| "Before Too Long" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 7" single cover | ||||
| Single by Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls | ||||
| from the album Gossip | ||||
| B-side | "White Train" | |||
| Released | 30 June 1986[1] | |||
| Recorded | April 1986 | |||
| Studio | Trafalgar Studios, Sydney | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 3:20 | |||
| Label | White Label | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Paul Kelly[2] | |||
| Producer(s) | Alan Thorne, Paul Kelly | |||
| Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| "Before Too Long" | ||||
 7" single picture sleeve cover | ||||
"Before Too Long" is a song by Australian rock group Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls, released as the first single from their debut double album, Gossip. It was released in June 1986 on the original White Label Records, a subsidiary of Mushroom Records. It reached No. 15 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart, remaining for 19 weeks.[3] The track was a surprise hit for Kelly at a time when chart success had eluded him and provided increased interest for the release of Gossip, which would become his biggest mainstream success to that date.
The success of the single can partly be attributed to the accompanying video, which was directed by John Witteron,[4] depicting Kelly as a long-suffering cab driver dealing with a night shift full of eccentric passengers.
At the 1986 Countdown Australian Music Awards the song was nominated for Best Male Performance in a Video and Best Single, losing out to John Farnham's "You're the Voice" in both categories.[5][6]
In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "Before Too Long" was ranked number 79.[7]
- ^ "Kent Music Report No 624 – 30 June 1986 > Singles: New Releases". Kent Music Report, via Imgur.com. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
- ^ "'Before Too Long' at APRA search engine". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Archived from the original on 18 September 2012. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
- ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
- ^ Garcia, Alex S. (2008). "Paul Kelly – artist videography". mvdbase.com. Archived from the original on 7 August 2011. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
- ^ "Australian Music Awards". Ron Jeff. Archived from the original on 30 June 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2010.
- ^ "Final episode of Countdown". 1970scountdown. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
- ^ "Here Are The Songs That Made Triple M's 'Ozzest 100'". Musicfeeds. 27 January 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2020.