“Overkill” by Men At Work

"Overkill" arrived in March 1983 from Cargo, Men at Work's second album, as the band's second single at home in Australia and their first in America, where it went to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Colin Hay wrote the words and music on his own, and it's a curious thing to have a smash with: a song about the unease that creeps in once you finally get what you were chasing.

Hay has traced it back to his last stretch in St. Kilda, sensing his time there was running out and that he was about to step off into the unknown, and to the loss of control that comes with fame. Peter McIan produced and engineered it, with John Rees on bass and Jerry Speiser on drums, and it also went top 10 in Canada, Ireland and Norway and reached 5 on Australia's Kent Music Report.

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