Songfacts®:

• This is one of the most popular songs by Split Enz, a New Zealand group led by Neil Finn before he formed Crowded House.
  
  The band hit it big in Australasia with their 1980 album True Colours, which includes the hit "I Got You." Finn was feeling some pressure to write another hit, and while on tour in Perth, came up with "History Never Repeats."
• The song is about moving forward. The first verse tells a story Finn made up about a girl who broke his heart. Rather than ruminate and let that ruin his chances of finding love, he moves on - "that's history," he sings.
  
  Later, the song gets more personal as Neil reveals his struggle to write a song that isn't just a rehash of his previous efforts:
  
  Deep in the night it's all so clear
  I lie awake with great ideas
  
  In the end, it hits him, and the song is born:
  
  And there's a light shining in the dark
  Leading me on towards a change of heart
• Split Enz had a striking visual presentation and a tendency to dress like circus clowns. This combined for some very interesting music videos that got good airplay in much of the world but not in America, where there was nowhere to show them. That changed when MTV went on the air August 1, 1981, a few months after "History Never Repeats" was released on the Waiata album.
  
  The video starts with Neil Finn in bed. He's roused and enters a series of unusual scenes, including some where he an the band are in their clownwear. It's everything MTV was hoping for: silly, but with high production value and lots of memorable images, like Finn singing to himself in a TV monitor.
  
  It was the 12th video MTV played when they went on the air, and the first by an act that wasn't American or British. They put it in hot rotation, but the song didn't get much radio play and never made the charts in America. Five years later, Finn was back on MTV with the very popular Crowded House video for "Don't Dream It's Over." That song did cross over to radio to become a huge hit.
• Neil Finn and his brother Tim, also a member of Split Enz, joined Pearl Jam to perform "History Never Repeats" at Pearl Jam's shows in Auckland, New Zealand on March 24 and 25, 1995. The Finns became good friends with Eddie Vedder, who stayed at Neil's house between shows. (Neil's son Liam, who later became a musician, was 11 years old and a huge Pearl Jam fan, so he was very excited.)
  
  Neil and Tim ended up recording "History Never Repeats" with Pearl Jam, who sent it to fan club members in December 1995 along with their annual Christmas single.
  
  Vedder returned the favor on November 6, 1998 when he showed up at a Neil Finn concert and sang on "History Never Repeats" and a few other songs. The pair have performed together several times since.