"Never Too Late" is a song written and produced by British production team Stock, Aitken and Waterman for Australian singer Kylie Minogue's second studio album, Enjoy Yourself (1989). Released on 23 October 1989, the song peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart (her first not to reach the top three in that country), number one in Ireland, and number 14 in Australia. It was later rerecorded for Minogue's orchestral compilation album, The Abbey Road Sessions, in 2012.
Background and release
Minogue allegedly wanted the album title track "Enjoy Yourself" to be released as the third single from that album, but Pete Waterman overruled her request and "Never Too Late" was released instead on 23 October 1989. Writer Mike Stock says he deliberately composed the song with "old fashioned" lyrical themes, imagining it the style of a 1920s number. Called "Kylie's Smiley Mix", the B-side is a continuous mix of her biggest hits from the Kylie album, and the 12-inch version includes these songs in sequence order: "I'll Still Be Loving You", "It's No Secret", "Je ne sais pas pourquoi", "Turn It into Love", "I Should Be So Lucky", "Got to Be Certain", and the whistle from the beginning of the 1988 mix of "The Loco-Motion". The 7-inch mix contains the above tracks omitting "I'll Still Be Loving You" and "It's No Secret". Remixer Tony King admitted to dissatisfaction with the initial mix, which was created under time pressure with limited resources.
Chart performance
"Never Too Late" debuted at number 17 on the UK Singles Chart on the chart edition of 4 November 1989, then rose to its peak of number four the following week where it stayed for another week. It stayed on the chart for ten weeks, three of them spent in the top ten. It made an appearance on Minogue's Kiss Me Once Tour in 2014. It featured in the "Dollshouse Medley" which featured four songs from her PWL days: "Hand on Your Heart", "Never Too Late", "Got to Be Certain" and "I Should Be So Lucky" respectively. In this segment of the show, Minogue began in a pink shawl and took a layer off at the beginning of each song, before ending in a corset and knickers to sing "I Should Be So Lucky" in a bath, alluding to a scene in the song's music video. More recently, it is performed on her Summer 2019 Tour.
Track listings
CD single
- "Never Too Late" – 3:21
- "Never Too Late" (extended) – 6:11
- "Kylie's Smiley Mix" (extended) – 6:17
7-inch single
|11
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!scope="row"|Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)
|align="center"|27
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!scope="row"|Luxembourg (Radio Luxembourg)
|align="center"|2
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!scope="row"|Spain (AFYVE)
|11
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!scope="row"|UK Dance (Music Week)
|align="center"|23
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Year-end charts
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
!Chart (1989)
!Position
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!scope="row"| Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)
|88
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!scope="row"|UK Singles (OCC)
|74
|}