Single Of The Week is where I review a single I'm particularly enamoured of at the moment. It might be a brand spanking new release, or a classic from decades past that I just feel like going on about.

GET READY Carol Hitchcock Mushroom K-249

The names Stock-Aitken-Waterman have become associated with a handful of recording artists: Bananarama, Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Rick Astley. It's easy to forget that even in the surge of their late 80s success (which has continued in varied combinations and to a lesser degree to the present day) they churned out the occasional dud (in chart terms; I leave the judgemental discussion for another day).

One such record was Carol Hitchcock's 1987 release 'Get Ready', a cover of the Temptations classic (written by Smokey Robinson) in typical synth-thumping style. Despite bearing all the trademarks of an SAW smash and with Carol having a striking bald nonce to boot (which had already been put to good effect in Icehouse's 'Mr Big' video), it didn't do much better than Top 40 in either the UK or Australia, and Ms Hitchcock was consigned to the dump bins of history. This probably wasn't the greatest SAW record ever (my frontrunner nomination would be Bananarama's 'Love In The First Degree'), but it certainly wasn't the worst, and I'm happy to listen to it most anytime. Incidentally, the B-side is 'More Than Words Can Say', an SAW composition that was later resurrected for Mel & Kim's FLM album.

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