Mel and Kim

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Melanie and Kimberly Appleby sporting their trademark 'spiky' hairstyles - 1987
Melanie and Kimberly Appleby sporting their trademark 'spiky' hairstyles - 1987

Mel and Kim were an English musical act that achieved success in the late 1980s.

Sisters Melanie (July 11, 1966 - January 18, 1990) and Kim Appleby (born August 28, 1961) were noticed dancing in a nightclub in their native London and signed to a recording contract with Supreme Records under the guidance of production team Stock Aitken Waterman in 1985, and began releasing records under the name of Mel & Kim.

"Mel and Kim" (1986) Mel & Kim in the video for their debut 1986 hit single "Showing Out (Get Fresh At The Weekend)".
"Mel and Kim" (1986) Mel & Kim in the video for their debut 1986 hit single "Showing Out (Get Fresh At The Weekend)".

"System" was intended as their first single, but they and the producers were unhappy with it, and it became the "B-side" of their first single "Showing Out (Get Fresh At The Weekend)" which reached number three on the British charts and became a minor hit in the USA. Their next single "Respectable" reached number one in Britain and became one of the year's biggest hits. They became well known celebrities, particularly in Britain, and were known for their visual style which combined urban street wear with high fashion; prior to their music career Mel had worked as a fashion model.

Subsequent hits followed, but the sisters were eclipsed by two new Stock Aitken Waterman acts, Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley, who became the production team's major focus in 1988. Mel, a former glamour model, began to withdraw from publicity in mid 1987 (the videos for "FLM" and "That's the Way It Is" comprised of collages of older footage), claiming to have suffered a debilitating back injury. While the media speculated that she was terminally ill, both sisters categorically denied this. Mel was suffering from cancer of the spine, after having previously undergone surgery for a tumour on her liver in December 1985, prior to the duo's rise to fame. She died of pneumonia, her immune system weakened by chemotherapy.


With the aid of her boyfriend, ex-Bros bassist Craig Logan, Kim launched a solo career with much of her debut solo album comprised of songs cowritten with Mel, for what was intended to be the next "Mel and Kim" album. Her debut single "Don't Worry" reached number two on the British charts in November 1990. Her popularity quickly faded and by the end of 1991 her career as a pop star was over.

"Mel and Kim" (1986-1988) A selection of record/cd covers from Mel & Kim's short but successful discography.
"Mel and Kim" (1986-1988) A selection of record/cd covers from Mel & Kim's short but successful discography.

Contents

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

  • 1987 F.L.M. (#3 UK, #2 Australia) (Sales: 3mil.)

[edit] Singles

  • 1986 "Showing Out" (#3 UK, #1 Germany, #78 US 1987, #12 Australia)
  • 1987 "Respectable" (#1 UK, #1 Germany, #1 US Hot Dance Music/Club Play, #1 Australia)
  • 1987 "F.L.M." (#7 UK, #17 Germany, #19 Australia)
  • 1988 "That's The Way It Is" (#10 UK, #18 Germany, #28 Australia)
  • 1988 "More Than Words Can Say" (Swedish Only Single - chart position unknown)
  • 1988 "I'm the One Who Really Loves You" (#11 US Hot Dance Music/Club Play)
  • 1990 "Megamix:ninety"

[edit] Compilations

  • 1988 The 12" Tape (Australian only 5-track cassette of mixes)
  • 1989 Something Special
  • 1989 Mixed (Japanese promo LP & CD)
  • 1996 The Best Of
  • 2001 Thats the Way It Is - The Best Of
  • 2002 F.L.M. (Re-issue in Holland including some of Kim's solo tracks)

[edit] Songs Recorded by Mel & Kim

  • Showing Out (Get Fresh At The Weekend) (single)
  • Respectable (single)
  • F.L.M. (single)
  • That's The Way It Is (single)
  • Feel A Whole Lot Better (called "Whatever It Is" in USA)
  • I'm The One Who Really Loves You (US promo DJ single)
  • More Than Words Can Say (Scandinavian single)
  • System
  • From A Whisper To A Scream
  • Who's Gonna Catch You? (When You Fall)
  • You Changed My Life (b-side/bonus track)
  • Over To You (unreleased)

[edit] Trivia

  • The sisters were discovered dancing in a London club by producer Steve Rowland. They auditioned outside on the pavement.
  • Mel used to be a glamour/fashion model often doing topless photoshoots for magazines.
  • Mel was expelled from one of her schools for hitting the headmaster.
  • The sisters used to work at a clothing factory when they left school.
  • Their parents split up in 1976 and the girls and their mother shared a mattress in a room at a hostel on the Old Kent Road of London.
  • "System" was intended as the first single. It was the first track the sisters recorded at PWL but Pete Waterman didn't consider it funky enough so they recorded "Showing Out (Get Fresh At The Weekend)", released it as the first single and "System" appeared as the b-side with a remix on the 12" format.
  • "F.L.M" actually means "fuckin' lovely mate!!". The track refers to the initials of the songs title as "fun, love and money" but this was for censorship's sake. Whilst recording the track the girls and the engineers and producers in the studio had a favourite saying of "fuckin' lovely mate!!", which is where the term "F.L.M." came from and how the song was born.
  • Early editions of the "F.L.M." album include a different version of "I'm The One Who Really Loves You" with backing vocals by some session singers whereas later editions use a version which replaces those vocals with Mel and Kim's own backing vocals.
  • On the US edition of the "F.L.M." album the song "Feel A Whole Lot Better" is retitled to "Whatever It Is" and "Who's Gonna Catch You?" has its title lengthened to "Who's Gonna Catch You (When You Fall)?".
  • The trademark hats that the girls were so famous for wearing came about by accident. During the launch party for the duo by Supreme Records the girls decided to wear hats. Everybody loved the look so it was kept and became their trademark.
  • The video clips for the girls final two singles didn't feature new footage of the girls, due to Mel's illness. F.L.M. used some puppets of the girls dancing in the office of an actor playing a journalist and featuring shots of the sisters performing live before Mel became ill being projected on the wall of the office in the video. The video for the final single That's The Way it Is featured a group of dancers with no footage of the girls.
  • The majority of the tracks on Kim's first solo album Kim Appleby (released on Parlophone Records in 1990) were co-written with Mel and originally intended for the 2nd Mel and Kim album, which unfortunately was never recorded due to the death of Mel.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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