Although the band already had massive success earlier in the decade with their victory at Eurovision, this was the album that finally made them international superstars thanks to how many hit singles it managed to spawn from the album (back when it was rare for an album to have more than one hit single from it.)
You know that these guys were overexposed when a throwaway greatest hits package became one of the biggest albums of the decade in Australia, although I’m guessing this albums success came from its bonus track becoming the biggest hit of the decade here.
There were no signs of Wings slowing down this decade, heck even Countdown couldn’t do much to sweep away their popularity in Australia to promote the newer bands as they were able to comfortably chart with the likes of Sherbet and Skyhooks as the decade went on. It’s easy to see why as while I’m not a fan of him by any means, Paul’s music regardless of who he’s playing with has remained timeless over the years.
Perhaps this is the album which made John Denver such a household name during the midpoint of the decade, after all this is a live album that’s meant to be intimate for the listener rather than it just being the highlights of a popular concert for audiences to relive. It’s a shame that John’s popularity would quickly dwindle as the decade went on, likely due to country music in general going out of vogue.
Although these guys had been active in the industry for almost a decade by the time they released this album, they didn’t achieve much success until they discovered that people had a nostalgia for the surf rock that was popular throughout the 50’s and early 60’s that they replicated on this album. The band achieved further success with their next album proving that this wasn’t a fluke hit for them.
This seems to be more of a mainstream pivot for Alice Cooper given how there’s less of an emphasis for appealing to the edge lords of the 70’s and more of a contemporary audience which seemed to pay off for him as this remains his second most successful album in his career (behind School’s out of course.) He would continue watering down his music for a more mainstream market as the decade went on.
There were no signs of Rod Stewart slowing down in the mainstream this decade, even though the launch of Countdown would’ve swept his type of music away as it permeated the first half of the decade here in Australia, it didn’t do any such thing as he continued to thrive along the likes of Queen and Alice Cooper down under.
Given that she was one of the biggest names in music (let alone the country scene) it only makes sense that this greatest hits package from Olivia Newton John would be among the more popular albums of the decade in Australia. What’s curious is that this wasn’t released in America, meaning that her future greatest hits packages are titled slightly differently over there to accommodate for this albums lack of existence.
This was the album that made the Bay city rollers into a household name in Australia, mainly due to how inescapable its lead single was here as well as maybe being a more suitable band for us to compare Sherbet to over Skyhooks. They would flood the album charts with their material over the next eighteen months which predictably led to a massive burnout for their popularity here.
This was a massive success for Led zeppelin upon its initial release, so much so that it makes you wonder why they slowed down their album output after this as they only released two more albums after this before they went their separate ways in 1980. I guess because they did release quite a lot of albums during the first half of the decade.
This was the first album that was a massive success for the Eagles in Australia, although they did achieve success in their native America during the first half of the decade meaning these guys were unfairly ignored here until Countdown came along. While their albums were inescapable, the same can’t be said for the songs themselves as they didn’t chart very well during the height of Abba and Sherbet.
Yikes that is some seriously horrifying album art, it appears I’m not the only one who has this opinion as Pink Floyd were forced to issue another picture for the album art back in the day which while more generic, did the job in helping this album become a huge success for them. Nothing would top the success of their previous album Dark side of the moon, but they were really tempting fate with this picture, weren’t they?
Years before Pink Floyd made a theatrical adaptation of their album the Wall, Hollywood managed to convince the Who to make a theatrical adaptation of their album Tommy several years after the London Symphony Orchestra made a symphonic version of their album. The film was a critical and commercial success, likely sparking people to check out the soundtrack which like the symphonic version, was more successful than the original album.
This seemed to come out of nowhere for the Canadian band as while “Taking care of business” from their previous album has since become a staple on oldies stations, it wasn’t a big deal back in the day outside of their native Canada. I’m guessing this was a success for them in Australia due to us Aussies connecting with them on their big hit from this album and wanting to root for them to make it big.
You may have noticed a distinct absence from Diana Ross on these lists, this is likely due to her being overshadowed by Marcia Hines back in the day as the American born Australian diva of colour was indeed one of the biggest names in our music scene throughout the decade. This was her debut album and one which made her an instant success due to her run as Mary Magdalene in the Australian production of Jesus Christ superstar.
Following the success of their debut album from earlier on this list, Skyhooks struck while the iron was hot with their sophomore album which further proved that they had more insightful things to say about the state of the world than their main rivals Sherbet. I should point out that while they weren’t strictly a political band, all of their best-known songs did have something to say about the political climate of the decade.
This was the penultimate album that Elton John released that had his partner in crime Bernie Taupin as his official songwriter, that is until the two patched things up in the early 80’s which resulted in their second biggest album Too low for zero (behind Goodbye yellow brick road that is.) Personally, I blame “Island girl” for why their winning streak came to a sharp decline after the success of this album.
You know a band has been overexposed when their back catalogue becomes a massive success years after its initial release, here’s the debut album of Bay city rollers to help fans discover their back catalogue they missed out on two years prior.
This was the final bestselling album that John Denver released in his career, although he kept soldiering on throughout the decade and even well into the 80’s in an attempt to recreate the success he had this year. I guess he just happened to be in the right place at the right time as country music was all the rage worldwide during the midpoint of the 70’s.
Bad company were a hard rock band who already saw success the previous year with their self-titled album in Australia, this was the follow up to that album which was an inevitable success for them despite the lead single being a massive flop here. Their popularity would quickly fade as the decade went on as did many bands and artists that made it big prior to the launch of Countdown.
This was the final successful album from Yes frontman Rick Wakeman, I’m guessing this became a success due to the recently released Monty Python flick the Holy grail which was a satire of King Arthur stories as well as the Hollywood musical in general (basically it was a parody of Camelot starring Richard Harris.) Rick would continue to release concept albums in his career; however, none were as successful as the three he made around this time.
These guys were on top of the world when they released this greatest hits album, although it’s worth noting that while they had hit after hit on the Australian charts, their albums weren’t quite as successful. I’m not sure why as other glam rock acts such as Slade and Suzi Quatro were able to ride the balance between their singles and albums in the mainstream.
This was a comedic record that comedian Bob Hudson managed to score a massive hit with back in the day, mainly due to the title track becoming a surprise hit for him here and in NZ as well. I can’t say this is a comedy routine as there is a melody to these jokes, however it does feel like it belongs in the realms of Kevin Wilson and the 12th man.
This was the only successful album Gloria Gaynor was able to achieve here in Australia, I’m guessing this was due to her losing the disco crown to Donna Summer who so more success as the decade went on with her disco records. Even so, this wouldn’t be the last time we hear from the fellow disco singer of colour as she would return by the end of the decade with her classic “I will survive.”
This greatest hits package was commissioned following the success of their album Slipstream, meaning that these guys didn’t need the assistance of Countdown to become one of the biggest names in music this decade, although the show certainly didn’t harm their prospects of being a huge band from Australia.
This was the final album to have the original singer for the Doobie brothers Tom Johnson on the lead, the band would be replaced with Michael McDonald after this album who would take the band in a more adult contemporary direction throughout the second half of the decade. This would lead to their biggest album Minute by minute which helped break them into a more mainstream audience.
While Bob Dylan did indeed have success during the first half of the decade here in Australia, I get the feeling that he was one of many artists to greatly benefit from the Countdown era despite (as far as I can tell at least) never appearing on the show to promote his music. Indeed, his next album would spawn his biggest hit here only a year after the shows launch.
This was the only notable success that these guys managed to achieve with one of their albums, although I did say when discussing their big hit that they were the victim of having each of their songs sounding similar to each other which is perhaps why they weren’t as big as you would otherwise expect them to be. That said, they’ve remained in disco royalty since their initial breakthrough for a reason, those songs are catchy to this day.
America had a great run in their career by this point in time, so it makes sense that the band best known for lines such as “there were plants and birds and rocks and things” and “cause there ain’t no one for to give you no pain” would have massive success with their greatest hits package given how they were known for so much more than their novelty track “A horse with no name” back then.
Sherbet was on a roll when they released this album a year into the Countdown era, so much so that it led to their biggest hit worldwide “Howzat” shortly after the album cycle finish and made them an international household name.
While this wasn’t as inescapable as the two albums it was sandwiched between, it was a huge hit for Leo Sayer back in the day proving how much we Aussies loved the British crooner among the likes of all the glam rock and disco of the moment. Naturally he would adopt some of the sounds of the moment on his next album which would prove to be equally as successful as his earlier entry on this list.
Although he wasn’t among the biggest singers of the decade, Davis Essex did achieve a string of hits during the midpoint of the decade which would explain why the album with his biggest hit became a massive success for him here in Australia. Even so he did struggle to find success after this album down under, although his popularity did return on occasion over the years in his native UK.
This was the final album John Lennon released before he briefly retired in music, of course he would come back in 1980 months before his death but at this stage he wanted to step out of the spotlight due to all of the drama he had found himself in both with the band as well as his personal relationships.
Roger Whittaker saw a sudden rise in popularity this year due to the surprise success of his song from earlier in the decade “The last farewell,” as such people wanted to hear more from his music which prompted his label to release this greatest hits album to make that task easier for his new fans.
Well, I did mention that David Bowie would find moderate success here with the album that gave him his first Billboard chart topper, here it is proving that we would occasionally reward the genius of this man back in the day in Australia.
Even though he was more of a single’s artist here in Australia, JPY was able to achieve moderate amount of success with his first two albums here likely due to how big the singles from both of them were during the midpoint of the decade. He was struggling for success during the first half of the decade, so much so that he didn’t even release an album until he began racking up the hits thanks to his appearances on Countdown.
This had a bit of a cult following to it even prior to when it reached its peak in popularity here in Australia, namely because of the title track which was quickly becoming a huge dance craze across Australia and nowhere else in the world as the decade went on. Of course, the album skyrocketed in popularity here once we Aussies heard the news that Tina had left Ike showing out support for her decision to do so.
We have another successful album to come from Bay city rollers this decade, it was the third album in a row where they saw massive success within a time span of six months, meaning that there was a bit of overexposure towards the band here in Australia and their native UK.
While this wasn’t his debut album, it was the album that made Bruce Springsteen a household name thanks to the title track becoming a staple on oldies stations despite it not being a success at the time. Indeed, Bruce would continue to find varying levels of success over the next two decades, some of it being massive like his magnum opus Born in the U.S.A and others being modest like his album Nebraska.
This was a highly successful decade for 10cc as they managed to score three successful albums that spawned three of their biggest hits each, here they have the first of the three albums which was a success thanks to how different the lead single was from everything else coming out at the time.
It had been a while since the Who had troubled the charts; however, this was the year where there was a theatrical adaptation of one of their albums so perhaps it makes sense that this solo album from Roger Daltrey managed to be a success back in the day. He wouldn’t trouble the charts again until he re-joined the band later in the decade.
Given how Elvis Presley was still able to achieve success with his singles this far into his career, it only makes sense that he would find success around this time with a greatest hits package even if this is the sequel to a previous album which didn’t see as much success here in Australia.
These guys already had massive success at the start of the decade when their self-titled album became a huge crossover success for the NZ band, so the fact that they scored a massive hit with their final album was a bit of a surprise for a couple of reasons. The first was that they only released one album between these two albums and the second is that they gave up once this album became a massive success for them.
I’m not even sure what to make of this album, I guess these guys were among the first Australian bands to benefit from appearing on Countdown as this was a success for them even with that hilariously awful name, but they haven’t had much of a legacy in the music industry.
This was the debut album from a band who would go on to become one of the most successful Australian bands of all time, curiously the title track doesn’t appear on this album as that would serve as the lead single to their second album they released later in the year.
Regardless of how you feel about their music, I think we can all agree that Kiss were an amazing live band back in the day which is how they were able to achieve so much success with their live albums over their studio recordings. This was their first live album which boosted their (then) latest single “Rock and roll all nite” up the charts down under and throughout the rest of the world.
Well, this album might have left a bad taste in people’s mouths back in the day, mainly for its lead single which while it was a massive hit, has been left forgotten in Elton’s catalogue for being one of the more insensitive tracks in his catalogue. This would be the start of a very dark period for him as he ran into troubles with his partner in crime Bernie Taupin.
Following the success of their earlier entry on this list, Bachman Turner Overdrive was able to achieve moderate success here in Australia with this follow up which helped them escape the one album wonder bin that many of their contemporaries were getting trapped in throughout the decade due to the shifting trends in the music scene. The band wouldn’t last much longer in the mainstream after this album worldwide.
One of the most influential bands of all time when it comes to new wave has to be Kraftwerk, although they never saw much success in the mainstream, they inspired many artists who went on to have massive success throughout the 80’s during the height of new wave. This was their only successful album here in Australia proving how well adapted we Aussies were with the “cool” music of the day.
This is the best proof I have that Suzi Quatro didn’t benefit from Countdown in the slightest here in Australia, after all, you’d think this follow up would’ve been at least equally as successful as her earlier entry on this list given how that was one of the biggest hits of the decade here but alas this wasn’t.
This was the first noticeable success that Roxy Music achieved here in Australia, I guess it’s good to know that they managed to have some notoriety here before Bryan Ferry took our music scene by storm with his earlier entry on this list.
Given how John Lennon had decided to retire from music during this point in time, it only makes sense he would release a greatest hits album to look over his work both solo and with his wife’s band since he broke away from the Beatles. Naturally it was a hit here in Australia upon its initial release, however it was a hit again five years later when he tragically passed away.
This was Patti Labelle’s only successful album here in Australia, mainly through the strength of her raunchy sex jam that serves as the albums lead single which became a huge success for her and her group this year. Patti would return in the 80’s with some solo material, however she would never again have a successful album to her name.
This was the album that started it all for Supertramp as they would go on to have massive success later in the decade with their subsequent follow ups, it contains some of their best work which sadly only found an audience once their popularity peaked in the 70’s and not upon its initial release.
From what I can gather, Reg Livermore was a contemporary of the likes of Peter Allen and other flamboyant performers from Australia that presented their queer identity as an act. He didn’t quite see the level of success that his peers did, however he did achieve a massive success with this album thanks to his presence in our pop culture at the time.
There weren’t a lot of successful albums from women of colour back in the day, so the fact that Yvonne Fair was able to score a huge hit in Australia through the strength of this albums lead single was impressive to say the least. She never made another album after this so who knows how much more success she could’ve had if she released a follow up album.
This was the final album that Deep Purple released before they called it quits, although they would return in the mid 80’s where they’re still going strong to this day as a touring act. This could’ve been more successful here in Australia had it been released earlier in the decade or indeed if Countdown did not encourage us Aussies to ignore this in favour of all of the local artists on this list alone.
First off, can we appreciate just how lame this cover art is? It would’ve been fine were it not for the melting ice cream that Minnie was holding. That out of the way, this was her only successful album she had in her career as it managed to spawn her only hit single which many consider to be one of the worst of the decade. Sadly, she never had a chance to repeat this album’s success as she wouldn’t live to see the 80’s.
Considering how inescapable their debut album was, you’d think that the second album from Hush which contains all of their most recognisable work would’ve been twice as successful. Alas it appears the success went towards the singles as the album itself struggled to live up to the success of their previous effort.
Stardust was the sequel to a film known as That’ll be the day, both films are about a rock star played by David Essex looking to make it big during the 50’s-70’s which likely explains the success that Essex had here in Australia and his native UK throughout the decade.
You know how these sorts of albums dominated my 80’s lists? Well, it turns out that this could’ve been the case for my 70’s lists were it not for Countdown stepping in and dissuading us Aussies from purchasing these compilation albums for the remainder of the decade.
You’d think this album would’ve been inescapable here in Australia given how many singles came from it, that is until you remember that Livie’s greatest hits package from earlier was dominating our charts throughout the year as well as the lead single coming from her previous album in order to cash in on its international success.
This is the most recent album from Black sabbath that will be appearing on my site given how the band lost its popularity around this time (likely due to the strange album art.) Naturally they were another victim of Countdown when it comes to rock bands from the first half of the decade struggling to translate their inescapable success to the second half of the decade.
It’s a bit surprising that this greatest hits album wasn’t a big success here in Australia for Suzi Quatro given how inescapable her first two albums were here, then again, it’s perhaps due to this fact that it wasn’t successful as it came across as a bit redundant when it came out.
It turns out that the silver convention was meant to be little more than sex symbols from Germany (specifically west Germany given this was during the cold war) as it was hard for me to find appropriate album art for this entry for their debut album (let’s just say the cuffs on here are for what you’re thinking of.) Naturally this was a success thanks to its lead single as well as how sexy the three women were.
