Today is Australia Day and today’s music video of the day comes from one of the biggest Australian bands of the last century, INXS.

What You Need was the leadoff track from their 1985 album, Listen Like Thieves.  It was the first single off the album in Australia and New Zealand while, in the US, it was released after This Time.  It also went on to become the band’s first top ten hit in the United States.  That shouldn’t be a surprise as the song was recorded after the album’s producer expressed concern that Listen Like Thieves was good but didn’t have a “hit.”  The band wrote and recorded the song in one day.

The song’s popularity was undoubtedly helped by this music video, which came out at a time when rotoscope was still a fairly exotic animation technique.  The video was named Best Video at the 1985 Countdown and Music Video Awards.

Enjoy!