Kylie Minogue’s ‘Kylie Minogue’ 30th Anniversary Factfile

In 1992, after 4 studio albums and a whopping 19 Top 20 UK hits, Kylie released her first Greatest Hits collection and said goodbye to Stock, Aitken and Waterman and the PWL record label. Her level of success with them had been nothing short of phenomenal, but as Kylie grew from a girl to a woman, she was ready to try pastures new and develop her artistry.

Come with me to look back on her fifth studio album, simply titled ‘Kylie Minogue’, as it turns 30.

1. We start the journey at the 1993 BRIT Awards, where Kylie presented the award for the Best International Solo Artist. One of her heroes, Prince, won the award but he wasn’t there to collect the award (Cher collected it on his behalf). More interestingly, Kylie announced to media at the event that she’d signed a new record contract with cool, independent dance label DeConstruction and would be working on her fifth studio album.
2. Speaking of his royal purpleness, Kylie later met Prince backstage at one of his concerts and the pair clicked, so much so that he later invited her to his Paisley Park studios, where they played table tennis. At one of their meet ups, he asked her to give him some lyrics and so Kylie gave him a song idea called ‘Baby Doll’. Prince took these lyrics, wrote a song around them and recorded a demo that he sent to Kylie on a cassette. Unfortunately, this demo is yet to see the light of day, with Kylie recently saying that she’s not entirely sure where the cassette is now!
3. The album writing process began with Kylie working with British indie-dance act St Etienne; she recorded a version of their third single ‘Nothing Can Stop Us Now’. This dreamy, 60s influenced track based around a sample from Dusty Springsteen's ‘I Can't Wait Until I See My Baby's Face', didn’t make the cut for the album but was used as a b-side on the first single released for the era.
4. She also went into the studio with the Rapino Brothers; a pair of Italian record producers who had enjoyed chart success with their Top 40 hit ‘Love Me the Right Way’ featuring Kym Mazelle and remixed Take That’s ‘Could It Be Magic’. Despite recording at least 8 songs together, only one cut would make the album in the form of ‘Automatic Love', albeit in a slightly different form to the original. This is also the only track on the album that Kylie wrote on.
5. Some years later, two of the Rapino Brothers' tracks – ‘Gotta Move On' and ‘Difficult By Design' – would gain official release on the 2000 compilation ‘Hits+' which contained singles and rarities from her time at DeConstruction.
6. Another of the unreleased Rapino Brothers' tracks ‘Aston Martin', was rumoured to have lyrics written by comedian/actor Keith Allen as mentioned in an article in The Face magazine which also talked about Primal Scream, The Beloved, The Auteurs, Lenny Kravitz and more being linked to the project. In fact, it seemed that working on the new Kylie album was the thing every musician wanted in on! Many of these rumours never came to fruition, but there were many other high profile collaborators contributing to the finished album as you'll read more on below.
7. Before any new music was released, there were several teaser pieces in cooler fashion mags, Kylie and her team also produced a money-can't-buy promotional coffee table book that was sent to specially selected people in media, music and fashion. The photos were shot by Ellen Von Unwerth (who is also responsible for the photos on Kylie's ‘Shocked' and ‘Word Is Out' sleeves) and Katrina Jebb, and included some more racey shots that had the press likening the book to the recently released ‘Sex' book by Madonna; leaving Kylie to set the record straight that it was nothing like it!
8. British photographer Rankin also shot Kylie for a supplement for his magazine Dazed & Confused which was titled ‘The Kylie Bible'. A gorgeous collection of black and white photos of Kylie looking very stylish, was accompanied by a handwritten note from the lady herself talking about the journey she was on. He also shot the album cover and inner sleeve pictures with Kylie literally looking the business in a suit and spectacles. The suit Kylie wears on the cover is actually green taffeta and Kylie can be seen wearing it on a TOTP performance of first single ‘Confide in Me’ with a replica now part of the Kylie exhibition in Melbourne.
9. That single was released at the end of August 1994 and was written and produced by Brothers In Rhythm (aka Steve Anderson and Dave Seaman). The pair, of course, had previously remixed ‘Finer Feelings' for the 7″ single version and sonically ‘Confide in Me' sounds like a sophisticated sister track. The dance music specialists already had good connections to DeConstruction and when they heard Kylie had signed with them, they reached out to see if she would work with them. ‘Confide' was an idea that they put to Kylie on the first day in the studio together and it was the start of a long fruitful working relationship; Steve still being Kylie's Musical Director today.
10. Retrospectively, Owain Barton was added as a songwriter on ‘Confide In Me’ for its closeness to 1992 hit ‘It’s a Fine Day’ released by the band Opus III (which was based on his earlier 1983 track).
11. Confide’s video features six different variants of Kylie as types of chat line girls, asking the viewers to call and confide while words appeared on the screen in different languages translating to ‘Lost?’, ‘Alone?’ and more. It was directed by Paul Boyd who had, at that point, worked with Lenny Kravitz, Seal and INXS amongst others.
12. A Franglais version of ‘Confide In Me’ was released on the Canadian release of the album which sees Kylie singing the verses in French with the chorus remaining in English but having the added spoken word sentence ‘fie toi é moi' which translates roughly as ‘trust me'. The album saw a Canadian release in 1995 with a different cover image (also taken from the Rankin session mentioned above).
13. ‘Confide in Me' went straight to No.2 in the UK Singles Chart – she couldn’t quite manage to end Wet Wet Wet’s ‘Love Is All Around’ record-breaking run at No.1. Not the first time they’ve stopped her getting to No.1 in the UK; ‘Got To Be Certain' in 1988 and ‘Give Me Just A Little More Time' in 1992 were both held off by Wet Wet Wet songs.
14. It went one better in Australia, topping the ARIA chart for 4 weeks and finishing the year as one of the 25 biggest songs of 1994 in her homeland.
15. As well as the aforementioned St Etienne cover as a b-side on ‘Confide In Me', a second cover was also included in the form of ‘If You Don’t Love Me'. This track, originally by Prefab Sprout, is a stripped back version recorded with Steve Anderson on piano and Kylie's demo vocal being used for the finished version. Kylie revisited the song on her ‘Aprhodite: Les Folies Tour' in 2011 to the delight of many fans – myself included!
16. ‘Kylie Minogue’ was released on 19th September and peaked at No.4 on the UK Official Albums Chart, quickly being certified Gold in the UK less than a month after release.  
17. It was also certified Gold in Australia where it peaked at No.3 on the ARIA albums chart and finished as one of 1994’s Top 100 best selling albums at 84.
18. American songwriter/producer Jimmy Harry who had previously worked on RuPaul’s ‘Supermodel of the World’ album, slowed things down for second single, the gorgeous ballad ‘Put Yourself In My Place’. He also wrote the funky, soulful ‘If I Was Your Lover' for the album and would go on to write songs for artists including Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson and P!nk. He also co-wrote Kylie's 2009 track ‘Boombox' originally demoed for the ‘Body Language' album.
19. Put Yourself video is an homage to the opening scene of late 60s SciFi movie Barbarella and sees Kylie performing something of a striptease in zero gravity. The single peaked at 11 in both the UK and Australia, and won Best Video at 1995's ARIA Awards.
20. Four of the album tracks are actually cover versions of previously released songs; ‘Where is the Feeling?’, ‘Surrender’ ‘Time Will Pass You By' and ‘Where has the love gone?’
21. ‘Where is the Feeling?' was a dance track released by Within A Dream in 1993, Dave Seaman of Brothers in Rhythm (BIR) suggested it would be great for Kylie to record a version for the album with BIR inspired by Frankie Knuckles and David Morales production wise.
22. ‘Surrender' was first released by American actress Tia Carrere (most famous at the time for ‘Wayne's World') on her debut 1993 album ‘Dreams'. It was written by Gerry Deveaux (cousin to Lenny Kravitz) and British/French composer Charlie Mole. The pair had worked together previously on Alison Limerick's ‘Time of our Lives'.
23. Laidback house track ‘Where has the Love Gone?' is Kylie's version of a 1991 club track by the song's writer Julie Stapleton, called ‘Where's your Love Gone?'. Kylie's version was produced by dance producers Farley & Heller who gave the track more of a commercially polished sound.
24. M People were now Kylie's labelmates and enjoying both commercial and critical success, so it made sense for Kylie to work with them. Their contribution to the album was producing her cover of a well-known Northern Soul track by Tobi Legend which was originally recorded in Kylie's birth year of 1968. It is perhaps the closet song sonically on the album to Kylie's SAW recordings; uplifting, feel-good pop, but with M People's trademark horns.
25. Pet Shop Boys wrote the song ‘Falling' for the album, but it ended up a far cry from their poppier original when once again Farley & Heller got their hands on it. This slinky, subtle banger features seductively whispered vocals from Kylie. PSB's original demo was released in 2018 as part of a rarities collection from their 1993 ‘Very' album.
26. Promotion for the album was interrupted by Kylie pursuing acting opportunities with ‘Streetfighter’, based on the popular video game, released at the end of 1994 and offbeat comedy ‘Biodome’ filming in 1995.
27. A third single, ‘Where is the Feeling?' was finally released in July 1995. For the single mix, BIR completely changed the uplifting track into a dark, brooding spoken word epic called the ‘BIR Dolphin Mix'. It charted at No.16 in the UK and No.31 in Australia with the CD and 12″ featuring the ‘BIR Soundtrack' mix which clocked in at over 13 minutes long and had a new spoken word middle-8 that's not in the single or album mix.
28. Japanese only bonus track ‘Love is Waiting' was written by two former members of Dead or Alive (Tim Lever & Mike Percy) alongside singer/songwriter Tracy Ackerman. Kylie isn't the first Minogue they worked with however, the trio also wrote the title track (and fifth single) to Dannii's second album ‘Get Into You'.
29. ‘Time Will Pass You By’ was considered as the fourth single, but by then a new opportunity had presented itself and Kylie decided to move on to a duet with Nick Cave and writing her next album ‘Impossible Princess’.
30. An expanded double CD edition was released in 2003 featuring a bonus disc with rarities and remixes including ‘Dangerous Overture'; a bizarre orchestral interlude which crescendos with Kylie screaming that was originally planned to proceed ‘Dangerous Game' on the album. The latter is not only a fan favourite song, but BIR wrote the song to see what Kylie would sound like on a James Bond theme esque track.

‘Kylie Minogue' remains a crucial point in Kylie's evolution into the superstar she is today. You can hear how she is showcasing her voice and proving to nay-sayers (not say-heyers!) that she really can sing. Her visuals in this era were cool and sophisticated with the whole project having a sheen of class, letting the world know she was a bonafide music artist and no one's puppet.

Listen to ‘Kylie Minogue' the album below:

Kylie's seventeenth album ‘Tension II‘ is out on 18th October and the ‘Tension' tour kicks off in Australia in February.