Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs - The Word For Today (1966)

(Martin Siegel)
 Australia
#11 Sydney #40 Melbourne #20 Brisbane #26 Adelaide #5 Perth

Single on Parlophone, a brassy, uptempo rearrangement of a lesser-known Bobby Rydell single.

The arrangement is by Franz Conde, a Sydney-based pianist, conductor, composer, arranger and producer with experience in British television. He worked for a time as musical director at Festival records, and later as a talent manager and TV producer at Sydney channel ATN7. He produced ATN's pop show It's All Happening (1966), hosted by Billy Thorpe, and The Club Show (1968). He became head of the Robert Stigwood Organisation in Australia in 1968.

In 1963, after Conde left Festival, he and Sydney singer Warren Williams formed a company, Williams-Conde Music Pty Ltd, for composing, arranging, publishing and producing. The Williams-Conde writer credit appears on a number of 60s Australian singles including Williams's It's Party Time which was covered in French by Petula Clark.

Double-sided hit in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth with The New Breed.

Billy Thorpe (1946-2007): British-born singer, guitarist and songwriter whose family emigrated to Brisbane in the 1950s. Based in Sydney from 1963, 'Thorpy', with The Aztecs, had numerous pop hits in a variety of styles, but at the end of the 60s, then in Melbourne, he fronted a loud, rocky, blues-based formation of the Aztecs that contrasted with his earlier pop idol image. Later, his solo and business career took him to Los Angeles, and he wrote two popular autobiographical books, Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy) and Sex And Thugs And Rock'n'Roll [AbeBooks].

Further reading: The comprehensive Billy Thorpe page at Milesago which includes career biography, interview and discography.