"Shining Star" is a song by Australian rock band

INXS INXS (a phonetic play on "in excess") were an Australian rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. The band's founding members were bassist Garry Gary Beers, main composer and keyboardist Andrew Farris ...

, released as the only single issued from the band's first live album, '' Live Baby Live'' (1991), on 21 October 1991. It is the one new studio track recorded for the album. Upon the song's release, it peaked at 21 on the Australian

ARIA Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian record chart, music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA beca ...

, No. 27 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, becoming the group's ninth top-40 single in the latter country. In the United States, it peaked at No. 4 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

chart and No. 14 on the Album Rock Tracks chart.

Guest vocalists

The studio recording featured backing vocals by

Keith Urban Keith Lionel Urban (born 26 October 1967) is an Australian-American musician, singer, guitarist and songwriter known for his work in country music. Recognized with four Grammy Awards, Urban also received fifteen Academy of Country Music Awa ...

and Stuart McKie. Urban was yet to release his own first album, and was not yet well known to the public, but was invited to the studio by

Kirk Pengilly Kirk Pengilly ( ; born 4 July 1958) is an Australian musician and member of the Australian rock group INXS. Kirk plays saxophone, guitar and also performs as a backing vocalist. Early career Pengilly moved to Sydney in 1966, and became best fri ...

to join in the recording.

B-sides

Four live tracks were released as B-sides: "

I Send a Message "I Send a Message" was the second single released by Australian rock band INXS from their fourth album '' The Swing''. The music video was directed by Yamamoto San and filmed in Tokyo at the city's oldest Buddhist temple in Main Old City Park. ' ...

" (from Wembley, London 1991), "Faith in Each Other" (from London or Sydney 1990), and " Bitter Tears" (from Paris). The fourth track, "The Loved One" (from Wembley, London 1991), was released in Australia in all formats instead of "Faith in Each Other". All these tracks were only available on the single.

Track listings

* Australian version # "Shining Star" – 3:51 # "I Send a Message" (live) – 4:01 # "Bitter Tears" (live) – 3:55 # "The Loved One" (live) – 4:55 * UK version and US 12-inch single # "Shining Star" (live EP version) – 3:52 # "I Send a Message" (live) – 3:26 # "Faith in Each Other" (live) – 4:40 # "Bitter Tears" (live) – 3:47 * US and Canadian cassette single # "Shining Star" # "Faith in Each Other" (live) # "Bitter Tears" (live) * Japanese mini-CD single # "Shining Star" # "Bitter Tears" (live)

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1991 singles 1991 songs Atlantic Records singles East West Records singles Mercury Records singles Song recordings produced by Mark Opitz Songs written by Andrew Farriss Songs written by Michael Hutchence