“Beautiful Girl” by INXS

"Beautiful Girl" comes from INXS's eighth album, Welcome to Wherever You Are, and went out as a single in February 1993, the fifth one the record gave the world outside Australia. Keyboardist Andrew Farriss wrote it on his own after his daughter Grace was born, and it's a hushed, wide-eyed thing, a song about the shock of suddenly having someone to care about more than yourself.

This is INXS with the swagger switched off. Over a delicate melody Hutchence sings low and close, and Q heard shades of Lou Reed in his Velvet Underground days, adding that the band of old would have pounded the tune flat. INXS co-produced with Mark Opitz, and Bob Clearmountain's mix keeps it airy. In America it later soundtracked a TV campaign about the effects of anorexia.

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