Oh! Hey! I started writing this in 2023. Let’s finish it RIGHT NOW in 2025.
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While I still have enough spoons and focus to churn out some blog entries, it seems like now is a good time to break out a new song ranking or two. I’m going to try to churn out a few by bands that had minimal (i.e. >20) singles.
Since I spent about four years finishing the INXS ranking and used the phrase “I thought INXS were the Rolling Stones to Men at Work’s The Beatles,” it seems only logical to write a bit about Men at Work. I don’t think it’s possible to convey to anyone who didn’t live through it how absolutely huge Men at Work were from 1981 through 1983. U.S. DJs tossed about the phrase “Australian Invasion.” They were all over MTV. Their videos were great fun and for a hot minute they really seemed poised to be, well, if not Beatles level huge at least maybe Toto level huge.
By the time they were recording their third album, Two Hearts, drummer Jerry Speiser and Bassist John Rees had both been fired (it seems like it was a dispute over the bands’ perhaps out of his depth manager). Guitarist and founding member Ron Stykert left while the album was being recorded. Multi-instrumentalist Greg Ham and vocalist Colin Hay soldiered on through 1985 and the two of them occasionally brought a version of the band back until Ham’s death in 2012. Hay sometimes still tours under the Men at Work name with a group of hard working musicians.
Just to show my personal prejudice from the start, I really dig Colin Hay’s solo work. He’s a great songwriter and his voice is gorgeous (check out his first post Men at Work single, 1987’s “Hold Me,” which is a particular favorite, but really his work has bee consistently excellent).
13. Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive
First single from Cargo (1983), released as a single in 1982
Men at Work’s first album, Business as Usual, became a big hit in the United States late into it’s release. In fact, the label was still milking it’s success in the U.S. when they released their second album, Cargo, in Australia. So while the label dinguses were debating about whether to release Australian hit “Be Good Johnny” as a final Business as Usual single, over in Australia, Men at Work had already released “Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Jive” to reasonable success. Soooo the label missed out on “Be Good Johnny” as a U.S. single and decided to make Men at Work’s second single from Cargo – the sublime “Overkill” – the first U.S. single. They eventually released “Dr. Heckyll” in the U.S. to middling success.
I responded poorly to this particular song when I first heard it in 1983. To my teenage ear, it sounded a bit like they were trying to be deliberately quirky as opposed to naturally quirky. What I loved about the band when I was age was that they came across as genuinely quirky. Authentically odd. Bone fide weird. This song offended my poorly formed teenage aesthetic and I have yet to forgive it.
12. Keypunch Operator
Stand-alone single released in 1980
What a difference having a record label makes. This was a self-produced single from 1980 – a totally new wave number that would have sounded about right next to some of those early INXS singles (like “Simple Simon” – INXS #53). It doesn’t really have the more inventive elements of their later songs and the lyrics are just so-so. However, the b-side of this single was the original version of a little track I like to call “Down Under.” That version is more like a jam band tune than the pop single it later became, but it’s still pretty decent.
11. High Wire
Fourth single from Cargo (1983), released as a single in 1983
Hmm. “High Wire” isn’t a bad song per se (really, I’m not sure I’d call any of Men at Work’s singles bad songs) but I feel like it’s pretty forgettable other than the great “through the ring of fire” hook. I can sit down and sing most any song from Cargo from memory to this day (this day being December 22, 2025) including “Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive.” Well, at the very least, I can convincingly make up lyrics for any song from Cargo because the melodies are all strong AF. Not so much “High Wire.” Listening to it again right now, it’s pleasant enough, but I know I’m going to forget everything once it’s over. I will, however, shout “THROUGH THE RING OF FI I RE” at my cats several times tonight, so that bumps it up in my rankings a bit.
10. Maria
Second single from Two Hearts (1985), released as a single in 1985
Colin Hay and Greg Ham (RIP) were the only two members of Men at Work left by the time they finished recording Two Hearts – guitarist Ron Strykert left the band when they were recording it. As I mentioned, bassist Jerry Rees and drummer Jerry Speiser had basically been fired. Ham left during the tour in support of the album and that, as they say, was that.
It doesn’t really live up to the first two albums (or to Hay’s subsequent work). Hay was developing in a more serious direction as a songwriter and – despite my complaints about “Dr. Heckyll” working too hard to be quirky – Two Hearts doesn’t really offer the kind of joi de vivre of the first two records. At the same time, none of the tracks really reach the more serious brilliance of “Overkill” either. Kind of a shame.
“Maria” is a tragic lyric about a woman who immigrates from her home country (somewhere) to another country (somewhere) and basically gets married and ends up working in a shoe factory, feeling like she’s wasted her life and been forgotten. It features an electric sitar line by Hay and a lovely, shared lead vocal by Renée_Geyer. It is very, very slightly reminiscent of “Fairy Tale of New York” by The Pogues in that there is some back and forth between Maria and her husband. Like I said, very slightly. Again, not a bad song by any stretch of the imagination, just a little bland.
9. Sail to You
Fourth single from Two Hearts (1985), released as a single in 1985
Every time I watch the video for “Sail to You,” I get the sense that Hay and Ham were taking the piss. In my brain, the record executives asked them if they couldn’t try making a goofy video like some of their earlier ones and the two of them were like “Oh, sure, we’ll be goofy alright…” It feels like a very deliberate rejection of that image. The song couldn’t be less appropriate for a goofy video, too. It’s a dark tune about the origin of Australia, with references to both the English takeover of the continent from the Indigenous Australians and to the historical fact that Australia was an English penal colony. It’s also surprisingly catchy. Basically, every song from here on up is (IMO) a banger, as the kids say.
8. Everything I Need
First single from Two Hearts (1985), released as a single in 1985
“Everything I Need” should have been a bigger hit than it was. Alas, it was 1985 and Men at Work already felt over. It was a different music world back then and it had been two years since they’d released anything which felt like an eternity to a 17-year-old like myself. I bought the single and helped it reach #47 on the Billboard chart. WHAT MORE CAN BE ASKED OF ME?
Plus, I think it didn’t quite help that this was a love song from a band who – at least judging from the singles – was best known for dealing in a wider variety of topics (Australia, war, avoiding bill collectors). The chorus is really one of their best and if the song isn’t quite as lovable as “Down Under,” well, let a band grow, will you? I mean, yes, they were shrinking in terms of members, but Hay and Ham (and presumable Strykert for 8 of the 10 songs on Two Hearts) seemed to be genuinely trying to stretch their sound. It would have worked, too, if not for us stupid kids.
7. Hard Luck Story
Third single from Two Hearts (1985), released as a single in 1985
“Hard Luck Story” actually rocks in the traditional sense of “that rocks.” It sounds a bit more like something you’d expect from Midnight Oil. The guitar and bass are almost – almost – heavy. And Hay raps briefly here – and to his credit, doesn’t quite embarrass himself. I mean that as high praise. I don’t know that we were especially interested in hard rocking Men at Work in 1985 (well, and the single went nowhere in the U.S. so I suppose we really weren’t interested), but in retrospect this is a pretty strong single and deserves some love – albeit 40 years too late.
6. Be Good Johnny
Third single from Business as Usual (1981), released as a single in 1982
I cannot even begin to tell you what a breath of fresh air Business as Usual was in the US in 1982. While it had some of the herky-jerky energy of early 80’s new wave, it also had some great lyrics, uncluttered production and the band’s secret weapon, multi-instrumentalist Greg Ham. They also didn’t seem to take themselves particularly seriously and (from my 14-year-old perspective) their songs all sounded different and inventive. America agreed, because the album was an enormous hit.
However – and this is important – it took the album a very long time to go from being a hit in Australia to a hit in the United States. So long that by the time they were getting around to releasing singles from Business as Usual in the states, they’d already recorded Cargo. Rock Radio – in my area, WRKI I-95 – was all over “Be Good Johnny” and it became a staple of their rotation for a few months. However, it wasn’t released as a 45rpm single in the U.S. and, thus, didn’t become a pop hit over here. A huge shame, in my opinion, because not only is it a great song, but it is so sonically different from “Down Under” and “Who Can It Be Now” and I think that might have set casual Men at Work fans up to better accept their later forays into slightly harder rock.
I wrote a parody of this song called “Be Good Ghandi,” which was about a film fan hoping that the Ben Kingsley film would be decent. This is how I kept my friends entertained, and also why I didn’t climb very high up the high school social ladder.
5. It’s a Mistake
Third single from Cargo (1983), released as a single in 1983
The second-best single on Cargo (and the third best song – I really like Ron Strykert’s “Settle Down My Boy,” which was not released as a single), “It’s A Mistake” is a classic bit of 80’s anti-war music. The video offers a bit of a Dr. Strangelove style comic set piece, but the lyrics itself is pretty serious. Honestly, as far as 80’s anti-war songs go (and wow, we really were pretty fricken anti-war back then – what the hell happened?), “It’s a Mistake” delivers its message without bashing you over the head with it. Basically, Hay approaches the lyric from a place of post-war regret. It’s a big “oops we shouldn’t have done that” with a catchy reggae guitar zinka zinka thing going on. The band had a reputation for being lighthearted, so I think they also got some airplay leeway as a result of that – even in ‘Merica where we are very cautious about people thinking we might like peace, it made it into the top 10.
4. The Longest Night
First single from Brazil (1998), released as a single in 1998
Brazil is a live album, released years after the band’s heyday. And, you know, it’s really good. I’m not the biggest fan of live albums, but both Ham and Hay sound fabulous and the rest of the touring band is really into it. From what I understand Greg Ham wrote “The Longest Night” sometime in the early 80’s and the song was a regular part of their live sets. It’s also one of their best songs and if you’ve never heard it before – and I suspect you’ve never heard it before – be prepared for a real treat. “The Longest Night” is a catchy mid-tempo, musically rich tune with a great vocal by Hay and a surprisingly moving lyric from Ham (note – while Ham is credited for lyrics and music on Wikipedia, I have also seen the song credited to Hay). I wonder why they didn’t release this as a single when they were at the top of their game – if this had been the lead track from Two Hearts, I think Men at Work just might have had a few more years of steam in them. There’s a studio version, too which is also pretty awesome.
3. Down Under
Second single from Business as Usual (1981), released as a single in 1981
I’m not going to get into the whole Kookaburra lawsuit here (you can read about it on the song‘s Wikipedia page) except to say that it was a shitty thing all around and Greg Ham deserved better. I
That out of the way, this song is still delightful all these years later. The song that introduced non-Australians everywhere to the salty delight of vegemite caused a huge burst of interest in the antipodes. I remember one of our local TV stations replacing reruns of the BBC Benny Hill Show with reruns of the Nine Network Paul Hogan Show around the time “Down Under” broke big in the states. My friends and I spent no small amount of time trying to decipher the lyrics so that we would know what we were singing along to – but sing-along we did, understanding be damned. There’ so much joy in every part of this tune.
2. Who Can It Be Now?
First single from Business as Usual (1981), released as a single in 1981
While they might be better known for “Down Under,” their first single from Business as Usual is what made me fall in love with the band. “Who Can It Be Now” pressed all my buttons – a great saxophone hook and solo, nervous guitar, lyric that was both funny and a little unnerving, and a memorable music video. I can’t even come close to hitting the notes that Hay hits, but I can sing this song the whole way through, including all the instruments. I especially love the so-stupid-it’s-smart “knock knock knock” drum business – no matter where I am when this song comes on, I’ll find a place to knock. 3:23 of absolute pop music bliss. Men at Work might not have lasted as long as I imagined they would, but even if this had been their only tune, they would have been one of my favorite 80’s bands.
1. Overkill
Second single from Cargo (1983), released as a single in 1983
“Overkill” is in a class all by itself. Hay has called it the first song that made him think he could really make a living as a songwriter, and honestly to me it has always sounded like a gorgeous moment of discovery – like the band is surprised they created something this lovely. I was initially confused when teenage me first heard this – WHERE WAS THE QUIRK – but even back then something about the lyrics resonated with me. It felt like a song about loneliness, being unsure of oneself and anxiety. Yeah, totally hit home and it’s only resonated with me more as I’ve gotten older. And that semi-haunting sax line? Just love it. The song was used kind of brilliantly in the TV show Scrubs (and Hay very gamely plays himself) and brought back to the public consciousness a few years back. Lazlo Bane covered the song in the 1990’s – the highlight of which was, again, Hay slaying that last verse. Holy cats, was a voice that man has. I has envy.