Need You Tonight

INXS remains the only real, successful Aussie band to break out from its initial, parochial pub-rock confines to embrace a larger, more varied worldview. The now semi-inactive sextet had their heyday from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, scoring sleek, funk-inflected and Rolling Stonesy hits on charts everywhere. Of course, the magic ingredient in the scheme of things is undoubtedly the natural showmanship of long-deceased frontman Michael Hutchence, with his cocksure strut, self-assured posturing and audacious presence, which made him an innate and wholly believable rock star (although some naysayers might say this was all calculated and done to break the band in America). Check out the enduring, glossy grooves of 'Need You Tonight', the band's sole US number one hit, which still awes after all these years with its clipped guitar riffs, resonant drum work and a measured but energetic Hutchence vocal, backed by a simple but effective rotoscoped performance video.