Men At Work - Business As Usual

Men At Work - Business As Usual

Album Notes
Business as Usual is the debut album of Australian band Men at Work, released in November 1981 in Australia and April 1982 in the US. The Australian release of the album included a black and white cover design; overseas releases had the same design but in a yellow and black color scheme.

Business as Usual was one of the most successful albums internationally by an Australian group. It spent an unprecedented 15 weeks at #1 on the American album charts from late 1982 to early 1983 and five weeks at #1 in the UK in early 1983. It spent nine weeks at the top of the Australian album charts from December 1981 through March 1982. Business as Usual was one of the most commercially successful albums in the early 1980s, with 6 million copies sold in the US and 15 million sold worldwide.

The song, “Who Can It Be Now?” was first released as a single in Australia in June 1981, prior to the recording of the rest of the album. The single reached #1 on the Australian singles chart in August that year. It rose from #3 to #1 in the week of August 17 on the Australian singles chart.

In February 2010 a Federal Court judge in Sydney found that the flute riff from “Down Under” had been plagiarised from the classic Australian song “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree”, written in 1934 by Marion Sinclair. The Federal Court determined that the copyright was still current (Sinclair died in 1988) and had been assigned to Larrikin Music. The judge found that “a substantial amount of the original song” had been reproduced in “Down Under”. Larrikin Music had suggested 60% of the royalties would be appropriate compensation, but the court decreed they shall receive only 5%, and only on mechanical rights for the song since 2002, and on future profits.

In October 2010, Business as Usual was listed in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.

EC1015	Men At Work – Business As Usual
Label:	CBS Records
Catalog#:	CDCBS 85423
Format:	CD
Label Code:	LC 0149
Released:	1981
Barcode:	5 099708 542320
Style:	New Wave, Pop/Rock

============================================================================Men At Work – Business As Usual
============================================================================
01. Who Can It Be Now?
02. I Can See It In Your Eyes
03. Down Under
04. Underground
05. Helpless Automaton
06. People Just Love To Play With Words
07. Be Good Johnny
08. Touching The Untouchables
09. Catch A Star
10. Down By The Sea
Total Time: 00:38:36

Credits ▼
Management [Direct Management Group, Los Angeles And London] – Martin Kirkup, Steve Jensen
Performer [Also Playing With Omd Are] – Graham Weir, Neil Weir
Performer [Omd Are] – Andy McCluskey, Malcolm Holmes, Martin Cooper, Paul Humphreys
Written-By – Troeller (tracks: 9), OMD, Steven Hague (tracks: 11)

Notes ▼
Track 1 ℗ 1979, tracks 2, 3 ℗ 1980, tracks 4, 5 ℗ 1981, track 6 ℗ 1982, tracks 7, 16 ℗ 1983, track 8, 9, 10 ℗ 1984, tracks 11, 12, 18 ℗ 1985, tracks 13, 14, 17 ℗ 1986, track 15 ℗ 1988 Virgin Records, Ltd.

℗ & © 1988 Virgin Records Ltd.
Marketed and distributed in 2002 by Disky Communications Europe B.V., The Netherlands. Printed in EU.
[CD:] Made in EU.

Barcode and Other Identifiers ▼
Barcode (String): 0724357935821
Barcode (Text): 0 724357 935821
Matrix / Runout: DOCdata DISKY VI 793582
Mastering SID Code: IFPI LJ82
Mould SID Code (Variant 2): IFPI 3614
Rights Society: BIEM/STEMRA
Label Code: LC 11955