Since the age of seven, Murray Grindlay’s dream was to become a musician.
Later, in 1966, he joined the rhythm and blues band The Underdogs (or as they were sometimes known, the Underdogs Blues Band). With Murray on the vocals, they soon released songs like 1967s’ See Saw’ and one of their biggest smash hits ‘Sitting In The Rain’.
After leaving the group, Murray headed for Australia, where he sang at the ‘Whisky a Go-Go’, a legendary nightclub in Sydney’s notorious King’s Cross. Two years later, he returned to New Zealand where he and his partner married and were soon expecting their first child.
Tired of living between gigs and hoping to find a better way to support himself and his burgeoning family, he eventually came up with the idea of writing advertising jingles for television. So, in the early 1970s, he gathered up all of his song demos and went around to different advertising agencies to see if they’d be interested in hiring him.
And the rest, as they say, is history, with Murray going on to write the jingles to several iconic ads including the excellent crunchie train robbery in 1975 which he also sang; and the musical arrangement for the Dear John ads in 1981, which he adapted from the 1953 Jean Shepard/Ferlin Husky hit ‘A Dear John Letter’.
Among his favourites were the two ‘travelling on’ adverts for the Europa oil company that he starred and sang in alongside legendary musician Midge Marsden and the late Stevie Ray Vaughan in 1988.
Eventually, he was able to segway his experience into New Zealand cinema. Starting in 1977 with Rodger Donaldson’s ‘Sleeping Dogs’, and then in 1994 with Lee Tamahori’s ‘Once Were Warriors’, and Gregor Nicholas’s ‘Broken English’ in 1996.
But besides all of the movies and the adverts that he’s done, some of the best moments in his career came from the people he’s rubbed shoulders with. When I spoke to him, he remembered the great times he had such as when he wrote songs for the late Benny Hill and country singer Charlie Pride.
“I’ve been so fortunate. I mean, I’ve done multiple ads with Taj Mahal the American blues singer, and he was fantastic. I’ve recorded songs with the Bonnie Raitt and Jimmy Buffet bands. They’d just be on tour and I’d call them up and say ‘hey do you want to come in and earn some extra cash?’ and they’d usually say ‘Yes’. I was just in the right place at the right time; it was one of those fortuitous things. It just took off and here I am at 70, and I’m still doing it.” (Kerry Lee)
For more information about Murray and the Underdogs, please visit the following links below.
www.nzonscreen.com/profile/murray-grindlay/biography
www.audioculture.co.nz/people/the-underdogs