(Nicky Chinn - Mike Chapman)
Australian artist, recorded in UK
Original version
#27 Sydney #4 Brisbane #12 Adelaide #7 Perth
Single on Rak UK November 1972, and Australia December 1972 by Brisbane trio who later worked in the UK. Also known as New World Trio.
An early hit written by Nicky Chinn, a Londoner, and Mike Chapman, born in Brisbane, the extraordinarily successful songwriting and production team (nicknamed Chinnichap), responsible for numerous British hits during the glam era of the 70s.
Further reading: Guardian interview with Nicky Chinn (2014).
(Nicky Chinn - Mike Chapman)
UK
Later version
#5 UK #53 USA #1 Sydney #2 Melbourne #1 Brisbane #2 Adelaide #2 Perth #7 NZ
British pop band, known earlier as Smokey and, before that, Kindness, lead singer Chris Norman. They built their chart career around Chinn-Chapman (Chinnichap) compositions.
Further reading: Alex Gitlin’s Smokie page.
(Nicky Chinn - Mike Chapman - Claude Carrère - Jean Schmitt)
France
Later version
#18 Belgium [Walloon]
Single on Carrere by French jazz guitarist, singer, composer and actor (1933-2004), adaptation by Claude Carrère and Jean Schmitt (= the door across the street).
♫ Listen at YouTube
Outside France, Sacha Distel’s instrumental theme Marina [YouTube] is familiar with words as The Good Life, recorded by Tony Bennett (1963, #18 USA, #27 UK) and many other singers. Distel’s version of Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head charted in the UK (1969, #10).
Although not remembered as a rocker, it was Sacha Distel who wrote, with Bill Byers, the first original French rock’n’roll songs, released in 1956 by Mac-Kac Et Son Rock And Roll
Merci à Philippe.
(Nicky Chinn - Mike Chapman)
Australia
Later version
December 2024 release by initially short-lived punk-new wave band formed in Adelaide 1975.
Black Chrome broke up in 1978 after struggling to gain acceptance as Australian punk pioneers. From the early 2000s, though, online interest in the band led to a revival that has been kept alive by reunion gigs, releases on founding member Simon Stratton’s label Tomorrow, and a current project of taking appalling songs in history and fixing them by playing them in punk.
The band’s history is enlivened, for example, by an Adelaide disc jockey’s denouncement of them, and by the day job of Stratton who has apparently stayed a punk while serving as a District Court judge.
♫ Listen at YouTube
Sources, further reading: 1. Discogs.com lists personnel and releases and has entries for singer-guitarist Simon Stratton and drummer Andrew Griffiths. 2. Alison McClymont, Once ‘hated, ignored and rejected’, Judge Simon Stretton’s punk rock band Black Chrome has found a cult following, ABC News, 1 Dec 2024. 3. A 2011 blog post at Australian music blog Wallaby Beat has the bonus of a number of informative reader comments.
Suggestion from Melanie Smith, thank you.
All of the following versions are parodies of “Living Next Door To Alice”:
(Nicky Chinn, Mike Chapman)
UK
Parody
#17 UK #1 Netherlands #48 Perth
This is where the “Who The @#$% is Alice?” parodies began.
Single on Epic-Habana with veteran Dutch deejay and producer Peter Koelewijn using the alias Gompie, a Dutch expression something like ‘Gosh!’
Gompie was the name of a Dutch club where patrons would shout this response after the word Alice, much in the way that Australian audiences traditionally chant a scurrilous answer to The Angels’ Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again?
The history and locations of the record’s production, pressing and release is complicated: see the learned discussion at 45cat.
Thanks to Kees van der Hoeven for interpretation on this and following entries.
(Nicky Chinn - Mike Chapman)
UK
Parody
#3 UK
Smokie responds to Gompie’s parody with one of their own, with the participation of British stand-up comedian Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown.
The extended single on Wag has Smokie’s rerecording of the original song with bleeped and unbleeped versions of the parody version.
(Chinn - Chapman [parodied])
Belgium
Parody
#3 Sydney #1 Melbourne #1 Brisbane #1 Adelaide #2 Perth #21 NZ
Of all the “Who The **** Is Alice” variations, this was the hit in Australia and NZ.
12″ 33⅓ rpm single on Belgian label ARS, “Produced by Hottown Productions for ARS Productions”, also released in Australia and NZ on Festival-ARS CD single.
I’m assuming this is not US band The Steppers (Come And Get It/What The Problem Is on Aware, 1973).
(Chinn - Chapman [parodied])
Netherlands
Parody
Following in the vein of Gompie’s hit: "I don’t give a [blank] about Alice".
(Chinn - Chapman [parodied])
Netherlands
Parody
More of the same, this time in the dialect of the province of Limburg. Weë Is Schjerp Op Lieske is literally "Who is sharp on Lieske?’, meaning "Who has a crush on Lieske?".
(Chinn - Chapman [parodied])
Germany
Parody
German variation on the singalong theme: ‘Who the hell is Alice?’
(Chinn - Chapman [parodied])
Germany
Parody
CD maxi-single on German label Ariola by writing and production team Bernd Meinunger, David Brandes, Felix Gauder who released dance music under many artist names.
Source: Discogs.com. Follow the links to the artist pages for details including lists of artist names.
(Chinn - Chapman [Parodied])
Australia
Parody
On the album Kev’s Back (The Return of the Yobbo) by Australian comedy singer-songwriter, real name Dennis Bryant. The album was ARIA’s Best Comedy Release for 1987. The song is about an indigenous family claiming land next door to millionaire Alan Bond. See the discussion by Mark Rainbird in Humour, Multiculturalism and ‘Political Correctness’.
Pop Archives
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Website by Lyn Nuttall. © Lyn Nuttall 2004-2024. Chart positions courtesy of Gavin Ryan’s Australian Chart Books and Dean Scapolo’s Complete NZ Music Charts. Special thanks to Terry Stacey for information, corrections and suggestions. Thanks also to Tony Watson, Philippe Edouard, Dave Overett.., More…