Synopsis

INXS stage a decadent feast in which the band and a group of glamorous guests tear into an extravagant banquet with theatrical abandon. The indulgent table scenes are intercut with stark performance footage, emphasizing the contrast between excess and the band's sharp, energetic new-wave rock. Michael Hutchence commands the center of the celebration, while handheld camerawork, tight close-ups, and fast editing give the video a deliberately unruly, sensual feel.

Factoids & Trivia

• Released in 1982, "The One Thing" was the first single from INXS's third studio album, *Shabooh Shoobah*.

• The video was made in Australia on a relatively modest scale, but its extravagant banquet concept gave the band a distinctive visual identity at a crucial point in their career.

• The banquet idea came from a deliberately excessive "food orgy" concept, with the performers encouraged to eat in an exaggerated, Henry VIII-style manner.

• Michele Bennett, Michael Hutchence's girlfriend at the time, appears among the women at the table. Models Susan Stenmark and Karen Pini also took part; both were associated with the Australian soap opera *The Young Doctors*.

• "The One Thing" was the first INXS video to receive exposure on the fledgling MTV. Its presence in the channel's rotation helped introduce the Australian band to American viewers.

• The song became INXS's first US Top 40 hit, reaching No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983.