80stastic

TOTP 06 JAN 1994

Posted on January 16, 2023 by 80stastic

1993 has finally done one and we are into a new year at last! After that previous 12 months, things can only get better (ahem). Or not. By my reckoning, just about now back then, I’d have been having a rather heated discussion with my Area Manager at Our Price about me being moved yet again for the third time in four months. I wasn’t best pleased. I’d not enjoyed the transfer to a bigger store at Stockport and was relieved to end up being shifted to the much smaller unit in Altrincham for Christmas. I’d liked it so much there that my wife and I had even started looking at flats there for a potential move from our base of the previous three years in South Manchester. Sadly, we we’re getting way ahead of ourselves. As soon as New Year was over, I was informed that I was to be transferred over to the Market Street store in Manchester where I’d started as a Christmas temp just over three years before. I had reservations about going back as there were still some people working there from my previous incarnation and I suppose I wondered how I would be received returning in a management position. That and the fact that I felt like I’d had my fair share of moves recently and this was just taking the piss. Despite my protestations I had to go, not least because it was in my contract that I could be made to so that was that. What was that about things could only get better…?

So after at least two fairly lame attempts by myself to tee this up in my intro, here’s the first act on TOTP of 1994…with a song from 1993! Yes, it probably gets forgotten due to how big a hit “Things Can Only Get Better” by D:Ream was this time around but it had already been a middling sized hit exactly twelve months before when it peaked at No 24. So why the re-release? Well, D:Ream had bagged themselves quite the support slot for a tour by the biggest boy band in the country meaning their exposure to the record buying public was massively enhanced. A Take That endorsement was certainly a ringing one when it came to the cash tills. The 1994 re-release would go on to sell 600,000 copies.

It wasn’t just a re-release though as it was also a remix. The original release didn’t include the gospel style a cappella intro that was reinstated for the 1994 version which had much more of a pop feel to it as opposed to the more club orientated original. Suddenly there was a buzz about the song again. Perhaps the timing of the release date was a factor with it being New Year and that renewed hope that people have that this will be a better year than the one before, new year resolutions and all that. Whatever it was, the timing, the sound, the record company marketing, it became one of those records that we were all told would be a huge hit and so it duly was. It went straight in at No 10, then No 2 and then topped the charts for four weeks. It spent nine weeks inside the Top 10 and fourteen in the Top 40 altogether. It was a monster.

Whatever its legacy – and the revisionists seem to have decided it was cheesy probably not helped by its 1997 General Election connections – you can’t deny its positivity. Peter Cunnah gives a decent vocal and does a good job of selling it (despite his horrible checked suits) though I never liked its M People style, sax parping middle eight which always seemed a bit incongruous. We’ll be seeing and hearing plenty more of this tune in future TOTP repeats so I’ll leave it there for now.

Dinah Carroll is next starting the year as she finished the last – with a huge hit record. “The Perfect Year” is up to No 5, possibly benefiting, like D:Ream before it, from New Year good vibes given its title and lyrics. As the single is at its peak this week, I’m guessing this could be the last we’ll see of Dina for over two and a half years as she would not release any new material until late September 1996. I feel almost bereft after all the times she’s appeared in the show in the previous twelve months! 1993 really was her (ahem) perfect year with four hit singles and a huge selling album in “So Close”.

Not that 1994 didn’t have any highlights for Dina. She was named Best Female Artist at the BRIT Awards in February whilst her album continued to sell steadily throughout the year and was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize. She also played a sell out tour in December. Then…nothing. She took some time out after suffering from burnout and then record label contract wrangles delayed the release of her new album. By the time it came out, Britpop had happened and the musical landscape had changed. “Only Human” sold well enough but Dina was never as big as she was during her initial flush of success.

Just like “The Perfect Year”, here’s another record that had been around the charts for a while by this point and was also inside the Top 5. Whereas Dina Carroll was never as successful again as she was in 1993, you could make a similar claim for East 17 in 1994. Not only did “It’s Alright” reach No 3 ultimately to become their highest charting hit at that time, not only did they follow it up with another No 3 single and a No 7, not only did they release double platinum selling sophomore album “Steam” but they also notched up their first and only chart topping single which was also the year’s Christmas No 1. Phew! Breathe it in boys!

Now there’s a few things to be said about this TOTP performance not in the least Brian Harvey’s hat which was presumably the inspiration for the 1998 hit by The Tamperer featuring Mya with its lyrics “What’s she gonna look like with a chimney on her?”. Secondly, what on earth was it that Terry Coldwell (geezer to the immediate left of Brian Harvey) was bringing to the party here? He just stands there sort of shuffling about. He’s shown up by everyone else on stage – Harvey as lead vocalist obviously, Tony Mortimer on piano and with his rap half way through and even the fourth guy who just noodles about on his bass guitar. Terry, it’s really not alright mate.

What’s going on here then? Why were The Mission in the charts in 1994 with a single that had already been a No 12 hit in 1988? There’s no great mystery really. It was to promote a Best Of album called “Sum And Substance” with the single in question being “Tower Of Strength”. I once spent an afternoon wandering around the record shops of York with my friend Robin who was looking for a Best Of album by The Mission (it may have even been “Sum And Substance”). Why did it take a whole afternoon? Because Robin wasn’t prepared to pay more than £5 for it. He was probably right to be so exacting on reflection.

Anyway, just like D:Ream earlier, this was not just a rerelease but a remix done by producer de jour Youth though fat lot of good that did the band as it stalled at No 33. Perhaps trying to rewrite Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” wasn’t the best career move after all.

P.S. I’m not sure what Tony ‘Friend of East 17” Dortie was on about in his intro exhorting us to listen to the bass sound on “Tower Of Strength”. What bass?

It may be a new year but the Breakers are still with us starting with “Whoomp! (There It Is)” by Tag Team. I could have sworn this was a hit later in the decade than this?

*checks Tag Team discography

Well, that didn’t take long as “Whoomp! (There It Is)” is pretty much their only claim to fame. However, the story of the track is a long one. So, do I need to do a deep dive for a Breaker that we’ll never see in full and only made No 34 on the UK Top 40? I do? You’re all cruel and heartless! OK, to answer my earlier question. This was its only appearance in our charts so it wasn’t a hit in subsequent years via a rerelease or something so that was just my memory playing tricks on me. In my defence though, the song has a life well beyond it chart stats having been used multiple times in TV adverts and on film soundtracks – it was actually remade as “Addams Family (Whoomp!)” for Addams Family Values.

Let’s begin at the beginning though. It started out as a very raunchy rap by an act called 95 South and was entitled “Whoot! There It Is” which led to accusations that they were subsequently ripped off by Tag Team. The latter’s story via DC The Brain Supreme (real name Cecil Glenn! No – really) is that he came up with it while DJing in a strip club in Atlanta with the phrase “Whoomp! There it is” referring to a stripper’s…ahem…derrière. The reaction to the track in the club was off the scale and so DC and his partner Steve Rolln set about getting themselves a record deal. Having signed up to the Bellmark label, a sanitised version which played down the sexual references was released and, appealing to a more mainstream audience than a strip club’s clientele, it went nuclear rising to No 2 in the US Billboard Hot 100. Tag Team were an overnight sensation but they hadn’t cleared the sampled they used in the track by Italian electro/disco group Kano who sued the label’s asses causing them to go bankrupt. The track lived on though being used at baseball games to soundtrack a home run leading to the duo doing half time shows (in my naivety, I originally thought the song was something to do with WWF Wrestling rather than strip clubs – maybe I was just ahead of my time). However, they couldn’t replicate the success of “Whoomp! (There It Is)” and they fell on hard times. DC went back to DJing in clubs whilst Rolln did time for drug offences.

And still their track refused to die and resurfaced in the 2003 film Elf and 2004’s Shark Tale. Sadly for Tag Team, they’d signed their publishing rights away with the Bellmark deal and so only got a writer’s credit. And yet still the song wouldn’t go away. It was used in an AT&T / iPhone advert, an ice cream campaign (“Scoop! There It is”) and a nappy commercial (“Poop! There It Is”). It was even parodied by Beavis and Butt-head (“Whoomp! There’s My Butt”). So, quite the story. You wanted it, whoomp….there it is!

From a song with, as Limahl once sang, a never ending story to one which hardly got past page one. “Time Of Our Lives” by Alison Limerick anyone? I have to admit to only being able to name one of Alison’s songs and it isn’t this one. Surely most people’s go to Limerick tune is “Where Love Lives”? I mean, it was released four times in total being a hit twice (No 27 in 1991 and No 9 in 1996). This one though was taken from her second album “With A Twist” and could only make No 36. Possibly because the record label we’re after a bigger hit than that, Alison followed it up with a cover of “Love Come Down” by Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King. That also peaked at No 36. Oh.

There was a young singer called Limerick

Who tried many times to have a hit

Sadly for her, there’s only one that was heard

It was the four times released “Where Love Lives”

The first hit now for a band who were embarking on a run of twelve consecutive Top 40 hits throughout the course of the decade. Despite spending the whole of the 90s working in record shops, I had no idea they had that many. I’m talking about West Yorkshire rockers Terrorvision who I never quite got to grips with but had a few decent tunes and deserve a better legacy than just that “Tequila” song.

“My House” was actually a rerelease of the second single to be taken from their debut album “Formaldehyde” and the scheduling of it was curious. Why? Well, it was reissued just a few weeks before the lead single from their second album came out. Surely their record company would have wanted to clear the calendar for new material or did they think the band needed a bona fide chart hit behind them before releasing anything else? Either way, it seemed to work. The rerelease of “My House” made No 29 and second album “How To Make Friends And Influence People” was a Top 20 hit (by contrast, “Formaldehyde” had only just scratched the Top 75). That album would generate five Top 40 singles whose chart position’s demonstrated the consistency of the band’s material and their growing fanbase. Check these figures out:

21 – 25 – 25 – 24 – 22

This solid foundation paved the way for ever bigger singles including a No 10 (“Bad Actress”) and a No 5 (“Perseverance”) before the ultimate high of a No 2 with “Tequila”. In my book, this added them to the list of artists who’s biggest hit is far from their best (see also The Boo Radleys, The Stranglers, Suzanne Vega and fellow West Yorkshire rockers Embrace). Lead singer Tony Wright became a bit of a celebrity durging the band’s heyday appearing several times on Never Mind The Buzzcocks and even guest presenting an episode of TOTP.

WHO?! DJ Duke?! Never heard of him! Apparently this guy’s real name is Ken Duke and he had DJ’d in some of the world’s biggest clubs before releasing his own music. His biggest crossover hit was this one “Blow Your Whistle” which seems essentially to be a house beat, a vocal sample saying ‘Blow your whistle’ and indeed some whistles being blown. Apparently Duke went on to work with such names as Junior Vasquez and Felix Da Housecat whilst also going by a slew of other monikers himself such as Roxy Breaks and Underground Attorney. Talking of names, I had art teacher by the name of Kenny Dukes and I would rather be back in his art class aged 11 than have to listen to “Blow Your Whistle” again which somehow made No 15 in the charts.

Next up are Wet Wet Wet but don’t panic as it’s not that single that they released in 1994. “Cold, Cold Heart” (not a cover of Midge Ure’s 1991 hit) was the second new track recorded for their first ever Best Of album “End Of Part One: Their Greatest Hits” which had been a big seller over Christmas. The song features on an uncredited French speaking female as demonstrated visually by the inclusion of a scantily clad woman from the promo video at the start of this performance. Her spoken word intro puts me in mind of “Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus” – Wet Wet Wet do Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg the latter of whom was responsible for one of the most excruciating moments in the history of TV…

Ahem. Anyway, back to Wet Wet Wet and their song which is the wrong side of tedious for me. It never gets goings and even if it did, it wouldn’t know where it wanted to go. No wonder the TOTP producers tried to liven it up with the inclusion of the French lady. Her appearance certainly prompted some reaction on Twitter leading to a rather unfortunate mishearing of one of the song’s lyrics by a user by the name of J.A.Y…

More to the point, why is Marti Pellow singing about "the rectum torn apart"? pic.twitter.com/cSCGciorf0
— J.A.Y. (@DronedLove) January 13, 2023

“Cold, Cold Heart” peaked at No 20 but their next hit was just a tad more successful…

Well this is weird! As part of the celebrations that were taking place in this year to commemorate TOTP’s 30th anniversary, the producers were raiding the archive for some classic clips. So what have they chosen for this first show of the year? Bowie with his arm around Mick Ronson’s shoulder for “Starman”? Mud and that “Tiger Feet” dance? Boy George’s’ gender bending first TOTP appearance? No, they’ve gone for Pan’s People dancing to “Mama’s Pearl” by Jackson 5, a No 25 hit from 1971! Never mind one for the Dads, it must have been one for the Grandads by 1994!

Now, those of us of a certain age will remember Pan’s People, the all female dance troupe that performed routines to hits of the day from 1968 to 1976. Watching them back today, their choreography seems not exactly innocent but…loose? Loose as in not tight and not anything to do with sexual innuendo. Basically, not highly synchronised like we would see today with every individual’s move in precise time with everybody else’s. The classic Pan’s People line up would become celebrities in their own right with the likes of Babs, Cherry, Dee Dee etc becoming household names. I’m sure there’s a scene in an episode of Porridge where Fletch name checks Babs. Eventually the troupe would splinter and be replaced by Ruby Slipper, then Legs and Co and finally Zoo before the whole concept of a specific slot for dancers was ditched in 1983.

We have a new No 1 for the start of a new year and it’s knocked Mr. Blobby off the top spot for which it deserves our thanks. It also holds the distinction of being the 700th No 1 record since the charts started being compiled. For context, the 600th came in 1987 and was “China In Your Hand” by T’Pau. On a personal level though, I didn’t like the Chaka Demus And Pliers version of “Twist And Shout” at all and it seemed to me that it was only at No 1 as it took advantage of the traditional post Christmas sales slump to jump to the top of the charts. That said, it did manage to cling on to its crown the following week before succumbing to D:Ream. It was all down hill commercially for Chaka Demus And Pliers after this. They did manage three more UK Top 40 hits though none got any higher than No 19. Their final two single releases were also cover versions – Robert Palmer’s “Every Kinda People” and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” by The Police. Good grief!

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	D:Ream	Things Can Only Get Better	I did not
2	Dina Carroll	The Perfect Year	Nope
3	East 17	It’s Alright	I did! I did!
4	The Mission	Tower Of Strength	No but my friend Robin bought their Best Of
5	Tag Team	Whoomp! (There It Is)	Nah
6	Alison Limerick	Time Of Our Lives	No
7	Terrorvision	My House	It’s a no
8	DJ Duke	Blow Your Whistle	You can stick your whistle up your arse mate!
9	Wet Wet Wet	Cold, Cold Heart	Negative
10	Jackson 5 / Pan’s People	Mama’s Pearl	N/A
11	Chaka Demus And Pliers	Twist & Shout	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/m001h025/top-of-the-pops-06011994

TOTP 1994 – the prologue

Posted on January 11, 2023 by 80stastic

1994 had to be better than 1993 didn’t it? Well, I’m not promising better but it was certainly a year of change on many fronts. Politically, the groundwork for a huge, landscape altering transformation was laid. Arising out of tragic circumstances after Labour Party leader John Smith died suddenly in May, the country were introduced to Tony Blair who would become the new leader of the opposition in July. Three years later, he would glide into No 10 off the back of a landslide General Election win ending eighteen years of Tory rule. Also in May came another landscape altering event but this time in a very literal, physical sense when the Channel Tunnel officially opened.

Culturally, there was a seismic event on the 14th January when Channel 4 aired the episode of Brookside featuring that kiss. The intimate moment between characters Beth Jordache and Margaret Clemence was the first lesbian kiss ever shown on pre-watershed British television. Possibly generating less explosive headlines but undoubtedly causing a change to the fabric of UK society was the creation of the National Lottery whose first ever draw took place on Nov 19. How many people’s lives have been transformed (for better or worse) by a big lottery win in the subsequent twenty nine years?

In the world of sport, the nation had to endure a World Cup without England after the national team failed to qualify under the stewardship of the vilified Graham Taylor. On a personal level though, 1994 saw my beloved Chelsea reach their first FA Cup final since 1970 which I was very excited about. Sadly, it ended in tears at a rain-soaked Wembley as we lost 0-4 to Manchester United.

This is a music blog though so what was happening sonically this year. Well, as with everything else, the winds of change were blowing. A band from Manchester emerged who would dominate the charts and scene for the rest of the decade. Their debut single was released in April peaking at No 31. By the end of the year, they were the name on everyone’s lips and were unlucky not to bag themselves the Christmas No 1. Counteracting the Oasis effect (you knew who I was and talking about right?) came the year’s biggest selling single which was about as mainstream and safe as could be and brought back memories/nightmares of Bryan Adams from three years earlier when Wet Wet Wet went to No 1 for fifteen weeks with their cover of “Love Is All Around”.

Albums wise, the year’s two biggest sellers were both Best Ofs courtesy of two bands who couldn’t be more contrasting. Bon Jovi claimed the year’s best selling album title with their “Cross Road” collection but just behind them were The Beautiful South with their “Carry On Up The Charts” retrospective which would go five times platinum by the Summer of 1995 prompting the claim that one in seven British households owned a copy. 1994 saw the return of Pink Floyd whose “The Division Bell” went to No 1 and was the year’s fifth biggest seller. Elsewhere in the Top 10 there were huge albums by Mariah Carey and REM whilst the first official release by The Beatles since 1977 (“Live At The BBC”) proved irresistible for many a music fan. One of the biggest stories of the year though was the album lodged in at No 8. We all know about the sales and legacy of “Parklife” now but back in 1994, it certainly wouldn’t have been a given that Blur would pull this milestone album out of the bag.

As for TOTP, 1994 was a year of more huge change, just three years after the ‘year zero’ revamp. Despite an initial upturn in viewing figures, the new presenters bounce was short lived and just eight months later the numbers tuning in fell by a third where they would remain for the next year and a half. The experiment had failed and there was even talk of the show being put out to pasture on BBC2 before ultimately being cancelled. Radio 1 Breakfast Show producer Ric Blaxill was called in to replace Stanley Appel and by February, regular hosts Tony Dortie and Mark Franklin were gone, ushering in the return of Radio 1 DJs Simon Mayo, Mark Goodier, Nicky Campbell and (god help us!) Bruno Brookes. It wasn’t just a lazy attempt to recreate the golden days of the 80s though. Blaxill wanted to go further than that and, wishing to make TOTP must see TV again, created a ‘Golden Mic’ element to the show by having guest presenters in amongst the DJs. Pop stars, comedians and even completely out there names like Malcolm McLaren were lured into the spot and by the end of the year, twenty-two different celebrities had taken up the challenge of presenting the show. Some I am really looking forward to revisiting like Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, Jarvis Cocker and Damon Albarn introducing Oasis. Blaxill didn’t always get it right though. I’m guessing we won’t be seeing the show where Gary Glitter presided.

In the September the TOTP2 brand was launched showing classic clips from the archives. It was initially anchored by Johnnie Walker before Steve Wright became synonymous with it in 1997. It ran on and off until 2017 and is still present in the BBC4 schedules for specials like Christmas and Halloween and the like.

As for me, 1994 was another year of upheaval. I started the year working in the Our Price store in Altrincham before being moved to the Market Street shop in Manchester where I’d started as a Christmas temp back in 1990. By the Summer I was shunted up the road to the Piccadilly branch where I spent most of my time in the staff kitchen with the security guard waiting for the police to turn up after he’d caught yet another shoplifter. I hated it there and after much protest, I was back at Market Street in time for Christmas. In the August though, a piece of legislation came into force that would change the world of retail forever, not just for those of us working in it but also the behaviour of shoppers themselves. Thanks a lot Sunday Trading Act 1994.

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/m0016dt6/top-of-the-pops-the-story-of-1994

TOTP 23 DEC 1993

Posted on December 17, 2022 by 80stastic

It’s nearly Christmas. Well, yes that’s hardly news I know but I’m talking about Christmas twenty-nine years ago as per the BBC4 TOTP repeats schedule which has arrived at the festive period in 1993. I was working in the Our Price store in Altrincham at the time and so if I watched this episode then I would have done so in the knowledge that the following day was perhaps the busiest of the whole retail year. Given my experience of Christmas Eve in the Rochdale store the previous year, I wouldn’t have been looking forward to it. You could say there was a distinct lack of festive cheer from the punters or to put it another way, they tore lumps out of us. Rude, aggressive and if we told them that we’d sold out of Gloria Estefan’s Greatest Hits on cassette (we had), they reacted as if we’d told their three year old child that Father Christmas didn’t exist. As such, I wasn’t looking forward much to the 24th December. I wonder which songs were in the charts that I might have been flogging to Christmas stressed customers?

We start with a song that would reach its chart peak the following year which is why I associate “Come Baby Come” by K7 with 1994 rather than 1993. The last time this was on TOTP in the Breakers section, I commented on how its lyrics were full of innuendo so I was expecting a very risqué studio performance full of explicit, sexually charged dance moves. However, whilst Mr K7 (real name Louis Sharpe) and his three backing singers/dancers are next level slick, I didn’t notice too many moves that would have had the TOTP producers panicking. Bizarrely though, at one point the main man pulls out one that appears to be replicating him washing his armpits in the shower with his microphone substituting for a bar of soap! He then follows it up with a Jarvis Cocker Michael Jackson baiting bum waft – not sure if that qualifies as explicit or just plain silly. “Come Baby Come” would peak at No 3 in the UK.

The Bee Gees are up to No 4 with “For Whom The Bell Tolls” giving them their highest chart placing since their No 1 “You Win Again” in 1987. The song’s title references the phrase originally written by metaphysical poet John Donne and the novel by Ernest Hemingway but there was another band that beat the Gibb brothers to using it to name a song by nearly a decade. I have to admit to not having a clue that this track even existed before now but exist it does and it comes from one of the biggest rock bands ever. Metallica (for it is they) recorded a track called “For Whom The Bell Tolls” for their second album “Ride The Lightning” in 1984. In the name of musical exploration, I listened to it earlier and guess what? It did absolutely nothing for me! Lots of crunching rock guitar and strangulated vocals does not make yours truly a happy boy. Apparently the song is a huge fan favourite but seeing as I’m not a Metallica fan, that influences me as much as Rishi Sunak telling me that he cares about the working class (ooh, bit of politics there as Ben Elton used to say).

Anyway, the rather surprising success of the Bee Gees song meant that the group now had a UK Top 5 single in four consecutive decades (the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s) – that’s approaching Cliff Richard levels of chart achievement. They would even bag themselves two more before the decade was out. Quite remarkable.

Now here’s a curious but rather charming Christmas tune. This seemed to come out of nowhere just as the big day approached but maybe it was released too late to make any real impression on the Top 40. Certainly its chart peak of No 37 seems to reflect that. Or maybe it was just too out of leftfield for the mainstream Christmas market with its non traditional shoppers for whom the festive season is the only time they would venture into a record shop all year looking for Cliff Richard or that nice Elton John and Kiki Dee song or even the Bee Gees. It was unlikely their shopping list included the record by Saint Etienne and the bloke from The Charlatans.

I’d forgotten that “I Was Born On Christmas Day” was actually just one song from a four track EP called (rather bluntly) “Xmas 93” but it was the only one to feature the now national treasure that is Tim Burgess. The other tracks included a Billy Fury cover and two instrumentals none of which I’ve ever heard as the lead song was presumably the only one played.

As Christmas tunes go, it’s an odd one but pretty groovy. Mostly devoid of the usual festive music baubles (sleigh bells, references to Santa Claus, snow, trees, presents etc), it instead has a driving house beat and an unusual melody. In fact, apart from its title which is sung on repeat in the coda, there’s very little to distinguish it’s a Christmas song. The lyrics seem to be about someone missing their absent partner throughout the course of the year awaiting their return at Christmas and thinking of everything that has happened in the world they left behind whilst away.

Tim Burgess and Sarah Cracknell have definite chemistry up there on stage, holding hands, draping a shared feather boa around each other’s shoulders…is there even a little kiss between them at one point? Well, the lyrics do refer to a Tim and Sarah tying the knot!

As host Mark Franklin says in his intro, 1993 had been a great year for Saint Etienne with a Top 10 album (“So Tough”) and their highest ever charting single (to that point) in “You’re In A Bad Way”. The Charlatans on the other hand failed to release any material but would return in 1994 with their own Top 10 album “Up To Our Hips” and the excellent single “Can’t Get Out Of Bed”. As for “I Was Born In Christmas Day”, you don’t hear it that often on the radio despite its obvious time slot each year. Incidentally, neither Tim nor Sarah were actually born on Christmas Day though Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley was. Other rock/pop stars born on the 25th December include Annie Lennox, Dido and Shane MacGowan whilst Lemmy came into the world on Christmas Eve.

One of the nastiest things about 1993 (amongst many) was the breakthrough success of the revolting Shabba Ranks. After a rereleased “Mr Loverman” took him to No 3, there was a small procession of follow up singles in its wake of which “Family Affair” was the third. Pretty much a remake of the Sly And The Family Stone classic with some rapping and toasting over the top (including inevitably a few shouts of ‘Shabba!’), this was from the soundtrack to the Addams Family Values film. I’d quite enjoyed the silly but likeable “Addams Groove” by Hammer from the original 1991 The Addams Family film but this was just horrible. It featured Patra, Terri and Monica (I’ve no idea) and made No 18 in the charts but I’m glad to say I don’t remember it at all – I’ve never seen any of the Addams Family films either. Shabba Ranks would only have one more UK Top 40 hit after this. Good riddance to his homophobic ass!

Dina Carroll now with “The Perfect Year”, a single that perfectly encapsulates her annus mirabilis. One of the comments most made by people commenting on the Twitter hashtag #TOTP during the 1993 repeats has been “Whatever happened to Dina Carroll?” and it’s a fair question. After this single, we didn’t hear any new material from her for nearly three years. When it did arrive, it was successful but just not anywhere near as much as her earlier stuff. Debut album “So Close” went four times platinum. By comparison, the follow up “Only Human” sold a quarter of that; not insubstantial by any measure but a definite decline. Why did it take so long for that sophomore album to appear? Well, she suffered from burn out after that initial runaway success and took a break from touring and recording and when she returned she walked into a contract mess. The guy who signed her for A&M had left for Mercury Records but his new label weren’t keen on him taking Dina with him initially. By the time it was all resolved and Dina’s first single on Mercury appeared (“Escaping”), it was 1996!

Her new label seemed unsure what to do with her – was she a slick, soul balladeer or a club diva? Or both? She’d successfully straddled both camps with her eclectic debut album but somehow Mercury didn’t seem reassured by that. A third album was never released and a case of otosclerosis (hereditary bone disease of the ear) was clearly not helpful for a recording artist. As the millennium dawned, Dina just seemed to disappear. A Best Of album fulfilled her contractual obligations to Mercury in 2001 and her only release since then was 2016’s “We Bring The Party” with the Dig Band.

Meanwhile, back in 1993, Dina became the only British female artist to have two simultaneous Top 10 hits during the whole of the decade. In the week 12th to 18th December, “Don’t Be A Stranger” was at No 8 whilst “The Perfect Year” was at No 10. I think I’m right in saying A&M had deleted the former to make way for the latter so we had loads of the No 10 but hardly any of the No 8. Funny the things you remember isn’t it?

Even though this is officially the Christmas chart, there are still room for a couple of Breakers. One though is utterly dreadful and the other is last year’s Christmas No 1! Yes, despite being the best selling single in the UK of 1992, it’s back in the Top 40 twelve months on. I refer, of course, to Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You”. Now remember that the charts were a different beast back then to the one that functions (sort of) these days. You couldn’t just get a song (any song) into the charts via a concerted social media campaign by coercing people into streaming it loads. It had to be officially released which means that “I Will Always Love You”, despite its ubiquity over the last twelve months, must have been rereleased. Why would that have happened? Well, it was all to do with the VHS of The Bodyguard coming out in November of this year.

This was such a big marketing event back then that it presumably made perfect sense to record label Arista to give the soundtrack and the most famous single from it another promotional push. As a result, “I Will Always Love You” managed a peak of No 25 the second time around. Of course, this wasn’t an entirely new phenomenon. In 1985, both “Last Christmas” by Wham! and “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by Band Aid returned to the charts after being the festive No 2 and No 1 respectively the year before. Even so though, it did feel like overkill.

Now to that second and abhorrent Breaker. Probably long forgotten as the other novelty record in the chart of Christmas 1993, overshadowed by the spotted, pink dickhead at No 1 but the combination of Hulk Hogan and Green Jellÿ doing a cover of “I’m The Leader Of The Gang” is potentially even more heinous than the blobby one’s effort, given what we now know about Gary Glitter. Hulk Hogan had been a wrestling star throughout the 80s with his 1988 WWF match with Andre the Giant holding the record for the highest TV audience for wrestling ever. In 1993, Hogan broke away from WWF to sign for rival federation WCW which maybe is the reason for this single release? Bit of promotion for WCW? After all, the WWF Superstars had bagged themselves two UK hit singles in the past twelve months so…

Green Jellÿ had achieved the same chart feat with two hits of their own in 1993 with “Three Little Pigs” and “Anarchy In The UK” and it was they that Hogan was paired with to deliver this execrable record. I mean, it’s literally unlistenable. Who the hell bought enough copies to take it to No 25?

The penultimate tune before we get to the Christmas No 1 comes from EYC. This lot of chancers were put together to take the US by storm but did diddly squat over there. They did, however, gain moderate chart success both here and in Australia. Debut hit “Feelin’ Alright” reached No 16 but listening to it back now, it just sounds like a lot of horrible shouting. Maybe I’m just too middle aged to be able to engage with this sort of stuff now but I probably felt the same about it nearly thirty years ago.

They were the first act to win the Best Roadshow Act award at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party but that sounds like an award that was designed purely for them to win – a bit like the award I got from my works 5-a-side team for Most Improved Player (a back handed compliment if there ever was one). They also picked up six UK Top 40 singles during their brief career so I fear we may not have seen the last of them by a long chalk.

“So this is Christmas and what have you done?” sang John Lennon and in 1993 this line rang truer than ever for it was indeed Christmas and what the British public had done was to make Mr Blobby the festive chart topper. How on earth could we have let this happen?! I’d foolishly believed that the “Mr Blobby” single had peaked too early after being No 1 two weeks ago but the deposed chart topper somehow rallied and regained the crown just in time to be announced as the Christmas No 1. How often did that sort of chart trajectory occur? Apparently “She Loves You” by The Beatles was No 1 for four weeks in 1963 before dropping down for a whole seven weeks and then miraculously returning to the top for a further two weeks. The Fab Four then knocked themselves off the pinnacle with “I Want To Hold Your Hand”. So not without precedent but that was The f*****g Beatles we’re talking about not some tit in a pink latex suit! Aaaarrrgh!!

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	K7	Come Baby Come	I did not
2	Bee Gees	For Whom The Bell Tolls	Nah
3	Saint Etienne and Tim Burgess	I Was Born On Christmas Day	Probably should have but no
4	Shabba Ranks with Patra, Terri and Monica	Family Affair	Never happening
5	Dina Carroll	The Perfect Year	Nope
6	Whitney Houston	I Will Always Love You	Not the first nor second time
7	Hulk Hogan and Green Jellÿ	I’m The Leader Of The Gang	As if
8	EYC	Feeling’ Alright	No
9	Mr Blobby	Mr Blobby	Did I bollocks!

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/m001g4xh/top-of-the-pops-23121993

TOTP 16 DEC 1993

Posted on December 11, 2022 by 80stastic

To paraphrase Frankie Valli, here at TOTP Rewind it’s mid December back in ‘93 and very much like the temperatures in 2022, I recall it being very cold. I was working in the Our Price store in Altrincham and travelling there from Manchester every day by a bus and then a tram. As such, it was an early start and I have a distinct memory of standing next to the radiator in our little flat not wanting to go outside to start the commute. The radio was playing “Babe” by Take That which didn’t help my mood as it brought to mind the song’s video which had lots of snow themed scenes including Mark Owen wandering around in what appeared to be Russia looking for his former lover in a bit of a blizzard. Aside from the cold, the work days were long and busy as this was a time before streaming where you had to physically go out to a record shop and buy a CD or cassette if you wanted an album or single. We packed so many customers into that little shop on George Street that at times it felt like the floor would collapse*.

*That did happen once when I was working in the Rochdale Our Price. A floor tile just cracked one day to reveal a gaping hole underneath. Just one of the many mishaps that occurred during my retail years including a man walking through the window which he mistook for the door, the shop’s fuse box starting to smoke, alarm call outs in the middle of the night, blocked toilets, failed central heating systems etc etc.

Despite all of the above, I was loving my time in Altrincham to the extent that me and my wife even contemplated moving there and even looked around a flat or two. Fortunately, we never made that move as in the first couple of weeks after Christmas came the word from area management that I was being moved again. I wouldn’t get back to Altrincham for five years. Enough of my personal life though, which songs were those busy shoppers snapping up as the big day approached…

If your hear the names Chaka Demus and Pliers, what immediately comes to mind? Apart from the ridiculousness of that second name obviously. For me it’s 1993 and their hit “Tease Me” and yet that No 2 (in more ways than one) was eclipsed by this single, their version of “Twist And Shout”. Somehow though, it seems to have escaped my memory banks despite it going to No 1 one in early ‘94. Maybe it’s because there have been so many different releases of this perennial song. I’m guessing most of us know it from The Beatles take on it in 1963 but it was very first recorded before them by The Top Notes. The first time it was a hit was when The Isley Brothers took it into the charts in 1962. Brian Poole and The Tremeloes had the temerity to release a version just four months after The Beatles (though they claimed they were already playing it live in shows before anybody else) and had a hit with it. It’s also been attempted by The Searchers, The Kingsmen, Bruce Springsteen and then in 1988, it was given the hip-hop treatment by Salt-N-Pepa and became a No 4 single in the UK.

Fast forward five years and here it was again courtesy of Chaka Demus and Pliers (plus Jack Radics and Taxi Gang). Maybe they were inspired by Salt-N-Pepa – if it could be hip-hopped, then maybe the song could be also be reggae-fied? Or maybe they took inspiration from ragga duo Louchie Lou and Michie One who took another song originally done by The Isley Brothers but made famous by another artist (“Shout” by Lulu) and bagged a Top 10 hit earlier in 1993 . Whatever the reason, Chaka Demus and Pliers’ version of “Twist And Shout” didn’t work for me as I could never got on board with all that toasting. Also, wasn’t this more of a Summer tune than a Christmas one? I know host Tony Dortie goes on about what a big party tune it is which could crossover into festive celebrations I guess but clearly the TOTP producers saw it as a Summer song judging by the palm trees in the set they designed for the performance here.

You’d be hard pressed to find a more blatant example of record company cashing in than this. Not having had Meatloaf as their artist for a decade by this point didn’t matter at all to CBS when it came to exploiting the back catalogue of their previous charge. With “Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell” and its single “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” tearing up the charts everywhere on the planet, of course CBS we’re going to rerelease probably his most famous song. So it came to pass the Meatloaf managed to be in possession of two UK Top 20 hits simultaneously in 1993 when “Bat Out Of Hell” got to No 8 beating its original 1979 peak by seven places. Who was buying it though? The parent album is one of the best selling in history so many, many people would surely already own the song so that leaves two options to my mind. One, Meatloaf completists or two, young music fans who’d only just discovered him via his latest success and either thought this was his latest/new single or wanted to explore his older stuff.

All of this just goes to show how perceptions can change in the wake of a huge success. Two years prior to this, “Bat Out Of Hell: Re-vamped” was released -basically a straight reissue but with “Dead Ringer For Love” added – and to promote it “Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad” was rereleased. It peaked at No 69.

You know that debate that rages about this time of year about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not? Well, there’s surely a musical equivalent to that argument about whether “Stay Another Day” by East 17 is a Christmas song isn’t there? Why am I going on about a track that is twelve months away from being the festive No 1? I guess because looking at their performance here of “It’s Alright”, it’s clear that they weren’t averse to pushing a Christmas agenda if it suited which it did literally here as all four members are Santa suited-up. I actually beat East 17 to it by four years. In Christmas 1989, I was working in the toy department at Debenhams and used to stand in for the guy playing Father Christmas in the grotto on his breaks. That suit stank to high heaven. The store had a fire alarm go off whilst I was in it and we all had to evacuate the building. I got a few comments from the rest of the employees whilst stood outside waiting to be allowed back in.

Back to East 17 though and Tony Dortie says two things that peaked my interest in his links. Firstly that Brian Harvey was “flu affected”. We’ve been here before just the other week when Gabrielle appeared on the show in person to say she couldn’t perform her single as she had flu. Harvey goes one better by having flu but still managing to sing and jig about on stage. Flu my arse! Secondly, Dortie announces that he’s off on tour with East 17 shortly. On tour? Doing what exactly? They already had two guys in the band who appeared to do not very much at all. Surely they didn’t need a third?! Was Dortie just going to introduce them on stage each night? Was that all? Nice work if you can get it. It’s alright indeed.

In Christmas 1993, Diana Ross had a Best Of album out called “One Woman: The Ultimate Collection” which was a huge seller over the festive season going four times platinum and selling 1.2 million copies in the UK. We sold loads of it in that Altrincham Our Price where I was working but we had to go against company policy to do so. The CD was officially priced at something like £11.99 but all the other outlets in Altrincham (Boots, Woolies etc) were selling it for £9.99. Myself and the manager Cathy came to the conclusion that we wouldn’t sell any at £11.99 and so price matched. We didn’t ask permission or tell any other stores, we just did it and it worked – we sold loads and maintained a decent market share on the album. However, when the Area Manager turned up unexpectedly for a store visit we nearly shat ourselves thinking he would notice. He had this thing he did at Christmas where he would help out serving customers and so we were sure we would get busted as somebody in the queue would have the Diana Ross CD. Myself and Cathy joined in serving trying to spot anyone in the queue who would give the game away and head them off at the pass by jumping in and getting to them first. Somehow we got away with it. Phew!

Diana did an extensive tour to help promote the album an Our Price colleague went to see her on one of her dates. When I asked him how it had been the next day, he’d convinced himself that he was Ms Ross’s long lost, illegitimate child so consumed by the experience was he. I’m assuming she performed the single “Your Love” which was a new track added to the album to help promote it but it was hardly up there with some of her classic recordings for me. It peaked at No 14.

WTF?! Eight Breakers?! EIGHT?! You have to be kidding me?! That must be a record! Five is pretty much maximum capacity usually. Presumably the TOTP producers have done this because the chart at Christmas are usually clogged up with new records strategically released to cash in on the extra sales at this time of year. Even so. Eight Breakers means a whopping grand total of fourteen songs on this show! Tossers! Don’t they realise how much work this is for me?

We start with another boy band, this time of the American variety who time would surely have forgotten if not for a gimmick surrounding their name. EYC (it stood for Express Yourself Clearly) had this annoying habit of signing off from any promotional appearances by saying “E Y See ya”. Ugh! Somehow this trio of ex-New Kids On The Block backing dancers (no, that’s literally what they were) somehow managed to bag themselves six UK Top 40 hits the first of which was “Feelin’ Alright”. It had a sub House Of Pain vibe to it tailored for the teen market but it was pretty lame all the same.

My main memory of this lot came the following year. I was now working in the Our Price in Market Street, Manchester where I first started three years previously. I was on the counter with the manager and he served a young girl with one of their singles. As he went behind the shelving to get it (the stock wasn’t in the racks live at this point) he said to me in a really loud voice which the customer must have heard, “This is crap isn’t it?”. How I cringed.

Next up a tune so intensely and annoyingly catchy it’s still in my head nearly thirty years on. I would have said that “Come Baby Come” by K7 was from 1994 not 1993. I’m kind of right. It reached its peak of No 3 in the January of ‘94 but was actually released in December ‘93. K7 was essentially US all rounder Louis Sharpe. A rapper, songwriter, record producer, he also went by the name of Kayel. He’s only really known over here though for this single. Employing that call and answer style of rap (is it meant to be him and his homies who he’s hangin’ with?), it kind of reminds me of that drill instructor song from the late 80s. What was it called again?

*googles ‘drill instructor song’

That’s it! “Full Metal Jacket (I Wanna Be Your Drill Instructor)” by Abigail Mead and Nigel Goulding…

Anyway, it also had that drive-you- insane shouty chorus that once heard is never forgotten*. Maybe it was just meant to distract you from those innuendo loaded lyrics which were actually pretty filthy. I guess the clue was in the song title but check these out:

Better move it fast so you can pump it (pump it)
Two balls and a bat (hoo), a pitcher with a hat (ha)
Slidin’ into home base, tryin’ to hit a home run
Swing batta batta batta batta batta swing
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Louis Sharpe / Joey Gardner
Come Baby Come lyrics © Universal Music – Z Songs, Warner-tamerlane Publishing Corp., Blue Ink Music, Third And Lex Music

You don’t have to be Finbarr Saunders to work out what’s going on here! I’m sure we’ll be seeing and hearing more of K7 in future TOTP repeats. For those of a delicate nature, you have been warned!

*Such an ear worm is it that thirty years later, when I want my dog called Benji to come to me, I often say “Come Benji come, Benji, Benji come come”.

Ah now, talking of delicate…how to approach this one? OK well, the facts around the record are that “Gone Too Soon” was the ninth and final single taken from Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous” album (the first – “Black And White” – had been released an incredible 25 months earlier). As the ninth single from an album that had been out for two years, even Jackson couldn’t eke out a big hit from it and it stalled at No 33. This was his lowest UK chart placing since a rerelease of “Girl Your So Together” in 1984.

Jackson recorded the track as a tribute to Ryan White, a US teenager who was haemophiliac and became infected with the HIV virus from a contaminated blood treatment. This was the dark ages of 1984 and Ryan was subsequently barred by his school from attending due to concerns from other parents that he would spread the virus. Given just six months to live, Ryan lived on for another five years in which time he became a high profile figure for HIV/AIDS research and public education attracting the attention of Jackson.

Unfortunately for the singer (and this is where the delicate bit comes in) the release of the song coincided with allegations of child sexual abuse against him made by the then thirteen years old Jordan Chandler. I’m guessing the single’s cover with a picture of Jackson walking around his Neverland ranch with Ryan maybe didn’t do the King of Pop any favours in the eyes of anyone who wanted to believe the allegations. The case was eventually settled out of court with the plaintiff reportedly receiving $23 million. Speculation about Jackson’s private life (already a media frenzy) had gone onto another, darker level. The scrutiny and effects of the accusations would never leave him and indeed resurfaced in 2003 with a second set of allegations. Jackson was acquitted on all counts in 2005. Four years later, he would be dead himself from cardiac arrest. At the memorial service, Usher performed “Gone Too Soon” and the circle was complete.

After being on the show last time, Cliff Richard is into the charts but it’s more with a loud fart than a bang at a lowly No 27 with “Healing Love”. The single would struggle on gamely to a high of No 19 but it was a far cry from the massive Christmas hits of “Mistletoe And Wine” and “Saviour’s Day”.

I can’t even find the official promo video for the single online so unloved is the song but from the few seconds we see here there seems to be a lot of billowing drapes behind Cliff as he sings. Haven’t seen as much material being wafted about since Spandau Ballet and “Only When You Leave” in 1984.

Next up a duet featuring a man who, despite being around since the time of disco, is only known in the UK for three songs, all of them collaborations with a female singer. Peabo Bryson first had a – no wait! You’re right. Let’s address that name of his before anything else. Peabo…you don’t get many of them to the pound do you? I’ve never heard anyone calling out “Peabo, come here now!” or “Have you seen our Peabo?”. However, I do know someone who once heard these immortal words come out of the mouth of a tired and frustrated mother:

“Oi! Cleopatra! Pack it in or I’ll twat ya!”
Hessle Road, Hull sometime around 2010

Only in Hull. Anyway, Peabo isn’t his real name. No, of course it isn’t! Sadly his real name is worse if anything – Robert Peapo Bryson. Peapo! That’s what you say when playing with a baby! As I was saying though, he first had a hit in the UK in 1983 with “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love For You”, an horrendously schmaltzy ballad that went all the way to No 2. There then followed an eight year gap until he returned with the title song from the Disney animation Beauty And The Beast alongside Celine Dion which bagged them a Top 10 hit. Clearly onto a good thing, he returned in 1993 with another Disney film song. This time it was “A Whole New World” which was from Aladdin and was, of course, another duet. The lucky lady this time was US singer songwriter Regina Belle who had been releasing records since 1987 without much commercial success. That was rectified and then some by “A Whole New World”. Not only was it an American No 1, it also is noteworthy for being the record that finally knocked Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” off the top spot after fourteen weeks over there. The reception to the record was a bit more lukewarm in the UK where it peaked at No 12.

It’s been covered a few times including by ex- One Direction member Zayn Malik (alongside Zhavia Ward) but the one that really stands out is the version by the god awful Peter Andre and his then wife Katie Price who included it on their album of covers also called “A Whole New World”. The track listing includes their takes on “Islands In The Stream” and the aforementioned “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love For You”. Hell’s teeth! That’s a whole new world of pain more like!

Next another of those rappers that the white middle class kids of Altrincham, Cheshire would fawn over. Ice T had a reputation for controversy that far outweighed any commercial success he achieved, certainly in this country. By 1993, he’d already released five albums but had never had a UK Top 40 hit…until “That’s How I’m Livin’”. We kind of knew already how he was living (that’s with a ‘g’ rather than as a ‘G’) and that was tendentiously. He’d provoked the ire of the POTUS George Bush no less with the release of “Cop Killer” by Body Count a track he wrote and a band he was a member of. He is also recognised as one of the defining influences of gangster rap and had well publicised disputes with fellow rappers like LL Cool J. However, Ice T was also savvy enough to diversify and forged an acting career for himself, starring in dozens of films and TV shows like New Jack City and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. “That’s How I’m Livin’” was taken from his album “Home Invasion” and peaked at No 21.

We didn’t know it at the time but the “Spooky” single would be the last material released by New Order (barring Best Ofs and rereleased singles) for eight years. For five of those years, the band didn’t see each other at all whilst the concentrated on personal projects. Yet again I have zero recall of this track. New Order singles of 1993? “Regret” of course. “Ruined In A Day”? Yeah. “World (The Price Of Love)”? Just about. This one though? I’ve got nothing, zero, nada. Like I’ve never heard it before. Why put out a fourth single from an album that been out for months during the Christmas rush? Consequently, “Spooky” only made No 22 which is actually higher than I would have expected. Maybe they just wanted to set a personal band record. This was the first time that New Order ever achieved four hits from the same album.

Tellingly, Tony Dortie says he doesn’t think the band have ever made a bad video. A bad video? Is that what they’d become reduced to by this point? What about the music? There were worst times ahead though with Peter Hook leaving under very acrimonious circumstances. Oh dear.

The final Breaker is a song that had already almost been the Christmas No 1 once and was rush released in 1993 to try again. Back in 1984, the whole of the UK record buying public seemed to be enthralled by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Two No 1 singles clocking up fifteen weeks at the top between them meant that when it came to the runners and riders for the festive chart topper, they were the bookies favourite. They had an epic, bowl-you-over ballad that was perfect for Christmas. They even had a nativity themed promo video. “The Power Of Love” duly went to No 1 on its first week of release. What hadn’t been figured into the odds was Bob Geldof and Band Aid which, when the list of high profile pop star contributors to the record became known, was always going to be the Christmas chart topper. Frankie were dethroned after just one week. Could the 1993 rerelease do what the 1984 original couldn’t and be No 1 for Yuletide? For Bob Geldof read Mr Blobby. They never stood a chance though “The Power Of Love” remains a firm favourite on Christmas playlists to this day. Mr Blobby on the other hand…

One of the success stories of 1993 now (and it pains me to say it) as we catch up with Haddaway in Disney World, Florida. Didn’t we see PM Dawn and Boy George there this year as well? Did TOTP have some sort of arrangement with Disney? Anyway, after No 2 and No 6 hits in the UK charts, the big question for Haddaway wasn’t “What Is Love?” but “how do I get a third hit? Well, one of the biggest lessons we’ve learned from these hundreds of TOTP repeats is that if you’re a new act with a shiny, uptempo pop song, you can replicate that formula for the follow up but you need something different for the third release and what is more different than a ballad? Haddaway clearly knew the rules and his third release was indeed a slow, romantic number called “I Miss You”. Sadly though, it’s not only slow but completely laboured and ponderous. It literally never gets out of first gear. Just dreadful. The lyrics sound like they came out of a one minute brainstorming session about the most obvious themes of love and regret.

I miss you, oh I miss you
I’m gonna need you more and more each day
I miss you, more than words can say
More than words can ever say
Copyright © 2000-2022 AZLyrics.com

Dreadful stuff. Somehow though, this nonsense got to No 9 to give Haddaway his third consecutive Top 10 hit. 1993 really had a lot to answer for.

Take That have gone straight into the charts at No 1 for the third consecutive time with “Babe”. No other act had done this at the time. Not the aforementioned Frankie, not The Jam (they managed two) not anyone. It really was quite the rise when you consider that eighteen months earlier, their biggest hit to date had been the No 38 single “Promises”. By Christmas 1993, they were the undisputed heroes for a generation of teenage girls. Of course, it’s not like we hadn’t seen bands being screamed at before. Bay City Rollers, Duran Duran, Bros…and yet none of them attained this particular chart achievement.

Tony Dortie joins the band on stage at the song’s end for a cosy chat about how well they’re doing and so high on success are they that they take the piss out of dethroned No 1 Mr Blobby by doing some Blobby impressions (led by Robbie Williams naturally). The pink and yellow dotted buffoon would have his revenge a week later when, rather improbably, he returned to the top of the charts to bag the Christmas No 1. I remember thinking that this was nuts and how had it happened? I was no Take That fan obviously but at least “Babe” was a proper song. Somebody who was a fan was my younger sister and years later she went to see a Robbie Williams tribute act where, in an unlikely turn of events, the worlds of Mr Blobby and Take That collided once more. The impersonator was a rather rotund figure and so his stage name was Blobby Williams and he was part of Take Fat. Marvellous.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Chaka Demus and Pliers	Twist And Shout	Nope
2	Meatloaf	Bat Out Of Hell	No
3	East 17	It’s Alright	Yes, yes I did
4	Diana Ross	Your Love	Never happening
5	EYC	Feelin’ Alright	As if
6	K7	Come Baby Come	I did not
7	Michael Jackson	Gone Too Soon	Nah
8	Cliff Richard	Healing Love	Of course not
9	Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle	A Whole New World	Noi chance
10	Ice T	That’s How I’m Livin	Not my bag
11	New Order	Spooky	Negative
12	Frankie Goes To Hollywood	The Power Of Love	Not in 1984 nor 1993
13	Haddaway	I Miss You	Awful – no
14	Take That	Babe	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/m001fy5t/top-of-the-pops-16121993

TOTP 09 DEC 1993

Posted on December 7, 2022 by 80stastic

In the last post I made a claim that the No 1 was a bit of an anticlimax on the grounds that it followed the biggest boy band around who performed in the studio against a backdrop of 3D images (ooh!). By comparison, the No 1 was in its seventh week at the top and we were surely all getting a bit fed up of its video. It doesn’t seem right though does it? TOTP was always a chart based show highlighting which songs were the most popular in a chronological way via the chart countdown. Despite the use of such a linear tool, the implication is that the excitement heightens as we get to the nation’s favourite song. But what if said record doesn’t deserve such a reception? I realise this leaves me open to accusations of musical snobbery but if the No 1 is so heinous, what’s the plan? The question is especially relevant to this particular TOTP as, like a Tory minister doubling down on a failed economic policy, the ending of this show has two terrible songs.

Having said all of the above, the start of the show is pretty ropey as well. Bad Boys Inc were one of the many awful boy bands that appeared in the wake of Take That during the 90s. The whole thing reeked of cynicism with no more of a bigger example than this slushy ballad aimed at the Christmas market. After, two uptempo pop singles had made them bona fide chart stars (albeit in quite a minor way), they took that well worn path of releasing a slowie as their third single to, you know, showcase their diversity. The fact that it was shoved out into the marketplace as Christmas approached was surely just coincidence no? “Walking On Air” (note the similarity of title to established festive tune “Walking In The Air” from The Snowman) was ghastly whilst the performance here (I can’t find it in YouTube as nobody seems interested in recording it for posterity) is just as dire. The lead singer out front forever putting his hand to his heart to show his sincerity backed by three twirling, sliding goons all performing on a bed of dry ice. What a shower!

Disregarding the Bee Gees, I haven’t heard such high pitched vocals since Modern Romance did their ballad “Walking In The Rain” a decade earlier. What is it with ballads and the word ‘walking’? “Walking In Air”, “Walking In The Rain”, “Walking In Memphis” and of course who could forget George Michael’s ‘guilty feet’ in “Careless Whisper”. The record buying public showed their lack of affection for Bad Boys Inc with their own feet by walking past their local record shop and therefore not buying their single. It peaked at No 24.

Now here’s a very old track (even in 1993) which was suddenly and maybe surprisingly a very big hit. Sudden because it’s gone straight into the chart at No 5 and surprising because when it was first released in 1981 it did nothing at all sales wise. There is a reason for its explosion of popularity though and as usual it’s to do with record company promotional activities. “Controversy” was the title track from Prince’s fourth studio album and by 1993 he’d added another ten to that number so why was it plucked for single release at this point in his career? To advertise a Best Of album of course. “The Hits 1”, “The Hits 2” and “The Hits / The B sides” was a triple headed beast of a release documenting The Purple One’s best/most well known/biggest (delete as applicable) songs so far. Previous single “Peach” was released in the October to promote the set but that was a brand new composition I think. To give the Best Ofs an extra push for Christmas, another single was required and “Controversy” was selected for the job. Did I know this track? Don’t think I did. I only cottoned onto Prince from about 1983 when conversely “1999” was in the charts the first time around. Did I like it? Not that much. Was I surprised that it was such a big hit? Yes I was. As with “Peach” though, the two CD singles contained hits that weren’t included on the Hits albums plus there was a William Orbit remix of “The Future” so maybe that was it?

We’re back to this trend of the TOTP hosts telling us that an artist should have been on the show but can’t be because they’re ill/indisposed etc. I asked the other week why they bothered with this practice as they could have just shown the video without saying anything and we wouldn’t have known any better. This week, they’ve doubled down like…ah I’ve been here before haven’t I? They have made a complete spectacle of this issue though with Gabrielle. According to presenter Mark Franklin she can’t perform in the studio tonight and the reason is…Well, let’s ask Gabrielle herself because she’s in the actual studio! What?! Mark asks her if she’s OK and Gabrielle days “Not at the moment because I’ve got flu”. Got flu?! Got flu?! Why aren’t you in bed Gabrielle?! This is madness! Look, when I’ve had flu I’ve had to crawl to the bathroom if I needed the loo on my hands and knees. The idea that I could have got myself into a TV studio and been interviewed in front of a TV audience of millions is just unconscionable. I don’t wish to doubt her but really?!

Anyway, enough of the health issues, what about the music? Well, I’m guessing that Gabrielle’s record label were ever so slightly uncomfortable at this point. After the euphoria of a No 1 single with her debut single “Dreams”, might they have been expecting a bigger follow up hit than the No 9 that the unfortunately entitled “Going Nowhere” supplied? If so, then a lot must have been riding on “I Wish”. Sadly, it wasn’t really up to the task being a fairly average piece of soul/pop and it peaked at No 26. Maybe it just got lost in the Christmas rush. Gabrielle would recover to bag a further eight Top 10 hits including No 1 “Rise” in 2000. Seems like Gabrielle’s wish came true.

The Bee Gees are up to No 6 in an unexpected tilt at the Christmas No 1 spot with “For Whom The Bell Tolls”. To mark the event we get a live by satellite performance from New York. As with the vast majority of these satellite specials, it’s a total let down. Maybe I’m viewing them through 2022 eyes and in 1993 it may have been a major event but I can’t help but think it’s totally lame. A completely uneventful run through of the song performed underneath Brooklyn Bridge is interlaced with some totally non related shots of ice skating at the Rockefeller Center. And that’s it. Yes, it’s a cinematic backdrop I guess with the Statue of Liberty visible in the background and a helicopter comes into view at one point but I was more fascinated by who the fourth Bee Gee was up there with Barry, Maurice and Robin.

There’s an easy line to be written here about the next artist and the title of her latest single but I’m not that obvious. All I’ll say is that 1993 is surely a year that Dina Carroll would never forget. Five hit singles and an album that was the highest selling debut by a British female artist in UK chart history at the time? It was the stuff of dreams. The last of those five hits was “The Perfect Year” which was from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Sunset Boulevard. It seemed a bit of an anomaly to me at the time. Firstly, it wasn’t on the aforementioned album (“So Close”) which confused and upset a few punters in the Our Price store I was working in and wouldn’t appear on an album until Dina’s sophomore effort “Only Human” appeared a whole three years later.

Secondly, the schedule for its release had clearly been set to cash in on the Christmas holidays market with the lyrics even referencing New Year’s Eve but it was hampered by the extended success of previous single “Don’t Be A Stranger”. So well received had it been that it was still in the Top 10 and outsold “The Perfect Year” on the latter’s first week of release. Clearly, record label A&M would not have wanted her previous hit to be splitting sales of her new one but because of the latter’s Christmas theme, they couldn’t keep it back any later. Dina having two simultaneous hits added to the customer confusion in store:

Customer: Do you have the Dina Carroll single?

Me: Which one? There’s two

Customer: The one that’s in the charts

Me: They both are

Customer: The one that’s a big ballad

Me: They both are

Customer: Well, I’ll get her album then I’m covered

Me: Her album doesn’t have both singles on it

Customer: Are you having a laugh?

Me: Not really, no

Dina’s performance here is very professional but then she’d had plenty of practice at being on TOTP that year. It felt like she was on the show every other week. Her black and white outfit is very effective against the Wintery backdrop though those impractical, oversized sleeves must have been a nightmare at the dinner table. Also, why did they feel the need to insert some clips (presumably) from the video while Dina was singing? They looked so incongruous. Children running across a field and then staring at the camera motionless – why? Then there’s the old fella. The expression he had on his face reminded me of something and it’s this. My sadly departed mother-in-law used to work as a receptionist in a doctor’s surgery and would sometimes bring home freebies from the pharmaceutical companies like mugs. She had one that was just an old man grinning on it. The first time I saw it I couldn’t understand why anyone would have that image on a mug and then I turned it around and saw the drug it was advertising – it was a brand of laxative. Aaah…

“The Perfect Year” had to settle for a chart peak of No 5, two places lower than “Don’t Be A Stranger”.

Four Breakers now starting with UB40 whose single “Bring Me Your Cup” I don’t recall at all. It was the third track lifted from their “Promises And Lies” album and listening to it now, it’s actually a lot better than I was expecting. It starts out very understated but forms an unexpected ear worm very quickly with its lilting rhythm allied to Ali Campbell’s soothing vocals. Should probably have been a bigger hit than No 24 but then the album had been out for over four months by then so maybe it was to be expected. Not a bad effort though.

In amongst the endless diet of Eurodance bollocks that 1993 served up there were the occasional morsels of unexpected taste. Songs that would appear for no apparent reason and then the artist would pretty much disappear again. Off the top of my head I’m thinking Spin Doctors, The Frank and Walters and this lot – Blind Melon. These US psychedelic rockers reminded me of fellow countrymen Jellyfish who similarly are known in this country for one hit and not much else despite there being so much more to them. Blind Melon’s contribution to the story of 1993 was “No Rain”, a hippy, trippy, winsome tune with some Beatles influences thrown in for good measure. It sounded like an antidote to some of the god awfulness populating the charts and yet again a complete outlier.

Helping to promote the song was the video featuring the ‘bee girl’, a tap dancer in a bee costume and large glasses who gets laughed off stage and then spends the rest of the film trying to dance for anyone who will let her. She eventually finds an unlikely outlet for her routine – a field of similarly dressed people all dancing together. The girl playing the character would become a bit of a star, hobnobbing with the likes of Madonna at the MTV awards before having a career as an actress appearing in two episodes of US medical drama ER. Blind Melon themselves would have two further very minor UK chart hits before disbanding in 1999. They have reformed a couple of times since despite the drugs overdose death of vocalist Shannon Hoon.

Name a Pet Shop Boys single released in 1993? “Go West” right? Has to be. No? “Can You Forgive Her” then? Still not the one you’re thinking of? “I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind Of Thing” – well, no I don’t habitually spend hours trying to remember the titles of Pet Shop Boys singles but…oh, of course! That was the third track released from their “Very” album and in many ways is the quintessential PSB song. Eccentric title? Check! Swirly synth back beat? Check! Gloriously catchy, camp melody? Check! Typically deadpan vocals from Neil Tennant? Check! This was what they did best. Sadly, I think it got caught up in the Christmas rush and didn’t even make the Top 10, peaking at No 13.

The kaleidoscopic video features Chris and Neil in daft wigs that make the former look like Mike Flowers of Mike Flowers Pops (two years before anybody knew who he was) and the latter like Louis Balfour, host of The Fast Show’s Jazz Club. Nice!

The final Breaker comes from “the most successful rap group of 1993” according to host Mark Franklin. Were Cypress Hill that big?

*checks their bio*

Seems they were. The band have sold 20 million albums worldwide and in 1993 their second album “Black Sunday” went straight into the US charts at No 1 selling 261,000 copies in its first week. Their eponymous debut album was also still on the charts at the same time and they became the first hip hop artist to have two albums in the Top 10 simultaneously.

From “Black Sunday” came this third single “I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That”. I’d liked the House Of Pain sounding “Insane In The Brain” (who couldn’t?) but by this one I’d probably lost interest. Maybe I had a beef with them as the album was one of those that always needed a temporary inlay card to display it otherwise the real CD cover would get nicked especially as the booklet contained 19 facts about the history of hemp and the positive attributes of cannabis. The middle class, white kids in Altrincham where I was working loved all of that stuff and especially those T-shirts and posters with the image of an alien on them with a massive reefer blazing up bearing the legend ‘Take me to your dealer’. Laughed their arses off at that every time.

“I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That” peaked at No 15.

We have arrived at the first of those two terrible songs that end the show. By 1993, Cliff Richard was absolutely synonymous with Christmas. Not only had he claimed the festive No 1 twice since 1988 (thrice if you count his contribution to Band Aid II) but he seemed to have a tilt at it every year. “We Should Be Together” was his offering in 1991 peaking at No 10 and “I Still Believe In You” was strategically released in late November the following year to try and capture those Christmas sales making it to No 7. Come 1993 and Cliff was chancing his arm once more with “Healing Love”. Not a specifically Christmas themed song for once, it was actually the last of five singles released from his “The Album”…erm…album. It was co-written by Nik Kershaw who knows his way around a decent pop tune but this definitely wasn’t one of them. It’s not just that it’s a sluggish, turgid, completely unexceptional tune but the lyrics are dreadful. Really hackneyed stuff about losing the battle but winning the war and how about this for a line a seven year old could have written…

“Now I can see that you’re feeling sad…”

Come on! For this performance, Cliff has turned up in a jacket and tie and looks like he’s got his schedule wrong and was expecting to be on Wogan and not TOTP. As ever, he’s brought with him that guy from the aforementioned Modern Romance as one of his backing singers who’s been with him since “Mistletoe And Wine”.

“Healing Love” never hit a sniff at topping the charts peaking at No 19 but Cliff never really gave up on his quest for another Christmas No 1. The following year, he teamed up with his old pal Phil Everly for a double A-side of “All I Have To Do Is Dream” and a remix of his old hit “Miss You Nights” but it topped out at No 14. He couldn’t have come any closer in 1999 with the divisive “The Millennium Prayer” which actually went to No 1 and was still top of the pile with just one week to go before being toppled by Westlife. Undeterred, he went again in 2003 (“Santa’s List” – No 5) and 2006 (“21st Century Christmas” – No 2) and this year he has released a Christmas album. Cliff was 82 in October. You have to admire his longevity if not his music.

Just…just…f*****g WHY?! What were people thinking?! Oh, yeah. Of course. There was no thinking happening at all. A complete lack of brain activity. How else can you explain this total failure of any sense of taste on such a widespread scale? This monumental aberration. Nothing about “Mr Blobby” by Mr Blobby deserved anything but our complete contempt. So why was it f*****g No 1? Were 5 year olds (or their parents) buying it? When The Teletubbies became a phenomenon a few years later with the pre school population and released a record, I could just about understand parents doing just that but Mr Blobby wasn’t quite the same type of character. His beginnings weren’t on children’s TV but an early evening light entertainment show presumably not being watched by toddlers so who was his single appealing to? It certainly wasn’t funny and neither was its accompanying video which featured a number of celebrity cameos. Obviously, Edmonds was there being responsible for the whole debacle but there’s also a very young looking Jeremy Clarkson as Mr Blobby’s limo driver, Carole Vorderman, Wayne Sleep and bizarrely ex-footballer and pundit Garth Crooks. Mr Blobby is seen in various scenes where he inevitably falls over destroying everything in his path which includes parodies of four well known recent pop promos – “Addicted To Love” by Robert Palmer, “Rhythm Is A Dancer” by Snap!, “I Can’t Dance” by Genesis and “Stay” by Shakespear’s Sister. The last one particularly grinds my gears for the pure reason that it uses actual footage of the original in the parody – why? We all knew which video it was lampooning when the camera switched to the lookalike Marcella Detroit so why try and install some credibility by using images of the real one? I don’t know why this especially offends me but it does. Anyway, this madness will all be over soon as Take That will be top of the charts next week and surely also the Christmas No 1 won’t it? Won’t it?

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Bad Boys Inc	Walking On Air	Of course not
2	Prince	Controversy	No
3	Gabrielle	I Wish	Nope
4	Bee Gees	For Whom The Bell Tolls	I did not
5	Dina Carroll	The Perfect Year	Nah
6	UB40	Bring Me Your Cup	Negative
7	Blind Melon	No Rain	No but maybe should have
8	Pet Shop Boys	I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind Of Thing	No but I assume it’s on their Pop Art Best Of which I have
9	Cypress Hill	I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That	It’s another no
10	Cliff Richard	Healing Love	Never happening
11	Mr Blobby	Mr Blobby	What do you think?

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/m001frnn/top-of-the-pops-09121993

TOTP 02 DEC 1993

Posted on December 4, 2022 by 80stastic

We’re into December 1993 here at TOTP Rewind and the charts are starting to shape up for the race for Christmas No 1 with many a new release jostling for position on the starting grid as it were. Of the ten songs featured in this show, only two of them have been on previously. Amongst them are two future chart toppers including the festive one but we start by addressing this whole 3D thing. I can’t say I’m any sort of expert on 3D technology but I’m guessing that back in 1993 it probably seemed quite revolutionary. However, according to Wikipedia, the first stereoscope that tricked the brain into combining two separate images to produce 3D perception was developed in 1838! Fast forward 150 odd years and Panasonic introduced the first TV with 3D capability in 1981. Twenty years on from that and 3D screenings of films gained in popularity peaking with the release of Avatar in 2009. In the wake of that film, there was a short period of demand for 3D TVs but sales plateaued quickly and production of them had. all but stopped by 2016. OK, so given all the above, I’m sticking with my original summation that this was probably quite the event in 1993*.

*Apparently, this TOTP was part of the BBC’s 3DTV week (so an event indeed) which included this notorious piece of TV history…

So how did TOTP incorporate 3D into the show? Well, they kind of fudged it. The whole show wasn’t in 3D but there were some sections that lent themselves to some experimentation. The ‘weather vane’ opening titles were accentuated by adding some 3D graphics to them of the glasses that were required to appreciate the effects (proceeds from the sales of the glasses went to Children In Need). Then host Tony Dortie’s links were an obvious opportunity to add some 3D-ness so instead of the usual backdrop of the studio audience he had the show logo in 3D behind him. The show’s producers also hijacked the official promo videos for the Breakers section and showed some specifically put together films instead that highlighted the 3D technology in its best light. This resulted in the most inappropriate visual backing you’re ever likely to see for “YMCA” by The Village People. They do the same thing for the whole of U2’s “Stay (Faraway, So Close!)” video before climaxing with the pièce de résistance of the studio performance by Take That but more of that later. On with the actual music…

We begin with a song that I knew from its recording by another artist but not the actual original. “Don’t Look Any Further” was originally released by ex-frontman of The Temptations Dennis Edwards in 1984 on the Motown label but failed to chart. Four years later, The Kane Gang released their version of the song. You remember The Kane Gang surely? They had a couple of hits in 1984 with “Closest Thing To Heaven”and “Respect Yourself” and their song “Smalltown Creed” was the inspiration behind the ‘Ooh Gary Davies’ jingle for the Radio 1 DJ. After that they rather drifted away despite a second album which included the glorious “Motortown” single and “Don’t Look Any Further”. Sadly, neither of these great tracks could revive their commercial fortunes peaking at Nos 45 and 52 respectively.

Five years on and the song was rejuvenated by the dance act of 1993 M People who were on a roll having already racked up three Top 10 singles during the year including No 2 hit “Moving On Up”. They do a pretty good job of the track with the vocals shared between Heather Small and Mark Bell which I’m guessing didn’t happen too often. To my mind though, I would have thought that the track “Renaissance” would have been a better choice of single given that it already had a public profile from its use as the soundtrack the BBC student documentary The Living Soap which aired this year. That oversight was corrected early the following year when it became the fourth and final single released from “Elegant Slumming”.

It’s that U2 video for “Stay (Faraway, So Close!)” now or rather it isn’t as it’s been sacrificed for a promo film put together to highlight the 3D sheen that it’s been lacquered with. It seems to be a load of unrelated images of people doing everyday things like sitting in cafes, buying flowers at a market in European city settings like Paris, Amsterdam and Venice. A carnival (?) full of costumed and bemasked participants comes in towards the end. I wonder if the show’s producers had to have a difficult conversation with U2’s management to get approval for showing this instead of the official video that they’d have paid money to make?

Next a song that always reminds me of Christmas 1993. I’ve not been complimentary about Björk in the past but I’ve amended my opinion over time from she can’t sing to she can sing but I just don’t like her voice but I’ll have to modify it again. I have actually enjoyed re-hearing her singles “Venus As A Boy” and “Play Dead” on these TOTP repeats and this one, “Big Time Sensuality”, is the best of the lot. From its brooding, slowly building intro, it moves through the gears of its electronic beats to a pulsating and sustained rhythm that somehow manages to upstage even Björk’s idiosyncratic vocals. It’s a banger and no mistake.

The live by satellite performance here from Rennes means we don’t get to see the actual infamous video with Björk filmed hamming it up on the back of a truck while it moves slowly through the streets of New York City.

Did its black and white filming and use of fast motion special effects influence the promo for The Prodigy’s “Firestarter”? Maybe but it was definitely sent up by those masters of parody French and Saunders though…

And it’s finally arrived. The moment in pop music history when the UK officially lost its collective mind and deemed it necessary to rush out and buy 600,000 copies of a record perceived by many a poll as the worst of all time. The Mr Blobby phenomenon is hard to explain. Initially a recurring character from BBC light entertainment programme Noel’s House Party, he became enshrined in British popular culture and somehow still retains a presence to this day. His original premise was as a tool in the Gotcha Oscars segment of the show, a kind of Candid Camera for the 90s where celebrities were duped into performing humiliating activities. Under the impression that Mr Blobby was a genuine Children’s TV character, they were then left to look on in bewilderment as this pink and yellow spotted costumed figure with a permanent grin proceeded to trash everything in its path and immediate vicinity. Somehow, this walking catastrophe managed to capture the nation’s hearts and his fame transcended his initial purpose. He would crop up on other TV shows including Lovejoy and Keeping Up Appearances and was a regular on other light entertainment programmes and kids TV like Live & Kicking and The Generation Game. Sensing there was money to be made unexpectedly out of this dereliction of duty to the traditions of humour on behalf of the public, merchandisers got in in the act with a number of Mr Blobby products including dolls, slippers, towels and a ‘blobbumentary’ VHS video. A record was inevitable and duly arrived in late November to cash in on the Christmas market.

I can find no redeeming features at all to “Mr Blobby” the single. Sure, there’d been many a novelty record make the charts prior to it. My Dad owned a copy of Benny Hill’s “Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West)” which was not only a chart topper but the Christmas No 1 of 1971. There was at least a plot to it though featuring a fair few innuendos to keep the adults engaged. It worked for kids as well – I can remember playing it on the family record player as a child and being entertained. It was a multi level masterpiece compared to “Mr Blobby”. There have also been records that have come out of TV shows like The Wombles in the 70s but at least they had a charm and were written by genuine songwriter Mike Batt. Plus, the Wombles were eco-friendly and ahead of their time. Mr Blobby was just an accident prone, irritating twat. The 80s provided us with another novelty No 1 in “The Chicken Song” by Spitting Image and as lame as it was, at least it had its origins in a controversial, politics lampooning, satirical comedy show with genuinely amusing puppets. Mr Blooby was devoid of any trace of humour and his costume was shit. As for the actual “Mr Blobby” ‘song’ if you an call it that, there are no words but seeing as this is a text based blog, I guess I’ll have to try and write some. It’s just hideous, an assault to the ears, totally devoid of any musical merit, atrocious, excrement…They couldn’t use the character’s voice on account of it being electronically altered and also that he only uses it to say “Blobby, blobby, blobby” so what sort of vocal could they use instead? Of course, the most annoying of all vocals committed to vinyl ever – a St Winifred’s school style kids choir! Heinous!

Oh God, I haven’t even got onto the video yet. I’ll maybe leave that for another post because horror of horrors, this diabolical record not only gets to No 1 (twice!) but it will also be *SPOILER ALERT* the 1993 Christmas No 1.

From the ridiculous to the sublime. The East 17 v Take That rivalry was hardly Oasis v Blur but in 1993 that particular feud didn’t exist so the Walthamstow street urchins meets Manchester’s slick pop idols was much bigger than the Bros versus Brother Beyond battle of 1988 surely? In the war for chart dominance, Take That seemed to be pulling clear of East 17 having bagged themselves two consecutive No 1s whilst Tony, Brian and…erm…the other two were flailing around in the mid parts of the Top 40. Their last two singles hadn’t even made the Top 10. Something needed to be done and it was with the release of the sixth and final single from their debut album everything was suddenly alright again. “It’s Alright” is, for me, the band’s best ever work even eclipsing the smooth sound of “Deep” and Christmas tear jerker “Stay Another Day”.

I’m a sucker for a song that starts slowly and then explodes into life and “It’s Alright” fits the bill perfectly. From that tinkling piano intro courtesy of Tony Mortimer leading into Brian Harvey’s isolated, angelic vocal (whatever else has been said about him, the guy could sing) to the momentary lull and the song taking off with that shouty chorus allied to a breakneck electronic backing – its marvellous stuff. Add in some punchy, racing strings and a return to the soft, lilting piano riff for the outro and it’s almost 1993 pop perfection. The album version was much more lacklustre and so you really needed to buy The Guvnor mix of the single (which I did). The song is really all about Tony and Brian’s parts so they had to find something for the other two to do for this performance. One of them gets a bass guitar to fiddle about with whilst the other is left to his own devices up front – he resorts to some shadow boxing moves at one point. He might as well have been hiding in one of the telephone boxes that inexplicably decorate the stage. At least it would have given them a reason for being there. The nostalgia of Brian Harvey’s chimney style beanie hat is also bizarrely comforting to me.

“It’s Alright” went to No 3 becoming their biggest hit at that point and also kickstarted their golden era which would culminate in that cash cow of a Christmas No 1 a year later.

The Breakers next but as specified earlier, not the official promo videos that should have accompanied them but those specially put together films to show off the 3D effects. We start with the first sighting in the UK charts of Snoop Doggy Dogg. There’s so much to say about this artist (just check out the length of his Wikipedia entry) that I’m not about to try and give a potted history of him in a few sentences here. However, I do recall in 1993 that he was being talked up as the next big rap/hip-hop superstar. He had a credible back story having featured on the legendary Dr.Dre’s debut album and single. A year later he was centre stage with his own debut material released, like Dre’s, on the Death Row Records label. “What’s My Name?” was a Top 10 smash in the US but only managed to peak at No 20 over here which seems odd given that it sold 200,000 copies in the UK. I’m pretty sure we sold many of them in the small branch of Our Price I was working at in Altrincham, Cheshire. I never failed to be amused by the antics of clearly middle class white kids in a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester who would wander around the store acting as if they were from the hood. They’d affect that ‘-izzle’ vocabulary that Snoop Doggy Dogg is known for popularising (“shizzle my nizzle” and all that), in a faux black patois whilst flicking through our rap section. Who were they kidding? I once heard one lad say to his mate as he browsed the section, “Oh man that’s bad* and that’s badder than that and that’s badder than that!”.

*Bad meaning good obvs

Instead of the infamous dog morphing video, we are dished up some images of rides at a fairground to display the those 3D effects. Man, that’s bad!*

*Bad meaning shite

Alongside Mariah Carey’s “Hero” and “Again” by Janet Jackson, the next Breaker was one of those ballads that hung around the charts for ages, sold loads but never really achieved the chart peak you might imagine it would. Of the three, “For Whom The Bell Tolls” by the Bee Gees achieved the highest position of No 4 (“Hero” made No 7 and “Again” No 6). It spent a total of twelve weeks inside the Top 40 including six in the Top 10. Check out its full chart run:

38 – 13 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 6 – 8 – 12 – 19 – 26 – 34

It’s solid stuff and that peak of No 4 would make it the band’s biggest hit of the whole decade. For all you tend to think of their massive success being in the 70s (which it was), they didn’t do too badly in the 90s. Eight Top 40 hits of which four went Top 5. Compare that to the 80s when they only had one entry into the Top 40 albeit that went all the way to the top (“You Win Again” in 1987). Having said all that “For Whom The Bell Tolls” seems a fairly unremarkable ballad to me. It does however allow for both Barry (verses) and Robin (chorus) to showcase their rather unique vocals. There’s also something about the bridge that reminds me of Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me” and if it sounds bizarre to mention Shaggy and the Bee Gees in the same breath, remember that the former made an unlikely album with Sting. As for the 3D film, it’s an aerial shot of a mountain range that looks like that one Jon Bon Jovi stood at the top of for the “Blaze Of Glory” video.

If it’s Christmas party season in 1993 then it must be time for a rerelease of a 70s disco classic. Yes, following in the footsteps of the likes of Sister Sledge, Boney M and Gloria Gaynor who all enjoyed small revivals in this year comes The Village People and their huge 1978 hit “Y.M.C.A.”. As far as I can tell, this was its first time back in our charts since which seems remarkable considering its ubiquity. I’m guessing there was a Best Of album out as well to cash in on the “Y.M.C.A. (‘93 remix)” No 12 chart performance but I really can’t remember. The most striking thing about this though is the film that the TOTP producers chose to go with it to highlight 3DTV week. Whose idea was it to sync one of the biggest, campest disco party tunes of all time with some ground level images of a big stick and a Dalmatian dog walking by it?! Even in super duper 3D that must have been boring as hell!

We have reached the TOTP 3D crescendo. Where previously the effects had been restricted to using specifically created videos replacing the official promos for featured songs and some jiggery pokery going on behind host Tony Dortie during his links, the moment had come for some actual 3D-ness whilst an artist performed in the studio. And what better artist for this extravaganza than the biggest in Britain Take That?*

*One in the eye for the overlooked East 17 there

After their last two singles had both gone straight into the charts at No 1, a third looked a sure fire bet and what’s more, they’d timed it perfectly to bag the Christmas chart topper whilst they were at it. The track chosen for the job was “Babe”, an out and out ballad which was a change of direction for the band. Yes, they’d had a hit with a ballad before in “A Million Love Songs” but whilst that was a bit of a sway-a-long swooner, “Babe” was of a different flavour. For a start it was completely overwrought, written to bring teenage girls to a state of high tension and unmanageable emotions. I recall thinking the first time I heard it that it was the drippiest, wettest sounding thing I’d heard since…I dunno…”Seasons In The Sun” by Terry Jacks maybe?

Secondly, the vocals were supplied by Mark Owen for the first time and not Gary Barlow. His saccharine stylings were perfect for the song which apparently had been written specifically for him by Barlow at the request of the band’s manager Nigel Martin-Smith to cash in on Owen’s popularity (like Ringo Starr, he got the most fan mail). Post 1996 when the band first broke up, the talk was all about who would have the biggest solo career – Gary Barlow or Robbie Williams? The claims of a third band member are largely skipped over nowadays but it should be remembered that Mark Owen also has a back catalogue of work including five albums and six hit singles. The first of those, “Child”, was actually pretty good.

Thirdly, Barlow’s construction of the song also had to take into account the guitar playing proficiency (or limits thereof) of Jason Orange. With shades of The Monkees lingering, Orange (and Owen presumably) were wanting to be more proactive in the recording of their songs rather than being pretty boy backing dancers to Barlow’s talent and so Jase had begun to learn to play the guitar. Gary takes up the story:

“Jay had always felt that musically he didn’t contribute to the band like the rest of us, which is what prompted him to take up the guitar. Eventually Mark, whose voice was getting better, and Jay, who had totally cracked the chords for the chorus, had the song down pat; it was time for the middle eight. The trouble was I didn’t want Jay to have to learn any more chords, so I wrote the rest of the song around the ones he already knew. There was one other complication in that Mark was at the top of his range, so it couldn’t go any higher. It’s a hell of a way to write a hit.”
https://www.songfacts.com/facts/take-that/babe

Anyway, “Babe” duly crashed in at No 1 on its first week of release making Take That the first act in UK chart history to achieve this feat*. The Christmas No 1 would elude them though in unlikely and controversial circumstances when Mr Blobby, having been deposed by Take That, went back to the top of the chart on Christmas Day.

*Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s first three singles all went to No 1 but didn’t all top the charts in week one. “Relax” took twelve weeks to rise to the summit

As for the 3D effects, the images used behind and swirling around the band seem to be a very literal interpretation of the song. We get an early 20th century phone and a load of numbers on screen when Owen sings “so I picked up the phone and dialled your number” before the special effects team give up and just have a heart shape with the band members emblazoned on it flying around. It was probably all very exciting if you were a teenage girl and had the requisite 3D glasses at the time. I wasn’t and didn’t.

The No 1 bizarrely seems like an anti climax after all that but then it is Meatloaf who is in his seventh week at the top with “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” so maybe that’s about right. Meat would never have another No 1 record in the UK nor US though he came close in 1995 when another preposterously titled single “I’d Lie For You (And That’s The Truth)” got to No 2 in this country. RIP Meatloaf.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	M People	Don’t Look Any Further	No but my wife had the album
2	U2	Stay (Faraway, So Close!)	No
3	Björk	Big Time Sensuality	No but I should have
4	Mr Blobby	Mr Blobby	What do you reckon?
5	East 17	It’s Alright	Yes, yes I did!
6	Snoop Doggy Dogg	What’s My Name?	Nope
7	Bee Gees	For Whom The Bell Tolls	Nah
8	The Village People	Y.M.C.A. (‘93 remix)	Negative
9	Take That	Babe	I did not
10	Meatloaf	I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)	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/m001frnf/top-of-the-pops-02121993

TOTP 25 NOV 1993

Posted on November 30, 2022 by 80stastic

I write this a couple of days after Wales were knocked out of the World Cup in Qatar by England. Twenty-nine years ago to the month, Wales also tumbled out of the World Cup at the qualifying stages when they looked set to make it to the finals for the first time since 1958. Needing to win against Romania and with the scores tied at 1-1, Wales were awarded a penalty. Up stepped the unfortunate Paul Bodin, an accomplished penalty taker, who slammed his kick against the crossbar. Almost inevitably, the game slipped away from Wales and with it their chance to become legends. Redemption for the nation would not arrive until 2022. I wonder if there’s any acts on this TOTP that messed up their shot at legendary status?

Does one big hit and a clutch of middling ones make you a dance legend? I’m not so sure but that was the fate of K–Klass. 1991 had seen them in the Top 3 with “Rhythm Is A Mystery” but they had struggled to solve the puzzle of how to follow that up. Neither of their two subsequent singles hit higher than No 20 but they were back in 1993 (a whole year since their last release) to try again. Another monster hit looked on the cards when they crashed into the charts week one with “Let Me Show You” at No 13 and the attendant TOTP appearance seemed likely to push it into the Top 10. Needless to say, I couldn’t have told you how this one went without hearing it back first but I found it better than I was expecting actually though I’m not sure why. I mean, there’s a bit of a tune in there which always helps – it reminds me of “Show Me Love” by Robin S though I was no fan of that – and singer Bobbi Depasois sells it well but I can’t put my finger on its appeal. Maybe it’s the comedic value of the obligatory anonymous blokes on keyboards who do a cracking job of being long haired, tech nerds who really can’t dance – no seriously, they REALLY can’t dance.

Despite this performance, “Let Me Show You” got no higher than the No 13 peak it was already at here. One further Top 40 hit followed before the collective embarked upon a career of producing and remixing for the likes of Pet Shop Boys, Kylie Minogue and M People.

Whatever you think of him (and I know somebody who has dismissed any and every song he’s ever recorded as unlistenable), surely you can’t deny the status of legend that Elton John carries. He’s sold over 300 million records worldwide and has been in the music business for 60 years! For a third week on the trot, he’s on the show with his duet with Kiki Dee of “True Love”. Kiki is an interesting character. In my head, she was one of those artists that would be the musical interlude in light entertainment programmes like Barbara Dickson on The Two Ronnies (though I don’t know if that’s actually true) but there’s so much more to her than that. For a start, she was the first white British artist to be signed to Motown and in her early career as a session singer she sang backing vocals for the likes of Dusty Springfield*. Her early recordings on the Fontana label all failed to chart but one of them – “On A Magic Carpet Ride” – remains a firm favourite on the Northern Soul scene. After signing to Elton’s label The Rocket Record Company, she started to have hits in her own right like “Amoureuse” and “I’ve Got The Music In Me” before that duet with with The Rocket Man himself on “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”*.

*Coincidentally, there was another link between Kiki and Dusty Springfield as the latter was Elton’s original choice of duet partner but she was too ill to do the recording at the time. She would eventually duet with a current pop act to great effect in 1987 with Pet Shop Boys on “What Have I Done To Deserve This”.

She’s supported Queen at Hyde Park in front of 150,000 people but topped even that figure by reprising “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” with Elton at Live Aid in 1985. She’s also had a career in musical theatre appearing in Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers on the West End taking on the role originally performed by Barbara Dickson (ah! Maybe that’s the reason for the connection in my head I mentioned earlier). So, Kiki Dee; maybe not a musical legend but it’s been quite a life.

Now I think legends might be too big a word for the next act but they certainly knew their way around a good tune or two. The Wonder Stuff were onto maybe the fourth period of their career by this point by my reckoning. Having started out as indie grebo darlings with tunes like “It’s Yer Money I’m After Baby” and “Wish Away” they expanded their sound on second album “Hup” with the addition of new band member and multi instrumentalist Martin Bell (not ‘the man in the white suit’) before becoming major chart stars with out and out pop singles like “Size Of A Cow”. By 1993 they were onto their fourth studio album “Construction For The Modern Idiot” and seemed to me to have developed a more mature rock sound with songs like “On The Ropes” and this one, “Full Of Life (Happy Now)”. However, the chart placings had dropped off alarmingly. Yes, “On The Ropes” had made the Top 10 but it seemed to be a fanbase purchase thing. It had gone straight in at No 10 but dropped out of the charts completely three weeks later. “Full Of Life (Happy Now)” followed a similar trajectory but on a diminished scale entering the charts at No 28 where it would peak and spend just two weeks inside the Top 40. It was a decent tune nonetheless. A Best Of album restored them to the Top 10 the following year before they took a six year sabbatical.

This next band may not amount to more than a few soft rock hits in the late 80s and early 90s over here but in America they are bona fide legends I would suggest. If I judge them by the same criteria I used for Elton John then that suggestion becomes a full on statement of fact. They’ve been in existence in one form/name or another since 1967 and have sold 35 million records worldwide. They were inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. I speak of Heart who are back with a new single called “Will You Be There (In The Morning)”.

I think I was first aware of Heart around the mid 80s when I used to listen to the US chart rundown show on Radio 1 hosted by Paul Gambaccini. Back then, they were having those soft rock hits like “These Dreams” and “What About Love”. I had no idea of their more rockier back catalogue from the 70s. The UK market was resistant to them though and it wasn’t until “Alone” broke through in 1987 that they had a seriously big UK hit on their hands. In the wake of that success, their previously ignored US mid 80s hits were rereleased and became successful in our country as well. I recall that they were huge airplay hits, inescapable whilst I was a second year polytechnic student. As the new decade dawned and the UK went baggy-tastic, enthralled by the sounds of ‘Madchester’, Heart seemed unwanted and no longer relevant. Somehow though, they bagged themselves a rather salacious Top 10 hit in “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You”. Then…nothing. A live album bombed over here but improbably they managed one more UK chart hit in this year of Eurodance anthems. Well if Meatloaf could be huge all over again, why not them?

“Will You Be There (In The Morning)” would be the band’s last chart entry in both territories (UK No 19, US No 39). It’s a more toned down sound to some of those shiny, over produced 80s hits but it never really gets going for me. The band are still together surviving a rather unsavoury family incident when Ann Wilson’s husband assaulted her sister Nancy’s 16 year old twin sons after they left the door to his RV open.

Just like Elton John and Kiki Dee’s “True Love”, this next single is on the show for a third consecutive week. As such, I’ve very little left to say about “Again” by Janet Jackson. What? Is she a musical legend? Well, you can’t deny her success but can you really be regarded as legendary when you’re not even the most famous artist in your own family? “Again” peaked at No 6.

Just the three Breakers tonight starting with an act that is completely out of the leftfield in terms of being on TOTP in 1993 but who is regarded as one of the most influential artists in electronic music ever. A legend then. Probably. Aphex Twin is Richard James, a Cornwall DJ who rose to prominence by featuring on the achingly trendy Warp Records compilation “Artificial Intelligence” which was ground breaking in terms of redefining dance music identity and giving birth to the genre of Intelligent Dance Music (IDM). The “On EP” was his first Top 40 chart entry although he’d already released four previous EPs and an album prior to this and that was just under the Aphex Twin moniker. He also recorded as Polygon Window, The Dice Man and Bradley Strider to name but three.

Unsurprisingly I never got the boat going to Aphex Twin island being a pop kid at heart and all but he/they were all the rage with some of my more dance aware colleagues in Our Price who would always be trying to get the likes of them and Rochdale electronic pioneers Autechre on the shop stereo on a Saturday afternoon when we really should have been playing…erm…I dunno…Lightning Seeds?

Right. Quick question. Kate Bush – legend or not? Here’s what Graeme had to say in his comments posted against the video for “Moments Of Pleasure” on YouTube:

I class her in the same company as Shakespeare, Vincent Van Gogh and Mozart

Blimey! Talk about superlatives. Having said that, I once made the case to a friend that Brian Wilson should be considered in the same breath as Beethoven so…Anyway, this was the second single from Kate’s “The Red Shoes” album and is typically representative of her work in that its an epic, swooping, tender ballad though it never seems to quite reach full bloom to my ears if that makes any sense. It made No 26 in the charts which was pretty much par for the course with Kate’s singles around this time. Her last massive hit had been “Running Up That Hill” which made No 3 in 1985. Her last Top 10 hit came the following year when she duetted with Peter Gabriel on “Don’t Give Up”. The chart positions for the singles after that and up to “Moments Of Pleasure” were:

23 – 12 – 25 – 38 – 12 -12 – 26

Still, it’s not all about hit singles is it? Her albums sold consistently, every one making the Top 10 with two of them topping the chart. Legend? Yeah, she must have a shot at it surely?

The Doobie Brothers?! The Doobie Brothers in the UK charts in 1993?! What was going on here?! It was all down to a remix of their 1973 song “Long Train Runnin’” doing the rounds. The remix was by a duo called Sure Is Pure one of whom had previous in turning classic songs into awful dance hits. Remember Candy Flip who did that dreadful version of “Strawberry Fields Forever” by The Beatles back in 1990? Well, one of their number was Danny Spencer who formed Sure Is Pure with his brother Kelvin. That was just the start though. Do you recall the mini disco revival earlier in 1993? Those remixed Sister Sledge singles that were a big part of it were the work of Danny and Kelvin. Quite why they chose the Doobie Brothers as their next target though I have no idea. The band behind 70s hits like “Listen To The Music” and “What A Fool Believes” which were big in America but not over here hardly seemed ripe for a revival. I suppose the guitar kick on “Long Train Runnin’” was pretty funky so maybe that was what attracted the remix duo. The 1993 version went all the way to No 7 making it easily the band’s biggest UK hit ever. A Best Of album was inevitably released off the back of it. As for the legends question, like Heart before them, The Doobie Brothers were inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2020 and have sold 40 million albums worldwide but legends? Not in my universe.

Belinda Carlisle has been a regular performer on TOTP since the ‘year zero’ revamp – I think she may have even been on the first show of the new regime back in October ‘91 – but I wasn’t expecting to see her on the show in November of ‘93 as I didn’t know she had a hit single to promote at that time. She did though and here it is. “Lay Down Your Arms” was the follow up to “Big Scary Animal” (which I did remember) but it only got up the charts as far as No 27. It doesn’t sound like traditional Carlisle fare but then it is a cover version. The original was recorded by a band called The Graces featuring Belinda’s ex-Go-Gos band mate Charlotte Caffey who co-wrote it. It’s not a bad little tune with some twangy guitar riffs even giving it an “Out Of Time” era REM vibe.

None of Belinda’s releases were becoming hits in the US at this time and maybe it seemed like they were drying up in this country as well. However, she regrouped for one final hurrah in 1996 bagging herself a gold selling album in “A Woman And A Man” and four hit singles from it including two Top 10s before the well of commercial success finally ran dry. She remains a live draw (she’s touring in the UK early next year) and is probably a legendary figure to many a young lad growing up in the late 80s and early 90s.

We’re up to six weeks for Meatloaf at No 1 with “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” so I’m nearly out of content for this one. Oh yes! The legend question. I think it has to be a ‘yes’ doesn’t it? His “Bat Out Of Hell” trilogy of albums has sold 100 million copies alone with the first of those staying in the charts continuously for nine whole years and still sells an estimated 200,000 units per year. That sounds like a legend to me.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	K-Klass	Let Me Show You	Nope
2	Elton John / Kiki Dee	True Love	Never happening
3	The Wonder Stuff	Full Of Life (Happy Now)	I didn’t
4	Heart	Will You Be There (In The Morning)	No
5	Janet Jackson	Again	Nah
6	Apex Twin	On EP	Not my bag
7	Kate Bush	Moments Of Pleasure	Not for me
8	The Doobie Brothers	Long Train Runnin’	Negative
9	Belinda Carlisle	Lay Down Your Arms	I did not
10	Meatloaf	I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)	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/m001fh28/top-of-the-pops-25111993

TOTP 18 NOV 1993

Posted on November 26, 2022 by 80stastic

What were you doing twenty-nine years ago? I know, I know. It’s hard enough remembering why you’ve just come upstairs some days but I’m pretty sure that I had just begun working at the Our Price store in Altrincham, Cheshire. I’d been employed by the company for three years by this point and was onto my fourth different shop. I’d done nearly two years in Market Street, Manchester then a promotion saw me move to Rochdale for a year. A transfer to a bigger store in Stockport followed but it hadn’t really worked out for me. I never settled and found the whole place a bit overwhelming. When another move suddenly presented itself, I was relieved. Whether area management knew I was struggling and took pity on me I don’t know. I doubt it but I immediately felt better at Altrincham. It was a much smaller store (similar to Rochdale) and just felt more manageable. The staff were welcoming and I really got on with the manager Cathy. I think there were eight of us altogether including Christmas temps and it was a good little team. I loved it there in fact. Sadly, it would all come to an abrupt end immediately after Christmas but that’s for a future post. I wonder if any of the songs on this TOTP will ring any bells with me?

Well, this one should do. Not that I remember it specifically but because it sounds the same as all their other hits. I refer, rather obviously, to 2 Unlimited. I think it was all starting to wear a bit thin by this point wasn’t it? “Maximum Overdrive” was their eighth UK hit in a two year period five of which had made the Top 5 including the No 1 single “No Limit”… and they all sounded…the…same. Too harsh? OK, they all followed a very similar pattern then. I get that they might have gone down well on your local nightclub’s dance floor but could anybody have listened to a whole album full of this stuff?!

*checks 2 Unlimited’s discography*

What?! Two of their albums went to No 1 in this country (“No Limits!” and “Real Things”) selling 350,000 copies between them?! This can’t be true can it?! This is as baffling as who the hell voted for Matt Hancock to stay in the jungle that long!

When I first saw Anita and Ray’s outfits for this performance – full black and white chequered leathers with a number 2 prominently displayed – I wondered if they’d gone all Two-tone but it was all to do with that motorbike at the back of the stage. Presumably that was meant to be a play on the theme of the single’s title with the backing dancers meant to be pit stop crew? Nah – this is how you incorporate motorbikes into your song. A masterclass from David Essex…

Why were the TOTP producers obsessed with informing us that artists that had been booked to appear in the studio could no longer do so because they were ill/indisposed so we’d have to make do with the video instead? Why bother telling us? Surely we wouldn’t have known they were meant to be there in person anyway would we? Methinks they protest too much. Unless…it was some sort of ploy to make the show still appear credible and valid by showing us that artists did still want to make the effort to appear in person – “we’re still the biggest music show on TV, honest we are!”. Anyway, that’s what happens here with Terence Trent D’Arby who was meant to be in the studio to perform his single “Let Her Down Easy” but had come down with a case of Beijing flu* according to host Tony Dortie so it’s the video instead.

*There was an actual epidemic of it in the winter of 1993/94 though whether TTD had actually contracted it or it was just Dortie trying to be topical I don’t know.

1993 had been quite a year for Terence on the quiet. A No 4 album in “Symphony Or Damn” which was also well received by the critics (it received a five star rating from Q Magazine) with four Top 20 singles from it that achieved these very consistent chart peaks:

14 – 16 – 14 – 18

“Let Her Down Easy” was the final one of the four and though I don’t remember it, I really should have as it’s a striking piece of music. Almost entirely a piano led composition (there’s some orchestration low in the mix) with just Terence’s pure, isolated vocal, it’s quite the stand out track even today. It got the attention of George Michael who knew his way around a decent tune and he performed it live on his 2011-12 Symphonica tour which was recorded for his 2014 “Symphonica” album.

Back in a Eurodance dominated 1993 though, the track must have seemed like a complete anomaly. It should have been a bigger hit but maybe it got caught up in the Christmas rush. I liked the diversity of the album’s four singles with each one quite different from the other. Like I said, he had quite the year in 1993 but Terence Trent D’Arby rarely gets a mention in retrospectives of those twelve months.

Remember in 2001 when Kylie Minogue grabbed herself a No 1 single with the insanely catchy “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”? Back then, we remarked on how clever the lyrics and title were in that they worked on two levels; the object of Kylie’s affection but also the ear worm that was the actual song. Eight years earlier Culture Beat pulled off a similar coup with “Got To Get It”. ‘Got to get it, got to get it out of my head’ they sang referring to a relationship that had ended but of course it could also have referred to the track itself. Culture Beat are, of course, mostly remembered for that bit of pop trivia about “Mr Vain” being the first UK No 1 not to be released on 7” vinyl whereas Kylie is known as the ‘Princess of Pop’ and revered as a style icon. Get that out of your head Culture Beat!

In 1996 Crowded House released a Best Of compilation called “Recurring Dream”. The TV ad campaign for the album used a tag line that was spoken by a voice over guy who said “you’ll know more songs than you think by Crowded House”. Clever stuff. However, here’s one of theirs that I don’t think most of us will know. I didn’t remember it and possibly Mr Voice Over Guy wouldn’t either as it’s not included in that “Recurring Dream” Best Of.

“Nails In My Feet” was the second track taken from the band’s “Together Alone” album and unlike its predecessor “Distant Sun” and subsequent release “Locked Out”, it didn’t seem like an obvious choice of single. It feels like it should be something special but flounders around in search of a tune and never actually finds one. The rather odd, almost off key middle eight that sounds a bit like the theme to 70s action-comedy series The Persuaders! doesn’t help either.

Neil Finn does his best to sell the song with an expressive performance but it just doesn’t work for me and I say that as someone who’s seen them in concert twice. “Nails In My Feet” was supposedly inspired by Finn’s purchase of a pair of sandals with nails in them that were used to aerate the grass on his home’s tennis court rather than any religious imagery and achieved a respectable chart peak of No 22.

Tony Dortie’s at it again next telling the viewers at home that U2 should have been in the TOTP studio but for reasons he doesn’t want to bore us with, they haven’t made it. Tony, you can’t makes statement like that and not give us the whole story. You could have said nothing and we’d have been none the wiser but the cat’s out of the bag now so you have to tell all!

1993 was an odd chapter in the U2 story. Having finished 1992 with accumulated sales of “Achtung Baby” standing at 10 million and ticket sales for the supporting Zoo TV Tour reaching 2.9 million, the band paused for breath as there was now a six month break before the tour resumed with the Zooropa leg. The problem was that the band weren’t ready to just stop after months of touring. As Bono explained it:

“We thought we could live a normal life and then go back on the road [in May 1993]. But it turns out that your whole way of thinking, your whole body has been geared toward the madness of Zoo TV… So we decided to put the madness on a record. Everybody’s head was spinning, so we thought, why not keep that momentum going…?
Scholz, Martin; Bizot, Jean-Francois; Zekri, Bernard (August 1993). “Even Bigger Than the Real Thing”. Spin. Vol. 9, no. 5. Spin Media LLC. pp. 60–62, 96.

With loops created from tour sound checks and unused “Achtung Baby” demos being employed as starting blocks for recording sessions, the next decision was what format this new material would be released as. A four track EP was the original idea but such was the speed of their creativity, Bono suggested a whole album. Then it all got very confusing. The track chosen to promote the “Zooropa” album was “Numb” but in an unexpected turn of events, it was only released as a VHS video. I recall we got a couple of copies in the Our Price store in Rochdale but I’m not sure if we sold any of them. The then chart rules disallowed its sales from counting on the record singles chart so it kind of sunk without trace. After that rather spectacular own goal, a second track was summoned from the bench to promote the album – “Lemon”. Then it was going to be a double A-side release with “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, Bono’s duet with Frank Sinatra. Then Ol’ Blue Eyes’ people wanted a stand alone release and then finally that track was paired with the confoundingly titled track “Stay (Faraway, So Close!)”. I do remember this coming out but twenty-nine years on, I couldn’t have told you how it went before re-listening to it. Now that I have listened to it again, I still can’t tell you so unmemorable is it. I don’t mind a bit of U2 now and again and you have to admire their longevity and willingness to reinvent themselves but this one is dreary as. Allegedly, Bono has previously labelled it as the band’s greatest song but I can’t hear it. It was actually written for the similarly titled Wim Wenders film Faraway, So Close! but I’ve never seen it.

I suppose I should say something about the Bono/Frank Sinatra duet as well seeing as the single seems to have been a double A-side. How did this come about? Well, Frank had maybe been talking to Elton John as, just like the ‘Rocket Man’, he’d recorded an album of duets and, also like Elt, just called it “Duets”. Featuring collaborations with the likes of Luther Vandross, Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennett and Liza Minnelli, it sold well over the Xmas period peaking at No 5 in the UK. I say collaborations but it was a very mechanical process with Sinatra not actually being in the recording studio with any of his duetters at the same time. They sang along with his pre-recorded vocals with instructions to make their parts complement his. Frank ‘takin’ care of business’ as always. In that respect it was similar to the Natalie Cole (who appeared on the album with Sinatra on “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”) duet on “Unforgettable” with her deceased father Nat King Cole. The track “Under My Skin” recorded with Bono was chosen as a single to promote the album. Bono (along with the rest of the band) had already met Sinatra though in 1987 at a boxing match in Las Vegas between Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler. I bet Bono and the guys got a kick out of that.

The Breakers now beginning with DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince who are trying to follow up on the huge and slightly unexpected success of “Boom! Shake The Room” with new single “I’m Looking For The One (To Be With Me)”. This is yet another track that I have no memory of (clearly working in a record shop didn’t mean that I knew every song in the charts) but it sounds a bit like their previous hit “Summertime”. Even the home made style video is reminiscent of that track. Maybe that Summer vibe was a bit misplaced on a record released as Christmas was coming into view and perhaps that’s why it got nowhere near replicating the success of “Boom! Shake The Room” when it peaked at No 24.

This next song has quite the back story. “Demolition Man” was written by Sting in the Summer of 1980 as a potential track for The Police album “Zenyatta Mondatta”. When it didn’t make the album it was offered to Grace Jones who recorded it for her 1981 “Nightclubbing” album and released it as its lead single.

Thinking that they could do a better version themselves, the band recorded it for their next album “Ghost In The Machine”.

Then over a decade later, here it is again as a solo release from Sting to promote the film of the same name starring Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes. As with Faraway, So Close! earlier, I’ve never seen it but reading its Wikipedia entry leads me to believe it’s one of those fun but dumb action movies that are good if you’re recovering from a hangover and have very little brain power available. The video has Sting rather gratuitously performing the song naked from the waist up with very little if any clips from the film inserted. One for his fan base there.

Sting of course has quite the connection with the world of movies. He’s acted in over a dozen films including Quadrophenia, Dune, The Bride and Stormy Monday and has contributed music to many a soundtrack. Aside from Demolition Man, he’s featured on Lethal Weapon 3 (“It’s Probably Me” with Eric Clapton), The Three Musketeers (“All Four Love” with Rod Stewart and Bryan Adams), Stars And Bars (“Englishman In New York”) to name but three of a long list. There’s even a CD called “Sting At The Movies” that collects many of them together. The one burnt into my memory though is “Spread A Little Happiness” from Brimstone And Treacle in which he also starred. This seemed to be played all the time by Terry Wogan on his Radio 2 breakfast show which my Mum used to have on in the background on a school morning.

Oh the folly! Tony Dortie’s casual dismissal of the next act as “apparently once controversial” illustrates perfectly the smugness contemporary music has for its elders. Back in 1984, Frankie Goes To Hollywood were everything and everywhere, exploding onto the charts like nothing witnessed since The Beatles. Three No 1 records amounting to sixteen weeks at the top, every other person in the country wearing a ‘Frankie Says…T-shirt’, a Radio 1 ban for the corrupting nature of the lyrics to “Relax”, a video for “Two Tribes” featuring actors playing out a wrestling match between Reagan and Chernenko at the height of the new Cold War…according to Dortie that just warrants an “apparently once controversial” remark. Know your musical history mate!

Frankie were back in the charts in 1993 thanks to a Best Of album and the rerelease of the “Relax” single to promote it. After that had made No 5, record label ZTT decided it was worth reissuing another of their hits. Surely “Two Tribes”* was the obvious choice or even “The Power Of Love” seeing as Christmas was coming and it had that video but no – “Welcome To The Pleasuredome” was selected. Now, nothing against the song which still stands up today in my book but it does carry with it that stigma of being the first single by the band not to go to No 1 despite ZTT using an advertising campaign declaring it their fourth No 1 before it was even released. As it turned out, it couldn’t dislodge “Easy Lover” by Phil Collins and Philip Bailey and has retrospectively been deigned to be the beginning of the end for the Frankie phenomenon. The 1993 remix still managed a Top 20 position but it seemed a missed opportunity. As it turned out, “The Power Of Love” was hastily rush released the week before Christmas and achieved a high of No 10 but with a bit more thought, a longer lead in time and better promotion, could it have challenged for the Christmas No 1 or would the power of Mr Blobby have easily seen it off?

* “Two Tribes” was eventually rereleased in February of 1994 making it to No 16.

The final two Breakers were both featured in full length on the previous show and are both due to be on the following week so I’ll leave my comments short for both for fear of running out of things to say about them. The first is “Again” by Janet Jackson. After her live by satellite performance the other week, we get the video this time which was directed by René Elizondo Jr. As well as being Janet’s then husband, he is also the man whose hands are covering her breasts on the cover of the September 1993 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine that formed the expanded artwork for her “Janet” album. So now you know.

The final Breaker is from Elton John and Kiki Dee or ‘Alton’ John as Tony Dortie pronounces it. Their rendition of “True Love” is up to No 8 on its way to a high of No 2, not quite the Christmas No 1 the bookies were predicting as per Dortie’s intro. The video is clearly aimed at creating a Christmas vibe with Elton and Kiki wearing prominently placed winter scarves whilst the black and white film depicting them as the guardian angels of the lyrics reeks of It’s A Wonderful Life. Guiding the boy and girl love interests to ensure they don’t miss each other at the train station, the film suddenly turns colour as they find each other. OK, I can live with that but the nun dancing with a homeless looking fella? Really?!

Tony Dortie tries to increase his street cred next by getting Public Enemy into his next intro. However, that credibility is stretched to its limits when you realise he’s crowbarred the hip hop legends into a segue into a performance by soprano and opera singer Lesley Garrett. So what was going on here then? Well, Lesley teamed up with 12 year old pianist and leukaemia patient Amanda Thompson to record a version of “Ave Maria”, the Latin prayer set to music by Charles Gounod when he superimposed a melody over Bach’s “Prelude No 1 in C Major”. It was a charity record raising £160,000 for the Malcolm Sergeant cancer fund and came about after Amanda had featured heavily in the ITV documentary series Jimmy’s about St.James’s hospital in Leeds. I think Esther Rantzen was something to do with it as well. There was even some fanciful talk of this being the Christmas No 1 but it topped out at No16.

Right, what are we up to now? Fourth week? Fifth? I’m losing count of how long Meatloaf’s been at No 1 with “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’tDo That)”. I suppose I should mention the incredible business parent album “Bat Out Of Hell 2: Back Into Hell” was also doing. In the UK alone it went six times platinum (1,800,000 sales) whilst in America it went five times platinum equating to 5,000,000 sales. Obviously it was also topped the album charts in both those territories. We sold a lot of it that Christmas in that little store in Altrincham. We did an end of year poll for the staff asking for their Top 3 albums of the year, fave single etc. “I’d Fo Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” was one member of staff’s pick. Didn’t see that coming.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	2 Unlimited	Maximum Overdrive	Never
2	Terence Trent D’Arby	Let Her Down Easy	Good song, didn’t buy it
3	Culture Beat	Got To Get It	See 1 above
4	Crowded House	Nails In My Feet	I did not
5	U2	Stay (Faraway, So Close!)	No
6	DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince	I’m Looking For The One (To Be With Me)	Negative
7	Sting	Demolition Man	Nope
8	Frankie Goes to Hollywood	Welcome To The Pleasuredome	Not in 1985 nor 1993
9	Janet Jackson	Again	Nah
10	Elton John / Kiki Dee	True Love	Of course not
11	Lesley Garrett / Amanda Thompson	Ave Maria	It’s a no from me
12	Meatloaf	I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’tDo That)	Unlike my Our Price colleague, 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/m001fh20/top-of-the-pops-18111993

TOTP 1993 – the epilogue

Posted on November 25, 2022 by 80stastic

And there go the 1993 TOTP repeats – weren’t they awful?! This particular year was the one I was least looking forward to reviewing so far and my trepidation was justified. Some truly terrible music made the charts topped off with the festive chart topper also being possibly the worst No 1 single of all time. What a time to be alive! So what was all this terrible music of which I write? Well, if I think of the charts of 1993, the first word that comes to mind is ‘Eurodance’ – so many acts seemed to appear this year peddling their synth riffs, drum machines, inanely and insanely catchy choruses and their ‘featured’ rappers. The likes of 2 Unlimited, Culture Beat and Haddaway all scored massive hits during the twelve calendar months with the first two even bagging themselves a No 1 record. The second thought that enters my head when considering this year is the spectre of the ‘Three S’s’ – Shaggy, Shabba and Snow. They each racked up a ginormous smash, specifically “Oh Carolina” (No 1), “Mr Loverman” (No 2) and “Informer” (No 2) all within a few weeks of each other. And they were all shite. As I said, what a time to be alive. Singles sales in general were up after the slump of the previous year but the standard of No 1s was as poor as ever. Look at this lot…

Chart date (week ending)	Song	Artist(s)
2 January	“I Will Always Love You“	Whitney Houston
9 January
16 January
23 January
30 January
6 February
13 February	“No Limit“	2 Unlimited
20 February
27 February
6 March
13 March
20 March	“Oh Carolina“	Shaggy
27 March
3 April	“Young at Heart“	The Bluebells
10 April
17 April
24 April
1 May	Five Live	George Michael & Queen with Lisa Stansfield
8 May
15 May
22 May	“All That She Wants“	Ace of Base
29 May
5 June
12 June	“(I Can’t Help) Falling In Love With You“	UB40
19 June
26 June	“Dreams“	Gabrielle
3 July
10 July
17 July	“Pray“	Take That
24 July
31 July
7 August
14 August	“Living on My Own“	Freddie Mercury
21 August
28 August	“Mr. Vain“	Culture Beat
4 September
11 September
18 September
25 September	“Boom! Shake the Room“	DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
2 October
9 October	“Relight My Fire“	Take That featuring Lulu
16 October
23 October	“I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)“	Meat Loaf
30 October
6 November
13 November
20 November
27 November
4 December
11 December	“Mr. Blobby“	Mr. Blobby
18 December	“Babe“	Take That
25 December	“Mr. Blobby”	Mr. Blobby

It’s grim reading. Seventeen chart toppers by sixteen artists (Mr Blobby was No 1 on two occasions) and I bought none of them. I would break them down as follows:

3 x Eurodance nonsense (2 Unlimited, Culture Beat, Ace Of Base)
3 x teen sensations (Take That)
2 x 80s songs reactivated by (i) TV advert (The Bluebells) and (ii) record company fleecing an artist’s back catalogue posthumously (Freddie Mercury)
1 x EP taken from the tribute concert for said deceased artist (George Michael & Queen with Lisa Stansfield)
1 x execrable novelty hit (Mr Blobby)
1 x last year’s Christmas No 1 hung over into the new year (Whitney Houston)
1 x out of the blue monster hit by hoary old rocker (Meatloaf)
1 x lame reggae flavoured cover for a film soundtrack by a band that owed their biggest hits to lame reggae flavoured covers (UB40)
1 x soul/dance floor filler by a new artist (Gabrielle)
1 x hip-hop shout-a-long anthem from an artist better known as a TV star at the time (DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
1 x reggae hit from a new artist jumping on the dancehall/toasting bandwagon of 1993 (Shaggy)

It’s not the most inspiring collection of songs ever. Where was the innovation? Was this really what the kids wanted? It wasn’t any better if you looked at the biggest selling albums of the year. The Top 10 included the usual mainstream names like Phil Collins, Bryan Adams, Diana Ross, UB40, U2 plus the resurrected Meatloaf who easily helped himself to both the year’s best selling single and album. The only real surprises were the performances of the No 2 and No 3 albums. The former came from REM who achieved that position with a record that was released in the October of the previous year. Meanwhile, the latter came from the only ‘new’ artist in the Top 10 in Dina Carroll whose success was no doubt enabled by the presence of six hit singles on her album. It doesn’t get much better if you scroll down the chart where you’ll find the familiar names of Sting, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Michael Bolton, Rod Stewart and Tina Turner. However, honourable mentions should go to Spin Doctors, Stereo MCs and Björk.

Hits We Missed

Despite there being very few shows in 1993 that weren’t rebroadcast by BBC4 due to presenter issues – I think we may have missed the episode with Rolf Harris performing “Stairway To Heaven” understandably – there were still a few Top 40 hits that didn’t make it onto TOTP. Yes, even though the infernal Breakers section with its five or so songs crammed into a two minute slot was a constant throughout the year, somehow there were still some singles we never got to see. Here are my picks…

Sugar – “If I Can’t Change Your Mind”

I used to work with someone who loved Bob Mould and his post Hüsker Dü project and you can hear why on this, Sugar’s only UK chart hit. Leaving behind his previous band’s punk tendencies for some perfect power pop, this should have been huge. If you need validation of this opinion then check out the comments against it on YouTube where the most used word to describe the song/artist is ‘underrated’.

The parent album “Copper Blue” was well received by the critics both at the time (it was the NME album of the year) and beyond (it features in the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die reference book). It wasn’t just the critics who liked it as it did sell well making the Top 10 in the UK so why didn’t this single get a chance on TOTP? Bob Mould broke up Sugar in 1996 though he did tour “Copper Blue” just as himself in 2012.

Released: Jan ‘93

Chart peak: No 30

Radiohead – “Anyone Can Play Guitar”

Asked to name Radiohead’s first hit, I’m guessing many would answer “Creep” but although it was their first single release, “Anyone Can Play Guitar” was actually their first foray into the Top 40. You could forgive the error though. One week at No 32, one week at No 50 and then gone. No wonder we didn’t get to see this one on TOTP. It was an inauspicious chart start for a band that would become a behemoth of the 90s and beyond.

Listening back to it now, it must have seemed at odds with its chart contemporaries. It’s all feedback and distortion in the opening before that’s zapped and the now familiar Radiohead staccato rhythm kicks in. The chorus actually has a strong, almost joyful (for them) melody which plays directly against the entrenched, downbeat nature of the verses. I must admit that it passed me by at the time before we were all swallowed up by that enormous sound of “Creep”. Fast forward two years and the band upped their game with the epic “The Bends” album and I for one couldn’t resist them any longer. So, “Anyone Can Play Guitar” – if nothing else, a great Pointless answer if the category of Radiohead Top 40 hits ever comes up.

Released: Feb ’93

Chart peak: No 32

Neil Young – “Harvest Moon”

I have to admit that my knowledge of Neil Young in 1993 could never be described as extensive – in fact it’s as limited as the amount of copies that exist of the A&M pressing of “God Save The Queen”. Obviously I knew his only UK hit single to that point (1971’s “Heart Of Gold”) and that it came from an album called “Harvest” but beyond that? Hardly anything. I was aware of a handful of his songs from cover versions by other artists like “The Needle And The Damage Done” via a cover version by The Icicle Works and Pete Wylie from 1986 and “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” by Saint Etienne in 1991. Oh and The Alarm covered “Rockin’ In The Free World” on their early 90s album “Raw”. Yes, I knew about his involvement in Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young but all I really knew of their catalogue was “Our House” (I’ve since discovered a few more of their wonderful harmonies). It’s not much to say that Young has recorded forty-five studio albums over the course of his career. I think the fact that he released an album of feedback (1991’s “Arc”) didn’t help to pique my curiosity.

In 1993 came “Harvest Moon” though and I recall there being a lot of fuss in the music press about its release. Seen as a follow up to “Harvest” twenty years on, it would be his biggest selling album since the original. However the title track didn’t achieve the same level of success when issued as a single despite being critically lauded. It seems to me that it borrows the guitar motif from “Walk Right Back” by The Everly Brothers (albeit a slowed down version) but that’s not a criticism. It’s a gorgeous melody and judging by the comments against the video for it on YouTube, it certainly means a lot to people. Entry after entry talks about how it is the song that reminds the author of a departed loved one. The power of music isn’t always measured by chart positions.

Released: Feb ’93

Chart peak: No 36

Duran Duran – “Too Much Information”

1993 was a year of rejuvenation for a few names from the past. The Bluebells had a TV advert inspired No 1 with a single from 1984, Nick Heyward would return with his first new album for five years (more of that later) whilst Go West somehow managed to bag themselves three Top 40 hits. And then there was Duran Duran. Seemingly destined to be locked away with the other unwanted 80s artefacts in the pop music broom cupboard as the new decade dawned, they completed a remarkable commercial comeback in this year.

After the very poorly received “Liberty” album in 1990, many thought we had seen the last of Duran Duran. However, the doubters hadn’t banked on the band’s seventh eponymously titled studio album (aka ‘The Wedding Album’). Led by the outstanding and enduring single “Ordinary World”, it went Top 5 in the UK and Top 10 in the US becoming their highest charting album in a decade since “Seven And The Ragged Tiger” at the height of their pomp. Another accomplished single followed in “Come Undone” but there was a third, largely forgotten single that appeared in August.

“Too Much Information” was the opening track on the album and it’s a belter. Starting off with an acoustic guitar intro, it suddenly bounds into life with a punchy groove that never quits over the next four minutes or so. Reversing the traditional single release template of two uptempo tunes and then a slow track, this was quite the change of pace after “Ordinary World” and “Come Undone”. Often seen as a prediction of the information highway which was in its infancy, the lyrics also show some self knowledge with lines like “Destroyed by MTV, I hate to bite the hand that feeds me” referencing the role that the music channel played in breaking the band in America. There’s also some tongue in cheek admittance of the turbulent past of the band with the lyric “This band is perfect, just don’t scratch the surface”.

The Julian Temple directed video does a great job of depicting sensory overload with multiple cuts coming thick and fast – there’s even a homage to the infamous eye clamps scene from A Clockwork Orange. None of this made any difference to the single’s chart fortunes though and it barely scraped into the Top 40. Would a Breaker slot on TOTP have made any difference? Maybe. The success and favourable sway of public opinion the band received in 1993 quickly evaporated when they released their collection of covers “Thank You” two years later which was declared the worst album of all time by Q Magazine in 2006.

Released: Sep ’93

Chart peak: No 35

Squeeze – “Third Rail”

As comebacks go, this next band’s reappearance in the charts wasn’t as successful as Duran Duran’s but was easily as welcome. Squeeze had gone a whole six years without a Top 40 entry before “Third Rail” became their first (just!) since “Hourglass” in 1987. In that time they’d released two albums neither of which had pulled up any trees commercially although a 1992 Greatest Hits had returned then to the Top 10 of the album charts.

However, 1993 saw a renaissance of sorts. “Some Fantastic Place” achieved a No 26 peak and was quite the sleeper hit selling steadily under the radar. The album featured the return (briefly) of Paul Carrack who had been with the band on 1981’s “East Side Story” and also Elvis Costello drummer Pete Thomas who replaced long term sticks man Gilson Lavis.

The title track was released as the second single from it and is a superlative piece of work. Like “Harvest Moon” earlier, it resonates with people who have lost loved ones – it was written about the death of a long time friend of the band who introduced Chris Difford and Glen Tilbrook in the 70s – with both men claiming it to be their favourite Squeeze song. I could have included it in the Hits That Never Were section below but I’ve gone with “Third Rail”. Starting with a startling, descending guitar riff, it then goes into a backbeat borrowed from the old Rhythm and Blues stomper “Some Other Guy” before the typically catchy chorus hooks you in. Unbelievably, Squeeze have only ever had three Top 10 hits with the last of those coming in 1981. There really isn’t any justice in the world.

Released: July ‘93

Chart Peak: No 39

Hits That Never Were

My favourite part of these yearly overviews is rediscovering those songs that I believed should have been huge chart hits but somehow failed to pierce the Top 40. Here are my selection for 1993…

Freaky Realistic – “Leonard Nimoy”

One of the greatest lost gems of the decade came from Peckham but unlike its most famous fictional resident Del Boy, hardly anyone seemed to promote their claims to superstardom by declaring “you know it makes sense”. By rights, Freaky Realistic should have been saying to themselves “This time next year, we’ll be millionaires!” off the back of their one and only album “Frealism” but as ever, the UK record buying public thought they knew better (they didn’t) and almost totally ignored them. Not my wife though who bought the album and introduced me to its delights. Fusing some gorgeous pop melodies with dance beats, it should have been an iconic title of the genre alongside the likes of The Beloved and even Primal Scream (no, really – it’s that good). Somehow though, not even a super low retail price (promoted as a ‘freaky price’) of £5 could entice enough punters to explore its charms.

Three singles were released from it and I could have plumped for any of them to highlight but in the end I chose the Star Trek referencing “Leonard Nimoy” which was as catchy as hell and yet kooky in a playful way with its choice of subject matter. Unfortunately, it didn’t live long and prosper in the charts spending just one week at No 71 being unable to…ahem…’cling on’ to any higher placing.

Internal feuding broke the band up and a planned second album never materialised despite a batch of new songs being demoed. “Frealism” was unavailable for many years but reissue specialist label Cherry Red rereleased it in 2010. Get yourself a copy, you won’t regret it.

Released: July ’93

Chart peak: No 71

Ian McNabb – “If Love Was Like Guitars”

Throughout these reviews, especially in the 80s years, one of the artists that I have included most in this section have been The Icicle Works. Great single after great single was routinely ignored by the record buying public until the band could take no more and disbanded in 1990.

By 1993, Ian McNabb had formulated his first solo album “Truth And Beauty” (he’s added another ten in the intervening thirty years) and guess what? Hardly anybody bought that either! I did my best for Ian’s fortunes by purchasing it though and it’s a great little collection of well crafted songs as you would expect from such an accomplished songwriter. “If Love Was Like Guitars” wasn’t, as I incorrectly remembered, the lead single (at least not technically) though my mistake was forgivable. McNabb had released two singles in 1991 which both ended up on the album but given that was two years prior and they did absolutely nothing, no wonder my mind has settled on “If Love Was Like Guitars” as the main promotional track for “Truth And Beauty”. And what a track! A trippy, swirling, psychedelic Beatles-esque verse leads into a huge, chunky guitar chorus with sing-a-long lyrics before the obligatory but perfectly placed key change and wah-wah guitars take us home. Why oh why did this not become a huge hit?

The following year, Ian released the Mercury Music Prize nominated “Head Like A Rock” album with Crazy Horse of the aforementioned Neil Young fame. I saw him live on that tour and he was great. In fact, I’ve seen Ian maybe four or five times live and he can still knock it out of the park. A starry blue eyed wonder indeed.

Released: January ‘93

Chart peak: No 67

The Lemon Trees – “Child Of Love”

You wait all decade (so far) for a lost gem and then two turn up in the same year. After Freaky Realistic earlier, here’s another lost treasure of 1993. The Lemon Trees (not to be confused with The Lemonheads nor indeed the song “Lemon Tree” by the German band Fool’s Garden) were so much more than just the original band of Guy Chambers who would find fame and fortune for his songwriting collaborations with Robbie Williams. This 60s influenced five piece were interested in real instruments and life affirming melodies and they brought all that to the table on their only album “Open Book” which I duly bought. Every track on it is a winner including all five singles taken from it none of which hit higher than No 52 in the charts. They operated a spirit of true egalitarianism with those five singles being sung by three different band members.

“Child Of Love” was the fourth of those and I was convinced it would be the one to be the band’s breakthrough hit. It has a lovely, lilting, Summertime feel to it with a Stevie Wonder sounding harmonica break towards the end (although the singer Alex Lewis plays a melodica in the video). Why did it fail? Not enough promotion? I’m pretty sure it was on ITV’s Chart Show but maybe record company MCA didn’t have enough faith in their charges after three misses on the trot? Whatever the reason, it never quite happened for The Lemon Trees. A fifth single – the excellent “I Can’t Face The World” – came close but that was not enough to prevent a second album remaining unreleased and gathering dust in the MCA vaults. To add to the crime, you can’t even access their first album easily as it’s not on Spotify. Sort it out somebody!

The various members of the band stayed in music mostly. Brothers Paul and Jeremy Stacey have worked with the likes of Sheryl Crow, The Black Crowes and The Finn Brothers. As for the aforementioned Guy Chambers, although mostly known for writing many of Robbie Williams’ biggest hits, his list of other artists he’s worked with is as long as two arms including Melanie C, Beverley Knight, Rufus Wainwright and Miles Kane as well as writing music for the RSC and finally getting round to releasing his own piano album in 2019. As of 2005, Paul Holman was running a record shop in Dorset which is staying in music I guess.

Released: April ’93

Chart peak: No 55

Eskimos And Egypt – “Fall From Grace”

I’ve included this one as I knew the girlfriend of one of the band members and consequently met him a couple of times. Hailing from Manchester (where I was living), Eskimos And Egypt were a hybrid of dance beats and real instruments, kind of like a cross between The Shamen and The Prodigy. They were signed to One Little Indian, the label that was also home to Björk. As she was enjoying a year of mainstream breakthrough success, presumably Eskimos And Egypt held high hopes that they would follow a similar course. Despite TV appearances like this one on The Word, they weren’t able to crossover into the Top 40.

Like The Lemon Trees earlier, most of the members remained in the music business after the band split moving into production and working with the likes of Sonique, Erasure and t.A.T.u. They even wrote and produced a hit for Rednex of “Cotton Eye Joe” fame called “The Spirit Of The Hawk”. Hmm. As I recall, the guy from the band I met was called Mark and was a big Bolton Wanderers fan who liked to talk about a goal he’d seen cult hero Frank Worthington score for them. Not the famous one against Ipswich where he has his back to goal and flips it over his head before volleying home but one not recorded by the cameras where he supposedly did keepy uppy all the way from the halfway line before scoring. In the snow. Or something.

Released: April ’93

Chart peak: No 51

Betty Boo – “Hangover”

There was so much more to Betty Boo than those catchy, space cadet, start of the 90s hits “Doin’ The Do” and “Where Are You Baby?”. For a start there’s that stuff-of-legend meeting and impromptu performance for Public Enemy in the Shepherd’s Bush MacDonalds as part of She Rockers. Then there’s the pop duo WigWam she formed with Alex James of Blur and her career as a songwriter penning tracks for Girls Aloud, Dannii Minogue, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and of course the Ivor Novello winning “Pure And Simple” for Hear’Say. What most people don’t talk about though is her sophomore album “GRRR! It’s Betty Boo”. Madonna was such a fan of the album that she offered Betty to sign with her own Maverick Records label but she turned down the opportunity – the timing wasn’t right as she was committed to caring for her terminally ill mother.

That second album was a commercial failure peaking at No 62 (by comparison her debut “Boomania” went Top 5 achieving platinum sales) but it did have some decent singles on it. The lead one, “Let Me Take You There”, was even a hit making it to No 12 but it would prove to be Betty’s last. The two follow ups couldn’t breach the Top 40 – “I’m On My Way” peaked at No 44 whilst this one, “Hangover” did even worse. And yet it’s a great pop song, a catchy melody cleverly combined with a Country & Western slide guitar twang and Betty’s trademark rap in the middle eight – what’s not to like? Even the video-in-a-video promo is nicely pitched. Bloody record buying public strikes again.

Released: April ’93

Chart peak: No 50

Luke Goss And The Band Of Thieves – “Sweeter Than The Midnight Rain”

A surprising but deserved entry I think. After making the decision in 1992 that he couldn’t continue with Bros, Luke Goss was left with no record deal and no income but a desire to be honest about who he was. To that end, he wrote his autobiography entitled I Owe You Nothing which was well received and formed a band to perform the music that he wanted to play. Not wanting to do a pale imitation of his former glories, he changed musical direction completely for “Sweeter Than The Midnight Rain”. In an interview with Philip Schofield on the last ever Going Live, Goss described his new sound as being a bit Lenny Kravitz-y, his voice as gravelly and that it was basically “slamming”. He was kind of right as well, especially about his voice. The song begins with an almost wah-wah guitar before Luke comes in doing his best John Mellencamp impression. It was pretty much as far removed from “When Will I Be Famous” as it was possible to be and I, for one, admired that. It’s not a bad tune to boot. Luke also went for a new look to go with his new sound though the long hair isn’t convincing and he’s completely bald these days.

There was meant to be an album (six tracks had already been laid down) but the only material that appeared was a second single called “Give Me One More Chance” but the public didn’t and it failed to chart and Luke turned his back on music to chance his arm as an actor which he has made a decent fist of. Bros were back in the spotlight in 2018 after that documentary aired but I don’t remember any mention of Luke’s solo career in amongst his brother Matt’s laughable one liners. Maybe it wasn’t such a joke after all.

Released: June ’93

Chart peak: No 52

Nick Heyward – “Kite”

One of the most exciting musical moments of 1993 for me was the return of this man. Despite being one of the most underrated UK songwriters ever (in my humble opinion), we hadn’t seen nor heard from Nick Heyward in nearly five years. Having realised a remarkable transformation in just a few weeks from pin up lead singer of Haircut 100 into mature solo artist with the beyond accomplished 1983 album “North Of A Miracle”, Nick’s commercial fortunes had declined sharply by the end of the 80s. Second and third solo albums “Postcards From Home” and “I Love You Avenue” had both disappeared without trace and Nick entered the 90s so lacking in confidence that he turned down the offer to become the vocalist of Electronic who turned their attention to Neil Tennant. Suddenly though, he was back with a new record label in Epic and a first album since 1988. “From Monday To Sunday” was not a big seller but it was well received critically and crucially announced Heyward as being back as a functioning recording artist. It also showed that his pop instincts (that had always been spot on) were still ahead of the curve, predating Britpop’s channeling of The Beatles by two years.

Lead single “Kite” is a deceptively wonderful track. On first hearing, I didn’t quite get it but it’s a work of genius which is Heyward’s greatest achievement for many. XTC flavoured with autobiographical lyrics that seem to describe his experience of flying high in his early days of fame before getting a case of vertigo, it’s a real winner. Oh, and is that trumpet sound (“The afternoon came, trumpets played”) pinched off “Fantastic Day”? The single not only led Nick’s revival at home but was a surprise hit on US college radio (otherwise rather bizarrely known as Billboard’s Hot Modern Tracks Chart). This gave him the impetus to tour America with the likes of Therapy?, Evan Dando, Teenage Fanclub and almost unbelievably Tony Bennett. I think he toured with Squeeze in the UK (who were presumably promoting the aforementioned “Some Fantastic Place” album) but I couldn’t get tickets for their show at the Manchester Apollo.

Nick would release a further two albums during the 90s with the second of the two released on that most Britpop of labels Creation. Nick was now one of the Godfathers of the movement! Despite being one of the busiest live performers around, it would be another twenty years before his next proper studio album, the magnificent “Woodland Echoes”.

Released: August ’93

Chart peak: No 44

REM – “Find The River”

This is quite the 90s rarity – an REM single that didn’t make the Top 40. Out of twenty-three that they released during the decade, this was the only one that failed to chart. On the one hand that’s understandable as it was the sixth single released from the “Automatic For The People” album that had been out for fourteen months by this point. On the other, this was absolute nonsense, a travesty and a stinging indictment of the UK record buying public’s poor judgment.

“Find The River” is a beautiful song and easily my favourite track from the album which is quite the accolade given the quality of the rest of the songs on it. It’s wistful, meandering, achingly beautiful and for some reason always reminds me of Christmas, probably because of its very late November release date – it’s certainly on my festive playlist anyway. Maybe that release date was part of the reason it wasn’t a hit in that it got caught up in the Christmas rush? I’m not sure how you can explain away it getting no further than No 54 whilst Mr Blobby was No 1 though.

REM would return just nine months later with “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?”, the lead single from their “Monster” album which would become their third biggest UK hit at the time when it peaked at No 9.

Released: Dec ‘93

Chart peak: No 54

Their Season In The Sun

4 Non Blondes

One of those artists whose hit became bigger than them in the same vein as “Take My Breath Away” by Berlin and “(I Just) Died In Your Arms” by Cutting Crew. Unlike these other two acts though, 4 Non Blondes were genuine one hit wonders. “What’s Up” made No 2 in the UK charts in the Summer of 1993 and then…nothing. Or not quite nothing as parent album “Bigger, Better, Faster, More!” was also a success (presumably off the back of the single) but who knows anyone who has it…except me. I didn’t buy it. I found a copy down the back of a filing cabinet when shutting down the Our Price store in Market Street, Manchester. All the stock had been boxed up and shipped out by that point so I kept it. I never played it once.

Dina Carroll

Never mind What Happened To Baby Jane (the film not the Rod Stewart song), whatever happened to Dina Carroll. One of the undoubted breakthrough stars of 1993, she promptly disappeared for three years before returning with a sophomore album that sold well but which nobody remembers. That’s because her back catalogue is dominated by her debut album “So Close” and its attendant six hit singles especially the final one “Don’t Be A Stranger”. Reading between the lines, I wonder if Dina just didn’t fancy this whole business of being a star and all its trappings. She took some time off after 1993 due to feeling ‘burnt out’. Maybe that was a big indicator. A shame because she had demonstrated her diversity of sound ably with the “So Close” album. Hopefully, unlike Bette Davis’s character ‘Baby Jane’ Hudson, Dina’s not bitter about it all.

Haddaway

…and shite!

Joey Lawrence

US teen actor who made the leap into pop stardom albeit briefly. He was kind of like a 90s Leif Garrett. With just two middling UK hits to his name, he disappeared pretty quickly. All I really remember about him is that his singles came with a free fold out poster, never a good sign of musical ability. In his defence, he returned to acting and eked out a fairly successful career.

Shabba Ranks

Surely one of the biggest wankers of the decade, the stench of Ranks’ revolting homophobic views still permeates his public image. That and being responsible for one of the stupidest and most ridiculed shout outs ever committed to record. ‘Shabba!’? Tosser more like.

Snow

Canadian rapper who spent seven consecutive weeks on top of the US charts with his single “Informer” (it made No 2 over here). This dreadful track featured the phrase ‘A licky boom-boom down’ repeatedly and told the story of Snow (presumably) being arrested and taken to a police station ‘where they whipped down my pants and looked up my bottom’. The censors didn’t get involved though as Snow’s rapping skills were so poor nobody could understand a word of what he was banging on about. Needless to say, he never had another hit single in this country.

Spin Doctors

And a third ‘S’ artist but not the final member of the unholy trinity that was Shabba, Snow and Shaggy. In fairness to Shaggy, he continued to have big hits well beyond this year. Spin Doctors on the other hand will always be remembered for 1993 and “Two Princes”, a fabulously groovy tune no doubt but which, much like 4 Non Blondes, was more memorable than the band themselves.

No Christmas Show Review?

Nope. There’s nothing on it we haven’t seen before and it goes on for ages. I’m not doing that Smashie and Nicey 30 years retrospective either.

Last Words

So, 1993 – the worst year of the decade for chart music? It must be up there though I fear that there may be some equally awful moments lurking in the late 90s. For me personally it was a year of great change. I worked in three separate Our Price stores over the course of the twelve months and with lots of different people. The moves didn’t stop in 1994 either but that’s for future posts. I don’t recall buying that much music from this year despite my staff discount which either means most of it was shite (or at least didn’t tally with my personal tastes) or I was skint most of the time. Or a bit of both. 1994 must be better mustn’t it? Fancy joining me to find out?

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/m00165cm/top-of-the-pops-the-story-of-1993

TOTP 11 NOV 1993

Posted on November 17, 2022 by 80stastic

The 14th November 2022 saw the 70th anniversary of the UK’s official singles chart. That inaugural chart was published by the NME with the very first No 1 record being Al Martino’s “Here In My Heart”. Back in 1993 when this TOTP was broadcast, we were just three days away from the 41st birthday of the charts. Were there any celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary the year before? I can’t remember but what I do know is that as part of the 70th festivities, seven charts have been produced detailing the most streamed songs for each year of the charts’ existence. Some results were obvious – the most streamed track that was originally released in 1975 for example is “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. Others were a little more surprising- 1990’s most streamed song is “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC. As we’re up to 1993 in these TOTP repeats, let’s check out which was the most streamed track that was released in that year…oh that’s just plain wrong! “What Is Love” by Haddaway? Ha’way and shite man! That just about sums up the terrible year that was 1993. Still, we’re nearly through it and then Britpop is just around the corner. For now though, ‘turn and face the strange’ as we navigate another thirty minutes of nostalgia…

Hang on. Captain Hollywood? I thought we were in 1993 not 1990! Didn’t this guy have a hit called “I Can’t Stand It” as the decade began?

*checks official.charts.com

Well, sort of. It was officially credited to Twenty 4 Seven featuring Captain Hollywood but I was right about the year – it was a No 7 in 1990. There was a follow up too called “Are You Dreaming” which went Top 20. At that point the good captain (real name Tony Dawson-Harrison) left the project to begin his own new…erm…project called…erm…Captain Hollywood Project. Their first single was “More And More” which, and this is now almost becoming as regular an admission as Rishi Sunak claiming he was unaware of the latest scandal to engulf one of his cabinet before he appointed them, I have no memory of at all. Listening to it now, it sounds f*****g dreadful! Was this really what the pop fans of 1993 wanted? The heated up leftovers of what was rejected from the recording sessions of Snap!’s “Rhythm Is A Dancer”?

The rapper is, I believe, the aforementioned Tony Dawson-Harrison who sounds like that voice over guy who does all those film trailers that begin with “In a world where…”. Apparently his voice was electronically modified to sound deeper. Why? Unless his true voice sounded like Joe Pasquale I don’t get why you would do that. I also don’t understand why all the guys on stage have a ponytail and are dressed like waiters at a high class restaurant. The whole thing is completely baffling, almost as baffling as how the record managed to get to No 23 in the charts.

As it’s nearly mid-November, the run up Christmas has started and that means, as host Mark Franklin points out, Best Of albums and plenty of ‘em. Artists peddling collections of their biggest hits around this time included Diana Ross, Wet Wet Wet, Soul II Soul, Bette Midler, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Christians and this guy – Bryan Adams. His “So Far So Good” album would end up as the sixth best selling of 1993 in the UK. This was quite astonishing when you consider that until the record breaking run at No 1 in 1991 by “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”, Bry’s biggest UK hit was “Run To You” which peaked just outside the Top 10 at No 11. Look at the chart standings in this country for every track on “So Far So Good”

Title	Chart peak
Summer of ’69	42
Straight from the Heart	51
It’s Only Love	29
Can’t Stop This Thing We Started	12
Do I Have to Say the Words?	30
This Time	41
Run To You	11
Heaven	38
Cuts Like A Knife	Did not chart
(Everything I Do) I Do It for You	1
Somebody	35
Kids Wanna Rock	N/A album track
Heat Of The Night	50
Please Forgive Me	2

Maybe they were big airplay hits and that’s how people knew them? Remember those streaming charts I mentioned earlier? The most streamed song that was released in 1985 was “Summer Of 69”. Or maybe Bryan had always been more of an albums guy until his Robin Hood moment? Even his 1987 album which generated zero UK Top 40 hits went gold and made our Top 10. Perhaps it was just all about that No 1 song but surely enough people had bought the single to not need to buy a Greatest Hits album to own it? Was it the new song “Please Forgive Me” that reeled people in? I don’t know why that should’ve because it was a right dirge. Its promo video was no better – a right snoozefest showing Bryan and his merry band of musos laying down the track in the studio. Even his dog who’s there for no apparent reason looks bored. Somehow the single made it to No 2.

Here’s another track specifically recorded to promote a Best Of album – it’s the aforementioned Soul II Soul with “Wish”. Who was doing the singing for Jazzie B and co by 1993? Caron Wheeler had long since departed by then. Well, my research (by which I mean Wikipedia) tells me that’s the now sadly passed away Melissa Bell on stage who was actually pregnant at the time. One of her four children (not the one from this pregnancy though) would turn out to be pretty famous herself – singer and actress Alexandra Burke who won the 2008 series of The X Factor. As well as bagging herself three No 1 singles, she was also on the charity record by The X Factor Finalists who covered Mariah Carey’s “Hero” that I mentioned the other week.

Presumably Melissa’s pregnancy explains her cover-all outfit in this performance. The feathers on it reminded me of this long forgotten BBC costume drama from 1978 featuring the Welsh Robin Hood Twm Sion Cati and his rather ludicrous outfit.

Five Breakers again this week starting with Paul Weller and a third single from his “Wild Wood” album. “The Weaver EP” actually featured four tracks including Weller’s cover of Neil Young’s “Ohio” but the title track was the only song actually on the album. By this point, the rejuvenation of Paul was well under way with “The Weaver” peaking at No 18 after previous singles “Wild Wood” made No 14 and “”Sunflower” No 16. More than these solid chart performances though, it seemed to me that Weller was being accepted back into the fold of artists that meant something – it wasn’t just about nostalgia for The Jam. He was suddenly relevant again.

After The Style Council disappeared up their own arse as the 80s ended, it seemed like Weller had lost his mojo completely. Without a record contract for the first time since he was 17 he took a sabbatical for the whole of 1990 before restarting his musical career with some low key live gigs playing old Jam standards as well as some new songs before dipping his toe back into recording music with the release of No 36 single “Into Tomorrow” as The Paul Weller Movement. That paved the way for his debut, eponymous solo album in 1992 which in itself was in effect a trailer for “Wild Wood”. As for the song itself, it’s not too dissimilar to “Sunflower” with its ringing guitar licks albeit that it probably has more of a groove to it whereas “Sunflower” is a bit more strident sounding. Even the videos are alike being straightforward performance run throughs in a mixture of black and white and colour film. Both are resounding and engaging tracks however.

Ah shit! It’s Bollers time! Michael Bolton that is who’s turned up with a song the title of which suggests he’s doing his best Meatloaf impression. “Said I Loved You…But I Lied” was actually written by Bollers himself alongside Robert ‘Mutt’ Lange who also co-wrote that Bryan Adams stinker that was on earlier. And guess what? This one’s terrible too! Lange seems to be the enemy of music, constructing anti-songs that go nowhere and do nothing. He has worked with some huge names like AC/DC and Britney Spears but his biggest claim to fame is producing Shania Twain (to whom he was also married) and her “Come On Over” album which is the best selling country album of all time and the best selling of the 90s but I always hated that so…ahem…that don’t impress me much. As for Michael Bolton, as usual he had an album out for Christmas called “The One Thing” from which “Said I Loved You…But I Lied” was taken. It would peak at No15 in the UK and No 6 in the US, the last time Bolton would visit the Billboard Hot 100’s Top 10.

Next a single that I would have sworn came out at least two years later than this*. Leftfield are electronic dance duo Neil Barnes and Paul Daley who back in 1993 were about to break through into the mainstream with the release of “Open Up” which had its own secret weapon in the guest vocalist on the track, one John Lydon. Not seen in the charts for three years when PIL’s “Don’t Ask Me” made No 22 (another one of those Best Of promoting singles), Lydon’s growling vocals intertwined with some progressive house beats was an unlikely but winning combination. Anything he sings on is always installed with an instant sense of peril and brims with dread and it works a treat in this anxiety inducing track. The line ‘Burn Hollywood burn’ led to it being withdrawn from play on ITV’s The Chart Show due to an unfortunate case of timing which saw it in heavy rotation at the time of the Malibu bush fires in Los Angeles. Lydon’s own LA home was in peril at one point.

*Having checked Leftfield’s discography, I think the reason for my own case of wayward timing re: when this single was released is down to the fact that their album “Leftism” on which “Open Up” featured didn’t come out until January 1995.

Remember that awful hit “To Be With You” by a US band called Mr. Big from 1992? Well, here’s the 1993 version. Soul Asylum were the perpetrators of this year’s mournful, acoustic power ballad though they had actually been in existence for over a decade by this point. “Runaway Train” was their song and it would be the biggest hit of their career by far, going Top 5 all around Europe and in their home country of America whilst peaking at No 7 in the UK.

And then you watch the video and the song is transformed into something else altogether and your initial assessment of it is no longer valid. The decision of director Tony Kaye to use the promo as something practical rather than just aesthetic changes not just people’s perception of the song but actually changed people’s lives. Originally written by lead vocalist Dave Pirner about depression, the use of imagery in the video of children witnessing or fleeing from abuse convinced many that the song was about runaway and missing children. The disturbing scenes of domestic abuse, child prostitution and kidnapping weren’t gratuitous though as they were interspersed with stills of actual missing children with their names published alongside how long they had been missing. Pirner appears at the end of the video to advise “If you’ve seen one of these kids or are one of them, please call this number”. The children’s details were changed and tailored to whichever country the video was being shown in (i.e. UK children were featured in the video released in this country). The ultimate impact of the video which received high rotation on MTV was that twenty-six children featured in the video were found. Tragically, there were also horrific denouements to the stories of those children featured the details of which I don’t need to go into in a blog about music. Predictably, even the brief glimpse we get of the video in the Breakers has been heavily edited by the TOTP producers. As for Soul Asylum, “Runaway Train” became an albatross around the band’s neck and Pirner refused to perform it live for a while. They would have one more chart hit in 1995 with “Misery” but are still active to this day.

The final Breaker comes from The Orb and their ambient house classic “Little Fluffy Clouds”. This track seemed to have been around for ages and indeed it had having been originally released in 1990 when it was big in the clubs but not on the charts and it peaked at No 87. However, with the commercial success The Orb had received with a No 1 album in “U.F.Orb” and attendant hit singles like “Blue Room” and “Assassin”, the decision was taken to rerelease “Little Fluffy Clouds”. It proved to be the right choice as the 1993 version made it all the way to No 10.

Borrowing heavily from Ennio Morricone, and a piece by minimalist composer Steve Reich performed by Pat Metheny, its most prominent sample though was from an interview with US singer songwriter Rickie Lee Jones. Describing the sky in Arizona from her childhood, her hippy-ish tone fits perfectly with the chill-out vibes of the track. Unfortunately Rickie’s attitude to The Orb’s use of her voice on the track wasn’t so laid back. In a 2019 interview she described them as:

those fuckers
“Joy and Defiance: A Conversation with Rickie Lee Jones”. Aquarium Drunkard. 10 May 2019.

As much as I quite enjoyed “Little Fluffy Clouds” (and I did), it’s not my favourite song about the sky in Arizona. This is…

1993 was full of dance hits of all types of flavour – it felt like you couldn’t escape from them. However, if you were a dance act with a big club hit that crossed over into the mainstream charts, did that then change your identity and therefore your aspirations? If you were now a bona fide chart artist, were you then obliged to have a follow up hit and if so, was that possible? It wasn’t always. The Goodmen of “Give It Up” fame never had another hit and neither did Sub Sub after “Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use)”. Similarly, dancehall rapper Snow bagged a No 2 record in 1993 with “Informer” and then nothing ever again.

Making the case the other way though were Culture Beat who followed up on their chart topper “Mr.Vain” with two Top 5 singles in “Got To Get It” and “Anything”. And then there was this lot – Urban Cookie Collective whose “”The Key, The Secret” just missed out on being a No 1 record but, contrary to popular theory, weren’t a one hit wonder and here’s the proof. “Feels Like Heaven” may have sounded almost exactly the same as its predecessor (no really, what’s the difference?) but that didn’t stop punters buying it in enough copies to send it to No 5. They even had a further two Top 40 hits (all four came from debut album “High On A Happy Vibe”) but really, they are only remembered for “The Key, The Secret” I think it’s fair to say. To be honest, if I wanted a song called “Feels Like Heaven” I’d go for these true one hit wonders from 1984…

November and December of 1993 saw a trend for ballads that stuck around the charts for ages. There was “Hero” by Mariah Carey, “Don’t Be A Stranger” by Dina Carroll, “Please Forgive Me” by Bryan Adams, “For Whom The Bell Tolls” by The Bee Gees and this one – “Again” by Janet Jackson. The third single to be taken from her “Janet” album, it was actually written for the film Poetic Justice, Janet’s debut into the world of movies. It was the closing song in the film though it didn’t feature on the rap heavy official soundtrack. Was that a deliberate ploy on behalf of Jackson and her writers/producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis to potentially build sales for her own album by ensuring fans hadn’t got access to it via the soundtrack? I’ve no idea but what I do know is that there were fourteen songs that featured in the film that didn’t appear on its soundtrack which seems like a lot.

“Again” is one of those ballads that Janet throws into the mix every so often (see also “Let’s Wait A While”, “Come Back To Me”) although it holds back on the sugary schmaltz in favour of trying to purvey a sense of real emotion. Whether Janet achieves that by appearing overcome and teary at the song’s finale is open to debate. There’s no doubting the song ebbs and flows though and Janet does a good job of the live vocals in this TOTP performance. The song clearly struck a chord with the public who bought it steadily over a prolonged period providing it with this Top 40 run:

12 – 6 – 8 – 10 – 16 – 15 – 17 – 12 – 33

Like the aforementioned “Hero” by Mariah Carey, it manages to reverse a decline in sales on two occasions to move back up the charts. Impressive stuff. Being a Jackson, Janet would release another four singles from “Janet” after “Again”, the last one coming out over 18 months after the album.

And another one! Yes, it’s another of those ballads of longevity, this time from Elton John and Kiki Dee. After the success of the “Two Rooms” tribute album of 1991, there must have been some discussion in his inner circle as to how to further plunder the Elton John brand whilst he was in between studio albums (there was a three years gap between “The One” and “Made In England”). The plan that was devised was to do a duets project resulting in an album called…erm…”Duets”. The idea was sound. Get a few of Elton’s pals round to record a mixture of standards and his own compositions and shove it out in time for the Christmas market. Bish, bash bosh!

Elton of course was not shy about recording a duet or two. A quick glance of his discography reveals collaborations with the likes of Cliff Richard, Millie Jackson, George Michael, Jennifer Rush, Aretha Franklin…However, surely the most famous and enduring of his duets was with Kiki Dee on “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”, their No 1 from 1976. So guess who was first in line to get an invite for the project and who would end up being on the lead single for the album? The song chosen for Elton and Kiki was the Cole Porter standard “True Love” from the film High Society made famous by Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly. I don’t think I knew the song back in 1993 and their version of it was never going to turn me onto it. Having played both interpretations of it this morning back to back, I definitely detected that Elton and Kiki’s take on it had pissing sleigh bells in the mix! The cynical sods! Clearly trying to stack the odds in their favour of the Christmas No 1 and indeed many bookies had it nailed on as favourite for the top spot. I kept a close eye on Elton’s face during this performance to see if I could spot any signs of smugness thinking he had the coveted crown in the bag but my powers of observation were slain by his jiggling eyebrows! WTF?! Sadly for Elton and Kiki, they underestimated the appeal of an idiot in a pink and yellow spotted costume to sell records and so never did make No 1 though they got mighty close peaking at No 2 and staying in the Top 10 for seven weeks.

It’s a fourth week out of seven at the top for Meatloaf and “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)”. It’s the video again – I don’t think Meat ever made it into the TOTP studio did he? There was a satellite performance weeks back to premiere it but after that I think it was always the promo.

The lyric ‘I’d do anything for love but I won’t do that’ was first used in a Bonnie Tyler track called “Getting So Excited” from her “Faster Than The Speed Of Night” album that Jim Steinman produced. If you can manage to listen to it in the clip below (it’s utterly dreadful), stay with it until the 1.35 mark when you get the campest utterance of a line since that bloke in The Sweet on “Blockbuster”.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Captain Hollywood Project	More And More	As if
2	Bryan Adams	Please Forgive Me	No I don’t Bry
3	Soul II Soul	Wish	No
4	Paul Weller	The Weaver EP	No but I had the Wild Wood album
5	Michael Bolton	Said I Loved You…But I Lied	Never
6	Leftfield / John Lydon	Open Up	No but I had it on one of those Best Album In The World Ever compilations
7	Soul Asylum	Runaway Train	Negative
8	The Orb	Little Fluffy Clouds	I did not
9	Urban Cookie Collective	Feels Like Heaven	Nah
10	Janet Jackson	Again	Nope
11	Elton John / Kiki Dee	True Love	Definitely not
12	Meatloaf	I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)	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/m001dzyp/top-of-the-pops-11111993