It's worse than that, it's number one, Jim!
18/06/87 (Janice Long & Simon Mayo)
Samantha Fox – “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me Now” (8)
Getting tonight's show off the ground with her third and final top ten hit which was now at its peak.
Whitesnake – “Is This Love?” (16) (video)
Became their first of two top ten hits when it peaked at number 9.
Tom Jones – “It’s Not Unusual” (20)
Cashing in on his mini-revival, this re-issue peaked at number 17.
ABC – “When Smokey Sings” (14)
Peaked at number 11.
Chris Rea – “Let’s Dance” (25) (breaker)
Became his biggest hit up to this point when it peaked at number 12.
Janet Jackson – “Pleasure Principle” (24) (breaker)
Went up no further.
Curiosity Killed The Cat – “Misfit” (21)
Became their second of three top ten hits when it peaked at number 7.
The Firm – “Star Trekkin’” (1) (video)
Five whole years after their only other hit - Arthur Daley (E's Alright) - The Firm return and this was their first of two weeks at number one.
Broken English – “Comin’ On Strong” (26) (video/credits)
The only top 40 hit for these Rolling Stones soundalikes, peaking at number 18. Beam me up!
25th June is next.
An episode riddled with mistakes.
ReplyDeleteThe election is over, Maggie is back in Number 10, and thankfully TOTP is back in its normal surroundings this week. Janice and young Mayo make for an entertaining partnership, with plenty of good-natured joshing, much of it at Janice's expense. Simon seems far more confident here than previously, though he does mess up when claiming Alexander O'Neal is going down when he had actually climbed three places. On the credit side, however, good for him for daring to say the full title of George Michael's new hit.
ReplyDeleteSam Fox sets us off with a lively, confident performance, but my eyes kept being drawn to the rather surly young man standing motionless in front of the stage, looking thoroughly unimpressed - he even gave a bored wave to the camera near the end! A semi-raunchy video from Whitesnake next, though most of the steam comes from the copious on-set dry ice - lots of big hair on display too, on both the men and the women. The song itself is a classic rock ballad, nicely sung by Dave, and probably the best thing the band ever did.
After that brief snippet last time, we finally get the whole of this pre-recorded Tom Jones performance. You have to hand it to him, he's a pro, but it does feel a bit weird seeing him miming to a record that at this point was already 22 years old. As with practically all of his output, it's never been a song I have cared for all that much, but it does have the virtue of being short. We then get the return of ABC, with Martin sporting a snazzy waistcoat while the backing singers' colourful headdresses clash badly with their sober trouser suits. This Smokey Robinson tribute is a perfectly decent pop song, and it's quite clever in the way it riffs on Tears of a Clown, but unfortunately it's just not in the same class as Smokey's greatest hits, despite Janice's enthusiasm. Motown tributes have a habit of falling a bit flat for me - see also Rod Stewart's tedious Motown Song.
Was this Janet Jackson tune inspired by Gary Numan, by any chance? Good production, but it's not particularly memorable and the video doesn't seem very groundbreaking either. Curiosity's third hit is a significant improvement on the previous one, with a very catchy, soulful chorus - this is one I had forgotten about and it's nice to hear it again. Performance-wise, it's the normal drill with beret and dodgy dancing all present and correct.
Ah, Star Trekkin'. Though I have never been a Trek fan I did like this a lot at the time, and thought it was really funny. Listening with adult ears now, however, it sounds far tinnier than I remember and far more annoying too - even the video looks quite amateurish by the standards of other Claymation promos we have seen recently, though I suppose it does have something of an endearing charm the song itself lacks. We close with what I can only assume is the Counterfeit Stones masquerading under another name, with an average rocker. In the video they look like they are dressed as the Ghostbusters...
Initially, I thought the sullen chap to whom you make reference was definitely a member of the TOTP crew, however not sure following the wave to camera.
Deletei wonder if the "surly young man" was the huckster she later married before he ran off with all her money?
DeleteWas that the point when she gave up men?
Deleteprobably
DeleteQuite a fun episode...
ReplyDeleteAs previously commented, i was also hypnotised by the bored bloke on the left...
Whitesnake - that lady seemed a bit of a tease to me :-) (BIG shoulders)
Still don’t know why its not unusual was in the charts again..
ABC - interesting drum kit...
Don’t remember the Chris Rea video - very colourful
Oh dear Janet, been watching your brother, have you?...
Embarrassing, but I like Star Trekkin (not as good as Where’s Captain Kirk, though)
And finally the Rolling Stones... oh hang on.
charlie are you suggesting that mr coverdale's squeeze might have been a transvestite? i have heard that his ex-purple colleague richie blackmore had a penchant for such ladies, but not him. she is pretty tall, but then again as has been mentioned before here dave is a bit of a shortarse!
DeleteTawny Kitaen is all woman, she got her kit off in a movie or two to prove it (!). Apparently she was last seen doing the rounds of reality TV, and making a fool of herself in the process.
DeleteI thought she looked very tasty in that video
DeleteA really short edition this one, or was it just me and my finger on the FF? Plenty of enthusiasm from the hosts though.
ReplyDeleteSamantha Fox - Nothing’s gonna stop me now – Disposable pop but harmless enough and Sam seems to be enjoying herself.
Whitesnake – Is this love? – My eyes kept getting drawn to the girl in the white dress whilst David Coverdale has reversed the aging process. Almost unrecognisable from the Deep Purple lead singer who gave us classics like ‘Burn’ and ‘Soldier of Fortune’. This is the highlight of the show for me however, but there’s little competition.
Tom Jones – It’s not unusual – No1 for a single week in 1965, this Mills, Reed penned song has all the hallmarks of ‘Long live love’ by Sandie Shaw.
ABC –When Smokey sings – I think Janice overrated this return to the charts from the very smartly dressed Martin and co. The opening female vocals always remind me of ‘Let’s all chant’ by the Michael Zaeger Band.
Breakers – Chris Rea – Following Chris Montez and David Bowie we get another ‘Let’s Dance’ song and it’s OK but the weakest of the trio for me. Technicolor video! Janet Jackson – Like John G, all I could think of before I hit FF was Gary Numan.
Curiousity killed the Cat – Misfit – Actually the band’s first single in July 1986, this is my favourite CktC single. Great video too which I had on my ‘Now 10’ video that I purchased specifically for Heart’s ‘Alone’.
The Firm – Star Trekkin – Boldly going nowhere. Not content with tormenting us with Spitting Image a while back, the UK singles buying public bought this piece of nonsense in droves subjecting us to another two weeks of dire music at no1. As an aside, anyone collect those Star Trek bubble gum cards that featured the story ‘What are little Girls made of’ – the one where an android replica of Kirk is made? I still have my set.
Broken English – Comin’ on Strong – Reminds me of Marianne Faithful this lot…
Whitesnake were easily the best thing on this show, and yeah that girl with the white dress, almost neglige, coming across as a real hottie if ever I saw one, with perfect grooves. I just didn't understand why she got into a strop at the end of the video by storming out of her boyfriend's (Coverdale's) home, when she was so relaxed and cool and feeling sexy and arousing throughout the video. Good Lord!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNormal service is resumed post election with the very experienced Janice and the man-child Mayo.
ReplyDeleteCue Sam Fox.
Loving the ripped jeans and sailors jacket look. Love the song as well. 😀
Love the cool dude to the left of stage waving at the camera "I will NOT be dancing to Sam Fox but I'm on TOTP!" 😂 😂 😂
Janet completely fluffs her link into Whitesnake. Great power ballad this. Europe sized hair on show. Was it compulsory for rock bands? "I'm sorry mate, you have that best voice in the world but you're bald so no good... Next"
Bit of a sleazy video.. 😀
Tom Jones and the full version of his "I recorded this last time I was here" performance. Not singing live this time which is a shame. Shake those hips Tom.
ABC. I love this tune as well Janice. Shame it didn't lead to bigger things after their initial early 80s chart run. One of their best songs this. Very smooth. An all time fave of mine.
Nice sax miming.
Breakers :
Chris Rea finally makes an appearance. Nice tune. Video a bit odd.
Janet with one of her lesser known numbers. It's OK but nowhere near as good as her other hits so far. She looks a lot like Michael in that video.
Curiosity back AGAIN. when you get your 15 minutes milk it. I think this is my favourite of theirs so far. Nice tune. Catchy chorus. Great performance. Great fun.
Where did Star Trekkin come form? Sneaking all the way to the top. Timelords repeat the same trick a year later of course with Doctor Who.
Annoying, silly song. The video is hilariously bad. Sang along all the way though.. 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
Broken English pretending to be Ghostbusters get the video play out. Don't remember this at all. There might be a reason for that...
Good show this one. We are back on form.
The best part of the Star Trekkin' video was that all the characters' heads were actually potatoes dressed up with eyebrows, makeup, etc. Did anyone notice that? I also liked the 'CU Jimmy' blurb by Scotty at the end of the video. Nice touch that, although no longer PC I'm afraid (Russ Abbott also take note)!
Deletesamantha fox: if i didn't know who she was (or at least her page 3 background) and also had no idea about SAW, then i would probably find this actually quite decent as a light and bouncy pop/dance number. unfortunately though i remember them both, all too well. i once read of a rumour that later SAW puppet kylie minogue's voice was "beefed up" in the studio by better singers - i wonder if that happened here?
ReplyDeletewhitesnake: i had only the vaguest memory of this and wasn't exepecting too much going by their previous efforts, but this is actually quite excellent smooth AOR as done by the likes of startship. that lady in the video was in such a rush to leave at the beginning that she forgot to put her dress on, plus note that the video director takes the lyric "my back's against the wall". literally. out of curiosity, i wonder how mr whitesnake and his cohorts' girlfriends felt about them having tresses as long, lustrous and high-maintenance as theirs?
abc: and then there two, in the form of mr fry and the guitarist. and a bit late in jumping on the mock-motown bandwagon (which always sends me running for the hills without fail) that had already been ridden by wham and culture club among others two or three years back. for the record, i prefer the singing of smokey's miracles successor billy griffin to the man himself
janet jackson: probably not that big a surprise it failed to follow its predessesors into the upper reaches of the charts given it was the fourth single of a big-selling album. also quite obviously jam and lewis on autopilot and as such should have been left as album filler. plus they were now definitely losing their way at this point with that harsh snare sound they were employing (i never thought i would say this, but i much prefer the snare on "is this love" than this)
curiosity: i suppose the half-decent chorus helps make up the the weediest of verses. was that bassist perhaps the smuggest-ever performer on the show?
firm: for some reason i always associate this rubbish with "spitting image" rather than the same guys who did that "minder" cash-in a few years back. not sure what they were trying to cash-in on here though, as there was no "star trek" movie released in 1987 (although they never bettered the original tv series, in my view the best of those films by far was "IV: the voyage home"). sadly that didn't seem to bother joe public though
broken english: this reminds me of watching an episode of "new faces" where i thought a clumsy conjurer in a hat was highly amusing, but the panel gave him a real pasting for being nothing but a tommy cooper impersonator! apart from getting the keef licks and jagger drawl off to a tee, the singer's even made to look like old rubber lips! despite that though, it's still an enjoyable listen. and much preferable to the likes of the cult, who to my ears also used the glimmer twins as role models
If that was Kylie's voice "beefed up" on those early hits, I hate to think what she sounded like without it! Still dreading her tone deaf murder of The Locomotion, up soon.
DeleteThinking back to an earlier point in these reruns, Sad Cafe's My Oh My was another blatant Stones knock-off, with Paul Young trying to do his best Jagger impression.
DeleteSmamfa Fox - does this count as jacket and jeans? Textbook bopping, there. The verses are weird here, go a bit out of tune, but deliberately. The rest is the usual SAW sound as we were becoming very familiar with.
ReplyDeleteWhitesnake: yeah, look smug, like the cat who got the cream, Dave, but she still cheated on you! As for the song, eh, passes me by, not terrible, but its aims for moody are contrived and it's not too distinctive melody-wise. Preferred Here I Go.
Tom Jones, well, what can you say, 60s pop classic, something Tom has a lot to be thankful for in his career, but I can only imagine it was the mums buying this in 1987, much as with his previous, comeback hit.
ABC, "When Smokey sings, I hear violence!" Well, you certainly can't hear violins on this. Like a lot of tributes to Motown, it doesn't sound like an authentic Motown record, but it's a jolly, joyful number all the same. Should have been a Top Ten hit.
I suppose we see Chris again, but I haven't heard this Janet effort since it was out, and it did come back to me. For a pop dance track, it's kind of mild, without the edge of her previous hits in that vein, but eh, it was OK.
"Crazy sheep!" Crazy sheep? Anyway, back to the quality of their first hit and a far better song than their previous try, Curiosity's slick approach perfect for the era. Still not sure what Ben's singing about.
The Firm, I actually heard the album this was from, it was called Serious Fun and contained the flop follow up to Star Trekkin', Superheroes ("A bunch of weirdos!"). They could re-release that and clean up with the Marvel fans. Anyway, I heard this on the weekend Radio 1 Breakfast Show, thought it was really funny, but thought no more about it, then the next thing I knew it was at No.1. The impersonations are all excellent - apart from Lt. Uhura, who doesn't sound like Nichelle Nicholls at all. I still laugh when Scotty goes "Och, see you, Jimmy!" - if only James Doohan had done that on the show! The video wouldn't give Nick Park sleepless nights, but fits the cheap and cheerful nature. Don't mind this even now, you can't be serious all the time, with music or anything else.
Who ya gonna call? Broken English! Who? This was never off the radio at the time, and yes, as mentioned, everyone though it was the Rolling Stones at first. They missed off the bit at the start that goes "All I can see is the whites of her eyes...!" which I liked as a teenager.
While this Samantha Fox number was a SAW sound through and through, the best of her was still to come when she went over to the USA later in the year to collaborate with Full Force, to do what would be her best two singles, ie, I Wanna Have Some Fun, and Naughty Girls Need Love too.
DeleteThese two raunchy singles were as far away from SAW as you can get, not just in music but also geographically on the other side of the Atlantic, so well done to Miss Fox for making that leap out of Britain for better fortunes after this mediocre SAW effort!
Yeah THX, I was also thinking Rolling Stones when hearing the Broken English playout track. It's that very alpha male vocal, typical of the likes of Mick Jagger, Paul Weller, Meat Loaf and others.
DeleteIn fact this track called Comin On Strong was a piece of musical genius in my opinion, not only by the alpha-male sound which is a rarity these days in pop music, but also by the fact that they had the guts to sing such lyrics and song title, which would not be PC nowadays in these days of taking offence at everything, with no sense of humour.
By the way, the three gorgeous hotties in the video were also comin on strong I thought, and why not!
One of the best songs and videos of the 80s, and could have done better by going top 3 which it deserved.
I was more right than I knew when I made my comments on Broken English - lead singer Steve Elson did later become a member of the Counterfeit Stones, under the name Nick Dagger!
DeleteCome to think of it, I once knew someone who was coming on strong, but she was ugly, so there was no chance of developing anything of substance.
DeleteI remember another song with the same lyrics by The Shamen in 1992 called Comin' On, and the lyrics went something like this:
"Comin on strong, comin on strong, comin on strong, you know you keep comin on......."
Does anyone remember this one along with its tasty video to boot?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWu3JqLMImY
I'd forgotten about Broken English, but the first band that sprang to mind when I heard 'Comin' On Strong' this week was...The Rolling Stones. Guitarists Jamie Moses and Alan Coates are quite seasoned, having enjoyed spells with Queen + Paul Rodgers and The Hollies respectively.
ReplyDeleteSamantha Fox's smash may have been a Stock/Aitken/Waterman composition, but lyrically it is a post-disco version of 'No More Tears' - a song about being strong enough to walk out of a failing relationship and survive in the big, wide world as a single woman. The former Page 3 model would prove to be the Geri Halliwell of her time: sufficiently competent as a singer, and successful for a few years with the right songs, but lacking the superstar calibre of Madonna or Adele.
ABC were by this time down to a duo...but with plenty of outside assistance for their TV appearances. On this occasion, Martin Fry and Mark White were accompanied by a drummer with a spasm in his left leg, a brace of hotel cleaners who had just been to Primark's spring bank holiday sale, and two alto saxophonists miming to a baritone sax's countermelody and a tenor sax solo. Former "members" Fiona Russell-Powell and David Yarritu have nothing on them! Nevertheless, 'When Smokey Sings' proved to be a remarkable, if brief, return to chart form for ABC. The duo's follow-up single 'The Night You Murdered Love' - one of ABC's finest offerings - deserved to be another smash here in Britain, but halted at No.31 despite making the US Club Top 3 and performing reasonably well across Europe.
The less said about The Firm, the better. I imagine most of those who purchased this utter waste of vinyl were 'Star Trek' completists. Come back, Joe Dolce - all is forgiven!
Sam Fox - I didn't realise we were getting this again so soon! As per my previous comments, it's a rather fine pop song.
ReplyDeleteWhitesnake - David and his friend were single handedly trying to deplete the EU hairspray mountain in the video I see. As for the song, OK but a bit dull.
Tom Jones - A great song and head and shoulders above 'A Boy From Nowhere'
ABC - I was never a massive fan of this, and then I had to play it hundreds of times on the radio so enough said. Julie's right, the follow-up was better.
Janet Jackson's song didn't deserve more than the short clip shown in the breakers section.
Curiosity Killed The Cat - This is their best song, though sadly Ben has now gone beyond slappably annoying.
The Firm - I loved it at the time, then hated it after a few weeks. It probably hasn't aged as well as their other hit song even!
Broken English - Shouty and horrid.
Very casual pose by that chap leaning on the stage front for Sam’s performance. Dancing on those stairs would never get past health and safety these days. Sam, why put the mic out to the audience for a mime?
ReplyDeleteA muddled intro by Janice into a rock ballad classic by Whitesnake, complete with a double necked bass! Never seen one of those before. Wahay! Bum alert at 5:50 into the show.
Tom Jones with my fave song of all time and a very mouth-licky but energetic mime there.
Why did ABC’s drummer keepliftig his left leg up? Nice teal tones to most of the ensemble’s costumes. Those backing singers were having a bit of a josh. That guitarist can’t spell ‘channel’.
Since when has Chris Rea been interesting? A “Countryfile” style video where the dance in question would be a ‘putting out a small fire’ quickstep.
Not much pleasure shown in Janet’s video. Someone’s nicked the mic, love. I can imagine the meeting - “We can’t afford all those backdrops and dancers this time, Janet, you’ll have to make do with a solo slot in a disused car lot”.
Next we get “Shit Hit” and a FF.
I much preferred The Firm to the last number one. It’s a chart topper but not as we know it.
We finish not with Ghost busters but Tunebusters and a Stone(s) cold piece of shite.