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LOOK-IN TELEVISION ANNUAL 1989
THE HIT FACTORIES
A hit record, as everybody knows, is a successful one.
However, a lot more than meets the ear goes into getting a song
into the charts, which is where hit makers and hit factories come
in...
Best Sellers
Without a doubt, the most phenomenally successful of them all
has been the songwriting and production team of Stock, Aitken
and Watennan. Mike, Matt and Pete reckon they sold more than
35 million singles during 1987, outselling Michael Jackson by at
least five to one and Madonna by 10 to one in the process! By the
end of 1987, that success meant that the trio had earned just
short of a 10 per cent share of the entire British record market
in 1987. The figure was higher than any of the large record
companies managed to achieve ...
Added to that, SAW were responsible for the biggest-selling
single of the year, Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick
Astley, which shifted an estimated 810,000 copies, and also
did the trick in 1988 for Kylie Minogue, with their catchy
composition, I Should Be 50 Lucky.
In The Beginning...
Pete Waterman first met his partners in 1984, when his own
career had reached something of a standstill. Matt and Mike
played him a demo tape of a song they had written called The
Upstroke. The three teamed up, the song became a dance chart
hit and a 1980s hit factory was in the making.
SAW's first major breakthrough came when they produced Dead
Or Alive's No 1 hit Spin Me Round, but the continual
failure of record companies to hear the songs of Stock and Aitken
as potential chart hits soon began to frustrate them. So Pete
decided they should set up their own studio.
It was there, at PWL Studios near London Bridge, that SAW were
one day confronted by two cheeky young cockney girls who marched
in and suddenly began singing. They were Mel and Kim
Appleby. Hits by the sisters firmly established Stock, Aitken and
Waterman in the charts at a time when a young and unknown Rick
Astley was no more than a teaboy in PWL and waiting for his
moment to arrive ...
To date, SAW have written at least 25 hits, and produced around
20 others, for stars like Bananarama, Sinitta,
Samantha Fox, and, of course, Mel and Kim, Rick Astley and
Kylie Minogue. In between all that, they even managed to find
time to have a hit themselves as performers in 1988 with
Roadblock.
Advice
"The most important part of a song is the chorus," says Matt,
giving a small clue to the secret of SAW's success.
Mike also has a few tips for anyone hoping one day to become a
hitmaker with a hit factory to go with it. "The best advice I'd
give to someone is what I did when I was very young," he
explains, "and that was to play songs to your brother or sister
or friends, and accept their comments, even if you don't believe
them. And never, ever give up! You should write 500 songs a
year..."
So what are you waiting for?
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