The Manchester United Football Squad

TOTP 02 MAY 1996

Posted on July 27, 2024 by 80stastic

When I write these reviews, I try and make reference to what else was going on at the time of the show’s broadcast either nationally, globally or indeed personally on occasion. Well, I’ve made a discovery on the last of those angles – I’ve found an old diary from 1996. I’d forgotten that I used to keep one from about 1991 to 1997. I can’t find the rest of them which were presumably lost in various house moves but the ‘96 one is intact. Now obviously I’m not going to reveal my inner most thoughts from back then but it might prove to be a gold mine for filling in some background details. So what was I doing on the day of this particular TOTP?

*refers to diary*

Ah excellent! It was my day off (I was working in the Our Price store in Stockport) so what did I do with it? I went into town to pay our council tax bill! The 27 year old me knew how to live back then! In my defence, I don’t think I paying bills by direct debit was commonplace in 1996 and though I was no poll tax rioter, I probably wanted some control over when I paid it on account of permanently being skint. Paying bills wasn’t the only thing I was doing though. In an unlikely push to better myself, I was doing two courses at this time. One was a First Aid class and the second was about 50s music. Get me! These days I struggle to read an online article in its entirety. I also note that on this day, Glenn Hoddle accepted the offer of becoming the next England manager and would be leaving my beloved Chelsea at the end of the season. I write this post the day after Gareth Southgate has just resigned as national team coach following England’s loss to Spain in the Euros 2024 final. Whilst it may have seemed as if the appointment had come a bit early in Hoddle’s career, he looked like Pep Guardiola compared to the current crop of names being lined up to replace Southgate. Graham Potter?! Do me a favour!

Now this is all very interesting (or not) but what about TOTP? What about the music? You’re right of course so let’s get to it and we start with “Ooh Aah…Just A Little Bit” by Gina G. Despite having been on the show at least twice already, she’s back on tonight in another promotion push as the UK’s 1996 Eurovision entry with the contest just over two weeks away. Due to the multiple appearances, Gina and her backing dancers were step and word perfect by this point and I have to say it all hangs together pretty well. Gina seemed to be channeling her inner Kylie with her glittery micro dress and wide, perma-smile and why not? One of her dancers (the one in the pink dress) looks a bit like ex-EastEnders actress Samantha Janus who of course represented the UK at Eurovision in 1991. It isn’t her but she had me fooled for a while or perhaps I should say just a little bit.

In a recent TOTP repeat, we witnessed the sad spectacle of Miss Diana Ross making a fool of herself by covering Gloria Gaynor’s disco classic “I Will Survive” as she searched desperately for a hit to keep her relevant in the mid 90s. I said at the time of reviewing her performance that we would be seeing and hearing another cover of the track very shortly and that time is now. Chantay Savage (nothing to do with Robbie, Lily or Doc) however took the track in a completely different direction, slowing it down so much that it was reconstructed as an R’n’B ballad. Although it did little for me, I give her full marks for creativity. Sadly, such imagination was lacking when it came to naming her album which was called “I Will Survive” (Doin’ It My Way)” – a more literal title it’s hard to conceive. Chantay would never have another UK hit single in her own right though she did co-write “We Got A Love Thang” for CeCe Peniston in 1993 which went Top 10.

I should have said that tonight’s host is the very affable Michelle Gayle who is perhaps being slightly disingenuous when she says in her intro to The Manchester United FA Cup Final Squad and their hit “Move Move Move (The Red Tribe)” that she doesn’t know if United will win the league and FA Cup double for the second time in three years. History records that the Red Devils did indeed do the ‘double double’ in 1996, a view that was obviously not available to Michelle seeing as those events were yet to happen but I’m pretty sure that they were red hot favourites to do so. Three days after this TOTP aired, Fergie took his team to Middlesbrough, easily won 3-0 and secured the Premier League title having successfully hunted down Newcastle United who led the table by 12 points in January, Kevin Keegan rants and all. Six days on from that, they were at Wembley for the FA Cup final against a Liverpool side who were no slouches but neither were they anywhere near the great teams of their 70s and 80s history. It would have been a shock (albeit a mild one) had the Scousers triumphed. As it turned out, the 1996 final was a terrible game with Eric Cantona’s late winner sparing us the misery of extra time. The fact that the final is best remembered for the Liverpool squad’s horrendous cream suits says everything.

Alex Ferguson’s United were in the middle of their 90s pomp but at least their dreadful cup final song for this season didn’t replicate the success of its 1994 counterpart “Come On You Reds” which inexplicably topped the charts. The good news is that unless they released one for the 1999 FA Cup final which formed part of their historic treble (I can’t recall if they did or not) this should be the last time I have to review any more of their singles. The bad news is that we haven’t seen the last of football related hits in 1996 by a long chalk.

Blimey! This next song is as dull as my diary! If I thought 3T’s last hit “Anything” was as drippy as the roofs of some of the stadiums at EURO 2024, I hadn’t reckoned on its follow up “24/7”. Jacko’s nephews have tried to inject a slightly more uptempo beat to it than its predecessor but it seems to just shine an even harsher light on how insipid a tune it is. The guy who dramatically flung his rucksack to the ground during performances of “Anything” (I’ve no idea which one he is out of Taj, Tyrell and TJ) seems to have lost his prop for this single – maybe the song wasn’t his bag (ahem).

I’m guessing that after being introduced by Chris Eubank the other week as “an absolute tottie’, Sleeper’s Louise Werner might have expected a less suggestive intro from a fellow female artist but Michelle Gayle can’t resist referring to her as “sexy” and lumping her in with similarly categorised pop star Louise (“she’s called Louise – aren’t they all?”). Louise and her band (now I’m at it, making it all about the female lead singer) are into the Top 10 for the first time with “Sale Of The Century” and to celebrate, she’s come in a top that is appropriately Britpop in style. In fact, what with that and her jumping and hopping stage moves, she’s coming across like a feminine version of Damon Albarn (more of whom later). At least she’s not just standing there statuesque (see what I did there?).

Louise would go on to be a successful author post Sleeper and before their reforming in 2017 writing both fiction and an account of her music career Just For One Day: Adventures In Britpop (also published as Different For Girls: My True–life Adventures In Pop). The blurb for that autobiography includes the line “eating Twiglets backstage and enviously eyeing up Damon Albarn’s plate of foreign cheeses”. Don’t cheddar tear over him Louise! It’ll ruin your mascarpone. These cheese puns are starting to grate now aren’t they?

As is the case with Erasure, there’s a list of every Pet Shop Boys single in my memory banks from 1985 to the early 90s that I’m pretty sure I could recite in its entirety. However, as is also the case with Erasure, it all starts to go a bit hazy around the mid 90s when, despite working in record shops for the entire decade, I must have taken my eyes off what both duos were up to. “Before” is a case in point. This track is definitely not anywhere to be found in my ageing grey matter cells. It was, however, the lead single from sixth studio album “Bilingual” which was actually Chris and Neil’s first since 1993’s “Very”. However, there had been Pet Shop Boys releases in the meantime in the form of the collections “Disco 2” and “Alternative” which were a remix album and B-sides compilation respectively.

“Bilingual” didn’t appear until the start of September so “Before” preceded it by four months making it feel like a stand alone single which maybe explains why I don’t remember it. I do recall second single “Se a vida é (That’s The Way Life Is)” which came out a few weeks before the album which is presumably why I would have sworn that was its lead single. Why the early release date for “Before”? I’m not sure but Wikipedia tells me that in 1995, Neil and Chris ended their contract with the American arm of EMI and singled with Atlantic who launched a renewed marketing campaign to promote the duo in the US so maybe that had something to do with it? Or maybe they wanted to consolidate on the success they had achieved with their collaboration on “Hallo Spaceboy” with David Bowie in the February and didn’t want to leave a gap of six months until their next single? Either way, I’m not sure “Before” deserves all this retrospective attention and consideration as it’s a pretty weak track in my opinion. Sure it was a Top 10 hit but the Pet Shop Boys fan base would always guarantee that for a release of brand new material. It’s not terrible it’s just not that memorable. Listening to it now, I could imagine its chorus being sung by (the horror!) Take That on one of their 90s hits. Even the video is just full of special effects and computer graphics which seems to dominate all their promos around this time and which showed a lack of foresight as they have dated so much as to appear naff now if not…erm… before.

The last time The Cure were on the show performing “The 13th” I wasn’t especially complimentary about the song. I’m not the only person who has a downer on it. A regular reader of this blog commented that the whole album it was taken from – “Wild Mood Swings” – was such a disappointment when it came out and the fact that “The 13th” was one of the better tracks on it shows how poor it was. Online forums seemed to be split in their judgement on it. Some people rate it in their Top 10 songs by The Cure whilst others state (and I quote) “The 13th is justifiably shat on by most fans” and that “it sounds like something brought up from the sewer”. On reflection, have I been too harsh? Sure, it’s a bit out there and maybe not what we might have expected but look at their back catalogue. The Cure have always innovated and reinvented themselves. Look at the difference between “The Walk” and “The Lovecats” first example – two non-album singles that were released within four months of each other in 1983 but were years apart sonically it seemed to me. If only “The 13th” could have peaked at No 13 instead of its actual high of No 15, my musical itch would have been scratched.

If asked to come up with a song by the Smashing Pumpkins then “Tonight, Tonight” would be the only track I could name with total confidence. Nothing to do with the Genesis hit which almost shared the same title (theirs had an extra ‘Tonight’ in it), there’s a reason why this one has stood tall and proud in my music recollections – it’s magnificent. A sprawling epic masterpiece, it was recorded with a 30 piece string section courtesy of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It’s one of those rare songs where the standout hook of the chorus is actually purely instrumental with no vocal, well for me it is anyway. Those swooping, descending strings allied to rousing guitars and a galloping drum riff – remarkable stuff. Somehow though it didn’t make me explore their material any further. Maybe I should do now that investigating an artist’s back catalogue is so much easier due to streaming platforms like Spotify. As for host Michelle Gayle’s claim that although it was the band’s first appearance on the show that she was sure it wouldn’t be the last, as far as I can tell, they never made it back to the TOTP studio despite having a further five UK Top 40 hits.

George Michael is straight in at No 1 with “Fastlove” just as he did with previous single “Jesus To A Child”. This was impressive stuff given it was all happening at the peak of Britpop and George’s chart toppers had been a melancholic ballad and then a funky, R&B workout. The successful streak continued when parent album “Older” was released eleven days after this TOTP aired and immediately went to No 1, going on to sell 1.8 million copies in the UK. It was quite a comeback given his last studio album had been six years earlier.

It wasn’t the first time he’d had consecutive No 1 singles. His first two solo hits “Careless Whisper” and “A Different Corner” both scaled the heights albeit two years apart and punctuated by a raft of Wham! releases. If you count his 1987 duet with Aretha Franklin “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” then it’s three on the bounce. Similarly, if you go back to George’s involvement in the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and his version of “Somebody To Love” on the “Five Live EP” in 1993, then there’s also a run of three No 1s including “Jesus To A Child” and “Fastlove”. However, despite a subsequent string of No 2 hits, the latter would prove to be his final UK chart topper.

Perhaps lazily, when talking about the Battle of Britpop in the Summer of 1995, the phrase ‘Blur won the battle but Oasis won the war’ is often trotted out. This translates as “Country House” beat “Roll With It” to No1 but in terms of albums, “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?” sold loads more than “The Great Escape”. Whilst that is true with the former achieving sales equivalent to seventeen times platinum compared to the latter’s three times, Blur’s fourth studio album sometimes unfairly gets a bad rap. Yes, all the critical plaudits go to “Modern Life Is Rubbish” and “Parklife” for being musical milestones and I don’t disagree but if you apply a purely statistical analysis, “The Great Escape” is the only Blur album to furnish the band with four Top 10 hits including a No 1. 1997’s eponymous follow up album came close to matching that accomplishment but was let down by fourth single “M.O.R.” peaking at No 15. The fourth single from “The Great Escape” was “Charmless Man” which is a decidedly decent song that doesn’t have the profile it maybe deserves with TOTP not contributing to it by only showing 30 seconds of its video over the closing credits. Said video features the actor Jean-Marc Barr as the titular protagonist who would be one of the actors regularly employed by the controversial film director Lars Von Triers in his movies. In this very year of 1996, the first of his Golden Heart Trilogy of movies was released. Breaking The Waves though, is one of the most miserable films I have ever seen – truly charmless.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Gina G	Ooh Aah…Just A Little Bit	I did not
2	Chantay Savage	I Will Survive	No
3	The Manchester United FA Cup Final Squad	Move Move Move (The Red Tribe)	Never!
4	3T	24/7	I’ll give you one guess…
5	Sleeper	Sale Of The Century	Nope
6	Pet Shop Boys	Before	Negative
7	The Cure	The 13th	Nah
8	Smashing Pumpkins	Tonight, Tonight	Apparently not but I really should have
9	George Michael	Fastlove	It’s another no
10	Blur	Charmless Man	No but I had The Great Escape album

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0020sr3/top-of-the-pops-02051996?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 18 APR 1996

Posted on July 5, 2024 by 80stastic

Who the heck is / was Beertje Van Beers? Why? Because she’s hosting this TOTP and I, for one, haven’t a clue as to why. Hang on, she’s not the singer with Technohead of “I Wanna Be A Hippy” fame is she?

*checks internet*

No, I don’t think so. I’ll have to do some more research.

*checks internet again*

Well, it seems I wasn’t the only person confused but inevitably someone had the answer…

Here's why. pic.twitter.com/99IkVj3W6V
— Andrew ✈ (@ker_fuffle) June 21, 2024

Right so basically she was Bis in presenter form? Anyway, the first artist tonight are The Wildhearts who were a favourite of TOTP executive producer Ric Blaxill according to the tweet above which seems to accuse him of employing some favouritism when it came to the running order. Is that fair? Well, let’s look at the evidence. The Wildhearts were no strangers to the charts having had five UK Top 40 hits to this point though only one had made it into the Top 20. This single – “Sick Of Drugs” – would become their biggest when it peaked at No 14 so they were on an upwards trajectory which would add weight to the claim that a place on TOTP was justified. The counter argument would be that those chart positions were inflated by the band being shoe horned onto the show and benefiting from the exposure. Where lies the truth? I think I’ll leave (literally) the final word on this to the band’s lead singer Ginger who says at the end of the performance “If you wanna hear the rest of the song go and buy the single”. The full track clocks in at 4:43 in length but this TOTP performance is about 2:30 long. I think Ginger’s frustration at being cut short suggests the band were not in receipt of preferential treatment from Ric Blaxill.

Now to another artist who wasn’t revelling in huge hit singles. However, she was positively ripping it up when it came to albums sales. Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill” had been in UK charts since August of 1995. However, it didn’t make it into the Top 10 until January of the following year. That slow burn was possibly due to the fact that it hadn’t furnished any massive hits with the three singles taken from it up to that point having peaked at Nos 22, 24 and 26. Respectable but not the kind of numbers to propel an album into the stratosphere. However, playing the long game would prove to be a much more successful strategy ultimately. Word of mouth promotion and an organic growth of the album would see it spend 41 consecutive weeks inside the Top 10 once it had got there with 11 of them at No 1. This was quite the phenomenon. Compare that to say Babylon Zoo’s album which crashed into the chart at No 6 off the back of the enormous “Spaceman” single but which was out of the Top 40 within a month, never to be seen again. With sales of “Jagged Little Pill” showing no signs of tailing off, a fourth single was released from it and this one would not only be the second highest charting of the six ultimately take from it but also the most infamous of them.

“Ironic” is a great tune based around a simple yet effective narrative but unfortunately for Alanis, her choice of title for the song didn’t match what she was singing about. Much cultural analysis has gone into dissecting the lyrics of “Ironic” and pointing out that the scenarios depicted in the song are not examples of irony but rather just bad luck. Such criticism opened the song up to parody, the king of which, “Weird Al” Yankovic, was always going to join in the pile on which he duly did with his song “Word Crimes”. Perhaps the most famous take down of it though came courtesy of Irish comedian Ed Byrne:

Ed made a career for himself out of that skit! Had we all noticed the irony of a lack of irony in a song about irony back in 1996 though? If we did, I don’t remember it. That Ed Byrne clip came from a Channel 4 show broadcast in 1999. In fairness to Alanis, she took it all on the chin and even extracted the piss out of herself in this updated performance of the song on The Late Late Show With James Corden in 2015:

Time to check in on how Bertje Van Beers doing as host? Well, she’s enthusiastic, I’ll give her that. Perhaps ever so slightly the wrong side of annoying? Maybe. Her next link is for a live by satellite performance by Presidents Of The United States Of America and their biggest hit “Peaches”. This is a great left field song which, like “Ironic” before it, created a bit of discussion about its lyrics. Unlike “Ironic”, said discussion was of a much baser nature. Now I just thought this was a quirky song about a guy who liked to eat peaches. However, there is a school of thought that it’s actually about eating something altogether different. I’ll say no more than that.

Lead singer Chris Ballew though says it was inspired by overhearing a homeless man walk past him muttering “I’m moving to the country, I’m gonna eat a lot of peaches” over and over. Apparently that line could have been inspired by a song by John Prine called “Spanish Pipedream”…

Blow up your TV, throw away your paper

Go to the country, build you a home

Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches

Try an’ find Jesus on your own

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Jeffrey Bradford Kent / John Prine
Spanish Pipedream lyrics © Walden Music, Inc.

So there’s that but there’s also a second part to the inspiration for the song also from Ballew who recounts going to the house of a girl he fancied whilst under the influence of recreational drugs, finding her not at home and so waiting for her sat under a peach tree, having an hallucinogenic experience whilst crushing fallen peaches in his hands. I think I’ll choose to go with Ballew’s story as to what the song’s about. Not everyone agrees though. Here’s Captain D from Cincinnati on the Songfacts.com website:

I’m a pervert so I thought it was sexual too

Well, I guess the Captain is honest at least. The Presidents Of The USA would have two more UK hits before disbanding in 1997. “Peaches” remains their signature hit though. Such was its renown that it even permeated our culture to the point that the character of Hank from King Of The Hill knew it:

Everything But The Girl have finally moved on from “Missing” after it stayed in the charts for six months but they weren’t leaving their new direction behind them. “Walking Wounded” (both the single and album) saw the duo continue to embrace dance beats and in particular those of a drum and bass variety that were ripping up the nation’s dance floors and starting to enter the mainstream. Whilst their repositioning of themselves as a dance act no doubt won them some new admirers, I wasn’t one of them. I’d grown up with the Ben and Tracey era of “Each And Everyone” and the wonderful “Baby, The Stars Shine Bright” album, not this electronica, trip-hop material. I just couldn’t get into it. Sure, I could appreciate “Missing” for its musicality that could see it be effective as both an acoustic ballad and dance anthem but did I want to hear an Everything But The Girl album that went further than that? No thanks. The record buying public disagreed with me of course sending the album to No 4 and a platinum certification selling three times as many copies as predecessor “Amplified Heart”. However, it could be argued that this new direction only brought short term gains. Follow up album “Temperamental” continued the dance experiment but received a lukewarm reception and sales. Appearing in 1999, it would be the last Everything But The Girl album for nearly a quarter of a decade with the band’s output becoming mired in a haze of Best Of compilations and collections. Their legacy deserved better.

After a terrible decade so far in terms of his legal battle with Sony over the fairness of his recording contract, 1996 was turning out to be a splendid year for George Michael. Sure, he’d had two No 1s (a duet with Elton John and his version of “Somebody To Love” from The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert) but he lost that litigation with the court wholly rejecting his claims of restraint of trade. However, when Sony sold his contract to Virgin in 1995, he was able to resume his career and he did so in some style. “Jesus To A Child” gave him his first truly solo UK No 1 since 1986’s “A Different Corner” and he followed it with a second chart topper in “Fastlove”. Based around an interpolation of Patrice Rushen’s 1982 hit “Forget Me Nots”, it was a stark contrast from the haunting balladry of its predecessor, a funk-based number celebrating one night stands over committed relationships. The track had a very sophisticated, highly polished production sound to it with the saxophone part played by Andy Hamilton who was responsible for the memorable saxophone break in Duran Duran’s “Rio”. Somehow, the BBC censors missed George singing the line “all that bullshit conversation” at the start of the song.

The B-side was a funked up but slowed down version of “I’m Your Man” showing that George hadn’t totally turned his back on his rich pop past. Although it’s hard to beat the effervescence of the Wham! original, the ‘96 remake is definitely worth a listen:

The song’s futuristic video gave George the opportunity to have a dig at Sony re: the aforementioned court case with one of the promo’s dancers wearing a set of headphones displaying the word ‘FONY’ in the style of the Sony corporate logo. That didn’t stop it from being nominated for three MTV Music Video Awards winning the one for International Viewer’ Choice. Watching it back now, it seems to draw inspiration from the film Logan’s Run, in particular the scene where Logan meets Jessica on ‘the circuit’, the tinder of 2274:

As with a few artists, I kind of lost touch with The Cranberries after a while. I’d enjoyed their early hits and had been to see them live in October of 1994 I think but by 1996, they’d definitely slipped off my radar. “Salvation” was the lead single from their third album “To The Faithful Departed” and was definitely more in the vein of “Zombie” than “Linger”. It would become their joint biggest hit when it peaked at No 13 which seems an awfully low bar for a band that turned out a few cracking hits. I guess they were more of an albums band?

Featuring Dolores O’Riordan stomping all over the track with a strident vocal and almost shouted chorus, “Salvation” was seen as an anti-drug song though Dolores herself described it more as anti anything that took control of you. Sadly for her, she was unable to live by the lyrics of her song and was found dead in 2018 in a hotel room in Mayfair, London with the inquest ruling that she had died by accidental drowning following sedation by alcoholic intoxication.

Here’s something unusual – a controversial Michael Jackson single. I jest of course. Jacko’s whole life (and death) was surrounded by controversy. However, “They Don’t Care About Us” was certainly up there for generating a storm of headlines. The fourth single taken from the “HIStory: Past, Present And Future, Book 1” album, it attracted unwanted (by Jackson) attention both for its lyrics and video. The former were accused of being anti-Semitic with its use of the phrases “Jew me” and “Kike me” which Jackson strenuously denied and, indeed, agreed to re-record the track for subsequent copies of the album with the offending phrases replaced with “sue me” and “strike me”. In the end though, they were just covered up with some abstract noises – you can hear said sounds in the video shown on this TOTP.

The video was filmed in a favela or ghetto in Rio de Janeiro and caused concern for their Secretary of State for Industry, Commerce and Tourism who was worried showing the poverty in the area would adversely affect tourism and Rio’s bid to host the 2004 Olympics. A judge banned the filming of the video but a counter injunction saw it go ahead. Some supported Jackson’s claim of highlighting the poverty in the area whilst others criticised his production team for negotiating with local drug dealers for permission to film in the favela. It’s interesting to note that we only get about 2:20 of the video shown here where in the past TOTP have devoted huge sections of their half hour to showcasing a Jacko exclusive. Could they have been put off by the negative press? As for the song itself, its samba beat and chant like chorus actually make it stand out for me within Jackson’s catalogue – was the “hooo-aaargh” shout halfway through the song and attempted by Beerjte Van Beers in her intro the impetus for Leigh Francis to choose Jackson for one of his outlandish Bo’ Selecta! characters?

The caption accompanying this performance by The Cure says that they haven’t been on TOTP since April 1990. That can’t be right can it? They’d had five Top 40 hits since then. Didn’t any of those justify an appearance on the show? Anyway, “The 13th” was the lead single from the “Wild Mood Swings” album and well, I’m sorry but it’s awful. The Cure do Mariachi? No thanks.

The album was not well received by fans or the music press and it was the band’s poorest selling for 12 years. Even Robert Smith himself has said that he was disappointed with it – maybe he should have taken more heed of the lyric he sang in “The 13th” of “I just know this is a big mistake”. I recall that we didn’t sell many at all in the Our Price where I was working at the time. Though they would never regain their commercial edge, the band are still together and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019 which gave us this marvellous Robert Smith moment…

Mark Morrison has completed his slow slither up to the No 1 position with “Return Of The Mack”. It’s taken six weeks to get there which was an eternity in 1996 when we were used to singles debuting in the top spot in week one. True to his dubious character, he sidles up to Beertje Van Beers at the end of his performance and drags her away with him as the credits roll. Maybe this was cooked up between the pair of them pre-show but even if it was, it looks terrible especially through 2024 eyes.

For the first time in a while, we have a play out video of a current chart hit rather than a clip from the archives to promote TOTP2. In this case, we get a football song but not that one. Yes, in 1996 if your single about the beautiful game wasn’t called “Three Lions” then it was destined to be forgotten. Who remembers “Move Move Move (The Red Tribe)” by The 1996 Manchester United FA Cup Squad? Well, you might if you’re a United fan I guess but when it’s not as memorable as the odious “Come On You Reds” from 1994, then you know the game is up. For the record, it was a horrible Reel 2 Real facsimile which is never a good thing.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	The Wildhearts	Sick Of Drugs	Negative
2	Alanis Morissette	Ironic	No but I had the Jagged Little Pill album
3	Presidents Of The United States Of America	Peaches	No but I had it on one of those Best Album Ever compilations
4	Everything But The Girl	Walking Wounded	Didn’t happen
5	George Michael	Fastlove	Nope
6	The Cranberries	Salvation	It’s a no from me
7	Michael Jackson	They Don’t Care About Us	I did not
8	The Cure	The 13th	Nah
9	Mark Morrison	Return Of The Mack	No
10	The 1996 Manchester United FA Cup Squad	Move Move Move (The Red Tribe)	Never

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/m0020crt/top-of-the-pops-18041996?seriesId=unsliced

TOTP 11 MAY 1995

Posted on November 11, 2023 by 80stastic

We’ve arrived in May of 1995 here at TOTP Rewind and we know what happens in May – finals. The day before this TOTP aired, Arsenal lost the European Cup Winners Cup Final to Real Zaragoza when Nayim famously lobbed Seaman (ahem) from the halfway line and a week later Everton would upset the odds to triumph over Manchester United in the FA Cup final (more of that later). And then there was the annual music final. This year’s Eurovision Song Contest took place on the Saturday following this TOTP (more of that later). Before any of that though, I bring bad news – tonight’s host is Simon ‘Smug’ Mayo. Expect a procession of oblique and unfunny references to news stories of the time that Simon thinks make him sound clever but which in fact make him look like a prick.

We begin with Supergrass and their second UK Top 40 hit “Lenny”. One of the names that always comes up when Britpop is mentioned, Gaz, Mick and Danny also suffered from being associated with one song in particular despite achieving fourteen Top 40 hits including six inside the Top 10 and two No 2s. That song is, of course, “Alright” which will be along in a few weeks on these TOTP repeats. So damaged were they by its notoriety that when I saw them live in York in 2003, they didn’t include it in the set list which seemed a bit churlish if I’m honest. For now though, they were just trying to follow up their Top 20 hit “Mansize Rooster” from the year before and did so ably with “Lenny” which made it to No 10. A muscular, driving guitar heavy track with a galloping drum backing, it’s a thrilling if short ride – we get just over two minutes worth in this performance.

Visually, I was struck by the band’s three person guitar/bass/drums set up which immediately put me in mind of that other famous UK trio The Jam. Paul Weller would never have sported Gaz Coombes’ lamb chop sideburns though. He went in for those carefully shaped side strands of hair grown from the head rather than the face that curled into a point. Very modish and a look my Weller obsessed brother would sport for years. Anyway, as I said, Supergrass will be back soon enough smoking a fag and putting it out whilst keeping their teeth nice and clean whether they like it or not.

The first Simon Mayo ‘gag’ is here – something about Rugby Union administrators. I can’t be bothered to research what he was blathering on about but fortunately here’s @TOTPFacts so I don’t have to:

Simon Mayo's rugby union quip was presumably a reference to the furore over England captaIn Will Carling being demoted after referring to the sport's administrators as "57 old farts". #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) November 3, 2023

Hysterical work from Mayo there. The second act tonight is Montell Jordan who is the latest (or perhaps he was the original?) to use that nah-ner-ner-nah-nah-ner-ner- nah-nah hook that also featured in MN8’s recent hit “I’ve Got A Little Something For You” and would pop up again on Peter Andre’s “Flava” a year later. “This Is How We Do It” was the first R&B release on the legendary Def Jam label and was No 1 in the US for seven weeks. It didn’t do quite as well over here peaking at No 11.

Instead of being a basketball player (he really was 6’8”), Montell chose a career in music and rather cannily came up with a tune that he himself describes as a “universal idea”. Said idea was that the chorus could apply to doing an unspecified activity by an unspecified group in an unspecified location thereby meaning the song could be adopted by anyone for any project or endeavour. As such, “This Is How We Do It” has been used in numerous films and TV shows such as Glee, The Nutty Professor, 8 Mile, Pitch Perfect 2 and Sonic The Hedgehog 2. Montell would have further hits both here and in the US though none as big as his debut hit albeit that “Let’s Ride”, his collaboration with Master P and Slikk The Shocker (no idea) made it to No 2 over the pond.

And so to the first ‘final’ reference of the night. The 1995 FA Cup final was contested by Manchester United and massive underdogs Everton. The previous year they had completed the league and cup double by beating my beloved Chelsea 4-0 in a rain soaked day at Wembley. This season though hadn’t quite gone to plan. Unfashionable Blackburn Rovers would pip them to the league title and they would lose the cup final 1-0 to Everton to finish the season trophy less for the first time in six years. I watched the cup final in a pub in Chester as a group of us were having a Poly reunion there. It was an unpleasant experience as the pub seemed to be full of horrible racist Everton fans spoiling for a fight and going around asking people who they supported. When one of them approached my mate Robin he defused the situation by replying “Carlisle United”* which totally wrong footed the thug. Just as well he wasn’t as well versed about Carlisle as Eric Morecambe:

“What news of Carlisle?”

49 seconds of joy…#PeterCushing joins Eric,Ern and Ann, in the court of King Arthur…👑

What a legend..#HammerHorror #StarWars #DrWho #LaurelAndHardy #SherlockHolmes #StillBringingSunshine 👓🌞♥️#SaturdaySpecial #ChequesInThePost #PassItOn 👈🏻 pic.twitter.com/fsa1IY8o4L
— The Morecambe & Wise Archive 👓🌞♥️ (@eric_ernie_col) February 19, 2022

*Robin does actually support Carlisle United by the way

Anyway, as it was the cup final, back in the 90s that still meant cup final songs. United’s was officially credited to Manchester United 1995 Football Squad featuring Stryker and was called “We’re Gonna Do It Again”. Unlike last year’s execrable effort with Status Quo*, this time they went rap-tastic with this Stryker character. I’d never heard of him before and nobody else has heard from him since it seems. The fact that United lost the cup final meant that there would not only be no repeat of last season’s glory on the pitch but also the chance of another No 1 record was gone as well with “We’re Gonna Do It Again” peaking at No 6.

*Having said that, the bit that goes “again, again, again” does remind me of Quo’s “Down, Down”.

Next something that goes beyond even the realms of novelty offered up by the genre of the football song. How the hell did jazz scatting get into the charts?! Scatman John was John Larkin, a jazz pianist from LA who suffered from a stutter which had blighted his childhood but which he found didn’t hamper him from scat singing – the art of vocal improvisation to turn the voice into an instrument. Now I can’t really be doing with jazz of the freeform kind and don’t understand at all the appeal of an artist like Dame Cleo Laine so just adding some house beats and a bit of rapping to jazz scatting was never, ever going to win me over. What a racket!

I wasn’t alone in my opinion. My aforementioned friend Robin did a nice send up of Scatman John on that weekend in Chester I mentioned but then I was once on holiday in New York with him where there was nearly a jazz incident. We were over there for my wife’s 30th birthday with him and our friend Susan. On the Sunday afternoon, we’d walked for miles after doing a helicopter tour of the Manhattan skyline and were in need of sustenance and a rest for our feet. After deliberating for ages about which diner or bar to go in, we finally decided on one but as we entered the chosen establishment, Robin came to an abrupt halt and said “We can’t go in there! They’re playing live jazz!”. As a consequence, we all turned around and walked out again. Even allowing for my own mistrust of jazz, the other three of us were none too impressed by Robin’s musical proclivities that day. Another group of people who disagreed with him were the record buying public who took Scatman John (the scat Gareth Gates) and his tune “Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)” to their hearts and made it a No 3 hit, despite the fact that he looks like a Chuckle Brother at the ambassador’s reception in this performance.

Who are this lot? Blessid Union Of Souls? Nope, I’ve got nothing. Their only UK hit was “I Believe” which went Top 10 in America but only made No 29 over here. Listening to it, I’m surprised it wasn’t a bigger hit. A piano led ballad with a pleasant melody and some social conscience lyrics, it reminds me of “You” by Ten Sharp. Ah yes, those lyrics. Obviously the ‘N’ word is not sung during this performance by vocalist Eliot Sloan though it’s clear that’s what the word is. Sickeningly, that word was used by one of those Everton fans I mentioned earlier in that pub in Chester whilst he was shouting about Paul Ince. All very horrible. One of the few times in my life when it made me root for Manchester United.

The second band inextricably associated with Britpop on the show tonight are Shed Seven. Having broken into the charts in 1994 with three Top 40 singles and their gold selling album “Change Giver”, 1995 saw them release just one new song – “Where Have You Been Tonight?”. The first single off sophomore album “A Maximum High”, this was the sound of a band preparing to enter the peak period of their commercial success. I’d have to say though that this track in particular didn’t quite get them there. It’s not a poor song per se but compared to what came after it, well it was a bit underwhelming and in my mind, remains a somewhat forgotten Shed Seven single. The fact that the album didn’t come out for nearly another year perhaps adds to my perception. It almost feels like a stand-alone single.

By the time “A Maximum High” appeared, Britpop, lad culture and Euro 96 were happening and Shed Seven entered Shed Heaven hits wise – no artist had more Top 40 hits in 1996 than the five the York indie rockers racked up. The BBC’s Euro 96 coverage used two of them to soundtrack some England montage pieces as the national team progressed through the tournament. It was a heady mix and a case of being in the right place at the right time for the band. They might not now where they had been tonight but they had a good idea where they were going.

The second of the ‘final’ themed songs on the show tonight now with the inevitable appearance of the UK’s Eurovision Song Contest entry. With the competition final just two days away, there was no way that Love City Groove would not have been given one last promotional push via TOTP. Whilst this may have helped propel the song “Love City Groove” up the UK charts, it had no effect on the band’s appeal at Eurovision where they trailed in a disappointing tenth place. “The experiment has failed” Terry Wogan infamously quipped. Also failing was any prospect of a career post-Eurovision for the band. Subsequent single releases failed to break the UK Top 40 and even that fail safe plan of a cover version (Fatback Band’s “I Found Lovin’”) couldn’t reverse their fortunes and the group split for good in 1996. A small part of the UK’s Eurovision history will always belong to those people who sang (and rapped) about the the sun shining in the morning though.

Here comes Celine Dion who’s attempting to follow up a huge, big ballad with…yep…a huge, big ballad. “Think Twice” topped the UK charts for seven weeks having taken an eternity to get there and would end the year as the fifth best selling single in the UK. Following that was always going to be a big ask and “Only One Road” didn’t despite the decent showing of a No 8 peak. It’s all very formulaic and power-ballad-by- numbers which Celine can do in her sleep but which was always more likely to induce zzzzs than ££££s.

The staging of this one is slightly odd. It would appear that the TOTP floor managers have shepherded every studio audience member in grey or pastel coloured clothing to stand at the front of the circle around Celine thereby making her blood red top standout even more than it does naturally. The effect resembles that scene from Schindler’s List with the little girl in the red coat during the liquidation of the Kraków ghetto. Comparing the holocaust with a pop music TV show feels offensive but I guess it does serve to demonstrate the power of that scene and its sustained effect upon me given that it can be brought to mind by even the most banal of incidents.

And so to the No 1 and it’s a third consecutive single to debut at No 1 after Take That and Oasis in recent weeks. At the time, this was only the second occurrence of such a sequence but by the end of the decade, a record going in at No 1 had become a weekly event. Widespread first week discounting by the major labels whereby CD singles were £1.99 instead of £3.99 and the cassette version 99p rather than £2.29 was the major reason behind this with punters cottoning on pretty quick to the strategy and creating huge sales in the first seven days before tailing off immediately in subsequent weeks. Was this the point when that practice started? I can’t remember for sure. Nor can I recall the exact time when record companies started to allow new releases to be delivered to stores ahead of their official release date rather than on the day they came out but I think that was maybe also a factor in driving sales with new singles hitting the ground running from 9.00 am Monday morning.

Whether these factors were in play with making Livin’ Joy the No 1 artist with “Dreamer” or not we’ll never know but No 1 they are despite this single having already been a Top 20 hit the previous Summer. After trundling along the bottom reaches of the Top 100 at the end of 1994, it suddenly crashed back into the top spot when rereleased the following May. I was never a fan of Italo House so the track didn’t do much for me. Nor did I care much for “Show Me Love” by Robin S to which it was compared so it really was a personal non-starter but its legacy is substantiated by those Best Of polls where it regularly turns up in the 90s dance varieties.

The play out track is “Can’t Stand Losing You” by The Police and when I initially saw this on the running order, I assumed it was to plug sister show TOTP2. I was wrong for this was a legitimate chart record despite it having already been a No 2 hit in 1979. How? Because this was a live version. There had never been a live album by The Police though it had been mooted twice before; once in 1982 to plug the gap between “Ghost In The Machine” and “Synchronicity” and again in 1984 after the Synchronicity tour but it was shelved in place of the 1986 “Every Breath You Take: The Singles” Best Of album. A live album finally arrived in 1995 and it was called…”Live!”. Well, it did what it said on the tin I suppose. “Can’t Stand Losing You” was chosen to promote it and made No 27 on the charts – not bad for a ‘live’ single. The original is a classic Police track which I remember my brother having I think (or maybe he taped it off the radio). The lyrics about a teenager committing suicide after losing his girlfriend are entrenched in my brain. It was kept off the top spot by “I Don’t Like Mondays by Boomtown Rats, another song with some pretty dark lyrics.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Supergrass	Lenny	No but we had the album ‘I Should Coco’ with it on
2	Montell Jordan	This Is How We Do It	No
3	Manchester United 1995 Football Squad featuring Stryker	We’re Gonna Do It Again	As if
4	Scatman John	Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)	What do you think?!
5	Blessid Union Of Souls	I Believe	Nope
6	Shed Seven	Where Have You Been Tonight?	No but I had a live album called ‘Where Have You Been Tonight?’ with it on.
7	Love City Groove	Love City Groove	I did not
8	Celine Dion	Only One Road	Never happening
9	Livin’ Joy	Dreamer	Nah
10	The Police	Can’t Stand Losing You (Live)	Negative

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/m001s1j2/top-of-the-pops-11051995

TOTP 26 MAY 1994

Posted on April 1, 2023 by 80stastic

For the first time in quite some time, I’ve looked at the running order of a TOTP and done this:

https://youtu.be/3sIUxy5hDSI

With the exception of The Prodigy, the rest of the line up is so uninspiring. Apologies if one of your favourite artists or songs is on this show but I really can’t get excited by it. I might treat myself to a fairly short review for once. It seems fitting that the show is presented by Mark ‘nice but dull’ Goodier.

We start with a ragga/Eurodance mashup from Maxx. A huge hit all around Europe, “Get-A-Way” would peak at No 4 in the UK. As was obligatory with just about every Eurodance outfit of the early to mid 90s (Snap!, Black Box, Technotronic etc) there’s a story behind who the female vocalist was. I think the Lisa Stansfield lookalike up there on stage is someone called Linda Meek but the vocals on the record were made by session singer Samira Besic who left the Maxx project before a video could be filmed so model Eliz Yavuz was drafted in for the visuals and promotional duties. British singer Meek was recruited for live shows and she also laid down the vocals for follow up single releases. What’s the significance of the US cop car picture behind the group on stage? Is it something to do with the single’s title (i.e. a getaway car)? Surely that wouldn’t be a police vehicle though would it? Do the track’s lyrics give us any clues?

*checks lyrics online*

Not really. They just bang on about being a ragga man, feeling irie and drinking champagne mainly. They also plagiarise Apache Indian by pinching his ‘Boom shakalak’ line. Is nothing sacred?!

Carleen Anderson is up next and I’m sure that the TOTP captions person told us she was James Brown’s goddaughter the last time she was on. I wonder if she minded that the show’s production team thought that the most interesting thing about her was a connection to someone else? Still, I suppose it’s better than just saying she was from Bolton or somewhere.

She seemed to be experiencing a case of diminishing returns in reverse as every hit she had from her debut album “True Spirit” managed a chart peak slightly higher than its predecessor. This track – “Mama Said” – made it to No 26, one place higher than her debut hit “Nervous Breakdown”. It was followed by “True Spirit” which peaked at No 24 and the final single from the album (“Let It Last”) stopped climbing the chart at No 16. Unusual chart stats I would suggest. “Mama Said” sounds like “Apparently Nothin’” by Young Disciples but then she did do the vocals on that when she was their singer so no surprise there really. The guy with the long, ginger ringlets on guitar looks like Glen Hansard aka Outspan from The Commitments who was schooled in the ways of James Brown…

OK, in amongst all the ‘meh’ on this show, it’s hard to dismiss The Prodigy with such a phrase. Their journey from purveyors of ‘toy town techno’ with debut hit “Charly” to Glastonbury headlining gods of dance was in its mid stage with the pending release of sophomore album “Music For The Jilted Generation”. Despite this track – “No Good (Start The Dance)” – being released just six weeks before the album, it wasn’t actually its lead single. That honour went to “One Love” that was released a whole eight months earlier. Whatever era of the band though, one thing was a constant – their ability to sell lots of records. The album would go to No 1 and go double platinum whilst the single would reach No 4 becoming their seventh consecutive hit of which four went Top 5.

Interestingly, and I’d never realised this until now, the band never appeared on TOTP in person, declining all offers to appear so that the producers were forced to show their videos instead. Kowtowing to the BBC wasn’t in the band’s manifesto which was all about making commercially successful yet uncompromising hard dance music. The album even starts with this spoken commitment from Liam Howlett:

“So I’ve decided to take my work back underground to stop it falling into the wrong hands”
Hamacher, Adriana (July 1994). “Prodigy: Guitar Hero”. Mix Mag. pp. 63–64.

Of “No Good (Start The Dance)” itself, Howlett said in an interview in Dazed magazine:

“‘No Good… was a response to all that shit Eurodance stuff”
The Prodigy select 10 inspirational Jilted jams – Dazed magazine 4 July 2014

Quite right too. Watching this video back, it’s sobering to remember that the sadly departed Keith Flint didn’t always look like an otherworldly punk character that seemed like he came from the imagination of horror legend Stephen King. That image was still two years away but it was coming. Be afraid etc…

Next up is another artist that meant nothing to me. I was never interested in Iron Maiden nor any of those bands that were part of that early 80s British Heavy Metal movement so the solo career of Bruce Dickinson was not top of my ‘must investigate further’ list. I do have to review his single here though so what do I make of “Tears Of The Dragon”? Well, apart from its pretentious title (something to do with chasing the dragon?), it sounds like Bruce is doing his best Led Zeppelin impression in the verses and is auditioning for a Bon Jovi tribute band in the chorus. Ah, what do I know though? “Tears Of The Dragon” peaked at No 28 whilst parent album “Balls To Picasso” (not such a pretentious title) got to No 21.

https://youtu.be/mjchCOX5PjM

I really have nothing more to say about “Carry Me Home” by Gloworm. I can’t just leave it at that though can I? What about the performance here? Well, they’ve toned down on the gospel theme after using a pulpit in their last appearance and have replaced that with what look like three massively oversized replicas of the Jules Rimet Trophy (the original trophy awarded to the winners of the football World Cup from 1930 to 1970). Sadly, the TOTP producers seem to have chosen a motif for the wrong sport – ‘Carry me home’ are lyrics included in “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”, a Rugby Union anthem sung by fans of the England international team.

https://youtu.be/iis2rBhKen8

Time for a video exclusive now courtesy of “Absolutely Fabulous” by Pet Shop Boys. This was the Comic Relief record for 1994 and was obviously based around the BBC sit com of the same name. It was probably a good call from the charity as the show had just finished its second series run having moved from BBC2 to BBC1 and its popularity was blooming. I used to watch it and presumably enjoyed it enough but it’s not something I’d rewatch and I haven’t thought about it in years. On reflection, it was a bit shallow with everything revolving around the ludicrous actions of main characters Patsy and Edina. I don’t think it amounts to much more than that.

As for the song, I wasn’t a fan. Yes, it’s the Pet Shop Boys who I’d always liked but it’s very repetitive, essentially a beat based around Neil Tennant singing the song’s title with some catchphrases from Patsy and Edina thrown in randomly. Apparently it was meant to be a deliberate parody of the Eurodance genre as Neil and Chris thought that was the type of record Edina and Patsy would think was ‘trendy’. I don’t think I got the joke in that case. The video doesn’t really help either with the ‘comedy’ being the clash of styles of the antics of Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley in character against the static Chris and Neil. Watching it back now, it’s all a bit cringe (as the kids might say). “Absolutely Fabulous” peaked at No 6.

What three things come to my mind when I think of Galliano? Acid Jazz, Mick Talbot and Swampy. Am I right or is my memory playing tricks on me?

*checks Galliano Wikipedia page*

Well, two out of three ain’t bad as Meatloaf might say. They were definitely Acid Jazzers being the first act signed to Eddie Piller and Gilles Peterson’s Acid Jazz label and their debut single was the first release on it. Ex-Style Councillor Mick Talbot was also amongst the band’s ranks occasionally. And Swampy? I was nearly right. In case you’d forgotten, Swampy is an environmental activist who briefly came to fame for spending a week in a tunnel as part of the demonstrations to stop the expansion of the A30 in Fairmile, Devon in 1996. His notoriety even earned him a place in panel show Have I Got News For You. So what has he got to do with Galliano? Nothing but my confusion is explained by the fact that they released a single called “Twyford Down” which was inspired by the protests against the M3 expansion through the chalk downland near Winchester, Hampshire. However, I don’t know for sure if Swampy was involved.

“Long Time Gone” was, as Mark Goodier says, their first ever hit single after four near misses. A cover of a Crosby, Stills & Nash song from the 60s, it’s actually a pretty nifty version. Valerie Etienne’s vocals are good and it’s well produced. I’d forgotten they had a Bez type character in their ranks who went by the name of Uncle Big Man. Not sure why he has a Mick Hucknall style staff with him though. While researching Galliano, I was struck by the unusual names of those involved. There’s a Constantine, a Crispin plus surnames like Vandergucht and Ameedee but my favourite is the guy who replaced Mick Talbot on keyboards, one Ski Oakenfull! “Long Time Gone” peaked at No 15 and was taken from their third album “The Plot Thickens” which went Top 10.

The biggest chart story of 1994 was undoubtedly Wet Wet Wet’s 15 week reign in the No 1 spot but there was a sub plot to the main tale which concerned this next group. All 4 One had an elongated, chart topping stint of their own in 1994 in America when they spent 11 weeks at No 1 with drippy ballad “I Swear”. That isn’t the story I was referring to though. No, it’s the one about them spending seven (!) consecutive weeks at No 2 in the UK charts without managing to dislodge the Wets and the ubiquitous “Love Is All Around”. Remarkably, when Bryan Adams had his 16 weeks at No 1 in 1991, there was also a record that spent a long time in its shadow, unable to knock it off its perch. That was “I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred and as awful as that song is/was, “I Swear” might be worse. Horribly cynical (how many couples walked down the aisle to this with lyrics like ‘For better or worse, ‘til death do us part’?) and with its blended, R&B harmonies, it was basically the natural successor to “End Of The Road”. Ironically, Boyz II Men would return themselves in a few weeks with their own copycat version of their biggest hit in “I’ll Make Love To You”. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of All 4 One in these TOTP repeats soon. It’s enough to make you swear.

The Manchester United Football Squad are this week’s No 1 with their revolting single “Come On You Reds”. The only credit I will give it is that Status Quo managed to somehow work the names of all the team into the lyrics. There’s fourteen of them in there so I’m trying to work out if they missed anybody out.

*checks Manchester United 1993/94 squad*

No, they didn’t – nobody who played more than two games anyway. Quite a feat. United would release a further three singles during the 90s all of which were hits – the hilariously titled “We’re Gonna Do It Again” in 1995 (they won zero trophies), “Move Move Move (The Red Tribe)” in 1996 (they won the double) and “Lift It High (All About Belief)” in 1999 (they won the treble).

The play out song is really odd. Tim McGraw is a US country artist who was only just beginning to be noticed in America in 1994 so I’m pretty sure the UK was totally oblivious to who he was. This song – “Indian Outlaw” – was his first big hit on the US country chart but it did nothing over here. If that wasn’t enough to make it an odd choice to appear on TOTP, it was actually banned by some American radio stations for its patronising depiction of Native Americans. What was Ric Blaxill thinking?!

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	Maxx	Get-A-Way	Never
2	Carleen Anderson	Mama Said	No
3	The Prodigy	No Good (Start The Dance)	I did not
4	Bruce Dickinson	Tears Of The Dragon	Nah
5	Gloworm	Carry Me Home	Negative
6	Pet Shop Boys	Absolutely Fabulous	Not even for charity
7	Galliano	Long Time Gone	Nope
8	All 4 One	I Swear	I didn’t – I swear!
9	The Manchester United Football Squad	Come On You Reds	NO!
10	Tim McGraw	Indian Outlaw	As if

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001k9s9/top-of-the-pops-26051994

TOTP 19 MAY 1994

Posted on March 28, 2023 by 80stastic

Right, after banging on about football in what’s supposed to be a retro music blog last time out, I promise there’s nothing about the beautiful game in this post. It’s straight to the music and the direct to camera message at the top of the show this week comes from a snake. No really. An actual snake but it’s no ordinary snake. Not only does it talk but it’s owner is ‘The Godfather of Shock Rock’ himself Alice Cooper who is on the show as both performer and host tonight. Blimey! Iggy Pop last week and Alice Cooper the next. There’s two ways of looking at this. Either new producer Ric Blaxill was trying to restore some credibility to TOTP by demonstrating that the show was still a pull for some of the most iconic names in music or he was totally misreading the room and not giving the kids what they wanted at all. Alice Cooper was 46 at the time this show aired and his biggest hit “School’s Out” had been No 1 22 years prior. Or was their a third view? Was he trying to reel back in those disaffected viewers who thought that they had outgrown the show? All I know is that was two ‘Godfathers’ on the show in consecutive weeks after ‘The Godfather of Punk’ Iggy Pop seven days before. It surely wasn’t just coincidence was it?

To completely blow my theorising above out of the water, we start with an act that surely couldn’t have existed and been successful at any other time other than the early to mid 90s. 2 Unlimited must have been one of the most prolific artists to appear on the show in this period. “The Real Thing” was their 10th consecutive UK chart hit of which only two didn’t make the Top 10. Unlike most of their previous offerings, Ray actually gets to do some prolonged rapping in this one rather than having to settle for shouting out “Techno, techno techno techno” every now and then.

The track reminds me of another song that I can’t quite put my finger on…

If you're thinking that "The Real Thing" reminds you of something (apart from every other 2 Unlimited track), it's probably Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor: https://t.co/2eUw8dCmjV #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 17, 2023

No, @TOTPFacts, not that (although clearly, that as well). Got it! It’s this…

Just me then. Oh well. By my reckoning there’s at least a couple more occasions when Ray and Anita will be on TOTP so we’re not quite done yet but the end is coming.

While the end of 2 Unlimited is nigh, we’re just at the start of something very lengthy and for some interminable and intolerable. Yes, Wet Wet Wet are here for the first time with (gulp) “Love Is All Around”. Yes, just three years since Bryan Adams spent 16 weeks at the top of the charts, the UK was about to embark on another splurge of record buying that would create another long term resident at No 1, Chart Street. How could we have let this happen again so quickly?! Well, like “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”, Wet Wet Wet’s single was also from a popular, mainstream film but for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves read Four Weddings and a Funeral. Richard Curtis’s rom-com was a runaway success topping the box office’s chart for 9 weeks and making it the second highest grossing film ever in the UK at the time. Although the song only features over the end credits (a version is sung by the hippy looking couple at the first wedding in the main body of the film), such exposure and promotion was always going to make it a big hit. Did any of us envision 15 weeks at No 1 though? I’ll need to keep something back for that lengthy a run on the show so for the moment, here’s some stats:

It was the best selling single in the UK for 1994 (obviously)
It went double platinum in the UK
It was No 1 in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Holland, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden
It has the joint third longest reign at the top of the UK chart only behind Bryan Adams and Frankie Laine
It spent 26 weeks in the UK Top 40 of which 20 were in the Top 10

In short, it was a monster with teeth. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Right, who’s this? Bad Boys Inc? They were still a thing in mid 1994? If that seems unbelievable, guess how many hits these stinkers had? Two? Three at a push? Uh-uh. Six. SIX! How? Why? What the hell was going on? “More To This World” was the fourth and biggest of them giving the group their only Top 10 hit. Filling the gap as an alternative to Take That for the teen market until Boyzone turned up a few months later, this lot were the template of how to be a second rate boy band. A frontman with a passable voice at best backed by some grinning no marks whose only contribution to the project was cheekbones, styled hair and dancing. Dreadful stuff from every body involved. We shall detain ourselves no longer with this shallow nonsense.

Proving just how bonkers the charts of 1994 were, we move from a lower league boy and to ambient world music in the blink of an eye. Well, not quite a blink but it’s a pretty short segue featuring occasional host Bruno Brookes and tonight’s superstar Alice Cooper. Oh, and that snake as well. It actually works quite well. Brookes keeps a straight face and Alice delivers his line effectively. And not a gold disc presentation on sight. Please take note Simon Mayo.

Back to that ambient world music though. Its two main protagonists, in the charts at least, were Enigma and Deep Forest and by happy chance they are next to each other in the Top 40 this week. The former is at No 21 with “The Eyes Of Truth” whilst the latter is in the No 20 position with their eponymous track “Deep Forest”. It doesn’t quite have the charm of its predecessor “Sweet Lullaby” but was still an exponent of the growth of World Music that had come to mainstream attention via Paul Simon’s “Graceland”, Peter Gabriel’s Real World label and experiments in the genre via Brian Eno and David Byrne. Deep Forest (and Enigma) seemed to me to create their own strand of it though by adding electronica sounds to the most unlikely of samples – Gregorian chants in the case of Enigma and field recordings of the indigenous peoples of Polynesia by Michel Sanchez and Eric Mouquet of Deep Forest. Nearly 30 years on, maybe the depth of the impression their material made upon the mainstream public has diminished but it really felt quite out there at the time. And mainstream it certainly was. Deep Forest’s debut album sold nearly four million copies worldwide and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Global Music in 1994 but lost out to Ry Cooder. It might not have been to everyone’s taste but when you consider that the UK No 1 in this particular chart was by a football team and was based on a horrible Status Quo track, maybe everyone’s taste wasn’t always the best barometer.

It’s the return of Seal next with his first new material since his massive selling debut album stormed the charts in 1991. His second album (also just called “Seal” or sometimes referred to as “Seal II”) is the album that “Kiss From A Rose” is from right?

*checks Seal’s discography

Thought so. That track was huge after featuring in the Batman Forever film but it wasn’t the album’s lead single. That honour went to “Prayer For The Dying” which has become a bit of a lost Seal track. Ask most people to name one of his songs and I’m betting the titles offered up would be either the aforementioned “Kiss From A Rose” or “Crazy” or “Killer”. “Prayer For The Dying” though? Not so much. I couldn’t have dragged it out of my memory banks unaided. It’s actually a very smooth and accomplished track though and did make No 14 in the charts but it lacks the edginess of something like “Killer” or “Crazy”. Trevor Horn was still at the mixing desk so of course it was well produced but it sounds like it’s been crafted to appeal to multiple US genre radio stations and spreads itself bit too thin. I mean, compared to 2 Unlimited or Bad Boys Inc, it’s a towering colossus of musical quality but somehow it’s not one of his best or indeed best remembered tunes.

The album sold well though, topping the chart as its predecessor had done and it went four times platinum in the US thanks to “Kiss From A Rose” being a No 1 record over there. I recall the initial scale out of it for the Our Price store I was working in not being that big (a poor decision by the buying dept it would seem) and the Area Manager telling us to hunt stem the advanced promo copy we had to add to stock. Funny the things you remember.

An occasional feature now with something from the album chart. Presumably these sections weren’t weekly because of the changing nature of artist availability? If the show could be populated by artists promoting a single did they take priority? The album chart slot started with Stanley Appel’s ‘year zero’ revamp but it seems subsequent show producer Ric Blaxill hasn’t ditched it yet. Maybe he does down the line – I can’t remember off the top off my head.

Anyway, the occupant of the slot this week is Julia Fordham who seems a rather obscure choice given that her album “Falling Forward” never hit any higher than No 21. In fact, as much as I quite like Julia Fordham, she’s never pulled many trees up chart wise. Two hit singles (Nos 19 and 27) and her best placing in the album chart was No 13 for sophomore collection “Porcelain”. She really should have had more hits given her talent. She remains a live draw and has toured with Beverley Craven and Judie Tzuke as part of the “Woman To Woman” project. This track, “I Can’t Help Myself”, was released as a single in the July making No 62.

Bruno Brookes is back to present the next act but he looks like he’s been smeared with shit since he’s been gone. The explanation for his appearance is that he’s been in an off screen fight with Alice Cooper’s snake. OK, the joke is wearing thin now and I think they’ve overcooked it. There’s no snakes anywhere near the next act who are East 17 though they did seem to shed band members as regularly as a snake sheds it skin after the hits dried up. Look at this timeline:

1997 Brian Harvey sacked (drugs comments)
1997 Tony Mortimer leaves (creative differences)
1998 Brian Harvey reinstated and group renamed as E17
1999 Band splits
2006 Original line up reforms for reunion gig
2006 Tony Mortimer leaves (after altercation with Brian Harvey)
2010 Tony Mortimer returns for a second time
2010 Brian Harvey leaves for second time (commitment to band questioned)
2011 Blair Dreelan joins band
2011 Blair Dreelan leaves band (contractual obligation)
2013 Tony Mortimer leaves band for third time
2014 Robbie Craig joins band
2018 Original member John Hendy leaves (personal reasons)
2018 Terry John joins band
2019 Terry John leaves band
2019 Jake Livermore joins band

Blimey! There’s so much coming and going in that lot that they should have been called E20 (the fictional postcode for EastEnders location Walford). “All Around The World” peaked at No 3.

It’s finally time for Alice Cooper to be onstage as a performer rather than to the side of it as a presenter. He’s here, of course, to promote his latest single which is “Lost In America” from his concept album “The Last Temptation” album. I’m not much of an Alice aficionado I have to say. I know his real name is Vince Furnier without looking it up and that he’s a golf fanatic. Musically, I’m familiar with “School’s Out” and “Elected” from his 70s era and “Poison” and “Hey Stoopid” from his late 80s early 90s revival but not a lot else and that includes this track.

Ah crap! I promised there’d be nothing about football in this post after last week’s was hijacked by my talking about the 1994 FA Cup final but the No 1 is “Come On You Reds” by The Manchester United Football Squad so what can I do? Five days on from their demolition of my beloved Chelsea in said final, they have moved to being the best selling single of the week in the UK. It would stay there for two weeks. This achievement was quite remarkable given the fact that it’s a football record. Sure, this niche genre has had big hits before – Liverpool FC got to No3 with “Anfield Rap” in 1988 and the England World Cup squad (in conjunction with New Order) also got to No 1 in 1990. Hell, my beloved Chelsea got to No 5 in 1972 with “Blue Is The Colour” – but No 1 for two weeks?! With that song?! As cup finalists, Chelsea also released their own single – “No One Can Stop Us Now” (oh the irony!) – which made No 23. I believe it was quite unusual for both teams to have cup final songs in the Top 40 simultaneously. Obviously it was dreadful as well but I bought it as a souvenir of the day thinking we might never get to the final again (how wrong I was).

The play out song is “Absolutely Fabulous” by Pet Shop Boys. Or is it? I think officially it’s credited to just Absolutely Fabulous and is produced by Pet Shop Boys but we all know it’s them really. This was the 1994 Comic Relief single and as much as I didn’t like the track, it was an upgrade on the likes of “The Stonk” by Hale & Pace and “Stick It Out” by Right Said Fred. There is, of course, a link to Alice Cooper here with the 1992 Comic Relief single being a cover of their (Alice Cooper was the band’s name at this point) 1972 hit, the aforementioned “Elected” by Mr Bean and Smear Campaign. “Absolutely Fabulous” made No 6 and was the second time that Jennifer Saunders had featured on a Comic Relief single after 1989’s “Help” as part of Lananeeneenoonoo alongside Bananarama.

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I but it?
1	2 Unlimited	The Real Thing	No
2	Wet Wet Wet	Love Is All Around	I did not
3	Bad Boys Inc	More To This World	As if
4	Deep Forest	Deep Forest	Nah
5	Seal	Prayer For The Dying	Nope
6	Julia Fordham	I Can’t Help Myself	It’s a no
7	East 17	All Around The World	Another No
8	Alice Cooper	Lost In America	Sorry Alice – no
9	The Manchester United Football Squad	Come On You Reds	Are you kidding?!
10	Pet Shop Boys	Absolutely Fabulous	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

TOTP 05 MAY 1994

Posted on March 22, 2023 by 80stastic

There have been some memorable chart battles for the No1 spot over the years. The Beatles in an unlikely fight with Engelbert Humperdinck in 1967, Rod Stewart in a right royal dust up with The Sex Pistols to see who would be the Silver Jubilee chart topper, and of course, the Oasis v Blur Battle of Britpop that we’ll see in these TOTP repeats of 1995. Then there’s those contests where the story wasn’t about the artists and the sides that they represented (establishment v anti-establishment, North v South) but were more about the sales and the tiny margins that determined who got to be No 1. I’m thinking 1990’s Deee-Lite v Steve Miller Band where there was a cigarette paper between them. Apparently, another battle of that nature took place in this week but you rarely hear it talked about with a handful of sales separating three artists one of which we start the show with.

In the final totting up, C.J. Lewis had to settle for the No 3 position with his execrable cover of “Sweets For My Sweet” by The Searchers. What a hideous thing this was. A desecration of a classic 60s pop song by the then popular trend of ragga-fying (for want of a better description) Shaggy style. I can’t understand what C.J. is banging on about during his rapping so I looked up the lyrics online and, having read them three times over, am still none the wiser. Rather bizarrely, the TOTP caption states that Lewis used to be a social worker. He really should have stuck to that much more useful profession than tormenting us all with this nonsense.

By the way, I should mention that Simon ‘Smug’ Mayo is back again as host and he’s at it already in his first intro. “Good evening. You’ve seen him in Shadowlands, now hear his single…C.J. Lewis!”. This pathetic quip concerns the film Shadowlands that had been in UK cinemas around this time and which details the relationship between The Chronicles of Narnia author C.S. Lewis and Jewish American poet Joy Davidman. What was the point of referencing this other than for Mayo to make himself feel superior to us plebs who couldn’t possibly understand his comment, not having his literary breadth of knowledge? Arse.

It’s The Cranberries next whose name is another opportunity for another pathetic Mayo line about ‘sauce’. The stupid thing is that the pun had already been done…by the band themselves. Here’s @TOTPFacts:

At the time "Dreams" was written, The Cranberries were called The Cranberry Saw Us. Sawus/Sauce. Geddit? #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 10, 2023

Anyway, they’re on the show to promote the re-release of their song “Dreams” (it had originally been their debut single when released in 1992). This was the most obvious choice of a follow up single since Spandau Ballet released “Gold” to consolidate on the success of “True”. A driving, uptempo number that was at odds with the more lilting “Linger”, it was nevertheless another perfectly crafted pop song. Also like “Linger”, it was ubiquitous. It seemed to get enormous amounts of airplay. Was it used on an advert as well?

*checks internet*

Well, it was certainly used by Tourism Ireland in 1996 and again in 2019 by P&O Cruises whilst a cover of it was used in a bed commercial called ‘What Dreams Are Made Of’. Anyway, why the hell did it not get any higher than No 27?! If Gabrielle could have a No 1 with a song called “Dreams”, why couldn’t The Cranberries?

Dolores O’Riordan pulls a Dave Grohl (or should that have been the other way round) for this performance by being sat down in an armchair covered in drapes due to knee ligament damage but, miraculously, she stands up unaided halfway through. She wasn’t having us on was she? Possibly because Dolores always was the main point of attention for the band. It wasn’t a new scenario of course. Look at Toyah and Blondie in the late 70s and early 80s and No Doubt also in the 90s. Were Nena of “99 Red Balloons” fame a band not a singer as well?

In an act of vicious irony, a bastardised version of the song would finally become the Top 10 hit the original deserved to be when Dario G’s “Dream To Me” went to No 9 in 2001.

Now Simon Mayo had some history when it came to football-related quips when hosting TOTP so giving him a song by an actual football team to introduce was too much of an open goal for him to miss. Keen to show off his credentials as a Spurs supporter, Mayo bangs on about there not being enough Chas ‘N’ Dave* in “Come On You Reds” by The Manchester United Football Squad.

* Chas ‘N’ Dave famously made three FA Cup final songs with Tottenham Hotspur.

I despise this song. Not because it’s dreadful (it is though), not because the original song it’s based on – “Burning Bridges (On And Off And On Again)” by Status Quo – is dreadful (it is though) but because it was recorded for the 1994 FA Cup final. So? Well, United’s opponents were my beloved Chelsea who had made the final for the first time in 24 years. I was so excited but it would all end in tears in the rain at Wembley nine days after this TOTP aired. I think I’ll leave the whole sorry saga until the following week’s repeat.

As for “Come On You Reds”, the popularity of the club and their historic double achievement of the league and FA Cup would see the single go to No 1 making it the only single released by a club* side to ever make it to the top of the charts.

* “Back Home” (1970) and “World In Motion” (1990) were by England World Cup squads.

It’s time to party like it’s 1985 now which is the last time this next band had a UK Top 40 hit. The first time I became aware of Killing Joke was is their excellent 1984 single “Eighties” but it’s their No 16 song “Love Like Blood” that they are best know for outside of their loyal fanbase. That single blew my 16 years old ears off; powerful and brooding, it somehow enticed me in despite my dominant pop sensibilities. However, I didn’t think my about them after that. To be fair, they didn’t release anything at all between 1990 and 1994 so my lack of engagement with them was hardly surprising. Suddenly though, they were not only back with a second Top 40 hit nine years after thejr first but also with an appearance on TOTP. This should be interesting…

…as expected, Jaz Coleman doesn’t disappoint with an intense, wild eyed performance complete with dirty boiler suit and face marks. Their single “Millennium” isn’t as immediate as “Love Like Blood” but it has a slowly building potency that you can’t ignore. However, a party tune it ain’t and, unlike Robbie Williams’ similarly named 1998 No 1, I bet it wasn’t in any New Year’s Eve party playlists in 1999. The single’s success prompted a handful of chart hits though none were bigger than No 25. The band are still touring to this day.

We’re firmly back in 1994 now with a dance tune from the Positiva label. A subsidiary of Universal Music Group, it was responsible for hits by Radoc, DJ Quicksilver, Barbara Tucker, Alice Deejay, and, rather lamentably, Vengaboys. Into the 2000s the label scored chart toppers with Frogma and Spiller featuring Sophie Ellis Bextor (another one of those famous battles for the No 1 spot with True Steppers featuring Dane Bowers and Victoria Beckham). Positiva was also home to Judy Cheeks who was having her second chart hit with “Reach”. A crossover club track, this was a Hi-NRG tune that was in the same vein as “Peace” by Sabrina Johnston from three years prior. Judy gives an energetic performance and I like the massive letters spelling out R-E-A-C-H on stage with her. Simple yet effective. The single (ahem) reached No 17 in the UK and No 22 when a remix was released in 1996.

It’s time for a satellite exclusive performance now, this week from Richard Marx who also did the message to camera at the top of the show. For a man who had a rather occasional relationship with the UK charts – he seems to have been on TOTP a lot. These are his chart peak numbers from 1987 – 1994:

78 – 50 – 50 – 60 – 52 – 2 – 45 – 38 – 54 – 55 – 3 -13 – 29 – 13 – 32 – 38

“Silent Scream” was the No 32 in this list and therefore his penultimate hit over here. Taken from his “Paid Vacation” album, it’s got a worthy message – the poor treatment of the older generation in the US compared to other countries where that demographic is recognised for their knowledge and wisdom – but the song itself is pretty average. Some may even say dull. Performing on the top of a skyscraper doesn’t change that. Sorry Richard.

The Levi’s advertising campaign strategy that began in 1985 with that commercial of Nick Kamen taking his kecks off in a launderette not only established the brand at the forefront of everyone’s minds when it came to jeans, it also altered the face of the UK charts. Nostalgia ruled as track after track from the 50s, 60s and 70s reappeared in the Top 40 after being the soundtrack to the latest Levi’s ad. In some cases, they would even sell enough to go to No 1 (Ben E King, The Clash and the aforementioned Steve Miller Band).

However by 1992/3, the hit formula seemed to be on the wane. Tracks by Dinah Washington and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins failed to make the charts and so, in 1994 a change of approach was required. Enter Peter Lawlor. Who? Well, I’d never heard of him either but he is a songwriter, producer and multi instrumentalist who single handedly came up with the song “Inside” which soundtracked this Levi’s ad:

The advert was a huge success and subsequently there was a curiosity about what the song was and who made it that led to a clamour to be able to buy it. The aforementioned Peter Lawlor played everything on the track but recruited singer Ray Wilson for the vocals. So who were the band Stiltskin that were credited with being the artist behind the song ? Well, I didn’t know this until now but they didn’t exist before the advert was made. They were formed by Lawlor just to promote the song. No wonder the TOTP caption just says ‘From Scotland – 1st single’. The track’s post-grunge sound struck a chord with the record buying public and it would go to No 1 for a week making it the first original song used in a Levi’s ad to do so. I have my own personal Stiltskin story but I’ll leave that for the next show’s post.

So what’s going on here then? Evan Dando doing a solo turn without the rest of The Lemonheads of a song that wasn’t even a hit? Did Evan just happen to be in the country and popped by as a favour to new TOTP producer Ric Blaxill? The caption just says ‘Evan Dando from The Lemonheads Big Gay Heart Acoustic Version’ which doesn’t explain much. “Big Gay Heart” was released as a single by the band so maybe a TOTP booking was just part of the promotional campaign for the track and the rest of the band were unavailable for some reason? I don’t know. It just looks a bit odd.

The new trend for using a gold disc as an intro is back with Mayo presenting one to Evan who looks like he’d rather be anywhere than on stage talking to him (can’t blame him for that). Dando’s had his hair lopped off since the last time we saw him which makes him look even taller than ever. And that T-shirt he’s wearing? Here’s @TOTPFacts with the details:

Kate Jackson (star of Charlie’s Angels and Scarecrow And Mrs King) on Evan Dando’s T-shirt there. #TOTP pic.twitter.com/DcQZ5fDSud
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 10, 2023

Despite the pre- performance cringe fest, Evan gives a nice turn giving off some heavy Chris Isaak vibes. I think I do prefer the full band version though. None of this promotion could prevent “Big Gay Heart” from stalling at No 55 which was a shame (about Ray).

And so to the climax of the battle for this week’s No 1 spot. In the end, it went to unlikely pop star Tony Di Bart and his “The Real Thing” single but apparently there was only a handful of sales between him, Prince and C.J. Lewis. Di Bart’s one week stay at the top of the charts followed by Stiltskin’s seven day reign would mean we had four different No 1s in just six weeks. That would all change dramatically very shortly though. Wet Wet Wet are coming…

The play out song is “The Real Thing” by 2 Unlimited. Wait. What? Two songs with the same title one after the other. Did Ric Blaxill do that deliberately? Is that the only reason the 2 Unlimited track is on the show? Because it completed some sort of producer in-joke? In actual fact, despite having released a fifth and final single from their “No Limits” album, this was the lead single from their next album “Real Things”. It would make No 6 but it would be Ray and Anita’s last visit to the UK Top 10. The era of 2 Unlimited was coming to an end.

Gun

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	C.J. Lewis	Sweets For My Sweet	Hell no
2	The Cranberries	Dreams	Should have but didn’t
3	The Manchester United Football Squad	Come On You Reds	Never, ever happening!
4	Killing Joke	Millennium	No
5	Judy Cheeks	Reach	Negative
6	Richard Marx	Silent Scream	Nope
7	Stiltskin	Inside	Nah
8	Evan Dando / The Lemonheads	Big Gay Heart	Liked it, didn’t buy it
9	Tony Di Bart	The Real Thing	I did not
10	2 Unlimited	The Real Thing	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/m001jvpx/top-of-the-pops-05051994

TOTP Rewind – the 90s

My memories of 90s chart music

TOTP 02 MAY 1996

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TOTP 18 APR 1996

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TOTP 11 MAY 1995

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TOTP 26 MAY 1994

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TOTP 19 MAY 1994

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TOTP 05 MAY 1994

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