Here we go, the table's set, and the oven is hot, come and get the 12th of December 1991 edition of Top of the Pops!
Cliffmas time
12-12-91: Presenters: Claudia Simon & Tony Dortie
(37) CATHY DENNIS – Everybody Move
Getting us underway and the song peaked at number 25.
(36) DIGITAL – Running Out Of Time
Their full name was Digital Orgasm, and this one climaxed at number 16.
(19) CLIFF RICHARD – We Should Be Together
He's in the studio and pulling out all the stops for yet another Xmas number one, but he had to be content with a mere number 10 this year.
(7) KYM SIMS – Too Blind To See It (video)
Her only top ten hit and it peaked at number 5.
(15) SALT-N-PEPA – You Showed Me
Live in the studio tonight but this offering got no higher.
(17) RIGHT SAID FRED feat. JOCELYN BROWN – Don’t Talk Just Kiss
Performing their second of four top ten hits and it peaked at number 3.
(25) JASON DONOVAN – The Joseph Mega Remix (video) (Breakers)
Peaked at number 13.
(20) U.K. MIXMASTERS – Bare Necessities Megamix (video) (Breakers)
Peaked at number 14.
(13) U2 – Mysterious Ways (video) (Breakers)
Got no higher.
(9) NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK – If You Go Away (video) (Breakers)
Their ninth and final top ten hit, and number 9 was its peak.
(23) MARTIKA – Martika’s Kitchen
In the studio with what was to be her fifth and final top 40 hit and it peaked at number 17.
(1) GEORGE MICHAEL & ELTON JOHN – Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me (video)
Second and final week at number one.
19th of December (another Adrian Rose one) will be next.
Cathy Dennis, hmm, not out of her top drawer, also she looks as if she was overcompensating for a draughty studio. The funky chicken dancing didn't do her any favours, either.
ReplyDeleteDigital O... I guess if the song's not up to much, you can get publicity with your band name. Bit of a racket, frankly.
And naturally the perfect tune to segue into Sir Clifford as he blatantly makes a bid for the Christmas No.1 and hilariously fails miserably. Was it the insipid tune? Or the ghastly lyrics? Whichever, only the fans were impressed.
Kym Sims! Or was it Kim Syms?! Anyway, a jolly good dance number from a one hit wonder (more or less), fine tune, well put across, but maybe she looked a bit too much like Bruce Forsyth to catch on over here.
Salt N Pepa, now were they really in the TOTP studio or were they across the Atlantic recording this in a much more spacious studio? Whatever, a middling effort from the girls, performed to a template we still haven't ditched even now.
Wrong Said Fred, I wouldn't want to kiss them if they haven't had their vaccines, I can tell you. Sort of revolting lyrics about tongue sandwiches and the like, and Jocelyn bellowing her head off. Thanks but no thanks.
Was that Jason Donovan or Denise Van Outen? Surprise underperformer from U2. And goodbye to NKOTB, down the dumper at last for these chancers.
Martika, how many artists had hits that named themselves in the title? Well, here's one, and it's a jaunty number, the closest we'll get to a Prince novelty record. Though the studio performance indicates she thinks she's doing a Sisters of Mercy record.
G&E still at the top, and that's it for now.
Cathy Dennis only made Top 10 once in her career with Touch Me (All Night Long) a few months earlier, and this new one only got to No.25 as Angelo correctly mentions, but she would continue to churn out the hits until mid-1997 when her final tune failed as such by peaking at No.43, which signalled her exit from mainstream chart music, but even before then, we still have a further six singles to come until 1997, and all top 40 hits!
DeleteIf I am correct, I think this was Salt 'n' Pepa's first ever appearance in the TOTP studio, having previously released six singles in the UK charts since their famous debut in 1988 with Push It, and all on video on TOTP where shown. Not sure if that third girl on stage in the studio was Spinderella or someone else, cos she is normally spinning discs on a turntable behind Salt and Pepa.
Cathy Dennis didn't exit chart music when she stopped having hits, she started writing hits for other people (eg. Toxic by Britney Spears, Can't Get You Out of My Head by Kylie) and is currently absolutely loaded.
DeleteYou mean loaded with work, or money?
DeleteMoney!
DeleteGot to say I love Claudia Simon presenting the show, and the hotpants & boots look this week was a bonus.
ReplyDeleteRight Said Fred - Good Lord, I didn't know how they would ever follow up their debut summer hit which got stuck at No.2 for 6 weeks. At this stage in December 1991 they were still a couple of months away from their first single reaching No.1 in America in February 1992, and now they were already on their second single in the UK. I must admit I don't remember Jocelyn Brown being on their record, but considering she was a very sought-after vocalist at the time, I'm not at all surprised.
The Breakers - the one and only time we see The Joseph Megamix on the show and only as a Breaker, despite the song still going up over the Xmas and New Year period and also at the time of the first TOTP show of 1992, so I assume this was not not a TOTP favourite with the producers.
We will however see The UK Mixmasters opening next week's show in the studio with their own Megamix, but I must say that the other two Breakers on this show by U2 and NKOTB were just dire.
Martika - highlight of the show for me, and just love the gorgeous Martika minidress and her co-dancers routine, which made for THE performance of the show, even ahead of Cathy Dennis and Salt 'n' Pepa who were not far off.
George Michael & Elton John - second week at No.1, and second week where TOTP missed out the first verses of George Michael, joining the song almost half way through. Good Lord!
Cathy Dennis starts things off and her appeal was wearing off for me at the time (Lisa Stansfield was 'the one' now) and this is pretty forgettable fare from her, less from another planet, more struggling to get something completed to deadline in a plush office. Her image as well, usually utterly stunning, isn't great tonight, dressed in a lurid pink jacket with what looked like some green. Doesn't go although we had Christmas decorations for years that had the same colours. Still a star but sadly beginning to wane.
ReplyDeleteTony is particularly distracted this evening, often gazing to a camera or an autocue out of vision. For goodness sake try ad libbing like the previous presenters did. Again it seems like Lord Stanley has declared this is not how it is now. He definitely does improve. He introduces Digital Orgasm, there said it, and I definitely knew them by that name at the time. Single pretty good, this performance dreadful. '91 at its worst.
Cliff Richard, 'We Should Be Together' which could easily be rewritten as 'I Should Have a Big Hit For Christmas' but it's quite pleasant in its own way. A little over flogging his mission methinks. He actually serenades a Christmas card at one point. No. Don't do that. One clearly for his increasingly singular fanbase but I must say surely the best dressed person on the show. What a fantastic jacket!
Oh yes Kym Sims! Like that. 'Too Blind To See It' a big one in that new year period. She does look quite the new pop queen although the video is a real lucky dip of early '90s cliches.
A real treat to see the Salt-N-Pepa ladies in the studio (1st time?) with a rapping cover that has to get some marks for being such a bold reworking of The Byrds original when so many bands were nicking their jingle jangle sound. Always enjoyable. Was it done as a tribute to Gene? Not sure.
Right Said Fred don't change their image too much for their follow up to 'I'm Too Sexy' but it's an oddly touching tune and another nice memory of that time. Jocelyn Brown singing live. Can't ever be a bad thing.
Breakers; Jason Donovan. Good turn as Joseph but theatre and charts don't always go together.
UK Mixmasters; bollocks.
U2; Fabulous, why only several seconds? Another real sound of the moment. Never this cool before or since for me.
New Kids; Will always love 'You Got It' but it's long been time to say goodbye.
A bloke gets his mug in the camera during a Claudia link and makes some look at me gestures but sadly for him she doesn't notice. Her voice is rather grating and maybe is only ever going to be at one volume but she is a sparkly addition to the show.
On to Martika and I thought I didn't like 'Martika's Kitchen' (baayyybeh!) but I loved it here. Amazed it peaked as low as it did. An effortlessly charismatic performance, she was a true pop star and if that's the end thank you for some sweet teenage memories. She was a natural for the stage from this performance. I wonder if she went into musicals.
2nd and last week for 'Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me' at No.1. Not the end for big names at the top.
Didn't The Lightning Seeds do a version of You Showed Me?
DeleteMartika left the music industry after the Martika's Kitchen album flopped in the US, occasionally resurfacing for nostalgia tours. I think it all got a bit much for her, she was very young.
One thing I didn't know: Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas is singing in the children's choir on Martika's Toy Soldiers.
The Lightning Seeds did cover it. Maybe the definitive version. No disrespect to the mighty Gene Clark but the Byrds version is certainly the sound of a band trying to work out what they're doing, albeit utterly charmingly. I was at college briefly with Angie Pollock the Lightning Seeds keyboard player (later with Goldfrapp) who I think plays on the single.
DeleteFergie was one of the children on 'Toy Soldiers'? Great to learn that. Front and centre of the choir I would imagine!
DeleteAgreed The Lightning Seeds version of You Showed Me is by far the best version. I think both Martika and Cathy Dennis had good records that sounded Ok on the radio but were both much better performed live on TOTP. Both songs went massively up in my estimations after this edition.
DeleteFour tunes peaking outside the Top 40 this week from previous Top 10'ers:
ReplyDeleteNo.43 - Cher - Love Hurts
Strange how this one missed out on the Top 40, as it is one of her famous songs, unless it was rereleased at a later date?
No.47 Vic Reeves - Abide With Me
Quick follow up to his No.1 Dizzy only weeks earlier, and this new single didn't even make Top 40. I suspect that by the title it was a Christmas song, but I don't remember ever hearing it done by Vic Reeves.
No.48 - Black Box - Open Your Eyes
First song since April unusually, and first one of theirs to fail to break the Top 40 since their debut two years earlier with Ride On Time. There would be no more music from Black Box until late 1993, but they were never to reach the heights of their 1989-1990 heyday.
No.60 - Sinaed O'Connor - Silent Night
New Christmas release for O'Connor, and third single in a row to fail to make Top 40, so a poor 1991 for her, but I did see the video for this Silent Night single on the That's TV Xmas channel a few days ago, so it still gets played 30 years later!
The Vic Reeves tune is the old hymn, one of his dadaist pranks to release it after his biggest, popular hit. As long as he amuses himself...
DeleteThe promo sleeve for the Vic Reeves single boldly stated "Christmas No.1"! Ahem!
Delete'Love Hurts' by Jim Capaldi perhaps from 1975?
DeleteDigital Orgasm was one of the 101 (pun intended) projects of Maurice Engelen.
ReplyDeleteHe will appear on TOTP again as Praga Khan the next years.
I was aware of Praga Khan being behind Digital Orgasm but I wasn’t aware he was involved with all these other aliases - that’s even more than the Future Sound of London used in their early days!
DeleteI was listening to a couple of my early New Beat (Complete Kaos) / European Techno (XL Second Chapter) compilation albums last week and hadn’t realised that half the tunes were by the same bloke: Praga Khan, Channel X, Tribe 22, Moments of Ecstacy,, Rhythm Kings!
Uh-oh, the return of Dorky The Cliché Machine.
ReplyDeleteWe start with Cathy Dennis and the “Norwich Vogue”. Still, financially, she’s in the pink. Ahem.
Dorky with a right ole mouthful of shite next, telling us who’s top of the Scottish Football League, referring to the rundown as crackers (another type of crispy biscuit?) and missing the final word off Nirvana’s hit title in the rundown. Absolutely bloody useless.
As for Digital Orgasm, the FF couldn’t come quick enough! See what I did there?
Looking at Cliff’s neck, the Christmas turkey’s turned up in the studio in more ways than one.
Ay up, it’s Roary from Animal Kwackers. This spent four consecutive weeks at number 7. Banger of a tune. Didn’t she do well?
The Condiments give us a good mellow chorus ruined by more yappy rap and costumes which made their thighs look almost Chaka Khan proportion.
Right Said Fred, enrolling at the Morrissey School of Unwanted See-Through Shirts. The title reminded me of the 1970’s TV ad campaign for Buitoni ravioli – don’t talk, eat! The track had decent backing but lyrics which made me think about eating pickled uonions and rollmops if I encountered any of this lot.
The worst set of breakers yet in the re-run. That includes my despising of Bonio.
Great staging for Martika’s track, I wonder how many gals git a bun in the oven to this one? Shame Mr. Franklin wasn’t hosting as we could have said this was a gas, Mark. Gas mark – geddit? Harumph!
Phoenix Nights to finish off with again.
1991 has been a great year but these latter episodes are very much a case of diminishing returns. I enjoyed Claudia Simon a lot more than TD tonight.
ReplyDeleteCathy Dennis' verses sound like a more recent song but can't place what. The chorus isn't very catchy though, so no wonder it didn't do much.
Digital (Orgasm) and Cliff seemingly at opposite ends of the musical spectrum, make it 3 for 3 on dull and unmemorable tracks.
In fact, I'd say only two of tonight's hits have had any longevity. One is at the top and Kym Sims has the other. Wonder what happened to her?
Great to have Salt n Pepa in the studio but if only it was for one of their good ones.
RSF and Jocelyn with a song that's barely been heard since 91/92 and quite nice to hear it again tonight. Daft as a brush but I do like the 'we've only just begun' bit. Simple pleasures and that.
The year of Megamixes chucks two more at us. The Gary Wilmott one is worse. And bless NKOTB ekeing out their last drops of fame before Take That and East 17 arrive next year.
Also U2 which, to be fair, has also had a decent shelf life.
Martika is enjoyable but it's not her best track.
And the same number one as last time warming the seat for what should really have been Queen's final act.
Well as someone has already remarked, diminishing 1991 returns. Most are unremarkable rather than dreadful so I’ll save a few thoughts for these.
ReplyDeleteDigital – Running out of Time - Another in the “gosh it must have taken ages to write those lyrics” category. The Dalek extermination effects got me more hooked than the song actually. But at least I didn’t FF!
Cliff Reichard – We should be together – One you don’t hear in shopping malls these days, a bit like the Showaddywaddy hit ‘Hey Mr Christmas’ that Dory mentioned on the 1974 Hits show commentary. Did Cliff have the lyrics written in that card he picked up? Reminded me of the old ‘Generation Game’ skits where they used to have lines of dialogue not so cunningly secreted!
Kym Sims – Too blind to see it – Never heard of her before (must have missed the record in ’91) but she’s somehow penetrated the Top10.
George Michael / Elton John – Don’t let the Sun go down on me – Recorded at Wembley Arena as it used to be. At least its still standing unlike the old Stadium. Fabulous song and performance and by far the highlight of this show.
Cathy dennis - don’t remember it. sounds like a Kylie reject.
ReplyDeleteDigital - running out of time to write a tune and lyrics…
Cliff - this doesnt appears on xmas compilations. I think I know why..
Kysm sims - another one I don’t remeber… and I still don’t
Right said fred - don’t remember jocelyn brown being on this - probably because she didn’t contribute much to it
Breakers
Jason donovam - megamix? Would have been FF if not over so quicku2 - quick follow
Beatmaster - this is a joke, right?..
U2 - quick follow up to the fly…
Quickly followed up by my favourite band after 5 star, thank god it was over quickly
Martika - very Prince-ly. Only thing worth watching so far..
..and indeed at all
Penélope Pitstop opens the show. It's Cathy's 4th hit from a great pop album. I had forgotten this single as its not as immediate as the others but this performance and quality vocal really sells it.
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome tune from Digital. A great dance record and not an orgasm in sight on the BBC. Heard this on the R1 chart show and went straight out the next day and bought the 12 inch.
Bloody brilliant.
Sir Cliffmas with another Christimaa tune. Sparkly jacket back out of storage. This is not one of his better numbers unfortunately. A bit soppy for me.
One hit wonder(?) Kym Sims is too blind to see what an awesome dance tune this is. A real classy sound that hasn't aged a day. A real radio friendly tune as well and it got played to death at the time. Quality.
Wow, Salt n Pepa. Nice. Spinderella has ditched the decks and they've gone all classy. This is actually really good. Great performance too.
And a decent RSF single as well. Really catchy party tune with added Jocelyn. Filthy of course but who cares. It's great fun.
Nice boots Claudia.
Breakers:
Jason. Ah my ears…
Gary Wilmot! Bombalurina part 2
U2. Better than The Fly.
Knobs. Ah my ears etc ..
And another storming tune from Prince via Martika. So obviously a Prince number. And it's dynamite. Also rather filthy too..1991 is bad!
A second week at Number One for 2 of the 20th Century's best singer songwriters.
What a show. Possibly best of the year to date..and the presenters both did a good job.
Oh.. I've run out of time..