{"id":17192,"date":"2026-04-06T09:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T13:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/?p=17192"},"modified":"2026-04-06T09:31:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T13:31:45","slug":"reaching-for-the-stars-vol-124","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/2026\/04\/06\/reaching-for-the-stars-vol-124\/","title":{"rendered":"Reaching For The Stars, Vol. 124"},"content":{"rendered":"

My Easter weekend extends through today, so I\u2019ll save the weekend notes for tomorrow and instead get back on the Reaching For The Stars<\/a> horse after too long of a break.<\/p>\n

\n

Chart Week: April 5, 1986
\nSong: \u201cWhat You Need\u201d – INXS
\nChart Position: #6, 12th week on the chart. Peaked at #5 the week of April 12.<\/p>\n

\n

I\u2019ve been writing this series long enough that there are several recurring themes. Today we will look at a single that was a last-minute addition to a nearly-finished album.[1]<\/a> Not only did it become the album\u2019s biggest hit, it is the song that launched the band into worldwide superstardom.<\/p>\n

INXS were already a big deal in their homeland of Australia by 1986, with 11 charting singles including the #1 \u201cOriginal Sin.\u201d[2]<\/a> But in the US, they barely scraped the Top 40 once; 1983\u2019s \u201cThe One Thing,\u201d peaking at #30.[3]<\/a> In 1985 they were days from completing their fifth studio album, Listen Like Thieves<\/em>. However, producer Chris Thomas felt the project lacked an obvious hit and refused to sign off on the final track list.<\/p>\n

The band dug into a pile of demos they had set aside. Multi-instrumentalist Andrew Farriss zeroed in on one called \u201cFunk Song No. 13.\u201d He loved the groove and thought it had potential. The band agreed, went back to work, and within 48 hours had recorded \u201cWhat You Need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stories like that fascinate me. How can bands work for months, sometimes years, on an album, be told they are missing a radio hit, then crank out a monster in a matter of hours?[4]<\/a> Like, why hadn\u2019t \u201cFunk Song No. 13\u201d inspired INXS earlier in their process?<\/p>\n

Obviously it was a good thing for both the band and the listening public that Thomas told the band to keep at it.<\/p>\n

INXS were always a hard-to-define act. Although they came along in the early Eighties, they weren\u2019t New Wave. While they landed on the alternative rock chart in the Nineties, they were never a true alt-rock band.[5]<\/a> They had a unique amalgam of influences that seems like it could only come from Australia. Pub rock roots for sure. While not true funk, certainly a danceable side that had a connection to disco, useful when Duran Duran was selling millions of records. Straight down the middle rock guitars. And the honking saxophone that was the cherry on top of their sundae of sounds.<\/p>\n

Although \u201cWhat You Need\u201d did well around the world, it was biggest in Australia and the US, where it peaked at #2 and #3 respectively. More importantly, it led INXS to a sound they refined and took to another level on their next album, Kick<\/em>. That was when INXS became, briefly, one of the biggest bands in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat You Need\u201d has a bit of an odd structure. But I think those unexpected elements contributed to its appeal. In the end, it was a no-doubter of a hit. It appealed to listeners across multiple demographic lines. Dudes liked it because it rocked. Girls liked it because you could dance to it. I don\u2019t think Black radio played it, but it wasn\u2019t too far removed from some other white music that made it on to Urban radio playlists at the time. Michael Hutchence was an incredible front man, with both a fine voice and incredibly magnetic presence. He also might have been one of the most beautiful people to ever walk this earth. His whole presentation – visuals and lyrics – was loaded with an undeniable and universal sexuality, but you could still listen to INXS songs with your parents and it not get awkward. Put all that together and you have a recipe for the archetypical mid-Eighties pop-rock track.<\/p>\n

I loved the record because it was in constant rotation right when spring was blossoming my freshman year in high school. We had moved into a new house the previous fall and this was my first opportunity to enjoy our big deck on warm afternoons, or shoot hoops in the driveway after school. Regardless of what I was doing, my boombox was with me, tuned to either Q\u2013104 or ZZ\u201399, and \u201cWhat You Need\u201d was definitely a song I turned the volume up a little higher for. I am 100% positive it was on the Spring of \u201986 mixtape I made by recording songs off the radio, in there with Van Halen\u2019s \u201cWhy Can\u2019t This Be Love,\u201d \u201cKiss\u201d by Prince, and Force MD\u2019s \u201cTender Love\u201d among many, many others. It was a terrific spring for music.<\/p>\n

Although \u201cWhat You Need\u201d was not the best song on Listen Like Thieves<\/em>,[6]<\/a> it was the song INXS needed in the moment. Good on Chris Thomas for pushing them to make it happen. 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n