“How to Make Gravy” by Paul Kelly

"How to Make Gravy" first surfaced in November 1996 as the title track of a four-song Paul Kelly EP, and it has taken on a life far beyond that record. Kelly wrote it as a letter: a man who has just landed in prison writes to his brother, mourning the family Christmas he's going to miss. He's the same character who turns up in Kelly's earlier "To Her Door" and "Love Never Runs on Time", and he got a sequel of his own, "Rita Wrote a Letter", in 2025. The gravy recipe is real, by the way; Kelly picked it up from his first father-in-law.

It earned an APRA Song of the Year nomination, Kelly borrowed its title for his 2010 memoir, fans have turned 21 December, the day the letter is written, into Gravy Day, and it has been adapted into a film starring Hugo Weaving.

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