MELBOURNE—After seven years faking an English accent while seeking fame in London in the 1950s, Rolf Harris' life changed forever when he first sang the now famous line "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport".
Tomorrow night, almost 50 years later, he will perform the old favourite again at Melbourne's Town Hall, as he is inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Harris, 78, says he is "intensely excited" to be joining legends such as Dame Joan Sutherland, Slim Dusty and INXS.
And for a "proud Australian", who has nonetheless lived in Britain since the early 1960s, receiving the acknowledgement from peers in his home country is also special.
Harris shot to fame in 1960 with his recording of Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport, sung with a classic Australian drawl.
The song, with its equally familiar cry of "All together now", was a No.1 smash hit in Australia and a top 10 hit in the UK in 1960, before reaching number three on the charts in the US three years later.
After years trying to make a living as an entertainer in Britain, Harris said the song showed him he did not have to hide his Australian character to be a success.
"I'd spent seven years trying to be a phoney Brit, trying to speak, as it were, perfect English and trying to pronounce things `correctly' and then all of a sudden I'd recorded this song ... and it was unashamedly Australian," Harris told AAP.
"And suddenly it went to number one in Australia and I suddenly thought `dear, oh dear' I can be myself and I can be unashamedly Australian and be a success, and I hadn't known that up until that night."
Harris says the song epitomised the Aussie battler.
"The Australian farmer that's spent seven years trying to raise a herd of cattle or a flock of sheep and all of a sudden there's a 10-year drought and he loses everything and he has to make a joke out of it, otherwise he'll go and blow his brains out."
But was it this capturing of a nation's wry humour in the face of adversity that made the song so popular, or was it in fact the wobbleboard?
"Probably the wobbleboard," Harris laughs.
On the fickle pendulum of cool, Harris has swung from the very centre to the frosty margins of kitsch and back into cool heartland again.
He has had prolonged success as a television presenter, has painted a portrait of the Queen and has had numerous hits over the decades, such as his early 1990s cover of Stairway to Heaven and his seven-week UK number one hit Two Little Boys in 1969 and 1970.
Tomorrow, he will be joined by another enduring Australian act, folk band The Seekers, when he performs Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport at the ARIA Hall of Fame ceremony.
Other Australian music legends to be inducted alongside him are Real Thing creator Russell Morris, 1970s and 80s band Dragon, The Triffids and rock and soul pioneer Max Merritt.
Broadcaster John Laws will also be honoured with an ARIA Lifetime Achievement Award for his role promoting country music stars from Slim Dusty to Lee Kernaghan.
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