Flashback: Johnny O'Keefe, Australia's original rock star, dies

Johnny O'Keefe, Australia's first and most enduring rock star, died in St Vincent's Hospital last night. O'Keefe, aged 43, collapsed after a heart attack on Thursday night at his home at Double Bay. He suffered brain damage after the heart attack. His condition remained critical during the day and deteriorated late in the afternoon. His wife,  Maureen, and his parents, were at his bedside.

Brian Henderson, who was host to Johnny O'Keefe on many bandstand programs, said last night: "John was a pioneer and also a very determined man. Had it not been for O'Keefe it might have taken much longer for Australian talent to be recognised. He was a man of tremendous energy."

He was often described as Australia's answer to Bill Haley or Elvis Presley, who died last year, aged
42. O'Keefe's single, The Wild One, was the country's first truly Indigenous rock record, milking the charts
in March, 1958. His career was marked with No.1 single records, including Sing, I'm Counting on You, Move Baby Move, and She's My Baby. But he also suffered a series of nervous breakdowns.

He had a bad car accident on the Gold Coast in 1960, which seemed to throw the increasingly popular  young singer off his mark. His face was brutally scarred, but he continued with his television show, Six O'clock Rock.

Midway through 1962, O'Keefe had the first of his breakdowns. He left the Johnny O'Keefe Show for  treatment, then recovered to compere a show named Sing Sing Sing.

In 1974, O'Keefe recorded his last hit record, Mockingbird, with Margaret McLaren. It was in the charts  for 12 weeks. His last television appearance was shown on Friday last in TEN, Channel 10's 22 years of television, on which he sang one of his hits, Sing.

This article was first published in The Sydney Morning Herald on October 7, 1978.