I’m pretty sure I tracked down the previously unknown song that inspired the 1966 song “Friday on My Mind” by Australian rock band the Easybeats. The song is “Badinerie”, the final movement of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, as performed in a 1966 TV show, by a vocal group called the Swingle Singers. Let me explain.

“Friday on My Mind” is one of my all-time favorite songs. I vividly remember hearing it for the first time when I was in high school. The song was a huge international hit, and it was voted “Best Australian Song” of all time by the Australasian Performing Right Association.

The Wikipedia entry on the song tells the story of how the song was written. According to band members and co-writers Harry Vanda and George Young, the track’s distinctive guitar opening was inspired by a film performance featuring a musical group called the Swingle Singers.

Vanda said, “It went tudutudutudu, which made us all laugh. In the train back from the gig, we were imitating them and suddenly it sounded good. They became the first notes of ‘Friday on My Mind’.”

I was intrigued and did some Internet searching and quickly discovered that nobody could identify the specific song by the Swingle Singers that inspired “Friday on My Mind”. I did a lot of sleuthing and found an obscure movie titled “The Bernard Show” that aired in April 1966, a few months before “Friday on My Mind” was released in October 1966 — exactly the right time frame.

Left: Bernard. Center: One of Bernard’s many daydreams involves marching girls and bagpipe music. Right: This is the department store scene where the song that inspired “Friday on My Mind” is sung by the Swingle Singers.

The movie is a surreal comedy that tells the story of an office worker, played by comedian Bernard Haller, who indulges in wild daydreaming to escape the boredom of his daily life. About halfway through the movie, Bernard wanders into a department store where the Swingle Singers are singing an acapella version of “Badinerie” that is exactly as described by band member Vanda. See rts.ch/archives/1966/video/le-bernard-show-26182705.html

I can’t prove that this is the song that inspired “Friday on My Mind”, but all the facts fit exactly.