| "Dumb Things" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls | ||||
| from the album Under the Sun | ||||
| B-side | "Deportees" | |||
| Released | January 1989 | |||
| Studio | Trafalgar, Sydney | |||
| Genre | Rock, ska | |||
| Length | 2:46 | |||
| Label | White Label | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Paul Kelly | |||
| Producer(s) | Martin Armiger, Paul Kelly | |||
| Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls singles chronology | ||||
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| Audio sample | ||||
| Alternative cover | ||||
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"Dumb Things" or "I've Done all the Dumb Things" is a song by Australian rock group Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls, released as the fourth single from their second album, Under the Sun. It was released by Mushroom Records imprint White Label Records in January 1989 and reached No. 36 on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Singles Chart. In the US, it was released under the band name, Paul Kelly and the Messengers, which reached No. 16 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart. A music video, directed by Larry Williams, was provided for the single – a still from the clip is used as the single's cover.
The song was included on the soundtrack for the 1988 Yahoo Serious film Young Einstein and the single was re-released with a different cover, although with the same catalogue number. The song was also in the 1989 film, Look Who's Talking, which starred John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. It was also released as a double single, with the second single containing "Rock 'n' Roll Soul" written by the Coloured Girls member, Jon Schofield. Its flip-side is a cover version of the Australian Crawl song, "Reckless", again with same catalogue number as the original single. Kelly's cover of "Reckless" also appeared on the 1990 tribute album, Used and Recovered. "Dumb Things" was covered by alternative rockers Lash on the Paul Kelly tribute album, Women at the Well (2002), and by Paul Dempsey (from Something for Kate) on Before Too Long – A Tribute to Paul Kelly (2010). In 2012 the song was used as the opening theme for the Australian reality TV series The Shire. Australian singer Jessica Mauboy covered the song for The Secret Daughter in 2017.