Rick n roll
03/09/87 (Mike Smith)
Squeeze – “Hourglass” (21)
Returning with their first top 40 hit for six years, the excellent Hourglass peaked at number 16.
Levert – “Casanova” (20)
His only hit, and it peaked at number 9.
The Housemartins – “Me & The Farmer” (27)
Peaked at number 15.
Cliff Richard – “Some People” (15)
Peaked at number 3.
The Cult – “Wild Flower” (30) (video)
Got no higher.
Johnny Hates Jazz – “I Don’t Want To Be A Hero” (34)
Peaked at number 11.
Rick Astley – “Never Gonna Give You Up” (1) (rpt)
Second week at number one.
The Fat Boys & The Beach Boys – “Wipeout” (3) (video/credits)
Went up one more place.
September 10th is next.
Here is the US episode I promised earlier in the year (or last year) Angelo
ReplyDeletehttps://we.tl/t-zPzxOx58km
25th September 1987
Wow Anonymous, what a show, the new Mr Mister track at No.28 has a great background beat, it's so infectious and upbeat, just love it.
DeleteAn American band I never heard of called Loverboy at No.40, and singing very much like Meat Loaf & John Parr. Anyway, who thought up such a daring name for a band - Loverboy.
I also spotted in the chart rundown at no.21 a sexy girl group called Expose who never really made it here in the UK, but were chart regulars in the US, and I remember hearing them regularly on Paul Gambaccini's American chart on Radio 1 on Saturday afternoons in the late 1980s, and liking this group a lot.
Dan Hill at No.20 with new music in 1987. Good Lord, the last time he was in the UK Chart was in 1978 with Sometimes When We Touch, so what happened since then in the UK to totally ignore all his new music up to 1987? The mind boggles.
Great one ~ thank you!
DeleteHi Anonymous! The list of missing higher res shows between '76 and '80 I've posted on the forum for 6/08/87. Cheers!
DeleteMike Reno of Loverboy teamed up with Ann Wilson of Heart for the duet 'Almost Paradise' co-written by Eric Carmen, which was the 'love theme' from 'Footloose'.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc40EasXz18
Let's hear it for the boy and girl!
Interesting anonymous. Thanks for sharing. OTT atmosphere as you’d expect from an American version. Some facsimile titles on show – ‘Victim of Love’ by Bryan Adams I’d never heard nor hear of before and I still prefer the Eagles, whilst Loverboy’s ‘Notorious’ was quite rocky unlike Duran’s. Great to hear that simply wonderful Level 42 song which was the highlight of the show for me. No1 in the US doesn’t bear thinking about, but they never played it!
DeleteIt's a little unfair that they relegated The Fat Boys to the playout as their first appearance on the show, considering they went up from No.19 to No.3 this week. TOTP missed off the beginning of the video where the Fat Boys and The Beach Boys were at a pre-match press conference supporting two different boxers, one of which was the WBA champion at the time Hector "Macho Man" Camacho, and the challenger Ray "Boom Boom Mancini", and the pre-match press conference descended into chaos, with one of the parties getting a bucket of water tossed on him. TOTP also cut out of the video at the end of the show, just when the night scenes were about to come up, where the Fat Boys indulged into some tasty bbq food served up by some tasty girls on the beach.
ReplyDeleteIn fact both The Chart Show on Channel 4 and TOTP missed off the first part of the video in the boxing ring, tut tut, naughty Chart Show and TOTP!
Anyway, as this is the only time the video appeared on TOTP now at No.3 in the chart, we have it here in full with the beginning and end of the video included for us to see for the first time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-kAnNgqN9o
The beginning of the video in the boxing ring was so good that if the two TV shows would have shown it, it would have easily got to No.1, and I think they were trying to protect the golden boy Rick Astley at the No.1 spot, having become a heart-throb of the British public overnight! If only, if only...
squeeze: "cool for cats" apart i was always ambivalent towards them, probably mainly because i always found glenn tilbrook's voice a bit on the strained side. i see jools has returned here, but presumably they didn't have the heart to give his latest "replacement" his cards?
ReplyDeletelevert: pretty bland midtempo dance club music. apparently one of them (not sure if it's supposed to be a solo act or a group) had a dad who was in the o'jays, although i don't know if it was the porker on the right or not
housemartins: shouldn't this be "the farmer and i"? as with most of their stuff it does zero for me. why does the singer feel the need to pretend to play the guitar this time?
cliff: i'm doing a lot of dutiful listening to stuff on this particular edition that i've either forgotten or never listened to properly in the first place. this is another, although i have to admit this is by far the best thing on the show with a decent tune (modulation alert!) and some nice production touches. even cliff's singing doesn't annoy me the way it usually does
cult: yet more tune-free meat and potato rock
johnny hates jazz: i remember thinking this the weakest of their three hits that year, with the last one being the best by far. however a refresher listen suggests it's better in retrospect in a tuneful funk-lite way - reminding me somewhat of wham, and certainly preferable to what george michael was doing at this point
fat boys/beach boys: some people really get excited when they hear this rock n roll/surf staple, but it justs bores the pants off me. but give me earlier recordings over this abomination any day of the week. just what exactly were what was left of the beach boys doing on this? they didn't even do the original version to my recollection
i have reminded myself that i was working in an office back then where a colleague was a guy of turkish-cypriot descent called levent, and perhaps not surprisingly he ended up being called levert after they had their hit. it was hardly the wittiest thing in the world i agree, but believe me if you were there then you'd understand that dishing out silly nicknames was one way of making the hours pass a bit quicker!
DeleteSqueeze, Hourglass was a big favourite of Simon Mayo's, so much so that he invented actions for the lyrics in the chorus for the Roadshow. I remember the video being quite innovative, might refresh my memory on that one. Jolly, catchy tune combined with end of the tether words, I still enjoy this one.
ReplyDeleteLevert, another one I really like, this is seriously catchy too, simple, fingersnappy melody. They seemed to be inventing New Jack Swing, and more power to them, though I didn't recall they looked like that! Better off in audio, I'd say.
The Housemartins, loved this at the time, this is a good episode so far. After taking on architects and Fatcher's government, it was the agricultural industry subjected to their wrath. Perfect indie pop.
Sir Cliff, with a drippy, dreary ballad that keeps trying to pick up a head of steam but trips over itself in the process. Much sniggering at the time at Clifford crooning about "Holding the other one..." Fnar.
The Cult, Ian Astbury sounds a lot like Fozzie Bear on this one, but that's about all that distinguishes it. Typical rawk concert video, not much different from Status Quo really, not that they would admit it.
Johnny Hates Jazz with a midtempo scoop of vanilla pop, slickly produced but terminally unexciting. Is this the answer song to It Bites' only hit? Don't know why Mr Datchler has a medal, was it because he's mates with Dick Dastardly and Muttley was AWOL that day?
Rick we know about, then The Fat Boys and The Beach Boys to end on, but mostly the Fat Boys. Was Brian even on this, or was it the scheming Mike Love's idea? There aren't even any lyrics on the Surfaris' original! The thought of these rappers on surfboards is ludicrous, but still more entertaining than their movie Disorderlies, proof if proof were needed that goofing around in a video for a piece of fluff record does not make you an actor.
I suspect Mike Love was the prime mover in this collaboration. Brian was under the spell of Eugene Landy at the time and would not have had anything to do with it, and I didn't see Al Jardine in the video either - Love and Carl Wilson were the only two I recognised.
Deletebrian wilson's "replacement" bruce johnston was also in it, madly gurning away at one point (well, there wasn't much else for him to do). i think dennis had died by then though? if so, then he was the lucky one!
DeleteYes, Dennis had drowned back in 1983.
DeleteStrange to think Brian is the only Wilson brother left alive, given his issues. If you want to see an absolutely fantastic music biopic, then Love & Mercy about Brian's highs and lows is a must. The opening ten minutes alone are completely riveting.
DeleteHe’s back….and we’re back to struggling to keep up with the shows now!! An ominous sign appeared in the chart rundown at no35 with the anonymous looking Mars. But boy were we in for a nasty shock when it was played. Sheesh it was rubbish! Mercifully though, we’re spared non-mover Whitney with one of her all time shouty songs!
ReplyDeleteSqueeze – Hour Glass – I thought I recognised the keyboard player and then Smitty treated us to his impression later. Hilarious! Not too bad a song but not in the ‘Another nail my heart’ league.
Levert – Casanova – This title is synonymous with Coffee for me. This incarnation of that title was not my cup of tea.
Housemartins – Me and the Farmer – Daft title. Weak tune.
Cliff Richard – Some People – Ah that’s more like it. Cliff at his ‘arm waving’ best with one of his strongest singles for years. Great Alan Tarney Tune, well worth seeing.
The Cult – Wildflower – On the B-Side of ‘Telegram Sam’ by T. Rex is a song called ‘Baby Strange’ from which this riff is nicked. Not as bad as I feared however and much preferable to some of the stuff in the charts.
….meanwhile all we hear after every artist is ‘Heart and Soul’ making me wish for Carol Decker and co.…. Next week perhaps.
Johnny Hates Jazz – I don’t want to be a Hero – Good follow up to their previous hit.
Rick Astley – Never gonna give you up – Timeless. Please Rick, can you stay no1 for seven rather than five weeks?!!
Fat Boys / Beach Boys – Wipe out – I should hate this really, but so strong is the melody that it is hard to ruin it even by shouting out the lyrics. Actually the Surfaris had the original hit in 1963 not the Beach Boys, but I guess there is a fine line. Fades away to murmurings at the end which is quite interesting and must surely not have seen transmission?
Is it just me, or did the theme tune sound slightly different at the start of this show? Anyway, the summer is over (indeed, I had started at junior school the day before this one was first broadcast), and unfortunately Smitty is back from his long break. He is not the most irritating here that he has ever been, but he did still set my teeth on edge a couple of times - in fairness, his Jools impression wasn't bad.
ReplyDeleteJools himself must have been at a bit of a loose end following The Tube's demise, hence his reunion with Squeeze. I remember seeing this performance at the time and being surprised to see him there, as to me he was just a TV presenter. Not a bad comeback single all told, though I think it would get irritating if you heard it too often. If the band hoped that a new run of chart success would ensue, they would end up disappointed as this was their last Top 20 entry. Two members of Levert were actually sons of the O'Jays singer Eddie Levert, and both of them, Sean and Gerald, would die young. I suspect that they were probably the heavier members of the trio, but while they are not the most svelte dancers, this is a reasonable soul-dance track with a good groove.
The Housemartins are back, though they were now nearing the end of their career. This starts off sounding very similar to Happy Hour, but goes its own way in the rousing chorus and I think has a good claim to being their best single, despite the weird lyrics. A steady performance too, without some of the hi-jinks we have seen from them in the past. Cliff follows, with one of his last truly credible hits from a musical point of view. It's a good tune, though perhaps a little too po-faced for my tastes, and as normal Mr Webb proves that it is much better to just listen to him, rather than watching him run through his moves - the audience seemed to enjoy them, for some bizarre reason!
The Cult's new video is no more imaginative than the previous one, but I don't mind the song, which is effective stripped-down rock of a kind that was rare at this point in time. After that Johnny Hates Jazz sound very tame, not helped by Clark's somewhat underpowered vocals and the wimpy song title. It is quite well produced, but I have never liked this one much and hearing it again now hasn't changed my mind - however, I did enjoy the unexpected moment when Clark punched the air in time with the drums. The Fat Boys/Beach Boys play us out, with the latter group, and Mike Love in particular, doubtless sensing the chance for a chart revival by jumping on the rap bandwagon. For the Fats this would be the first of a couple of hits where they gave old songs a hip-hop makeover, and much as I dislike rap the mixing of genres doesn't work too badly here, in part because as sct says the melody of the original song is strong enough to offset the shouting. A reasonably enjoyable video to go with it, and we certainly get a right eyeful of one bikini-clad young lovely...
You should watch the whole video on youtube, where there were lots more bikini-clad lovelies in the second half of the video not shown on TOTP at the night BBQ with one Fat Boy looking very fat indeed, and a young couple having what one would say a fruity snog on the night sand.
DeleteIt's a pity that TOTP missed off the first one-and-a-half minutes of the video, and also the last two minutes of it. One of the videos of the year in my opinion, to also relaunch the fortunes of the Beach Boys at the same time.
Listened to this show on a PC but the next show on the TV and John is right the theme has been remixed. Sounds tinnier, less bass
DeleteYes, it was definitely changed at this point - not sure why, but I preferred the original version.
DeleteOh how I've missed Mike Smith with his oh so hilarious impressions (though I suppose at least the one he does here is reasonably accurate) and constant foreshadowing of the rest of the show during the chart rundown....
ReplyDeleteSqueeze - A great pop song, and the video is memorable with some false perspective shots. Amazing that it wasn't a bigger hit really.
Levert - Passable, though I'm not sure about some of the dancing.
The Housemartins - A fun if fairly inconsequential tune. Their next release would be their masterpiece...
Cliff - It's an Alan Tarney tune so therefore better than your average Cliff effort but it's not as good as his previous single.
The Cult - Amazed this got on. It's nothing to write home about.
Johnny Hates Jazz - One of those that I don't mind hearing now and again even if it's not a masterpiece.
Fat Boys / Beach Boys - Truly dreadful, and unlike others here I had no desire to ogle at the video given that it would mean having to listen to the music.
noax you could always watch the fat/beach boys video with the mute button on. not that i have any desire to watch it anyway - whether the sound is on or not. it's strange how the hair metal brigade are getting slagged off here for their videos full of gratuitous crumpet, and yet this lot aren't?
DeleteIt was probably because of the public's love of The Beach Boys that this video was popular, and the crumpet on the beach was part of the fun. The Fat Boys were simply a perfect (and funny) vehicle for them to come back after a long hiatus since the last time we had them in the charts, which I think was in 1979 with Lady Linda.
DeleteIn any case, bikini girls on the beach were commonplace in American videos for at least a couple of years before, with David Lee Roth (California Girls), Huey Lewis (If This Is It) and The Beastie Boys (She's On It), all made a couple of years before this new Fat Boys Video, with the David Lee Roth video having the most eye-popping bikini girls that I've ever seen on a pop video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmbhfI8f_Ek
First up a big thanks in advance to everyone supplying the video for the Mike Marathon.
ReplyDeleteI must admit to not being much inspired by the line up this week but here goes..
We are "live" (with a few pre-recorded bits) and Squeeze get us underway with one of those song titles that make me go "what??? - never heard of it". Then it kicks in and I do remember it well. I actually really like it but never knew it was called Hourglass. Nice to see Jools on keyboard (more of him later)
Next up not just another "what song?" but a "who are they?" for Levert. A lot of sweat but not a lot of sex appeal (which I think they were aiming for). Lead singer looks like a bit like DLT!!! I can't wait for this to be Casa..Over
(I'm sorry, I'll get my coat...)
Housemartins up next with a song that reminds me why I hated them as a kid. Utter rubbish, sorry.
Amusing watching the audience completely failing to clap in time.
Nice Jools impression from Smithy
Cliff up next. That's two of his songs in a row I've liked now, what's wrong with me. Nice tune this.
A rare video in the last few weeks and The Cult doing rock by numbers. Not my thing at all. Would rather they had played some breakers.
JHJ don't want to be heroes and they won't with this average slice of Pop. It's pleasant enough and very Radio 2 so I enjoyed it but not gonna make and Top 10 lists.
Rick gets a repeat
Finally the Fat Boys give us their appalling rap to wipeout, Dodgy rap, dodgy lyrics. Amazed this went as high as it did.
Interestingly they repeat the trick in 88 with The Twist and Chubby Checker to much better effect.
Think the best song on the show this week was T'Pau.
Back to the TV....
Thank you to Robert for making this episode available.
ReplyDelete