As we move into mid January 1996, the Christmas bloat affecting the Top 40 has started to clear and we have seven new songs (of nine) in the show tonight. Nearly all of them, I cannot recall. Is this how it is for everyone else who religiously watches these BBC4 TOTP repeats? That you’ve forgotten the majority of songs that feature on them? Maybe it is and that might be excusable given how the frequency of songs going into and out of the charts exploded in the 90s and that we are 28 years removed (currently) from these events but I worked in record shops for almost the entire decade. How can’t I remember them? What’s my excuse?

Well, I’m going to confront my shame and jump right into this. The first artist on tonight is Judy Cheeks with “Reach” who…wait…what? Oh no…this is unforgivable! My research tells me that not only has this track been a hit before (No 17 in 1994) but that Judy appeared on TOTP to promote it…which means I’ll have reviewed it in this blog…and I still don’t remember it! Absolutely shameful! Hang on though, could I get away with just copying and pasting what I said about it first time round here? I mean, I’ve forgotten about it so maybe you would have too? No, I’m better than that surely? Actually, I’m not sure I am. Here you are, fill your boots…

TOTP 05 MAY 1994

NEXT!

Nope. No idea about this either. Not the artist Tori Amos obviously (I think my wife had her first album “Little Earthquakes”) but this single called “Caught A Lite Sneeze”. And herein lies the rub. The album it was from – “Boys For Pele” – I recognised instantly when I looked it up on Wikipedia but as to what it sounded like, I’m as clueless as Esther McVey. You see, my colleagues in the Our Price I worked in would not have been seen dead putting Tori Amos on the shop stereo and even if they had done, the chances of me being able to sit down and listen to it at work were almost nil. I think I’ve just answered my own question as to what my excuse is for not knowing some of these songs. As for this song, it’s typical Tori fare – vocals that are all at once kooky and tortured allied to a floating, haunting melody but it never seems to really go anywhere; it just sort of meanders along until Tori presumably feels she’s made her point. I do like her rotating harpsichord and piano moves though. The album sold well enough, perhaps belatedly propelled by an unexpected No 1 single being released from it in January 1997 when a dance remix of ‘Professional Widow” by Armand van Helden took Amos to the top of the UK charts. That’s all way in the future though…

Onto a third consecutive hit that I don’t remember. Baby D were also onto their third hit after ‘Let Me Be Your Fantasy” (a No 1 record no less) and their reworking of The Corgis hit as “(Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime) I Need Your Loving”. “So Pure” was more of that pop-ified drum ‘n’ bass stye that had served them so well on those previous hits or as Russ Jones put it when reviewing the single for The Guardian:

“The fabulous third single from the squeaky-voiced diva and maker of jungle for people who hate jungle but love glamorous melodies, vaguely familiar piano breaks, and copping off under strobe lights.”

Jones, Ross (23 December 1995). “Reviews: Singles”. p. 27. The Guardian.

Obviously it did little for me and my purer pop sensibilities but I’m sure it went down a storm on the dance floor at Xanadu’s nightclub in Rochdale. The mostly black and white video features a bloke who looks like Eric Cantona’s younger, longer haired brother but I’m guessing he’s actually Claudio Galdez from the band.

Following my long standing tradition of not getting on board with bands that I really should have, here’s another that I missed out on. Yes, after The Smiths and the Stone Roses failed to light up my musical radar (at least initially, I subsequently discovered their charms), here come Gene. Unlike me though, my mate Robin LOVED Gene and indeed picks them as his favourite band ever eclipsing even his early heroes the aforementioned Smiths. Ah yes, The Smiths. Morrissey and co were never far from people’s lips when discussing Gene as the comparison between Mozza and lead singer Martin Rossiter were obvious though a little lazy. After three earlier middling sized hits (including title track of debut album “Olympian”), their very first single “For The Dead” was rereleased and scored the band their biggest ever hit when it peaked at No 14. As with the Tori Amos album earlier, I definitely knew the front cover of said album but I never seemed to actually hear it. I seem to blowing out of the water the myth about working in a record shop as the biggest doss and coolest job ever with every word I type! At Robin’s prompting, I am investigating the band’s back catalogue and liking what I hear. “Olympian” is a mighty track as is “Fighting Fit”. Sadly for me, the band are no longer a going concern having split in 2004. Martin Rossiter perfumed a career-spanning, one-off, farewell solo gig at the O2 Forum Kentish Town on 20 November 2021 and yes, my mate Robin was there.

Finally, a song I do remember but that could be due to it being used to soundtrack the opening titles of an ITV late night football highlights show called Football League Extra in the mid to late 90s. Dreadzone were an off shoot from Big Audio Dynamite and featured that combo’s previous members Greg Roberts and Leo Williams. Their band name was dreamt up by BAD co-founder and film director, DJ and musician Don Letts. Their so far only hit single was the No 20 peaking “Little Britain” which used the melody from “Tang” the sixth section of classical composer Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” (the first section was famously used in that Old Spice advert) whilst it also features samples from the films If and Excalibur. Now, when BAD were having hits with “E=MC²” and “Medicine Show”, with songs featured samples from films such as Performance, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly and A Fistful Of Dollars Don Letts failed to get the relevant copyright clearance for them so I hope that he wasn’t in charge of Dreadzone’s sampling practices!

Almost an instrumental but not quite, “Little Britain ” is the very definition of a jaunty tune guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Indeed, even the ever curmudgeonly John Peel loved Dreadzone and nominated their album “Second Light” (from which “Little Britain” was taken) as one of his favourite albums ever whilst six of their tracks featured on his Festive Fifty show of 1995. The band are still a going concern though they haven’t released an album since 2017. Somehow it doesn’t seem fair that mention of the title Little Britain might these days conjure up images from the comedy sketch series of the same name starring David Williams and Matt Lucas rather than Dreadzone’s single.

It’s another of those singles now that hung around the Top 40 for weeks and weeks like “Missing” by Everything But The Girl, “Father And Son” by Boyzone and “It’s Oh So Quiet” by Björk. Add to that list “Wonderwall” by Oasis. Like all of their singles, the Our Price in Stockport where I was working at this time stocked this one all year round as the sales they achieved couldn’t be ignored. “Wonderwall” has so far racked up 89 weeks on the UK Top 100 including 30 consecutively between November 1995 and June 1996. Now, there are a couple of links between Oasis and the act on before them Dreadzone which I was not aware of until now. Firstly, both bands signed to Creation Records in 1993 (although Dreadzone subsequently signed to Virgin). Secondly, in this year of 1996, Oasis performed two nights at Knebworth for an audience of 125,000 each time, the largest outdoor concerts in UK history at the time. One of the support acts for them on those appearances? Yep, Dreadzone. I don’t know about a “Little Britain” but it’s certainly a small world.

After his first No 1 “Oh Carolina” in 1993, Shaggy struggled to consolidate on it with follow up single “Soon Be Done” failing to make the Top 40. He seemed to be making a better attempt in building on his second chart topper “Boombastic” with the track “Why You Treat Me So Bad”. To help him out with his endeavours, he’s roped in American rapper Grand Puba on this one though he isn’t in the TOTP studio for this performance (which I can’t find on YouTube by the way). To make up for his absence, Shaggy has doubled up by miming both his own vocals and Grand Puba’s which perhaps gives a false impression of the depths of his talents. The performance and track are both very underwhelming in my book.

When in Hull city centre recently, I witnessed perhaps the worst thing I’ve ever seen. A busker with a microphone and a speaker but instead of playing a backing track and singing along to it, he was playing the actual track and miming! His track of choice as I was walking past him? The Shaggy version of “In The Summertime” (featuring Rayvon of course which was quite apt as this guy was like an act from Phoenix Nights). As if the scene before me wasn’t bad enough, two young women came up to the busker and showed him their phone on which they were playing the Shaggy song and asked this bloke if he was, indeed, Shaggy! I mean, how did it come to this?

And so we arrive at perhaps the most infamous hit of 1996 already and we’re only two weeks into January! No chance of me not remembering this one! It’s time for “Spaceman” by Babylon Zoo! OK, so let’s get the reason why it was so infamous out of the way early doors. Yes, that moment that bound a nation together in collective dismay when we all realised that the brilliant dance tune from the latest Levi’s jeans advert wasn’t, in fact, a brilliant dance tune at all but a hoary old rock dirge with a load of synths slapped on it. It’s the way it starts with that speeded up, robot vocal over a pumping dance beat before literally grinding to a halt in front of our ears (if that is possible) and lurching into the main part of the track that dealt such a crushing blow.

So, who were Babylon Zoo and from whence did they come? They were essentially a vehicle for the ego of lead singer Jas Mann who ruffled a few feathers in press interviews with his claims of genius and being the future of music. Enjoying the patronage of record company executive Clive Black, the release of “Spaceman” was delayed when he took the band with him from Warners to EMI after being poached by the latter. However, promo copies of the single had been distributed to radio stations and when one in Manchester played it, a listening ad agency decided it would be perfect for the Levi’s contract. The futuristic sounding intro and outro were the work of legendary producer Arthur Baker and on his magic touch was a monster hit spawned. With 383,000 copies sold in its first week, it became the fastest selling single in the UK since “Can’t Buy Me Love” by The Beatles in 1964. It would sell 1.15 million copies in the UK overall and top charts around Europe including five weeks at No 1 here. As well be seeing a lot more of this track, I’ll leave it there for now.

It’s a sixth and final week at No 1 for “Earth Song” by Michael Jackson. I’m still waiting for the TOTP that will coincide with Jarvis Cocker’s protest against Jacko at the BRIT awards so I won’t be commenting on this single again until that show airs.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Judy Cheeks	Reach	No
2	Tori Amos	Caught A Lite Sneeze	It’s a no from me
3	Baby D	So Pure	Nah
4	Gene	For The Dead	Nope
5	Dreadzone	Little Britain	Negative
6	Oasis	Wonderwall	I didn’t
7	Shaggy	Why You Treat Me So Bad	Never
8	Babylon Zoo	Spaceman	I did but for a friend who was obsessed with it so she could use my staff discount – honest!
9	Michael Jackson	Earth Song	And no

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001yty7/top-of-the-pops-11011996?seriesId=unsliced