When you find out you're axed from BBC4!
12/03/87 (Mike Smith & Steve Wright)
Alison Moyet – “Weak In The Presence Of Beauty” (16)
Became her penultimate top ten hit when it peaked at number 6.
Jackie Wilson – “I Get The Sweetest Feeling” (3) (video)
At its peak.
Nick Kamen – “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever” (25)
Peaked at number 16.
Freddie Mercury – “The Great Pretender” (4) (video)
At its peak.
The Mission – “Severina” (32) (breaker)
Peaked at number 25.
Bruce Willis – “Respect Yourself” (31) (breaker)
Became the first of two top ten hits for the Moonlighting star when it peaked at number 7.
Genesis – “Tonight Tonight Tonight” (24) (breaker)
Peaked at number 18.
Beastie Boys – “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)” (21) (video)
Quite some rocker this tune, and it peaked at number 11.
Boy George – “Everything I Own” (1)
First of two weeks at number one.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood – “Watching The Wildlife” (33) (video/credits)
Frankie says bye bye with a tune that peaked at number 28.
March 19th is up next.
Alison Moyet with a nice enough song, though despite the slick production it remains in second gear. Another example of the trumpet solo: the poor chap was left to groove about for about three and a half minutes all told waiting for his big moment, and then a minute afterward.
ReplyDeleteCute video for this Jackie Wilson rerelease, I particularly like the teddy bears swaying back and forth on the settee. One of his better efforts, there's no doubt of that, but why was he performing in front of a big cup of coffee on the TV?
Nick Kamen, cover version time and not for the last time this episode. A quarter of the Top 40 were old songs! This was just before people realised they could just sample a catchy bit and do different lyrics over it. Anyway, very undernourished sound here, doesn't add anything to the original, and Nick's beehive is a curious choice.
Freddie Mercury - how did people never guess he was gay, then? Watching this, it's baffling he stayed in the closet so long. Compelling video, if only to try and work out how he did the old video clips with himself singing different words. Must have taken ages to get right if he restaged them. Classic tune, but the synths are a bit nasty, and Stan Freberg's version was funnier.
The Breakers are on next week (unfortunately, in the case of The Mission), so on to The Beastie Boys, yes! Something original! I still know all the words to this! A refreshing raspberry blown at all conventions and good taste, and the video still makes me laugh. Of course, later in their career they said they were being ironic with License to Ill. They didn't look serious, true enough. RIP Adam.
"Brave" Boy George, over his recent troubles, back at the top with a cover that's not offensive or anything, but gives no hint as to what attracted him to it, it just sits there. A bit monotonous. I had a badge collection, too, George!
Then Frankie peter out with a whimper, style over substance time, not even as good as Ray Charles, their previous single. But Holly would be back with a solo career and at least one great, underrated pop hit.
I also liked the new Jackie Wilson video, well made, and perfect couple in love. Freddie Mercury's video was good too, despite the Queen video clips. I'm in the process of finding the time to see the film Bohemian Rhapsody in the cinema, and wondering if it is any good.
DeleteBruce Willis - a good Breakers clip, but I must admit that the best version of this song by a distance has to be The Kane Gang the following year in 1988.
ReplyDeleteThe Beastie Boys - hardly Breakers, it was played in the end as a main feature. With antics non-PC, especially pulling a girl onto the sofa for a kiss, and then letting go of her for his friend to have a taste...well, house parties have changed a lot since then, if they still exist.
Boy George - first solo effort going to no.1, having left behind Culture Club at the end of 1986 to go solo. Not a bad run of four years for Culture Club before disbanding, although this solo effort was not as good as the Club efforts up to now.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood - ah, the last of their catalogue to trouble the charts, and a somewhat fall from grace when you can only be played as a playout at No.33 and no higher in the charts. As THX says, Holly Johnson would be back later in solo form, with what I remember as some very good videos to come in 1989.
What had the long-suffering British public done to deserve such a quick return outing for the Gruesome Twosome? Neither are especially annoying here, in fairness, and harmony seems to have been restored to their relationship after Smitty's cutting comments about his co-host last time. Both of them make goofs, Wrighty mangling the title of Nick Kamen's song and Smitty forgetting that Boy George had last been on the show in 1986. Smitty does also seem rather vexed about the number of old songs in the charts, but I have some sympathy with that as it would have suggested that the contemporary music scene was failing to engage the record-buying public as much as it should have been at the time.
ReplyDeleteA leather-clad Alf to start us off, with a trumpet player who looks like he could be Smitty's brother. I think her songs were becoming increasingly formulaic by this time, but this one does have a pleasant melody even if it fails to make the most of her vocal talents; probably her last noteworthy hit, really. Into the old stuff next, with a classic soul ballad that is in my view Jackie Wilson's finest moment - didn't it get used in an advert promoting safe sex and AIDS awareness a few years later? The video was made by Giblets, who had also been responsible for the Reet Petite promo, and I'm guessing this one may have been less problematic to put together as the human dancers carry most of it, with the odd bit of animation thrown in. Giblets certainly liked their singing flowers, but the cuddly toys moving with the rhythm are my favourite bit.
I wonder if whoever told Nick Kamen to cover this old Four Tops record was having a laugh, given how weedy his vocals are compared to those of Levi Stubbs! Unexpectedly, however, I think he manages to carry this one rather better than his previous hit, perhaps helped by some good production, and as cover versions go this isn't bad. The pretty boy is wearing a tight white t-shirt, but no jeans, and is quite animated in this performance. Another cover up next, but Freddie's interpretation of this classic sounds pretty flat next to The Platters' original - and definitive - version. I did enjoy the video, however; in many ways it is a monstrous ego trip, and Freddie rips off Bowie's Boys Keep Swinging video by playing one of his own backing singers, but the recreations of old Queen promos are cleverly done.
More from the breakers next time, which brings us to The Beastie Boys and another decisive moment in rap's move to the mainstream. Taken in isolation I can tolerate this, as the chorus is quite anthemic and it is pretty clear from the video that it shouldn't be taken too seriously - throwing custard pies around is hardly the worst thing that could happen at a teenage party! Nevertheless, the Beasties would rapidly become bogeymen to the British tabloids and Capital Radio's John Sachs apparently smashed one of their records on air at the height of the hysteria over their corrupting effect on the UK's youth - their effect on the music scene would be much more profound, for better or worse (definitely worse from my point of view).
Part 2: I'm guessing that George got to number 1 with this anaemic cover of David Gates' classic song because of public sympathy over his recent drug problems, rather than because it had much musical merit. Here he is in the studio, supposedly cleaned up and keen to promote safe sex - shame he wouldn't always practise what he preached in the years ahead! For me the Bread original is by far the best version of this song, easily eclipsing Ken Boothe's chart-topping version as well, as Gates wrote it about his father's death and when he sings it the song carries extra poignancy - I am also not convinced that it works that well in reggae form. I'm not sure if Frankie had split up by this point, but if not they were definitely on the verge of doing so. This final hit chugs along quite well, actually, but lacks the wow factor of the early hits. Holly walks on water in the video, but Frankie's career would never enjoy a resurrection...
ReplyDeletejohn i'm impressed that you had so much to say about this edition that you had to split your review - that doesn't happen much these days (unlike in earlier times, when i think i had to submit one in four parts!), and i was thinking when i was drafting my own for this that 1987 is not going too well so far what with all the covers and all, but at least i still have an interest in what's going on as i did back then - even though it's more and more to do with historical nostalgia than the actual music!
DeleteI was a bit surprised at how much I had to say about this one, but I think it's because, unusually, there were no repeated songs here so I was commenting at length on everything bar the breakers. I suppose one benefit of the show shrinking to 30 minutes is that most of the time it doesn't take as long to write the reviews as it used to!
DeleteIs "Everything I Own" the only single not to be a chart-topper in its own right (Bread's original only made a jaw-droppingly low number 32) but become number 1 with two cover versions?
ReplyDeleteI suspect Unchained Melody is the champion in this category, as the original single by Les Baxter only reached number 10 in 1955, with no fewer than four subsequent versions (Jimmy Young, Righteous Brothers, Robson & Jerome, Gareth Gates) subsequently making it to number 1.
Deleteyes john, i doubt that can be topped. with regard to that song, i feel compelled to point out that it was in fact originally written as a theme for a 1950's film called "unchained". therefore whenever that song title is pronounced the emphasis should be on the word "unchained" - as opposed to "melody", which is how most erroneously do so!!
Deletealso with regard to the version credited to robson & jerome (who were actors rather than singers), it has been alleged that they went nowhere near a recording studio and in fact the vocals were done by industry sessioneers... including the singer for the band jigsaw, who appeared in a very early episode of these re-runs to my recollection
It's perhaps ironic that if you asked people to name a film associated with Unchained Melody, the overwhelming majority would probably say Ghost, rather than the film it is actually named after!
DeleteIt appears that at the very least Robson and Jerome were "assisted" by session singers, including Des Dyer from Jigsaw, so we're definitely getting close to Milli Vanilli territory...
john i remember when i was playing in a covers band in the 90's and we did "unchained melody". except the lead singer always referred to it as "ghost"!
Deletei think the reason robson & jerome "recorded" their version was because their characters performed it (as a karaoke number i think) in an episode of the then-popular tv series "soldier soldier". however it's one thing to sing it badly in a boozer, but another to do it professionally. so perhaps no surprise they were "assisted"?
that also reminds me of the partridge family, in that shirley jones apart (who was a seasoned professional singer) the rest of the cast were to going to have their singing voices dubbed. however david cassidy apparently requested an audition to show he could sing a bit as well, and was allowed to do so in the series accordingly. as consequently were the rest of the cast - none of whom measured up to the job!
I keep hoping they'll let Jerome Flynn sing on Game of Thrones, just to see if he can. What's the Westeros equivalent of karaoke?
Deletehosts: it really is annoying when one of them can't even get the name of the song right in the 10 seconds it takes to introduce something - this time it's wrighty (unsurprisingly) with nick kamen's "love is sweeter" (sic)
ReplyDeletealison moyet: with a full band backing her this time (including a trumpeter who isn't actually dick cuthell) - perhaps she was touring at the time? talking of beauty, alf (was she still using that rather blokey nickname by then?) is now letting some of her own shine through with a makeover and presumably a diet plan. and the song is rather pleasant as well, even though i had forgotten about most of it
jackie wilson: i remember always having a soft spot for this when it was a hit as a re-issue in the mid-70's. why it's been re-released at this time is quite obvious i.e. to cash in on the unexpected success of "reet petite", but doing so twice before a few years after it's original late 60's release is not so easily explainable. i would say this was as much easy listening as soul (not as a criticism, but as a compliment), and reminds me of the similar stuff that chris montez (who also started out as a rock n roll singer) put out back then
nick kamen: i didn't know this was (yet another) cover until i read john's review (i try and avoid listening to 60's motown if i can, as it does very little for me). i suppose production-wise this is in the same vein as alf's tune, but it's not in the same class. either those two female backing singers are very tall, or else nick and the rest of his band are very short. also nick's hair reminds me of the douglas hurd "ice cream" barnet in "spitting image"
freddie mercury: well-produced and performed, if hardly any different to the original platters classic. at a guess this was freddie's way of coming out of the closet without actually admitting as such? but if that wasn't enough to tip the wink, maybe he and the director thought they'd underline the fact by having him prance around in a frock and tina turner frightwig (i think perhaps one of "her" co-backing singers is a real woman, although the other might be roger taylor). like thx i was wondering if they had to re-create the "i want to break free" set when he hoovered up in his suit, or if he was superimposed on it?
beastie boys: they were being promoted as rappers, although them apart this was more heavy metal-like than what such talentless oiks used for their musical backdrop. so in a way better than both them and the likes of iron maiden. however i wish they'd disappeared in a puff of smoke straight afterwards. wasn't it them that were responsible for the logos being nicked from the grills of volkswagon cars as a result of one of them wearing one as a pendant? it was endemic at the time, and even now you still see the odd old model going about with a big hole in the front!
boy george: cod-reggae alert! although freddie was dropping some hints earlier, unlike him i can't actually remember if george was now out and proud by this point? i think the press were actually more interested in his drug habits than his sexual preferences at this point anyway. what exactly was the point of doing this in the same style as ken booth?
frankie: bowing out with a whimper both musically and chart-wise, thus proving it takes a bit more than just coming out as gay to ensure a long pop career. a few decent tunes help in that regard, and that was never their strong suit
I'd forgotten all about people nicking the VW logos - remember watching that on the news. Sure someone at school got into trouble for that..
DeleteA mixed bag frankly.
ReplyDeleteAlison Moyet - Flasher mac.
Jackie Wilson - Nostalgia fatigue.
Nick Kamen - Silly bugger.
Freddie Mercury - Cheekier monkey.
The Mission - Not really.
Bruce Willis - Cashing in.
Genesis - Great vocal.
Beastie Boys - Porno mag.
Boy George - Cod reggae.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Faded grandeur.
Mike Smith - Unsigned contract.
Steve Wright - Unnecessary moustache.
I Googled to see if Steve Wright still has his moustache and yes he does.
Deletenot surprised to read that. you've reminded me of stuart maconie's autobiography "cider with roadies" where he describes his brief spell working in an office around this time and all the other male staff members had taches, and without exception all were also married-with-kids-and-mortgage bores that he would try to cross the street to avoid if he could! i do think it was odd that although the hideous things were pretty popular throughout most of the 80's, those who wore them either seemed to be straight dullards or camp-as-a-row-of-tents gays! i'm pleased to say that not only was i ever tempted to grow one (not really being able to so at the time helped in that respect ha ha), but none of my mates ever had one either
Deleteoh yes, there was another category of 80's tache-wearer that was actually the worst of the lot: the "jack the lad"-type who thought it would help with his endless quest to chase skirt in order to get a shag!
DeleteBack to the twosome again for another ‘banned from BBC4’ show – thanks to our provider for letting us see once again.
ReplyDeleteAlison Moyet – Weak in the presence of beauty – Another wonderful piece of music from Ali who seemed to have notched up a gear for this and the last single. Great stuff. She looks happy to be there too.
Jackie Wilson – I get the sweetest feeling – Much prefer this to r-r-r-r-r-r-r-reet petite. Looking at the video that I have not seen before, I used to have that wallpaper in my bedroom! Very authentic 60s. I even dug out an old slide to check and yep, that was it; those trains and boats and planes…
Nick Kamen – Loving you is sweeter than ever – It’s not bad at all. Better than his first effort I think. Co-written by ‘S Wonder’.
Freddie Mercury – The Great Pretender – Clever video indeed. I wonder if Brian, Roger and John approved of them being effectively air-brushed out of lots of Queen videos?
Breakers – The Mission – Impossible. Bruce Willis – More Moonlighting stuff? Boy that show must have been popular! Genesis – this was the second longest track on the album but gets a really clunky edit to make it single length – just not single material in my view, and I’m surprised it got as high as it did.
Beastie Boys – (You’ve gotta) Fight for your right (to party) – No less than two brackets for the boys who manage to recreate the ZZ Top sound here and whilst their tongues are firmly in cheek. Not sure BBC4 would have been too keen on showing the magazine being set alight.
Boy George – Everything I own – How on earth did this get to no1? As our 80s no1s chum puts it “As inessential a single as the eighties ever produced”. Long forgotten amidst Bread and Ken Boothe’s superior versions.
Frankie – Watching the Wildlife – Hadn’t they packed it in yet? Waiting for Holly’s ‘Love Train’ – now I really liked that. Anyway, FF for this.
Ken even sings live here:-
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLfT5MuNT-I
Wonderful stuff.
sct you've reminded me of once visiting a friend who was living in an old mansion that was national trust property (his wife worked for them at the time), and i came across a bedroom with genuine 60's wallpaper. i asked my chum to take photos of it so i could use it as wallpaper on my pc, but sadly he later informed me that he never got around to do so before the room was redecorated!
DeleteAlison Moyet - Fine, but not one of her best songs.
ReplyDeleteJackie Wilson - What a lovely song this is. Presumably the cup of tea or coffee in the background of the original footage of him was supposed to represent 'sweet' (perhaps a giant sugar cube was just out of shot) but whatever, the video was nicely done.
Nick Kamen - I don't rave over Motown like many do but I absolutely adore The Four Tops, therefore this cover was never going to win me over. It's not even one of their better songs!
Freddie Mercury - Silly but fun, and I don't know why Shitty and nob end are so amazed by it, this is Freddie we're talking about here!
Incidentally fact fans, one of the drag acts (alternating the green and leopard skin costumes I think) is Peter Straker who had a No. 40 smash in 1972 as Peter Straker & The Hands Of Dr Teleny with 'The Spirit Is Willing' and also played Commander Straker in the Dr Who story 'Destiny Of The Daleks'!
The Beastie Boys - Some new music, great! Oh...it's this..Emperor's. New. Clothes. One of the worst acts of the decade, irony or not. I didn't much care for their supposedly cooler 90s stuff either.
Boy George - Pointless dull cover. My preference is for the Ken Boothe version FWIW.
FGTH - How the mighty have fallen. I've only just heard this and I can't remember how it goes.
Apologies - it was Commander SHARREL that Peter Straker played in the Doctor Who story!
DeleteCommander Sharrel was of course a member of the Movellan alien race who landed on Skaro to battle the Daleks who had to bring Davros back to life to land a hand.
DeleteA nice embarrassing intro from Wright and Smith leads us into Alf with one of her finest songs. Such a talent. This was a fave at the time.
ReplyDeleteHere come the old songs.. nice to see some actual footage of Jackie Wilson. Still not a massive fan of this one.
Nick Kames had a second hit? Who knew? And people thought SAW put out some rubbish. No recollection of this at all and no wonder, it's pants.
Nice to see Freddie video in full. This song was made for him really. Nice nod to previous Queen videos.
Breakers:
The Mission. Normal service from them. It's ok but not great. Forgettable.
Bruce Willis. Moonlighting has a lot to answer for. He sings, he acts, he makes the ladies swoon, shame the song is crap.
Genesis on the show tonight tonight tonight. A slower sound with a lot of electric fiddly bits thrown at it. Shame it's missing a tune, oh dear.
Beastie Boys. I can still hear my Dad "if this is the sort of rubbish that is going to be on this show I'm going to ban you from watching it". Thank goodness Thursday became squash night. Song is bobbins of course, they became a much better dance/hip hop band.
Tonight's show is turning into a right car crash...
Boy George back at Number One, I actually really like this reggae lite version of this song. Not sure I like the white coat and badges look George. Amazed his solo career never really took off.
FGTH. Really, enough already guys. Your ship has sailed.
So Alf and George were good, the rest was fairly poor and even the hosts were annoying. BBC4 viewers got a lucky escape tonight,
I must say that having watched the Beastie Boys video in full, it really is shocking, even for today's generation. To see someone spitting out in full his ingested drink (was it water?) onto someone's face in a houseparty is really awful, and something I have never seen at any parties, and then to grab that random girl onto the sofa for a forced kiss, which I know was probably not frowned upon in those days, would nowadays cause uproar and never be signed off for video completion.
DeleteThe nearest equiavalent to The Beastie Boys in Britain was probably the Sex Pistols around 10 years earlier in the late 70s, but they never stooped this low.
With life getting in the way, I finally get round to watching the final two of last week’s four editions, only for two more to pop up like Japanese knotweed!
ReplyDeleteThanks once again to The Archivist. Not my favourite edition to put it mildly but still grateful.
How many times in this show did Mike Smith tell us there were loads of old songs in the chart?
Alison Moyet looking very chirpy with a poppy cover of a song by critically liked but hitless Sheffield band Floy Joy.
That’s right, Shitty, tell us this early in the show who’s number one!
Compare and contrast the effortless smooth sound of, and video for, Jackie Wilson with Nick Kamen’s dreadful voice and a pop arrangement sucking all the life out of the song.
Wrighty, you’re so ugly your face makes me sick.
Mugshots – The Mission’s photoshoot dominated by bin liners, shame there wasn’t a spare one to put over Bruce Willis’s slappable smug grin.
Videos – The Mission with more of a tune than The Cult but some more awful Simply Red style slow motion smear shots, and Bruce Willis graduating from the Nick Kamen School of song bloodsucking.
Genesis there with Rubbish Rubbish Rubbish, complete with horrible milk bottle percussion keyboard noises.
Beastie Boys with a ‘fun’ Run DMC metal groove but an absolutely horrible brattish video.
Boy George sounded rough as if he smoked two packs a day like that Beastie Boy’s dad in the song.
This show was really only notable for Frankie with “Watching The Last Rites Of Our Career”. How the once mighty have fallen. Bye, lads.
if you think boy george sounded rough voice-wise here, then take a listen to him rasping away on this cover of the brilliant nick drake song "river man" he did with nigel kennedy a few years back. but having said that, it does actually work!:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJRkB1a_vCY