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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Order of appearance	Artist	Title	Did I buy it?
1	D:Ream	U R The Best Thing	Nah
2	Soul Asylum	Somebody To Shove	No
3	Bon Jovi	Dry County	No but I had a promo copy of the album
4	Worlds Apart	Could It Be I’m Falling In Love	As if
5	Reel 2 Real featuring Mad Stuntman	I Like To Move It	Negative
6	The Brand New Heavies	Dream On Dreamer	No but I think my wife had the album
7	Roxette	Sleeping In My Car	It’s another no
8	Sounds Of Blackness	I Believe	I did not
9	Salt ‘N’ Pepa and En Vogue	Whatta Man	Liked it, didn’t buy it
10	Take That	Everything Changes	Of course not
11	Doop	Doop	Nope
12	K7	Hi De Ho	No but I had it on that promo copy of The Mask soundtrack

Disclaimer

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

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001j65b/top-of-the-pops-24031994