Got to Be Certain

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1988 single by Kylie Minogue

title: "Got to Be Certain" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1988-singles", "1988-songs", "kylie-minogue-songs", "mushroom-records-singles", "number-one-singles-in-australia", "pete-waterman-entertainment-singles", "song-recordings-produced-by-stock-aitken-waterman", "songs-written-by-matt-aitken", "songs-written-by-mike-stock-(musician)", "songs-written-by-pete-waterman", "uk-independent-singles-chart-number-one-singles"] description: "1988 single by Kylie Minogue" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Got_to_Be_Certain" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary 1988 single by Kylie Minogue ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox song"]

FieldValue
nameGot to Be Certain
coverKylieGotToBeCertainCover1.png
typesingle
artistKylie Minogue
albumKylie
released
studioRBX (Melbourne, Australia)
genre* Pop
* dance-pop<ref name"INTO"
length
label* Mushroom
writer* Mike Stock
producerStock Aitken Waterman
prev_titleI Should Be So Lucky
prev_year1987
next_titleThe Loco-Motion
next_year1988
misc
::

| name = Got to Be Certain | cover = KylieGotToBeCertainCover1.png | alt = | type = single | artist = Kylie Minogue | album = Kylie | released = | recorded = | studio = RBX (Melbourne, Australia) | genre = * Pop

"Got to Be Certain" is a song by Australian singer Kylie Minogue from her debut studio album, Kylie (1988). Written and produced by English songwriting and record production trio Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW), the song was released as the second single from Kylie in most territories outside Australia, and was released on 2 May 1988 in Australia and the United Kingdom. In Australia, "Got to Be Certain" was Minogue's third single release. "Got to Be Certain" was a commercial success, peaking at number one in Minogue's native Australia and number two on the UK Singles Chart.

Background and composition

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Kylie_-Anti_Tour-Manchester_Academy-02.04.12.-(17)(6965730200)_(cropped).jpg" caption="Minogue performing the track on her [[Anti Tour]] (2012)"] ::

With the success of her first two singles, "Locomotion" in 1987 and "I Should Be So Lucky" in early 1988, Minogue began work on her debut studio album Kylie. Initially declining to work with Stock, Aitken and Waterman again after feeling snubbed and disrespected when the producers kept her waiting to record "I Should Be So Lucky", Minogue was convinced to give the trio a second chance after Mike Stock flew to her native Melbourne, Australia in February 1988 and personally apologised to her and her family.

The track, along with two other album tracks, and future international singles "Turn It into Love" and "It's No Secret", was recorded in evening sessions while Minogue was working long hours on her TV show, Neighbours, with an exhausted Minogue at times breaking down in tears as the pressure of her situation mounted.

"Got to Be Certain" was not written especially for Minogue; it was first recorded by singer and PWL stablemate Mandy Smith for her debut album Mandy which was also produced by Stock Aitken Waterman. However, her version was shelved and the song was released by Minogue instead after Pete Waterman decided to abandon Smith's version amid general unhappiness at PWL over how the track was progressing. Smith's original recording of "Got to Be Certain" was denied by Mike Stock in his book The Hit Factory: The Stock Aitken Waterman Story, but it was eventually released in 2005 as a bonus track on the hits compilation Stock Aitken Waterman Gold. Smith's version was also added to the 2009 re-issue of her album.

Music video

The music video for "Got to Be Certain" was directed by Chris Langman and filmed in April 1988. The video was filmed in Melbourne, Australia. A number of different edits of the video were produced amid creative tensions between the Mushroom Records team and PWL staff, with the latter strongly objecting to one of Kylie's hairstyles in the video's original cut. The director's cut version of the video starts off with Minogue at a photoshoot, posing in different poses. It then cuts to Minogue sitting in a coffee-house during the verses, then shows her on top of the T&G (now KPMG) Building on Melbourne's Collins Street during the bridge, wearing a "black boat-neck dress, white teeth gleaming, hair a perfect honey blonde and skin as gold as the coins that were piling in". Each of the first two choruses features Minogue walking around Melbourne's Yarra River and then walking through a park. The breakdown cuts to Minogue and her friends dancing around the coffee house, before the video ends with bloopers from the video shoot. This director's cut version is preserved on the 1988 The Kylie Collection VHS and LaserDisc and the 2002 Greatest Hits DVD.

There are two other official versions of the music video. The "Original Version" begins with bloopers from the video shoot and features scenes of Minogue in an artist's studio rather than a photoshoot, wearing a skin-tight red T-shirt dress with a pin bearing the work "amour". It then eventually features Minogue on a carousel that apparently "hadn't been oiled since Kylie was born". The "Location Only" version, introduced on the 1992 Greatest Hits VHS and LaserDisc, is again a different edit with only the outdoor shots. Both versions were made available as extras on the 2002 Greatest Hits DVD. The video edit featured on the 2004 Ultimate Kylie DVD combines the first half and blooper ending of the director's cut with most of the second half of the "Location Only" version for unknown reasons.

Critical reception

When reviewing the new singles, Chris Twomey of Record Mirror predicted the commercial success of "Got to Be Certain", noting that "[Minogue's] song (for want of a more accurate term) proves that they're still churning'em out relentlessly down at the SAW factory". Richard Lowe of Smash Hits elected "Got to Be Certain" as the "single of the fortnight", and while acknowledging that the track, as every SAW single, would be very diversely appreciated among the people, deemed that the half of them "will consider the rather-goodness of the tune" and predicted its "quite right" success on the charts. In 2019, James Masterton wrote that "Got to Be Certain" was "a gentler and perhaps easier on the ear pop record" than "I Should Be So Lucky", although it remains most forgetten. In 2023, Robert Moran of Australian daily tabloid newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald ranked the song as Minogue's 53rd best song (out of 183), describing it "a swinging singalong track".

Chart performance

On 2 May 1988, "Got to Be Certain" was released in the United Kingdom. The song became Minogue's second top five hit when it debuted at number fifteen on the singles chart before climbing the chart in the weeks that followed, peaking at number two and remaining there for three weeks. It eventually sold 315,000 copies. Outside of the UK, the song was also widely successful. The single sold 17,227 copies in Sweden at the time. In New Zealand, it peaked at number two and stayed in the charts for 14 weeks, making it her most successful single in the country at that time. In Australia, "Got to Be Certain" was released on 7-inch and 12-inch vinyl on 20 June 1988, and the remix 12" was released on 25 July 1988. It became the second single ever to debut on the Australian singles chart at number one, remaining in the top spot for three weeks from July 4, 1988 (ARIA).

Live performances

"Got to Be Certain" was also performed at many of Minogue's concert tours, including the Enjoy Yourself Tour, Showgirl: The Greatest Hits Tour and The Homecoming Tour. The song was performed at her Anti Tour in 2012, at her Kiss Me Once Tour in 2014 and on Minogue's one-off show The Kylie Show. Minogue performed the song on her Aphrodite: Les Folies Tour.

Formats and track listings

CD single

  1. "Got to Be Certain" (Extended Mix) – 6:36
  2. "I Should Be So Lucky" (Extended Mix) – 6:08
  3. "Got to Be Certain" (Out for a Duck, Bill, Platter Plus Dub Mix – Instrumental) – 3:17

7-inch vinyl single

  1. "Got to Be Certain" – 3:17
  2. "Got to Be Certain" (Out for a Duck, Bill, Platter Plus Dub Mix – Instrumental) – 3:17

12-inch vinyl single

  1. "Got to Be Certain" (Extended Mix) – 6:36
  2. "Got to Be Certain" (Out for a Duck, Bill, Platter Plus Dub Mix – Instrumental) – 3:17
  3. "Got to Be Certain" – 3:17

12-inch remix

  1. "Got to Be Certain" (Ashes to Ashes – The Extra Beat Boys remix) – 6:52
  2. "Got to Be Certain" (Out for a Duck, Bill, Platter Plus Dub Mix – Instrumental) – 3:17
  3. "Got to Be Certain" – 3:17

iTunes digital EP – Remixes (2009)

  1. "Got to Be Certain" - 3:20
  2. "Got to Be Certain" (Extended Mix) 6:37
  3. "Got to Be Certain" (Ashes to Ashes – The Extra Beat Boys remix) - 6:52
  4. "Got to Be Certain" (Out for a Duck, Bill, Platter Plus Dub Mix – Instrumental) - 3:20
  5. "Got to Be Certain" (backing track) - 3:20
  6. "Love at First Sight" (1988 version) (instrumental) - 3:12
  7. "Love at First Sight" (1988 version) (backing track) - 3:12

Charts

Charts

::data[format=table title="1988 weekly chart performance for "Got to Be Certain""] | Chart (1988) | Peak position | Denmark (IFPI) | Europe (European Hot 100 Singles) | Europe (European Airplay Top 50) | Finland (IFPI) | Luxembourg (Radio Luxembourg) | South Africa (Springbok Radio) | UK Dance (Music Week) | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | 7 | | | | | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | | | | | 3 | | | | | | | | | | 1 | | | | | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | | | | | 6 | | | | | | | | | | 1 | | | | | | | | | ::

Year-end charts

::data[format=table title="1988 year-end chart performance for "Got to Be Certain""]

Chart (1988)PositionAustralia (ARIA)Europe (European Hot 100 Singles)New Zealand (RIANZ)UK Singles (OCC)West Germany (Media Control)
18
39
21
21
59
::

Certifications and sales

References

References

  1. (18 May 2018). "For her 50th birthday, we rank Kylie Minogue's 50 best songs".
  2. (28 May 2018). "Fifty Years of Queer Icon Kylie Minogue".
  3. "Australian Music Report No 725 – 20 June 1988 > Singles: New Releases". [[Kent Music Report.
  4. "A Journey Through Stock Aitken Waterman: Ep 34: Mind Over Matter to Maybe (We Should Call It A Day) on Apple Podcasts".
  5. "Got to be Certain | Kylie Minogue".
  6. "A Journey Through Stock Aitken Waterman: Ep 51: Never Too Late to When Love Takes Over You on Apple Podcasts".
  7. Inner lines: Pg 22 – la la la – Written by William Baker and Kylie Minogue "{{ISBN. 0-340-73440-X".
  8. (12 May 2009). "Kylie Minogue - Got to Be Certain [Original Version]".
  9. (7 May 2016). "kylie minogue got to be certain location only hq".
  10. Twoney, Chris. (14 May 1988). "45 reviewed by Chris Twoney". Spotlight Publications Ltd..
  11. Lowe, Richard. (18-31 May 1988). "Singles reviewed by Richard Lowe".
  12. Masterton, James. (2019). "Chart Watch UK - Hits of 1988". Independently Published.
  13. (25 September 2023). "Every Kylie Minogue song ranked". [[The Sydney Morning Herald]].
  14. "Kylie Minogue's Official Number 2 Singles' Sales Revealed".
  15. Steffen Hung. "Kylie Minogue – Got To Be Certain".
  16. "Australian Music Report No 728 – 11 July 1988 > Singles: New Releases".
  17. "Australian Music Report No 730 – 25 July 1988 > Singles: New Releases".
  18. "Kylie Minogue – Got to Be Certain (song)". Hung Medien.
  19. Collinson, Dawn. (2 April 2011). "Concert Review: Kylie Minogue at the MEN Arena". [[Liverpool Echo]].
  20. (May 14, 2019). "Danish Singles Chart for the week of 1 July 1988". [[B.T. (tabloid).
  21. (18 June 1988). "[[European Hot 100 Singles". [[Music & Media]].
  22. (2 July 1988). "European Airplay Top 50".
  23. (18 June 1988). "Top 3 Singles in Europe".
  24. "Radio Luxembourg Singles". umdmusic.com.
  25. "SA Charts 1965–1989 (As presented on Springbok Radio/Radio Orion) – Acts M".
  26. (28 May 1988). "Top Dance Singles".
  27. "ARIA End of Year Singles 1988". [[Australian Recording Industry Association]].
  28. (1 January 1988). "1988 Year End Eurocharts". Music & Media.
  29. "Top Selling Singles of 1988". [[Recorded Music NZ]].
  30. (1991). "BPI YearBook 1989/90". [[British Phonographic Industry]].
  31. "Top 100 Single-Jahrescharts".
  32. "This Week In... 1988". [[Australian Recording Industry Association.
  33. Myers, Justin. (22 March 2014). "Kylie Minogue's Official Number 2 Singles' Sales Revealed". [[Official Charts Company]].

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1988-singles1988-songskylie-minogue-songsmushroom-records-singlesnumber-one-singles-in-australiapete-waterman-entertainment-singlessong-recordings-produced-by-stock-aitken-watermansongs-written-by-matt-aitkensongs-written-by-mike-stock-(musician)songs-written-by-pete-watermanuk-independent-singles-chart-number-one-singles