Aussie producer Luude’s remix of Men At Work classic Down Under sends 40-year-old hit back up the charts

Men At Work’s hit song Down Under might be 40 years old, but it has just rocketed back into pop music charts, thanks to one clever Aussie producer.

Christian Benson was locked down in his home studio with no gigs on the horizon when he started messing around with Men At Work’s iconic Down Under.

The electronic producer, who performs as Luude, wanted to reconnect with his fans during the long pandemic pause on touring so he uploaded a 20-second remix of the track to TikTok with an Australiana-themed video featuring boxing kangaroos, a motorised esky and Bob Hawke sculling a beer.

The millions of Down Under remix plays should buy a couple of Vegemite sandwiches. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

“I’ve been doing music full time now for about four years and I’d never had a moment like this where it just went crazy and everyone was messaging me saying send over the full track and I’d only made a 20-second version,” Benson said.

To get his “unofficial” remix onto official streaming sites, Benson required the permission of Men At Work’s Colin Hay, who wrote the Australian classic 40 years ago in 40 minutes.

“We sent it over to Colin and he replied ‘I don’t see why I would do it, but I don’t see why I wouldn’t either; let the kids have fun’,” a grinning Benson said.

That drum and bass remix, featuring new vocals from Hay, has now become a global smash with more than 55 million streams, breaching the top 10 in Australia and the UK and the top 20 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart.

And soundtracked hundreds of thousands of TikTok videos.

@luudeaus

Kinda works 😭 #electronicmusic#dnb#australian#downunder

♬ Down under Luude Remix - Luude

It has also received rapturous response at its recent live outings at Queensland festivals from tens of thousands of young fans – not even born when the song topped the charts worldwide in early 1983.

“I actually played it twice in the one set because the reaction gave me goosebumps, it was an insane feeling,” Benson said.

“Colin is such a legend but a lot of the kids who didn’t know the original were asking if the vocalist was (American rapper) Kid Cudi.”

The astute producer was acutely aware that everything old is new again in the pop world with Australian DJ Jolyon Petch enjoying global chart success with his remix of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams last year and Norwegian star Kygo giving fresh dance life to both Tina Turner’s What’s Love Got To Do With It and Donna Summer’s Hot Stuff in 2020.

Remix winners are grinners with the drum and bass Down Under dancing its way up the pop charts. Picture: Supplied

And of course electronic masters PNAU were responsible for one of the biggest pop hits of 2021 with Cold Heart, their reinvention of Elton John songs featuring the Rocket Man himself and Dua Lipa.

TikTok dance crazes also returned Boney M’s Rasputin and the Bee Gees’ More Than A Woman to the pop charts last year.

But the Australian pop and rock classics rarely get the remix treatment.

Benson said Down Under’s success would change that and he was aware of several producers working on new spins for old favourites to jump on the trend.

“I think Beds Are Burning (by Midnight Oil) would be a great drum and bass song because of the chant in it,” he said.