Lopez Blogs

It’s 20 years since 3 of my favourite artists debuted their musical talents to the world, and following Deborah Gibson, Kylie is the second one I am writing about. Problem is, although I’m a Kylie fan, I am not quite as knowledgeable about her as I am about Ms Gibson. And there are MANY Kylie fans out there who obsess over ever microscopic minutae of her career. So let me preface this by saying this is my probably slightly inaccurate take on the career of a woman whose music I adore very very much...

~ ISBSL Royal Variety Awards 1988 ~

Let’s go back to late December 1987 when I Should Be So Lucky was released in the UK. I had desperately wanted the cassette single of debut OZ single The Locomotion, but in the days before the internet made music globally available, obtaining said desire wasn’t so easy. I rushed out to buy ISBSL and patiently waited for Kylie to storm into the UK charts at...oh. She debuted somewhere well below the top 40. If Stock Aitken and Waterman were the glittering birth of new pop, then Kylie was the almost forgotten after birth. Legend has it that the SAW impresarios totally forget the diminuitive wonder was coming and had to knock up ISBSL between coffee breaks. Whispers abounded that the vocals were infact a speeded up Rick Astley. The song soon took on a life of it’s own however, and topped the charts forever and a day. More singles and the debut album were to follow. At the time, the hideous outfits of Got To Be Certain, crappy dance routines of The Locomotion and – not for the last time – Parisian themed Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi were delightful nuggets of pop candy. In retrospect, they still maintain a charming innocence, but suffer from that incongruous fate of most PWL songs – they could have been sung by anybody (and indeed were – Turn It Into Love was farmed out to Hazel Dean!) No matter, Kylie’s personality was beginning to emerge and the pop world would never be the same again...

~ EFY Royal Variety Awards 1989 ~

The Kylie-Jason duet cemented my long term love affair with ms minogue. Not only did the slushy love song rule the 1988 Christmas charts but it meant i was safely able to decorate my bedroom walls with pictures of Jason Donovan post mullet, who was looking rather spunk producing...

~ Never Too Late/Medley at Smash Hits Poll Winners Party ~

Early 89 saw Hand On Your Heart arrive. Kylie was twirling around in a horribly cheap looking home made dress. Meh. I liked it well enough but was concerned. Luckily Enjoy Yourself was just around the corner and glorious Wouldn’t Change A Thing saw Kylie edge to sex with her generous pearl necklace. Never Too late saw a plethora of wardrobe changes, Tell Tale Signs was a lovely, if somewhat vocally strained torch song and Secret Heart was more sugar coated confectionary. Christmas 1989 and early 1990 saw the release of Kylie’s movie The Deliquents, which only remains in my memory because when she got her baps out on screen, some yahoo shouted out “Oh my god. She’s a fella” which made me titter quite a lot.

~ Better The Devil debuts on UK tv ~

~ Shocked on TOTP ~

Visually and audibly, Kylie reached her creative PWL peak with the singles from the Rhythm of Love album. Kicking off with the most perfect pop song created, Better The Devil you Know saw Kylie literally ooze confidence and sex. Porking Michael Hutchence was definitely paying off. Frenetic dancing and shadowed forms saw this declaration of love become an anthem that would never get old. The saucy Step Back In Time, remixed What Do I Have To Do and ubercool Shocked were all equally worthy and sported great videos, though what the “rapper through the keyhole” bit was about in Shocked, heaven only knows. It’s worth noting at this point that at the time, the songs were dismissed as worthless fluff, yet now – and quite rightly – are regarded as classics.

~ Give Me A Little More Time clearly inspired...

... Take That's Everything Changes ~

If tunes contained within Rhythm Of Love were vibrant, fresh and exciting, then Let’s Get To It was certainly treading water. There is nothing inherently wrong with the songs. In fact, it’s an interesting parallel with Debbie Gibson’s fourth album, Body Mind Soul that a move to a more mature international sound, heralded the least commercially and creatively satisfying album to date. Though the sepia tinged video to Give Me A Little More Time was clearly lifted wholesale as a template for the Take That Everything Changes promo a year or so later...

Listening chronologically to all Kylie’s singles from this era requires few skips and if the tunes from Wouldn’t Change A Thing to Shocked shine brightest, they are certainly bookended by some still polished gems.

LINK: Download a list of my Kylie collection from this era

(email me if you want any song to complete your collection!)