Mary J. Blige

TOTP 28 NOV 1997

The end is approaching for these 1997 TOTP repeats as we arrive at the last show of November. It was also the last show for Mark Lamarr who was presenting the final of his four episodes. This left a roster of four regular hosts – Jayne Middlemiss, Zoe Ball, Jamie Theakston and Jo Whiley – a line up that would stay unchanged until July 1998. I can’t say I’m too upset about Lamarr’s departure – I liked him on The Word and Never Mind The Buzzcocks but his comic approach didn’t quite fit with TOTP – something about it I found jarring like he was trying too hard to take the piss out of everything and everyone. He starts this show with an eyepatch and claiming he’s Snake Plissken who is the fictional character from the films Escape From New York and Escape From L.A. as portrayed by Kurt Russell. The reason behind this ‘escapes’ me but then I’ve never watched either film so maybe there’s some weird connection between them and the BBC’s premier pop music programme. If anyone reading this is in the know, please leave a comment.

We begin with Louise who, after leaving Eternal, has fashioned a very respectable pop career for herself. I use the word ‘pop’ deliberately as her previous band mates were pursuing a much more R&B direction. Maybe a parting of the ways would have been inevitable regardless. Anyway, “Let’s Go Round Again” was Louise’s sixth Top 10 hit out of seven single releases – like I said, not too shabby. However, was the fact that she’d got to the cover version stage so early a sign that her time as a solo artist was already going stale?

Originally a No 12 hit for the Average White Band in 1980, on the one hand it was a sensible choice of cover in line with her positioning as a mainstream dance/pop act. It was light and catchy and a shoo-in for Radio 1’s daytime playlists. On the other hand, it was just too safe and a definite step away from her rebranding as a sex symbol and sultry performer of songs like “Naked”. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle of these two views but ultimately it just seemed all a little pointless to me. Mind you, not as pointless as this No 78 hit from 1990 by Yell!…

After the rather surprising collaboration of hard rock heroes Metallica and English singer and actress Marianne Faithfull in the previous show, this week we get another unusual combination – ‘dream house’ pin up boy Robert Miles and one quarter of disco legends Sister Sledge, Kathy Sledge. I’m not sure how this came about and I care less but presumably Miles wanted a female vocalist for his tune “Freedom” much as he had done with Maria Nayler on his previous hit “One And One”. Kathy’s last appearance on the show would have been nearly five years before as part of Sister Sledge to promote yet another rerelease of “Lost In Music” and in the meantime she’s changed her hairstyle to what I can only describe as a Deirdre Barlow perm! She seems to be up there on her own with no sign of Robert Miles. Maybe he was washing his hair that night? Actually, Kathy’s not quite alone. Check out the studio audience member in the grey shirt who’s ‘’avin’ it large’ with his flailing arm movements. Despite most of the rest of the audience not being in the spotlight, he’s managed to keep finding a position where the studio lights keep picking him up. Not sure if that’s deliberate or lucky. As for the song, it’s fairly standard Miles fare – a twinkling piano intro and dream house beats but doesn’t really go anywhere for me. Put it like this – I wasn’t lost in the music.

Now, she may be the ‘Queen of Hip-Hop Soul’ but this single by Mary J. Blige sounds common and ignoble to my, admittedly soul-less, ears. “Missing You” is a right old dirge. Once more, it was written by legendary producer Babyface (it felt like half the Top 40 was down to him around this time) and he seems to have re-written 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love”. Certainly the opening lines have clear parallels with the 1975 chart topper. Witness:

I’m not in love, it’s just some kind of thing I’m goin’ through

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Kenneth Edmonds
Missing You lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

And…

I’m not in love, so don’t forget it, it’s just a silly phase I’m going through

Writer/s: Eric Michael Stewart, Graham Keith Gouldman
Publisher: MUSIC SALES CORPORATION
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Busted! Apparently, Shanice is on backing vocals. Remember her? “I Love Your Smile”? You couldn’t get a song so diametrically opposed to “Missing You” as that sunny, breezy, upbeat track.

Oh brilliant! Another TV actor trying his arm at a career in music. Back in the late 80s and early 90s, that seemed to be the preserve of soap stars but by 1997, one man had opened the door for anyone in a drama series to become a resident of the charts. That man was, of course, Simon Cowell. The charge sheet of this guy’s crimes against music is huge! Not happy with inflicting Robson & Jerome on us he also paved the way for Steven Houghton to play at being a pop star but this time, for Soldier Soldier read London’s Burning. The show about the lives of Blue Watch of the London Fire Brigade had already spawned one wannabe pop singer in John Alford who had three hit singles in 1996 (all cover versions* obviously) all of which were so bad he was given the nickname Jon Awful in the Our Price where I was working.

*Including “If” that had been a No 1 in the UK for yet another actor in 1975 – Telly Savalas. Talk about the phenomenon eating itself!

I’m not sure if Cowell had anything to do with that abomination (I wouldn’t be surprised if he did though) but he definitely had his mucky fingers over Steven Houghton’s cover of “Wind Beneath My Wings” as he knew the actor’s agent and encouraged him to secure a commercial release of the song. Why did the public keep falling for this practice? The set up for the single was a carbon copy of that of the aforementioned Robson & Jerome. Houghton’s character performs the song as part of the plot of one episode and…well, that was all that was required for the general public to hot foot it down to their local record store to ask for that record by the TV fireman. Look, I get that it’s a heady cocktail of promotion – a song on your favourite TV show beamed directly into your living room would be worth more than a thousand adverts in the music press and yes, I know it wasn’t an original concept. EastEnders had given us Nick Berry in 1986 singing a song that had initially been featured on the soap but this was all getting a bit much. Thankfully both Alford and Houghton’s pop careers were mercifully short lived but we aren’t out of the woods yet. We’ve still got Adam Rickitt, Martine McCutcheon and Will Mellor to come before these 90s TOTP repeats are done with us. At least we didn’t have to suffer the Bill Tarmey version of “Wind Beneath My Wings” as mentioned by Mark Lamarr. Small mercies and all that.

You know Simon Cowell’s charge sheet of crimes against music I mentioned before? Add this nonsense to it! Yes, Mr High-Waisted-Trousers also brought us this massive hutch full of rabbit shit that was “Teletubbies Say ‘Eh-Oh’ “ by the Teletubbies. Good Lord! Was there no end to this sadist’s desire to fling musical excrement at the general public. Ah, the general public. Perhaps they/we should be taking a lot of the blame for this? After all, Cowell didn’t buy all 1.3 million copies it sold himself did he? I wouldn’t put it past him to have engaged in some chart manipulation though.

Teletubbies was a TV phenomenon. A BBC children’s show aimed at a pre-school audience that first aired in March of this year, its characters Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po would become household names. The secret of the show’s success was that the Teletubbies were designed to resemble toddlers and that the way they communicated was via a language that was pure gibberish. Of course, when I was a child, our supply of gibberish came courtesy of The Flowerpot Men but they weren’t half as cute as the Teletubbies.

Cuteness wasn’t the only thing that The Flowerpot Men didn’t have – there was also the marketing strategies that existed in the 90s. Given the success of the show, the Teletubbies were always going to generate commercial spin offs and consequently Teletubbies dolls were the biggest selling toy of Christmas 1997. There was also a game released for Microsoft Windows and then there was the dreaded single. Basically just the theme tune to the show with some added bits, it would storm to the top of the charts and be the bookies favourite for the Christmas No 1. Well, if Mr. Blobby could bag the festive top seller why couldn’t the Teletubbies? In all fairness, if Simon Cowell hadn’t released the single, someone else would have. Indeed, when he got news that another label wanted to sign the Teletubbies, he got the BBC in his office and offered them £500,000 in advance to do a deal so sure was he of the single’s ability to sell. But who was buying it? I can only assume parents for their toddlers. Surely it wasn’t pop music fans?! In the end, it would be another act with young child appeal that would grab the Christmas No 1 at the last to deny the Teletubbies but that’s for a future post. In the meantime, we will be seeing Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po again in these TOTP repeats I’m afraid. At least they were a one hit wonder and were spared a follow up single.

After two stinkers comes a sweet smelling quality tune in “Never Ever” by All Saints. It certainly provides some fragrant relief from the nasty stench of Steven Houghton and the Teletubbies. However, I’ve a feeling even its bouquet might start to go stale as – get this – it’s on TOTP nine times over a thirteen week period! NINE! This was the second of those nine appearances and already the group’s shoulder shrugging dance move is becoming firmly established. A couple of things leapt to my attention. Firstly, that the only person not to get a solo part in the song is Natalie Appleton. Is this significant? She was originally going to be the group’s manager but became a performing member once she’d sorted child care arrangements for her daughter. Secondly, in the lyrics, the phrase ‘A to Z’ is used twice but the first time ‘Z’ is sung using the American pronunciation of ‘zee’ but the second time it’s the English version of ‘zed’. Make your minds up girls!

In the last post, I noted upon the identity crisis surrounding the rerelease of “You Sexy Thing” in the wake of the success of the film The Full Monty. All of the online evidence I could find points to it being under the name of Hot Chocolate which is how it should be given that the group had already had a hit with it twice. However, TOTP billed it as being by the singer Errol Brown and they’ve done so again this week. What was going on here? Errol did have a brief solo career in the late 80s but it only gave him one UK Top 40 hit in 1987 called “Personal Touch”. Or was it two as the officialcharts.com archive says that the follow up to the 1997 rerelease of “You Sexy Thing” was “It Started With A Kiss” which was under the name of Hot Chocolate featuring Errol Brown. It was all very confusing. Even Errol himself needed clarification when he sang in that follow up “you don’t remember me do you?”…

And so to the new No 1. Although this was a charity record for this year’s Children In Need appeal, it didn’t start out with that intention. 1997 was the 75th anniversary of the BBC which prompted the Beeb to undertake a corporate redesign and a series of promotional campaigns to highlight the services it offered the public. One such campaign was a trailer put together over an 18 month period to promote the wide range of music offered by the BBC. It took the form of various music artists from all genres singing a line of “Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day”. I’m not going to list all the participants but some of the names appearing included heavyweights like Bono, David Bowie and Elton John but also some left field people like Sky from Morcheeba, Laurie Anderson and Robert Cray. Country music was represented by Emmylou Harris and Tammy Wynette whilst opera was championed by Lesley Garrett and Thomas Allen. Indie had Brett Anderson and Evan Dando but perhaps the one person who everyone remembers but whose name many didn’t know was Dr. John for his pronunciation of ‘perfect’ as “poi-fect”.

The trailer proved hugely popular with the public and demand to be able to buy this version led to a single release that was tied in with the Children In Need appeal. A couple of points of interest to note here. Firstly, there can’t have been too many UK chart hits under the name of Various Artists. Off the top of my head, there was a dance medley single released to tie in with the BRIT Awards in 1990 which made No 2 I think but surely this was the first ‘Various Artists’ chart topper. Secondly, “Perfect Day” had an unusual chart journey. Having debuted at No 1 and staying there for a further week, it then spent two weeks at No 2 and two weeks at No 3 before leaping back to the top of the charts a whole month after its initial spell there. You just keep me hangin’ on indeed.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Louise	Let’s Go Round Again	Nope
2	Robert Miles featuring Kathy Sledge	Freedom	Nah
3	Mary J. Blige	Missing You	No
4	Steven Houghton	Wind Beneath My Wings	Never
5	Teletubbies	Teletubbies Say ‘Eh-Oh’	What do you think?!
6	All Saints	Never Ever	Liked it, didn’t buy it
7	Hot Chocolate	You Sexy Thing	I did not
8	Various Artists	Perfect Day	No but I had Lou Reed’s Transformer album

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/m002c5fm/top-of-the-pops-28111997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 15 AUG 1997

Posted on March 24 by 80stastic

We’ve lost another month to the Puff Daddy/P Diddy issue as “I’ll Be Missing You”, having spent three weeks at No 1 and then slipping a place to No 2 to accommodate Oasis for seven days, went back to the top of the charts for another three weeks! Bloody hell! Who did we miss? Nobody I was that bothered about to be honest – I’m actually very relieved to have missed reviewing Gary Barlow, Boyzone, Backstreet Boys and Peter Andre. Maybe Paul Weller and Morrissey would have been interesting but hey ho!

We pick the TOTP story back up in the middle of August and this one is actually quite an important episode. Not for the artists on it who are quite underwhelming but because this was the week that the decision was taken (presumably by new executive producer Chris Cowey) to do away with any sort of theme music at all. From early February 1995 we’d had the Vince Clarke composition “Red Hot Pop” which had replaced “Now Get Out Of That” by Tony Gibber which had ushered in the ‘Year Zero’ revamp. Prior to that, the show had been soundtracked by Paul Hardcastle’s “The Wizard” stretching back to 1986. Come 15th August 1997, we had nothing except an intro from the host – Denise van Outen this week – and then the opening of the first song played under the titles.

Said first song is “Bitch” by Meredith Brooks. Yeah, that one. Meredith was one of a number of female solo artists in the 90s who would be known for one hit and one hit only (see also Alannah Myles, Paula Cole, Donna Lewis) but what a hit it was – No 2 in the US and No 6 over here. Co-written with songwriter Shelly Peiken who was frustrated at having had album cuts for the past 10 years but never a huge hit single, her vexation spilled over into the lyrics of “Bitch” and a worldwide smash was born. It nearly never happened though as her record label Capitol baulked at some of the lyrics and the song’s title. One of those unsure about the song’s potential was producer Geza X who expressed concern that the lyrics might have a negative effect on its chances of commercial success. That’s infamous punk producer Geza X who produced the Dead Kennedys classic “Too Drunk To Fuck”! Unbelievable!

Despite those misgivings, it was released and the rest is history. Its success would lead to a spate of covers and parodies including this one by Australian comedian Chris Franklin and yes, it’s as bad as you might be imagining.

As with Michael Jackson the other week, I think it’s the final TOTP appearance that I’ll have to comment on in my blog (which I’m calling time on at the end of the 1999 repeats) by Wet Wet Wet. And what a crummy way to go out – with a version of one of the most recorded songs in the history of popular music. Why were they covering “Yesterday” by The Beatles? Was it just to ensure a hit? Unlikely. The first phase of their career might have been winding down but was it in need of a reviving, shot-in-the-arm smash? No, it was just another case of the band having recorded a 60s song for the soundtrack of a film. Panic not though. This wasn’t a repeat of their 15 week spell at No 1 with “Love Is All Around” from Four Weddings And A Funeral. Their version of “Yesterday” was taken from the soundtrack to Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie and would peak at No 4. Despite how many times the song has been covered, its chart statistics aren’t that impressive. Famously never released by the Fab Four as a single whilst they were together, it was taken into the charts by Matt Monro and Marianne Faithfull in 1965 within a month of each other with ‘The Man with the Golden Voice’ winning out with a high of No 8 compared to Marianne’s No 36. Ray Charles would have a go at making it a hit two years later but he wouldn’t crack the Top 40. In 1976, The Beatles original was finally released and it scampered up the charts to match Matt Monro’s placing. 21 years later Wet Wet Wet, whether deserved or not, would have the biggest UK hit with it. So was their version any good? Well, I think Marti Pellow’s voice suited the song well enough but it’s a fairly unremarkable take on it and the pedal steel guitar interlude is particularly incongruous. On the plus side, Marti’s lost his peroxide blonde hair at last. So, farewell Wet Wet Wet. There was some good stuff, some not so good stuff and some downright annoying stuff but it was undoubtedly a chart life well lived.

No, Olive weren’t a classic one hit wonder (a No 1 record then nothing) but could I have told you what their other hit was without checking? Absolutely not. Turns out it was called “Outlaw” and, for what it’s worth, having listened back to it, I much prefer it to “You’re Not Alone”. Why? I guess because it sounds like a proper song rather than a dance track. Although it retains a shifting, skittering drum ‘n’ bass backbeat, it’s got a defined structure to it – there’s a genuine song in there. I could imagine it reconfigured in a pure pop style and it would work.

In an act that seemed to confirm their pop sensibilities, Olive would release a cover version of one of the classic pop songs of the 70s when they chose 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love” as the lead single from their second album “Trickle”. It wouldn’t reverse their chart fortunes but there remains a lot of love online for Olive. It seems they remain ‘not alone’.

There’s three female solo artists on tonight’s show starting with Mary J Blige who is enjoying her biggest ever UK chart hit* with “Everything”. Based around “You Are Everything” by The Stylistics, it was written and produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis – of course it was. It was a good vehicle for Blige’s vocals though I’m still surprised that it was as big a hit as it was with it peaking at No 6. With her huge, tinted wrap-a-round glasses and long hair, Mary seems to have modelled her look on ex-Dutch international footballer Edgar Davids but that can’t have been the case surely?

*She would also have a No 4 hit in 1999 with a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “As” but that was a duet with George Michael

“You Are Everything” was also a hit for Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross in the early 80s but my research tells me that there was another version of it that was never actually released but was surely one of the oddest collaborations in pop history. There are only snippets of the track that have been leaked online but I give you heavy metal band Judas Priest doing a cover of a soul song produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman…

Judging by what I’d read about this one beforehand, I wasn’t expecting much but it was actually better than predicted. The Wildhearts had established themselves as a consistent chart band and by this point in the decade had amassed seven consecutive Top 40 hits (though none bigger than No 14). Hit number eight came courtesy of the lead single from their fourth studio album “Endless, Nameless” entitled “Anthem”. Having made their name with a brand of melodic rock, 1997 saw them spurn that for an industrial rock style that was more about distortion and feedback than riffs and hooks. The album was not well received by their fanbase and it failed to make the Top 40 of the album chart. The band’s lead vocalist Ginger though has proclaimed it as his favourite Wildhearts album and retrospectively, it has come to be seen as a strong rock statement.

As for “Anthem”, as I said, I had feared the worst, a grungey mess akin to *Nirvana’s infamous TOTP appearance in 1991 when Kurt Cobain sang live on “Smells Like Teen Spirit” deliberately badly. However, despite vocal duties being undertaken not by regular singer Ginger but by bassist Danny McCormack, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it’s a heavy sound but far from a noise. It does get a bit repetitive towards the end with the constant chanting of its chorus but I wasn’t completely put off. One person who was far from put off was the topless guy in the studio audience who was having it large down the front. Do you think he was a superfan? There’s always one and he was probably it. He’s probably approaching his 50s now. I wonder if he’s kept the faith?

*The title “Endless, Nameless” is also that of a Nirvana song apparently

I think I was expecting the next turn to be an out and out diva house artist but that’s possibly because I was confusing Robyn with Robin S though, in my defence, they both had hits with songs called “Show Me Love”. This wasn’t the American singer Ms S though but Swedish singer Robin Miriam Carlsson (aka Robyn) who would rack up eight UK Top 40 hits over a 13 year period including a No 1. I don’t know/remember any of them I have to say. That run started with “Do You Know (What It Takes)” and, having listened to it, my impression is that this was a blueprint for the sound that would make Britney Spears a global superstar. It’s not a surprising reaction on my behalf when I tell you that the co-writer and producer of the track was one Max Martin* who would go on to write “…Baby One More Time”. So, given all of this, maybe we should be asking ourselves why Robyn didn’t become Britney Spears before Britney did? She had the looks and the sound after all. On reflection though, given what would happen to the ‘Princess of Pop’, maybe Robyn was quite happy with the pop career she had?

*Martin would go on to write/co-write an incredible 27 Billboard No 1s including Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl” and Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” so he clearly knew what he was doing when it came to penning hits for female pop stars!

Our third female solo artist on the show tonight is Kym Mazelle who despite not having a large collection of huge hits, does have a huge reputation – not for nothing is she known as ‘The First Lady of House Music’. Having worked with the likes of Dr.Robert of The Blow Monkeys, house legend Marshall Jefferson, Norman Cook, Soul II Soul and Jocelyn Brown, here she was stepping out on her own with her version of Candi Staton’s “Young Hearts Run Free” from the soundtrack to Romeo + Juliet. It’s a fairly faithful cover of the disco classic albeit with a nod towards the genre on which Kym made her name which makes me wonder why the film’s director Baz Luhrmann didn’t just use the original* in his film?

*Staton’s version was eventually rereleased in 1999 when it made No 29.

Despite all that she achieved in her long career, I have to say that the first thing I think of when I hear her name is this song in which she gets a name check…

We’re stuck with this Top 20 countdown business and we’re onto our third person doing the voiceover for it after Jayne Middlemiss and some random anonymous bloke. This week’s it’s Mark Goodier and he will keep the gig for the next five years.

The first No 1 that Goodier has to announce comes from Will Smith and it’s yet another song from a film and yet another hit that is based around a sample of an older song. “Men In Black” was, of course, from the movie of the same name and was the second chart topper this year to be built around Patrice Rushen’s “Forget Me Nots” following George Michael’s “Fastlove” in April. What were the chances?! It was also the second UK No 1 for Smith though the first hit (of any size) under his own name – “Boom! Shake The Room” was as The Fresh Prince with DJ Jazzy Jeff.

With the film a box office smash, its theme tune was almost assured massive hit status and so it proved to be with it topping charts around the world (though curiously not in America where it wasn’t given a physical release). It was the UK’s sixth best selling single of 1997 and would kick off a string of chart successes in this country for Smith up to 2005. As for me, it was one of those songs that you could appreciate for what it was but after one or two listens it became rather annoying. The appearance mid-video here of a superimposed Smith apologising to the TOTP viewers for not being there in person is similarly irritating but I’m sure executive producer Chris Cowey would have been pleased with himself for the coup.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Meredith Brooks	Bitch	No
2	Wet Wet Wet	Yesterday	I did not
3	Olive	Outlaw	Nope
4	Mary J. Blige	Everything	Nah
5	The Wildhearts	Anthem	Negative
6	Robyn	Do You Know (What It Takes)	Another no
5	Kym Mazelle	Young Hearts Run Free	Didn’t happen
8	Will Smith	Men In Black	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/m0028x68/top-of-the-pops-15081997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 16 MAY 1997

Posted on February 26 by 80stastic

It’s 16th May 1997 and I’m waking up in London after travelling back from my trip to China and stopping over with a friend having missed my last train home the night before. China was mind blowing and at times I struggled with the culture shock but it was also something I’ll never forget. I saw some amazing sights (including The Great Wall of China) and experienced a different way of life I never would have otherwise. I couldn’t get used to locals wanting to have their picture taken with me because I was a Westerner though like I was a tourist attraction! I’d gone to see my mate Rob who was living and studying there and travelled with his brother Chris who stayed on in Beijing after I’d left for the UK. Why didn’t I stay longer? I had an important date with my TV at 3pm on Saturday 17th as my beloved Chelsea were in the FA Cup final for only the second time in my living memory. It sounds kind of sad that I gave up more potential time on a trip of a lifetime for a football match but I couldn’t be sure I would have found anywhere in Beijing showing it and in any case, neither Rob nor Chris were big football fans. However, I did try and convert some Chinese friends of Rob’s in a bar by getting them to chant “Chelsea, Chelsea” (Chris went down the political route and got them to chant “Tony Blair, Tony Blair”). Anyway, I was back home in time to watch the match and it’s a good job I wasn’t scrabbling around trying to find somewhere in Beijing to watch it as we scored after 43 seconds and eventually triumphed 2-0 to win our first major trophy in 26 years. Hurray! My diary entry for that day just says ‘We Won!’ and then stops forever so they’ll be no more posts inspired by that time going forward. Enough of my personal life though. This is meant to be a music blog so hopefully you’re still with me as we dive into what was showing on TOTP way back when….

Dannii Minogue is our host following in the footsteps of sister Kylie (wasn’t it always thus) who presented the show a few weeks back. The first act on tonight is a throwback to The Monkees (or was it an S Club 7 prototype) as North & South make their TOTP debut. These four lads were put together by ‘Pop Svengali’© Tom Watkins who was responsible for East 17 and had managed Pet Shop Boys and Bros. However, this wasn’t just a plain old charge at the pop charts – no, this time it was a double pronged strategy with a TV show starring the boys as well. Named No Sweat, it had the group playing characters rather than themselves (though they reverted to their own names for the second series) who form a band at school and try to make it big. I can’t say I ever saw it but it doesn’t stop me making (potentially) lazy comparisons with The Monkees (that’s twice now). With the show a hit (initially at least), there needed to be some product to sell and so “I’m A Man Not A Boy” was released as their debut single. Now given what I said about who their mentor was, it’s hardly surprising that there’s a whiff of Bros about this one and not just because they had a similar sounding hit in “Drop The Boy”. I mean, at least it wasn’t yet another cover of a 70s ballad by the Bee Gees or The Osmonds which was the go to song choice for boy bands at the time. It chugs along with enough hooks and slots for the screams and sighs of the female teenage audience that they were so clearly put together to woo.

The single would go in at No 7 but that would be the height of their appeal despite the band touring. Three subsequent singles charted lower than the one before, the second series of No Sweat didn’t pull in the same amount of viewers as Series 1 and their album remained unreleased. Within two years, that other ‘Pop Svengali’© Simon Fuller would return to the idea and put together S Club 7 who similarly rose to fame via TV show Miami 7. Oh and by the way, “I’m A Man Not A Boy” was nothing to do with Chesney Hawkes’ other hit of the same name (yes he did have another one chart fact fans). See, listen for yourselves..,

Brownstone are up next in the studio. My knowledge of Brownstone, despite working in record shops for the whole of the 90s, was/is meagre at best…

They were (and still are apparently) an all female R&B group
Erm…that’s it

Consequently, I haven’t much to say about them or their song “5 Miles To Empty” (which obviously I don’t remember). I couldn’t have even told you how many members were in the group before watching this performance back. Oh yeah, members. Some American all female R&B groups in the 90s seemed to operate a revolving door policy when it came to group line ups. Wikipedia informs me that just like En Vogue, Brownstone had a few members come and go from the original starting line up. In total seven singers have worn the Brownstone shirt over the years and they’re only a trio! And I thought the Sugababes were the queens of members coming and going!

Dannii Minogue describes both the artist and her song as “beautiful” in her next intro and she spot on with both assessments. Sinéad O’Connor was beautiful – she had that timeless beauty like Audrey Hepburn, something that sometimes gets lost in all the controversy that surrounded her, not that she would have considered herself so nor that it was in the least bit important to her I would imagine. As for her song “This Is To Mother You”, it’s an exquisitely beautiful composition taken from a four track EP called “Gospel Oak” that would peak at No 28 in the UK charts. Nobody did affecting vocals like Sinéad and they are what makes this song so haunting, that and its simplicity. So strong is its message and emotional pull that it was remade in 2009 as a duet with Mary J.Blige as part of the Girls Are Not For Sale campaign to bring awareness to the issue of child sex trafficking.

And another studio appearance! Hang on…

*checks running order*

Yes, they’re all studio appearances in this episode (albeit the last artist is just a repeat from a previous show). There are no promo videos featured at all. I wonder what the thinking behind that was? Anyway, Damage are the next act appearing in person and after their last two hits both went Top 10, they reach their commercial peak with this single which is an unlikely cover of Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight”. I say unlikely as it’s not an obvious choice for an R&B group but they just about make it work, keeping their rendition fairly faithful but injecting it with some subtle soul inflections. Damage’s version would debut at No 3 which was loads higher than Clapton’s original mainly on account of the fact that it was never released as a single in the UK – well, not until a live version came out in 1991 and made No 30 anyway. Now, “Wonderful Tonight” was one of the songs that I learned to play at one of my early guitar classes, largely due to its chords actually being quite basic despite it being an Eric ‘God’ Clapton song. I got pretty good at picking that one.

P.S. After Pottsy with Monaco the other week, this TOTP featured another person that I knew (well, I’d met before at least) – the nearest violinist on the left hand side of the screen was the friend and colleague of one of my wife’s best friends who herself is a classical musician.

Here come Katrina And The Waves now with their third TOTP appearance – clearly the buzz about them winning Eurovision hadn’t dissipated yet. Alternatively, you could say that they were milking their rise from pop’s ashes for all that they were worth. In fairness to them, they had just moved up the charts from No 50 to No 13 so another trip to the TOTP studio could certainly be justified.

Now, is it just me or does “Love Shine A Light” have a faint whiff of “Let The River Run” about it. I’ve listened to both back to back and I still can’t decide if they are similar or I’m just overreaching massively because both choruses feature the word ‘let’ heavily. What do you think?

After mentioning Mary J. Blige earlier, here she is on her first ever appearance on TOTP in person – I love it when a post comes together. Hang on, you don’t suppose this could have been when Mary and Sinéad O’Connor met for the first time which led to a friendship resulting in that collaboration years later on “This Is To Mother You” do you? Or am I overreaching again?

Anyway, the ‘Queen of Hip-Hop Soul’ was in the studio to perform her latest single “Love Is All We Need” making her the third R&B artist on the show tonight following Brownstone and Damage earlier. My word, the running order is testing the limits of my limited knowledge of the genre this week! I do know that she has legendary status in that world and a string of awards to her name but I would struggle to name any of her songs. “What’s The 411?”? Was that one? Or was that the title of one of her albums? Look, I’m trying my best, OK? Listening to this one, it sounds a bit Mariah Carey-ish to me or maybe Janet Jackson-esque but then it was produced by the latter’s long time collaborators Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis so maybe that’s not surprising. It was taken from the album “Share My World” which marked the parting of the ways between Mary and her producer, manager and mentor Sean Combs aka Puff Daddy/P Diddy/Diddy which, with what we now know about him was surely a good move. This led to Mary working instead with the likes of the aforementioned Jam and Lewis, Babyface and…ah…R Kelly…oh dear. I think I’ll just retreat from this one without any further comment.

We have a new No 1 and it’s one of those records that seemed to come out of nowhere but, of course, it had its background story like every other hit. “You’re Not Alone” by Olive had originally been released in August of 1996 when it peaked just outside of the Top 40 at No 42 (they would make a habit of this – follow up “Miracle” peaked at No 41). Despite missing out on mainstream success, it was a hit in the clubs and was given a remix and rereleased and debuted at the very top of the charts staying there for two weeks. It reminds me of the Baby D hit “Let Me Be Your Fantasy” from late 1994, another dance track fronted by a female singer that came from out of left field and which similarly went to the pinnacle of the charts despite the act behind it having had no previous Top 40 hits. These were the crazy 90s where such chart feats were possible.

Olive were put together by someone from trip-hop entity Nightmares On Wax (which made sense) and a fella who used to be in Simply Red (which really didn’t). Vocalist Ruth-Ann Boyle had done some vocal samples for Vini Reilly’s The Durutti Column and once the Simply Red guy heard them and contacted Boyle, Olive were formed. “You Are Not Alone” with its skittering, trip-hop backing, melancholy feel and Boyle’s warm, smooth vocals proved irresistible to record buyers second time around and they would follow it with a No 14 hit in “Outlaw” and a Top 30 album in “Extra Virgin” (see what they did there?). However, that would be the extent of their chart career. A third single – a rerelease of “Miracle” – peaked again at No 41 making it surely one of the most unlucky releases ever. By the way, doesn’t Ruth-Ann Boyle look like Natalie Casey from BBC sitcom Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps?

Natalie, of course, has her own pop star claim to fame story…

Right, this nonsense has gone too far now! I’m talking about this new policy of featuring hits on the show that are going down the charts. Look at this – we end with last week’s No 1 which has fallen five places to No 6! WTF?! I’m not sure who was ultimately responsible for this daft decision, be it producer Mark Wells, executive producer Trevor Dann or show director John L. Spencer but it was baffling. It’s as if they were deliberately trying to run the programme down, making it less and less attractive to its audience and hence causing declining viewing figures. Say what you like about recently departed executive producer Ric Blaxill but he never pulled any shit like this. The lucky recipient of this undeserved exposure this time is Gary Barlow with his single “Love Won’t Wait” but he’ll get his comeuppance soon enough when the Robbie Williams factor kicks in.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	North & South	I’m A Man Not A Boy	Nope
2	Brownstone	5 Miles To Empty	Nah
3	Sinéad O’Connor	This Is To Mother You	I did not
4	Damage	Wonderful Tonight	No
5	Katrina And The Waves	Love Shine A Light	Negative
6	Mary J. Blige	Love Is All We Need	Didn’t happen
7	Olive	You’re Not Alone	Not for me
8	Gary Barlow	Love Won’t Wait	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/m002861w/top-of-the-pops-16051997?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 27 JUL 1995

Posted on December 22, 2023 by 80stastic

Right, that’s Christmas and New Year celebrations well and truly over with for another year and a return to normality beckons. However, that isn’t on the cards for these BBC4 TOTP repeats. As far as I can tell, we won’t be returning to these 1995 shows until late January at the earliest as the 60th anniversary commemorations of the show via a series of retro programmes focusing on performances from the 60s, 70s and 80s continue. So, after being behind with my reviews for weeks, I now have ample opportunity to catch up. Hurray!

Tonight’s episode is hosted by Craig McLachlan, probably still best known at this time as Henry from Neighbours though he had carved out a brief career for himself as a pop star at the turn of the decade with his No 2 UK hit “Mona”. Quite why he was perceived to be a big enough name to host TOTP in July 1995 though is a question that’s not immediately obvious to answer to me. He’d left Ramsey Street long ago and his last chart hit in this country – a version of “You’re The One That I Want” with Debbie Gibson as part of the cast of Grease – had been two years prior. However, he had just finished starring in the BBC crime drama series Bugs so that could be the reason behind his appearance here. I never watched that show so maybe that’s why I didn’t quite understand the height of his profile. Whatever the reason for his ‘golden mic’ slot, he turns in a pretty lacklustre performance. Giving a pretence of what you perceive to be cool and actually being cool are two very different things though why he thought he could pull off an all-in-one leather singlet outfit with shades accessories, only he will know. Maybe he was trying on a future look for size as there’s something a bit Frank-N-Furter about it, a role that McLachlan would play more than once in productions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Looking remarkably ordinary in comparison (thank goodness) are opening act The Boo Radleys who have clocked up a third consecutive Top 40 hit. After the ubiquitous airplay hit that was “Wake Up Boo!” at the start of the year, the band had followed it up with what I believed was an infinitely better tune in “Find The Answer Within” but once again I was in the lower percentile of the record buying public when it peaked at No 37. Undeterred, a third single from the “Wake Up!” album was released and “It’s Lulu” would fall between two stools, peaking a whole 12 places higher than its immediate predecessor but nowhere near the Top 10 position of the (almost) title track.

As much as I liked it, I believed there were better tracks on the album (which I’d bought) and had hoped “Twinside” or the beautiful ballad “Wilder” would have been chosen as the third and final single from it. Sadly it was not to be and the perfectly decent but rather obvious “It’s Lulu” was given the shout (ahem). I’m guessing it wasn’t actually about the diminutive Scottish singer as the lyrics seem to tell the story of a teenage girl who feels the angst of her age group admitting that she can’t buy any clothes that fit, gets her facts from Smash Hits and is only understood by the posters on her walls. OK, they’re a bit clunky but they beat the pants off Lulu shouting endlessly about not very much.

Now it’s never occurred to me before but is there something in the verses to “It’s Lulu” that’s reminiscent of a certain cult classic advert from the early 80s?…

OK, this was just getting silly now; silly and confusing. “Stuck On U” was the sixth consecutive Top 40 hit for those cheeky scamps PJ & Duncan including one inside the Top 10 and four registering respectable chart peaks of either No 15 or No 12. Quite how they were mining these hits from a very narrow vein of pop/rap material…well…I can only assume that the people buying their records were actually buying into their likeable personalities as the music was formulaic at best. But was it their personalities or their characters because – and this was where the confusion came in – the lines between the real duo (as in Ant & Dec) and their Byker Grove constructs were really blurred around this time. You see despite still continuing to release records as PJ & Duncan (a trend that would carry on until 1996), they were doing a side hustle as TV presenters (having left Byker Grove well behind them) under their own names. Indeed, just three months before this TOTP aired, the first episode of their own show entitled The Ant & Dec Show (!) was broadcast on CBBC. Identity crisis at all?

To add to the confusion, “Stuck On U” was the lead track from their second album “Top Katz” (an awful, dreadful title) which Wikipedia informs me only made it to No 46 in the charts despite containing four hit singles and yet it went gold selling 100,000 copies. No 46 but it sold 100,000 copies? That can’t be right can it? This is a case of advanced orders from record shops masquerading as actual customers sales isn’t it?

Next, what would be called a collaboration these days but back in 1995 it was probably…what? A duet? Maybe not. Anyway, whatever it was, it featured…oh that was probably it wasn’t it? One of the artists featuring the other.

*checks cover of single*

Yes! Officially, it was Method Man featuring Mary J. Blige. Method Man was one of those rap artists that definitely required a temporary insert in place of the actual CD sleeve when on display in any of the Our Price stores I worked in along with Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan, 2 Pac, NWA etc. This single “I’ll BeThere For You / You’re All I Need To Get By”, released on the legendary Def Jam label, was supposedly one of the first examples of the ‘Thug-Love’ genre which I wasn’t aware of at the time but which I understand now to be the combination of a rapper doing the verses and an R&B soul singer doing the chorus (I think). Said chorus plunders heavily the melody from Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s hit 1968 hit “You’re All I Need To Get By” which is the only bit which appeals to me I have to say. The track did appeal in its entirety to a lot of people though going to No 3 in the US and Top 10 in the UK. Was it from a film as that might have had an influence on its success?

*checks Wikipedia*

It doesn’t seem so but it was the biggest hit for either artist at the time. Mary J. Blige is one of those names which I know and who have been extraordinarily successful even earning the moniker of the ‘Queen of R&B’ but whom I’m not sure I could name even three of her songs. The same without doubt applies to Method Man. That clearly says more about my musical tastes than either’s profile.

We’re only three songs in and already Craig McLachlan is becoming insufferable in his role as host. In his link to the next act he says “Yo! Top of the Poppers!” Oh dear. I tried out that greeting affectation once when I was a student at Sunderland Poly. My wife (then girlfriend) was with me at the time and nearly dumped me on the spot. I’ve never used it since. McLachlan then goes on to say that people are always asking him what his favourite type of music is. There’s a couple of things about both this revelation and his answer that don’t ring true to me. Firstly, that anyone would be that interested in his musical preferences in the first place and secondly that he would reply with The Lightning Seeds. Yes, I know it was just a lame line, a construct to segue between artists but couldn’t the scriptwriters have done better here?

Anyway, this was the point where Lightning Seeds really got into gear as a chart hit making machine with “Perfect” being their third Top 40 single of 1995, all of them from their “Jollification” album which would achieve platinum sales by the end of the year. Unlike its high speed predecessors “Change” and “Marvellous”, “Perfect” was a much slower, reflective tune, some may even say melancholy. In fact, listening back to it now, it strikes me that perhaps this was actually Ian Broudie’s attempt at writing his own version of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day”. Now I’m not suggesting that his song is on a par with the classic track from the iconic “Transformer” album – of course not – but it does have a feel of it, possibly.

As for the performance here, the TOTP producers obviously felt that, despite ex-Icicle Works drummer Chris Sharrock doing his best Keith Moon impression, Ian Broudie sat at a keyboard wasn’t the most interesting spectacle. As such, they came up with a special effect that saw his head, detached and blown up in size dangling over the stage like some pop music version of the Wizard Of Oz (before we got to see the real Oz behind the curtain).

A rerelease of “Lucky You” would see Lightning Seeds clock up four hit singles in 1995 before returning in 1996 with the enduring football anthem “Three Lions” the following year and there was nothing cowardly about that song.

Craig McLachlan does some awful Guinness referencing intro for the next act who are, of course, Irish boyband Boyzone. Unlike the Lightning Seeds who followed up two uptempo hits with a slower song, the pretenders to Take That’s crown did the reverse, releasing a pop tune that bounces along after two consecutive ballads. I made the point previously that the group’s second hit “Key To My Life” was surely a forgotten Boyzone hit. Well, if that one is forgotten then “So Good” must be consigned to oblivion. It’s basically just a chorus with some other bits thrown in as an afterthought. Now, I can’t help noticing the dancing on display here (because the music is hardly captivating is it?) and it occurred to me that though there is definite progress from this…

…most of their moves involve wiggling a leg around Riverdance style and generally just jumping on the spot. Yes, at least they do it in time and their matching outfits lend the whole thing a sense of synchronicity but it’s not that slick is it? Still, maybe it was better that they weren’t super tight. I always admired Bananarama for their amateurish dance steps (earlier in their career at least) and couldn’t stand the synchronised swimming precision of some of the boy bands that emerged later in the decade.

After two hits that they’d had a hand in writing themselves, Boyzone would return with a cover in Cat Stevens’ “Father And Son” that would give them another enormous festive hit just as their version of “Love Me For A Reason” by The Osmonds had done the previous Christmas.

Now I could have sworn that I didn’t know this song by REM but having watched the video for “Tongue”, it does ring a fair few bells and so it should as it has a very distinctive sound. The fifth and final single from the “Monster” album, Michael Stipe sings the whole song in falsetto and it seems to my ears that there’s very little instrumentation to the track save for the sustaining sound of a dominant organ. It’s quite striking so how it seems to have escaped my accessible memory banks is bemusing.

Something else that seemed to have slipped my mind (if I ever knew it in the first place) was the song’s subject matter. Michael Stipe is on record as saying that it is about cunnilingus. Off the top of my head, I can only think of “Turning Japanese” by The Vapours as a pop song that is inspired by a particular sexual act though I’m sure there will be more. I wonder if host Craig McLachlan knew the story behind the song. It would certainly have made his intro take on a complete different tone. Replace every mention of Rapid Eye Movement here with the word ‘cunnilingus’ and see what difference it makes:

“Let me talk to you about Rapid Eye Movement . Do you know what that is? Rapid Eye Movement – have you experienced it? You’re about to…R…E..M!”.

It’s time for another appearance by Seal as his single “Kiss From A Rose” is up to No 5. Somewhat surprisingly, despite his profile, Seal would only have another two UK Top 40 hits under his own name. In fact, his chart success fell away pretty spectacularly. Despite his first two albums going to No 1, his third, 1998’s “Human Being”, only made it to No 44 selling 10x less than its predecessor. He did have more of a return to form with “Seal IV” making No 4 appropriately in 2003 but he has not had another Top 10 album since. We won’t see him in the UK singles chart again for nearly 18 months when another song from a film – his cover of Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like An Eagle” from Space Jam returned him to the Top 20.

It’s the album chart slot now which means a chance for Supergrass to plug their debut album “I Should Coco” which has risen to the top of the charts off the back of the success of their No 2 single “Alright”. To celebrate the achievement, the band are live by satellite from Vancouver performing “Caught By The Fuzz” which was their first ever single which failed to make the Top 40 on its release in the autumn of 1994.

Wikipedia tells me that a mugshot of Hugh Grant – who had been caught by the fuzz (and indeed his short and curlys) receiving oral sex from prostitute Divine Brown on Sunset Boulevard exactly a month before this TOTP aired – was intended to be the artwork for the sleeve of the US release of the single. However, Grant’s lawyers complained and the idea was dropped. Not completely it would seem though as bassist Mick Quinn is wearing a T-shirt in this performance with that infamous Grant mugshot emblazoned all over it. I wonder if Hugh’s lawyers were watching?

As for the song itself, I’m slightly surprised that it never got a rerelease off the back of the band’s subsequent success. Maybe they thought they’d plundered the album enough by this point and wanted to avoid over exposure seeing as “Alright” had been all over radio and TV. Good tune though.

Oh dear. Inevitably, Craig McLachlan has got a guitar out and is singing the next intro (and I thought Mike Read was bad back in the day). Quite who the two blokes with him are or why they are dressed as Arabs I’m not sure. Could the disguised duo be any of the artists that were in the studio that day? Well, having inspected the footage, it’s clearly not PJ & Duncan / Ant & Dec nor any of Boyzone – could it be any of the Lightning Seeds or The Boo Radleys? I’d like to think they wouldn’t have lowered themselves.

Anyway, said intro is for Julian Cope who is enjoying his first UK Top 40 hit since the rather lovely “Beautiful Love” from 1991. “Try Try Try” was the lead single from his twelfth solo studio album “20 Mothers” – wait, his twelfth was in 1995?! So how many has he done in total?

*checks his discography*

My God! He’s up to 36 now! Like him or loath him (and I very much like him), you have to admire the prolific frequency of his output. Listening back to “Try Try Try” now, I’m struck by how conventional a sound it is which is at odds with his outlandish appearance (he does look like a knacker in that druid hat). It sort of reminds me of The Who in places, something about the melody perhaps? I’d sort of lost track of Julian by this point having kind of drawn a line under him when buying his 1992 compilation “Floored Genius” though I’m sure I went to an exhibition he curated at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester around this time.

There’s an episode of Rock Family Trees about the post-punk scene in Liverpool in the early 70s where Pete Wylie talks about Cope having been in the short lived but near legendary Crucial Three with him alongside Ian McCulloch. His relationship with Julian has been antagonistic over the years and he describes him as being this rather unwanted, weirdo type figure tutting “Here comes Julian” whenever Cope arrived. My wife and I still use this phrase today usually when our cat is pissing us off referring to him as Julian even though his name is Peter Pan.

The Outhere Brothers are still at No 1 with “Boom Boom Boom”. Fear not though as their four week reign at the top will be ended in the next show by *SPOILER ALERT* Take That who also ended the run of their other chart topper “Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)”. This, in some way, almost makes up for the fact that they couldn’t depose Mr. Blobby as the Christmas No 1 in 1993. Almost.

The play out video is “Violet” by Hole. Apparently the lyrics relate to Courtney Love’s past relationship with Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan and it got me thinking about how many other songs are about relationships that have gone bad. Off the top of my head there’s “A Good Heart” by Feargal Sharkey which was written by Maria McKee about the end of her relationship with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench. Then there’s the follow up single “You Little Thief” which is written by Tench and is supposedly his response to McKee’s song. Perhaps the most famous example though is Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain”. For years there was speculation about who the song was about but Carly has finally admitted that it was about ex-lover Warren Beatty – well, the second verse at least if not the whole song. There must be many more out there though surely?

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	The Boo Radleys	It’s Lulu	No but I had the album
2	PJ & Duncan	Stuck On U	As if
3	Method Man featuring Mary J. Blige	I’ll BeThere For You / You’re All I Need To Get By	No
4	The Lightning Seeds	Perfect	Nope
5	Boyzone	So Good	Never happening
6	REM	Tongue	Nah
7	Seal	Kiss From A Rose	I did not
8	Supergrass	Caught By The Fuzz	See 1 above
9	Julian Cope	Try Try Try	Sorry Julian but no
10	The Outhere Brothers	Boom Boom Boom	Hell no!
11	Hole	Violet	Not for me thanks

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/m001tdmj/top-of-the-pops-27071995

TOTP 02 SEP 1993

Posted on October 14, 2022 by 80stastic

I commented in a recent post about the machinations that were happening at Radio 1 in the Autumn of 1993. Incoming new controller Matthew Bannister was on a mission to revitalise the station’s image that hadn’t been ‘hip for the kids’ for quite some time. The day after this TOTP was broadcast, there was another change – not as headline making as Dave Lee Travis’ recent on air rant / resignation but fairly big news all the same. Simon Mayo’s tenure at the helm of the station’s most high profile slot The Breakfast Show came to an end after five years. He’d been in place whilst I was a student, through getting married and now into full adulthood but to be honest, I wasn’t that arsed about his departure. He always came across as a bit smug to me and was single handedly responsible for making chart hits out of some awful records like “Kinky Boots” and “Donald Where’s Yer Troosers?”. He would move to the mid morning slot before leaving Radio 1 altogether in 2001. After spells at Radio 5 Live and Radio 2, he currently resides at Greatest Hits Radio I believe. He will be one of the faces that return to TOTP when the BBC4 repeats reach 1994 and the ‘year zero’ revamp changes are reversed.

Talking of faces…We start the show with 2 Unlimited and their latest single “Faces”. I’m sorry but this was just milking the formula dry. I’ve read some reviews from the time that suggest that this was a deviation from their usual blueprint with some changes of tempo evident but it sounds exactly the same as their previous single and the one before that to me. There is a bit right at the start where Anita sings the word ‘faces’ and it sounds like “Spaceman” by Babylon Zoo but then it straight into those uncultured synth riffs and some nonsense lyrics about there being different faces everywhere. Banal and pointless. This was just terrible. Somehow it still made the Top 10 just like five of their previous six hits had done.

A full outing for a Breaker from last week now as we get “Disco Inferno” by Tina Turner. Taken from the soundtrack to her biopic What’s Love Got To Do With It, the video features clips from the film alongside Tina performing the track herself. I quite enjoyed the film but apparently both Ike Turner and Tina weren’t keen claiming that there were many inaccuracies in it.

Given her legendary status, I was quite surprised that she has only released nine solo albums and of those, the first four did absolutely nothing commercially. Within her renaissance ‘rock’ era, she made five albums in fifteen years which isn’t too shabby I guess but of those, surely only “Private Dancer” and “Foreign Affair” are truly seen as super successful? Her eight times platinum in the UK Greatest Hits “Simply The Best” should maybe be included in there as well? Or maybe you can’t judge an artist’s reputation purely on sales? Talking of which, “Disco Inferno” peaked at No 12.

The chart hits in the early to mid 90s for Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine were as consistent in their regularity as they were in the eccentricity of their titles. After “Sheriff Fatman”, “Do Re Me So Far So Good” and “After The Watershed (Early Learning The Hard Way)” comes “Lean On Me I Won’t Fall Over” with a picture of a weeble on its cover.

This was their seventh consecutive Top 30 hit and the lead single from their fourth album “Post Historic Monsters”. The budget for the set for their performance here must have been vastly reduced from their last visit to the TOTP studio when they had a whole campfire with real flames laid on for them. This time there’s just Jim Bob and Fruitbat and a ton of dry ice and is it me or is the former reading the lyrics from a stage monitor? His eyes are looking down for the majority of the performance as if he hasn’t learned the words yet. Jim Bob’s hair though is truly a thing of wonder. Don’t think I’ve seen anything like it since…? The bloke from King Kurt who got tarred and feathered?

“Lean On Me I Won’t Fall Over” peaked at No 16.

https://youtu.be/G4TJP0Vmv0E

Despite this No 17 hit, the time of Kenny Thomas the pop star was nearing its end. He would have only two further Top 40 entries (neither of which got any higher than No 27) so I’m guessing this could have been Kenny’s final TOTP appearance. If so, he went out on a tune called “Trippin’ On Your Love” which was nothing to do with the almost identically titled Bananarama early 90s flop but was actually a cover version of a song originally recorded by The Staple Singers. Kenny seemed to have a talent for recycling obscure songs that punters possibly didn’t realise weren’t Thomas originals. “Outstanding” was a Gap Band track, “Best Of You” was originally recorded by Booker T. Jones and “Tender Love” was a No 23 hit in 1986 for the Force MDs.

All of the above helped to make him an unlikely chart star. He looked like a telecom engineer (which indeed he had been prior to becoming a singer) and his sartorial choices weren’t always the best but the guy could sing as he displays in this performance. Farewell then Kenny. I couldn’t stand you at the time but on reflection, you had some pipes and seem like a decent guy.

I can’t find a clip of this live by satellite performance by Terence Trent D’Arby of “She Kissed Me” but if you squint a bit this could be Lenny Kravitz – both visually and sonically. Maybe it’s the rare sight of TTD playing a guitar or the driving rock riffs but seriously…this is almost a doppelgänger. Lenny Trent D’Arby? Or Terence Kravitz? The former is better phonically I think. Talking of names, if you look up his back catalogue on Spotify, it’s all listed under the name Sananda Maitreya which is the name the former Terence has gone by since 2001.

This week’s Breakers now starting with New Order and “World (Price Of Love)”. This was the third single taken from the band’s “Republic” album and caused quite the rift on Twitter as to its merits. No starker a voice was the band’s ex-member Peter Hook who had this to say (courtesy of @TOTPFacts):

Peter Hook: "I fucking hated "World (The Price Of Love)' with a passion. I hated the name, I hated the song, I hated the backing vocals, (I hated the brackets)." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) October 14, 2022

Wow! Apparently he had very little input to the recording of the track so maybe that explains his stance. The opinions of other contributors to the debate ranged from total agreement with Hooky to saying it was better than previous single “Ruined In A Day” but not as good as “Regret” to completely loving it. I think I’m with option two. The video hardly features the band but those fleeting glimpses would be the last we round see of them in a video for twelve years.

“World (The Price Of Love)” peaked at No 13.

In a musical landscape dominated by Eurodance anthems comes a recording artist with an album to blow all of that out of the water. Mary J. Blige’s 1992 debut “What’s The 411?” was widely recognised as bringing the combination of hip-hop and soul into the mainstream and conferring on her the unofficial title of ‘Queen Of Hip Hop Soul’. “Real Love” was the second single from the album and was also on its second time of release having peaked at No 68 in the UK in 1992. This 1993 remix would give her a genuine Top 40 success when it made it to No 26. I have to say though that, despite all those plaudits, it wasn’t really my bag.

A band next that were much bigger in America than over here which may explain my lack of knowledge of them. Stone Temple Pilots were very much seen as part of the grunge movement when they released their debut album “Core” but grew well beyond it during a career lasting well over thirty years barring a five year hiatus in the middle of it. I do remember the cover of “Core” from working at Our Price but couldn’t tell you what it sounded like. “Plush” was the second single from it and it was a huge hit on the US Rock charts though it only made No 23 over here and would prove to be their only UK Top 40 hit. Listening back to it now, it could be Pearl Jam so I can certainly understand why they were categorised as part of the movement of which Pearl Jam were one of its leading protagonists.

Lead singer Scott Weiland died in 2015 after years of well documented drug addiction problems. Tributes to him came in from the likes of Slash of Guns N’ Roses, Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins and Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell.

Apparently this track never got more than these few seconds of exposure on TOTP which seems extraordinary given how ubiquitous it was at the time but then it did only reached No 14 which itself almost defies explanation. “Wild Wood” was the title track of Paul Weller’s second solo album and it seemed to me at the time was an undeniable confirmation that he had re-established his credentials as the fine songwriter he had always been. I say always but the last knockings of The Style Council had been so excruciating that record label Polydor refused to release the band’s final album – the deep house experiment that was “Modernism: A New Decade”. It finally got a release a decade later.

Two albums into his solo career though and Weller was back with the “Wild Wood” single, a bold statement so early on. A mellow, reflective, mature sound, it demonstrated Weller’s restored confidence. It surely couldn’t have been written during The Jam years? Only “English Rose” from “All Mod Cons” comes close. It’s strange to consider that in a recording career of forty-five years standing, the vast majority of that time has seen Weller as a solo artist such was the impact of The Jam (and to a lesser extent The Style Council). Paul has now released sixteen solo studio albums the most recent being 2021’s “Fat Pop (Volume 1)”. Six of them have gone to No 1 and seven to No 2.

Oh not this fella again! For a man peddling such a slight (some may say shite) tune, Bitty McLean got an awful lot of screen time on TOTP. Listen to “It Keeps Rainin’ (Tears From My Eyes)” and tell me in all good conscience that it deserved three full studio appearances and that “Wild Wood” was only worthy of thirty seconds as a Breaker. You can’t. I’m sure Bitty is a nice bloke but his song was crud. Just awful.

What on earth was happening here?! Well, surprise surprise! It’s Cilla Black and here’s our Graham to explain what the chuff this was all about…

…actually it’s me and not Graham but I do have some details for you. We may predominantly have known Cilla for her TV work throughout the 80s and 90s but she was also a singer and pop star with a huge back catalogue. In fact, she was the most successful UK female recording artist of the 60s and, as host Mark Franklin rather generalised in his intro, had been on TOTP “loads of times”. However, she hadn’t had a major hit record since 1971 so what was she doing on the show now? The answer was that she was promoting her new album called “Through The Years”. I say new but it was a hotchpotch of tracks (autocorrect turned hotchpotch into ‘horrible’ and I was tempted to leave it!) including re-recordings of her old hits, cover versions, some new material and three duets with Cliff Richard, Barry Manilow and Dusty Springfield.

The title track was released as a single which Cilla performs here and the comments on Twitter in reaction to it were almost all negative if not out and out insults. I mean it is a terrible song, a nasty re-write of “Wind Beneath My Wings” to my ears. Incidentally, Nancy Griffiths’ “From A Distance” was one of the cover versions on the album which both Bette Midler (who had a hit with “Wind…”) and the aforementioned Cliff Richard also covered. Neither the single nor the album were hits peaking at No 54 and No 41 respectively.

And yet…Cilla wasn’t always crap. I know someone who swears by her 1968 hit “Step Inside Love” and he’s right – it’s great. Cilla sadly died in 2015 after a stroke caused her to fall at her home in Spain.

And still Culture Beat top the charts with “Mr. Vain” despite the efforts of hip-hop soul (Mary J. Blige), grunge (Stone Temple Pilots) and even Cilla Black to challenge Eurodance as the dominant music genre of 1993. I don’t think Simon Mayo had anything to do with the release of this single but it could have been written about him.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	2 Unlimited	Faces	Faeces more like – no
2	Tina Turner	Disco Inferno	Nah
3	Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine	Lean On Me I Won’t Fall Over	I did not
4	Kenny Thomas	Trippin” On Your Love	No
5	Terence Trent D’Arby	She Kissed Me	Liked it, didn’t buy it
6	New Order	World (Price Of Love)	Nope
7	Mary J. Blige	Real Love	Not really my bag
8	Stone Temple Pilots	Plush	Negative
9	Paul Weller	Wild Wood	Not the single but I had the album
10	Bitty McLean	It Keeps Rainin’ (Tears From My Eyes)	Never!
11	Cilla Black	Through The Years	As if
12	Culture Beat	Mr. Vain	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/m001crzy/top-of-the-pops-02091993

TOTP Rewind – the 90s

My memories of 90s chart music

TOTP 28 NOV 1997

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TOTP 15 AUG 1997

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TOTP 16 MAY 1997

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TOTP 27 JUL 1995

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TOTP 02 SEP 1993

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