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— Sian Pattenden
A flip through this issue of from the start of 1992 and it's very much the Smash Hits of old. Longstanding segment Bitz kicks things off with features on a bunch of people I'm unfamiliar with (bands Airhead and Senseless Things as well as comedy duo Trevor & Simon, who apparently were a bit of a thing even when I resided in the UK) and a deeply uninteresting bit about Madonna's feelings about other pop stars. The venerable Black Type is busy chirping away at the letter writers while good old Gordon Bennett! is answering queries from the pop kids. And then there's Kylie Minogue nabbing her fourth Single of the Fortnight, putting her in a tie with the likes of The Cure, Billy Idol (for the love of God, how did he get so many?!?) and, yes, Madonna for third place behind only Pet Shop Boys and George Michael.
But not everything remained the same. Kylie's sexier look had been a thing for close to two years though she was now getting even raunchier. The backlash that had been building against her had begun to expand with previous SOTF "Word Is Out" having paid the price. (Of course, you can always bet on a pop star going downhill when they begin to go R&B) Ver hits had also recently been taking a page out of the increasingly irrelevant Number One mag with a celeb gossip section near the back of every issue. More and more, the mandate appeared to be a focus on the famous rather than pop stars in particular.
Finally, this issue closes with two pages devoted to promoting next fortnight's edition of the all-new Smash Hits. Gasp at the POSTER WITH EVERY ISSUE! (Surely the Hits had long been a cradle for youths looking to decorate their walls so this wasn't anything new) Dance about at the prospect of EVEN MORE STAR-PACKED PAGES! (Sixty-four pages to be precise; note that they did not mention the accompanying price increase) Get your rocks off to the prospect of a SONGBOOK WITH EVERY ISSUE! (Was spreading the lyrics throughout really such a burden for ver kids?) And who would be appearing on the cover of this reboot? One Kylie Minogue.
"Give Me Just a Little More Time" was certainly her best single in ages. Possibly well before the overrated "Better the Devil You Know". Credit to her for giving a commendable vocal and to Stock Waterman (I will never get used to the absence of Aitken) for producing a quality single but the real MVP is the song itself. Though not strictly speaking a Motown number, it was nevertheless composed by the famed Holland-Dozier-Holland team (though under their 'Dunbar & Wayne' pseudonym). A huge hit for trio Chairmen of the Board, it was something of a throwback to the glory days of The Four Tops and The Temptations. You might think that a cover version of a classic from the early seventies written and performed by African Americans would have been the perfect choice for Kylie's mature R&B sound but for the fact that it's as pop as it comes.
Even at their best SAW would have struggled to write something as effortlessly brilliant as "Give Me Just a Little More Time" but by the beginning of '92 it was unlike anything else they had in their increasingly bare cupboard of potential hits. No wonder Sian Pattenden hails it as sounding "funkesque and boppy in a Kylie-That-We-Know-And-Love way". A return to form and, better yet, superior to most of her discography because the material she had to work with was better than ever.
Kylie and SW really don't do much with what they have — but that is probably for the best. When people protest that covers ought to be better than the originals (or at the very least somehow different from them) they are overlooking the fact that this is an extremely tall order. Take the example on this blog when I wrote about both the outstanding "Money's Too Tight (to Mention)" by The Valentine Brothers and its passable remake by Simply Red. Sure, Mick Hucknall could have revamped the arrangement but what purpose would that have served? And good on Kylie for refraining from aping lead singer Harrison Kennedy's impassioned vocals, though she does mimic those fantastic "bbbrrrr's" in the chorus, the "best bit" according to Pattenden.
A sign of Kylie's influence as a pop culture icon was that she was chosen to relaunch Smash Hits in the second half of January 1992. Prominently featured in this final issue of "classic" Hits with this SOTF, a softball interview with Marc Andrews, a bit of harsh criticism in the Letters page from one Stephen Toole of the Madonna Defense League (Kylie was copying Madge a little too much it would seem) and the lyrics to "Give Me Just a Little More Time", she was left off the cover in favour of former paramour and outgoing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat star Jason Donovan along with incoming "Joey" Philip Schofield. Yet, a fortnight later she was on the front of the new look Hits, ostensibly to shill a five-page spread inside called 'Who's Hot for Who?' about the stars and those they fancy. Kylie is the choice of noted Minoguist James Dean Bradfield which she in turn opts for Lenny Kravitz, who sister Dannii also had her eyes on (when you've been married to Lisa Bonet and you've begun dating Vanessa Paradis, I think it's okay to pass on a Minogue). Elsewhere, the new Hit Songwords pullout includes the lyrics to — huh? — "Give Me Just a Little More Time", in a rare bit of lazy double dipping by the editors. In truth, Kylie was on the cover just to be Kylie which was always reason enough.
And so, we reach the end of peak Smash Hits. Its circulation was already in decline from its late-eighties' peak but it was still the magazine of old. Now it was entering the back half of its lifespan in a pop scene that increasingly had little use for it. Rather than burn out, it would gradually fade away. Once an essential part of British life, now that thing that people used to like. But let's see if there was still some life in the old girl...
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Shakespears Sister: "Stay"
A number one smash for the better part of two months and fondly remembered to this day, Pattenden is nevertheless able only to enthuse over Marcella Detroit's impressive vocal. Otherwise, it "chooses to plod along in its own little cubicle of dullness". We can't like everything, reckons this humble blogger who happens to think that David Bowie's Hunky Dory isn't half as brilliant as everyone else says it is. As for "Stay", I can kind of understand why someone would have reservations even if I think it's ace. There's really not much of a song to it, for one thing; also, it really needs its video to make it a true goth-pop knock out. Plus, for a single which screams sizzling epic, it's surprising that the whole thing is wrapped up in well under four minutes. Yet, there's so much going on: a bit goth, a bit indie, a bit of power balladry, a touch of over-the-top Meat Loaf/Bonnie Tyler ludicrousness, the type of thing which is entirely derivative yet tricks the listener into believing that it is utterly original. Strong enough that it withstood eight weeks at the top without many people growing sick of it. Shakespears Sister even got the jump on all those many other groups with songs called "Stay". Why didn't they all just go away?
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