Ross Wilson: Daddy Cool, Eagle Rock and Mondo Rock | Ultimate Aussie Pub Rock Reunion

Why fans still care

Put Eagle Rock on at a party and people know what to do. In 2025 it came in at number 45 in triple j’s Hottest 100 of Australian Songs, more than 50 years after it first hit the charts.

Early life

Ross Wilson grew up in Melbourne, born in 1947. He was playing R&B in The Pink Finks while still at school, alongside guitarist Ross Hannaford, and their 1965 single was a cover of Louie Louie.

Career chapters

1. 1964The Pink Finks
2. 1967The Party Machine
3. 1969joins Procession in England
4. 1970Sons of the Vegetal Mother; Daddy Cool starts as a side project
5. 1971Eagle Rock and Daddy Who? Daddy Cool! both reach number 1
6. 1974produces Skyhooks’ Living in the 70’s
7. 1976first solo single, Living in the Land of Oz
8. 1977Mondo Rock formed
9. 1981Chemistry reaches the top three
10. 1989ARIA Hall of Fame; Dark Side of the Man
11. 2006ARIA Hall of Fame again, with Daddy Cool
12. 2010I Come In Peace

Before Daddy Cool 1964 to 1970

After The Pink Finks came The Party Machine, then a spell in England with Procession in 1969. That is where he started writing Eagle Rock. Back in Melbourne he joined Sons of the Vegetal Mother, and Daddy Cool began as a side project inside that band.

Daddy Cool 1970 to 1975

Eagle Rock came out in May 1971 and went to number 1 nationally. Sources differ on how many weeks it stayed there, but in Melbourne it held the top spot for 17 weeks, and it was the best-selling Australian single of the year. The album Daddy Who? Daddy Cool! also went to number 1 and sold 60,000 copies on its first release. Wilson sang, played guitar and blew harmonica, and the band went on to tour the United States.

The producer 1974 to 1976

He produced Skyhooks’ first three albums, starting with Living in the 70’s, which spent 16 weeks at number 1. Skyhooks were on the Mushroom label run by Michael Gudinski, Who’s Who number 2, and Wilson had helped get them signed there. He also produced the first records by Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons and The Sports.

Mondo Rock 1977 to 1990

Mondo Rock gave him a second run of hits. Cool World, which he wrote, was a hit in 1981. The Chemistry album reached the top three and won Best Australian Album at the Countdown Awards that year. He also wrote A Touch of Paradise with Gulliver Smith. It started as a Mondo Rock song before John Farnham made it a hit on Whispering Jack.

Solo and still touring 1989 onward

Dark Side of the Man came out in 1989, the same year he went into the ARIA Hall of Fame. Joe Cocker later covered the title song of Wilson’s 2010 album I Come In Peace on his final album. Wilson has also produced The Screaming Jets, the band fronted by Dave Gleeson, Who’s Who number 30, in later years. In September 2026 he sang Touch of Paradise at the John Farnham tribute concert at Rod Laver Arena.

Craft, sound and style

The riff

In his own telling, the Eagle Rock riff grew out of a rural blues finger-picking style he worked up in England. Wilson puts the song’s pull down to its “push and pull rhythms”.

Stories people still tell

1. Crocodile Rock.

   The story goes that Elton John heard Eagle Rock on an Australian tour and went home to write Crocodile Rock. Beat and triple j both tell it, though accounts differ on the details.

2. The name.

   The title came from a photo caption in a Sunday newspaper, by Wilson’s own account on his website, and the National Film and Sound Archive tells it the same way.

3. In his own words.

   Asked about Eagle Rock at parties, he told triple j, “I play the song. I’m the instigator.”

Legacy

Eagle Rock is in the National Film and Sound Archive’s Sounds of Australia, came second only to Friday on My Mind in APRA’s 2001 Top 30, and went to number 1 in New Zealand in 1990. Wilson is in the ARIA Hall of Fame twice, in 1989 and again in 2006 with Daddy Cool. He is still on the road.