Who is Australia's best ever singer/songwriter?

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Solo person - Paul Kelly

Collective - The Bee Gees ...
Barry Gibb was very much the chief (and for quite some years, the only), songwriter of the Bee Gees. In addition, he has also written a number of other huge international hits for others. This Washington Post article gives some of them -

The Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb has written more hit songs than almost anyone

The last surviving Bee Gee left his aural imprint on six decades of popular music

"... A performer since age 9 who quit school five years later, Gibb seized the cultural moment, becoming one of the most successful songwriters of all time, with 220 million albums in sales ... second only to Paul McCartney ..." -
 
Barry Gibb was very much the chief (and for quite some years, the only), songwriter of the Bee Gees. In addition, he has also written a number of other huge international hits for others. This Washington Post article gives some of them -

The Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb has written more hit songs than almost anyone

The last surviving Bee Gee left his aural imprint on six decades of popular music

"... A performer since age 9 who quit school five years later, Gibb seized the cultural moment, becoming one of the most successful songwriters of all time, with 220 million albums in sales ... second only to Paul McCartney ..." -
Great article, thanks for sharing.
 

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Ian Moss is a good shout. Wrote Bow River for Cold Chisel as well as producing a number of his own albums over the journey.


I’ll throw in one that has only been mentioned once that I could see anyway. Daniel Johns.
His voice is better than the best storyteller that anyone has nominated - Paul Kelly (that will always count against Kelly I’m afraid. Much as I adore his songs and never tire of listening to them, the guy’s singing is awful). Johns even as a 14 year old had power in his voice that was ballsy but he could hit a note as well as anyone. And he could write a melody. And he could write a lyric. If you can do all three you’re ticking the box.

He went way off track with a couple of the later efforts, no doubt about that, but a compilation of their best work - which let’s face it, was all his best work - would be as good as anything over the last 30 years.


Another shout too - Tim Freedman from The Whitlams, and Kevin Mitchell from Jebediah. Both with unique but tuneful voices, did all the songwriting for their bands, wrote some good stories, and had a knack for melody.
 
Ian Moss is a good shout. Wrote Bow River for Cold Chisel as well as producing a number of his own albums over the journey.


I’ll throw in one that has only been mentioned once that I could see anyway. Daniel Johns.
His voice is better than the best storyteller that anyone has nominated - Paul Kelly (that will always count against Kelly I’m afraid. Much as I adore his songs and never tire of listening to them, the guy’s singing is awful). Johns even as a 14 year old had power in his voice that was ballsy but he could hit a note as well as anyone. And he could write a melody. And he could write a lyric. If you can do all three you’re ticking the box.

He went way off track with a couple of the later efforts, no doubt about that, but a compilation of their best work - which let’s face it, was all his best work - would be as good as anything over the last 30 years.


Another shout too - Tim Freedman from The Whitlams, and Kevin Mitchell from Jebediah. Both with unique but tuneful voices, did all the songwriting for their bands, wrote some good stories, and had a knack for melody.
Mick Thomas from the Weddos wrote some great tunes, they were great live too.
 
Arguably my favourite song to sing at gigs is Father’s Day - I’ve never been lucky enough to see him or them live but I’ve heard many people say exactly that.
I saw them about half a dozen times, most memorably FA Cup final night in 1994 at a scuzzy club in New Cross where I learned Newcastle Brown Ale is not for me.
 
When people talk about Chisel they always say Don Walker, but for car king songs, Steve Prestwich wrote a heap of the best ones.

Forever Now
When the War is Over
Flame Trees

All his

True enough though to be fair Don Walker wrote the lyrics of Flame Trees that make it such a beautiful song (not that the melody is any less beautiful)
 

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Barry Gibb was very much the chief (and for quite some years, the only), songwriter of the Bee Gees. In addition, he has also written a number of other huge international hits for others. This Washington Post article gives some of them -

The Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb has written more hit songs than almost anyone

The last surviving Bee Gee left his aural imprint on six decades of popular music

"... A performer since age 9 who quit school five years later, Gibb seized the cultural moment, becoming one of the most successful songwriters of all time, with 220 million albums in sales ... second only to Paul McCartney ..." -

I knew he wrote Heartbreaker.

That was a huge hit for Dionne Warwick in the 80s but it could have been a huge hit for the Bee Gees too with their version.




I didn't know that he also wrote Chain Reaction and Islands in the Stream though, they could have been huge Bee Gees hits too.

No David McComb or Tim Rogers?

David McComb wrote one of the best Australian songs of all time.



Tim Rogers has written some pretty good songs as well, too many to mention.
 
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The first I heard of Helen Reddy was when I watched Pete's Dragon when I was a little kid.



She was a huge star in the States back in the 70s, maybe even bigger than Olivia Newton John.


Calenture, An underrated album.







Those songs stand the test of time, they still sound as good today as they did back then, timeless.
 

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Who is Australia's best ever singer/songwriter?

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