A Journey Through Stock Aitken Waterman

Samantha Fox joins us to kick off our look at the singles produced by Stock Aitken Waterman released in 1989, with her remake of "I Only Wanna Be With You" the first track to hit the chart that year. We go right back to the start of Samantha's career and hear from her about becoming famous as a glamour model, being approached by Jive Records to audition to sing "Touch Me (I Wan...

Before we continue our journey into the singles released in 1989, Matt Aitken joins us for a special episode recapping the era from 1984-88. We go way back to SAW's first single, "The Upstroke", and talk about the record that brought Mike Stock , Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman together, as well as some of the hi-NRG tracks that followed (including previously un-discussed songs by Rik...

It was the single no one wanted to record. Not Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan , who thought the idea of doing a duet would confirm the off-screen relationship they had been denying for months. And not Stock Aitken Waterman, who feared releasing a track by two of their biggest stars would seem cheesy and like a crass cash-in. But public demand in the form of 250,000 advance orders for a song that...

Violence! Legal disputes! Assassination plots! Before Sigue Sigue Sputnik came to work with Stock Aitken Waterman, they’d already created a storm of controversy and a tabloid frenzy. Bassist Tony James tells us about the initial headline-grabbing antics of the synthrock band — from falling foul of Stanley Kubrick due to uncleared samples on “Love Missile F1-11” to their reported multimillion signi...

After a string of fan favourite singles that underperformed on the UK chart, Stock Aitken Waterman were back in the upper echelons with their next trio of releases. Kylie Minogue took them back to number 2 (for a third consecutive time) with the latest track lifted from Kylie . With its French title, "Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi" was a more mature offering compared to Kylie's earlier si...

It's the chart stat that's still talked about among Stock Aitken Waterman fans — three firm fan favourites all peaked in the 20s on the UK chart in the same week. Was the SAW sound reaching saturation point or were there other reasons why all three artists, who'd reached the top 10 with their previous singles, faltered? And with songs that are widely regarded as some of SAW's b...

"Locomotion" by Kylie Minogue had been the highest-selling single of 1987 in Australia, so it was inevitable the remake would be released in the UK. But when the song appeared on Kylie's debut album and came out as her third PWL single, it was completely different. Out was the Australian production and in its place was a new version produced by SAW. The original Little Eva title, &q...

It takes a certain confidence to auction off your songwriting and production services secure in the knowledge that you'll deliver the highest bidder a hit single. But that's exactly what Stock Aitken Waterman did in 1988. EMI Records bid the most and the artist that received the Hit Factory Midas touch was Parlophone's struggling pop band Brother Beyond . Lead singer Nathan Moore jo...

It was good news and bad news for Stock Aitken Waterman in mid-1988. On the upside, their run of hits continued with the next single for Kylie Minogue . After the runway success of "I Should Be So Lucky", Mike Stock and engineer Karen Hewitt were dispatched to Australia to record a follow-up — and we hear all about the meeting to convince Kylie to continue working with SAW after her shab...

There was no stopping SAW at this point in 1988 with another three massive hits on the UK chart, including Hazell Dean 's long-awaited return to the top 10 with a cover of Anne Murray's "Who's Leaving Who". We hear from Hazell about the track and why it connected with the public when her previous few singles hadn't. Meanwhile, a change in line-up did not slow Bananara...

Three songs, three more UK top 10 hits as Stock Aitken Waterman's chart domination ramped up. The first of those songs was a rather emotional one — the final single released by Mel & Kim , "That's The Way It Is". Kim Appleby joins us to talk about how she and Mel recorded the track during a respite in her sister's treatment for cancer and how one of their own compositi...

She was already huge in Australia, with the biggest single of 1987 under her belt, but no one could have predicted just how massive a pop star Kylie Minogue would become in 1988, with her fame extending way beyond her home country. Certainly no one at PWL had any idea that the polite teenager sitting in reception waiting for a promised recording session with Stock Aitken Waterman would change ever...

Our journey reaches the end of 1987 with Stock Aitken Waterman 's bid for the UK Christmas number 1 slot: a double A-side release from Rick Astley that combined his cover of "When I Fall In Love" with a brand new song, "My Arms Keep Missing You". We explain the factors that prevented the single from taking out top honours that year. Plus, it was the end of an era for Banan...

With Rick Astley and "Never Gonna Give You Up" riding high around the world, two singles were released in an attempt to capitalise on that success. The first was a duet between O'chi Brown and Rick that was plucked from her previous album. "Learning To Live (Without You Love)" was issued by Magnet Records in a clear attempt to cash in on Rick's popularity. We hear fro...

It was the end of an era as the final Dead Or Alive single produced by Stock Aitken Waterman was released. And although "I'll Save You All My Kisses" wasn't the biggest of hits, that song and the story of what came next for SAW's first number one act is given the in-depth treatment in this episode. In an archival interview with DJ Sveta, the late Pete Burns talks about the...

It's hard to imagine that a song as phenomonally successful as "Never Gonna Give You Up" sat on the shelf at PWL for months before finally being released in mid-1987, but that's exactly what happened as Rick Astley 's debut solo single took longer than any other Stock Aitken Waterman production to be completed. In this special episode dedicated to SAW's biggest worldw...

By now, Stock Aitken Waterman had made a name for themselves as hitmakers — and that was begining to rub some people the wrong way. In response to the haters and the perception that they could only do disposable pop, the trio concoted a plan to prove they could make any kind of music they put their minds to. And so "Roadblock" was created, a rare groove track that was originally released...

It was a match made in pop music heaven: Sinitta and Stock Aitken Waterman. But although the idea of the "So Macho" star recording at the Hit Factory seems like a no-brainer now, it didn't happen overnight. And as Sinitta reveals in our exclusive interview, SAW were unsure about working with her — and not just because her record label boss Simon Cowell had made a habit of hanging ar...

The Hit Factory era was in full swing by mid-1987, with three of the singles in this episode being major international hits. Samantha Fox came to work with Stock Aitken Waterman — and their collaboration, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now", took her back into the UK top 10 and was huge across Europe. Bananarama stepped up their musical relationship with SAW on Wow! , an album fully produ...

Stock Aitken Waterman had their hands full with music legends in early 1987. First, they put together charity ensemble record "Let It Be" by Ferry Aid . Former PWL Records MD David Howells joins us to describe the process of assembling a who's who of the British music industry to sing on that track, while Pepsi & Shirlie and Kim Appleby also share their memories of Ferry Aid. Th...

The journey through SAW gets back underway with another game-changing hit produced by Stock Aitken Waterman. Breaking the team's follow-up curse, Mel & Kim 's second single, "Respectable" bucked the usual trend by becoming an even bigger hit than their debut. A worldwide number 1, the duo's second single turned the sisters into a phenomenon, and we hear from Kim Appleb...

In the second episode dedicated to Phil Harding and Ian Curnow 's PWL years, we discuss more of the projects the songwriting and production team worked on at the Hit Factory, including the first single released by Rick Astley — the duet "When You Gonna" with Lisa Fabien . We also hear about Harding & Curnow's experience with SAW singers Hazell Dean , Sinitta , Sonia and Lon...

In the first of two special episodes, we take a look at some of the other music coming out of PWL from 1987 onwards. With Stock Aitken Waterman's workload increasing, long-time mixmaster Phil Harding and new recruit Ian Curnow (who just happened to be old friends) became the PWL B-team, responsible for an enormous amount of remixes and productions in their own right. In this episode, we hear...

Duo Morgan McVey might not have had a hit, but not only did Jamie Morgan and Cameron McVey go on to incredibly successful careers individually, but their Stock Aitken Waterman-produced single, "Looking Good Diving", had a future smash hidden away on its B-side. Jamie tells us about his SAW experience, the song's "so bad it's good" music video and the hilarious story o...

They'd become household names as part of Wham!, and in 1987, Pepsi & Shirlie kicked off their pop career as a duo with smash hit single "Heartache". In this episode, we hear from the pair, who have just released their autobiography, It's All In Black And White , about deciding to stick together post-Wham!, recording and releasing their debut single, and the follow-ups to &q...