Especially For You
With Kylie and Jason's Neighbours characters, Scott and Charlene's wedding soon to reach British viewers, PWL were receiving orders from retailers for a record that existed only in the minds of it's would-be buyers, a Kylie & Jason duet. Bets were even being placed on it being the Christmas #1. Unable to deny the potential of the idea, Jason, Kylie and SAW decided to bow to public demand.
Especially For You, it's title taken from a Christmas card, was written in October 1988 along with a second duet, the upbeat B-side All I Wanna Do Is Make You Mine, which found Jason and Kylie not so much channeling Scott and Charlene but Danny and Sandy from Grease.
In early November, armed with guide mixes featuring Mike Stock and PWL backing vocalist Mae McKenna, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman flew to Sydney to record Jason and Kylie's vocals before immediately returning to London. The deadline was looming but SAW were adamant that this particular record had to be perfect. Only 12 days before the release date, the understated original mixes were shelved and replaced with a more festive production.
The thousands of miles travelled and long studio hours paid off. Probably the definitive SAW ballad, Especially For You now stands as a rather magical moment in pop history.
While the Christmas #1 went to Cliff Richard, Especially For You remained at #2 and finally climbed to top the UK charts for three weeks in the New Year.
Certified platinum for sales in excess of a million it became the most successful of SAW's many hits spending a total of 14 weeks on the chart, four of those at #2 and three at #1, and is undoubtedly the highlight of the "Kylie & Jason" phenomenon.