Ten Good Reasons is the debut studio
album by Australian pop star and actor
Jason Donovan. It was released on 1 May 1989 by
PWL (UK) and
Mushroom Records (Australia). It became the biggest selling album in the UK that year, and yielded three number-one singles, "
Too Many Broken Hearts", "
Sealed with a Kiss" and a duet with
Kylie Minogue, "
Especially for You". The album was reissued in 2010 as an expanded deluxe edition featuring B-sides and remixes. In 2016, the first CD of the 2010 reissue was reissued again as part of promotion for Donovan's Ten Good Reasons live shows. The album's title comes from a line in "Too Many Broken Hearts".
Critical reception
A review in Pan-European magazine Music & Media presented Ten Good Reasons like this: "Perfect music for eight to twelve-year-olds. Contains an interesting version of "Sealed With a Kiss" and the slushy duet with
Kylie Minogue. Massive sales are guaranteed but it remains to be seen how long young Jason will be around".[3]Music Week noted the tracks' similarities, stating: "As the SAW machine chums on, once again the songs remain the same... [They] sound like you've heard them before, but then that's why they sell. This formula is unlikely to fail".[4] Tim Nicholson of Record Mirror admitted that the album "has no surprise", but added that "every track takes its lead from what's gone before. It's what's called 'giving the people what they want', and if it makes us happy, where's the hearm in it?"[5]
Retrospectively, in 2018, Mark Elliot of Classic Pop considered Ten Good Reasons as the 15th best album ever produced by
Stock Aitken Waterman, considering it as a "hastily assembled pop confection".[6]
Chart performance
Ten Good Reasons entered the
UK Albums Chart at number two, and then reached number one, staying there for four weeks. When his cover of
Brian Hyland's "Sealed with a Kiss" entered the
UK Singles Chart at number one, Donovan became the first Australian male to hold both UK singles and UK Albums Chart number-one positions simultaneously. In Australia, the album peaked at number five on its debut on the
ARIA albums chart in June 1989, and became the 53rd highest selling album in Australia for 1989.[7]
^"Ten Good Reasons", French Albums Chart See: "Sélection des autres artistes" => "Jason DONOVAN"
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