Moves Like Jagger
24/09/87 (Gary Davies & Mike Smith)
Johnny Hates Jazz – “I Don’t Want To Be A Hero” (11)
At its peak.
ABC – “The Night You Murdered Love” (31)
Went up no higher.
Madonna – “Causing A Commotion” (4) (video)
At its peak.
Jan Hammer – “Crockett’s Theme” (19)
Became his second and final top ten hit when it peaked at number 2.
Gary Numan – “Cars (E Reg Model)” (26) (breaker)
Peaked at number 16.
LL Cool J – “I Need Love” (16) (breaker)
Peaked at number 8.
Michael Jackson – “Bad” (5) (breaker)
This title track from his number one album went up two more places.
Mick Jagger – “Let’s Work” (41)
Making his first studio appearance since 1971? The song peaked at number 31.
Rick Astley – “Never Gonna Give You Up” (1) (rpt)
Final week at number one.
1st October is next.
ABC - A shame to miss out on this one, as it's a brilliantly crafted pop song, and much more interesting than the overplayed 'When Smokey Sings'.
ReplyDeleteMadonna - Not one of her best remembered songs and it's easy to see why. You can also see from this performance how live vocals are not her strong point as well.
Jan Hammer - Pleasant, in a bland kind of way.
Not sure which breakers we get again, but that's definitely not the 'E Reg Model' version of 'Cars' that they're playing. I detest the LL Cool J song, and the Jacko one is not one of my favourites.
Mick Jagger - On the show through reputation alone as it's certainly nothing to do with the quality of the song or the chart position.
They're bored with the No.1 now as it gets the playout slot!
Another generally solid turn from our hosts, though Smitty's ongoing quest to be a man of a thousand voices does begin to grate a little when he introduces LL Cool J. JHJ return with Clark once more in a punchy mood, and then it's time for ABC, with a drummer and brass section dressed like overgrown boy scouts and a pair of backing singers whose elegant headscarf-and-shades look is compromised a bit by the marigolds they also appear to be wearing. Martin himself appears more casual than normal, for a song that definitely harks back to the Lexicon of Love era in its production but was perhaps a little too understated to become a bigger hit. This will be one of the last times we see them, if not the last, as they had only one further Top 40 hit to come in 1989.
ReplyDeleteOn to a live clip of Madge with one of her less remembered hits and you can see why really, it's a bit anonymous. Smitty makes a catty remark about her vocals at the end, but I thought she did OK and this did seem to be wholly live, unlike some of her later, more extravagant concerts. Rather a surprise that there were no other dancers on stage with her, but she performs her own moves well, coming very close to moonwalking at one point. If I remember rightly, the last time Jan Hammer was in the studio back in 1985 his performance was interspersed with clips from Miami Vice. I think it would have been a sensible move to do likewise this time, as watching him playing keyboards and keytar does get a bit tedious after a while. Even so, this is a haunting, moody piece of work which is superior to his previous hit.
I think someone has already mentioned on an earlier post that this Jagger performance had been in the can for a few weeks, but that the song had not charted high enough to justify showing it before now. Given it was still only at 41, I think they were still on shaky ground including it here given how many songs that did make the Top 40 in this era got ignored, but I suppose it's not every day a star of his magnitude agreed to turn up. Angelo is right that this was his first studio appearance since Brown Sugar in 1971 (so 16 years since he was last there Smitty, not 17), and he makes the most of it by doing an Adam Ant and roaming all around the studio. It's quite an entertaining spectacle, but the song itself is mediocre and Jagger would soon abandon his attempts at a solo career and kiss and make up with Keef instead. As Noax says, I think we can assume that TOTP were now fed up with Rick, as he gets relegated to the playout for his last week at the top.
Real 80s nostalgia here, not for the music so much, but for the small desktop pc or mac that Jan Hammer sported next to his keyboards. It looked like a Mackintosh, which was Apple's precursor to the current Apple Mac which went flatscreen some years later, but not absolutely sure. Definitely one for the technology museums.
DeleteI remember my parents bought an Amstrad computer at about this time, with real floppy disks!
DeleteOh yes, those old black floppy disks. I forgot about those, the precursor to the memory stick. However, the floppy disk logo is still on current computers as the save button, so that seems to have survived, even though the disks themselves haven't!
DeleteI believe that same pc makes a re-appearance in the Christmas 1987 show with the Pet Shop Boys.
DeleteOur Amstrad has a tape machine with games that took a whole 9 minutes to load!
Deleteabc: this sounds like "tears are not enough"- lite to my ears. also martin fry's hairline is seriously struggling to sustain that floppy fringe now
ReplyDeletemadonna: sounds like "get into the groove"-lite to my ears
jan hammer: did i mention this before? back then someone once told me i looked like don johnson, who was of course the hottest dude on the planet at that point. despite that flattery i never followed the show as it was obviously a case of style over content, and mr hammer wrote scores to match. you can just imagine the totp producer tearing his hair out at the prospect of trying to make an old bald guy miming on keyboards interesting. what with that and house hits now invading the studio en masse, surely it would have been a good time to bring back legs & co. or at least some kind of dance troupe to distract from the facelessness of it all?
mick jagger: i suppose this got released because it sounded so utterly un-stones like (curiously, more like his colleague bill wyman's solo hit from a few years back)? either that or his ego couldn't be contained within the greatest rock n roll band in the world. but even strutting about among the studio audience couldn't seem to drum up any interest in anything he ever did outside of that (his last solo album released about ten years ago apparently only sold several hundred copies!). talking of drums, isn't that session player extraordinaire simon phillips (last seen on the show backing toyah to my recollection) behind the kit?
Jan Hammer on this TOTP studio appearance looked a bit like Danny DeVito with regard to the looks and baldness with accompanying back-hair, but was not as short as him.
DeleteThe dynamic duo again – semi regulars so it seems.
ReplyDeleteJohnny Hates Jazz – I don’t want to be a hero – Surprised that this was still on the ascent but nice to see it again.
ABC – The Night you murdered love – Scraping the barrel a bit? Only at no31 and didn’t go any higher. Much bigger hits have missed out completely.
Madonna – Causing a Commotion – Her first duff single in my view. I much prefer ‘Jimmy Jimmy’ on the B-Side (from ‘‘True Blue’) but I guess Sire were trying to milk the ‘Who’s that Girl’ soundtrack. Live performance does the song no favours either.
Jan Hammer – Crockett’s Theme – Lovely piece of music but crying out for clips of the show/film like they did for ‘Miami Vice Theme’ and for Harold Faltermeyer with ‘Axel F’. Just boring seeing one man and his keyboards.
Breakers – Gary Numan – I thought this was supposed to be a remix but it looks and sounds like circa 1979 (albeit putting a lot of the dross in this chart to shame!). LL Cool JJ – Where’s the tune? Michael Jackson – Title sums it up. I guess with these BBC4 skipped shows it gets round the issue of whether or not they’ll be showing Jacko. Must come to a head at some point soon as there are loads more singles released off the album…..zzzzzz
Mick Jagger – Let’s Work – Very energetic and committed performance from Jagger with that prancing around the studio bringing to mind Adam Ant with ‘Goody Two Shoes’ (I see John G has the same recollection!!). Anthemic song without doubt. 10 out of 10 for effort, but like ABC, stalled at no31 and wasn’t even at that position at this point! The link from 45cat below has some interesting observations from contributors regarding this point:-
https://www.45cat.com/record/6510280
Simon Phillips did play drums on the ‘Primitive Cool’ album from which this single is taken, so yes Wilberforce, I think that his him. Simon completely stole the show at Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells 10th Anniversary’ concert at Wembley with this storming drum solo on ‘Crises’. Unforgettable.
Rick Astley – Never gonna give you up – Last week at the top sadly. I see in the paper that Rick is supporting Take That on their forthcoming tour.
around the time of this broadcast i went to the music fair show in olympia, and happened to notice simon phillips in animated conversation with another guy - i assume he had been hired to do a drum clinic that day, as i heard him complaining that he'd had to pay to get in like a normal punter because the people on the door had no idea who he was! i don't suppose jagger would have had that problem?
DeleteClark with his medal on again - can you unwrap it to get to the chocolate inside?
ReplyDeleteABC, dramatic title, but an underfed tune, the lyrics are better than the melody (apart from the run through of the calendar). Now they have a National guitar, we must be getting the whole collection on these appearances.
Madonna live! Reminds me of a girl who wrote in to Annie Nightingale saying she had seen Madge on this tour and "she was the size of my deodorant bottle". Anyway, consciously namechecking Into the Groove in the lyrics doesn't necessarily make this a worthy successor, but eh, it's OK considering it's from an awful film. She must have fun with moving walkways at airports.
Jan Hammer hammering away at not only a keyboard, but a keytar as well! Looks like he drives a Porsche, too, in that he's wealthy enough to afford one now he's reached a certain age, but is no longer young enough to look cool. Maybe a clip of that would have brightened up his impassioned but vaguely naff performance here. As for the instrumental, it does evoke a stylish show, but goes nowhere in particular.
Sir Mick with presumably Pauline from The League of Gentlemen's favourite song. It was regarded as a Thatcherite anthem at the time, which relegated it to unfashionable status (for pop), but it has terribly patronising words anyway, though the production is fair. Once again, his attempts at a solo career floundered - he'd try it again and the same thing happened. Take a hint!
Then Rick to end on.
yes, i seem to remember jagger getting some flak for apparently supporting the evil witch's manifesto. however the irony was that in her first two or three years in power i had great diffculty in actually finding any work (never mind doing some), as she had pulled the plug on loads of previously-available public sector jobs!
DeleteJust to echo what Angelo has said, big thanks to Robert and Neil for making the show available to us. You are under no obligation to do so and receive no reward so I assume you do so out of love for the show and passion for the music which you wish to share. And that's deeply commendable. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteWell that has to be one of the oddest TOTP editions in a while. I'm not really sure what to make of it...
ReplyDeleteStarting off with "suntanned" and bemused Gary with "white boy" chuckles Smith. Gary in a state of bemusement and bewilderment throughout.
Johnny Hates Jazz back - nothing to see here out of the ordinary. Still like the song.
ABC with The Night You Murdered Love. Hugely distracted by the backing singer that couldn't remember to mime to the backing vocal and the 7ft giant in the audience.
Like the song though and a big ABC fan. Not one of their best but pleasant enough.
Madonna with a live version of Causing A Commotion that I thought worked quite well, even if Smithy disagreed. Can't remember if this was released before but I have a feeling it's an old one. Not a Madonna classic by any means but still a good pop song.
Jan Hammer - truly amazed this got a studio turn and we got an edited MJ clip. Seriously odd decision as this is a nothing performance, memorable only for the 7ft giant re-appearing in the crowd and the girl in the front row checking her watch to see if the song had finished yet...less than a minute in!
Breakers:
Gary Numan. Always nice to hear Cars again. Classic track. Cool video.
Ladies Love Cool James - but not the Dad. You wait til he hears Eminem.
Michael Jackson. Bad should have been number One. Should have had the whole video played. Great song from my favourite MJ album. I cannot watch the video however after the ITV chart show played Weird Al Yankovic Fat video which is hilarious (or was at the time)
Mick Jagger. NUMBER 41. I assume that his 17 year hiatus was broken as the song was stuck outside the Top 40. The song is rubbish, the stage school kids twee. Just naff.
And we playout with Rick Astley. Bye Rick.
Nope -still don't know what to make of it all. I'm going for a lie down.
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DeletePopped forward a day now to the debut of TOTP USA and hello Nia. STEREO broadcast as well. My headphones are very excited.
DeleteNice history dump from GD followed by a repeat of Mr Jagger and his awful song.
Mister Mister the first "new" performance. Not a hit here I recall but I quite liked it, in an instantly forgettable sort of way.
Jellybean up next. I remember this one so it must have been a hit over here. Not bad at all, although nowhere near as good as "Just A Mirage" which is one of my all time favorite 80s songs.
Level 42 get another appearance, this time from last weeks show.
Back to the US for Canadian Bryan Adams. No recollection of this one being a hit over here. They did love their AOR hits over in the U S of A didn't they. I quite liked this. 😀
Loverboy aka Bon Jovi. It might as well be. More AOR. My word...
This is actually OK and you can see the Bon Jovi influence. . This could have been a UK hit, wonder if it was released here.
I counted 14 hits I'd never heard of before today in the US chart.
Bowie now a HUGE American star. Nia quite exited to see him. Don't recall this one at all. Did it ever get a UK airing? Enjoyed this one. Probably my favourite track on the whole show. Nice crowd interaction.
UK Top Ten. From last week but Three weeks at No. 1, that was 2 weeks ago. Not getting this dating at all? 😁 😁 😁
Nice to see Rick introduced for a new performance. A bit similar to the UK version but amusing he had to do it twice!
Whitney at the top in the US and even they didn't have a Video. How embarrassing. Was she too busy to show up.
God bless the Bananas for stepping into the breach. So glad they were big in America as well. Couldn't have happened to 3 more down to earth girls. Best of British. 😀
Interestingly some of next weeks quests were already known in advance. Not purely based on chart positions then.
A very quick playout over the Jagger track.
And the BBC so commercially niave that they just had the spinning globe as their branding (probably the only thing they could find)
Shame this never really took off over the pond as its a great idea and a good show. I like Nia.
On a serious note does anyone else know if any more of these shows exist. I would happily watch more. 😀 😀 😀
Re Loverboy and 'Notorious'...it certainly did get a UK release:-
Deletehttps://www.45cat.com/record/6510607
Co-written by Jon and Richie and poduced by Bruce Fairbairn. No wonder it was pretty good!
Their 'Top Gun' song 'Heaven in your Eyes' also got a UK single release as did lead singer Mike Reno's duet with Ann Wilson 'Almost there' from 'Footloose'.