Albert Music

The story of Harry Vanda and George Young is the story of the most successful songwriting and production team in Australian popular music history.

Harry Vanda (from Holland) and George Young (a Scotsman), met in 1964 in a Sydney migrant hostel where they created one of the great rock bands of the 1960's, The Easybeats.

For the first few years of their existence, the accessible, well structured songs of the Easybeats (8 Top 5 hits in less than 2 years) were written by George with lyrics from singer Stevie Wright but by the end of 1966 George began to write more closely with the band's lead guitarist Harry Vanda. Their first hit together was "Friday On My Mind", The Easybeats classic working class anthem.

Rod Stewart, David Bowie, Gary Moore, INXS, Peter Frampton, John Farnham, Jimmy Barnes and the Divinyls are a few of many acts to have covered Vanda and Young compositions since The Easybeats demise in 1969.

When the band finished Harry and George decided to stay in London as a writing and production team with their new songs being recorded by bands like Amen Corner, The Tremeloes, Marmalade, Shocking Blue, Los Bravos and Paul Revere and the Raiders. Their success encouraged the two songwriters to continue a long term creative partnership.

In the early 1970's Harry and George returned to Australia and reunited with visionary music publisher and record label owner Ted Albert who provided the pair with the facilities to write for Stevie Wright, William Shakespeare, John Paul Young, Cheetah and Mark Williams and produce among others AC/DC, The Angels and Rose Tattoo. Throughout the 1970s they proceeded to swamp the charts with a seemingly endless string of hits including an 11 minute single "Evie", recorded by Stevie Wright, which become a national Number One hit while AC/DC (with George's younger brothers Malcolm and Angus) under the guidance of Vanda and Young launched a career that has resulted in over 90 million album sales internationally.

John Paul Young (no relation to George) achieved numerous international hits with Harry and George composed and produced tracks including, Standing In The Rain, I Hate The Music, Keep On Smilin', Yesterday's Hero and of course "Love is in the Air". Originally a hit for John in the late 1970's it later became the musical centrepiece of the Strictly Ballroom soundtrack and has been covered by countless artist including Tom Jones.

Despite this enormous work load Harry and George still found time to invent an alter ego, Flash & The Pan, to explore more adventurous musical terrain, with spoken vocals, varied musical settings and dance rhythms, held together by their rock heritage. In addition to the Australian hit singles, Hey St Peter and Down Among The Dead Men, Flash & the Pan had European chart success with Walking In The Rain (also an international hit for Grace Jones), Midnight Man, Waiting For A Train, Early Morning Wake Up Call, Money Don't Lie and Ayla.

Mark Williams had a number one New Zealand hit in the 1970's with the Vanda and Young composition Yesterday Was Just The Beginning. In the early 1990's Mark triumphantly sang one of the most powerful Vanda & Young compositions of the decade - Show No Mercy, which you can expect to hear on sporting broadcasting for most of the rest of your life!

The contribution of Harry Vanda and George Young to the Australian music industry - as songwriters, recording artists and producers - has spanned four decades, produced countless hits (for themselves and others) and earned them the coveted Ted Albert Memorial Award for The Most Outstanding Contribution to Australian Music presented by the Australasian Performing Right Association.

This contribution was further recognised with the awarding of Friday On My Mind as the number one Australian Song of the past 75 years at the 2001 Australasian Performing Right Association awards.