We’re still just about in sync with the BBC4 TOTP repeats which means it’s coming up to Valentine’s Day both in 2023 and 1994. Does that mean there’ll be a load of love songs on this show as the big day approaches? Were record companies that cynical back then? Let’s find out…

We start with a combination that hadn’t been seen on the show since the fag end of the 80s. D Mob and Cathy Dennis first collaborated in 1989 on “C’mon And Get My Love” and achieved a chart peak of No 15. D Mob had already caused some sensationalist tabloid headlines a year earlier with thejr banned hit single “We Call It Acieed” whilst Cathy became a major star in her own right in 1991 with four Top 40 hits and a No 3 album. Since then though, Cathy’s chart trajectory had hit a downturn with none of the three singles taken from her second album “Into The Skyline” piercing the Top 20. As for D Mob, they’d barely released anything this decade so far which I guess explains their absence from the charts. Either way, it was probably advantageous to both parties for another joint project and it arrived in the form of this song “Why” that was actually the second track on that sophomore album of Cathy’s. Yet again, this was another track that has evaded permanent residence in my memory banks. I’m not surprised as it’s not as immediate as “C’mon And Get My Love” though it did manage a high of No 23.

Cathy has clearly had an image change. Her loose, cascading curls have been replaced by a short, spiky crop and her catsuit of two years before by a full length dress. By the time of her final studio album release “Am I The Kinda Girl”, she’d got a sort of overgrown bob. Why am I talking about Cathy Dennis’s various hairstyles? Yes, you’ve guessed it – I’m desperately filling as I’ve very little else to say about this one apart from the following: this was D Mob’s last ever Top 40 hit whilst Cathy managed two more one of which was a cover of The Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset”.

If you Google ‘when did Britpop start?’, the answer you mostly get is 1993 (and that it ended in 1997). Yet if you ask the question in a different way like ‘what was the first Britpop song?’ then you get the answer “The Drowners” by Suede which came out in 1992. Suede is also the answer to the question ‘who were the first Britpop band?’. Then there’s that Select magazine cover of Brett Anderson superimposed over a Union Jack with the tag line ‘Yanks go home!’. That issue came out in April 1993. Well, Suede are on this TOTP later so does that mean Britpop was in full flow already by this point?

What about the claims of Blur though? Journalist John Harris pinpoints their “Popscene” single alongside “The Drowners” as the very start of Britpop. Their 1992 tour of America supposedly sparked Damon Albarn’s resentment of US culture and his desire to big up its British counterpart. One person straddled both the Suede and Blur camps whilst also creating her own personal chapter of Britpop. Here she is being interviewed by the aforementioned John Harris…

Look, many cleverer people than me have written millions of words about Britpop so I’m not going to carry on with my own essay about its origins here but…Justine Frischmann and Elastica were certainly right in amongst it and were actually having hits far earlier in the whole story than I remember. Interestingly in his intro, the returning Radio 1 DJ Mark Goodier refers to Elastica as “a brilliant indie band” so no mention of Britpop there. “Line Up” was the band’s second single after their debut “Stutter” had peaked at No 80. However, that single had been limited to a pressing run of 1,500 copies so it was never going to be a big hit but it did create a buzz around the band and whetted the appetite of fans to create a demand for their music meaning that, when their second single was made more widely available, it shot into the Top 40. Fellow centre-of-Britpop Camden dwellers Menswear would do a similar thing by performing debut single “I’ll Manage Somehow” on TOTP before it was even released.

As for Elastica’s sound, it certainly stood out back in early 1994. Crunching guitars and almost off key riffs that sounded like a mad, hypnotic tune bewitching the pop kids with Justine cast as some sort of indie Pied Piper of Hamelin inculcating them to “line up in line”. Justine herself made quite the splash of course with her androgynous looks and style, coming on like Marcella Detroit’s younger and hipper sister.

“Line Up” would make No 20 paving the way for the band’s most well known tune “Connection” to be released in the October. Their debut eponymous album didn’t appear until March 1995 which is probably why my brain was deceiving me into thinking that they didn’t turn up until much later than they actually did. That album would go to No 1 and be the fastest selling debut at that point since…well, Oasis’s “Definitely Maybe” just the year before but it was still quite the achievement. A second album wouldn’t appear until 2000 by which point Britpop felt like ancient history. The band split in 2001 and Frischmann relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area to become an artist.

Finally a song with the word ‘love’ in its title as Valentine’s Day approaches but it’s hardly a big, slushy ballad. “A Deeper Love” was first a hit in 1992 for Clivillés And Cole, the guys behind C+C Music Factory but it was covered two years later by the Queen of Soul herself Aretha Franklin to promote her collection album “Greatest Hits: 1980-1994”. Though you can’t deny Aretha’s legacy, I’m not entirely convinced that she had that many hits between those years.

*checks her discography

Hmm. The results are in. In the UK, Aretha had four Top 40 hits, three of them with other artists.

• 1985 – “Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves” with Eurythmics – No 9
• 1986 – “Who’s Zoomin’ Who – No 11
• 1986 – “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” with George Michael – No 1
• 1989 – “It Isn’t, It Wasn’t, It Ain’t Never Gonna Be” with Whitney Houston – No 29

Ok, the chart positions aren’t too bad (including a chart topper) but four in fourteen years is hardly prolific and just one of those totally solo. “A Deeper Love” would bring it up to a five when it went straight into the charts at No 5 which was also its peak. It was a better set of results in America where her “Who’s Zoomin’ Who” album alone supplied four hit singles including the rather good “Freeway Of Love” which bombed over here. Hit statuses were reversed for “A Deeper Love” which only made No 63 in the US. As we can see from the single’s video, it also featured in the film Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit. The Clivillés And Cole original did nothing for me though it is widely regarded as a bit of a House classic. I wasn’t struck by Aretha’s version either though you can’t deny her excellent vocals on it.

Right, does this count as a love song? I’m not sure. I am certain though that The Cranberries were one of the breakthrough acts of 1994 despite having been in existence since 1989. For many, of course, The Cranberries were Dolores O’Riordan in the same way that Debbie Harry was Blondie. Completely unfair but that’s perceptions for you. To be honest though, everything changed for the band when Dolores walked into their rehearsal room in Limerick in 1990. Given a sheet of chord progressions by band founder Noel Hogan, she returned within a week with lyrics and melodies which would form the basis of “Linger”. Known then as The Cranberry Saw Us, they trod the usual path of demos and gigs before eventually signing with Island Records in 1991. A few aborted recording sessions and a sacked manager later, they finally released their major label debut single “Dreams” in 1992. Despite critical acclaim it failed to chart and nor did the follow up, the initial release of “Linger” in February 1993. A turning point was reached when they supported Suede (them again!) on a tour and gained the attention of MTV who put their singles on heavy rotation. “Linger” would become a huge US hit going to No 8 in the Billboard Hot 100. Such success couldn’t be ignored back home and “Linger” duly got a rerelease in early 1994 when it peaked at No 14. I have to admit that I thought it got much higher in the charts than that given it seemed to be constantly on the radio but then none of their nine UK chart hits made the Top 10. They did however, sell a lot of albums. Their debut “Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?” went to No 1 over here and went five times platinum in the States. These were huge numbers.

As a song, “Linger” is a bit of a belter. That soft, lullaby-like intro before the swirling strings swoop in and Dolores sings in that distinctive Irish brogue. It was always going to be a hit; it just took a while for the stars to align – maybe there was a bit of cloud cover about during that first release. It had that quality of feeling accomplished yet also somehow organic despite the lush production. It was a perfect example of shimmering pop/rock. Oh and Sting, that’s how you write a great song that features the lyrics ‘wrapped around your finger’ as opposed to the turgid nonsense you released in 1983.

The success of “Linger” meant demand for the album that had already been out for a year suddenly snowballed and I’m guessing that it was temporarily withdrawn by Island and then re-promoted as was the way back then. “Dreams” would also get a rerelease and become a hit this time around when it peaked at No 27. They would end 1994 with a second multi platinum selling album in “No Need To Argue”. Tragically Dolores O’Riordan would die aged 46 by accidental drowning following excessive intoxication by alcohol.

The early to mid 90s saw many a female R&B solo artist in the UK charts. Des’ree, Toni Braxton, Oleta Adams, Karyn White, Aaliyah and there are two more of them on the show tonight starting with Carleen Anderson. The former vocalist with the Young Disciples of “Apparently Nothin’” fame was no longer a follower but a leader as she started out on her solo career. Mark Goodier has already stolen the James Brown reference in his intro but what he didn’t say was that in addition to Carleen’s Mum having been in the Godfather of Soul’s touring band that he was also Carleen’s godfather.

Anyway, with that musical tidbit out of the way, let’s return to Carleen herself and if I wasn’t sure that “Linger” was a love song then her debut single surely wasn’t with a title like “Nervous Breakdown”. Now I was aware of Carleen Anderson as I worked in a record shop so if nothing else I knew what the cover of her album looked like but not how it sounded. Listening to this back now though I was pleasantly surprised…until that horrible bit where a god awful jazz intervention is triggered by the singing of the word ‘breakdown’. Just horrible. The guitarist up there on stage with Carleen looks like the spit of Outspan from the film The Commitments while the saxophonist could be Dean from the same film after he’d had his ‘jazz haircut’. “Nervous Breakdown” made No 27 and was the first of four tracks lifted from her album “True Spirit” that were Top 40 chart hits.

There’s no Breakers this week as that slot is reserved for a montage of acts that have been nominated for the 1994 BRIT Awards which took place at the Alexandra Palace on Valentine’s Day itself. The event was hosted by Elton John and RuPaul with performances including Take That doing that Beatles medley, Van Morrison and Shane MacGowan duetting on “Have I Told You Lately” and of course Elton and RuPaul with a rendition of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”. You can look up who won what yourselves as I’m not going to list them all here.

The second of those female R&B solo artists now and like Carleen Anderson before her, she made her name initially as the vocalist in a successful band. Shara Nelson was, of course, the voice behind the Massive Attack hits “Unfinished Sympathy” and “Safe From Harm”. By 1993, she’d embarked on her own solo career scoring hits with “Down That Road” and “One Goodbye In Ten” and a hit album in “What Silence Knows”. “Uptight” was the third single taken from that album and as with Carleen’s song, the title of the single is not really very Valentine’s Day orientated but it’s a jolly, upbeat number though the chorus does rather disappoint. It feels like it’s building up to this killer hook that never really materialises.

On that song title still, Sahara’s track was absolutely nothing to do with the Stevie Wonder song of the same name. That wasn’t the case though with “Step Out” by Oasis. The B-side to “Don’t Look Back In Anger” was so based on “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” that Stevie got 10% of the single’s royalties.

And so we arrive at the band described by host Mark Goodier as “one of the most talked about British bands of the last year” and to be fair, nearly 30 years on, I’ve spent a great deal of this post referring to them before we even get to their appearance. Suede were, of course, making huge headlines in the music press at this time but they seemed to have a premonition of what was coming over the hill like a monster (to paraphrase The Automatic) and decided they would quite like to sidestep it. I speak of Britpop obviously and how Suede always seemed determined to distance themselves from the movement and plough their own furrow. After the runaway success of their eponymous debut album, instead of just repeating that formula, they released a sophomore album in “Dog Man Star” that provoked divided reactions. Rolling Stone magazine described it as:

“one of the most pretentious albums ever released by a major label”^[

Sheffield, Rob (2004). “London Suede”. In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 493–94. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8

Other critics labelled it overblown and self indulgent. However, it has a special place in the hearts of the fanbase in much the same way that Manic Street Preachers’ defiantly uncommercial third album “The Holy Bible” regularly tops fan polls as their best. In terms of the chronology of Suede’s album releases, from a music business point of view, it might have made more sense to have swapped hit laden third album “Coming Up” with “Dog Man Star”. Wet Wet Wet followed a similar trajectory when releasing the mature but less commercial “Holding Back The River” album as the follow up to “Popped In Souled Out” when the more logical move was to have come up with third album “High On The Happy Side” in its place. Still, you have to allow artists their integrity and creative freedom to write as they wish and this is what Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler did on “Stay Together”. This track didn’t actually appear on “Dog Man Star” so was it a stand alone release to maintain the band’s profile during the 18 months between albums? Whatever the reason it was the last Suede single released whilst Butler was still in the band before he defected after his relationship with Anderson broke down. He quit shortly after this TOTP with his final Suede gig coming just two days after it aired.

Apparently the band have distanced themselves from the track (maybe the reason it doesn’t appear on “Dog Man Star”) but it did provide them with their highest ever chart placing (equal with 1996’s “Trash”) of No 3. An epic song clocking in at 8:29 uncut (the radio edit was halved to 4:19), it was written while Butler’s father was dying of cancer. It’s instantly recognisable as Suede and I always like the way Brett sang the word ‘skyscrapers’ in the chorus and he looks cool as f**k in this performance. Bernard on the other hand…I do like Butler though and own pretty much all of his material released post Suede. The performance by him and David McAlmont of “Yes” on Later…with Jools Holland is one of my favourite ever.

It’s a fourth and final week at the top for D:Ream and “Things Can Only Get Better”. The success of the song would see a rerelease for another of their singles that had already been a hit as a Perfecto remix of “U R The Best Thing” became the follow up reaching No 4 in March and eclipsing its 1993 release by 15 places. Their album “D:Ream On Vol. 1” would also benefit from the gargantuan success of “Things Can Only Get Better” going to a high of No 5.

They’re still doing that end of show montage thing which this week is soundtracked by “Pale Movie” by Saint Etienne.

This was the lead single from their third album “Tiger Bay” and it would make No 28 in the UK charts. Yet again this was another tune that passed me by but it’s a pleasant little ditty with Spanish guitars and some lovely, ethereal vocals from Sarah Cracknell. As with much of their stuff, it puts me in mind of this…

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/m001hhh1/top-of-the-pops-10021994