Colleen Hewett - Colleen (1983)

(Australian 1967 - Present)
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Colleen Hewett was born in the Victorian town of Bendigo in 1950, and has established herself as one of Australia's most admired and consistently successful recording artists. She was crowned the nation's 'Queen of Pop' twice in the seventies, and over the years has also won recognition as a talented stage and screen actress. This 1983 album features a number of her hits from the eighties, including the number one "Dreaming My Dreams With You" and a wonderful rendition of Bette Midler's "Wind Beneath My Wings".
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COLLEEN HEWETT
One of the most admired and consistently successful Australian recording artists, Colleen Hewett twice topped the Australian charts, a decade apart. Her active fifteen year hit span is unique in a country which tends to dismiss its female pop performers-swiftly and mercilessly.

Born in the Victorian town of Bendigo in 1950, personable Colleen was performing publicly by the age of twelve. After working with an amateur band for three years she became a part of Australia's vibrant sixties pop explosion when she joined the vocal trio The Creations. Before the decade was over she had recorded and toured with the Laurie Alien Revue and lan Saxon & The Sound.

Colleen's high profile solo career began in 1970 when she won the Bandstand Best Female Newcomer of the Year Award. Signed by Festival Records, she covered a song from Mad Dogs & Englishmen, Leon Russell's Superstar, and entered the top forty. This helped her secure a role in the Melbourne stage production of Godspell, which in turn gave her a number one gold single, Day By Day, which was recorded with full orchestration and the Australian Boys' Choir.

By 1972, Colleen was a major star in Australia. She won the national Go-Set Pop Poll as Best Female Singer and was crowned Queen of Pop. The following year she was part of the celebrity cast in the two live Australian presentations of the rock opera Tommy and was again crowned Queen of Pop. In 1974 she co-starred with John Farnham in the stage musical Pippin. But although she had minor hits with Carry That Weight, Waltzing Matilda, Sit Yourself Down and, during a brief 1974 stint with Atlantic Records, / Believe When I Fall In Love, she had ceased to be a major record seller and moved further into screen and stage activities, taking the lead in the 1978 ABC TV series The Truckles.


The dawn of the eighties echoed the same point a decade before, with Colleen - now recording for Wizard Records - once again claiming the chart summit; this time with the seductive Dreaming My Dreams With You. Her new hit run continued with Avenue Records and she had more chart entries including Gigolo, The Wind Beneath My Wings and If You Ever Feel The Need.

This 1983 Avenue label album, produced by Englishman John Wood, brought together most of those hits and included fine versions of the taut Split Enz ballad "I Hope I Never" and the gentle-but-funky Allan Toussaint piece, Motion. Since its release Colleen has remained only semi-active in music and entertainment while still commanding considerable loyalty and affection among Australians who recall her unpretentious air and honest charm. (Liner Notes by Glenn A. Baker)

This post consists of FLACS ripped from a recently acquired CD copy which trumps my vinyl copy (which is unfortunately warped) and includes full artwork for both media. Colleen released no less than 4 singles from this album, demonstrating just how popular she was during the 80's. The 2015 billboard poster above also shows that she is still going strong and is still able to draw crowds.
Yes, Colleen is still a Superstar !
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Track List:

01 When The Feeling Comes Around 3:20
02 Tell Me That You Love Me 3:20
03 The Wind Beneath My Wings 3:20
04 What Could You Know About Love       3:05
05 I Hope I Never 4:20
06 Hearts (Our Hearts) 3:13
07 Dreaming My Dreams With You 3:45
08 Since I Loved Like That 2:15
09 Gigolo 3:15
10 What If You Fell In Love 3:22
11 When I Dream 3:36
12 Motion 4:53
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Colleen Hewett FLAC Link (250Mb) New Link 16/11/2024
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Colleen Hewett - Selftitled (1972) + Bonus Tracks

(Australian 1967-1997, 2006)
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Colleen Hewett is an Australian theatre and TV actress, and a popular Australian singer. Her top 40 singles on the Kent Music Report include "Super Star", "Day by Day" (both 1971), "Carry That Weight" (1972), "Dreaming My Dreams with You" (1980), and "Gigolo" (1981). Her version of "Day by Day" peaked at No. 1 on the Go-Set National Top 40 Singles Chart and was certified as a gold record.
At the TV Week King of Pop Awards she was voted Queen of Pop in both 1972 and 1973.

Early Years
Colleen Hewett was born on 16th April, 1950 in Bendigo. She has an older sister, Glenys Hewett, who was a pop vocalist from the early sixties to mid-seventies. Hewett began her music career at the age of 12 when she sang with The Esquires at the Bendigo YMCA. At about 13 years old she appeared on TV pop music series, The Go!! Show, fifty years later she recalled "I wasn't of an age at that stage where I could go out on tour with anybody ... I came down from Bendigo with a band I was working with there ... then I came down again around my 14th birthday and did a solo spot on it ... they were just cover versions. I was just a little singer from Bendigo who came down on the train with the boys and did this amazing show that everybody watched".
 From 1964 to 1966 she regularly performed with The Esquires and, in 1967, she joined a vocal trio, The Creations, with her sister, Glenys, and Michelle Kennedy. That group also backed various solo singers including Billy Adams and then Buddy England, and thereby toured Australia. By April that year, with Kennedy, she joined a soul-based group 'Dice', which were renamed as Laurie Allen Revue. Other members were Laurie Allen (ex-Bobby & Laurie) on lead vocals, lead guitar and organ; Harry Henri on guitar (soon replaced by Phil Manning); Barry Rodgers on bass guitar (soon replaced by Wayne Duncan); and Gary Young on drums.
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In April 1967, Allen had told Go-Set: "I realized just a three piece group couldn't give me the sound I wanted, so I added two girl vocalists, Hewett and Kennedy, they are an act in themselves and combined to give us a distinctive sound which can't be done by any Australian group". As a member of the Laurie Allen Revue, Hewett was recorded on three singles, "Beautiful Brown Eyes" (August 1967), "Any Little Bit" (April 1968) and "As Long as I Got You" (June).
By mid-1968, Hewett had joined Ian Saxon and the Sound, with Saxon on lead vocals; Geoff Oakes on saxophone; Graeme Trottman on drums. In 1969 Hewett left the group and was replaced on vocals by Marlene Richards (ex-Ivan Dayman Band) before the group recorded their debut single, "Home Cookin'" (1970).

"Day by Day" to Queen of Pop
Hewett started her solo music career in 1970, appearing regularly on TV pop music series, Bandstand. Her popularity with viewers resulted in her winning Best Newcomer Female Singer at the Bandstand Awards in December. She signed with Festival Records and her debut single, which was a cover version of Delaney and Bonnie's 1969 track, "Super Star" was released in June 1971. It reached No. 30 on the Go-Set National Top 40 Singles chart. The track was also covered by United States group, The Carpenters.
From 15 November 1971 to 22 July 1972 Hewett acted in the Australian musical theatre version of Godspell, at the Playbox Theatre, Melbourne. She recorded two versions of the show's tune, "Day by Day". The first on Godspell - Original Australian Cast had Johnny Young producing the cast album, which appeared in March 1972.

The second version was produced by Ian "Molly" Meldrum and was issued as her second single, in November 1971. It peaked at No. 1 on the Go-Set charts and was certified as a gold record with shipment of over 50,000 copies. In April 1972 Hewett was the featured artist on a half-hour TV special performing "Day by Day", "By My Side", "Hey Jude" and "Jesus Christ Superstar".
After leaving Godspell, Hewett toured Australia performing in clubs and during TV appearances. Her debut self-titled album appeared in October 1972 and provided her next single, "Carry That Weight" - a cover of The Beatles track - which reached No. 29. She toured the United States and United Kingdom at the end of the year. At the TV Week King of Pop Awards she was voted Queen of Pop in both 1972 and 1973.

Stage and Theatre
Hewett's other musical theatre credits include Pippin, the rock opera Tommy and Return to the Forbidden Planet. While performing in Pippin, she and her co-star John Farnham also hosted the television variety show It's Magic, moving between the studio during the day and the theatre at night.

Television
During her music career in the 1970s, Hewett was also performing in a number of television dramas including Homicide, Matlock Police, The Truckies, Carson's Law, Division 4, Young Ramsay, Cop Shop and The Flying Doctors, many of which had an international release. She also appeared and sang on the Don Lane Show during the late seventies and during 1984 she guested as Sheila Brady in the TV series, Prisoner.

 

Recent
As of 2000, Hewett has been in semi-retirement, spending time in Melbourne, Bendigo and Fiji with family and friends. In 2006 she played Marion Woolnough, the mother of Peter Allen, in the Australian tour of The Boy From Oz headlined by Hugh Jackman. She also had a role as Matron "Mama" Morton in the musical Chicago with Caroline O'Conner and Craig McLachlan. In the 2011 movie The Cup she plays Pat Oliver, the mother of jockeys - Jason and Damian Oliver. [extract from MTV's website]
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This post consists of FLACs ripped from my priceless vinyl and also includes artwork and label scans to go.
I've also chosen to include her single version of "Day by Day" and the non-album B-side "By My Side" as bonus tracks.  This post was requested by Dave just recently, along with a couple of other Aussie rips in FLAC, which I will get to soon.  My favourite tracks on this album are Mother, Carry The Weight and of course Day by Day.

Track Listing 
01 - Day By Day
02 - Mother
03 - I've Got Love
04 - Don't Play That Song (You Lied)
05 - Danny Boy
06 - Carry The Weight
07 - Superstar
08 - Help
09 - Stay With Me Baby
10 - Reverend Lee
11 - So Long Ago
12 - I'll Be Seeing You
13 - By My Side (B-Side Single)

14 - Day By Day (A-Side Single)
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Colleen Hewett FLACs (310Mb) New Link 08/04/2020

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Colleen Hewett - Greatest Hits (1974) + Bonus Tracks

(Australian 1967-1997, 2006)
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Colleen Hewett was born in Bendigo, Victoria on April 16, 1950. At the age of twelve, her uncle took her to a local dance where she sang a number with the the group who were playing that night, The Esquires. She impressed both the audience and the group, so the band offered her a position with them as a vocalist. For the next three years Colleen worked regularly with the band.
The next stage of her career came in 1967 in Melbourne when she joined a vocal trio called the Creations with whom she toured Australia. From there she worked as a member of the Laurie Alien Revue and then with the Ian Saxon Sound.
In 1970 she embarked on a solo career under the management of Danny Finley who was later to become her husband. Her big break came later in the year when she won the Bandstand 1970 Best Female Newcomer of the Year award. By now she was gaining regular exposure on television as well as on the club and pop circuits. Colleen was then snapped up by Festival and her first single, 'Superstar' (from Joe Cocker's live album), which was suggested by Johnny Young, was released in June 1971.
She was well liked in the entertainment field and gained a reputation as an unspoiled, home-loving girl who was wary of the glamour and glitter of show business. Her popularity was also an important factor in her scoring a starring role in the stage production of Godspell, which opened at the Playbox Theatre in Melbourne during November of 71. As her second single, Colleen chose a song from the show entitled 'Day By Day' which was recorded using full orchestration and the Australian Boys Choir. The record became a national number one hit and the biggest selling Australian single of 1972. 'Day By Day' sold well over 50,000 copies and won a gold record for Colleen. As an interesting culmination to 1971, and as a sequel to her previous success on the Bandstand awards, she was this year elected Best Female Singer.

Colleen's commitment with Godspell made it difficult for her to get to the studios and record, but gradually she began assembling tracks for her forthcoming album. One of the songs, 'Carry That Weight', was released mid 1972 as her third single. Further recognition of her talent then came with her award as TV Week's 1972 Queen of Pop, and her win in the Go-Set national Pop Poll as Best Female singer.
The next step was to tackle the overseas market and Colleen negotiated with Paul Dainty to handle her affairs in London. Later in the year she left for the US and England. She returned on Boxing Day with the news that she had set the ball rolling regarding overseas recording and performances.
Early in 1973, Colleen took part in her second musical production with a starring role in the rock opera, Tommy. Because of the magnitude of the production, it was only presented twice. However, her performances were highly acclaimed. In May 73, she completed the recording of what was to be her first single for the year, 'Sit Yourself Down'.

It was a lavish production which was reported to have cost $6,000. But in June she appeared in a TV special on the seven network and one of the songs she sang was 'Waltzing Matilda'. The reaction to the song was so great that Festival decided to release it and shelve 'Sit Yourself Down', which was finally released in December 73. Ironically, neither single made the charts.
Once again Colleen won the TV Week Queen of Pop award. Another piece of good news was that she had been chosen to co-star with Johnny Farnham in the stage show, Pippin , which was to start in February 1974.

Then, in January 74, it was announced that she had been signed to Atlantic Records by US director, Phil Rose. The agreement apparently involved a large sum of money (reported to be five figures), two albums per year and a trip to America when her contract with Pippin expired in February 1975. In the US Colleen found it difficult to make progress and eventually returned to Australia in May 1977, having produced one good album called M'Lady. She wasted no time in getting back to work and began playing clubs almost immediately.
In September 1977, Colleen was chosen for a lead role in a new ABC-TV series called 'The Truckies'
In 1980 Colleen made a welcome return to the charts with her first single in five years, "Dreamin My Dreams With You" (b/w "One Eyed Man"), her sole release on Robie Porter's Wizard label. It was the second biggest hit of her career, reaching #2 nationally in March 1980 and hitting #1 in Brisbane and Melbourne and #2 in Adelaide and Sydney. [extract from Noel McGrath's Australian Encyclopedia of Rock, Outback Press]
For more information about Colleen's singing and acting career, see the Midoztouch Website.
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This post consists of an MP3 (320kps) rip from my A+ vinyl copy (found recently in an opp shop in pristine condition) and includes full album artwork. As a bonus, I am also including her 1980 single "Dreamin My Dreams With You" / "One Eyed Man" from my collection.  Now, I'm gonna have to admit that I had a bit of a thing for Colleen when I was a teenager which was only exasperated when I saw her on stage in Melbourne's presentation of Godspell. More than 40 years later, I can still hear her Angelic like voice singing those magestical words "Pre-e-e-pare, Ye The Way, Of The Lord"..........
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Track Listing
01. Day By Day (Album Version)
02. Superstar
03. Waltzing Matilda
04. Can't Sit Down
05. By My Side
06. I'll Be Seeing You
07. Wish To Wish
08. Carry That Weight
09. Sit Yourself Down
10. More Today Than Yesterday
11. Danny Boy
12. Day By Day (Godspell version)
Bonus Tracks
13. Dreaming My Dreams With You (A-Side Single)
14. One Eyed Man (B-Side Single)
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Colleen Hewett Link (125Mb)
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