Steven don't want to miss a thing
11/09/86 (Mike Smith)
Samantha Fox – “Hold On Tight” (26)
Got no higher.
Run DMC – “Walk This Way” (15) (video)
Peaked at number 8.
Cutting Crew – “(I Just) Died In Your Arms” (8)
Went up four more places.
The Psychedelic Furs – “Pretty In Pink” (25)
Their biggest hit, peaking at number 18.
Iron Maiden – “Wasted Years” (18) (breaker)
Got no higher.
Eurythmics – “Thorn In My Side” (16) (breaker)
Became their 9th and final top ten hit when it peaked at number 5.
Cameo – “Word Up” (13) (breaker)
Thier only top ten hit, peaking at number 3.
Jermaine Stewart – “We Don’t Have To…” (3)
Went up one more place.
The Communards – “Don’t Leave Me This Way” (1) (video)
First of four weeks at number one.
Peter Cetera – “Glory Of Love” (5) (video/credits)
Went up two more places.
Next up is 18th September.
One of Smitty’s more tolerable hosting jobs, this, and he even managed to make me smile with his dismissive mention of our Dutch rapping friends during the chart rundown. However, why impersonate Mike Read with a double bass rather than a guitar? The graphics people make yet another gaffe - it’s “Jackie Graham” this week...
ReplyDeleteSam Fox starts us off by invading Stray Cats territory, and the results are unexpectedly good, thanks to a credible rockabilly sound and a decent vocal from Sam - she also looks good in leather here. Next up a record whose appearance I have not been looking forward to, as this is the point where the rap floodgates really start to open. Curious that Smitty fails to mention the presence of Aerosmith, as this reworking of one of their old songs was a big comeback moment for them after the excesses of the “Toxic Twins” had brought them to the brink of implosion. The video is still quite amusing, I suppose, as the symbolic wall between rock and hip hop gets breached, but I’d happily never listen to this again.
My dad was a fan of Cutting Crew, though to be honest I have always found them a bit dull. By far and away their biggest hit - indeed their only Top 20 entry in Britain - this sounds very slick and professional, but doesn’t really move me that much. I think part of the problem is Nick Van Eede’s rather nondescript voice, and they don’t have much of an image either, though they certainly rival Sam Fox in the leather stakes here. The Psychedelic Furs had originally released Pretty in Pink in 1981, and this version was a re-recording for the famous John Hughes film. Singer Richard Butler seems desperate to look and sound as much like Bowie as possible, but the song, while hardly psychedelic, motors along very nicely, with some atmospheric guitar that is slightly reminiscent of “Heroes.”
We won’t be seeing any more of this Iron Maiden track, which is no great loss as it is very much business as usual, with perhaps a touch more melody than is customary. After tantalising glimpses of a great Eurythmics song and that infamous red posing pouch, Jermaine Stewart returns, replacing the corset-style jacket with tassels and indulging in a spot of play-acting with his faithful sidekicks - it’s notable that at no point in the show does a prudish Smitty give the song its full title! Repeats make up the rest of the show.
Indeed I was thinking the same when watching The Psychadelic Furs, in that it looked and felt like David Bowie on all fronts. I wonder if the Furs took up the mantle of recreating the Bowie experience after the great man passed away a couple of years back?
Deleteif you are referring to the tribute act known as the bowie experience: they have nothing to do with the psychededic furs (who are still active in their own right), and have been operating for over 20 years now. they took the opportunity to move up in stature and do national concert tours after the surge of media interest in bowie when he came out of "retirement" to release his "the next day" album. and of course it didn't exactly do them any harm when the dame croaked a couple of years after that!
Deletehttps://www.bowieexperience.com/
Thanks to our anonymous uploader who is serving us so well with these ‘missing’ episodes. Smithy is quite annoying at times in this one.
ReplyDeleteSam Fox – Hold on tight – Sam meets the Stray Cats here with an ELO title thrown in. I prefer the ELO song but this isn’t bad and gets us off to a lively start.
Run DMC – Walk this way – No mention of Steve Tyler or Joe Perry or Aerosmith as surely this song wouldn’t have had the impact than it did without them as a basis. It’s hard not to like it really even though strictly speaking it’s not my cup of tea,
Cutting Crew – (I just) died in your arms tonight – Smithy insists on omitting the parenthesised bit of the title. Nobody had a clue what this meant at the time but it was a deserved hit with a very American sound. It reached no1 over in the States in 1987, sometime after being a hit here. Nick Van Eede wrote and sung the song and I believe he’s still touring as Cutting Crew and explaining how the title came about to anyone interested!
Psychedelic Furs – Pretty in Pink – Originally a no43 hit in 1981, goodness knows why it resurged five years later but I can’t say I think much of it.
Breakers – Iron Maiden – Wasted years – This sounds just like Iron Maiden, Eurythmics – Thorn in my side- My absolute favourite Eurythmics track..of just two that I actually like (‘Love is a Stranger’ is the other one). But this is a seriously good song. Cameo – Word up – Worrying that these kind of records are creeping in now, just awful. Where were Genesis in the breakers?
Jermaine Stewart - We don't have to take our... - arghhhhh!!!!!
Communards – Don’t leave me this way – Infectious cover. Dedicated to the GLC who were being abolished at the time. I used to see lots of people wearing ‘Keep GLC’ badges but I never saw anyone wearing a ‘Get rid of GLC’ variety…
Peter Cetera – Glory of Love – We’re spoilt with another outing for this fabulous song. Slight connection with Peter Cetera and Genesis here. The album ‘Solitude / Solitaire’ from which this single was taken featured the follow up US no1 hit ‘The next time I fall’ which was a duet with Amy Grant. The drummer on that track was Chester Thompson who was the long-time touring drummer with Genesis. Another song ‘Daddy’s Girl’ from the album was featured in the popular film ‘Three Men and a Baby’ whilst Abba fans might appreciate Peter’s duet with Agnetha - ‘I wasn’t the one (who said goodbye)’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJGuCdnV8ac
Hmm, I wasn't aware that The Glory Of Love and Next Time I Fall were on the same album. I think I will add this album to my collection, even though it has taken 32 years to do so! I just didn't think that Cetera had enough solo material for a whole album, considering there was not much more from him in the UK after this debut solo and top 5 hit The Glory Of Love.
DeleteMention of the GLC reminds me of that Comic Strip episode where Kate Bush shows her sense of humour by writing a "Shaft"-style song about Ken Livingstone!
DeleteI was just checking, and I believe this is the last time we will see Peter Cetera on TOTP and the British Charts. It brings the curtain down on a fantastic career along with Chicago of course, dating back to 1970, and so why not enjoy the follow up to The Glory Of Love which was not released in Britain, but went to No. 1 in the US shortly after Glory Of Love:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ybhiOSghg
Next Time I Fall did get a UK & Ire release both the 7"edit and 12" extended mixs with a more rocky track called Holy Moly from his 1981 self titled album on the B side It did chart but only got to 78
DeleteI think it is the 2nd worst chart position for a USA no.1 in the 80s.He did visit the singles chart one more time in 1988 with the track one good woman but again just mad the top 100 at no. 82 but got to n0.4 in the USA. Meer
Thanks Meer. Why not put your name 'Meer' on rather than 'Anonymous', as you are a significant contributor on here over the years?
DeleteI bought 'The Next Time I Fall' when it was released. The picture sleeve omits a picture of Amy Grant which I always thought was strange:-
Deletehttp://www.45cat.com/record/w8597
Amy bounced back in 1991 with the no2 hit 'Baby Baby' which saw her again top the US charts
I noticed that neither Cetera or Chicago ever came to the TOTP studio between 1970 and 1986, but a 73-year old Cetera did appear at the Vina del Mar Festival last year (2017) to do Next Time I Fall, but not with Amy grant, but with a local Spanish singer called Tania, and it came off very well:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-havDFdwaA
Suffice to say his name was embossed on the stage on this performance.
...except for this Dory:-
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYN3oX5YS8s
As mentioned, Sam Fox doing her best rockabilly Stray Cats impersonation - she even adds the line "Rock this town!" near the end, but I'm not surprised I have no memory of this tune, other than the genre there's nothing to distinguish it.
ReplyDeleteRun DMC - some radio stations seem to believe this is the only rap record ever made, judging by how often it's broadcast, yes, absolutely groundbreaking, significant in that it made clear it was fine to like all sorts of music and not stick to one, but I've just heard it too many times.
Cutting Crew with their basic as you like, oft-repeated chorus stylings, never took to this at the time and it still sounds pretty anaemic. Actually, it sounds like it should have been on the soundtrack to a glossy 80s blockbuster, like The Lost Boys or something.
And here is a song that was indeed on the soundtrack to an 80s blockbuster, John Hughes thought this was ideal for the title track of his Molly Ringwald movie, apparently unaware it's a song about a prostitute. Pretty in Pink = starkers. I believe the Furs rerecorded it for the film, and they're still going today in more or less their original lineup, not bad. Still think Heaven was their best single, though this one is fine.
Iron Maiden and it's NOT a concert video! In fact it's a Genesis "What fun guys we are on tour" video. As for the song, I failed to detect any tune, sorry boys.
Disappointingly, we've seen all the rest before, so I'll leave it there. But thanks to our benefactor, nevertheless.
Thanks to The Uploader for another wonderful Archive remnant whose first minute started like the beginning of OMD’s “Maid of Orleans”.
ReplyDeleteShitty not as annoying as usual for once, thank goodness.
We start with Stray Fox Strut which was okay but sounded a bit thin and unremarkable, unlike Sam’s upper clothing.
Run DMC and Aerosmith with something both groundbreaking and wallbreaking. My favourite rap song, maybe as it’s a cover, a mixture of two styles and with lyrics not all about how big your gun is. Could’ve done with seeing more of the video.
Cutting Crew with, as previously mentioned, a song crying out to be on a film soundtrack. The drummer was pleased to be there.
The BBC’s daft rules about advertising hit the mugshots with Timex Social Club having the first word of their name replaced with “The”. For goodness’ sake.
I though The Psychedelic Furs’ singer looked like Keith Richards facially. Nice twirl for the lyric “Turns herself round”.
Iron Maiden with “Wasted Ears”, an identikit Maiden song complete with ‘look at us’ video. Yawn.
A competent Eurythmics track there. You can’t come in if you’re not wearing all black!
I was waiting for that Cameo codpiece to light up. Made me hungry for some Birds Eye crispy cod balls. Not too much of the video for the viewers, in case their furious letters take up all of the next “Points Of View”.
Jermaine Stewart with Phil Oakey’s old haircut, a cowboy / matador jacket and still no mime for drinking Cherry B. Tsk.
I wonder if Shitty really wanted to say ‘Dutch twats’?
Meanwhile, Jim and Jack Bronski and the unsuccessful blond singer spit feathers at The Communards’ chart topper while laughing at that lovely close-up of Jimi’s sweaty face and wondering what on Earth the storyline part actually meant.
If Jaki Graham had her name spelt myriad ways in her single’s chart career, Pete(r) Cetera’s had his name pronounced differently virtually every week too.
samantha fox: she obviously didn't heed another previously-successful blonde pin up with a nondescript voice (kim wilde) coming a cropper when she tried to rock things up a la stray cats not too far back. presumably it was back to the day job after this?
ReplyDeleterun dmc/aerosmith: i'm not sure if the backing track was re-recorded for this or not (see "pretty in pink", below), but i liked both the groove and the anthemic chorus at the time, and once i discovered it was a rehash of an old aerosmith tune i sought out the original release and have loved listening it ever since. as for run dmc, well all i can say is that they have a lot to answer for
cutting crew: it's the british mr mister! a few years ago i went around taking photos of hairdressing salons with punning names for a website feature, and one such emporium was actually called the cutting crew. presumably if they recorded their own version of this aor staple, it would be called "i just dyed in your arms tonight"?
psychedelic furs: post-punk rather than psychedelic, they'd been doing their bowie-influenced thing (visually as well as aurally) since the late 70's with some cult if not great commercial success. the original recording pisses all over this one, and is one of three excellent tracks from their "talk talk talk" album released five years earlier - the others being "dumb waiters" and "mr jones" (which i am guessing is a direct nod to the dame?)
The village of Loose in Kent used to have a hairdressing salon called "Cut Loose." The salon is still there, but trades under a much more dull, prosaic name these days!
DeleteAren't at least one of The Cutting Crew Canadian?
DeleteGood to see from both this edition and the previous week's show resotration of an in-vision presenter for the introductory link.
ReplyDelete*restoration
DeleteI fast forwarded through most of this one, nice though it was as ever to be able to see it.
ReplyDeleteSam Fox - Yay, the rockabilly revival that nobody asked for! I must say I don't remember this from the time at all.
Run DMC - 2nd show in a row where the first video is cut short. Another one of those that's perfectly fine but now overplayed.
Cutting Crew - Average fare
Psychedelic Furs - Horrid re-recording, the original is much better. Their best song 'Love My Way' sadly missed the Top 40.
Breakers - The Iron Maiden song's nothing special, I like the other 2 though.
And we've seen the rest!
Thanks for the download. Finally catching up...life is sooo busy. I am about 6 behind AGAIN.
ReplyDeleteMike gets to be back on screen at the start to intoduce Shakin' Sam. Sorry but this really is shit. Who thought this was a good idea. Bottom 10 here we come.. 😀
Walk This Way. One of the standout hits of the 80s. Quality and a great video.
Wish we could have seen more.
Cutting Crew with another of the 80s stand out tracks. Big fan of this one as well.
Psycadelic Furs all the way from Littlehampton. 😀 Another top tune. Bit Bowie influenced and all the better for it. Singer borrowed that blouse from Toyah.
Breakers :
Iron Maiden sounding like every other Maiden song. Nothing to see here. Next.
Eurythmics with another quality track. Love this one. So much hair in this video.
Cameo. Word Up yet another 80s smash on tonight's show. 😀
Jermaine Stewart with a much better performance this time on the smaller stage. Great song.
And a fabulous number one. Love this as well and the video.
Boring of love plays out.
What a fab show (with the exception of Ms Fox). So glad I watched this and I was bopping around the lounge.. 😀 😀 😀