Business as Usual (Men at Work album)
| Business as Usual | ||||
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Original Australian vinyl cover art
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| Studio album by Men at Work | ||||
| Released | 9 November 1981 / June, 1982(US) | |||
| Recorded | March–September 1981 at Richmond Recorders, Melbourne | |||
| Genre | New wave, reggae rock, pop rock | |||
| Length | 38:11 | |||
| Label | CBS / Columbia | |||
| Producer | Peter McIan | |||
| Men at Work chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Business as Usual | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Robert Christgau | B+ |
| Rolling Stone |  |
Business as Usual is the debut album of Australian new wave band Men at Work, which was released in November 1981 in Australia, and April 1982 in the United States. The group members were Greg Ham on flute, saxophone, keyboards and vocals; Colin Hay on vocals and guitar; John Rees on bass guitar; Jerry Speiser on drums and backing vocals; and Ron Strykert on lead guitar and vocals. It spent nine weeks at the top of the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart from December 1981 through to March 1982. The Australian version had a black and white cover design; overseas releases had a similar design but in a black and yellow colour scheme. Business as Usual was one of the most successful albums internationally by an Australian group. It spent an unprecedented 15 weeks at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 from late 1982 to early 1983; and five weeks at No. 1 in the United Kingdom Albums Chart in early 1983. Business as Usual was also one of the highest selling Australian albums in the early 1980s, with 6 million copies sold in the US, and 15 million sold worldwide. Surprisingly, the disc also made it to #31 on Billboard's Black Albums chart.
The first single from the album, "Who Can It Be Now?", was released in Australia in June 1981, prior to the recording of the rest of the album. It reached No. 2 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart in August that year. The second single, "Down Under", which was issued in October peaked at No. 1 for six weeks. A third single, "Be Good Johnny", appeared in April the following year and reached No. 8.
In February 2010 a Federal Court judge in Sydney found that the flute riff from "Down Under" had been plagiarised from the Australian song "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree", written in 1934 by Marion Sinclair. The Federal Court determined that the copyright was still current (Sinclair died in 1988) and had been assigned to Larrikin Music. The judge found that "a substantial amount of the original song" had been reproduced in "Down Under". Larrikin Music had suggested 60% of the royalties would be appropriate compensation, but the court decreed they shall receive only 5%, and only on mechanical rights for the song since 2002, and on future profits.
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