Official Charts Flashback 1989: Kylie – Hand On Your Heart

We celebrate 25 years since Kylie scored her third Number 1 single.

It’s 25 years since Kylie scored her third Number 1 single – and showed off a delightful array of matching dresses.

Kylie’s first year of pop success saw a run of hits that would take many pop acts of the day 10 years to achieve. From her very first chart-topper I Should Be So Lucky spending five weeks at Number 1 in early 1988 to her scoring a second, this time with Jason Donovan, in the first week in 1989, with Especially For You, Kylie was a chart force to be reckoned with.

Five Top 2 hits in a row, four from her hit debut album, also handily titled Kylie. But now it was time for that ‘difficult second album’. Could Kylie deliver?

Kylie – Hand On Your Heart

The original multi track reel for Hand On Your Heart, and the three other tracks recorded in the same session, plus the original single cover in the UK.

Hand On Your Heart was another single continuing what was to become a great Kylie tradition of entering the Official Singles Chart at Number 2. Fans waited breathlessly to see whether Kylie could move up one to take the top spot – the memories of The Loco-Motion’s stalled attempt from summer 1988 still fresh in their minds. They needn’t have worried.

Hand On Your Heart was the lead single from Kylie’s second album Enjoy Yourself, which showed there was more to Kylie than fizzing pop tracks. The album tackled climate change, unrequited superfandom and even a jazz ballad about breaking up.

Hand On Your Heart spent one week at Number 1, before being toppled by charity record Ferry Cross The Mersey, by the Christians, Holly Johnson, Paul McCartney, Gerry Marsden and Kylie’s very own producers Stock Aitken Waterman. Hand On Your Heart has sold over 488,000 copies.

Kylie’s had seven chart-toppers in total, and an incredible 11 songs land at Number 2. Her biggest selling single is 2001’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head, with 1.17 million copies sold. Her biggest Number 2 single is 1988’s The Loco-Motion, which was held off Number 1 by Yazz’s monster hit The Only Way Is Up.

Take a look at a clip of Kylie performing a track from her second album I’m Over Dreaming (Over You) on her Anti-Tour of 2012 before we count down the rest of the Top 5 bowing down to Kylie this week in 1989.

2: Bangles – Eternal Flame

After an incredible four weeks at Number 1, usually raucous girl group the Bangles finally lost their crown. The song was something of a surprise ht for the group, led by Susanna Hoffs.

It was their seventh Top 40 hit, but the group had only made it into the Top 10 twice before – with debut hit Manic Monday (2) and the insanely catchy Walk Like An Egyptian (3), both in 1986. Eternal Flame was to be the group’s last Top 10, and just one more Top 40 hit awaited them in the ‘80s. 24 years later, they scored their final Top 40 hit, with Something That You Said. The party wasn’t over for Eternal Flame, though – Atomic Kitten took it back to the top of the Official Singles Chart for two weeks in 2001.

3: Queen – I Want It All

New in at Number 3 and scoring their seventeenth Top 10 hit, were the rock legends Queen. The group would enjoy two more Top 10s, including a Number 1 with Innuendo, before the sad death of ostentatious frontman Freddie Mercury in 1991. Interestingly, the group has gone on to have seven more Top 10s since then, three of which went to Number 1!

4: London Boys – Requiem

Advancing one place to Number 4, where it would stay for three weeks, were muscle-bound dance duo London Boys. Though based in Germany when they found fame with their pumping disco sound, Edem and Dennis met at school in London. Requiem would never improve on Number 4, but follow-up London Nights made it all the way to Number 2. Sadly, Edem and Dennis both died in a car accident in 1996.

5: Natalie Cole – Miss You Like Crazy

Up two places, and continuing a journey that would eventually see her peak at Number 2, it was Natalie Cole. Natalie, the daughter of classic crooner Nat ‘King’ Cole, had her first Top 40 hit in 1975 with This Will Be. She scored her first Top 10 with the Bruce Springsteen-penned Pink Cadillac, reaching Number 5 in 1988. Miss You Like Crazy is her only other Top 10 hit in the UK.