(Cast)Singer Julie CheneryCombo Singer Mick Leyton

(Head credits)

Musical DirectorWilliam Motzing

(Tail credits)

Original ScoreBruce Smeaton

"Outback to the Ocean" Dorothy Dodds"The Great White Train" Dorothy Dodds"Golden Hills" Dorothy Dodds"Let me call you Sweetheart" L. Friedman & B. Whitson"Are You Lonesome Tonight" R. Turk & L. Handman"BabyFace" B. Davis/Harry Akst"The Sleeping Beauty Waltz" Tchaikovsky"Overture Symphony No. 5" Tchaikovsky"The Golden Cockerel" Rimsky-Korsakoff"The Dance of the Sprites" Chopin"Polovtsian Dances" Borodin"Am I Blue" G. Clark & H. Akst"Nola" F. Arndt"Narcissus" E. Nevin"Amapola" J. M. Lacalle & A. Gamse"Too Much Raspberry" S. K. Russell

Additional MusicWilliam Motzing

"Am I Blue" Sung byBilly Field

Music ConsultantTed Albert

Recorded atAlberts Studios & EMI Studios, Sydney

Original SoundtrackWEA Records, Australia

(Note: Dorothy Dodd is listed in the film credits as "Dodds", but in most spellings of her names, she doesn't have the "s" at the end).

In the DVD 'making of', producer David Elfick had this to say about the use of music in the show, which trends towards a musical, but never takes the final step:

With Undercover, we wanted to get a 1930s feel, most important, but we didn't want the film to feel old-fashioned, so we wanted to give it a contemporary edge. Bruce Smeaton was the composer of the soundtrack of the film. He did a great job, he's done many fabulous Australian films, but with Bruce we wanted to have something that was nostalgic as well, because his score is period but it's got a contemporary edge, so we wanted something a bit kitsch and a bit old-fashioned and something that was also modern as well, so I thought what I'll do is get two song writers to come in and write songs for the film but they'll be in vastly different styles. Now there was this quite elderly lady called Dorothy Dodd and she'd composed a pop song in the fifties called Granada that was sung by a guy called Frankie Laine which was very theatrical and quite a wonderful song that was very successful. Anyway, she lived in Sydney, so I contacted Dorothy and she knew all about Fred Burley and the Berlei empire so I said 'Dorothy, what about composing a couple of songs for us?' and she did and they're in the film and she composed songs about the great white train trip … but she gave us two or three songs which gave the film a wonderful theatricality in terms of the songs… But then I thought I needed a contemporary edge. Now there was a guy, his name is Billy Field, very talented singer, composer, piano player and he'd had a couple of huge hits in Australia … so I approached Billy and I said 'what about trying to write something with?' - he was an unusual pop star in that, as I said, he played the piano, and he wrote his own stuff, and it wasn't like sort of normal rock 'n roll guitar-based music, and so he wrote the Undercover theme song, which he collaborated with Bruce and Dorothy Dodd, and then …he sung a great old standard called 'Am I Blue' which was from the period. So that was how we did the soundtrack. We had three elements, Bruce Smeaton, Dorothy Dodd and of course Billy Field …

As with other things Elfick says in the 'making of', this is a tad disingenuous. Elfick thought so little of Smeaton's contribution when it came to the credits, that he gave him an end credit, yet offered musical director William Motzing a head credit.

One song by Dorothy Dodd performed in the big end Berlei show set piece, is worth celebrating as a piece of Australiana which would have easily passed muster in the 1920s. It's called Outback to the Ocean and is sung in the film by Julie Chenery:

A sprig of golden wattleA waratah of redA kangaroo, koala bearA busy shearing shedThey paint a vivid picture of a paradise on EarthAustralia is most beautifulThe country of my birthFrom the outback to the oceanWhere the southern stars hang lowEvery blue gum nods a welcomeEvery sea breeze says, "Hello".From the summer to the springtime

As the rivers ebb and flowThere's a high cross in the heavensWatching over us belowSing of swagmen Waltzing MatildaAnd sing of GundagaiOr shoot the curling breakersunderneath the clear, blue skyWe can wander far horizonsbut wherever we may goFrom the outback to the ocean'Tis the fairest land I know(musical bridge with tap dancing, and shots of Barry Otto feeling Sandy Gore's bum)From the outback to the oceanIt's the fairest land I know ….

By way of contrast, Undercover, the song written by Dorothy Dodd and Bruce Smeaton, and sung by Billy Field over the end credits, is a more tepid affair, with little energy or kitsch value:

However could IHave expectedWhat suddenly I detected?We were meant for one anotherAnd you and I a teamWould have once have been an impossible dreamI ought to get smartMaybe fight itBut why should I have to hide it?I can't keep my love undercover nowNo, I can't keep my love undercover now …And so I knowThat you were always thereNever had a clueThere was so much that we could shareDid you stumble in my armsAnd my heart?And there were our lips gently meetingThe moment was oh so fleetingBut I've gone and blown my cover now'Cause I can't keep my love undercover nowOh, yeah …Uh-huh …(musical interlude featuring an old time band sound dominated by laid back brass and woodwinds)And there were our lips gently meetingThe moment was oh so fleetingBut I've gone and blown my cover nowNo, I can't keep my love undercover nowNo, I can't keep my love

Undercover.Now. (piano fade out)

Bruce Smeaton:

1981-83 were years when Bruce Smeaton was much in demand for the scoring of feature films and high end television drama.

As well as the period- and jazz-inflected Squizzy Taylor, he did Monkey Grip in 1982, together with the TV mini-series 1915, and in the United States, Barbarosa with director Fred Schepisi

Back at the beginning of his career, in 1973, Bruce Smeaton had composed two of the segment scores (The Husband and The Priest) for the portmanteau feature film Libido (and also the music for the ABC TV miniseries Seven Little Australians), before doing the score for Peter Weir's The Cars That Ate Paris, and then moving on to do David Baker's The Great Macarthy.

Smeaton became a major award-winning Australian composer for film and television, who immediately after working on Picnic at Hanging Rock would go on to work on a series of classic Australian feature films, including Fred Schepisi's The Devil's Playground and The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith.

Working with Schepisi on The Priest episode for Libido helped prepare Smeaton for the more expansive score he did for The Devil's Playground, and it's arguable - because his work on Picnic tended to be overshadowed by the pan flute gambit - that the film was the first real chance for Smeaton to do an expressive work that aided the atmosphere and emotion of a fully effective drama.

With The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Smeaton continued in expansive mode, and because of the film's substantial budget, the score was one of the few in the early revival that could afford to be laid down at the old Anvil Studios near the village of Denham in Buckinghamshire, with a British orchestra, the National Philharmonic, formed exclusively for recording purposes.

Smeaton would continue to work with Schepisi, after the director went to Hollywood (Barbarosa, Iceman, Roxanne), and he also became involved in various television shows, such as The Boy in the Bush, A Town Like Alice, 1915, and Five Mile Creek.

Around the same time as doing the score for the 1981 animated feature Grendel Grendel Grendel, Smeaton also did the underscore for (…maybe next Time) and The Earthling (or at least the version designed for the Australian cut).

Smeaton's relatively short wiki - at time of writing - is here.

(Below: Bruce Smeaton in 1988)

(Below: Smeaton as he turns up in the DVD 'making of' for Picnic at Hanging Rock):

(Below: in the 'making of' for Summerfield. Adding the hat changes everything)

Music director, musician and composer William Motzing:

Composer William Motzing's site, Spare Parts Productions, active as of October 2014, provides this short CV:

William Motzing (BMus, MMus) was born in the USA. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music from Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York and continued his studies earning a Masters Degree from Manhattan School of Music.He went on to study conducting with Ernest Matteo, Nicholas Flagello, Ionel Perlea and Olga von Geczy; composition with Ludmila Ulehla and John Mayer at Birmingham Conservatoire(UK) and arranging with Rayburn Wright.

During his career as a professional trombonist Bill performed with Kai Winding Septet, Jon Eardley Quintet, Gerry Mulligan Big Band,Bill Russo Big Band, Sal Salvador Big Band, Eastman-Rochester Symphony and the Pittsburgh Symphony. His diverse career has also included being the sound designer for Blood,Sweat and Tears for three years.

In the classical arena Bill has conducted major symphony orchestras including the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestras. In Europe he has conducted the BBC Radio Orchestra,the Irish Radio/Television Concert Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, the Budapest Opera Orchestra and the Babelsberg Film Studio Orchestra in Berlin.

Bill has composed, arranged, produced and conducted stage productions including Academy Award presentations and over 100 albums and CDs in the USA, Australia and Europe. As a composer/arranger his film credits include The Quiet American, Soul Food and the Simpsons. In Australia he is well represented via filmscores and television series including Mother and Son, Come in Spinner, Brides of Christ and Young Einstein.

He currently teaches theory, arranging, modern jazz history, improvisation and ensembles at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Bill continues to perform his works regularly in Sydney and inspires all musicians he comes in contact with.

(Below: William Motzing)

(Below: William Motzing on the right, here conducting the music for the Australian feature film Kokoda at Studios 301, with composer John Gray on the left)

Composer Dorothy Dodd:

Dorothy Dodd's three song contribution to the music score shows an awareness for the authentic popular musical idioms of the 1920s, but this is hardly surprising because Dodd was a veteran of the music industry, who at one time became president of APRA.

Dodd's biggest claim to fame was her fitting out English words to the tune Granada by Spanish composer Lara, and then watch it soar up the charts in the 1950s in a version sung by Frankie Laine.

Trove lists many of Dodd's works here.

(Below: Dorothy Dodd at the APRA awards, then accepting a platinum award for her song Granada, with host Daryl Somers on the right, and below that at another awards ceremony with singer Glenn Shorrock, and below that, with Coral and George Dasey, Dodd third from left, and Marjorie Hesse on the right).

Singer and composer Billy Field:

Billy Field was, at the time the film was made, a hot number in the popular music game, with three hit singles, Bad Habits and You Weren't in Love with Me (1981) and in 1982, True Love, though his song over the end credits for the film, Undercover, didn't do any business.

Field has a short wiki here.

(Below: Billy Field)

Singer Julie Chenery:

Julie Chenery, who sings the Australiana classic by Dorothy Dodd, Outback to the Ocean, had a classically trained voice. She won a Conservatorium Opera Scholarship in the late 1960s, and graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium, and later sang with the Australian Opera. She was a working singer, and her appearance in Undercover was a typical example of her willingness to give it a go. AusStage has a brief list of a few of her performances here. See this site's photo gallery for Chenery in action in the film.

The soundtrack was released as an LP, with a 45 also released.

LP details:

LP WEA 250346-1 1984Composer: Bruce Smeaton All compositions published by J. Albert & Son except * published by D. Davis Recorded at Alberts Studios, Studio 301 and Paradise Studio, Sydney Australia Engineers: Col Freeman, David Hemming, Gerry Nixon and Richard Lush Special thanks to Bill Donaldson

SIDE 1:Undercover - Theme (B. Smeaton)Polka In The Park (B. Smeaton)Polka Survey (B. Smeaton)Narcissus (E. Nevin)Golden Hills (D. Dodd) Vocals: Mick LeytonMagnetic Rag (S. Joplin)Amapola (J. M. LaCalle/A. Gamse)Too Much Raspberry (S. K. Russell)Yes Sir, Thatʼs My Baby (G. Kahn/W. Donaldson)Nola (F. Arndt)The Celebration (B. Smeaton)Are You Lonesome Tonight (B. Turk/L. Handman)Scandal Sheet (B. Smeaton)Am I Blue (G. Clarke/H. Akst) Vocals: Billy Field

SIDE 2:Baby Face (B. Davis/H. Akst)Great White Train (D. Dodd) Vocals: Boy Scout ChoirGreat White Train (D. Dodd) Vocals: Mick LeytonLibby Leaves (B. Smeaton)Frank Proposes (B. Smeaton)Overture: Extract From Symphony No.5 (Tchaikovsky)The Golden Cockerel (Rimsky-Korsakof)

Dance Of The Sprites (Chopin)Polovtsian Dances From Prince Igor (Borodin)Let Me Call You Sweetheart (L. Friedman/B. Whitson)From The Outback To The Ocean * (D. Dodd) Vocals: Julie CheneryWaltz From The Sleeping Beauty (Tchaikovsky)Undercover (B. Smeaton/D. Dodd) Vocals: Billy Field

45 details - it apparently did no business:

45 WEA 7-259708 1984 (Picture sleeve)Recorded at Paradise Studios Sydney, AustraliaRe-Mixed at Albert Studios SydneyProducer: Billy FieldEngineer: David Hemming

Side A: Undercover (3'05") (B. Smeaton/D. Dodd) (Chappell/Control) Vocals: Billy FieldSide B: Am I Blue (2'55") (G. Clarke/H. Akst) (J. Albert & Son) Vocals: Billy Field