Slim Dusty songs: what are the biggest tunes by Australian country singer being celebrated by Google Doodle

If you’ve visited the Google homepage today, you will have noticed that the iconic Google Doodle has replaced the usual logo for the search engine with an illustration celebrating Slim Dusty, an Australian singer and songwriter who recorded over 100 albums over the course of his career that was nearly 70 years long.

Today’s date is significant because it marks the day that Dusty was awarded the Outstanding Achievement award at the ARIA music awards back in 2000.

This is everything you need to know.

Who was Slim Dusty?

Dusty was an Australian country music singer and songwriter, and is regarded as an Australian icon, and one of the biggest stars to have come from the country, with a career that spanned almost seven decades.

He was born David Gordon Kirkpatrick on 13 June 1927 in Nulla Nulla Creek, New South Wales, Australia. His childhood home, Homewood, is still standing and in 2012, it was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register. The Australian government said that the location was of State heritage significance “for its associations with the formative years of country and western singer Slim Dusty”.

It says: “It demonstrates the frugal and simple nature of his boyhood and evokes the cultural and musical influences of the Nulla Nulla community and its bush environment that were the inspiration for his songs. Homewood reflects for a broad audience, both Australian and international, Slim Dusty’s character and role as a significant musical and cultural creative figure.”

Dusty wrote his first song, The Way the Cowboy Dies, in 1937, having adopted his stage name at the age of 11. He went on to release his first record, When the Rain Tumbles Down in July, at 19, when he signed his first recording contract. He pursued music as a full time career in 1949, performing at a variety of venues like rodeos and local concerts.

In 1951, Dusty married a fellow Australian singer-songwriter, Joy McKean, and it was with her help that launched his success around Australia. McKean acted as Dusty’s manager for over 50 years, and a few years after they got married, they launched the Slim Dusty Travelling Show.

McKean was the writer behind a number of Dusty’s biggest hits, including Lights on the Hill, Walk a Country Mile, Indian Pacific and The Biggest Disappointment. The pair had two children together, daughter Anne Kirkpatrick, born 1952, and David Kirkpatrick, born 1958. Both Anne and David also went on to become country music singers as well.

He released his recording of A Pub with No Beer in 1957, a song that was written by his friend Gordon Parsons. It went on to become the best selling song recorded by an Australian musician. In 1983, Dusty’s song Waltzing Matilda was broadcast to earth by astronauts in the spaceship Columbia as they passed over Australia - he was the first singer to have his voice sent to earth all the way from space.

At the 2000 Summer Olympics, Dusty closed out the ceremony by performing Waltzing Matilda.

When did he die?

Dusty passed away on 19 September 2003 in his home in St Ives, New South Wales, at the age of 76, following a lengthy battle with lung and kidney cancer. He had had his left kidney removed after a cancerous tumour was discovered in November 2001, and had received continuous treatment since.

A state funeral was held on 26 September 2009 at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney. It was attended by thousands, including the then-Prime Minister of Australia John Howard and a number of Dusty’s fellow Australian musicians, like Graeme Connors, Kasey Chambers and Troy Cassar-Daley.

He was later cremated at Northern Suburbs Crematorium in Sydney.

At the time of his death, Dusty had been working on his 106th album and, on 8 March 2004, it was released, debuting at number five in the Australian albums charts and number one on the country charts, Columbia Lane - the Last Sessions was certified Gold after being on sale for less than two weeks.

What are some of his songs?

Over the course of his career, Dusty had released 122 records, 61 of which were studio albums, and in 2018 it was reported that he had sold over seven million records.

Some of his biggest songs include:

• Waltzing Matilda
• A Pub with No Beer
• The Answer to a Pub with No Beer
• Boomerang
• When the Rain Tumbles Down in July
• Walk a Country Mile
• Darwin (Big Heart of the North)
• Lights on the Hill
• The Biggest Disappointment
• Lights on the Hill
• The Melbourne Cup
• Duncan
• Country Revival
• The Pub That Doesn’t Sell Beer
• G’day G’day 

Dusty boasts more Gold and Platinum albums than any other Australian musician, and he was actually the first Australian to receive a Gold Record.

What is the Google Doodle?

The Goodle Doodle features Dusty front and centre with his trusty guitar, set against a backdrop of Australia. His family worked with Google in collaboration for the Doodle of Dusty, with his daughter, Anne Kirkpatrick, stating that “our family is immensely proud of what he achieved”.

She said: “I adored my dad. I was lucky and thankful to spend weeks and months with him touring all around Australia with the Slim Dusty Show as I was growing up. As I followed my own path in the music game, I’d still drop in on the family show like a bird flying home to the nest.

“The magic of his raw talent as a singer and performer had to be seen and heard to be believed and I still believe he has one of the most recognisable voices in Australia. I treasure the two duet albums we recorded together with the last in 2001 Travellin Still..Always Will, being the last full album he recorded.”

Kirkpatrick also added: “He was happiest on the road touring with his band, collecting, writing and recording great songs and, in his downtime, going fishing!

“Slim Dusty was my dad, and while I shared much of him with Australia and thousands around the world, we wouldn’t have had it any other way.”