Ah, the Fox. S-s-Samantha Fox. A much better vocalist than people give her credit for and able to sustain a career for much longer than anyone would have imagined. This was the biggest hit from her sophomore self-titled album, at least in Europe. Stock Aitken Waterman were the perfect pop sound for her, although she would find bigger success in the US with the harder clubbier sound of her Full Force-produced singles.
The lyrics of this song are about a woman leaving her lover. In this case, I thought the concept of escaping a manipulating controlling man, as hinted at in the words, could be used to give it a darker meaning.
Cliff Richard joined forces with Stock Aitken Waterman in 1989 for his 101st single. It hit the top 3 and is one of the few Cliff Richard songs that could be played in a club at the time.
This is a good example of a song with a happy singalong tune but lyrics that don't match the mood of the music. In the original, Sir Cliff sings about being a complete coward and leaving his lover without so much as a by-your-leave. How unkind. This is a theme that Mike Stock also used in the Jason Donovan / Sam Fox track "Too late to Say Goodbye". So pop stars can be bastards who'll leave you and not even bother to tell you. Who knew?
Kylie's debut hit in many territories (The Loco-motion came first and was Australia's biggest hit of the 80s before Stock Aitken Waterman became involved) and still one of her most remembered hits (despite zero airplay even from 80s radio stations). General opinion is that the song encapsulates the prototype S/A/W song: banal lyrics and repetitive chorus. It is, no matter how many times she tries to make it somehow credible. Kylie had a bit of an epiphany when she read part of the lyrics at the 1996 poetry Olympics: after a period of denial of her pop persona and her PWL catalogue, she reclaimed the song and her past. She did not embrace it, though, wanting to give her past and edge it simply doesn't have. During the following years and sometimes to this day she tends to perform it as a torch song ballad, but thankfully she performs it in its original form too. Her reading at the poetry Olympics was self-deprecating and full of irony. I think the lyrics CAN be the basis of an honest performance of longing and the realisation that one's hopes for love sometimes are only dreams. Here's my attempt.
P.S.: I'm going to give the Minogueologues a rest for a bit. It's been one every other one so far! I'll keep posting Minogue-unrelated PopMonologues, though. As always, comments welcome.
Quite why
the "From" which is clearly part of the chorus was left out from the
title is anyone's guess.
This was
Sonia's debut single and only number one. In its original form it's meant to be
a happy song from an infatuated teenager, but without the Stock Aitken Waterman
pop production the lyrics reveal an all-out obsessed stalker, possibly a murderer.
I don’t think this is the
interpretation Mike Stock was aiming for when he wrote it, but it’s the angle I've gone for. Does it work for you?
Kylie.
The ultimate pop princess. She's one of very few acts who've managed to
transition from pop puppet to pop legend. Despite some misguided attempts at
credibility, acting sometimes like a teenager who needed to show the world how
mature she was, she appears to have come to terms with what her audience wants from
her and balance it with enough creativity and style to still be herself.
The key
to Kylie's early success was of course the behemoth that was The Hit Factory.
Stock, Aitken and Waterman are among Britain's top producers, and Mike Stock
one of the best British songwriters ever. Their legacy should be similar to
that of Michael Gordy's Motown. Yet the latter get critical acclaim and radio
play and the former gets derided, endlessly referred to as cheesy, naff,
throwaway, and forgettable, with radio all but banning them. Even 80s radio
stations stay away from them - trying to erase a legacy of literally hundreds
of hits - with very few exceptions which don't stretch much further than Better
the Devil You Know, This Time I Know It's for Real, Never Gonna Give You Up
and, rarely, Say I'm Your Number One.
I always
loved the bit at the beginning of the video for Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi where
Kylie is waiting (stood up by some moron who clearly hasn't realised he's
keeping KYLIE MINOGUE waiting) and - after doing that thing that French people
do of replying in English when you're actually doing your best to speak their
language - a wise "old" French woman offers the timeless advice:
"if a man is involved, do not be so sure". I also absolutely love the
bit in the out-takes of "Kylie - the videos" where we see Kylie
getting her umbrella jammed in the door, but I digress.
Although
my reading of this particular song is very literal, I think it's a lyric that
lends itself to a little PopMonologue. I guess you could call this one a Minologue, or a Minogueologue! I recorded just one take and decided that
it was good enough. I have played with the meaning of some of SAW's other hits.
All will be revealed...
