Rozalla

TOTP 27 OCT 1994

Posted on June 13, 2023 by 80stastic

No, no, no, no, NO! Not Simon Mayo again! I can’t. I just can’t. I can’t deal with his smugness and tone deaf belief against all perceivable reality that he is somehow funny and entertaining. I can’t talk about every cringeworthy line he utters in this show – it’ll break me. Just know that he was as unfunny as ever. Jarvis Cocker had it right at the end of last week’s show when the guest presenter wrapped up his stint by saying “Try and watch next week, Simon Mayo will be presenting though”. He might as well have said “Try and watch next week, Simon Mayo will be presenting though so, you know, you’ll have to put up with that gobshite”. I’ll say no more about him…in this post anyway.

I also don’t have much to say about the opening act who are Snap! and are on the show for the third time with their single “Welcome To Tomorrow (Are You Ready?)”, hence why I’ve run out of any meaningful comment on them. What I have said before is that I didn’t mind the Turbo B-less version of the group and preferred this lighter sound that the new line up had brought with it. What I wasn’t sure about though was the staging of this TOTP performance. It looked like every expense had been spared when it came to the set. What is that backdrop meant to be depicting? Some sort of strange new world or planet? Was that an attempt at making a connection (however remote) with the song title? And then what the hell was that computer graphic of a moving target glitter ball all about? It all looked amateurish and crap frankly. Even Simon Mayo’s remark about it afterwards is justified but I’m not talking about him so I couldn’t possibly comment about his…erm…comment. The cumulative effect is that it reduced an act who had already scored two memorable UK No 1s that decade so far to looking like Eurodance also rans. If rhythm was a dancer, you had to be serious about it didn’t you?

You know that thing where an artist is so well known for just one song that it almost comes as a surprise that they ever released anything else? I think we might have another example of it in China Black. During the Summer of 1994, “Searching” had been such a big hit for this duo (7 weeks in the Top 20, 13 in the Top 40) that it was always going to be a struggle to follow it up. Follow it up they did though with a track called “Stars” that stuck to the template of its predecessor so closely that if it had been a race, you would have needed a photo finish to distinguish between the runners. Some more reggae influenced, radio friendly pop music? Certainly – we’ve got lots of that in stock. “Stars” though couldn’t replicate the success of “Searching” when it peaked at No 19. They did manage two further chart hits in 1995 but neither got near to breaching the Top 10.

*Other examples include The Boo Radleys, Aqua and Doctor And The Medics who all had further chart hits but which were overshadowed by “Wake Up Boo!”, “Barbie Girl” and “Spirit In The Sky” respectively.

I’ve said before here and in my 80s blog that I never really caught the boat going to Pink Floyd island. I mean, I can appreciate the majestic aural landscapes of “Dark Side Of The Moon” and the video for “Another Brick In The Wall” was a (scary) part of my childhood but they always seemed a bit over indulgent and that they were posh boys noodling to me. By 1994, my opinion hadn’t changed that much and certainly hadn’t been affected by the release of “The Division Bell” album. However, it did give them something that they were not renowned for – two consecutive Top 40 singles. After Runrig soundalike tune “Take It Back” had charted earlier in the year, “High Hopes” would meet its title by securing a chart peak of No 26.

Nothing to do with that song about ants and rubber tree plants popularised by Frank Sinatra, this was a mournful, heavy density rock ballad that spoke of the band’s days growing up in Cambridge when things all seemed much simpler. Now I can appreciate that sentiment much more now as a middle-aged man of 55 than I could as a 26 year old back in 1994 – hell, this blog is all about nostalgia – but it still sounds too doom laden to me. Built around a constant ringing church bell (the clanging chimes of doom anyone?), it’s very epic and cinematic (I can imagine it working well in a film) but I couldn’t listen to it over and over I don’t think. It would be the last new material released by the band for 20 years.

My resistance to berating Simon Mayo has lasted three songs because I can’t let this one go. After the Pink Floyd video finishes, he glibly announces “And that’s Pink Floyd who are currently on tour with The Scaffold as support but then you probably knew that”. What was he on about? He was referring to a near tragedy that happened on the first night of 14 dates played by the band at Earl’s Court. Early in the concert, a scaffolding stand (block 9) holding 1,200 fans collapsed throwing hundreds of people 20 feet to the ground. 96 were injured with 36 needing hospital treatment. And that was considered a suitable topic by Mayo for a throwaway line that he clearly thought showed how clever he was. A total and utter bellend.

Another of those artists now that could be added to that list of acts who are so well known for one hit that you forgot they released anything else. Rozalla burst onto the scene in 1991 with “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)” but could you name any of her other songs? I couldn’t and I’ve probably written about them in this blog! Anyway, this one was called “You Never Love The Same Way Twice”. The music press at the time saw this as a return to form for Rozalla after a couple of previous missteps but it sounds rather lacklustre and uneventful to me. She seemed to have restyled herself as Gabrielle at this point with her short hair stuck flat to her head. I guess she never had the same hairstyle twice.

Sting is back in the studio for a performance of his “When We Dance” single. A new track to promote his Best Of album, it would be his biggest ever solo hit peaking at No 9. He’s on the double bass this week bringing back memories of that video for “Every Breath You Take”:

As ever, there’s a story behind its appearance and also as ever, @TOTPFacts has the details:

That is not just a prop – Sting used to play double bass in a trad jazz band called the Riverside Men before The Police. #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) June 2, 2023

Sting would return with the second new track called “This Cowboy Song” to support that Best Of album in the new year and it featured this week’s No 1 artist. He went on to release a further two studio albums by the end of the decade bringing the number he recorded in the 90s to four. Whatever you think about him, you can’t deny he’s prolific.

https://youtu.be/54sieMk3-Bk

Seriously?! A third outing for the Niagara Falls performance of “Always” by Bon Jovi?! In the show’s defence, the single was experiencing a resurgence of sales and was going back up the charts. It had already peaked at No 2 once and dropped down a couple of places but had just moved from No 4 to No 3 this week on its way to a second peak of No 2 where it stayed for a further two weeks. That’s an awful lot of number twos! Ahem.

There’s actually a Bon Jovi tribute act called Bon Jovi Always but then there’s also, confusingly, one called Always Bon Jovi. Hmm. Then there’s Bon Giovi, The Bon Jovi Experience, Born Jovi and Non Jovi. I think my favourite though is Wrong Jovi which might appeal to my friend Robin, who, on hearing the news that my son had discovered the song “Livin’ On A Prayer” and liked it, said that this was like pissing from the top of a multi-story car park – wrong on so many levels.

After being less than impressed with the line up so far in tonight’s show, here’s somebody interesting at last. I didn’t pick up on Green Day immediately but I probably should have. A US punk three piece but who also knew about melody, I’d completely missed their major label debut album “Dookie” when it was released in the February of 1994. I think I first became aware of them in the August when I had to cover at the Our Price store in Rochdale where I used to work and an ex-colleague of mine called Emma said to me “Haven’t you heard the Green Day album? Don’t you know Basket Case?”. I hadn’t and I didn’t. Emma was into quite extreme stuff like the Riot grrrl movement and industrial artists like Meat Beat Manifesto so I assumed Green Day might be similar but I was completely wrong. And yet I ignored them for quite some time until “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” which was a song so brilliant that it was un-ignorable. Back in 1994 though, “Welcome To Paradise” was a No 20 hit and initially appeared on their independently released 1991 album “Kerplunk” but was re-recorded for “Dookie” and it races along convincingly and knocks everything else on the show into a cocked hat. For me though, their 2004 album “American Idiot” is their pinnacle; indeed so huge was it that it outgrew the album format and morphed into a musical. The band’s legacy includes 90 million record sales worldwide, 20 Grammy nominations (5 of which were won) and being voted as the best punk rock band of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.

I used to work with someone in York who was completely obsessed with lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong or, more accurately his looks. The only look I’m going to comment on though is the classic three person band line up of guitar, bass and drums that Green Day had which gives me a fond memory of The Jam. They’ve been acknowledged as having influenced the likes of Fall Out Boy, Sum 41 and Blink-182 though I think I would add Northern Irish punk rockers Ash to that list.

It’s time for the album chart feature now but as with many a track that is showcased in this slot, it would ultimately end up being released as a single and will be appear on a future TOTP down the line. This week’s incumbent is “Let It Rain” by East 17 from the album “Steam”. Despite not matching the chart topping status of their debut “Walthamstow”, “Steam” actually sold twice the amount of copies of its predecessor. I guess the power of a Christmas No 1 shouldn’t be underestimated.

We’re getting ahead of ourselves though (mind you so were East 17). For now, “Steam” had only been out for a couple of weeks but qualified for a spot on TOTP by being at No 4 in the album chart. However, instead of highlighting “Stay Another Day” (their label London Records must have known they would be releasing it for the Christmas market shortly), “Let It Rain” was chosen and it would eventually be released as a single as the follow up to its more famous chart topper. It’s not one of their best by any standard. The intro by Tony Mortimer is quite something though triggering memories of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown’s “Fire” or maybe Spinal Tap’s “Stonehenge” even.

It’s Sting’s mate Pato Banton now and he’s the new No 1 after deposing Take That after just two weeks. However, he advises Mayo in a pre-song chat that he can’t perform “Baby Come Back” as Robin and Ali Campbell (or the ‘UB guys’ as Pato refers to them) aren’t available so it’s the promo video again this week. It’s split into colour and black and white sections with the latter reserved for Robin and Ali who are portrayed as pop stars performing on a music show in the 60s (hence the black and white tint). Are they meant to be someone akin to The Righteous Brothers because they come across more like Robson and Jerome to me.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Snap!	Welcome To Tomorrow (Are You Ready?)	Nope
2	China Black	Stars	Nah
3	Pink Floyd	High Hopes	No
4	Rozalla	You Never Love The Same Way Twice	I did not
5	Sting	When We Dance	Negative
6	Bon Jovi	Always	Robin would be proud of me – no
7	Green Day	Welcome To Paradise	It’s another no
8	East 17	Let It Rain	Didn’t happen
9	Pato Banton	Baby Come Back	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/m001mffl/top-of-the-pops-27101994

TOTP 04 AUG 1994

Posted on May 8, 2023 by 80stastic

Due to BBC4’s relentless schedule of broadcasting two TOTP repeats a week (which is killing me by the way), we’ve already reached August of 1994. And we know what August means…the start of a new football season. On the very day this show aired, Spurs bought Jürgen Klinsmann from Monaco and despite playing for them for just one season, would become a fan favourite, rebuilding his reputation in England as being a ‘diver’ thanks to this celebration on his debut…

Thank God tonight’s presenter isn’t Spurs fan Simon ‘Smug’ Mayo or we’d have to suffer a whole show of him making endless ‘hilarious’ football references. Instead it’s Mark Goodier who I don’t think has ever even attempted to make a funny quip in his life. Looking at the running order for this show, it’s pretty underwhelming I have to say. So underwhelming that to try and big it up, Goodier announces as a future ‘highlight’ that Status Quo will be making their 100th appearance on the show. TOTP seemed to have a weakness for and reliance on The Quo when it came to creating a buzz about the show. In the first show of the ‘year zero’ revamp, they had them on to perform “Let’s Work Together” as a track from their latest album which seemed counter productive to an attempt to relaunch the show for a younger audience. That tie between the BBC and the band was severed though in 1996 when Radio 1 blacklisted their single “Fun Fun Fun” (a collaboration with The Beach Boys) on the grounds that they were repositioning themselves as a youth station and Status Quo were…well, no longer the status quo. The band took it badly and launched an unsuccessful legal action for a judicial review of the ban on their records. In 1994 though, they were still seen as a draw by the Beeb and they’ll be along soon enough.

If Messrs Rossi, Parfitt et al would find themselves in a metaphorical boxing ring with Radio 1, we start the show in an actual boxing ring as Maxx have decided to perform their new single in one. The follow up to No 4 hit “Get-A-Way”, “No More (I Can’t Stand It)” was more of the same, in other words a huge steaming pile of Eurodance dung. Has there ever been a more apt song title? So why the boxing ring? I’ve no idea but the track certainly doesn’t deliver a knockout punch. As it’s nearly 30 years ago, there’s still some sexual stereotyping going on with the boxers being men and the women on stage (apart from singer Linda Meek) are styled as ring girls announcing what round it is. Actually, is that still how it works in 2023? I know that the profile of women boxing is much higher these days but are ring girls still a thing? I’m not a big fight fan. Definitely still a thing are Maxx who reactivated in 2016 after initially folding in 1995, although Linda Meek now goes by the name of Elyse G Rogers and rapper Gary Bokoe has been replaced by someone called Twitch.

Right, I’m calling it. This must be the very last appearance on TOTP by Level 42. Not only is “Love In A Peaceful World” their very last UK Top 40 hit (it made No 31) but the band broke up in the October of this year and didn’t reform until the new millennium and didn’t release any new material until September 2006, two months after the last ever TOTP aired. I think that’s a cast-iron defence of my opening statement. Despite metamorphosing from Britfunk pioneers into a mega-hit making machine, the band have often been pigeonholed as vapid and bland. I have to admit to liking a handful of their songs – “Hot Water” is a great track – but I’ve never been tempted to actually buy any of their stuff.

Looking at their career in terms of a story arc though, a decent documentary could be made of it. A group of friends from the Isle of Wight relocate to the big smoke where one of them learns the bass and becomes one of the world’s most renowned bass guitarists. They start playing a brand of jazz funk fusion attracting record company interest before a change of musical direction towards pop brings huge mainstream success. Alas, the march of time catches up with them and they find themselves marginalised in the musical landscape. Add to that relationship breakdowns within the band causing line up changes (over 20 people have been band members at some point over the years) and finally tragedy with a founding member committing suicide and it’s quite a tale.

As a valedictory single, “Love In A Peaceful World” isn’t the worst way to bow out. A pleasant tune with an admirable message, I could imagine it being used in a rom com film to great effect. Sadly, and as an indication of where the band were, it only got to No 31. They remain, however, active within and a big draw of the live circuit.

https://youtu.be/vk2v6F7i_Gw

Right who’s next? Ce Ce Peniston with a song that isn’t “Finally”? Eh? Yes, well she did have more than the one hit – in fact, she had seven of which “Hit By Love” was the sixth. I think most of us would struggle to name more than “Finally” though wouldn’t we? What? “We Got A Love Thang”? Oh yeah. It made the Top 10. Surely no more than that though? Sorry? “Somebody Else’s Guy”? That’s Jocelyn Brown’s big hit! Say again? Ce Ce Peniston had equally as big a hit with it in 1997 to promote her Best Of album? Oh come on! Nobody associates that song with her! “Hit By Love” sounds like a rewrite of “Finally” to me, trying to recreate that winning formula but not quite getting there. A bit like in Breaking Bad when Todd takes over the production of the blue crystal meth and can’t get the content as pure as Walter White. Erm…anyway, Ce Ce doesn’t need a methamphetamine hit as she is high on love according to her song but the biggest chart high she could achieve with it was No 33. Unlike Roxy Music, love was not the drug for her.

And so to Status Quo who are in the studio for the 100th time with a little ditty called “I Didn’t Mean It”. I don’t remember this one at all and have to admit that my expectations for it were low. It was the lead single from their 21st studio album “Thirsty Work” and was written by one John David, a Welsh producer, songwriter and musician who had performed with some big names like Springsteen, Clapton and Sting and written for the likes of Cliff Richard, Shakin’ Stevens, Alvin Stardust and Samantha Fox. Hmm. I’m noticing a slight disparity between the calibre of artists he performed with and those he wrote for but never mind. He also worked with Dave Edmunds which is not surprising as “I Didn’t Mean It” has a flavour of Edmunds about it or maybe Nick Lowe with some honky tonk piano to the fore. Now I like both Edmunds and Lowe so I’m probably doing them a disservice by associating them with this track which isn’t really worthy of their name. It’s all very predictable and what I would have expected Status Quo to have been churning out at this time. It seems very anachronistic compared to their chart peers at the time. Maybe they should have seen the BBC bust up writing on the wall.

The cover of the single is more interesting than the song with images of famous people that maybe had regrets about what they had done (I didn’t mean it -geddit?) so there’s Ken Dodd (tax evasion court case – acquitted) Diego Maradona (‘Hand of God’ goal – cheated ) Lester Piggott (tax fraud case – guilty), Richard Nixon (Watergate scandal – resigned) Robert Maxwell (Mirror Group Pension Fund scandal – fraudulent misappropriation), Mike Tyson (rape conviction – guilty) Graham Taylor (failed to get England to World Cup in USA) and Ben Johnson (disqualified for doping in 1988 Olympics and stripped of gold medal). The inclusion of some of those names seems a little ill judged, especially Mike Tyson and Robert Maxwell given the damage they did to people’s lives. Sadly for Status Quo, Radio 1 did mean it when it came to not playing their records any more when 1996 rolled around.

Another diminutive dance diva who’s probably best known for just one song next. After Ce Ce Peniston earlier comes Rozalla who is surely best known for her “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)” hit from 1991 but who was still knocking about the charts three years later with this track “This Time I Found Love”, the second single from her “Look No Further” album. I haven’t got that much to say about this one – not really my bag but I will comment on the solo male dancer up there with Rozalla. I’m not sure that he really adds anything to the performance with his Marcel Marceau routine. In short, he looks like a prat. While we’re at it, did the two keyboard players need to be there either? Couldn’t Rozalla have just done her turn on her own? Maybe some rules about musician unions were at play. “This Time I Found Love” peaked at No 33.

What the hell are Whitesnake doing on TOTP in 1994 with a song from 1987?! It’s no great mystery really. “Is This Love” was rereleased to promote a Greatest Hits album that was presumably to plug a gap in the band’s career – they hadn’t had a studio album out since 1989. The Greatest Hits package was a reasonable success peaking at No 4 and going gold in the UK. It essentially covered their final three albums of the 80s but curiously didn’t include the two singles from 1984’s “Slide It In” that were actual UK Top 40 hits – “Guilty Of Love” and “Give Me More Time” though the former did feature in a 2022 reissue of the album.

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again – the intro to “Is This Love” always catches me out as it sounds like the start of Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On A Prayer”. That slowly rising synth fade in is almost exactly the same in both. The 1994 rerelease of “Is This Love” made No 25 (it peaked at No 9 in 1987) and was Whitesnake’s final UK Top 40 entry. Oh, one final thing, why isn’t there a question mark at the end of the song title? Bugs the hell out of me!

It’s PJ & Duncan next with “Let’s Get Ready To Rhumble”. Although this is probably their most well known tune, the duo clocked up an impressive thirteen Top 40 hits in the UK before the end of the 90s with eleven of them peaking between Nos 16 and 10. The last four were released under the names Ant & Dec. They would return to the charts twice more, once in 2002 with the official England World Cup song “We’re On The Ball” (No 3) and again in 2013 when “Let’s Get Ready To Rhumble” was rereleased and went to No 1 with sales being donated to the charity ChildLine.

Of course, these two weren’t the only pop band to come out of the children’s TV series Byker Grove. There was also Byker Groove (clever) featuring Donna Air, Jayni Hoy and Vicky Taylor who got to No 48 with “Love Your Sexy…!!”. Two years later, they returned without Taylor and rebranded as Crush with the single “Jellyhead” which should have been a huge hit but which stalled at No 50. With its name checks for Bros and The Prodigy in its lyrics, it’s what The Reynolds Girls should have sounded like and perhaps what Girls Aloud would go on to sound like. It did well in America where it was promoted without any reference to their acting past. Donna Air would go on to have a career as an actor and TV presenter but you’d have to say that she didn’t quite scale the same heights of fame as her two Byker Grove chums.

Finally a record of interest. Even if you didn’t appreciate it sonically, you could hardly ignore this single, probably because you couldn’t avoid it – “7 Seconds” by Youssou N’Dour and Neneh Cherry was the second most played song on UK radio in 1994. The very definition of a sleeper hit, it took nine weeks to break into the Top 10 before rising to a peak of No 3. Such a chart trajectory was unusual around this time and would become almost unheard of as the 90s progressed and record companies discovered heavy discounting of singles in their first week of release to create high chart entry positions. Yet there was something about the summer of 1994 which saw a swathe of records that had incredibly long stays within the Top 40. I’m thinking “Crazy For You” by Let Loose, “I Swear” by All 4 One and of course Wet Wet Wet’s 15 weeks chart topper “Love Is All Around”.

Whilst all of the above though were propelled by a traditional momentum (a classic piece of airplay friendly pop, a big swoonsome ballad and a cover version of a well known song given huge exposure by a runaway box office hit film), “7 Seconds” was different. For a start, the artists involved were not chart guarantors by any stretch of the imagination. Youssou N’Dour was a huge name in World music but had never had a hit single before (his collaboration with Peter Gabriel on “Shakin’ The Tree” was the closest he had ever come). Meanwhile, Neneh Cherry was a long way from the huge breakthrough star she had been in 1989 when the likes of “Buffalo Stance” and “Manchild” were huge Top 5 hits. Her second album “Homebrew” had not done anywhere near the numbers of her debut “Raw Like Sushi” and had provided just two minor hit singles. The combination of the two of them on a track seemed an unlikely proposition for huge chart success. And yet…there was something about this haunting, rich synth heavy ballad that was sung in three different languages that gave it global appeal. A huge hit around Europe (it was No 1 in France for 16 weeks – have that Marti Pellow!), it was a monster both on the airwaves and the cash registers. Youssou would never have another UK hit single whilst Neneh would score a No 1 with “Love Can Build A Bridge” in 1995 as part of the charity collective for Comic Relief and a Top 10 single in “Woman” the following year.

It’s week 10 for Wet Wet Wet and “Love Is All Around” which means we are two thirds through their reign at the top. I struggled to say anything else about this record in the last post and things haven’t improved since. I’ve got some things to say about its demise but I need to keep those back for use in a few posts time. OK, how about addressing one of the record’s most distinctive bits, the guttural sound that Marti Pellow makes as the song heads into its climax. I think he growls “yeah!” and it sounds like that on the version that was released but I’m sure in some of the performances we’ve seen on the show over the weeks it sounds more like a “hey!”.

Whatever. It did get me thinking about songs with grunts, growls, screams or generally unusual vocal noises in them. First to come to mind was the “Ohhh!” by John Travolta in “Summer Nights” quickly followed by the “Ooo!” by Lionel Richie in “Easy” by The Commodores. Then there’s Paul McCartney’s strangled yelp in “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?” and who could ignore Robert Plant at the start of “Immigrant Song”? think my favourite though comes at 1:43 in this clip…

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Maxx	“No More (I Can’t Stand It)”	I couldn’t have said it better myself
2	Level 42	Love In A Peaceful World	Nope
3	Ce Ce Peniston	Hit By Love	No
4	Status Quo	I Didn’t Mean It	As if
5	Rozalla	This Time I Found Love	Negative
6	Whitesnake	Is This Love	Not in 1987 nor 1994
7	PJ & Duncan	Let’s Get Ready To Rhumble	Nah
8	Youssou N’Dour and Neneh Cherry	7 Seconds	I did not
9	Wet Wet Wet	Love Is All Around	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/m001ldnz/top-of-the-pops-04081994

TOTP 03 FEB 1994

Posted on January 31, 2023 by 80stastic

We have arrived in February 1994 in our journey through the TOTP archives and it’s a case of “as you were” as Liam Gallagher might say. The ‘year zero’ revamp is dead, gone, finished, no more- it is an ex-revamp. Well, there’s still a few remnants of it hanging around as we’ll see but even those last few traces will be swept away by the new broom of incoming producer Ric Blaxill. The title sequence, logo and theme tune were all still the same but they would be stripped away and replaced in 1995 along with the installation of a new set. The first major change that we see is the return of the Radio 1 DJs to presenting duties who were last seen in September 1991. Tony Dortie and Mark Franklin (the last two standing of the wave of ‘year zero’ new faces) were not retained by Blaxill who wanted to re-establish the link between the show and Radio 1. First back in the host seat is Simon Mayo whose intro refers to the two institutions being back in bed together and going to be fertile which seems a totally unnecessary remark. I could never get on board with Mayo; something about his smugness that put me off. Oh, and his record of campaigning for terrible songs like “Kinky Boots” and “Donald Where’s Your Troosers?” to become chart hits.

Anyway, the new era kicks off with a record that must have passed me by at the time. After making her name in 1991 with one of the decade’s biggest dance anthems in “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”, Rozalla had rather gone missing in the intervening years. Her previous three single releases had all failed to chart and so when it came to releasing her second album (and first for new record label Epic), a hit was definitely required. And when you need a hit…you know what comes next. Yes, a cover version was sought out. Back in 1976, Philly Soulsters The O’Jays of “Back Stabbers” and “Love Train” fame had a No 13 hit in the UK called “I Love Music” and it was that track that was chosen to reset Rozalla’s career.

On reflection, whilst certainly a safe step, it also seemed like a backward one with Rozalla being repositioned as yet another singer trying to eke out a hit with a 70s cover à la Dannii Minogue or someone. Hadn’t she been seen as the princess of techno rave anthems or something? At least a bit more cutting edge than this anyway? I mean, it gave her a hit (No 18) but in terms of re-establishing her in people’s minds it seemed to be a short term fix. Her sophomore album which included “I Love Music” did absolutely nothing (despite some decent press reviews) peaking at No 138 in the UK. Somebody on her team also thought it was a good idea to restyle her which I don’t think helped. Gone were the space cadet type spangly jackets and hair tied up look and in their place was a vampy image with long, sleek hair and a sheer black dress. It was a misplaced notion. Rozalla would have a few more minor hits during the 90s but tellingly one of them was a remix of “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”.

Now here is a proper tune! I’d always struggled a bit with The Charlatans up to this point. Yes, “The Only One I Know” was a decent song but the rest of it hadn’t engaged me as much as I thought it would. For me though, this was the point where they really started to hit their stride. Great hit after great hit would emerge over the mid to late 90s – “Just Lookin’”, “Just When You’re Thinkin’ Things Over”, “How High” and “North Country Boy” spring to mind – but it seemed to start with “Can’t Get Out Of Bed”.

Nothing to do with Matt Bianco’s debut hit of a decade earlier, this was the lead single from their third album “Up To Our Hips”. Although Tim Burgess has acquired National Treasure status for his album Listening Party project which helped to keep us sane during the pandemic, I wonder if his band get the plaudits they deserve sometimes. Just ~~looking~~ lookin’ at their discography alone shows that they had three No 1 albums (plus two No 2s) – I’m not sure that gets talked about enough for a start. “Up To Our Hips” would go Top 10 beginning the process of restoring the band’s status which seemed to take a dip when sophomore effort “Between 10th And 11th” failed to make the Top 20.

“Can’t Get Out Of Bed” seemed to have much more melody to it than their previous work to me and, in keeping with its title, an almost lazy style to it as if Tim was really having to force himself to get the lyrics out. It was also utterly joyous. Yes, his vocals in this performance aren’t strictly the best technically but some of the best singers aren’t but are perfect for the music they make (see also the aforementioned Liam Gallagher). The single probably should have done better than it’s No 24 peak but, nevertheless, the alarm clock was ringing – we were on notice of great things to come.

https://youtu.be/VqSjY9EBci0

I’m a bit confused about the timeline surrounding this next act’s release history. I’d ignored Red Hot Chili Peppers throughout the 80s – no, not ignored but barely been aware of them and their first four albums is a more accurate description. The release of their “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” album in 1991 brought them into the mainstream though. Produced by Def Jam co-founder Rick Rubin, it rowed back on their metal/funk tendencies whilst promoted a more melodic sound. This was none more evident than on “Under The Bridge” which clogged up US radio playlists for months and rose all the way to No 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

However, the album’s lead single was “Give It Away” which showed that the band could still kick ass. The song has an almost face-blistering power, propelled by Flea’s frenetic bass line and John Frusciante’s funk guitar riffs. Add in Anthony Kiedis’ imploring vocals and it’s impossible to ignore. Here’s where my confusion comes in though. “Give It Away” was released in September 1991 so what was it doing in the UK charts in 1994? To add to the confusion, “Under The Bridge” which was the second single taken from the album was originally released in March of 1992 but I’m sure that was also in our Top 40 in 1994 because I bought it (it has a version of “Give It Away” on it called ‘In Progress’). So what gives? Well, I’ve pieced together a theory but I’m no Chili Peppers aficionado so it could easily be bulls**t. Here goes though. As far as I can tell, “Give It Away” was definitely originally released in 1991 but either did absolutely nothing over here or wasn’t actually made available in this country. I can see US and Europe versions of the single listed on the Discogs website but not a specific UK one. “Under The Bridge” definitely got a UK release though as it made No 26 here in March 1992. In the September of that year, just to confuse matters, a Best Of compilation called “What Hits!?” was released consisting of tracks from their first four albums recorded for EMI (“Blood Sugar Sex Majik” was their first for Warners). However, EMI were allowed to choose one track to include on the album recorded for Warners so naturally they chose “Under The Bridge” as their biggest hit. It made for a very lopsided and confusing collection album. John Frusciante left the band after “Blood Sugar Sex Majik” whilst Anthony Kiedis relapsed into drug use. The combination of these two things meant a delay to the recording of next studio album “One Hot Minute”. To fill that gap and to appease the fan base, a compilation box set was released called (rather unimaginatively) “Live Rare Remix Box” which did what it said on the tin. The box set included three different versions of “Give It Away” so I’m guessing that the track was re-released to help promote it. When that became a Top 10 hit in the UK, “Under The Bridge” was also re-released which was the single I bought and this time it made No 13. Phew!

I guess we have to mention the video shown here for “Give It Away”. Credited with helping to break the band commercially, rather ridiculously, Warners were scared it might be too weird, arty and out there for MTV and mainstream audiences. The opposite was true. Shot entirely in black and white in the desert with the band painted silver, wearing reflective outfits and cavorting about in a frenzy, it is a dazzling and exceptional piece of work from French director Stéphane Sednaoui.

“Now I know I’m not employed for my musical taste but this is going to be a No 1 record” Simon Mayo confidently informs us when introducing the next artist. Who is he talking about? Why, Wendy Moten of course. Not quite a one hit wonder (she had a No 35 follow up), she definitely did not have a No 1 record though as her single “Come In Out Of The Rain” peaked at No 8. Simon ‘Nostradamus’ Mayo at it again there.

As far as I can tell, this was originally released in 1992 in the US but only got its chance in the UK in early 1994. For reasons of a lack of time and unlike with Red Hot Chili Peppers, I’m not going to go into the whys and wherefores about all of that though. Suffice to say, the song is a big slushy ballad that I could imagine Dina Carroll or even Diana Ross singing.

My main memory of Wendy Moten though is that one of my colleagues (Vicky I think) at the Our Price store in Market Street, Manchester wanted a move to London and so we arranged a transfer for her to one of the soul/dance specialist stores down there. When I spoke to her on the work phone after she had moved and asked her how it was going she told me how different an environment it was. To illustrate that, she said she hadn’t yet heard the “Parklife” album by Blur that was everywhere but she’d heard the Wendy Moten album in full in the shop stereo loads of times. As my Mum says, if we all liked the same thing, the world would be a very boring place.

Who’s this fella? Joe Roberts? Sounds like somebody your Dad would know? I’m not sure I know him though. What’s his song called? “Lover”? Nope, I’ve got nothing. Hang on; did he do one called “Jessie”?

*checks internet*

Nah, that was a guy called Joshua Kadison apparently. Well, I’ve got nothing then. My research tells me his partner is Melanie Williams who was the singer with Sub Sub of “Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use)” fame. They even made a record together – a cover of The Stylistics’ “ You Are Everything” – in 1995. After that the trail goes cold. Maybe he could have tried to make himself more intriguing by just going by the name Joe (like Madonna or Adele). Ah shit, somebody already beat him to it didn’t they? That bloke who did “I’m In Luv” who was on the show the other week. Hard luck Mr Roberts.

They’ve retained the Breakers under the new regime and they kick off with “Perpetual Dawn” by The Orb. This was yet another re-release following Red Hot Chili Peppers earlier and indeed following The Orb themselves as their previous hit at the end of 1993 “Little Fluffy Clouds” had itself been a reissue. “Perpetual Dawn” was originally released in 1991 from their debut album “The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld” and had peaked at No 61. Presumably, also like the Chili Peppers, the strategy here was to retain profile in between albums (there were three years between “U.F.Orb” and “Orbus Terrarum”) and as the “Little Fluffy Clouds” rerelease had worked so well, another old track was shoved out. The track has a dub reggae feel to it and sounds a bit like The Prodigy to my uncultured ears. It peaked the second time at No 18.

New-age was all the rage in early 1994. After the return of Enigma last week, here was a French act called Deep Forest with their track “Sweet Lullaby”. A major hit all round Europe over the previous year, it was time for the UK to experience its ethnic ambient rhythms – could the re-emergence of Enigma have played a part in their record company’s scheduling decision?

As with Enigma’s concurrent hit which was based around an Amis chant recorded by a Taiwan folk duo, “Sweet Lullaby” was similarly structured around an indigenous lullaby from the Solomon Islands. Also like Enigma, it made for a haunting, affecting piece of music. The single went to No 10 whilst their eponymous debut album also sold steadily and was nominated for a Grammy for Best World Music album in 1994. According to founding member Éric Mouquet, the name Deep Forest came from combining Deep Purple with rain forest. I guess ‘Purple Rain’ had already gone.

The final Breaker comes from a German Eurodance act called Bass Bumpers. I know, WHO? Well, their track was called “The Music’s Got Me!” which peaked at No 25 and which I don’t recall at all but that’s not really their claim to fame anyway. In 2005, they were responsible for the heinous musical crime that was the Crazy Frog version of “Axel F”. I KNOW!

A taste of things to come perhaps now. I’ve criticised the ‘live by satellite’ section many times before in this blog as being completely pointless with the majority of acts set in empty concert halls and completely undermining the whole concept of an ‘exclusive’ performance. New producer Ric Blaxill kept the slot but wanted to make it an event again by having artists perform against the backdrop of a famous/interesting landmark, building or structure. So, show No1 of the new regime have Gin Blossoms at the original London Bridge in Arizona. Here’s @TOTPFacts with the history lesson…

That bridge in the background is London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. It features exterior granite blocks from the bridge across the Thames which was built in 1831 ("New London Bridge"). #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) January 27, 2023

By the '60s, surveys showed that London Bridge was sinking about an inch every eight years, so it was decided to replace it. In 1968 it was bought from the City of London by entrepreneur Robert P McCulloch for $2,460,000. #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) January 27, 2023

10,000 tons of granite blocks were shipped via the Panama Canal to California, then trucked to Arizona, where they were used to face a new, steel-reinforced concrete structure up to the task of supporting modern-day traffic. #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) January 27, 2023

Interesting stuff but what about the band? Well, Gin Blossoms we’re actually from Arizona and had done the usual band stuff of constant gigging in a clapped out van and released their debut album “Dusted” on a small independent label. They were then picked up by a major in A&M and they re-recorded half of the songs on “Dusted” to form the basis of their second album “New Miserable Experience”. It sold unremarkably until the album’s third single “Hey Jealously” picked up airplay and became a No 25 hit in the US. Off the back of it, the album would eventually go four times platinum over there. It couldn’t replicate those sales in the UK but we bought into “Hey Jealousy” enough to make it a No 24 hit. The song has a tragic backstory. Guitarist Doug Hopkins who wrote it about wanting to get back with his girlfriend was kicked out of the band by A&M due to his alcoholism and unreliability before the song was a hit. Unable to deal with its subsequent success, he committed suicide in December 1993. There were rumours of a potential biopic of Hopkins’ life being made starring Ethan Hawke but it turned out that they were, in fact, just rumours.

One film that the band did have ties to was Empire Records for which they contributed a song to its soundtrack. Set in a US record store, I should have loved this as I spent pretty much the whole of the 90s working for Our Price. However, I found it to be completely dull and self indulgent with unlikeable characters. It bombed at the box office but has since become a cult hit. Maybe I should give it another go…

…maybe not. Anyway, I quite liked “Hey Jealousy” with its jangling guitars and catchy melody. However, I do always confuse Gin Blossoms with Gigolo Aunts who had a similar sounding band name and a similar sounding hit record at a similar time…

One of the year’s biggest hits next as Mariah Carey takes on “Without You”. I guess if anyone had the vocal range to tackle this monster of a pop song it was her. Her version would crash straight in at No 1 and be there for four weeks.

Whilst mostly known as a Harry Nilsson song before Mariah got hold of it, it was actually written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans of the band Badfinger who recorded it for their 1970 album “No Dice”. Badfinger, of course, had a strong connection with The Beatles. They recorded five albums for Apple and one of their biggest hits – “Come And Get It” – was written and produced by Paul McCartney. I quite like what I’ve heard of the band -“No Matter What” is a great power pop song – but they are one of the most tragic bands in musical history. In an unbelievably grim coincidence, like Gin Blossoms, their story was also touched by the awful shadow of suicide. After Apple folded, the band spiralled into a tumult of litigation, unpaid royalties and bankruptcy. It took its toll in an awful way. Pete Ham committed suicide in 1975 after his relationship with business manager Stan Polley went bad and Ham faced financial ruin. Then in 1983, Tom Evans also took his own life after falling out with band member Joey Molland over royalties for “Without You” the previous evening.

D:Ream remain rooted to the top spot with “Things Can Only Get Better”. Simon ‘Smug’ Mayo can’t resist making a political comment referring to it as John Major’s favourite song currently. At the time, as in 2023, the Conservatives were miles behind Labour in the polls and Major was embroiled in a row with opposition leader John Smith over the sale of the Rover Group. Things would actually get worse not better for Major four days after this TOTP aired when Tory MP Stephen Milligan was found dead at his home having died of asphyxiation presumed to be the result of an auto-erotic sex practice.

God this show has been remarkably bleak and miserable in terms of back stories. Is there anything that can raise the spirits before it closes? Well, there’s one final tune to come as it seems Blaxill made another immediate change by restoring the play out song that had been missing since the ‘year zero’ revamp. So what’s the first artist to fill this slot? The Flavour? Never heard of them! It’s hardly surprising as they never actually had a hit record. This single – “No Matter What You Do (I’m Gonna Get With You)” only made it to No 81. It was rereleased a year later and got to No 79. It wasn’t helped in its chart endeavours by Blaxill only seeing fit for it to be played for about twenty seconds and not showing their video (presuming they had one). Instead we get clips of all the artists that had been in the show we’d just seen. Not especially effective use of a slot. In fairness, it was a crap song (like a cheap version of the aforementioned Sub Sub) and unlike the Badfinger track called “No Matter What”, I didn’t like The Flavour’s…erm…flavour at all.

https://youtu.be/2obzVi-27gQ

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Rozalla	I Love Music	I do too but not this!
2	The Charlatans	Can’t Get Out Of Bed	Not the single but I have it on their Melting Pot Best Of
3	Red Hot Chili Peppers	Give It Away	No but I had a version of it on that re-release of Under The Bridge that I did buy
4	Wendy Moten	Come In Out Of The Rain	Nah
5	Joe Roberts	Lover	I did not
6	The Orb	Perpetual Dawn	Nope
7	Deep Forest	Sweet Lullaby	No
8	Bass Bumpers	The Music’s Got Me	Negative
9	Gin Blossoms	Hey Jealousy	Liked it, didn’t buy it
10	Mariah Carey	Without You	It’s a no
11	D:Ream	Things Can Only Get Better	And another no
12	The Flavour	No Matter What You Do (I’m Gonna Get With You)	What do you think?

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/m001hhgz/top-of-the-pops-03021994

TOTP 20 FEB 1992

Posted on January 26, 2022 by 80stastic

One of the more pleasing by products of reviewing all of these TOTP repeats is that I get to reminisce about what I was doing back then. OK most of it is pretty dull and of no significance nor entertainment to anyone but myself but there are some that can be a shared experience. TV shows that I was watching at the time for example. Four days prior to the broadcast of this particular TOTP, a new US TV series premiered (that’s what we say now isn’t it? I’d have said started back in 1992) that was a brilliantly quirky comedy drama that pulled myself and my wife in hook, line and sinker. Anyone else remember Northern Exposure on Channel 4?

It was a fish out of water tale of newly qualified NY doctor Joel Fleischman being assigned as GP to the tiny town of Cicely to repay the state of Alaska for underwriting his medical education. There he struggles to adapt to his new surroundings as he encounters some marvellously eccentric characters like his receptionist Marilyn Whirlwind, aspiring movie director Ed Chigliak and millionaire business man Maurice Minnifield. It seemed ground breaking at the time and yet you hardly hear it mentioned these days and I have not seen it repeated since its original run from 1992 to 1995.

It also had an interesting soundtrack which I bought my wife for her birthday including tracks by Etta James, Booker T And The MGs and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Well that’s enough TV nostalgia. Back to the music and proving that grunge wasn’t the only musical movement going on in the 90s, here are one of the major players in the acid jazz genre. Now I thought that The Brand New Heavies were indeed ‘brand new’ bursting into the charts with their “Dream Come True” single. However, it turned out that they’d actually been in existence since the mid 80s and released the track “Got To Give” on the Cooltempo label. As the clock clicked over into the new decade, they signed to the Acid Jazz label and released “Dream Come True” but not the version we saw on this TOTP. No, the original release featured a completely different singer called Jaye Ella-Ruth. It failed to chart and Jaye was destined to become the Pete Best of the acid jazz scene, being replaced by N’dea Davenport. A re-recorded version of the track featuring N’dea was put back out and bingo! A No 24 chart hit and a slot on TOTP. This would be the first of twenty-five Top 40 hits and two Top 5 albums during the 90s.

I wasn’t a convert to acid jazz I have to say though my wife was quite into it buying two consecutive Brand New Heavies album releases. What exactly was acid jazz though? According to Wikipedia it combined funk, soul, hip hop, jazz and disco and was characterised by danceable grooves and long, repetitive compositions. What?! What sort of description is that?! Maybe a list of its exponents might help. Well, there were BNH label mates Corduroy, Mother Earth and James Taylor Quartet whilst over on Talkin’ Loud the roster of acts included Galliano, Incognito and Young Disciples. Does that make things clearer? I’m not sure. It must have been a broad church because acts like Jamiroquai, Stereo MCS and Us3 are also mentioned under the same umbrella. I think I’ll just use Brand New Heavies as my default definition of acid jazz. Seems easier.

https://youtu.be/lrdqkifAVPM

The ‘year zero’ revamp had gone against the show’s history and ditched a Top 40 rundown in favour of a brief run through of just the Top 10 but there’s a change to that this week in the form of scrolling graphics across the bottom of the screen detailing that week’s new chart entries. What was the point of that? Was it some lip service response to negative viewer feedback? Never mind not hearing the tracks, we don’t don’t even get the title of the hit, just the name of the artist and a chart number. Utterly pointless. It’s like travelling all the way to the Grand Canyon and not being able to see the view because of fog. Actually, I know people that happened to. Can you imagine the disappointment?

Now I thought the pronunciation of the next artist’s name was not up for debate. Everybody said Rozalla as Ro-zar-la but Tony Dortie goes for a different approach with Ro-za-la. It reminded me of my late father-in-law who insisted on referring to Paul Gascogne as Gar-za rather than Gaz-za. Anyway, however you pronounced it, the “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)” hitmaker was back with her latest single “Are You Ready To Fly”. Now she’s certainly not the first artist to stick to a winning formula but this really was just a rehash of her biggest hit just as her second single “Faith (In The Power Of Love)” had been. Talk about playing it safe. A hat trick of hits that were all basically the same song! Bah!

“Are You Ready To Fly” peaked at No 14.

https://youtu.be/SBSTQeYO9gM

It’s time for the weekly TOTP Macaulay Culkin spot! Well, at least it feels like he’s in permanent residence on the show at least. He’s on our screens again due to his featuring in the video for “My Girl” by The Temptations which has been re-released due to the film of the same name he’s starring in.

I never caught that flick and indeed, don’t think I’d ever seen any of the Home Alone films all the way through until the Xmas just gone when my son wanted to watch them. Consequently, I never understood what all the fuss was about Culkin. He just seemed really, really annoying. His brother Kieran on the other hand is currently flooring everyone with his character Roman Roy in HBO sensation Succession. Oh oh! I’ve strayed back in the world of TV drama but to be fair, I have nothing else left to say about The Temptations anyway. Job done.

I wrote quite a lot about Julia Fordham when she was a Breaker the other week as I wasn’t expecting her to actually make it into the TOTP studio but here she is meaning I’ve gone too early – damn it! OK, well you can’t fault her live vocal here as she sings “Love Moves (In Mysterious Ways)”. Faultless. However, I have to say that it’s a bit of a dirge ain’t it? I mean, the backing singers can’t even be arsed to get off their stools at the back of the stage and do all their vocals while remaining seated. Julia could have taught them a thing or two about the art of the backing singer on TOTP from her days as a Wilsation supporting the beehived one herself Mari Wilson. Much more fun.

To be fair to Julia, she didn’t write the song so I don’t think I’m really dissing her by lamenting its soporific sound. It did manage to rise to No 19 in the charts. Not bad but it was a far cry from presenter Mark Franklin’s prediction that it would go Top 10.

https://youtu.be/uDOAH0bSLf0

Oh come on! This was a video ‘exclusive’ just last week wasn’t it and it’s on again already?! I talk of course of Bryan Adams and his single “Thought I’d Died And Gone To Heaven”. This was the fourth of six singles released from his “Waking up The Neighbours” album and the only one (apart from “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” obviously) to make the UK Top 10. After his 16 week run at No 1 the previous year, did his record label A&M really think that amount of Adams material being foisted upon the public was justified? Had they never heard of the expression ‘less is more’?! Apparently not as the next release from Bry was 1993’s 14 track Greatest Hits package “So Far So Good”. Curiously, “Thought I’d Died And Gone To Heaven” wasn’t included on it but then, like Julia Fordham’s before him, the song was a bit of a duffer.

Talking of curious things, what a curiosity this next song was! Now I’m not being wise after the event but I genuinely did know the original 1983 single that this track was based around. “It’s A Fine Day” by Jane was an otherworldly sounding indie chart hit (it didn’t make the mainstream Top 40) and was basically an a capella delivery of a poem written by eccentric Manchester poet and musician Edward Barton. How did I know it? I’m not sure. I got my new music solely from Radio 1 back in 1983 so I must have heard it on there but who would have been playing it? Surely not the likes of Steve Wright? Peter Powell maybe? Or possibly the much missed Janice Long? Well, I heard it via someone and whilst I was never so avant garde at that age to buy it, its hypnotic weirdness was intriguing.

Fast forward nine years and probably not having given it a thought once in the intervening years, suddenly everyone was talking about it, or rather Opus III’s danceified version of it. Yes, inevitably, as it was the early 90s after all, somebody got hold of that 1983 leftfield outlier track, added a dance beat to it and shoved it out to the rave masses for consumption. Was nothing sacred? On reflection it puts me in mind of the film Reality Bites and the scene where Winona Ryder’s character has her documentary about her friends that she has spent so long crafting to portray them with integrity turned into some nasty, commercialised media soundbite by opportunistic new boyfriend Ben Stiller for his MTV-like cable channel. All of her original film’s soul is ripped out and replaced with flavour of the month bullshit designed to appeal to those riding the current zeitgeist.

https://youtu.be/R-U1cbX-y1E

So it was with Opus III though hats off to vocalist Kirsty Hawkshaw for her memorable delivery of the track. She struck a startling sight with her Mohawk hair topped off with…well whatever that was adorning her forehead. The touch of genius though was to get her to perform whilst rotating those…were they stress balls?… in her right hand giving the whole thing a mystical look which I guess was some sort of homage to the original track’s ethereal nature. I wasn’t a fan but at least it stood out against the rest of the dance anthems of the time peaking at No 5.

https://youtu.be/Xy-gkytR4Og

Oh do one Hucknall won’t you?! Simply Red again?! It was impossible to avoid the ginger one in 1991/92. His “Stars” album topped the best seller chart for both those years and daytime radio was all over him. “For Your Babies” was the third of five singles released from the album. That means just two more singles to go (and associated TOTP appearances) and we’ll be free of Mick for years as Simply Red won’t have any new material out until 1995. Come on! We can do this!

One of the more memorable songs of 1992 next and certainly the most relentlessly cheery. As Mark Franklin advises us, “I Love Your Smile” by Shanice came out the year before but nobody noticed (I didn’t). However, a remix by producer de jour Drizabone initiated another shot at the charts and this time it hit gold going all the way to No 2 in the UK Top 40. I’m not sure how different the versions were. Hang on. I’ll check…

*checks out Spotify*

Well, unless I haven’t actually been listening to the ‘91 original then I can’t hear too much difference. The album version does have a rap in it which the single version doesn’t but the song’s whole charm is that almost scat like ‘de de de de, do do do’ hook which dominates both the original and the remix.

“I Love Your Smile“ was manna from heaven for mainstream daytime radio, perfect for trying to put a lift in the listener’s day and a spring in their step. There was an album it came from called “Inner Child” but none of the other singles taken from it came anywhere near the Top 40. Was “I Love Your Smile” just too hard to follow up? Was it so perfectly radio shaped that any attempt to repeat the trick was doomed to fail?

As Tony Dortie says at the song’s end, Shanice was a Motown artist but he uses that reference to name check another Motown act that he tips for the top – Boyz II Men. He was certainly better at chart predictions than his mate Mark Franklin.

https://youtu.be/TMmKKp9dcBg

It’s those pesky Breakers next which make loads of work for me out of minimal screen time. I’m really starting to hate this feature. I wouldn’t mind but the TOTP producers’ choices for inclusion in it don’t stack up. Many of them are never seen/heard on the show again presumably because their subsequent chart placings didn’t justify further appearances. By logical extension they can’t have been much of a ‘happening tune’ (their words not mine) in the first place.

Exhibit 1 m’lud. “Steel Bars” by Michael Bolton. This was the fifth and final single from his “Time, Love & Tenderness” album and was co-written by Bob Dylan. This unlikely collaboration stinks of cynicism to me. Was this purely about the money for Dylan? Was his own stuff not selling too well at this point so he teamed up with an artist who was shifting millions of units? I mean, the song is pretty cruddy and surely not one that Bob would be that proud of. Look at this lyric for example:

Steel bars wrapped all around me, I’ve been your prisoner since the day you found me

What a stinker! So much of a stinker in fact that this was one of those Breakers that never made it back onto the show. And rightly so.

So what were Madness doing back in the charts? Their cover of Labbi Siffre’s “It Must Be Love” had been a No 4 hit in 1981 so why it’s reappearance in 1992? Well, it was to promote a Greatest Hits album of course. “Divine Madness” was that album and a very successful one, going to the very top of the charts. The huge public reaction to the album convinced the band to reform for a live gig promoted as Madstock. The decibels and vibrations at that gig were so loud that they caused nearby tower blocks to shake.

Of the 42 Madness singles, this one has stood the test of time better than most I would suggest. Not because it’s their best track (to my ears there are loads more worthy of that accolade) but something about it still resonates to the point that it must be one of their most played on the radio. Back in 1992, it was a welcome distraction to all those dance anthems. Talking of which…

…it’s another one of those ubiquitous dance anthems (and also one of those Breakers we never saw again). N-Joi had already had one major hit with ‘91’s reissue of…erm…”Anthem” but they were back for more in ‘92 with “Live In Manchester (Parts 1 + 2)”. Yeah, sorry but this is all bells and whistles rave nonsense and did nothing for me then or now. Horrid. Wikipedia tells me that one of N-Joi’s members was called Mark Franklin. Hang on a minute. Surely not?

No it can’t be that Mark Franklin as he says of the Breakers that his money is in Michael Bolton and not N-Joi. Mark Franklin showing off his chart prediction skills there again. Here’s the chart peaks of those Breakers:

Madness: No 6
N-Joi: No 12
Bollers : No 17

And so to the new No 1 and it was a song that would be one of the biggest sellers off the year. “Stay” was of course written for Shakespear’s Sister by Siobahn Fahey’s then husband Dave Stewart of Eurythmics. Want to hear his version. No? Tough. Here it is…

Quite different really. More of a gospel track than the haunting and haunted goth spectacle that was Shakespear’s Sister’s version. It’s worth checking out “The Dave Stewart Songbook” album. Some interesting stuff on there. I especially liked his original of “Ordinary Miracle”. Vastly superior to the version by Sarah McLachlan (there’s that surname again) that was used in the film Charlotte’s Web.

We’ve got weeks of “Stay” at No 1 so that’ll do (as the farmer said in that other famous pig flick Babe) for now apart from adding that it’s still hard to watch this performance and not be bowled over by the difference in vocal quality between Marcella Detroit and Siobahn Fahey.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	The Brand New Heavies	Dream Come True	No but my wife had the album
2	Rozalla	Are You Ready To Fly	I wasn’t, no
3	The Temptations	My Girl	Nah
4	Julia Fordham	Love Moves (In Mysterious Ways)	Nope
5	Bryan Adams	Thought I’d Died And Gone To Heaven	I did not
6	Opus III	It’s A Fine Day	No – give the original any day
7	Simply Red	For Your Babies	Never!
8	Shanice	I Love Your Smile	Just too perky for me
9	Michael Bolton	Steel Bars	See 7 above
10	Madness	It Must Be Love	No but I have that Divine Madness Best Of
11	N-Joi	Live In Manchester (Parts 1 + 2)	On yer bike!
12	Shakespear’s Sister	Stay	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/m0013mbs/top-of-the-pops-20021992

TOTP 14 NOV 1991

Posted on November 18, 2021 by 80stastic

Mid November 1991 – what were you doing? Me? I was gearing up for a second consecutive retail Christmas with Our Price having been working for the company for just over a year now. I didn’t know it then but it was probably one of the more stable years of my working life. A permanent job working with an exciting ‘product’ (I’d take music over baked beans any day) and I’d even been given some ordering responsibility in the form of being the chart cassettes buyer. Yes, there was that time earlier in the year when it looked like the shop would be sold off and some of us might lose our jobs (gulp!) but that likelihood had withered and withdrawn and things were back on course. For TOTP though, things were not quite as smooth. The show was six weeks into a new format courtesy of new producer Stanley Appel and it was still finding its feet. The new presenting duo of Tony Dortie and Mark Franklin seemed functional rather than flourishing and the live vocal policy was definitely catching some artists out. More seismic changes were afoot in the football world as on the day of this broadcast, the Football Association confirmed that the Premier League would start next season with 22 clubs. What would that mean for all us footy fans? Was it a good thing? Would we get to see more matches on TV? Like the new TOTP revamp, it was uncharted waters.

What we needed was some faith and happily for us, it was provided by tonight’s opening act Rozalla with her latest single “Faith (In the Power of Love)”. Having hit big with her previous single “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”, Rozalla clearly felt the the best thing she could do to maintain her momentum was to stick to the exact same formula that had brought her initial success. Consequently, “Faith (In the Power of Love)” sounds very like its predecessor and even mimics its inclusion of brackets in the song title. I’ve never really understood the need for brackets in song titles. Does their presence really add anything to the song title or are they just an affectation to add an element of perceived depth and mystery to the song? Anyway, Rozalla has decided to come dressed as…well..what has she come dressed as? It’s like some sort of mash up of Princess Leia from Star Wars and the red Power Ranger. Were people dressing like that back in 1991? Maybe it was just to distract us all from the fact that (as with a few before her), Rozalla’s singing wasn’t quite on point. Not far off but not actually on it. “Faith (In the Power of Love)” peaked at No 11.

As Tony Dortie emerges seemingly from nowhere out of the throng of the studio audience (he seems to do that a lot – he was the TOTP equivalent of the shopkeeper from Mr Benn), he says something that I’ve had to rewind three times before I’ve understood what it was. I think it was that Rozalla wanted to do a duet with Seal. The first two times I heard it as wanting to do a duet with Cyril but Seal makes more sense (especially as he’s on the show next). Before that though we have the Top 10 rundown or as Dortie says, “Let’s check those crisp biscuits which are slamming in style inside this week’s Top 10 boiii like this…” Did he really say that?! He’s such a mumbler it’s hard to tell but I think those were his actual words. Crisp biscuits? Was that slang for something? I checked it out on the urban dictionary. It’s either a very thin reefer or… something else entirely which you’ll have to look up yourself to find out. Either definition was surely not what Dortie meant. And what was the ‘boiii’ thing about? I’m guessing that was also an urban along thing but the only time I’ve heard it used is by those white posh boy twats on Made In Chelsea. Anyway, Dortie then does an actual voice over for the Top 10 countdown which we haven’t had in this new era before when it’s just been the new theme tune payed in the background. Head producer Stanley Appel must have reacted to feedback that the countdown had become an abomination and tried to restore some tradition to it. Even though it was now mid November, “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” by Bryan Adams is still in there at No 6 despite being released back in June.

As with last week’s show, we get a new disembodied voice doing the next intro. Last week it was Elayne Smith and this week we get another new presenter in the form of Claudia Simon. We don’t actually get to see Claudia’s ‘form’ though until two whole performances later. I didn’t really get what the TOTP producers were hoping to do with this voice first policy for its new presenters. Build tension? I don’t think we were that bothered about the presenters, it was the music we were after! The act that Claudia introduces is Seal (definitely not Cyril) who has released this own solo version of the hit that announced him to the pop world the year before when he and Adamski took “Killer” to No 1. To try and convince record buyers to purchase it all over again, record label ZTT have wisely made it into the “Killer EP” with a William Orbit remix of the track added alongside some live versions. Does Seal’s re-recording of the song sound that different to the original? Not to my ears I have to say. To try and emphasise the point that it is a different version, Seal is wearing (and occasionally strumming) a guitar which I’m pretty sure he never did back in 1990. Maybe the whole exercise was all about claiming some justice for Seal who was not actually officially credited alongside Adamski on the original. It’s still a great track but I don’t think the re-release in his own name was really warranted. Case dismissed.

In any other week, Tina Turner would no doubt have been bigged up in the ‘exclusive’ feature of the show but this wasn’t any other week. There is a huge exclusive coming up (no spoilers) so Tina has to make do with being…what is this section? The US chart? There’s an American flag graphic next to her name so I’m guessing so. She’s singing a song called “Way Of The World” which is a new track added to promote her first greatest hits compilation “Simply The Best” (which is what the TOTP title graphic goes with rather than the name of the single which is a bit confusing). We’d already had a horrible 90s reworking of “Nutbush City Limits” to help sell the album recently so surely anything released after that would be an improvement? Well, just about I guess. “Way Of The World” directly pinches the intro from Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” (which, of course, Tina herself covered back in ’83 to relaunch her singing career) but then just sort of meanders off into an unexceptional mid tempo soul ballad. Hardly living up to the “Simply The Best” tagline it was meant to promote. In the end, the album would do pretty well anyway going 8 (EIGHT) time platinum in the UK! For some reason, there’s no backing band up there behind Tina so when the sax solo arrives in the middle eight she has to improvise and rely on her famous legs and her new shaggy hairdo to compensate. Tina’s nothing if not an old hand at this sort of thing and does a professional job of filling. “Way Of The World” peaked at No 13.

There she is! Yes, we finally get to see Claudia Simon as she awaits her cue to do the next link. She literally is waiting, tensed like a cheetah ready to pounce at the optimum moment. Is it just me or does she come across like the female version of Pat Sharp here? I think it’s the hair. So who was Claudia? Like Tony Dortie, she had a background in children’s TV having worked for CBBC and after her stint on TOTP she moved into the world of sports with Sky TV. She moved to the US and was a Fox Sports anchor until the early ’00s but there’s little else about what she’s up to now on the internet. She seems a bit over eager to please here and ends up shouting a lot of her links, the first of which is into Altern-8. These Staffordshire ravers had already had a Top 40 hit earlier in the year with “Infiltrate 202” but it was this single “Activ 8 (Come with Me)” that really made their name. Infamous for wearing face masks (with an A imprinted on them) and Hazmat suits, they also had a penchant for including the number 8 in their song titles (they would release a further three singles with this theme).

On reflection, “Activ 8 (Come with Me)” seems very much to be jumping on the bandwagon that the The Prodigy had set rolling with their “Charly” single and its samples of the 1970s BBC Public Information Film Charley Says. The Altern-8 boys bypassed any copyright restrictions by getting the three year old daughter of the boss of their record label Network to record the ‘top one, nice one. get sorted’ bit which would prove to be the track’s hook. Were people already using those phrases in real life? By people I guess I mean ravers. Certainly the phrase ‘top one’ was in everyday use in Manchester where I was living at the time. Also, was this the point where the phrase ‘hardcore, you know the score’ came into being as per the legend emblazoned above the stage for this performance or was it already in existence? I’m pretty sure that the major labels pickled up on it and ran with it as a tagline to advertise various rave/dance compilation albums at this time. OK, so I guess we have to address the live vocal again here. Without wishing to be harsh, I think it’s fair to say that the female singer here doesn’t give her very best performance though having to follow Tina Turner probably didn’t help her nerves. “Activ 8 (Come with Me)” peaked at No 3.

I’m not sure what the mumbler supreme Tony Dortie says at the end of Altern-8’s performance but it’s something about ragga or rave pressure or …oh God knows. Anyway, it’s the Breakers now starting with Sonia and her version of The Real Thing’s “You To Me Are Everything”. You have to hand it to Sonia, this was her ninth consecutive Top 40 hit in just over two years, all but one of which made the Top 20. None of them came anywhere near replicating the success of her debut single “You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You” though which went to No 1 in 1989 of course. Still, it’s an impressive run all the same. On closer inspection though, three of the last four hits (including this one) had been cover versions which suggested that she was running out of steam and her record label out of ideas. Her next single would also be a cover; Heatwave’s “Boogie Nights”. “You To Me Are Everything” was the third and final single to be released from her eponymous sophomore album and would peak at No 13. She would have to resort to the Eurovision Song Contest to secure one final chart hit in 1993 with “Better The Devil You Know” (not the Kylie Song) in 1993.

The next Breaker was basically record company Warners reminding us that their artist REM had one of the most successful albums of the year in “Out Of Time” and that if we hadn’t already bought it then Christmas is just around the corner you know? To that end, they saw fit to release a fourth single from it in “Radio Song”. This must have been one of the songs that I heard most in 1991 as it was the opening track on “Out Of Time” meaning that even when we’d all got tired of it being played in the Our Price store I was working in and somebody finally pulled it off the shop stereo, this track probably would have had a spin in full. It’s OK but certainly not up there with some of my personal favourites from the band. Even after all those plays, I’d still somehow forgotten about the closing rap from KRS-One of Boogie Down Productions.

A fourth release of the album proved one too far and the song peaked at a lowly No 28 but I guess sales of the single came second in priority for Warners after the album which no doubt benefited from the extra exposure. Unbelievably, ‘Radio Song” wasn’t the last REM single of 1991 as “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” was re-released in December by former label I.R.S. to cash in on their “The Best Of R.E.M.” album that had been released in September, itself a cash in on the success of “Out Of Time”.

Can a single be classed as a Breaker when it’s already inside the Top 10? Well, that’s what happened here with “Is There Anybody Out There?” by Bassheads. Following near geographical neighbours Oceanic into the charts, this Wirral-based house duo went to No 5 with this dance tune. I don’t remember thinking it at the time but there’s definitely some steals from Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” and The Osmonds’ “Crazy Horses” although they weren’t sampled as they weren’t copyright cleared by the original artist and were in fact recreated by session players. There’s also a bit of Afrika Bambaataa’s “Just Get Up and Dance” in there for which he received 25% of the publishing as a result.

It all sounds like a strange brew that should be interesting but then that familiar Italia house piano riff kicks in and it reverts to sounding like all those other dance ‘anthems’ to me. The track’s title is just about a mash up of two Duran Duran songs – “Anyone Out There” and “Is There Something I Should Know?”. I think I’d rather have the Brummie lads to be honest.

And so we arrive at the moment the whole show has been building up to…so much so that we even had a mini advert for it at the start before we’d even had the first act on. I suppose some context is required here. Michael Jackson hadn’t had an album out for four year since 1987’s ‘Bad” which was a lifetime in pop and hadn’t even had a single in the charts since 1989. Therefore any new Jacko material was bound to cause a stir in the music industry. And so it did. “Black And White” was the lead single from his ‘Dangerous” album and the anticipation for the much heralded video for it was heightened by the simultaneous worldwide broadcast of it across international platforms. So whilst Tony Dortie’s claim that the video hadn’t been shown anywhere before was true, I’m not sure the ‘exclusive’ tag that he adds to it holds water. TOTP weren’t the only broadcaster in the world showing it. The promo actually premiered simultaneously in 27 countries with an audience of 500 million viewers. Maybe he just meant in the UK then.

So, what was the new video going to show us. There’s a lot to unpack here so for starters it was directed by John Landis who also made the “Thriller” video so no doubt big things were expected of it. Could that ground breaking promo be topped in terms of its legacy? It starts with a heavy rock guitar solo soundtrack before locating the action in the home of one Macaulay Culkin who’s loud playing of said music on his stereo has upset his Dad who is Norm from Cheers (who knew?). After a rebuke from Norm, Caulkin’s character sets up some gigantic speakers in the room where his parents are watching TV, hooks them up to an amplifier, turns the volume up to the setting ‘Are You Nuts?’ (no really – that’s what it says – I guess the ‘this one goes to 11’ joke had already been done by Spinal Tap), utters the words “Eat this” and blows his Dad (still in his chair) into orbit with one play of a power chord. It’s quite an opening but on reflection, it’s also all a bit silly. I recall a lot being made of the fact that Caulkin was in the video. He’d been in the film Uncle Buck with John Candy and then had achieved superstardom via Home Alone in 1990. Around that time he became friends with Jackson and would get caught up in the child sex abuse trial that engulfed the singer in 2005, testifying that he had slept in a bed with Jackson but that no molestation had ever taken place and dismissed the allegations as “absolutely ridiculous”.

Meanwhile back in the video, Norm and his chair have landed in Africa where the song proper starts and we see Jackson at last who begins performing surrounded by African warriors. From there, the action moves quickly through multiple scenes with Jacko dancing with people of various nationalities and cultures. After alighting on an image of a black baby and a white baby sitting on a representation of planet earth, Jackson re-emerges through a scene of flames before we get to the rap part of the song which Culkin returns to lip sync. The part of the video that everyone remembers is up now, the face morphing. The collective reaction of the audience to the faces of people of different nationalities and skin colour changing seamlessly into each other before our eyes was one of dumbstruck awe. One big huge wow! It was certainly impressive but hadn’t it been done before by Godley and Creme for their 1985 video fro ‘Cry”? Had people forgotten that already? Yes, the effects in “Black And White” were far superior but the idea was surely stolen by Landis.

For many of us I’m guessing this is the point that our memory tells us that the video ended but in its full, original form, it didn’t. A black panther emerges from the set and morphs into Jackson who pulls out all of his moves before embarking on a dancing rampage of destruction smashing windows, destroying a car and causing a building to explode whilst all the time grabbing his crotch repeatedly. He then morphs back into the panther before the video is finally drawn a close by Bart and Homer Simpson when the latter turns off the TV. These final four minutes caused great controversy with accusations made against Jackson that he was promoting violence and vandalism. Subsequently, this footage was removed from the video to make it more palatable for younger audiences but as this was the global premiere, it’s shown in full here.

Phew! All in all, the video was allocated approximately 10 and a half minutes of the TOTP running time which seems extraordinary but I guess this really was a big deal and the type of event TV that the show’s new producer Stanley Appel would have been looking for. Watching it back in its entirety 30 years on, it all seems like one big mess to me. Very little cohesion and with anything that was culturally popular at the time (Culkin, The Simpsons) thrown in for good measure. “Thriller” is by far the better promo and blows “Black And White” out of the water. Yes, it has some noble intentions but what was all that stuff at the end about? Well, that was the video but what about the song? Ah, it’ll be No 1 next week. I’ll deal with the music then.

Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff hold on to the No 1 spot for a second and final week with “Dizzy”. It’s the video again and for all “Black And White”‘s special effects and drama, I’d rather watch Vic and Bob arseing around to be honest. Supposedly, Vic had approached Mark E. Smith to ask if The Fall would do the record with him initially but the band weren’t sure and so The Wonder Stuff got the gig. That really would have been a collaboration worth seeing and hearing. Vic would achieve one final Top 40 hit when he teamed up with EMF for a cover of “I’m A Believer” by The Monkees which went to No 3 in 1995.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Rozalla	Faith (In the Power of Love)	Nah
2	Seal	Killer EP	No but I had the album
3	Tina Turner	Way Of The World	Nope
4	Altern-8	Activ 8 (Come with Me)	Not my bag
5	Sonia	You To Me Are Everything	Oh dear Lord no
6	REM	Radio Song	No and I’d heard the album so may times in store I didn’t even buy that either
7	Bassheads	Is There Anybody Out There?	See 4 above
8	Michael Jackson	Black And White	No
9	Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff	Dizzy	I did not

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/m0011f4t/top-of-the-pops-14111991

TOTP 26 SEP 1991

Posted on October 15, 2021 by 80stastic

And now, the end is near
And so I face the final curtain

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase ‘end of an era’? Alex Ferguson finally retiring as manger of Manchester United? The Beatles splitting? Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts sadly passing away the other week? How about the character of Mike Baldwin being killed off in Coronation Street? Or…the ‘Year Zero’ revamp of that great pop music institution TOTP? I think tonight’s host Gary Davies has justification for describing the 26 Sep 1991 show as the end of an era. This was the final show (until the changes were reversed in 1994) of that grand old programme being presented by Radio 1 DJs. They were replaced by a group of younger unknowns by incoming executive producer Stanley Appel who was hoping to bring about a new youthful feel to a show that had struggled to accommodate the new trends in popular music surrounding dance / house / rave genres. There were more cosmetic changes in a brand new theme tune (“Now Get Out of That”), title sequence and logo and, as Gary Davies advises at the end of the show, the entire programme was moved from BBC Television Centre in London to BBC Elstree Centre in Borehamwood.

I do feel a twinge of sympathy for Davies. He’d been hosting TOTP since about 1983 I think (not long after he joined Radio 1 anyway) and had always been a safe pair of hands* and must have thought he had a shot at stardom across the pond in the US in October 1987 when the CBS television network decided to try an American version of the show. There were link ups with the UK version which were always hosted by Davies. Sadly for Gary, the experiment was short-lived and the US TOTP was cancelled. By the time the old guard of presenters were reinstalled in 1994, Davies had moved to Virgin Radio meaning this is his very last regular TOTP show.

*Except for the Dixie Peach suntan comment of course

Well, enough of the sentiment and on with the show and we start with …who the hell is this? P.J.B. featuring Hannah And Her Sisters? I have literally never heard this in my life before and thank the Lord I hadn’t because now I’ve had their version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” inflicted on my ears, life in this wretched country at this horrible period of history just got even worse. This is vile – beastly even. Just 100% crapola. Who’s idea was it to do a dance version of the Simon & Garfunkel classic? Well, it turns out it was a bloke called Peter John Bellotte (the titular P.J.B.) who actually had quite an impressive CV. Most notably, he’d worked with Giorgio Moroder producing the peak era Donna Summer sound of “I Feel Love”, “Love to Love You Baby” and “Hot Stuff”. He went on to work with the likes of Janet Jackson, Cliff Richard, Shalamar and Tina Turner and in 2004 was honoured at the Dance Music Hall of Fame ceremony where he was inducted for his many outstanding achievements and contributions as producer and songwriter.

Back in 1991 though, he was responsible for this shit. As for Hannah and Her Sisters, as wells being the name of Woody Allen’s 1986 comedy drama flick, they did actually feature a Hannah who was Hannah Jones who would achieve some hits on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart at the end of the 90s. This dreadful nonsense however peaked at No 21 and whoever bought it should conduct their own root and branch investigation into exactly what occurred here.

Could there be a more appropriate song to help bring the curtain down on this era of TOTP? It can only be “Wind Of Change” by The Scorpions. Of course, it was a curtain of a different kind (the iron one) that was the behind the origin of the song. Written during a visit to Moscow in 1989, these German rockers were amazed at how different the political and cultural climate felt just 12 months on from their previous visit there. The opening lines:

I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change

were a literal running commentary of a boat trip that the band took down the Moskva river that runs through Moscow, passing the sights like Gorky Park which sits on the shore of the Moskva and witnessing first hand those changes occurring. Lead singer Klaus Meine started whistling that melody and the rest of the song came quickly. Apparently, the band’s record label weren’t keen on that infamous whistling intro and the band tried to record the song without it by reverting to a traditional heavy rock intro akin to the band’s reputation but when that wasn’t working they returned to the original song opening. I seem to recall the song getting a bit of stick for that intro, that it somehow undermined it. I’m not sure why as their are loads of examples of songs with whistling in them that are credible. There’s even a direct rock comparison in the form of “Patience” by Guns N’ Roses and then there’s the classic “Dock Of The Bay” by Otis Redding. Maybe their label were concerned it might take the song in more of an almost novelty direction like Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” or “Walk Like An Egyptian” by The Bangles.

Whatever their reasoning, between them and the band, they arrived at the correct decision commercially speaking as the song went on to sell 14 million copies worldwide. More than the sales though and whatever you think about the sound of the song, its legacy was its cultural and political significance becoming a clarion call for freedom and a message of hope.

As for me, I don’t think I knew anything about The Scorpions before “Wind Of Change” despite them having been around since the mid 60s. Did I like the song? About as much as liked the nasty scorpion spider graphic that the TOTP producers shoved over the start of the video. Let’s hope that sort of nonsense disappeared in the ‘year zero’ revamp.

It’s the tiny person with a massive voice and an even bigger hit next as we get a live vocal from Rozalla on “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”. So ubiquitous was this tune that I could have sworn it was a much bigger hit than its actual No 6 peak. Maybe my confusion is because it hung around the charts for so long – ten weeks in total on the Top 40 and four consecutive weeks inside the Top 10. Eight years later, it did become a bigger hit of sorts when it was slowed down and sampled by Australian film director Baz Luhrmann on his Number 1 hit “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”.

After starting a trend for female vocalists fronting rave anthems to remove their tops in her last performance that was copied by Jorinde Williams of Oceanic, Rozalla tweaks the routine this week by suggesting her outer garment is about to come off but then keeping it on for the duration of the song. Maybe the stuffy TOTP producers had warned her off that type of thing!

REM are next with “The One I Love“. When it comes to misunderstood songs, this one must be up there with the best. If you didn’t know this song, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s a heartfelt love letter to a loved one judging by its title but one listen or perusal of the lyrics would tell a different story of manipulating people.

Any discussion of misunderstood songs must include “Born In The USA” by Bruce Springsteen and “Every Breath You Take” by The Police of course. The Boss’s song is often misconstrued as an anthem of patriotism when it’s actually telling the story of the difficulties and marginalisation Vietnam veterans felt when returning from the war. The song’s fist pumping sound led to many a politician asking if they could use the song to soundtrack an election campaign starting with Ronald Reagan in 1984. Bruce refused. Had Reagan heard this version of the song, maybe even his little brain would have realised it wasn’t really an appropriate song choice:

As for “Every Breath You Take”, my favourite misunderstanding of this song is the time when dumb as mud X Factor judge Louis Walsh told some hopeful after they had performed it on one of the live shows that they had ‘made it their own’. It’s a song about stalking you imbecile!

REM would release one final single (“Radio Song”) from their “Out Of Time” album before 1991 was up returning just a year later with the stunning “Automatic For The People” album.

Poor Gary Davies is having to introduce some right old shit on his valedictory TOTP appearance. After the car crash of the “Bridge Over Troubled Water” cover version at the top of the show, here’s that dreadful danced up remix of “Nutbush City Limits” by Tina Turner. Released as “Nutbush City Limits (The 90s Version)”, even the song’s new title grates.Why did it need the word version in there? Surely ’91 remix’ is what it should have been called? Also, the video is so lazy as well. Some old footage of Tina performing the song back in the day intercut with her jigging about to the track in the present day. Throw in some shots of lorries driving about (on their way to the city limits perchance?) and that was all the video director thought was needed.!

“Nutbush City Limits (The 90s Version)” peaked at No 23.

Back on a dance tip now with Bizarre Inc who are ‘avin’ it large with their hit “Such A Feeling”. By ‘avin’ it large, obviously I mean having two dancers at the front of the stage doing some arm-waving whilst the three guys in the band mime playing keyboards. Literally that’s all the performance is. Fine if you’re off on one in a club but a bit ridiculous looking for a prime time TV music show. I wonder if Davies was secretly relieved not have to present this type of thing anymore. Leave it for the kids and all that. He himself was approaching 34 by this point. which seems very young to the 53 year old me looking back but he might have been pushing it a bit as a purveyor of what the youth were into. I think I went to a nightclub just once after I turned 30.

“Such A Feeling” peaked at No 13.

Now here was an antidote to all that pesky dance music doing the rounds. Since his surprise No 1 single “Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart” with Gene Pitney at the end of the 80s, Marc Almond had not been a frequent visitor to the UK Top 40. He’d only racked up one No 29 hit (“A Lover Spurned”) from his “Enchanted” album in 1990 since then. So what do you do if you need a comeback hit single? You record a cover version of course! Being Marc Almond though, this was no ordinary cover. “Jacky” was a Jacques Brel song originally recorded by the Belgian singer-songwriter as “La chanson de Jacky” in 1965 and Marc was a massive Brel fan having already released an album of covers of his songs back in 1989 (although curiously it didn’t feature “Jacky”). The version that was more known to UK audiences though was the English translated one by Scott Walker who released it as his first solo single in 1967.

Marc’s version is definitely more Walker than Brel albeit with an obtrusive backbeat stapled onto it and a synthesised choir effect tagged on the end. It’s gloriously ridiculous and rather splendid for it. The lyrics are exquisitely bonkers and therefore wholly memorable. For example:

I’d have to get drunk every night
And talk about virility
With some old grandmother
That might be decked out like a Christmas tree
And no pink elephant I’d see
Though I’d be drunk as I could be

Excellent! Then of course, there is the killer hook in the chorus of Cute in a stupid ass way or rather Cute (pause for dramatic effect) in a stupid ass way. I’m sure this caused a trend amongst some young men to wear very skinny T-shirts with the legend ‘Cute in a stupid ass way’ emblazoned across them. The only thing that disappoints me about Almond’s version is that he doesn’t do the Scott Walker phrasing of ‘Jacky’ where he softens the ‘J’ which I always found very affecting.

“Jacky” peaked at No 17 and was the lead single from his first and only album for Warner Brothers “Tenement Symphony” which would implausibly spawn another hit single the following year with another cover version, this time “The Days of Pearly Spencer” which was originally recorded by David McWilliams. Despite including those hits, the album was not a big seller peaking at No 39.

A third TOTP appearance for Sabrina Johnston and “Peace” next. Interesting to note the difference in her performance here and that of Rozalla earlier. Sabrina’s backed by four dancers behind her whilst Rozalla was up there all on her tod.

With the greatest respect to Sabrina, maybe she needed to be helped out in the dance moves department as she comes across like Tina Turner meets Mrs Overall from Acorn Antiques when she’s wigging out.

Not only was she outdone by Rozalla’s much more impressive dancing, Sabrina also lost out to her in the chart positions as “Peace” peaked two places lower than “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”at No 8.

Three Breakers next and we start with Fish. I never fail to be amazed about just how many solo hits this guy had and also how few of them I recall. “Internal Exile” was his fourth and, like all his others, it must have passed me by at the time. Taken from the album of the same name, it had a very obviously Celtic folk feel to it and was about his desire for Scottish independence (still relevant as a subject today of course). The album included a version of “Something In The Air” by Thunderclap Newman. Want to hear it? Nah, nor me.

Another very tall man who used to front a rock band next as we see Ozzy Osbourne back in the charts for the first time in five years. He’s also released the title track from his new album as a single in “No More Tears”. Apparently, Ozzy considers this song to be ‘a gift from God’. Really?! Hell’s teeth! There really was nothing here for me though I do remember the Our Price Store I was working in getting the album in early on import and the only way you could distinguish it from the UK release was that the cover had a slightly different colour tint to it. I think I was (ahem) ‘paranoid’ about selling the wrong version.

It’s a trio of new album title tracks released as singles on the Breakers as Belinda Carlisle returns with “Live Your Life Be Free“. The hits had dried up in her native US by this point in Belinda’s career but here in the UK we were still happy to consume some more of her pleasant if formulaic soft rock. “Live Your Life Be Free” certainly fell into both of these categories and was hardly anything much different from what she had served up on her last two albums “Heaven On Earth” and “Runaway Horses” to my ears but it was eminently listenable. The album would spawn four Top 40 hits (of which the title track was the biggest) and would achieve gold status but it was a definite tailing off of sales compared to its two predecessors.

The video sees Belinda dressed up to look like Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolitte from My Fair Lady or possibly Julia Roberts as Vivian Ward for Pretty Woman (same film basically) at the races. All together now…”Come on, Dover, move yer bloomin’ arse!”

For 36 years Slim Whitman’s chart topping statistics were unrivalled but they’ve finally been brought down by the ‘Groover from Vancouver’ as “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” by Bryan Adams clocks up a twelfth consecutive week at No 1! I think when we’d reached this point and a 36 year chart record had been broken, maybe we were all believing that the spell it held over the UK public would also have been broken. Surely now it had beaten everything else in chart history, that would have been enough, job done or as Roy Castle would have said “You’re a record breaker!”. Alas no, Bryan was good for another four weeks after this meaning his single was responsible for the following chart feats courtesy of officialcharts.com:

With 16 consecutive weeks at the summit, “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” scored the longest ever run at No 1 in UK chart history, a record which still hasn’t been bettered. Just one song has more total weeks at No 1 – Frankie Laine’s “I Believe” which enjoyed 18 weeks at the top across 3 different stints.

“(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” is the UK’s 15th best-selling single of all time with over 1.87 million paid-for sales to date including 340,000 on digital download.
Even in 2021, nine people have picked up a physical copy of the song!
To date it’s clocked up over 55 million streams in the UK since chart records began – including 10 million in the first 6 months of 2021 alone
It was the best-seller of 1991 earning 1.43 million sales that year alone. It even outsold the second biggest (Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” which was re-released following Freddie Mercury’s death) by more than twice as many copies in that year.

The play out video this week is “Try” by Bros and I guess it’s a fitting end to both the current format of the show and Gary Davies’s time as a presenter that they both finish with a song that was also the final ever chart entry for the Goss twins. Bros would split the following year with Matt Goss forging a solo career before making a name for himself in the US where he had his own Vegas Residency at The Palms, Caesars Palace and The Mirage singing the swing classics. As for Luke, he briefly formed a group called Band of Thieves who released a pretty good single called “Sweeter Than The Midnight Rain” before embarking on an acting career that would see him land roles in such films as Blade II and Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

As for Gary Davies, he bows out with a fairly unemotional goodbye although he does give an extra long stare right down the lens before the Bros video kicks in. I wonder who’s benefit that was for?

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	P.J.B. featuring Hannah And Her Sisters	Bridge Over Troubled Water	Never going to happen
2	The Scorpions	Wind Of Change	Nope
3	Rozalla	Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)	Nah
4	REM	The One I Love	Not the single but I must have it on something
5	Tina Turner	Nutbush City Limits (The 90s Version)	See 1 above
6	Bizarre Inc	Such A Feeling	No
7	Marc Almond	Jacky	Liked it, didn’t buy it
8	Sabrina Johnston	Peace	See 7 above
9	Fish	Internal Exile	Negative
10	Ozzy Osbourne	No More Tears	Nothing here for me
11	Belinda Carlisle	Live Your Life Be Free	I did not
12	Bryan Adams	(Everything I Do) I Do It For You	It’s another no
13	Bros	Try	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/m0010b3m/top-of-the-pops-26091991

TOTP 12 SEP 1991

Posted on October 10, 2021 by 80stastic

After last week’s massive rave up of a show, surely the TOTP studio wouldn’t be taken over by mad ravers ‘avin’ it large again this week? Well, yes and no. Dance music is definitely represented by the artists in the actual building again but when you add in the videos chosen by the producers to be shown this week, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were back in the 70s or at The Royal Variety Performance. No seriously, two of the artists on this TOTP had either already been on Her Majesty’s favourite night out of the year or would appear on it in the near future, those acts being Cliff Richard (13 times!) and Right Said Fred (once in 1992). The mainstream acts didn’t stop with just those two though. No, also on TOTP tonight were Bryan Adams (twice!), Roxette and Julian Lennon who’s Dad John had also appeared at The Royal Variety Performance as part of The Beatles with his infamous “just rattle your jewellery” remark in 1963. Oh, and despite having only released one new song in the 90s so far, The Stone Roses are suddenly back on the show with a re-release of a track from their 1989 debut album for some reason. This has all the makings of a curate’s egg of a programme.

Before all that though, what’s the rather cryptic announcement from host Simon Mayo at the top of the show all about? “If you got your tickets for tonight’s show through Keith Prowse, you can watch through to 7.30 but cheer and applaud louder because you are watching for free. Seems fair enough to me.” Eh? What was the story there then? Some dispute between the BBC and the legendary ticket agency and music publisher Keith Prowse? Was Mayo legally obliged to say that? It just seems so utterly incongruous and bizarre.

Talking of bizarre, the opening act tonight are Bizarre Inc with “Such A Feeling” and these guys were definitely ‘avin’ it. In an attempt to stand out from the rest of the rave crowd, they have employed a couple of podium dancers to give a visual form to their track. Watching it back, it remains me of the time that I was working in the Our Price in Rochdale and on a night out found myself in the town’s Xanadu nightclub having become detached from my colleagues. My God! The sights I saw – including podium dancers! I loved working at that store but the delights of a night out in Rochdale I was not prepared for.

Bizarre Inc were from Stafford and at one point included a band member who would find their way into Altern-8 who were also having mainstream chart hits at this time. It all sounds a bit incestuous to me.

“Such A Feeling” peaked at No 13 but Bizarre Inc would return before the end of the year with a Top 5 hit in the re-released “Playing with Knives”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9GscEY_LkY

“20th Century Boy” by Marc Bolan & T. Rex is next having been re-released off the back of a Levi’s advert. The marketing guys at Levi’s had struck a rich vein of 70s tunes to help promote their jeans at this time, having worked through a load of 60s songs at the back end of the 80s. They’d already turned to The Steve Miller Band and Bad Company in their pursuit of soundtracks to their iconic advertising campaign but suddenly they had struck on the idea that some glam rock was now what was required. I guess you can’t knock their choice; T.Rex had lit up the charts with some huge tunes that had turned Marc Bolan into a superstar. Between 1970 and 1973 the chart peaks of their singles read:

2 – 1 – 1 – 2 – 1 – 1 – 2 – 2 – 3 – 4

with the No 3 in the list being the original release of “20th Century Boy”. Come 1974 though, the spell appeared to be broken. The release of the “Zinc Alloy And The Hidden Riders Of Tomorrow” album met with a downturn of sales and a critical backlash. The return to all those complex song titles from the band’s psychedelic folk era when they were known as Tyrannosaurus Rex maybe wasn’t the best idea – as well as the album’s title, the tracks on it included “Painless Persuasion v. The Meathawk Immaculate” and “The Leopards Featuring Gardenia & the Mighty Slug”. The album wasn’t even released in the US and the band were dropped from their label. Bolan split from producer Tony Visconti and the group splintered.

Subsequent albums releases fared even worse but the explosion of the punk movement in ’76 seemed to re-energise Bolan and he even toured with The Damned as well as reinstating his public profile with his own TV show Marc. I was too young to experience those early hits in real time being aged just 2 when “Ride A White Swan” bestrode the charts in ’70 but I have faint memories of that TV show and I think my elder brother had a pin badge with Bolan’s image on it.

Of course, tragedy was just around the corner (or more specifically a small humpback bridge near Gipsy Lane on Queens Ride Barnes, southwest London) when Marc was killed in a car accident when his girlfriend Gloria Jones lost control of the mini they were travelling in. His legacy lives on though with names like Johnny Marr and Siouxsie and the Banshees crediting him as being a major influence with the latter recording their own version of “20th Century Boy” as the B-side to the single “The Staircase (Mystery)” single in 1979.

Simon Mayo’s having a nightmare here. After the weirdness of the Keith Prowse comment he’s started going on about Paddy Ashdown now. Was Ashdown in the news back then? Was this when all the ‘Paddy Pantsdown’ stuff was happening?

*checks internet*

No that scandal blew up in the run up to the ’92 election. I can’t find a Paddy Ashdown story for Sep ’91 so I’m not sure what Mayo is going on about. Surely he wasn’t using the show as a platform for his own political views?

Anyway, the act he is introducing via this political lay-by is Roxette with “The Big L.” The circus themed video for this one includes a scene where there’s five greased up body builder types huddled together on a small circular platform all playing mouth organ. What was that all about?! Maybe the video director had been influenced by the recent bare-chested antics of Marky Mark and his Funky Bunch or maybe even the “Do What U Like” video by Take That (the one with the bare arse cheeks and a ton of jelly) which had been creating waves of controversy around this time? With it being a Roxette video though, it just comes across as a bit safe and lame rather than daring.

“The Big L.” peaked at No 21.

Is it me or is there a bit of an echo in the studio tonight? I thought I’d noticed one in a couple of Simon Mayo’s links before but it seems to have spread to the performers now. There’s a distinct trace of reverb on Sabrina Johnston‘s live vocals on “Peace”. Or was that a deliberate sound effect? Sound quality issues aside, this was up there with Oceanic’s Insanity” in the bangin’ tunes stakes. Sadly for Sabrina, she also followed the same career path as Oceanic in that she could never really follow up on the success of “Peace’ . An album was released and two further singles from it but none of them managed to indent the charts. Indeed, Sabrina’s only other chart entry was when a remix of “Peace” made No 35 as part of a double A-side with Crystal Waters to promote the HIV/AIDS charity album “Red Hot + Dance” (the one with George Michael’s “Too Funky” on it). In later years though, she did go onto appear as a backing vocalist on Lauryn Hill’s album “The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill”.

More Paddy Ashdown quips from Simon Mayo next. Give it up mate! “I Wanna Be Adored” by The Stone Roses is the the prompt for him to get in another Paddy joke (as it were). Had Ashdown done a particular poorly received press conference or something back then?

“I Wanna Be Adored” was the opening track on the band’s iconic eponymous debut album from ’89. So why was it being released as a single two and a half years later? Well, I think it was to do with the legal battle with their then-record label Silvertone. The band wished to terminate their five-year contract with Silvertone whose owners Zomba Records took out an injunction against the Roses in September 1990 to prevent them from recording with any other label. The courts ruled in favour of the band in May 1991 but Silvertone appealed the decision thereby delaying the release of any new material from the band further. I guess Silvertone wanted to make as much dough out of the band as they could before they were their act no longer and so released a number of tracks from that debut album that had never previously been released (or indeed intended for release) as stand alone singles. “I Wanna Be Adored” was followed by “Waterfall”, ‘I Am The Resurrection” and a re-release of “Fool’s Gold” in ’92. Bit naughty that.

“I Wanna Be Adored” was also one of the tracks that my one time Our Price manager Pete played on as the band’s original bass player. The Martin Hannett produced album that Pete featured on never saw the light of day as the band weren’t happy with it until it was released as “Garage Flower” in 1996 against the wishes of everyone involved in the original recordings.

I said in the last post that I didn’t think we’d be seeing this act until her next hit in about three years time. I was wrong. Following her appearance in the Breakers Crystal Waters has moved up the charts sufficiently to qualify for another appearance this week with her “Makin’ Happy” single. The single edit of this was remixed by Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley who I very much see as one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse bringing death to music with his “Jack Your Body” No 1 single in 1987.

The video is a typical dance track promo with Crystal’s face superimposed over a background of abstract, dancing figure images and some very literal interpretations of the song’s lyrics – some Rocky Horror Picture Show style lips for ‘She screams Ah ooh’ and a camera for ‘Now picture you with me’. To be fair, most of the lyrics seem to be comprised of ‘ooh-wee ooh ooh-wee ooh ooh-wee ooh-wee ooh-wee’. It’s hardly Proust is it?

“Makin’ Happy” peaked at No 18.

Having gone after Paddy Ashdown for a cheap laugh, Mayo now sets his sights on pop royalty in Cliff Richard. Asking the audience the question who has appeared on TOTP most across its then 27 year history, he mimes us a clue of who it is. For some reason he thinks giving a double thumbs up and waving his arms about as if protecting himself from some falling debris is a dead ringer of an impression of Cliff! Surely the thumbs up gesture would be more likely to be Paul ‘Whacky Thumbs Aloft’ McCartney and although Cliff has been known to do some very odd arm movements whilst performing, Mayo’s interpretation seems very wide of the mark.

As for the song Cliff is singing, I have no memory whatsoever of “More To Life” but then I didn’t watch the TV show Trainer which it was the theme tune for. Apparently Trainer was a follow up (of sorts) to mid 80s yachting drama Howard’s Way but was set in the word of horse racing. As with Howard’s Way, Simon May (not Mayo) wrote the instrumental theme tune for the opening credits but lyrics were added for the version over the closing credits which were supplied by Mike Read (yes, the Radio 1 DJ). In later years of course, Read would pen “UKIP Calypso” for a UKIP dinner that he was attending and, with the endorsement of Nigel Farage, it was released as a single. It was widely panned as being racist for Reads’s mock Caribbean accent and the lyrics ‘The leaders committed a cardinal sin / Open the borders let them all come in / Illegal immigrants in every town / Stand up and be counted Blair and Brown’. That’s Mike Read there, friend of Nigel Farage and writer of racist songs. Arsehole. Read of course was very matey with Cliff as I recall and often did impressions of him. There really was no end to his talents was there?

“More To Life” the song is just bland, Cliff-by-numbers pop and the whole story saga should be condemned to the rubbish tip of terrible cultural ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nv_1GrQiN4

Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch are up next with “Good Vibrations”. Now I’ve always quite liked Mark Wahlberg as an actor. I know some of the films he’s been in have had bad reviews like Planet Of The Apes and The Happening and he’s certainly no De Niro or Pacino but even so, like I said, I quite like him.

However, I didn’t know until now when I’ve read up on him that he did some terrible things as a teenager like racially aggravated assault for which he was sentenced to two years in jail but served only forty-five days of his sentence. Eighteen years later he apologised to his victim in person who stated publicly that he had forgiven Wahlberg. Now knowing this information and reading an interview back with him in Smash Hits magazine as Marky Mark, he clearly was a prick back then. In said interview he refers to women as ‘bitches’ and the Smash Hits writer describes his conversation as “…the blokiest tirade you ever did hear this side of an Eddie Murphy Live video…” – like I said, a prick.

He followed this up a year later in December ’92, while performing on the cult late night Channel 4 show The Word, by praising fellow guest Shabba Ranks who had stated gay people should be crucified for which both he and Ranks were widely condemned and criticised (not least by The Word presenter Mark Lamarr on the show). Supposedly Wahlberg doesn’t like to be reminded or asked about his music career these days. It’s not hard to see why.

The huge dance anthems just keep on coming as Rozalla enters the game with “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”. Having been massively popular on the dance floors of the clubs in Ibiza in the Summer, it was no surprise that it became a huge hit in the UK charts when the returning hordes went searching for a memento of their holidays in the nation’s record shops. Well, at least we’d moved on from those foreign holiday hits like Ryan Paris from back in the day.

Rozalla was born in Zambia though moved to Zimbabwe aged 18 where she scored five No 1 singles. She relocated again in 1988, this time to London where she worked with production duo Nigel Swanston and Tim Cox and the collaboration bore fruit in the form of “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”. Looking at her performance here, you wouldn’t have imagined that such a huge sound could have come from such a diminutive and slight looking person. She absolutely bosses it though and has the crowd in the palm of her hand when she takes her very sparkly jacket. She would go on to have a eight UK Top 40 hits in total including a re-release of this track re-titled as “Everybody’s Free (Ca$ino Mix)” in 1996.

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

Moving the Breakers to just before the No 1 is really starting to piss me off now. It’s lulling me into a false sense of security before hitting me with the realisation that there are at least three more songs to review even though the show is nearly over. We start with a man not seen in the Top 40 for seven years but who topped all the Best Newcomer and Most Promising New Act polls at the time of that success. Julian Lennon had already released three albums by ’91 but they had spiralled into a pattern of diminishing returns since the success of debut “Valotte”. Subsequently, his return to the Top 40 with “Saltwater” was quite the surprise. Tackling the issues of environmental conservation and world poverty in a pop song wasn’t unique but neither was it a regular occurrence back then. Obviously there was the whole Bad Aid project to address famine in Ethiopia and wasn’t “Crazy Horses” by The Osmonds about pollution? Then of course there was “Save The Whale” by …erm…Nik Kershaw. I’m sure there are plenty more examples but my point is that unlike sewers and non disposable wipes, the charts weren’t clogged up with them.

Enter Julian with a rather drippy yet heartfelt take on it all with his 6th form poetry-esque lyrics bemoaning man’s capability to land on the moon but not be able to stop children starving back on earth. Musically, it inevitably drew comparisons with his Dad especially the “Strawberry Fields Forever” beginning whilst the Beatles connection was continued by the guitar part that was written but not performed by George Harrison. I quite liked it and its themes seem more relevant today than ever. Like his debut single “Too Late For Goodbyes”, it peaked at No 6 whilst his only other Top 40 entry was his cover of Dave Clark Five’s “Because” for the 1986 musical Time soundtrack winch literally crept in at No 40.

What?! Shabba Ranks was in the charts?! The Shabba Ranks that was discussed earlier for his vile homophobic comments on The Word? Yep, the very same but this was a year before that controversial moment broke so presumably, in ’91, he wasn’t courting the condemnation that followed. Here he’s teamed up with Maxi Priest for a single called “Housecall” which sounds horrific to my ears and which thankfully passed me by at the time. Fortunately we only get 18 seconds of it in the Breakers, a feature which now seems to be a totally pointless exercise in boosting the amount of songs featured in the show (we’ve gone up from 13 to 14 in recent weeks). Julian Lennon only got 24 seconds and the final Breaker Bryan Adams gets 17 seconds! This was ridiculous and presumably just a ploy to be able to say it was keeping up with ITV competition The Chart Show. Utter nonsense (as was Shabba and Maix’s collaboration).

Hang on! Did I just say Bryan Adams was in the Breakers? But *spoiler* he’s still at No 1 isn’t he? Yes, but both statements are true because he’d been at No 1 so long now that his next single was due for release. “Can’t Stop This Thing We’ve Started” chart life would would come and go within a mere five weeks peaking at No 12 whilst “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” was still riding high in the Top 40. This was the time when it really started to get nuts I think. His new (and infinitely better in my opinion) song had been rejected in favour of a record buying public continuing to purchase his previous single that had been No 1 for over three months. This was just bonkers!

In the US, it would peak at No 2 but you know what they put on the B-side of the US release? Yes, “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You”! It had been No 1 in America for seven weeks! Why make it at the B-side?! In the UK the flip was a live version of his duet with Tina Tuner “It’s Only Love”. I quite liked the speeded up stop animation in the video which enlivened an otherwise straight performance promo.

So it’s a 10th week for good ol’ Bry with that Robin Hood song. The video for “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” was directed by Julien Temple which I don’t think I knew before. Bit of a contrast to his punk origins of the Sex Pistols film The Great Rock And Roll Swindle. Apparently it was shot in Sheffield. You’d have thought that he would have chosen Nottingham as his location wouldn’t you? I mean, it’s only about 30 odd miles from Sheffield anyway. And, the day it was being shot, Nottingham Forest were playing in the FA Cup final against Spurs. All the omens and references surely pointed to Nottingham not Sheffield? I wonder which football team Bryan Adams supports? Oh he must have a team. Look at Sylvester Stallone (Everton), Tom Hanks (Aston Villa) and Kevin Costner (Arsenal). Then you’ve got Robert Plant being a Wolves fan and Dave Grohl supports West Ham.

*checks internet*

I knew it! Bryan is a fan of….my beloved Chelsea! Who said he had/was bad taste?

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

It’s Right Said Fred and “I’m Too Sexy” to play us out but before that, Simon Mayo ends his last show before the ‘year zero’ revamp by signing off with “I’ll see you sometime”. He definitely knew didn’t he?

Back to the Freds and there’s a link between them and the aforementioned Julien Temple as the latter directed the Jazzin’ For Blue Jean short film for David Bowie to promote his 1984 “Blue Jean” single which starred none other than Richard Fairbrass as one of the band for fictional pop star Screaming Lord Byron. As toe curlingly awful as Jazzin’ For Blue Jean is (and I’ve watched it) it still knocks the promo for “I’m Too Sexy” into a cocked hat. What do you think about that Fairbrass?

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Bizarre Inc	Such A Feeling	Bizarre Inc? Godawful stink more like! No
2	Marc Bolan & T. Rex	20th Century Boy	No but I have a Best Of CD with it on
3	Roxette	The Big L.	No
4	Sabrina Johnston	Peace	Liked it, didn’t buy it
5	The Stone Roses	I Wanna Be Adored	No but I’ve got the album
6	Crystal Waters	Makin’ Happy	It didn’t make me happy – no
7	Cliff Richard	More To Life	God no!
8	Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch	Good Vibrations	Nah
9	Rozalla	“Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”	I did not
10	Julian Lennon	Saltwater	No but I didn’t mind it actually
11	Shabba Ranks/ Maxi Priest	Housecall	NO!
12	Bryan Adams	Can’t Stop This Thing We’ve Started	Negative
13	Bryan Adams	(Everything I Do) I Do It for You	Double negative
14	Right Said Fred	I’m Too Sexy	It’s 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/m00103fx/top-of-the-pops-12091991

TOTP Rewind – the 90s

My memories of 90s chart music

TOTP 27 OCT 1994

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TOTP 04 AUG 1994

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TOTP 03 FEB 1994

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TOTP 20 FEB 1992

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TOTP 14 NOV 1991

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TOTP 26 SEP 1991

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TOTP 12 SEP 1991

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