5 January 1989
Well now. I remember this. If ever a pop single came packed in a crate-load of context, it was ‘Especially For You’. Kylie was now the biggest star—pop or TV—in Britain and Ireland. This duet was clearly aimed at surfing the wave of the Kylie-Jason wedding storyline on the UK screening of Neighbours and the tabloid speculation about whether they were also a couple in real life. (They were, at the time.) It was another tilt at the UK Christmas number one spot by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, though for the second year in a row they missed out. After his debut SAW single, ‘Nothing Can Divide Us’, went top five in the UK, this was also surely an effort to consolidate Jason Donovan as a pop star by gifting him an almost-certain number one. And by now the Stock, Aitken and Waterman brand, while still claiming top ten hits almost at will, was pretty much reviled. Even in the pages of pop bible Smash Hits, which I was now reading voraciously, SAW-ism was the butt of all jokes. No mere pop record could stand for itself with all that going on around it. So, now that time has given us distance, how does ‘Especially For You’ sound today, with a fair listen and on its own merits?
[One fair listen later]
The hipster, revisionist, pure-pop-masterpiece-actually take on ‘Especially For You’ is a challenge I’ll leave for others. I’d certainly sooner listen to this than the cornier, schmaltzier romantic ballads that preceded it at number one in 1988. Perhaps aware that they can’t cut corners on such an event release, SAW give this a bit of effort: a proper verse, pre-chorus and chorus, with a melody that isn’t just the same nagging phrases repeatedly. Jason Donovan’s vocal performance here can be most charitably described as competent. Kylie, of course, completely overshadows him, with her sharper voice and greater charm. Purely as a record the two voices don’t really go well together; even with this relatively bland melody Jason is straining on the verses. But at least in the video, while you couldn’t call it chemistry, they look genuinely happy together, which is more than can be said for a lot of other stunt-casting duets.
You know what? ‘Especially For You’ is a perfectly adequate chart hit and pop-culture time capsule. Faint praise this may be, but 1989 holds in store a lot worse. Enjoy this relative golden age of ‘Especially For You’ at number one, this comparative Florence under the Medicis, while it lasts.
