Kitch's Top 10 Classic Australian Rock Songs - #3 "You're The Voice"

"You're The Voice" – John Farnham

 

Writer(s): Andy Qunta, Keith Reid, Maggie Ryder and Chris Thompson

Album: Whispering Jack

Released: 1986

Peak Chart Position: #1

Off the Whispering Jack album that launched Farnham’s career as one of Australia’s biggest pop/rock stars after a few years in the wilderness, and featuring a memorable bagpipe bridge – which, apparently, was Farnham’s own idea – the powerhouse vocal performance from Farnham elevate You’re The Voice from being a fair-to-decent song to one that’ll live in Australian music history for a long time to come, and is easily the high point of a Farnham live show. That’s why he always closes with this one. Also, ‘You’re The Voice’ is the first song to be released on a compact disc format.

Really, this is Farnham’s version of ‘Working Class Man’ in terms of both songs being memorable anthems and incredible, long-lasting chart success in Australia and also overseas. It was the 1987 ARIA winner for ‘Song of the Year’, and spent seven weeks atop the Australian charts. It cracked the top ten in many European nations, too, and was the first of many Farnham hits produced by Ross Fraser.