Kylie Minogue 1989

Hand On My Heart It Really Is Kylie Minogue

Following on from an earlier post that detailed Kylie Minogue's humble beginnings to her first year as a singer, I now carry on with 1989.

So Kylie Minogue has been a child actress, starred in the soap opera Neighbours, released her debut single, The Locomotion which has been the decade's biggest selling single in her native Australia and released her first world wide hit I Should Be So Lucky which has reached No 1 in England, Australia and many other countries, her debut album entitled 'Kylie' has sold 5 million copies and a string of hit singles have been released from it. Kylie has become the 'girl next door' and kept the nation in a buzz about her love affair with fellow Neighbours star Jason Donovan, were they? weren't they?, well their duet Especially For You seemed to end all rumours and as we start 1989 their love song is sitting at No 1.

Kylie Our Queen Of Denim

1989 would be another successful year for Kylie and with Jason Donovan off having hit records and No 1's of his own Kylie released her next single 'Hand On Your Heart', the upbeat, dance song gave Kylie another No 1 hit record. Released in April 'Hand on Your Heart' became the lead single of her second album 'Enjoy Yourself' and debuted at No 2 behind The Bangles 'Eternal Flame', Kylie's new song however would soon bring a change in the law. 'Hand On Your Heart' had performed well in cassette format selling 11,000 copies in its first week, this would have been enough to outsell The Bangles and Kylie would have become the first female artist to debut at No 1 on the singles chart. The cassette format however had been released at a discount price of £1.99 meaning they couldn't be counted leaving 'Eternal Flame' at the top of the charts, following this the law was changed so that sales could include discount singles. The accompanying video featured Kylie dancing around a studio in three different dresses of a similar design, red, yellow and blue featuring a large heart which changed colour along with the dress, the studio featured bright coloured furniture and large mirrors. When performing the song Kylie had a dance routine that included a trademark move which had Kylie crossing her hands over her heart and making a beating movement. 'Hand On Your Heart' reached No 4 in Australia and went top 10 across Europe, it became the 10th biggest selling single of the year in the UK.

I Wouldn't Change A Thing About Kylie

Kylie's next single was the equally catchy I Wouldn't Change A Thing, the video was surprisingly the first to feature Kylie in a dance routine since The Locomotion, she always performed high energy routines in live performances and yet hadn't featured one in a video since her debut back in 1987, it was also her first video not to be filmed in Australia, instead Kylie made the video in London. In the video she is seen sunbathing in a garden and running around in a friendly and playful manner while someone is filming her, then in a studio she performs her routine with four male dancers. I Wouldn't Change A Thing reached No 2 in the UK and No 6 in Australia.

In October 1989 Kylie Minogue released her second album, Enjoy Yourself, her previous and debut, released just a year ago had become 1988's best selling album, so just how well would her second do? And would it be any good? Enjoy Yourself in a similar vein to her self entitled debut Kylie included some nice, happy clappy, pop/dance songs but mixed in were songs with a different, more mature sound and indeed it seemed as thought Kylie's voice had also matured. There were 10 tracks on the album, 3 of them Tell Tale Signs, My Secret Heart and Heaven and Earth were slower with perhaps a more retro sound from the 1950's or 60's, the song Tears On My Pillow was in fact a cover version, first released in 1958 and those just mentioned have a similar sound. Nothing To Lose, I'm Over Dreaming (Over You) and title track Enjoy Yourself were pure pop/dance that could be seen as something of an evolution of the pop songs heard from Kylie's previous album.

Listen To Kylie And Enjoy Yourself

Hand On Your Heart, I Wouldn't Change A Thing and Never Too Late were also pop/dance songs that would be released as singles and so I will discuss them further on this post. When the album was released in the Uk it had presales over 600,000 and entered the charts at No 1, it would be certified double platinum in just several days and after 10 weeks had sold over 1 million copies, being certified 4 times platinum on January 1 1990 and becoming the sixth best selling album in 1989 in the UK, putting to bed those one hit album expectations, yes Kylie Minogue was still having to prove herself as more than just a one hit wonder even after all the success she had, had.

Never Too Late was the third single Kylie released from her second album Enjoy Yourself, originally, and as proof of the surprising lack of control Kylie had over her own career she had wanted Enjoy Yourself, the title track from the album released but was over ruled by Pete Waterman. Writer Mike Stock said he was influenced by musical lyrics from the 1920s and it was yet again a catchy number. The accompanying video also saw Kylie stepping back in time (more of that later) starting in the 1920s and dancing the Charleston over the next few minutes Kylie dances her way through several decades wearing different outfits associated with the time. The song reach No 4 in England, her first not to reach either No 1 or No 2 it did however sell enough copies to get a Silver Certificate which in 1989 meant you had sold 200,000 copies, in Australia the song also didn't reach as high as her previous records, peaking at No 14, on a happier note Never Too Late was another No 1 hit for Kylie in Ireland. 

Kylie Ditches The Perm

In 1989 Kylie made her film debut in The Delinquents, set in 1950s Australia it tells the story of two young lovers, Lola and Brownie and their rocky relationship, the coming of age film co starred American actor Charlie Schlatter as her love interest, a troubled young man who becomes a sailor. The film's world premier took place in London which was followed by it's release in Australia and then it's release in England on 26th December 1989. The Delinquents received mixed views but was a box office success, becoming the 17th biggest film of 1989 in England, and the most successful Australian film in Australia in 1990.