It’s late January 1998 and Bill Clinton, the President of the United States of America, isn’t having a good week. Four days before this TOTP aired, he’d made his infamous “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” denial on TV to the world in the hope of quelling rumours of a sex scandal involving himself and White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

It would turn out that Bill’s definition of ‘sexual relations’ was different to the rest of the planet’s when he was impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Despite admitting months later that he had engaged in an “improper physical relationship” with Lewinsky, Clinton’s insisted that he had not given misleading evidence because he understood the definition of ‘sexual relations’ as given by the Independent Counsel’s Office to include giving oral sex but not receiving oral sex and therefore he had not engaged in sexual relations. Talk about splitting (pubic) hairs!* Somehow he got off the charges of impeachment and stayed in office but he did receive a fine for giving misleading testimony.

*Sorry!

Given that there is now a convicted felon in the White House (for the second time) who seems to be intent on declaring himself ‘King of America’, Clinton-Lewinsky-gate may have loss some of its scandalous reputation when seen through 2025 eyes but I guess that just shows how far the acceptable behaviour bar has been lowered by Trump. None of this has anything to do with good old, wholesome TOTP of course…or does it? I wonder if I can find some incredibly tenuous links…

Our host is Jayne Middlemiss and we start with…oh my God…not again! It can’t be “Never Ever” by All Saints again surely?! This is their eighth appearance on the show (including the Christmas Day episode) and they still have one more to go! Their first performance of “Never Ever” came on the 21 November 1997 and the last will be on 20 February 1998. That’s a time span of almost exactly three months. Three months! If that sounds ludicrous then there does seem to be an explanation which is that their hit spent 15 weeks inside the Top 10 of which only six were occasions when the record went down the chart. It was, in short, an absolute monster! Did it never occur to their record label London to delete the single so as to clear the way for their next release à la Dinah Carroll’s “Don’t Be A Stranger” or just so we could all move on with the rest of our lives as happened with Wet Wet Wet’s “Love Is All Around”? As it turned out, London and All Saints had their cake and ate it as follow up single “Under The Bridge/ Lady Marmalade” went to No 1 (on two separate occasions) anyway.

Clinton-Lewinsky connection: He “never, ever” had sexual relations with that woman (except he did)

Talking of follow ups to huge hit singles that hung around the charts for ages, here’s Chumbawamba trying to consolidate on the unexpected runaway success of “Tubthumping” with their next release “Amnesia”. I couldn’t have told you how this one went before re-hearing it but as soon as that “Do you suffer from long term memory loss?” line appeared in the hook, the sinker dropped and it all came flooding back. No amnesia for me! Although featuring another catchy chorus (delivered this time by Alice Nutter), it didn’t have the same immediate impact as its predecessor. It just didn’t have the same explosive energy – in fact, the verses were quite pedestrian. It was still commercial enough though to score the band a No 10 hit which was still quite remarkable for an anarcho-punk band formed in 1982.

“Amnesia” was written in response to the disparity between the promises of politicians and their actions once voted into power and the repeated lack of discernment of the electorate who put them there with particular inspiration coming from the band’s reaction to Tony Blair’s New Labour. Ten days after this TOTP was broadcast, there was a very visible and infamous rejection of New Labour when the band’s Danbert Nobacon poured a bucket of iced water over then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at the BRIT Awards show. Ah, 1998 when the BRITS were still worth watching.

Clinton-Lewinsky connection: Oh brilliant! Check this out from the band’s Boff Whalley about “Amnesia”:

“People forget that what Bill Clinton before he gets elected is not what Bill Clinton will do when he’s in office and that’s not just about Bill Clinton, that’s about all politicians”

“Chumbawamba Talks About Political “Amnesia””. MTV. Viacom.

Still with those hits that had legs comes “Angels” by Robbie Williams which was in its eight week inside the Top 10 four of which had been spent at No 7 where it found itself again this week. Despite all that time in the chart and subsequent TOTP appearances, I don’t think I’ve yet addressed the issue of authorship surrounding this one. Now, we all know that Robbie’s early material was co-written with Guy Chambers who was originally in the criminally underrated and overlooked band The Lemon Trees before meeting Williams and, indeed, “Angels” is one of the songs that they wrote together – theirs are the names that are listed in the credits on the single and parent album. However, enter Irish singer-songwriter Ray Heffernan whom Robbie met in a short visit to Dublin in 1996 before the launch of his solo career. At the time, both men were heavy drinkers and, after a session in a bar, recorded a rough and incomplete version of a song Heffernan had played to Williams called “Angels Instead”.

On returning home, Robbie would take up with Guy Chambers and presented what he had of the early version of “Angels” and they worked it up into the song we know today. Heffernan took legal representation out to protect his claims on the track (whatever they actually were) and in the end settled for a one off payment of £7,500 to basically go away. Forever. “Angels” would become a modern day standard and earn millions in royalties and an Ivor Novello award. You may think this would have destroyed Heffernan and he was certainly angry for a while but on reflection is glad not to have earned all those royalties as he believes it would have only enabled his destructive drug use of the time. All he really wants is proper recognition of his input into the song from Williams. Having watched the video below chronicling the story as to whether Robbie is right or wrong, I think I’m believing Ray instead.

Clinton-Lewinsky connection: I did not have musical relations with that man

Right, it’s all songs we haven’t seen before in these BBC4 repeats from here on in starting with the first appearance on the show for Catatonia. For a while back in the late 90s, this lot were big news. Arriving as part of the ‘cool Cymru’ movement alongside Manic Street Preachers, Super Furry Animals, Stereophonics and Feeder – “Mulder And Scully” was the track to catapult them to superstardom. Obviously influenced by the main characters from hit sci-fi TV show The X–Files, it also allowed singer Cerys Matthews a platform for her distinctive voice or as host Jayne Middlemiss commented, her regional accent. Such vocal stylings were not unique – The Proclaimers were infamous for singing in their Scottish brogue and Chas & Dave made a career out of recording using their cockney dialect – but it wasn’t as simple as that with Cerys. There was also the over pronunciation of words such as “Scull-eee” and the rolling ‘R’s in follow up hit “Road Rage”. Even this wasn’t entirely new though – Liam Gallagher’s extraordinary extended articulation of the word “shine” as “she-iiiiiiine” for example. And yet, you couldn’t ignore Matthews. She was a force of nature with many a tale of legendary drinking escapades to her name. Because of her presence in the line up, it would be easy to lump them in with all those other bands of the period who were fronted by a charismatic female singer like Elastica, Sleeper, Echobelly and Skunk Anansie but all those bands had their own sound and that included Catatonia.

I think I’d first come across them when their single “I Am The Mob” lightly scraped the Top 40 in the Autumn of 1997 though they’d been around for a lot longer than that. Having formed in 1992 and been though various line up changes and independent releases, they’d finally came to market via a major label with 1996’s “Way Beyond Blue” album which I somehow managed to miss completely despite working in a record shop. When “Mulder And Scully” debuted at No 3 though, we all had to take notice. Had it been a deliberate ploy to write a song that referenced an incredibly successful current TV show or was it just that Cerys was plugging into the popular culture zeitgeist? I choose to believe the latter as it’s not really a song about The X–Files as such but rather a metaphor. Having said that, I did find the use of the show’s protagonists’ names in the chorus slightly jarring. Reading all that back, I seem to be rather conflicted about Catatonia don’t I? What I am sure about is that they continued to have hits to the end of the 90s and into the new millennium. Sophomore album “International Velvet” went three times platinum but by the time of their fourth, the band seemed to be an anachronism and they split in 2001.

Cerys Matthews would go on to be an award winning author and broadcaster with shows on BBC Radios 2 and 4 and 6 Music and founded The Good Life Experience festival. In 2007, she appeared on I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here causing a stir in the tabloids when she began a relationship with fellow camp mate and EastEnders actor Marc Bannerman. What I remember most about her post Catatonia career though is that she used to write a column in The Guardian under the pseudonym of Dr Crotchety who was an agony aunt for music fans giving people who wrote in suggestions to liven up their listening habits which I found patronising in the extreme. She gave the impression of loving every single type of musical genre which I just couldn’t get on board with.

Clinton-Lewinsky connection: Well, this is fortunate. Cerys Matthews serenaded Bill Clinton at the Haye-On-Wye Literature Festival in 2001 even laying her head on his chest!

After something so memorable comes a totally forgettable hit which guess what?…I’d forgotten about it. “So Good” by Juliet Roberts anyone? She’d had a medium sized hit in 1994 with a remix of “Caught In The Middle” but sure enough, I don’t recall that either despite the fact that I must have reviewed it in this blog. This one was a double A-side with another remix of a previous hit “Free Love”. She was big on rereleases and remixes was Juliet. She also was fond of a collaboration. As far back as 1983, she was the vocalist for the Funk Masters on their Top 10 hit “It’s Over” and in 2001 had a US Dance chart No 1 with big shot DJ, producer and remixer David Morales on the track “Needin U II”.

Clinton-Lewinsky connection: Nothing for Juliet Roberts. Julia Roberts on the other hand appeared on the final week of The David Letterman Show alongside Bill Clinton and also appeared in a Broadway fund raiser in support of Hilary Clinton in 2016.

A case now of when one of a band’s most well known songs divides their fan base*. Green Day had made their name playing fast, power chord-heavy pop-punk tunes but here they were in reflective mood with an acoustic ballad. The track “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” had actually been around for years before it was recorded for the band’s “Nimrod” album, having been considered unsuitable for inclusion on their previous two major label releases.

*See also “More Than Words” by Extreme

It’s a deceptive song – on the one hand very simple – even a basic strummer like me can manage the chord sequence – and yet it has a depth to it. Just look at its title for a start; it’s almost paradoxical but allows the listener to take their preferred meaning away from it. For example, it has become a staple of DJ set lists at US Prom dances as a symbol of celebration for surviving High School. Conversely, when a senior manager left one of my previous workplaces and the staff were asked to contribute a song to a playlist they created for him, I chose “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” for the first two words of the title. Ah but what were those two words? Well, ‘good’ and ‘riddance’ obviously except…in some territories it was released as “Time Of Your (Good Riddance)”! What was that all about? To make it more easily identifiable to the casual listener as opposed to a Green Day devotee? Maybe it’s an American thing – the exact same scenario happened with the Icicle Works single “Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)” which was released in the US as “Whisper To A Scream (Birds Fly)”.

Anyway, this new direction for Green Day seemed to confuse some of their fanbase and even in some cases left them feeling betrayed. This wasn’t the band they’d grown up loving. They couldn’t…gulp…be looking for a more mainstream audience could they? Thankfully, the band hadn’t sold their soul for a hit and would release perhaps their defining album in 2004 – the punk concept album “American Idiot”. As for “Good Riddance”, it has become accepted as a Green Day standard and is usually played as the last song by the band at their gigs.

Clinton-Lewinsky connection: The band’s song “Holiday” from the aforementioned “American Idiot” album includes the lyrics “I declare I don’t care about the president” and “I don’t care about the latest scandal” which are reportedly about Clinton-Lewinsky-gate.

There are some songs that just won’t be left alone. “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” is one of them. Originally a hit for Sylvester in 1978, it was reactivated in 1990 by Jimmy Somerville who took it into the Top 5. Just eight years later, here was Byron Stingily making it a hat trick of chart appearances for the track. Having first experienced success as part of Ten City in 1989 with “That’s The Way Love Is”, Byron’s solo career finally kicked off in 1997 with the US Dance Chart No 1 hit “Get Up (Everybody)” which also made No 14 in the UK. He followed that up with this curiously hollow and empty sounding version of a disco classic. It really adds nothing to the original and is inferior to the Jimmy Somerville cover to my ears. Stingily would only have one more hit which saw him return to past glories with his solo treatment of that Ten City single. As for “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”, it’s also been covered by Adam Lambert, Lewis Taylor and Sandra Bernhard.

Clinton-Lewinsky connection: This is unbelievable! Stingily’s version of Sylvester’s best known song was featured on a Spanish dance compilation album called “Ahora ‘98” the front cover of which was a parody of Bill and Hilary Clinton with actors pretending to be them at a desk in the Oval Office with a pair of legs protruding underneath it meant to be Monica Lewinsky who is…well…in a compromising position to say the least!

There’s a new No 1 from someone who would become a global superstar though the only connection he would make with me is that his name is my current job title. Usher has gone on to be known as the ‘King of R&B’ with a multi platinum selling back catalogue including nine No 1 US singles. Curiously though, this track – “You Make Me Wanna…” wasn’t one of them despite topping our charts when it peaked at No 2 over the pond. With its acoustic guitar hook, it crossed over into the mainstream big time winning a host of awards as it went and yet I hardly remember it at all. I guess I’m just not an R&B kinda guy.

Clinton-Lewinsky connection: This post has written itself! In 2010, Usher hosted a Senate fundraiser for candidate Michelle Nunn with Bill Clinton as the guest of honour. A year later, Usher performed at the ‘Decade of Difference’ concert celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the William J. Clinton foundation and also Bill Clinton’s 65th birthday. During Usher’s performance, this happened…

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/m002dt20/top-of-the-pops-30011998?seriesId=unsliced