TOP TEN
WEEK ENDING 21 JANUARY 1989
STARRY-EYED SOAP STARS, POWER POP EUPHORIA, DANCEFLOOR GOLD, A BRIT-HOP ANTHEM, AN ODD COUPLE, AND THE BIG O’S MIGHTY SWANSONG
STEVE O’BRIEN
ESPECIALLY FOR YOU
KYLIE AND JASON (PWL)
The only thing missing from the final (for now) Neighbours episode in July 2022 was that the returning Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan didn’t burst into a sudden rendition of Especially For You, their joint No.1 from January 1989 (it hit the top spot on New Year’s Day). Of course, it was kinda inevitable at the time that the Aussie soap’s two biggest pop stars (sorry, Stefan Dennis) and onscreen (and sometimes off-set) lovebirds would release a duet, especially given that both Kylie and Jason were on the same label. Except, as Pete Waterman recalled in his autobiography, “the idea seemed a sickly proposition.” Waterman and Matt Aitken flew from the UK to Sydney to record the track, though fans would have been disheartened to discover that neither Kylie nor Jason sang their parts with the other in the same room. “We didn’t actually sing the duet together,” Donovan revealed later. “We had to learn the song very quickly and recorded our parts separately.”