Born on This Day in 1922, the Australian Songwriter Who Penned a Ubiquitous Country Hit Covered More Than 130 Times

In 1962, Canadian country singer Hank Snow released the novelty song “I’ve Been Everywhere.” While the tune was new to North American audiences, it had already enjoyed substantial success in Australia, where its songwriter, Geoff Mack, was born on this day in 1922.

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“I’ve Been Everywhere” by Hank Snow (1962). The song was written by Australian country singer Geoff Mack in 1959 #foryou #fyp #fypシ

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Born Albert Geoffrey McElhinney in Surrey Hills, a suburb of Melbourne, Geoff Mack got his start as an entertainer during World War II. Stationed in Borneo as an aircraft mechanic with the Royal Australian Air Force, he entertained his fellow troops by playing guitar and singing.

Geoff Mack Was in a Sour Mood When He Wrote His Biggest Hit

In 1959, Geoff Mack penned the first of what would become seven versions of “I’ve Been Everywhere.”

“I wrote it… one morning when I was in a bad mood,” Mack recalled in an early ’80s interview with Australian journalist Stephen Fleay. “You always write when you’re worried and concerned—you know, you write better then, I think—and I was concerned about going back to Sydney… I’d written a lot of stuff on the Gold Coast, which was good for the Gold Coast, but not good for Sydney.”

Parked in a car outside the Vanguard, a live music venue in Sydney, Mack noticed three road maps in the vehicle. Noticing that, “Gee, a lot of these towns rhyme,” he came up with the line, It’s nice to be back in Sydney, and you asked me what I’ve seen/If you settle back and listen/I’ll tell you exactly where I’ve been.

“I did it around the club for a while, and that’s all it was,’ he says. “I never thought anybody would be the least bit interested in it.”

[RELATED: On This Day in 1950, Hank Snow Was at No. 1 on the Country Chart With the Record-Tying Song That Put Him on the Path to Stardom]

“How Lucky Can You Get?

He was wrong, of course. Australian singer Lucky Starr took his recording to the top of the charts in 1962, and Canadian country singer Hank Snow popularized it in North America. Of course, since the song is entirely dependent on region-specific references, Mack had to tweak it a bit. In fact, Festival Records asked him to write multiple other versions, with town names in America, New Zealand and England.

“The English one was easy because I could almost do that without an atlas. The American one, I needed an atlas and a magnifying glass,” he said. “Two hours work, and I’m still living on it 50 years later. How lucky can you get?”

Geoff Mack died July 21, 2017, in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. He was 94 years old.

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