Put the Needle on It

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“Put the Needle on It”
Single by Dannii Minogue from the album Neon Nights
Released	November 4, 2002
Format	CD single, Digital download, Vinyl single, Cassette single
Genre	Pop, Dance, Dance-Pop, Disco
Length	3:23
Label	London, Warner Music UK, Ultra
Writer(s)	Dannii Minogue, Henrik Korpi, Mathias Johansson, Karen Poole
Producer	Korpi & Blackcell
Certification	Gold (ARIA)
Dannii Minogue singles chronology
"Who Do You Love Now?" (2001) "Put the Needle on It" (2002) "I Begin to Wonder" (2003) Alternate covers Alternate UK CD Single Cover

"Put the Needle on It" is a pop song written by Dannii Minogue, Henrik Korpi, Mathias Johansson and Karen Poole for Minogue's 2003 album Neon Nights. The song is the album's opening track, and was released as its second single in November 2002. The single reached the top twenty in multiple countries, and topped the club charts in the United Kingdom, selling in excess of 60,000 copies.^[1] In February 2003, it was certified gold in Australia.^[1]

"Put the Needle on It" received mixed reviews from music critics, and its musical style was compared to American pop singer Madonna.^[2] Its music video, directed by Mikka Lomm, features Minogue in a studio surrounded with colorful neon lights and spinning on a human-sized record player.^[3]

[edit] Background and writing

In 2002, Minogue began writing and recording material with Henrik Korpi, Mathias Johansson and previous collaborator Karen Poole in Stockholm, Sweden. During one of their sessions, they penned "Put the Record on It", a song about sex.^[4] Minogue was determined to compose a dance music song to thank the British DJs who had accepted her into the dance genre following the success of her single "Who Do You Love Now?" the previous year.^[5] In the United Kingdom, it is difficult for artists to be accepted into the dance music scene because DJs are not "interested in pop artists calling themselves dance artists because they've done one remix of their song."^[5]

"Put the Needle on It" is a mid-tempo 1980s inspired disco song "about sex disguised as a pop ditty about a record player".^[4] The song was composed as a collaborative effort between Korpi, Johansson, Poole and Minogue, although Minogue contributed most of the lyrics.^[6] The song is written in the common verse-chorus form and features instrumentation from keyboards and synthesizers.^[7]

[edit] Critical reception

"Put the Needle on It" received mixed reviews from contemporary pop music critics. Cristín Leach of RTÉ Entertainment compared the song's musical style to American pop singer Madonna,^[2] while Amazon.com's David Trueman wrote that the song "utilises the funkier end of 1980s disco, with a contemporary edge that removes the cheese and dispels any notion that [Minogue] may be hanging on the coattails of her big sister (Kylie Minogue)".^[7] MusicOMH.com called the track a "slow but inevitable grower" which "shows that Dannii's dark song-writing powers can compete right at the top of the charts".^[8]

[edit] Music video

The music video featured Minogue in a colorful digital room.

"Put the Needle on It" featured a futuristic music video that was directed by Miikka Lommi in 2002.^[3] The video features Minogue in a studio surrounded with colorful neon lights and spinning on a human-sized record player. The video begins with a close-up on a television screen showing only Minogue's lips, singing the opening lines to the song. A large, human-sized record player is then shown, surrounded by large video screens repeating the opening scene of the video. Minogue, wearing a short black dress and a cropped hair cut, is then shown in a digital room, surrounded by many lights and occasionally four digital dancers. The final sequence of the video features Minogue in a purple dress, spinning on the large record player introduced at the beginning of the video. As the video concludes, all of the scenes are intercut and gradually fade.

A remix version of the music video was also created using the Jason Nevins "Club Creation Edit" of the song. The remix video used only the scenes of Minogue in the digital room and spinning around on the record player, but they are arranged in a different order than how they appear in the original video. The music video was released commercially on The Hits & Beyond special edition companion DVD, released in June 2006.

[edit] Chart performance

"Put the Needle on It" was released in the United Kingdom and Ireland on November 4, 2002. It reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart and number one on the Upfront Club Chart, becoming Minogue's fifth song to do so.^[1] Across Europe, the track performed moderately well, reaching the top twenty in the Netherlands and Ireland.^[9][10]

In Australia, "Put the Needle on It" peaked at number eleven on the singles chart.^[11] In February 2003, the song was certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association.^[12] On the ARIA end of year chart for 2003, the track charted at number eleven on the Dance Singles chart^[13] and at number eighteen on the Top Australian Singles chart.^[14]

[edit] Formats and track listings

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Put the Needle on It".

[edit] Charts

[edit] Notes