Alison McCallum - Superman and beyond
...a soul / blues stylist of considerable flare and passion (Ian Macfarlane) 1. Superman..... yes I am.... The present writer was born in Australia during 1956, and in 1972, at the age of 16, one of his favourite songs was Superman , written by former Easybeats lead and rhythm guitarists Harry Vanda (b.1946) and George Young (1946-2017), produced by English record producer Simon Napier Bell (b.1939) of Yardbirds and T. Rex fame, and sung by local artist Alison MacCallum / McCallum (b. 1951). The song was extraordinary as it was well produced, had an obvious American soul / funk feel, with some early 70s rock thrown in for good measure, and seemed beyond the realm of Australian production values. In fact, it was a proto-disco-funk recording way before its time, and the subsequent 1979 disco remixed version is difficult to distinguish from standard disco fare. Of course Vanda and Young - who were in England at the time of the song's production - went on to produce a seri...
