Sisters Of Mercy

TOTP 26 AUG 1993

Posted on October 9, 2022 by 80stastic

August and indeed the Summer of 1993 is coming to an end and so is something else – my time at the Our Price store in Rochdale. After an immensely enjoyable twelve months as Assistant Manager there, the powers that be wanted to move me. In theory, I should have been pleased about this. It was a transfer to a much bigger store at Stockport which, though not a promotion, reflected well on how area management viewed me. Plus, Stockport was a much shorter commute than schleping all the way over to Rochdale. I didn’t want to go though. I really liked the team where I was and the size of the shop was manageable with a great profile in the town. The move to Stockport would prove to be a short-lived one but that’s enough about my personal circumstances; what about the music?

Well, we start with some Therapy? who someone in the TOTP production team must have really liked as they seemed to be on the show regularly in 1993. I think this is their third studio appearance already which isn’t bad going for a noisy rock band on prime time TV. This single is “Opal Mantra” which was nothing to do with those 70s sweets Opal Fruits that became Statburst but rather a pun on the name of the German sports car model Opel Manta. I didn’t pay much attention to Therapy? at the time but listening back to them what I’ve noticed is that they always seem to have too many words in their lyrics to fit in with the tune. Probably just me of course but anyway.

As far as I can tell this was a stand alone single prior to the release of their fourth studio album “Troublegum” the following year although bizarrely the two singles released before “Opel Mantra” both made it onto the album.

Now here’s a song that always reminds me of late Summer/ early Autumn 1993 whenever I hear it except if I was to hear the original version of it, I probably wouldn’t recognise it at all. “Right Here” was first released by SWV (Sisters With Voices) back in 1992 but only in America. Despite being a hit on the R&B chart, it made little impression on the Billboard Hot 100.

A US No 1 record later in “Weak” and the track was given another chance but this time with an added sample from another song – “Human Nature” by Michael Jackson. And so it came to pass that the version we would all come to know was rechristened as “Right Here (Human Nature Remix)”. Who’s idea was it to mash up SWV and Jacko? Well, it was credited to Teddy Riley but weren’t there some bootleg copies in existence well before the official release creating a buzz around the track?

“Human Nature” was, of course, from Jackson’s “Thriller” album and was one of the seven singles taken from it in 1983. Curiously though, it was never given a UK release back then so would it have been less well known in the UK? If true, it makes SWV’s hit even more impressive but I think it’s a difficult idea to sell that the biggest album of all time contains tracks that some countries were oblivious to. It went fifteen times platinum in the UK after all.

“Right Here (Human Nature Remix)” would rise to No 3 in the UK – easily their biggest hit over here – and would only be kept off the top spot in the US by another artist also on this TOTP.

From Sisters With Voices to The Sisters Of Mercy (do you think that was deliberate by the show’s producers?) who are in the studio with their latest single “Under The Gun”. Not only was this their latest single but as we stand in October 2022, it is also the band’s last single. Yes, incredibly, despite the band being an going concern to this day, they have not released any new material since this track which was to promote their second Greatest Hits album “A Slight Case Of Overbombing”. I think I’ve discussed this before but this situation arose out of a dispute with their label EastWest who eventually agreed to receive the final two albums owed by the band according to their contract via the Andrew Eldritch vehicle SSV (almost another link with SWV). Allegedly standing for Screw Shareholder Value, the albums were made with industrial sonic pioneers Xmas Deutschland’s Peter Bellendir and were largely unlistenable loops of Eldritch’s verbal musings. Despite being free of EastWest since 1997, no new Sisters Of Mercy product has been forthcoming.

As for “Under The Gun”, apparently that’s Terri Nunn up there with Eldritch. Yeah, the two-tone haired singer from Berlin of “Take My Breath Away” fame. She looked a bit different seven years on from that global hit but you can hear her influence all over this track. In fact it’s pretty good up until the point where Eldritch does his…’thing’ whatever that is (a Goth rap?). I’ve always considered Eldritch a bizarre yet intriguing figure and found myself wondering what he looks like today. So I Googled him. His Wikipedia picture suggests that he has now gone bald but he still retains those sunglasses that project an air of otherworldliness. I once sat on a train from Sunderland to Newcastle around 1987 next to a bald man wearing shades dressed in black who had a tape recorder with him and for the entire journey played a tape out loud that the whole carriage could hear that was of demonic chanting, blood curdling screams and general devil worship. I was too freaked out to say anything to him but he did turn it off when the guard checked his ticket only to turn it back on once he had left.

Anyway, back to Eldritch though who has tried to distance himself and the band from accusations of gothness and is on record as stating:

“I’m constantly confronted by representatives of popular culture who are far more goth than we, yet I have only to wear black socks to be stigmatised as the demon overlord.”
“Sisters – VirginNet Interview”. Thesistersofmercy.com. Archived from the original on 20 August 2001

“Under The Gun” peaked at No 19.

Next the point where it looked like Ace Of Base might not be the next big pop sensation that was suggested by their monster No 1 “All That She Wants” earlier in the year. So big was that single that it spent sixteen weeks on the charts and was still selling so well that the follow up “Wheel Of Fortune” had its release delayed. I’m guessing that their label London Records would have been hoping for and indeed maybe expecting a bigger chart hit than the No 20 peak achieved here. The outlook would get worse when the title track to their album “Happy Nation” would barely dint the Top 40 when released in November. Luckily for label and band but decidedly unluckily for music fans, that trend was reversed spectacularly in 1994 when they got to No 2 with “The Sign”.

I have to admit to not knowing how this one went and after watching this TOTP performance, I’m still not sure. The very definition of lightweight, it barely registers at all. And those nasally, whiny vocals are the musical equivalent of fingernails being scraped down a blackboard! As for the prop that was the wheel of fortune in the background…talk about lacklustre! It just has some random numbers around the edge. Why weren’t the coloured segments filled in with what you could win?! It didn’t look like it even had the flicker thing that determines which segment you’ve landed on once the spinning has stopped. Bah!

And so to that much trumpeted (by host Tony Dortie if nobody else) song by Meatloaf. Who would have thought that in a year dominated by Eurodance crud and a trend for ragga/dancehall tunes that the biggest selling single of the year would belong to the Loaf. I mean, it’s not as if he had a brilliant track record for massive hit singles in the UK. His last Top 10 hit had been “Dead Ringer For Love” in 1981 and of the eleven singles released after that until this point, only three had made the Top 40 and none of those had managed a position higher than No 17. Yes, of course “Bat Out Of Hell” was one of the biggest selling albums in history but that was already fifteen years old by 1993. A Meatloaf revival was not on the cards.

Hang on though! “Bat Out Of Hell” you say. What if we did…I don’t know…”Bat Out Of Hell II” to help revive his fortunes? Presumably that’s a close approximation of what long standing songwriting partner Jim Steinman said about Meatloaf in 1993. Yes, a return to the original hit formula (not that much of his other stuff sounded any different) was the order of the day and so it came to pass that “Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell” would make Marvin Lee Aday a huge star all over again. The first single from the project was “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” continuing a long line of ludicrous song titles that occur regularly in Meatloaf’s back catalogue. There’s something odd here though as despite this preview on TOTP on a show in August, as far as I can tell the single wasn’t released until October and after the album was released in September. That can’t be right can it?

Anyway, I think I’ll leave it there for now as this will be at No 1 soon enough and for seven (!) weeks so I’ll just leave it with RIP Meatloaf for now.

We’re back to multiple Breakers again this week after just two in the last show and we start with Lenny Kravitz and a third single from his “Are You Gonna Go My Way” album called “Heaven Help”. This is yet again another song I don’t recall even though it made the charts to the tune of No 20. Some of the music press described it as showing Kravitz’s soul influences specifically Curtis Mayfield and Isley Brothers and I can hear why. It’s got a nice feel to it and I’m guessing it got decent daytime airplay at the time. I should probably check out the album. After all, I did but his previous one “Mama Said”.

OK so I’m aware there was a rap/hip-hop outfit called Onyx but that was/is the extent of my knowledge. Until now. Hailing from Queens, New York City, they were formed by Fredro Starr (yes I had to double take on that name as well!), Sonny Seeza and Big DS. This single (“Slam”) would make No 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 – not just the R&B chart, the mainstream chart – quite remarkable for a rap record. It’s also widely regarded as being responsible for introducing slam dancing or moshing to hip-hop as per the promo video. Wait, didn’t House Of Pain already do that with “Jump Around?”

Anyway, Wikipedia tells me that they were notable for loud screaming, aggression, fighting with each other and then these two characteristics which look slightly odd in the written word…rapping with grimy voices and bald head fashion. What?! Surely grime wasn’t a musical genre back then so what were grimy voices exactly? And bald head fashion…? To be honest, if I wanted to listen to a record called “Slam” then I’d go for this…

Yes, there were two Joey Lawrence singles that charted in the UK unbelievably. After “Nothin’ My Love Can’t Fix” came “I Can’t Help Myself” – his song titles were a little egocentric. This one could easily be the template for every Backstreet Boys song ever which is fine if you like that sort of thing I guess but it obviously did nothing for me.

“I Can’t Help Myself” peaked at No 27.

Almost under the radar, Terence Trent D’arby was having quite a year in 1993 on the sly. Nothing like the impact of 1987/88 when he burst into the pop world fully formed from nowhere to both critical and commercial success but quite a year all the same. After looking like he had wrecked his musical career with the poorly received sophomore album “Neither Fish Nor Flesh”, to manage to resurrect himself as a chart act again was quite a feat. The “Symphony Or Damn” album went Top 10 and would produce four hit singles of which “She Kissed Me” was the third. Those singles peaked at:

14 – 14 – 16 – 18

Like I said, not the remarkable success of those early years but he was consistent. Given the quality of the 1993 singles, they probably should have been bigger hits, “She Kissed Me” being a case in point. Slick and with a killer chorus, it also showcased his diversity given how different it was to previous single “Delicate”. As with Lenny Kravitz earlier, maybe I should investigate the TTD back catalogue further although I don’t think I’ll start with the aforementioned “Neither Fish Nor Flesh”.

I think this is the first and only cover version on this TOTP after what seemed like an endless conveyor belt of them recently. Just like Kim Wilde’s treatment of “If I Can’t Have You” the other week, this one is also of a song from the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever. Tina Turner’s take on The Trammps’ “Disco Inferno” featured in another film also – Tina’s biopic What’s Love Got To Do With It. It certainly suits Tina’s raspy vocal and I think she does a decent job with it. I wonder though if her record company had faith in the track’s chart potential as they made the B-side “I Don’t Wanna Fight” which was her previous hit from just a few weeks before. That was a standard record company practice as I recall to try and insure against a flop record. It worked (kind of) as “Disco Inferno” made No 12.

Bit of a big deal next as we get Mariah Carey in the studio. She was already a superstar in America after a string of No 1 singles and although UK record buyers hadn’t embraced her quite as keenly, this was still a big exclusive. I’m not sure if she had her reputation as a diva at this point but if she was a bit of a nightmare off camera, I wonder how she manifested it? Her tour riders are renowned for some explicit demands like hotel rooms having temperatures of precisely 75 degrees, being festooned with eight (not seven or nine) tall leafy plants and kitted out with Joe Malone candles (and certainly none of those Gwyneth Paltrow mucky scent ones)

To be fair to Mariah, she seems quite low key in this performance of “Dreamlover” with a dress down wardrobe and a discreet trio of backing singers. She holds back on the vocals as well until the very last few notes when she gives her pipes an airing. Somehow this TOTP appearance only managed to nudge the single up one place to a high of No 9 but it went to No 1 in the US keeping the aforementioned SWV off top spot.

Freddie Mercury’s reign at the top of the charts is over and he has been replaced by Culture Beat and their “Mr. Vain” single. Was this the peak of Eurodance or its nadir? More irritating than “No Limits” by 2 Unlimited or even better than Snap!’s “Rhythm Is A Dancer”? The man behind Culture Beat was German DJ and producer Torsten Fenslau who tragically died in a car crash aged 29 barely two months after this TOTP aired.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Therapy?	Opal Mantra	No
2	SWV	Right Here (Human Nature Remix)	Nope
3	The Sisters Of Mercy	Under The Gun	I did not
4	Ace Of Base	Wheel Of Fortune	As if
5	Meatloaf	I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)	I’d do anything for music but I wouldn’t buy that
6	Lenny Kravitz	Heaven Help	Negative
7	Onyx	Slam	Nah
8	Joey Lawrence	I Can’t Help Myself	I had no such problems with restraint when it came to not buying this record
9	Terence Trent D’arby	She Kissed Me	Good song, didn’t buy it
10	Tina Turner	Disco Inferno	Disco Infer-NO
11	Mariah Carey	Dreamlover	Sorry Mariah, it’s a no
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/m001crzw/top-of-the-pops-26081993

TOTP 03 SEP 1992

Posted on March 26, 2022 by 80stastic

We’ve moved into September 1992 here at TOTP Rewind and Summer is officially over. We’ve had the last hurrah of the August Bank Holiday and the Olympics in Barcelona have been and gone. The new football season is well under way. The two biggest album releases of the week are “Tourism” by Roxette and, with quite some fanfare, Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells II”. None of this is what is occupying my mind though for I am about to embark upon a new stage in my work life. I mentioned the other week when discussing big football transfers of the day that I had my own transfer looming. Well, now it was here – I had a job promotion for the first time in my life! The last time I had been picked out for a role of higher responsibility was when I was made deputy head boy at my junior school. Fast forward 14 years and my time had come around once more as I was offered the job of Assistant Manager at the Our Price store in Rochdale.

I’d been working as a sales assistant in the store in Market Street, Manchester for nearly two years by this point and was quite happily ticking along not really thinking of moving up the ladder as it were. Then one day the Area Manager came into the shop and asked to speak to me in the manager’s office. With slight trepidation I entered the room and she told me of the vacancy and that she wanted me to fill it. Apparently the usual reaction to the offer of promotion was to say thank you very much and snatch the company’s hand off. I did something different – I asked for some time to think about it. I think the Area Manager was a bit wrong footed by my less than enthusiastic reaction but agreed to my request and I was given a few days grace. Why did I hesitate? The commute mainly but I think I’d been considering whether staying in retail was still my best option two years on. In the end, as I didn’t have any other choice on the table, I took the promotion. It would prove to be a pivotal decision that shaped my working life until the end of the decade.

I can’t remember the exact time I started in Rochdale but it was in September so a lot of the songs from around now really remind me of that time. I’m pretty sure I’d been back to my hometown of Worcester for a visit over the August Bank Holiday and caught Alien 3 at the cinema whilst there and that was just before the Rochdale era. It was hard leaving the shop in Manchester because it was all I had known and I’m not great with change but off I went on the 7.00 am bus from Piccadilly Gardens that first day not even knowing exactly where the shop in Rochdale was. I recall that I’d recently had a very severe, short haircut just before. I think I’d been influenced by the barnet of Roy Keane who was one of the hottest properties in English football at the time. It really was all change.

There was a huge change also in tonight’s opening act as we see the return of Bananarama but now they were a duo. After Siobhan Fahey left the group in 1988, she was replaced by Jacquie O’Sullivan. Three years later, with Jacquie still being referred to as ‘the new girl’ in the press and feeling like a paid employee rather than an equal member of the trio, she up and left. Instead of just recruiting another third person, Keren and Sara decided to continue with just the two of them. The first material in this new beginning was the single “Movin’ On”.

Renewing a rather tempestuous relationship with producers Mike Stock and Pete Waterman (deliberate omission of Matt Aitken who wasn’t involved), it was a calling card for the rest of the new album “Please Yourself”. Waterman’s vision for the album was ‘ABBA-Banana’ – a collection of songs in the style of the Swedish supergroup updated with a 90s sound. He didn’t get it right initially as the album bombed or at least he hadn’t hit upon the right vehicle for the songs. People didn’t seem ready to accept an ABBA’d up slimmed down Bananarama but by the end of the decade the record buying public were quite happy about some of the same songs being peddled by two guys and three gals boot scootin’ their way to glory. I talk, of course, of Steps who recorded “Movin’ On” for their second album whilst their cover of “Last Thing On My Mind” (the second Bananas single from “Please Yourself”) was a Top 10 hit for them.

So why did Steps succeed where the Nanas failed? After all, weren’t we in the throes of an ABBA revival in ‘92? Erasure had recently been at No 1 with their “Abba-esque EP” whilst only this month Polygram would release the “Abba Gold: Greatest Hits” compilation which would sell 5.61 million copies in the UK alone making it the second best selling album here of all time behind Queen’s “Greatest Hits”. We were Abba mad all over again yet the Bananarama Swedish reinvention failed to convince the record buying public. Maybe we couldn’t accept a duo version of the group after a decade of being used to three of them racking up the hits? Or could it just be that (whisper it) they’d come to the end of the road? It had been a great run that surely couldn’t have been predicted all those years ago when they first hit the charts alongside Fun Boy Three.

The performance here certainly bares no resemblance to those early, chaotic days. Where there was once home made, tomboy chic and DIY dance steps were sleek, evening dresses and synchronised arm movements. It didn’t look like that much fun to be honest.

“Movin’ On” peaked at No 24 whilst the album “Please Yourself” made a paltry No 46. It would be another 27 years before they would return to the album chart Top 40.

One of the biggest (and most notorious) tunes of the whole year next. “Ebeneezer Goode” may well be to The Shamen what “Merry Xmas Everybody” is to Slade – a cash cow but also an albatross around their neck. The infamy surrounding the track was so high profile that the question of whether the song itself was any good(e) seemed to get lost in the furore. The idea that a pop song was encouraging drug use was distinctly unpalatable back then and there were numerous calls for it to be banned (presumably Mary Whitehouse was at the front of the queue of those with objections to it). You don’t need me to recount the whole tale of ecstasy references contained within it though the band themselves, whilst not denying said references, also say it wasn’t quite as clear cut as just encouraging ravers to get off their tits. Here’s @TOTPFacts:

Colin Angus: "It was intended to be celebratory and cautionary, like holding up a distorting mirror to rave culture." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 25, 2022

For what it’s worth, I think the track works – though I wasn’t much of a fan back in the day – not least because the band understood it had the potential to be controversial and made it work for them by making it instantly memorable and most importantly quotable. Lyrics like “Naughty naughty, very naughty”, “Has anyone got any Vera’s?” and “Got any salmon? Sorted” must have been repeated up and down the country especially in school playgrounds which only increased its notoriety. For this TOTP performance Mr C changes that last line to “Got any underlay?”. Here’s the man himself on that, again, courtesy of @TOTPFacts:

Mr C: "When we went on Top Of The Pops, I changed the line "Got any salmon?" to "Got any underlay?" and people said, "That's not in the song! Drug reference!…" #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 25, 2022

"I was asked about it on Radio 1 by Mark Goodier, and said that salmon was rhyming slang for salmon and trout – snout, cigarettes – a legal drug that has killed thousands, so I'd changed it. He said, 'So what's 'underlay'?' I said it was a gratuitous rug reference." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 25, 2022

A fine example of the art of winding people up there. The performance starts with a small clip of the promo video which features Scottish comedian Jerry Sadowitz as the titular Ebeneezer who gives a maniacal turn that is only rivalled in my mind by Reece Shearmith’s Papa Lazarou in The League Of Gentlemen.

“Ebeneezer Goode” will be No 1 soon enough.

https://youtu.be/vukqGn68wug?si=pPFk3zPa6GpFYlpp

Despite it being September 1992, we now get a plug for the next Eurovision Song Contest which won’t take place until May 1993. The reason for this incredibly early heads up was that we’d already chosen the artist who would represent the UK and she was, by happy circumstance, on the show tonight. The career of Sonia, for she was the chosen one, had degenerated into a string of cover versions by the early 90s – three of her last four hits had been covers – but her record company Arista had seen the uplift of success that Eurovision could bring with that year’s contestant Michael Ball. He hadn’t even won the contest and yet his album released off the back of it had gone to No 1. Arista pinned their hopes on lightning striking twice when their charge was picked to take the baton from Ball. I say picked but I’m assuming that there were some negotiations between Arista and the Eurovision committee.

That was all months off yet though so in the meantime, to keep Sonia in the public’s thoughts, here was…yes, another cover version. This time it was Heatwave’s “Boogie Nights” which, in my humble opinion, has one of the best intros ever.

However, Sonia’s version does away with that completely and just goes into the track full pelt like a Nadine Dorries rant and does away with any of its subtlety. It doesn’t get any better after that; in fact the whole thing is just an exercise in how not to do a cover version. It’s got that horrible, genetic 90s house beat and then they’ve arsed about with the chorus so when Sonia gets to the line ‘always the best in town’ a “Ride On Time” vocal effect comes in on ‘always’. Awful, awful and indeed awful. Sonia does her best to sell it with an energetic performance as ever but it’s beyond redemption.

Nine months later, she would compete at Eurovision and emulate Michael Ball’s runner up position. It was a different story with her album though. Whilst Ball topped the charts Sonia dropped the ball when hers peaked at No 32.

Is there a doctor in the house? The good news is that there is, the bad news is that it’s Dr. Alban. Apparently this guy was a proper doctor (of dentistry) who passed his exams and opened a practice before turning to music full time. From what I can make out “It’s My Life” was one of those holiday hits that UK tourists had heard on the continent and made popular back in Blighty on their return. No wonder it was dreadful then. Wikipedia describes Dr. Alban’s music as “Eurodance/hip hop reggae in a dancehall style”. Hmm. Covering a few bases there. Maybe there was something in it though. Was Dr. Alban an early adopter of a musical movement that would hit a peak the following year when The Three S’s (Shaggy, Snow and Shanna Ranks) dominated the charts? Or am I just talking bollocks?

Of course, you can’t mention Dr. Alban without mentioning that Tampax advert. You know that one with the roller skating woman and the beach football scene that’s soundtracked by “It’s My Life”? You know, this one…

I have to say that the doctor delivers a completely lacklustre rapping performance here. Talk about half-hearted. I think I’ve only ever seen one less enthusiastic rapper in my life…

One last thing. What links Dr.Alban and Sonia? No, not that they’re on the same TOTP together. Not that, obviously. No, it’s the Eurovision Song Contest. Twenty-one years after Sonia did her bit for the UK, Dr. Alban teamed up with someone called Jessica Folcker (yes I had to check that spelling) to take part in the Swedish equivalent of A Song For Europe for the right to represent his native country in the 2014 competition. He came fifth.

The Breakers now starting with some American glam metal and you know what? I couldn’t give less of a toss about the seemingly endless conveyor belt of bands peddling this stuff like W.A.S.P. and Mötley Crüe and this lot – Skid Row. From what I can ascertain this was a double A-side featuring their debut single “Youth Gone Wild” with “Delivering The Goods”, their cover of a Judas Priest track. It all seems to have been in aid of promoting their album “B-Side Ourselves” (see what they did there?), an EP of covers the majority of which had all been on the B-side of previous singles. Erm…so what was the point of it all then? I suppose it’s only like Oasis’s “The Masterplan” compilation album which collected together their B-sides and additional tracks that had featured on their singles but had not appeared on any studio albums but still.

“Youth Gone Wild / Delivering The Goods” peaked at No 22 and was their last UK Top 40 hit. Hurray!

It seems ABBA really were inescapable in 1992! Here they are again with a re-release of “Dancing Queen” to promote that “Abba Gold: Greatest Hits” I mentioned earlier. Released by Polygram who had acquired the rights to the group’s back catalogue, it has become one of the biggest selling albums of all time. To heighten the impact of its release, all previous ABBA compilations were deleted which presumably included one that we had in my family home when I was growing up. You know the one with Björn and Agnetha sat on a park bench on the cover? Yeah, that one.

“ABBA Gold” was a phenomenon of marketing and sales. It has been certified 20 x platinum in the UK alone and has sold 30 million copies worldwide. It seemed to sell itself without the need of a single to promote it but I guess if you really wanted to pick one to do so then “Dancing Queen” was a logical choice. Perhaps their best known song – I say perhaps because there are so many that could take that accolade – it had been a No 1 on its original release in 1976. The 1992 rerelease made a respectable No 16.

The marketing strategy for “ABBA Gold” was so successful that Polygram (or it might have changed its name to Universal by then) attempted to repeat the trick when it set its sights on The Carpenters whose “Carpenters Gold: Greatest Hits” even had the same cover design as the Swedish superstars album.

Richard Marx had two hits in 1992? He had three actually but I only knew the big one “Hazard”. The follow up was “Take This Heart” which even after listening to it didn’t ring any bells with me. After the dark but bewitching story telling of its predecessor, Marx returned to his safe space of soft rock ballad with this one. It’s pretty unremarkable stuff to my ears but pleasant in a bland sort of way.

The video sees Marx getting to indulge in his sporting fantasy of scoring a home run in the World Series for his beloved baseball team the Chicago Cubs with the plot twist being it was all a dream. I wrote a story in English class when I was about 12 where the ending was that it had all been a dream and I got marks knocked off for that being a lame idea. My teacher would definitely have knocked marks off Marx for that video.

“Take This Heart” peaked at No 13.

The final Breaker is a song that reminds me very much of starting at the Rochdale shop. You know how some songs (whether you like or loathe them) just remind you of a time without actually being linked to a specific memory? Yeah, that.

It had been nearly a whole year since Brian May had been in the Top 10 with “Driven By You” but when he did finally get around to releasing a follow up it wasn’t with a new song but one that he’d had up his sleeves for a few years by that point.”Too Much Love Will Kill You” had been written by May for inclusion on Queen’s 1989 album “The Miracle” but a band decision that all songs for it must be group compositions and not individually written meant it didn’t make the cut for legal reasons. It was recorded though with Freddie Mercury on vocals and finally released on their 1995 album “Made In Heaven”.

Before all that though, Bri’s original ended up on his solo album “Back To The Light” and it gave him his second consecutive Top 10 hit when released as a single. It actually performed better than the Queen version which peaked at No 15 when given its own release in 1996. Which version did I prefer? Probably May’s if I really had to choose as it hasn’t got the powerful hysteria lurking in Freddie’s vocals which I don’t think this particular track benefits from.

The video with Brian looking straight down the camera lens at us with that curly mop of hair is giving me heavy David Essex Stardust vibes – the bit where he performs his rock opera “Dea Sancta”:

Another song that really reminds me of starting at Rochdale now, primarily because we sold loads of it. We first saw Lionel Richie perform “My Destiny” on the show back in June as an ‘exclusive’ to promote his “Back To Front” Best Of album. It was one of three new tracks released as singles. The first was “Do It To Me” which didn’t set the charts alight and peaked at No 33. “My Destiny” was a different story. Perfect daytime radio fodder, it received airplay by the bucketload and secured it a place in the Top 10. A third single “Love, Oh Love” failed to crack the Top 40 at all.

If you’ve been watching ITV’s Saturday night show Starstruck – a reinvention of Stars In Their Eyes for the 2020s – you will be familiar with the format that sees three music artist impersonators perform as their hero in a group before the winning group is whittled down to one overall winner. Last Saturday saw three guys take to the stage as Lionel Richie. Yes, that’s right they were ‘once, twice, three times a Lionel’. I’ll get my coat.

What the Hell is this? Well, clearly it’s a horrible noise but who was responsible for it? They were called U96 and their track “Das Boot” was a techno cover version of the theme tune to a German film/TV mini series of the same name about the crew of a U-boat. I got a bit confused when I saw the running order for this episode and noticed the name U96. I was expecting some British jazz-rap until I realised that was Us3 I was thinking of and their hit “Cantaloop” from 1993. This right load of techno bollocks was a huge hit all around Europe although the UK was notably a little less receptive with it just grazing the Top 20 at No 18.

The TOTP producers have gone all out with their graphics for this one with the initial part of the performance viewed as if through a periscope before ultimately resorting to some dry ice to try and hide the fact that it’s just some blokes in keyboards up there on stage.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Das Boot though I do have a memory of Iain Lee screaming “Das Boot” on early noughties Channel 4 breakfast show RI:SE because fellow presenter Kate Lawler was wearing some knee high boots one morning. I need to have a word with myself about my cultural references don’t I?

P.S. What links Sonia, Dr. Alban and U96? Yep, it’s Eurovision again! Here’s @TOTPFacts with the details:

U96 mainman Alex Christensen went on to represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009, as half of combo Alex Swings Oscar Sings! "Miss Kiss Kiss Bang" finished in 20th place. https://t.co/GfdFoLd7HY #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 25, 2022

Another live satellite link up now as we find Sinéad O’Connor in New York. The interview beforehand between her and host Mark Franklin is a hard watch as Sinéad is clearly not in the mood for a chat. Mark took to Twitter to defend himself against the not very pleasant criticism he received for his part in what went down explaining that the whole interview had lasted three minutes and had been edited down for transmission. If what we saw was the best bit it does make you wonder what was in the rest of it.

As for the music, Sinéad is performing “Success Has Made A Failure Of Our Home” from her third album “Am I Not Your Girl?”, a collection of cover versions including this single originally recorded by country singer Loretta Lynn. We’ve seen a few artists in recent shows backed by either a small string section (Vanessa Williams) or a few brass players (Jimmy Nail / KWS) but Sinéad blows them all out of the water with what looks like a whole orchestra with her. It makes quite an impressive sight and an even more impressive sound.

This is the standout track and performance for me on the show tonight. Whatever you say about Sinéad, she can deliver a song. People did have a lot to say about her exactly one month on from this TOTP when Sinéad appeared on Saturday Night Live to promote “Am I Not Your Girl”. She sang “Success Has Made A Failure Of Our Home” and was scheduled to also perform “Scarlet Ribbons” but changed it to “War” by Bob Marley on the live show which she intended as a protest against sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church. That wasn’t enough controversy for Sinéad though so she whipped out a photo of Pope John Paul II and, looking straight down the camera, tore it up whilst saying “Fight the real enemy”. Cue an explosion of outrage. The NBC network received 4,400 calls of complaint none of which stopped O’Connor’s accusations being proved ultimately true. NBC have never rebroadcast the show as it originally aired much in the same way that the infamous Sex Pistols/ Bill Grundy interview was banned for many years.

Snap! remain on top of the pile with “Rhythm Is A Dancer” and yet again it’s the promo video that we are served up. Why haven’t they been in the studio as yet? Could it be because Turbo B was in dispute with the act’s management and left before the next single “Exterminate!” was released? Also departing after “Rhythm Is A Dancer” was vocalist Thea Austin who’d only just joined the group. And I thought Sugababes held the monopoly on the revolving door approach to band membership.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Bananarama	Movin’ On	Nope
2	The Shamen	Ebeneezer Goode	I didn’t as it goes
3	Sonia	Boogie Nights	Never!
4	Dr. Alban	It’s My Life	As if
5	Skid Row	Youth Gone Wild / Delivering The Goods	Hell no!
6	ABBA	Dancing Queen	Not the single but we’ve all got Abba Gold haven’t we?
7	Richard Marx	Take This Heart	No thanks
8	Brian May	Too Much Love Will Kill You	I did not
9	Lionel Richie	My Destiny	Nah
10	U96	Das Boot	Das Boot!! No
11	Sinéad O’Connor	Success Has Made A Failure Of Our Home	No
12	Snap!	Rhythm Is A Dancer	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/m0015nq0/top-of-the-pops-03091992

TOTP 30 APR 1992

Posted on February 17, 2022 by 80stastic

It’s the last day of April 1992 at TOTP Rewind and the UK charts are in the middle of a run of being topped by eleven different albums by eleven different artists in consecutive weeks. This was due partly to the release schedules being full of new albums being released by established artists including Bruce Springsteen, Def Leppard and The Cure. I’ll include Annie Lennox in that category as well despite “Diva” being her debut solo album. Right Said Fred’s “Up” made it to the top spot off the back of “Deeply Dippy” giving them a No 1 double whammy. There are two Greatest Hits albums in there courtesy of Madness and Lionel Richie, a loyal fan based generated chart topper from Iron Maiden, a Eurovision Song Contest driven album from the UK’s entry Michael Ball and of course the ubiquitous Simply Red. The only album in this sequence that was a real surprise came from Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine.

The singles chart was stagnant by comparison with only twelve different songs making it to No 1 all year, the lowest number since 1962. Were any of this week’s offerings on TOTP amongst them? Well, yes obviously there’s this week’s actual No 1 but apart from that is obviously what I meant!

We start with Marc Almond whose version of “The Days Of Pearly Spencer” is ripping up the charts and currently residing in the No 4 spot. Host Tony Dortie promotes it as a future No 1 later on. Was his prediction correct? Well, *SPOILER* no but No 4 was a damn fine effort by Marc. With the exception of his No 1 in 1989 with Gene Pitney, his biggest ever solo hit before this was his cover of Jacques Brel’s “Jacky” which peaked at No 17.

Like Vanessa Williams the other week, Marc is backed by a seated orchestra in full performance dress code. The effect is rather spoilt though as Marc is isolated away from the orchestra on a small circular stage and surrounded by the studio audience clapping along enthusiastically. The sound of the hand claps is rather incongruous drowning out as it does the strings of the orchestra. Marc gives a professional turn though, all serious mannerisms and intense staring at the camera.

Marc would only make the UK Top 40 would more time in 1995 with “Adored And Explored” but continues to release material both in his own right and as part of a rejuvenated Soft Cell.

It’s another one of those live satellite link ups next. I’m not sure they have quite been the success that new producer Stanley Appel must have hoped they would be. It all seems very clunky and the talky bits between the presenters and artist are excruciating. That’s if they can even hear each other. In the last such link up, either Roxette couldn’t hear guest hosts Smashie and Nicey due to a technical fault or they were ignoring them.

This week’s ‘satellite’ artist are En Vogue who are coming at us live from LA on the legendary Soul Train TV show. We hadn’t seen En Vogue for a whole two years since their debut hit single “Hold On”. I’d pretty much forgotten all about them but suddenly they were back with a track that would become another huge success in “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)”.

I remember not being sure about this track when I first heard it – I think it was all those ‘ooh bops’ and that a capella breakdown half way through. It was a bit too far removed from my pop sensibilities. However, my wife loved it and I can see why now. If you Google this song, the word that keeps coming up in all the online reviews is ‘sassy’ and it’s a spot on description. These ladies were all about sassy and female empowerment.

The lead single from their “Funky Divas” album, it was a hell of a way to announce that they were back. A No 2 hit in the US and No 4 in the UK, this wasn’t even the best single released from the album for me with that honour going to anti-prejudice anthem ”Free Your Mind”.

Their performance here is great but was it live? It almost sounds too perfect. Maybe you could get away with miming if you weren’t actually in the TOTP studio and therefore didn’t have to abide by the live vocal policy? I’m sure that’s the loophole that Boris Johnson’s legal team would be pursuing.

At the start of this post I commented on how the album charts were being dominated by established artists but was that true of the Top 40 singles? Well, in this show we’ve got some R’n’B, some goth rock, some metal, two 80s acts showing there was still life in them into the 90s and…erm… Right Said Fred. And this lot who presenter Claudia Simon described as when rave meets reggae whilst also claiming that TOTP brought us all kinds of music. Hard to dispute that given tonight’s running order. Fellow presenter Tony Dortie said it was his favourite current Top 40 hit. SL2 were the act that were the apple of Tony’s eye and their hit was “On A Ragga Tip”. This was the second consecutive hit for these London hardcore ravers after 1991’s “DJs Take Control /Way In My Brain” and would be the biggest of their career when it peaked at No 2.

Not being much of a rave nor reggae fan, this didn’t really do anything for me. Apparently it’s built around a sample from Jah Screechy called “Walk And Skank”. I’ve no idea who Jah Screechy is or was but I’m betting that you can’t see his song title for the first time without doing a double take after reading it as something else completely!

In this performance the dancer on the left clearly loses her place in her moves at one point and has to count herself back in. Don’t get me wrong, they’re impressively complicated steps but it was quite noticeable.

https://youtu.be/_ff7Dr0d-4w

What’s the difference between The Beatles and The Sisters Of Mercy? Yes, obviously one were the lovable mop tops who’s sound ate the world and the others are some dour goths from Leeds but that’s not what I meant. No, I was after the answer that one gave up touring to concentrate on recording studio albums and the other gave up recording studio albums to concentrate on touring. Incredibly, Andrew Eldritch and co have not released any new material since 1993 due to a dispute with their record label EastWest. The band went on strike against the label in 1993. Why? It seems to be about accusations against the label of incompetence including a disastrously planned tour with Public Enemy. Unfortunately for the Sisters, they still owed the label two albums according to their contract and were forced to re-record 1983 single “Temple Of Love” as “Temple Of Love 92” for a compilation of their early back catalogue called “Some Girls Wander By Mistake”. To jazz it up a bit (can you jazz up goth rock?) they’ve got in Ofra Haza of “Im Nin’alu” fame on backing vocals.

This version went straight into the charts at No 3 which seemed slightly surprising to me back then and still does today. In my teenage years, going goth was a cool statement to make. I flirted with the fringes of it but never quite had the conviction to dye my hair black so I’m hardly a knowledgeable commentator on this but it still seems an unlikely chart high. Maybe I’m doing them a disservice. I’m sure they had/have a loyal fan base of hardcore devotees.

A second compilation album, “A Slight Case Of Overbombing”, released in 1993 covered the band’s back catalogue from 1984 onwards but their recording contract stipulated that they still owed EastWest two studio albums. In the end, the label accepted two albums under the moniker of SSV which were a project constructed by Eldritch just to fulfil their contractual obligations. The albums consisted of just some synths, no percussion and some mumbled, spoken word vocals by Eldritch on a loop. EastWest accepted the master tapes without listening to them first. The recordings were never released. This story reminds me of that scene in 24 Hour Party People where Shaun Ryder and Happy Mondays manager Nathan meet Tony Wilson in Dry bar in Manchester to deliver the master tapes for the band’s eagerly awaited “Yes Please” album. Listening to the tapes, Wilson starts getting into the first track until he realises there are no vocals on them with Ryder and manager giggling in the background as they’ve spent all the money Wilson fronted for the album to be recorded in Barbados on drugs.

Eldritch looks here like he’s been to a health spa since the last time we saw him on the show when he looked like a living waxwork. I guess even goth rock gods have to grow up eventually .

https://youtu.be/X8WH-vqGm3Y

I guess there was no way that TOTP wasn’t going to show Michael Jackson’s video for “In The Closet” again given the chance. Although it’s only at No 8 in the charts, that’s good enough for a second outing for it. The track was actually credited to ‘Michael Jackson and Mystery Girl’ the latter of whom provides some whispered vocals in the middle. It turns out that was Princess Stéphanie of Monaco who had a brief career as a pop star in the 80s but who was completely washed up by 1992. Maybe she thought she could relaunch herself off the back of this Jackson track. If so, might have been BBC a good idea to get yourself a proper credit rather than a lame pseudonym. Hands up who else now has the execrable “Mysterious Girl” by Peter Andre in their head after reading the above paragraph? Many apologies.

Now this next link was unusual. The Cure were meant to be playing in the studio performing “Friday I’m In Love” according to Tony Dortie but there’s a problem. Singer Robert Smith is not available due to illness so they’re going to have to play the video instead. Nothing that out of the ordinary except…why are band members Simon Gallup and Perry Bamonte in the studio to deliver this news? Was Robert taken ill at the very last moment? What gives? Simon and Perry look they’d rather be bungee jumping into a live volcano than being interviewed on TOTP. They also don’t seem too convincing with their story. Were they not on the level? Here’s @TOTPFacts:

So… was Robert Smith really "not very well"? At The Cure's Nottingham Rock City gig on 27 April 1992 he asked the audience whether or not they should bother doing it. The majority of the audience said no… #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) February 11, 2022

Cheeky scamps! As for their song, this is surely one of the band’s most radio friendly and therefore well known singles. The chaotically simple video with its fast cuts, set pieces and ever changing backdrop curtains just adds to its charm and won an MTV Video Music Award. The Cure were never as big commercially again as they were in this moment but then Robert Smith probably wouldn’t have had it any other way.

They’ve moved the Breakers again back to that incongruous position just before the No 1. There’s also four of them which is deeply unhelpful to this blogger who is already behind schedule writing up all these TOTP repeats. The intro for this feature sees Tony Dortie and Claudia Simon as disembodied heads on multiple giant video screens which was presumably meant to be cutting edge at the time… or was it just a blatant Max Headroom rip off? The script for the intro sounds like it was written just 10 seconds before being spoken with Extreme described as having “one hot song” and Metallica being about to “rock in at 12”. Oh dear.

And it’s Metallica that we start with “Nothing Else Matters”, the third single from their eponymous ‘black’ album. Apparently this is one of the LA heavy metallers best known and most loved songs but I’m afraid it must have passed me by. I’m trying to remember who I was working with in the Market Street Our Price shop in Manchester at the time who was a big rock fan who might have played the album in store but I can’t think of any which may explain my unawareness of it. Hang on! Our Price legend Knoxy was there and he was a true rocker. He must have given the album a spin a few times surely? I loved working with Knoxy. King of the one liners (not all of them PC back then I have to say) and possessor of an epic quiff. He later grew a huge mane of rock god hair. Top bloke.

“Nothing Else Matters” peaked at No 6.

Now this was a chart (ahem) curiosity. Back in 1987, Curiosity Killed The Cat were the dog’s bollocks when it came to being the next happening chart stars. “Down To Earth” took them to No 3 and their debut album was a chart topper. The newspapers and glossy music mags were full of these four groovy hipsters (not that sort of hipster!) with their good looks and danceable pop tunes especially lead singer Ben Volpeliere- Pierrot and his ever present beret. By the end of the year though, they were pretty much done with just one further Top 40 hit arriving in 1989.

A 90s comeback was surely not on anybody’s cards but never underestimate the power of a cover version. Trimmed down to a three piece and with a truncated band name of just Curiosity, they recorded Johnny Bristol’s innuendo heavy 1974 No 3 hit “Hang On In There Baby”. They may not have had nine lives like the felines that inspired their original name but they must have used up at least three to be back in the charts five years after their first hit. This really was a last hurrah though despite the single equalling the chart peak of Bristol’s original. Two subsequent singles failed to scratch the Top 40 and a third album “Back To Front” went straight in the bin like so much cat litter.

While the rest of the band gave up on the idea of being pop stars after that, Ben Volpeliere- Pierrot clung on to the notion that he still was and carried on performing at retro festivals. I even saw him at one of those 80s Rewind concerts in Manchester around 2001. I think he was advertised as ‘Ben from Curiosity Killed The Cat’. He was first on a bill of about seven acts. Miaow!

It’s that “hot song” from Extreme next. “Song For Love” was the fifth and final single to be released from the band’s “Pornograffitti” album and *guilty pleasure alert* possibly my favourite. It’s completely prosaic and hackneyed but I kind of like it anyway. It sounds like the band had been listening to “God Gave Rock ‘n’ Roll To You” by Argent that was covered by Kiss for Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey which I also had a soft spot for.

The band would return later in the year with their concept album “III Sides To Every Story” which despite receiving acclaim from their fan base sold poorly due to the absence of a genre bending, mainstream appealing hit single like “More Than Words” had been.

After opening the show last week, EMF find themselves with just a few seconds in the Breakers this week. Last week’s appearance was billed as an ‘Exclusive’ so I’m guessing their “Unexplained EP” hadn’t actually entered the charts at that point. It’s in at No 18 this week. Its spot in the Breakers didn’t do much for its chart prospects though as it didn’t get any higher.

I’m still not convinced about the legitimacy of the Breakers. In reality it was probably just the second tier of exposure that the show’s producers could offer to record labels wanting to promote their acts with the first tier obviously being a full in studio performance or playing of the promo video.

There’s a weird addendum at the end of the section when Claudia Simon bigs up the diversity of artists featured but reserves a special mention for one of them when she says “as for Extreme, they are just so good”. Odd.

Right Said Fred are at No 1 again with “Deeply Dippy” and the talk on Twitter was all about what Richard Fairbrass was wearing which seemed to be some sort of Lycra onesie. More accurately it was what his outfit highlighted that was the hot topic of conversation. It’s hard to unsee his package once you’ve noticed it. And how could you fail to notice it. Not since Stuart Adamson of Big County wore his tight white strides back in the 80s had such a lunchbox been spied. I think this tweet from Lee Roberts probably summed up most people’s reaction:

Ffs put it away mate
— Lee Roberts (@MrScoops76) February 11, 2022

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Marc Almond	The Days Of Pearly Spencer	I did not
2	En Vogue	My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)	Yes this is in the singles box but I think my wife bought it
3	SL2	On A Ragga Tip	Nah
4	Sisters Of Mercy	Temple Of Love 92	Nope
5	Michael Jackson	In the Closet	Negative
6	The Cure	Friday I’m In Love	Not the single but I have a Greatest Hits of theirs with it on
7	Metallica	Nothing Else Matters	But neither did this – no
8	Curiosity	Hang On In There Baby	No
9	Extreme	Song For Love	Liked it, didn’t buy it
10	EMF	The Unexplained EP	It’s a no
11	Right Said Fred	Deeply Dippy	And a final 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/m00149b0/top-of-the-pops-30041992

TOTP 11 OCT 1990

Posted on March 19, 2021 by 80stastic

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

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

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NafWJoWk0MA

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Heaven ” peaked at No 24.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJV_MOwas7s

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5G6_z7Ze8

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

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

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

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

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

“World In My Eyes” peaked at No 17.

*Sorry Coldplay fans!

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFioePLwD_k

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

Disclaimer

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

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

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

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

Some bedtime reading?

TOTP Rewind – the 90s

My memories of 90s chart music

TOTP 26 AUG 1993

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TOTP 03 SEP 1992

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TOTP 30 APR 1992

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TOTP 11 OCT 1990

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Some bedtime reading?