Tune Tag #48 with MK Piatkowski, of Song of the Day, Pt. 2: Whitlams, Kylie Minogue, Rick Springfield, Gamble, Alex Lloyd, Electric Peanut Butter Company
🦘G'day, mate! We travel down-under for a wild'n'wooly Tune Tag, but somehow end up out back in Philadelphia! Buckle up, wallabies....it's going to be a funky ride!🦘Ayers Rock...and, so do we!
Good Morning, MK! TAG!
Tune Tag is proud as puppets to welcome , who brings us Song of the Day!
About our guest: MK doesn’t know a time without music, thanks to her Perry Como-loving parents. An AOR (Album Oriented Rock) station was always on the car radio, leaving her with a love of the genre and a curiosity to discover more.
Sneaking a radio to listen to John Majhor on Toronto’s CHUM 1050 opened her up to a new world that she is still exploring. A singer all her life, she’s now sharing the songs she loves on her blog, Song of the Day, which started its life on her Facebook page, but has found its full expression, now, on Substack.
She also writes a weekly personal development blog, “Catalysts of Change,” and enjoys doing oracle card readings.
This is MK’s encore performance. You can enjoy her Tune Tag debut, here:
Last week, we enjoyed the company of , who carries the keys to The Wax Museum:
Next week, set aside some time to enjoy some tea and biscuits with of LP!
MK’s song #1 sent to Brad: The Whitlams, “No Aphrodisiac,” 1997
MK’s rationale: I had been holding off on going a second round with Tune Tag, but when I finally decided, “No Aphro” was the immediate choice! It’s such an unlikely #1, and it shows off one of my favourite bands, The Whitlams. This is the famous blue video that was quickly shot as the song raced up Australia’s national Triple J radio charts.
The song was written by Matt Ford (aka Pinky Beecroft, Aussie screenwriter/performer), Glenn Dormand (aka Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab, Aussie record producer, TV presenter, and film director), and actual Whitlams member, lead singer and keyboardist, Tim Freedman (below; he produced with Rob Taylor).
“‘No Aphrodisiac’ was written for Freedman’s then-girlfriend, who was living in Melbourne, while he was in Sydney,” according to Jeff Jenkins in his 2007 tome, 50 Years of Rock in Australia. “Freedman later recalled, ‘We were growing apart, not writing to each other so much...Pinky Beecroft and Chit Chat had just played me a demo of theirs, which consisted of very funny personal classifieds, and we used 6 lines of that to finish the song.’”
In 2010, The Whitlams toured Australia with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra; here’s a peek at a pre-tour rehearsal of “No Aphro”:
Click here to go to MK’s latest article on “No Aphrodisiac”!
MK featured another song by The Whitlams (a recent Song of the Day), a delightful tune about the infamous Australian outlaw family, The Kelly Gang.
I’m kinda in love with the notion of an all-Aussie Tune Tag. Let’s see what happens!—MK
Brad’s song #1 sent to MK: Gamble ft. Jason Singh, “This Time,” 2018
MK’s response: I hadn’t heard of Gamble. There were a few things I immediately thought of: She had signed with Warner-Australia around the same time The Whitlams had a distribution deal with the label. Eternal Nightcap, the album from which “No Aphro” catapulted, was the biggest selling Australian independent album ever, at the time.
Gamble Breaux stars in TV’s Real Housewives of Melbourne. The Whitlams have a song called “Melbourne,” and the woman “No Aphro” was written for lives in Melbourne. Gamble’s done theatre, as has Tim Freedman. That may have been my fault. Very happy if it was.
Or, the connection might have to do with Gamble’s writer/producer, Jason Singh. At the same time The Whitlams were coming into prominence, so was his band, Taxiride. Tim Freedman was a presenter at the 1999 ARIAs after having won Artist of the Year the year before when Taxiride won for Breakthrough Artist - Single. They shared the award with another artist I absolutely love, Alex Lloyd. I’ve written about his debut album here. And discovering that led me to my next song.
I have a tie with Gamble, too: She trained at NIDA as an actor, and my first trip to Australia in late 2000 was to get into NIDA’s director-training program.
She got in. I didn’t.
Brad’s rationale: Hadn’t heard of The Whitlams before. Really enjoyed the song, and the singing and phrasing by lead singer, Freedman. “This Time” features Aussies, Gamble Breaux and Taxiride’s Jason Singh (with Singh and Lukether Batterbury writing and producing).
In this video, Jason speaks about being on Sire Records/Australia, and being on the same worldwide label whose founder, Rock Hall of Famer, the late Seymour Stein, signed The Ramones, Talking Heads, and The Pretenders (among others). He also talks about opening for Tina Turner at London’s Wembley Stadium, and Taxiride’s 1999 debut album, Imaginate, and his recent “Heaven’s Greatest Hits” tribute tour:
Read more about Taxiride and Imaginate. Jason enjoyed reading the article, himself, and told me via social media, “Thanks for reminding me how good we used to be!”
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