INXS – Need You Tonight 12" Maxi Vinyl

- 1987 Dutch 12-inch Maxi Single

"Need You Tonight" (1987) Album Description:

Spinning this 12-inch always drags me straight back to that wild moment in the late 80s when music felt sleek, electric, and a little bit dangerous. “Need You Tonight” wasn’t just another single to me — it was one of those rare tracks that felt like the whole world suddenly snapped into sync with my own taste.

Looking Back at the Era

1987 had its own glow, all neon edges and MTV swagger, and this record fit right into the pulse of that time. Everywhere you turned, bands were reinventing themselves, leaning into sharper production and bold visuals, and INXS rode that wave with style that made the rest look like they were trying too hard.

How INXS Reached This Point

I always liked how INXS didn’t burst out of nowhere — they grew into their sound the hard way, gigging in sweaty bars and getting tighter year by year. By the time “Need You Tonight” materialized, you could feel the confidence of a band who finally realized they had something combustible in their hands.

Hearing the Music Again

Every time the needle drops, that sly little guitar lick pulls me right in. Hutchence whispers his way through the mix, the bass moves like it knows it’s irresistible, and before you know it you’re caught in the song’s hypnotic orbit. “Mediate” sliding in right behind it only deepens the spell — it’s one of those pairings that still feels like a cool secret even decades later.

What Made It Stand Out to Me

New Wave was branching off in every direction then, but INXS had this funky, understated swagger that set them apart. Where some bands buried themselves in synths or pomp, INXS kept things minimal and razor sharp. That balance of restraint and confidence is exactly why this single still hits harder than half the era’s big hitters.

Ripples and Reactions I Remember

I remember the purists whining about INXS being “too pop” — the usual gatekeeping noise. Meanwhile, everyone else was dancing, buying the single, and trying to imitate Hutchence’s effortless cool. The so-called controversy faded pretty fast; the groove outlasted all of it.

Thinking About the Band’s Dynamic

Listening now, I hear the tension that probably fueled the band at that point — ambition pushing from every angle, fame heating up, and Chris Thomas polishing everything to a gleam. Hutchence sounds like he owned the night, and the rest of the band locked in behind him like they knew exactly how good they’d become.

How It’s Aged in My Collection

This 12-inch single has held up better than most records I bought around that time. Critics adored it, fans devoured it, and the song never drifted into nostalgia-only territory. It’s one of those rare pressings that still feels current when it spins.

INXS Band Description:

Felt like INXS didn’t just exist in the 80s — they basically hacked the decade’s operating system. Australian, sharp-edged, dripping swagger, and riding that rock-pop-funk fusion like it was custom-built for them. Everything orbited around Michael Hutchence, this magnetic frontman who could turn a room into static electricity just by walking through it.

The whole thing kicked off back in 1977 when the Farriss brothers teamed up with their crew — Hutchence, Garry Gary Beers, Kirk Pengilly — and started tearing through Sydney’s pub circuit. Raw stages, sticky floors, buzzing amps. Their first album in 1980 put them on the map; “Just Keep Walking” wasn’t a chart-destroyer, but it was that early spark where you feel a band quietly levelling up.

The follow-up albums — “Underneath the Colours,” “Shabooh Shoobah,” “The Swing” — showed them sharpening their identity. Bits of funk, flashes of reggae, a neon wash of new wave. You could hear them tinkering, experimenting, shaping a sound that didn’t slot neatly into anyone’s genre box.

Then came “Kick” in 1987, and everything went full supernova. “Need You Tonight,” “Devil Inside,” “New Sensation” — absolute monsters. The Richard Lowenstein videos blasted them into MTV hyperspace and suddenly INXS wasn’t just big, they were global-arena big. That era left scorch marks across pop culture.

The 90s were more complicated. “X” kept the momentum; “Welcome to Wherever You Are” got critic love even as the sales cooled; “Elegantly Wasted” had its moments. Then 1997 dropped like a brick — Hutchence’s death hit the band like a gut punch, the kind that rearranges everything in its path.

They pushed on afterward with different singers, including a one-off with Terence Trent D’Arby and eventually J.D. Fortune, who recorded “Switch” in 2005. It kept the name alive, but you always felt the shadow of what once was.

The Farriss Brothers and Their Role in INXS

The heartbeat of INXS was always the Farriss brothers — Tim, Andrew, and Jon. Bands talk about “chemistry,” but these three basically had it running through their DNA. From those sweaty Sydney pub gigs in the late 70s all the way to the band’s final bow in 2012, the brothers were the steady engine humming under every riff, groove, and razor-sharp hook.

They didn’t just hold things together; they shaped the whole identity. Andrew wrote the kind of songs that turned into instant earworms, Tim laid down those bright, melodic guitar lines that sliced right through the mix, and Jon hit the drums like someone who knew the groove was the secret weapon. With all that combined, the band’s sound stayed recognisable even as they mutated from scrappy new wave hopefuls into a global stadium machine.

• Tim Farriss – Lead Guitar
  1977 – 2012
  Founding member whose clean, melodic guitar work became part of INXS’s signature drive. Stayed from day one to the final curtain call.
• Andrew Farriss – Keyboards, Guitar, Songwriter
  1977 – 2012
  Principal songwriter and the band’s quiet architect. Co-created nearly every major hit and kept the melodic core sharp through every era.
• Jon Farriss – Drums, Percussion
  1977 – 2012
  The rhythmic engine with that tight, modern groove that pushed INXS into funkier territory. Held the pulse from the first rehearsal to the last encore.

Collector’s Note: INXS Vinyl in My Collection

The INXS section of my shelves isn’t the biggest — no sprawling wall of variants, no endless parade of foreign pressings — but the few records I do have hit harder than half the oversized stacks around them. Some albums don’t need quantity; they earn their space by sheer presence. These do.

Musically, the band always clicked with me in that clean, confident way only INXS could pull off. There’s this punchy sparkle in their sound — part funk, part rock, part swagger — that still feels razor-fresh when the needle hits. And the artwork? Tight, bold, stylish as hell. Their covers weren’t just packaging; they were attitude pressed into cardboard.

So even with a modest pile of their vinyl, these albums sit there like prized trophies. Smell my collection, strong favourites — the kind of records you pull out not because you have many, but because the few you do have land exactly right.