Molly Pt 2 draws 1.52m metros, soundtrack hits #1
The second part of Seven Network’s Molly last night drew 1.52 million viewers in five metro cities. It was the second highest rating show on Sunday, after My Kitchen Rules with 1.67 million metro viewers.
Part 1 of Molly had 1.793 million metro viewers, and a combined metro and regional total of 2.636 million.
Buoyed by these figures, Seven is having a third bite at the cherry. A documentary called Molly: The Real Thing screens this Sunday, with interviews from Kylie Minogue, Jimmy Barnes, Russell Morris, Tina Arena and Johnny Young and members of the St. Kilda AFL football team.
The second part of Molly was darker and more surreal, delving into his psyche, of his failed relationships, his involvement with the Australian leg of Live Aid (forcing INXS to headline by telling the media they were doing it after they turned it down), the death of close friends and heroes as John Lennon, and his battles with Midnight Oil and Cold Chisel to take Countdown seriously. The end of Countdown as ratings dropped saw Molly respond by mooning the ABC-TV head’s office window.
With such ratings, it’s no surprise that its 3-CD soundtrack Molly: Do Yourself A Favour went to #1 on this week’s ARIA chart and has gone platinum (70,000).
The 60 tracks includes classics from The Easybeats, Skyhooks, Sherbet, Kiss, Blondie, Elton John, Russell Morris, Stevie Wright, Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, Cold Chisel, Kiss, Blondie, Australian Crawl, Richard Clapton, The Models, Billy Idol, Sweet, KC & The Sunshine Band., The Village People, Duran Duran, Culture Club and The Eurythmics.
Meldrum heard the news about the soundtrack’s chart topping success while recovering from his fall in Bangkok.
“I wanted to be Out of Mind, Out of Sight,” he quipped, “but my One Night In Bangkok didn’t turn out exactly as planned. I’ve now got to learn to Walk Like An Egyptian again.
“All jokes aside, I’m so pleased that people have embraced this album. For me, it’s always been all about the music and it’s fantastic that these great songs are bringing back so many memories for so many people, as well as being enjoyed by a new generation of fans.
Michael Gudinski who co-produced the Molly teleseries, added from Los Angeles, where he was attending the Grammys, “Not only am I delighted at the response to Molly the mini series, but I’m thrilled that so much great Australian music is back in the spotlight again.
“The Molly project has been a great passion of mine and Mushroom’s for some time now and it has been amazing to see the overwhelming love that Molly, the series and the music has received plus the much deserved acclaim for Samuel Johnson’s incredible portrayal of the man himself.”
According to chart historian Gavin Ryan, Molly is the 45th Soundtrack/Cast Recording album to go to #1 in Australia. The last one was the Dr. Dre set Compton last August, and the last one for a TV show was in March 2011 with Glee: The Music Volume 5. Overall it’s the fifth TV soundtrack to hit the top and the first chart-topping album to feature the word ‘Molly’.
It’s also the eighth chart topping album for Gudinski’s Liberation Records, their last being Vance Joy’s 2014 debut Dream Your Life Away.
Molly is also the first multi-CD ARIA chart topper since the 2-CD triple j Like a Version Vol.11 last October.
This week two years ago, a similar feat took place when in the wake of the ratings success of INXS’s two-part series, their The Very Best began a seven week unbroken stay at the top.
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