I'm The Voice!
11/06/87 (Simon Bates & Peter Powell)
John Farnham – “You’re The Voice” (15)
John is in the studio to get this live show underway with a song that had been an Australian number one, but it peaked here at number 6.
Bruce Willis – “Under The Boardwalk” (17) (live clip)
Performing here with The Temptations, this was Bruce's biggest hit, and his second and final top ten hit, peaking at a sweaty number 2.
Beastie Boys – “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” (14) (Montreux clip)
Went up no higher.
Run DMC – “It’s Tricky” (16) (Montreux clip)
Two similar hip hop records in a row, and this one also went up no higher.
Tom Jones – “It’s Not Unusual” (23) (breaker)
It was a number one in 1965, but this time around it peaked at number 17. It only gets a breaker slot, but Tom makes a hip swinging Top of the Pops performance for it.
Whitesnake – “Is This Love?” (22) (breaker)
Became the band's first of two top ten hits when it peaked at number 9.
ABC – “When Smokey Sings” (21) (breaker)
Peaked at number 11.
Johnny Logan – “Hold Me Now” (2) (video)
At its peak. Surely, only something out of this world could stop it from being number one next week?
Whitney Houston – “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” (1) (video)
Second and final week at number one.
Jody Watley – “Looking For A New Love” (18) (video/credits)
On its way to number 13.
June 18th is next.
Another Election Night TOTP, and it looks as if they had been turfed out of the normal studio as we seem to be on a makeshift set. That, the lack of an audience and the almost complete lack of studio performances do make you wonder why they bothered showing this live, though PP and Master Bates do their best to drum up enthusiasm. While largely tolerable, the Headmaster can't resist a couple of his legendary time checks, while also reminding everyone to vote at the end of the show. 1987 is the first General Election I can remember, and we did actually have a mock election at my primary school that year - we had the big day off, as the school was used as a polling station.
ReplyDeleteBack to the show, however, which was almost uniformly dire and comfortably the worst of the year so far. The only good track is first up - I liked this rousing rock anthem at the time, and I am still quite fond of it now, though the interlude with the piper is distinctly cheesy, particularly as I suspect the bagpipe noise was synth-generated anyway. John Farnham, whose blond mullet here makes him look like a cross between Paul Nicholas and Jason Connery in Robin of Sherwood, had actually been around since the late 60s and was the Aussie equivalent of Cliff, managing a number 1 Down Under in every decade from the Sixties to the Noughties, though this was his only significant international success. PP should really have said "welcome back to the UK," as John had been born in Dagenham (not Farnham, alas), and had only migrated to Oz at the age of 10. I have never cared much for Under the Boardwalk, whoever has recorded it - by coincidence I heard a dodgy version by the Stones just the other day - but the Bruce Willis take is particularly lifeless. The live sound on this clip is particularly murky, and Bruce repeats the trick from his previous hit of getting proper soul singers to do some of the heavy lifting. You look at the Temps here and think "how have the mighty fallen," though of course most of the line-up from the glory days had long since departed by this time.
We then enter sheer purgatory with back-to-back rap hits which I can't comment on in any meaningful sense, as to me they both just consist of tedious shouting - I suppose the Run DMC one was marginally more bearable, as the rapping wasn't quite so strident. There isn't even any visual distraction, with both performances being drawn from the staid surroundings of Montreux, though it was interesting to hear PP become the first person to use the term "hip hop" on TOTP, as I don't remember that passing into common currency until the 90s. The breakers will all feature again next time, but Tom Jones had obviously pre-recorded a studio appearance for his reissued hit in anticipation that it would get shown in full.
We end with a deeply dull video for Johnny Logan which at least fits well with the song, Whitney's last week at the summit and a very mechanical song from Jody Watley that sounds like a Janet Jackson knock-off. The lady herself appears very cat-like in the video, with an unnaturally tight face which makes her look like an unflattering example of the plastic surgeon's art. Incidentally, amusing to hear PP coyly describe George Michael's new hit as "I Want" - we will of course not be hearing any of it on TOTP, which is no great loss as for me it's one of his worst songs...
The instrumental break from George's I Want Your Sex was used as a bed by Simon Mayo for his On This Day in History feature on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show.
DeleteDisagree with the Jody Watley comment. She is naturally very pretty on that video, and there is no plastic surgery. In fact, they don't come much prettier than her, and I was quite glued to the playout video as a result. I didn't realise she was ex-Shalamar until now, but boy what a loss for them, and our gain in solo form.
DeleteTHX - I never knew that, but good to know that Mayo was cocking a snook at BBC paternalism back then.
DeleteDory - each to their own, but she does nothing for me...
John Farnham was at number one in Australia for TWENTY-TWO WEEKS?! Do they only have a Top 5 in Oz or something? After week twenty, who the hell was left in the country to buy it?! Anyway, all very inspirational I suppose, but it's so over the top it's ridiculous, which suits its best ever inclusion in a film: Hot Rod, where an inspirational march into town to the strains of this turns hilariously into an absolute riot. Check it out, not enough people have seen Hot Rod.
ReplyDelete*DEEP VOICE* "Hey Bruno!" That's the best bit of this serviceable ego trip cover from Bruce, which almost despite itself does remind me of the summer of '87 when I was nose-deep in Stephen King's IT. At least he looks like he's enjoying himself in this footage, unlike anything he's done since about 1998.
"Beastie Boys at the Garden cold kickin' it live!" Also, Beastie Boys appear to be kickin' it completely hammered. Very much the pre-Buddhist Boys in this incarnation, but I loved the License to Ill album and this also brings back good memories.
"They even bother my poor father 'cause he's down with me!" Labelmates Run DMC up next, also using a rock riff and a lot more together than the Beasties. Although this clip makes me a bit sad, seeing Jam Master Jay in full flow and knowing his killer was never caught.
As an aside, John Peel once said in an interview that Peter Powell told him rap was the music of black criminals. He doesn't seem to mind it too much here.
Mr Logan taking a leaf out of the Tom Jones video direction playbook, just him and the lights. About as interesting as the song, but I do prefer it to his other self-sung Eurovision winner.
Whitney's still there with her day-glo video, a ray of sunshine for the summer (er, back then). If you listen to the lyrics, however, she wants someone to dance with her because she's so miserable.
Lastly, Jody makes a break from Shalamar with a not bad solo tune which strongly anticipates Pebbles' one-hit wonder Girlfriend - were they written by the same person? She was a striking-looking woman, that's for sure, but I think she did better in the US with stuff like this.
To have two videos in a row from the Montreux Rock Festival was quite something, and kind of signalled the arrival of rap/hip hop as serious players in the pop charts.
DeleteThere was no chance that The Beastie Boys and Run DMC would travel from New York to be in the TOTP studio, but they did apparently make the travel for Montreux. Was this the last year/summer of The Montreux Rock Festival by any chance, as I don't recall anything for 1988 onwards?
Jan-Michael Vincent dead now! What a week! I know he wasn't a pop star, but he could play the cello beautifully.
ReplyDeletefunnily enough i was looking him up just the other day with regard to one of his old films i'd like to see again called "damnation alley". i remember reading the review of it at the time where vincent was described as a "macho pretty-boy" (even though he was already into his 30's by then), and thinking this guy sounds really cool!
DeleteI remember viewing this show at the time and remarking that it was the most pointless (and worst) live edition of Top of the Pops in history.
ReplyDeleteThere must have been a backstory to use of the tiny studio, almost exclusive reliance on a glut of dire videos, and lack of audience (though why bother for a sole studio performance?)
Most of all, why air it live?
Tend to agree, but I do like the Whitesnake videos of this era, as the same hottie (David Coverdale's new wife?) appeared in all three videos in 1987, including Is This Love, a breaker on this week's show. Good Lord, when is she up next?
DeleteThey were in the tiny studio because of the General Election that day, which was eating up resources. Although why they didn't simply record a regular episode the day before is a mystery.
Deletejohn farnham: i can see why i got this guy mixed up with john parr - apart from similar names they were also both blond-mulletted 30-something big-voiced singers that found success away from their native shores, and each scored a solitary rousing AOR hit in blighty within a year or so of each other. i prefer this to mr parr's effort, as apart from a more interesting rhythm it makes good use of changing chords over the same bass pedal in the verses (reminding me of "state of independence" in the process). also, nice modulated bagpipe (!) break
ReplyDeletebruce willis: back in the 70's it seemed you couldn't watch an episode of totp without a bunch of "shape throwers" being featured i.e. black vocal groups with one person doing all the vocal heavy lifting whilst the others did synchronised moves whilst contributing a few few oohs and aahs now and then (i argued with a fan of such acts that the lead should have got 50% of their salary, with the rest splitting the other half between them!). thankfully by the age of synth pop they had more-or-less become an extinct species, although unlike the rest the temptations managed to remain a viable recording act. here whitey bruce somewhat audaciously takes the lead with all his labelmates relegated to a simple swaying routine to go with their backing vocals. but give him his due, he's not out of his depth in the same way as sting was when he hooked up with the likes of branford marsalis. i agree with john that this is an over-rated song regardless of whoever has recorded it, but did you know that it was co-written by kenny young of fox and yellow dog fame?
beastie boys: sadly outstaying their welcome as a one-off novelty act. i would rather listen to the "no sleep til bedtime" parady by tony hawks et al any day of the week over this
run dmc: they get grudging respect for bringing the excellent "walk this way" to my attention (my advice is to listen to the far-superior original version rather than their "collaboration" btw). but now it's time for me to run as far away from them as possible! i'm pretty sure the diminutive cardsharp was the mute one in penn and teller?
tom jones: yes, it's an old chestnut. but better that any day rather than that "boy from nowhere" rubbish. actually a bit surprising that it didn't do a bit better in the wake of that
jody watley: people seem to rave over her, but i find her voice actually rather irritating and feel there were plenty of black female singers around at the time with better ones. a shame in a way as this is actually quite a good groove, if heavy on the snare as was becoming the way for (non-house) club music at this point
magenta devine also dead now! she of the absurd name and ever-present shades actually first came to prominence in 1987 as presenter of janet street-porter's yoof show "network 7" before becoming better-known for the "rough guide to" series, although she also apparently experienced hard times in more recent years
ReplyDeleteMagenta's real name was Kim Taylor. I was an avid watcher of Network 7 (about the time of these TOTP repeats), on which she interviewed guests in her caravan. It was a preferable option to going to church! But yeah, it's been another bad week for celebrity deaths.
DeleteTwo fairly longstanding hosts this week. Interesting that the new entry from George Michael which not only gets ignored, also sees PP get its title wrong – it was called ‘I want your sex’ I thought? Anyway for me it’s the worst track on the ‘Faith’ album, and I see John G has similar thoughts. Why on earth was it ever released as a single?
ReplyDeleteJohn Farnham – You’re the Voice – An absolutely stonking start to the show with this evergreen, powerful piece of music which literally wipes the floor of every other act on the show this time. Great live vocal from John and a nice touch panning back to reveal the bagpipe player. Should have been no1 for 22 weeks over here too! For once I agree with the Aussies! The live cover by Heart released in 1991 is well worth checking out too proving that you can’t keep a good song down, although it only reached no56 here.
Bruce Willis – Under the Boardwalk – I never realised that it was a duet with the Temptations and it’s a nice tune much preferable to his previous hit.
Beastie Boys – No sleep till Brooklyn – Not a nice tune. FF
Run DMC – It’s tricky – Not tricky to find FF for me.
Breakers – Tom Jones – His first chart topper and hit single and great to hear it again, though not clear where this clip came from. Whitesnake – This is the song I always associate with the title ‘Is this love’ (rather than Alison Moyet) and it’s a powerful rock ballad with a very sexy video, as would be repeated on car bonnets for ‘Here I go again’. ABC – Good comeback, if not in the ‘All of my Heart’ league.
Johnny Logan – Hold me now – Sorry Johnny, Thompson Twins got there first on this and like Whitesnake, I’ll always think of them with this title. It’s pretty unremarkable compared to some Eurovision winners but for me, I’d rather this at no1 than the ‘Out of this World’ hit that landed in the charts this week…
Whitney and Jody – FF (quite a short show to watch really).
Surprised they didn't try a few prerecords following the previous edition, to break up the 3rd party clips, or was the charts that difficult to predict back then?
ReplyDeleteDunno where PP got 22 weeks from. According to Wikipedia it was no. 1 down under for a mere 7 weeks.
ReplyDeleteApart from John Farnham at the start, quite an insipid show, Bruce Willis – cawing his way through 'Under the Boardwalk'; it felt rather rushed, although great to see the Beastie Boys with their bulls**t bravado at Montreux. I went to a Beastie Boys concert in Liverpool in 1987, I say concert…it didn’t last long; I had been really looking forward to it as well. I remember beer can’s being lobbed and a few from the stage as well. I’m sure that I saw Adam Horovitz swinging a baseball bat. Then all hell broke loose and we got out of there pretty sharpish. I don’t know where the tear gas came from; because the only place I saw the police was outside of the building, rounding everyone up. I never got a chance to see them again……ah well. Loved 'Licensed to Ill', but was far more impressed with 'Paul's Boutique'.
ReplyDeleteWow, you were at the Beastie Boys riot?! That's quite a notorious show, especially the baseball bat bit!
DeletePaul's Boutique was a big flop at the time, but went on to be a real cult classic in retrospect. I still give it a spin every so often, sounds great.
It was quite scary at the time, trying to get out of the venue. I was more pi**ed off that I missed the gig !!!
DeleteSlightly more interesting than the previous edition, but still a hefty use of FF.
ReplyDeleteJohn Farnham less sweaty, but no more interesting...
Why was It’s Not Unusual in the charts?... (TOTP is all about new singles so here are the breakers..?)
Whitesnake video indistinguishable from the previous one.
George Michael at 4 in the countdown with I Want - don’t remember that. Will it make an appearance?
Someone correct me if I am wrong but this must be one of the first shows not to show a clip of neither of the two highest entries future no.1 fro the Firm and George Micheal future no.2 hit I want your sex ??
ReplyDeleteAha! Just realised, I Want by George Michael is actually I Want Your Sex - how twee...
Deletethanks to the radio silence due to all general fuss and palaver over the title if this (which seems absurd in retrospect now), the only time i ever got to hear "i want your sex" was in a boozer i frequented if it happened to come on the jukebox. and my dim recollction of it is being a tune-free dirge, and a feeble attempt at getting funky. of course the other thing about it was that everyone assumed george wanted sex with a woman at the time, when it was probably a man!
Deletei was wondering after submitting the above: given that by this time the likes of holly johnson, jimmy somerville and andy bell were openly screaming their sexuality from the rooftops without it being the death-knell for their pop aspirations, why did it take another decade for george to come out? and note i say to come out as opposed to being outed, as i maintain that the "getting caught by plod in the toilet" thing was in fact a carefully-staged rouse to allow george to emerge from his own particular closet without actually admitting he was gay of his own volition!
DeleteI don't think George manufactured his forced coming out - the cop who arrested him went on to sue him for embarrassing him in the Outside video! Don't think the cop won, unsurprisingly.
Deletethe fact that george parodied the incident with undisguised glee in that video (that appeared very soon afterwards to my recollection) suggests to me it was a stunt of some kind. not to mention killing two birds with one stone i.e. getting the gay albatross off his back, and re-boosting his dwindling popularity in the process. if he had really felt he had been outed against his wishes, i bet that would never had happened? sadly though it's unlikely the truth will ever emerge now, whatever the circumstances
Deleteps - it wouldn't surprise me if george gave the cop in question a back-hander for doing him a favour... if you see what i mean ha ha
I guess it took George so long to come out because his image had always been that of a thoroughly heterosexual heartthrob, and he was probably terrified of alienating his female fanbase.
DeleteNot to mention the male fanbase
Deletei wonder how many homophobic fans of george michael threw away his recordings they owned in disgust when he was outed/came out (delete as appropriate)?
DeleteThe first was like a four pronged assault, the haircut, then the serious corny lyrics, then the bagpipe, and finally No.1 for 26 weeks in Australia.
ReplyDeleteI can remember listening to an adaptation of the Alan Clark diaries on Radio 4 in which he mentions William Hague becoming leader of the Conservative party in 1997 with his "droning northern voice and Bruce Willis haircut, whoever he is"
I liked the Beastie Boys and than song but I don't think the BBC did otherwise why show a performance twice which presented the song in such a horrible way.
The playout song was good.
John Farnham - Pretty sure I liked this a lot at the time, despite my hatred for bagpipes. I still enjoy it from time to time.
ReplyDeleteBruce Willis - Utterly appalling in every big-headed way possible.
Bestie Boys - Talentless tripe.
Run DMC - You'd think they would have put something else inbetween these 2 clips! As it goes, I really like this track and Run DMC in general were one of the best early rap acts.
Breakers - So, they had a Tom Jones performance in the can (presumably recorded when he came in to do 'A Boy From Nowhere) and decided not to show it in full on an edition with only one studio act. Right....
Johnny Logan - Two big heads on one show, thank goodness he never did a duet with Bruce Willis.
Jody Watley - I said it in the comments for the last edition, but just in case anyone missed that, I'll repeat: SHOP'S OWN JANET JACKSON!
noax is "shop's own" like saying that jody watley is a poundland janet jackson?
DeleteIt's exactly that!
DeleteBring back Kwiksave!
DeleteIt’s Pete and Simes in the broom cupboard. A very special edition, Pete? Really?
ReplyDeleteIf that was the state of the top of the Aussie charts I’m glad I’m British. One thing worse than bagpipes to my ears and that’s a bagpipe synth noise. John Farnham not looking like he’s walked through a car wash this time.
An awful cover from a horribly sweaty Bruce Willis, one of Motown’s most headscratching signings.
The juxtaposition of Slimes introducing the Beastie Boys was way better than the Montreux clip.
Oh God, there’s more. Very polite clipped English tones there as Pete introduces the masses to hip hop. Give me Toni Basil any day, though.
Tom Jones with a cheeky wink and my favourite song of all time, childhood memories and all that.
Proper smooth metal from Whitesnake, though I wish we could properly see that fox’s face.
ABC! Welcome back, lads. Country squire pop-soul of the highest order.
FF1 and FF2 for number 2 and number 1, followed by Jody Watley with a Lidl bit of disco. See what I did there?
arthur i wouldn't call "it's not unusual" one of my favourite songs of all-time, but as a peer i know what you mean about childhood memories. like many of her generation my mother had a casual interest in the pop scene that amounted to a very small collection of hit singles, which were my own introduction as a pre-pubescent. and (unlike her) i used to play them quite frequently and remember them with great fondness as a "starting point". others i recall apart from that are:
Deletethe everly brothers "cathy's clown"
the beatles "she loves you" (with a great b-side "i'll get you")
the rolling stones "satisfaction" (with another great b-side "the spider and the fly")
the animals "we've gotta get out of this place" (mercifully in retrospect she bought that rather than "house of the rising sun"!)
sandie shaw "long live love"
ps: "it's not unusual" had a pretty good b-side too, with a version of a lesser-known burt bacharach song (and my unwitting introduction to the great man) called "to wait for love"
DeleteOK, here's a question: considering what's been in the news recently, what happens to the TOTP repeats when Michael Jackson is at number one in a few episodes' time? And the hits after that?
ReplyDeleteI would hope nothing at all. Weird though Jacko was, that documentary proves nothing.
DeleteIt's almost like a holding a mirror up to the Yewtree bandwagon - for example, C list comedian makes a comedy touor out of DLT allegedly touching her up then decides to go to court and get money and publicity. Compare and contrast with people who have *testified in court* that Jacko did nothing to them then years later do a 4 hour 'expose' for money and publicity.
At the community radio station I do my show on AFAIK we haven't taken his songs off the system, whereas we have for R Kelly.
But this is the BBC we're talking about so I'm sure the scissors will be out in force.
I saw the documentary and, although I found the two men convincing, as Noax says nothing has been proved and now never will be, as the accused is conveniently dead. On past form, however, I think we have to assume that the Beeb will once again be indulging in a rewrite of history.
DeleteThe good news, as far as 1987 is concerned, is that the repeats should barely be affected. Jacko did not make a video for his forthcoming number 1 and it therefore, highly unusually, did not feature on the show. His subsequent appearances are almost all Smiffed, and the only one that isn't is just a breaker clip that could presumably be edited out. Beyond that, I guess we will just have to wait and see...
It is by no means confirmed, and I notice Paris Jackson was telling everyone to "chill" (it's all right for her, she's not a blood relation), but there's a lot more proof Whacko was getting into bed with kids for cuddles at least. I get that he idolised children and wanted to stay one, but that doesn't change the fact he was a grown man in bed with strangers' children. Plus imagine being a kid and waking up to that cosmetic surgery horrorface in the morning! I think there's a lot more legitimate concern about Jackson than some of those accused, Woody Allen for example.
DeleteBut all that said, I don't think history should be rewritten, no matter how much the outrage industry would like to.
It's LIVE, or at least it was. Can we have the time please Slimes
ReplyDeleteAnd singing live is Aussie number one John Farnham. I do like this song even of I've heard it far too often. Great vocal as well.
How do you mime bagpipes? Badly.
Bruce back again. This is an interesting take on this song. That's all I have to say
Don't mention the general election? I got a day off school or that!
Beastie Boys FF
OMG The Firm!
Run DMC. At least this is a half decent rap song. So our show tonight is live from Montreaux. What a waste. Can't see Montreaux rap night getting a prime time BBC slot.
Breakers:
Tom Jones. Well he was flavour of the month. This is the best song so far. 😀
Obviously filmed last time he was on.
Whitesnake. Great rock ballad. Where would all those driving albums be without the 80s.
Now this is a tune. My introduction to ABC and what a song. Hope we get to see more of this
SLIMES TIME CHECK
oh I hate this Jonny Logan song. Has anyone bothered to show up to the studio tonight. What is going on...
I Want.... Yes go on... 😀
Whitney... On video of course.
Janet on play out... Oops sorry Jody.
Officially the worst show of 1987. And possibly one of the worst ever. And they needs TWO presenter for this car crash.