Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go) is a wonderful track! I also like Hazell's They Says It's Gonna Rain, but I don't think that one is written by SAW
I'm just waiting for all the Judas Priest fans to storm this thread... JUDAS PRIEST: Audio Snippet Of Never-Released Collaboration With Pop Production Team STOCK, AITKEN And WATERMAN
I like a few SAW tracks. Especially for you is a really written pop song. I love the way all the melodies just flow into each other. I've always been suspicious of what Pete Waterman's level of input was musically. Years later I heard an interview with Mike Stock & he said it was Him & Matt Aiken that were spending 14 hours a day in the studio.
Some great pop records, though obviously they flooded the market a bit. Aside from working with new acts, they gave people like Donna Summer and Bananarama a career boost too. A while ago there was a huge SAW box put out. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I needed that, but there were a lot of records they made that I liked.
I always hoped SAW would record with Olivia who was struggling commercially by the end of the 80’s. She had the right kind of light pop voice that would have benefited their sound, I think. Luckily ONJ had her own plans. A children’s album, no less. Why have Better The Devil You Know when you can have Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?
From my point of view, I had strange relationship with SAW music. I was 9 years old when I started watching Neighbours and then realised that 'Charlene' had made a record. I remember actually loving the song and was not just listening to it because of the Neighbours connection. That was when I first started buying music and was a big Kylie fan. I am still a big fan. I am still actually quite proud that at aged 9 I latched onto a singer who more than 30 years later is still successful despite the fact that everyone said she wouldn't last a year! The funny thing is I wasn't really a fan of any of the other SAW acts at the time. It has only been more recently that I have started going back to some of the other songs. As this thread has already demonstrated, SAW will certainly not appeal to everyone. However even if you put aside any misgivings you have about the way the songs were produced, it is clear that at their best they wrote some very strong melodic songs.
Nobody would have predicted in 1988 that Kylie would have the career she has. She just seemed to get better and better. A great live act too. There’s an enormous amount of affection for Kylie in the U.K. even now.
Absolutely. She has had quite a strange career. For several years even she seemed to underestimate her abilities and particularly her role in her SAW recordings. Sometimes she seemed to fall into thinking that she was just a puppet for SAW however I think they actually had quite a symbiotic relationship - I think her enthusiasm for certain types of music seemed to challenge them to write songs that they wouldn't have otherwise. Her immediate post-SAW career did not bring as much commercial success but it seems in hindsight that she needed that in order to achieve her post millennium success.
Yes, Light Years and Spinning Around turned her career around 20 years ago (an anniversary thread?!) and she’s been on an even keel ever since.
There was a sweet moment a few years ago when she released her Christmas album she got SAW to remix one of the songs from that album. She cannily realized that Christmas is a time for nostalgia so it was perfect - it actually sounded like 1988 again. Maybe she should reunite with them for another album! It would be a good way to turn the tables and have control over the album!
Well Golden seemed to be like revisiting mid 70's country, whilst the next one looks like an early 80's disco / synth influence so maybe she is working her way up to it.
I think most important to a teenage boy in the 80's would be that Mandy Smith worked with them Mandy Smith - I Just Can't Wait (Toppop)
the male singer on Especially For You, Jason Donovan he didn't crossover to US market as well, Too Many Broken Hearts is alright, not the best for me but ok Too Many Broken Hearts
Ah yes, Jason. I don't know how well it's known in the US what his back story is. Jason starred in Neighbours with Kylie. Their on screen romance caught the imagination of fans of the show. They were also a couple in real life although they generally kept this quite well hidden. They had in fact starred in a previous TV show when they were aged about 11. Kylie eventually left him for Michael Hutchence. Anyway Jason followed Kylie to SAW and had a pretty good career there for a couple of years. He then received an offer to star in Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat in the West End. This was very successful for him. He recently said he gets more revenue from this each year than anything he did for SAW.
Here it is, surely the most surprising of SAW's projects. A cover of The Stylistics' You Are Everything by... Judas Priest!
Since this is an appreciation thread, I will list the SAW songs that I like: Dead Or Alive - You Spin Me Round Mel & Kim - Showing Out Bananarama - I Heard A Rumor
It's quite surprising but 4 SAW productions were bigger hits in the US than in the UK: - Bananarama - Venus (US #1, UK #8) - Dead or Alive - Brand New Lover (US #15, UK #31) - Bananarama - I Heard a Rumour (US #4, UK #14) - Boy Krazy - That's What Love Can Do (US #18, UK #86)
Didn't they prefer Jack to Fleetwood Mac? Never quite sure who this Jack fella was but he must have been tasty.
