Daryl Braithwaite

Daryl Braithwaite

Few Australian performers have enjoyed the lasting popularity of Daryl Braithwaite. Rising to fame in the 1970s as the frontman of Sherbet, he later forged a hugely successful solo career that cemented his place as one of the country's best-loved vocalists.

His solo career produced 15 Australian Top 40 singles, including two No. 1 hits, "You're My World" (1974) and the enduring Australian classic "The Horses" (1991). His second solo album, Edge, released in 1988, reached No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart and also enjoyed chart success in Norway and Sweden.

Born in Melbourne on 11 January 1949, Daryl and his twin brother Glenn were raised in a working-class family. He attended Punt Road Primary School in South Yarra before continuing his education at Christ Church Grammar School.

In March 1970, Braithwaite joined Sherbet, helping the band become one of Australia's biggest acts throughout the 1970s with a string of hit singles and devoted fans.

In recognition of his remarkable contribution to Australian music, Braithwaite was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2017 by Jimmy Barnes.

In June 2026, Braithwaite announced he was retiring from live performances after 58 years in the music industry. Explaining his decision, he said that singing had become increasingly physically challenging and that performing no longer brought him the joy it once had. The announcement marked the end of an extraordinary touring career and was met with an outpouring of appreciation from fans and fellow musicians across Australia.

FALLS FESTIVAL, LORNE
December 28-31, 2017
Reviewed by NICOLE PRECEL

Despite not releasing a hit song since the early '90s, 68-year-old Daryl Braithwaite wowed a glitterdrenched crowd in their early 20s on the opening night of the annual Falls Festival in Lorne. The former Sherbet frontman's solo hit One Summer was a crowd favourite, as was Howzat, but nothing compared to his extended rendition of The Horses.

Daryl Braithwaite's Australian 'anthem'

The Horses

"The Horses"written by Rickie Lee Jones and Walter Becker is well known for the 1990 cover by Daryl Braithwaite.

iTunes: RISE & The Horses

Buy or listen to The Horses on Apple Music

Rise & The Horses on Apple Music and iTunes

Released in 1990, Rise became Daryl Braithwaite's third solo album and one of the defining Australian albums of the decade. It featured the timeless hit The Horses, a song that would become Braithwaite's signature anthem and one of Australia's most enduring singalongs.

Fans can purchase the complete Rise album or download just The Horses from Apple Music and iTunes.

Apple Music

Braithwaite said the album's title reflected both personal and world events at the time.

"A certain percentage of the population just want to rise, whether it be in romance or life itself. And I think for me it related back to prior to Edge being released and building up to that."

Behind the Songs

The Horses

"I loved Rickie Lee Jones' version, which is why I took it into the studio and said, 'Simon, can we do a version?' And he and the Sony rep apparently looked at each other and went, 'Daryl's lost his mind!' Then Simon went, 'Okay, we'll work on it.' Having spoken to Rickie Lee Jones about it, there's no real answer as to why it's so popular, whether it's the musicality, the lyrics... I don't know. It's just the luck of the draw."

Waters Rising

"Simon Hussey wrote it about Nyngan and the 1990 floods. We recorded it and I think I got to use a rain stick on the start. I've played that song live more often than not, and it's lovely. The dynamics of it are just fantastic: it goes from very soft to roaring to nothing."

Higher Than Hope

"Simon wrote the majority of it, but he was kind enough to include me in the writing credit. I think it was coming from Simon's point of view he was occasionally coming out of a dark place and hoping to get into a brighter situation personally."

I Can See Higher Than Before

"I'd been with a journalist friend of mine in Beijing and we'd been semi-accosted by the police for taking photos. He was taken away by the secret police and interrogated for six hours. Seeing the physical evidence of the tanks around Tiananmen Square, I went home and thought, 'I'll write about that trip to Beijing.'"