TIM'S TOP 20 PARTY ROCK SONGS : TRACK 15 - EAGLE ROCK by DADDY COOL

The timeless DADDY COOL tune EAGLE ROCK is so well known and loved in Australia it almost could be the official national anthem. As legend would have it the song started life after lead singer and part time guitar player ROSS WILSON was toying around one day and trying to imitate the introduction to THAT'LL BE THE DAY by BUDDY HOLLY, and apparently it just went from there. Although not quite as legendary playing the guitar as the late great Texan rock'n'roll revolutionary and usually sticking to singing only in DADDY COOL, Wilson invented something quite special, a simple, no-nonsense guitar intro which builds into a great twin guitar lead and rhythm duel between himself and the full time guitarist, ROSS HANNAFORD. Pretty much a standard pub rock song beefed up two guitars, which gave EAGLE ROCK an unusually layered and textured sound in comparison to the band's mostly featherweight doowop and Chuck Berry inspired skiffle. The album which EAGLE ROCK come off, DADDY WHO? DADDY COOL remains per capita one of the most successful australian rock albums ever released, with EAGLE ROCK itself even being a minor hit in the US. But following a rather unfruitful tour to the US in August 1971, a month after the album's release, cracks and apathy began to appear in the ranks of DADDY COOL and the band soon gave up on the US, concentrating on shoring up success in Australia. SEX, DOPE, ROCK'N'ROLL : TEENAGE HEAVEN was more experimental as the title suggests and alienated many of the conservative type who took to the band's playful and much more innocent debut. Anyhow, EAGLE ROCK will forever be DADDY COOL's defining song, and it's one of the great rock'n'roll songs of all time. It's well known that ELTON JOHN got the idea to write CROCODILE ROCK after listening to it.