Diana Trask’s “Oh Boy (The Mood I’m In)” is a memorable song from my childhood in 1970s Australia. It was a popular song on the radio and also featured on an LP of various country hits that my paternal grandparents had in their home. So, yes, it’s a song I’ve known now for 50 years, and one I’ve always liked – both for its musicality and for how it brings to mind and heart people and places long gone but still cherished.
Diana was nominated for a Grammy in 1970 for her cover of “I Fall to Pieces,” and it’s been said that at one point in the 1960s, Billboard magazine ranked her as both the best female jazz vocalist and the best female country vocalist. Given all of this, it’s no wonder Diana Trask paved the way for other Australian female singers to find success in the States in the 1970s, most notably Olivia Newton John and Helen Reddy.
Why, then, has Diana Trask and her musical legacy been largely forgotten? Well, if you’re interested, this 20-minute video claims to “reveal the hidden story of how a powerful voice was quietly erased from the industry she helped shape.”
Before I share “Oh Boy,” here’s a reminder of just how respected Diana Trask was in her heyday. Following (with added images and links) is how she and her career are described by Bob Kirsch in the liner notes of the 1975 ABC Records’ double album, Diana Trask: The ABC Collection.
How many country stars hail from Warburton, Australia? Only one that we know of, a young lady named Diana Trask, who, while she cut her musical teeth in pop and jazz, has come up with more than a dozen country chart singles in the past five years.
How did Diana Trask from Warburton, Australia, end up a bona fide country star living in Nashville and appearing regularly in Las Vegas? Diana grew up in a musical family in Australia, with her mother teaching voice and piano. A childhood ambition to be a singer resulted in constant practice that paid off with a victory in a major talent contest. With a prestigeous award in her pocket, the 16-year-old Diana began piling up TV exposure and experience, including her own TV show.
From television, Diana went on to become an opening concert act for such stellar names as Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr [when they toured Australia]. At 19, Diana headed for the United States.
As a pop artist, Diana toured the American nightclub circuit, appeared on Don McNeil’s famous Breakfast Club network radio show and The Jack Benny Show. Eventually, the young artist landed a regular job with Mitch Miller on his long-running Sing Along With Mitch TV show. Known still for her pop and jazz work, Trask was well on her way to becoming one of the nation's top pop stars when she decided that marriage and a family should come first – at least for a while.
So, Diana and her husband returned to Australia for a short leave of absence from the U.S. performing and recording scene (she had enjoyed a stay at Columbia Records in the late ’50s and early ’60s, with Mitch Miller producing).
Ten years ago, however, [in 1965] Diana returned to America with husband/manager Tom Ewen, determined this time around to give country music a go. Not only did she become one of country’s more popular and successful female vocalists, she became one of the few “outsiders” to receive acceptance in the sometimes tightly knit world of country.
Diana has stated in many interviews that it was the honsty of country and the people involved in it that first aroused her interest. As time went on, however, she began developing a deep love and understanding of the music itself -- a love and understanding that came from long hours in the studio with some of Nashville’s most talented producers and musicians, and a touring schedule (often more than 200 one nighters a year) that many other entertainers shied away from. A visit to Nashville and the annual Country Music Awards telecast solidified her interest.
Sure of her genuine interest in country, Diana set out to prove that one need not be from any particular region or background to really be and feel country. Country, she feels, is a way of thinking rather than an accent or style or dress.
Diana’s early Dot LPs, cut with top Nashville producer and publisher Buddy Killen, introduced her to some of the finest American country songs and songwriters, as well as giving her the opportunity to record some of the top rock and R&B songs of some of the biggest artists in the U.S. In addition, Diana cut an entire LP of the best songs of Joe Tex, one of the most prolific pop and R&B songwriters of the ’60s.
In the following years, Trask worked with such leading producers as Danny Davis and Norro Wilson, as well as enjoying some of her biggest hits under the production wing of ABC/Dot president Jim Foglesong.
Some of her biggest chart items include “Lock Stock and Teardrops,” “Lean It All on Me,” “It’s a Man’s World (If You had a Man Like Mine),” “Oh Boy,” “When I Get My Hands on You,” “(If You Wanna Hold On) Hold On to Your Man,” “Say When,” and “We’ve Got to Work It Out Between Us.” Diana’s ease in adapting to country music shines through in her versions of such classics as “Green Green Grass of Home,” “Teddy Bear Song,” “Country Bumpkin,” “Stand By Your Man,” “Let Me Be There,” and “Loving Arms.”
Whether a ballad or a rocker, country or R&B, Miss Country Soul as she is often called is one of the most dynamic and buoyant artists in all of music. And she has transcended the world of recorded music in putting her message across. The years of one nighters have paid off in Diana becoming one of the most popular and consistent entertainers in Las Vegas. She has appeared many times on The Tonight Show, as well as on Hee Haw, The Dean Martin Show, and a number of others. She has also appeared in a dramatic role on Love, American Style.
Diana Trask remains one of the real rarities in the world of show business, a complete entertainer.
It’s so warm in here
Outside the night is clear
Think I need a walk
Have myself a little talk
Sleep, baby, sleep
While your mama walks the street tonight
To think about your daddy boy
(Oh boy) the mood I'm in
The pain I feel in missin’ him
Oh boy (oh boy), I can’t explain
He haunts my mind, racks my brain
I could comb every home, every neighborhood bar
I could ride every Greyhound or railroad car
Just to find him and say
Hey, wherever you are
Come on home, we love you boy
So I walk and weep
Through the downtown streets I wander sadly
Boy (oh boy), the mood I’m in
The pain I feel in missin’ him
Oh boy (oh boy), I can’t explain
He haunts my mind, racks my brain
I could comb every home, every neighborhood bar
I could ride every Greyhound or railroad car
Just to find him and say
Hey, wherever you are
Come on home, we love you boy
“Oh Boy (The Mood I’m In)” is a popular song written by Tony Romeo. It has been recorded by Diana Trask and Brotherhood of Man, among others. The song is about a woman whose partner/husband is no longer with her and she sadly walks the streets in an attempt to find him. Tony Romeo who wrote the song is best known for his 1970 hit “I Think I Love You” by The Partridge Family, which became a U.S. Number 1.
. . . [Diana Trask’s recording of] “Oh Boy” was released as a single by ABC–Dot Records in December 1974 as a seven-inch vinyl record featuring the B-side “Alone Again Naturally.” Billboard magazine called the track, “Well produced with nice melody changes” and found that Trask “never sounding better.” Cash Box called Trask’s voice “dynamic" and believed it be "a sure hit.” Trask claimed her version never received promotion from ABC–Dot due to label re-configuration and called it “one of my biggest professional disappointments.” Meanwhile, Bobby Wyld of WYTRA Records claimed that he did not give ABC-Dot permission to release Trask’s version in belief that her version “won’t get airplay.” He ultimately sued the company for one million dollars, as reported by Radio & Records.
Despite this, “Oh Boy” rose to the number 21 position on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, becoming Trask’s final top 40 single there.
In Canada, “Oh Boy” rose to number 14 on their RPM Country Tracks chart. It reached the top ten on Australia’s Kent Music Report chart, peaking at the number ten position in 1975.
It was Trask’s first charting single in Australia since 1960 and her only top ten song there. It also appeared on Trask’s tenth studio album titled The Mood I’m In.
About Diana’s career after “Oh Boy,” Wikipedia says the following:
[Diana Trask] reached her peak commercial success in the middle seventies with four top 20 country songs: “Say When,” “It’s a Man’s World,” “When I Get My Hands on You” and “Lean It All on Me.” Her 1974 single, “Oh Boy,” was a top ten song in Australia. She remained popular in Australia through the 1980s with albums like the gold-ceritifed One Day at a Time (1981).
Trask went into semi-retirement as the eighties progressed. Sporadically, she returned to her music career including performing at the 1985 Australian Football League Grand Final. For the most part, Trask and her husband sailed the Caribbean, along with operating a store in Alaska. She also returned to college and received a degree in herbal medicine.
In 2009, Trask’s husband died and she returned to her career. She co-wrote a memoir in 2010 called Whatever Happened to Diana Trask and released three albums on her own label titled Trask Enterprises: Country Lovin’ (2010), Daughter of Australia (2014) and Memories Are Made of This (2016).
I conclude this special post with a 2016 interview with Diana Trask from the Australia TV show Studio 10. (For a longer interview from the same year, click here.)
Related Off-site Links:
“Oh Boy” by Diana Trask – Awesome Aussie Songs (September 17, 2020).
Diana Trask: The Australian Star America Silenced – Aussie Uncovered (via Facebook, August 6, 2025).
Australian Singer Diana Trask to Go on Concert Tour – Gordon Jackson (The Brunswick News, April 21, 2015).
A Singing Star is Reborn – Florida Times-Union (May 11, 2012).
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