INXS

From "Good Times" to Kick

Whilst supposedly taking an eight month break before commencing work on a new album, their manager Murphy decided to stage a series of major outdoor concerts across Australia, featuring INXS, Jimmy Barnes, Models, The Divinyls, Mental as Anything, The Triffids and I'm Talking.[16] To promote the tour INXS recorded two songs with Jimmy Barnes of Cold Chisel: The Easybeats cover "Good Times" and "Laying Down the Law" which Barnes co-wrote with Beers, Andrew Farriss, Jon Farriss, Hutchence and Pengilly.[37] "Good Times" was used as the theme song for the Australian Made series of concerts in the summer of 1986–1987.[16] It peaked at #2 on the Australian charts,[4] and months later was featured in the Joel Schumacher film The Lost Boys and its soundtrack,[38][39] allowing it to peak at #47 in the US on 1 August 1987.[6][21]

After the success of "What You Need" and Listen Like Thieves, the band knew their new material would have to be even better, according to Pengilly,

    We wanted an album where all the songs were possible singles.
    —Kirk Pengilly[16]

They recorded Kick in Sydney and Paris, it was produced by Thomas again,[3] but Atlantic Records was not happy with the result, as manager Chris Murphy remembers:

    They hated it, absolutely hated it. They said there was no way they could get this music on rock radio. They said it was suited for black radio, but they didn't want to promote it that way. The president of the label told me that he'd give us $1 million to go back to Australia and make another album.
    —Chris Murphy[16]