Woman take me in your arms, rock your 20th of August 1992 edition of Top of the Pops!
Jammin
20-8-92: Presenter: Mark Franklin
(14) KWS – Rock Your Baby
Getting the show underway and this George McCrae cover became their second and final top ten hit when it peaked at number 8.
(NEW) EXTREME – Rest In Peace (via satellite)
This lively rocker peaked at number 13.
(6) FELIX – Don’t You Want Me
All dressed up in the studio tonight but the tune got no higher.
(18) PAUL WELLER – Uh Huh Oh Yeh
The Modfather is here tonight with the first single from his eponymous top ten solo album, but number 18 was its peak.
(NEW) MICHAEL JACKSON – Jam (video)
Peaked at number 13.
(22) THUNDER – Low Life In High Places
An explosive finale to this song but it got no higher in the charts.
(28) BOBBY BROWN – Humpin’ Around (video) (Breakers)
Peaked at number 19, but the remix will return to charts in 1995 and make it to number 8.
(24) ROY ORBISON & K.D. LANG – Crying (video) (Breakers)
Peaked at number 13.
(23) ANNIE LENNOX – Walking On Broken Glass (video) (Breakers)
Peaked at number 8.
(16) KYLIE MINOGUE – What Kind Of Fool (Heard It All Before)
Live in the studio and the song went up two more places.
(1) SNAP – Rhythm Is A Dancer (video)
Third of six weeks at number one.
27th of August is next.
For me this show was all abut Felix and Snap, with two superb Top 10 dance floor anthems that would still remain dance floor anthems for the rest of the decade I seem to recall.
ReplyDeleteFelix - I don't recall a studio appearance, and just remember the video, so it was good to see the people behind the tune, as I have never seen them before, and boy was the lead girl singer good on this. Just love this tune, with a similar video to come later in the year from Usura called Open Your Mind. What a great time we were having in 1992!
Michael Jackson - was that Heavy D from Heavy D & The Boyz doing the rapping in the Jackson video? It certainly looked like Heavy D, looking not so heavy on this video!
Kylie Minogue - she must have watched the last show with Betty Boo on it to have the same outfit idea, although Kylie's flares went all the way down to her shoes, but the whole shiny outfit looked nice on her. Oh, and the song was awesome too!
Snap - the anthem of the summer holidays in 1992 and probably of the whole decade considering how many years later it was still shaking the dance floors, I mean well into the late 90s too, the video was so cool, fresh, atmospheric, and had No.1 all over it, fitting for this group who had so much fun in their videos from 1990 to 1995.
Finally, good to see the Top 10 rundown back in its traditional slot just before the No.1, as it never felt right on the early part of the show since the 1991 revamp, so well done to the producers in rethinking on this one.
KWS are back, alas, with the boggest of bog standard covers, this time a chicken in a basket George MacRae 70s hit. Fortunately there are other acts on this show that indicate some were more forward thinking.
ReplyDeleteBut not Extreme, another tip for the top from 1992 TOTP that did sweet FA in the charts. No idea what the kid is there for, did he win a competition? Did Extreme win a competition?
Ah, this is more like it, a justified dancefloor classic, Felix on the decks with Don't You Want Me. Incredibly dramatic, I'd go as far as saying it was a real foot tapper. The weirdo dancers behind dressed as Doctor Who monsters sure to give kids nightmares.
Paul Weller, someone's trying to break into your car! Anyway, this was about the time he was morphing into the Modfather phase and embracing his legacy, which saw him gain a lot more respect. But just a teensy bit boring, too.
Gawd, another bloody Whackson video, this time trying to convince us he's a brilliant basketball player. The man's ego was in need of puncturing, and so it was this decade. The track is by the numbers at best.
Thunder... Thunder... Thunder... Thundercats hoooo!!! Oh, it's not them, it's another NWOBM act staggering on into the 90s. Starts dull, then livens up for the finale.
Breakers. What a resistible image, Bobby. Roy and kd, tasteful I suppose, unusual combination. Is that John Malkovich and Hugh Laurie in Annie Lennox's video? Of course they're in Regency clobber, sigh.
Kylie hits the doldrums as the Top 10 slips away from her, you can tell she's in real need of a career boost and this just doesn't cut the mustard. Whooping doesn't help.
Snap cut off before the unpleasantness. Probably for the best.
It was a shame that the Orbison/KD Lang duet only got a Breakers slot, as it deserved a full play by the time it reached No.13 at peak, and would have been more welcome than Annie Lennox getting a full play for three shows in a row, and denying this gorgeous Orbison ballad a main slot it deserved over the next couple of TOTP shows but didn't happen.
DeleteI've always love The Big O and this cover with kd Lang works really well and I think adds to the tune. Such a shame as you say we don't get more of it.
DeleteThree songs peaking lower down the charts for previous chart regulars, with no TOTP play or mention for them on this occasion:
ReplyDeleteNo.36 Wilson Phillips - Give It Up
Another song of the trio of girls to waver just inside the Top 40 but fail to go deep into the higher reaches of the chart, this was worth a play or Breakers slot had it got a little higher up in the charts.
No.46 The Stranglers - Heaven Or Hell
Last ever single from The Stranglers, bringing down the curtain on an amazing chart career stretching back to 1977, it was 15 years of memorable pop music and videos, with Golden Brown in 1982 as surely their finest moment.
No.53 David Bowie - Real Cool World
Having now ditched the Tinman group to go with his solo name once again, this was a new entry at No.53, and then fell right out of the Top 75 the following week, so clearly the return to the Bowie name was not working in this new era of dance/rave that was still dominating the charts on the whole.
Kind of a dull episode for the most part.
ReplyDeleteKWS not having an original song doesn't bode well for their longevity (spoiler alert).
Did we need an Extreme exclusive? Not really. It's fine in a shrug kind of way.
Felix perk things up a bit even though the studio version loses something (a sample? a vocal effect?) from the recorded one.
I have no memory whatsoever of this Paul Weller track, and that's after just watching the show ;)
I thought we were done with boring MJ exclusives but here's the worst song and video yet when there are so many other songs in the charts yet to feature properly.
Crying ia my pick of the Breakers. I like Annie L too but we had that one last week.
THANK GOD FOR KYLIE coming to save this episode from the doldrums. Sure it's not up there with her beat singles but her make-up and clothing look great (the hair less so) and there are the fledgling signs of what a live performer she's going to be... when she starts working with proper choroeographers anyway. I think there's only one more single left with SAW now before she goes to more interesting (albeit not always successful) places.
And I like Snap but all these number ones that are only on video are kind of dull.
It was kind of unusual that Snap didn't perform their No.1 in the TOTP studio, when you consider that they did for most of their other songs up until this one.
Delete"KWS not having an original song doesn't bode well for their longevity (spoiler alert)".
DeleteI'm afraid these disco leeches without a single bone of originality in their bodies had three more top 30/40 singles.
Nooooo!
DeleteFuck no. Another song from the JayBoy / TK stable shat on by KWS. Great song, Mark? Great song massacred.
ReplyDeleteExtreme again? I wish their uninspiring chart career would rest in peace.
At least Felix’s “Don’t You Want Me” wasn’t a Human League rip-off. Look and learn, KWS (they never did). Better than in the video last week, but were those dancers cast-offs from “The Word”? They looked it.
Clever link number one, from a chorus going “oh oh oh yeah” to “Uh Huh Oh Yeh”, where that deluded soul Paul Weller thinks he’s moprhed into Jimi Hendrix. Uh-uh oh no, mate.
Clever link number two, from the head honcho of The Jam to “Jam”. Off with the sound to see the new entries before ditching Wacko.
“Low Life In High Places”, a tower block “Wanted Dead Or Alive”. Oo, hark at Mister Two Guitars there.
I’ll pass, Bobby. Lucky old Whitney. Bitch died on my fiftieth birthday.
I hate dead / alive duets, exhibit one Natalie Cole and her dad Nat ‘King’. We saw more of “Crying” here than when Don McLean reached number one with the same song during the 1980 orchestra strike wars.
What a surprise. Last week’s exclusive gets on again the next week. Remember when you had to be number one to get on consecutive shows?
“Finer Feelings” highly successful, Mark? You need to take more water with it. Kylie Curlers Hair’s track sounded like a future Take That cover, and that isn’t a compliment.
And snap goes my interest in the show before the chart topper.
Roy and kd actually recorded their duet together before he died, so it wasn't an act of graverobbing this time. She had an anecdote that when they were singing it they were so close together their faces touched, which she liked.
DeleteI didn't realise that, so I happily retract my criticism for the "Crying" duet. Always thought "Constant Craving" should have been a much bigger hit.
DeleteHaving seen and heard a number of versions of Crying, I would say that this type of tune although originally a male solo, came off best as a male-female duet. Outside of a duet, the song is very slow and back-breaking to wait for the song to finish, but this duet I thought gave it a refresh in a way that I didn't want it to end!
DeleteDoes that include the "Only Fools And Horses" version? :-D
DeleteIn fact Roy Orbison had such an superb singing voice and charisma that he could cover any song and make it sound better than the original, and this one with KD Lang was a supreme example. Never heard a Only Fools And Horse version Arthur, but give it to Orbison and everything will be OK.
DeleteSo according to 1992 Biggest Hits, Felix was camera shy so DJ Malcolm was bought in to do the performance.
ReplyDeleteMention of Malcolm immediately reminded me of those old Vicks nasal spray ads!
DeleteInteresting that the only TOTP presenter of that year to be interviewed on The Story of 1992 was Tony Dortie, so there was no Franklin, Simon, Oke or Rose showing up to this Story Of. Dortie is now 58 and gave a good account of the show 30 years ago.
DeleteI just had a thought, the song title for Paul Weller sounds a lot like the chorus of HyperReal by The Shamen, which was their first Top 40 single in 1991.
ReplyDeleteKWS spending their money on some real musicians (none of whom probably appear on the record) for this rather average cover version. Comparisons to Yell! Remember them?
ReplyDeleteExtreme still plugging away and this clip looks like it's from a 1970s Whistle Test. Does the kid belong to an extreme? Nothing original about the tune unfortunately. My word this goes on longer than a Jackson video.
If you'd asked me I would have sworn this Felix track was a 94/95 tune. 92 just seems too early. One from my clubbing days and a good studio performance as well.
Paul Weller is back and about to enter stage three of his career as an Indie Mod. Some great stuff to come from him. This is good as well.
Here we go, another MJ video and he goes all street for this one. Liked all the Dangerous singles so far and this is no exception. Heavy D and Kriss Kross too. I assume the basketballer is famous as well.
Thunder next. Lots of lower chart action without a big hit. This is much better than Extreme earlier. Never going to be a huge fan of this but I enjoyed that
Breakers:
Bobby Brown: Humping and Jumping.
Kd Lang/Roy Orbison: Glorious
Annie Lennox: Wondeful video.
Kylie back with (almost) her last SAW track and they are clearly running out of ideas.. this is an album track at best. Would have been Number Two if this was 1989. Lively perfomance though.
Surely it's 2 years Mark? SNAP! still on top.