You belong to me, I belong to you, although we've come to the 29th of October 1992 edition of Top of the Pops!
Mist you nights
29-10-92: Presenter: Mark Franklin
(13) GO WEST – Faithful
Getting the show underway but the song got no higher.
(FLASHBACK) LEO SAYER – You Make Me Feel Like Dancing (clip of TOTP 28-10-76) (and charts)
Reached number 2 in good old 1976.
(11) FELIX – It Will Make Me Crazy
In the studio but it got no higher.
(15) ZUCCHERO with LUCIANO PAVAROTTI – Miserere (video)
At its peak.
(19) VANESSA PARADIS – Be My Baby
Four years after Joe Le Taxi Vanessa returns with what was to be her second and final top ten hit when it peaked at number 6.
(20) MICHAEL BOLTON – To Love Somebody (video) (Breakers)
Peaked at number 16.
(16) JOHN LEE HOOKER – Boom Boom (video) (Breakers)
Got no higher.
(14) AMBASSADORS OF FUNK feat. M.C. MARIO – Supermarioland (video) (Breakers)
Peaked at number 8.
(10) RAGE – Run To You
This Bryan Adams cover was to be their only top 40 hit and it peaked at number 3.
(3) MADONNA – Erotica (video)
At its peak.
(NEW) ERASURE – Who Needs Love (Like That) (via satellite)
Had peaked at number 55 in 1985, this time around it made it to number 10.
(1) BOYZ II MEN – End Of The Road
First of three weeks at number one.
5th of November is next.
Felix - nowhere near as good as their recent debut single Don't You Want Me, but I'll take it as a worthy No.11 this week.
ReplyDeleteZucchero with Pavarotti - Good Lord, how did Zucchero get this collaboration, going up in class to secure Pavarotti's services on his single, but at the same time the song itself was not a jot on Senza Una Donna with the lower profile Paul Young on guest vocals, which went much better, achieving Top 5 at peak position in 1990. Funny that!
Vanessa Paradis - first single for four-and-a-half years since she stormed onto the scene in early 1988 as a 15-year old with Joe Le Taxi achieving No.3 at peak. This new one for 1992 getting to a peak of No.6 was a fair comeback to say the least, where we will see her again on the show at peak position in a couple of shows time, and that will be it, as two follow-up singles in 1993 failed to make the Top 40.
Boyz II Men - first of three weeks at No.1, but were already 11 weeks at No.1 in America out of a staggering 13 weeks at top spot, so at this point in October 1992 it was a simultaneous No.1 in Britain and America, and not many groups have this accolade to be No.1 at the same time on both sides of the Atlantic.
Go West looking like a CEO at a works do got up and insisted on singing his own composition with the band. Well done for going Top 20 with this, but you can't say it caught on.
ReplyDeleteLeo is our vintage birthday clip, but I'm too busy reading the chart positions.
Apparently last time he was on, Felix wasn't on, because he was too shy and got a stand in to help out. Looks like he did it again here. Middling dance thumper, but not as catchy as the previous one.
Keith Lemon and Pavarotti, bloody awful yelling match, but I did laugh at Keith's Frank Spencer "ooh!" face.
Finally something that's great, Vanessa Paradis teamed up with Leonard Kravitz to come up with this sixties pastiche that matches up well to the Ye-Ye Girls of the era. Insistent beat, delicate but not brittle vocals, and a fine tune. Best thing on the show for ages.
Breakers, Mike Bolton doing his groaning, John Lee Hooker getting a late career boost by being in an advert, and apparently someone's home video about Super Mario.
We're very sorry, Bryan Adams can't be in the studio to bore you to tears tonight, so we have a substitute brought on in the form of anonymous session musicians giving the most perfunctory do over of Run to You imaginable. Yeah... cheers.
Madge again, she seems to have gone the Whacko Jacko horrorface route recently, so remember her this way. Actually, remember her in the 80s, because I suspect the film Mark referred to was Body of Evidence where she's accused of having sex to death with a millionaire. And every bit as good as that sounds!
Erasure, at least they're putting on a show, do you think Andy might be gay? Call it intuition. And Vince, who isn't gay, but dresses up as Mae West anyway. Good to have a bit of silliness on the show, especially in contrast to the po-faced Number 1. Two more weeks of this! It's already been on about ten times!
Four singles at peak position further down the chart, and with no TOTP appearance for them:
ReplyDeleteNo.24 Gloria Estefan - Always Tomorrow
No.26 Annie Lennox - Cold
Surprised this only got to No.26, but her next two singles were to go Top 3, so lots more good things to come.
No.52 - Jamiroquai - When You Gonna Learn
Debut single for this group who would go on to become regular chart entrants throughout the rest of the decade and into the 2000s as well. Interesting that this first one of theirs in 1992 on debut failed to make the Top 40, but like many others, including the Shamen, they would go on to achieving No.1 in the charts at a later single release.
No.60 Vangelis - Conquest Of Paradise
This was of course the movie soundtrack of the same name, and first single since 1981 which included Chariots Of Fire. Conquest Of Paradise was one of the first CDs I bought, as 1992 was the first year that CDs were available for all album releases, replacing vinyl albums in the process.
What a fabulous tune that was from Vangelis...totally underwhelmed by peaking at No60. Ridley Scott's epic '1492 - Conquest of Paradise' was certainly that with a lot of the cast not actually big names. The sleeve notes of the excellent Vangelis compilation from 1996 'Portraits' mention this being 'one of the biggest selling instrumentals of the 1990s with it's glorious blend of uplifting melody and choir.'
Delete...but it peaked at No60?
I know, I couldn't believe it either when I looked down the lower reaches of the charts. It also turned out to be Vangelis's last single released, but boy what a superb movie soundtrack album it came off.
DeleteThe Vangelis compilation album that I bought was not the 1996 one that you mention, but the 2003 'Vangelis Odyssey - The Definitive Collection' which featured two bonus tracks called I'll Find My Way Home and State of Independence which were of course Jon & Vengelis singles.
Either everyone’s busy over Easter or folk are starting to give up. 11:45 pm two nights after the BBC4 showing and my comment still makes number 4!
ReplyDeleteLooking at his clobber, is Mark going to a Pet Shop Boys fan club meet afterwards?
Go West looking and sounding as bland as cottage cheese. Rhythm section with ponytails. Poor old Peter Cox - I remember him in a show way back called “Reborn In The USA”, where old chart acts were whisked over to the States to perform different styles of songs each week (Motown, country, New Orleans etc.) and an act got eliminated each week. Pete forgot the words to a Norah Jones cover, laughingly asked the audience if they knew them, and got voted off later.
The charts whoosh right to left this week, a change from previous. Interesting to see a future number one enter at a lowly 34, plus the first chart sighting of Therapy? who only stuck that question mark at the end of their name to fill an unexpected Letraset gap on their first record sleeve.
Always thought Leo Sayer looked like he was being electrocuted rather than dancing.
What a great tune and lyrics from Felix. Must have taken seconds. Some more Alternative Car Park stage right.
Lemonero and Fishsupperini with a miserable row. Don’t forget to dry your feet, Keith.
Vanessa returns with a right old slice of Gallic tinged Motown. Catchy if a bit repetititititve.
Breakers in turn: another bellowed cover from Micky, some R&B grunting, and we recently managed to dodge “Banana Song” (a rave version of the “Splits” theme) but suffer this snippet.
Rage, almost as shite as The Farm last week.
Ah, Madonna, now teetering slightly towards the first syllable of her moniker. One woman’s slinky groove is someone else’s quick FF.
Were Erasure’s backing vocalists meant to twirl those hankies completely out of synch all the way through? Andy’s dressed in alternative ninja turtle disco gear but, once again, The Vince Clarke Comedy Show wins the day. As for the song, I can see why it didn’t even make the top 75 first time round.
After 19 appearances on the show, the once again strangely attired Boyz II Men finally reach the top, and then it’s “End Of The Show”. See what I did there?
I have to assume everyone else is stuck in traffic or on a delayed train over the holidays!
DeleteI hadn't checked the previous chart history of Erasure's track before my last post... so how come Mark said it had previously only reached number 82?
ReplyDeleteStory of 95, a bit more overfamiliar than the previous editions, if only because we've heard the war stories so often by now. That clip of John Humphrys begrudgingly reading the news item about Blur vs Oasis must be practically falling apart. But Louise Wener has been surprisingly good value on docs like these.
ReplyDeleteGood Lord, I see that there will be no November 1992 TOTP shows the week, thanks to the World Snooker Championship having an evening stint on BBC4 while BBC1 and BBC2 are already booked for other shows.
ReplyDeleteWith the following Friday 29th April still with the snooker at semi-finals stage, I hope we also don't lose another Friday of TOTP and have to wait until 6th May for the first November 1992 TOTP. Does anyone know the BBC4 schedule for 29th April?
BBC Four will be showing Top Of The Pops on Friday 29th April at 8pm and it will be 5/11 and 12/11.
DeleteSpoiler alert: More covers, an INXS exclusive, an old fogey with an album track and that bloody Mario rave tune in the next two editions for starters. I can wait.
DeleteFelix. Not one hit wonders and not too shabby.
ReplyDeleteErasure. Good to see this re-release from Erasure, remember adding the video to my VHS tape back in 85/86, from the Chart Show Indie rundown?
Rage - a cover improving on the original?
Vanessa Paradis - listening to her 1992 album reminds me of Portishead in parts, before Portishead arrived though - did she (and boyfriend Lenny) invent trip hop?
Super Mario Land. Going back two years previous to this, William Orbit (Bassomatic-Madonna man) started Guerilla Records that became the Progressive House label of choice. I snapped up every release, including a very dodgy, quality control skipping, Mario tune by Cybernetic Youth. The first “Toytown Techno” release?
Story of 96, the year of The Spice Girls of course, but I also remember Dennis Pennis presenting and slagging everyone off (!) and of course everyone thinking "It's Your Letters!" whenever Reef's biggest hit was played.
ReplyDeleteThe main reason Oasis survived the tabloid onslaught was that their egos were so huge they believed all their hype and lucky for them so did tens of millions of fans.
Oh, and moving it to Fridays? The beginning of the end, though it lasted another ten years. The reason it was such a success on Thursdays is because you didn't miss it because you weren't out, and it could still be a talking point in the playground or at work the next day. It was just less essential on Fridays, no matter when the charts were being announced.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad they mentioned the move to Fridays being the beginning of the end, but I felt short changed by that edition. It was more like "The Story of 1995-and-a-half" as they had almost the same interviewees for as the previous year.
DeleteTo be fair, 1996 was a lot like 1995 and a half, apart from The Spice Girls landing.
DeleteBut I could have done without more Keith Allen and his dodgy opinions (Trainspotting was the first time pop music and film were combined?! A Hard Day's Night, anyone? The Girl Can't Help It, even?).
Also on tonight's TV: well done to Amelle from The Sugababes for getting Rod Stewart mixed up with En Vogue. Heroic!
ReplyDeleteWas it a picture round in a quiz show? :-D
DeleteHeh, no it was Celebrity Mastermind!
DeleteSnooker all done, what have I missed?
ReplyDeleteA rather odd editon of TOTP it seems, starting in the 80s with a proper Go West throwback which is decent if not earth shattering.
Leo Sayer as crap in 1992 as he was in 1976 followed by Felix doing a Kym Sims releasing the same song twice hoping nobody will notice. I noticed.
Zucherro doing a slowed down Bryan Adams tribute attached to Italian opera..as bad as you would think it is? Yes
60s pop next with the return of Vanessa Paradis with a really dull performance of a rather nice tune. If you were going for sultry Vanessa you missed by a mile.
Breakers:
Michael Bolton: bad hair, bad cover
John Lee Hooker: Like this one it has style
Mc Mario: No thank you
More Bryan Adams as "Run To You" gets a 90s makeover. KWS I'm blaming you for this one. It's actually not too bad and nice to hear a dance tune with a proper lyric.
Madonna in her crap phase then Yee hah its camp cowboy Andy and voluptuous Vince with a highly improved version of WNLLL for their Greatest Hits album. 18 year old me off to purchase the cassette.
Da Boyz are number one. Where did the stick go? is it a prop? Shocking! Scandal!
A rather mixed bag this show, back to the ironing.