Given the events in Paris five days before this TOTP aired and that the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales was to happen the following day, it will be interesting to remind ourselves how the BBC handled broadcasting their flagship pop music show. On the face of it, a programme based around the pop charts might have seemed at odds with the sombre mood of the nation which was still in shock and in some cases hysterical about accepting the tragic news. A studio audience shouting and cheering and behaving in an overexcited way whilst a presenter introduced the latest sounds might have seemed incongruous at best and disrespectful at worst. Would the decision to cancel the show altogether have been considered? You would assume so given that radio stations had been tying themselves up in knots all week about their on air output and avoiding playing anything deemed to be inappropriate. That decision wasn’t made though so let’s see how they did handle it.

Tonight’s host is Zoe Ball who we haven’t seen in these repeats as yet though she had presented the show before but the Puff Daddy/P Diddy/R Kelly issue meant they weren’t broadcast on BBC4. There’s no discernible changes in the opening of the show with Zoe giving us the well worn line about TOTP still being No 1 though there’s no actual prop of the figure ‘1’ this week. The studio audience breaks into the usual screaming/cheering on cue but Zoe does seem to be playing it straighter than we’ve seen from fellow presenter Jayne Middlemiss up to now.

The first artist on tonight is global superstar/diva (delete as appropriate) Mariah Carey. By this point in her career, Mariah was up to her sixth studio album in just eight years – “Butterfly” was released the week after this TOTP aired and was trailed by lead single “Honey”. This wasn’t a case of just churning out another album though. No, this was the moment Mariah went full hip-hop. Or was it R&B? Or both? It’s not my bag so I don’t feel qualified to comment really but everything online I’ve read tells me this was an ‘important’ album for Mariah which usually signals a crossroads in an artist’s career. Messing with the formula can produce amazing results – think of all those brilliant songs by The Beatles we would have been denied if they’d never deviated from their early ‘moptop’ sound. It can also go the other way alienating the fanbase – I lost faith with Radiohead once they disappeared up their own arses on “Kid A”. Of course, it’s all subjective. You may prefer Genesis of the “Invisible Touch” brand to the early Peter Gabriel era or the abstract noodling of late period Talk Talk to their synth pop beginnings. Similarly, a hip-hop-upped Mariah Carey may have held your attention more than her warbly balladeer persona. Personally, I wasn’t bothered about either. As for the track “Honey”, is it me or does she not actually appear to sing that much on it? I can hear the backing singers more than Mariah. Was she turned down in the mix or something? Even when you can hear her, all she seems to be doing is some elongated, over pronouncing of the words so we get a load of ‘ye-aah’, ‘no-oo’, and ‘ba-aabe’. Then, before she can really let rip, she’s joined on stage by a rapper (called Mase apparently) – well, she had gone hip-hop I suppose. It’s all a bit of a mess and guess who had his fingerprints all over it? Yep, P Diddy. We couldn’t have had this show cancelled as well?

Next up are Ocean Colour Scene and we find another case of someone being about out-sung. “Travellers Tune” was the second single lifted from the band’s “Marchin’ Already” album and featured soul singer P.P. Arnold on additional vocals but describing her contribution as ‘additional’ hardly does her justice. It’s not that frontman Simon Fowler doesn’t do a decent job of anchoring the song but P.P. Arnold brings it into dock and secures its lines with a clear hitch knot. It’s not surprising as her track record shows she has worked with some huge names like Ike and Tina Turner, Small Faces and the aforementioned Peter Gabriel as well as having her own hits in the 60s and collaborating with dance acts like Beatmasters and Altern-8.

Unlike Mariah Carey before them, “Travellers Tune” itself wasn’t breaking any new ground and was more of the blues rock sound that made the band’s name as Britpop broke. It was still a decent…well…tune though, full of melody and enough hooks to keep the listener engaged. Its chart peak of No 5 meant their last five singles had achieved the following chart highs:

7 – 4 – 6 – 4 – 5

They were now established chart stars. Indeed, “Marchin’ Already” would knock Oasis’s “Be Here Now” off the top of the album chart when released nine days after this TOTP aired. Ocean Colour Scene had supported Noel, Liam et al on their 1995 tour. As far as I can tell, they won’t be supporting them on their 2025 reunion tour though the likes of Cast and Richard Ashcroft have been confirmed.

Not this guy again! How on earth did Ginuwine manage to have hits with his nasty brand of call and response R&B? Having already bagged himself two UK Top 20 singles, he went one further with a third chart entry by going Top 10 with – blasphemy upon blasphemy – a cover of Prince’s “When Doves Cry”. How dare he?! This really was nonsense for the feeble minded. Predictably, Ginuwine (real name Elgin Lumpkin – no, really!) starts his performance by exhorting the crowd to wave their arms in the air and shouting “Ho-ooo!”. Someone else made their name by doing a similar thing but he was playing it for laughs – Ginuwine was…well…being genuine!

This version of “When Doves Cry” was produced by Timbaland whose own real name is Timothy Mosley but I’m guessing he isn’t named after Moseley, the suburb of South Birmingham like Ocean Colour Scene’s “Moseley Shoals” was. No, because that was a humorous play on Muscle Shoals, Alabama, home to several famous recording studios. There’s nothing funny about Ginuwine covering Prince which was a mad idea. Elgin Lumpkin? I think Elgin lost his marbles on this one.

Now here’s a quality tune from a group who were only what the Spice Girls could/should have been like – the time of All Saints (and their cargo pants) is upon us. Just like Baby, Posh, Scary, Sporty and Ginger, this lot had a back story that involved a Pete Best type figure – for Michelle Stephenson (Lost Spice) read Simone Rainford who was part of an original trio (alongside Melanie Blatt and Shaznay Lewis) named All Saints 1.9.7.5. who were signed to ZTT Records. Two single releases failed to make any impression on the charts and, following internal conflicts, Rainford left the group who were subsequently dropped by their label. Tasked with finding a replacement member and a new recording contract, Blatt and Lewis turned up trumps on both accounts finding the Appleton sisters Natalie and Nicole and a new label in London Records. The mix was perfect and they hit the ground running with debut single “I Know Where It’s At”, a slinky, R&B infused but resolutely pop track (that’s how you do it Mariah!) that became an instant earworm once heard. I never knew that it had a Steely Dan sample in it but then I’m hardly a Steely Dan aficionado so I can forgive myself that. For the record though it’s this track:

Although the comparisons with the Spice Girls were inevitable, I always thought that All Saints were cooler by far though in truth, I’m not convinced that they were similar acts at all. My sense is that the Spice Girls had a much younger fanbase. The All Saints performance here ticks all the boxes, synchronised moves though not overly choreographed, those cargo pants and a definite sense of unity. They would become a huge success with five No 1 singles and two multi platinum albums before they split in 2001. Though there have been two subsequent reunions and three further albums as well as solo careers and the duo Appleton, I still have the feeling that, if not unfulfilled potential, then there was more we never got to see and hear from All Saints.

Following up “MMMBop” was always going to be a tall order for Hanson but they gave it a decent go with “Where’s The Love”. A No 5 hit over here (it didn’t chart in the US as it wasn’t given a physical release so didn’t comply with Billboard regulations), it was another uptempo, hook-laden pop tune. However, to me, this always sounded like a more mature sound compared to its predecessor. Now I now the words ‘mature’ and ‘Hanson’ don’t seem compatible (especially in 1997 – had lead singer Taylor’s voice even broken yet?) but hear me out. Whereas “MMMBop” had that saccharine feel to it that even the youngest of the young could cotton onto (my then six year old goddaughter included), “Where’s The Love” just seemed more like a proper song. I’m probably vastly over examining this whole subject but then I have to write something about it don’t I?

At the time of their biggest fame, drummer Zac wasn’t even a teenager and I have a distinct memory of Huey Morgan of Fun Lovin’ Criminals telling a story about him whilst appearing on Never Mind The Buzzcocks. Apparently, they’d been in a recording studio at the same time and Huey had lit up a cigarette during a break only to be confronted by the youngest Hanson brother saying “You can’t smoke in here, you can’t smoke in here!”. Huey wasn’t going to be told what he could and couldn’t do by an 11 year old and so it spilled over into an argument resulting in him telling the viewing audience that he had “beef with the little guy”. Where’s the love Huey?

It’s the fourth and final week at the top for “Men In Black” and still we have the superimposed Will Smith intro over the top of the video. I guess TOTP just got him to freestyle for a bit and then cut up whatever he gave them and laid it over the four separate times the video was played. I wonder how much more footage they had if he was at the top any longer? Four weeks feels like enough but we should maybe have cherished that time more – Elton is on his way…

…but not yet. We finally get to the part of the show where they acknowledge “the end of a very sad week” as Zoe Ball puts it. Clearly, Zoe had been given instructions about the presenting style that was required at this time and she duly delivered a muted tone with some basic intros and a lack of extravagance. There weren’t even any of those knowing looks and raised eyebrows that Jayne Middlemiss was determined to make her trademark. And talking of Jayne…why has she suddenly appeared on screen alongside Zoe? All she does is a plug for the chart rundown show on the Sunday – this seemed really odd. Was it meant to be a show of unity by the show’s presenters as if to say “we’re all in this together’? If so, it failed as Jayne can’t resist her raised eyebrows look before Zoe steps in and takes over with a respectful intro into the last song of the night which, by very fortunate happenstance, is actually a suitable track and a new release.

“You Have Been Loved”, Zoe tells us, was written by George Michael for his late mother. However, everything I’ve read online says it was inspired by the death of his lover Anselmo Feleppa who passed away from an AIDS-related illness in 1993. I guess maybe the cover story given to the press about his mother* was deemed necessary as George hadn’t come out as gay by this point (he would do so in 1998).

*His previous single with Toby Bourke “Waltz Away Dreaming” was also reported to have been recorded as a tribute to his Mum

The sixth and final single taken from George’s “Older” album, “You Have Been Loved” was the tale of losing a loved one (whoever that may have actually been) and had already been distributed to radio stations for plugging and so was manna from heaven for programme directors desperately trawling the playlist catalogues for something inoffensive to play*. It would peak at No 2 and would surely have been a third No 1 from the album but for the Elton John single. As it was, “Older” itself would receive a sales injection off the back of it.

*As I recall, another contemporary tune that was deemed appropriate was “Don’t Go Away” from Oasis’s recently released “Be Here Now” album.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Mariah Carey	Honey	Didn’t happen
2	Ocean Colour Scene	Travellers Tune	Negative
3	Ginuwine	When doves Cry	Never
4	All Saints	I Know Where It’s At	Nope
5	Hanson	Where’s The Love	I did not
6	Will Smith	Men In Black	Nah
7	George Michael	You Have Been Loved	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/m0029cfh/top-of-the-pops-05091997?seriesId=unsliced