"Good Times" by INXS and Jimmy Barnes

Song#:  3163
Date:  06/20/1987
Debut:  95
Peak:  47
Weeks:  13
Genre:  Rock, Soundtrack



Pop Bits:  INXS's fifth album, 1985's Listen Like Thieves, gained them a bigger audience thanks to its #5 lead single "What You Need." Follow-up singles didn't make much of an impression on the Pop chart, but the lone hit was enough to send the album to #11 and eventually it would be a double-platinum seller. While the band prepped their next LP, they got an opportunity to record a song for a film soundtrack. They got in the studio with fellow Aussie music star Jimmy Barnes and recorded this song for the 1987 comedy-horror vampire flick The Lost Boys starring Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Patric. The track would be released as a single and it did well at Rock reaching #3. The tune crossed over to the Pop chart, but it was unable to crack the Top 40. Still, with the film being a summer hit, the soundtrack became a cult-ish favorite and sold well enough to reach #15.

ReduxReview:  This blast of 60s rock was a solid fit for INXS and the pairing of Barnes was a good choice. This was a big hit in Australia (#2) and New Zealand (#1), but it didn't quite get the same love on the US Pop chart. It was a rip-roarin' track and it certainly sounded like everyone involved was indeed having a good time. It's too bad it didn't do a little better and at least make the Top 40.

ReduxRating:  7/10

Trivia:  Double Shot!  1) This is a remake of song originally recorded by the Australian rock band The Easybeats. Written by band members George Young and Harry Vanda, their 1968 version was a modest hit in Australia reaching #22. The Easybeats were very successful at home scoring seven Top 10 hits including two #1s. Their only charting song in the US was 1966's "Friday on My Mind," which got to #16.  2) In addition to this song, INXS and Barnes co-wrote another track that appeared on the b-side of this single and on the soundtrack album titled "Laying Down the Law." Both songs and a video for "Good Times" were completed by the artists in a quick day-and-a-half period that was apparently sleepless and enhanced by whiskey and a few drugs. When the artists got together to do the work, their goal was to just have fun and apparently they did. In an interview with Goldmine, Barnes shared that "by the time we had finished, we’d had a lot of fun, we’d made a great record and we’d drank our weight in whiskey. I think we’d just about destroyed the studio, but we were young and foolish — what can I say?"

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