This Daddy's Cool Trivia Quiz

Answer: Johnny O'Keefe

Wilson was born into a musically inclined family. His mother was a talented pianist, taking every opportunity to play classical music and his father dabbled moderately in jazz. Ross would be seconded into the choir at his local church at an early age and enjoyed some success as a wedding singer.

Johnny O'Keefe influenced a raft of young and impressionable young musicians, Wilson amongst them. He had a string of hits during the 1950s and early 1960s, was the first Australian rock and roller to tour the United States and released in excess of 100 albums over the course of a twenty year career.

Answer: Louie Louie

In 1965 Rick Dalton and Ross Hannaford, who would form a lifelong working partnership with Wilson, had their own band called the Fauves. Wilson joined them, they changed their name to the Pink Finks, replaced Dalton with rhythm guitarist David Cameron and formed their own label, Mojo. They released a raunchy version of "Louie Louie" which gained them some notoriety on the Melbourne music scene and reached number sixteen on the local charts. They would release three further covers but with no success and the band folded in 1967.

"Louie Louie" was written by Richard Berry in 1955 who'd recorded it with little success. The Kingsmen cover, released in 1963, would peak at number two on the Billboard Hot 100.

Answer: Spectrum

The change in direction didn't work for Wilson. The Party Machine also included Hannaford on guitar and they would release one single, "The Gentle Art" in 1968 but it did not chart well for them. In 1969, after two years of touring, the group folded.

Mike Rudd, on the other hand, took to progressive rock like a duck to water and would leave The Party Machine to form Australia's first true prog-rock band Spectrum (hint - he saw the light). Their song "I'll Be Gone" was a national number one hit in Australia and they followed this up with Australia's first rock and roll double album, "Milesago".

Answer: Frank Zappa

How rude! Not only was Wilson inspired by Zappa, but he stole the "mother" from Zappa's band name (Mothers of Invention) as well. Wilson had been invited to London to join the band Procession, a band that had sprouted from Normie Rowe's backing band The Playboys.

They too were experimenting with progressive pop. Wilson, however, had become attached to Frank Zappa's body of work and his writing was influenced accordingly. (Note: Wilson outlines his interest in Frank Zappa, along with Jefferson Airplane and the early Pink Floyd works on his website: http://www.rosswilson.com.au/index.php/about/). One of the songs he'd brought to the band was "Make Your Stash".

Whilst it was featured in live sets, it was never recorded by the band. When Procession lost focus, Wilson and Hannaford moved on to form the Vegetals and the idea was to experiment with a combination of theatre and prog-rock using a transient group arrangement.

The band recorded a number of songs but only one EP, "Garden Party" (1970) was ever released.

Answer: Eagle Rock

Ross Wilson's band, Sons of the Vegetal Mother, were experimenting with lengthy Zappa-esque style songs that meandered interminably. To provide themselves with a break, they formed Daddy Cool, a doo-wop band playing 1950s style rock and roll. When Wilson appeared at Australia's first outdoor concert, at Myponga in South Australia, he did so as the front-man for both bands. When Daddy Cool was received with overwhelming enthusiasm, the gig was up for Sons of the Vegetal Mother. Daddy Cool's debut single, "Eagle Rock" (1971) was a monster hit for the band. It went to number one nationally, where it stayed for a (then) record ten weeks, achieved gold record status in only eleven weeks and would eventually be listed as the second best Australian song of all time by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA).

(Footnotes) "Fly Like an Eagle" was a Steve Miller Band hit, "The Eagle and the Hawk" was by John Denver and "Texas Eagle" by Steve Earle.

Answer: Skyhooks

Daddy Cool had broken up in 1972 but reformed for the Sunbury Pop Festival in 1974. During the gap Wilson formed the short-lived Mighty Kong and developed a publishing company. He identified Greg Macainsh, Skyhook's main songwriter, as one with enormous potential and signed him to his publishing house. Wilson was then invited to produce the band's first album, which took Australia by storm.

Their album would (temporarily) set a new standard for album sales in Australia, eclipsing Daddy Cool's previous record. Wilson would go on to produce the band's next two albums "Ego is Not a Dirty Word" (1975) and "Straight in a Gay, Gay World" (1976).

Answer: Oz

Wilson had some issues freeing himself from a deal with Robie Porter's (ironically named) Wizard label. While he cooled his heels waiting he commenced the process of writing songs for the film. The moment the contract expired he went into his own studio to record, along with members of Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons. The soundtrack would feature two singles; Wilson's "Livin' in the Land of Oz" and Zep's "Beating Around the Bush". The contract issues meant that the soundtrack was not available at the time the film was released, possibly affecting the film's performance at the box office.

The film's alternate title was "Oz - A Rock 'n' Roll Road Movie". It was released in the US as "20th Century Oz".

Answer: Mondo Rock

The movie was the Australian musical "Oz" (aka "Oz - A Rock 'n' Roll Road Movie") to which Wilson provided seven songs. He created a temporary band, primarily to promote his single "Livin' in the Land of Oz". It worked reasonably well so the view became to keep it (the band) in place and use it to promote a shift in music style to more of a soft rock feel. The immediate consequence was that (a) the members were somewhat transitory and (b) it took two years before the band released its first single. The constant in the line-up, however, was the other Ross - Hannaford. This temporary project would end up surviving fourteen years and churn out a number of hits for Wilson.

(Footnote) Definition of mondo. Slang adj. Enormous; huge (Courtesy of the Online Free Dictionary).

Answer: True

Patricia Higgins, who would eventually become Pat Wilson, first met Ross Wilson at a Pink Finks' gig and a relationship developed between the teenagers. When Ross moved to London, some four years later, to join Procession, Pat followed, and the pair married whilst they were there. On their return to Australia Ross began work on his Sons of the Vegetal Mother project and Pat started working as a writer with the music magazine Go-Set. Wilson had originally written the song "Bop Girl" for his band Mondo Rock but its catchy energy was not suited to Mondo's sound. On a whim he suggested that Pat record it. Released in 1983 the song peaked at number two on the Australian Kent Music Report.

As an aside, the film clip for the song features an uncredited fifteen year old Nicole Kidman, making her screen debut.

Answer: Chemistry

"Chemistry" (1980) peaked at number two on the Kent Music Report but the album's stay there was boosted by the release of four quality songs; "Cool World" written by Ross Wilson and "State of the Heart", "Chemistry" and "Summer of '81", all written by Eric McCusker. McCusker was a songwriter for hire signed with Warner Chappell who ended up joining Mondo Rock.

He was initially apprehensive about his song "State of the Heart", thinking that it wouldn't suit the band but Wilson's falsetto turned into something extraordinary.

It became the lead single for the album and set the tone for its immediate rise up the charts. Five years later, Rick Springfield would include the track on his album "Tao" and release it as that album's second single. The song peaked at number twenty two on Billboard's Hot 100.