“Funky Tonight” by John Butler Trio

"Funky Tonight" kicked off John Butler Trio's Grand National era, arriving on Jarrah Records late in 2006 as the lead single from the Australian roots rockers' fourth album. Butler wrote it, sings it and piles on 12-string guitar, banjo, harmonica and mouth harp, while Shannon Birchall holds down the electric bass and Michael Barker works through drums, congas, cowbell, timbales, shakers and tambourine, both of them singing backup. Butler produced it with Mario Caldato Jr., who engineered and mixed it too, and Barker and Birchall share a co-production credit.

It's a loose, rolling groove that lives up to its name, and it went to 15 on the ARIA singles chart. A live take from the 2007 ARIA Music Awards, with Keith Urban sitting in, came out as a download and did even better, landing at 11. Damon Escott and Stephen Lance directed the video.

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