LOVE THE 80’s: Still Spinning Round – 40 Years of PWL Hits

Celebrating 40 years of Stock Aitken Waterman’s first hits

How time flies! It’s 40 years since Stock Aitken Waterman arrived on the music scene and achieved their first commercially successful singles and in doing so, changed the sound of music production and preferences irreversibly. The production trio of Mike, Matt and Pete had come together in January 1984 and by the end of the year, had achieved a top twenty and then a top ten hit and saw the release of a song that would bag them their first number one in the early months of 1985.

By 1984, Disco and Punk were out and the age of the new romantics was in full swing. Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Culture Club were firmly in but with an emergence of a faster paced Pop sound and Stock Aitken Waterman would grasp that by the neck, quickly becoming one of the most talked about studios around. In 1984, Margaret Thatcher was British Prime Minister, Ronald Reagan would be elected a second term as US President and there would be two Presidents of the former Soviet Union with 72 year old Konstantin Chernenko succeeding Yuri Andropov in February that year.

For Mike, Matt and Pete, their first effort was “The Upstroke” – their “Relax” – recorded by a female duo called Agents Aren’t Aeroplanes. Even the artwork ‘smelt’ of Frankie, who had just entered the UK top 40 with their debut single. But as 1984 progressed, the work started to come their way and after a few months, American comedian Harris Milstead was paying a visit to the UK to record “You Think You’re A Man” with them under his stage name of ‘Divine’. The sound and style of the song was pivotal to the embryonic team with a club sound that transferred to the charts when in July, “You Think You’re A Man” broke the UK top twenty and the top ten in Australia and Switzerland.

With their sound and presence now firmly established, ‘the boys’ went one better only weeks later when they wrote “Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)” for Hazell Dean, who herself had just broken out with her top ten hit “Searchin'”. “Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)” was more of the same with a relentless beat and euphoric pace, and even with the defiant lyrics of love lost and love pain, the song had everyone up to its endless rhythm. “Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)” went to No.4 in the UK, stamping the production team’s feet very firmly in the charts and on their way to music domination, much to the then unsuspecting record buying public or indeed the industry itself.

The sound the trio had sown and nurtured really manifested itself in their next song, one which had already been written for them by the group Dead Or Alive, who had just scored their first ever hit with a cover of “That’s The Way (I Like It)”. With a sprinkle of PWL magic, the track, “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)“, was ready for release in November that year. But it would take nearly four months before the song hit the top ten and ultimately get to number one in the UK, becoming the studio’s first chart topping single. It would later reach No.11 in the US in the Summer of 1985. But as Mike Stock recently revealed, having a number one doesn’t always make the phone ring straight away!

The rest is of course history. What happened in 1984 paved the way for 1985 and every other year that followed with the team producing no less than seven number one hits in 1989 alone! Were it not for them, I doubt there would ever have been a Rick Astley or a Kylie Minogue, but setting those two off on their respective roads is just one of the badges worn by these three. It wasn’t always cool to like SAW, in fact many in the industry loathed their presence. But 40 years on and their music has stood the test of time and indeed, undergone something of an Indian Summer in recent years. There is a reverence towards their sound, their way of doing things and the artists they help to make ‘top of the pops’. For nine years, the PWL sound dominated the charts around the world and was still capable of producing top ten hits in 1993 just as it was in that first year Mike, Matt and Pete got together and decided to make perfect, precision Pop.

Oh, and in case you were wondering which record has the ‘PWL40’ code, it’s “One Step At A Time” by Naisha, which was released in June 1989!

Stock Aitken Waterman music in 1984