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Rick Astley - Whenever You Need Somebody 2022 Remaster

On the day I met Kylie, we were not expecting to see her or to work with her. An arrangement had been made by David Howells, our business manager, and Pete Waterman; but somehow they forgot to tell me!

Kylie turns up, unannounced, expecting to record a song before she goes back to Australia that same day. I had to think quickly.

In the studio I worked with Matt Aitken, and I remember saying to him that we needed to come up with something right there and then. Kylie had been sent to get a coffee and sit in the waiting room whilst we worked up some ideas.

I asked David Howells to give me some kind of a steer. Who was Kylie? What was she like? What had she done? He told me she was a highly successful actress in Australia, having just won a Logie award for her role in Neighbours - neither of which I had ever heard of! She was pretty, he said, can sing and she's a great dancer. I thought, 'what does she want to make a record with us for? She's obviously got a great career going.' Then I thought, 'she’s got everything as far as a career, work and financial security, but maybe she doesn’t have love. Or maybe someone special in her life.' It seemed to be a half-decent idea. She’s lucky in life, but not lucky in love.

Once the idea was honed a bit, I set about putting a chord structure down on tape. I had never heard her sing before, so I had worked out a tune which was pitched too low for her range. When I got her behind the mic I swiftly realised and changed the melody to suit her. She was very quick. She has a great ear. We hadn’t written a lyric for the second verse before she’d finished singing the first, so we were truly on our toes.

The whole process of recording only took an hour; she really is that good. We were writing as we recorded it, as far as lyrics are concerned. I knew what the tune was having got that fixed in about forty minutes before, whilst she was waiting.

To celebrate the announcement of the Whenever You Need Somebody 2022 remaster, the video for Together Forever has been lovingly restored from the original film and is now available in 4K!
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