Mackay was later head-hunted by EMIAustralia, which initially employed him as a Recording Engineer but soon promoted him to "Head of Artists and Repertoire". During this time, Mackay was responsible for producing 30 hit singles and discovering some of Australia's most popular pop acts; he is probably best known in Australia as the producer of most of the Australian recordings made by The Twilights, one of Australia's most popular bands of the mid-1960s; his credits include the band's ambitious swansong Once Upon A Twilight. Mackay's Australian commercial success led to an internal transfer to the firm's United Kingdom offices, where Mackay went on to work at the legendary Abbey Road studios.
The World Starts Tonight (1977) is the debut studio album by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, released in February 1977 by RCA Records. Most of the songs were written by Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe, who worked as her managers while she was signed to RCA. They also produced the album alongside David Mackay. Musically, the album features country and pop songs. Natural Force (1978) is the second studio album by Tyler, released in May 1978 by RCA Records. In the United States, the album was titled It's a Heartache. As with her debut, Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe wrote most of the tracks on the album. David Mackay returned again to produce, with Scott and Wolfe.
In 1990, Mackay and Jon English co-wrote a concept album, Paris, which has since been staged as a rock musical in Australia and elsewhere several times beginning in 2003. In 2002, Mackay's career came full circle as he returned to the world of musical theatre as a supervisor to a West End theatre production of 125th Street.
In 2018, Bonnie Tyler announced that she would be working with Mackay, who co-produced her first two albums. Tyler and Mackay also collaborated on Frankie Miller's album Double Take (2016). In March 2019, Between the Earth and the Stars was released as the seventeenth studio album by Bonnie Tyler, and was produced by Mackay.
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987.
