Kylie (album)
Encyclopedia
Kylie is the debut album by Australian singer and songwriter Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...

, released by PWL
PWL
Pete Waterman Entertainment is the production company one-time pop and dance record label owned by pop mogul Pete Waterman. The label, originally PWL, is most famous for being the home of hit record producers Stock Aitken Waterman....

 on 4 July 1988. Stock, Aitken and Waterman produced and wrote eight of the ten tracks on the album.

Most of the album's composition is dance-pop
Dance-pop
Dance-pop is dance-oriented pop music that originated in the early 1980s. Developing from post-disco, it is generally up-tempo music intended for clubs with the intention of being danceable or merely dancey...

 music, with strong teen pop
Teen pop
Teen pop is a subgenre of pop music that is created, marketed and oriented towards teenagers. Teen pop copies genres and styles such as pop, dance, R&B, hip hop, country and rock....

 and bubblegum pop
Bubblegum pop
Bubblegum pop is a genre of pop music with an upbeat sound contrived and marketed to appeal to pre-teens and teenagers, produced in an assembly-line process, driven by producers, often using unknown singers.Bubblegum's classic period ran from 1967 to 1972...

 influences. The album contains a few ballads, namely "Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi
Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi
"Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi" is a pop song written by British production team Stock Aitken and Waterman for Kylie Minogue's debut album Kylie . It was produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, and received a mixed reception from music critics...

", "It's No Secret
It's No Secret
"It's No Secret" is a pop-ballad song written by English songwriting team Stock, Aitken and Waterman for Australian singer Kylie Minogue's debut studio album Kylie . The song was produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman and received a mixed reception from music critics...

" and "I Miss You". With main bulk of the album repeating the teen pop and dance-pop style as seen in "I Should Be So Lucky
I Should Be So Lucky
"I Should Be So Lucky" is a pop-dance song performed by Australian singer Kylie Minogue. The song was written and produced by Stock Aitken Waterman for Minogue's debut album Kylie .The song was released as the album's second single in December 1987...

" and "The Loco-Motion
The Loco-Motion
"The Loco-Motion" is a 1962 pop song written by American songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carole King. The song is notable for appearing in the American Top 5 three times – each time in a different decade: for Little Eva in 1962 ; for Grand Funk Railroad in 1974 ; and for Kylie Minogue in 1988 "The...

."

Critics had gave the album mixed reception from music critics. Many critics applauded the album itself, as Allmusic had said that it is Minogue's "dated the best", but some critics did not like another bubblegum pop musician, and critics compared it to American singer and songwriter Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...

's self titled album (1984). Although mixed reactions, Kylie did received success worldwide. Kylie peaked at number one in three countries, including the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, and it produced three number one singles in Australia. In North America the album peaked low on the Billboard charts
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...

, yet still managed to sell over 500,000 copies and was certified gold. In Australia, the album was re-issued as The Kylie Collection
The Kylie Collection
The Kylie Collection is the first remix compilation album by Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue. It was released by Mushroom Records in 1988 in Australia and New Zealand. The album included songs from Minogue debut as well as remixes of her popular single releases...

and featured bonus remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....

es. Kylie was certified seven times platinum in the UK and has sold over 5 million copies worldwide.

Kylie had released six singles from the album. Her debut single was a cover of "The Loco-Motion
The Locomotion
The Locomotion may refer to:*The Loco-Motion; a 1962 song by R&B singer Little Eva and covered by several artists*Locomotion No 1; an early railway locomotive...

", which charted worldwide and went to number one in a total of eight countries, and peaked in the top ten of twenty countries, becoming one of Minogue's successful singles to date. Another notable single was "I Should Be So Lucky
I Should Be So Lucky
"I Should Be So Lucky" is a pop-dance song performed by Australian singer Kylie Minogue. The song was written and produced by Stock Aitken Waterman for Minogue's debut album Kylie .The song was released as the album's second single in December 1987...

", which went to number one in seven countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom, and peaked at number twenty-eight on the U.S. Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

charts, but also was Minogue's last single in the US.

Background and recording

In 1987, during a Fitzroy Football Club
Fitzroy Football Club
The Fitzroy Football Club, formerly nicknamed The Lions, is an Australian rules football club formed in 1883 to represent the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League on its inception in 1897...

 benefit concert
Benefit concert
A benefit concert or charity concert is a concert, show or gala featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate humanitarian crisis. Such events raise both funds and public awareness to address the cause at...

 the other cast member of Neighbours
Neighbours
Neighbours is an Australian television soap opera first broadcast on the Seven Network on 18 March 1985. It was created by TV executive Reg Watson, who proposed the idea of making a show that focused on realistic stories and portrayed adults and teenagers who talk openly and solve their problems...

put on their own talent stage show. Minogue had not prepared anything so she got up on stage and performed a cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 of "The Loco-Motion
The Loco-Motion
"The Loco-Motion" is a 1962 pop song written by American songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carole King. The song is notable for appearing in the American Top 5 three times – each time in a different decade: for Little Eva in 1962 ; for Grand Funk Railroad in 1974 ; and for Kylie Minogue in 1988 "The...

" and was signed to a recording contract with Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records is an Australian recoJrd company formed by Michael Gudinski and Ray Evans in Melbourne in 1972. After its sale in 1998, it merged into Festival Mushroom Records. From 2005 to 2009, it is one of the record labels operated by Warner Bros...

. The song was released as a single in Australia, and became the highest selling single of the 1980s. Its success resulted in Minogue travelling to London with Mushroom Records executive Gary Ashley to work with Stock, Aitken and Waterman
Stock Aitken Waterman
Stock Aitken Waterman, sometimes known as SAW, were a UK songwriting and record producing trio consisting of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman. They had great success during the mid to late 1980s and early 1990s...

. They knew little of Minogue and had forgotten that she was arriving; as a result, they wrote "I Should Be So Lucky
I Should Be So Lucky
"I Should Be So Lucky" is a pop-dance song performed by Australian singer Kylie Minogue. The song was written and produced by Stock Aitken Waterman for Minogue's debut album Kylie .The song was released as the album's second single in December 1987...

" while she waited outside the studio. Minogue recorded the song in less than an hour, and returned home to Australia to work on Neighbours. The song became a chart success, and Mike Stock travelled to Melbourne to apologize to Minogue for forgetting about her previous recording session. Stock successfully convinced Minogue to return to London in the beginning of 1988 to record songs for her debut album.

Critical response

Kylie had received mixed reviews from music critics. Chris True from Allmusic gave it two-and-a-half our of five starts, giving it a mixed reviews. He said "While the production values on Kylie's debut are dated at best and the tunes are nothing but standard late-'80s Stock-Aitken-Waterman bubblegum, there are some rather endearing qualities to it. Firstly, she shows a lot more personality than the other Stock, et al." He did say that the album would become a pop star and a "Europe icon".
Digital Spy
Digital Spy
Digital Spy is a British entertainment and media news website. According to Alexa Internet traffic statistics, as of February 2011, Digital Spy is the 93rd most popular website in the United Kingdom, with an overall Alexa ranking of 2,088....

gave it three stars out of five. The stand out track he said was "I Should Be So Lucky", as he said "but anyone who denies 'I Should Be So Lucky' classic status has clearly let their tune detection muscles turn to flab". He also finished saying "The bog-standard S.A.W. production renders Kylie as dated as that haircut on the album cover, and it's as loaded with variety as a loaf of bread, but the little Aussie pop rocket is already showing signs of personality and the record's quintessentially '80s charm ultimately wins through."

Commercial response

Kylie debuted on the UK albums chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...

 at number two on 10 July 1988, and reached number one for four weeks on 21 August 1988 and a further two weeks on 13 November 1988, and was certified six times platinum on 5 January 1989. It sold 1.8 million copies in 1988 (eventually sold 2,105,698 copies) and became that year's best selling album. Kylie was the first album by a female solo artist to exceed sales of two million in the UK and is the 58th best-selling album of all time. In Australia, the album reached number two, and was certified double platinum on release. The album reached the top ten in Germany, Norway, and Switzerland, and sold 143,627 in Sweden. Kylie reached number fifty-three on the Billboard 200 chart
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

 in the United States. In 1989, the album was certified gold in the U.S. and platinum in Canada.
Currently, Kylie is her longest and successful album in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, peaking at number 1, and staying in the charts for 53 weeks.

Singles

"Locomotion", Minogue's first single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 release, spent seven weeks at number one on the Australian singles chart
ARIA Charts
The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...

, and was the highest selling single in the country for the 1980s. This version of "Locomotion" is often aired on VH-1 Europe. It however was only an Australian release and was not part of her debut album project until re-recorded for release in 1988. "I Should Be So Lucky
I Should Be So Lucky
"I Should Be So Lucky" is a pop-dance song performed by Australian singer Kylie Minogue. The song was written and produced by Stock Aitken Waterman for Minogue's debut album Kylie .The song was released as the album's second single in December 1987...

" was the first single from the album and featured lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...

 written by Mike Stock. Stock believed that although Minogue was a successful soap star in Australia and very talented, there must be something wrong with her and figured that she must be unlucky in love. It became a number one hit for Minogue in Australia and the United Kingdom. "Got to Be Certain
Got to Be Certain
"Got to Be Certain" is a dance-pop song written and produced by British songwriting team Stock, Aitken and Waterman And included on Minogue's debut studio album Kylie . The song had been originally written for singer Mandy Smith, but her recording was never released until 2005. The song received a...

", the second single, reached number one in Australia, and was moderately successful in other parts of the world, reaching number two in the UK for three weeks and the top ten in Germany and Switzerland. Minogue re-recorded "Locomotion" in April 1988, retitling the song "The Loco-Motion". It was released as the album's third single and became the highest entry of the UK singles chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

 by a female artist. In North America, it reached number one in Canada and number three on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

. "Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi
Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi
"Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi" is a pop song written by British production team Stock Aitken and Waterman for Kylie Minogue's debut album Kylie . It was produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, and received a mixed reception from music critics...

", the fourth single, reached number two in the UK. "It's No Secret
It's No Secret
"It's No Secret" is a pop-ballad song written by English songwriting team Stock, Aitken and Waterman for Australian singer Kylie Minogue's debut studio album Kylie . The song was produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman and received a mixed reception from music critics...

" was released as the album's fifth single in Australia, North America and Japan. "Turn It into Love
Turn It into Love
"Turn It into Love" is a single released from singer Kylie Minogue's debut album Kylie. The single was released in December 1988 as the album's sixth and final single and was written by Stock Aitken Waterman.-Song information:...

" was exclusively released in Japan and spent 10 weeks at Number 1 with no promotion or video.

Track listing

Personnel

The following people contributed to Kylie:
  • Kylie Minogue
    Kylie Minogue
    Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...

     – lead vocals, backing vocals


Additional personnel
  • Dee Lewis – backing vocals
  • Mae McKenna – backing vocals
  • Suzanne Rhatigan
    Suzanne Rhatigan
    -Career:She moved to London in the early 1980s and found work as a session singer for Stock, Aitken and Waterman Records, before embarking on a solo career, recording her debut album with Fred Maher in 1992, To Hell With Love, which was released the following year. For some time in the early 1990s,...

     – backing vocals
  • Matt Aitken
    Matt Aitken
    Matthew James Aitken , is a British songwriter and record producer, brought up in Astley, Greater Manchester, best known as the creative force behind the 1980s songwriting/production trio Stock Aitken Waterman....

     – production
    Record producer
    A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

    , arrangement
    Arrangement
    The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...

    s, keyboards, guitar
  • Mike Stock – production, arrangements, backing vocals, keyboards
  • Pete Waterman
    Pete Waterman
    Peter Alan Waterman OBE is an English record producer, occasional songwriter, radio and club DJ, television presenter, president of Coventry Bears rugby league club and a keen railway enthusiast. As a member of the Stock Aitken Waterman songwriting team he wrote and produced many hit singles...

     – production, arrangements
  • George DeAngelis – keyboards
  • Neil Palmer – keyboards
  • A. Linn – drums
  • Jason Barron – engineer
    Audio engineering
    An audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...

  • Peter Day – engineer
  • Stewart Day – engineer
  • Karen Hewitt – engineer
  • Jonathan King – engineer
  • Mark McGuire – engineer
  • Yoyo – engineer
  • Peter Hammond – mixing
    Audio mixing (recorded music)
    In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...

  • Jay Willis – mastering
    Audio mastering
    Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...

  • Lawrence Lawry – photography
    Photography
    Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...

  • David Howells – design
    Design
    Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...

  • Lino Carbosiero
    Lino Carbosiero
    Lino Carbosiero is a British hair stylist. Over the years. his client list has featured some of the world's most famous names, including Madonna, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rachel Weisz, Sharon Stone and Dustin Hoffman...

     – hair
    Hair
    Hair is a filamentous biomaterial, that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Found exclusively in mammals, hair is one of the defining characteristics of the mammalian class....


Formats

These are the formats of major album releases of Kylie.
Release format Country Cat. no. Label
Australian vinyl album Australia TVL-93277 Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records is an Australian recoJrd company formed by Michael Gudinski and Ray Evans in Melbourne in 1972. After its sale in 1998, it merged into Festival Mushroom Records. From 2005 to 2009, it is one of the record labels operated by Warner Bros...

UK CD album United Kingdom HFCD3 PWL
PWL
Pete Waterman Entertainment is the production company one-time pop and dance record label owned by pop mogul Pete Waterman. The label, originally PWL, is most famous for being the home of hit record producers Stock Aitken Waterman....

U.S. edition United States GHS24195 Geffen Records
Geffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-Beginnings:...

Japanese edition Japan 32XB-280 Alfa Records
Japanese vinyl album Japan ALI-28109 Alfa Records
Korean vinyl album Korea SWPR-001 PWL

Sales certifications

Country Provider(s) Certification Sales/Shipments
Australia ARIA 6× Platinum 420,000+
France SNEP Platinum 300,000+
Finland IFPI Finland Gold 25,000
Germany IFPI Germany Gold 250,000+
Switzerland IFPI Platinum 50,000+
United Kingdom BPI Australian Albums Chart
ARIA Charts
The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...

2
Japan Albums Chart 1
German Albums Chart
Media Control Charts
The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie...

8
Norwegian Albums Chart 10
New Zealand Albums Chart 1
Swiss Albums Chart 7
UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...

1
U.S. Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

53
Swedish Albums Chart 22

Year-End Charts

Year Country Position
1988 Australia 17
United Kingdom 1

See also

  • Kylie: The Videos
    Kylie: The Videos
    Kylie: The Videos is a VHS release by Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue. The music video collection was released in November 1988 in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan.-Track listing:#"I Should Be So Lucky"...

    – Kylie's second VHS release featuring music videos to promote the album's single releases.
  • The Videos
    The Videos (Kylie Minogue VHS)
    The Videos is the first VHS release by Australian singer-songwriter Kylie Minogue. It was released by Mushroom Records in Australia only in 1988.-Track listings:#"Locomotion" #"I Should Be So Lucky" #"Behind the Scenes" -Formats:...

    – Kylie's first VHS release featuring music videos to promote the album's single releases.

External links

  • www.kylie.com
  • Listen to an excerpt of 'I Should Be So Lucky' and read more about it on australianscreen online. The song was added to the National Film and Sound Archive
    National Film and Sound Archive
    The National Film and Sound Archive is Australia’s audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national collection of audiovisual materials and related items...

    's Sounds of Australia
    Sounds of Australia
    The National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia is a public registry of recordings that celebrates the unique and diverse recorded sound culture and history of Australia.The Registry was launched in February 2007 with a foundation list of ten...

     registry in 2011.
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