Smokin'!
13/10/88 (Bruno Brookes & Gary Davies)
The Beatmasters & PP Arnold – “Burn It Up” (16)
Getting tonight's show underway and the song peaked at number 14.
Sabrina – “All Of Me” (31)
Bouncing into the studio to perfrom what became her final top 40 hit and it peaked at number 25.
T’Pau – “Secret Garden” (19)
Perhaps not their best known song and it went up one more place.
Enya – “Orinico Flow” (29) (breaker)
Will be number one in two weeks time.
The Christians – “Harvest For The World” (21) (breaker)
Peaked at number 8.
D Mob featuring Gary Haisman – “We Call It Acieed” (20) (breaker)
Peaked at number 3.
Kim Wilde – “Never Trust A Stranger” (15)
Kim turns the heat up a notch and this raging tune was on its way to number 7.
Sinitta – “I Don’t Believe In Miracles” (25)
A second studio performance and it went up three more places.
Whitney Houston – “One Moment In Time” (1) (video)
Quite surprising that this song displaced U2, but this was her first of two weeks at number one.
Bananarama – “Love, Truth & Honesty” (23) (rpt from 29/09/88 + credits)
At its peak.
20th October is next.
Solid but uninspiring presentation this week from Bruno and Gazza, the latter of whom has looked a bit bored in his last couple of appearances, though he did perk up a bit after Sabrina’s performance. At least BB provides a moment of mirth when he introduces T’Pau by Secret Garden! It’s a neat coincidence that P.P. Arnold should turn up in these reruns at this juncture, as she is currently once more on the comeback trail with her first album of new material in 51 years, which must be some kind of record. This attempt to reinvent herself as a dance diva, complete with Madge-style cones on her chest, actually sounds quite decent, if a long way from her 60s hits like The First Cut is the Deepest and Angel of the Morning, and she certainly throws herself into this performance.
ReplyDeleteSabrina next, with more Europop fodder and another “wobbly” outing, which once again effortlessly eclipses the disposable song. T’Pau were now on the downward slope, with just one further Top 20 entry to come, and with material as leaden, tune-free and uninspiring as this that is no great surprise; they would have done better to let TOTP show the video again, rather than turning up in the studio. We get a far, far better song from Kim Wilde, who is sporting a voguish smiley face badge (appropriately, after that last breaker) and clearly enjoying being in the midst of her most sustained run of chart success since her initial breakthrough seven years earlier. You don’t hear this one much, but it has lots of energy and a soaring chorus that help to place it among her best singles.
Simon Cowell must have been pulling some strings, as I don’t how else Sinitta managed to get another studio outing when her single had only reached 25. Predictably she is back to minimal clothing this time, but it’s a slick enough performance. We get a cut-down version of Whitney’s song once again, despite it now being number 1, and then a repeat of the Nanas to finish – was there no video?
Agreed that the T'Pau video is better than the studio performance, but Carol can get onto any show qith a studio, with her amazing hair and super-slim figure that any mini-dress would be pleased to attach to!
DeleteHowever, I do have to say that Secret Garden sounds a lot like the main chorus of St Elmo's Fire by John Parr a couple of years earlier in 1986 (did anyone spot the similarity of sound?):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVf4_WglzWA
Do you know what? I kept thinking it reminded me of something and you've hit the nail right on the head Dory !
DeleteDo you think that Decker bought Parr's record, and thought, hmm I could do better? Or was it just coincidence that the two records sounded similar?
DeleteIn the same chart, the Pet Shop Boys Domino Dancing synth sounded similar to Bomb The Bass Don't Make Me Wait. I'm sure that we will be seeing more cases like this, and just a matter of who can point them out, in case it passes us by somehow.
Is anybody watching this week as there are surprisingly few comments for these three shows. Anyway, this one was where the memo said ‘mini’ but surprisingly (given what she’s wearing on the single sleeve and in the video) Sabrina didn’t get it!
ReplyDeleteBeatmasters and PP Arnold – Burn it up – The last cut is the weakest.
Sabrina – All of me – A predictable bouncy performance from Sabrina looking a bit overdressed if I am honest! The song could be called ‘All of me loves all of you’ but that would bring to mind the Bay City Rollers.
T’Pau – Secret Garden – So it seems to work that if you’re the video playout track and you go up the chart then you can come back next week to the studio if you’re free. Carol’s back to her black mini after the nice blue frock she wore for ‘I will be with you’ and the song still doesn’t grab me.
Breakers – Enya and the Christians we’ll be seeing again, and the less said about D-Mob the better.
Kim Wilde – Never trust a Stranger – Another stonking tune from Kim in another black mini dress! These past two single releases are for me Kim’s very best. Forget ‘Kids in America’ and ‘Cambodia’, these are stonking tunes.
Sinnitta – I don’t believe in miracles – Like John, I find it surprising to see a second appearance for this (but then so was the Pasadenas last week) and Sinnitta returns to her usual dress code i.e. not much! The song doesn’t really grab me however and I still think Colin Blunstone when I see the title.
Whitney Houston – One moment in time – Did this really get to no1 or was it a bad dream? ‘Surprising’ is not the phrase that comes to mind to me!
Bananarama – Love, truth and honesty – I wonder why they repeated the studio outing rather than showing the video? Having said that, I’ve just watched it on YT and it’s not that good.
Don't know about anyone else, but I was out last night and just catching up this afternoon on iPlayer!
DeleteI have noticed in the past that when we get a lot of shows in quick succession, the number of comments often falls to a trickle, doubtless because people become a bit overwhelmed. Thankfully we are back to just two shows next week, albeit both on Friday.
DeleteIf you look back to Page 2 & 3 of these blog posts, there are still replies being added! Morgie is still plugging away, and Joeantboy has contributed. There may be more, but there's not enough hours in the day...
DeleteI'd noticed that Morgie was still plugging valiantly away - maybe he will catch up by Christmas!
DeleteIt all depends what I'm up to at the weekends, or how well / knackered I feel (at the mo I'm not at my best healthwise), and how much time I feel inclined to spend as soon as the repeats are on. I'll start on the curent batch tonight and maybe finish tomorrow.
DeleteI'm getting there...it's a busy time of year in retail and I had an enforced lie down in hospital a few weeks ago but all better now..
DeleteSee you all at Xmas!
All the lovely ladies '88 could muster on tonight's show.
ReplyDeletePP Arnold was on the Radcliffe and Maconie show recently, and the record she picked as the most important song ever to her was something off her new album (!). Anyway, nobody mentioned this, but it was a jaunty little number with PP going for it, vocally and in the studio. I suppose The Beatmasters' sound got pretty dated pretty quickly, but I kinda like it, it was full of energy. Did anyone get them mixed up with Marc Singer, though? Wait, that was The Beastmaster.
Sabrina inevitably teams up with SAW and the results are... not too bad, funnily enough, certainly better than her biggest hit. Tuneful chorus, and her singing has improved. I too was tempted to watch the video on YT, and the recommendations included a team up with Samantha Fox! Know your target audience, I suppose.
T'Pau finding it difficult to sustain that early burst of success with a song Carol shouts her way through, and chugs along unspectacularly. It's OK, but Carol's LBD is more interesting than anything we are hearing.
Ooh, Kim's brought her LBD too, and for one of her best songs, my goodness this is dramatic! Soaring chrous, 70s public information film lyrics, and Kim putting it across with great brio. Possibly the best thing on the show, worth a revival.
Then back down to earth with a bump, whip-thin Sinitta back for a new performance of a ditty that made no impression last time. Different outfits, I suppose...
Whitney makes it to the top with a number 1 nobody remembers, then a repeat of the 'Nanas from the other week. Bit of an anti-climax to end on, but for a while this episode was perfectly fine.
The Beatmasters appeared last time on TOTP on their own a few months earlier with a cartoon video playout of Rock Rock Rock Rock Da House, so I think this was their first time in the TOTP studio with PP Arnold, with the two songs having a similar beat.
DeleteIt was certainly a fantastic disco floor sound to start off this week's show, and I wonder what brought Arnold back after 20 years absent from the charts. 1968 seemed a long time ago back in 1988, and good on her to make it back after 20 years and returning as a middle-aged woman in teenage-style clothing for her new studio performance on the show.
It had a feel of sound going back to late 70s disco, with elements of Amii Stewart and Rose Royce, energised further for the late 80s evolving disco sound incorporating House music, and sounding very much like Rock Da House which was the Beatmasters debut single earlier in 1988.
Hi, Anonymous! I'm on again to ask if you've got the original archive shows that BBC4 either cut bits from or didn't show at all due to Smith being on. They are 19/04/84, 28/03/85, 27/06/85, 1/08/85, 24/10/85 and 20/03/86. Cheers!
ReplyDeletehere are 5 of them, sorry not got 20/3/86, guess that one escaped me, link to smith??
Deletehttps://we.tl/t-q3jUICwRwQ
You're right Anonymous, it is a link to Smith! Many thanks for the other five though. Great stuff!
DeleteI have a different restoration of 20/03/86 brie so here's an alternative:
Deletehttps://we.tl/t-LfZhOtnimm
That's a better link than the one i'd got before. Thanks for this one mate!
DeleteAny teenage lads in the audience? You’re gonna love the studio acts tonight!
ReplyDeleteIf only we got more Dickie Skinner and less annoying Trevor.
Great miming by PP Arnold, especially the spoken intro, and a decent club dancer, though I found her attire a wee bit jarring.
Ah. Now then. A bouncy hit in more ways than one, and I’m guessing the jacket was requested by the Beeb to avoid a repeat of Sabrina’s push-up moment last time. The chorus was a rip-off of her big hit, though, replacing ”Boys, boys, boys” with “Boy oh boy”.
Great intro to T’Pau there, Trev! I guess the lads wanted a studio turn seeing as they weren’t big fry in the video.
Let’s rock!!! Enya Barmy Army! Which Womble will she mention in her next single’s title, then?
No sign of those moody Christians in the video for a cover not a patch on the original.
“Points Of View” must have been good that week. My local football team recently signed a decent lad called Hafid and, thanks to me, when he gets the ball his name is chanted “Acieed” style.
Kim Wilde’s tune reminded me for some reason of Eurythmic’s “Love Is A Stranger”. Never mind the badge, her new image gave me a smiley face.
Sinitta, put some weight on, woman! The backing gals have mics this time but it still can’t get Simon Cowell’s latest puppet effort much higher.
#1 FF.
Was Caron Keating pregnant at the time? if so, an unnecessary and unfunny jibe at the end from Trevor. Bit of an arse, him.
Note to sct353 – done all three bits of weekend homework. Finished! Can I go out to play now? 😊 See what I did there?
Gold star Arthur! Always good to read your observations and hope you feel better. Best wishes.
DeleteJust about to embark on yet another tour, this clip of David Essex's debut hit has popped up on YT. Not seen it before (well not in 46 years anyway). Sound comes out of one channel only but definitely a live vocal (to a backing track). Assume its ToTP... I probably watched this when it went out if that is the case.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLuYDa0L67Q
I don't think Essex bettered this, musically, a great single. What's not great is the uploader's massive initials over the video, obscuring Dave. So kind of spoiled.
DeleteIncidentally, Essex's two hit 1970s films That'll Be the Day and Stardust are out on Blu-ray now, looking and sounding superb. Worth getting for the interviews in the extras, too (though Dave isn't among them, alas). We all remember the twins...
It's Gary Jordan. He has an incredible collection. I wish he'd give me access to it & I would upscale everything & fix all that one channel audio stuff for him. But no chance of that happening I fear!
DeleteAh, David Essex, someone else who sampled the delights of Sinitta! They starred together about 25 years ago in a musical called “Tahiti”.
DeleteThe David Essex 'Rock On' Clip is from the wiped 31st August 1973 edition TOTP.
DeleteThey obviously took note of my rant last episode, as this was quite a good show.
ReplyDeletePP Arnold - As I now know this is an original, I can now say it is no Dusty Springfield comeback.
Sabrina - don’t recall this, and not on the album that I own. Could easily have been a SAW production. (Very subdued picture in the rundown)
TPau - quite like this. Fetching outfit...
Kim Wilde - again I dont recall this (other than last weeks breaker snippet), and again, i rather like it. Above average show so far...
And, after complaining 2 episodes ago that i thought this was too slow, Sinitta suddenly sounds poppier. Must be in a better mood...
Gosh, only one week at number one for U2. I thought it was there for an age. Funny thing, memory...
Nanas - Playout with a studio track - when did that last happen? (And this one still sounds too slow)
We had a studio repeat outro for Scott Fitzgerald’s Euro entry which lost out by one point to that witch Celine Fecking Dion.
DeleteU2 with only one week at number one, was followed by positions 2-17-30, which must be the biggest chart tumble or fall from grace of a former No.1 in the space of three weeks. I cannot recall a No.1 falling so badly and so quickly out of the charts.
DeleteI seem to remember The Fly plummeting as well (although not sure if they deleted it after a week?)
DeleteIn this era was relatively rare but fast forward to the 2000s and it happened fairly often - Westlife's 'Fool Again' dropped like a stone and so did one of McFly's IIRC.
DeleteLast year, Three Lions fell from the top spot right out of the Top 75!
DeleteI rather enjoyed this edition, until we hit the repeats section at the end anyhow. Bruno seemed very lacklustre, though I must point out that there IS a band called Secret Garden (they recorded the original version of 'You Raise Me Up', fact fans) but they didn't record a song called 'T'Pau' as far as I know.
ReplyDeleteThe Beatmasters / PP Arnold - This is a great pop / dance tune, like all their other hits. PP Arnold carved out a mini-comeback as a guest on dance tracks after this, incuding backing vocals for The KLF & lead vocal on Altern8's 'Evapor8'.
Sabrina - Look, she may have her knock....no, this is too easy. I think this SAW team-up is much better than her bigger hit. 3rd single 'Like A Yo-Yo' may have been amusingly titled but wasn't a hit.
Breakers - I presume the 'ban' on D-Mob prevented it being shown in full even though at first there was no such thing. As a bit of an acid house fan I unsurprisingly like it.
Kim Wilde - I think this is her finest song, in particular I love the way the chorus rolls in.
So my Sky box decided to delete this edition before I got to it so piecing this together from You Tube minus links and the chart.
ReplyDeleteBeatmasters and PP Arnold I found 2 mins from a TOTP2 repeat but clearly didnt miss much. Standard bouncing about to a fairly decent dance tune.
Sabrina gets an intro and outro from a slightly distracted ooh Gary. Other than the 2 very obvious reasons she's not that hot. Song is different words sung over the same beat as Boys. Found myself tapping along but and that chorus will be stuck in my head all day now.
T'Pau up next and a very dodgy sounding you tube clip. I do like this song a lot and really enjoyed seeing T'Pau and Carol during these repeats. They has a whirlwind 18 months didn't they. I will miss them as I thought they were very good, never bought any of their records though.. Ooops.
Hopefully the breakers will all be back.
Kim up next. Thanks goodness this is on You Tube. Looking rather fine. Sounding great. 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
Highlight of the show.
I'll spare myself the bloody awful Sinitta song, Whitney will be back and the Bananas we've seen.
Job done.. Back to the TV