Original release date: April 24th 1989
UK Singles Chart peak: Number one
Australia Singles Chart peak: Number four
Buy Hand On Your Heart on the Enjoy Yourself album here
Read my #Kylie30 posts here
Read my #EnjoyYourself30 posts here
#EnjoyYourself30:
Back in Christmas 2017, I decided I wanted to commemorate the 30th anniversaries of some of my favourite albums which were released during my most formative years of pop addiction (1987 - 1992). As I had already written in-depth retrospectives about these albums for their 25th anniversaries, the next logical step seemed to be revisiting the singles released to promote the albums on the 30th anniversary of their release. This is how the #Kylie30 project started and now flows naturally into #EnjoyYourself30. Kylie's second album was eagerly anticipated by many - and each one of those people will have a tale to tell about why. For me, the music of Kylie provided an escape from the rigours of every day life. I wasn't a teen who fit in easily and didn't have an easy time of it at school. Enjoy Yourself was a selection of delightful pop which helped me to look up and look out, shining sunshine into what often felt like a dark existence. It patched up the sadness I often felt, filled my soul with joy and covered me in optimistic glitter. This is why it remains one of my top 5 Kylie Minogue albums. This is a year long tribute to the songs which kept it buoyant in the charts for so long...
Hand On Your Heart:
For Smash Hits readers and Saturday morning chart show viewers, there was a palpable excitement surrounding the first single from Kylie Minogue's second album. Hand On Your Heart was the first real insight into Enjoy Yourself, a chance to show that the star wasn't a one album wonder. In the days before streaming or teaser-singles, the only way to hear new music was radio, a TV show performance or (in the case of my unfortunate phone bill) calling a premium rate number (see Smash Hits ad here - Twitter). I have a distinct recollection of hearing the song (post Kylie-Jason interview) on Going Live on April 15th 1989; fingers paused over the record button to preserve until I could shimmy down to Woolworths to buy the song. Nine days is an eternity for an impatient 14 year old so I must have driven my family bonkers playing and re-playing the clip. The day before the song was released I was too excited to sleep and my mum found me at 2am watching the Going Live clip again and practising the dance moves - she promised that she would have the 7" and 12" waiting for me after school if I promised to go to bed. Always a woman of her word, she didn't let me down and I spent the whole evening spinning those records in my room.
As most people reading this will surely know, there is a lot to love about Hand On Your Heart. That textured vocal only intro was something new for Kylie and seemed to make the influx of synth and beats even more euphoric when they came cascading in just a few seconds later. And for a song about such caddish behaviour from her paramour, Kylie sounds rather resolute and emphatic in her titular demand - making this a rallying cry for those willing to tough out the difficult times in a relationship and push forward to greater rewards. The combination of her effervescent singing, the deliriously catchy melody and the toe-tapping beat meant that this song was contagious from the moment you heard it. I was captivated - even going so far as to splurge an extra £2.99 on the 12" remix which was released a week later (containing the Heartache Mix as opposed to the regular version's Great Aorta mix). Both extended versions elongated the magic of the song with the former focusing more on a club driven vibe whilst the latter had a longer a cappella introduction before weaving in elements of the dub mix. It was the only major single release that week (though let us never forget Neighbours co-star Stefan Dennis' single, Don't It Make You Feel Good, came out the same day) so a high chart debut was almost a given. Had the cassette single not been priced too low for chart eligibility, Kylie would have become the first female to debut a-top the British charts. Alas, it was not to be although the single debuted at number two before rising to the top a week later.
The legacy of Hand On Your Heart continues to this very day. It not only reaffirmed to the world that Kylie was a bona-fide pop star who was here to stay, it launched the Enjoy Yourself album campaign with a chart-topper. It became a favourite at her live shows, featuring in at least six of her concert tours; and iTunes now has a plethora of remixes for sale far beyond those commercially available in the physical format at the time (see here and here - iTunes). It was covered as a lo-fi, shoe-gazing version by Jose Gonzales in 2006 which made the UK top 30. But perhaps the most lasting impact was a sweeping remake by Ms. Minogue herself on 2012's The Abbey Road Sessions. Curated by Steve Anderson and Colin Eliot, I wrote at the time "The melancholy continues with Hand On Your Heart - and you realise just how raw & honest the lyrics of many Kylie songs are. Like a modern day Abba, she dresses up the reality of relationship woes with dazzling dance riffs & thumping beats so that you celebrate as well as commiserate. In this version of HOYH she becomes the narrator who brings out the nuance of each word so skillfully that it's pure musical alchemy to behold the song unfold".
Just Wanna Love You:
As if all that Hand On Your Heart magnificence wasn't enough, the single came with a non-album track on the b-side. It wasn't always a guarantee that a new song would pop up on the flip - for every All I Wanna Do or Made In Heaven there was an album track or instrumental. I was thrilled (although at the time I can't recall if I knew this wouldn't be on Enjoy Yourself). It was a funky new-jill-swing style Kylie, giving a much different sound to her other singles. With decadent harmonies during the chorus and a lower-register performance in the verses, this all blended together to create some pop majesty that - for me - was just as potent as the A-side. That "take a chance, t-take a chance" riff in the middle 8 was Hitman & Her club gold - and surely was deserving of some rip-roaring remixes. It wasn't to be, of course, but I played this nearly as often as Hand On Your Heart and the two songs gave me a solid Kylie fix until Wouldn't Change A Thing was released in July. Ah how I miss a solid gold Kylie b-side...
Chart run: 2-1-2-2-4-11-18-29-35-53-62
No comments:
Post a Comment