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DECEMBER MUSIC

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Whether you were Team Shannon or Team Guy way back in the halcyon days of 2003, you cannot say that the eventual winner of the inaugural Australian Idol series didn’t deliver a sentimental belter with his first ever solo single. Guy Sebastian’s Angels Brought Me Here , was ruling the number one spot on the ARIA charts this time 20 years ago, as the lead track from the artist’s debut album, Just As I Am. Both Sebastian and Idol runner-up Shannon Noll recorded versions of the track – written by Jörgen Elofsson and John Reid specifically for the television series – but it was only Sebastian’s cut that BMG eventually released. Noll chose his cover of Moving Pictures’ 1982 track What About Me for his first release post-comp, and it went on to become the hightest-selling single of 2004.

THIS MONTH:

Dolly Parton

Guy Sebastian performing Angels Brought Me Here at the Australian Idol concert (2004)

Taylor Swift

Looking back at the stories behind our favourite album covers, this month it’s Kylie’s self-titled debut (1988).

Look, let’s cut right to it: just what is going on with Kylie’s ’do on her debut album cover? Is it her actual hair? Is it simply a mass severed from a more hirsute individual’s head, and arranged like a feather boa around the bonnet’s brim? We’ve wondered for years, and now – as 1988’s Kylie gets its long awaited pink vinyl reissue – we’ve found the truth. It is, in fact, Kylie’s own hair, permed and spilling from a crown-less creation by milliners and accessory designers Bernstock Speirs. The

The neon pink vinyl reissue of Kylie Minogue’s Kylie is out now via BMG.

London design duo wanted the fact of their participation in this questionable assemblage to remain secret for a long time: almost 25 years. ”It’s only recently that we’ve started telling people, now that Kylie’s got cult status,” Thelma Speirs told the UK’s Telegraph in 2013. Kylie wasn’t actually the first PWL artist to rock the hair hat for cover art; that distinction goes to English sisterly duo Mel and Kim, who nailed the look for their 1987 single FLM (see: right).

Kylie chuckles as she recreates her debut album cover, 2012

20 DECEMBER 2023

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