Short and sweet
24/03/88 (Simon Bates & Peter Powell)
Sinitta – “Cross My Broken Heart” (14)
Getting tonight's show underway and on her way to number 6.
A-ha – “Stay On These Roads” (18)
Became their eighth and final top ten hit when it peaked at number 5.
Simon Harris – “Bass (How Low Can You Go)” (16)
In the studio and the record went up four more places.
Wet Wet Wet – “Temptation” (25) (breaker)
Peaked at number 12.
Debbie Gibson – “Only In My Dreams” (22) (breaker)
Peaked at number 11.
Climie Fisher – “Love Changes (Everything)” (26) (breaker)
Their biggest hit, peaking at number 2.
Iron Maiden – “Can I Play With Madness?” (4) (video)
Began a run of seven consecutive top ten hits for the band when it peaked at number 3.
Tiffany – “Could’ve Been” (5) (video)
Went up one more place.
Aswad – “Don’t Turn Around” (1)
First of two weeks at number one.
Whitney Houston – “Where Do Broken Hearts Go?” (15) (video/credits)
Went up one more place.
Next up is March 31st - the final edition hosted by Mike Smith.
Skirt no bigger than a belt, it's Sinitta modelling the latest in spray-on clothes. Here she delivers what sounds like a playground chant passing for a proper tune, but I suppose it was all laser targeted for the right market.
ReplyDeleteA-ha on video, according to Bates, so naturally here they are in the studio. Starts quiet and turns bombastic, with Morten's keening vocals making for not the best of comebacks. They had many years left in them, but maybe not too surprisingly, no more top-tenners.
Simon Harris, with a sound as exciting as his name. Bass - or basic? You could have sampled a decent hook, but nope, it's some by now overfamiliar vocal bits and the dancers doing their best to mime to them. Smells of a cash-in, though apparently he had some cred.
Presumably we see the Breakers again, they went further up the charts, so onto Iron Maiden, with a video they really pushed the boat out for, and hired Graham Chapman too - I think this might have been the last thing he ever did. The song's one of their better ones, it has a proper tune in the chorus anyway, but they'll have to ask Suggs if their request is all right.
Tiffany trying to demonstrate she has range with a rather gruesome ballad, all trite lyrics and uninspired, by the numbers melody. At least we see some of her UK tour, or maybe just the signings and P.A.s.
Aswad make it to the top - ah, there's the red waistcoat we wanted to see! Then continuing the drippy ballad theme, Whitney shows up on video to go through more or less the same motions as Tiff was. She's cut off before the "pause" bit, which is the most memorable part of the song.
Actually, my mistake, but A-ha did get to number 10 in 2006 with a tune called Analogue(All I Want).
DeleteThe A-ha performance was clearly in the TOTP studio, therefore I can only assume from Simon's promise during the show's intro to bring us their "new video" that it had been recorded some weeks earlier and then slotted into this edition.
DeleteIt may be pap but, for me, Cross My Broken Heart was Sinitta's best effort and lent itself to a great opening performance for this show.
Analogue! What a, er, forgettable single! You're forgiven for skipping over it, Angelo.
DeleteDespite Sinitta's ever so short skirt/belt in the studio this week, I still think that the video on the Breakers slot last week was much better than the studio performance on this show, but still, what an amazing pair of legs!
DeleteCheers THX! My Guinness Book of Hits only goes up to 2003, which is when I think they stopped doing them for some reason.
DeleteI think the reason is what we're reading at the moment - the internet! It'll be the libraries next, mark my words...
DeleteI'm a librarian, so I certainly hope not!
Deletemy opinion is the guinness book of hit singles would have disappeared regardless of the advent of the internet, as (contrary to what don mclean said) pop music was dying as a meaningful entity by the 21st century with the new generation of listeners having no interest in poring over lists of hit singles from the past as ours did
Deletei used to buy it from time to time in the 80's and 90's, and probably spent so much time in digesting the information in it that i could have made it my specialist subject for "mastermind"! hwoever without something like youtube to hand, although i knew the titles of most hits before i started listening to music myself in the early 70's, i had no idea what they sounded like. which became painfully obvious when i competed in a pub pop quiz in the early 90's, and most of it was of the "name that tune" variety... where unlike me, those 10/20 years older were familiar (either via radio airplay or owning them at the time) with all the 50's and 60's hits they had grown up with!
it's already happening with libraries, as my local council have shut about two thirds of those in the borough in the last 2 or 3 years. however, as a council tax payer i'm not going to shed any tears that the off-the-beaten-track branches that hardly anyone used any more were deemed surplus to requirements (in fact i even wrote to the council suggesting that they were now white elephants no longer worth keeping going!)
DeletePublic libraries have been the subject of swingeing cuts for a decade now, ever since the arrival of "austerity." Even where they have been kept going, the professional staff have often been laid off and replaced with unpaid volunteers. Happily, in other sectors (admittedly ones with more money), librarians are still valued as people who can make sense of, and act as guides to, the ever-increasing amounts of information that people have access to these days.
DeletePP and Master Bates - who looks pale and wan, and for some reason seems to be cultivating a mullet - are reunited and once again work well together. They are also quite opinionated here, PP expressing his delight at Aswad getting to number 1, while both men seem incredulous that Iron Maiden managed to achieve such a high new entry - PP in particular finds it impossible to hide his disdain.
ReplyDeleteSinitta first, with her two dancers in tow yet again and a dress that barely qualifies as one, so short is that skirt. The song is more eminently disposable SAW fodder - was the S on her chest meant to signify Simon (Cowell, not Bates) as well as Sinitta? A-ha return, but their moment had passed now and this uninspiring plodder signifies the fact. There's some nice atmospheric production, but Morten's high notes are painful, and the band look bored.
More mediocrity to follow, with a bog standard dance track from Simon Harris. The performance is more memorable than the record, thanks to the naff attempts of Harris and his posse to look "street." In essence they are modelling what would become the chav look, though the leather trousers and lack of burberry check mean they are not quite there. At the end it sounded as if the Headmaster echoed Mike Read's joke the previous week and knowingly said "Bates" rather than bass, but I'm not sure. More to come from all the breakers, and so on to Iron Maiden. I didn't recognise Graham Chapman, but Wikipedia does indeed confirm this video was just about the last thing he ever did. It's a fun, imaginative promo, and I agree with THX that this is one of Maiden's better efforts, more distinctive than normal and with a hooky chorus. It looks like their fanbase were in practice here for sending Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter straight to number 1 three years later.
I'm sure Tiffany would have been thrilled at Bates' pronouncement that her new single showed "she really could sing." This song does actually suit her voice better than her previous hit did, and it's not a bad ballad, unremarkable but a pleasant enough listen. I wonder if all those shots of London in the video were designed to appeal to her new UK fanbase? Sadly for Tiff, she would only achieve two further British hits of any significance. Aswad return to the studio, but ditch the matching leather jackets and go their own way sartorially this time. Some bloated big-voiced balladry from Whitney to play out, with a video that is much less interesting than Iron Maiden's, not that we get to see much of it.
Bates looked like he was sporting a diseased weasel on his head, PP, in his allotment ready outfit, was dangerously close to gushing on a couple of occasions.
DeleteMy step son watched this one with me, and we both thought the Iron Maiden song was the best thing on the show. I had to try and explain though why a middle aged man was hosting a chart show and was also attracted an audience of millions on the radio...
The past is a foreign country Steve, they did things differently there...
DeleteIron Maiden still able to get a new entry as high as No.4, and as late as 1988. Quite remarkable. I'm curious to know what happened to the schoolmaster in the video, after TOTP cut out, so I guess I'll watch the whole video over the weekend!
DeleteThis was actually the start of an unbroken run of Top 10 hits for Iron Maiden that would continue until 1992, and they would manage to reach the Top 10 as late as 2006!
DeleteGood Lord, that does sound a little surprising to say the least, but at least it is some form of resistance to the barrage of SAW and house music that was now becoming the more dominant force in music in 1988, and slowly sidelining the more established music genres that we were accustomed to through the 70s and 80s.
DeleteIt was somewhat amazing that three girls in the current chart, and in their mid-teens were charting so high at such a young age, I mean Vanessa Paradis at 15 years old, Tiffany only 16, and Debbie Gibson 17 years old. I mean it makes Kylie Minogue and Patsy Kensit at 19 & 20 years old at this point, and also in the higher reaches of the charts, look mature in comparison!
ReplyDeleteThere was no doubt that by this point in the history of the music charts that the generation born at the back end of the 60s and the front of the 70s were the new future of the music to come, and were now a whole generation younger than the likes of Simon Bates, Mike Read, etc, who unsurprisingly were about to pass the baton on to new presenters that could understand these teenage performers better, and were more of their own generation. Times they were certainly a changin'!
High and lows and moments of hilarity on this show hosted by the two longest running hosts.
ReplyDeleteSinitta – Cross my broken Heart – Now shall I wear a long dress or a mini? Yep, the choice was a mini! Same old SAW sound really – did nobody notice at the time? Not a bad start however.
A-ha – Stay on these Roads – Nice tune, but for me an album track.
Simon Harris – Bass – More bombing, this time another hideous racket that I FF’d
Breakers – Wet wet wet – Facsimile title to Heaven17 which is much preferable to this. Debbie Gibson – Another hit? Speaking of which Taylor Dayne is back, and I note this one also went top10 but Taylor and her music really passed me by at the time; a later song of hers ‘Love will lead you back’ even topped the US charts (but made no real impression here). Climie Fisher – I think Michael Ball with his ALW song of the same title completely eclipsed Climie later in the year…and he’s still singing it as his signature tune for life.
Iron Maiden – Can I play with madness – Well I certainly bought this at the time and yes, an entry straight in at no4 was a surprise! I bought it as much, I admit, for the controversy over the swearing on the hilarious B Side ‘Black Bart Blues’ for which I read an article in the paper about how parents had discovered their children playing this record and that it had ‘naughty words’ on it etc. Great video though; I wonder where the opening scene was shot. So why were Powell and Bates laughing their heads off at the end? Could’ve been that they didn’t take it seriously? (but Simon Harris was presumably OK?).
Tiffany – Could’ve been – The highlight of the show for me (and indeed of 1988). A sumptuous ballad with a lovely guitar break near the end, this knocks spots off ‘I think we’re alone now’. Nice footage of Tiff in London with the fans flocking at (what I guess is) the now defunct HMV shop in Oxford Street.
Aswad – Don’t turn around – I turned off rather than around as I had no wish to listen nor watch this, nor the overhyped nonsense that closed the show. I guess there was an edit in the final link to avoid mentioning he who should not be mentioned……
Actually I've just given Taylor Dayne's 'Love will lead you back' a spin out of curiousity, and it's not at all bad...
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO6xhLtfwW0
The opening scenes from the Iron Maiden video look somewhere like Oxford or Cambridge, but I would also be interested to know where it was. Anyway I watched the whole video, and it seems that the schoolmaster did not manage to escape from the underground caves, instead being confronted by more Iron Maiden animation right to the end.
DeleteI expected that he would somehow find his way back to ground level and his school. Anyway, here's the full video for any interested regulars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvqr366Op3k
The Iron Maiden video was filmed at the ruins of Tintern Abbey in Wales, and also at Chislehurst Caves in Kent, which I remember visiting as a child. The caves were an appropriate location to use, as for a few years in the 60s and 70s rock concerts were held there.
DeleteThanks for the location spot John. I have been to Tintern Abbey (just on the Wales/Gloucestershire border)and it's one of the photos that I have put on my Desktop montage. I knew it looked familiar!
Delete
ReplyDeleteSinitta – distracted by the outfit. Don’t remember this track, but it is as jolly as her others.
A-ha – I bought this at the time. CN’t think why, it now sounds dull.
FF, FF, FF
Iron Maiden – Can I play with madness – another foottapper. As someone has remarked earlier, i must visit the video to see how it ends.
Tiffany – “this proves she can sing” - quite the contrary.
Aswad – FF
Did you get to see the whole video Charlie? I was quite disappointed with the end, as I was hoping he would make it back to the abbey above the ground, and rejoin the schoolboys, but it was not to be. Iron Maiden could at least have made a better ending for him!
DeleteI did. I assume they stopped it where they did to stop us all getting frightened :-) Not sure why the cut the abbott at the beginning. It had the look of a ‘to be continued’...
DeleteWhere does broken Fred Housego? Is what pops into my mind when that Whitney track is mentioned.
ReplyDeletewhere did fred housego go? as a taxi driver and the first blue collar worker to win "mastermind" he was feted for a while, but in the end never seemed to benefit from it. unlike the next artisan champion train driver chris hughes, who i think is still going strong as a member of the eggheads quiz team?
DeleteFred went back to taxi driving when the media gigs dried up, but he's retired now, being in his 70s. I saw him in a TV documentary last year about quizzing, I think... can't recall the name.
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ReplyDeleteA quick observation first. The show starts and finishes with songs which both have “Broken Heart” in their titles. Were there many other instances of the same two words or phrase in songs topping and tailing an edition of TOTP?
ReplyDeleteHas Slimes been down to the joke shop and bought a wig? Be thankful he didn’t do a Shitty and go all stubbly as well.
Stick thin Sinitta and her minimalist clothing (careful with that camera shot!) try to put us off the scent of the “nya nya nee na na” chorus and SAW by numbers. The dancer to the left spent too long mugging at the camera before she arrived.
Much whooping and cheering for the next song which was as dry and arid as the SA-Hara Desert. See what I did there?
I was desperate for Slimes to introduce Simon “I’m the one in red waving over here” Harris. How low can you go? This is a good marker for starters.
Wet Wet Wet. Nondescript.
Debbie, that bed’ll go rusty with all that salty sea spray. Tsk!
I’m so glad you love Climie Fisher’s song, PeTER. Shame I think it’s some bloke who thinks he looks fashionable in a vest with a tune as dull as dishwater.
They don’t like it up ‘em! Iron Maiden with track of the night. An effort with a bit of snap to it, and a video which kept my attention.
At the other end of the scale next, but I prefer Tiffany to Whitney Houston any day. Ah.
So you’re responsible for Aswad’s success, Pete. Thanks a bunch! I’m sure, though, Aswad would have been played more over their career by maybe John Peel or, er, Ranking Miss P?
We finish with yet more oh so meaningful vocal posturing from the queen of plastic soul.
A very up and down edition here with a few too many ballads for my liking.
ReplyDeleteSinitta - Surprised to find this going down rather well here, all I can hear is 'NYA NYANYA NYANYA' in the style of a playground chant. Dreadful song with her usual piss weak vocal.
a-ha - As I keep saying, check out their later albums. They may not contain really big hits but there's some good stuff on them. As for this song, it's a middling one for me, overstays its welcome a bit.
Simon Harris - I might be the resident dance music fan here but even I'm not overly fond of this one!
Iron Maiden - It's the best thing on the show, for me their finest tune. The video's great too.
Tiffany - Seemingly nobody's noticed that she can't sing live, hence the awful sound we can hear. The studio version isn't much better. The song itself is perfectly fine though.
Whitney Houston - Dreadfully dull. Her ballads do absolutely nothing for me.
My chart obsession is complete this week as 13 year old me starts making up his own Top 20 each week... 😀
ReplyDeleteNot sure this TOTP is full of vintage memories though... Shall we see..
Boring Bates spoils the number one at the start and he's joined by equally boring PP
Now for the worst thing SAW ever made (I do mean worse than the Reynolds Girls). Bloody awful cheese fest. Her skirt is still mostly missing as well. Sinitta looks bored by it all. One of the dancers is chewing gum...omg.
Hooray a decent song. A-ha back but they won't repeat the success of their first album. This however is a lovely ballad. Worthy of the Top Ten any year.
The size of that "handheld" camera.. 😀 😀 😀
BASS... HOW LOW CAN YOU GO!
I was the proud owner of this 7".
Ha ha ha.. That sample is to reappear very soon.
I must admit I'm tapping my foot even now..
Do we know what the guy in the red jacket is actually doing. Is that Simon Harris?
Only 1988 could produce this record.
Breakers:
Wets with Temptation which is probably their least appealing record. Just something of nothing really.
Debbie Gibson shares her dreams with us. Did this get a remix at some point as it sounds awfully familiar.
Climie Fisher. Love this record. Bought it. Learnt it. Sung it everywhere I went.. 😀
Iron Maiden. Straight in at Number 4. OK I will admit to actually liking this. Probably the first heavy metal song I actually liked so well done Maiden. Great video as well.
Tiffany with the hit nobody remembers that is already at number 5. Some nice shots of London mixed in. Glad we get the video so we are saved her caterwalling in the studio. This is very forgettable stuff. Could've been much better.
Whats good about it slimes is that it finished.
Aswad top of the tree and PP is happy.
Well deserved number one.
Whitney finally makes it onto the show. A bit of a smoochy slower one but still a great song. She died too young. Great voice.