Photo credit: Parlophone Records
10/10
Project Information:
Release Date: 06/19/2000
Genre: Pop
Label: Parlophone / Mushroom Records
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We’re going to lay out some hard Kylie Minogue truths for you:
Fact: Kylie Minogue released her first single in 1987 it peaked at #3 on the US Single Chart.
Fact: Kylie Minogue did not appear again on the US Singles Chart until the 2001 release of “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”.
Fact: Kylie Minogue released 32 singles in-between these two releases, but nobody in North America noticed or cared.
On this day, for no reason what so ever, we’re here to talk about one of those singles from her 2000’s album ‘Light Years‘. At this point in Kylies career, she was having a difficult time with what type of music she wanted to release. Here last successful single was in 1994 with ‘Confide In Me’, but otherwise failed to have a Top 20 hit in the 1990’s.
Cut to…. the new millennium. At the peak of Britney Spears and Christina Christina Aguilera, Miss Minogue (just Kylie at this point actually), was about to take it back to her ‘pop’ roots with a song written by fellow 80’s popstar Paula Abdul and at the time unknown writer Kara DioGuardi (who was working with Billboard in their marketing department at the time).
“Traded in my sorrow for some joy that I borrowed from back in the day” Kylie shouts in her appeasing “hey look at me I’m sexy” voice — “Did I mention I found a new direction and it leads back to me” she continues.
The track took the world by storm (and by the world I mean pretty much everywhere except the United States). In fact, the imagery, promotion and music video did so well that The Sun (newspaper) campaigned to “have Kylie Minogue’s rear-end heritage-listed and preserved for “posteriority” on the grounds that it’s an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty based soley off of the gold hot pants utilized in the music video.
Oh baby, baby, baby….
In the years following this release, we got several outstanding tracks including the incomparable “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” and my personal favorite “Get Outta My Way” but it all leads back to ‘Spinning Around’.
You maybe asking yourself “Dale… You said something about Paula Abdul”, and yes… yes I did. The track was originally intended to be released by Paula from her (as yet unreleased) fourth album. In a clip of “Watch What Happens” she was asked about the track , and its reported that Paula’s version was more R&B and less pop. To date, Paula’s version has not been leaked or released.
“Light Years” (the album) features countless other amazing tracks, as does the 2001 follow-up “Fever”, and lets not forget about 2008’s “Aphrodite” or 2020’s “Disco” (which carried me through the pandemic honestly). You know what, just do yourself a favor and listen to all 15 of her albums (and two greatest hits) to prepare yourself for 2023’s release of her upcoming sixteenth album, which is sure to once again to wow me!
