WOMAN YOU'RE BREAKING ME (1967) by The Groop

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Woman You're Breaking Me was the 1967 hit by Australian sixties rock band, the Groop, featuring Ronnie Charles on lead vocal. Also in the band were Brian Cadd (keyboards, vocals), Don Mudie (guitar), Max Ross (bass) and Richard Wright (drums, vocals). This was the second line up of the band (Ross and Wright continued from the first incarnation). This was a major hit -- #6 in Melbourne, #12 in Sydney -- and even charting in some key American centres when it was put out by Columbia Records there.

The peak of The Groop's career came in July, when they took out the grand prize in the Hoadleys' Battle of the Sounds, an Aussie sixties rock band competition. The prize, was passage for the whole group by a cruise liner to England, with gig and recording opportunities. The group did ok in England and Europe but didn't set the world on fire sales wise. Just before its return to Australia in October 1968, Max Ross left due to illness, and he was not replaced; Don Mudie switched to bass and the band continued as a four-piece. Don Mudie proved to be a perfect songwriting foil to Brian and their bubbling, organ-propelled "Such A Lovely Way" was released in 1968 to great acclaim, making the national Top 20.

Nevertheless, the band had become destabilised and restless in the wake of founding member Ross' departure. After their tenth single, a fine soul-inflected groover called "You Gotta Live Love" / "Sally's Mine", was ignored, The Groop abruptly broke up mid-year. In spite of the recent chart failure they were still extremely popular, so there was shock on the Australian pop scene when it was splashed over the cover the 10 May edition of Go-Set, an Aussie rock newspaper. The Groop breakup and the formation of Cadd and Mudie's new band Axiom was extensively covered by Go-Set over succeeding weeks and there was evidently some rancour about the fact that (as they later admitted) Cadd and Mudie had been considering the move for some time, but had not advised Richard and Ronnie about it. The above background is summarised from the great Aussie music site, 'Milesago'. Another site worth checking out is 'Midoztouch', which is aimed at preserving Australian sixties to eighties music not available on commercial release.

I have put together a slideshow of all the images I could find and concoct of this Mark II version of the band. There were surprisingly few around. (However there are a few videos of the Mark I version on YouTube).

Comments are invited. .