Songoftheday 3/31/16 - My little baby sister can do it with ease, it's easier than learning your A B C's...

"The Loco-Motion" - Kylie Minogue
from the album Kylie (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's song of the day comes from Australia's jewel, Kylie Minogue, who broke through on American shores in the summer of 1988 with her hit single "I Should Be So Lucky". She followed that up in the States with a remade version of her cover song that ruled the Australian and British charts, "The Loco-Motion". Written by legends Carole King and Gerry Goffin, it was first released by newcomer teen (and Carole's babysitter) Little Eva (Boyd) after being passed on by Chubby Checker co-hort Dee Dee Sharp. The single went all the way to #1 on the pop chart in the U.S. and Canada (and #2 in England) in 1962...

A dozen years later, the rock band Grand Funk Railroad did a remake of the song done in a sloppy, rollicking style, and became only the second time that a song would top the Billboard pop chart twice from two different artists...

So it was no big surprise when Kylie took her version of the song yet again to near the top of the charts with her bubbly take on the classic...

This time around, Kylie went to #3 on the American Hot 100, the highest rank she's ever been so far, in November of 1988. The single also climbed to #39 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, and peaked at #12 on their Dance Club Play list. Internationally, the Stock-Aitken-Waterman produced version in 1988 went to #2 for four weeks in the UK, as well as making it to #1 in Canada, Ireland, Belgium, and Finland, #2 in Switzerland, #3 in Germany and Austria, and #5 in France.

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Besides Eva, Grand Funk, and Kylie, many other artists have covered "The Locomotion". In 1962, French vocal star Sylvie Vartan topped the charts in that country with a cover...

Two years before Kylie's hit version, Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin had a minor hit in the UK with their version (#70)...

Kylie has included "The Locomotion" in almost all of her concert tours, re-inventing the track for each go-around, making it one of the highlights of her shows. In her first solo outing in 1990, the Enjoy Yourself tour, he mashed the song up with the breathy club classic "French Kiss"...