If You Were with Me Now

"If You Were with Me Now" is a song by Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue and American R&B singer Keith Washington. It was written by Minogue, Washington, and British songwriting team Mike Stock and Pete Waterman for Minogue's fourth studio album, Let's Get to It (1991). The song was produced by Stock and Waterman. The song was released as the second single in October 1991 and reached number four on the UK Singles Chart, as well as the top 10 in Ireland and the top 30 in Australia. The song is Minogue's first hit single to feature her as a co-writer.

Both Minogue and Washington recorded their vocals separately at PWL's studio in London; the two did not meet until the music video filming. At no moment of the video do they appear together, and there are no obvious signs that the scenes of each of them were recorded at the same location.

Critical reception

Digital Spy's Nick Levine called the track a "slushy duet". Betty Page from NME wrote, "As for "If You Were Here with Me Now", well, I predict the world will be hearing an awful lot of this, probably around Christmas. It's a duet with 'mystery singer' Keith Washington, who sounds like Son Of Lionel but could be helping Kylie to be the Big American Hit. It's oozingly schmaltzy and is probably a brilliant career move." Writing Minogue's biography for her special on Australian music video programme Rage, they called the song one of the "richly beautiful ballads".

In 2023, Robert Moran of Australian daily tabloid newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald ranked the song as Minogue's 178th best song (out of 183), adding that sounds like "a play for the Aladdin soundtrack".

Track listings

• Australian and UK CD single

1. "If You Were with Me Now" – 3:10
2. "I Guess I Like It Like That" – 5:59
3. "If You Were with Me Now" (extended version) – 5:06

• Australian and UK cassette single, UK 7-inch single

1. "If You Were with Me Now" – 3:10
2. "I Guess I Like It Like That" – 3:30

• UK 12-inch single

1. "If You Were with Me Now" – 5:06
2. "I Guess I Like It Like That" – 5:59

Charts

References