On the seventh day of SAWmas!, the DJ played for me….
Every Day’s Like Christmas (A Stock Aitken Waterman Remix) – Kylie Minogue
Ever since Stock & Waterman parted ways in 1993, fans have hoped that Mike, Matt and Pete would reunite to make music. Sure, Stock & Aitken did team up again in 1994 in a successful partnership which lasted until the early 2000s, whilst Waterman found new partners to work with and also enjoyed success. However, court cases and public spats over the years suggested that relations (on a business level at least) between the two factions were strained.
There was a glimmer of hope when the trio came together in 2005 to publicise the Stock Aitken Waterman Gold collection, with the three talking about making a comeback. Alas, this promise did not reach full fruition; Aitken abstained, leaving Stock & Waterman to team up on a one-off single for girl band The Sheilas (and, latterly, the 2010 UK Eurovision entry).
But December 2015 saw fans get the Christmas present they had been waiting for.
And, even better, it was all thanks to Kylie Minogue.
Minogue had been working on material for a Christmas album, Kylie Christmas, for release in late 2015. She had been working with various collaborators, including Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin.
In an interesting move, Coldplay had hooked up with hit Norwegian record production team Stargate (comprising Mikkel Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen) to create the band’s seventh album A Head Full of Stars in 2015.
It would appear that this collaboration led to Martin, Eriksen and Hermansen writing a Christmas song for Kylie Christmas. As per modern recording technology, Stargate produced the original track, with longtime Kylie collaborator Steve Anderson recording and producing the lead vocal track.
The resultant track, Every Day’s Like Christmas, is an atmospheric mid-tempo ballad, and was singled out as one of the highlights of the album, thus marking it out as a candidate as Kylie’s Christmas single.
However, no-one expected that Kylie and her record label Parlophone had approached Pete Waterman to ask if he, Mike Stock and Matt Aitken would come together again to remix the track in the trademark style.
The original triumvirate had not made a record together for 24 years, and whilst Stock & Waterman had collaborated in the meantime, the prospect of all three working together again had seemed unlikely.
But Mike, Matt and Pete agreed to reunite to work on this Kylie project; the brief was that the SAW version should be “dead retro” with “nothing modern”.
The full title of the release is Every Day’s Like Christmas (A Stock Aitken Waterman Remix) but the use of the word “remix” is misleading. Stock asserts that SAW did not merely remix the track; this was a new production with a new arrangement and instrumentation. It was Parlophone which stipulated that the track was credited as a SAW remix rather than a SAW production.
Certainly, comparing the SAW version with the original Stargate version, it is clear that this is not simply a remix; it would appear that all that was retained from the Stargate production were Kylie’s vocals and Chris Martin’s whistling motif. For one thing, the SAW version is faster, with a new drum and percussion track (courtesy of A Linn!), a throbbing DX7 bass, Stock’s synth pads and strings, plus Aitken’s distinctive guitar. Backing vocals were provided by Kirsten Joy and Mike Stock.
This arrangement and production really lifts the song and takes it in a different direction to the Stargate version; the Norwegian producers, it is fair to say, did a lovely job on the original’s contemplative vibe, but SAW bring a real sense of Christmas joy to proceedings.
The recording took place at Stock’s own MPG Studio. It’s not clear how the three worked together; the credits suggest that Stock took the lead on pre-production, keyboards and programming work, with Aitken only credited for guitar. That’s not to say that Aitken did not have any further input into the arrangement and production, and one would expect all three partners to have the final say on the end product.
One thing is clear; whilst Stock’s studio is state of the art, SAW did use some vintage equipment on this project, including a Yamaha DX7 synth, a Roland D-550 synth and a Linn Drum 9000 drum machine. Today’s Sound, Yesterday’s Technology, if you like!
Stock’s team at MPG filmed parts of the session and released a short video on social media – this showed Stock and Aitken working together in the studio, and it was a real thrill for fans to see the pair collaborating again. And whilst Waterman does not appear to have been at that session, it was even better to know that all three had reunited for this unique project.
And the icing on the cake was that the track was mixed by longtime SAW/PWL mix engineer and producer Dave Ford (who had been doing mix work at that time for Stock’s solo productions). Ford is a skilled mix engineer who brings out the best in the material and that is the case here – it’s a terrific mix that shows off the old SAW sound in a new way.
And a new way is correct: whilst the track clearly has the SAW DNA stamped right through it, it doesn’t quite sound like it is from 1988 – and actually I mean that as a compliment. What SAW achieved with this track was to knit various elements of their signature sound together, but give it an up-to-date slant. In that sense, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts – it sounds retro and modern at the same time.
SAW and Mike Stock expert Paul Smith advises that, whilst Parlophone did not request a 12” mix, Dave Ford completed an extended version as “good housekeeping” at SAW’s request; this mix became known, winningly and accurately, as The Three Wise Men Extended Version! Whilst a clip of this mix can be heard on the behind the scenes video of Mike Stock’s Facebook page, it frustratingly remains unreleased. Now that Minogue has now left Parlophone, there is probably no great impetus for this extended version to be released anytime soon – but hopefully it will surface at some point.
In the run up to release, there was little signal that the SAW reunion had happened, until a few days before when Stock hinted that there was big news coming up, culminating with him posting an old SAW pic as his Facebook profile pic the night before the news broke.
The track itself got its first play on 2 December 2015 and was immediately released on digital download and streaming formats. This unexpected SAW reunion received a warm reception, and this positive feedback far outweighed any naysayers.
The press release quoted Waterman as saying that “I wasn’t sure Chris Martin and Stock Aitken Waterman would be easy bedfellows but he said it was fine”. And indeed Martin was fine with it… although it appears he only found out about after the event when Cameron Adams of News Corp Australia Network informed him in an interview (published on 24 December 2015):
Cameron Adams: Everyone’s worried about Guns N’Roses and Oasis reforming and you’ve played a part in Stock Aitken Waterman reforming, congratulations
Chris Martin: What are you talking about?
Cameron Adams: Stock Aitken Waterman have reunited to remix the Christmas song you wrote for Kylie Minogue, Every Day’s Like Christmas
Chris Martin: Is this a joke?
Cameron Adams: Nope.
Chris Martin: I don’t think you’re being serious. Stock Aitken Waterman have remixed that Kylie song? No way! That’s great if it’s true!
Whilst it may have been news to Martin, the news of the Stock Aitken Waterman & Kylie reunion was fairly well publicised in TV, radio and press. Many UK newspapers ran articles on the project, whilst Stock and Waterman teamed up to carry out promotional duties for the release, including items on ITV News and Channel 5 News.
Aitken was unavailable for this promo, and fans would have to wait until 2016 to see all three together at the same time, when Mike, Matt and Pete were interviewed together in the Sky Arts Masters of Pop documentary. (They had also made another joint appearance on stage with Jason Donovan at the latter’s London gig in 2016).
All three apparently enjoyed the experience of reuniting for this project, and whilst they indicated that they’d be keen to work together again, they avoided making a firmer commitment as they did at the time of the SAW Gold release. (Stock and Waterman did of course reunite, but not Aitken).
As the official line goes, Stock Aitken Waterman would consider working together again if the right project came along, rather than on an ongoing basis. Of course, this makes sense; whilst all three are now in their 60s, they are pursuing their own interests inside and outside of music (Stock is the only member still actively writing and producing) and the music industry is a very different beast these days.
That said, many fans find the possibility of further collaboration hugely tantalising, and if SAW fans have learned anything over the past 30 years, never rule anything out when it comes to Mike, Matt and Pete!
In the meantime, we fans have a rich legacy of music to enjoy, and hopefully you have enjoyed this look back at the Christmas output of Stock Aitken Waterman.
Check back on 27 December 2017 for a special Kean Canter Mattowski Christmas treat: TWO new articles about EMI Records’ 1985 act Spelt Like This and their collaboration with SAW. One is my in-depth overview of the band’s time with SAW, whilst the second article is a lengthy and detailed first person account of the entire Spelt Like This story from the band’s lead singer and songwriter Alin Karna.
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