1987 – 1992

During a Fitzroy Football Club benefit concert with other Neighbours cast members, Minogue performed “The Loco-Motion” and was signed to a recording contract with Mushroom Records in 1987. Released as a single, and retitled “Locomotion”, the Australian recording spent seven weeks at number one on the Australian music charts, and was the highest selling single in Australia for the 1980s. Its success resulted in Minogue traveling to London with Mushroom Records executive Gary Ashley to work with Stock, Aitken & Waterman. They knew little of Minogue and had forgotten that she was arriving; as a result, they wrote “I Should Be So Lucky” while she waited outside the studio. The song reached number one in the UK and Australia and was a hit in many parts of the world. Her debut album Kylie, a collection of dance-oriented pop tunes, reached number one on the British albums chart and became the year's highest-selling album. It sold over seven million copies worldwide, with most sales occurring in Europe and Asia, and it contained six successful singles. In the United States and Canada the album did not sell strongly, however the re-recorded version of “The Loco-Motion” reached number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and number one on the Canadian Singles Chart. “It's No Secret”, released only in the U.S., peaked at number thirty-seven in early 1989. In late 1988 Minogue left Neighbours in order to concentrate fully on her music career.

Audio samples:
The Loco-Motion (1988)

A dance remake of the Little Eva hit, and the only major American hit of Minogue's early career.
I Should Be So Lucky (1988)

Minogue's first worldwide hit which introduced her as a dance-pop artist.
Better the Devil You Know (1990)

A more hard edged dance song, and the first to present Minogue as a mature and sexually aware adult.

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A duet with Jason Donovan, titled “Especially for You” was a major success in the United Kingdom in early 1989. “Especially for You” was also the first Kylie Minogue single to sell over 1 million copies in the UK (The second was “Can't Get You Out of My Head”). The critic Kevin Killian wrote that it was “majestically awful… makes the Diana Ross, Lionel Richie ‘Endless Love’ sound like Mahler”. She was sometimes referred to as “the Singing Budgie” by her detractors over the coming years. Chris True's comment about the album Kylie for All Music Guide suggests that Minogue's appeal transcended the limitations of her music, by noting that “her cuteness makes these rather vapid tracks bearable”. Her follow up album Enjoy Yourself (1989) was a success in the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia, and contained several successful singles, but it failed throughout North America, and Minogue was dropped by her American record label Geffen Records. She embarked on her first concert run, the Enjoy Yourself Tour, in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and Australia, where Melbourne's The Herald Sun wrote that it was “time to ditch the snobbery and face facts — the kid's a star”. Minogue had become Stock, Aitken and Waterman's highest selling act, so in the face of widespread comment that the second album was a poor imitation of the first, it was decided to adjust the overall style of her music.


Minogue took control of her image for the first time with the video for “Better the Devil You Know”. (1990)Rhythm of Love (1990) presented a more sophisticated and adult style of dance music and also marked the first signs of rebellion against her production team and the “girl-next-door” image. Determined to be accepted by a more mature audience, Minogue took control of her music videos, starting with “Better the Devil You Know”, and presented herself as a sexually aware adult. A relationship with INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence furthered her attempts to gain acceptance as a mature performer, with Hutchence saying his favourite hobby was “corrupting Kylie”, and writing the INXS hit song “Suicide Blonde” in reference to her.

The singles from Rhythm of Love sold well in Europe and Australia and were popular in British nightclubs where Minogue started to be regarded as fashionable by the older audience she had targeted. When “Shocked” reached the British Top 10 in 1991, she became the first recording artist to place their first thirteen single releases in the Top 10. In May 1990, 22-year-old Minogue performed her band's arrangement of The Beatles's “Help!” before a crowd of 25,000 at the John Lennon: The Tribute Concert on the banks of the River Mersey in Liverpool. Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon offered Minogue their thanks for her support of “the John Lennon Fund”, while the media commented positively on her performance. The Sun wrote “The soap star wows the Scousers — Kylie Minogue deserved her applause”.

Minogue's contract had been for three albums, but she was persuaded to record a fourth. Let's Get to It (1991) was designed to broaden her appeal by presenting a diverse range of ballads and slower dance songs. Despite generally positive reviews it failed to make the British Top 10, although the album spawned two UK Top 5 singles: “If You Were with Me Now” and a cover of “Give Me Just a Little More Time”.

By this time Minogue had fulfilled the requirements of her contract and elected not to renew it. She had often expressed the viewpoint that she was stifled by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, and later compared the experience to her time with Neighbours, saying all they wanted her to do was “learn your lines… perform your lines, no time for questions, promote the product”. Realising that her fans were growing apathetic towards the Stock, Aitken and Waterman formula, and that she could only develop as an artist if she broke away from them, she decided to leave. She agreed to record three new songs to be included on the Greatest Hits album, which was released to coincide with her departure from them in 1992.