Mandy Smith

While still dating Wyman, Smith signed with songwriting/producing trio Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW), after Pete Burns from Dead or Alive recommended her to pop impresario Pete Waterman. Smith was the first artist signed to Waterman's PWL Records — later the UK home of Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan — after the producer's expectations of a £500,000 deal with a major label failed to materialise.

Smith recorded a hi-NRG cover of Twinkle's 1964 hit "Terry", but the highly publicised project was scrapped at the last minute in favour of an original composition, "I Just Can't Wait". The song failed to make an impression on the UK pop charts, a result the producers blamed on the hostility of the British media, but it proved a substantial hit in a number of European countries. While the song was a commercial disappointment in her home country, the track's Balearic beat version, the "Cool and Breezy Jazz Mix", was critically well received, and has been called "one of the coolest records SAW ever made". Smash Hits Australia slated the song as "awful [and] mildly suggestive", though songwriter Mike Stock denied that the title was a reference to the scandal surrounding Smith's underage relationship with Bill Wyman.

Smith's lead vocals were augmented by PWL backing singer Suzanne Rhatigan, who says she was contracted to be a ghost singer for the project after Smith struggled with the material. An album, Mandy, was released in 1988 and spawned more hits in European countries with songs like "Positive Reaction" and "Boys and Girls". Success at home in the UK, however, continued to elude Smith.

Promotion for her final single, a cover of the Human League hit "Don't You Want Me", was cut short just as the track rose to be her highest-charting UK single, after Smith became seriously ill. Referring to the lingering trauma of Smith's underage sex scandal and the intense tabloid scrutiny that followed the young star, former PWL Records engineer Karen Hewitt noted of her escalating health crisis, "She got really sick and couldn't continue; she just couldn't physically work". Smith also worked as a print and runway model for fashion designers including Katharine Hamnett.