by In 1966 The Seekers released ‘Georgy Girl’, and became the first Australian music act to top the US charts.
The Seekers were formed in Melbourne in the early 1960s. The original members were Athol Guy (double bass), Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley (both guitar); the three had attended Melbourne Boys High School together, and began performing music as teenagers.
After school they appeared in different rock and folk groups, on the local scene.
In 1962 they added singer Ken Ray, and began playing as ‘The Seekers’. But shortly afterwards, Ray left the group to get married.
Guy had a day job at an advertising agency, one of his co-workers was 19-year-old Judith Durham. Durham was also a semi-professional singer, who had been performing at jazz clubs around Melbourne.
Guy invited her to try out with his group.
‘When she got on stage Durham’s voice blew them away. As diminutive as she was – five foot, three inches – her voice was big. It was pure and strong and clear.’
– A World of Their Own, abc.net.au
The existing band members were impressed; Durham would join the group full time, as lead vocalist.
The Melbourne music scene in the early sixties was lively and thriving, and the revamped Seekers quickly made their mark. They played shows around the city and their fanbase expanded rapidly.
In 1963 they signed with label ‘W & G’, and produced their first album, ‘Introducing the Seekers’. Their first two singles were covers: the American spiritual song ‘Kumbaya’, and the Australian folk ballad ‘Waltzing Matilda’, the latter of which made the local charts.
In an era where rock and roll was dominant, the group offered something different; sweet, catchy folk-pop, delivered with earnest sincerity. The band’s persona was also at odds with the growing counterculture; The Seekers dressed conservatively, and were polite and well-spoken.
Eschewing any kind of cool demeanour, which did not come naturally, they instead presented as genuine.
In 1964, The Seekers signed as a house band for the FairSky cruise line. This guaranteed them months of employment, and a little adventure: they would perform on a route taking them from Australia to England and back again, with a ten-week layover between trips.
The band departed the country in May, and arrived in England two months later.
During their stopover they performed some shows in London. This brought them to the attention of local talent scouts, who offered recording and touring opportunities.
Deciding not to return to Australia, they signed a deal with The Lew Grade Organisation, then one of the highest profile record companies in England. Their first British single, ‘Myra’, was released later the same year.
England in the early 1960s was a cultural flashpoint, producing trend setting art, fashion and music. London became the ‘Swinging London’ of legend, and The Seekers now found themselves with contemporaries that included The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Kinks.
While excited by their surroundings, life for the Australian group was far from glamorous. Effectively starting over, they had to build a new fanbase in England; they did through heavy touring in a van Guy purchased for fifty pounds.
One of these tours had them as a support for Dusty Springfield.
Springfield was a British ingénue best known for her song, ‘I Only Want to Be with You’. This and many of her songs were written by her brother Tom, he became friendly with The Seekers while on tour.
Tom would eventually offer to write tracks for them as well. The first of these was, ‘I’ll Never Find Another You’.
‘I’ll Never Find Another You’ was released in November 1964.
In the 1960s, British broadcast media was heavily regulated, and radio was dominated by the BBC. To get around this, enthusiastic radio entrepreneurs equipped ships with broadcast equipment; they sailed these into international waters, about 5 miles offshore, which allowed them to broadcast back into England free from oversight.
These ship-based outfits, called ‘offshore radio’ or ‘pirate radio’, were where you could find music that was edgy, provocative or new.
The Seekers song was championed by offshore radio, and began a rapid rise up the charts. It reached number one in the UK in February 1965, the first song by an Australian group to do so.
Another Tom Springfield penned tune, ‘The Carnival is Over’, was released later in 1965 and also went to number one. Both songs charted in Australia and the US as well, and sold several million copies worldwide.
Suddenly, The Seekers had suddenly become one of the biggest bands in England.
Another young artist finding success in 1965 was British author Margaret Foster.
Born in 1938, Foster had a working-class upbringing but had shown a talent for writing, and had won a scholarship to Oxford to study literature. After graduating she became a professional writer; her first book, ‘Dame’s Delight’, was published in 1964.
Foster’s second book, ‘Georgy Girl’, was published in 1965 to great acclaim, and became a best seller.
The book concerns the titular character, Georgy, a young woman living independently in London. Dealing with work and family problems, she is also caught in a love triangle between two different, problematic, men; her father’s employer, a wealthy older man who wants a younger wife, and her best friend’s husband, who confesses he loves her more than his partner.
While Georgy sorts through these thorny problems, the book provides a snapshot of Swinging London, and touches on controversial topics of the day, including extramarital sex, feminism, and the legalisation of abortion.
These issues brought some controversy to the book, which undoubtedly helped its sales. Its success led to it being optioned for a film version, with Foster contributing to the screenplay.
Taking inspiration from the French New Wave, director Silvio Narizzano sought to bring a modern approach to ‘Georgy Girl’. Like many contemporary French directors, Narrizzano would shoot in black and white, and employ handheld cameras and rapid editing to give the film energy.
His cast was a mixture of established veterans, and rising stars. It was a particularly big break for his lead actress Lynn Redgrave, playing Georgy; she only joined the film when her older sister, Vanessa, turned the part down due to scheduling issues.
Looking to capture the spirit of Swinging London, Narrizzano also wanted contemporary music on the soundtrack. And so he approached The Seekers, then sitting on top of the charts.
The band readily agreed to supply a track, which would be written by Tom Springfield and lyricist Jim Dale. Sharing the same name as both book and movie, this would be a theme for the main character.
The film shot in the summer of 1965 at various locations around London, ahead of a premier the following year.
‘Georgy Girl’ opens with a terrific title sequence. We follow Georgy on an afternoon in town, hustling along the busy London streets, window shopping.
Her eye is caught by an upmarket hairdresser, and after some hesitation, she goes in and selects a bold new do. Afterwards, she is horrified by the outcome, and runs through the streets looking for a bathroom, so she ran rinse her hair and restore herself to normal.
While this comic fiasco plays out, The Seekers ‘Georgy Girl’ plays on the soundtrack.
Hey there, Georgy girl,Swingin’ down the street so fancy-free,Nobody you meet could ever see,The loneliness there,Inside you.
The song has a jaunty, catchy melody, and lyrics that start sunny, before hinting at darkness underneath. This in combination with the visuals tells you so much about this character: a hopeful type grappling with life complications, and all without a word of dialogue.
The song reappears over the closing credits, playing out over the film’s surprise ending (which I won’t spoil). The lyrics are now altered, recapping what we have watched.
The film ends with the song bidding our heroine goodbye, and wishing her, ‘Good luck, Georgy Girl!’
Like the book, the film ‘Georgy Girl’ was a success. Widely praised by the critics, with a few exceptions, it was a hit at the box office, eventually grossing $13 million worldwide (the equivalent of $125 million today).
It also garnered awards recognition, being nominated for four Oscars, including Lynn Redgrave for Best Actress, and Springfield and Dale for Best Song (although neither would win). In a subsequent interview, Redgrave put the success of the film down to people identifying with the main character.
‘People loved her, I think, because they recognized their own terrible faults, and were glad to see them put up on the screen.’
– Lynn Redgrave
Redgrave would credit the film for making her career.
The song version of ‘Georgy Girl’ was even bigger than the book or movie. Released as a single in the second half of 1966, it went to number 1 in the UK and Australia.
It was also successful in America, reaching number 1 on the Cash Box charts in February 1967. This made The Seekers the first Australian music act to reach number 1 in the US.
Cash Box was a music magazine, similar to Billboard, that published a weekly chart showing the highest selling singles and albums. At the time, the two magazines were rivals, and their charts considered equally significant; Billboard would prove more successful in the long run, and their chart eventually became the industry standard.
‘Georgy Girl’ reached # 2 on the Billboard chart, kept from # 1 by The Monkees smash hit, ‘Believer’. The song sold more than 1 million copies in the US alone.
A few years later, The Bee Gees would become the first Australian act to top the Billboard Chart; their song, ‘How Can You Mend a Broken Heart’ reached number 1 in August 1971.
The Seekers returned to Australia in 1967 in triumph. Less than two years earlier they had left for England on a cruise ship as a band barely known outside of Melbourne and Sydney, now they returned as one of the biggest music acts in the world.
In March 1967 they performed at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne. A free concert as part of the Moomba festival, an estimated 200 000 people turned up to the performance; at the time, the Guinness Book of Records listed it as the biggest concert ever held in the southern hemisphere.
A TV special of the performance would later screen on Channel 7, drawing an estimated 6 million viewers: also a record.
The following January, the band were named as joint Australians of the Year, the only music group to ever receive this accolade.
But The Seekers reign at the top of the charts would be short. In February 1968, while on tour in New Zealand, Durham informed the band she would be leaving to pursue a solo career.
The other members then chose to disband, rather than continue without her. They performed a few shows on a farewell tour in Australia and the UK, their concurrent ‘Greatest Hits’ record would go to the top of the charts in both countries, displacing The Beatles ‘White Album’.
Durham had mixed results with her solo records, with a couple reaching the top 10, and several others not charting. By the mid 1970s she had stopped recording new music, and was in semi-retirement for several decades.
The Seekers would eventually reform around the same time, and perform with a few different singers in Durham’s place.
From the 1980s onwards, The Seekers would reform with their original line up from time to time, and play successful short tours and one off shows.
The band performed at the closing ceremony of both the Sydney Olympics and Paralympics, their final show together was at the Royal Albert Hall in London, in June 2014.
Judith Durham died of lung disease in Melbourne, in September 2022.
