Never Too Late (Kylie Minogue song)

Background

Kylie wanted the album title track as the third single, but Pete Waterman overruled her request and "Never Too Late" was released instead in the fall of 1989 (see 1989 in music). Although debuting at number seventeen due to the delayed release of the 12" single, the song became an instant hit, peaking at number four. Its low debut broke Minogue's impressive run of seven consecutive top two hits, but became her eighth consecutive top five hit single.

B-side

Called "Kylie's Smiley Mix", was a continuous mix of her biggest hits from the Kylie album and the 12" version included 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" mix contained the above tracks omitting "I'll Still Be Loving You" and "It's No Secret".

Music video

Directed by Pete Cornish. The video showed Minogue in various costumes with her dancers in front of various backdrops – some of the costumes are as a cowgirl, '70s disco, Chinese dress with fans and as a 1920s flapper. It was awarded the Logie for the "Most Popular Music Video" at the 32nd Annual TV week Logie Awards held in 1990 in Australia.

This single received fair promotion in the UK with a notable appearance on Des O'Connor Tonight, but also Saturday morning television.

It was stated in Minogue's 1999 official biography that this track was the favourite Kylie song of the late INXS lead singer, and Minogue's former boyfriend, Michael Hutchence.

The song is mentioned in episode seven of season two (The Idiot's Lantern) of the British drama, Doctor Who, where The Doctor, played by David Tennant, says, "It's never too late, as a wise person once said; Kylie, I think."

Formats and track listings

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Never Too Late".

1. "Never Too Late" – 3:21
2. "Never Too Late" (Extended) – 6:11
3. "Kylie's Smiley Mix" (Extended) – 6:17

1. "Never Too Late" – 3:21
2. "Kylie's Smiley Mix" (7" version) – 3:59

1. "Never Too Late" (Extended) – 6:11
2. "Kylie's Smiley Mix" (Extended) – 6:17

1. "Never Too Late" – 3:21
2. "Made in Heaven" (Heaven Scent Mix) – 4:43

1. "Never Too Late" (Extended) – 6:11
2. "Made in Heaven" (Heaven Scent Mix) – 4:43

Live performances

Since its release, "Never Too Late" has only been performed on four of Minogue's tours. Its first appearance was in the Enjoy Yourself Tour. It featured a small dance before hand and then the original. Its next performance was not for 11 years when Minogue performed it on her On a Night Like This Tour in 2001, which was launched to promote Light Years. It was performed as part of "Hits Medley" which featured 5 songs from her PWL days: "Step Back in Time", "Never Too Late", "Wouldn't Change a Thing", "Turn It into Love" and "Celebration" respectively. It was then set to be part of her KylieFever2002 set list as a space age version to feature as the opening to the act entitled "Cybertronica", but was removed at the last minute. More recently, 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.

The song was also performed on: