No Aphrodisiac

"No Aphrodisiac"
Single by the Whitlams
from the album Eternal Nightcap
Released14 December 1997 (1997-12-14)
GenrePiano rock
Length3:32
LabelBlack Yak, Phantom
Songwriter(s)Tim Freedman, Matt Ford, Glen Dormand
Producer(s)Rob Taylor, Tim Freedman
The Whitlams singles chronology
"You Sound Like Louis Burdett"
(1997) 		"No Aphrodisiac"
(1997) 		"Melbourne"
(1998)

"No Aphrodisiac" is a song by Australian band the Whitlams, released in December 1997 as the second single from their third album, Eternal Nightcap. The song peaked at No. 59 on the Australian Singles Chart. The lead track was written by the band's founding mainstay, Tim Freedman, together with Pinky Beecroft (Matt Ford) and Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab (Glen Dormand): both from the band, Machine Gun Fellatio.[1] It was produced by Freedman with Rob Taylor.[1] "No Aphrodisiac" won Song of the Year at the ARIA Music Awards of 1998. It was listed at No. 1 on the Triple J Hottest 100 for 1997.[2] Former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, for whom the band was named, announced news of their win on air.[3] One of its B-sides is "Gough". Machine Gun Fellatio provided a re-mix of "No Aphrodisiac" for the remixes version of the single.

Details

"No Aphrodisiac" was written for Freedman's then-girlfriend, who was living in Melbourne, while he was in Sydney.[4] He later recalled, "We were growing apart, not writing to each other so much... Pinky Beecroft and Chit Chat had just played me a demo of theirs, which consisted of very funny personal classifieds, and we used 6 lines of that to finish the song."[4] One of the lyric lines is "truth, beauty and a picture of you", Freedman later explained "their role in the song is just to be comedic. I'm saying 'I miss you but the universe will turn me on in your absence'. Truth of course doesn't exist, and beauty is all."[5]

The single mix version adds more electric guitar and is almost a minute shorter than the album version. This version does not appear on the band's 2008 compilation album, Truth, Beauty and a Picture of You – the title is a line from the lyrics – instead the album version was used, which was also the preferred radio version.

Reception

"No Aphrodisiac" won Song of the Year at the ARIA Music Awards of 1998 and was also nominated for Single of the Year but lost out to Natalie Imbruglia's cover version of "Torn".[6] The track was performed by the band at a ceremony in Sydney before the Millennium. It was also performed live during the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games.

AllMusic's Jonathan Lewis felt it was "a melancholy, piano-driven song about long-distance relationships".[7] According to Bernard Zuel of The Sydney Morning Herald, it was "A ballad about infidelity, or even masturbation – 'there's no aphrodisiac like loneliness' – it became a national love-song request. The single was released independently by Freedman's own label, had no film clip, no commercial radio airplay and no marketing budget."[8]

The Guardian said, "No Aphrodisiac is a demarcation in the Whitlams’ sound: gone were the boyish songs about mates and girls, replaced by melancholic, clever songs about being lonely and drinking too much (and girls). In a neat encapsulation of the band’s shift, Lewis even swapped his double bass for an electric bass halfway through the track."[9]

Track listings

There are four releases of the "No Aphrodisiac" single, one that consists of different mixes of the lead track and three versions which have different bonus tracks as detailed below:

Awards and nominations

Year Nominee / work Award Result
1998 ARIA Music Awards of 1998 Song of the Year Won[6]
Single of the Year Nominated
APRA Music Awards of 1998 Song of the Year Nominated[12]

Charts

Chart performance for "No Aphrodisiac"
Chart (1997–2000) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[13] 59
Canada Adult Contemporary (RPM)[14] 79
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[15] 47

References

  1. ^ a b c "The Whitlams – No Aphrodisiac". Australian Charts Portal. Hung Medien. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  2. ^ "Hottest 100 History | 1997". Triple J. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  3. ^ "There's No Aphrodisiac Like Success: the song that changed The Whitlams forever". Double J. 25 January 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
  4. ^ a b Jeff Jenkins (2007). 50 Years of Rock in Australia. Melbourne: Wilkinson Publishing. p. 295. ISBN 9781921332111.
  5. ^ Winterflood, Julia (2 October 2008). "The Whitlams – Some of my best work". BMA Magazine. Archived from the original on 26 April 2010. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  6. ^ a b "ARIA Awards – History: Winners by Year 1998: 12th Annual ARIA Awards". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  7. ^ Lewis, Jonathan. "The Whitlams | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  8. ^ Zuel, Bernard (20 July 2002). "No holds bard". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  9. ^ Sian Cain (11 September 2022). "The Whitlams: their 25 best songs – sorted!". The Guardian.
  10. ^ "Releases :: 'No Aphrodisiac – The Remixes'". Australian Music Online. Archived from the original on 21 November 2007. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  11. ^ "Releases :: 'No Aphrodisiac'". Australian Music Online. Archived from the original on 21 November 2007. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  12. ^ "Nominations – 1998". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS). Archived from the original on 8 March 2011. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  13. ^ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 301.
  14. ^ "Top RPM Adult Contemporary: Issue 9721." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  15. ^ "The Whitlams – No Aphrodisiac". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 19 June 2020.