Written for the movie Footrot Flats: the dog’s tale, which was based on the iconic New Zealand cartoon series, Dave Dobbyn’s hit single featured reggae band Herbs singing a cappella (unaccompanied). It topped the charts for eight weeks.
Released two months before the film, ‘Slice of Heaven’ became synonymous with it and was named Song of the Year at the 1986 New Zealand Music Awards. In 2001 the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) invited its members and an academy to vote for New Zealand’s top songs of all time. ‘Slice of Heaven’ made the list at number seven. In the same year Dave Dobbyn received a rare lifetime achievement award from the New Zealand recording industry in recognition of his almost 30 years as a musician and songwriter with bands such as Th’ Dudes and DD Smash.
Footrot Flats was the work of cartoonist Murray Ball. The daily newspaper series featured the adventures of typical New Zealand farm characters, including Dog the sheepdog, his owner Wal Footrot, and their neighbour, Cooch Windgrass. Footrot Flats: the dog’s tale was New Zealand’s first full-length animated feature film.
Image: cover of Footrot Flats: the dog's tale (Wikipedia)
Read more on NZHistory
Best New Zealand songs ever? – New Zealand Music Month1986 - key events – The 1980s
External links
- Dave Dobbyn (Dave Dobbyn.co)
- Slice of Heaven (Music.net.nz)
- Footrot Flats (NZ Film Commission)
- The national anthems (NZ Herald)
- Footrot Flats (Te Ara)
- Footrot Flats (NZOnScreen)
How to cite this page
''Slice of Heaven' hits No. 1', URL: /slice-of-heaven-hits-number-1, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 13-Aug-2015
