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"The Loco-Motion" (or "Locomotion") is a 1962 pop song written by American songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carole King, that was re-covered by the Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue in July 1987 as her debut single, under the title "Locomotion". After an impromptu performance of the song at an Australian rules football charity event with the cast of the Australian soap opera Neighbours, Minogue signed a record deal with Mushroom Records to release the song as a single. Initially recorded in a big band style, the project was radically reoriented by producer Mike Duffy, who was on loan to Mushroom from Pete Waterman's UK company PWL. Duffy recorded a whole new backing track, inspired by the hi-NRG pop of Dead or Alive, but retained Minogue's original vocal. This version was released on July 13, 1987, in Australia, where it became one of the biggest selling Australian records of the 1980s. It was later released the same year in New Zealand, Italy, and Sweden.
Originally, "The Loco-Motion" was originally written for R&B singer Dee Dee Sharp, but Sharp turned the song down. "Loco-Motion" is an enduring example of the dance-song genre; much of the lyric is devoted to a description of the dance itself, usually performed as a type of line dance. However, the song pre-dates the dance.
The success of the cover in her home country resulted in Minogue's signing a record deal with PWL Records in London and to working with the successful team Stock Aitken & Waterman (SAW). The producers decided to totally re-record Minogue's version of the song, with Pete Waterman slating her original Australian recording, which he claimed was poorly produced. Original producer Mike Duffy instead blamed the decision to re-record on Waterman's alleged wish to claim the prestige and royalties that looked set to roll in from the track's looming placement of the soundtrack of the 1988 film Arthur 2: On the Rocks, starring Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli. On July 28, 1988, the re-recorded version produced by SAW was released worldwide with the title "The Loco-Motion". This release, also a major success, reached the top five in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States; in this last country, Minogue made history being the last recording artist of the song that appears in the American Top 3 thrice, each time in a different decade: Little Eva (in 1962) and Grand Funk Railroad (in 1974) peaked at number one, and in 1988, Minogue appears in the third position with the song in the Billboard Hot 100. The Minogue's version of the track substitutes the Australian term "railway" for the American term "railroad" in the song's lyrics.
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