Who Can It Be Now?

By: Brad Gallagher

The unforgettable song by Men At Work that hit the number one spot on the Billboard Top 100 chart in October 1982. Who can forget that captivating saxophone solo that introduced the song? It hooked us as listeners and made us continue listening. Then, lead singer Colin Hay began to sing that question that we all wanted an answer to. “Who can it be knocking at my door?” The song itself doesn’t tell us who it was, but the back story does shed some light.

As The Story Goes:

Men at Work began as just two members, Colin Hay and Ron Strykert. Their first few years together were spent playing pubs in Australia as they tried to become successful. During that time they were the epitome of the struggling artists, living day to day and wondering how they were going to make ends meet. Until one day when an employee of CBS records heard them play, and decided to sign them.

But during those years prior to being signed, Hay lived in an apartment in St Kilda, Victoria, which at the time was a bit of a questionable area. So, he and his girlfriend would often escape to New South Wales were they had a tree house out in the bush were they would sit and write words and music. It was on one of those days in 1979 while in their tree house that he wrote the music for the song. It wasn’t until a couple years later, however, that he wrote the words.

You see, that apartment in St Kilda was located right next door to a drug dealer’s apartment. And apparently, people frequently mistook his apartment for the apartment of the drug dealer, and would knock on his door by mistake. He got to the point were he was afraid to even answer the door when someone knocked. He never knew if it was one of his friends, or someone looking to buy drugs. And sometimes, even his friends were just there asking for money that he didn’t have. So, he stopped answering the door entirely and sat down and wrote the words to the song “Who can it be now?”

It was the first track on Men At Work’s debut album, “Business As Usual”, which was #1 on the Billboard Top 200 album charts for an amazing 15 straight weeks. The single went to #2 on the Australian charts, and in July of 1982 it hit #8 on the Canadian charts. Shortly after that, Fleetwood Mac signed Men At Work as their opening act, and by the end of October 1982, “Who Can It Be Now” was the #1 single in the US.

So now you know the story as I heard it. Don’t be shy, go tell a friend. And come back and see me real soon right here on As The Story Goes.

Did you know that you can have my blogs delivered straight to your inbox? Just visit my home page and sign up. https://as-the-story-goes.com/home/