Tiki Taane with his award for longest-running single in the New Zealand singles chart.
Tiki Taane with his award for longest-running single in the New Zealand singles chart.
Seven years ago Tiki Taane reluctantly released a song recorded on a beaten-up guitar with microphones taped to a lampshade and a broom.
This week the Papamoa musician received an award for that song, Always on my Mind, which holds the honour of being the longest-running song on the New Zealand singles chart.
Taane received the accolade at the Official NZ Top 40 Party on Wednesday night. Always on my Mind stayed in the charts for one year and three weeks.
At his Papamoa home yesterday Taane said he was surprised by the achievement since the quality of the song was so "rough and raw".
"I recorded that song on the spur of the moment. I had this idea and I needed to record this new song before I forgot it," he said.
"I used a beaten-up old guitar - it was so out of tune. I didn't have a proper microphone stand at the place I was at so I stuck my mic to a lampshade and another on a broomstick, drunk half a bottle of scotch and went for it.
"The next day I heard it all and I chose the third version."
Although Taane had selected which version he liked, he had planned to redo it properly.
"I went to go back to record it in a nice studio, with nice production and a nice guitar.
'I did that and even though that version was really nice and sounded great, it just didn't have the energy."
He said he was faced with a "real heavy dilemma" but his best friend told him to go with the original version.
"So I took a leap of faith, and if I didn't do that, I don't think I would be having this conversation with you today," Taane said.
"Even though it was really rough, really raw, it captured that moment, that energy and emotion."
Taane said he was "just really lucky" things had worked out with the song.
"It's crazy but that's beautiful as well. It's gone on to do amazing things.
"I still get one to three emails a week from people wanting me to perform that song at their wedding."
Taane said he was also lucky to have had the Bank of New Zealand use his song in its advertising: "Probably popped it back into the charts a bit more."
He had not expected the award for a song described as "probably the roughest" of all his recorded music.
"I was surprised, totally surprised. Just because there's been so many massive singles that have been on the charts since then," he said. "It has just really blown me away. But I've got to take it back to the people who downloaded it. I'm just really thankful and really grateful."
The awards were in honour of 40 years of The Official NZ Top 40, and as part of the celebration a limited edition red vinyl single featuring Always on My Mind will be released, with proceeds going to charity.
The vinyl will also feature Scribe's Stand Up, the Kiwi single that spent the most weeks at number 1 (12 weeks).
Both artists donated their tracks for the project.
Recorded Music NZ chief executive officer Damian Vaughan said the honours highlighted diversity with a mix of some of the world's biggest stars and some of our most cherished local heroes all being recognised.
"To have these two Kiwi music greats donating their chart-topping singles to help others through music is just fantastic," he said.
Albums •Most #1 singles INT - Michael Jackson, U2, Katy Perry - tied •Most chart entries INT - Madonna •Most weeks in chart INT - New Order, Blue Monday •Most weeks at #1 INT - Pharrell, Happy
Singles •Most #1 singles NZ - •Deep ObsessionMost chart entries NZ - Shihad •Most weeks in chart NZ - Tiki Taane, Always on My Mind •Most weeks at #1 - Scribe, Stand Up/Not Man
