I got chills, they're multiplying ~ it's the 25th of December 1978 edition of Top of the Pops!
Mary Christmas
25-12-78: Presenter: Noel Edmonds
(-) DARTS – The Boy From New York City
Darts get Noel's last ever show underway but they were never quite the same after Den left :-(
(-) BONEY M – Rasputin
Love this song and this performance of it. The band got their
name from Boney, an Australian TV drama about a part-aboriginal
detective called Bonaparte.
(53) JOHN TRAVOLTA & OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN – Summer Nights (danced to by Legs & Co)
The
roles of Danny and Sandy in Grease, incidentally, were originally
offered to Henry Winkler (the Fonz off Happy Days) and Marie Osmond!
(-) WINGS – Mull Of Kintyre (video)
I've always preferred this video clip to the one where they are wandering around
in the field. This song was the UK’s bestselling single of all time for 7
years, until Band Aid's Do they Know its Christmas in 1984. It’s still
4th in the list with 2.07 million sales.
(-) BROTHERHOOD OF MAN – Figaro
A new clip - filmed for Swap Shop maybe - as indeed this whole show has a Swap Shop sort of feel about it.
(-) FATHER ABRAHAM & THE SMURFS – The Smurf Song (video)
Dutch musician Father Abraham’s
real name is Petrus Kartner.
(-) THE BEE GEES – Night Fever (movie clip)
Oh dear. When I saw that BBC4 were broadcasting this edition I thought maybe they would show the original version, complete with the movie clips from Saturday Night Fever and Grease. But no. It's the butchered version from 2013 once again. Oh well. Another chance to see Legs & Co's Saturday Nightie Fever routine.
(-) BRIAN & MICHAEL – Matchstalk Men And Matchstalk Cats And Dogs
The duo
went on to write & produce 1986 novelty hit It's 'Orrible Being in
Love (When You're 8½) by Claire & Friends.
(-) BRIGHOUSE & RASTRICK BRASS BAND – The Floral Dance ®
Perfect for Christmas.
(-) KATE BUSH – Wuthering Heights (video)
The first showing on TOTP for this wonderful video.
Coincidentally, Kate Bush shares a birthday (30 July) with Emily Bronte,
author of the novel, Wuthering Heights.
(-) SHOWADDYWADDY – I Wonder Why
They were Christmas regulars by now and altogether had 23 UK chart hits, including ten in the top 10.
(57) BONEY M – Rivers Of Babylon ®
This song is a cover of a 1970 song by
Jamaican reggae outfit The Melodians, and is the seventh bestselling UK
single of all time with 2.02 million copies.
(-) THE COMMODORES – Three Times A Lady (danced to by Legs & Co)
The Commodores picked their name out of the dictionary at
random and almost became The Commodes
(-) ABBA – Take A Chance On Me (video)
Singer Anni-Frid
married a German prince in 1992. Her full title is Her Serene Highness
Princess Anni-Frid Synni Reuss, Countess of Plauen.
(-) ROSE ROYCE – Love Don’t Live Here Anymore (video)
The video of this great song shown for the first time.
(-) JOHN TRAVOLTA & OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN – You’re The One That I Want (movie clip)
Should be the clip from Grease here please BBC4.
(1) BONEY M – Mary’s Boy Child – Oh My Lord ®
Boney M with the Xmas number one ~ originally a
number one for Harry Belafonte in 1957 this version is the UK’s 11th
best-selling single of all time with 1.86 million sales.
(-) JAMES GALWAY – Annie’s Song (and credits)
With Christmas fairy Sue doing the
ballet dancing. Annie’s Song was written by John Denver, as an ode to
his wife of the same name. It was a number 1 for him in 1974. James Galway’s
wife at this time was also called Annie.
Good Lord, no studio audience in these new studio performances for Christmas, with the invited pop groups performing in an empty TOTP studio for the first time, as I think there was a BBC strike on at the time, and Noel Edmunds confined to another location to present the show.
ReplyDeleteDarts - Angelo, I think this was the first studio performance with Den Heggerty's replacement, i.e., Kenny Andrews, as Den was in the line up on the original chart run in May 1978 for Boy From New York City, but fast forward 7 months to this Xmas Day TOTP show, and we see a change of line-up with Kenny on vocals instead of Den.
Travolta/ONJ - Summer Nights
Rare Legs & Co combo with male dancers, but Grease was all the rage at the time, so they sort of had to follow, and considering that the first series of The Kenny Everett Video Show on ITV had already completed a couple of months before this song was released, that Legs & Co were somewhat keeping up with the ITV Jones's (Hot Gossip) who had already closed the can on a whole first series of hot mixed dancing by August of the year.
Wings - this alternative indoor video for Mull Of Kintyre was I think from The Mike Yarwood Show which TOTP borrowed the footage for their own show as a change from the more familiar outdoor video (official video). Worked very well I thought.
Bee Gees - Thought exactly the same as you Angelo - Can't believe they are still showing the butchered version still now in 2021, as I thought the BBC's issues with the film companies were only during 2013 -2015, and resolved soon after, so I wonder what the official line is from BBC4 at this point in time in 2021. However, I did like those nighties on Legs & Co, especially watching on a very cold December day today!
Rose Royce - oh yes, the video at last, as TOTP only showed the studio performance earlier in the year during its chart run, but now the video at Christmas, so thank goodness we got to see it at last. Rose Royce were right up there with Peaches & Herb, The Commodores and Earth Wind & Fire for gorgeous ballads coming from 70s disco groups around this time.
Travolta/ONJ - You're The One That I Want
Angelo correctly mentions that it was actually the video shown on this Christmas Day show, and not the makeshift Legs & Co routine taken from a May edition of TOTP and then pasted over the video on the Christmas Day show. Let's have the original 1978 broadcast please on future repeats.
The Wings video was just an alternative video. The Mike Yarwood performance was a different one again ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB8lnLTpWY8
ReplyDeleteOK, interesting, then the one on The Mike Yarwood Christmas Special was a new studio performance, and interesting that they performed in the studio on Mike Yarwood but not in the TOTP studio which showed one of the two videos every week.
DeleteLooking at the Mike Yarwood performance, I'm not even sure it was filmed in the same studio as Mike's show. It looks very much like an insert, filmed elsewhere. Still a good clip though, and one not seen as often as the other two.
ReplyDeleteSorry if anyone has been having difficulty posting comments recently. I don't know what's causing it. Sometimes mine post ok, and at other times it just seems to freeze up. Someone has suggested using Google Chrome browser works better? I use Firefox, which like I say somethimes works and at other times freezes.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a case of people not posting at all Angelo, as we have already reviewed these various TOTP Christmas Day shows before, when they came up in their respective years during the BBC4 repeats.
DeleteIn fairness to the regulars on here, we have all deserved a break over the holidays, especially as first week back on in January there will be 4 shows to review on the first weekend, so I guess that people will need to recharge their batteries for the big occasion.
Really enjoyed the Christmas Day 1998 show that was on today.
Delete