“Cheap Wine” by Cold Chisel

Cold Chisel sent "Cheap Wine" out in May 1980, a month ahead of their album East, and Don Walker wrote it as a toast to the small freedoms found at the bottom of a glass: a bloke on the drinks, having a ball anyway. By Walker's count the band had spent most of its seven years too broke to drink properly, so he knew the territory.

Mark Opitz, who worked the desk, said it was built on purpose from the same blueprint as "Choirgirl", with the chorus, bridge and backing vocals dropping in at the same spots. The band broke it in on stage that April and cut it in a take or two, no demo. Jimmy Barnes and Ian Moss share the vocals over Walker's piano, and it became their first Australian top-ten single, peaking at number 8.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.