hutchence himself) and interviews with the loves of his life, including Kylie Minogue. I got to hear excerpts of a lot of INXS' hits but this was by no means a feel-good movie; really, this was a slow path to a tragedy.

One of their biggest successes was "Need You Tonight", a September 1987 single that hit No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, No. 2 on Canada's top singles, and No. 3 in Australia. The song was also memorable for its music video with all of that layered footage and Hutchence prowling around like a hungry panther. I remember seeing that video on heavy rotation on my nation's equivalent of MTV, MuchMusic, and then catching it one night at a pizza parlour right across from the University of Toronto where a bunch of us were having dinner after a volleyball game. But it was also the song's guitar riff, drum taps and Hutchence's stealthy delivery that also stuck with me all these decades.

As I did with The Go-Gos last summer, I will now provide that comparison between the release of this INXS single and a couple of Japanese pop tunes. However, unlike last time when I put up the Top 3 singles for June 1982 when "Vacation" had been released, the comparison with the September 23rd release of "Need You Tonight" will simply involved a couple of J-Pop tunes that were also released at around the same time.

1. Ayumi Shirota -- Koishikute (September 23rd)

2. LA-PPISCH -- Payapaya (September 21st)