Reel 2 Real featuring Mad Stuntman

TOTP 29 SEP 1994

Posted on by 80stastic

I haven’t revisited what was going on with me personally back then in these posts for a while so (and I know this is of minuscule interest to anybody but me) let’s correct that. Two days after this TOTP aired we moved flat. Me and my wife had been in our tiny South Manchester flat for nearly four years and had been happy there. So why move? Well, our landlord let it be known that he had a bigger flat becoming available and we thought we could do with a bit more space and best of all, it was only two doors down! Yes, we were moving from Flat 4, No 47 to Flat 2, No 43 on the same street! This was great as it meant there was no need to incur removal van costs. However, it didn’t eliminate the need to put everything in boxes the same as any other move and that’s a job nobody looks forward to. We asked some friends from out of town to come to stay in the new place meaning that they could also help with carrying the boxes. My mate Robin’s taxi turned up just as the last box went in. Brilliant timing! We weren’t the only ones moving on around this time. On the same day this TOTP went out, Chris Evans presented The Big Breakfast for the very last time after two years. The times they were a-changin’…

…unless you were 2 Unlimited of course. Three years on from their debut hit, they were still clogging up the charts with their brand of repetitive Eurodance beats. The standard criticism of the Dutch duo was that all their material sounded the same and that you would feel like you’d heard it all before. Well, in the case of “No One” that was literally true. It had already been on TOTP back in the Summer on the show that was broadcast on 16th June. Back then it was featured within the album chart slot as their album “Real Things” had just been released and gone to No 1. So what did I say about it in my review of that show?

*checks TOTP Rewind archive*

Well, I referred to the frightening prospect of it being on the show again as I mentioned that it would be released as a single eventually and lo and behold, my prediction came true. I also said that, despite all my earlier talk of their sound never deviating from their original concept, this one did sound slightly different, not quite having the usual 2 Unlimited ‘bpm urgency’. Which it doesn’t. Was that an improvement then? Not really. I stand by my earlier review. Every word of it.

Huge tune incoming though not necessarily a big seller in the UK. After the lilting melodies of “Linger” and the perfectly crafted, jangly pop of “Dreams”, I was completely wrong footed by The Cranberries’ next release “Zombie”. A densely heavy slice of grunge rock that wasn’t a million miles away from “Creep” by Radiohead, it included an almost pained vocal from Dolores O’Riordan. ‘Pained’ is probably an apt word as the song was written as a visceral outpouring from Dolores in reaction to the tragic events of the IRA bombings in Warrington in 1993. The band’s record label Island got cold feet about releasing the track as a single fearing a song about The Troubles would be too controversial and that would affect airplay and its chances of commercial success. However, it had gone down well with audiences when played live in its early form as “In Your Head” and Dolores would not be deterred. She was right too. Although it would only make No 14 over here, it was huge around the rest of the world going to No 1 in seven countries. The album it came from – “No Need To Argue” – was huge too racking up 17 million sales worldwide. The Cranberries were officially a big deal.

A future chart topper now as the trend for reggae-fied versions of classic oldies continues apace. “Baby Come Back” was originally a No 1 hit in 1968 for the ethnically diverse group The Equals who included a young Eddy Grant in their ranks. A cover version of it 26 years later came courtesy of Pato Banton who I’d never heard of but who’d worked with The Beat in the early 80s and had guested on the 1985 UB40 album “Baggariddim”. Oh yes, there was a connection with UB40 just as there had been for Bitty McLean and his chart career. That connection became even more apparent when Ali and Robin Campbell performed on “Baby Come Back” alongside Banton. They even had a credit on the single’s cover.

By the way, Pato was nothing to do with another, much more objectionable Banton – the Jamaican Dancehall artist Buju – who held some vile homophobic views in the 90s that he aired in his song “Boom Bye Bye”. It turns out that the name ‘Banton’ is a Jamaican slang term for someone who is a respected storyteller.

Anyway returning to “Baby Come Back”, the combination of the Campbell brothers vocals on the chorus and Pato’s toasted verses proved irresistible to record buyers and the single would go to No 1 for 4 weeks ending the year as the UK’s fourth best selling single of the year. As we’ll be seeing it plenty more in future episodes I’ll leave it there for now.

After the real thing earlier, here come an act whom I saw recently online described as the ‘2 Unlimited of ragga’ which seemed pretty on the money. Reel 2 Real featuring The Mad Stuntman (they even had a figure 2 in their name like Ray and Anita!) were onto their third hit of a very thin source material in “Can You Feel It?”. This wasn’t just money for old rope but money for pieces of string too short to be useful. Basically a man (The Mad Stuntman presumably) toasting while a woman occasionally sings “Can you feel it baby?”. Just awful. Total crud. Somehow it managed to scramble up the charts to No 13. What was wrong with people back in 1994?!

Now here’s a curious thing. A performance on TOTP that on the face of it seems to be not instigated by the need to promote something. “You Really Got Me” was The Kinks’ first hit and first No 1 in 1964. So why were the band performing the song on TOTP in 1994? Well, the official line was to commemorate the song’s 30th anniversary and that was it. How often though had this sort of event happened though? Never that I can recall. The Kinks (well, Ray and Dave Davies essentially) just appear slap bang in the middle of the show – there isn’t even any caption allocated to them about career sales or anything. Ray did do the message to camera bit at the top of the show but he just told us how TOTP was going to rock us to the bone. Checking their discography, they’d had a Greatest Hits album out in 1993 (“The Definitive Collection”) which was rereleased in 1996 with a TV ad campaign but this TOTP appearance falls between these two releases so it can’t be that can it?

*checks discography again*

Oh hang on. They released a live album four days after this TOTP aired and it was called “To The Bone”. That’s what Ray was referring to in his rather cryptic message at the start of the show! And…published two weeks before this appearance was Ray’s autobiography called X–Ray which explains his off script lines during the performance about having “seen the X-Ray”. And….hadn’t the BBC just launched TOTP2 featuring clips from the archive so maybe this performance was to (indirectly) push that show? All makes a bit more sense now.

The performance is half in black and white presumably to try and create a feeling of 1964 before it reverts to colour during Dave’s guitar solo. Not sure it works really to be honest. However, I do like the way that Ray treats it as a proper live gig by encouraging some audience participation with his goading question “Are you listening to me?”.

Right, what’s this? Well, it’s Eurodance behemoth Snap! but you’d be forgiven for not recognising them. Firstly, they’ve got a new singer called Summer (real name Paula Brown) but then they had previous in that department having already been through vocalists Penny Ford, Thea Austin and Niki Haris by this point. Rapper Turbo B was long gone by this stage. Secondly, and perhaps more to the point, their new single “Welcome To Tomorrow (Are You Ready?)” didn’t sound like them. It’s a much poppier almost lilting sound than something like “The Power” or “Rhythm Is A Dancer” which made their names on the club dancefloors before crossing over massively into the mainstream charts. This felt like they had purposely made a record that could just go straight to daytime radio.

The space age sci-fi video that we see here apparently took three months to make. Some of the spacecraft in it look a bit Blake’s 7 to me but then that’s probably unfair as I’m looking at it through 2023 eyes. Back in 1994, this probably looked, if not mind blowing, then very impressive. “Welcome To Tomorrow (Are You Ready?)” would peak at No 6 but they would only have one more UK Top 40 hit subsequently.

East 17 were never as big as they were in 1994. A double platinum album and four hit singles including the Christmas No 1? Nice work if you can get it! “Steam”, despite being the title track of said album, was the smallest of those hits but the fact that it peaked at No 7 shows how big the others were. After the lighter sound of previous single “Around The World”, this was a return to the sound that made their name – pop/rap with a bit of streetwise savvy heavy in the mix. Watching this performance back though, it all seems faintly ludicrous. They’ve all had skinhead haircuts (presumably to big up those street credentials) but the outfits they’ve got on kind of work against that. What exactly are they wearing? A leather hoody with leather baggy trousers and boots? Sorry lads, you just look silly. At least the staging of the performance was easy. A song called “Steam”? Just have a few jets of the stuff going off behind them occasionally. My old history teacher Mr Cooper who used to overly emphasise the word ‘steam’ when talking about steam power would have approved. STEAM power lads!

Now to a man who is surely only behind Keith Richards in the ‘How is he not dead yet?’ stakes. I remember the Shane MacGowan And The Popes era of the ex-Pogues frontman’s career but I couldn’t tell you about any of their material. And I certainly don’t recall the Johnny Depp connection! Listening to “This Woman’s Got Me Drinking” though, it’s as if Shane was attempting his version of Motörhead’s “Ace Of Spades”. It’s all snarled vocals aside a strident, propelling one chord riff but doesn’t quite pull it off for me. Would it have been a coup to get Johnny Depp in the studio at this time? Well, he’d been in films like Cry–Baby, Edward Scissorhands and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape by this point in his career so he was certainly a name but surely wasn’t as notorious and divisive a figure as he is today. I must admit to not really thinking of him as a musician but he’s contributed to works by the likes of Oasis, Iggy Pop, Aerosmith and Jeff Beck as well as Shane MacGowan.

It’s another week at the top for Whigfield, Now would you categorise “Saturday Night” as a novelty record? I think I could almost be persuaded. It’s the dance that went with it that’s tipping me over. Like “Macarena” by Los Del Río or “Gangnam Style” by PSY. Or maybe I’m being too harsh. After all, Whigfield did have more hits than just this one hit – five in all including a further couple of Top 10s so they were more of a pop act than just a song. Their final hit was an almost unforgivable cover of Wham!’s “Last Christmas” though so I think any credit they may have had is completely wiped out.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
12 UnlimitedNo OneNever
2The CranberriesZombieNo
3Pat Banton with Ali and Robin CampbellBaby Come BackNegative
4Reel 2 Real featuring The Mad StuntmanCan You Feel It?As if
5The KinksYou Really Got MeNot released as a single in 1994 but I must have it on something
6Snap!Welcome To Tomorrow (Are You Ready?)Nah
7East 17 SteamNo but I had t a promo copy of the album from work. Sadly it had talky bits in between the tracks from Mark Goodier
8Shane MacGowan And The PopesThis Woman’s Got Me DrinkingI did not
9WhigfieldSaturday NightAnd 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/m001m15z/top-of-the-pops-29091994

TOTP 30 JUN 1994

Posted on by 80stastic

Despite my recent outrage at the omnipresence of Eurodance in the UK charts in the mid 90s (and therefore also on TOTP), I’m sure if I did some proper statistical analysis of the musical genres represented on the show, it would tell me that the mix of categories was eclectic. No, not eclectic but mad, bonkers, all over the place. Tonight’s show is a prime example. Yes, there are plenty of dance tunes (of varying quality) but there’s also some out and out pop, an exponent of the New Wave of New Wave (whatever that was), the debut of a rock ‘n’ roll band (definitely not indie…erm…maybe) who would dominate the 90s, a mega selling cover of an old 60s tune and hell, even a memorable No 1 from 1979! What a basket case of a show! The host is Bruno Brookes who I have to say I have warmed to since his return to the programme after the ‘year zero’ revamp era. I couldn’t be doing with him during his 80s pomp but compared to Simon ‘Smug’ Mayo, I’m finding his matey presenting style a bit more acceptable.

First up is a tune that I reviewed as part of the TOTP that was broadcast on 29 July 1993. Back then, “Caught In The Middle” by Juliet Roberts was a Breaker but as that section doesn’t exist anymore, she’s opening this show with a performance in the studio. In that first review, I drew some comparisons with Shara Nelson who was also on that day but there’s no Shara this time round so I’ll have to think of something else to say. Well, back in 1993, the single made No 24 and was produced by Danny D (of D-Mob fame) and remixed by Roger Sanchez. However, a David Morales remix that lit up the dance floors of clubs in 1994 demanded a release of its own and so it was that it was put out again, this time peaking at No 14. What are the differences between the two versions? I’m afraid my lack of dance music knowledge embarrasses me here but the Morales remix does seem to have a faster bpm which requires some controlled breathing and singing techniques from Juliet to get through it. This would prove to be Juliet’s biggest ever hit and she has not released any material since 2002 though she remains in demand as a backing singer.

That pure pop record next as Let Loose are finally given free rein to showcase themselves to the UK at large. I say ‘finally’ as they’d actually been around Take That style for over a year before this appearance and their single – “Crazy” – had originally been released back in April of 1993. It had just missed the Top 40 then but their record label Mercury obviously believed in the song and so it was re-released with a big promotional push and a chart entry at No 24 was achieved. There then followed a climb that was becoming most atypical within the UK Top 40 around this time whereby the single rose in small increments five weeks on the trot to get a foothold on the No 4 position. The story didn’t end there though. It stayed within the Top 10 for a further six weeks including two at No 2 when only the extraordinary sales of Wet Wet Wet kept it off the top spot. In total, it spent sixteen weeks inside the Top 40 and nine inside the Top 10. Perhaps most remarkable of all was that it would become the UK’s eighth best selling single of 1994, shifting more copies than D:Ream’s “Things Can Only Get Better” which spent four weeks at No 1 at the start of the year.

How can all this be explained? Well, it was supremely radio friendly becoming a staple of daytime playlists to the point that the band’s lead singer himself – Richie Wermerling – had this to say of the song (courtesy of @TOTPFacts):

The single’s success led to the re-release of another early single (“Seventeen”) which though nowhere near the sales phenomenon of its predecessor made a respectable No 11. Despite being pin up material and playing catchy pop music, Let Loose were never going to seriously worry Take That as the nation’s favourite boy band. The position of contender for that role would be filled by Boyzone come the end of the year. However, they did notch up seven Top 40 hits over two years before disbanding.

And here it is. The inevitable appearance of some nasty dance music in the form of Reel 2 Real featuring The Mad Stuntman. After the gravity defying chart run of “I Like To Move It” that remained aloft in the Top 40 for seventeen weeks, there were no surprises for guessing how main man Erick Morillo would follow it up. Just chuck out something that sounds exactly the same! What to call it? Something with the word ‘move’ in the title will do again. No need to overthink it. Just shameless. The ‘lyrics’ to “Go On Move” bang on about women shaking their bodies and then there’s some nonsensical scatting at the start. Look at this:

Bibidy, bom bi bom, mek, house go mad
Bibidy, bom bi bom, mek, jazz go mad
Bibidy, bom bi bom, mek, house go mad
Bibidy, bom bi bom, mek, jazz go mad

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Erick A. Morillo / Mark H. Quashie / Peter Tulloch
Go on Move lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc

The use of the word ‘Bibidy’ isn’t inspired by the “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo” song from Disney’s Cinderella animation but, according to my research, a Jamaican term for men’s underwear. Nice. In trade publication Music Week, reviewer James Hamilton described it as:

“Gruff ragga ‘g’wan move’ shouting and ‘blippily bebop’ scatting drily percussive ‘I Like To Move It’ type bogie shuffler”

Hamilton, James (June 25, 1994). “Dj directory” (PDF). Music Week, in Record Mirror (Dance Update Supplemental Insert). p. 5. Retrieved April 18, 2021.

That just about sums up this whole shoddy affair. Somehow, the good old British public bought enough copies to send it to No 7. Thanks for that.

It’s that No 1 from 1979 next. Surely one of the most memorable chart toppers ever, “I Don’t Like Mondays” was the second consecutive No 1 single for The Boomtown Rats after “Rat Trap” the year before. They were the biggest band in the UK. I was only 11 at the time and not exactly in tune with current chart trends but even I knew this song and The Boomtown Rats. The elder brother of a kid I knew up the street was a big fan. Not that I knew it at the time but so was my wife who asked her parents for their “Tonic For The Troops” album for Christmas ‘78 (they bought her “Nightflight To Venus” by Boney M instead).

By 1981 though, the hits had started to dry up. The New Romantics movement was in ascendancy with blousy young heroes like Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran capturing the nation’s imagination and The Rats were seen as old hat. By 1984 they were completely washed up. And then came that news report from Ethiopia that Bob Geldof couldn’t ignore leading to the Band Aid record and the Live Aid concert and that moment when he sings the line “And the lesson today is how to die”…

Go to 3:08 for that moment

The origins of the lyrics of the whole song are well documented of course. The school shooting in San Diego by 16 year old Brenda Spencer who fired at children in a school playground because, by her own words, “I don’t like Mondays. This livens the day up” is pretty bleak source material. Geldof couldn’t have known that just a few years later it would provide an iconic moment in rock history as part of an effort to use the power of music for the good of humanity.

* For my full review of Live Aid, follow the link below:

https://80spop.wordpress.com/2018/04/04/live-aid-13-jul-1985/(opens in a new tab)

None of the above explains why “I Don’t Like Mondays” was back in the charts in 1994 though. It was a pretty obvious reason in truth. A Boomtown Rats / Bob Geldof retrospective Best Of album entitled “Loudmouth” had been released and the track was re-released to promote it. The album made the Top 10 though the single only made No 38 so I’m a little surprised that it warranted a whole slot to itself. It would have been a Breaker under the old regime no doubt.

The moment has finally arrived. It wouldn’t be 1994 – the year Britpop took off according to many – without them. Stand by (me) for the time has arrived for the TOTP debut of Oasis! Working in a record shop in the centre of Manchester at the time, it was kind of hard to avoid Liam, Noel and co but I have to say I’d not got on board immediately. Whilst some of my work colleagues were all over debut single “Supersonic”, I was picking fault in their rhyming of Elsa with Alka-Seltzer in the lyrics. Second single “Shakermaker” didn’t quite do it for me either but by the time third release “Live Forever” came along, I could resist no longer and was all in. I’m pretty sure that I could tell that something big was brewing and I didn’t want to miss out. Record breaking debut album “Definitely Maybe” was duly purchased and eighteen months later I was at the second of their first outdoor headline gigs at Maine Road.

Back in the Summer of 1994 though, why wasn’t I immediately swept up in the Oasis tsunami? Admittedly, I had some previous when it came to ignoring huge Manchester bands just as they were breaking. The Smiths? No thanks, not poppy enough for me. The Stone Roses? Erm no. I rather like the look of Scottish rockers Gun instead. And so to Oasis. Why didn’t I watch this TOTP performance and think “Sign me up. I’m totally here for this”? Was I put off by the Genesis apeing practice of having drummer Tony McCarroll centre stage? It’s interesting to note that the focal point of the group Liam and Noel are furthest away from the stage here. Presumably that was deliberate but it seems out of character. Rather more predictably, poor old Bonehead and Guigsy hardly get a look in.

“Shakermaker” would peak at No 11, considerably higher than “Supersonic” (No 31) so we should have all been on alert at this point to the rise of the band. Although it would continue to sell throughout the next few years along with the band’s other singles (we were still regularly ordering copies of all of them for years), it remains the band’s only single released from their first two albums not to be certified gold.

Another dance tune now but I didn’t expect this one to sound like it does. Crystal Waters burst into the charts in 1991 with the hypnotic house sound of “Gypsy Woman” (“La da dee, la dee da”) but this single “Ghetto Day” (a double A- side with “What I Need”) sounds like something off Betty Boo’s second album. Seriously, it sounds like “Let Me Take You There” doesn’t it? She even seems to have changed her hair to a Boo style bob. It turned out though that the record buying public weren’t too keen on the Betty Boo version of Crystal Waters and, despite this appearance, the single got no higher than this week’s chart position of No 40. To be fair, the record buying public hadn’t been too keen on this Betty Boo version of Betty Boo so Crystal had no chance.

The New Wave of New Wave was a terrible name for a musical movement but then so was Britpop I guess. Unlike the latter, it didn’t live long in the memory either. So what was it and who was in it? Well, it pretty much did what it said on the tin. Bands that played guitar driven rock music that had post punk and new wave influences. And its exponents? Well, one of the main bands of the movement were These Animal Men whose name I remember but whose sound I do not. I’m guessing though that it was similar to S*M*A*S*H who were the first band of that sub genre to appear on TOTP the other week. Initially, there were other names associated with the New Wave of New Wave but as that scene petered out and Britpop became the dominant force, it was the latter that they became known for. I’m talking about Sleeper, Echobellly, Shed Seven and Elastica amongst others.

The only thing I can recall of These Animal Men was that they released an EP called “Taxi For These Animal Men”. So was a taxi required? Let’s have a listen to “Speeed King” then…

As I thought, they sound like S*M*A*S*H with maybe a bit of Menswear thrown in though I think they had a bit more to them than this These Animal Men who seemed to peddle a very specific (dare I say one trick pony) style of music. Host Bruno Brookes introduces them as being the ‘TOTP showcase’ which seems to have been another way of saying “this lot don’t have any hits but we’ve shoved them on the show to prove how hip we are”. “Speeed King” got no higher than No 95 and These Animal Men were done and dusted by 1998 when they split.

The Grid again? Is this the third outing for “Swamp Thing”? Despite this being a brand new performance, it’s basically exactly the same as they did the last time they were on including the rather odd set up for the banjo player. This single was one of a number that just sold and sold that Summer alongside Let Loose, Aswad and of course Wet Wet Wet. I must have sold hundreds of copies of those titles to the punters in the Manchester Piccadilly Our Price store where I was working at the time. One day I served a guy who asked if he could have discount on what he was buying. As there was no valid reason for his request I replied in the negative. He then came back with “I’m asking you politely for discount” to which I again replied “No”. My customer then advised me that he knew people who would come and kneecap me if I didn’t do as he wanted. It was that kind of place. A swamp thing? More like a cesspit of humanity. For the record, I still didn’t give him any discount and nobody did turn up to kneecap me.

https://youtu.be/wQ5Y0QKo2gA

Wet Wet Wet remain steadfastly secure in the No 1 spot with “Love Is All Around”. To try and mix things up a bit, TOTP have got hold of a piece of footage from a concert the band did at Wembley that week and show that instead of another studio performance or the video.

In the clip, Marti Pellow has a curious affectation where he twirls around making a welcoming gesture which put me in mind of Stephen Rea’s turn in Interview With A Vampire:

I’d have to say that Marti has a better smile than a vampire though.

The play out song is “Living In The Sunshine” by Clubhouse. The follow up to “Light My Fire”, ah…really though…who cares? Certainly not me.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1Juliet RobertsCaught In The MiddleNope
2Let LooseCrazyNo but I think my wife succumbed to its charms
3Reel 2 Real featuring The Mad StuntmanGo On MoveNever!
4The Boomtown RatsI Don’t Like MondaysNo but I must have it on something surely?
5OasisShakermakerNot the single but I bought there album. Didn’t we all?
6Crystal WatersGhetto Day / What I NeedNah
7These Animal MenSpeeed KingNo
8The GridSwamp ThingI did not
9Wet Wet Wet Love Is All AroundAnd no
10ClubhouseLiving In The SunshineAs if

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/m001krcc/top-of-the-pops-30061994

TOTP 14 APR 1994

Posted on by 80stastic

Well, it’s finally happened and it’s only taken just over six years. Yes, this post is my 500th if you combine both my 80s and 90s TOTP blogs. 500! I stopped looking at the word count after I passed the 1 million mark some time ago but it’s big. I started writing when the TOTP repeats got to 1983 which was the year my interest in pop music went into overdrive and the BBC’s flagship music show became unmissable viewing for me. After reviewing that year I really thought I might leave it at that as it was taking up a lot of my time but I persevered and somehow made it to the end of the decade. At that point I had another decision to make. Should I bother with the 90s repeats or leave it there? In the end I carried on mainly based upon the premise that as I’d spent most of that decade working in record shops, I’d surely be familiar with many of the tracks featured on the shows and they might trigger some memories for me. That theory hasn’t always worked out I have to say. Anyway, I seem to be stuck with this what…? Labour of love? Yeah, I guess so. I do love to write but sometimes the relentless schedule of the BBC4 repeats means I get behind and if I get too far behind, I fear I might give up. So I write and I write. Usually between five and six thousand words a week. The number of people reading my posts have grown to a amount I could never have imagined and I thank everyone of you who has ever taken the time to read any of my ramblings. Back in the early days I was getting as few as 17 views a month. I’m now averaging 1,500. From tiny acorns and all that.

Anyway, the TOTP gods have, by happy coincidence, got a rock star guest presenter in for the show that marks my milestone post. Meatloaf was enjoying a massive career rejuvenation following his mega hit album “Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell” and its single “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” so it made sense I guess for him to be asked to host the show. Plus, of course, he dominated the screen with his dramatic persona and physicality and knew how to deliver a line. His first job is to introduce opening act Terrorvision with their single “Oblivion”. Was this their debut TOTP appearance? I think it may have been. They were on as a Breaker for their previous hit “My House” earlier in the year I think. “Oblivion” was the lead single from their album “How To Make Friends And Influence People” which was a Top 20 hit and helped raise the band’s status from also rans to (perhaps unlikely) bona fide chart stars. They were always a curious beast though. What sort of band were they exactly? How would you describe the music they made? Yes, clearly they fall under the umbrella of rock music but that’s a broad church. Take “Oblivion” for example. It’s got an almost doo-wop chorus in it! It didn’t stop them winning the Kerrang! Award for Best Newcomer in 1994 though and you can’t get more rock than Kerrang! Then there’s the way they’re set up on stage with the drummer up front and vocalist Tony Wright on a raised platform at the rear. Sure Genesis had the same arrangement but it was hardly the classic band set up. Despite being at the back here, Wright would very much be the public face of the band even making appearances on the panel show Never Mind The Buzzcocks. With a twinkle in his eye and a cheeky grin, he was sort of like the rock version of Take That’s Mark Owen.

“How To Make Friends And Influence People” would generate five hit singles for the band, all peaking in the charts between Nos 25 and 21. I’m guessing we’ll be seeing more of Terrorvision in these TOTP repeats.

Next a record whose run on the charts feels comparable to the length of time I’ve been writing about these TOTP repeats for. Reel 2 Real (featuring The Mad Stuntman of course) spent a total of 17 weeks inside the UK Top 40 with “I Like To Move It”. Of those, 11 were inside The Top 10! Its presence in the charts started in Feb and carried on until June! Even in 1994, such longevity was becoming a rare event. By the end of the decade it was almost unheard of. You have to admire such durability even if you didn’t like the song (and I certainly didn’t). However, lots of people did and such was its popularity and accessibility that it was licensed for use in multiple adverts. Look at some of those brands that have made use of it:

  • Chewits – “I like to chew it, chew it”
  • McDonalds
  • Durex – “I like to do it, do it”
  • Toyota
  • United States Postal Service

Then there’s its presence in the cinematic world most obviously in the Madagascar franchise and of course it has also featured in many a dance themed video game plus it was adopted as a dance emote* in Fortnite in 2022.

* Clearly I only know about this because of my game playing son

Despite the song’s extensive run on the chart, I think this was Reel 2 Real’s first time in the TOTP studio. It’s a bit of a mess, all backing dancer arses and a ludicrous cane being wielded by I presume The Mad Stuntman. Apparently his stage name was inspired by the TV series The Fall Guy, the theme tune of which was a song called “The Unknown Stuntman” sung by its star Lee Majors. Wanna hear it again? Sure you do!

It’s time for another look at that groundbreaking video by Pet Shop Boys next. We saw a bit of the promo for “Liberation” last week when Neil and Chris performed in the TOTP studio with the video running in the background. It takes centre stage this time though and watching it through 2023 eyes it is rather underwhelming. I’m sure 29 years ago though it was quite the event but now it’s like the director was showing off with a new bit of software. That’s not his nor the available technology’s fault of course but inevitably we’ve grown accustomed to ever more mind blowing visuals both on the big screen and in the comfort of our own homes.

The director in question is Howard Greenhalgh who was responsible for loads of pop videos back in the 90s working with Spice Girls, Placebo, Ash, OMD, Elton John etc on multiple occasions. He especially seemed to love working with Pet Shop Boys having directed a dozen or so of their videos over the years. He would also end up directing the promos for the first two singles from Meatloaf’s 1995 album “Welcome To The Neighbourhood”. I wonder if our host tonight clocked the “Liberation” video and liked the idea of working with its director in the future?

It’s just over two weeks to the Eurovision Song Contest 1994 so there’s room in the TOTP schedule for another viewing of the UK’s entry “Lonely Symphony (We Will Be Free)” from Frances Ruffelle. She’s toned down the patriotism this time after she wore Union Jack underwear for her debut performance on the show. Maybe there’d been a lot of stern letters of complaint written to Anne Robinson at Points Of View? They’d probably be letters of congratulations in these current post-Brexit, flag shagging days.

Frances would come a lowly tenth in the contest (though that would have been seen as very respectable in recent years until our 2022 resurrection via Sam Ryder). The winners for a record third consecutive year were Ireland with an entry called “Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids” by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan. However, they quickly became the lost Eurovision winners as the memory that stayed with the watching millions was the interval act. Ladies and gentlemen…Riverdance!

Yes, 1994 was the first time the world witnessed what would become a stage phenomenon that has been performed in 450 venues across the world to 25 million people and made a superstar of principal dancer Michael Flatley. It also, of course, got widely parodied by the likes of Michael Myers and Stavros Flatley but I think this one is my personal favourite:

One of those tracks that I have zero recall of now. “Let The Music (Lift You Up)” by Loveland vs Darlene Lewis anyone? Or is it Loveland featuring Rachel MacFarlane as the single’s cover proclaims? Certainly Meatloaf gives Rachel a name check in his intro. I was never a fan of all these acts that included a ‘vs’ in their title. All very confusing. There seemed to be a glut of them around the Millennium.

Anyway, as far as I can tell, Rachel released records as part of The Family Foundation, Loveland, as a solo artist and most famously LMC who took their Whitney Houston sampling hit “Take Me To The Clouds Above” to No 1 in 2004. As for Darlene Lewis, she was an American soul singer who performed the original version of “Let The Music (Lift You Up)”. Loveland (who were affiliated to the achingly trendy Manchester record shop/ label Eastern Bloc) released their own version of the track without copyright clearance and so, to avoid expensive litigation, both parties agreed to release a version together. Oh, so that’s where the ‘vs’ thing comes from! You live and learn. Despite all that back story though, the track does nothing for me now that I’ve listened to it. Oh well.

It’s not quite the aforementioned Riverdance but there’s quite a crowd up there on stage with the next artist and there is definitely some fiddle playing at one point. The ‘Garth Brooks into the UK’ marketing campaign was in full swing in 1994. After securing a first Top 20 hit earlier in the year with “The Red Strokes”, here he was actually in the country for a TOTP appearance promoting follow up single “Standing Outside The Fire”.

As with Terrorvision earlier, Brooks’s music was quite hard to pin down. Sure he was a country artist but he was no Din Williams. So what was he? Country rock? Country pop? New country? This song has an almost calypso style breakdown in the middle eight for chrissakes! Whatever he was, it was working slowly but surely in the UK. With “Standing Outside The Fire” securing a chart peak of No 28, this was two consecutive Top 40 hits for him. However, this would be the extent of his penetration of the UK Top 40 and he would never again return. His albums continued to sell throughout the 90s but they all suffered from a case of diminishing returns after the pinnacle of the gold selling “In Pieces”. The misjudged Chris Gaines alter ego project was the final nail in his commercial coffin over here. Still, he looked like he was enjoying himself up there on stage in his hideous half blue, half red shirt back in 1994. Maybe he should have stuck with that Chris Gaines moody rock star look after all.

It’s time for the live by satellite performance now and it comes this week from Toni Braxton who also did the direct to camera message at the top of the show this time around. In a continuing theme, there’s yet another gold disc presentation to an artist, this time for Toni’s eponymous debut album. We then get a performance of her new single “Another Sad Love Song”. I say new but it’s actually a rerelease of her first single which got no further than No 51 in 1993 in the UK but which has been shoved out again following the success of “Breathe Again”. It’s all very accomplished and sultry but it doesn’t have the ebb and flow appeal of its predecessor and only made No 15 second time around.

Yet again there seems little point to this satellite performance from LA given it’s just a stage in an empty theatre. Yes, there’s a bit that’s made up to look like a backstage dressing room but so what? I wondered if all the lights in the auditorium were an audience holding up lighters initially but I think they’re just strategically placed lights. The disembodied arms of a drummer in silhouette is mildly distracting (or do I mean disturbing?) but the whole thing is as dull as Toni’s song. Her choice of title for the track was unfortunate given that it left it open to ridicule if you interpreted ‘sad’ as meaning pathetically inadequate rather than unhappy or feeling sorrow. I know my rather indiscreet manager at the Our Price store I was working at favoured the former definition as he told me gleefully “this is truly sad” whilst serving a customer with the single. Oh dear.

Ooh! There’s some new Top 10 countdown graphics! There seem to be in the style of those old fashioned movie countdown images which makes sense but seems a little unimaginative. Anyway, the No 1 this week is “Everything Changes” by Take That which means we get to see the actual Mark Owen as opposed to the rock version supplied by Terrorvision’s Tony Wright at the top of the show. Is it me or does Robbie Williams have a look of Jim Carrey in this performance? Maybe, it’s just the camera angle or his pencil thin sideburns?

“Everything Changes” was the band’s fourth No 1 single on the bounce though that run would be ended by “Love Ain’t Here Anymore” which peaked at No 3. It restarted with “Sure” which beckoned in another succession of six chart toppers which stretched into their second era as a band with 2006’s “Patience” and 2007’s “Shine”.

There’s no play out music this week as inevitably our host gets to perform his latest single. Now, according to your musical reasoning, this is either one of the greatest power ballads of all time and Meatloaf clearly endorses that view with his intro in which he states that Jim Steinman believes it to be the best song he ever wrote; or…it’s an overblown, over long, ridiculously titled Bruce Springsteen wannabe song that should never be spoken of nor listened to again. Or maybe somewhere in the middle. For me, it’s certainly not one of Meatloaf’s best and it does go on rather clocking in at 10:16 on the album and 5:55 in the single edit. And, of course, there is that title. As of 2007, “Objects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are” is the chart hit with the longest un-bracketed song title at 52 characters.

This sprawling epic supposedly outlines a middle aged man reminiscing about his lost youth via a three pronged narrative using the metaphors of the seasons of Spring, Summer and Winter. Not sure what happened to Autumn. Surely ‘the Autumn of My Life’ is an established phrase? It’s certainly a song by Bobby Goldsboro. Meatloaf would return in 1995 with the similarly ludicrously entitled song “I’d Lie For You (And That’s The Truth)”.

And that’s it! Post No 500 done and dusted. For the record Post No 1 from January 1983 included some panpipe music from Incantation, some utter drivel from Keith Harris and Orville, the theme tune from ET and Phil Collins. Maybe 1994 wasn’t so bad.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1TerrorvisionOblivionNo
2Reel 2 Real featuring The Mad StuntmanI Like To Move ItI didn’t
3Pet Shop BoysLiberationNo but I think I have it on their Pop Art Best Of
4Frances RuffelleLonely Symphony (We Will Be Free)Nah
5Loveland vs Darlene LewisLet The Music (Lift You Up)Nope
6Garth BrooksStanding Outside The FireNegative
7Toni BraxtonAnother Sad Love SongAnother no
8Take That Everything ChangesNever happening
9MeatloafObjects In The Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They AreAnd 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/m001jn46/top-of-the-pops-14041994

TOTP 24 MAR 1994

Posted on by 80stastic

This is the eighth show since new producer Ric Blaxill took over the TOTP reins and by my reckoning the breakdown of presenter appearances after bringing back the Radio 1 DJs is as follows:

  • Simon Mayo – 4
  • Mark Goodier – 2
  • Bruno Brookes – 1
  • Robbie Williams and Mark Owen from Take That (guest presenters) – 1

What was this blatant favouritism for Simon ‘Smug’ Mayo?! I’ve stated my dislike for him many times on this blog but he seems to be even more self satisfied (if that were possible) since returning to the show after the three year hiatus imposed by the Stanley Appel era. It’s as if he’s subliminally saying to the watching TV audience “See, told you the show would suffer if I wasn’t on it”. Tonight, he’s full of football related comments during his segues (Mayo is a Spurs supporter) to show…what exactly? That he was an original ‘lad’ before ‘lad culture’ when into hyperdrive in the mid 90s? Nob.

Before the opening titles of tonight’s show we get a message to camera from Salt ‘N’ Pepa advertising their upcoming appearance later on live by satellite from New York and then we’re straight into it. Opening the show are D:Ream with “U R The Best Thing” although Mayo seems to have confused them with “Groove Is In The Heart” hitmakers Deee-Lite judging by his intro. “OK. Deee-liteful, deee-lovely… err…D: Ream” he quips in his intro. Yes, I know he hasn’t really confused the two acts and that he’s trying out what he believes to be a humorous line but it just isn’t funny. At all. Or is he yet again trying to demonstrate his huge knowledge of pop music. Ooh look at me! I know about a record that was in the charts four years ago! I say again…nob.

It is D:Ream though who surely couldn’t believe their luck given the chart run they were on. Having managed to carve out a couple of medium sized hits the previous year with this track and “Things Can Only Get Better”, they must have thought that those needed to be consolidated on with some new hit material. The usual pop career strategy wasn’t for them though as they embarked upon an even more successful commercial run using the same songs. Talk about recycling; D:Ream were pop’s great environmentalists! In their defence, this was a Perfecto remix of the original track just as “Things Can Only Get Better” was remixed for re-release and they did then put out some different tracks from their album as their next two singles. Their had been speculation that they would move onto “Unforgiven” and “Star/ I Like It” which had also been Top 30 hits in 1993. There is no defence of Peter Cunnah’s chequed suits though. This version of “U R The Best Thing” peaked at No 4.

https://youtu.be/fCjZEAXyTU4

What’s this then? A track by Soul Asylum that isn’t “Runaway Train”? Yes it is and it’s title affords Simon Mayo the opportunity to air his first side-splitting football reference of the night. “And now it’s Soul Asylum playing Eric Cantona’s favourite record “Somebody To Shove” he tells us, so obviously pleased with himself. His comment needs putting in context 29 years on to make sense of it. Cantona had been sent off twice in four days for violent conduct in the week that this TOTP aired. Ok, we get it Mayo but it’s still not a genuinely entertaining line is it?

Anyway, enough of my disdain for the host, what about the music? It seems that Soul Asylum were doing a D:Ream in that they were in a cycle of re-releasing singles one after the other. Their most well known song “Runaway Train” was originally released in June of 1993 and came to a premature halt at No 37. “Somebody To Shove” was pushed out as the follow up in the September and peaked at No 34. Then “Runaway Train” was given the green light again and this time ran as far as No 7 over the Christmas period. And finally “Somebody To Shove” was put into motion as its follow up for a second time in March 1993. I think I need some asylum for my poor brain let alone my soul. Was it all with it? Well, “Somebody To Shove” peaked two places higher on the UK charts second time around at No 32 and it’s a decent rock tune in the vein of recent chart stars Gin Blossoms but it didn’t have the cut through pull of “Runaway Train” in the same way that casual punters never went for any of Extreme’s material other than “More Than Words”. As for Eric Cantona, there was much worse to come the following year in the shoving stakes.

It’s another outing for that live by satellite performance from New York of “Dry County” by Bon Jovi next which acts as the soundtrack to the chart countdown. I haven’t got much else to say about this one having already discussed it previously so I’ll instead talk about their single previous to this one. Why? Well, it was called “I Believe” which was also the title of two different hit singles in the chart around this time by Marcella Detroit and Sounds Of Blackness. It got me thinking about how many other songs there are called “I Believe”. Well, there’s EMF’s follow up to “Unbelievable”, Tears For Fears’ fifth single from their “Songs From The Big Chair” album and the song that both Frankie Laine and the execrable Robson & Jerome took to No 1. My personal favourite though, if we ignore the brackets, is Stevie Wonder’s “I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)”. As Alan Partridge might say ‘lovely stuff’.

I’m guessing that if asked to come up with a list of boy bands from the 90s, Worlds Apart wouldn’t be one of the first names on it. Take That? Obviously. Boyzone? Of course. Westlife? Indubitably. East 17? Were they a boy band? Go on then. After that you might have to delve a bit deeper to come up with names like 5ive, 911, A1 and Another Level. Then there’s the American counterparts that made huge impacts both sides of the Atlantic. New Kids On The Block, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, even Hanson maybe? Worlds Apart though? Well if you were asking the question in the rest of Europe, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong etc then they might well be the first and immediate response. They were massive in those territories, immersing themselves in people’s consciousness to the extent that they had their own brand of orange juice and Haribo sweets in the shape of their heads! The reaction to them in the UK was lukewarm at best though. Their albums absolutely tanked over here and they only troubled the Top 40 singles chart compilers on four occasions with their best return being this No 15 hit, a cover of The Detroit Spinners’ “Could It Be I’m Falling In Love”.

Looking at them here, they have all the classic boy band ingredients:

  • There’s five of them
  • At least two of them have the 90s curtains haircut
  • One of them looks like John Barrowman
  • They’re all wearing oversized, unbuttoned shirts over T-shirts and one of them has the obligatory waistcoat on
  • Their doing a cover version

It’s all very predictable but also validates their boy band credentials so why weren’t they bigger over here. Perhaps we should just not worry about it and thank our lucky stars they weren’t. Where were David Grant and Jaki Graham when you needed them though?

Back with Simon Mayo and he’s in the groove now with his football-related segues. After having referenced French striker Jean-Pierre Papin in his intro to Worlds Apart – his beloved Spurs were reportedly interested in signing him from AC Milan but it never came to anything (could it be were falling in love with Jean -Pierre Papin? Geddit?) – he’s now resorted to taking the piss out of other teams. In his sights tonight were Swindon Town who were struggling at the bottom of the Premier League at the time. “OK, 9 – 10 – 12 – 12 – 10 – 9 – 7. No, not Swindon’s goal against tally, it’s the last eight chart positions for Reel 2 Real.” Right, I’ve fact-checked this statement and whilst the chart positions are correct, Simon appears to not be able to count as there the last seven chart positions not eight you arse! So far tonight we have established they Mayo is not funny, a football bully and his grasp of even the most basic of numbers is appalling. What a guy!

Anyway, about Reel 2 Real featuring Mad Stuntman (to quote their full artist title), that is quite the rollercoaster of a chart journey. Their single “I Like To Move It” certainly had legs. It would ultimately spend 11 weeks inside the Top 10 and 15 inside the Top 20. In total it spent 5 months on the Top 100. Given all of the above, why had TOTP ignored it until now? After all, it was one one hell of an ear worm although it wasn’t especially welcome in my auditory system. Wasn’t this just a 2 Unlimited / K7 hybrid? And why didn’t they call it “I Like To Move It (Move It)”?

Impressive as its 1994 chart life was, that was nothing to the legacy it has amassed since. It has been heavily used in the Madagascar film franchise and has also made its way into the gaming world via Singstar Dance and Fortnite. I’m pretty sure it was also the inspiration for this Top 5 hit later in the year…

Now, after a run of over nine years, we have to say goodbye to the Breakers section which was jettisoned by new producer Ric Blaxill after this show. It first appeared on TOTP in January 1985 and whilst I understand the concept behind it, the slot had become unwieldy and unworkable with often as many as five tracks crammed into a 2 minute time frame. Anyway, for what it’s worth, these were the last of them starting with The Brand New Heavies. Having garnered critical acclaim with their first two albums – the eponymous debut and “Heavy Rhyme Experience, Vol 1.”, the band would discover the secret to combining that with commercial popularity with the release of third album “Brother Sister”. A platinum selling, No 4 charting collection of songs, its appeal was no doubt helped by the inclusion of the band’s cover of Maria Muldaur’s “Midnight At The Oasis” which weirdly was omitted from the US version of the album. I’m getting ahead of myself though. The lead single was “Dream On Dreamer”. A radio friendly, acid jazz infused soul/pop track, it would peak at No 15 becoming their biggest hit at the time.

Here come Roxette next with the video for their single “Sleeping In My Car”. The promo is set in what seems to be an underground car park and reminds me of the video for Duran Duran’s “The Chauffeur” the final scenes of which are set in a similar location. The Duran video is filmed in black and white (as are parts of Roxette’s) and was inspired by Liliana Cavani’s erotic and disturbing cult film The Night Porter. Whilst “The Chauffeur” is all very stylised and has high artistic pretensions, the “Sleeping In My Car” promo seems a lot less aesthetic and if it was influenced by a film, it was probably Rita, Sue And Bob Too.

The final (ever) Breaker is one of those aforementioned “I Believe” songs from Sounds Of Blackness. The track was written and produced by the legendary Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (who produced the rest of parent album “Africa To America: The Journey Of The Drum”). Apparently they were convinced to work with the 40 strong collective after taking their long time collaborator Janet Jackson to one of their shows and witnessed her enthusiastic response to them.

“I Believe” peaked at a very impressive No 17 and they followed it up with “Gloryland”, the official theme song of World Cup USA 94 which they recorded with Daryl Hall.

Time for that Salt ‘N’ Pepa live by satellite exclusive now. Simon Mayo is back with his spectacularly unfunny one liners, blathering on about Finsbury Park tube station but it doesn’t distract from the performance. It should be stated, of course, that “Whatta Man” was a collaboration with En Vogue. Up to this point, both artists had a chequered history when it came to UK hit singles. For En Vogue that meant a huge debut song in 1990 (“Hold On” – No 5) followed by three releases that all failed to chart. Then another massive song in 1992 (“My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It) – No 4) then a run of three middling hits and two chart flops before “Whatta Man”. As for Salt ‘N’ Pepa, it was a similar story with huge hits (“Push It”, “Twist And Shout”, “Let’s Talk About Sex”) punctuated by smaller ones (“Shake Your Thang”, “Shoop”, “You Showed Me”). It was probably mutually beneficial to both parties to join forces to seek out a huge record.

And whatta hit! A No 7 in the UK and No 3 in America, it sold 200,000 copies in the former and 1,000,000 in the latter. It’s not hard to hear why. The combination of En Vogue’s silky vocals with Salt ‘N’ Pepa’s sublime, chiming rhymes made for a killer track. The performance here is full of sass and swagger and a large cast but I’m not sure that En Vogue are any of them. That’s not them on vocals at the back of the set is it? So what happened next? For Salt ‘N’ Pepa, “Whatta Man” would prove to be the final time they made the UK Top 10 though they did return to the charts on four further occasions though none of those entries got any higher than No 19. En Vogue faired better. Their 1997 album “EV3” went platinum in the States and furnished them with one last huge hit in “Don’t Let Go (Love)” which went to No 5 in the UK and No 2 in the US.

The Take That juggernaut continues to play fast and loose with chart records. “Everything Changes” was the title track of their second album but it was also their fourth consecutive single to enter the charts at No 1 which it will do the week after next. Their first chart topper to feature Robbie Williams on lead vocals (he took on that role for the band’s cover of Barry Manilow’s “Could It Be Magic” but that peaked at No 3), it was also specifically written for him by Gary Barlow as a deliberate ploy. I have to say that I always found it quite weak and insubstantial but then again, if it had appeared on the second (much poppier) Wham! album “Make It Big”, would we have been talking about yet another George Michael classic?

The Top 10 countdown gives Simon Mayo another opportunity to showcase his amazing talent for delivering lines that only he thinks are funny. “Now the Dutch have a great tradition when it comes to the UK No 1. There’s Pussycat and “Mississippi”…and erm…well “Doop” by Doop that’s it as far as I can think…” he deadpans to camera. Once more, as well as being humourless he is factually incorrect. He’s missed out 2 Unlimited* and “No Limit” which was a UK chart topper just 12 months before! Surely he can’t have forgotten that or did he purposely omit them to try and make his ‘joke’ work? My God, I think I’d rather listen to this Charleston nonsense one more time than year any more from Mayo!

*There have been numerous Dutch DJ types post 1994 to ascend to the No 1 spot plus who could forget Vengaboys in 1999?!

The play out song is “Hi De Ho” by K7. The follow up to “Come Baby Come”, this was an example of something called the swing revival. Or was it retro swing? Or even neo-swing? Whatever its name, it was a movement that displayed a renewed interest in the swing genre of jazz. Yeah, must have passed me by as well. I mean, I remember there was a minor hit single in 1988 by the Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra that was a cover of Cab Calloway’s “Minnie The Moocher” but that surely doesn’t count as a whole movement? Yes, there was also the Doop phenomenon but did that count as swing music? A quick bit of research tells me that there was more to it than that but it mostly happened in America and was instigated by Los Angeles’ Royal Crown Revue band. These jump blues revivalists appeared in the Jim Carrey film The Mask whose soundtrack heavily featured swing music and indeed K7’s “Hi De Ho” track. The video for the song features a cameo from the aforementioned Cab Calloway himself and of course, he originally recorded “Hi De Ho Man’ upon which the K7 single is based. I’m pretty sure that I owned a copy of The Mask soundtrack (and therefore the K7 track) by default as there was a promo copy of it floating around the Our Price where I was working at the time so I took it home. Don’t think I ever played it and have no idea where it is now.

Order of appearanceArtistTitleDid I buy it?
1D:Ream U R The Best ThingNah
2Soul AsylumSomebody To ShoveNo
3Bon JoviDry CountyNo but I had a promo copy of the album
4Worlds ApartCould It Be I’m Falling In LoveAs if
5Reel 2 Real featuring Mad StuntmanI Like To Move ItNegative
6The Brand New HeaviesDream On DreamerNo but I think my wife had the album
7RoxetteSleeping In My CarIt’s another no
8Sounds Of BlacknessI BelieveI did not
9Salt ‘N’ Pepa and En VogueWhatta ManLiked it, didn’t buy it
10Take ThatEverything ChangesOf course not
11DoopDoopNope
12K7Hi De HoNo but I had it on that promo copy of The Mask soundtrack

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/m001j65b/top-of-the-pops-24031994