Give me your body, give me your soul, give me your 22nd of October 1992 edition of Top of the Pops!
Muscling into the charts
22-10-92: Presenter: Tony Dortie
(19) THE FARM – Don’t You Want Me
Getting tonight's show underway with this Human League cover and it went up one more place.
(FLASHBACK) ROXY MUSIC – Virginia Plain (clip of TOTP 24-8-72) (and charts)
Their debut hit from 1972 that peaked at number 4.
(16) CHRIS REA – Nothing To Fear
Performing in the studio but this twangy tune got no higher.
(25) BJÖRN AGAIN – A Little Respect
The original Abba tribute band are here with their only top 40 hit and number 25 was its peak.
(10) ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT – People Everyday (via satellite)
Became their biggest hit peaking at number 2.
(9) TAKE THAT – A Million Love Songs
A second time in the studio and Gary's song went up two more places.
(27) ZUCCHERO with LUCIANO PAVAROTTI – Miserere (video) (Breakers)
Peaked at number 15.
(23) FELIX – It Will Make Me Crazy (video) (Breakers)
Peaked at number 11.
(13) MEGADETH – Skin O’ My Teeth (video) (Breakers)
Got no higher.
(5) BON JOVI – Keep The Faith (video) (Breakers)
Already at its peak.
(NEW) THE CHIPPENDALES – Give Me Your Body
On stage tonight performing their only hit and it peaked at number 28.
(1) TASMIN ARCHER – Sleeping Satellite (video)
Second and final week at number one.
29th of October is next.
It's a case of welcome back to the Top 40 chart rundown over the video on the second song on the show, taking us back to this point only one year ago when we lost the Top 40 rundown thanks to the move to the Elstree studios as part of the revamp of the show, so clearly the fans wanted the whole Top 40 rundown back.
ReplyDeleteIt was also a return to showing a video as second tune up after the opener in the studio, which stretches back to the early 80s as tradition on the show to follow up the studio opener, and this was also lost in the revamp, but returned to the show a year on at this point, albeit with the series of flashback videos to celebrate 1500 shows, so it's interesting how this trend was back too! It was like we were returning to the London studios format of the show, but in the new Elstree studios.
The Farm - opening the show with the Human League classic, but instead of Susan Sully's female solo vocals on the tune, we get three teenagers sharing her verses, and I quite liked the cute one in the middle with the legs.
Bjorn Again - more cover work here, and I remember Bjorn Again as the big thing in the early 90s competing against the dark vibe of that era played out by the rave and techno groups of the time, and I think they also played at the The Roundhouse in Camden at some point, so Bjorn Again must have had developed a good fanbase to fill up that arena.
THE CHARTS ARE BACK!!!!
ReplyDeleteAs are a load of old songs apparently, courtesy of The Smiths, Roxy Music, Bjorn Again, The Farm etc
The Farm open with a slightly chaotic and pointless cover, then for some weird reason a Roxy Music clip?
Chris Rea's guitar noodling doesn't do it for me, not on ver Pops anyway. That intro is far too long.
Bjorn Again with what's a funny joke. The song gets grating after a while but still amusing.
Arrested Development - are they on the set of Sesame Street or something in that vein? I like this track plenty, and certainly more than Mr Wendel. Last gasps of summer 92 here. Whitneygeddon isn't too far away though.
TT back and you can already see some of their style beginning to evolve as they've got some success. Jason especially with his facial hair. The staging indicates that they haven't yet cottoned on to the fans much preferring Robbie and Mark over Gary...
Zucchero looking like a weird hybrid of John McCririck, Miles Hunt, Ozzy Osbourne and the Mad Hatter. And very different to Pavarotti. Not my kind of thing. Felix with a much less catchy follow-up. Megadeth are at 13?! Didn't realise they were still that popular. Song's alright. Both they and Bon Jovi seem a tad hard done by being relegated to breakers when we had that Roxy Music video filling time.
Speaking of filling time, The Chippendales having a single is pretty much the most 90s thing ever. Especially being on the same show as Take That. During the verse I didn't remember this at all but I did remember the chorus. Not that anyone is interested in this for the music. Why do they all look the same, except the hair? It's like they're clones.
Nice to see TA's video for a change, though it seems to continue a trend of number one acts not bothering coming in after the first week. Only 2 weeks at the top is a very short run by 92 standards. (I think the next one week and done topper is Take That in Dec 93, over two years since the last one - unless you count Mr Blobby's two separate one week stints)
I must admit I was also thinking Sesame Street set when I watched the Arrested Development piece on this show. It was like waiting for Big Bird to appear but didn't. I also would rather have had the Bon Jovi video instead of Roxy Music, even with the chart rundown over the video.
DeleteThe Chris Rea tune seemed to be cut off as soon as it got going but looking at the single it was 9 minutes long so we would have had to lose another track to fit it in.
DeleteThe Farm with the sort of cover you would hear in a pub, don't know what the other NME covers album records sounded like (apart from two or three) but it would be nice if they made more effort than this does.
ReplyDeleteDid Tony say Roxy Music were from 1978? That can't be right.
And when Bagpuss wakes up, all his friends wake up too... My mistake, it's Chris Rea, taking a long while to get up to speed for his Ry Cooder rip-off tune, by which time everyone else has dozed off.
Bjorn Again, well, they don't sound like Erasure, and they don't sound like ABBA, so, er, what's the point? Another cover you'd be unsurprised to hear in a pub.
Arrested Development, one of their better efforts but they were always difficult to warm to completely. Surprisingly big hit, too. The original does have the edge, you have to admit.
Take That we've seen before, with documentary footage added, but it does look like The Barry Garlow Band Starring Barry Garlow (as it would when they came back years later).
Breakers, we've seen By Jovi, we'll see the others again, apart from Megadeth which is their usual sludge and Dave isn't a great guy so maybe should not be encouraged.
Apparently TOTP thought The Chippendales were the highlight. The record buying public disagreed. This would have been better off on The Generation Game or something similar. And I'm right, aren't I - they did all end up murdering each other? It's on Netflix, it must be true (?)!
Tasmin Archer Badger burns bright rather than fading away. Pretentious video, should at least have put an astronaut in there. Or footage of the Eagle Lander? In flight? Do I have to do all your work, for you, Tasmin's video director?
Happy Easter. Happy Halloween? I'm confused, and so are The Farm who think it's 1981. Some songs should just not be touched. I like The Farm usually but this is shocking. Have they dragged 3 audience members up as backing singers? I don't think they are professional singers
ReplyDeleteThe whole chart! Finally. How 70s is that Roxy Music clip!
Chris Rea looking mean and moody. Takes a while to get going this one doesn't it. I've died of dehydration watching this. I like the camera on the guitar. Can't argue with the talent here but not for me thanks.
Bjorn Again get revenge on Erasure by trashing one of their biggest hits. 92 was very much the ABBA revival when they went from embarrassing 70s pop stars to pop royalty. GOLD has spent 1,041 weeks in the album chart to date (Number 18 this week). This would probably of flogged a few tickets to Bjorn Again's tour.
Nice to have Arrested Development back. Always liked their tunes and this is no exception. Very chilled and summery. Track of the night so far.
TT we've seen already but they are now stars!
Breakers:
Zucherro/Pavarotti: Why?
Felix: They had another hit?
Megadeath: Noise alert!
Bon Jovi: Awesome tune.
I really don't know what to say about The Chippendales number. Thankfully this musical adventure was short lived. It sounds like a SAW reject.
Finally Tasmin isn't available so we get the rather fine video instead. We've had some great Number Ones this year.
I seem to recall in 1981 that Phil Oakey of The Human League found two girls at a Sheffield Nightclub with no singing experience and enlisted them into his group which changed the fortunes of what was a relatively unsuccessful all-male group up until that point, and look at what happened to the Human League who are still very active and regularly touring together in 2022.
DeleteIn the case of The Farm, they differed by putting three girls at the side of the stage, rather than interspersed with the group, which would signal to pop fans that this was a one-off for this cover song, with no intention of going in the same direction as the Human League, and choosing to stay as an all-male group.
I recall a similar event in 1983 when Culture Club brought in Helen Terry for Church Of The Poison Mind, and put her on her own at the back of the TOTP stage for her vocals, and you could hardly see her cos the focus was mainly on the band, and despite the success of the single being largely down to Helen Terry rather than Culture Club, and The Farm here were giving off the same signal in keeping off any competition for attention on their single.
The Human League were fairly successful before Joanne and Suzanne joined, but more of a cult band. They obviously had a real knack for the tunes, though (Empire State Human is a favourite). But then they split and Phil asked the ladies to join his side (he kept the name) in a last ditch effort to keep going. It worked!
DeleteSome decent songs and some real depths plumbed, all in the same show.
ReplyDeleteA totally abysmal cover by The Farm. Patented Peter Hooton frug dance and three disparate backing vocalists.
According to Dorky, up next is the bottom half of the charts. Yep, 40-11 counts as the bottom half! Still, about time Stan Apple finally saw some sense. If only he could ditch the presenters, theme tune and exclusives too.
Could you imagine nine whole minutes of that Chris Rea thing? Look, there’s The Man From Del Monte on a kiddie’s stool behind an oversized keyboard.
Bjorn Again’s clip starts with a stage manager deciding last minute not to walk in front of the side shot of the act. This sounded as close to Abba as that singer looked like Agnetha, i.e. nothing like.
An unusually subued snooker commentator intro to Arrested Development’s agreeable mellow rap and sartorial tribute to Malcolm X (women’s T-shirts and male singer’s necklace).
Gaz gets the full beam while his four fellow Takers may as well have been in a different studio, such was their lighting.
Breakers in order: I’d have preferred to hear Liberation to find out what they sounded like in place of Lemonero, cat food rave with brilliant lyrics, Alumin(i)um Maiden, and something which should have swapped places with The Farm.
Whose idea was it to give The Chippendales a slot? Appalling. I stomached the first three lines, just, then gave up on the future top 28 smash.
We finish with the peak of the week, but I wonder how many times Tasmin needed the bucket or some aspirin after all those rotations. Reminded me of the end of “Sunday Night At The London Palladium”.
I misread your Chris Rea comment as "Imagine a whole nine months"! It didn't half go on, but maybe not quite that bad.
DeleteThe Liberation single was one I bought at the time, on CD single for some reason (presumably cost). It’s some inspirational Rev. Jesse Jackson speech samples put to an Italian house piano beat. Seemed like a good idea back in 1992, although Andy Weatherall had been doing similar with the Reverend Jackson in his live sets the previous year.
DeleteThe video for Liberation would have brought you silhouetted females dancing, a studio performance would no doubt have been ponytailed keyboardists and female dancers :-)
Thanks for that, Sidders. Turns out we saw as much of Liberation on TOTP as we did Liberace!
DeleteI checked Liberation's single on 45Cat and the back of the sleeve failed quality control. It says "Liberation is dedicated to all those whoi stood before the crown court at Issleworth". "Who" and "Isleworth" (a town next to Hounslow) mis-spelt.
DeleteOh wee, back to FFing thanks to twiddly chris rea which I was convinced was going to be an instrumental
ReplyDeleteBjorn again - stop is a better example of their ‘abba’ sound
Arrested development - murdered the original, buried it, dug it up, murdered it again, and then I fast forwarded….
Chippendales - what the…? I mean, WHAT THE…? FF