Unlike his early chart hits, "Sun Arise" was not a comedy record, but came within the genre of world music with its didgeridoo-inspired sound.

The song was written with fellow Western Australian Harry Butler, a naturalist later known for his television show In the Wild.

[3] Martin initially called the recording "very boring", which Harris countered by saying that the Aboriginal Australians, whom he was trying to imitate, would "repeat a phrase over and over again and it would become mesmerising".

The song was re-written with slightly more lyrics and recorded using eight double basses to mimic the didgeridoo, which Harris could not play at the time.

"[1] The song's lyrical structure is simple with the vast majority of the lines starting simply "Sun arise".

[4] The only explicit reference to anything Australian in the song is the mention of the kangaroo paw flower, which is endemic to Western Australia.