INXS -- What You Need

 

There's only one bad thing that you can say about listening to INXS' "What You Need" and watching the video. You can only see and hear it for the first time only once. The band's August 1985 single is that amazing, and I'm giving myself the Gibbs slap up the back of my head that I actually didn't put it up for five years after posting their later hit "Need You Tonight" as a Reminiscings of Youth article (that song is amazing, too!).

"What You Need" is the wake-up song we need. It's also a great power walk song especially when those electric guitars come blasting away like hyperspace engines. And then, there's Kirk Pengilly's soulful saxophone. You can't help but go into slow stride mode on the street in your longcoat when you hear this. There were also some great music videos coming out at the time. The one for Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" was one of them in the following year and then this one of rotoscope amazement for "What You Need" probably wowed folks onto their butts when it first got onto MTV.

"What You Need" hit No. 21 on Canada's RPM while in the United States, it peaked at No. 5. In INXS' native Australia, it reached No. 2. Really liked the extended version as well. Heard that one all the time on Saturday nights on the radio.

So, what was being released in Japan in what was most likely a stifling hot August 1985? Well, we've got two albums and a single.

Akina Nakamori -- D404ME

Hiroko Yakushimaru -- Yume Juuwa （夢十話）

Yu Hayami -- Passion

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)