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DD Smash

New Zealand band

DD Smash was a New Zealand pop/rock band formed in 1980 by Dave Dobbyn after the breakup of Th' Dudes. The band briefly used the name "Dave Dobbyn's Divers" until drummer Peter Warren came up with "DD Smash". Dobbyn says the name "seemed to say everything about what we were into, which was having a jolly good time and blasting out music."

01History

DD Smash formed in 1980. By late '81, DD Smash signed a recording deal and immediately set about recording their debut album, with Ian Morris as producer.

DD Smash released their debut album in 1982. Titled Cool Bananas it debuted at number 1 in New Zealand and was certified triple gold.

DD Smash split during the mid-1980s when Dave Dobbyn began recording by himself.

In 2015, as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the New Zealand Music Charts, Recorded Music NZ honoured DD Smash's debut album Cool Bananas as being the first album by a New Zealand artist to debut at No.1 on the album chart.

02Members

03Discography

Albums

Year Title Details Peak chart
positions
Certifications
NZ
1982 Cool Bananas 1
  • NZ: Platinum
1984 The Optimist 6
  • NZ: Platinum

Live albums

Year Title Details Peak chart
positions
Certifications
NZ
1983 Live: Deep in the Heart of Taxes 11
  • NZ: Gold

Singles

Year Title NZ AUS Album
1981 Bull by the Horns (Dave Dobbyn and DD Smash) , , Non-album single
"Repetition" 25 , Cool Bananas
1982 "Devil You Know" 35 ,
"Solo" , ,
1983 "Outlook for Thursday" 3 , Non-album single
"Actor" , , The Optimist
1984 "Whaling" 8 70
"Surrender" , ,
1985 "Magic (What She Do)" 4 ,
"She Loves Me Back" 38 ,
"-" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

RIANZ Awards

The New Zealand Music Awards are awarded annually by the RIANZ in New Zealand.

Year Award Details Result
1982 Album of the Year Cool Bananas Won
Top Male Vocalist Dave Dobbyn Won
Top Group of the Year Won
Most Promising Male Vocalist Dave Dobbyn Won
Producer of the Year Cool Bananas, Ian Morris Won
Engineer of the Year Cool Bananas, Paul Streekstra & Doug Rogers Won
Sleeve Design of the Year Wayne Robinson, Cool Bananas Won
1983 Album of the Year Live: Deep in the Heart of Taxes Won
Single of the Year "Outlook for Thursday" Won
Top Male Vocalist Dave Dobbyn Won
Top Group of the Year Won
Producer of the Year "Outlook for Thursday" Nominated
Most Popular Artist Won
Best Music Video "Outlook for Thursday", Andrew Shaw Won
Engineer of the Year Live: Deep in the Heart of Taxes, Graeme Myhre Nominated
"Outlook for Thursday"-Paul Streekstra Nominated
Producer of the Year "Outlook for Thursday", Dave Dobbyn Nominated
1985 International Achievement Nominated
Watch videos about DD SmashExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article DD Smash, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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