Neighbours Axing Gives Barry Crocker A Number One UK Hit

Barry Crocker has the number one hit in the UK today. His ‘Neighbours Theme’ has bulleted to number one after news of the axing of the Australian soap opera after 37 years.

The Australian legend says he woke up this morning to the news. On Facebook he wrote, “Expect the unexpected! I awoke this morning to find that my version of the Neighbours theme had hit No 1 on the UK Charts, Knocking off Adele and Ed Sheeran, >>>who could have thought? x Baz”

And was it true? Well yes it is.

Crocker, now 86, recorded the original Neighbours theme when the show went to air in 1985. Crocker’s version was used as the theme until 1992. Neighbours has had nine versions of the theme. Barry recorded the first two versions. The first went from 18 March 1985 to 6 July 1989 and was then updated with theme two from 7 July 1989 to 15 May 1992.

Greg Hind had the theme from 1992 to 1998, followed by Paul Norton and Wendy Stapleton from 1999 to 2001. Next was Janine Maunder from 2002 to 2007, Sandra de Jong from 2007 to 2013, Stephanie Angelini and Daniel Boys from 2013 to 2014, Garth Ploog from 2015 to 2020 with the current version by Bonnie Anderson since 2020.

Crocker’s original version was released as a single in 1988 and reached number 83 on the UK chart.

The theme was composed by Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent. Hatch had been a member of David Bowie’s band when Bowie was still known as Davy Jones. He was the producer for Bowie’s 1966 ‘Can’t Help Thinking About Me’, a song recently revisited on the album ‘Toy’.

He was also the regular producer for Petula Clark and wrote her hits ‘Downtown’ and ‘Don’t Sleep In the Subway’.

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