New Zealand Musiceum: Split Enz

1973
"For You/Split Ends". The very first single.Very hard to find as very few copies sold. Exchanges hands for around NZ$200.00

1973
"The Sweet Talking Spoon Song/One Two Nine". The second single and just as scarce as the first one

1975

"No Bother To Me/Home Sweet Home". The third single and third different record label, perhaps indicative of the commercially under developed New Zealand music scene at that time

1976

"Late Last Night/Time for a change" (live). NZ/Australian pressing. First single taken from the "Second Thoughts" album

The first picture cover single released under the Chrysalis label in The Netherlands only. Front and back covers. Different B side "Titus"

1976 "Matinee Idyll/Lovey Dovey". The second single from the album "Second Thoughts" released only in Australasia

Set of 4 postcards depicting images of the band taken around this time. These postcards were actually produced in 2002 to promote a Split Enz DVD and 30th anniversary edition of a greatest hits CD (below).

1977

"Another Great Divide/Stranger Than Fiction". Stand alone single although the B side appeared on the "Second Thoughts" album.

The Dutch once again released it in a wonderful three colour picture cover, which represents, along with "For you" and the first picture cover single from Holland, probably the three most sought after singles for collectors

1977 "My Mistake/Crosswords". First single from the "Dizrythmia" album. Released in Australasia without a picture cover

Dutch release in a great picture cover nicely based on the album cover. Front and back covers shown

UK also released a 12 inch single. B sides were "Crosswords" and "The woman who loves you"

European Split Enz releases were on the Chrysalis record label at this time.

1979 "I See Red/Hermit McDermitt/Message Boy (Australasia) & "I see red/Give it a whirl/Hermitt McDermitt (UK). Released only in these two territories. Same front cover but the Australian issue was limited to 200 copies in a picture cover and the back cover was slightly different.

UK Back Cover

Australia back cover

I see red UK disc

I see red Australian disc

I see red NZ disc

I see red re-issue. B side I see red (live) 1989. 1000 copies released in red vinyl and 1000 copies in black vinyl.

The above version of "I see red" was re-issued to promote the "History Never Repeats" Greatest Hits album, which featured similar 'Maori deign' graphics (below). Picture shows front and back cover.

"Give it a whirl/Frenzy". Released only in Australasia. First single from the album "Frenzy". The "I See Red" single was initially a stand alone single, but due to its success was added as the first track of the album.

1979 "Things/Semi-Detached". A stand alone single. The two
singles above are the first Neil Finn composition to be released.
A sign of things to come!

TRUE COLOURS. The album that turned around the bands fortunes and enabled them to pay off their debts! The album was released in a variety of covers, the most common in New Zealand being the red, blue and purple covers. The above is one of the more interesting covers from Australia.

Another Australian cover which is more difficult to find.

The hardest of the Australian cover to find. Released to commemorate album sales reaching 100,000.

The New Zealand equivalent of the above, released to mark 30,000 albums sold here.

Another Australian cover

Special Canadian release on high quality 'audiophile' pressed vinyl

Special remastered CD cover 2003

Cool promotional Australian sticker in shiny gold,
here placed in a cheap photo frame in an attempt to iron out the wrinkles!

Three True Colours promotional posters.

1979 "I got you/Double Happy". The first single from the album "True Colours". No picture cover for Australia or New Zealand unfortunately. Re-issued on a different black Mushroom label in Australia. Issued in New Zealand on the red Polydor label.

UK front and back covers. The Dutch issue was very similar.

Italy front and back covers

Spain front and back covers

USA front and back covers

Japan front and back covers (very similar to USA issue)

Unlike the USA cover however, the Japan issue was a fold around type sleeve, with a reverse side.

Most European and American released Split Enz singles were released on the A&M record label.

How do you follow up such a big song?

Well, these singles were also great tunes!

"I Hope I Never/Hypnotised/Carried Away". Great 2 colour picture cover, only the second Split Enz picture cover single released in Australia (using medium grade cardboard). Meanwhile, New Zealand still waits for its first Enz picture cover! Also a bit strange that the song title didn't appear on the front of the cover.

Nice back cover with "True Colours" album graphics

Dutch issue with great picture cover (thin cardboard), again using album graphics to good effect

Dutch back cover

USA issue with nice picture cover (paper)

USA back cover

New Zealand issue

The second single from "True Colours" for the UK.

Back cover of the UK issue, using the same picture as the front cover of the Dutch "I Hope I Never".

Such was the effort to crack Split Enz in the UK, a third picture cover single from "True Colours" was released in that territory.

UK Back cover

"What's the matter with you" was the 3rd single for the North American market. B sides were "The Choral Sea" (Canada-top) and "Nobody takes me seriously" (USA-above).

1980 The album "Waiata" was the follow up to the mega successful "True Colours", and proved to be more of the same.

The North Americans didn't like the brown and black cover that came out in Australasia, so they produced these three covers, which were also prefered in Europe

Waiata promotional poster

The first single from the album "Waiata". This is the Australian pressing, which came with a great wrap around poster cover

Back cover

Inside of fold out poster

UK edition front and back

USA edition, which, like the UK single, featured a laser etched record

USA back cover

Both the USA and UK versions featured a laser etched record. You can see the pattern, and rainbow colours are reflected when the disc is held up to the light, an effect which is very hard to photograph!

The success of "True Colours" and the single "I got you" opened up new territories for the band. This is the first Brazilian Split Enz single, which combined both singles from the album, and played at 33 RPM instead of the usual 45 RPM.

Brazil back cover and disc

Canadian release which was not issued with a picture sleeve. B side was "Clumsy" (from the album), instead of the usual B side of "In the wars" (a non-album track).

And New Zealand is STILL waiting for its first Split Enz picture cover single! But it was just around the corner...

The second big single from "Waiata". Released in most major territories, except North America oddly. New Zealand's first picture cover single! Finally! Australia had the same design. B side "Holy Smoke" (non album track). The Kiwi version was produced in a nice thick cardboard sleeve, whereas the Australian version was manufactured in a somewhat inferior paper sleeve which was just the wraparound kind placed in a plastic sleeve, and not glued together.

Dutch version front and back covers. Disc was laser etched with the same pattern as the "One Step Ahead" single above.

UK version, front and back covers.

Excellent Spanish release, with totally different cover.

Spanish back cover

"I don't wanna dance/Shark Attack (live)/What's the matter with you (live)". The third single off "Waiata" for Australia and New Zealand, with cool picture cover for both countries.

"Hard act to follow/Clumsy". The third single for the Dutch, with great album grahics picture cover

Canada also released "Hard act to follow", but this was that countries second single from the album. No picture cover, and haunting Tim Finn penned album track "Ghost girl" as the B side.

USA chose another Neil Finn tune,"Iris", as their second single. B side "Clumsy". Don't know why the North Americans didn't just release "History never repeats" as a single like everyone else!

The song "History never repeats" did get released in USA eventually though. The Americans released this rather special picture disc, featuring three big songs from the "Waiata" album. "I don't wanna dance/Hard act to follow/History never repeats".

It was time to move on from all that 3 minute catchy pop song stuff however. The next album was to be more developed; more of an album for the band and not the top 40 charts. Having said that, the album produced one of the biggest hit singles the band came out with, and it wasn't just thanks to little brother Neil Finn. Some of the picture sleeves were also the best yet...

But first there was "Dirty Creature", a song light years removed from the previous two albums...

"Dirty Creature/Make sense of it". First single from the new album "Time and Tide". Released in Australia and New Zealand with this wonderful black and white picture cover

Back cover with lyrics.

Canada was the only other country to release "Dirty Creature" as the first single. B side was "Lost for words". Strangely, Europe and the USA elected not to release this single at all.

"Six months in a leaky boat/Fire Drill". The second single from "Time and tide" for Australia and New Zealand. The same cover was also used for the UK and Dutch release. This is actually the UK cover.

UK back cover with different B side to the Australasian release.

UK released a second cover. Quite why is still a bit of a mystery to me.

USA cover. This was America's only single from the album.

Spanish cover

Japan cover

And arguably the best of the "Six months" covers. Brazilian edition in totally unique black and white sleeve.

This was a very strange, standalone single which emerged sometime in 1983 after the "Time and Tide" album had run its course. Needless to say, it made no impact on the sales charts.

Australia and New Zealand were the only countries to bring out a third single from "Time and tide", which was rather surprising given the worldwide success of "Six months in a leaky boat". In Australia the chosen song was "Never ceases to amaze me" (a Tim Finn composition).

In New Zealand, it was "Hello Sandy Allen" (a Neil Finn composition).

"Time and Tide" was widely considered to be the best alround Split Enz album, but the next one certainly didn't live up to that standard. Tim Finn was getting distracted with love and the possibility of a solo career. Band dynamics were being tested, and it all showed in the release of the aptly named "Conflicting Emotions" ...

thankfully some very cool picture cover singles were still being released though...

"Strait Old Line/Parasite". First single from "Conflicting Emotions" album. This single was only released in Australia, New Zealand and Holland.

The Dutch version came in a very cool different sleeve, and different B side, to the Australasian release.

The second single from "Conflicting Emotions". This single was given a wider global release. This is the Australian cover, which was a cheaper black and white paper product.

Australian disc on the Mushroon label.

At least the Aussi's had a picture cover! This is the New Zealand issue, which came out with no picture cover and featured a slightly different, and far less colourful, Mushroom label.

"Message to my girl" was also released in America,the UK and South Africa (?!), with similar "A&M" labels. None of these country's had a picture cover, and it was their only single from the album. This is the American version.

The Dutch, however, came to the party once again, and produced this great picture cover modeled closely on the album cover.

"I wake up every night/Conflicting Emotions". Australia was the only country to bring out a third single from the album, this busy little Tim Finn composition.

Promotional sticker

So, where to now for the Enz? Tim Finn was going solo, and the "Conflicting Emotions" album left fans a little deflated after the previous 3 albums. The end was in sight, but time for one last hurrah. Step forward Neil Finn...

The final album "See ya' round" was initially going to be just an EP, that is 4 or so songs. But common sense prevailed, and a full album was produced. Side one featured 6 fine Neil Finn tunes, while side two was thrown open to the rest of the band to come with offerings. Thus it is one of the more eclectic sides in Split Enz history. Initially it looked as though this album was only going to be released in Australasia, but Canada eventually released it as well, in a cool different coloured sleeve.

The Australasian cover, which was pretty much the same front and back.

Lyric sheet

Canadian cover

Canadian lyric sheet

See ya round promotional poster

The first single from the album was the Neil Finn penned "I walk away" which was only released in Australasia, and came in a very cool black and white picture sleeve. It was also only the fourth ever Split Enz 12 inch released.

A second single was released from the album, once again only in Australia and New Zealand, but unfortunately no picture cover this time. You would have thought that the final ever Split Enz single deserved a fairly awesome full colour picture cover!