Thumb of the pops
12/02/87 (Simon Mayo & Peter Powell)
Level 42 – “Running In The Family” (18)
Getting tonight's show underway are Level 42 and the song peaked at number 6.
Ben E. King – “Stand By Me” (19) (video)
It had peaked at number 27 in 1961, this time around it would get to number one.
Pepsi & Shirlie – “Heartache” (2)
The duo couldn't quite pip their former boss to the number one spot.
Five Star – “Stay Out Of My Life” (11)
Another studio dance routine and the song went up two more places.
Timbuk 3 – “Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades” (25) (breaker)
Their only hit and it peaked at number 21.
Carly Simon – “Coming Around Again” (22) (breaker)
Became her fourth and final top ten hit when it peaked at number 10.
Europe – “Rock The Night” (20) (breaker)
Peaked at number 12.
Vesta Williams – “Once Bitten Twice Shy” (14) (video)
Her only hit and it was now at its peak.
Aretha Franklin & George Michael – “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” (1) (video)
Second and final week at number one.
Taffy – “I Love My Radio” (6) (video/credits)
At its peak.
February 19th is next.
Level 42 with their usual professionalism, but not a very exciting record no matter it was a Top Ten hit. Don't think I noticed the saxophone before. Still can't work out what the lyrics are about, some kind of childhood reminiscence?
ReplyDeleteBen E. King with this week's song from a film, though it made the double whammy by being a song from an advert as well. What can you say about this? It's a classic, sincerely performed, can't fault it, so I'll observe that Wil Wheaton looks like a "dork" (as the Americans say) and River Phoenix almost looks cool, even at that age, because he was a cool guy, I suppose. I was really shocked when he died. Also, Ben must be a shortarse to have these kids be taller than him.
Pepsi and Shirlie with more unusual, only in the 80s sartorial choices. They look very cheerful for a song about Heartache.
Five Star - did they ever consider synchronised swimming at the Olympics? They would have nailed it, I bet. Anyway, a more midtempo number from them, and not too shabby, nice swinging beat to it.
Breakers, we see Carly again (from a film too?), but I think Timbuk 3 don't make it, my main memory of this being when they did a video for it on US sitcom Head of the Class (you know, the one with Robin Givens, the unfortunate Mrs Mike Tyson as was). Quirky little thing (the song) that became shorthand for wacky. Then Europe, not a one hit wonder so there, with Tonight I'm Gonna Rock Ya Tonight (or something). Enough hair to stuff a mattress.
Hey, this Vesta Williams video is a bit of fun, complete with Benny Hill on a budget runaround. She should have been the next Whoopi Goldberg on this evidence.
With Pepsi and Shirlie at 2, and George at 1, was this effectively a Wham! reunion at the top? I mean, Andrew didn't do that much, did he? They seem to be comparing themselves to Sonny and Cher and... Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell? Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.
Then to close, some more of Taffy's cheap as chips video. I suppose they did include a radio in it, but the reason for the drag racing is a mystery.
Coming Around Again was indeed used in a film, the Nora Ephron-scripted Meryl Streep/Jack Nicholson vehicle Heartburn.
DeleteRight duo, wrong spelling - it was Tammi Terrell, whose life was of course cut tragically short.
The longest serving TOTP host of the time is teamed up with the newest. While there isn't that much in the way of chemistry between them both do a very professional job, PP acting as the affable elder statesman and young Mayo looking more relaxed and natural than on his debut show.
ReplyDeleteLevel 42 are back, with a longer hairstyle for Mark King which I am not convinced suits him. Possibly their best remembered hit, this is very slick but not one of their best records, as the rather banal lyrics to the chorus irritate me a bit. 1987 really was the year of the reissue, and Stand By Me was one of the biggest, propelled back into the charts not just by the film of the same name but by its appearance, inevitably, in a Levis ad. Written by King himself, in conjunction with Leiber and Stoller, it is of course a classic but has been monstrously overplayed down the years, to the point where I would gladly never listen to it again. I remember this video well, and the segue from the grainy 60s footage to the older, chunkier 80s Ben is well done, though his subsequent "getting down with the kids" routine is a bit cringey. At the time I thought the 60s footage looked absolutely ancient, and it's scary to think that 1961 back then was as far from the present as 1993 is now. PP, incidentally, was spot on in predicting this would be a bigger hit second time around.
Pepsi and Shirlie look even more silly than on their previous appearance, the long socks now looking more ruffled and elaborate than before while both are now sporting Minnie Mouse bows in their hair as well. Five Star dazzle in Persil white while basically treating us to the same old dance routine; the song is bouncy and well produced, but isn't exactly exciting.
This is all we will see of Timbuk 3, a self-consciously quirky video accompanying yet another song fearing a nuclear holocaust, despite the fact the Cold War was now thawing. I do like the sparse, rocky sound of this one, which sets it apart from so much of the music of the time; it's perhaps surprising they didn't have more success. The other breakers will be on again, which is particularly welcome in Carly Simon's case, so on we move to Vesta Williams and a promo which sees her getting rid of various no-good men before it all goes a bit Keystone Cops towards the end. Taffy plays us out this week, once more wandering around what looks to be a very low rent race meeting-cum-car show.
It was quite something that Peter Powell was serving this long on TOTP, as I think he made his debut in 1977 when, let's face it, the quality of music was more romantic and homely, and an absolute pleasure to watch, with artists like David Soul, Brotherhood of Man, Rose Royce, etc.
DeleteI expect that as house music kicked in a lot more during the 1987-88 period, all these 80s DJs on TOTP (born in 50s) would start to drop off presenting the show, as the heyday of proper pop music would gradually be muscled out by house music artists born in the 60s, that effectively destroyed forever the fabric of music with meaningful lyrics.
However, 'proper' pop artists like Genesis, Meat Loaf, Elton John and a few others did persevere despite this barrage, but they were by then the minority until they became an even rarer entity from around the end of 1995 onwards, which is where I stopped following the charts and never regretted it.
PP made his TOTP debut in November 1977, so he was approaching his tenth anniversary at this point, and the music scene had certainly changed almost beyond recognition over that time. 1988 would indeed see a lot of the longer-serving DJs stop presenting the show - Smitty, PP and Bates all bowed out during that year, as did Janice, and Steve Wright and Mike Read would both depart in 1989. I think it was definitely the case that neither Smitty nor PP cared for the new styles of music coming through in the late 80s, and that influenced their decision to quit Radio 1 and TOTP. All the Radio 1 DJs would then of course get swept away by the "Year Zero" revamp of 1991, but we are still quite a long way from getting to that point, if we ever do get that far.
DeleteWasn't DLT still at Radio 1 till 1993, some 9 years after he stopped doing TOTP? I expect these 70s & 80s DJs first left TOTP in the late 80s and then Radio 1 soon after in the early 90s, with the only open door being Radio 2 for their music interests, like Steve Wright has stayed on with to this day.
DeleteYes, DLT hung around on Radio 1 until 1993, when the Matthew Bannister revolution saw most of the veteran DJs purged from the station, so that it could attract a younger audience.
DeleteSophisti-pop was the sound of the late 80s, with Level 42, Curiosity, Swing Out Sister and The Blow Monkeys dominating the airwaves and the hit parade in early '87. Waiting in the wings were Hue and Cry, Johnny Hates Jazz and Danny Wilson.
ReplyDeletePepsi & Shirlie narrowly missed out on a number one in their own right, but would top the chart as uncredited backing singers on Geri Halliwell's 'Bag It Up' in 2000.
Carly Simon made a welcome return to the Top 20 with one of her finest compositions. Like so many talented singer-songwriters of her generation, she has enjoyed only a handful of major hit singles in Britain.
As for Londoner Taffy, I have only recently discovered that she - like Whigfield and the band Middle Of The Road - had to move to Italy to achieve success. She had already had a hit over there before her sole British smash, and would remain a chart fixture in Italy until the end of the 80s. 'I Love My Radio', like most of her singles, was the work of Italian writers and producers.
level 42: a solid more-rocky entry in their catalogue, although it's never going to vie as one of their best for me. not that i listened too closely, but the lyrics always seemed a bit dark and disturbing - as if they were inplying that the father was either an alcoholic and/or a pedo
ReplyDeleteben e king: another yawnsome so-called soul classic, this one based around the simple and obvious "chopsticks" piano riff. i've never seen the stephen king film it tied in with, so only have an image of wil wheaton as the rookie in "star trek the next generation" rather than the fat kid/dork. wasn't josh brolin another one of the kids in that? i remember first seeing him in an early 90's retro crime series called "private eye" where he played second banana as a teenaged bequiffed street hustler. i enjoyed it at the time, but sadly i don't think it will ever get a dvd release thanks to being a short-lived flop
five star: one that's slipped my memory completely, quite un-five star-like to start with actually what with the rock guitar powerchords and shuffle rhythm. but even though it gets more to their usual pop-dance style as it goes on, its still not very good even by their standards
timbuk3: i do have a memory of this that i think got quite a bit of radio airplay despite its poor chart showing. with a noo wave sound mixed with more traditional rhythm & blues stylings, this lot could only ever be american
Josh Brolin was in The Goonies, not Stand By Me. The latter is far preferable to the obnoxious former, no matter what 80s kids will tell you.
DeleteWell guys I have been looking at some of the shows shared by Javier and Anonymous last week (good work lads thanks a lot) it was great to see some of the really rare shows but I do have a question maybe someone could answer the 500th show 4.10.73 I always thought had two tracks from DAWN feat. TONY ORLANDO ,where these Repeats from previous shows? has anybody got them especially "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose" ? Thanks
ReplyDeletesorry, but any reference to the above-mentioned song reminds me of the sleeve of this album on which it was copycat-covered for the budget market (and i can't help smirking accordingly!):
Deletehttps://www.discogs.com/Unknown-Artist-12-Tops-Todays-Top-Hits/release/4106720
Lots of similarly themed sleeves feature in entire '12 Tops' series.
Deletehttp://hitcovers.weebly.com/12-tops.html
sct it was the fact that on that particular cover you could actually look up the model's skirt and practically see her "sweet gypsy rose" ha ha
DeleteGood Lord, I can see that there are four shows to blog next weekend cos of Mike Smith being in two of them, as BBC races into March 1987 already. There's no let up, so let's be glad that we have been spared this weekend with only two shows to blog. When is Smith going to stop hosting TOTP, as one or two shows a week from BBC4 is much more manageable?
ReplyDeleteWe'll have another four shows to get through the week after, for the same reason, and that's before we reach the four consecutive shows Smitty presented in September/October. The end is in sight, however - his last show was 31st March 1988, which we should reach during the summer.
DeleteAll I can say is thank goodness.
Deletei don't think any of his work has been featured in these re-runs, but i'd still like to report the death of michel legrand who was one of the most talented and prodigious musicians and composers of the 20th century... not to mention a three-time oscar winner! in my opinion "what are you doing the rest of your life" is one of the best tunes ever written
ReplyDeleteHe has one show in 1988 and that is it _ meer
ReplyDeletedo you mean m legrand actually appeared on the show then, or one of his songs was featured?
DeletePleasant enough show. How many hits did 5 star have for goodness sake - all equally forgetable.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I didn’t remember that Taffy song until they played it, but it was quite pleasant actually. Not sure why it has disappeared completely.
Charlie, Five Star had 21 UK top 75 entries, but I reckon you'll be happy to know we've already reached the brow of the hill. Only 2 of their first 13 hits failed to make the top 20, "Love Take Over" at 25 and a song I've never heard, "RSVP", which stiffed at 45. They managed 6 top tens in 7 releases but then hit the law of diminishing returns, with only one of the last five scraping the top 50.
DeleteSome highs and lows on this show. Agree with Dory that when longest running presenter PP made his debut, the charts were such that I could listen to more or less the whole top 20 without skipping. Nowadays (in 1987) it’s a FF every so often and there were a couple on here…
ReplyDeleteLevel 42 – Running in the Family – This was Level 42’s peak time and amazingly they left my favourite single ‘It’s Over’ as the fourth release from the ‘Running in the Family’ album. This song, like others contributors on here, I feel is not one of their best, but it’s certainly catchy, and I like Mark and Mike singing together too.
Ben E King – Stand by me – So much better than Lennon’s version. Just savour that sumptuous string instrumental break that really makes this recording. Yes, I’ve heard it so many times but even with the film push, it’s still a much deserved piece of music to hit no1 with a real tune to it.
Pepsi and Shirlee – Heartache – I’m thinking that the outfits look a wee bit silly actually. Great dance record though with much energy.
Five Star – Stay out of my life – I really must have blanked this lot out of my brain both at the time and since. So tepid and manufactured they sound, I just cannot understand what all the fuss was about. FF
Breakers – Timbuk 3 – This debuted in the charts at no50 so you could say 50 shades…nah, just made that up!! Anyway, unimpressed. Carly Simon – simply wonderful, much prefer this to Paul. Only reached no10 whilst ‘Jack your Body’ topped the charts…there is no justice!! Europe – Sounds like Europe, tuneful mildly heavy rock with much hair in evidence.
Vesta Williams – Once bitten – Second FF. Awful.
Aretha Franklin and George Michael – I knew you were waiting (for me) – Don’t get tired of this at all.
Taffy – I love my Radio – Like Charlie I had quite forgotten this song but now I have heard it a couple of times it definitely rings bells, and good ones at that. Put Deptford on the map albeit briefly.
with regard to putting deptford on the map, i think squeeze got there first!
DeleteIndeed, plus Squeeze's first single was on the Deptford Fun City record label.
DeleteThis one was a show full of pretty middling stuff sadly, and Mayo was trying a bit too hard, particularly with his 'fact' at the end which was blatantly not correct...
ReplyDeleteLevel 42 - I wouldn't turn it off if it came on the radio but I wouldn't be dancing for joy either as there are better singles from that album to come.
Ben E King - Not really that exciting, as was the case for many of these 60s re-releases, with the absolute pits (hello, Percy Sledge) now in the chart I notice.
Five Star - Another OK but unspectacular effort, it has to be said that this has dated less well than most of their other songs from this period.
Breakers - Everyone at school seemed to worship that Timbuk3 song. I hated it, and still do. As for Europe, well....crap basically.
Vesta Williams - What an extraordinary video to go with that song!
totally agree that "children say" and "it's over" from the "running in the family" album were much better, and two of their best from their later days in my view. in fact both may be in with a shout of getting in my top 10 crackers list (i normally make a point of letting an artist have only one entry, but i might have to make an exception here)
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFull house this sunny Sunday morning with Wifey and JT in tow..MOTD out of the way and now back to February 1987....
ReplyDeleteMayo and Powell this week. Good job done to.
Level 42. Well this is a Ray of sunshine. Great song from a favourite in this household. Still touring today, seems a lot of love on here for them. Must go and see them live.
Stand By Me. A defining film of the 80s. Never seen it. Great song though even though its an oldie, remember the video very well. Wil Wheaton was bloody annoying in STTNG but very funny in Big Bang Theory.
Pepsi and Shirlie. Wifey has admitted she used to wear those skirts and stockings.. Apparently they are not good for the circulation in the legs... Ha ha love 80s fashion.
Five Star. This really is my Wife's show. Saw them at the Hexagon in Reading apparently. This is not one of theit better hits. Bit light for me. Need a better chorus. I will admit I had their Silk and Steel album but grew out of them very quickly.
Breakers:
Timbuk 3: wow i remember this. 😀 Bit of an odd song and a bizarre video.
Carly Simon. That has gone down well here chez Morgie. Great voice and song.
Europe. Never knew they had a second hit. It isn't great. Pass.
Vesta Williams. This video is hilarious. What were they on. 😀 Song is growing on me though.
Same number one. Lots of top ten climbers this week. Why haven't we seen Man Parrish.?
Nice chart fact Simon.
Taffy and her cars play us out.
Good show.
i went to see the original line-up of level 42 several times in the 80's, but when mark king started gigging under the band name again about 20 years ago with various session players in tow i resolved not to see then unless he got the others back on board. then mike lindup re-joined, and as they were in effect the core/essential members (although phil gould was a great drummer he was easily replaceable, and boon was very much the lightweight of the band) i thought i'd change that stance. but the problem is that every time they roll into manchester i can never get anyone to come along with me to watch them!
Deleteregarding wifey's sartorial admission: wasn't this the (somewhat short-lived) era of the rah-rah skirt?
Deletemorgie who is jt? your son presumably? you've reminded me that that was what that frontman in kool and the gang was called. although a friend of mine who loved their 70's funk (that vocally mainly consisted of mass chants) saw him joining the band as the shark-jumping moment (as do i actually, "ladies night" excepted), and will only ever refer to the guy as "that singer"!
DeleteSorry Wilberforce I'm in Reading so not anywhere best Manchester or I'd come along.
DeleteIt was indeed the Ra Ra skirt. No pictures have surfaced so far. 😀
JT is my 12 year old who is now the same age I was when these went out originally. Managed to snare him in when he stopped to dance to Reet Petite and Jack Your Body and he has stuck around for a couple of shows whilst he was off school poorly. He'll be back on his PS4 soon enough
My, what chemistry with the hosts! The new Mr Scala Radio still feeling his way in.
ReplyDeleteExcellent first note miming by Level 42’s drummer. A ‘rockier’ sound for the lads and at least it was a story song so fair play.
I can’t stand that Ben E King song as it’s been played to saturation and, yes, I know he was late getting back to the mic after the instrumental passage, hence that more difficult to hear first “Darling” leading into the last choruses. Notice the number of re-released old fossils in the top 40 this week?
A slightly stilted start to Pepsi and Cresta’s opening dance stances there. Those ra-ra skirts were up there with executive shoulder pads back in the day. The outfits were more interesting than the song.
Talking of which... did ANY others in Five Star ever take lead vocals? Her up front is starting to annoy me. Decent chorus and that’s it.
Husband and wife act Timbuk3 with a song actually about the fear of a nuclear end. The moving mouth on a static background reminded me of a very cheaply made American cartoon called “Clutch Cargo”, where the same idea was used for conversations throughout every episode. I saw that donkey and thought of one of Charlie Chuck’s catch phrases.
A nice nostalgic video for a smooth Carly Simon tune, but I was a wee bit scared of her choppers. Not like I’m Omar Sharif myself, mind you.
Europe in the biggest café around, hoping this hit will ketchup with the heights of their last hit. Ahem.
Why did every host name Vesta’s hit “Once Bitten AND Twice Shy” when the middle word wasn’t in the title? What fingernails there. Why was there a big ‘Y’ on that wall and not a big ‘V’ for Vesta? Unusual and lesser spotted miming of both lead and backing vocals. I half expected Bob Todd, Henry Mc Gee and Jackie Wright in that sped up portion of the video.
Taffy’s video was a drag (drag racing, geddit? Harrumph). Should’ve re-run her fizzy studio outing and put the number one on last.