585 Hello Kylie Minogue - I Should Be So Lucky

First  charted : 23  January  1988

Chart  peak : 1

Number  of  hits : 54

I've  never  quite  got  the  great  love  for  Kylie  that  has  sustained  her  as  a  chart  force  through  to  the  present  day. I  do  like  her  as  a  person, the  epitome  of  the  unpretentious  Aussie  who's  stayed  remarkably  level-headed  through  an  up  and  down  career. But  I've  never  fancied  her ; tiny  skinny  blondes  are  not  my  thing  and  when  she  first  came  out  my  mum  , with  some  justification, pointed  out  the  similarity  between  Kylie  and  photos  of  her  younger  self. I  also  can't  understand  how  you  can  really  get  behind  someone  with  such  a  thin  and  limited  singing  voice - it's  improved  over  the  years  but  not  that  much -  who  doesn't  write  their  own  material. Kylie's  not  the  first  successful  artist  to  fall  into  that  bracket  but I  can't  think  of  another  who's  lasted  this  long. This  might  be  the  advent  of  buying  into  the  personality  rather  than  the  music.

Kylie  was  born  in  Melbourne  in  1968. She  started  acting  aged  11, in  Aussie  soap  operas  such  as  Skyways ,  The  Sullivans  and  The  Henderson  Kids  although  she  was  dropped  from  the  latter  series  after  the  first  season. She  made  her  first  singing  performance  on  Young  Talent  Time   which   featured  her  younger  sister  Danii  as  a  regular  performer  but  didn't  impress.

Her  luck  changed  in  1986  when  she  joined  the  cast  of  Neighbours  as  tomboy  mechanic  Charlene . The  character's  impact  was  immediate  and  enormous  winning  her  four  Logies  ( Australia's  equivalent  to  the  BAFTAs ). The  following  year,  she  and  other  cast  members  attended  a  benefit  concert  at  an  Aussie  Rules  football  club  and  she  performed  Little  Eva's  The  Loco-motion  as  her  party  piece . A  recording  contract  with  Mushroom  Records  followed.

When  released  as  a  single  in  the  summer  of  1987 ,  "Locomotion"  became  the  biggest  selling single  of  the  eighties  in  Australia  and  spent  seven  weeks  at  the  top. Even  though  the  Hi-NRG  backing  track  owed  a  lot  to  You  Spin  Me  Round  ( Like  A  Record )  , Pete  Waterman   hated  the  record. Notwithstanding  that,  he  could  see  the  potential  in  signing  up  a  girl  who  was  currently  winning  over  British  viewers  in  an  increasingly  popular  soap. Mushroom  retained  the  rights  to  release  her  records  in  Australia  so  everyone  was  happy.

The  Popular  take  on  this  one  is  here.