Men At Work “Business As Usual” 1982. Today, June 29th, is Men At Work singer/guitarist Colin Hay’s birthday (b. 1953). Business As Usual is the band’s debut album; it spent 15 weeks at #1 on the US charts, 9 weeks in Australia and 5 weeks in the UK. (Business As Usual was released in late 1981 in Australia but this is the US version which was released in ‘82).

I loved the singles from this album back in ‘82 and ‘83; I was pretty into Australia at the time and having pen pals was kinda a thing back then – at least it was for me – and I had two Australian pen pals (only one of whom I can remember: Clayton Pinfold from Brisbane, I wonder what ever happened to him. The last correspondence I received was in the mid-80′s and he was super-into neo-psychedelia and peppered his letter with drawings of paisleys and pointy boots). So “Down Under” was a huge favorite of mine. The single debuted at #6 on the US charts and reached #1 in January of ‘83. (It took another 30 years for me to try vegemite though, and after tasting it I decided I could wait another 30.) “Who Can It Be Now?,” the first single released from Business As Usual, also went to #1 in the US. Probably one of my top tracks is “Be Good Johnny” which was not released in the US but I remember it getting pretty decent play on MTV.