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I Should Be So Lucky: Kylie, Stock Aitken Waterman, and the Hit Factory
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
In 1987, Kylie Minogue walked into a London studio with no recording history and walked out with a number one single. This episode goes deep inside the Stock Aitken Waterman machine that turned a soap actress into the UK's biggest-selling female artist.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Before you hear a Stock Aitken Waterman record, you assume it's simple. You assume it's lightweight.
Stock Aitken Waterman. The three names behind the sound.
The story of how Kylie's first single came together has become something close to pop legend. She attended a charity concert in Melbourne in nineteen eighty-seven, performed a version of "Locomotion" with cast members from Neighbours, and the response from the crowd was strong enough that people started thinking about what a Kylie Minogue record might actually sound like.
"Got to Be Certain" followed in the spring of nineteen eighty-eight, and it also went to number one in Australia and the UK. By mid-year, Kylie had released her debut album, also titled Kylie, and it was breaking records.
There's one moment from this period that stands somewhat apart. In late nineteen eighty-eight, Kylie and her Neighbours co-star Jason Donovan released a duet called "Especially for You." It was tied to the finale of their storyline on the show, a wedding episode that drew enormous audiences in both Australia and the UK.
Through nineteen eighty-nine and into nineteen ninety, Kylie kept releasing records, kept charting, kept filling arena tours. But something was shifting.
Stand back from the noise around the SAW years and the picture becomes clearer. The critics were not wrong that the formula was restrictive.
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