Are you watching, Simon le Bon?
28/02/85 (Peter Powell & Mike Smith)
Dead Or Alive – “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)” (2)
Number one next week.
Prince – “Let’s Go Crazy” (9) (video)
Went up two more places.
Stephen Tin Tin Duffy – “Kiss Me” (22)
With his only top ten hit, peaking at number 4.
Jermaine Jackson – “Do What You Do” (39) (breaker)
Became his biggest hit reaching number 6.
David Cassidy – “The Last Kiss” (34) (breaker)
After a gap of ten years from the charts, The Last Kiss became his sixth and final top ten hit, peaking at number 6.
Daryl Hall & John Oates – “Method Of Modern Love” (33) (breaker)
The duos final top 40 hit, reaching number 21.
Shakin’ Stevens – “Breaking Up My Heart” (30) (breaker)
Peaked at number 14.
Madonna – “Material Girl” (24) (breaker)
The second of nine top ten hits for Madonna in 1985! This one peaking at number 3.
The Commodores – “Nightshift” (6)
Went up three more places.
Elaine Paige & Barbara Dickson – “I Know Him So Well” (1) (video)
Final week at number one.
Mick Jagger – “Just Another Night” (35) (audience dancing/credits)
Went up three more places.
Next up is 7th March.
prince: although a bit too rocky for my taste with its hendrix-style widdly-widdly guitar soloing, at least unlike "when doves cry" it had a bit of life about it. it's far more enjoyable when listened to as the soundtrack for his faux-performance video than on its own, but looking at said vid on yt there seems to more actual footage from the "purple rain" movie than the "live" stuff i remember with his purpleness playfully posing with and against his revolution guitarist sidekick wendy melvoin. so is my memory playing tricks on me, or has there been some revisionism at work (like the video for the eurhythmics' "sexcrime" last year)? i did actually go to the cinema to watch the film in question, and performance bits apart i have to say it was a complete waste of money with absolutely nothing of interest happening otherwise
ReplyDeletetin tin: unless you lived in a cave in 1985 there seemed no way of avoiding this horror to my recollection. thankfully (and somewhat predictably) it then disappeared into the ether, and i had managed to put it out of my mind as a result. in fact to the point of despite being reminded of it i still can't remember anything other than the weedy chorus where the guy sings in a very effete style "kiss me with your mouth" (or to be more precise "kiss me with your mou-ou-ou-outh"). so what else is someone supposed to kiss you with?
madonna: a vast improvement on "like a virgin", and i probably taped it at the time. but my aversion to her (or rather what she became) means there's no place for it in my mp3 collection these days. and it doesn't help that despite not actually writing the lyrics, i think she really believed in what she was singing rather than perceiving it as some kind of joke or irony
Look at the video for Material Girl, the lyrics are ironic.
Deleteyes they were probably written as such. but what i'm saying is that even at this early stage it was evident that madonna was a shameless hustler who did whatever it took to get rich and famous, and as such the irony of it may have gone over her head?
DeleteIt’s the end of February already, and this week we have PP and Smitty to keep us company. The former seems to have his mojo back, but the latter is slappably annoying in places, making another dreadful Nancy Reagan joke (why the obsession?) and feebly punning at the end on the title of Mick Jagger’s song - ”Sir Galahad” indeed! In fairness, the joshing over PP being unable to remember Janice’s name was faintly amusing.
ReplyDeleteDead or Alive start things off once more, Pete injecting a bit more colour into his wardrobe this time, but being upstaged somewhat by the bright blue keyboardist; Pete also seems to be having some trouble with his mic at one point. Prince next, with an underwhelming effort that never sparks into life for me - a dull video too, once again heavily reliant on clips from Purple Rain. We also get a little snatch of the other side, Take Me with U, in the Top 10 videos later on, but that doesn't sound any better to me.
Rather more interesting is Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy’s song, which as PP mentions was now three years old. This was also the third time Duffy had recorded it, originally doing so with his band Tin Tin and then making a solo version that for some reason was never released outside the West Midlands. It’s a catchy little synthpop tune, but so unprepossesing is Duffy in person that you find it hard to believe Duran Duran would have been anywhere near as successful if he had remained their singer. In this performance he tries to do a Nik Kershaw, playing stabs of both guitar and keyboard but refraining from replicating Nik’s stage moves. Not sure what the paintings on easels were there for...
The “busters,” wisely, are back to being breakers this week. All of these will be on again, but I will say here that the Jermaine Jackson and David Cassidy videos both look a bit drab, while Hall and Oates’ rooftop effort is rather more inventive. Shaky, meanwhile, is gyrating around a car factory with some very glamorous operatives! The chart rundown shows Ghostbusters going up the chart yet again, and then The Commodores appear in the studio with a slick performance that, as with the video shown two weeks earlier, culminates in most of the group gathering together at the front of the stage. Elaine and Babs are on video for the third week in a row as their chart-topping run comes to an end, which makes you wonder why one of the studio performances wasn’t repeated, and then some unenthusiastic dancing to Jagger brings the show to an end.
1985 seems to be just as good if not better than 1984, going by the first two months of '85 now completed on these reruns. I still don't see a slide yet, as others have mentioned before about 1985. For me it is still on the same unrelenting rollercoaster of adventure since 1983 through 1984, so roll on please.
ReplyDeleteThe Prince video seems to rescue the song somewhat. I would agree with Wilberforce on the video that it had a bit of life about it. I especially liked Prince's craving for a kiss with that girl and going for it on a number of occasions in the video, and so breathing life into her too.
The Shakin Stevens clip in the breaker featured a girl like something out of the Benny Hill show featuring Hills Angels, where they would regularly have the black stocking and suspenders under a white skirt/dress to tease the men a bit, in this case Shaky standing in for Benny Hill, haha. I happen to have this sexy Shakin Stevens video firmly in my iTunes collection.
The Mick Jagger playout was a very good playout choice, with its perfect hip churning beat, but still, I would have preferred the excellent video with Mick at his singing and dancing very best, but we only got a clip of it the week before in the Breakers section.
The biggest disappointment was TOTP not playing Chicago on the show since they were a Breaker at No.34 a few weeks earlier, and now this week still up to No.14, why were they not played at least once as a main feature? It's one of their most classic songs ever.
Thanks again for the upload.
ReplyDeleteWhilst Wham had a fairly quiet year in '85, George Michael did appear on backing vocals on David Cassidy's Last Kiss and Elton John's Nikita (coming up when we reach October).
Material Girl is my favourite Madge song, didn't like anything she did post 85.
I didn't realise at the time how juvenile Smitty's sense of 'humour' was, can now clearly see why he might have been more than embarrassed to allow them to be screened.
I note we move rapidly from 7th March to the 4th April next week, fingers crossed for some more downloads...
You probably know, KC, but we miss three consecutive shows due to two Mike Smith shows sandwiching an edition which the BBC doesn't have in a transmittable format due to poor picture quality.
DeleteI was off work ill for part of last week and ended up looking at some old TOTP chart rundowns on Youtube to pass the time. One I came across from 1987 featured Shitty doing a truly awful impersonation of Jools Holland - I assume was around the time of the 'groovy f*ckers' controversy. So sadly it looks as if he doesn't get better with age. Still, at the rate we're getting through the repeats we'll be Shitty free by this time next year!
Deletethis nothing to do with this edition, and i suspect many of you who follow this blog may have not heard of him. but anyway i'd like to report the death of drummer and percussionist leon chancler (aka "ndugu") who was one of the most in-demand session players of the 70's and 80's. as a result of his work with santana and george duke i always had great respect for him, but have only just found out that he also played the drums on wacko's "billie jean"!
ReplyDeleteDead or Alive we'll see again (and again) so skip to Prince with another winner from the classic Purple Rain soundtrack. Can't believe they cut off the wailing guitar crescendo in its prime! Take Me With U we hear a bit of in the Top 10, and if anything it's even better, great, yearning and melodious pop. What I wouldn't have given to see Prince on one of those mini-motorbikes instead of his massive Harley Davidson.
ReplyDeleteStephen Tintin Duffy wisely dropped the Tintin bit for his later projects, and I seem to recall he was pretty embarrassed about the nickname at the time, so why include it? Anyway, feyer than fey electro pop, but tuneful enough and his postmodern bands on easels was... interesting.
If we see the Breakers again I'll reserve judgement to a fuller play, but nice to see The Commodores in the studio. Was Marvin Gaye really a friend of theirs? It's possible. He and Jackie Wilson died within months of each other, making this song even more poignant. Jackie was in a coma for 8 years, mind you, so his passing wasn't exactly sudden.
E&B still clinging on, and Sir Mick's ho-hum solo endeavour to end on (very briefly).
On the breakers David Cassidy sounds like he's over-emoting on his effort, it doesn't sound very 85.
ReplyDeleteHowever Jermaine Jackson and Shaky both sound fine to me, one a groovy number and the other very catchy with a nice production to it.
Kiss Me was one I kind of liked back then and it does have a quirkiness to it that made it stand out. He did an earlier version that has a bit more power to the chorus but this one has some charm too.
Thanks James2001 for letting us see this one.
ReplyDeleteDead or Alive – You spin me round – That eyepatch makes Pete look like the double headed character from ‘Hitchhikers Guide…’ or was that the intention? No stopping this record, watch out no1 spot here it comes....
Prince – Let’s go Crazy - Another double A Side and this time we get a clip of the lesser known side on the top10 rundown which sounds better than this motorbikin’ frantic romp.
Stephen ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy – Kiss me – So this was released three years ago was it? So why can’t I find it on 45cat. Ah…that’s because the original release was simply credited to ‘Tin Tin’. Herges Adventures of Tin Tin certainly had the edge over this insipid effort.
Breakers – Wow some appetite whetting in here! First of all I thought, “hey not the Jacksons again!” but actually I really like Jermaine’s effort here. Next up the late David Cassidy treats us to a welcome revival with a song co-written by Alan ‘we don’t talk anymore’ Tarney. Hall and Oates are back with their Sax player and a bouncy, catchy number. Shakin’ Stevens hits the charts again with a very un-PC video and a song released to promote his Greatest Hits album. Finally Madonna with one of her many catchy singles at the point where she seemed to have permanent residence in the charts.
Commodores – Nightshift – After all that excitement we get the dreary Commodores again. Next.
Elaine Paige & Barbara Dickson – I know him so well – I’ve run out of superlatives to say for this one. Funnily enough I keep seeing posters for the recent ‘Chess’ revival.
Mick Jagger – Just another Night – Playout seems to end abruptly but we’re never going to find out if more was recorded unlike the shows that BBC4 will screen.
Agree with Dory that the non-promotion of Chicago was baffling to the point of downright rude. But we’ve seen similar treatment recently with David Bowie / Pat Mehaney and, of course, Billy Joel.
Quick look at the lower regions of the charts sees the excellent ‘Can’t fight this feeling’ by REO Speedwagon straight in at no100 and one the most underrated Elton John singles ever; ‘Breaking Hearts (ain’t what it used to be)’ at no63, four places lower than its peak. Another steady selling single, early into its 23 week chart run at no58 by Phyllis Nelson is moving closer to the top 40….
I actually liked reading Tintin around this time (in translation obviously).
DeleteThanks to James2001 for this edition. The sound and vison were muddy but I’m still very glad of the chance to see it, despite our hosts looking like testcards in those jumpers, and what was wrong with Peter PowELL? His phrasing was all over the shop.
ReplyDeleteDead Or Alive looking as smart as their hit. Great mic hand flickling and overhead twirling there, Pete. Get that cameraman off the stage!
“Will you welcome Prince”, Shitty? Is he in the studio then? Jesus.
Pop goes the easel! It’s Herge’s nightmare – maybe I should canvas opinion about that. Harrumph. Almost bluesy in its verse structure, this tortoise-like hit makes Pete Burns’ mob look like instant chartbusters in comparison.
Those bloody breakers again. Did the woman in Jermaine Jackson’s vid literally have the shirt off his back? Quite a melodramatic performance by Davis Cassidy there. A totally A-N-O-N-Y-M-O-U-S song there from Daryl Hall and Andrew Ridgeley – er, John Oates. That’s a very saucy and un-Shaky video for the Welsh Elvis. Don’t reach too far down into that chap’s pocket, Madge!
The Commodores with one singer dressed like Wacko and the other outdoing the hosts’ choice of crap jumpers. A mellow track which really does nothing for me, I’m afraid.
At least let Paul King sing “Love and Pride” in his clip!
Possibly Don Henley at number one next week, Pete? Hmm. At least he got closer to the summit than Rubber Lips Jagger with his, erm, classic.
Still, at least tonight's hosts weren't as desperate as this chap, with his 'subtle' way of trying to extract £60 million from a bank (deal or no deal? I reckon the bank will say the latter...)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42963128
Noel certainly has an interesting definition of "positivity," doesn't he? What with this and that recent bizarre vanity project on Channel 4, he finally seems to have taken leave of the reality-based community...
DeleteNeil B's copy is here:
ReplyDeletehttps://we.tl/2JeNoyKhWy
Cheers, worth pointing out that it's more complete and in better quality also.
DeleteNice one :-)
DeleteA tip of the hat to James2001 for making this available to us.
ReplyDeleteAnd we're off to a flyer with Dead Or Alive and Prince. Whilst the former hasn't survived the intervening years due to repeated playings, Prince's track still sounds as exciting and powerful as it did back then. There isn't a duff song in the entire Purple Rain film and this is one of the best. But as others have noted this cut n paste of film scenes is nowhere near as interesting as the actual film footage of the song.
Tintin. Quite obviously Duffy has all the charisma of a Conservative politician. The song is pants as well.
In amongst the breakers is David Cassidy (backed by George Michael - which brings the recently-deceased score up to 4). I spenta few weeks in hospital when I was 12 (1974)and there was a record player in one of the play areas. One of the few albums was a Partridge Family greatest hits and I played it a lot. (This was WAY before walkmans/phones/laptops obviously!) Anyway I grew to like Cassidy's breathy delivery and I was pleased to see him back in the charts with this lovely tune. Its a bad vid though, isn't it?
Hall & Oates. Does anyone else have a dislike of songs that have a large amount of letters in the lyrics? A few years back Noah & The Whale had a song called Life Goes On in which the singer spelt out the title letter by letter. Now I'm no Carol Vorderman and around about the fifth or sixth letter I start to lose track of what is being spelt out. This is the same, and we can only Thank The Lord they didnt try to spellout the word 'modern' as well. Oh for the days of Abba and 'S.O.S'.
The Commodores. Liked it at the timebut this is another one that has lasted. Was the guy who replaced Lionel Richie, a Brit? Or is my memory playing tricks?
Scores. PP and Smith. Matching each other in hideous jumpers, appalling 'banter', and lack of charisma. 3
Music.DoA and Prince got us off to a good start but it was a steep downhill afterwards. Precipitous, even. 4
shakey i mentioned recalling the lionel richtea replacement being a british guy in an earlier post as well. i've now checked and our memories are indeed not playing tricks - the guy in question is one j d nicholas, who had previously been a latterday member of heatwave
Deletewelcome back (with your scores and all) by the way - i for one have missed you!
In that case, Shakey, you'd have L-O-V-E-D one of the singles by The Q-Tips (who formed out of "Toast" hitsters Streetband) called "The letter Song", where one line was a load of letters and the next line was the words whose first letters made up the previous line, e.g. SYSLJFM - save your sweet love just for me.
DeleteBilly Connolly's 1975 chart topping cover of D.I.V.O.R.C.E had many spellings incorporated. I remember I had to write down one of them to work out what it was - quarantine.
DeleteI fast forwarded through a lot of this edition, some through over-familiarity, some because it just wasn't very good. I'm really not quite sure why Mike Smith is so obsessed with Nancy Reagan and why he's constantly upset by something Prince apparently did at the Brits.
ReplyDeletePrince - One of his very best, and you don't hear it very often these days either. Since they played a snippet of the double 'A' side song in the Top 10, it begs the question why we never once saw 'Little Red Corvette'?
Tin Tin - I like the original synth led version more, but the 85 release is still a pretty decent pop song.
Breakers - The first 2 are incredibly dull, Hall & Oates song I like now though I didn't know at the time, Shaky's one isn't bad and Madonna's track is of course very good.
And that's pretty much it in terms of anything of interest!
Well this one certainly had some energy in it from the start. Shame it had to hit the Breakers and ran out of steam.
ReplyDeleteSmithy in good form and Powell still looking completely bored of it all. I remember going to the Radio 1 roadshow in Plymouth in August 88 and lucking out with Powell and Nick Kamen. Possibly the dullest roadshow ever - but the first time I was ever allowed somewhere on my own...no Parents or siblings around (although this was possibly more to do with my Dads hate for all thing POP and R1 rather than a declaration of trust).
So next weeks number one kicks us off in style followed by Prince. Felt like getting up and having a dance.
I wonder how many people on this blog have actually seen "Purple Rain". I know I haven't.
Stephen "TinTin" (why? sure someone will explain) Duffy carrying his guitar on his back, looking cool and with a great 80s tune. Amazing that it took 3 years to chart, makes Dead or Alive look positively fast..
Back to being Breakers this week with the turntable graphic I remember well.
Jermaine with a song I'd not heard before, not hugely excited on first listen.
David Cassidy clearly well past his sell by date, but Jason Donovan was clearly watching...This song is poor...
Hall and Oates had more hits than I ever remember and this one is OK. Might dig it out to listen to the whole thing.
Shakey - probably would have got an appearance if not for these Breakers - sounds a bit different from him, hopefully get to hear the full version over the next couple of weeks.
Madonna with one of the sounds of 85. remember the video and song well. A huge favourite of mine at the time but not sure how well it has aged.
Top Ten Time
Ooooh, the flip-side of the Prince single, the never played Take Me With You... and now we know why, Awful.
The Commodores - another BIG name for TOTP with this rather brilliant song. Shame about the fashion sense.
One more time for Paige/Dickson and then the terrible Jagger song on playout.
Half a good show...
Right - I am up to date and ready for 4 in a week...Let's GO!!!!
I've seen Purple Rain, a cheesy melodrama lifted by a fantastic soundtrack. Oh, and Morris Day!
Deletei mentioned somewhere here recently that i actually went to the cinema at the time to watch what music performance bits-apart was pretty much a waste of time and money (a bit like "rollerball", which other that the match scenes was utterly tedious!), with prince doing little else but stuff like moping about in his basement. but thx has now just reminded me of the excellent morris day, who stole the show as the mercutio to prince's romeo. so how come that guy never went on to do anything else of note?
DeleteFirst time I've seen Purple Rain compared to Rollerball! Surely the purifying in the waters of Lake Minnetonka scene would have given you a lift? Sorry, I'm turning into Dory.
DeleteMorris Day, the last place I saw him was in Kevin Smith's massively self-indulgent comedy Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, where he performs one of the songs from PR. But that was nearly 20 years ago, sheesh.
Incidentally, if you listened to Gary Davies reading out the charts on a Tuesday on Radio 1, you would know Take Me With U as the music he talked over.
Just seen that Angelo said Madonna had 9 top ten hits in 85.
ReplyDeleteSo without cheating. ....
Obviously "Virgin" and "Material Girl"
Guessing "Causing a Commotion", "Dress You Up", "Live To Tell?"
I think they reissued "Borderline" and "Holiday"
That's 7. I will try and remember the other two during the day...
Before streaming ruined the charts I think the record for Top 40 entries in one year was The Wedding Present who released 12 singles, one a month,in a single year.
DeleteThen of course Elvis record company rereleased all his songs and had quite a run of hits,,
I think 9 top ten hits in a year must be a record. Not even Jacko managed that did he?
Elvis probably beat that though?
Might have to investigate further...
yes i remember the wedding present's promotional jape of releasing a single a month from their then-latest album - and as was proven, a good way to ensure NOT getting a big hit ha ha! one of those singles actually had thier take on "theme from shaft" on the b-side (as a shaft covers collector i came across it about 15 years ago, and it's not actually too bad an effort apart from the singer's woeful non-impression of black moses)
Deletethey were one of those indie bands that were much-written about in the likes of "Q" magazine in the late 80's/early 90's, even though probably much of the readership like myself had not actually heard any of their stuff. i remember reading one such in-depth interview with the singer and mainman david gedge, whereby he stated the only time he ever ate meat was when he went out for a chicken curry, thus making him a "gedgetarian" (something which i have to admit to being rather amused by at the time!)
The Wedding Present singles were actually standalone efforts limited to 10,000 copies per release - they were later collected together on two albums called Hit Parade 1 & 2.
DeleteThe group wanted to show how easy it was to get a hit but only one of the songs made the top 10. No doubt many record shops cursed the group for leaving them with a great big gap in their chart walls.
thanks for that steve - i think what threw me was that i found that version of "shaft" on a copy of the "hit parade 1" album, and assumed the latter came first. i also didn't realise that one of them got as high as the top 10!
DeleteA pleasure Wilberforce.
DeleteThere was a lot of handwringing in trade mag Music Week when one of the tracks hit the top 10, because it showed only too clearly what a parlous state singles sales were in at the time.
presumably like other acts with a strong cult following but no widespread appeal (gary numan, the jam, the smiths etc), the wedding present's singles (whether released on a monthly basis or at more spaced-out intervals) peaked in the charts in the first week of release before dropping down them like a stone afterwards? if that was the case for the top 10 hit they had, it would be interesting to know exactly how many copies it sold?
Delete4 correct: not bad
DeleteSPOILER ALERT
The 9 were (and I did check)
Like a Virgin
Material Girl
Crazy for You
Angel
Into the Groove
Dress You Up
Gambler
Live to Tell
Papa Don't Preach
I do remember thinking that it was quite a good idea, though I was never likely to buy any of them since I think David Gedge has one of the worst voices ever committed to vinyl / tape / CD et al!
ReplyDeleteThat was obviously supposed to be a reply to the thread above!
DeleteI agree, the live singing rule on TOTP at the time wouldn't have done him any favours!
Delete