Split Enz

The material on the Frenzy album was recorded twice in 1978 because sound on the original was of lower quality making the songs sound like demos. The re-record did not have the same emotional qualities as the origina. As a result, there were two versions of the Frenzy album. The A&M Records version had different tracks than the version released on Australia's Mushroom Records label.  

SPLIT ENZ SHOWS THEIR TRUE COLOURS IN 1980

The Split Enz single "I Got You" debuted at #1 in Australia and stayed there for more than two months. It reached #1 in New Zealand and Israel. The song was on the True Colours album that also topped the Australian chart. It was then that A&M Records signed Split Enz to a worldwide contract in June 1980. As an A&M single "I Got You" was #10 in the U.S. and #12 in Britain. By May 1980 the album was double platinum in Australia with 200,000 copies sold and the single was platinum. 

Australia's first video cassette was Split Enz's True Colours A&M album.

The first laser disc in the world was Split Enz's True Colours on A&M Records.

True Colours was the first laser-etched disc from A&M Records. The idea for the four different colored album jackets originated in Australia with Split Enz' original label Mushroom Records. A&M Records kept the theme when it distributed the album. 

The album sold 700,000 copies around the world.

Split Enz

Unknown, Alan Oken, unknown, Neil Finn, Eddie Rayner, Marko Babineau, unknown

 

Michelle Marx, Split End

Split Enz with Michelle Marx (A&M Records)

 

WAIATA MEANS PARTY

Released in April 1981 under the titles Waiata and Corrobore. In the U.S. the album spent 19 weeks on the Billboard 200 album chart. The album was supported by two singles and music videos. 

Split Enz's Waiata album went platinum during its first week of release in Australia.

Split Enz's Waiata album went platinum in 3.5 days in their native New Zealand and debuted at #1 on the New Zealand Top 70 Album Chart.

Image
Split Enz in Toronto, Canada 1982

Split Enz in concert at Toronto, Canada's Massey Hall in 1982. 

 

The 1982 album Time and Tide was a big seller in Australia and New Zealand but was not as successful as the two previous albums in either the U.S. or the U.K. (73 and #53 respectively). The single "Six Months In a Leaky Boat" was banned in Britain where it was wrongly perceived to be a song about the British military's effort to re-take the Falkland Islands that the Argentine military had invaded that was happening around the time "Six Months In a Leaky Boat" was released. The song was actually about the first European settlers in Tim Finn's homeland of New Zealand.

 

Conflicting Emotions came out in 1983. It was the last album release in the U.S. The year also marked the release of Tim Finn's debut solo album Escapade also released by A&M Records. 

In 1985 A&M released The Living Enz that contained some new live performances and some from 1982.

Recording Years / Label
1978-1985 -  A&M Records
Name Member Years Instruments
Neil Finn 1978-1985 guitar, vocals
Tim Finn 1978-1985 vocals
Noel Crombie 1978-1985 percussion
Malcolm Green 1978-1981 drums
Nigel Griggs 1978-1985 bass
Eddie Rayner 1978-1985 keyboards
Name Birth Death
Neil Finn 1958-05-27
Tim Finn 1952-06-25
Noel Crombie 1953-04-17
Malcolm Green 1953-01-25
Nigel Griggs 1949-08-18
Eddie Rayner 1952-11-19
Name See associated acts
Tim Finn Tim Finn
Eddie Rayner Jo Jo Zep

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