ArtistInfo

Alison MacCallum

voc, *1951 AU, Sydney
Singer / Musician of Rock

From wikipedia: Alison MacCallum (born 7 April 1951), also written Alison McCallum, is an Australian rock singer from the late 1960s and 1970s. Her two studio albums are Fresh Water (March 1972) and Excuse Me (October 1975). In March 1972 she issued her most successful charting single, "Superman", which peaked at No. 12 on Go-Set's National Top 40. In August that year MacCallum provided lead vocals for the Labor Party's campaign theme song, "It's Time", for the 1972 election. By the late 1970s, she had concentrated on session work and then "disappeared from public view". According to Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, MacCallum was "a soul/blues stylist of considerable flair and passion". In March 1972 Alison MacCallum issued her first solo single, "Superman", on RCA Records which was written by Harry Vanda and George Young (both ex-The Easybeats). It reached No. 12 on Go-Set's National Top 40 and No. 8 on the Kent Music Report. The B-side was a Ted Mulry (a.k.a. Martin Mulry) composition "Take Me Back". Also that month she released her debut solo album, Fresh Water, a reference to her former band. It was produced by United Kingdom producer Simon Napier-Bell, who had worked with The Yardbirds and T.Rex. John Tait described Napier-Bell's work as re-invigorating Vanda & Young's songwriting career "Ted Albert assigned him the task of finding artists to record some of the songs Harry and George were sending over from London. The most notable of these demos was a rock tune called 'Superman' ... [he] matched the song up with the soaring voice of session singer Alison MacCallum, added some brass to the original arrangement and suddenly they had a hit on their hands". Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, noted Fresh Water's "mix of rock, jazz and blues material proved to be a fine showcase for her expressive voice". In March 1974 it was re-released as, Any Way You Want Me. In August 1972 MacCallum provided lead vocals for "It's Time", which was written and produced by Pat Aulton. The concept and words were by Paul Jones the Creative Director of the campaign. It was used as the theme on Australian Labor Party's TV and radio ads during Gough Whitlam's 1972 federal election campaign, making MacCallum a famous name through saturation radio and TV airplay, despite the single failing to chart. According to James Cockington "even though Labor was not credited on the label nor mentioned in the lyrics, most radio stations were reluctant to play the song, sensing its party-political roots". MacCallum was joined in the TV ads with a variety of celebrities including Bert Newton, Col Joye, Judy Stone, John Dease, Hazel Phillips, Ted Hamilton, Bellbird cast members, and Bobby Limb. Some of the celebrities suffered a negative backlash from appearing in the ads, Stone recalled "we didn't get paid for it, but we certainly lost a lot of work over it ... Some of us were black banned from clubs, and I had garbage thrown all over my lawn. And I wasn't the only one singled out". MacCallum released three more singles on RCA: "Ol' Rock'n' Roll Boogie Woogie Blues" (July 1972), "Would You Believe?", and a cover of Rotary Connection's 1968 single, "Teach Me How to Fly" (1973), previously an Australian hit for local artist, Jeff St John and Copperwine in 1970. In 1973, MacCallum travelled to Europe to perform, she showcased "Superman" at the eighth Midem International Music Trade Fair in Cannes. She returned to Australia and in October 1974 signed to Albert Productions. MacCallum collaborated with two fellow singers, Bobbi Marchini (ex-Freshwater) and Janice Slater as the Hooter Sisters, to release a cover of the Phil Spector-written single, "To Know Him Is to Love Him", originally performed by his band, The Teddy Bears. In October 1974 MacCallum released her next solo single, "Excuse Me", which peaked at No. 29 on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart and spent 41 weeks in the top 100. It was followed by her second solo album, Alison a.k.a. Excuse Me, in July 1975 which spent two weeks on the Kent Music Report Top 100 Albums Chart. It provided two more singles, "Her Kind of Guy (Hot Burrito)" (September 1975) and "Love Grows Cold" (February 1976). During the late 1970s she appeared on the satirical comedy, The Naked Vicar Show, both on radio (Series 2 Episodes 1 and 2, November 1976) and on TV (Series 1 Episodes 1 and 9, May and September 1977).

Genres

• Rock
• Pop
• R&B/Soul
• Blues
• Folk

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