Kylie Minogue - Kylie (Anniversary Celebration)

UK release date: July 4th 1988
UK album chart peak: #1
Australian album chart peak: #2
US album chart peak: #53

Buy Kylie here (Amazon UK)
Read my #Kylie30 singles project here
Read my Kylie Minogue album anniversary posts here


It seems quaint nowadays to refer to Kylie Minogue as "Neighbours star", but that was how people still saw her when she released her debut pop album on July 4th 1988. Her meteoric rise to the top of charts around the world was surely in no small part to her iconic Charlene character and her on again off again relationship with Scott Robinson (played by future - at this point - pop star Jason Donovan). But just linking the stratospheric success of Kylie (the album) to her TV show does a disservice to the eminently catchy pop hooks penned so skilfully by Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman. Unfairly dismissed as "bubblegum" music at the time, history has proven that the ten songs (plus one AA side) from this album are still loved and revered by tens of thousands of fans across the world to this very day. While the genesis of the Kylie album started with a cover of The Locomotion in Australia, for this Brit based boy, it began when she released I Should Be So Lucky one murky December 1987 Monday. It is now the stuff of pop legend. Following on from the phenomenal success of said Locomotion in Australia (the best selling single of the 80s) and the ever growing fan base Neighbours was attracting in the UK it made sense that Kylie launched her international music career with chart powerhouse Stock, Aitken and Waterman (as part of the PWL label). The story goes that Kylie dutifully turned up ready to record a musical masterpiece of pop perfection, only for S/A/W to have forgotten she was coming and having to knock up a song while she sipped elderberry infused water in the lobby (or something). Kylie learned said song, recorded it within the hour and the rest, as they say, is history.

Her first international release was indeed I Should Be So Lucky. It hit charts across the globe, becoming a number one in many European countries (as well as Australia) and hitting the top 30 in Canada and the USA. The lyrics are all about the fantasy of a perfect love affair, of wanting to emulate the radiant, emotional moments of classic romances from across the ages. It was something people of all ages could relate to - whether you be 13 and gazing at the fit rugby captain across your school cafeteria, or sixty three and yearning for companionship in your golden years. Kylie made it sound so vibrant and jubilant. She wasn't mired in melancholy; she grasped onto hope and refused to let it go. Once you heard the song (and it's irrepressible refrain) you could not get it out of your head. While it initially debuted at number ninety in the UK (possibly getting lost in the post Christmas sales rush), it soon danced upwards (54-31-16-2) before wresting the top slot from Tiffany on Valentine's Day. Very appropriate. I was absolutely captivated by this thrilling musical endeavour - it encapsulated everything I wanted in a pop song and still gives me goosebumps to this very day.

So enamoured was I with ISBSL that the follow up, Got To Be Certain, seemed to take forever and a day to be released. As much as I enjoyed spinning around to the single mix, extended versions and instrumental takes of her six week number one, I was an impatient little teen who just couldn't wait to see what came next. When I saw in Smash Hits magazine that UK single number two was to be released one day before my birthday, I could not have been more excited. It was, and is, easy to love Got To Be Certain. With its buoyant melody and deliciously addictive lyrics, it was worthy follow up to I Should Be So Lucky with as equally a sing-along chorus as that six week number one. I was charmed by the lyrics, all about waiting to be sure that the person you are smitten with is worthy of your attention (something of a prophetic number for Kylie as well as being advice I'm sure we have all ignored over the years). As with many Stock Aitken and Waterman compositions, that instrumental is as essential to the song as Kylie's sweet, yearning vocal. The literal definition of shimmering (particularly that gorgeous opening bar), it is a textured delight that just keeps on giving.

The album came a couple of months after GTBC and instantly dominated the top of the UK and Australian charts for weeks on end (and though it charted somewhat lower in the States, it still sold over half a million copies). Such was Kylie's popularity that the record label couldn't wait to get a S/A/W reswizzled version of The Locomotion onto non-Australian record shelves around the world. This invigorating cover of the Little Eva smash felt instantly familiar while giving older listeners something new to get their teeth into. Kylie's charming voice is as much a draw here as the updated version of the song. Critics may scoff, but from an early stage Ms Minogue knew how to command a tune - and how to give the song what it needed. This isn't a serious ballad or soaring anthem; it is something designed to come into your life, take you away from the every day blues and get your hips a shimmying along to the beat. Kylie did all this and more. She sounded like she was in her absolute element. It was HUGE. It became the highest ever new entry for a female artist (at the time) in the UK (debuting at number two), whilst topping the charts in Canada and galloping to the top three on the Billboard Hot 100.

Picking single four from the album must have been like shooting fish in a barrel. It is probably why there are three different single fours depending on where you lived in the world. For this obsessed 14 year old in middle England, I was rather pleased with Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi (particularly as it was backed with a brand new track). It represented a more sophisticated Kylie that could be found smattered across the album, a gloriously glittering mid-tempo track full of aching longing. Messrs. Stock, Aitken and Waterman know how to craft beautiful balladry (see also Bananarama's Love, Truth and Honesty) and Kylie excelled at giving the yearning lyrics real emotion. The video is a classic, if only for Kylie's Allo Allo style Franglish at the beginning of the video, alongside the French lady giving her some withering shade. Brilliant! It performed so well in the UK (three weeks at number two) that the b-side, Made In Heaven, was never given the promotional push as planned (a la Rick Astley's When I Fall in Love/My Arms Keep Missing You and Steps' Heartbeat/Tragedy). Shame, because it is a deliriously euphoric song that I return to often (alongside another b-side classic, All I Wanna Do). She did perform the song on the Royal Variety Performance in 1988, however, so at least I got a new dance routine to learn (that seemed to have more production value than the low-budget video).

Legend has it that US single, It's No Secret, was also to be the follow up to Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi in the UK. Orders were pouring in for the (allegedly) not yet written or recorded Kylie-Jason duet, however, at Woolworths so plans were put on hold. Then Especially For You was such an enduring smash that it was time to move onto Kylie's second album. Just meant I had to use all my paper round money to buy the pricey US import for the mixes. In a way, it did feel like the lyrical sequel to JNSPP - Kylie realising that her beau was an out and out cad and finally ditching the rogue. It was another ravishing mid-tempo groove with decadent synth riffs and sixties girl group inspired backing vocals. While this was climbing into the US top forty, Japan got Turn It Into Love as the final Kylie album single. This was never going to end up as a single in the UK as Hazell Dean had already taken it to number 21 in September of 1988. Nothing like sharing songs around, eh S/A/W?! But you can't keep a good song down and there was enough room in the world for both artists versions. It is saturated in disco influences and a soaring vocal from Kylie which always brings a smile to my face.

Outside the plethora of singles, there are still some real gems which remain forever as album tracks. I Miss You is a solid, singalong song which also highlights the valuable contributions of singers Dee Lewis, Mae McKenna and Suzanne Rhatigan in bringing harmonised texture to the entire album. I'll Still Be Loving You is sheer class and elegance, wrapped up in radiant S/A/W production. When the album was first released, this was instantly one of my favourite songs - I was a martyr to unrequited love and this was those emotions bought to life far more eloquently than I could ever hope to express them. Look My Way showed how S/A/W weren't afraid to experiment with different genres in their musical compositions - while their trademark synths and percolating rhythms are ever present, you can imagine this as a power ballad performed by the likes of Heart or Bonnie Tyler. Don't think that Kylie doesn't hold her own with this song, because she absolutely does (PS, that funky house piano in the middle 8 is years ahead of its time). Finally, the album closes with something as joyous, uplifting and radiant as the track which opened the opus (I Should Be So Lucky). Love At First Sight brings the story first circle and Kylie, surrounded by an ebullient score, refuses to give up on love and seek it out wherever she can. I still daydream that this was a single somewhere in the world and that there are 12" mixes just waiting to be discovered. What a way to leave the listener on a high.