I'm on holiday at the moment so am posting the 1st of April 1993 edtion prior to watching the show.
Top young hit
1-4-93: Presenter: Mark Franklin
(22) CAPPELLA – U Got 2 Know
(6) MADONNA – Fever (video) (and charts)
(23) MICA PARIS – I Never Felt Like This Before
(19) SUNSCREEM – Pressure Us (video)
(24) BILL TARMEY – One Voice (video) (Breakers)
(18) ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT – Tennessee (video) (Breakers)
(14) W.W.F. SUPERSTARS – Wrestlemania (video) (Breakers)
(13) GLORIA ESTEFAN – Go Away (video) (Breakers)
(NEW) BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – Lucky Town (via satellite)
(NEW) BARRY MANILOW – Copacabana (At The Copa) (Remix)
(1) THE BLUEBELLS – Young At Heart
8th April is next.
Not down the pub tonight so I thought I‘d get in early for a change. While hoping Angelo’s enjoying his hols, I thought I’d give the tracks’ peak positions for him while I’m here.
ReplyDeleteOne of the better shows recently, and no April fool there.
Capella (reached 6) – a bit of lambada early on, a woman in 50’s underwear, a good groove, and what wonderful complex lyrics.
Madonna (6, peak) – shitting all over Peggy Lee’s much better version, and a corned beef rehash of a video with the word ‘fever’ imposed over it a few times. Sheesh.
Chart rundown: Skinhead? JTQ? Sonic Youth!!! Wish they’d got on the show!
Mica Paris (reached 15) – strange image, very deep vocals early on, but sadly just scampi in a basket R ‘n’ B.
Sunscreem (19, peak) – good of them to bring a sick note and smile unlike Brett from Suede. I guess the track was called “Pressure Us” despite the chorus refrain “under pressure” to differ from that big hit?
Bill Tarmey (reached 16) – Vera! I remember someone once wrote a Smiths parody about “Corrie” which included the superb couplet ”Jack Duckworth is tiddley on Newton and Ridley”. He was in the show occasionally as moonlighting cabaret singer alter-ego Vince St Clair. One decent voice there.
Arrested Development (18, peak) – Seen as a flop exclusive already, did better second time round. Would have loved to see this go up for a studio outing. Their best by a country mile.
WWF Superstars (14, peak) – this shit made it four places higher than “Tennessee”? Sacrilege.
Our Glo (13, peak) – showing Madge how to put a good song and cover (and also look) together.
Broooce (flopped at 48) – announced a new tour for next year! Very good value live, but this was just Bruce by numbers. Didn’t deserve any luck going higher.
Baz (reached 22) – a weird office setting for the backdrop but mic as a tie clip, a bit of class there. Always loved this cheese of the highest order. Was it me or was Barry bellowing this a tad? And why did we get two non-chart exclusives in the same show? Cheats!
Bluebells with “No.1” in lights behind them. Cheeky scamps! As explained in “The Story”, this week’s unexpected extra two bar fill-in is “Techno!” In tribute to 2 Unlimited.
There was also famously a song called 'Pressure' by Billy Joel from his 1982 album The Nylon Curtain, and which I don't think was released in the UK, but the video is definitely worth a watch:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyv905Q2omU
'Nylon Curtain' was released over here to limited appeal. 'Surprises' on side 2 is the killer track for me.
DeleteSct, Channel 5 has just started repeating the 70s biggest hits year by year, with last night starting off with 1970, and then every Friday night following BBC4's TOTP 1993 episodes. Videos by Hotlegs, Matthews Southern Comfort and The Carpenters were the highlights of the 1970 compilation.
DeleteThanks for that, Dory. I missed the first three years of the 70's first time round so I can collect the set now. Already made weekly reminder notes in my diary!
DeleteJust watched the 1970 edition. An enjoyable and heavily Vietnam war influenced line-up with a top 30 starting with Jimi Hendrix singing into what looked like a giant steak and kidney pub and ending with the chart topper made by my hometown's proudest export, Mungo Jerry.
DeleteThanks....those shows are superb. Best selling single of 1972.....can you imagine that now?!
DeleteOops! That should have read Shinehead and not Skinhead in the chart rundown comment. Both Shinehead and JTQ had this one moment in the sun top 40-wise, while Sonic Youth were enjoying their second of three singles to reach the 20s.
ReplyDeleteAha! Turns out that JTQ is an abbreviation used by British jazz-funkers The James Taylor Quartet.
DeleteSonic Youth had a way with songs / covers with, erm, interesting titles. They made number 72 in 1998 with a single whose B-side was a Kurt Cobain song called "Moist V@gina". I have changed the spelling to defeat the swearword brigade. I hope no DJ played the wrong side by mistake!
DeleteWhen I saw JTQ in the rundown I wondered if it was the same JTQ / James Taylor Quartet who had appeared with their classic tune “Blow Up” in John Peel’s 1987 Festive Fifty, indeed it is. I taped and re-listened to that Festive Fifty countless times, probably shaped my musical tastes more than anything else. In the rundown were Sonic Youth (Catholic Block), many Smiths tunes, The Fall, New Order, Jesus and Mary Chain. Talulah Gosh, Primitives, I Ludicrous, Beatmasters, MARRS, Public Enemy, Wedding Present with Sugar Cubes at number one. Bjork to make a big solo appearance later in 1993.
DeleteCapella - at first sight I thought Capella were a sort of Bizarre Inc, but then noticed that they were previously on TOTP in 1989 with a No.11 hit called Helyom Halib, but only now making a splash in 1993, and I remember buying the whole album, as all the tunes seemed to be quite hypnotic.
ReplyDeleteMadonna - just couldn't get into the video, as it was just a collection of of snippets from a whole decade of Madonna videos since 1983.
Sunscreem - just as well that they were not well enough to perform it in the studio, as the superb video reminded me of the Marquee Club video by Wham in 1986 with Edge Of Heaven which was very 80s, but now Sunscreem so much better in colour and punchy sound for the 90s, in what is my favourite of the Sunscreem music catalogue. Best tune and video on the show tonight!
Bruce Springsteen - live by satellite from Glasgow? Good Lord, with no time difference to the TOTP studio in London, this was an easy evening gig to go live to, compared to the traditional Live By Satellite tunes where the Americans were a few hours behind, and performed in the morning or afternoon with in dark indoor surroundings to look like an evening performance!
Barry Manilow - performing in the TOTP studio, with a studio set made into a NY lawyer's office, but give me Read 'Em And Weep anyday as Manilow's finest tune, penned for him by Jim Steinman in 1981 and a chart hit in the UK.
When 'Record Mirror' reviewed Meat Loaf's 1982 release of 'Read 'em and Weap' (which didn't trouble the scorers) the review simply said; "What, his reviews?"!
DeleteThe best one ever was their 'review' of Steve Hackett's 'Hope I don't wake' single which simply said '"Seconded".
It was a close run thing, but Manilow's version of Read 'Em & Weep was the better of the two, even though Meat had the better voice. I put it down to the Manilow video which had some sort of storyline, while Meat's video was a stage performance video.
DeleteThis was another edition that I thought was going to be really poor but wasn't too bad. I really enjoy the half remembering of things on these repeats. A few things on here I'm sure have never been played on radio since.
ReplyDeleteMark presenting. Uh huh.
Capella sends us straight back to show 1 of the revamp. Cameras whizz about. A cheap climbing frame for a set. Dancers being energetic and over serious. This does have a great dance riff just as it was a great post punk riff when originally part of The Banshees' 'Happy House' which, according to Wickipedia, they failed to credit and paid the price.
Not much else to say about it. A very attractive dancer with Pan's People hair tires herself out for our benefit. Follow up is a good one.
Video and charts and Madonna keeps the sex thing going on with her cover of Peggy Lee's 'Fever' and it doesn't come close to that version and maybe it was selected only for thematic continuity. The video a montage of clips from the various Madonna's from I think 'La Isla Bonita' onwards, all of which are way more interesting than where she is right now. Personally a little disappointed to see the video for the glorious 'Cherish' having a part to play in this.
Mica Paris in the studio with a pretty forbidding look. Good song though which I half remember and she's always welcome on TV either when singing or when taking about music.
One benefit about live performances on the show is that you can be treated to a VIP apology from a performer when they or their bandmates aren't able to perform. We've had two from The Cure (sheepish), Brett of Suede (sullen) and now the singer of Sunscreem (jovial). They're all here to apologise which is nice of them and Mark appreciates the effort, warmly introduces the video for 'Pressure Us' which unsurprisingly, is nowhere near as cuddly. Enjoyed it though.
Breakers. Are diverse. Bill Tarmey's cover I must've totally missed at the time. I still have, on VHS, the 'Only Fools and Horses' Christmas day '93 edition where Del is drunkenly singing 'One Voice' outside Nelson Mandela House in the middle of the night and instigates a riot. I've never once questioned why he sang that number (always seemed a bit incongruous to me) and it must've been because of this! Arrested Development 'Tennessee', good single and played the album a lot during that time. W.W.F Superstars; Nobody needs to see that. Gloria Estefan; Unfriendly title, nice song that I'm sure got a lot of airplay at the time. Good to hear again.
Springsteen by satellite and no slumming it by a clifftop or a fake street corner for him. A full on live venue performance. He actually mentions that he's on 'Top of the Pops', something I presume utterly lost on the crowd. Good soul he is. Ok song but performed with his usual force so can't complain. He still looks remarkably youthful here.
New item. You still think this is a good idea Stanley? Barry Manilow with an update of 'Copacabana' so interminable and overcooked I honestly thought he was going to perform an entire musical based on it. Maybe that would work. But not on this show.
From that experience, something new please. Oh ok. No I do still like this one although I remember as a 17 year old making some snide indiekid remark about it being 'YTS Folk'. It's a lovely tune and it makes sense in '93's pop charts. It's hard to tell if Ken McCluskey's sudden shout of "Techno!, Techno!" was an affectionate reference to a recent No 1 or him saying "try some proper music!". Great performance though and the camera doesn't hitch a ride on the violin bow or a drumstick this time.
Dur! As I was writing that bit about Manilow I was thinking, hang on he has done a musical on the song hasn't he? Tells you how much I know about his work!
DeleteThe feature dancer in the white outfit on stage with Capella looked like she couldn't dance, or if she could, then her shoes must have been very uncomfortable. Can't think of any other reason why she was moving very dis-jointedly when her dance partner in the black string vest stopped holding her and let her dance on her own.
DeleteMic, as mentioned in my first post, The Bluebells explained in "The Story of 1993" that the backing track sent for them unexpectedly contained two extra bars of instrumental which weren't in the original song, so they filled the void by referencing other chart acts - "Techno" this week, "Shabba" another....
DeleteOh right. I didn't see that Story Of.
DeleteThree songs at peak this week, and unlucky to miss out on TOTP for their new singles, one of which was David Bowie at a peak of No.9 this week with Jump They Say, only had about 5-10 seconds on The Breakers for his video last week, so it really doesn't count. Pity cos this was Bowie's first Top 10 single for seven years since Absolute Beginners made to No.2 in 1986, and TOTP unfortunately gave him very short thrift in this comeback in 1993, much like Aerosmith on the next show.
ReplyDeleteThe other two singles missing out which peaked outside the Top 40 this week was Marc Almond at No.60 with What Makes A Man A Man, and Debbie Gibson at No.74 with her penultimate single called Shock Your Mama.
I notice languishing low in the charts this week were Ariel. Tom Rowlands first band before uniting with fellow Manc Uni student, Ed Simons, to form the block rockin big beat combo, The Chemical Brothers. Also, Aphex Twin disguising himself as Polygon Window making an appearance breaking the Top 50, at number 49.
DeleteA darn sight more interesting than the past few weeks - mostly
ReplyDeleteAcapella - this was quite interesting for a couple of minutes then just started meandering…
Madonna - was going to say how many singles did this woman release, but looking it up on mr wiki see she has released 90!
Sunscream - back to repetitious dance beats
Brucie - great peak at his live gig…
Barry Manilow - unnecessary ‘remix’ which seemed to merely consist of adding biff biff drums in the background. Not so much singing as shouting…
It's Capella, not acapella! And it's Sunscreem, not sunscream.
Deletefor some reason I still can't post properly on the blog this week. Post successful then when I refresh the page it's gone! I will keep trying
DeleteWell that posted, maybe it's because I am copying and pasting into the chat, Will try once more then may have to move over to Facebook instead, Sorry peeps
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