Lulu

TOTP 07 OCT 1993

Posted on by 80stastic

This is all a bit odd. Suddenly there are no Breakers this week meaning there’s only eight acts in total on this particular TOTP. Added to that, the show is totally male dominated with no female artists on it at all and lastly the running order has been split right down the middle with the first four performances all by solo artists and the last four by bands.

The first of those solo artists is Haddaway with his hit single “Life”. What can you say about this guy? No, seriously. What else is there to say about him that I haven’t already said in previous posts? The ‘hadaway and shite’ reference? Done. That I couldn’t stand “What Is Love”? Tick. My opinion that “Life” was just a retread of its predecessor? Case stated. That in 2008 he teamed up with Dr. Alban to record a single called “I Love The 90s”? Yep…no wait…what?! No! Hell that sounds horrendous and guess what? It is horrendous! Look at this…

Dear God! That such a thing could be allowed to exist! Host Tony Dortie said of Haddaway after his performance “that man is out to lunch”. Not sure what his reasoning was for that assessment but having listened to “I Love The 90s” I conclude that he must have been a sandwich short of a picnic to record that nonsense. “Life” peaked at No 6.

https://youtu.be/qbuTTcLyNXk

Talking of Dortie, he then goes onto to tell some inane anecdote about how he once asked Meatloaf how he got his name. Tony…mate…just stick to the basics eh? So, after being previewed on the show what feels like an age ago (it was actually six weeks which does seem an extraordinarily long lead time), the single that would sell more than any other in the UK in 1993 is finally here. Surely nobody could have seen this coming?! Before “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)”, the last time Meatloaf had been in the UK Top 40 was in 1986 when he teamed up with John “St.Elmo’s Fire” Parr for the No 31 hit “Rock ‘n’ Roll Mercenaries”. His last completely solo hit had been 1984’s “Modern Girl”. How did he stage this incredible comeback? Well, he went back to his roots and when you understand that strategy then maybe his resurgence wasn’t quite the shock that I’ve made it out to be.

The 1977 “Bat Out Of Hell” album has sold 42 million copies worldwide so it was pretty much a no-brainer that an album called “Bat Out Of Hell II” would stack up some serious sales if ever released. Reunited with song writing partner Jim Steinman (the two had fallen out so badly that they ended up suing each other in the 80s), an official follow up to Meatloaf’s best known work was recorded with the official title “Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell”. Whilst Steinman protested it was all about the art and wanting to revisit the world of “Bat Out Of Hell” and explore it deeper, Meatloaf let the truth out about what they were really doing with this quote:

“We called it Bat Out Of Hell II ‘cos that would help it sell shitloads”

 Wall, Mick (2017). Like a Bat Out of Hell: The Larger than Life Story of Meat Loaf. Hachette UK. p. 167. 

And so it did. The album went to No 1 in every territory on the planet and would rack up 14 million sales. The lead single did just as well going to No 1 in 28 different countries and was certified platinum in the US. It will be at No 1 in the UK soon enough in these TOTP repeats and for seven weeks so I’ll keep my powder dry for fear of a flood of commentary early on. Hmm…”I’ll Keep My Powder Dry (For Fear Of A Flood)”…if only Meatloaf or Jim Steinman were still alive…

Next a man making his last ever appearance on TOTP. Paul Young was first on the show back in 1978 (!) as part of Streetband performing novelty hit “Toast” but he became a regular from 1983 onwards as a star in his own right with massive hits like “Wherever I Lay My Hat”, “Come Back And Stay” and “Love Of The Common People”. The hits and therefore trips to the TOTP studios continued for a couple of more years before the orbit of his time as a pop idol began to wane but he caught his falling star in time to collect a handful of hits (and some more TOTP turns) and a No 1 Best Of album in the early 90s.

However, as Paul himself once sang, “Everything Must Change” and so it came to pass that the fame game was up come October 1993 as Paul served up one final TOTP outing for us. What a shame then that it was such a lacklustre performance. To start with, the set was awful. Some dry ice and some long curtains behind him were all Paul had to work with and with a total lack of detail on the behalf of the TOTP producers, they were red! He’s literally singing a song called “Now I Know What Made Otis Blue”! Sure that’s ‘blue’ as in mood not colour but even so! Secondly, there’s the sad spectacle of Paul’s vocals. Now either he had a bit of a sore throat on this particular day or it was a resumption of the vocal chords problems that he suffered from throughout his career but this isn’t the best singing he’s ever done in his life. What a shame to bow out on a bum note. Thanks for the good times Paul.

What are the chances? From one male solo artist making his final TOTP appearance to another immediately afterwards. As far as I can tell, this is the last time we’ll be seeing Billy Joel on the BBC’s flagship music show as his only UK Top 40 hit after “All About Soul” came in 2010 when “She’s Always A Woman” re-entered the charts but TOTP had been axed four years prior to that.

This was the follow up to his surprisingly successful “River Of Dreams” single which had made the Top 3 over the Summer. It’s pretty standard Billy fodder although there’s a nice sentiment behind the lyrics:

Aah. There’s lovely. Belief and faith in each other. Billy even sings these lyrics in the song – “She gives me all the live I need to keep my faith alive” about his wife Christie Brinkley who painted the picture on the “River Of Dreams” album’s cover. Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley got divorced less than 12 months later. Ah.

We’re onto the groups now starting with a band enjoying a comeback almost as unlikely as Meatloaf’s. Go West were shiny, new pop stars back in 1985 with some catchy tunes and a nice line in singlet vests. Then ‘85 turned into ‘86 and they were yesterday’s news before the clocks had struck twelve. As the 80s came to an end, Go West seemed like a small footnote in the decade’s pop music story but then came what seemed like one final swan song with a spot on the Pretty Woman soundtrack that gave the duo a hit with “King Of Wishful Thinking”. That was surely them done but no. Two years later came a gold selling album in “Indian Summer” and two Top 20 singles. OK but then nothing yeah? Full stop! The end. Erm…no. Buoyed by that success, a Greatest Hits album was put together (“Aces And Kings – The Best Of Go West”) and to promote it came this, a cover version of “Tracks Of My Tears” by Smokey Robinson And The Miracles. Sacrilege? Maybe. Was it terrible? It could have been worse but anybody would lose up against the original.

By the way, ever wondered whether the TOTP hosts were really that enthusiastic about all the acts on the show they were introducing or did they keep their true opinions to themselves back then? Here’s Tony Dortie with the answer:

Ouch! Well, Tony would game been pleased to know that Go West would only have one more chart entry, a remix of their very first hit “We Close Our Eyes” which made No 40 but, like Paul Young earlier, remain very active on the live nostalgia circuit. Oh, one final thing; is that Jaki Graham on backing vocals duties?

https://youtu.be/9yIM9udd504

Right, a good, solid, proper band now as Crowded House return with “Distant Sun”, the lead single from their fourth studio album “Together Alone”. After achieving some long overdue mainstream success in this country with previous album “Woodface” and its attendant singles, expectations must have been high for more of the same from the band’s record label Capitol. Sales of “Together Alone” didn’t quite live up to said expectations (selling roughly half of what its predecessor did) but still went platinum in the UK and made No 4 on the album chart. Like “Woodface”, five singles were released from it but none better I think than “Distant Sun” which is well crafted with some gorgeous melodies but also a change of pace and streak of defiance in the coda with the lyric “Like a Christian fearing vengeance from above” to the fore.

By this point Tim Finn had left the band and was replaced by Mark Hart and it got me thinking about the band’s various line up changes, their Split Enz origins, the tragedy of a drummer Paul Hester’s death, their split and reformation – some film director should really make a biopic to tell their story. Maybe one day. “Distant Sun” peaked at No 19.

https://youtu.be/YbuyjNv5BEk

OK. Calling this next lot a band might be stretching the definition a little but here they are anyway – it’s Right Said Fred with “Bumped”. Strange as it may seem to recall, the Freds had experienced phenomenal commercial success in the previous two years. A chart topping album and hit singles that went to positions 1, 2 and 3 in their first year plus a No 4 Comic Relief single from earlier in 1993. Only the single “Those Simple Things/Daydream” had let the side down when it peaked at No 29.

As such, the difficult second album syndrome approached. Could the lads push on through and establish themselves as more than just a comedy act? The answer was a resounding no. Sophomore album “Sex And Travel” flopped and of the singles taken from it, only one made the Top 40 and even then peaked at a lowly No 32. That was this track “Bumped” and it really is as weak as Matt Hancock’s claim that he’s doing I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here to promote his dyslexia campaign. We see you Hancock. Anyway, the band were clearly under orders to promote themselves as more than a gimmick with Richard Fairbrass stating to the TOTP studio audience that “Bumped” was “more groovy than Stick It Out”. Now granted the track had a bit more musicality to it than something like “I’m Too Sexy” but it was hardly “Off The Wall” era Michael Jackson now was it?

Having commented on Paul Young’s wavering vocals earlier, I must now say something about Fairbrass’s singing. And I say this – the guy can’t really sing can he? Sure he can deliver a song but sing? Not so much. Right Said Fred would bag one final UK Top 40 hit in 2001 with the jokey “You’re My Mate” before embarking on a career as Covid deniers and anti-vaxxers.

Get ready to scream! Take That are straight in at No 1 with their collaboration with Lulu on “Relight My Fire”. The band broke all sorts of records and had No 1 singles coming out of their ears but the truth is that in their first incarnation up to 1996, they released more videos (seven) than they did studio albums (three) so it seems to me that they were definitely being promoted visually to a young audience over their actual music. It made sense to I guess. Just an observation.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1HaddawayLifeNo
2MeatloafI’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)Nope
3Paul YoungNow I Know What Made Otis BlueI did not
4Billy JoelAll About SoulNegative
5Go West Tracks Of My TearsNah
6Crowded HouseDistant SunIt’s been a while but yes! I have the CD single of this one!
7Right Said FredBumpedAs if
8Take That / LuluRelight My FireAnd 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/m001dhj6/top-of-the-pops-07101993

TOTP 23 SEP 1993

Posted on by 80stastic

Living in the digital age is great isn’t it? Like most of us I suspect, I often find myself asking the question “How did we do [insert a commonplace task] before we had the internet?”. Life is so much easier now. Even as I type these words on my mobile phone, my wife is sat next to me turning off the TV with the remote control app on her mobile phone as she can’t be bothered to find the actual remote which has no doubt slipped down the side of the sofa again. These are the sort of everyday problems that technological advancements were created to solve. As for music consumption, we now have voice activated access to millions of songs thanks to platforms like Spotify and hardware like Amazon Echo Dot/Alexa.

Back in 1993, although the internet had been invented and the World Wide Web put into the public domain in that year, most of us didn’t have a clue what it was or how to access it. Some people who were keeping tabs on technology were, perhaps unsurprisingly given their own musical development, Depeche Mode. Three days before this TOTP aired, they were one of the first bands to utilise the internet to interact with fans in a Q&A session via AOL. As this was 1993, there were plenty of technical issues with many users (including the band themselves) not able to log onto the chat. To be fair though, our 2022 digital world isn’t trouble free either. Didn’t WhatsApp go down the other day?

Anyway, we’ll be seeing those early adopters of technology Depeche Mode later on in the show but we start with a band that we hadn’t seen in the charts for nigh on two years. The Wonder Stuff’s last Top 40 hit had been “Welcome To The Cheap Seats EP” in January of 1992 from their “Never Loved Elvis” album. Since then, I’m assuming that they had been recording their fourth studio album “Construction For The Modern Idiot”. It would be the band’s last for eleven years. The lead single from it was actually another EP. The “On The Ropes EP” would peak at No 10 and would be the band’s last ever time inside the Top 10. The only track from the EP to feature on the album was the title track performed here and I have to say that I don’t really recall it. Listening to it now though, it sounds like a much more out and out rock sound than their previous quirky, knockabout material like “Size Of A Cow” and the aforementioned “Welcome To The Cheap Seats” that made them mainstream chart stars. I think that was probably the right career move and the album made No 4 which was none too shabby but the end of the band (temporarily at least) was near. Two more Top 40 hits from the album would follow and that tour that host Tony Dortie mentions in his intro would be the band’s biggest ever including 78 dates but 1994 would see them split before, as Jarvis Cocker nearly sang, meeting up in the year 2000.

It’s those IT geeks Depeche Mode now with an EP of their own called “Condemnation”. The third single from their “Songs Of Faith And Devotion” album, the title track is a quite staggering piece of work which has me reaching for my handy book of superlatives. It’s a beautifully haunting and emotive song based around a powerful vocal from Dave Gahan with a clear and deliberate gospel feel to it. A truly striking and indeed staggering composition. Gahan is on record as saying it’s one of his favourite tracks by the band but due to his health/addiction problems, he stopped performing it live in 1994 and Martin Gore took over on vocal duties. This seems quite an apposite decision as “Condemnation” puts me in mind of their equally atmospheric ballad “Somebody” from 1984 that was also sung by Gore.

Tony Dortie invites us to try and work out what the video for “Condemnation” is all about in his intro so here’s my two pennies’ worth. There’s definitely a nod to The Wicker Man in there with Gahan being led by a cowl wearing throng to a destination of what appears to be bales of hay to meet with his lover to whom he is then shackled. Are they to be sacrificed Lord Summerisle style or is it some kind of pagan wedding ceremony? The sepia tint on the film adds to its unsettling feel. “Condemnation” peaked at No 9.

Talk about making a statement! Not only have M People racked up their third Top 10 hit of 1993 with “Moving On Up” but it’s gone in at No 4 thus making it their biggest ever hit after just one week of sales! The single would eventually…ahem…move on up to a high of No 2 paving the way for the release of the “Elegant Slumming” album that would achieve the same peak in the album chart and go three times platinum in the UK. M People were no longer a club phenomenon but bona fide, mainstream pop stars.

The track was back in the news recently when it was used as blink-and-you’ll-miss-her Prime Minister Liz Truss’s walk on music at the Tory Party Conference. I was listening to James O’Brien on LBC when he was the first to speak to the band’s founder Mike Pickering for his reaction. He wasn’t pleased…

The voice behind “Unfinished Sympathy” is next but I have to say it doesn’t sound in good nick here. There’s no doubting Shara Nelson’s vocal talents just from the evidence of that Massive Attack track alone so I can only assume she was feeling under the weather for this TOTP performance. Either that or she was distracted by trying to track the close up camera revolving around her but her singing on “One Goodbye In Ten” here doesn’t sound the best. Not that it’s a great litmus test of musical quality but if she’d have been auditioning for the X Factor, she’d have had Simon Cowell grimacing. Shame.

Now I know that Haddaway had more hits than just “What Is Love” but I couldn’t have told you what they were called let alone what they sounded like. However, if I’d given it a moment’s thought (but then again why would I spend any time considering Haddaway’s back catalogue?) then I would surely have come to the conclusion that the follow up to “What Is Love” would sound pretty similar. And so it does with “Life” recycling the annoying synth riff from its predecessor.

It seems to me that writing songs just generically called “Life” is a tricky challenge. Surely the subject matter is just too big?! Look at Haddaway’s lyrics here:

Life will never be the same, life is changing

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Dee Dee Halligan / Junior Torello
Life lyrics © Hanseatic Musikverlag Gmbh & Co Kg

What tosh. Still, it’s an improvement on Des’ree’s attempt with her 1998 single of the same name…

I don’t want to see a ghost, it’s a sight that I fear the most, I’d rather have a piece of toast

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Des’ree Weekes / Prince Sampson
Life lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Dear oh dear oh dear etc…

Excellent! Just the two Breakers this week means less writing for me and one of them was on last week so I’ve already commented on it. This shouldn’t take long and indeed why would anyone want to dwell on the first of them. Worlds Apart – remember them? They had four UK Top 40 singles of which their cover of Love Affair’s “Everlasting Love” was the second. None got any higher than No 15 and yet their bio on Wikipedia suggests that they were absolutely massive literally everywhere else in the world racking up global sales of ten million records. And get this – such was the demand for them that their licensed merchandise products totalled 138 in number including lamps, bubblegum and motorbikes! This can’t be true surely?! None of it makes any sense which is encapsulated by the very first line of that Wikipedia entry that says they are ‘an English multinational boy band of the 90s’. English and multinational? How does that work then? Well, I’m not going to delve into the subject of identity politics but…wait…are an English multinational boy band? They’re still in existence? My god they are. They split in 2002 but reformed in 2007 and are still a going concern. Their line up these days includes that bloke from Brother Beyond. This is all nonsense and is summed up perfectly by the fact that they recorded a song called “Arnold Schwarzenegger”. No really, look…

All I remember of them was that the buyers at Our Price head office ordered in loads of their album which would then sit behind the counter gathering dust for the rest of the decade. “Everlasting Love” peaked at No 20. Again I say dear oh dear oh dear etc..

Next the song that was on just last week and a quick check of the BBC4 schedule tells me is on the next show as well. Somebody at TOTP loved Belinda Carlisle and her “Big Scary Animal” single. After her studio performance last week, we get the promo video this time which seems to involve Belinda sat at the end of an enormous dinner table waiting for her date who arrives on a motorbike, spends ages trying to find the room she’s in before pushing her down a staircase on a chaise longue. Just…just…why?!

A new hit now from a new artist who would prove to be a one hit wonder but would go on to show that making quirky dance records wasn’t their only talent. Stakka Bo hailed from Sweden and brought us the No 13 hit “Here We Go” which shared its title with the first words of the chorus of that Belinda Carlisle hit from immediately before but that’s where the similarities ended. An artist who Stakka Bo did share similarities with though were Stereo MCs and they were duly made in the music press. Probably no bad thing at the time.

Stakka Bo were basically Johan Renck, a man whose later career would far outstrip his achievements in the world of pop. Right, this is actually quite weird. Me and my wife were late to the Breaking Bad party and so have been on catch up via Netflix for a while (we’re halfway through series 3 so no spoilers please!). We’d just finished watching another episode so I thought I’d do a bit more blogging and the first thing I saw when researching Stakka Bo was this:

What?! That’s quite the career change right there. He’s also produced pop videos for everyone from Madonna to Robbie Williams to Lana Del Ray. Renck obviously directed the promo for “Here We Go” as well. As for the song itself, I quite liked it with its flute flourishes and insanely catchy hooks. It was played to death on MTV which helped to break it in just about every territory. There was a follow up – the prophetically titled “Down The Drain” – but we don’t need to concern ourselves with that here. Renck looks like he might pop up in an episode of Only Fools And Horses here whilst his mate looks like a diabolical merging together of East 17’s Brian Harvey and Frank Spencer. Ah 1993 – what were we all thinking?

https://youtu.be/ITN1b_ZJZbI

So big were Take That by this point that it seemed they were just about headlining every TOTP they were on. I mean, obviously there was the No 1 song on after them here but you get my drift. Their appearance on the show was always the top of the bill moment. Their latest single wasn’t even out for another four days after this TOTP aired. That single was “Relight My Fire” featuring that dreadful woman Lulu.

I don’t think I knew at the time that it was actually a Dan Hartman song with my knowledge of his oeuvre restricted to “Instant Replay” and “I Can Dream About You”. His original was released in 1980 with Loleatta Holloway (her again) doing the female vocals that Take That’s management dragged Lulu in for. As much as I dislike her, the introduction of Lulu halfway through the song does create quite the impact in the performance here as a counterpoint to all that spinning and twirling the lads were doing. The single would go straight in at No 1 once released making them only the second artist ever to have two consecutive singles do that with Slade being the first in 1973.

https://youtu.be/KYKxZlZsq0M

Culture Beat have gone from the top spot with the new incumbents being DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince with “Boom! Shake The Room”. Will Smith was already a well established star of TV due to his titular role in The Fresh Prince Of Bel–Air at this point which was about to start its fourth season in late September back in 1993. Within two years he would be starring in the film Bad Boys and his global stardom would be confirmed. Fast forward 29 years and Smith’s career is now in serious jeopardy after he shook the room at the Oscars by slapping Chris Rock. Boom!

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1The Wonder Stuff On The Ropes EPNo
2Depeche Mode Condemnation EPHow did I not buy this?!
3M PeopleMoving On UpNo but my wife had the album
4Shara NelsonOne Goodbye In TenSee 3 above
5HaddawayLifeNever
6Worlds ApartEverlasting LoveAs if
7Belinda CarlisleBig Scary AnimalNope
8Stakka Bo Here We GoNah
9Take That and LuluRelight My FireI did not
10DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh PrinceBoom! Shake The RoomAnd 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/m001d7qt/top-of-the-pops-23091993

TOTP 25 MAR 1993

Posted on by 80stastic

I’ve spent a lot of time recently banging on about the unholy trinity of the three S’s of Shaggy, Shabba Ranks and Snow dominating the charts. Well, guess what? I’m still doing it in this post as two of them are on the show again this week. It’s come to my attention though that they weren’t the only members of the ‘S’ brigade. This week’s show is jam packed with them and no I didn’t like a single one!

We start with an ‘S’ and it’s ‘S’ for Sybil, she of the hit “When I’m Good And Ready”. Sybil was never as popular again as she was at this moment in terms of sales. Her run of two consecutive big hits comprising this single and previous No 3 smash “The Love I Lost” with West End was brought to an abrupt halt when the next single “Beyond Your Wildest Dreams” peaked outside of the Top 40 at that most unfortunate of places No 41. It wasn’t for the want of trying though. She even did two different versions of the song- a pop ballad version for the UK market…

And a hip-hop remix with a rap in the middle for the US territories…

It made no difference as neither version was a hit. Off the top of my head I can only think of Climie Fisher also doing a similar thing where there was a straight ballad version of their single “Rise To The Occasion” and a hip-hop remix complete with the ubiquitous and annoying ‘aaah yeaaah’ sample.

The track had also previously been recorded by Lonnie Gordon and released as a follow up to her “Happenin’ All Over Again” hit but had also missed the chart peaking at No 48. All of this despite the claim by writers Stock, Aitken and Waterman that it is one of the best songs they ever penned. And if you thought the chart performance of “Beyond Your Wildest Dreams” was unlucky, Sybil followed up taking it to No 41 in the charts by releasing another single from her “Good ‘N’ Ready” album called “Stronger Together” and that peaked at…yep…No 41.

https://youtu.be/BaFT-kpD3Og

No S’s in sight next as we once again witness the power of an advert to make us buy a song that had already been a hit once all over again. This time the product being soundtracked by an old hit was the Volkswagen Golf and the song that benefited from it “Young At Heart” by The Bluebells. Normally I don’t go back and see what I’ve already written about a chart hit that I’ve reviewed in a previous blog post for fear of just regurgitating the same words but I did in this case. I think it’s because I view their chart histories separated by nine years as almost completely different entities, relating to two disparate records.

Originally a hit in the Summer of 1984 when I had not long turned 16, “Young At Heart” was never off the airwaves. Radio 1 seemed to play it four or five times a day at least which was not good for me as I couldn’t stand it. In my post on the track in my 80s TOTP blog, I made a point of saying I liked the band but hated this song and I stand by that. I still have a soft spot for The Bluebells but their most well known song is also their worst to my ears. Back in 1984, they followed up “Young At Heart” with the wonderful “Cath” but it only just scraped into the charts at No 38. A final single called “All I Am (Is Loving You)” was released which missed the charts completely and the band fizzled out.

The song’s second coming seemed nothing to do with the band and indeed it wasn’t. They weren’t actually even together in 1993 and hadn’t been for some years. I think I’m right in saying that the story behind its 1993 reactivation was that the person working for the ad agency that was looking after the Volkswagen account had come up with a song for the advert but that there were some issues with copyright and it couldn’t be used and so she had to come up with another song fast. Thinking back to her childhood, she remembered that jolly song that she used to hear on the radio. The rights owners were sought out and contacted and the rest is history.

For many record buyers though, they may not have known anything of the record’s past or the career of the band who made it. They just knew it as the song from that car advert with the twist at the end when instead of getting married, it turns out that the ‘bride’ is actually celebrating getting divorced. The single’s cover was just a still of said actress from the advert reinforcing this new identity for the song as something separate and somehow itself divorced as it were from the band. It even has the Volkswagen logo in the corner. It was corporate and false and in some way, it devalued the original even though I hadn’t liked it.

On hearing of the success of the rerelease (it outstripped the original’s chart peak easily in the first week) the members of The Bluebells reconvened and agreed to reform to promote the single with appearances like this one on TOTP. They look like they’re treating it as a laugh which is probably the correct attitude to have taken. They weren’t under any record company pressure to maximise sales presumably. Whatever it did commercially was a bonus. Subsequent performances would be taken even less seriously as the band struggled to come to terms with this unexpected turn of events. “Young At Heart” would go to No 1 for four weeks and be the twelfth best selling single of the year in the UK in 1993.

We’re back with the S’s now and it’s the most hateful of the lot – Shabba Ranks with “Mr Loverman”. I could never understand the appeal of this record. I mean, I didn’t like Shaggy nor Snow’s songs either but I could just about appreciate why they were successful. “Mr Loverman” though? Nah, that was just nasty. Aside from Ranks’s own despicable views which were enough to put any sane thinking person off anyway, I just couldn’t take the song seriously with all those ridiculous ‘Shabba!’ shout outs. Now I learn it’s not even Ranks name checking himself but Maxi Priest sampled from their “Housecall” single.

The whole stupid business was parodied in a sketch by the team behind the US comedy TV series In Living Color to whom I shall leave the last word…

All female US R&B groups seemed to be everywhere in the 90s. At the start of the decade we had En Vogue and then as the years passed we saw the likes of SWV, TLC and Brownstone right up to the titans of the genre Destiny’s Child. And those were only the ones that crossed over to the UK. Back in America there were groups who never managed to translate acclaim at home into huge overseas success. I’m thinking of Xscape, 702 and Total. Here’s one for you that did manage to straddle the pond as it were but who rarely get talked about anymore.

Jade were Joi Marshall, Tonya Kelly and Di Reed from Chicago who are best remembered for their hit “Don’t Walk Away” though they did have a few others. In 1993 they were always going to be compared to En Vogue who were having transatlantic hits at the time and I guess their sound wasn’t too dissimilar. “Don’t Walk Away” was a radio friendly piece of sassy R&B that enabled the trio to pull out some slinky dance moves when performing it. It rose to a lofty No 7 position in the UK charts and an even higher peak of No 4 in the US selling 2.5 million copies worldwide. Their album “Jade To The Max” racked up substantial numbers and a lengthy tour had them looking fair set for superstardom. They appeared in both film (The Inkwell) and TV (Beverly Hills 90210) and contributed tracks to a couple of soundtracks as well. A second album followed in 1994 and then…nothing. Everything just seemed to stop. Were they dropped from their label? Did they just decide themselves to jack it all in?

I think they all stayed in music one way or another and two of them reunited in 2021 with the improbably named Myracle Holloway (a finalist on The Voice). The curious tale of Jade – a gemstone amongst the Brownstones.

https://youtu.be/IKGd_KiRAWg

We’re back amongst the S’s now and it’s another stone related artist – Robin Stone better known as Robin S. This New York singer songwriter’s legacy would be formed upon and based around this one track, the house anthem “Show Me Love”. We sold loads and loads of this in the Our Price store in Rochdale where I was working. And then we went home, had a sleep, came back to work and sold some more of it the next day. I’m surprised that it wasn’t a bigger hit than its final chart placing of No 6 though it did return to the Top 40 a further two times as remixes. In fact, it seems to have been released eight times in total. See what I mean about Robin’s legacy being totally built around this one track? I’m sure there are some Robin S super fans out there who would dispute that claim but it’s true. And there’s many would say that being known for “Show Me Love” would be recognition enough. It regularly appears in lists of the best dance tunes of all time and its influence is still felt today in the music of the likes of Clean Bandit and is sampled in Beyoncé’s latest single “Break My Soul”.

Interesting to note the difference here between Sybil’s performance at the top of the show with her three backing singers and Robin’s with nothing but some dry ice for company while she belts her tune out. I recall the cover of the single was just a very basic generic design in green with a cream header with the label’s name (Champion) repeated in lines all over it. Very poor. Maybe they didn’t expect it to be a big hit outside of the clubs and so didn’t bother designing a cover to be shipped in huge quantities to retailers?

Oh Hell! Cliff’s back again. Yes, despite the charts being jam packed with dance tunes of every hue and genre, a little corner of them was still reserved for Cliff Richard and whatever piece of garbage song he was peddling in 1993. “Peace In Our Time” was the offending article this time and it was at its peak of No 8. This is just a horrible tune with its backing that sounds like a speeded up version of “The Living Years” by Mike And The Mechanics and its insipid lyrics but it’s Cliff’s performance which really grabs the attention.

As with his last time on the show the other week, I can’t find a clip of it on YouTube. Unlike then, Cliff has ditched all his entourage of backing singers and has done a Robin S and gone solo albeit that he still has the remnants of the Sting set from the other month with him for company. It’s Cliff’s movements that are so spellbinding though – spellbindingly awful that is. They’re just so weird and unnatural. Plus he’s turned up in the bloke from Runrig’s leather jacket and trainers combo. It looks…completely unconvincing and actually very safe. In the 50s he would have been seen as a danger to the moral well being of the nation’s youth in that get up but in 1993, he just looked lame. The 90s weren’t kind to Cliff. Yes, he had two Xmas No 1s at the start and end of the decade but they were both gut wrenchingly awful and the intervening years were populated by instantly forgettable singles like this one. Those great airplay hits of the late 70s and early 80s like “We Don’t Talk Anymore”, “Carrie” and “Wired For Sound” seemed like a life time ago even then.

And onto the Breakers and I’ve realised that we have arrived at a rather poignant moment as this blink and you miss it moment is the last we’ll see of Bananarama on TOTP for twelve years! Regulars on the BBC show since their first hits in 1982, this was, by my calculations (I make host Tony Dortie wrong with his figure of thirty-one) their twenty-third Top 40 hit, ten of them being Top 10 hits. None of those Top Tenners had been in the 90s though and their commercial appeal was definitely on the wane. The decision to leave the Stock, Aitken and Waterman stable to make records with hip producer Youth had not resulted in healthy sales of the “Pop Life” album and so a revamp was required for next album “Please Yourself”.

That revamp took the form of jettisoning ‘new girl’ Jacquie O’Sullivan (who had actually been in the group since 1988) and re branding themselves as a duo. To quote one of their previous album titles, wow! Would it work, could it work and indeed should it work? To give themselves some extra insurance on this bold move, Sara and Keren returned to their previous producers who were now a duo themselves, Stock and Waterman. It was the latter who came up with the theme that the album should promote a new hybrid sound of ‘ABBA -Banana’. It would turn out to be a good idea but not for Bananarama.

The album was poorly received and limped to a chart peak of No 46. It produced just two hits, a pair of No 24s, in “Movin’ On” and this one, a cover of the Andrea True Connection song “More More More”. I’m guessing this was released as previous single “Last Thing On My Mind” had missed the charts completely and as we all know, if you find yourself in need of a hit, what do you do? Altogether now… you release a cover version! It’s a pretty faithful take on the disco classic and probably made sense as a choice of single given the resurgence of disco songs in the charts at that time from the likes of Boney M and Sister Sledge. In fact, the Bananas would maybe have done better with a whole disco themed album than an ABBA one. Maybe the ABBA revival had been sooo 1992? Either way, it gave them a chart hit, the last they would have for twelve years by which time TOTP itself was on its last legs.

As Bananarama seemed to be slipping into pop oblivion, Pete Waterman looked for another vehicle for his ‘ABBA-Banana’ concept – thankfully though the era of Steps was still four years off. As for the Nanas, they would continue to perform live as a duo before pulling off the event that their fans had almost never dared to hope could happen- a reunion tour with Siobahn Fahey in 2017. The tour was a huge success and led to Keren and Sara being revitalised to write and record new material. “In Stereo” was well received on its release in 2019 and they have a new album called “Masquerade” due out literally in a few days time.

Another ‘S’ now as the band called Sunscreem are on the show with yet another hit. Sunscreem are becoming quite the curiosity for me. I was always aware that there was a band called Sunscreem because they were a chart act and I worked in a mainstream record shop and we stocked their music. I could even tell you that they were a Sony artist. What they sounded like though was a different matter. I haven’t recognised any of their tunes that have featured in these TOTP repeats so far and “Pressure US” is no different. Apparently this was a remix of the band’s debut single which had been a No 1 hit on the US Dance chart. Given its success across the pond, it was rereleased in the UK with the ‘US’ suffix added to make it clear it was a remix.

In the nicest possible way, Sunscreem were my ghost poo*. You know when you know you’ve had a poo but there is absolutely no evidence on the toilet paper or in the toilet bowl that anything actually took place. So it was for me with Sunscreem. I knew they existed but my memory banks have zero evidence about what they sounded like.

“Pressure US” would peak at No 19, a whole forty-one places higher than the original version from 1991.

*There is no nicest possible way is there?

Now I might have been pushing it earlier to suggest the existence of Robin S super fans but I know for a fact the next artist has a multitude of them so I need to tread carefully here. David Bowie spent much of the very early 90s dicking around with (no, think of the fanbase – definitely not dicking around, think of something else) ‘experimenting’ with his side project rock band Tin Machine the results of which had failed to convince many of their merits. However, 1993 saw the first proper Bowie album for six years with the last being the poorly received “Never Let Me Down”. Expectations were high for a return to form though with “Black Tie White Noise” and it duly went to No 1 though it got a mixed reception in the press.

Lead single “Jump They Say” though was pretty good I thought and it would provide Bowie, rather unbelievably, with his first Top 10 hit since “Absolute Beginners” in 1986. Inspired by the tragic story of his half brother Terry who committed suicide in 1985 by walking out in front of a train, it also had a powerful video that has been described by some critics as Bowie’s finest hour as an actor in a music promo. Bowie’s acting credentials though are a mixed bag. Brilliant in The Man Who Fell To Earth but hammy in Labyrinth and downright awful in Jazzin’ For Blue Jean (Shush! Remember the fan base!). “Jump They Say” was easily the biggest hit of the three singles released from the album but my favourite of his in 1993 was none of those but the theme song he wrote for the TV adaption of Hanif Kureishi’s Buddha Of Suburbia novel.

In a post a few weeks back, I admitted to my complete dislike of Lulu. Imagine my delight then when I read the running order for tonight’s show and saw that she’s on again. I remembered her single “Independence” that she performed then but I really thought we were shot of her until much later in the year when she would pop up on Take That’s “Relight My Fire” single. I was wrong as she literally sings “I’m Back For More” on her duet with Bobby Womack. I have zero memory of this song probably because it is so unmemorable. A complete drag. Don’t get me wrong, Bobby’s vocals are as great as you’d expect them to be but Lulu’s scratchy, annoying voice really grates.

Of much more interest are the dance moves of the studio audience members positioned behind the pair. I’m especially drawn to the guy extreme right of the screen who’s turned up in clobber as if he’s expecting a call up to be the sixth member of the aforementioned Take That. That ‘curtains’ haircut and waistcoat combination is oh so early 90s.

“I’m Back For More” peaked at No 27. The parent album “Independence” stalled at No 67. It was Lulu’s only studio album of the decade and yet bizarrely her record label saw fit to release a collection album in 1999 called “I’m Back For More: The Very Best Of Her Nineties Recordings”. Eh? Isn’t that just the “Independence” album then? Well (or rather ‘wellllllllll’) I checked and yes, it pretty much is. If she could sell that then maybe she was the woman who sold the world.

It’s a final week of two at the top for the final ‘S’ of the night – Shaggy and his “Oh Carolina” single. I’d forgotten that the track appeared on the soundtrack to the film Sliver, a erotic thriller starring Sharon Stone (wait, add another three S’s to the tally!). That soundtrack would also feature another No 1 song which would become the second biggest seller in the UK of 1993 – UB40’s version of “Can’t Help Falling In Love”.

https://youtu.be/raZ5vIGcCs0

As it’s the final week for Shaggy, I’m going to shoehorn in another and much more tenuous link between “Oh Carolina” and Sliver. Shaggy of course was also the name of a character in the legendary cartoon Scooby Doo the theme tune of which includes these lyrics:

Come on Scooby Doo, I see you pretending you got a sliver

But you’re not fooling me ‘cause I can see the way you shake and shiver

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1SybilWhen I’m Good And ReadyNah
2The BluebellsYoung At HeartNot in 1984 and not in 1993 either
3Shabba RanksMr LovermanMr Dickhead more like – NO!
4JadeDon’t Walk AwayNope
5Robin SShow Me LoveNot my thing
6Cliff RichardPeace In Our TimeAs if
7BananaramaMore More MoreNo No No
8SunscreemPressure USNope
9David BowieJump They SayI didn’t…jump or buy it
10Lulu and Bobby Womack I’m Back For MoreNo
11ShaggyOh CarolinaAnd 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/m00196dt/top-of-the-pops-25031993

TOTP 28 JAN 1993

Posted on by 80stastic

We’re already just about through the first month of 1993 at TOTP Rewind and what we’ve seen on the show has done little to assuage my fears about how bad this year’s charts were going to be. It’s been a load of cover versions and old singles rereleased so far and the No 1 hasn’t yet changed since Xmas. There’s been the odd moment of interest like Apache Indian and the return of Duran Duran with decent new material but generally it’s been a bit of a slog already. Come on TOTP producers, give me something stimulating this week please!

It’s not a good start at all. 2 Unlimited amassed fourteen UK chart hits but how many of them could you name other than “No Limit”? OK if you’re an avid watcher of the BBC4 TOTP repeats you might be able to come up with some other titles but I’ve written about this lot every time they’ve featured on the show in the past eighteen months and I’m struggling. They’d had four consecutive big hits from their “Get Ready!” album up to this point but this was the track that defined them and why? Because it was insanely catchy. Like proper designed to make you demented catchy. And how did they do that? They just repeated the most basic two letter word in the English language over and over. It was as simple (or moronic some might say) as that. Well, they did throw in the line ‘techno, techno, techno, techno’ to spice it up a bit as well to be fair to them.

The simplicity of the track didn’t avert us from buying it in buckets all around Europe where it was No 1 just about everywhere. It was especially big over here topping the charts for five weeks and being the UK’s fourth best selling single of the year. I think I’ll leave it there for now. Another five weeks worth of appearances on the show means having to dredge up a lot of words about this one and unlike 2 Unlimited, I have my limits.

If 2 Unlimited had very few lyrics then this next tune had hardly any at all as we get that face morphing video from U.S.U.R.A. again to soundtrack the 40 – 11 chart rundown. “Open Your Mind” was the name of the track and judging by some of the online comments I’ve found after this TOTP repeat went out, there’s still a lot of retro love out there for this rave tune. It reminds me of that Lil Louis track “French Kiss” but without the creepy sex noises. Who were they though? Well, they were an electronic dance group from Italy (obviously) who released a number of singles throughout the 90s but “Open Your Mind” was their standout hit. Indeed it was a hit all over again in 1997 when an updated remix came out.

And that name? Apparently it was inspired by that of one of the group’s mothers who was called Ursula. So why did they decide to make it look like an acronym? Just B.I.Z.A.R.R.E.

It’s a hat trick of dance hits to start the show as West End featuring Sybil are back in the studio with “The Love I Lost” and the differences between them all just serve to highlight what a multi-faceted beast ‘dance music’ is/was. This slick reworking of the old Harold Melvin And The Blue Notes classic was completely removed from the relentless, in your face beats of 2 Unlimited and the repetitive techno house rhythms U.S.U.R.A. but then I guess a slice of Philly soul disco (albeit remade for the 90s) was never going to sound like either of them. Somehow though there was room for all of them in the Top 10 at the same time – the world of dance was a broad church in 1993. I was working in Rochdale at the time this was a hit and from my very limited knowledge of nightclubs in the town (I went to one once), I can imagine that it would have gone down pretty well with the local punters.

The original was a UK No 21 hit in 1974 whilst the 1993 version went all the way to No 3.

https://youtu.be/CxDfSEJaqaA

The failure in their very early career of Take That to set the charts alight – none of their first three singles got higher than No 38 – is probably not that well remembered now. Similarly lost in the annals of pop history is that their chart rivals East 17 also went through an existential crisis early doors. Having announced themselves to UK pop fans with a Top 10 debut single “House Of Love”, they made the obvious next move of rush releasing a follow up in the form of the similar sounding “Gold”. Obvious isn’t always sensible though and the single struggled to a peak of No 28. Alarm bells rang at record label London Records and apparently there were rumours of the band being dropped unless another major hit single could be pulled out of the fire sharpish. Main songwriter Tony Mortimer would prove with “Deep” that he was more than up to the task.

Whereas the band’s first two hits had been high tempo, high energy stompers with juddering dance beats, “Deep” was nothing of the sort. It had a smooth, mellow funk groove that oozed out of your radio’s speaker. It was almost inconceivable that this was the same band that had been responsible for those first two hits. Apparently it was released on the sly as a promo to clubs initially under the pseudonym Levi and Friends. The reaction from clubbers was enough to warrant a full and official East 17 release. Its Top 5 chart placing was convinced London to let the band stay another day and their future was assured.

OK, that’s the song’s back story taken care of but we need to address this performance. First of all there’s the set. Here’s the band’s Terry Coldwell courtesy of @TOTPFacts on that subject:

I have to take issue with Terry’s choice of the word ‘random’ here. It wasn’t actually random at all. Your song was called “Deep” so the TOTP producers put you in a set made up to look like a swimming pool. And what do swimming pools have Terry? Yep, a deep end. Now, a lame joke it may have been but random? No. Quite why there is a shark tied to the side of said swimming pool wall though remains a mystery. Then there’s the lady on the steps drinking a cocktail. Why is she there? To mine the operatic female vocal effect that appears halfway through the song? Maybe except she doesn’t really do that does she? Oh, is she meant to look like a mermaid? Again, bit of a mixed metaphor there then. Finally, why is John Hendy mooching around in the background with a bass guitar instead of joining in with the rest of the band on their really quite impressive dance moves? Maybe he had a poorly knee. Bless.

The album chart feature is back and this week is showcasing Dina Carroll’s “So Close” long player. The choice of track from it that Dina performs is curious though. On the face of it, “Don’t Be A Stranger” looks like a perfect choice seeing as it was the biggest selling single to be taken from the album. It’s just that it wasn’t released as a single until October. There would be two other singles taken from the album before then. Indeed, the first of those, “This Time”, would come out just a couple of weeks after this TOTP performance so why didn’t she perform that track? Unless…”Don’t Be A Stranger” was meant to be the next single but they kept it back on purpose for the Xmas market? Whatever the truth of the matter, “Don’t Be A Stranger” was a decent ballad and Dina performed it well. It would rise to No 3 in the singles chart when it was finally released nine months later

https://youtu.be/bK1cQAyxmC0

It’s the Breakers next which include two songs we’ve already seen on the show before starting with “Heaven Is” by Def Leppard. The fourth single from their “Adrenalize” album, it had apparently been around for years before it was finally recorded. Parts of it had been taken from “Hysteria” single “Armageddon It” according to band member Phil Collen. I don’t think that’s much of an endorsement to be honest Phil. A recycled version of a song whose lyrics include the line “Yeah, but are you gettin’ it? (Armageddon it!)”? Why not just get Beavis and Butthead to write your lyrics and be done with it? Utter nonsense. It peaked at No 13 (somehow) oh and singer Joe Elliott hated the video.

What’s this? The Cult’s 1985 hit “She Sells Sanctuary” back in the charts in 1993? What was going on?! Well, it’s a simple enough explanation. To fill a three year gap between studio albums, a Greatest Hits album entitled “Pure Cult: For Rockets, Ravers, Lovers And Sinners” was released and the band’s best known song was rereleased to promote it. Except it actually went by the title of “She Sells Sanctuary MCMXCIII” I believe and it’s…f******g horrible! What have they done to this stellar track?! I’ll tell you what – added some ridiculous bongos to it! Why? Just WHY?

Alright, I’m calming down. Back in 1985, this was the tune that got us all onto the dance floor in The Barn, my nightclub of choice in Worcester during my youth. I testified on the raised dance floor many a time to this track. And then…The Barn got taken over by new management and changed its name to the wankiest ever – Images On Glass – and changed its DJ who would not play anything even slightly goth or indie and The Cult were taken off the playlist. Instead we had to put up with the likes of Luther Vandross and Alexander O’Neal and the hippest tune they would play would be “Sanctify Yourself” by Simple Minds. It was a grim time.

Meanwhile in 1993, the remix of “She Sells Sanctuary” matched the chart peak of the original release when it made it to No 15. The “Pure Cult” Greatest Hits album – perhaps surprisingly – went to No 1.

It’s a third rock band on the spin as we get the latest single by Bon Jovi. The second single from their “Keep The Faith” album, “Bed Of Roses” would peak at a rather disappointing No 13. Now I’ve admitted in the past to my Bon Jovi weaknesses but this one always seemed like a bit of a duffer to me. A bit laborious, a bit obvious and not their finest hour at all to my ears but there seems to be a lot of online love out there for the track. For me though it was possibly the weakest of the singles from the album trailing far behind “In These Arms”, “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” and the epic “Dry County”.

Apparently Jon Bon Jovi refused to shoot the mountain top scenes in the video having already been filmed at the top of a canyon for the “Blaze Of Glory” single from Young Guns II. He sent his band mates Richie Sambora and David Bryan instead. Rumour has it that, in reply to his instruction, they both said “I’ll Be There For You”. I’ll get me coat.

The re-emergence of Duran Duran is still in full effect. The “Ordinary World” single is rocketing up the charts and therefore qualifies as a Breaker this week. The video plays on the wedding theme of the album’s cover (despite officially having an eponymous title, it is also known as ‘the wedding album’) depicting a bride on her wedding day with the band as guests.

There’s a couple of things that always struck me about the video. Firstly, what was the deal with the elongated bow/sash thing that makes the bride’s wedding dress look like it has wings. Nick Rhodes has a fiddle with the accessory later on in the video when he’s setting up a photo shoot (of course he would play the photographer!). Secondly, the guy she’s marrying is punching so far above his weight he’s in danger of being knocked out in the first round. Despite those reservations and Simon Le Bon’s dodgy barnet, the whole thing just about hangs together OK.

I’m putting this out there right from the get go – I don’t like Lulu. I don’t like her voice, I always hated her most famous song “Shout” and I get the impression she’s not very nice. I know she’s carved out a career of huge longevity for herself and is one of just two performers (the other being Cliff Richard) to have performed on TOTP in every decade that the show was broadcast but I just don’t warm to her. There’s an episode of Never Mind The Buzzcocks (I think) where Dale Winton voiced his hatred of Lulu by saying he’d happily dance on her grave! You don’t get more savage takedowns than that.

Anyway, in 1993, she tried to resurrect her pop career. She’d only managed one hit in the 80s (a rerelease of “Shout”) so she returned with some material that had clearly been written to be contemporary and update her sound. “Independence” was the song that she chose to relaunch herself with and it was a slick, soul/dance number that drew inevitable comparisons with Lisa Stansfield. It all seemed very cynical to me. A carefully designed strategy to make Lulu still sound relevant. It did nothing for me.

The single made No 11 which I’m guessing would have been seen as a decent return for all that plotting but the album of the same name bombed and furnished her with only one further minor chart hit, a duet with Bobby Womack. Undaunted, Lulu regrouped and reappeared later in the year on a No 1 hit no less when she guested on Take That’s cover of Dan Hartman’s “Relight My Fire” prompting much gossip about which of the lads she was shagging. Now that really was something for the tabloids to ‘shout’ about.

Whitney Houston is still No 1. Apparently the original choice for the big song from The Bodyguard film was Jimmy Ruffin’s “What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted” but it had already been used heavily in the previous year’s Fried Green Tomatoes so that idea was ditched.

The main driver behind the decision to go with “I Will Always Love You” was Kevin Costner who made the case that the plot of the film hinged on Whitney’s character singing an a cappella version of it. In fact, Costner’s influence was also felt over Houston being cast in the role. So sure was he of her suitability was he that he convinced the studio to delay recording for a year until she was available. This was on the back of his Dances With Wolves film winning an Oscar in 1991 so his stock was very high. Not even that run in with her Madgesty on In Bed With Madonna could dent his halo.

Right at the end of the show there’s what can only be described as a Sting in the tail. Actually, it was more of a Sting trailer as host Tony Dortie bigs up the ex frontman of The Police being on the show next week. To do this there’s a compilation of three of his previous hits (“All This Time”, “The Soul Cages” and “An Englishman In New York”) to work the watching TV audience up into a frenzy. This was all very strange. Had this ever been done for anyone else? Was Sting still such a big name at this time? These were Kevin Costner levels of influence!

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
12 UnlimitedNo LimitGod no!
2U.S.U.R.A.Open Your MindNot for me thanks
3West End featuring SybilThe Love I LostI did not
4East 17DeepNo but my wife had the Walthamstow album
5Dina CarrollDon’t Be A StrangerNo
6Def LeppardHeaven Is…not having to listen to this. No!
7The CultShe Sells SanctuaryNot this horrible remix but I must have the original on something
8Bon JoviBed Of RosesNo but I had a promo copy of the album
9Duran DuranOrdinary WorldGood song but not a purchase it seems
10LuluIndependenceAway with you!
11Whitney Houston I Will Always Love YouNope

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/m00183dv/top-of-the-pops-28011993