"Good Times" (aka "Gonna Have a Good Time") is a song by the Australian

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band

the Easybeats The Easybeats were an Australian Rock music, rock band which formed in Sydney in late 1964. They are best known for their 1966 hit single "Friday on My Mind", which is regarded as the first Australian rock song to achieve international success ...

, written by George Young and

Harry Vanda Johannes Hendrikus Jacob van den Berg (born 22 March 1946), better known as Harry Vanda, is a Dutch-Australian musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as lead guitarist of the 1960s Australian rock band the Easybeats who wi ...

. It was released in June 1968 on their album ''

Vigil A vigil, from the Latin meaning 'wakefulness' ( Greek: , or ), is a period of purposeful sleeplessness, an occasion for devotional watching, or an observance. The Italian word has become generalized in this sense and means 'eve' (as in "on t ...

,'' and as a single in July 1968 through

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parloph ...

. It features guest vocals by

Steve Marriott Stephen Peter Marriott (30 January 1947 – 20 April 1991) was an English actor, musician, guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a student at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London and appeared in the West End, before taking a r ...

Small Faces Small Faces were an English Rock music, rock band from London, founded in 1965. The group originally consisted of Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones and Jimmy Winston, with Ian McLagan replacing Winston as the band's keyboardist in 1966 ...

, and piano by

Nicky Hopkins Nicholas Christian Hopkins (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist. He performed on many popular and enduring British and American rock music recordings from the 1960s to the 1990s, including on songs recorde ...

. The original Easybeats recording reached #22 in Australia. When broadcast by

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

radio, it was reportedly heard by

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

on his car radio; McCartney apparently rang the station immediately to request a repeat playing. The song has been covered by Australian and international artists; in 1987, a version by

INXS INXS (a phonetic play on "in excess") were an Australian rock band, formed as the Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney. The founding members were bassist Garry Gary Beers, main composer and keyboardist Andrew Farriss, drummer Jon Farriss, gu ...

, featuring

Jimmy Barnes James Dixon Barnes ( Swan; born 28 April 1956) is an Australian rock singer. His career, both as a solo performer and as the lead vocalist with the rock band Cold Chisel, has made him one of the most popular and best-selling Australian music a ...

, was included on the soundtrack of the film ''

The Lost Boys ''The Lost Boys'' is a 1987 American comedy horror film directed by Joel Schumacher, produced by Harvey Bernhard, and with the screenplay written by Jeffrey Boam, Janice Fischer, and James Jeremias, from a story by Fischer and Jeremias. The ...

'' and was a top 50 ''Billboard'' Hot 100 hit in the United States. It was also interpolated by

Meat Loaf Michael Lee Aday (born Marvin Lee Aday; September 27, 1947 – January 20, 2022), known professionally by his stage name Meat Loaf, was an American singer and actor. He was known for his powerful, wide-ranging voice and theatrical live shows. ...

on his 1995 song " Runnin' for the Red Light (I Got a Life)" from his album '' Welcome to the Neighbourhood''.

Notable cover versions

The Clingers

"Good Times" was recorded and released in 1969 as "Gonna Have a Good Time Tonight" by the Clingers, a Utah band comprising four Mormon sisters. The song was produced by

Kim Fowley Kim Vincent Fowley (July 21, 1939 – January 15, 2015) was an American record producer, songwriter and musician who was behind a string of novelty and cult pop rock singles in the 1960s, and managed the Runaways in the 1970s. He has been ...

for Columbia Records but failed to chart. The Clingers are regarded as the first all female

band that played their own instruments.

Shocking Blue

"Good Times" was covered by Dutch rock band

Shocking Blue Shocking Blue was a Dutch rock band formed in The Hague in 1967. They were part of the Nederbeat movement in the Netherlands. The band had a string of hit songs during the Counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture movement of the 1960s and e ...

, on their eighth and final album of the same name released in 1974.

Quartz

The

NWOBHM The new wave of British heavy metal (often abbreviated as NWOBHM) was a nationwide musical movement that began in England in the mid-1970s and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. Editor Alan Lewis coined the term for an arti ...

heavy metal band

Quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

released a live cover version of this song on their 1980 released live album ''Live Quartz''. In 2013 the band also released a studio version of the song on their self-produced compilation ''Back in the Band – Live and Revisited''.

INXS & Jimmy Barnes

Australians

and

released a version in December 1986, which was engineered by Al Wright and appeared in the 1987

Joel Schumacher Joel T. Schumacher (; August 29, 1939 – June 22, 2020) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Raised in New York City by his mother, Schumacher graduated from Parsons School of Design and originally became a fashion designe ...

film ''

''. This version reached number one in New Zealand and number two in Australia, as well as obtaining chart positions in the US (where it peaked at number 47 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100), Canada (number 74), and UK (where it peaked at number 18 on the UK singles chart in 1991). A video clip was produced featuring INXS and Jimmy Barnes performing the song, with scenes intercut from ''The Lost Boys''. This version was also used to promote the national Australian Made series of concerts that took place between Boxing Day 1986 and Australia Day 1987. Barnes later said, "We spent a day and a half in the studio.

Michael Hutchence Michael Kelland John Hutchence (22 January 1960 – 22 November 1997) was an Australian singer and songwriter. He was the co-founder, lead singer and lyricist of the rock band INXS from 1977 until his death in 1997. The band sold over 50 ...

and myself didn't sleep the whole time we were there. It was a booze- and drug-fuelled couple of days."

''Australian Idol'' 2004 cover

The song was performed on the Top 12 Results Show of the second season of ''

Australian Idol ''Australian Idol'' is an Australian singing competition, which began its first season in July 2003 and ended its initial run in November 2009. As part of the ''Idol'' franchise, Australian Idol originated from the reality program '' Pop Id ...

'' in 2004. This version of the song was then released by the Top 10 finalists nearly four months after the live show. It was released as a one-track CD single and reached a peak of #53 on the

ARIA In music, an aria (, ; : , ; ''arias'' in common usage; diminutive form: arietta, ; : ariette; in English simply air (music), air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrument (music), instrumental or orchestral accompan ...

singles chart.

Meat Loaf cover version

"Good Times" was interpolated by the American rock singer

on his 1995 song " Runnin' for the Red Light (I Gotta Life)" from his album '' Welcome to the Neighbourhood''. This new version, credited to Vanda, Young, Sarah Durkee, Meat Loaf and

Patti Russo Patricia Russo (May 20, 1964) is an American singer and songwriter. She acted as Meat Loaf's female lead vocalist, touring the world with his band Neverland Express between 1993 and 2013. Since then, she has embarked on a solo career. Work wit ...

featured significantly different lyrics.

Hindu Love Gods cover version

Hindu Love Gods covered the song on a 1986 single, but under the title "Gonna Have a Good Time Tonight". The members of Hindu Love Gods were

Mike Mills Michael Edward Mills (born December 17, 1958) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer who was a founding member of the alternative rock band R.E.M. Though known primarily as the bass guitarist and backing vocalist of R.E.M., hi ...

Bill Berry William Thomas Berry (born July 31, 1958) is an American musician who was the drummer for the alternative rock band R.E.M. Although best known for his economical drumming style, Berry also played other instruments, including guitar, bass guita ...

and

Peter Buck Peter Lawrence Buck (born December 6, 1956) is an American musician and songwriter. He was a co-founder and the lead guitarist of the alternative rock band R.E.M.; he played the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his caree ...

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American alternative rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the fir ...

, Bryan Cook, and

Warren Zevon Warren William Zevon (January 24, 1947 – September 7, 2003) was an American rock singer and songwriter. His most famous compositions include "Werewolves of London", "Lawyers, Guns and Money" and "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner". All t ...

. The 7" single was released on

I.R.S. Records I.R.S. Records was a major American record label founded by Miles Copeland III and Jay Boberg in 1979. I.R.S. produced some of the most popular bands of the 1980s, and was particularly known for issuing records by college rock, new wave and a ...

Jimmy Barnes featuring Keith Urban

Jimmy Barnes reprised the song on his ''30:30 Hindsight'' greatest hits album in 2014, with

Keith Urban Keith Lionel Urban ( né Urbahn; 26 October 1967) is an Australian and American country singer, songwriter and guitarist. Recognised with four Grammy Awards, he has also received 15 Academy of Country Music Awards, including the Jim Reeves Int ...

on guitar and vocals

Jessica Mauboy version

Jessica Mauboy Jessica Hilda Mauboy (; born 4 August 1989) is an Australian singer. Born and raised in Darwin, Northern Territory, she rose to fame in 2006 on the Australian Idol (season 4), fourth season of ''Australian Idol'', where she was runner-up and s ...

covered the song on her 2016 album, '' The Secret Daughter: Songs from the Original TV Series''.

Charts

The Easybeats version

INXS/Jimmy Barnes version

Year-end charts

''Australian Idol'' version

References

{{authority control 1967 songs 1968 singles 1986 singles The Easybeats songs INXS songs Jimmy Barnes songs Songs written by Harry Vanda Songs written by George Young (rock musician) Parlophone singles United Artists Records singles Mushroom Records singles Song recordings produced by Glyn Johns Number-one singles in New Zealand