Arrested Development

TOTP 02 JUN 1994

Posted on April 5, 2023 by 80stastic

I’m nearly 26! Well, I’m not (I’ll be 55 next birthday) but back in 1994 I was four days from being that age. I know it’s a daft thing to say because 29 years is a long time but it feels like a lifetime ago. The memory is such a mysterious beast though. Certain things that I would have been able to reel off without hesitation at the time like the names on the staff rota I can now no longer raise from the depths of my recollection. Neither can I tell you what I did on my birthday that year. Yet, random snatches of conversation (that shouldn’t have been that memorable!) have lingered and endured. I wonder if I’ll remember all the songs from this TOTP…

N.B. The host this week is yet again the insufferable Simon Mayo who has his full weaponry of obscure and hopelessly unfunny one liners on display. I don’t propose to comment on every one as I have done previously as he doesn’t deserve the attention but be sure that they were all of his usual woeful standard.

Yep, this one’s in the old memory banks. Giving the reggae treatment to pop standards was quite the trend around this time and the latest act to jump on the bandwagon were Big Mountain who scored a massive hit with their version of Peter Frampton’s “Baby I Love Your Way”. The perennial appeal of this song seems quite disproportionate to its quality to me. Not only was a live version of it a hit for Frampton himself in 1976 but it returned in 1988 as part of a medley with “Freebird” by Will To Power which went to the top of the US charts. And here it was again in 1994 only being held off the UK No 1 spot by Wet Wet Wet. Just like “Love Is All Around”, Big Mountain’s version was from a film soundtrack, Reality Bites starring Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke and Ben Stiller.

https://youtu.be/UGJ0VLKu7rQ

I’ve talked about this film before because someone has to as it seems to be largely forgotten these days. Reflecting the angst of the Generation X demographic and channeling the grunge scene vibe (and I know that makes it sound really wanky!), it told the story of a group of friends and roommates whilst also breaking the fourth wall (sort of) with the character of TV network executive Michael (Ben Stiller). Supposedly, it now holds cult classic status but you never see it on TV or any of the streaming platforms. The soundtrack is actually pretty fab including the likes of Crowded House, Squeeze, U2, Lenny Kravitz and World Party. It was also home to another runaway hit in “Stay (I Missed You)” by the then unsigned Lisa Loeb And Nine Stories which was a US No 1 and UK No 6.

Back to “Baby I Love Your Way” though and I have to say I found the Big Mountain version a bit sickly and twee. I wasn’t the only person who wasn’t a fan of the song when it featured in another film…

The Beautiful South burst onto the UK charts with a nest full of big hits after the break up of The Housemartins. Their first four singles released between June 1989 and September 1990 furnished them with chart positions that included No 1, No 2 and No 8. However, of their next seven releases, none got any higher than No 16 and three didn’t make the Top 40 at all despite all of them being quality tunes (bloody stupid British record buying public). Now I’m not suggesting that the band looked at this and thought “let’s release a cover version to arrest this trend” but that is what happened. “Everybody’s Talkin’” came to fame via the version recorded by Harry Nilsson that featured in the film Midnight Cowboy and was a perfect choice to be given The Beautiful South treatment. Possessing of a delicate, fluttering melody, it was also a great showcase for the vocal talents of the recently recruited Jacqui Abbott. I think this may have been her first ever TOTP appearance which may explain her rather nervous looking demeanour.

“Everybody’s Talkin’” gave the band their biggest hit since their 1990 No 1 “A Little Time” when it peaked at No 12. A year after this they recorded another cover version, this time their take on The Mamas & The Papas hit “Dream A Little Dream” for the soundtrack of the film French Kiss. I’m pretty sure that it didn’t get a UK release as a single which caused record shop staff issues when trying to explain this to annoyed punters who had seen the film. The song being picked up for airplay by local radio stations didn’t help either. The band recorded a whole album of cover versions in 2004 called “Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Songs” which would provide them with their final Top 40 hit in “This Will Be Our Year”. The Beautiful South split in 2007 famously citing ‘musical similarities’.

https://youtu.be/-gvPx47ENZA

Another one that I definitely remember now which is surprising given it’s a dance tune but “Swamp Thing” by The Grid was no ordinary dance record – this one had a banjo in it! Dave Ball (ex- Soft Cell of course) and Richard Norris weren’t exactly new to the UK Top 40 having previously visited its mid echelons with “Crystal Clear” and “Texas Cowboys” but “Swamp Thing” was by far their biggest hit reaching a nose bleed inducing No 3. Apparently, the banjo part wasn’t a sample having been played specifically by folk musician Roger Dinsdale though there were a couple of sampled spoken word bits in there. It was for all intents and purposes though, an instrumental track which maybe makes its commercial success more surprising. Maybe.

The accompanying video with the baby crawling about amongst some synthesiser instruments and equipment puts me in mind of the promo for “French Kiss” (the track by Lil’ Louis not the aforementioned film) which also featured a young child playing with some toys against a white background.

Of course, if you’re talking visual clips featuring banjos, it’s hard not to think of this…

No, don’t recall this at all but that’s hardly surprising given that “Fountain Of Youth” by Arrested Development was never released as a single. This appears to be an attempt by the TOTP producers to shoehorn an international artist onto the show just because they happen to be in the country. Simon Mayo tells us in his intro that they are his guests on his Radio 1 show the following day so why not get them on the BBC’s flagship music show while we’re at it? There was a problem though. Here’s @TOTPFacts with the story:

Arrested Development's current single "Ease My Mind" was falling from its peak of 33 to 35 in this week's singles chart, which made it ineligible to appear on #TOTP under the rules of the show at the time. It was the last of their four UK top 40 singles.
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 24, 2023

The solution was to create a space for them using the old ‘album track slot’ trick. The album in question was “Zingalamaduni” which was released the following week. However, it wasn’t a huge success, peaking at No 16 over here and massively underselling compared to their multi platinum debut “3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of…”. I can’t say that “Fountain Of Youth” does much for me and who was the old fella on the raised stage at the back? Mr. Wendal perhaps? More to the point, what was he doing? Praying to the fountain of youth? Drinking an elixir from it? Or was he just watering a plant?

I said I wouldn’t spend any time commenting on Simon Mayo’s pathetic puns in his segues but his attempt to draw humour from “Shoop” by Salt ‘N’ Pepa by restyling it as adding salt and pepper to soup is truly pitiful. Anyway, this was a rerelease of a single that peaked at No 29 in 1993 but which was given another chance in the wake of the success of “Whatta Man” with En Vogue and this time it managed a high of No 13.

It’s a pretty groovy track with the ‘Shoop’ hook an instant ear worm and infinitely preferable to the only other songs I can think of with that word in the title – Cher’s version of “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)” and “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)” by Whitney Houston.

Who couldn’t remember this? Is this the first time Pulp appeared on TOTP?*

*Yes, if you merge those two sentences then you almost get the title of Pulp’s first Top 40 hit and yes that was deliberate and yes, I’m a smart arse.

Of course, Jarvis and co had been around for a good 10 years by this point but “Babies” (the lead track from “The Sisters EP”) really did seem to draw a line under their early, rather gloomy work, and announce themselves as the coolest uncool anti-pop stars in the UK. Essentially a song about voyeurism that doesn’t end well for the protagonist, it wasn’t your typical pop song subject matter. And yet Pulp made it work and then some. Once the viewing public got a first glimpse of Jarvis and his idiosyncratic moves and looks to camera, his stardom was assured. His Bob Geldof / John Travolta style taunting of Wet Wet Wet only added to his appeal for many. Pulp had arrived.

In case you didn't catch it: taped instead Jarvis Cocker's jacket was a piece of paper with "I HATE WET WET WET" written on it – a phrase we'll all be screaming in another five or six weeks' time. #TOTP pic.twitter.com/xeCn6rDMf8
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 24, 2023

Well I definitely remember Pink Floyd releasing “The Division Bell” as it went to No1 in the album charts and we sold plenty of it in the Our Price shop in Manchester where I was working at the time. What I don’t recall is how it sounded as I’m pretty sure it never got played on the in store stereo (apparently record shop staff snobbiness was alive and well in 1994). Therefore, the single “Take It Back” which was taken from it is new to me. Listening to it now, I find myself asking “Is this really Pink Floyd? The Pink Floyd of “The Dark Side Of The Moon” and “The Wall” fame? because it sounds like a second rate Runrig to me.” Look, I’m no Pink Floyd devotee and I don’t own any of their albums so I may be committing heresy here but this sounds so lame. The video is awful too.

I think Mariah Carey must have been a friend of the show. How else do you explain her being on it in person so many times otherwise? “Anytime You Need a Friend” wasn’t what she said to producer Richard Blaxill when he was struggling to fill his running order but was the follow up to her recent No 1 single “Without You” and it was generally seen as a stand out track on parent album “Music Box” by critics as its gospel flavour allowed Mariah to dive deep into her record breaking vocal range. I guess it’s well produced and does a job but I’m not sure I would have remembered it without the prompt of this TOTP repeat. Mariah would see 1994 out with the release of that Christmas record which undeniably has lived longer in the memory than “Anytime You Need a Friend” and which peaked at No 8 here but was the first of her singles to miss the Top 10 in the US.

OK, so we all remember this one and some would no doubt wish that they could erase it permanently from their memories. It’s week one of fifteen at the top of the charts for Wet Wet Wet with “Love Is All Around”. My first observation of this performance would be why do they look like they’ve arrived hot foot from a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat? Oh, it’s meant to be a hippy / summer of love / flower power type thing is it? That would explain the long hair, the flowers inserted into the necks of the guitars and the bean bags I suppose? I think they may have lost people right from the start with this staging idea. Oh well. Just another 14 weeks to go. Channel your inner Jarvis Cocker people!

Oh, one last thing. There’s no play out tune this week. Not sure if this is a permanent change but it seems like a good idea given that the producers had wasted this slot on songs that didn’t even make the Top 40 played over a montage of visuals from the show that we’d all just seen.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Big Mountain	Baby I Love Your Way	Nah
2	The Beautiful South	Everybody’s Talkin’	Not the single but I have it on their Carry On Up The Charts Best Of. Don’t we all?
3	The Grid	Swamp Thing	No
4	Arrested Development	Fountain Of Youth	My wife had their first album but a second one was a purchase too far. No
5	Salt ‘N’ Pepa	Shoop	Negative
6	Pulp	The Sisters EP	No but I had seen them live the year before supporting Saint Etienne and they were by far the better band on the night
7	Pink Floyd	Take It Back	No I won’t – this was awful
8	Mariah Carey	Anytime You Need a Friend	Nope
9	Wet Wet Wet	Love Is all Around	And no

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001khlx/top-of-the-pops-02061994

TOTP 01 APR 1993

Posted on July 24, 2022 by 80stastic

We’re up to April Fool’s Day 1993 in our BBC4 TOTP repeats but in a surprising turn of events, the biggest prank pulled that year actually came two days later when the Grand National that never was happened. This was the year of the false start that the majority of the field hadn’t realised had been called and therefore carried on running. Seven of the field even finished the race. I had that Saturday off work for some reason and as me and my wife walked into Manchester City centre, we popped into a Ladbrokes on the way to watch the race – I’m guessing I must have put a bet on. It was a weird experience with the committed gamblers all going crazy about whether the result would stand or would/could the race be rerun and if so, when. They were all to be disappointed as it was eventually declared void with the Jockey Club deciding that it couldn’t be rerun and the bookies had to refund an estimated £75 million in bets staked. As I said, a surprising turn of events. I wonder if tonight’s TOTP has any surprising turns on it?

We start with a tune that could possibly be the moment when Italian House music morphed into Eurodance. Or something. Look, I’m no expert on dance music despite working in record shops for the whole of the 90s just about. What I do know is that Cappella were Italian and they had first come to prominence during the late 80s when Italian House music was in its pomp, brought to the masses by huge hits like “Ride On Time” by Black Box. They had a UK hit of their own when “Helyom Halib” peaked at No 11. It took three years for them to feature in our charts again when they returned to that Black Box blueprint and sampled Loleatta Holloway’s “Love Sensation” on their Top 30 single “Take Me Away”.

This stealing other people’s work to grab a hit of your own idea obviously appealed to the guys behind Cappella (actually just one guy essentially, producer Gianfranco Bortolotti) as it happened again for this hit “U Got 2 Know”. Taking the riff from “Happy House” by Siouxsie and the Banshees and completely butchering it to make it fit into a Eurodance anthem was crime enough but they compounded that by not crediting Siouxsie and Steve Severin and ended up getting sued. Good!

“U Got 2 Know” managed to crash the Top 10 despite its legal issues and they would follow it up with the No 2 hit “U Got 2 Let The Music”. Cappella there creating texting language years before we knew what it was.

Nothing very surprising about the next artist being on the show as Madonna was one of the most famous people on the planet at the time. Does she still hold that status in 2022? I don’t know how you measure these things. Back in 1993 though, she seemed to have a new single out every other week. This latest one “Fever” was the fourth of five tracks taken from her “Erotica” album. A cover of the old Peggy Lee hit, it would continue Madonna’s run of Top 10 hits from the album by peaking at No 6. Despite that consistency of success, I hadn’t liked any of them that much. The one I did have time for hadn’t been released yet – “Rain” wouldn’t be released for nearly four months in direct contrast to the four weeks between “Bad Girl” and “Fever”. What was the reasoning behind that? It feels like it was just an afterthought.

The video shown on TOTP isn’t the official promo for “Fever” but a compilation of clips of previous Madge videos which I originally thought must have been because some scenes in the proper release were deemed too racy for pre-watershed viewing. However, having watched the official version, although Madonna is spray painted silver Goldfinger style, I don’t think there’s anything in there too provocative. I think the reason for it not being shown on TOTP was simply that it hadn’t been made yet. According to Wikipedia, it was filmed on 10-11 April 1993 so ten days or so after this TOTP aired.

Sound wise, I think I would have preferred a straight Peggy Lee style cover rather than the housed-up version we got here. As a rule I think cover versions shouldn’t be replicas of the original but Madge’s take here just sounds antiseptic and sanitised. As so many of us have been wishing in the recent heatwave, bring on “Rain”!

When I saw the running order for this show and that Mica Paris was performing a song called “I Never Felt Like This Before”, I immediately thought that it was yet another cover, this time of that song by Stephanie Mills. I was quite mistaken though as that was called “Never Knew Love Like This Before”. Easy mistake to make in my defence. Mica’s tune was actually written by American singer- songwriter and producer Narada Michael Walden and was the lead single from her third album “Whisper A Prayer”. It sounds very generic 90s R&B the likes of which we’d heard before and would do so again many times over and also the lyrics are rubbish. Look at this:

Ooh baby, used to be a bird inside a cage but now I’m free, I’m flying higher

Baby, my skies are blue since you came into my life

Dear oh dear. How much time did Narada put into coming up with those? 30 seconds? 20? Mica herself seems to be going through an identity crisis as she’s come dressed as Seal but is singing in the style of Michael Jackson with every line seeming to end with an ‘Oww!’. All very disconcerting. A poor effort from all involved.

“I Never Felt Like This Before” peaked at No 15.

Not Sunscreem again! Like the Tory party leadership contest, their run of appearances on TOTP at this time seemed never ending. We’ve got one of those excruciating interviews with the band beforehand explaining why they can’t perform on the show in person due to one of their number being ill. TOTP seemed very keen on this rather niche activity. I’m sure they’ve done it a few times now though I don’t know why. It might make more sense if the reason for their crying off wasn’t the usual sore throat or, as in this case, the common cold. Something a bit more unforeseen and unlikely might have made an interview worth it like dropping a bottle of salad cream on your foot. Actually, a footballer did that once. Goalkeeper Dave Beasant missed eight weeks of a season after severing the tendon to his big toe when he dropped a 2kg glass bottle of salad cream on his foot. Now that might seem like an unexpected turn of events but then Dave Beasant was also capable of these howlers…

“Pressure US” peaked at No 19.

Talking of howlers, there’s a couple in this week’s Breakers starting with Coronation Street actor Bill Tarmey and his version of the Barry Manilow song “One Voice”. We all knew him as Jack Duckworth of course as he’d been on our screens in that role for over a decade by 1993. However, Bill had been a club singer (you don’t say!) in the late 60s before his time on the cobbles of Weatherfield so perhaps it was inevitable that this moment would arrive at some point. After all, soap actors had become interchangeable as pop singers in the 80s with the likes of Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and…erm…Stefan Dennis from Neighbours all making the transition whilst EastEnders had given us Nick Berry and Anita Dobson. So why not Coronation Street?

Unfortunately for us all, this trend would go into overdrive in the 90s with a list of soap stars as long as Phil Mitchell’s rap sheet clogging up the charts. By the end of the decade we’d have seen huge hits by Adam Rickitts (Coronation Street), Will Mellor (Hollyoaks), Sean Maguire, Sid Owen and Martine McCutcheon (EastEnders) and, if you widen the net to include dramas, John Alford and Steven Houghton (London’s Burning) and of course, the dons of the whole family, Robson and Jerome (Soldier Soldier). Gee, thanks everyone!

Bill Tarmey’s own contribution to this genre was not limited to this one single. He made five (!) albums and also did two duets – one with Ruth Madoc of Hi–de–Hi! fame and, inevitably, one with his Coronation Street partner Liz Dawn (Vera Duckworth). The terror didn’t end there as “One Voice” was produced by Stock & Waterman (who seemed to be taking any old job since the break up of the SAW trio) and was performed with the St. Winifred’s School Choir – yes, the little darlings that brought us “There’s No One Quite Like Grandma” and “It’s ‘Orrible Being In Love When You’re Eight And A Half”. A combined canon of quality and distinction there I’m sure you’ll agree. Should have stuck to pigeon fancying Jack.

Some proper music next as we get a third consecutive hit from Arrested Development with the inevitable rerelease of “Tennessee”. We saw a performance of this track on the show almost a year prior as part of the US chart feature but it failed to make the Top 40 over here. After “People Everyday” and “Mr Wendal” were massive hits back to back though, “Tennessee” was shoved back out and managed a peak of No 18 this time.

The track uses a sample – just the word Tennessee – from Prince’s “Alphabet Street” which was uncleared. The band heard nothing from Prince until it had been a huge hit in the US and had started to descend the charts. Once it had peaked, Prince’s legal team swooped in and began proceedings knowing that they could make a claim for royalties against an optimum amount of sales. The cost of that one word sample? $100,000! Think that qualifies as an unexpected turn of events.

And now… back to the bollocks and just like with Bill Tarmey, it was all a devilish plot by Mike Stock and Pete Waterman who were joined by a third witch at the cauldron of shit in Simon Cowell. The phenomenon of American wrestling that had already spawned one UK hit single in “Slam Jam” was back for another bout with a track called “WrestleMania”. Bizarrely, that first single had been credited to The WWF Superstars but this follow up was officially by The World Wrestling Federation Superstars. I’m guessing it was a legal thing. Thankfully, this No 14 hit was the final time the US wrestling fraternity troubled our chart compilers and the whole craze petered out.

I’m not sure what I was doing whilst working in a record shop at this time but it doesn’t appear that I was taking note of the singles I was selling to punters as here’s another one I don’t remember. “Go Away” by Gloria Estefan anyone? Apparently this was taken from her “Greatest Hits” album that was a big seller over Xmas ‘92 and was the follow up to the “Miami Hit Mix /Megamix” single that promoted it.

It’s an uptempo mamba infused number and was also used in a film I have never come across in my life before entitled Made In America starring Ted Adamson, Whoopi Goldberg and a fledgling Will Smith in a very early big screen role. There’s some clips of it in the video for “Go Away” and it looks dreadful. The plot description for it in on Wikipedia only confirms its awfulness. One to avoid I think.

“Go Away” made it to No 13 on the UK charts and Gloria’s next release in the Summer of this year was a Spanish language album called “Mi Tierra”.

We arrive at the show’s exclusive element which is, as host Mark Franklin advised at the top of the show, gatecrashing a Bruce Springsteen concert. Was this a live link up? Wikipedia tells me that the Glasgow date of Bruce’s world tour where this performance comes from was on March 31st, the day before this TOTP aired so it wasn’t live as we watched it. However, the show was recorded on a Wednesday before transmission so presumably it was all just edited together after the event to make it look seamless. Surely the recording wasn’t scheduled to coincide with the Springsteen gig? Wouldn’t the BBC just have got permission to record that one track for broadcast and put it all together in the editing suite? I know Bruce introduces the performance with a shout out to TOTP joining the gig but that could have all been prearranged surely? Oh I don’t know.

What I do know is that the song being promoted by all this was “Lucky Town” which was the title track of one of his two albums released simultaneously in March 1992 (the other being “Human Touch”). Only one single from that album had been a hit – “Better Days” had struggled to a peak of No 34 – but this live version of “Lucky Town” was actually to promote not that album but his “In Concert / MTV Plugged” set which was released eleven days after this TOTP aired. No, that’s not a typo; the album was called “MTV Plugged” not Unplugged as was the usual format as The Boss wasn’t happy with the acoustic arrangements of the songs in rehearsal and so only agreed to the recording if it was with amplified instruments. So, if I understand it correctly, you couldn’t buy this live, in concert version of the track that we saw on TOTP but the MTV Plugged version? It all seemed an overly complicated bit of promotion which didn’t really work as the single failed to make the UK Top 40, bottoming out at No 48. I guess his label Columbia would argue that the album was a success by peaking at No 4. However, Wikipedia tells me that it only made No 189 in the US. That can’t be right can it?!

As for the song itself, I like Springsteen but this isn’t a particular favourite. I know some people who are huge Bruce fans though who are very excited about his UK tour next year. I’ve seen some reports of extortionate ticket prices though – an average of over £200 each with some even going for £4,000! I say again, that can’t be right can it?!

Now this really is an exclusive! Barry Manilow on TOTP! The target of many a music snob’s put downs over the years, Bazza still retains an iconic status especially amongst his devoted fan base. Despite his success in the US where he notched up three No 1 singles, his hits over here were rather more sporadic and…well…unlike his nose (sorry – had to!) rather small. He managed just one UK Top Tenner (the innuendo laden “I Wanna Do It With You” in 1982) and yet his songs are just as well known in this country. Why, in this very show his song “One Voice” was covered (albeit by Jack Duckworth) and just a few weeks prior to this Take That had a huge hit with their version of “Could It Be Magic”.

Why was Barry having a hit in his own right at this time though? Well, it was to promote a Best Of collection of course. If it was good enough for 70s contemporaries like Boney M and Sister Sledge than why not Manilow? “Greatest Hits: The Platinum Collection” included this single – “Copacabana (At The Copa) The 1993 Remix” – which is just brilliant and ridiculous at the same time. A remix of the 1978 story song telling the tale of Lola the showgirl and Tony the bartender, it’s gloriously camp but fun with it even if the song’s denouement ends in tragedy. The song inspired a 1985 made for TV film in which Bazza himself plays the part of Tony but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it. It also became a musical which ran in London’s West End for two years.

The staging in this TOTP performance is not quite convincing mainly because Barry sits down for the whole song – I wonder if he had a bad back or something? There’s a lot of fast cuts of stock footage padding it out as well which adds credence to my theory that Manilow maybe couldn’t move that freely plus the secretarial image for the two backing singers looks a bit dated now.

I once worked with a colleague called Justin at Our Price and this song always reminds me of him. Juzza used to call me Rico sometimes (what with me being a Richard and all) and so occasionally he would sing me the line ‘his name was Rico’. Ah, good times.

The 1993 remix of “Copacabana (At The Copa)” peaked at No 22.

The Bluebells have knocked Shaggy off his perch to claim the No 1 crown with “Young At Heart”.

For what is quite a slight song for me, this track has had a hell of a long life. Originally recorded by Bananarama (with whom Bobby Bluebell wrote it as Siobahn Fahey’s then boyfriend) for their debut album “Deep Sea Skiving”, it became a Top 10 hit in 1984 before its use in a car advert sent it to the top of the charts in 1993.

It didn’t stop there though. Here it is again in the wonderful Scottish sitcom Still Game in 2019:

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Capella	U Got 2 Know	I did not
2	Madonna	Fever	Nah
3	Mica Paris	I Never Felt Like This Before	No
4	Sunscreem	Pressure US	Nope
5	Bill Tarmey	One Voice	As if
6	Arrested Development	Tennessee	No but my wife had the album
7	The World Wrestling Federation Superstars	WrestleMania	Never happening
8	Gloria Estefan	Go Away	I wish she would – no
9	Bruce Springsteen	Lucky Town (Live)	Negative
10	Barry Manilow	Copacabana (At The Copa) The 1993 Remix	No but I think my wife had that Best Of album
11	The Bluebells	Young At Heart	And no

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0019dvm/top-of-the-pops-01041993

TOTP 14 JAN 1993

Posted on June 10, 2022 by 80stastic

It’s mid January 1993 and I’m pissed off. The night before this TOTP aired, my beloved Chelsea had lost 2-1 to Middlesbrough in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. That result combined with losing to Crystal Palace in the League Cup the week before effectively ended our season at the halfway stage. Bloody Hell! This was in the days before rolling coverage and every game being on TV. I tuned into Sportsnight to find out the result and it just came up on the screen. No highlights, no post match interviews, no report from the ground just the presenter reading out the result. Brutal. Anyway, as such, I was in a bad mood at work in the Our Price store in Rochdale the next day. I wonder if I sold any of the singles on this TOTP that day?

Well I certainly remember this tune as shifting a fair few copies. West End featuring Sybil and “The Love I Lost” seemed to strike a chord with record buyers that maybe few of us saw coming. Or perhaps we really should have. Let’s examine the evidence…

Firstly, Sybil was a known singer with a small but healthy track record of recent hits. In 1989 she’d bagged herself two chart entries with cover versions of Bacharach and David songs “Don’t Make Me Over” and “Walk On By” which peaked at No 19 and No 6 respectively. Ah yes, that’s the next piece of evidence- cover versions. The charts were full of cover versions around this time so why not jump on the bandwagon? Thirdly, this wasn’t just any cover version. The original was by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes and what usually happened to Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes cover versions historically? Yep, they were massive hits. The Communards take on “Don’t Leave Me This Way” was the biggest selling single of 1986 whilst Simply Red’s 1989 cover of “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” went to No 2. Fourthly, it was produced by Mike Stock and Pete Waterman who knew a thing or two about hit records. Or was it? Here’s @TOTPFacts:

Producer Eddie Gordon: "I was West End, solely… The reason you won't find my name on the record is because Pete Waterman and Mike Stock decided that due to the success of [the track] they would now be West End, until I threatened to sue them." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) June 10, 2022

There’s more…

"… They then sent a fax around to the UK's major labels' A & R departments to say that I played no part in the recording process, to try and stop West End from being hired as remixers." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) June 10, 2022

And finally…

"Tony Dortie introduced the act on TV with, 'and the man behind West End is Eddie Gordon', after another PWL employee at the rehearsal told Tony what Waterman was up to." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) June 10, 2022

Wow! What a tangled web we weave! Sybil didn’t care though and used the success of “The Love I Lost” (it made No 3) to give her career a shot in the arm and bagged herself a Top 5 follow up single in “When I’m Good And Ready” and a Top 20 album in “Good ‘N’ Ready”. Two more singles were released from it but in a remarkable case of bad luck, both peaked at that most unfortunate of chart positions No 41.

Oh, here we go. A sure sign that Take That were now officially a big deal is the fact that they’ve done a little to camera piece from Germany explaining why they can’t be in the TOTP studio to perform “Could It Be Magic”. They were now that established! Although it only lasts a few seconds, it’s interesting to note that the only band member not to speak is Robbie Williams who I would have guessed would have been all over this especially as it’s him on lead vocals on the single. Maybe he wasn’t very well, poor thing.

As I recall there was a lot of praise for Take That’s treatment of this Barry Manilow track at the time in terms of turning it from the original ballad into an up tempo disco stomper. What I didn’t know then was that Donna Summer had already performed that transformation in 1976 and had a huge hit on the US dance chart with it (in the UK it barely grazed the Top 40).

https://youtu.be/m6EhtE77a6c

Donna’s version isn’t quite as frenetic as Take That’s and takes a good minute or so to warm up but once it gets going, you can hear that the teen sensations couldn’t claim to have come up with the original concept. I mean, what they did with it was pretty good and all and even won them a BRIT for Best British Single but original? No.

“Could It Be Magic” peaked at No 3 for Take That.

Shanice?! She never had another hit other than “I Love Your Smile”. I know because I checked for my review of 1992 so why is she back on TOTP in 1993? Oh, it’s the US charts feature and she’s having a big hit with “Saving Forever For You” over there. I see. The single ultimately peaked at No 4 across the pond but we were harder to please here in the UK and it stalled outside the Top 40 despite this TOTP appearance.

As host Tony Dortie says, the song is from the soundtrack to hit 90s US teen drama Beverly Hills 90210. My wife used to watch this on a Saturday morning after I had hauled my sorry ass onto the early morning bus to Rochdale for work. Despite saying nothing to us about our lives, it was popular in the UK as well making the lead actors like Jason Priestley and Luke Perry major stars. It ran for ten years and was reactivated in 2018.

I have no recall of the music featured in the show though and a glance at the track listing of the soundtrack album released in 1992 doesn’t help – I don’t know any of the songs on it. “Saving Forever For You” was however written by prolific songwriter Diane Warren who has been responsible for some of the biggest US hits over the last 30 years or so including nine No 1s so it had pedigree though that clearly cut no ice with the UK record buying public. It sounds a bit like “Miss You Like Crazy” by Natalie Cole which Warren didn’t write but which she probably could have.

Shanice’s performance here throws up a few questions. Why has she turned up wearing multi coloured dungarees like a Play School presenter, why was she sat down for the majority of the song and what was the deal with the lone floral arrangement behind her?

The next studio performance looks and sounds chaotic but not in a good way. Pop Will Eat Itself had, possibly against the odds, racked up a steady flow of Top 40 hits since the late 80s with their brand of sample driven indie rock that the music press decided should be called ‘grebo’. I say it was unlikely not because they weren’t any good – “Def. Con. One” and “X Y and Zee” are great records – but they always seemed to be swimming against the tide of what was chart popular. They were outliers in their sound and image. Yes, the other members of that Stourbridge triumvirate had also managed to achieve chart hits but certainly in the case of The Wonder Stuff, that seemed to have come about because of a deliberate decision to go for a more commercial sound (“Size Of Cow” etc).

PWEI still seemed really out there to me and this is ably demonstrated in their performance for “Get The Girl! Kill The Baddies!”. This was all over the place and, let’s be fair, the vocals were hardly on point. One of the band has turned up with hair like Johnny Depp’s portrayal of the Mad Hatter whilst the other fella looks like Wee Willy Winkie but with dreadlocks instead of a hat. I suppose what I’m saying is that I just wasn’t feeling this one. Other punters did though sending it to No 9 (NINE!) in the charts making it their biggest ever hit though I’m putting that down to a slack sales period following Xmas and a loyal fanbase.

https://youtu.be/tWU6FKJV5ns

After playing Arrested Development’s “Revolution” in the Breakers the other week, TOTP have flipped to the other song in the double A-side single this week as we get “Mr. Wendal” this time around in a live by satellite performance from Atlanta, Georgia. I always liked this and actually preferred it to “People Everyday”. An insightful piece on the status of being homeless, it had a vibrancy to it and an undoubted groove as well.

This performance reflects the record with a high stepping, high kicking, star jumping backing singer, a guy spinning some tunes whilst…erm…constantly sitting down and an old fella (Mr. Wendal?) sat in a rocking chair cleaning a pair of shoes! OK, maybe it didn’t reflect the energy of the track completely but if you’re going to listen to a pop song about homelessness, wouldn’t you prefer it to be this over “Another Day In Paradise”?

“Mr. Wendal” peaked at No 4.

I didn’t know the source material for this next song until I checked it out the other week and I have to say listening to the Marianne Faithfull original was hardly a road to Damascus moment. I guess Sunscreem should be given credit for attempting to turn “Broken English” into a dance anthem but for me it never quite gets going and then all of a sudden it’s over. The repeated lyric ‘What are you fighting for?’ lent itself to the repetitive beat of a house banger but all the jumping around by singer Lucia Holm and the addition of two podium dancers and a key change can’t sell it to me.

Sunscreem’s version of “Broken English” peaked at No 13.

https://youtu.be/qsGHVv5ZN0A

Here come this week’s Breakers starting with those funky divas En Vogue and their latest single “Give It Up, Turn It Loose”. Now, if I was on Popmaster on Radio 2 and got through to the 3 in 10 challenge, I reckon I could do it if Ken Bruce asked me for three hit singles by En Vogue. However, this wouldn’t have been one. This must have totally passed me by back in the day. Listening to it now, the first word that comes to mind is ‘smooth’. These girls knew how to put a soul vibe together.

Being the fourth single from the album hampered its chart chances but “Give It Up, Turn It Loose” still managed a respectable peak of No 22. Oh, I would have gone for “Hold On”, “My Lovin’ ( You’re Never Gonna Get It)” and “Free Your Mind” on 3 in 10 by the way.

Now I was pretty sure that of the singles released from the soundtrack to The Bodyguard, all but one of them were by Whitney Houston with the anomaly being Lisa Stansfield. If I’m right in this assumption (which according to Wikipedia I am), how do you explain T.H.E. S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. and their Bill Withers’ inspired hit “It’s Gonna Be A Lovely Day”? Well, I’m reliant on Wikipedia again here which tells me that this lot were a Clivillés and Cole (of C+C Music Factory) project featuring one Michelle Visage on lead vocals. Yes, that Michelle Visage of Strictly Come Dancing, Celebrity Big Brother and Ru Paul’s Drag Race fame. Also part of the ensemble was a singer called Octavia, a name which, if you’re reading this and are my age, should be giving you some heavy Pipkins vibes right now.

Anyway, this track was definitely on The Bodyguard soundtrack, though I don’t remember it as being at all. All I think of when I think of that album is Whitney Houston and power ballads. I certainly don’t think of T.H.E. S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. whom I’ve learned to dislike immensely on account of what a pain in the arse it is to type out their name.

“It’s Gonna Be A Lovely Day” peaked at No 17.

Now I do remember this next one. In 1986, you couldn’t escape Peter Gabriel. His “So” album was a No 1 around the world propelled to success by the single “Sledgehammer” and that video. It would be another six years before the follow up album “Us” appeared. In the intervening years, there’d been just a film soundtrack album (“Passion: Music For The Last Temptation Of Christ”) and a Best Of compilation “Shaking The Tree”. What would his new material sound like? Well, if “Steam” was anything to go by, it was exactly the same as the old material.

The second single from the album, this was “Sledgehammer Pt II”. Not that this was a bad thing, it was just that I think we were expecting something more from a creative like Gabriel. Not only did “Steam” sound like “Sledgehammer”, it looked like it too as the accompanying video was directed by Stephen R Johnson who had made the promos for “Sledgehammer” and “Big Time”. It would win a Grammy for Best Music video, the second consecutive triumph for a Peter Gabriel video after “Digging The Dirt” the previous year. The motion capture technology for the water sequences was used again in the video for TLC’s “Waterfalls” video a couple of years later which again generated awards a plenty. As engaging as the “Steam” promo is, it does make Gabriel come across as a creepy sex pest in places.

Despite a chart high of No 10, we never got to see any more of the video on TOTP other than this glimpse in the Breakers which seems kind of odd and must have pissed off Gabriel and Johnson. So successful was the single in Canada that it knocked Whitney Houston off the No 1 spot which must have taken some doing. Just one more thing on this song, if you mash up “Steam” and “Sledgehammer” you just about get the title of a great single of the 80s which should have been huge but which missed the charts altogether…

Of the twelve songs featured in tonight’s show, half of them are cover versions. Here’s another one now and this one might just be the strangest of the lot. The reason given by Faith No More as to why they covered “Easy” by the Commodores was that they wanted to wrong foot some of the traditional rock crowd coming to see their gigs. Originally recorded to be a B-side to their “Be Aggressive” single, their label decided to make the release a double A-side instead. It was a good decision as the cover got all the airplay and made the single a No 3 hit. So far so straightforward. Where’s the strangeness in that then? OK well, firstly the track was retitled as “I’m Easy” but…only in Europe. What was that all about? Secondly, they did it absolutely straight, almost a carbon copy of the original even down to the Lionel Richie “oooh!” sound after the middle eight. Why bother? Whet was the point of that? Finally, given its similarity to the original, why were punters buying in their droves? Did they not know the original at all? Did they think it was a Faith Mo More song? I just didn’t get it.

The single went all the way to No 3 in the UK at a stroke easily becoming their biggest hit. It wasn’t on the initial pressings of the band’s “Angel Dust” album but given the single’s success it was rereleased with the track included. Obviously.

Now here was a song that certainly wasn’t a cover. By 1993, popular opinion decreed that Duran Duran were dead in the water. A pop group from the 80s that had elicited far more screams from their adoring fans than favourable reviews from the music press at their peak daring to think they could still be relevant in the 90s? On yer bikes lads! They had started the new decade with an underperforming album in “Liberty” that seemed to be the final nail in the coffin. ‘Look guys, you had a good run now do one will you’ seemed to be the perceived wisdom. Maybe another band would have indeed done one but Duran Duran weren’t any other band. Like U2, whatever you think of them, their longevity deserves some credit.

And so it came to pass that “Ordinary World” would be the catalyst for a revival of fortunes that was a pivotal moment, a turning point in their career. Widely recognised as their best ever tune, it was such a mature sound that record buyers seemed to forget any prejudice they may have been holding against the band and bought it in huge quantities. Written about the death of a friend, Simon Le Bon’s notoriously (ooh see what I did there?) oblique lyrics were never stronger than on display here. It was a masterpiece of composition. It went to No 6, the band’s highest chart peak since “A View To A Kill” eight years before.

The band had lost two core members back in 1985/86 in the Taylors Andy and Roger but the three remaining originals were now joined by guitarist Warren Cuccurullo on a permanent basis and his guitar sound on the record would prove to be instrumental in its success. The album sold well – 100,000 units shifted in the UK and 1 million in the US. Two more singles were released and charted with “Come Undone” an especially good follow up. Their positive reviews was short lived though as their next album “Thank You”, their covers project, was panned and has been described by dissenting music press columnists as one of the worst albums of all time.

Back in 1993 though, I recall that the album “Duran Duran” (aka “The Wedding album”) came out in the February and we had a customer in the Our Price store in Rochdale where I was working come in and ask to reserve the vinyl version for her super fan husband (along with the cassette and CD formats). We were a small store and didn’t stock vinyl so to ensure we had a copy in stock on the day of release, we had to order it one week in advance. The customer was adamant that it was imperative that her hubby got his hands on all available formats on the big day so I promised I would sort it for her/him. And I did. The vinyl came in on time but unfortunately neither the woman nor her husband did…ever. We were left with a vinyl copy we couldn’t display. Bloody Durannies! The song itself though was a beauty and I’m surprised it didn’t hit Top 3 at least.

As for their performance on TOTP, Simon Le Bon’s notoriously (ooh I did it again!) shonky vocals just about stand up in that there’s no flat note incident as per their Live Aid appearance but he seems to be struggling a bit in the fade out. Still, as Tony Dortie says, it was nice to see them back and in such good form.

It’s seven weeks at No 1 for Whitney Houston and “I Will Always Love You” with the single achieving enough sales to be confirmed as the biggest selling single by a female solo artist ever at the time. She was toppled in the UK of that title by Cher whose 1998 single “Believe” sold 1.79 million copies. I’m not sure if that record still stands. I don’t understand the charts now which seem to allow anything to be a chart entry if it gets enough streams. I think Kate Bush might be No 1 this week with “Running Up That Hill” due to its use in the finale of Netflix horror drama series Stranger Things. It’s a crazy world we live in these days.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	West End featuring Sybil	The Love I Lost	Nope
2	Take That	Could It Be Magic	Nah
3	Shanice	Saving Forever For You	Did anybody?
4	Pop Will Eat Itself	Get The Girl! Kill The Baddies!	I did not
5	Arrested Development	Mr. Wendal	No but my wife had the album
6	Sunscreem	Broken English	Did nothing for me
7	En Vogue	Give It Up, Turn It Loose	No
8	T.H.E. S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M.	It’s Gonna Be A Lovely Day	Negative
9	Peter Gabriel	Steam	It was OK but I was never going to buy it
10	Faith No More	I’m Easy	No – didn’t get this at all
11	Duran Duran	Ordinary World	Not the single but I have it on something I’m sure
12	Whitney Houston	I Will Always Love You	And no

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0017wty/top-of-the-pops-14011993

TOTP 07 JAN 1993

Posted on June 7, 2022 by 80stastic

1992 has bitten the dust and to celebrate the dawning of 1993, there are a glut of new songs on the first TOTP of the new year. Traditionally a time when singles don’t have to sell that many copies in the post Xmas sales slump to bag a Top 40 placing, let’s see if we can spot any examples of that here….

Could this be a contender? Now admittedly there was a time when Jesus Jones were one of the hottest properties on planet pop but that was back in 1991 and we all know that the old adage about a week being a long time in politics can also apply to the music industry. Would they still have an audience nearly two years on? Well possibly but one big and committed enough to send their new single “The Devil You Know” straight into the Top 20?

This was the lead single from third album “Perverse” which was one of the first albums ever to be recorded entirely on computer and the concept behind it according to rock journalist Stephen Thomas Erlewine was “to make techno palatable for the pop masses”. A worthy ambition or a pointless pursuit? The music press of the time couldn’t make their minds up and reviews were mixed. The album has been revisited more positively retrospectively so maybe Mike Edwards and co were just ahead of their time?

As for the single itself, I think I can hear the sound they were trying to meld but I’m not sure that it was any good. There’s an Eastern influence to it at the beginning (an Iranian instrument apparently) and a bit of a panel beating techno riff where the chorus should be. All a bit of a mess really. The single went to No 10 and I’m stating for the record that chart peak would not have been achieved at any other time of the year.

Having just been pipped to the best selling single of the year title late doors by Whitney Houston, Snap! have followed up “Rhythm Is A Dancer” with their ode to the daleks “Exterminate!”. Not as gigantic sounding a tune as its predecessor, it was hardly understated either though. There some Enigma “Sadeness” vibes thrown in the mix but the biggest change is the omission of rapper Turbo B from proceedings. I’m not sure of the exact timeline but he left the Snap! family around this time and so it was left to ex-Madonna backing singer Niki Haris to do the vocals and be the public face of the whole project. Given “Exterminate!” achieved an ultimate chart peak of No 2, you’d have to say she did a pretty decent job. And yet, asked to name a song by Snap!, how many of us would opt for it? “Exterminate!” you say? By Snap!? Like Kajagoogoo having hits without Limahl, it just doesn’t compute.

Something else that didn’t compute was this next performance by a band making their TOTP debut. More specifically it was their look that didn’t make any sense.

The Frank And Walters (not Frank And The Walters Tony Dortie!) hailed from Cork, Ireland and “After All” would turn out to be their only UK Top 40 hit when it peaked at No 11. A couple of EPs got them noticed by the Go! Discs label who released their debut album “Trains, Boats And Planes” from which “After All” was taken.

I liked “After All”. It was quirky, catchy and blazed its own little trail for unlikely pop stars. Listening back to it now, it seems to have a sliver of “Sit Down” by James about it. However, it did seem to divide opinion. I once worked with someone who absolutely detested it though I could never quite work out why.

So getting back to their image, my use of the word ‘unlikely’ doesn’t rally cover what was happening in front of our eyes with this performance. Bright orange roll necks and hideously patterned trousers?! Really?! Here’s singer Paul Linehan (courtesy of @TOTPFacts) with some more detail:

Paul Linehan on this #TOTP performance. “We bought the polo necks in a charity shop on Castle Street [Cork] and we got the trousers in Leaders on North Main Street – I think they were there since the ’70s." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) June 3, 2022

And the hair? Here’s Paul again:

“My mam did my hair. I had tried to get the same cut in the barbers, but he couldn’t do it. My mam had a bowl that fitted my head perfectly and she just cut around it.” #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) June 3, 2022

None of the above explains why though? Were they influenced by the Trevor and Simon ‘Singing Corner’ characters from Going Live? Or were they the influencers? Was Mike Flowers watching this show and taking hairstyle notes for launching his tilt at the charts with that bizarre cover of “Wonderwall” in 1995?

The Franks came close to a second hit when follow up single, the wonderfully titled “Fashion Crisis Hits New York” stalled at No 42. A gap of five years until their next album was never going to be good for maintaining momentum and the charts would never make their acquaintance again though they have continued to release material with their last album coming in 2016.

https://youtu.be/4_Hjw7bcA5k

After that portal into a possible parallel world where the charts weren’t full of nasty, homogeneous dance hits, that wormhole is firmly shut by the arrival of next act Slipstreem and their hateful single “We Are Raving”. A rave version of “Sailing”?! What in the name of Rod’s beard? Who were these people and just what the f**k was going on here? Actually, I couldn’t care less who they were and I know what was going on. This was cashing in pure and simple. Jumping on a bandwagon and then bastardising it for a shit hit and a quick buck.

And what a dog’s dinner of a performance to promote it. There’s the obligatory two guys on keyboards because hey! This is a dance hit you know. Then there’s two dancers in wet suits (obviously) and the ‘singer’ in a de rigueur puffa jacket. And then there’s the other two. A Captain Birdseye lookalike is behind a ship’s wheel bedecked with a tartan scarf but for any viewers who hadn’t quite cottoned onto the Rod Stewart connection there was the shittest Rod lookalike you’ve ever seen stumbling about the stage ramming the point home. He’s definitely not wearing it well.

“We Are Raving” peaked at No 18.

After that unedifying spectacle, it’s time to chill out, with some come down music and that must be the first time rockers Little Angels have been described as such. Let’s face it, they’re hardly Röyksopp are they? We do, however, find them in reflective mood at least with new single “Womankind” which would prove to be their biggest ever hit when it peaked at No 12.

Taken from their No 1 album “Jam”, it’s a decent rock ballad and singer Toby Jepson has some pipes on him for sure. I could imagine it being used to soundtrack some dramatic scene in a big Hollywood blockbuster. They’ve even got some orchestra strings thrown into the mix to give it a big, epic feel. Plus, I always quite liked the phrase “desperate proclaimer” in the lyrics. Yeah, not a bad effort all round.

Are you kidding me? FIVE Breakers?! This better not be how it’s going to be for the whole of 1993! There had better be some decent tunes amongst them then. We start with…ah…a decent tune from Prefab Sprout. How can anyone not love Paddy McAloon? As the 2018 song he wrote for the aforementioned Rod Stewart “Who Designed The Snowflake” says in its lyrics, he’s a genius work. So many great songs and yet, like XTC who I referenced in my review of 1992, so little commercial success.

“Life Of Surprises” was a new track taken from the previous year’s Best Of album of almost the same name and its peak of No 24 meant it became only the band’s fifth ever Top 40 hit. Indeed, in their whole career they only had six all told. Compare that to, oh I don’t know, Snap! who were on earlier who had fourteen UK Top 40 entries. More than double! Where’s the justice?

That Best Of album actually supplied three of their six hits as new tracks “Sound Of Crying” and “If You Don’t Love Me” had earlier achieved chart highs of Nos 23 and 33 respectively. “Life Of Surprises” was actually an older track from fourth studio album “Protest Songs” from 1989 and had already been released once as the B -side to “From Langley Park To Memphis” single “Nightingales”. It’s typical McAloon fare with a fine melody allied with Paddy’s almost whispered vocals. Lovely stuff.

Paddy is still writing and recording with his most recent release being 2019’s “I Trawl The Megahertz”. He suffers from tinnitus which makes his output even more remarkable and has grown a massive Gandalf like beard in later life, far removed from his clean cut image in this video.

Hasn’t this one been out before? I’m sure “Love See No Colour” by The Farm has already been a hit once hasn’t it?

*checks internet*

OK, so not a hit (it peaked at No 58) but it had been released 12 months previously. Why was it given another promotional push? Well, I’m guessing that sales of their second album of the same name had been a massive disappointment after their debut “Spartacus” had been a No 1. After they’d finally got a hit single out of it by resorting to a cover of The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me”, record company Sony must have wanted to consolidate on that bit of success.

Their solution was to get the band to re-record “Love See No Colour” with an emphasis on a synth sound and gospel feel. They even commissioned a new video to help promote it. None of their strategies really worked though as the single got no higher than No 35. Sales of the album didn’t improve and the band were dropped. Quite a fall from their “All Together Now” peak, a 2.0 version of which they were presumably trying to recreate by re-recording “Love See No Colour”.

You wait for ages for one band from Cork to have a hit and then two turn up at once! Yes, unbelievable as it seems, The Sultans Of Ping FC, like The Frank And Walters earlier in the show, were also from Cork. It’s not quite up there with that bizarre phenomenon of The Wonder Stuff, Pop Will Eat Itself and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin all hailing from Stourbridge in the West Midlands as Cork is three times the size population wise but it’s still quite a thing. There was a third Cork band around at this time called Stump who achieved a minor chart placing with the gloriously eccentric single “Charlton Heston” but for now it was all about The Ping.

Having released a trio of singles on independent label Divine Records during 1992 (including the marvellous “Where’s Me Jumper”), the band had been picked up by Epic through which their debut album “Casual Sex In The Cineplex” was released. Trailing it was the single “You Talk Too Much” which had much more of a punk vibe than their fellow Corkonians The Franks and their simultaneous hit single.

Around this time I was visiting my mate Robin in London and wandering around Piccadilly Circus we arrived at the Virgin Records store just in time to catch a p.a. and set by the band. Robin has reminded me that there were some hecklers in the audience and the lead singer came back with “we’re No 27 in the charts. Have you ever been in the charts?”. Excellent.

The album included the track “Give Him A Ball (And A Yard Of Grass)” which was inspired by a remark from his Brian Clough when talking about brilliant Nottingham Forest winger John Robertson. Here’s his quote in full:

John Robertson was a very unattractive young man. If one day I was feeling a bit off colour, I would sit next to him. I was bloody Errol Flynn compared to him. But give him a yard of grass and he was an artist. The Picasso of our game.

The legendary Brian Clough there. Still sadly missed. As for The Sultans Of Ping FC, they went through a few name alterations dropping the FC, then removing the Ping part before finally restoring it to Sultans Of Ping in 2005.

Another cover version now but an unlikely one. The decision process behind Sunscreem‘s choosing of a 1980 Marianne Faithful single that flopped takes some fathoming. “Broken English” was the title track from her comeback album after years of health and addiction problems. It is widely regarded as her ‘definitive recording’ and Faithfull herself described it as her “masterpiece”. I was surprised to find out then that it bombed in the charts peaking at No 57. The title track from it sank without trace. I have to admit to not knowing it at all so I gave it a whirl…

Hmm. It doesn’t (Sun)scream techno anthem to me I have to say. The Essex groovers version adds a few interesting squiggles in the background but I can’t imagine it being that easy to dance to but then I wasn’t spending much time in the clubs around then. It would become the band’s highest charting hit when it settled at No 13 and they would follow it up with a rerelease of early single “Pressure.

The final Breaker is a bit confusing. In my head, Arrested Development followed their huge hit “People Everyday” with another big seller called “Mr. Wendal” so what was this track “Revolution” all about? Well, both tracks were released as a double A-side. “Mr. Wendal” was from their “3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life Of…” album whilst “Revolution” was from the soundtrack to the Spike Lee directed biopic Malcolm X starring Denzel Washington. In the US they were released as separate singles but in Europe they were doubled up. I have zero recall of “Revolution” but “Mr. Wendal” was a tune. Hope we get to see that in future TOTP repeats.

A real taster next of the direction the charts would be going in this year although in truth, Apache Indian was actually ploughing his own furrow. Real name Steven Kapur, this guy grew up in the multicultural metropolis that was Birmingham in the early 80s listening to reggae and dancehall music. Creating a stage name for himself, Steven set about fusing those influences with the cultural sounds of his own Indian background. That fusion of ragga and Bhangra drew positive reactions from audiences of both genres and so bhangra ragamuffin was born or bhangramuffin as it became known.

Picked up by the legendary Island Records, Apache Indian recorded his debut album “No Reservations” in Jamaica’s Tuff Gong studios and from it came the single “Arranged Marriage”. The controversial track dared to take on the normally taboo subject of its title and provoked negative criticism from some of the Indian community. This guy was no ordinary pop star and was determined to do things his own way.

The performance here is great and nothing like we’d really seen before. There were no sitars à la Monsoon and “Ever So Lonely” from the early 80s. “Arranged Marriage” would make No 16 and was nominated for an Ivor Novello award for Best Contemporary Song. However, Apache Indian will surely be best remembered for his later single “Boom Shack -A- Lak” which took him to the Top 5.

In the Story Of 1993 BBC documentary, Kapur opened up about his experiences of this year and he explained that he was good buddies with Shaggy, one of the year’s other big reggae fusion/dancehall movers alongside Shabba Ranks and Snow. The charts they were a-changin’..,

https://youtu.be/HealqMJzu_M

From someone brand new to one of the biggest artists in the world. Paul McCartney hadn’t released any new material in the 90s so far but delivered on his fanbase’s hopes of a new song with “Hope Of Deliverance”. Taken from his ninth solo studio album “Off The Ground”, it was hardly the stuff of legend. Yes it was bright, breezy and positive but it was also the wrong side of predictable and ever so slightly annoying.

The album achieved gold status but didn’t furnish any further hit singles (“Hope Of Deliverance” peaked at No 18) and surely can’t be any Macca fan’s favourite album of his? This phase of his career very much reminds me of his mid 80s era when his “Press To Play” album was commercially and critically received in much the same way and the singles from it were only minor hits. He would return four years later with “Flaming Pie” which got his best reviews since 1982’s “Tug Of War”.

https://youtu.be/eSokJcERbuY

If we were thinking that Whitney Houston’s reign at the top would be over when the Xmas decorations were put away for another year then we were completely and utterly mistaken. Any of us under that illusion hadn’t factored in that the film “I Will Always Love You” was taken from, The Bodyguard, wasn’t released in the UK until Boxing Day therefore instantly giving the single another impetus of sales. Whitney’s run at No 1 still had plenty of legs left yet.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Jesus Jones	The Devil You Know	Nah
2	Snap!	Exterminate!	Nope
3	The Frank And Walters	After All	Liked it, didn’t buy it
4	Slipstreem	We Are Raving	NO!!!
5	Little Angels	Womankind	No but I had a promo copy of their album
6	Prefab Sprout	Life Of Surprises	No but I had the Best Of album it was taken from
7	The Farm	Love See No Colour	Nope, neither time it was released
8	The Sultans Of Ping FC	You Talk Too Much	See 3 above
9	Sunscreem	Broken English	No
10	Arrested Development	Revolution	No my wife had the album though
11	Apache Indian	Arranged Marriage	Interesting though it was, no
12	Paul McCartney	Hope Of Deliverance	Very weak – no
13	Whitney Houston	I Will Always Love You	I did not

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0017wtw/top-of-the-pops-07011993

TOTP 05 NOV 1992

Posted on April 30, 2022 by 80stastic

It’s Bonfire Night in 1992 which that year happened to be a Thursday so there’s a TOTP on TV as well. I wonder if the show was a festival of fireworks or a sad, lonely sparkler?

OK, getting the party started are Little Angels who are about to enter the most commercially successful period of their career. Having already lit the fuse on some Roman Candles in the shape of a string of minor Top 40 hits, they would light the blue touch paper on a rocket of a third album called “Jam” that would fly all the way to No 1. That album would appear in January of the following year but was trailed by lead single “Too Much Too Young” which was nothing to do with The Specials but was a punchy, brass section animated rock romp that leapt out at you from the radio. Not that their previous hits hadn’t had any hooks but this felt like a definite decision to go for the commercial jugular. No messing about with the gentle whooshing of a fountain firework, this was a firecracker!

I think I’ve mentioned this before but I caught the band doing a small set in a PA at the Manchester HMV megastore to promote the album and they were pretty good. The album wasn’t bad either and I took home the promo copy of it that we got in the Our Price store I was working in.

Although I’ve droned on and on in this blog about how the UK charts were dominated by dance music at this time, there was also a vibrant British rock scene in the early 90s. Besides Little Angels scoring a No 1 album, their pals Thunder took “Laughing On Judgement Day” to No 2 this year whilst The Quireboys also had a No 2 album with “A Bit Of What You Fancy” in 1990.

Lead singer Toby Jepson’s live vocal in this performance is convincingly strong though I’m not sure what those sidebar graphics were meant to be adding just before the guitar solo halfway through. I can’t find the TOTP clip on YouTube though so the official promo will have to suffice.

“Too Much Too Young” peaked at No 22.

The nostalgia section is still with us and this week is filled by one of the biggest rock bands of all time. Yes, it’s The Rolling Stones with one of their most iconic songs “Honky Tonk Women”. Iconic and pivotal. It remains their last No 1 single in the UK and the recording sessions that were part of its gestation (when it went by the title of “Country Honk”) would be Brian Jones’s last with the band before his death. The final version that we all know was actually released on the day after he died. It also marked the first appearance on a Stones recording of his replacement on guitar Mick Taylor who also featured in this clip.

An unlikely choice of Rolling Stones album from my Dad

“Honky Tonk Women” was released as a stand alone single initially although a version called “Country Honk” made it onto their “Let It Bleed” album. It has been included on many a Best Of album and this was how I initially thought I first heard it as a child as my Dad had a Stones album called “Rock ‘N’ Rolling Stones”. However,Wikipedia tells me that it’s not on the track listing so I’m guessing my Dad must have had the single as well. That album in his collection was an odd one. It was released in 1972 by Decca post contract as the band had left them to form their own label.

Essentially it was Decca squeezing what they could out of the band’s recordings that they owned. It features five Chuck Berry covers and the only Jagger/Richards composition on it is “19th Nervous Breakdown”. One for the completists I think which my Dad certainly isn’t so I’m not sure how he came to possess a copy.

1992 really was an extraordinary year for Shakespear’s Sister. A Top 3 album in “Hormonally Yours”, an eight week run at No 1 with “Stay” and a further three Top 40 hits all in a packed twelve months. The final of these was “Hello (Turn Your Radio On)”. I have to say I’m not sure I could have told you how this one went before hearing it again but it’s quite a tune. The very last track on the “Hormonally Yours”, it’s clearly meant to be a towering finale to the album and it just about achieves it. Clocking in at just under four and a half minutes, it was a bold choice for a single. Would that have been too long for daytime radio playlists? Or maybe they were just relying on that old adage that DJs generally couldn’t resist playing a record with the word ‘radio’ in the title?

You can tell that we’re meant to understand this is a tune with gravitas as opposed to the poppier end of their catalogue like say “You’re History” as Marcella and Siobhan are sat down for the entire performance. Yet again the latter’s live vocals aren’t quite up to it though they obviously sound OK on the studio recording. Listening to the lyrics it’s a sort of existential, meaning of life ballad that I could imagine on a film soundtrack. It hasn’t been yet though it has been covered by both a German girl group and German punk band. The original made No 14 in the UK charts.

Another band having an annus mirabilis in 1992 were The Shamen. If anything they outperformed Shakespear’s Sister as they also had a No 1 in “Ebeneezer Goode” plus they had three Top 10 singles. The second of these was also the title track off their fifth and most successful album “Boss Drum”. Released in September, it made No 3 on the charts securing their place as one of the year’s top acts. I’m not convinced though that time has been kind (or possibly fair) to this era of The Shamen. Firstly, there is the theory that mainstream success somehow diluted the creativity of the band and made them less worthy. It’s not an original idea of course – off the top of my head Simple Minds have come under similar scrutiny – but is it true? Well, possibly though it’s easy and maybe lazy to draw a line between band eras based around the death of Will Sinnott. I’m probably guilty of that myself though I stand by the opinion that “En-tact” is much more interesting than “Boss Drum”.

Secondly, there’s peer comparison. Released almost simultaneously with “Boss Drum” was “Experience” by The Prodigy which seems to have aged much better whilst The KLF’s “White Room” has also received some retrospective love. The Shamen’s “Boss Drum” though? Not so much. Maybe it suffers from the length of the shadow cast by the all encompassing “Ebeneezer Goode”. Maybe.

“Boss Drum” the song though deserves better. Far more accomplished than its headline grabbing, masses baiting predecessor, it’s much the better track to my ears. It came close to emulating “Ebeneezer Goode” but in the end settled at a high of No 4.

What on earth was this? Well, the short answer is that it was a charity record but that doesn’t really cover it. It was the brainchild / fault of Heavenly indie label bosses Martin Kelly and Jeff Barrett who got three of their acts to record versions of the Right Said Fred singles released to that point. Calling it the “The Fred EP”, it featured Saint Etienne taking on “I’m Too Sexy”, Flowered Up putting “Don’t Talk Just Kiss” through its paces and this one; The Rockingbirds doing “Deeply Dippy”. Maybe they got the idea after the recent “Ruby Trax” album of covers to celebrate the NME’s 40 year anniversary. After all, it featured one of their previous artists Manic Street Preachers whose first two singles had been released on Heavenly. Or maybe the stimulus was of a different nature altogether. Here’s Jeff Barrett courtesy of @TOTPFacts:

Heavenly boss Jeff Barrett: "I’d be lying if I said the idea of doing the ‘Fred’ EP – getting the bands on the label to cover the entire musical output of Right Said Fred – didn’t come out of drugs." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) April 29, 2022

That might explain it. Drugs or no, they’ve gone full commitment on the idea even getting in Liam from Flowered Up (who seems to still be suffering the effects of that original idea conversation) and Sarah from Saint Etienne onto TOTP to introduce The Rockingbirds. Quite why did they go with them and not either of the other two artists to promote the record? Presumably to raise the profile of their charges whilst also rising some cash for the Terrence Higgins Trust. Here’s Rockingbirds guitarist Andy Hackett:

Rockingbirds guitarist Andy Hackett on The ‘Fred’ EP: "[It] was probably not, in retrospect, one of the greatest promotional tools for The Rockingbirds…" #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) April 29, 2022

"It was the beginning of the end of the band in a lot of ways. I did actually campaign against it vehemently at the time, but Jeff was convinced it would go to number one." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) April 29, 2022

It’s not a great performance it has to be said. More deeply drippy than dippy. The whole thing puts me in mind of this:

Never realised before that was Nicola Walker of Unforgotten and The Split fame up there. Talking of which, The Rockingbirds never did recover from this and did in fact split in 1995 though they did reform in 2008.

“The Fred EP” peaked at No 26.

Four Breakers this week one of which went onto be a No 1 record but we start with Metallica who are still releasing singles from their eponymous ‘black’ album that came out 15 months earlier! “Wherever I May Roam” was the fourth single lifted from it but still there was one other to be released after it a whole 18 months after the album. Metallica – the heavy metal Michael Jackson. The track gave its name to the Wherever We May Roam tour in support of the album, a mega 224 shows whopper which began on the first day of August 1991 and didn’t finish until the week before Xmas the following year. Given that, I suppose the band (or record company) were always going to carry on releasing singles off the album in a reciprocal support of the tour.

“Wherever I May Roam” peaked at No 25.

What a song this next Breaker was! Possibly my favourite of theirs, “Free Your Mind” by En Vogue was taken from their “Funky Divas” album and combined hard rock guitars to their R’n’B harmonies to come up with an anti prejudice anthem that still resonates today. After the spoken word intro which was adapted from US sketch comedy show In Living Color, it’s straight in with a crash, bang and wallop to a tune with definite attitude. I guess R’n’B / Rock hybrids had been done before by the likes of Janet Jackson on her “Rhythm Nation 1814” album but that didn’t detract from what En Vogue achieved here. It peaked at No 16 in the UK. It should have been Top 10 at least.

From one extreme to the other. I always hated Charles And Eddie though I’m not entirely sure why. I mean their song was a fairly inoffensive number that fused modern production with a retro soul sound and a dash of Motown pastiche but I absolutely loathed it from the get go. I think I believed the duo to be talentless chancers though I knew nothing of their musical backgrounds. Fortunately @TOTPFacts has the lowdown on that and it has an unexpected link to another of this week’s Breakers:

When he was 12, Charles & Eddie's Eddie Chacon had a garage band with future Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin and future Metallica bassist Cliff Burton. #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) April 29, 2022

Hmm. Who knew? Anyway, back to me and maybe it was the pathetic name they went by which sounded like something you would hear at the X Factor open auditions. Even Jedward changed from their original moniker of John And Edward to something slightly more interesting. See, someone was even tweeting about it the other day:

I sometimes feel sorry for John from Jedward. Not in a personal way but the fact their name Jedward consists of 100% of his brother's name And only 25% of his own name. JOHNWARD makes more sense.
— Listen, Steve… 😡🗯 (@anon_opin) May 4, 2022

I have a friend who called her two dogs Charles and Eddie which is kind of appropriate as I thought the “Would I Lie To You” hitmakers were proper dogshit. This pair wil be at No 1 soon so I’ll leave it at that for now.

The final Breaker is “Who Needs Love (Like That)” by Erasure. This was the 1992 Hamburg remix of their debut single from 1985 rereleased to promote their first Best Of album “Pop: The First 20 Hits”. As far as I can tell the video shown is the original 1985 promo or at least I can’t find a separate one for the 1992 remix but I could be wrong.

The album went to No 1 (their fourth consecutive chart topper at that point) and was the 11th best selling album in the UK for 1992 even though it wasn’t released until mid November and yet my abiding memory of that Xmas working in the Our Price in Rochdale is that we didn’t sell as many as I expected. Maybe we just ordered too many copies and I was therefore looking at a major overstock for the whole of the festive period and it’s skewed my memory of how many we did actually sell. I do recall thinking it would fly out and it just didn’t feel like it did. Again, I could be wrong.

Meanwhile, something definitely selling well is “People Everyday” by Arrested Development which is up to No 2. Like Charles And Eddie, this record was distributed through EMI and the cassette version of both singles had those annoying cardboard slipcase covers rather than a proper moulded cassette case. These were a real pain as you had to put them in cassette cases anyway to display them. This could well be another reason for my dislike of “Would I Lie To You?” but then I didn’t mind “People Everyday” so that kind of debunks that theory. Oh look, I just didn’t like it OK?!

It’s time for the finale of the fireworks display, even if it is one song too early. Taking the role of the sky rocket and making their TOTP studio debut are INXS with “Taste It”. Seems crazy that in the five years that the band had been having UK Top 40 hits, they’d never been on the show previously.

I’ve said before that their “Welcome To Wherever You Are” album was one of my favourites of 1992 and this was a solid track from it. Not the best but solid. Straying from their usual rock sound ever so slightly, “Taste It” channels a more soulful vein but is still unmistakably INXS.

Michael Hutchence looks like he hasn’t slept nor washed for a week in this performance but then when did he ever look any different? A fourth and final single was released from the album in the UK early the following year in the shape of “Beautiful Girl” (the bewitching “Not Enough Time” was only released in the US and Japan territories) before the band went straight into recording their next album, the not altogether well received “Full Moon, Dirty Hearts”.

Sadly, as with Little Angels, I can’t find a clip of their performance on the show so here’s the official promo instead.

Bonfire night ends on a bit of a damp squib. I think this is maybe the fourth appearance on the show for “End Of The Road” by Boyz II Men and it feels like it really has outstayed its welcome now. I mean in the real world back in 1992 it hadn’t outstayed its welcome as it was still selling enough copies a week to top the charts but on these TOTP repeats it’s a bit much. It’s such a slow and laboured sound as well. Hardly the equivalent of the final flourish to a firework spectacular.

Two years on from this, Boyz II Men would return with an exact replica of “End Of The Road” called “I’ll Make Love To You” and had a massive hit all over again. There’s a reason why fireworks have to have safety instructions all over them as some people just won’t listen. Or rather they do instead of standing well back.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Little Angels	Too Much Too Young	No but I had a promo copy of the album
2	The Rolling Stones	Honky Tonk Women	Not in 1969 when I was one but it’s on my Hot Rocks compilation
3	Shakespear’s Sister	Hello (Turn Your Radio On)	No but it’s a decent tune
4	The Shamen	Boss Drum	Nope
5	The Rockingbirds	The Fred EP	Nah
6	Metallica	Wherever I May Roam	No
7	En Vogue	Free Your Mind	No but maybe should have
8	Charles And Eddie	Would I Lie To You?	Hell no!
9	Erasure	Who Needs Love (Like That)	No but I had Pop: The First 20 Hits with it on
10	Arrested Development	People Everyday	No but my wife had the LP
11	INXS	Taste It	No but I bought the album
12	Boyz II Men	End Of The Road	And no

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0016spl/top-of-the-pops-05111992

TOTP 22 OCT 1992

Posted on April 16, 2022 by 80stastic

Growing up as a young child in the 70s was mad looking back on it now. I’m not talking about the things that today’s youth would find incomprehensible – only three TV channels, no mobile phones nor internet, people actually using public telephone boxes to make phone calls rather than piss in…No I’m talking about all the mad things that passed as entertainment that I would witness on TV on a regular basis. For example, Johnny Morris providing voiceovers to give the impression of talking animals in Animal Magic. Or televised pub games like bar billiards, arm wrestling and shove ha’penny in The Indoor League as hosted by dour Yorkshire cricketer Fred Trueman. Or The Golden Shot, a game show that centred around a TV camera attached to a crossbow guided by a contestant that fired bolts at targets.

Then there were the madcap TV personalities that came into our living rooms to supposedly liven up our often dull and drab lives in that decade. Mainstream entertainers came in the form of people like Dick ‘Ooh you are awful but I like you’ Emery and impressionist Mike ‘And this is me’ Yarwood who had a large roll call of celebrities that he could imitate but seemed to have very little personality of his own.

One of those celebrities that Yarwood mimicked was eccentric TV science presenter Magnus Pyke who had died three days before this TOTP was broadcast. Pyke was one of a number of scientific folk who came to TV fame in the 70s with his peers being the likes of astronomer Patrick Moore, botanist David Bellamy and the Tomorrow’s World presenters (Michael Rodd was my favourite). The Sky At Night host Moore was infamous for his monocle, rapid speech style and xylophone playing and Bellamy for his enthusiasm and speech impediment but none of them to my knowledge had ever appeared on a bona fide chart hit like Magnus Pyke. That came courtesy of Thomas Dolby and his 1982 track “She Blinded Me With Science” which was not only a No 5 hit in the US but also provides a neat link back to the blog which is, after all, supposed to be about pop music. Pyke appeared on the record and in the video with his shouts of “Science!” and the rather creepy exclamation “Good heavens Miss Sakamoto, you’re beautiful!”. I wonder if any of tonight’s acts can boast links to scientists? I don’t think I’ll need to consult Nostradamus’s book of prophecies to know the answer to that one.

We start with those little scallywags The Farm and their rendition of The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me”. I say scallywags but I’m not sure that’s entirely the right word to describe what has gone on here. The Cambridge Dictionary definition of scallywag is someone who has behaved badly but who is still liked. Well, the first part is applicable in that the band behaved very badly indeed in recording this appalling cover version of an 80s classic. Were they still liked afterwards though? They shouldn’t have been after this frightful crime against music. They only managed three further chart hits after this (two of which were remixes of “All Together Now”) and their final album “Hullabaloo” sank without trace so I think it’s fair to say they weren’t universally liked after “Don’t You Want Me”.

https://youtu.be/Zqx3u1-Uxmk

The Farm originally recorded the track for NME compilation album “Ruby Trax” which was to commemorate 40 years of the publication. The concept behind it was to get contemporary acts to record covers of classic No 1 singles of the past. I remember it coming out but don’t think I heard much of it other than this and the Manic Street Preachers version of “Theme From M.A.S.H.” which was released as a single and made No 7 on the charts. We didn’t get to see it on TOTP though. Looking at the track listing, there are some covers I wouldn’t mind hearing so I may have to investigate further but for now, how about this…?

It’s time for the nostalgia section again which was a new initiative by the TOTP producers to help celebrate the show’s forthcoming 1,500th episode. This week it’s the famous clip of Roxy Music performing “Virginia Plain” but what’s that Tony? It’s from 1978 you say? Erm…no, it was their debut single from 1972 actually but hey, you were only six years out. Wow! 50 years old this year then and it still sounds as fresh, daring and exciting as ever. Supposedly it influenced Squeeze’s “Up The Junction” as Chris Difford wanted to write a song whose title only featured in the lyrics for the first time at the very end of the track.

“Virginia Plain” peaked at No 4 on its initial release in 1972 and at No 11 when rereleased in 1977. Ah, so even if Tony Dortie was referring to the single’s second chart foray he still got the year wrong.

In recent months the show has reverted to referencing the Top 40 singles chart more heavily than when it first relaunched in October’91. Back then we just had the Top 10 countdown but after a few bits of tinkering we finally have what constitutes a full chart rundown again as Nos 40 through 11 are displayed on screen as Roxy Music played. Tony Dortie refers to it as the bottom half of the charts in his intro which isn’t strictly correct as that would be Nos 40 to 21. Not sure you could say No 11 for example was the bottom half of the charts in all honesty.

One of those ‘bottom half of the charts’ acts is Chris Rea who’s at No 16 with “Nothing To Fear”. Now I don’t remember this single at all though I do recall the album it was taken from as it was called “God’s Great Banana Skin” and had a picture of a…yes…banana skin on the front cover. This track was the lead single from it and what an odd choice it was. The full version of it is 9:10 in length! For a single! And that was the version made available to radio initially. Rea’s manager explained that they wanted to trail the album with the full length version so as to get over the gravitas of the album. An edit of the song was later released but even that was 6:45.

The song’s length really doesn’t aid the performance here. For the first 2:45 it’s just Chris noodling away on slide guitar. Finally a drumbeat enters the fray but it’s another 30 seconds before Chris sings a word. So that’s 3:15 in and the song is only just warming up! There then follows 1:20 of Chris delivering his vocal in full on monotone style and that’s it! What were the producers thinking! The structure of the song just didn’t fit with the fast moving TOTP format.

The sentiments of the song though were laudable highlighting that there is nothing to fear from people who differ from us in terms of nationality, religious faith or skin colour. Unfortunately most listeners had fallen asleep before they got to that message.

“Nothing To Fear” peaked at No 16.

https://youtu.be/Ht1veKdu4EI

From soporific to ABBA-tastic now as 1992 continues its mission to rekindle the flame of popularity of the Swedish Super Troupers. After Erasure topped the singles chart earlier in the year with their “Abba-esque EP”, prominent ABBA tribute act Bjorn Again responded with an answer record called “Erasure-ish” which I thought was quite clever at the time but I’m not so sure of the erudition of its quippery now. I think I feel the same about the their treatment of the two Erasure songs that they cover which are “A Little Respect” and “Stop”. We get the former in this performance and I recall not minding it at the time but it now sounds insipid next to the originals.

To be fair to Bjorn Again, they’ve got the ABBA traits and mannerisms down pat. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tribute act though some of them have some great names. Check these out:

Jamirrorquai
Proxy Music
Amy Housewine
Phoney M
Earth Wind For Hire

“Erasure-ish” peaked at No 25.

https://youtu.be/stjb4ffZGKg

This next record is peak 1992 or rather whenever I hear it, I am immediately transported back to that year and what I was doing…which included selling a lot of this single to the punters in Rochdale where I was working in the Our Price store there.

We’d seen Arrested Development on TOTP earlier in the year in one of those satellite link up exclusives (possibly in a US charts feature) performing “Tennessee”. That single had failed to chart in the UK (although it did when rereleased the following year) but we couldn’t resist “People Everyday”. Based on Sly &The Family Stone’s 1969 hit “Everyday People”, it retains the positive vibe and message of hope for equality between differing races of the original whilst adding their brand of hip hop styling and rhymes. It was one of those feel good songs that got you out of bed on a cold late Autumn morning especially if you had to be on the 7.00am bus to Rochdale from Piccadilly Gardens like I did. My wife loved this one and also it’s follow up Mr Wendal so much she eventually bought the album though I don’t think it’s been played in years. She wasn’t the only one as the single glided effortlessly to No 2 in the UK Top 40. By the way, I can’t find a clip of this satellite performance from New York (they seem to have an aversion to the TOTP studio) so the official video will have to do instead.

Actually in the studio are Take That who, as host Tony Dortie says, are dominating the front covers of the teen press who cannot get enough of these lads who are grinning from ear to ear as they can’t believe their luck. By the time they ended the first era of the band in 1996, they’d racked up eight No 1 singles and three No 1 albums. However, in that period they actually released seven DVD/video titles of either promo videos or live concerts more than double the amount of studio albums they recorded. I think that’s quite a telling statistic in terms of their musical output. They have released five studio albums since reforming in 2006 in their defence though.

“A Million Love Songs” is their current hit back in October 1992 and there’s a strong “Careless Whisper” vibe about the performance here what with the sax player having quite the spotlight at some points. Meanwhile Gary Barlow has turned up looking like he’s just finished taking a spitfire for a spin at Benson airfield.

“A Million Love Songs” peaked at No 7.

https://youtu.be/0AAIOqS7XXA

We’re sticking with a now fairly established running order – six songs, four Breakers, another act (possibly an ‘exclusive’) then the Top 10 rundown and finally the No 1. Seems a reasonable format to me actually. Anyway, the first Breaker tonight is “Miserere” by Zucchero and Luciano Pavarotti. Although a massive superstar in his native Italy, Zucchero was mainly known in the UK for “Senza Una Donna (Without A Woman)”, his duet with Paul Young from the year before. I’d quite liked that but I wasn’t on board for another opera/pop hybrid. We’d only just had “Barcelona” by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé back in the charts for a second time and I’d hated that on both occasions. This was actually the title track from Zucchero’s latest album which included collaborations with Elvis Costello, Bono and Paul Buchanan from The Blue Nile which sounds kind of interesting (apart from the Bono bit) but frankly I’m not committing to exploring it any time soon.

“Miserere” the single peaked at No 15.

We must be due a nasty dance tune by now and sure enough, here comes one right on time. Their last single was called “Don’t You Want Me” but unlike The Farm, it wasn’t a cover of The Human League classic. No, Felix were not interested in cover versions, they were recording their own material and on one of the most prolific hit-making labels around in Deconstruction, home to recent hits by K-Klass and Bassheads. “It Will Make Me Crazy” was their follow up and was more of the same to my ears.

The video was made by Lindy Heymann who is a prolific and diverse promo director. In 1992 alone she made this Felix video plus productions for Suede, The Auteurs and Hull (my home of the last 18 years) chart stars Kingmaker. She has gone in to work with everyone from The Proclaimers to the aforementioned Take That.

“It Will Make Me Crazy” peaked at No 11.

Oh great! Some more thrash metal! According to Wikipedia Megadeth are one of the ‘big four’ US thrash metal bands with the others being Metallica, Anthrax and Slayer. When I was growing up in the early to mid 80s, the UK charts were also dominated by a ‘big four’ – Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Culture Club and Wham! Frankly, I think we got the better deal.

“Skin o’ My Teeth” was taken from Megadeth’s album “Countdown To Extinction”. Do you think it was their “Sweet Child ‘o Mine” m’oment?

The final Breaker comes from Bon Jovi who we only saw the other week but who are a mover and shaker in the Top 40 as the highest new entry at No 5 with “Keep The Faith”. Seen as a triumph of remodelling their sound in the wake of grunge but of also retaining their ‘Jovi-ness’ for want of a better word, it was a decent comeback from a band that had made their name with hair metal hits and wearing spandex. Some of the album didn’t seem that different to their past output though – I don’t hear that much difference between say “In These Arms” and something off “Slippery When Wet” but I’m happy to be told exactly why I’m wrong by the Jovi fanbase.

The video seems designed to show off Jon’s newly shorn locks and not much else but then that was also an important part of the strategy to show how the band had adapted and moved on.

How did it ever come to this? A male dance troupe specialising in striptease on the UK’s premier music show that hosted some of the most iconic performances in pop history like David Bowie’s “Starman”, “Wuthering Heights” by Kate Bush and “Relax” by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. This was just wrong. Wrong and preposterous.

I can only assume The Chippendales were at the height of their popularity and that their management felt confident enough to release a single under their name. “Give Me Your Body” was that single and there really isn’t any point in trying to critique it as a piece of music because it isn’t one. It’s just background noise to the preening and flexing of some over sculpted, baby oiled up posers who get off on being screamed at by an hysterical mob.

https://youtu.be/BPq2sKRK6EE

Hang on though, aren’t there some direct parallels to be made between this and the video for an early single by a band who were on earlier in the show and who were then being fawned over as the next big teen sensation? I refer, of course, to this…

At least The Chippendales didn’t resort to the use of jelly. “Give Me Your Body” peaked at No 28.

Tasmin Archer is No 1 for the second of two weeks with “Sleeping Satellite” and finally we have a song on the show that has some sort of scientific theme to it which, if you remember, was how this blog post started.

The titular ‘sleeping satellite’ was in fact the moon with the song chronicling humanity’s obsession with space exploration in the 60s and the idea of the human race populating a different planet. Or rather how that dream seemed to die after the space race had effectively been won. Here’s Tasmin herself courtesy of @TOTPFacts:

Tasmin Archer explains "Sleeping Satellite": "The line, 'I blame you for the moonlit sky/And the dream that died' [is about] the lack of further space exploration that might have led to a better understanding of ecological issues." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) April 15, 2022

Five years after Tasmin’s stellar success, her name was resurrected into the mainstream as part of The Badger Parade on Channel 4’s The Harry Hill Show:

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	The Farm	Don’t You Want me	No I didn’t want you
2	Roxy Music	Virginia Plain	Not the original in 1972 as I was four but I bought their Street Life Best Of 14 years later with it on
3	Chris Rea	Nothing To Fear	Nah
4	Bjorn Again	Erasure-ish	Nope
5	Arrested Development	People Everyday	No but my wife had the album
6	Take That	A Million Love Songs	No
7	Zucchero and Luciano Pavarotti	Miserere	Never happening
8	Felix	It Will Make Me Crazy	And no
9	Megadeth	Skin o’ My Teeth	I’d rather pull my own teeth out
10	Bon Jovi	Keep The Faith	Not the single but I had a promo copy of the album
11	The Chippendales	Give Me Your Body	For the love of God no!
12	Tasmin Archer	Sleeping Satellite	Good song but no

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0016cdg/top-of-the-pops-22101992

TOTP 02 JUL 1992

Posted on March 8, 2022 by 80stastic

We’re jumping about in two week increments at the moment at TOTP Rewind. We’ve only had two consecutive ‘92 shows in these repeats since BBC4 reached the end of April editions. This is of course due to ‘year zero’ presenter Adrian Rose who decided not to sign the waiver paperwork for the shows he featured in. Given the abuse he regularly gets from the online TOTP community, I wonder if he still stands by that decision. He probably doesn’t give a toss does he?

Talking of decisions, a huge one had been made at the BBC which resulted in an event that took place the day after this TOTP aired. Yes, Friday 3rd July 1992 saw the last ever episode of the Wogan talk show broadcast. Its ten year tenure was finally brought to an end and saw it replaced by new BBC soap Eldorado. Remember that? It was god awful and beset with problems not the least of which was that the producers had cast some totally inexperienced actors in the roles. It lasted just 12 months before being axed. Oh and it was nothing to do with this bunch of monstrously haired pop hopefuls who were big in the mid 80s in Italy but absolutely nowhere else on the planet…

Anyway, back to Wogan and that final show. His guests included Frank Bruno, Michael Crawford and Jason Donovan who provided one of the musical interludes. In a recent article in Classic Pop magazine, regular columnist Ian Peel made a case that the Wogan archives were a treasure trove of great pop performances. Unlike TOTP, artists promoting their latest singles didn’t necessarily have to have already cracked the Top 40 and in some cases never did. This led to some wonderful footage that otherwise might never have existed. I bet Drum Theatre were on the show at some point! Anyway, might be worth a look on YouTube for some lost performances if you have too much time on your hands like me.

With that context set, let’s get on with the show. There’s only one presenter tonight (Tony Dortie) and I think this tweak of the format comes to be the standard in the weeks to come. We begin with something from the US charts and it’s Arrested Development with “Tennessee”. With the gangsta rap genre on the rise, this hip hop ensemble took rap in a different direction with a more melodic approach. They combined that with lyrical themes that espoused spirituality and freedom rather than the misogyny and street gang culture of gangsta rap. It helped to create a winning formula that propelled their debut album “3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days In The Life Of…” to sales of over 6 million copies worldwide.

Initially though, they weren’t an immediate hit in the UK. This single “Tennessee” missed the Top 40 on its original release though it would become a hit here when rereleased the following year. It took next single, the Sly & The Family Stone copying “People Everyday”, to break the dam allowing success to flood in when it hit No 2 in the charts towards the end of the year. My wife was so taken with them that she bought the album.

More a collective than a band, the project spilt in 1996 after declining sales but reformed in 2000 and have since released twelve albums. They’re currently on tour and playing a gig in my neck of the woods in Cottingham in April. There’s even talk of us going.

I can’t find a clip of the TOTP performance online so the official promo video will have to suffice.

The sound of Staffordshire rave now as Altern–8 bring us their latest dance floor banger that has the figure 8 in its title, that being their trademark and all. Well, that and the face masks and hazmat suits. “Hypnotic St-8” is their latest offering but this performance isn’t about the track at all. No, the only thing to concern us here are the two fully adidas trackied up geezers throwing some shapes behind the singer. They look proper mental. Totally off their tits. Surely that couldn’t have been faked could it? There must have been some chemical substances involved. I wonder who these guys were? Mates of the band or just some random clubheads that they picked up off the streets? The latter looks more likely given the state of them. Wow!

“Hypnotic St-8” peaked at No 16.

Due to the missed Adrian Rose shows, this is the second post running that I have to find something to say about Def Leppard and their almost unspeakable single “Make Love Like A Man”. This week it’s the promo video but it might as well be the band in the studio again as it’s just a straight performance promo intercut with some old time movie footage possibly featuring stars like Harold Lloyd or Lillian Gish though I’m no cinephile of that era so I could be wrong on that score. The song is all tongue in cheek, knockabout fun according to the band so I don’t suppose we should read too much into the film clips.

Although “Make Love Like A Man” was a big hit on the US Rock chart, the band’s ability to cross over into the US mainstream Billboard Hot 100 – as they had done in the late 80s with the “Hysteria” album – had diminished by 1992 and it only made No 36 there. UK fans were more loyal taking it to No 12.

This is more like it! Electronic hadn’t been seen on the show since “Get The Message” made the Top 10 over a year earlier but now they were back but, as Tory Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis might say, in a very specific and limited way. It took five years for Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr to record a follow up album to 1991’s eponymous debut and in the meantime the only new material we got to hear was this one off single “Disappointed”. Taken from the soundtrack to absolutely rotten live action/animation hybrid film Cool World, it featured the vocals once again of Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant who sang on their debut hit “Getting Away With It” in 1989. It’s a perfect bit of pop confection that would prove to be their biggest hit when it peaked at No 6.

Given that it’ll be years before we see them once more, I might as well tell my Johnny Marr story again. It was November 1999 – I was working as Assistant Manager at the Our Price store in Altrincham and Sacha Baron Cohen’s Ali G character is taking UK TV audiences by storm. It’s Monday morning and the Ali G ‘Innit’ video has just been released. The demand for it is very high. Our store has sold out its initial allocation by lunchtime. My colleague Lisa takes a phone call from a member of the public who is enquiring if we have any of the video in stock. She tells the caller we do but crucially without checking our stock levels. Fast forward to late afternoon and who should walk into the shop but Johnny Marr! He comes straight up to me on the counter and asks for the Ali G video. I inform him that we have sold out unfortunately. This information gets Johnny very agitated. “I rang up earlier and was told you had it in. I left the recording studio early to come and buy it” he informs me. I’m not getting given down the banks by Johnny Marr for something that’s not my fault I quickly surmise and so ring upstairs to the stockroom to find out who had taken the phone call. Lisa comes on the line and admits it was her. I ask if she checked stock levels before telling Marr we had it in and she says no she didn’t. To my utter shame I tell Lisa that she has to come downstairs, apologise and explain to Johnny Marr no less exactly what happened and why he can’t buy the Ali G video. To Lisa’s eternal credit she does exactly that. I still feel bad to this day.

By the way, this wasn’t the only single called “Disappointed” from 1992 that I liked. I even bought this one…

Just two Breakers this week and yet again neither would end up being on the show in its full form. We start with The B52s and a track which was both their new single and title track of their next album. After achieving massive unexpected (and possibly unwanted?) commercial success with the “Cosmic Thing” long player, did the band feel the pressure to come up with an equally successful follow up? It seemed like it when they released “Good Stuff” with the track itself sounding like a rewrite of their biggest hit “Love Shack”. It wasn’t that it was awful just a bit uninspired and obvious. The big difference between “Cosmic Thing” and “Good Stuff” was the crucial missing ingredient of Cindy Wilson who had taken time out from the band to start a family. Now reduced to a trio, it just didn’t work as well despite the presence of uber producers Don Was and Nile Rodgers. The album did pick up an alternative Grammy nomination but lost out to “Bone Machine” by Tom Waits which incidentally includes one of my favourite ever Waits tunes in “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up”.

Despite steady sales the album didn’t do nearly as well as its predecessor and the band would not release any new material for 15 years. “Good Stuff” the single peaked at No 21 in the UK and No 28 in the US.

Incidentally, as there are only two Breakers tonight they’re getting what seems to be double the air time that artists on this section get when there are four. Both The B-52s and second Breaker Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine get at least a minute’s worth of exposure when 30 seconds has been the norm. So to CTUSM who are really making the most of their annus mirabilis. How many hits in ‘92 have they had now? They seem to be on every other week! It’s actually the third but if you count everything since the “Sheriff Fatman” re-release in June of ‘91 then it’s five Top 40 hits in just over a year. This one is “Do Re Me So Far So Good” and was another track from their “1992 – The Love Album” long player. It’s good and all that but their tunes were all starting to merge into one a bit for me by this point.

Now, this story about Jim Bob and Fruitbat not being able to perform live as planned due to being taken ill in rehearsals. Was that true? Here’s Tony Dortie with a different version of events to the one he gave in show 30 years ago plus a retort from Jim Bob himself:

Every week with the soap dodgers stuff. And none of what you’ve said is true.
— Jim Bob (@mrjimBob) March 4, 2022

And there’s more. Here’s Jim Bob again with his own version of what went down:

#totp pic.twitter.com/OVBRpDMcs0
— Jim Bob (@mrjimBob) March 4, 2022

So who do you believe? “Do Re Me Do Far So Good” peaked at No 22.

And so to the second biggest selling single of the year in the UK. Did anybody see a Snap! revival coming in ‘92? I’m pretty sure I didn’t. After four Top 10 hits (including a No 1) in ‘90 from their “World Power” album, I thought the (ahem) ‘Cult of Snap’ was over. How wrong could I have been? I mean it’s not as wrong as Priti Patel being Home Secretary but still. Suffice to say I hadn’t read the room (or pop landscape anyway).

“Rhythm Is A Dancer” was a huge tune spending six weeks atop the charts over here. It was also No 1 all over Europe and was Top 5 in America. Of course, you can’t mention this song without reference to that lyric about being serious as cancer but it’s origins may lie with Eric B. and Rakim. Here’s @TOTPFacts with the story:

Snap weren't the first to use the dire lyric "As serious as cancer". Eric B & Rakim got there first in their 1987 track "I Ain't No Joke" ("I got a question as serious as cancer/Who can keep the average dancer…?") #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 4, 2022

OK, well if it’s going to No 1 for six weeks, I think I’ll leave it there and keep my powder dry.

Blimey! The TOTP producers loved “Hazard” by Richard Marx didn’t they?! Is this the third time it’s been on? This time it’s one of those satellite live link up jobs. Coming direct from LA, Richard is joined by a band of five very serious looking musos whilst he’s decided to come dressed as if he’s got a stint presenting Play School to do after he’s finished singing. Again I’ve drawn a blank on YouTube as this satellite performance isn’t listed so the official promo video will have to do.

Marx would eke out two more Top 40 hits from the “Rush Street” album that Tony Dortie mentions (both with the word ‘heart’ in the title) but neither came close to replicating the success of “Hazard”. A bit like when Eden Hazard never came close to replicating the form of his time at Chelsea when he moved to Real Madrid.

Now if Snap!’s comeback was unforeseen then the return of the next act must have been a 1,000,000-1 bet down at Ladbrokes. Jimmy Nail had one brief stint as a pop star in ‘85 when his version of Rose Royce’s “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore” was a No 3 hit almost certainly off the back of his success as Oz in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. Presumably his second assault on the charts was initiated by his successful TV show Spender. That had just finished its second season in February so Jimmy’s profile was high. As such, maybe it was considered to be the optimum time to give that pop lark another whirl.

Nail’s pop career mark II was to be launched on a different record label. First time round he’d been signed to Virgin but this time he was with EastWest home of Simply Red. Well, they certainly knew about massive selling albums having ‘91’s best seller in “Stars” so maybe Jimmy and his management thought they could do a job for him too. Surely though nobody involved in the project could have predicted a No 1 single which is what “Ain’t No Doubt” delivered. So long had it been since his first pop incarnation that when “Ain’t No Doubt” first started receiving airplay, people didn’t know who the singer was. This was no more evident than on Simon Mayo’s Radio 1 breakfast show. Mayo decided to play the single to the rest of his Breakfast crew to see if they could recognise the singer. Nobody could although the late Dianne Oxberry made a decent guess at The Kane Gang. Dianne was from County Durham so at least would have recognised the North East accent.

“Ain’t No Doubt” would end up as the eighth best selling UK single of the year. Not bad for a glass factory worker who’d served time in prison and who had never acted professionally until his break in Auf Wiedersehen Pet when he was already nearly 30.

https://youtu.be/3Sg62JYDA4Y

A triple helping of Erasure is served up to end the show. We’ve only seen their version of “Take A Chance On Me” from the “ABBA-esque EP” so far on the show but now we get to see videos for two of the other tracks on it in “Lay All Your Love On Me” and “Voulez Vous”. Not all of the videos you understand – all three are squeezed into just over two minutes Breakers style. This was no Oasis performing “Don’t Look Back In Anger” and “Cum On Feel The Noize” or The Jam doing both “Town Called Malice” and “Precious” on the show. Still, it was an attempt to do something different or as Tony Dortie tweeted:

#totp trolling The Chart show back in day !!! Erasure hat trick
— Tony Dortie (@TonyDortie) March 4, 2022

As for the videos themselves, “Lay All Your Love On Me” has a Little Red Riding Hood motif which then morphs into Vince and Andy riding motorcycles through a forest background which reminded me of Star Wars Return Of The Jedi. You know that bit on the planet with the ewoks where there’s a chase scene between stormtroopers and…whoever it is (Han Solo?) on hover bikes (or something) against a forest backdrop? That one. All a bit odd.

I commented on the video for “Take A Chance On Me” in the last post so…

…onto “Voulez Vous” which is a behind-the-scenes take on the making of a pop video with lots of footage showing the staging that goes into a basic promo of Andy and Vince performing on a revolving circular stage. It’s OK but not the best concept I’ve ever seen for a pop video.

In response to the “Abba-esque EP”, Abba tribute act Bjorn Again released their own single of cover versions…of Erasure songs. Genius! The “Erasure-ish” featured “A Little Respect” and “Stop” and reached No 25 in the charts.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Arrested Development	Tennessee	No but my wife had the album
2	Altern-8	Hypnotic St-8	Nah
3	Def Leppard	Make Love Like A Man	Never
4	Electronic	Disappointed	Nope
5	The B52s	Good Stuff	I did not
6	Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine	Do Re Me So Far So Good	Negative
7	Snap!	Rhythm Is A Dancer	Not for me thanks
8	Richard Marx	Hazard	No
9	Jimmy Nail	Ain’t No Doubt	Undoubtedly a decent enough tune but I couldn’t bring myself to buy it
10	Erasure	ABBA-esque EP	No but I thought my wife might have

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0014zvn/top-of-the-pops-02071992

TOTP Rewind – the 90s

My memories of 90s chart music

TOTP 02 JUN 1994

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TOTP 01 APR 1993

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TOTP 14 JAN 1993

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TOTP 07 JAN 1993

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TOTP 05 NOV 1992

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TOTP 22 OCT 1992

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TOTP 02 JUL 1992

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