Pete Waterman is “still sad” his Judas Priest collaboration was never released.
The 77-year-old pop producer – who worked with the likes of Kylie Minogue, Bananarama and Rick Astley as part of production trio Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) – has revealed how “the biggest hit we never had” was an unlikely partnership with the heavy metal icons.
He’s quoted by the Daily Star newspaper’s Wired column as saying: “Management were getting very worried that we would dominate the artist.
“It would be Number One all over the world… but it kills Judas Priest.
“It’s still sad because the whole of the Judas Priest session was amazing.”
Pete and his collaborators Mike Stock, 73, and Matt Aitken, 68, are set to unveil a blue plaque from the Southwark Heritage Association at Vine Yard Studios, where they worked on numerous pop hits.
SAW had early success with Dead or Alive’s ‘You Spin Me Round (Like A Record Player)’ and Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’.
However, they credit a 1987 Kylie Minogue song with transforming their careers.
Pete said: “I was offering ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ [to record labels] for £1,200, when most people were paying £15,000 per track.
“But nobody took it. Nobody. I went to a music conference in America where [they] talked me into putting it out on [my own label] PWL.
“That’s how that came about I didn’t want to do it.”
However, the song became a huge hit, topping the charts in 26 territories, including five weeks at the top of the UK rankings in 1988.
Pete recalled: “No major record company was giving us any work. And suddenly, we’ve got an artist earning a quarter of a million pounds a week.”
The trio continued to work with Kyle, producing hits like ‘Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi’, ‘Hand On Your Heart’ and Jason Donovan duet ‘Especially For You’.