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Leaps and Bounds (song)

"Leaps and Bounds"
Single by Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls
from the album Gossip / Under the Sun
A-side"Leaps and Bounds" / "Bradman"
ReleasedJanuary 1987
RecordedMay 1986, Trafalgar Studios / Trackdown Studios, Sydney
GenreRock
Length3:22 / 7:28
LabelMushroom
Songwriter(s)Paul Kelly, Chris Langman / Kelly
Producer(s)Alan Thorne, Paul Kelly
Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls singles chronology
"Darling It Hurts"
(1986)
"Leaps and Bounds"
(1987)
"Look So Fine, Feel So Low"
(1987)

"Leaps and Bounds" / "Bradman" is a double A-sided single by Australian rock group Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls released in January 1987. "Leaps and Bounds" is from their debut double album, Gossip (1986). "Bradman" did not appear on a studio album until the international version of Under the Sun (1988). The single reached top 100 in the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. Due to possible racist connotations the band changed its name, for international releases, to Paul Kelly and the Messengers. In 1997, Kelly was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, at the ceremony Crowded House paid tribute to Kelly and performed "Leaps and Bounds". In October 2003, Xanthe Littlemore covered "Leaps and Bounds" for the tribute album, Stories of Me – A Songwriter's Tribute to Paul Kelly. In 2005, rock music writer, Toby Creswell described two of Kelly's songs: "Leaps and Bounds" and "From Little Things Big Things Grow" in his book, 1001 Songs. For the former, Creswell observed "The grand themes of [his] work are all there – Melbourne, football, transcendence and memory... [he] is a detail man – the temperature, the location, foliage". On 26 March 2006 Kelly performed at the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony in Melbourne, singing "Leaps and Bounds" and "Rally Around the Drum". In February 2009 Patience Hodgson (of The Grates), Glenn Richards and Kelly performed "Leaps and Bounds" at the Myer Music Bowl for SBS-TV's concert RocKwiz Salutes the Bowl. On 29 September 2012 Kelly performed "How to Make Gravy" and "Leaps and Bounds" at the 2012 AFL Grand Final although most of the performance was not broadcast on Seven Network's pre-game segment.