Wayne Duncan (ex -The Rondells, The Changing Times), Ross Hannaford (ex-The Pink Finks, Party Machine), Ross Wilson (ex-The Pink Finks, Party Machine) and Gary Young (ex-The Rondells, The Changing Times) formed Daddy Cool in 1970. All shared a love of 1950s music and initially played covers of songs from their record collections. One of these was "Daddy Cool" (written by Bob Crewe and Frank Slay) performed in 1957 by US doo-wop band The Rays as the B side to their single "Silhouettes". Daddy Cool became a popular live fixture in Melbourne. Their early 1971 appearance at the Myponga Festival in South Australia upstaged their parent group, Sons of the Vegetal Mother, which subsequently dissolved.
One-time child guitar prodigy Robie Porter (formerly known as Rob EG), had recently returned to Australia and established himself as record producer, purchasing a share of Melbourne independent label Sparmac Records. He saw the band's performance at a 7 May 1971 gig in Melbourne and immediately signed them to his label. Sparmac also released Healing Force's "Golden Miles" and Rick Springfield's "Speak to the Sky". The single "Eagle Rock" was released before the end of May and quickly went to #1 on the Australian charts where it stayed for a record ten weeks. The track written by Wilson, produced by Porter, was, ironically, replaced at #1 by a novelty version of a song from Daddy Cool's own setlist—the single "Daddy Cool", performed in Chipmunks style by the studio band Drummond. Drummond which included Graeham Goble (later in Little River Band), had performed it in tribute of Daddy Cool. "Eagle Rock" was named the second-best Australian song of all time at the 2001 APRA Awards with the best being "Friday on My Mind" by 1960s group The Easybeats.
Daddy Cool's debut album, 'Daddy Who? Daddy Cool', sold an unprecedented 60,000 copies within a month of its release in July 1971, and became the first Australian album to sell more than 100,000 copies. According to Wilson, the sales required for a gold album in Australia in the early 1970s had been 10,000 copies and was altered to 15000 and then 20000. The band toured Australia with Spectrum on the Aquarius Tour. Their second single "Come Back Again", also written by Wilson, was released in September 1971 and reached #3. Also in September, Jeremy Kellock (aka Jeremy/Jerry Noone) (saxophone, keyboards (ex-Sons of the Vegetal Mother, Company Caine) joined the touring lineup of the band (he had played sax on 'Daddy Who? Daddy Cool'). The album produced by Porter, who also provided piano and steel guitar, was released in the US. The band toured there in August 1971 but had little chart or radio success, although their performances were well received.
In November, 'Daddy Cool aka D.C.E.P'., a five-track EP was released and reached #12. Each group member sang a track, the most widely played was "Lollipop" with vocals by Wilson. An edited version of the song "Hi Honey Ho", their third single, written by Wilson, was released in December and reached #16. The full 6:48 studio cut of the song was released on a rare promotional single
Wilson experimented more with his song writing on 'Sex, Dope, Rock'n'Roll: Teenage Heaven', Daddy Cool's second album. Produced by Porter again, it was released on Sparmac Records in January 1972 and incorporated more progressive material similar to Sons of the Vegetal Mother's music. Two of the tracks were 1950s covers "Baby Let Me Bang Your Box" and "Sixty Minute Man" and together with the album title provoked concern in media reports. It reached #15 on the national album charts and was released in USA as 'Teenage Heaven'. At about this time, the group were filmed by director / producer Bob Weis for a 37-minute documentary, Daddy Cool released in 1973. The documentary has interviews and performances by the Duncan, Hannaford, Noone, Wilson and Young line-up.
By February 1972, Noone had left, feeling that he was not fully involved in the spirit of the group. He was replaced in March by Ian "Willy" Winter (ex-Carson) on rhythm guitar who was recruited to enable Ross Wilson to concentrate on singing. The band undertook a third US tour from March–June 1972 and recorded several tracks including "Teenage Blues", "At The Rockhouse" and "Rock'n'Roll Lady" at Warner Bros. studios in L.A. "I'll Never Smile Again" was released in July and reached #16, but by this time tensions were growing within the band and Wilson in particular was tiring of the difficulty of presenting the more progressive material he wanted to perform within the confines of the group's entrenched "good time" image. They announced their break-up soon after their return from the USA and performed their last gig at the Much More Ballroom on 13 August 1972. The entire concert was recorded and released as the double-album 'Daddy Cool Live! The Last Drive-In Movie Show', issued on Porter's new label, Wizard Records in September 1973 and reached #34.
In early 1974 a reformed Daddy Cool (Duncan, Hannaford, Wilson and Young) played at the Sunbury Pop Festival which included a fledgling Skyhooks and UK band Queen – the latter two were both booed off stage. In June / July, Wilson took time off from Daddy Cool to produce the recording of Skyhooks' debut album 'Living in the Seventies' for Mushroom Records. Besides compilations, Daddy Cool provided three new singles: "All I Wanna Do is Rock (part 1)", "The Boogie Man" and "You Never Can Tell" released in 1974 on Wizard Records. After they performed at the last Sunbury Pop Festival in 1975, Gunther Gorman joined on guitar. When Duncan was injured in a car accident, Hannaford switched to bass and guitarist Wayne Burt (later of Jo Jo Zep) was brought in. By September 1975 the band played their final show in Prahran's Reefer Cabaret.
Daddy Cool briefly reformed to support Skyhooks in a proposed 1994 stadium tour. Together, they released a four track CD-single with two new tracks "$64,000 Question" and "Ballad of Oz" by Daddy Cool, combined with "Happy Hippy Hut" and "You Just Like Me Cos I'm Good In Bed" by Skyhooks. The reformation collapsed when the single did not chart well and the tour was downgraded to the pub circuit.
The band reformed in February 2005 to play at a 27 February 2005 benefit concert for victims of the 2004 Tsunami at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne. A new Daddy Cool recording, "The Christmas Bug", was released for charity. There have been subsequent reformation performances, including headlining the 2007 Moomba Festival and supporting the 2007 Australian tour by Mike Love's Beach Boys and Christopher Cross. Daddy Cool also played a one-off performance in Geelong on 31 October 2007, sharing the stage with former touring partners, Spectrum for the first time in over thirty years.
On 19 November 2014 the original band reformed for what became the final time with Daddy Cool inducted into the Music Victoria Awards Hall of Fame. The band performed a greatest hits setlist, including ‘Cherry Pie’, ‘Come Back Again’, ‘Eagle Rock’ and ‘Hi Honey Ho’ amongst others at the sold out awards night show. Wilson stated that this was the first time in over 30 years they had played those early hits. Ross Wilson said of the award: “Daddy Cool first met, played, recorded and worked together in Melbourne and since those early days we’ve been inducted into the industry hall of fame in Australia. As “hometown heroes,” The Age Music Victoria Hall of Fame means that little bit more because it’s a cultural award, not a commercial one.” Guitarist Ross Hannaford died on 8 March 2016 aged 65 from cancer; he had been diagnosed with the condition a year earlier. Bassist Wayne Duncan died on 4 December 2016 following a stroke.
Ross Wilson (guitar, vocals), Ross Hannaford (guitar, bass, vocals), Gary Young (drums), Wayne Duncan (bass), Jeremy Noone (sax, keyboards), Ian Winter (guitar), Gunther Gorman (guitar), Wayne Burt (guitar)
''Eagle Rock (#1) / Bom Bom'' 1971 Sparmac
''Come Back Again (#3) / Just As Long As We're Together'' 1971 Sparmac
''Hi Honey Ho! (#16) / Don't Ever Leave Me (Don't Ever Go)'' 1971 Sparmac
''Teenage Blues (#83) / At The Rockhouse'' 1972 Sparmac
''Rock 'N Roll Lady / Cadillacin' 1972 Sparmac
''I'll Never Smile Again (#29) / Daddy Rocks Off'' 1972 Sparmac
''One Night / Cadillacin' 1973 Wizard
''Flash In My Head / Little Darlin' / Boy, You're Paranoid (Live)' 1973 Wizard
''Duke Of Earl / Jambalaya'' 1973 Wizard
''You Never Can Tell / You Never Can Tell'' 1973 Wizard
''All I Wanna Do Is Rock / All I Wanna Do Is Rock (Part 2)'' 1974 Wizard
''The Boogie Man / I Was A Teenage Creature'' 1974 Wizard
''Eagle Rock (Live Version) / Cadillacin' 1981 Wizard
''Come Back Again / Come Back Again (Long Version)'' 1982 Wizard
''Eagle Rock / Come Back Again'' 1989 Wizard
"The Ballad of Oz'' (#35) 1994 Mushroom
"The Christmas Bug" 2005
"They Built the Ute" 2007 Liberation
EPs
'The D.C.E.P.' (#12) 1971 Sparmac
'The D.C. Hits E.P.' 1977 Wizard
'Daddy Who? Daddy Cool' (#1) 1971 Sparmac
'Sex, Dope, Rock'n'Roll: Teenage Heaven' (#15) 1971 Sparmac
'The New Cool' 2006 Liberation
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daddy_Cool_%28band%29
http://top100singles.blogspot.com.au/
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