80stastic

TOTP 08 NOV 1990

Posted on April 3, 2021 by 80stastic

This schedule of reviewing two retro TOTP shows a week is killing me! Plus my Mac is now so old that it can’t cope with any software updates which means the formatting of my posts has gone to pot recently so apologies for that. Enough of my IT issues though. Just a reminder of what is going on here. I, a 52 year old middle aged man, have been reviewing these BBC4 TOTP repeats for over four years now. Having started in 1983 we are now into 1990 and with it being November, the release schedules are starting to get busy with the all important Xmas market on the horizon. As such there are six new singles on the show tonight but we start with a second studio performance for a song that surely didn’t warrant a repeat.

Despite being voted the Best Male Solo SInger in the Smash Hits Readers Poll of 1990 for the second year running (he was also voted the worst Male Solo Singer) and having a string of hit singles to his name this calendar year, all was not well in Jason Donovan world. The hits were getting smaller and the teeny bopper fans had new idols to worship in the form of New Kids On The Block (Donovan trailed in third behind two of them in the Most Fanciable Male category). His latest single “I’m Doing Fine” was doing nothing of the sort and had not even yet made it into the Top 20. A second TOTP outing was called for and so here he was opening the show in a determined effort to re-establish himself in the upper echelons of the charts.

If you compare and contrast this SAW produced ‘song’ with the glorious “Step Back In Time” that we saw on last week’s show from Kylie Minogue… well, it’s like comparing Boris Johnson with the New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern; one’s a fine example of statecraft the other is…well…just a state. And talking of states, what the Hell is Jason wearing here?! It appears to be a suit over the top of a gold lamé tracksuit top and the only person I can think of who used to wear such a garment was that now unmentionable name from Radio 1’s past and the host of that show about fixing things for people (no, not Repair Shop – you know who I’m talking about!).

This TOTP performance did nothing to alleviate Jason’s chart fortunes (literally nothing as it went down from No 22 to No 29 the following week). In 1991, the classic (but desperate) record company trick of releasing a Best Of album saw his profile at least maintained and brought him a couple of Top 20 hits (one a cover version obviously) but his true resurrection came from left field when he scored a No 1 with “Any Dream WIll Do” from Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Another song at its chart peak next. Paul Simon‘s “The Obvious Child” was very well received critically (as was parent album “The Rhythm Of The Saints”) but what was it actually about? Well, according to one review in Rolling Stone magazine, the lyrics referred to the process of growing old and the fact that ‘days have become defined by their limitations and dogged ordinariness’. Wow! That could just as easily be describing living through the COVID pandemic.

Apparently the song is also the namesake of a film which I never knew until now. Obvious Child is a 2014 American rom-com about a drunken one night stand which leads to the lead character (played by Jenny Slate) deciding to have an abortion. I’ve never seen it but it gets rave reviews with Slate receiving numerous awards for her performance. A bit like Paul Simon then.

“The Obvious Child” peaked at No 15 and it would be another 16 years before Simon had another UK Top 40 single.

What the f**k?! A single that includes the line ‘What the f**k?’ in its lyrics and yet seems to have gone unnoticed for three decades and never been censored nor banned?! Unbelievable! OK, I’ve overplayed the puns a bit there but it is quite extraordinary. You could say the same about the whole EMF story though. Hailing from the Forest Of Dean in Gloucestershire, this lot appeared almost fully formed with an irresistible song and stardom seemed theirs for the taking.

I think I first became aware of them when they appeared on the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party 1990 show which my research tells me took place on the 11th November (so presumably I hadn’t watched this TOTP from three days earlier). I recall saying to my wife as we watched it in our flat that we had just moved into “who the Hell are EMF?”. To be fair to me, what were they doing on a show about the chart stars of the year winning awards when they had only just released their debut single? I would find out soon enough. Their song “Unbelievable” blew me away. It was the right sound at just the right time; they were perfect for late 1990 – right on the money. Coming over like the younger, cheekier siblings of Jesus Jones, they rode the rock-dance crossover zeitgeist flawlessly and were rewarded with a huge hit. “Unbelievable” was a No 3 hit in the UK and a No 1 in the US.

Apparently the “oh” and “It’s unbelievable” samples were taken from controversial (and pretty offensive) US comedian Andrew Dice Clay which I never knew until now. I do recall though that there was a big fuss about what the initials EMF actually stood for. The official line was ‘Epsom Mad Funkers’, a name taken from a New Order fan club although rumours persisted that it referred to ‘ecstasy mother f**ker’ as that phrase featured in a hidden song simply called “EMF” on the band’s debut album “Schubert Dip”.

Despite a string of singles after “Unbelievable” that all made the Top 40, their chart peaks were in decline and after three albums they eventually split. Multiple reunions have taken place since but the band’s history also included tragedy – Zac Foley, the band’s bass guitarist, died in 2002 aged just 31 due to an overdose of non-prescribed drugs.

One of my abiding memories of EMF and “Unbelievable” comes from a long forgotten TV show called Tom Jones: The Right Time which chronicled the history of pop music and how it had been influenced and shaped. The first episode included this performance with EMF and audience members getting on stage to literally hang off Tom’s Neck.

Whilst not a super fan (although I do have their Best Of CD), I would be able to name quite a few Del Amitri songs including “Spit In The Rain” but I had no idea it had actually made it into the Top 40. As far as I can tell, this was a non-album single* released in between the “Waking Hours” and “Change Everything” LPs and actually made No 21 in the charts. In my head, everything the band released between “Nothing Ever Happens” in 1990 and “Always The Last To Know” in 1992 missed the Top 40 but clearly not. It’s fairly typical Del Amitri fare but that’s fine by me with the ‘spit in the rain’ simile a clever lyrical tool.

The band are due to release a new album later in 2021 entitled “Fatal Mistakes” which again could be a reference to the COVID 19 panademic.

*It did eventually appear on a two -disc reissue of “Waking Hours” in 2014

The Top 5 albums feature is still with us so for all the completists out there, these were the best selling albums in the UK for October 1990

Paul Simon – “Rhythm Of The Saints”
The Three Tenors – “In Concert”
Status Quo – “Rocking All Over The Years”
George Michael – “Listen Without Prejudice Vol 1”
The Charlatans – “Some Friendly”

Some pretty mainstream names in there although The Charlatans creeping in at No 5 to remind us that this was 1990 after all. ‘Madchester’ and all that.

Definitely not part of ‘Madchester’ were Liverpool’s The La’s and if EMF’s story was extraordinary, even that had nothing on this lot. The legend of Lee Mavers remains a mystery up there with Richie Edwards of the Manics. Often referred to as a scouse Brian Wilson, his refusal to dance to the music industry’s tune and reputation for studio perfection means he has become a mythical figure with just that one, solitary La’s album to show for his talent.

I think I’d first heard “There She Goes” when working in the toy department of Debenhams at Xmas in 1989 – a colleague had played it to me (it was originally released in November of 1988) and so immediately familiar did it sound that it felt impossible that it hadn’t been in existence for years and years. A timeless melody indeed. The 1990 re-release here was remixed by Steve Lillywhite and this time, resistance was futile. If The Stone Roses could be treated as the new gods of popular music then surely The La’s were also assured a place in musical heaven? For all the plaudits that their album received, I was amazed to discover that it only made No 30 on the chart. It got played to death in the Manchester Our Price I was working in at the time. Sadly, there was to never be a follow up. Bassist John Power got fed up of the inertia and left at the end of 1991 to form the super successful Cast (who Mavers has expressed his extreme dislike for) whilst The La’s went into hiatus for 14 years before a brief reunion in 2005 that resulted in some live shows but no new music.

I saw The La’s twice live; once supporting Fine Young Cannibals when I confidently told my wife that their band name was pronounced The L.A.s (as in LA, California) and once with a friend called Jane who was a fan – that gig was cut short when one of the band possibly Mavers, possibly Peter “Cammy” Cammell (the John Bishop lookalike in this performance I think) stormed off stage never to return, a bit like the hope of any new La’s material.

Just like “The Obvious Child” being name checked in a film, BBC comedy-drama TV series There She Goes was named after the song by The La’s.

To quote EMF, What the f**k?! A single by Gazza?! Yep, despite Italia ’90 having come to its sad conclusion (for England fans) four months prior, we still couldn’t get enough of Mr Gascoigne (supposedly). “Fog On The Tyne” was re-written by Lindisfarne just for the man himself and released as “Fog On The Tyne (Revisited)”. Well, if Timmy Mallett could be a pop star, why not Gazza? Surely he was more popular than that berk? Well, not quite it seemed as Gazza’s debut waxing peaked at No 2 whilst Mallett scored a No 1 as Bombalurina. Still, No 2 was pretty impressive to say that the record was a load of shite.

Was he inspired by his Spurs and England team mate Chris Waddle whose “Diamond Lights” as part of Glenn & Chris had been a hit three years before? Or was it his involvement in New Order’s “World In Motion” England song from the World Cup that made him think he could be a pop star? Well, according to an interview in Smash Hits, when asked ‘why did you decide to embark on a career as a pop star?’ Gazza replied:

“Somebody asked us if I wanted to do a record and I said I would do it”.

There you go then. Simples.

To my mind, Gascoigne’s well documented problems seem to have been exasperated by being surrounded by a lot of people trying to catch a ride on his fame. That Smash Hits article commented that the video shoot was ‘packed with Gazza’s family and Gazza’s mates and Gazza’s mates’ mates and Gazza’s mates’ mates’ second cousins’. Says it all really. Bet Jimmy Five Bellies was there.

Not content with one single, Gazza released a follow up and an album (!) called “Let’s Have A Party” (of course it was) which included four Jive Bunny style medleys – a disco one, a Motown one, an Elvis one (Gazza’s favourite) and a Gilbert O’Sullivan one (yes, a Gilbert O’Sullivan one). Even allowing for the madness of the aforementioned Jive Bunny phenomenon, surely nobody bought Gazza’s album? Surely?

A massive seller over this Xmas period was “The Singles Collection 1984/1990” by Jimmy Somerville covering his solo, Bronski Beat and The Communards career. To promote the album, Jimmy did a cover of The Bee Gees hit “To Love Somebody” which actually suited his voice I thought. Well, I suppose you could join the dots between the Jimmy’s falsetto voice and Barry Gibb’s (who wrote the song) quite easily. I like the way in which Jimmy never seemed to dress up for his TOTP appearances. Check him out here in his plain grey T-shirt and jeans. Quite the contrast to Jason Donovan’s attire at the top of the show. If you’ve got the pipes, that’s all that is really required, eh Jase?

“To Love Somebody” peaked at No 8.

The Righteous Brothers remain in pole position with “Unchained Melody” which, in 1999, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers called one of the 25 most-performed songs and musical works of the entire 20th century! It’s been covered by everyone from Elvis to Bing Crosby to LeAnn Rimes to U2…no really….see?

It’s the Righteous Brothers version that is the definitive take though surely? So pervasive is the song’s influence that Ghost (the film that generated its re-release) was originally going to be called Unchained Melody.

Inevitably, Family Guy has its own take on Ghost and “Unchained Melody”:

The play out video is the new one from 808 State. Double A-side “Cubik / Olympic” would peak at No 10. The “Olympic” track was recorded in support of Manchester’s 1996 Olympic bid. That bid would be unsuccessful with Atlanta getting the nod but Manchester would try again for the 2000 Olympics and I was was working in Our Price in Stockport the day that decision was announced. There was an event down at the Castlefield area in Manchester city centre with thousands of people congregating to hopefully celebrate the good news. The trams were packed ferrying party goers to the venue. Sadly, the Manchester faithful were disappointed again as Sydney was announced as the host city. That great city that was our home for the best part of the 90s would ultimately get its time in the sun when it hosted the 2002 Commonwealth Games – two years after we left Manchester.

For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Jason Donovan	I’m Doing Fine	No of course not
2	Paul Simon	Obvious Child	No but it was on that first Q Magazine album that I bought.
3	EMF	Unbelievable	Unbelievably not at the time but I did buy a later single of theirs called Afro King, the CD of which was like a mini greatest hits which had it on
4	Del Amitri	Spit In The Rain	No but its on my greatest hits CD of theirs
5	The La’s	There She Goes	Not the single but I have their album
6	Gazza and Lindisfarne	Fog On The Tyne – Revisited	NO!
7	Jimmy Somerville	To Love Somebody	No but I had that 84-90 Best Of with it on
8	The Righteous Brothers	Unchained Melody	It’s a no
9	808 State	Cubik / Olympic	Nope

Disclaimer

OK – here’s the thing – the TOTP episodes are only available on iPlayer for a limited amount of time so the link to the programme below only works for about another month so you’ll have to work fast if you want to catch the whole show.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000th92/top-of-the-pops-08111990

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.

Some bedtime reading?

Page 1 - Smash Hits - Issue 311 - 31st October - 13th November 1990

TOTP 01 NOV 1990

Posted on April 1, 2021 by 80stastic

It’s November 1990 and having got married just 12 days earlier, another huge moment in my life has occurred – we’ve moved to Manchester! Yes, despite knowing only two other residents of Manc land between us, my wife and I have chosen to move to that great city to begin our married life together. We arrived back from our honeymoon exactly one week after the wedding day and moved that very day to Manchester. I hadn’t even seen the rented flat we were going to be living in as my wife had sorted that out. That small studio flat would be our home for the next four years and we loved it. The big events kept coming as after the wedding, the honeymoon, moving city, moving into a flat, I then started work on the Monday at Our Price. After two days training in the offices above the Piccadilly store, I was despatched to the Market Street shop down the road. By the time this TOTP was broadcast, I would have completed two whole days there (If my dates are correct). Given that this was such a momentous time for me, I must surely remember all the songs that were on the show?

Tonight’s host is Simon Mayo who I don’t recall being so smug but that’s the exact word I would use to describe his performance here. Certainly not smug though is the opening act – if anything I would think she was the exact opposite – unsure and apprehensive. Kim Appleby was of course one half of Mel & Kim who had torn up the charts in the late 80s with their SAW dance tunes and ‘up yours’ attitude. Tragically, Mel had died of cancer-related pneumonia at the start of 1990 but Kim resolved to carry on and record some of the songs that they had been working on during her sister’s illness. “Don’t Worry” was the first of those to see the light of day but Kim’s hesitancy about going it alone was revealed in a Smash Hits interview:

“I don’t know how people are going to react to my record but all I can say is I’m doing my best.”

She needn’t have… erm…worried because “Don’t Worry” was a fantastic pop song. Was it a million miles away from her Mel & Kim era? No, of course not (even though it was not produced by SAW) but it had an added sense of maturity to it from that unexpected, gentle fade in to the uplifting lyrics promoting positivity – there was no showing out or getting fresh going on here.

If Kim was nervous about her return to the world of pop music, she disguised those anxieties with an energetic performance here although quite what she thought being dressed like Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen would add to the overall effect, I’m not sure.

“Don’t Worry” surely exceeded Kim and her record label’s expectations after being away for so long by peaking at No 2.

Robert Palmer already had a reputation for being a musical chameleon with his back catalogue combining elements of soul, jazz, rock, pop, reggae and blues. Quite what he hoped to get credibility wise out of a collaboration with UB40 then I’m not sure. Not only that but it wasn’t even an original song that they might have cooked up between them but a cover version. “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” was a Bob Dylan song from his “John Wesley Harding” album and given how many artists have interpreted Dylan songs down the years*, was Palmer just jumping on a well ridden bandwagon? To be fair, the version he and the Brummie reggae boys came up with didn’t sound much like Dylan with its calypso lilt and jaunty rhythms. It still doesn’t explain the reason why the two acts chose to record it though. It wasn’t as if either had been languishing in the chart doldrums for a sustained period. Indeed, both had clocked up Top 10 singles within recent memory. Maybe they just knew each other and got along?

Palmer’s album “Don’t Explain” (from which “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” was the lead single) would go onto be certified Gold although the only other chart hit from it was another cover version – “Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy Mercy Me” whilst “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” would peak at No 6.

*The history of recorded music is littered is with Dylan covers by a multitude of artists but if you want a really out there one, how about “Subterranean Homesick Blues” by Lofty from Eastenders?

After coming over all smug and superior with his ‘look at how much I know about pop music’ tone when advising us all that “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” was actually a Bob Dylan song, Simon Mayo is at it again when introducing Black Box.

“Well, cover versions are all the thing. We’ve already had one, that was the UB40 song. Here’s another one…” he starts off. He’s like the most patronising Jackanory presenter ever. ‘Let me tell you a story about cover versions…’ he might as well have said. Git. Technically he is right of course in that “Fantasy” is the song by Earth, Wind And Fire but his tone is so condescending.

This was Black Box’s fourth consecutive UK chart hit but it would prove to be the last time that they would visit the Top 10 when it peaked at No 5. I’m not sure that their version actually adds anything at all to the original being a fairly faithful reproduction of it. Also, surely the cat must have been out of the bag by this time that the woman up there front of stage (Katrin Quinol) wasn’t the actual vocalist on any of these hits. The singer on this one was Martha Wash who did most of the vocals on their “Dreamland” album. Apparently the guys behind Black Box didn’t care a jot though and were boldly brazening it out like Boris Johnson shamelessly disregarding yet another cronyism scandal. In ‘Borisworld’, the PM would no doubt have Jennifer Arcuri up there lip syncing away whilst declaring that all her vocals had been laid down in complete propriety and that the recording sessions were all there on public record for anyone to see.

More ‘look how clever I am’ – ness from Mayo next as he references Robert Palmer / UB40’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” (yet again) with Whitney Houston‘s “I’m Your Baby Tonight” as the song titles sound very similar. Well done Simon, what an amazing insight you provided. In all honesty though, whilst I’m criticising Mayo, I’ve very little else to say about this one myself other than I have a memory of selling the “I’m Your Baby Tonight” album on tape whilst working at Our Price that Xmas and the shop chart cassette buyer (a guy called Steve who I am still friends with all these years later) sitting near the chart cassette filing one Saturday afternoon trying to order some more as we had almost sold out and asking me to go away and sell something else as he was nearly out of stock. Yeah, right, not sure how that was supposed to work Steve? I don’t think I had an ‘Actually, would you mind awfully buying something else otherwise the buyer’s going to have a breakdown’ in me. Oh, hang on – was it the Jimmy Somerville Best Of album now I come to think of it? Amazing insight from your blogger there I’m sure you’ll agree.

“I’m Your Baby Tonight” (the single) peaked at No 5.

Some Roxette next with a re-release of their “Dressed For Success” single. When I started at Our Price there wasn’t much of a dress code; certainly there wasn’t a staff uniform (although that would come in later years). You could pretty much wear what you wanted within reason. One woman turned up in a catsuit one day and asked me if I thought it was a bit much for work. I didn’t know where to look! I’ve no memory of what I’d chosen to wear for my first day in the shop but I do remember being mercilessly ribbed the day I decided to come in wearing a white shirt and a black waistcoat. Cue lots of comments about Ray Reardon, snooker and…erm…cues.

Back to Roxette and Mayo is still shoehorning in references to Bob Dylan b-sides (even though there is no relevance here whatsoever). Some eagle eyed viewer reckoned that this performance must have been recorded for the initial release of the single back in ’89 (you could tell by the BBC logos or something) and that does make sense as the cut to the duo clearly indicates that they were not there for the actual recording of the show. This of course raises the question of why a performance would have been recorded for a song that didn’t get in the chart on first release? I thought the show was meant to have a strict Top 40 only policy? What? They had ‘the look’ and were ‘dressed for success’ and that got them the gig? Sorry – that was lame.

Another song we’ve seen before recently now as Rita MacNeil sings us a tale of a “Working Man”. Although the song’s sentiments were very worthy, there was very little here to hold my attention. It was all a bit Lena Martell (who had been a favourite of my parents during my childhood) meets “Every Loser Wins” by Nick Berry. Rita never had another UK chart hit and sadly died in 2013.

When I think of The Cure‘s remix compilation album “Mixed Up”, the track that comes to mind is “Never Enough” which was the single chosen to promote it. I had totally forgotten that a second single was released from it. “Close to Me – Remix” was that single and of course was a remix of their 1985 track from their “The Head On The Door” album. I really cannot see the point of this 1990 version though. It sounds exactly like the original but just slowed down a bit doesn’t it? Or am I missing something? The gentle intrigue of the 1985 original gets lost in the mix for me.

It took me a little while to realise that the video for the remix single was a continuation of the original promo which I thought was very clever, playing on the theme of claustrophobia with the band performing under duress within the confines of a wardrobe. Unfortunately, the second video doesn’t really work as well. Carrying on where the first video ended with the wardrobe (and its content of band members) falling off the edge of a cliff into the sea Young Ones style. The story board of the second video had the band escaping from their potential watery grave only to be attacked by an octopus and a starfish. The 1985 video was genuinely ingenious – there didn’t seem to be much thought gone into its 1990 counterpart although I’m guessing they were both directed by the band’s long time collaborator Tim Pope. The sea creature costumes make it all look a bit Mighty Boosh but without the laughs. Actually, maybe the video was was a source of inspiration for Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt. I can imagine Fielding in particular being a big Robert Smith fan.

“Close to Me – Remix” peaked at No 13 (as did “Never Enough”) which was 11 places higher than the much better original. We would not see The Cure in the charts for another 18 months when they would return with their “Wish” album.

OK, for me, this next song is peak Kylie Minogue. I might be looking back through nostalgia-tinted glasses of a much happier and simpler time but “Step Back In Time” was a great pop-dance track and yes, I realise that means I am commending a SAW produced track! Essentially one of those tribute songs like “Nightshift” by The Commodores and… erm…”Tribute (Right On)” by The Pasadenas with its 70s disco referencing lyrics, it’s got a great hooky chorus whilst the bridges that lead into them (‘Remember the O’Jays…’) are brilliant. One of my Xmas co-workers at Our Price in 1990 was a girl called Lucy who loved this track and she was bang on the money. Also, the dance routines on show in this performance really are impressive. Say what you like about Kylie but she really was very good at jumping in time.

“Step Back In Time” was the second single from Kylie’s “Rhythm Of Love” album and peaked at No 4.

Well that didn’t take very long did it? “Unchained Melody” by The Righteous Brothers is No 1 after just two weeks! Know-it-all Mayo feels the need to once more furnish us with his pop music knowledge by giving us the details of other artists who have recorded the track by name checking Jimmy Young, Harry Secombe and Des O’Connor (all the greats then). Look Mayo, if you wanted to dazzle us with charts statistics then here’s how you do it courtesy of @TOTPFacts:

"Unchained Melody" was first a UK hit for Les Baxter in 1955, peaking at 10. The top 20 for 17-23 June 1955 included four different recordings of the song: Al Hibbler's version at 2, Jimmy Young at 3, Les Baxter at 17 and Liberace at 20 – a record! #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 26, 2021

Last week I mentioned that the video for this had confused me when I first saw it as there was only one person (Bobby Hatfield) singing and I wondered where the other Righteous Brother Bill Medley was. Well, Simon Mayo, the guru of pop trivia , had the answer for me in his closing link. At the song’s end, he says “the other one was in the loo or something, I don’t know”. Simon Mayo there doing his best Mike Read impression.

The play out video is George Michael with “Waiting For That Day”. Another video mystery with this one as last week I posited the notion that I didn’t think George had done a promo for this (much as he had refused to film one for previous single “Praying For Time” due to his dispute with Sony). All that I could find was a clip from The South Bank Show which showed George discussing the song’s origins in the studio. However, TOTP seemed to have secured a video which was solely a performance of the track in the said same studio. I’ve worked out what the deal was here though. If you go to the final minute of that South Bank Show clip, there is that very performance. Bit of clever editing going on there then I think by the TOTP producers.

“Waiting For That Day” peaked at No 23.

For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Kim Appleby	Don’t Worry	Don’t think I did – great pop song though
2	Robert Palmer / UB40	I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight	No but it might be on my Robert Palmer Best Of CD
3	Black Box	Fantasy	Nope
4	Whitney Houston	I’m Your Baby Tonight	Negative
5	Roxette	Dressed For Success	Nah
6	Rita MacNeil	Working Man	No
7	The Cure	Close To Me – Remix	Another no
8	Kylie Minogue	Step Back In Time	No but I think my wife has her Greatest Hits with it on
9	The Righteous Brothers	Unchained Melody	It’s a no
10	George Michael	Waiting For That Day	No but my wife had the album

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000th90/top-of-the-pops-01111990

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.

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 25 OCT 1990

Posted on March 26, 2021 by 80stastic

It’s late October 1990 and I’m on my honeymoon in Germany. Yes, having tied the knot with my girlfriend five days prior to this TOTP broadcast, we were abroad (for the first time for me) thanks to one of our old friends from Polytechnic who had sorted out a cheap holiday for us as they were working as a temp in a travel agents at the time. Unfortunately for me, my feet were in spasms of agony after I had made a very poor choice when purchasing a pair of shoes for the big day on the morning of the wedding. Why I did this so late I can’t recall but I had no time to wear them in and the shape of them clearly didn’t agree with my feet. My despair was compounded when I realised that I hadn’t packed any other sort of footwear for the honeymoon and so had to spend the whole week wearing them in pain.

As a result of being out of the country, I am absolutely sure that I would not have watched this particular TOTP – if memory serves, I was bathing my poor plates of meat whilst watching some German football in our accommodation. I wonder if there was anything soothing on the show that night or was it a distinctly more painful experience….

We start with the song that closed the last show but this time the artist is in the studio. Not only that but, according to host Jakki Brambles, she had broken off rehearsals with the reformed Go-Go’s to be there. It can only be Belinda Carlisle with “(We Want) The Same Thing”. That Go-Go’s rehearsal was for a tour to promote their first Best Of album although according to Wikipedia, it peaked at No 127 in the US so I’m not sure that the tour was really that successful in achieving its aim.

“(We Want) The Same Thing” on the other hand was doing a great job of re-energising Belinda’s “Runaway Horses” album, surprisingly going Top 10 despite being the fifth single to be released from the album. When I joined Our Price the following week, there was a tip from the buying department in the weekly memos advising stores to stock up on the album noting that it was a record that, despite being over a year old, just wouldn’t stay dead.

Belinda’s beehived backing singers appear to include Sharon Watts from Eastenders in their number whilst her own outfit seems to have been inspired by a French maid character that you might see on those ‘saucy’ postcards back in the 70s. Thankfully it isn’t the same thing though despite what young teenage lads watching on TV may have wanted.

Another golden oldie back in the charts?! Oh and guess what? It was from yet another film. This time it was the supernatural romantic thriller Ghost starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg that was to blame. The Righteous Brothers had already featured in a very successful film back in 1986 when they were included on the Top Gun soundtrack with “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” (there really was an all roads lead to Tom Cruise thing going on wasn’t there?) but now their version of “Unchained Melody” was at the centrepiece of Ghost’s most iconic moment – the pottery wheel scene. Cited as ‘one of the most iconic moments of ’90s cinema’, all that mucky clay business created a clamour for the song that could only be sated by a re-release that would become not only a No 1 record (it originally peaked at No 14 in 1965) but also *spoiler alert* the UK’s top selling single of 1990. The single’s success would be reason enough for a follow up and so, inevitably, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” was re-issued and made No 3 as did a hastily arranged Righteous Brothers Best Of compilation.

The Righteous Brothers were, in their original format, Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield. Medley, of course, already had his own personal bit of soundtrack history when he duetted with Jennifer Warnes on “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from Dirty Dancing. Given this info, I was immediately confused when I saw the video being used to promote “Unchained Melody” as there was only one Righteous Brother on display who was Hatfield, Where the Hell was Bill Medley?! Well, the legend goes something like this. Hatfield and Medley had agreed to do one solo song each per album. Both had wanted to sing “Unchained Melody” for their fourth album but Hatfield won the coin toss.

The song would cause another Top 40 phenomenon five years later when it was performed by actors Robson Green and Jerome Flynn in the ITV drama Soldier Soldier. I was working in the Stockport branch of Our Price at the time and the amount of people who had not been near a record shop for years that ventured in to enquire about that record from Soldier Soldier was unreal. When eventually released, like The Righteous Brothers five years before them, it would become the best selling single of the year in the UK. Strange times indeed. And we haven’t even mentioned the Gareth Gates version in 2002 but let’s not get into that eh?

An example of a new track being used to promote a load of old tunes next as we get “Don’t Ask Me” by Public Image Limited. This single was taken from a Best Of album called “The Greatest Hits, So Far” (although PiL never did manage another chart entry after this). It sounded so very pop music-like to me which was a surprise given John Lydon’s previous canon of work. When I was a full on pop kid back in ’83 influenced almost entirely by the Top 40, “This Is Not A Love Song” sounded like it had come from a different universe entirely compared to its chart peers. I didn’t know much of PiL’s back catalogue (although I obviously knew of Lydon’s Sex Pistols’ history) but anybody could hear how completely ‘other’ this song was in the shiny world of ‘new pop’ back then. Fast forward seven years, and although anything with Lydon’s vocals on it could never be described as mainstream, “Don’t Ask Me” was ….well…a good pop song. According to @TOTPFacts though, the band’s bassist Allan Dias who wrote it really wasn’t happy with how it sounded:

"I hate that version that's out, it's so soft. You should have heard my version – it was cutting, it kicked! They softened it up, they made it MTV-friendly." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 19, 2021

“Don’t Ask Me” peaked at No 22 and it took PiL a further two years to release any new recordings which arrived in the form of the album “That What Is Not”. Two years was nothing though as the album after that didn’t appear for TWENTY years as the band was put on hiatus.

I’ve always found Lydon a captivating character and been intrigued by his confrontational interviews. However, his support for Donald Trump in the 2020 US Presidential election was a step too far for me and I found his views totally unpalatable.

Oh come on! This is getting ridiculous now! After Maria McKee spent a month at No 1 with a song from a Tom Cruise movie and after seeing “Unchained Melody” back in the charts earlier from the film Ghost, here were Berlin riding high in the Top 40 once more with that song from yet another movie! And indeed, another Tom Cruise film! What was it with this guys films generating huge hits in the music charts back then? After Top Gun gave us the frankly awful (in my book) “Take My Breath Away”, we then had two singles from the soundtrack to Cruise’s 1988 flick Cocktail in “Kokomo” by The Beach Boys and Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” which both became massive successes.

Even his 1992 film Far And Away whose soundtrack was composed by John Williams and was a mixture of traditional Irish instrumentation and conventional orchestra; yes even that managed to give us “Book Of Days” by Enya! The following year his Interview With A Vampire film spawned what was seen as heresy for many a rock fan, the Guns N’ Roses cover of “Sympathy For The Devil” by The Rolling Stones (described by a record shop colleague at the time as ‘comedy record of the week’).

Out of interest, I just googled if there was an album of Tom Cruise film songs and there is! Called “Born On The Fourth Of July – Music From The Films Of Tom Cruise”, it’s yours for £369.32 from Amazon! All of this would eventually and inevitably lead to Cruise having a go at the old singing lark himself when he played rock star Stacee Jaxx in Rock Of Ages. Behold the Cruisemeister!

Finally some new music from a new band (sort of). Having finally hit big commercially with “I’m Free” over the Summer, The Soup Dragons needed a quick, sure -fire follow up to consolidate on that success. So what did they do? Well, they did what everyone does and re-released a previous single that had flopped and bingo! Another bona fide chart hit! The previous single in question was “Mother Universe” which for me was even better than “I’m Free” and I duly bought it. However, that original version that was released back in 1989 (which I hadn’t known) didn’t sound like the re-release….

Compare that rather turgid mix to the revamped, pimped up 1990 incarnation…

It’s as if the magic elixir that they had discovered for “I’m Free” had been liberally poured all over the original “Mother Universe” recording and what grew in its place was the slick, knowing and well-to-do cousin of its poor relative. The gospel choir, the Mikey Dread sample in the intro and all those other little elements that had conspired to make “I’m Free” so irresistible did the trick again. and “Mother Universe” (the re-release) was another chart hit, albeit much smaller than its predecessor peaking at No 26.

Despite that, and as much as I liked “I’m Free”, this will always be the better record for me (see also The Boo Radleys whose “Wake Up Boo!” is by far their biggest and most played hit but I infinitely prefer its follow up “Find The Answer Within”) Is there a name for that syndrome of preferring a more obscure song to the one that was an artist’s biggest hit that everyone else always chooses? Oh yes, I think it’s called being a precious, music snob.

Jason Donovan again?! For all that he was the pop prince of 1989 which was his year in the sun, he seems to have cast quite the shadow over 1990 as well. “I’m Doing Fine” was his fourth single release of the year (all taken from his “Between The Lines” album) and was also the worst performing, peaking at No 22. Now what’s Jakki Brambles saying about him in her intro? Something about him proving all his critics wrong by actually playing live at his…erm…live gigs. She protests too much I do fear. And what was that about The Beatles? This was his tribute to them? What’s that supposed to mean? OK, let’s have a listen then….

…well, as a Beatles influenced record it’s hardly Oasis is it? The opening guitar chords are very vaguely reminiscent of their “Rubber Soul” era but if anything, it sounds more like a track by The Monkees than the MopTops. It’s like a piss weak version of “Tonight” by New Kids On The Block which in itself was a piss weak take on The Beatles / Beach Boys sound. And what the heck was Donovan’s performance here all about? All that Billie from The Double Deckers thumbs up, arm jerking, his ridiculous hair and those frankly bizarre strides. Yet again, I say he protests too much.

Ooh! A single now from a new album that the music business is in raptures over according to Jakki B – what could it be? Oh… it’s “The Rhythm Of The Saints” by Paul Simon. This is probably a completely unfair opinion and I am certainly no expert on the album but wasn’t this just a retread of his iconic “Graceland’ album only not as good? As I said, probably unfair but the sales figures kind of back me up. Although it sold well (2 x platinum in both the UK and the US – indeed it was a No 1 album over here), those numbers were dwarfed by what “Graceland” achieved. Again, probably an unfair gauge but apart from lead single “The Obvious Child”, none of the other tracks lifted from “The Rhythm Of The Saints” were hits.

Although both were termed ‘world music’ albums, whereas “Graceland” had combined Western pop themes with African rhythms, its follow up relocated geographically to South America and took its inspiration from Brazilian drum beats. “The Obvious Child” was pleasant enough although those drums seemed a bit incongruous but it was nowhere near as memorably quirky as say “You Can Call Me Al”. I’m sure that in the intervening 30 years that some revisionism will have taken place and “The Rhythm Of The Saints” will no doubt be critically adored but it all felt a bit underwhelming to me at the time. “Graceland 2”? Bit obvious wasn’t it Paul?

A couple of Breakers next from two guys who knew each other well and had worked with together previously. George Michael was not happy with his record company Sony Music at this time as he perceived that they were not supporting him as an artist. So toxic had the relationship become that he refused to film a video for his last single “Praying For time” which had been the first track released from his second solo album “Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1”. As far as I can see, he didn’t film one for follow up single “Waiting For That Day” either. The clip below seems to be taken from the South Bank Show judging by Melvyn Bragg’s voice over. It’s quite an interesting clip though, explaining as it does how George put the track together by employing the ubiquitous James Brown “Funky Drummer” sample in a totally different way alongside some mellow folk style guitar chords. The melody borrows heavily from “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by The Rolling Stones so George wisely drew attention to this by referencing that song in the lyrics and giving Mick Jagger and Keith Richards a songwriting credit.

After the mega success of “Faith” and its attendant singles, whatever came after from Michael would probably not be seen favourably in comparison but for me, “Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1” is by far the better album with “Waiting For That Day” one of the stand out tracks. However, much like Paul Simon, the album didn’t sell anywhere near as well as its predecessor and the singles were not huge hits. “Waiting For That Day” peaked at No 23 in the UK and No 27 in the US.

I don’t recall this Elton John single at all. “You Gotta Love Someone”? Nope – I’ve got nothing at all. Was this another track from “Sleeping With The Past”?

*checks Wikipedia*

FFS! It was from the Days Of Thunder soundtrack! Pissing Tom Cruise strikes again!

It’s not much of a song in truth. As with much of his early 90s output, it was a trudging, mid tempo ballad that Elton tried to liven up a bit at the end with the addition of a gospel choir – he should have got onto The Soup Dragons for help in that direction. It peaked at No 33 but was included on “The Very Best Of Elton John” album that was released this month and which would end up being the first thing I ever sold when I came to work at Our Price a week or so later.

Paul Simon, George Michael, Elton John and now Paul McCartney in the running order for this TOTP! Talk about big names! They weren’t exactly new and exciting though were they? We saw “Birthday” just the other week so I’ve very little left to say about it.

The 90s were not Paul’s most successful years I would argue. He didn’t have a single that even made the Top 15 let alone the Top 5. He did however dabble in a different musical genre when he released “Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio”, his first foray into classical music and a collaboration with conductor and composer Clive Davis to commemorate The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s 150th anniversary. Towards the end of the decade, he released the “Flaming Pie” album which, although not necessarily reversing his commercial fortunes, was critically well received.

“Birthday” peaked at No 29.

We arrive at what remains the only No 1 song ever penned by Paul Heaton*. Given his canon of work, this seems incredible. “A Little Time” was the first single from the second album by The Beautiful South called “Choke” and rather bizarrely was the only single from it to be a Top 40 hit. The album sold well enough – it went platinum and peaked at No 2 – but the two further singles released from it, (the Soul II Soul lampooning “My Book” and “Let Love Speak Up Itself”) peaked at Nos 43 and 51 respectively. The phenomenon of No 1 singles by established artists (so not one hit wonders) being followed by records that didn’t even chart is not a common one I’m guessing. I can think of “E.S.P” by The Bee Gees peaking outside the Top 40 after their chart Topper “You Win Again”. off the top of my head.

I recall that when I started at Our Price, whoever the chart LP buyer was in my store had gone a bit overboard with the orders for “Choke” and there was a massive overstock of it that I don’t think was ever cleared (a lack of further hit singles from it probably didn’t help!).

*”Caravan Of Love” was a No 1 for The Housemartins but was a cover version of an Isley-Jasper-Isley song

The play out video is “Dressed For Success” by Roxette whose re-release schedule was still in full effect at this point. Having hit it big with “It Must Have Been Love” (yet another film soundtrack single), the band’s record company had embarked upon a strategy of re-issuing their previous singles that hadn’t been hits first time around. We’d already had “Listen To Your Heart” go Top 10 and now it was time for “Dressed For Success” to try its luck. Despite its self prophesying title, it didn’t quite do the same job although its peak of No 18 was 30 places higher than its original release.

Not sounding as accomplished as either “It Must Have Been Love” or “Listen To Your Heart”, it was like a clunky version of early Abba material. It did the job of maintaining the duo’s profile though until new album “Joyride” was released in the March of 1991.

For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Belinda Carlisle	(We Want) The Same Thing	Not sure we did Belinda because I didn’t buy this
2	The Righteous Brothers	Unchained Melody	It’s a no
3	Public Image Limited	Don’t Ask Me	Nope
4	Berlin	Take My Breath Away	No – not in 1990 nor 1986
5	The Soup Dragons	Mother Universe	Yes! Present and correct in the singles box!
6	Jason Donovan	I’m Doing Fine	No of course not
7	Paul Simon	Obvious Child	No but it was on that first Q Magazine album that I bought.
8	George Michael	Waiting For That Day	No but my wife had the album
9	Elton John	You Gotta Love Someone	No
10	Paul McCartney	Birthday	Negative
11	The Beautiful South	A Little Time	Not the single but I have it on their Best Of album
12	Roxette	Dressed For Success	Nah

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000t888/top-of-the-pops-25101990

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.

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 18 OCT 1990

Posted on March 24, 2021 by 80stastic

I’m getting married in two days time! Well, back in 1990 I was – I’ve been married for 30 years now but yes, on Saturday 20th October of that momentous year, my wife and I tied the knot at the tender age of 22. Consequently, I’m not entirely sure that I would have had the time to watch this particular episode of TOTP on the Thursday, less than 48 hours before the big day. Wedding preparations and all that. However, I was still sufficiently engaged with the charts back then to know most of the songs featured here although a couple do escape me. Let’s see what I missed out on….

Goodier had over done it in the Green room pre show and it finally caught up with him

First of all, it should be noted that, for some reason, tonight’s host, Mark Goodier, has decided to come dressed looking like a redshirt from Star Trek – you know, those disposable characters that wore red tunics to signify they were security personnel that would almost always end up dying within the first few minutes, usually after transporting down the the surface of an alien planet and probably before the opening titles had played. Let’s hope Goodier doesn’t make any howlers that leads to him dying on stage as it were.

Tonight’s first act are A-ha, not seen in the charts for nearly two years and by the point that they made it back, it seemed that maybe their time had passed. Their cover of the Everly Brothers’ “Crying In The Rain” was the lead single from their fourth album “East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon” but unlike their previous three albums which had all peaked at No 2, this one topped out at No 12. Not a disaster but definitely going in the wrong direction. “Crying In The Rain” was the only cover version on the album with the rest being either Pål Waaktaar or Magne Furuholmen originals or collaborations between the two. Did the fact that they had chosen to announce the album with a cover version indicate a lack of faith in their own songs or am I reading too much into that?

I think they actually make a fine job of “Crying In The Rain”, imbuing it with some Nordic atmospherics and a fjord full of drama. Morten Harket was born to sing this sort of stuff. However, as with the album, the public’s reaction was lukewarm and it failed to make the Top 10. Again, not a catastrophe – only the title track of the four singles lifted from previous album “Stay On These Roads” had made the Top 10 – but it was a far cry from the days of their ’85 to ’87 peak when pretty much every single release went Top 10.

I spent a lot of those A-ha glory years paying close attention to what Morten was doing with his hair with many an unsuccessful attempt to recreate his look befalling my bonce. Here though he looks like he’s got what we would call today ‘lockdown’ hair, all overgrown and loosely styled. Had I caught the show at the time, I’m not sure I would have been convinced.

A-ha would not have another Top 40 hit for three years.

A marmite song next or at least it seems to be for many people, you either love it or hate it. I fall into the former category but I know people (my mate Robin for one) who think it is beyond awful. Aztec Camera had enjoyed a remarkable and unexpected upturn in commercial fortunes at the back end of the 80s with their sleek, well polished soul-pop album “Love” which brought them (I mean Roddy Frame really of course) their biggest ever hit single in “Somewhere In My Heart” which was also their worst in my book but we don’t need to go there.

However, in a move reminiscent of ABC recording the rock-influenced sophomore album “Beauty Stab” when the smart money would have been to come up with “The Lexicon Of Love” part II (which they ultimately did in 2016), Frame retreated from putting out another overly commercial album as the follow up to “Love” and instead came up with “Stray”. Not that “Stray” was a straight up rock record despite it including their best Rolling Stones impression on “How It Is” ; no, it was more….’organic’? I hate that word but what I mean is that it was lacking in the big production sheen of its predecessor and was a bit more back to basics, the Roddy Frame of those early 80s years. The album is pretty eclectic actually with most musical genres on display including smoky jazz ballads (“Over My Head”), doomy rock (“Get Outta London”) and the sparkling indie-pop of lead single “The Crying Scene” (which I bought but everybody else seemed to ignore).

However, it’s second single “Good Morning Britain” that everyone thinks of, for better or worse, during this phase of the band’s career. Quite why people seem to hate it so much I’m not sure. In the case of my friend Robin, it seems to be about Roddy choosing to wear bondage trousers in the video (presumably as some sort of acknowledgement of his collaborator Mick Jones’s punk past) that offends so. Mind you, Robin was massively offended by the Steve character (played by Campbell Scott) in the 1992 Seattle based rom-com film Singles because Steve, urban planner by day but DJ by night, kept his record collection in see through PVC sleeves! The horror! Once that scene played out early on in the film, Robin was done and paid little attention to the rest of it. Ironically, I think the record that caused Robin to nearly self combust with rage was “London Calling” by The Clash.

Back to “Good Morning Britain”, and another person who cannot stand the song is 6 Music DJ Shaun Keaveny who I’m pretty sure made a commitment on air once that he would never allow it to be played on his show. For me though, it fair throbs along and the interplay between Frame and Jones singing alternate lines adds another layer to it. The politicised lyrics calling for better equality and treatment of citizens from all four corners of the United Kingdom seems a rallying call worth making. It’s pretty damn catchy as well of course.

It would prove to be Roddy’s last ever trip to the Top 40 when it peaked at No 19.

“The No 1 dance record in the UK at the moment” is up next according to Mark Goodier. Wow! Who could that be?! The KLF? Bass-O-Matic maybe? MC Hammer even? No, it’s Innocence with “Let’s Push It”. Really?! This was the No 1 dance record?! OK, I was never a massive dance fan so I don’t really know what I’m talking about but was this meandering, chill-out, soul/jazz confection really that much of a big deal?! I mean it’s inoffensive enough but that’s the problem, it doesn’t really go anywhere or cause any sort of reaction (well, not in me at least). I didn’t and still don’t really get it. I didn’t mind their next single, the more melodic “A Matter Of Fact” but this one? Nah, not for me.

Some more soul incoming but this was much more bold and brassy sounding to my ears. Behold the return of Whitney Houston! “I’m Your Baby Tonight” was the name of her new single and album and was apparently a deliberate attempt by her record label Arista to reconnect her with her black fan base. As such, after the all out pop sound of her “Whitney” album, her third studio album had more of an R&B edge. If there had been any fear at Arista about her success continuing after a record-breaking string of seven consecutive No 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 prior to this release, then they would have been allayed by the title track making it eight on the trot. The second single of the album (“All the Man That I Need”) would extend the run to nine.

However, although the album sold well, it only did half the business that her first two LPs did. Furthermore, the newly emerged foe who was Mariah Carey meant that laurels could not be rested upon, especially when she beat Whitney to the Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her “Vision Of Love” single which trumped “I’m Your Baby Tonight”.

Fast forward two years though and Whitney would return with the biggest selling album of her career – “The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album” which would sell a whopping 45 million copies worldwide. For now though, back in October 1990, she was doing OK just about. She was however, just weeks away from a pre-recorded vocals controversy when she sang the national anthem at Super Bowl XXV. Controversy and Whitney would be forever entwined throughout her life it seemed.

Mondays in the area! Yes, with my own move to Manchester happening just 9 days on from this TOTP, here were one of the kings of ‘Madchester’ back in the Top 40. Happy Mondays were bona fide charts stars now after the huge success of “Step On” earlier in the year. “Kinky Afro” though was the first big hit that they would have that was their own tune (“Step On” had been a cover version).

A Happy Mondays original it may have been but its sound was certainly shaped by some exterior influences. Apparently, the bass line was inspired by Hot Chocolate’s Brother Louie” whilst the ‘yippie yippie ya ya yeah yeah’ chorus was their take on ‘voulez-vous coucher avec moi’ from the Labelle hit “Lady Marmalade”. And check this out from @TOTPFacts about the song’s title:

Shaun Ryder: "We were gonna call it 'Groovy Afro' but we changed it to 'Kinky' after The Farm came out with 'Groovy Train.'" #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 19, 2021

That new album that Goodier makes reference to in his intro is of course the band’s iconic long player “Pills ‘n’ Thrills And Bellyaches”. It was released just as I was starting in my position of Xmas temp at Our Price in Manchester and I can still see the seemingly endless amount of copies of the vinyl for it behind the counter and thinking ‘are they really going to see all those?’. I think they did.

“Kinky Afro” matched its predecessor “Step On” by peaking at No 5.

Right, who’s this lady? Well, Rita MacNeil was a Canadian country singer who very briefly was one of the genre’s biggest names. Her international hit was “Working Man” which was a tribute to the endeavours of coal miners in Nova Scotia (hence Goodier’s pathetically weak quip “Yep, that song is suitable for minors”). On the back of the success of the single, she embarked on a European tour including one night at the Royal Albert Hall.

There really wasn’t much here for me I have to say although she is a big favourite of my country music loving Dad and he has even been known to belt out a version of “Working Man” himself.

Rita MacNeil died in 2013, from complications of surgery.

Some Breakers now and so much was the appetite for songs from film soundtracks in 1990 that even those that had been No 1 just four short years before were able to rise up the charts again. Yes, not content with one song from a Tom Cruise movie already being No 1 in this week’s chart courtesy of “Show Me Heaven” by Maria McKee, it seemed that we needed two as “Take My Breath Away” by Berlin from Top Gun had a second Top 40 life after it had already scaled the summit of the charts back in 1986! Talk about doubling down!

So what the crap was this all about?! Well, apparently Top Gun had its UK TV premiere earlier this month back in 1990 and such was the reaction to this happening that “Take My Breath Away” was re-released. I had just been starting my time as a student when it was first a hit and I was now about to begin another phase of my life as a married man when it reappeared. Had I had time to take this in back then, it would probably have freaked me out. Not only did it tick the film soundtrack box but it also represented the TV advert methodology of scoring a hit by being on the latest Peugeot promo for their 405 model range. You know, that one with the burning, exploding row of trees? Come on, this one…

The reissue of “Take My Breath Away” made it all the way to No 3 which seems faintly ridiculous for a song that had already been No 1 in recent memory. It was backed by “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins on the b-side. When I started at Our Price a couple of weeks later, the wall of the men’s toilet in the store I was working in was daubed with graffiti of hilarious poo related musical artists. I can’t recall them all but they included Deacon Poo, The Ruthless Crap Assassins, Iggy Plop and of course, Kenny Loggins.

Another Tina Turner single? Didn’t she have one out just the other week? Yes she did! “Look Me in the Heart” had only been released in mid August and yet a few weeks later here she was back for more with something called “Be Tender With Me Baby”. Like its predecessor, this was also taken from Tina’s “Foreign Affair” album (this was the fifth single lifted from it to be released in the UK!). I don’t recall this one at all so when I saw the title of it I thought it might be a cover version of that soul classic that always seems to be sung by Ruby Turner on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny but it turns out that is called “Stay With Me Baby” and is a different song altogether.

“Be Tender With Me Baby” is more of a rock ballad and not a very good one in my opinion. It peaked at No 28 but incredibly, Tina will be back in the charts the following month with “It Takes Two”, a duet with Rod Stewart. FFS!

After one music icon, here comes another. Like Tina Turner, Paul MccCartney had also spent some of 1990 still flogging his last studio album to death. “Flowers In The Dirt” had arrived in June of 1989 but he was releasing singles from it into the new decade with the fourth and final one being “Put It There”. “Birthday” was nothing to do with that particular project though being, as it was, a Beatles song that had originally been on the “White Album”.

So why was Macca releasing his own version of it some 22 years after it was originally recorded. There’s no great mystery really – it was a live version to promote his “Tripping The Live Fantastic” album which documented The Paul McCartney World Tour which was the first tour under his own name. It seems an odd choice of single given the 37 songs that could have been selected from the album’s track listing. Even the “Tripping The Live Fantastic: Highlights!” single album with just the 17 tracks on it included some legendary stuff like “Hey Jude” and “Let It Be”. Maybe they would have been too much of a crowd sing-a-long? OK, then how about “Get Back” or “Back In The U.S.S.R.” or even “Coming Up”?

The video for this is also a bit strange. If you want to promote your live album wouldn’t it be a good idea to just have the video showing you… erm…live in concert? Yes there is some of that but what’s with all the staged vignette scenes that pad it out? They are all very obvious themes around having a birthday that add little in my book and actually the scene with the all male party of braying toffs (clearly Tories) and a young woman (potentially a stripper?) bursting out of a birthday cake looks distinctly unpalatable at best through todays eyes.

Paul McCartney’s live version of “Birthday” peaked at No 29.

Still with those bleedin’ turtles?! “Spin That Wheel (Turtles Get Real)” was originally released at the start of 1990 and failed to get anywhere near the UK Top 40. Back then, there had been no tie-in with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film – the (Turtles Get Real) suffix was added for the re-release – and had included references to drug taking in the lyrics. These were all removed and a sanitised version was included on the movie soundtrack.

Hi Tek 3 featuring Ya Kid K were, of course, all part of the Technotronic family tree which was quite the tangled oak with branches everywhere – significantly its roots weren’t solid and it would succumb to powdery mildew disease (I had to look that up for the purposes of the metaphor)….

Technotronic was essentially just one person Jo Bogearet who had the original seed of an idea for the group, owned their record company and produced their records. It all got more complex when it came to promoting their releases. Bogeart was a recluse who spoke to nobody so he was never going to be the public face of Technotronic. That turned out to be a singer with blue lipstick called Felly (who didn’t actually sing on the records at all) – no, the singer was Manuela Djogi aka Ya Kid K who didn’t join the group initially because she didn’t want to sign a contract. Then she did and Felly was ousted but vowed to get some singing lessons and rejoin the group. She never did. Enter Welshman MC Eric as the rapper on third single “This Beat Is Technotronic”. While that was being a hit, “Spin That Wheel'” was released becoming a hit in the US and Australia but not over here. Then a support slot on the Madonna tour was announced – however Ya Kid K wanted to sue Technotronic’s record company for unpaid monies. A fourth single “Rocking Over The Beat” was released with next to no promotion from the group presumably because of the Madonna tour commitments though this seems unlikely as Ya Kid K and MC Eric had pulled out of the European tour dates as they didn’t want to promote the Technotronic name anymore. Then Ya Kid K announced she was pregnant – the father was MC Eric, obviously. There followed a counter court case against Ya Kid K and MC Eric brought by Jo Bogearet to stop them using the Technotronic name even though they said they didn’t want to use it anyway and that was the reason for them pulling out of the Madonna tour in the first place. Then…oh bollocks to it….who cares?!

“Spin That Wheel (Turtles Get Real)” peaked at No 15 in the UK.

A final week then at No 1 for Maria McKee with “Show Me Heaven” which also makes it the record that was No 1 when I got married. Or was it? I always got a bit confused about this as when we got back from our honeymoon the following Saturday, The Beautiful South were No 1. I’m trying to recall on what day the new charts were announced back then. Was it still on a Tuesday? Or had it moved to Sunday by then. The officialcharts.com website shows that for the week 14 October to 20 October (our wedding date), the No 1 record was indeed “Show Me Heaven” whilst for the week 21 October to October 27th it was The Beautiful South. So, I think that proves it was Maria Mckee. Either way, I’m just glad it wasn’t the song in the No 2 position which was “The Anniversary Waltz – Part 1” by Status Quo.

The play out video is “(We Want) The Same Thing” by Belinda Carlisle but before we get to that, what’s going on with Trekky Gooider? Surrounded by studio audience members for the final cut away shot, he seems disturbed, looks to his left and announces ” What’s going on here? I love it – it’s so warm” WTF?! That sounds wrong on so many levels.

Anyway, back to Belinda and this was a hit that made no sense at all. Why? Well, also like Tina Turner before her, she was still releasing tracks from an album that was 12 months old but apart from lead single ‘Leave A Light On”, none of them had pulled up any trees chart-wise. See?

Leave A Light On – No 4
La Luna – No 38
Runaway Horse – No 40
Vision Of You – No 41

Then, “(We Want) The Same Thing”, with its bizarre use of brackets, released as a fifth single from a year old album, goes all the way to No 6! How do you explain that? Well, apparently the single mix was very different from the album version so maybe Carlisle completists would have bought it for that reason? Plus, there was a deluxe 12″ vinyl boxed set with free stickers and a picture disc single on CD (according to Wikipedia) for the real Belinda obsessives but even so.

I’ve just listened to that album version and it is indeed very different. Where are the ‘Hey!’ shouts at the beginning for a start? Ah, that must have been its USP and the reason behind its success – you can’t beat some good old ‘Hey!’ yelps can you?

For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	A-ha	Crying In The Rain	No but it must be on my Greatest Hits CD of theirs
2	Aztec Camera	Good Morning Britain	No but it was on that first Q Magazine album that I bought.
3	Innocence	Let’s Push it	Let’s not..no
4	Whitney Houston	I’m Your Baby Tonight	Negative
5	Happy Mondays	Kinky Afro	No but I did buy the album
6	Rita MacNeil	Working Man	No
7	Berlin	Take My Breath Away	No – not in 1990 nor 1996
8	Tina Turner	Be Tender With Me Baby	Nope
9	Paul McCartney	Birthday	It wasn’t and I didn’t
10	Hi Tek 3 featuring Ya Kid K	Spin That Wheel (Turtles Get Real)	Hell no
11	Maria McKee	Show Me Heaven	Nah
12	Belinda Carlisle	(We Want) The Same Thing	Not sure we did Belinda because I didn’t buy this

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000t884/top-of-the-pops-18101990

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.

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 11 OCT 1990

Posted on March 19, 2021 by 80stastic

Hello and welcome back to 1990, the year when the charts were infested by cruddy Eurodance pop, the Bleep ‘n’ Bass phenomenon, old pop standards of yesteryear revitalised by their use in adverts and mega hits propelled to massive sales off the back of their inclusion on box office breaking film soundtracks. Oh, and ruddy New Kids On The Block and those pesky ninja turtle creatures. However, giving a massive pale (and possibly black nail varnished) middle finger to all of this are Goth gods The Sisters Of Mercy who stride back into the TOTP studio this week with their latest hit “More”. Yes, proving that Goth was still relevant, Andrew Eldritch and co released their first single since 1988’s ‘Lucretia My Reflection”. It’s actually the lead single off their album “Vision Thing” talking of which – get this. How many albums do you reckon The Sisters Of Mercy have released during their 40 odd years career? I mean proper, studio albums, not Best Ofs nor EPs. It’s three.THREE! And this one, “Vision Thing released in November 1990, is the most recent one! Not keen on hard work our Andrew is he? in November 2016 when interviewed by the TeamRock website, he said of his release slumber:

“I can tell you one thing – if Donald Trump actually does become President, that will be reason enough for me to release another album. I don’t think I could keep quiet if that happened.”

Well, Andrew, ‘The Donald’ has been and gone (thank God!) and still no new album from you laddie. They seem to have committed themselves to being a perennial touring band from what I can work out but if they never have any new material to play, have they made themselves a nostalgia circuit band by default?

“More” must have passed me by at the time as I have no recollection of it at all but it has all their usual Sisters trademarks. Eldritch’s unearthly vocals, the dark, chugging guitar sound and the cauldron of shrieking vocals emanating from the almost Macbethian trio of backing singers. Apparently the track was co-written by Jim Steinman, he of Meatloaf fame. Want to hear The Loaf’s version of it? If you must…

Enough of all that! What we need now is something completely wholesome to counteract the creepy, gothic stuff and what could be more wholesome than Cliff Richard?! Cliff was still plundering tracks from his “From A Distance: The Event” live album and after “Silhouettes ” just the other week, came the title track. It was originally recorded by Nanci Griffith of course (though not actually written by her) on her “Lone Star State Of Mind” album. Listen to her restrained and pure rendition of it here on the Letterman show….

and then contrast it with the pig’s ear that Cliff makes of it below…

He’s ruined it with all that grandstanding and those lumbering drum fills and synth refrains – very similar to the desecration he inflicted on traditional Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem” when he did his own arrangement of it called “Little Town”. Nasty. And who are all those people up there on stage with him? It looks like the worst episode of Glee you’ve ever seen!

Cliff’s treatment of “From A Distance” made No 11 but it was topped by Bette Midler’s version a year later which peaked at No 6.

Ah. I wasn’t expecting The Chimes to be back on the show with “Heaven” after it was a Breaker last week. Consequently, I’ve very little left to say about it (and I didn’t have much in the first place). Singer Pauline Henry of course went on to have a string of hits in the mid 90s on her own, the biggest of which was a cover of Bad Company’s “Feel Like Making Love”. If you search for The Chimes on Amazon, as well as the original and Cherry Red deluxe edition of their album, you also get a result for something called “Heaven – Very Best Of Pauline Henry And The Chimes” which seems like a very cynical marketing trick to me. Surely both artists stood independently of each other without needing to mash them together. I recall A&M doing a similar thing with a Sting / The Police Best Of album. I’m trying to think of other examples now. Oh yes, there’s one for David Grant & Jaki Graham as well but I guess they did record two actual duets together at least. A tenner says that there must be a Best Of Kajagoogoo and Limahl in existence as well.

“Heaven ” peaked at No 24.

The year of New Kids On The Block still has some legs in it yet I’m afraid. This was their seventh hit of the year and after the 70s soul sound of The Chi-Lites returned to the UK Top 40 in 1990 courtesy of Paul Young and MC Hammer covers, now we had some Philly Soul with T’KNOB’s take on “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” by The Delfonics.

This was actually a double A-side single with the other track being “Let’s Try It Again” which was taken from their “Step By Step” album. Presumably, the two songs were twinned together to help stimulate sales of two of the band’s albums as “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” was from their 1986 self titled debut album. Those dastardly record companies at it again! Apparently, “Let’s Try It Again” (which I don’t think I’ve ever heard as all the airplay went to “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)”) was the beginning of the end for the band’s phenomenal appeal. It was their first single since 1986’s “Stop It Girl” that failed to peak within the US Top 40. Many put their decent down to over saturation – did the world really need the New Kids animated cartoon series that tonight’s host Bruno Brookes mentions? Talking of Bruno, he gets into a right muddle with his intro for them when he forgets to mention the song title and when he corrects this in his outro, he name checks the wrong A-side. Piss poor as ever Bruno.

“Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” / “Let’s Try It Again” peaked at No 8 in the UK.

The final six songs on this week’s broadcast have all been featured on the show before starting with The Beautiful South and “A Little Time”. They’re in the studio this week but where is Paul Heaton? Oh there he is! On the keyboards right at the back. We don’t really get to see him until at least a minute in. I like the fact that he steps into the shadows for this song and gives the spotlight rightfully to Brianna Corrigan and Dave Hemmingway. Both had underrated voices I think. Dave had a very pure, ballad vocal whilst Brianna had a most unusual tone that completely suited those bittersweet Heaton tunes. It was a great shame in many ways that she felt that she couldn’t stay in the band but then, without her departure, we wouldn’t have had Jacqui Abbott which in turn of course led to all those marvellous Heaton and Abbott songs.

I saw The Beautiful South live in 1997 (I think) at the Manchester Arena and have also seen Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott back in 2017 at the Hull KR stadium gig. I’ve even seen The South who were what the band morphed into when the original incarnation split in 2007. I think Hemmingway was still in the line up at that point (although he has since retired) alongside the final female vocalist Alison Wheeler who replaced Abbott in 2000. It seems I’m a bit of a fan. Maybe it’s the Hull connection.

“A Little time” will be at No 1 within a couple of weeks.

Another of last week’s Breakers now as Neneh Cherry returns to the TOTP studio for her version of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”. The AIDS charity record “Red Hot + Blue” that this track was taken from would go on to sell over 1 million copies worldwide. Its success would lead to a number of releases by parent organisation the Red Hot Organization throughout the 90s including “Red Hot + Dance” (which would include the one-off George Michael single “Too Funky”) and “Red Hot + Country” which featured such heavyweights as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton and the aforementioned Nanci Griffith. As for that original album “Red Hot + Blue”, my favourite track from it was definitely this one by David Byrne…

Neneh Cherry was still a massive name in 1990 off the back of the success of her platinum selling debut album ‘Raw Like Sushi”. However, it would take her three years to release the follow up (1992’s “Homebrew”) by which point grunge had happened and the musical landscape had shifted. The album performed poorly sales wise (peaking at No 27) whilst none of the singles from it made the Top 20. However, she would return in 1996 with the more popular “Man” album which included the huge worldwide hit “7 Seconds” with Youssou N’Dour.

Monie Love again? I think this is the third time that “It’s A Shame (My Sister)” has been on the show. Not bad for a single that didn’t even make the Top 10. In a Smash Hits article, Monie (real name Simone Johnson) described the art of writing raps thus:

“Er..well you just write it down. You just put what is exactly in your head down on paper. All it takes is being able to pronounce your words and if you’re a good English student then you could write a good rap.”

That’s it?! OK, well I’ve got an English ‘O’ level and I write a lot of words doing this blog so let’s give it a go…

*spends half an hour trying to write a good rap*

Nah, that’s bollocks Monie. I’m crap at writing rap lyrics it turns out. I followed your advice about putting exactly what is in my head down on paper and it came out like this…

My name is Dickie B, I’m looking at a tree

My cat wanted to pee, so he did it up against the tree

“It’s A Shame (My Sister)” peaked at No 12.

Talking of crap, here’s Status Quo with the “Anniversary Waltz Part 1”. Oh come on, even the most committed of Quo fans must have known this was a pile of shite and cringed in embarrassment when it was released. It’s horrible. Bruno Brookes introducing it by saying that the band celebrated their 25th anniversary with a massive party at Butlins in Minehead just about sums it up! Of all the venues in the country to book for such a celebration, that was the optimum one?! What? Minehead was where Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt met all those years ago? Oh. Well, I don’t care. The “Anniversary Waltz Part 1” was a terrible idea and remains the last time that the band were in the Top 10. Even a re-release of their ‘party tune’ that was “Marguerita Time” would surely have been a better idea?

Maria McKee is still at No 1 with “Show Me Heaven”. Although she never came anywhere near to repeating the commercial triumph of this single, Maria has continued to write and record material. She wrote two songs for the aforementioned Bette Midler on her 1995 “Bette Of Roses” album whilst The Chicks (previously known as Dixie Chicks) recorded her song “Am I the Only One (Who’s Ever Felt This Way)” for their “Wide Open Spaces” album. Of course, we all know that Feargal Sharkey took her song “A Good Heart” to No 1 in 1985 but he also recorded the McKee penned “To Miss Someone” on his “Songs from the Mardi Gras” album. She has also contributed to numerous tribute albums for the likes of Blind Willie Johnson and T-Rex.

“Show Me Heaven” wasn’t her only soundtrack album hit. After that song was recorded for Days Of Thunder, she also contributed “If Love Is a Red Dress (Hang Me in Rags)” for the Pulp Fiction soundtrack.

The play out video is “World In My Eyes” by Depeche Mode. This is supposedly Andy Fletcher of the band’s favourite song that they have ever recorded. Fletcher’s career is an unusual one in that opinion is divided as to what he actually does in the band. In the 1989 “101” documentary about the band, Fletcher himself had this to say on the subject:

“Martin’s the songwriter, Alan’s the good musician, Dave’s the vocalist, and I bum around.”

Whilst that may be tongue in cheek, it remains the case that Fletcher is the only member of the band (past and present) who has never received a songwriting credit. He is also the only member of Depeche Mode who does not sing although he does do something with synthesizers on stage during live gigs. Apparently he is very active in Depeche’s business affairs and has assumed the role of band spokesperson.

Are there any other examples of band members who don’t contribute much musically? Bez of course in Happy Mondays is an obvious one and isn’t there somebody in Coldpay who doesn’t do much (or is that all of them apart from *Chris Martin?). How about journalist Fiona Russell Powell (aka Eden) and photographer David Yarritu who joined the ranks of ABC for their “How To Be A Zillionaire” album?

“World In My Eyes” peaked at No 17.

*Sorry Coldplay fans!

For posterity’s sake, I include the chart rundown below:

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	The Sisters Of Mercy	More	Less actually – no
2	Cliff Richard	From A Distance	…is where I wish to remain from Cliff – no
3	The Chimes	Heaven	Negative
4	New Kids On The Block	Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)	This was not a mind blowing cover – no
5	The Beautiful South	A Little Time	Not the single but I have it on their Best Of album
6	Neneh Cherry	I’ve Got You Under My Skin	It’s a no
7	Monie Love	It’s A Shame (My Sister)	Nope
8	Status Quo	The Anniversary Waltz (Part One)	Sod off
9	Maria McKee	Show Me Heaven	Nah
10	Depeche Mode	World In My Eyes	I did not

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000t134/top-of-the-pops-11101990

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.

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 04 OCT 1990

Posted on March 16, 2021 by 80stastic

We’re really out of sync with these BBC4 TOTP repeats. In the real world in 2021 we are entering Spring whilst in TOTP Rewind land we are are well into the Autumn of 1990. Like a busted clock, even allowing for the two repeats a week schedule, there’s usually a couple of times in a calendar year when TOTP of yesteryear and real time are in harmony but the delay between the end of the 1989 shows and the beginning of the 1990 broadcasts has thrown everything out. Oh well – in a world of lockdown, time seems to have shifted from its axis anyway and no longer seems to function as it once did. The days are so much longer and the lack of anything to do means they all blur into each other anyway. When I was working in record shops in the 90s, I’m sure Mr Our Price used to mess with the space-time continuum so slowly did some of the afternoons pass.

The first act on this week’s TOTP ought to know something about the workings of time given their name – Twenty 4 Seven featuring Captain Hollywood. OK, the Captain Hollywood bit doesn’t add anything to the theme but you can see where I was going. This lot seemed to be a prototype 2 Unlimited with their template of a male rapper and female singer (plus both acts were Dutch) and yet, unlike the latter who terrorised the charts for a good few years in the early to mid 90s, they never seemed able to capitalise on the success of “I Can’t Stand It” in the UK. There was a follow up single that made the Top 20 but after that, time stood still for them.

In the rest of Europe however, it was a completely different story where they remained popular and successful despite the departure of the Captain himself in 1991. By the way, Hollywood’s real name is Tony Dawson-Harrison and after leaving the band, he went a bit off the rails…

Talking of time as we were…it’s HAMMER TIME! Yes, MC Hammer is back and for the second time this year, there is a cover of a song originally recorded by the Chi-Lites in the UK Top 40. Back in July, Paul Young released his version of their “Oh Girl” track and now MC Hammer has followed suit by covering “Have You Seen Her”. As a follow up to “U Can’t Touch This”, it was quite a departure bpm wise. With it being a Hammer production though, he changes the lyrics significantly with pretty much the only one kept the same being the ‘Have you seen her, tell me have you seen her’ chorus. I’m not sure that all of the rewritten words have aged that well. Check these out:

“Hammer, you know I’m looking
Calling all my friends all around the place
Guy, Levert, or my homey Rob Base

If you’ve peeped her out, tell me
Yo, veo on the phone
Ted, Dre, or Ed Lover
Fab Five, homeys won’t you help a young brother”

Songwriters: Eugene Record / Barbara Acklin / Brandon Thomas Stewart / Leslie Michael Stewart

Have You Seen Her lyrics © Unichappell Music Inc.

Peeped her out?! Plus he refers to himself in the third person at least twice – a clear sing that success had gone to his head by this point. Apparently Hammer would inflict fines for breaches of discipline by any of his touring party for such crimes as making mistakes on stage! Lost. In. Showbiz. “Have You Seen Her” didn’t quite match the heights of “U Can’t Touch This” but was a solid follow up, peaking inside the Top 10 at No 8. The third single released from the album, “Pray”, would further consolidate his success by duplicating that chart position. We’re not done with Hammer time just yet!

One of the most consistent commercially successful bands of the 80s next who, despite by their own acknowledgement had realised by this point that their imperial phase was over, nevertheless continued to produce work of substance into the new decade. “So Hard” was the lead single from the first Pet Shop Boys album in nigh on two years. When it was released later in the month, “Behaviour” would go to No 2 but would sell substantially less copies than their “Actually” and “Introspective” albums. However, despite my persistent blogging about a TV show format that insisted the opposite and made a competition out of music, creativity cannot be measured by units shifted and chart positions alone. “Behaviour” is now very much seen as a maturing of their writing and routinely named as one of their finest works by their fan base. A melancholy classic dealing with the weighty subjects of friendship, loss and, in the case of the track “Being Boring”, speaking to and for the LGBT community of the heartbreak and tragedy of AIDS.

Coming back to “So Hard”, apparently it was the first track finished for “Behaviour” but Chris Lowe has subsequently acknowledged that it could and possibly should have been left off the album so incongruous was it to the rest of the songs it contained. Even if you only know the singles taken from the album like the aforementioned “Being Boring” and “Jealousy”, it’s easy to see what Chris was getting at. Not that it isn’t a good song, I think it stands up well and I initially preferred it to the subsequent single releases but over time I have come to appreciate more the power of the song writing on those other tracks.

I once got into a Twitter row with the Absolute 80s radio station about “So Hard”. How so? Well, it was all to do with the subject of time again, or more specifically the delineation of it. What am I going on about? Well, it’s simple really. Absolute 80s played “So Hard”, a song released 10 months into the 90s. It offended my sense of musical eras. Here’s the spat in full:

@Absolute80s Sure but you just played So Hard by Pet Shop Boys released Oct 1990. Hardly 80s is it? #getyourdatesstraight
— Richard Bayliss (@Dickiebliss) October 9, 2013

@Dickiebliss Some tracks are on the cusp of a decade but fit more the style of the previous or next one… so we exercise creative curation!
— Absolute 80s (@Absolute80s) October 9, 2013

@Absolute80s Hmm..I see. So it's out with the creative shoe horn is it? Not sure how PSB will feel about being pigeon-holed as an 80s band.
— Richard Bayliss (@Dickiebliss) October 9, 2013

@Absolute80s Ridiculous! If you segregate music as you have done then stick to your own branding rules. #getyourdatesstraight
— Richard Bayliss (@Dickiebliss) October 9, 2013

Yes, I am a complete pedant. “So Hard” peaked at No 4 in the UK Top 40.

Oh come on! Who in the whole wide world needed a Technotronic “Megamix”?! This was weapons grade shithousery by the act’s record label as they basically had their first four singles (that had already been hits) mixed together and shoved that out into the market to get people to buy them all over again. Thankfully, this act of gross manipulation turned out to be the tipping point and record buyers rejected their poisonous product after this. They would achieve just one more Top 20 hit in the UK. In early 1991, fellow Eurodance snake oil salesmen Snap! would pull the exact same shit when they released a single called “Mega Mix” which was a remix of their first four singles and just like Technotronic’s effort, it also went Top 10. Would we ever learn?

The TOTP producers are still persisting with this best selling albums of the previous month nonsense. For the record, the best selling albums of Sep 1990 were:

1. Three Tenors – In Concert

2. George Michael – “Listen Without Prejudice Vol 1”

3. Elton John – “Sleeping With The Past”

4. Michael Bolton – “Soul Provider”

5. Deacon Blue – “Ooh Las Vegas”

A couple of noteworthy things here. Firstly, the weird, DIY looking clip to reflect the George Michael album. What the Hell was that?! Well, George had refused to shoot a video for the album’s lead single “Praying For Time” due to tensions with his record company Sony and seeing as there wasn’t yet another single taken from it, seemingly somebody (Sony? TOTP?) put together some stills against a back drop of the “Waiting For That Day” track. It looks odd to say the least.

Secondly, that Deacon Blue album was a compilation of B-sides and unreleased tracks so the fact that it was such a big seller says much for their popularity at that time. I’ve got “Ooh Las Vegas” and there are some great songs on there and no I don’t care what you think of that statement.

Back in the studio we find MC Tunes and 808 State with “Tunes Splits The Atom”. This was the second consecutive hit for Tunes after “The Only Rhyme That Bites” earlier in the year and while it’s crammed with his rap lyrics like its predecessor, it has a more mellow vibe to it. This was the last single to be officially credited to ‘MC Tunes versus 808 State’ – “Primary Rhyming”, the next single lifted from his debut album “The North At Its Heights”, had that wording removed from its cover credits. That act seemed to break the spell as it peaked at No 67 and MC Tunes never graced the charts again. There was no chain reaction of subsequent hits after this one (ho ho).

He made the most of his time in the spotlight though including being the guest singles reviewer for Smash Hits around this time. He chose “So Hard” by Pet Shop Boys as his single of the fortnight but he hated MC Hammer’s “Have You Seen Her” describing it thus:

“This is the sort of tune that gets played in nightclubs called ‘Mr Smiths’ wear people go wearing their nice suits, drink brown ale and chat up women. Crap.”

Quite. Smash Hits subsequently ran a competition to win the very copy of the MC Hammer single that MC Tunes damaged! “Tunes Splits The Atom” peaked at No 18.

Some Breakers now…what? Four of them?! Oh great. Lots more typing to do yet then. We start with the Adventures of Stevie V who I had no idea managed two chart hits! “Body Language” was that second hit but was nowhere near as successful as his No 2 hit “Dirty Cash” peaking at No 29. The reason why? It was a load of old cobblers! Give me The Adventures of Tin Tin over Stevie V anytime. Hell, I’d even settle for some Thompson Twins (see what I did there?).

The unusual event next of a Breaker tune becoming a No 1 record. Despite the TOTP hosts usual claims that this section featured the most ‘happening’ records on the charts, they rarely were and the whole premise of the feature was presumably just a ploy to be able to cram in a load more tunes on the show. “A Little Time” by The Beautiful South was a welcome exception. Whilst not my favourite song of theirs by quite some distance, compared to the likes of The Adventures Of Stevie V, it was chart nectar. Entering the charts at a lowly No 30, it progressed steadily to the Top 10 the following week, then the Top 5 and finally No 1 for a solitary week.

Yet another bittersweet tune from the pens of Paul Heaton and David Rotheray, the use of a male and female vocalist in Dave Hemmingway and Briana Corrigan helped to emphasise the opposing sides of the lyrics with the sting in the tale that while ‘Dave’ had been off enjoying himself before committing himself to the relationship, by the time he had decided, ‘Briana’ had pulled the plug on it and wanted nothing to do with him. The memorable video full of flour, feathers, kitchen knives and a decapitated teddy bear with its head on a spike won the 1991 Brit Awards for British Video of the Year.

“Red Hot + Blue” was a compilation album from the Red Hot Organization, a not-for-profit international body dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture and featured interpretations of Cole Porter songs by contemporary pop artists. It was a fairly eclectic roster of artists who contributed from Tom Waits to U2 and from Salif Keita to k.d. lang. It sold over a million copies worldwide and there was an accompanying TV special featuring specially created videos for the songs, alongside clips highlighting the effects of AIDS.

I remember the album used to get a regular airing in the Our Price store I was working in and by the end of the year and my favourite track from it was David Byrne’s treatment of “Don’t Fence Me In” closely followed by Debbie Harry and Iggy Pop’s cover of “Well, Did You Evah!”. However, the official single released from the album was Neneh Cherry ‘s take on “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” which, whilst very important in terms of helping to promote AIDS awareness, I didn’t like that much at all musically. Looking back ,and given the subject matter of “Being Boring”, I’m surprised that Pet Shop Boys weren’t contributors to the project whereas the aforementioned Thompson Twins were. Not that I know anything about how such projects are put together of course. “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” peaked at No 25.

As with the first of this week’s Breakers The Adventures of Stevie V, I had no idea this lot had a second hit but they did. “Heaven” was the re-released follow up to The Chimes‘ cover version of U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. It was a No 1 song on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart but struggled to a high of No 24 in the UK Top 40. Listening to it now, I can appreciate Pauline Henry’s vocal prowess but the song doesn’t do anything much for me at all I’m afraid.

Who on earth was Bobby Vinton and what was he doing in the charts? Well, you only had to hear “Blue Velvet” once to realise that he was a singing star from back in the day but apart from that I knew very little. Oh hang on, was he the guy that sang “Dream Lover” and “Mack The Knife”? No, that was Bobby Darin. Oh. Well, Wikipedia tells me that Vinton was a US singer-songwriter who, get this, released 38 studio albums, 67 compilation albums and 88 singles over the course of the 60s, 70s and 80s. However, he’d only ever had two minor Top 40 hits in the UK back in the early 60s.

So why was he riding high in our charts in the 90s? I don’t really have to spell it out do I? No, it was nothing to do with the David Lynch’s 1986 film Blue Velvet (although the song does feature in it as sung by its star Isabella Rossellini). OK, it seems I do have to spell it out. It was used in an advert. Of course it was! Everything in the charts in this year seemed to have been in a bloody advert. Here’s @TOTPFacts with the details:

This re-release of "Blue Velvet" came about thanks to its inclusion in an ad for Nivea cold cream (which came in a blue bottle!). https://t.co/iqkvkhWjCl #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 12, 2021

Nowadays of course, Nivea have turned from blue to red and got Liverpool FC footballers to advertise their products. Thankfully, this hasn’t led to a re-release of the “Anfield Rap” yet. “Blue Velvet” would rise all the way to No 2.

Maria McKee is still at No 1 with “Show Me Heaven” but instead of that live vocal studio performance that they’ve been showing, we get the official promo video this week. As it’s from the Days Of Thunder film, it’s not long before we see Tom Cruise’s fizzog (mostly kissing co-star and later wife Nicole Kidman) although to be fair, Maria does get plenty of screen time too.

I’ve never seen Days Of Thunder but I’m imagining it’s like Top Gun but with racing cars instead of jets. Hang on, it says in Wikipedia that Cruise’s character was called Cole Trickle? Cole Trickle? Wait! It gets better (or worse). The character’s name was a reference to real life American race car driver Dick Trickle! That’s DICK TRICKLE!! Once more…DICK TRICKLE!! That’s up there with Biggus Dickus…

Just in case you hadn’t had enough Technotonic in the last 30 minutes, here they were again as the play out video but under their pseudonym of Hi Tek 3 along with Ya Kid K with “Spin That Wheel (Turtles Get Real)”. Like Partners In Kryme before them, this was from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles soundtrack and was actually a re-release having made No 69 back in January but was propelled to No 15 this time around on the back of the fuss/success surrounding those infernal turtles.

Ya Kid K always makes me think of “Our Kid Eh” by Mark and Lard’s spoof group The Shirehorses which of course lampoons Radiohead’s “Kid A” and features songs such as “Why Is It Always Dairy Lea” (a take off of “Why Does It Always Rain On Me?” by Travis) and “Feel Like Shite” (their take on “Alright” by Supergrass). Lovely stuff.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Twenty 4 Seven featuring Captain Hollywood	I Can’t Stand It	…and therefore I didn’t buy it
2	MC Hammer	Have You Seen Her	Nope
3	Pet Shop Boys	So Hard	No but it’s on my Pop Art retrospective of theirs
4	Technotronic	Megamix	As if
5	MC Tunes / 808 State	Tunes Splits The Atom	No
6	The Adventures Of Stevie V	Body Language	Negative
7	The Beautiful South	A Little Time	Not the single but I have it on their Best Of album
8	Neneh Cherry	I’ve Got You Under My Skin	It’s a no
9	The Chimes	Heaven	And another one
10	Bobby Vinton	Blue Velvet	Not for me thanks
11	Maria McKee	Show Me Heaven	Nah
12	Hi Tek 3 featuring Ya Kid K	Spin That Wheel (Turtles Get Real)	Hell 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.

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 27 SEP 1990

Posted on March 12, 2021 by 80stastic

Hello there – if it’s some (very) early 90s musical nostalgia you’re after, you have arrived at your destination. We are just about three quarters of the way through these TOTP repeats from 1990 and we see out September in the company of host Anthea Turner. Wait! Come back! I won’t mention her again…except for this. In the week where Piers Morgan stormed off the set of GMB and ultimately left the show, let us remember that Anthea also had an ITV breakfast show incident. No, not Piers slamming her for breaching lockdown rules; hers occurred back in the mid 90s when she was co-hosting GMTV with Eamon Holmes. So bad was their working relationship that Holmes issued an ‘its me or her’ ultimatum to GMTV management which resulted in Anthea being sacked. I can’t stand either of them to be honest so enough of all that and on with the music….

…and we start with Monie Love and her single “It’s A Shame (My Sister)”. A Breaker last week, Monie has made sufficient strides up the charts this week to merit a studio performance this time around and she’s invited everybody she knows to get up on stage with her. I’m guessing that’s actually R’n’B vocal outfit True Image who are credited on the record alongside Monie. It’s not all those people on screen that’s caught my attention though but the top that Monie is wearing or more specifically the logo on it. What is that? My best guess is that it’s the badge of American basketball team the Chicago Bulls. Whilst trying to confirm it, I came upon this little nugget online:

If you turn the Chicago bulls logo upside down it’s a robot having sex with a crab pic.twitter.com/KGfsqyr3Ml
— Chaos Agent 1 June 2nd! (@DenizCamp) September 14, 2019

OH. MY. GOD.

Monie’s debut album “Down To Earth” included a track called “Swiney Swiney” which was a protest against the eating of pork and included the lyrics ‘High blood pressure, blame it on the swine’. As far as I can tell she has never written a song highlighting the fate of that poor crab.

Back on less carnal and more sensible ground now as we get the latest Depeche Mode single “World In My Eyes”. This was the fourth and final single to be lifted from the “Violator” album and you have to say that alongside “Personal Jesus”, “Enjoy The Silence” and “Policy Of Truth”, that quartet of tracks must be one of the best group of singles taken from one album, quality and consistency wise.

Did I say ‘less carnal’? It seems I was wrong as when researching the meaning behind the song, the theories I found online were overwhelmingly of the opinion that it was about the sexual act. Here are just a few of the more printable ones:

‘Very erotic song, and it moves me in more ways than one.’

‘It’s a sex song.’

‘This really is one of the most erotic songs out there. It’s so addicting.’

And finally…

‘I always thought it was about showing someone your “world” eg, your outlook on life, your personality, everything, by having sex with them….in a good way.’

Well…erm…ahem. “World In My Eyes” ~~climaxed~~…PEAKED I meant peaked at No 17.

Right, please can we move away from all the salacious stuff?! Who’s next? Londonbeat? They’re pretty safe and inoffensive surely?! “I’ve Been Thinking About You” is on its way to a high of No 2. Many of the music press reviews of the song stated that they detected a Fine Young Cannibals influence in its sound production. I can hear that but it was no real surprise as band members Jimmy Helms, George Chandler & Jimmy Chambers all sang backing vocals on the FYC tracks “Good Thing”, “Tell Me What” and “It’s OK (It’s Alright)” from their “The Raw and the Cooked” album. In a bizarre coincidence there is a song in this TOTP that was produced by Andy Cox and David Steele of FYC but it wasn’t this one. No, they handled production duties for “It’s A Shame (My Sister) by Monie Love at the top of the show.

Oh OK, I’d been waiting for this one to come up (and see me). Why? Well, this is the performance where back in 1990 I could have sworn that was me up there fronting The Wedding Present. I seem to have one of those faces you see. I spent three years at polytechnic being called Dan after my resemblance to the actor Dan Ackroyd. In current times, rather more unfortunately, I have been likened to football manager Sam Allardyce. Back in the early 90s though, I did look like David Gedge and the lookalike factor is no more on display than it is in this clip. I swear that people who had never made the connection before, when seeing this footage, have said ‘but…that was you up there wasn’t it?’. There was just something about the way Gedge smiled and his dark floppy hair that once seen by people who knew me could not be unseen. Nowadays of course, never mind me not looking like Gedge anymore, Gedge himself no longer looks like Gedge. He’s more ‘gadge’ than Gedge. I once spent an uncomfortable evening in a pub in Manchester with Mark E Smith’s sister saying how much I looked like Gedge, what a sex god (her words not mine) he was and asking me to sing some Wedding Present tunes for her.

Watching this clip back is reminding me how old I’ve become – it’s a bit depressing. Anyway, back to the music and “Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)” was one one of the tracks on their “3 Songs EP”* which would make No 25 in the UK charts. I’m guessing it was a ploy by their new record label RCA to maintain the band’s profile in between the album releases of “Bizarro” in 1989 and “Seamonsters” in 1991. Come 1992 and you wouldn’t be able to move for Wedding Present product as they embarked upon their project of releasing 12 x 7″ singles in one year. Each single was limited to a pressing of 10,000 copies which all reached the Top 30 thereby equalling Elvis Presley’s record for the most UK Top 30 hits in one year – those dastardly major labels with their cynical marketing strategies!

I love this performance and not just for the lookalike reasons. The false ending is great, Gedge’s knowing smile is a winner and this, which was spotted by an eagle-eyed viewer:

Oh https://t.co/A6iEFZ9bjr
— David Gedge (@weddingpresent) March 5, 2021

*What was it with the functional titles of EPs back in 1990? Deacon Blue were also in the charts at the same time as The Wedding Present with their “Four Bacharach & David Songs EP”.

Whatever you think of The Cure, you can’t deny their longevity nor how prolific they are/were. By this point in their career, they had already recorded 8 studio albums in 10 years and this single, “Never Enough” was already their 15th Top 40 hit. This one though wasn’t from a studio album but a remix album called rather obviously “Mixed Up” and featured extended mixes of some of their previous hits. I really remember this track being played a lot in store when I started with Our Price the following month. I really liked “Never Enough” and its creeping, unnerving sound and Robert Smith’s manic, tortured, imploring vocals.

The video does rather seem to be a retread of the claustrophobia theme of their promo for 1985 single “Close To Me” though which would duplicate “Never Enough”s No 13 chart peak when released as the follow up single in remix form.

Status Quo had released some right old crap during the 80s. I’m thinking “In The Army Now”, “Burning Bridges (On and Off and On Again)” and an excruciating cover of the Dion standard “The Wanderer”. If we thought that was bad though, stand back as here’s 90s Quo declaring ‘Hold my pint’. Yes, to mark the 25th anniversary of the meeting of Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi at a Butlins holiday camp (it’s hardly when Lennon met McCartney is it?), they decided to release “The Anniversary Waltz – Part One” which was basically their take on the whole Jive Bunny phenomenon. Within the medley of old 50s hits shoe horned together were Chuck Berry’s “No Particular Place To Go”, Dave Edmund’s “I Hear You Knocking” and unbelievably, “The Wanderer” by Dion – again. This embarrassing crud-fest somehow convinced enough punters to buy it that it rose all the way to No 2 in the charts! Not satisfied with fleecing people once, the band followed it up with “The Anniversary Waltz – Part Two”. Talk about money for old rope. Just unforgivable.

By the mid 90s, they had defaulted to releasing cover versions as their modus operandi most notably Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” and The Beach Boys’ “Fun, Fun, Fun”. Even Radio 1 decided enough was enough and refused to playlist “Fun, Fun, Fun” leading to a public and rancorous dispute with the band. All of this and I haven’t even got started with “Come On You Reds”, their 1994 No 1 single with Manchester United. Bah!

From some right old tosh to something bang up to date (in 1990) with the dance hit “Fascinating Rhythm” by Bass-O-Matic. I’ve always found this track very intriguing – it just has that something ‘other’ about it which made it stand out from the rest of the dance tunes that took residence in the Top 40 throughout 1990. However, by most accounts, the album it came from, “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Bass”, wasn’t anything like the single and a bit of a let down if you were a punter expecting an album full of similar blinding anthems.

“Fascinating Rhythm” peaked at No 9 and was their only Top 40 hit. Founding member WIlliam Orbit would of course go on to be a legendary producer working with everyone from All Saints to U2 but most famously with Madonna on her “Ray Of Light” album.

After just two weeks at the top, Steve Miller Band has been toppled by the almighty power ballad that was “Show Me Heaven” by Maria McKee. Despite only achieving two chart hits in her varied music career (the other came in 1993 courtesy of the No 35 hit “I’m Gonna Soothe You”), Maria still has had quite an impact on the UK charts. How so? Well, she wrote Feargal Sharkey’s 1985 No 1 “A Good Heart” and was also the subject matter of his follow up single “You Little Thief” which was written by her former lover Benmont Tench as a riposte to “A Good Heart”. Not only that, she was also the inspiration behind Deacon Blue’s Top 10 hit of 1988 “Real Gone Kid” which was penned by Ricky Ross after seeing McKee’s wild, on stage antics during a gig with her former band Lone Justice.

The play out video is “Taste” by Ride. Yes, after some proper indie heroes earlier in the show in the form of The Wedding Present, we got another lot before the half hour was up. Ride were from Oxford and were associated with the ‘shoegazing’ scene that was characterised by guitar distortion, feedback, ethereal vocals and the gig etiquette of the bands who stood motionless during live performances in a detached, introspective state with their heads down and not acknowledging the audience.

“Taste” was one of four tracks on the “Fall EP” (what another EP?!) and is actually pretty melodic to my ears rather than harsh and distorted as befitting the scene. The band’s profile and success escalated quickly and tours of Japan, Australia and America widened their appeal. This led to their commercial zenith in 1992 when their single “Leave Them All Behind” made the Top 10 whilst parent album “Going Blank Again” went Top 5. My favourite tune of theirs also came from that album; the sublime “”Twisterella”.

Sadly for Ride, they found themselves out of step with the cultural shift that BritPop brought and they split in 1996 before reforming in 2014. Oh and just when I thought I had gotten away without any more filth in this post, @TOTPFacts reminded us all of this lovely image*:

If you have trouble telling 1990-period Mark Gardener and Tim Burgess apart: Mark is on the left in this photo and Tim is on the right. Or is it the other way round? #TOTP pic.twitter.com/kaYA7r5HAf
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 5, 2021

*That’s a stick of rock by the way!

For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Monie Love	It’s A Shame (My Sister)	Nope
2	Depeche Mode	World In My Eyes	I did not
3	Londonbeat	I’ve Been Thinking About You	But I didn’t think about buying this
4	The Wedding Present	Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)	No but I should have
5	The Cure	Never Enough	No but I’ve got it on a Greatest Hits CD of theirs
6	Status Quo	The Anniversary Waltz (Part One)	Sod off
7	Bass-O-Matic	Fascinating Rhythm	Could have but didn’t
8	Maria McKee	Show Me Heaven	Nah
9	Ride	Taste	No

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000st49/top-of-the-pops-27091990

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.

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 20 SEP 1990

Posted on March 10, 2021 by 80stastic

We’re pushing on through 1990 now and find ourselves entering the final third of September. The year has brought us a dramatic World Cup, a Summer heatwave and a seemingly endless conveyor belt of awful, awful records in the Top 40…but all of those things would pale into insignificance for me as I was exactly one month away from getting married! Yes, my girlfriend and I had been reunited over the Summer when I secured some temporary employment in her hometown of Hull and now we had decided that we weren’t going to be separated again. We were only 22 by this point and none of our friends and peers had got married or were even talking about such a happening that I was aware of but we were determined and confident in each other and our relationship.

We had decided we would move to Manchester. We had very little connection to the city other than we both knew one person each who lived there. To this end, I had applied for jobs in record shops there to have some employment set up for our arrival. Why record shops? I loved music and thought that I would be working in a field that engaged me. I also figured that somehow it would be a springboard into some sort of career in the music business, that I would be headhunted to some record company position and end up running a record label or some such other fantasy. In my defence of this folly, I was very young, just starting out in life and I didn’t have a f*****g clue! The first record shop that I heard back from was the Our Price chain and they invited me to interview for a temporary Xmas sales assistant position. So it came to pass that in this very week of September 1990, I travelled over to Manchester and rocked up at the offices above the Manchester Piccadilly store where I was interviewed by a very pleasant guy (whose name I forget), sat a music quiz and was told that I would be a suitable person to work for Our Price. I remember him asking me if I though the money they were paying was enough (£100 a week as I recall) and I said absolutely! I wasn’t going to talk myself out of the opportunity before I’d even begun. Success!

My other brief whilst I was over in Manchester was to try and find some accommodation for us to live in once we’d moved across the Pennines. On this point I was less successful and I returned to Hull with nothing in place on that subject. Still, one out of two wasn’t bad. I had a start date for late October agreed and had familiarised myself with Manchester a little at least whilst I was staying with one of the two people we knew there for a couple of days. I recall travelling back to her flat on the bus on the Saturday afternoon and wondering how my beloved Chelsea had got on that day. This was before the days of mobile phones, live score apps and the rest. I was unsure about outing myself as a Chelsea fan on public transport in the centre of Manchester but fortunately they had been playing Man City that afternoon so I simply asked somebody on the bus who had a pink ‘un (remember them) sports paper the City result*. Bingo! I was already getting used to this living in Manchester lark!

*It was a 1-1 draw by the way.

As a consequence of all this grown up stuff, I had taken my eye off the ball as to the pop charts and am pretty sure I didn’t even watch this particular TOTP. Let’s see what I missed….

….we start with one of those awful, awful records I referred to earlier. Twenty 4 Seven featuring Captain Hollywood were one of those Eurodance outfits that we’d seen so much of in this year like 49ers and Bizz Nizz. The Captain himself was a guy called Tony Dawson-Harrison who earned his nickname when stationed with the US Army in Germany. Hang on! Wasn’t that the same back story as Turbo B from Snap!?

*checks Wikipedia*

Yes, it was! And didn’t Sydney Youngblood of “If Only I Could” fame follow the same route to chart glory?

*checks Wikipedia again*

Yes! What the hell was the deal with American army soldiers based in Germany becoming pop stars in the early 90s?! Anyway, he was joined by vocalist Nancy “Nance” Coolen (not hard to work out where her nickname came from) and a couple of dancers and hey presto! A massive hit called “I Can’t Stand It”. After that single hit big, Captain Hollywood left to pursue a solo career (he had a couple of minor hit singles in the UK in the mid 90s but was a much bigger deal in the rest of Europe) and was replaced by Stacey “Stay-C” Seedorf (they really needed to work on those nicknames a bit more!). From that point on it became a carousel of band members and line up that would put The Fall to shame (well, The Sugababes at least). Apparently they are still a going concern to this day. As for me, I couldn’t stand “I Can’t Stand It” which peaked at No 7 over here.

Wait a minute! What’s going on here? The Stone Roses in the charts with “Fools Gold”? Again? It had already spent 14 weeks in the Top 100 between Nov 1989 and Feb 1990 – why was it re-released so quickly afterwards? Well, after the band’s commercial breakthrough in 1989 with “Made Of Stone”, “She Bangs The Drums” and of course “Fools Gold”, there was a rush to get more of their product out into the marketplace, not all of it with the endorsement of the band. Early single “Sally Cinnamon” on their ex-label Revolver came out again with a video that the band hated. They tried to stop the release and when they couldn’t, it led to the legendary office trashing incident when the band, on route to the recording studio, stopped by the FM Revolver headquarters and trashed the offices by hurling paint all over them and former manager Paul Birch. The inevitable court case followed with the band fined £3,600 each.

After “Elephant Stone” was also released from their iconic debut album came the much heralded single “One Love”. Tipped to be No 1, the band’s mythical aura had slipped after the debacle of the Spike Island concert and it stalled at No 4, unable to dislodge Elton John or indeed get the better of Craig McClachlan! Given its relative failure, was “Fools Gold” re-issued to remind us of their former glories? Its original release had seen it double A-sided with “What The World Is Waiting For” but was it just a standard A -side this time? Or was it just the original release propelled back into the charts by demand? I’m not sure. he waters are muddied further by the fact that it has been re-released at least a further two times since. I’m pretty sure that the debut album was re-released with “Fools Gold” included as an extra track at some point in the early 90s as well.

The 1990 release made it to No 22 in the charts whilst the 1989 original release made it all the way to No 8. I have to say it’s not my favourite Stone Roses tune by some distance, whilst Ian Brown seems to be making quite the fool himself these days without any recourse to gold.

I had to jinx it by mentioning Snap! before didn’t I? Here’s Turbo B and co with their third hit of 1990 “Cult Of Snap”. After “The Power” and “Ooops Up”, this one at least had a differential to it in the form of the African sounding drumbeats and chanting. Indeed, it proved to be popular in that territory as it peaked at No 2 in Zimbabwe. When this TOTP repeat aired, a few social media commentators said that it reminded them of that “In Zaire” song by Johnny Wakelin which I just about remember from my childhood. Let’s see if they had a point then…

…ooh yeah, maybe. Anyway, back to “Cult Of Snap” and I found this one a little less irritating than their previous efforts (maybe it was Johnny Wakelin subconsciously drawing me in from the 70s). It turns out though that Snap! didn’t have the very first release of this track. Here’s @TOTPFacts:

Although "Cult Of Snap" was a Snap! composition, this wasn't the track's first release. An Italian outfit called Hi Power rushed out a version, which charted as high as no 73, before Snap! got theirs out. https://t.co/9FBOyfjPCp #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 5, 2021

The ever generous Turbo B (who had already been involved in a homophobic instigated nightclub incident by this point) declared of Hi Power’s version in a Smash Hits interview:

“These people, they’re ridiculous. If he was a good rapper, it would be OK but he was a shit rapper, he has no timing. “

What a pleasant man! It’s a bit rich anyway given that “The Power” included the unauthorised sampling of vocals by Jocelyn Brown which led her to commence legal action. The legally complex world of sampling eh?

“Cult Of Snap” peaked at No 8 in the UK.

One of the constants of this blog throughout the 80s and now the 90s has been the persistent existence of hard rock acts within the UK Top 40 whatever the current musical milieu dictated. House music? Not a problem? Overblown ballads from film soundtracks? Out of our way, we’re coming through! Boys bands and teeny bop idols? We give zero f***s! We’re here to play loud rock music and nobody will stop us! The likes of Megadeth, Skid Row and Whitesnake had steadfastly refused to budge from the Top 40, presumably propelled their in the first pace by a sizeable, loyal fan base. Another such act were AC/DC for whom “Thunderstruck” was already their 14th UK Top 40 hit and followed the likes of “Who Made Who” and “Heatseeker” into the Top 20. As I’ve said many time previously, I never got the boat going to AC/DC island and this did nothing for me. I can’t be doing with their song titles for one thing – they all seem to just constant variants on the whole ‘power’ theme.

The song inspired a whole movie called Thunderstruck which was released in 2004 and was a comedy about five guys who go to an AC/DC show in 1991 and agree to bury the first one who dies next to Bon Scott. No really. Look, here’s the trailer….

…yeah. It looks well shit doesn’t it?

Some Breakers next and we start with the return of S’Express. Despite cornering the market as the commercial face of house music when arriving with a bang back in 1988 with the No 1 single “Theme from S-Express”, Mark Moore and co had suffered from a case of diminishing returns ever since with each subsequent single release peaking lower than its immediate predecessor. Their fortunes were not helped by a two year gap between album releases with sophomore long player “Intercourse” not arriving until a whole three years after the bomb that was “Theme from S-Express” had exploded into the charts.

“Nothing To Lose” was actually the second single to be lifted from “Intercourse”, the first had been “Mantra For A State Of Mind” nearly a year before – see what I mean about them not being fussed about maintaining momentum with regular release schedules? Indeed, the four singles that were released from the album covered a period of three years!

I have to say that I didn’t mind “Nothing To Lose” though and my wife liked it so much she bought the 12″. However, their appeal was definitely on the wane. It peaked at No 32 and became their last ever Top 40 hit until a remix of “Theme from S-Express” retitled as “Theme from S’Express – The Return Trip” made the Top 20 in 1996.

Is this the same DNA who were just in the charts with Suzanne Vega with that remix of “Tom’s Diner”? It is apparently. I had no idea they had more than one hit. A quick check of their discography shows that they had five Top 40 entries although this one, “La Serenissima”, seems to be the only one in their own right. Including “Tom’s Diner”, all the other ones were with additional artists with the most successful and famous being Kylie Minogue whom they remixed “Shocked ” for as “Shocked (DNA Remix)” (it did what it said on the tin) in 1991 which peaked at No 6.

Featuring that ubiquitous James Brown “Funky Drummer” sample, “La Serenissima” was actually a cover of a piece by Rondò Veneziano who Wikipedia tells me are ‘an Italian chamber orchestra, specialising in Baroque music, playing original instruments but incorporating a rock-style rhythm section of synthesiser, bass guitar and drums’. That sounds…erm…like an Italian version of ‘Hooked On Classics’?

“La Serenissima” – the Byzantine title for Venice if you’re asking – peaked at No 34.

Who’s up for some Monie Love? Last seen in the charts at the back end of 1989 with her Top 20 single “Grandpa’s Party”, she was back there again with “It’s a Shame (My Sister)” which was her hip-hop take on “It’s a Shame”, the old 70s hit by The Spinners. Is it my imagination or was Monie Love briefly tipped to be the next hip-hop superstar? Well, there’s still a lot of love for Monie online where she is routinely referred to as a hip-hop icon. Interviewed by http://www.pbs.org and asked what her greatest contribution was to hip-hop, she replied:

“Oh, wow, that’s easy for me. My greatest contribution to Hip-Hop was allowing the United States of America to know and understand exactly how far they reach, and how influential they are to children in completely different countries because I am the import. I’m one of the first successful imports on the Hip-Hop tree of life.”

Import? Ah, you see Monie was born Simone Johnson in Battersea in 1970 before relocating to the US permanently where she carved out a successful career in radio. Oh, and I’ve no idea who True Image are/were who are also credited on the record. Sounds like one of Louis Walsh’s X Factor boy bands to me.

After The Stone Roses earlier in the show, we get another of those acts closely associated with the baggy sound of Manchester (although they were actually from a combination of the West Midlands and Northwich in Cheshire). The Charlatans were bona fide pop stars by this point but this was actually their debut appearance on TOTP never actually having made it on the show for previous single “The Only One I Know” despite it going Top 10 (the promo video had to suffice instead). “Then” was a worthy follow up and very nearly made it two Top Tenners on the bounce, peaking just outside at No 12.

Lead singer and now near National Treasure Tim Burgess has obviously been to the barbers with his bowl cut look replaced with something altogether more sharp. The decision to lop off his locks was made because Tim felt that too many people trying to copy his floppy fringe look apparently. These days of course, he has adopted a hairstyle that seems to be a mash up of Andy Warhol and Purdey from The New Avengers. Haircuts aside, he remains a rather wonderful human being.

If this TOTP was a football match, it would be between the indie/dance baggie sound and heavy rock and this would be the match report:

“After The Baggies (no, not WBA!) went 1-0 up early doors via a strike from The Stone Roses, Heavy Rock equalised via the ever reliable AC/DC. Shortly after the break(ers) however, The Baggies were back in front via a good follow up from The Charlatans. Not to be out done, Heavy Rock fired a second equaliser from veterans Iron Maiden.”

Yes, just like AC/DC earlier, Iron Maiden were still rampaging up the charts as the 80s became the 90s. We could have been forgiven for thinking they were on a sabbatical given the solo career of Bruce Dickinson earlier in the year but they were back with new single “Holy Smoke” which was the lead single from their “No Prayer For The Dying” album. By this point, the band’s fan base was so big that they could guarantee a high chart placing for anything they released as demonstrated by “Holy Smoke” which entered the charts at No 3. The band (or possibly their record label) saw a way to exploit this to the max with their next single “Bring Your Daughter… to the Slaughter” which was released in the week after Xmas when there was traditionally a lull in sales after the Xmas rush. This meant that far fewer copies need to be sold to have a massive hit and so it came to pass that Iron Maiden would score their first and only No 1 single as 1991 dawned.

I don’t really recall “Holy Smoke” at all and on hearing it on this TOTP repeat iI did wonder if it was an instrumental. It isn’t but the reason for my confusion was that the show’s producers started the playback of the track from the point of a guitar solo which I’m guessing was a strategic move to omit some of the song’s more profane lyrics which occur early on such as ‘Flies around shit/bees around honey’ and ‘I’ve lived in filth/I’ve lived in sin/and I still smell cleaner than the shit you’re in’. Ooh, they were scary rebels weren’t they Iron Maiden?

Breaking News! There’s a last gasp winner in The Baggies v Heavy Rock match as the former seal the win with a goal from late substitute The Farm. Hang on, it’s gone to VAR! There’s a debate about whether the goal should stand as Stockley Park look at evidence that The Farm were not actually a baggie band and therefore they should be disqualified from playing. According to a Smash Hits interview with Tim Burgess of The Charlatans, he had this to say about the “Groovy Train” hitmakers:

“I saw them live five years ago and they were a crap R’n’ B band.”

Damning stuff. The decision is in though and the goal stands on the basis of this angle from @TOTPFacts:

A few weeks after this, Happy Mondays released their single "Kinky Afro". The track was originally titled "Groovy Afro", but the Mondays changed the title after finding out about "Groovy Train". #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 5, 2021

If holy trinity indie /dance member Happy Mondays were concerned about The Farm, then they must have been baggy! However, I’m pretty sure that I saw an Expedia advert on the TV the other day that used “Groovy Train” as the soundtrack to it which kind of undermines its indie credentials a bit in my book. Apparently, Duran Duran have turned down multiple lucrative requests over the years from various food outlets asking to use “Hungry Like The Wolf” in an advertising campaign but they have always refused. So there you have it – Duran Duran have more credibility than The Farm. Maybe.

Steve Miller Band are still at No 1 with ‘The Joker” holding off Deee-Lite’s tilt at the top for a second week. The previous week of course had raised the whole chart controversy of the two acts being tied for the No 1 position. Using a clearly unfair ruling, “The Joker” was given the number one as its sales had increased more from the previous week. To diffuse chart rigging accusations, the compilers Gallup subsequently announced that “The Joker” had actually sold 8 (EIGHT!) copies more than “Groove Is In The Heart”. How convenient. Did someone have to look for those 8 sales a bit like Donald Trump going looking for missing votes in the US presidential election?

Wanna hear Homer Simpson singing “The Joker”? Of course you do…

Confirming that he wasn’t a one hit wonder, the play out video is “Tunes Splits The Atom” by MC Tunes and 808 State. This track also confirms, Geoff Hurst in the final minute style, the victory for The Baggies over Heavy Rock with both MC Tunes and 808 State hailing from ‘Madchester’. As if that wasn’t enough, “Tunes Splits The Atom” samples a bass riff from “I Am The Resurrection” by The Stone Roses. Done and indeed dusted.

For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

eqwrt

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Twenty 4 Seven featuring Captain Hollywood	I Can’t Stand It	…and therefore I didn’t buy it
2	The Stone Roses	Fools Gold	No but I must have it on something
3	Snap!	The Cult Of Snap	I was not a member of this cult
4	AC/DC	Thunderstruck	Clusterfuck more like! No
5	S’Express	Nothing To Lose	No but my wife bough the 12”
6	DNA	La Serenissima	Nah
7	Monie Love	It’s A Shame (My Sister)	Nope
8	The Charlatans	Then	No but it’s on my Melting Pot Best Of CD of theirs
9	Iron Maiden	Holy Smoke	They could blow their smoke out of their arses for all I cared -no
10	The Farm	Groovy Train	No but I easily could have
11	Steve Miller Band	The Joker	It’s a no
12	MC Tunes / 808 State	Tunes Splits The Atom	No

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000st47/top-of-the-pops-20091990

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.

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 13 SEP 1990

Posted on March 5, 2021 by 80stastic

September 1990 was a big month for the BBC. After banging on about the bringing back of The Generation Game in my last post, Auntie Beeb had another big happening for the second week running as on the very day this TOTP was broadcast, it showed the 1000th episode of Neighbours! Yes, the Aussie soap that had the nation fascinated by the goings on in Ramsey Street and that made household names (and pop stars) out of Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue (more of whom later) had reached this massive milestone in what seemed to be a short amount of time. In fact, it had been on the BBC since October 1986 so just under four years but that still doesn’t seem like much time for 1000 episodes. What’s that, 250 per year? So nearly four shows a week? How many episodes of Coronation Street and Eastenders were on our screens per week back then? Anyway, for what it’s worth, the 1000th episode concerned the engagement party of Des and Jane (or ‘Plain Jane Super Brain’ to give her full title) which is gatecrashed by Jane’s old squeeze Mike who’s not too keen on the whole idea of them getting hitched. And yes, I had to look all of that up – I’d long since stopped watching the show by 1990.

Appropriately for Mike’s dramatic entrance to confront Des and Jane, the first song of the night is entitled “I’ve Been Thinking About You” by Londonbeat. You all remember this lot right? They’d had a Top 20 hit back in 1988 with an almost a cappella song called “9 A.M. (The Comfort Zone)” but had been absent from the Top 40 since despite a nice enough follow up single called “Failing in Love Again” which I’d quite liked. “I’ve Been Thinking About You” however was nothing like either of those two tracks. This was…well…danceable but with a pop sensibility (that’s what the music journalists say isn’t it?). It also had that lodge-in-your-brain guitar riff running through it that people found hard to resist. The result? By far the band’s biggest ever hit. It was even a No 1 in the US (although it peaked just short of that at No 2 in the UK) and was a hit pretty much everywhere else. This was all fairly surprising stuff for a band who had a pretty small track record of success. To come back out of nowhere with a No 2 single was as impressive as it was unexpected. Apparently the song had been recorded in demo form as way back as 1987 but the band’s record label advised them to hold it back for release until they were more established. Seems they knew what they were talking about.

I’m not sure I made this connection at the time but two of the vocalists in the group had been the backing singers with Paul Young on his “Secret Of Association” album and tour and had also appeared with him at Live Aid. However, it’s not them that catch the eye in this performance. It’s hard not to keep staring at guitarist Willy M (real name William Henshall). I think it’s a combination of his stage presence and image. That floppy blonde hair and shades was an unusual look back then and I don’t think it’s any less unusual now. He’s also pretty tall and gangly and seems to love the attention this affords him. His twangy guitar solo allows him to take centre stage which he milks for all it’s worth. He’s now a neuroscience based technologist/inventor (according to his Twitter bio) living in LA.

As for me, I wasn’t overly enamoured by “I’ve Been Thinking About You” and actually preferred their follow up single “A Better Love” but I have to admit, there were a lot worse records in the charts at that time.

It’s back to back appearances for Janet Jackson and her latest single “Black Cat“. Obviously it’s the video again which is basically footage of Janet performing the song in concert. Dressed in a white top and black trousers and with her dark hair at that length, if you squint you could almost believe that was her brother Michael up there on stage – pretty sure one of his latter stage looks was very similar plus you could really imagine him singing “Black Cat”. It’s not a million miles away from the likes of “Dirty Diana”.

Supposedly “Black Cat” was very influential on Alanis Morissette in terms of the transition from her early pop career to the edgy rock sound of the “Jagged Little Pill” album whilst it has been covered by the likes of Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears. Indeed, Alanis herself performed it while part of Canadian band The New York Fries. As for Janet, she would release a seventh and final single from her “Rhythm Nation 1814” album before disappearing to record the multi platinum selling follow up “Janet” which would see the light of day in 1993.

Tonight’s presenter is Gary Davies who finally has a sensible haircut after all those mullets in the 80s but being shorn of some locks hasn’t reduced his Samson like power for patronising, casual sexism. While introducing Sonia he describes her and her record -breaking single “End Of The World” thus:

“She’s the only British girl to have her first five singles go into the Top 20”.

Girl Gary? You couldn’t have said ‘woman’ or even ‘female singer’.? I know you she was only 19 at the time but that’s still very much adulthood isn’t it? Am I being too PC, too easily offended on Sonia’s behalf? Maybe nobody batted an eyelid back then but it just jarred a bit whilst watching this back in 2021.

I have to admit I’m not sure I was aware that Sonia was a record breaker. They should have got her on Record Breakers with Roy Castle. Was it still on in 1990? In my mind’s eye it’s a 70s TV show. Those of us who can recall it will surely remember the theme tune with its ‘if you’re the fattest, the thinnest’ lyric. Now that really was politically incorrect. Makes Gary Davies look positively broad minded.

The return of INXS next. After the massive commercial success of their sixth album “Kick” towards the end of the 80s, the band had taken a sabbatical to work on other projects. Michael Hutchence threw his energies into the mystifying Max Q project whilst other band members took time out to work on side projects such as producing other artists. By the start of the new decade, they had reconvened to set about recording a follow up to “Kick” and the expectation to repeat the trick after their global commercial breakthrough must have been immense. “X” (named to commemorate the 10th year of the band’s existence) saw them pretty much pull it off. Despite selling only half of what its predecessor did, it still shifted 10 million units worldwide and contained a clutch of hit singles. “Suicide Blonde” was the first of those and despite the blues harp intro on the track, it didn’t sound too different to their “Kick” era to me.

And what was it all about? Well here’s @TOTPFacts with the answer and making good on my earlier promise of more Kylie:

"Suicide Blonde" was inspired by Michael Hutchence's then-girlfriend, Kylie Minogue. Kylie: "[It] came from me talking about my character in The Delinquents – we met just after that. My hairdresser called the wig I had to wear 'suicide blonde'." #TOTP pic.twitter.com/WoK3QmSoig
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) February 26, 2021

Hutchence and Kylie had gone public about their relationship in November 1989 and were still a couple at this point I think. How Kylie’s ex Jason Donovan felt about it all I’m not sure – maybe he pulled a Mike from Neighbours style confrontation with the pair at Hutchence’s 30th birthday party bash back in January of that year. Maybe not.

I must admit that I thought that following Hutchence’s tragic demise in November 1997 that we would never hear “Suicide Blonde” played on the radio ever again but I was wrong. Not only does it continue to be played but INXS themselves continued to perform the song in concert after Michael’s death. This next bit is spooky though – “Suicide Blonde” was the last song that he performed live. It was the closing number at the final INXS show before his death at a concert in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania on September 27, 1997.

“Suicide Blonde” peaked at No 11.

Despite me not being the biggest dance music fan in the world, I always liked this next track. In fact, to say that 1990 seems to have been full of cruddy, half-baked dance tunes, we’ve seen a few very creditable examples of the genre in recent weeks. Deee-Lite, The Soup Dragons and now this lot…Bass-O-Matic with “Fascinating Rhythm”. These genuine one-hit wonders, like every act producing dance music in 1990 it seemed, came from Sheffield and included producer legend William Orbit in their ranks.

I don’t know what it was about this tune but it just really appealed to me. It seemed quite melodic I guess for an out and out dance track and it had some hook laden samples in there as well. I’m not sure if it was still in the charts by the time I started in Our Price in Manchester a few weeks after this but “Fascinating Rhythm” always reminds me of that time. Happy days.

There’s just time for Gary Davies to fluff his outro for Bass-O-Matic (“That’s gone up…err.. a lot this week” he states clearly forgetting his basic chart numbers) before we’re onto The KLF . For a band who wanted to expose the cynical workings of the music industry, they sure seemed happy to play the game when it came to TOTP. I think this is the third time they’ve been on with with “What Time Is Love” isn’t it? Or maybe their appearances were proving some sort of point that I’m not quite getting. To be fair to them, I think this is just a reshowing of a previous performance rather than an actual new studio appearance.

The band made headlines again in 2021 despite leaving the music business nearly 30 years ago when they finally relented to letting their back catalogue be made officially available on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. During my Our Price years, one of the most sought after import CD was that of their “White Room” album which was deleted along with all their other output back in 1992. Said import was bloody expensive too as I recall. I guess that was them having the final laugh in their grand plan to expose the music industry. So why the sudden Tory-esque U-turn? The band’s official YouTube page put out this statement:

“KLF have appropriated the work done between 1 January 1987 and 31 December 1991 by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords [and] The KLF. This appropriation was in order to tell a story in five chapters using the medium of streaming. The name of the story is Samplecity Thru Transcentral. If you need to know more about the work done by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords or The KLF, you can find truths, rumours and half-truths scattered across the internet. From these truths, rumours and half-truths, you can form your own opinions. The actual facts were washed down a storm drain in Brixton some time in the late 20th Century.”

Future No 1 incoming! One of the year’s most unlikely chart toppers came from Maria McKee. I suppose her rise to the top was similar to that of Sinéad O’Connor in the unexpected stakes. Maria was, of course, the lead singer of country rockers Lone Justice until they split in 1987. I’d always quite liked their sound and my wife had even been to seem them live (at Newcastle’s Riverside venue I think). However, her solo career had not been a success and her 1989 debut self titled album had tanked commercially. Suddenly, from out of nowhere seemingly, she was back in the charts with a powerful yet tender ballad called “Show Me Heaven”. How had this happened? Well, it was all down to film soundtracks again. Yes, after having already seen the effect Pretty Woman and it soundtrack had on generating hit singles and revitalising the careers of seemingly forgotten pop acts, the UK public saw that commercial force unleashed once more. This time it was due to the Tom Cruise flick Days Of Thunder, the soundtrack of which included “Show Me Heaven”.

Maria’s live performance here was very affecting and no doubt helped to propel the song up the charts. Maria herself thought so anyway:

Maria McKee: "I remember getting very carried away with being on Top Of The Pops and very excited and really doing one of my best vocal performances on live TV for that… I really believe that my live performance on #TOTP helped to push it up to number one."
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) February 26, 2021

Inevitably, following the success of ‘Show Me Heaven”, McKee’s debut album was re-released but crucially it did not contain that song. Cue a queue of disgruntled punters wanting their money back in record shops across the land. At the Our Price store in Market Street, Manchester where I started, there was a huge promotional poster for that album on the wall in the staff kitchen. Some wag on the staff wrote ‘she’s got such amazing grace’ on it.

It’s a new No 1! Yes! Mallett has been toppled and is gone, banished to the nightmares of those of us who lived through his time. In his place is…oh…the Steve Miller Band. Well, perhaps not the most exciting act and song but I’d have accepted pretty much anything instead of Bombalurina at this point. “The Joker” was of course back in the charts due to its inclusion in a Levi’s ad. So popular were the adverts that a compilation album of all the songs used in them was put together and released in 1991 featuring the likes of The Clash, Percy Sledge, Ben E King and of course Steve Miller Band. It was called “The Levi’s 501 Hits (Originals Stand The Test Of Time)” and it sold well enough to spawn a second volume. Like The KLF’s back catalogue (until this year) it is now very much deleted.

The play out video is “Epic” by Faith No More. I think this was the first song of theirs which really made me sit up and take note of them a bit more seriously. The chorus on it is a monster (you might even say ‘epic’ but obviously I wouldn’t be so…erm…obvious). I was never going to fully commit myself to funk metal (or whatever it was) but this certainly made me think twice. There’s even a gentle piano outro at the end just to add to the intrigue. Sadly for Faith No More, they are probably best known in the UK by non fans as that band who did a completely straight cover of “Easy” by The Commodores for no discenible reason.

“Epic” peaked at No 25.

Fo posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

If you really want to watch the whole show over, somebody has helpfully added it in its entirety to YouTube. Fill your boots!

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Londonbeat	I’ve Been Thinking About You	But I didn’t think about buying this
2	Janet Jackson	Black Cat	Don’t think I did
3	Sonia	End Of The World	No
4	INXS	Suicide Blonde	No but I’ve got it on their Best Of
5	Bass-O-Matic	Fascinating Rhythm	Could have but didn’t
6	The KLF	What Time Is Love (Live At Trancentral”	Nope
7	Maria McKee	Show Me Heaven	Nah
8	Steve Miller Band	The Joker	It’s a no
9	Faith No More	Epic	I was intrigued but not committed – 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.

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 06 SEP 1990

Posted on March 3, 2021 by 80stastic

We’ve finally left the long, hot Summer of 1990 behind (well almost) as we move into September of that year here at TOTP Rewind. However, the BBC were probably not fully focussed on their flagship popular music show this particular week as the day after this TOTP aired, we saw the return to our screens of one of Auntie Beeb’s jewel-in-the-crown shows from back in the day. The Generation Game had been off TV for nearly the whole of the 80s before it was revitalised in the new decade for a run of series between 1990 and 1994. Our family had been avid watchers back in the 70s when I was growing up and Saturdays would be a regular diet of the football scores on Grandstand followed by hiding behind the sofa with Dr Who and then Brucie Forsyth in that once hallowed early evening light entertainment slot with Anthea Redfearn giving us a twirl before a cuddly toy on the conveyor belt at the show’s climax. Even when Brucie left, the show continued to flourish under the stewardship of new host Larry Grayson who pulled in an audience of 25 million on one occasion. By the early 80s though, ITV had upped its game and The Generation Game was being whopped by Game For A Laugh (which I never really got on board with) and was axed after Grayson decided to leave the show.

What has all this got to do with the charts of September 1990? I would love to be able to say that “Cuddly Toy” by Roachford was in the charts but that occurrence had already happened back in early ’89. How about there being a Bruce in the Top 40 courtesy of Mr Springsteen? Sadly no. However, as with the comeback of The Generation Game, this TOTP also sees the return of two acts that were mostly synonymous with a different era of music – OK it was only the recently departed 80s but that was still in the past yeah?

And talking of the return of a golden oldie, we start with Adamski and his latest hit “The Space jungle”. What? Adamski? He was one of the hottest stars of dance music on the planet back in 1990 wasn’t he? He’d just had a massive No 1 in “Killer” and his latest single has a groovy, futuristic title? How on earth does he qualify as a golden oldie? Alright, calm down. It wasn’t Admaski I was referring to per se but his new single. Despite its title, it was actually just a cover version of the old Elvis hit “All Shook Up”. Admittedly, it was a bit out there with the added house piano motifs and rapping courtesy of Ricardo da Force but a cover version of an old 50s rock ‘n’ roll number none the less. As I said, a golden oldie.

So the obvious question about this release was why? When quizzed about it in a Smash Hits interview, Adamski (real name Adam Tinley) said that the track had started life as an instrumental but when performing it at Glastonbury he just started singing “All Shook Up”. ‘I think it must have been a message from Elvis from the grave’ he quipped.

I wasn’t taken by this track at all I’m afraid. The juxtaposition of Elvis and house music was too much for me to process but plenty of punters bought the single sending it to No 7. However, it would be Adamski’s final ever Top 40 hit. Of course, this wasn’t to be the last we saw of an Elvis song receiving the dance-it-up treatment. In 2002, Dutch musician Tom Holkenborg aka Junkie XL or JXL took a version of “A Little Less Conversation” all the way to No 1. And that, Adamski, is how you do a remix of Elvis.

“Now Mariah Carey is a 20 year old singer songwriter from New York City” states tonight’s host Jakki Brambles and it’s interesting to note that she has to advise the watching millions at home who she is – Mariah that is not herself. Yes, there was a time when we didn’t know all about Ms.Carey and that time was 1990. To be fair, “Vision Of Love” was her debut single so we didn’t have much to go on. She would of course become one of the biggest singers on the planet in due course. What is also interesting about that intro is the description of Mariah as a songwriter which I think probably gets overlooked – I’m pretty sure I haven’t given it much thought before now. As far as I can tell though, she writes all her own lyrics and contributes to the music on every track of her albums and yet I’m betting that songwriter isn’t the first thing we think about when we hear the name Mariah Carey. There’s her voice and vocal range to start with, then there’s the diva reputation, her sex symbol status, her gay icon standing….does songwriter come behind all of these things? Seems a bit unfair. I’m sure if you’re a huge Mariah fan (do they have a collective noun?) then you would maybe have her ability to craft songs higher up the list.

“Vision Of Love” peaked at No 9 in the UK but was the first of four consecutive No 1 records all taken from her debut album in the US.

Not sure if a hit from four years previous counts as being an ‘oldie’ but this next tune was certainly golden. Talk Talk were back in the Top 40 for a second time in 1990 due to the commercial success of their “Natural History: The Very Best of Talk Talk” album. After “It’s My Life” earlier in the year, it was the turn of “Life’s What You Make It” to get the re-issue treatment this time. The difference between the two was that the former had never been a Top 40 hit in its initial release but the latter had already made No 16 when first in the charts back in 1986. Whilst not quite scaling those heights a second time around, its No 23 placing wasn’t bad going. The Best Of album itself was a huge success rising to No 3 in the charts which for a band that never even had a solitary Top 10 single was remarkable. EMI would try and repeat their “It’s My Life” trick of making a hit out of an initial flop record when they re-released yet another single to promote the album in “Such a Shame” which is a great song but it was a release too far and it stalled at No 78, a whopping 29 places further down the charts than its 1984 initial outing.

Within two years and after one final very experimental album, Talk Talk would disband. Lead singer Mark Hollis would pretty much retire from the music business, releasing just one solo album in 1998. Sadly, he died just over two years ago at the age of 64. Talk Talk, however, remain one of the most influential groups of their era.

Ooh now, in contrast to all this golden oldie stuff, here comes a brand new group! Except that…. they weren’t brand new as The Farm had been around since 1983, releasing numerous independent singles before hooking up with Suggs from Madness who produced their next single, a cover of “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone”, the old hit by The Monkees. This brought them national attention when it peaked at No 58 in the charts. Wearing their Liverpudlian credentials on their sleeves, the band were very much associated with a ‘lads’ culture of music and football and were often referred to as a ‘scally’ band, a term they rejected in favour of something they called ‘urchin rock’ (I don’t think that ever took off as a genre did it?).

The release of “Groovy Train” saw them go mainstream with the single gatecrashing the Top 10 before peaking at No 6. Its musical style was very much in line with the sound of the year – that baggy/indie dance movement – and would pave the way for their next and biggest single “All Together Now” which would go Top 3 later in the year. The buzz around their debut album on a major label (“Spartacus”) was enormous by this point. I can clearly recall that the two pre-release albums we got asked most about when I joined Our Price in late 1990 were “Doubt” by Jesus Jones and “Spartacus” both of which would top the charts when released in 1991.

Liverpool set soap Brookside played a part in the band’s fortunes. The guy who played grumpy old git Harry Cross in the show starred in the promo video for “Groovy Train” but I’m sure that the character of Sammy Rogers wore a “Groovy Train” t-shirt in one episode as well.

As it’s the first show of the new month, we get that weird Top 5 albums feature again. For the record, the best selling albums of August 1990 were:

1. Elton John – “Sleeping With The Past”

2. New Kids On The Block – “Step By Step”

3. Phil Collins – “…But Seriously”

4. Luciano Pavarotti – “The Essential Luciano Pavarotti”

5. Madonna – “I’m Breathless”

None of this is very interesting except for the footnote maybe of TOTP actually playing a single that didn’t ever make it into the Top 40. Yes, the video used to promote Elton John’s “Sleeping With The Past” album was for his current single “Club At The End Of The Street” which peaked at No 47. Had that ever happened before or since?

Right who’s next? Well it’s Caron Wheeler with “Livin’ in the Light“. Caron, of course, was the voice and very much the public face on two of Soul II Soul’s biggest hits in “Keep on Movin'” and “Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)”. So why the solo career move? Here’s Caron herself in a Smash Hits interview on that subject:

“Soul II Soul was always really a collective but I was always a featured artist. A lot of people misconceived it as being my group. Within themselves, it’s like a family with certain key members who were always there but I was never really part of that family.”

Oh OK, so a bit like Beats International then. In fact, you could say Caron was the Lindy Layton of Soul II Soul…or should that be Lindy Layton was the Caron Wheeler of Beats International? Anyway, as Jakki Brambles rightly says, “Livin’ in the Light” was Caron’s debut hit single and taken from her album “UK Blak”. To my uncultured ears it didn’t sound that different to that Soul II Soul sound she had left behind or was that just because she was the singer on those songs so it was always going to be a little bit reminiscent of her past? Great things were predicted for Caron and although the album sold well enough, she only returned to the Top 40 singles chart once more (literally at No 40) with the album’s title track. She seemed to spend the next 30 odd years rejoining and then subsequently leaving the Soul II Soul family at various intervals. I’m sure she’s done lots of other things but if you check her Wikipedia entry, that’s the impression you get.

“Livin’ in the Light” peaked at No 14.

“Just deee-lovely and delicious”…yes it’s Deee-Lite (three ‘e’s in the spelling or no points) with their dance floor banger “Groove Is In The Heart”. Is it fair that they are still very much seen (in this country at least) as one hit wonders? Let’s examine the evidence:

Exhibit A (m’lud): They actually had another Top 40 hit in this country in “Power of Love” / “Build The Bridge” which was the follow up to “Groove Is In The Heart” and peaked at No 25.

Judge: Erm..I see. Well, case closed then.

Except that doesn’t really tell the whole story of what happened to Deee-Lite. Why didn’t they go on to dominate the dance music landscape for years with their brand of innovative yet supremely infectious sound? Was it internal strife within the band? Or the emergence of grunge perhaps? Something else altogether or both of these things? Well, their album “World Clique” sold steadily, eventually securing gold sales of 100,000 units but the two subsequent albums released over the next four years shifted vastly reduced quantities. Apparently group member Towa Tei wasn’t into the touring aspect of the band at all causing divisions within the trio whilst his musical interests moved away from the Deee-Lite manifesto. Meanwhile, Lady Miss Kier and DJ Dmitry’s relationship finished around 1994 which maybe had something to do with the group’s demise. Whatever the reasons behind their story, a little bit of 1990 (nay the whole decade) will always belong to Deee-Lite and their calling card “Groove Is In The Heart”.

Definitely back on the golden oldie theme now as we welcome back an act who we haven’t heard from for five years according to Jakki Brambles. Except that isn’t strictly true. What Jakki should have said is that Loose Ends hadn’t been on TOTP in the last five years. They had actually been making and releasing music in the interim period, it was just that their commercial fortunes had dipped a bit. Back in 1985, Loose Ends were the darlings of the UK R&B scene with hits like “Hangin’ on a String (Contemplating)” and “Magic Touch”. However, of the seven singles released after these hits, only one breached the UK Top 40 (and presumably wasn’t chose by the TOTP producers to appear on the show). Their 1988 album “The Real Chuckeeboo” only made it to No 52 in the charts. It was a different story across the pond though where they continued to chalk up hits on the US R’n’B charts. Over here though it was a case of out of sight, out of mind.

Good old musical differences took hold and members Steve Nichol and Jane Eugene left leaving Carl McIntosh as the only original member (Jakki was on the money with that info). Undeterred, he returned with a new line up and new album called “Look How Long” of which “Don’t Be A Fool” was its lead single supposedly about his previous band mates (see also “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)” by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel). The single restored their chart fortunes but it proved to also be a final hurrah with “Look How Long” being the last studio album released under the Loose Ends name. Mackintosh would go onto produce many an artist including …yes…Caron Wheeler. I love it when a post comes together like that! Talk about tying up loose ends!

It’s a third week at No 1 for Bombalurina and “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini“. When will this nightmare be over? Please let this be the last week of this nonsense. This time we get the hitherto unseen promo video on the show. Ok, let’s see what that was like then. I’m not expecting much….

…well, unsurprisingly it’s basically a young woman in a skimpy yellow polka dot bikini. She’s joined on the fake beach scene by those ever present two blonde dancers throwing some shapes whilst Timmy Mallett lounges around on a hammock. It’s shockingly bad, redeemed only slightly by Mallett falling off said hammock in the final freeze frame.

The awfulness of the video should have been the fart pebble on the top of this particular shitcake but there’s a side story that even steals that crap-olade. So bad were Mallett’s vocals that they had to get someone else in to record them. Look at this:

In 2008, teacher Everton Barnes (a budding R&B singer back in 1990) claimed that he sang on "Itsy Bitsy…", not Timmy Mallett. "When they got him into the studio, his voice was as flat as a pancake. I sang the whole vocal track and Timmy's was shunted into the background." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) February 26, 2021

1990 – hang your head in shame.

The play out video is “Black Cat” by Janet Jackson. This was the sixth of an incredible seven singles lifted from her “Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814” album and for my money, this was the best one. Very much in an all out rock vein as opposed to her more urban dance pop numbers, it was also the highest charting of those seven singles in the UK. It was Janet’s third No 1 hit from the album in the US making her the first solo artist to achieve two No 1 hits over there in the 1990s. Further accolades came in the shape of a Grammy Award nomination in the category of Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Although losing out to Alannah Myles for “Black Velvet”, Janet became the first artist to earn nominations across all five categories of Pop, Dance, Rock, Rap,and R&B for the same song.

However, the first thing that I think of every time I hear “Black Cat” is nothing to do with awards and laurels but relates to my early days at Our Price. There was a guy working in the Manchester store that I started in called Mark who put this on the shop stereo and spent a good few minutes just playing the panther growl sound effect at the very start of the track and skipping back to it constantly so that all anyone in the shop could hear was this repeated loop of a panther snarling. Pretty much cleared the shop which was the whole point as it was nearly closing time and we all wanted to go home.

For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

If you really want to watch the whole show over, somebody has helpfully added it in its entirety to YouTube. Fill your boots!

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Adamski	The Space Jungle	Nah
2	Mariah Carey	Vision Of Love	Nope
3	Talk Talk	Life’s What You Make It	Not the single but I have it on a Best Of of theirs somewhere I think
4	The Farm	Groovy Train	No but I easily could have
5	Caron Wheeler	Livin’ In The Light	Not my bag at all
6	Deee-Lite	Groove Is In The Heart	Where’s my copy of this?! I must have bought this surely?!
7	Loose Ends	Don’t Be A Fool	See 5 above
8	Bombalurina	Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini	How does f**k off sound as an answer?
9	Janet Jackson	Black Cat	Don’t think I did

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.

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP Rewind – the 90s

My memories of 90s chart music

Author: 80stastic

TOTP 08 NOV 1990

Disclaimer

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 01 NOV 1990

Disclaimer

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 25 OCT 1990

Disclaimer

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 18 OCT 1990

Disclaimer

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 11 OCT 1990

Disclaimer

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 04 OCT 1990

Disclaimer

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 27 SEP 1990

Disclaimer

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 20 SEP 1990

Disclaimer

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 13 SEP 1990

Disclaimer

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP 06 SEP 1990

Disclaimer

Some bedtime reading?