'Word is Out', despite being the first single from a new era, became Kylie's first underperformance, breaking a record-breaking string of 13 Top 10 hits from debut when it stalled at #16. In fact, it was the worst peaking single of the era, with follow-up singles reaching #4, #2 and #11.

 

What went wrong with this single? Was it the wrong choice of lead - what would have been a better choice?

Personally I love it but I don’t think the video and the negative press round it helped.

 

Also while I’m a fan of it I totally appreciate it is not a stand out strong single but then there weren’t that many options on the album eventhough I think it’s under appreciated.

"Word Is Out" has never been one of my personal fave Kylie tracks, but it has grown on me a bit more over the last couple of years, but in my opinion it wasn't a strong lead single choice & felt like a big step backwards when compared to her 'ROL' era. However the reason why I think it under-performed was well a number of reasons, firstly I think that her bubble had burst at this point & her career with PWL had become stale, as even the album itself didn't really flow that well consistantly & they didn't know where to take her sound to next.

Also Kylie had already scored a record breaking 13 top 10 hits in a row before this & was never gonna keep that momentum going forever & whether you like it or not, she weren't gonna have ta continuous run of top 10 hits forever. Although she would beat this record in the 00's with 16. Even though the 'ROL' album was great, it did mark a downward spiral in sales & this continued that downward trend. Also the song's negative reception didn't help either, as well as the music video which alienated her teen fanbase, coupled with the fact that PWL was also in major decline as-well.

Upon its release the song entered the UK charts at #18 which was the highest new entry of that week & only climbed up 2 places in its 2nd week, feeling very much overshadowed by the other big hits above it such as 'Bryan Adams - Everything I Do', 'Right Said Fred - I'm Too Sexy', 'The Prodigy - Charly', 'Zoe - Sunshine On A Rainy Day', 'Prince - Get Off'' & 'Salt N' Pepa - Let's Talk About Sex' were all dominating the top 10 that week & Kylie sadly fell by the wayside.

As for what would have been better lead single choices, I would gone for 'Too Much of A Good Thing', which may have suffered a similar fate, but personally find it a far better song & could have picked up more momentum than 'WIO' with something more fresh & hip at the time. Or even 'Right Here Right Now' which has great thumping dance beats that felt like a better turning point from her previous album.

Word is out is quite a change of direction compared to the rhythm of love singles. It’s a bit more funky and was released at a time when Kylie’s popularity started to wane. It’s a credible song but it’s not as strong as most of her previous hits. It’s hard to know what would have done well as let’s get to it as sn album carried a very different style overall to the earlier albums.

 

 

It was a huge change of direction and wasnt standout enough, when released i liked it but didnt love it and was so disappointed by its chart position and chart run but i have to say in more recent years i have really grown to like it more and appreciate it. Going by the success of follow up singles maybe give me just a little more time would have made a better lead as it did do well but i think word is out was one of those songs that had to be a lead single or not a single at all.

I like the song a lot, but I guess she was naturally starting to fall out of favour with gradually diminishing returns and really misjudged what the public wanted from her with this.

 

Still, a lead single should not have missed the top 10 after 13 consecutive top 10 hits since your career started!

Quite simply she moved to fast for her audience - we were still loving the PWL bubble gum pop at the time so WIO felt like a HUGE change in direction at the time.

Edited October 15, 20213 yr by ___∆___

Everything changed drastically with word is out and it was another move by kylie to move away from bubble gum pop,, problem was pwl were waiting with delivering bubblegum pop at that time which would have affected kylie so in many ways it all worked out for the best.

I remember being really unsure of Word is Out at the time. When she had clobbered us with the 4 brilliant singles from Rhythm of Love, WIO just seemed a step too far away from what was wanted or expected. She did similar years later when she released 2 Hearts and it was just too far removed from Fever and Body Language for the public to accept it that much.

 

I agree it was the kind of song that was a lead or nothing at all.

 

I would have loved to see Too Much of a Good Thing given a chance as a single, but also agree that Give Me Just A Little More Time was probably her best bet for a major hit as a lead from the Let's Get To It album, though I wasn't that keen on that either.

It's one of the stronger moments on the album, but that isn't really high praise given the album is just not very good imo. 'Finer Feelings' is the clear highlight, the only song really worth returning to for me and I wonder how it would've done as the lead single instead?

I much prefer word is out to finer feelings, hard to know how finer feelings would have done as lead.

Now Finer Feelings was my favourite single from the album.

 

But wasn't the single version a remix by Brothers In Rhythm? If it has been the lead, I would imagine it would have been in it's original form, which was not as good.

As people are mentioning 'Finer Feelings', funnily enough it was planned as the 2nd single, but coz 'Word Is Out' underperformed, it was pushed aside in favor of 'If You Were With Me Now' & 'Give Me Just A Little More Time' - which I can see why as they were safter options which worked out given as they both returned Kylie to the top 5. Given the general public didn't take to 'WIO', then 'Finer Feelings' would have probably suffered the same fate or worse if iit was released as the follow up, It seemed that people weren't ready or keen on Kylie's more mature & different at the time.

Supposedly If you were with me now was only chosen as the 2nd single due to radio stations positive reactions to it when the album was released.

 

Explains the high airplay position, I think it is one of her highest with PWL also -

 

30-8-4-6-22-26-41-41-41-41

Edited October 15, 20213 yr by Dannyboy

I know its not popular here but I really like if you were with me now and totally see why the radio stations reacted so positively to it.

I'm really thinking 'Right Here, Right Now' could have been a good choice (with a satisfactory radio edit), it's stronger than 'Word is Out' on paper and not that far removed from the Rhythm of Love sound.

 

I will agree the album is not great though. It has its fans, but for me it's honestly my least favourite Kylie studio album. But like with Kiss Me Once, it has a few gems amongst the rubble.

#16 must have come as a huge shock for Kylie, PWL and the fans at that time! Particularly given that it was the lead of a new album - on paper, that really shouldn't have happened to her. The general public must have been very turned off, but it seems that even her dedicated fanbase turned their noses up at this one.

 

I actually quite like it :lol: It's not a song I go back to regularly, but whenever I do give it a play I find enjoyment in it. I don't think it deserved to flop. Away from the music, I love the artwork for it - surely the consensus must be that it's one of the best artworks from the PWL days? Most of those covers are pretty bad. :kink:

 

https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singl.../19910908/7501/ There's quite a few singles above it in the Top 15 that I haven't heard (I know 6 of them). Do any of you know more, and do you think most of these singles were worthier of being higher up in the chart?

 

It's interesting to read the opinions of fans who were conscious of it at the time, because I was far too young (only 3 :kink: ) so I don't have that context to truly understand what the mood was like towards Kylie at that stage. Does anyone remember if she heavily promoted it, or was it relatively lowkey for her?

 

It's interesting that after this blip, it was back to business as usual for her with the following two singles reaching #4 and #2... but didn't particularly help out the album. Oddly Let's Get to It fell 21 places to #48 in the week that If You Were With Me Now peaked at #4. Then it was only #50 in the same week that Give Me Just a Little More Time was #2... and given this was January, that must have been pretty low sales for the album.

I remember the entire top 20 from back then. Strangely enough, my favorite four songs are in a row from 16 to 19.

 

Of course Arnee and the Terminaters' "I'll Be Back" is odd today, but those were the times back in 1991. It's hard to imagine six songs being weaker so that "Word Is Out" could have been top 10.

 

Comparing both PWL songs of that chart week Jason Donovan's "Happy Together" version was much nicer, while Kylie seemed too sexy, maybe a bit out of control back then.

I remember 11 of the 15 songs above her and some of the songs in there are songs I still like today. I don’t think it was an issue with competition, I just don’t think the song connected with people and wasn’t as instant as all her previous songs were.

 

Also PWL probably didn’t push at as much as they should have as they probably assumed it would automatically do well as all her previous songs had.

One of me fave songs from this era huns

 

Love prossie Kylie

 

Just Carol Honey :heart: