And I want to be the 12th of August 1993 edition of Top of the Pops!
Modern stone-age anarchy
12-8-93: Presenter: Tony Dortie
(30) GREEN JELLY – Anarchy In The U.K.
Getting tonight's show underway with this Sex Pistols cover and it went up three more places.
(20) SARAH WASHINGTON – I Will Always Love You
Performing this dance version of Dolly's tune which became her first of three top 40 hits and this was her biggest peaking at number 12.
(6) BILLY JOEL – River Of Dreams (video) (and charts)
Went up three more places.
(22) BAD BOYS INC – Don’t Talk About Love
In the studio with their first of six top 40 hits and this one peaked at number 19.
(12) CULTURE BEAT – Mr. Vain
Here tonight performing their first of six top 40 hits and this was the biggest making it all the way to number one.
(36) ICE CUBE feat. DAS EFX – Check Yo Self (video) (Breakers)
Got no higher.
(33) ALI & FRAZIER – Uptown Top Ranking (video) (Breakers)
Their only hit and it got no higher.
(32) JAMIROQUAI – Emergency On Planet Earth (video) (Breakers)
Got no higher.
(28) THE SPIN DOCTORS – Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong (video) (Breakers)
Peaked at number 23.
(8) APACHÉ INDIAN – Boom Shack-A-Lak
Performing the main tune from the Nuff Vibes ep, and it went up three more places.
(31) YAZZ & ASWAD – How Long
In the studio with this Ace cover but it got no higher.
(1) FREDDIE MERCURY – Living On My Own (video)
First of two weeks at number one.
19th of August is next.
Green Jelly - first view of this lot after their recent single Three Little Pigs only got a Breakers slot with a short clip of their video at No.5. This Anarchy follow-up got a TOTP studio appearance, and still no sight of who is behind the It's A Knockout style costumes. I liked the two girls in the group with the shorts, and their strap-on giant boobs. Fun start to the show, and whatever next from them?
ReplyDeleteBilly Joel - his final year of Top 40 singles with this new album for 1993, Joel was coming to the end of his chart career by the time 1994 had arrived.
Yazz & Aswad - Jazz was a spent force by now in her solo capacity, 5 years after coming on to the scene with The Only Way Is Up, and this combo with Aswad turned out to be her final Top 40 single, despite releasing a few more covers between 1994 and 1997 which all failed to make Top 40, so this was probably Yazz's last TOTP appearance. Aswad though, still had some more mileage in 1994 and 1995 before also coming unstuck in their career by then.
Not a classic this one. Or is it the medication.
ReplyDeleteTony has a jolly time of it at the show's beginning and end but in between seems unusually serious. The first act according to him injects some fun into the charts. Has it really been that depressing lately? Yes, Green Jelly in the studio covering the Sex Pistols. Sort of. I haven't got a clue what to make of that. Was it something to do with the upcoming Flintstones movie? I doubt it as I don't think that was till '94. Absolute batshit stupid but not particularly funny unlike their other single.
Song No.2. Cover No.2. Please let's not go back this way. Sarah Washington with a pretty effective dance version of 'I Will Always Love You' but it's likely this will be the only time that version will get an airing.
Billy Joel and charts. Not sure why but I've never taken to this one.
Bad Boys Inc not watched due to momentary sleep. I don't think I missed much.
Culture Beat with a great dance single that is clearly from the same spangly, mould as 'Rhythm Is a Dancer' but nothing wrong with that. It's certainly less self important than that single and a deserved No.1.
Breakers; Fell asleep again. Sorry.
Apache Indian adding to '93's canon of jovial ragga. Is this not an example of fun in the charts Tony?
Stepping back to the late '80s for a moment and that didn't happen much at the time. Yazz and Aswad both No.1 acts in '88 covering a song originally sung by Paul Carrack who of course sang lead on 'The Living Years' with Mike and the Mechanics which made No. 2 at the start of '89. I love 'How Long' and this version does a perfectly good job with that classic tune. Rip Aswad's Angus Gaye who passed away at the start of September and both them and Yazz provided me with some wonderful late '80s memories. Aswad will be back with a brilliant single in '94.
Freddie was always going to reach No. 1 I suppose. Apparently about painful loneliness. The video doesn't seem to suggest that.
Goodnight from Tony and his strange new friends.
I would have put The Goodmen to open the show instead of Green Jelly this week, as The Goodmen were a Breaker last week at No.29, and then were up to No.23 this week and poised nicely for a TOTP studio appearance, especially suitable for opening the show, and they would seemingly have been ahead of Green Jelly for a TOTP appearance in the studio, especially with the amazing drum intro that would have graced the start of any show, let alone TOTP.
DeleteYes that would've made a great opening to the show. Green Jelly just seemed really daft. Different I suppose. One dance single I can't wait to see, I think on very soon, is Captain Hollywood Project's magnificent 'More and More'. One of my favourite openings to a dance single.
DeleteMake that any single!
DeleteOh boy what a weird episode, starting off with a bizarre Green Jelly choice that I'd forgotten until this moment, then a lukewarm dance version of I Will Always Love You that I don't remember at all.
ReplyDeleteBilly Joel, alright, never minded that one.
Worst boy band ever? I remember the magazines trying to plug BBI incessantly but I don't remember them ever really being big chart wise. And they were kind of unfortunate looking.
Thank heavens for Culture Beat, there's a proper mid 90s classic for you. And live, good for them.
Breakers - Ice Cube is fine,third pointless cover of the night, a lesser Jamiroquai and Spin Doctors not bad but nowhere near as good as Two Princes.
Apache Indian the other highlight. I don't personally love this, bit daft for me, but I can totally see its appeal, it's genuinely catchy. He could do with a couple of Strepsils though.
More covers, zzz.
Thankfully Take That are no longer at the top.
Worst boy band ever - I'll throw 911 into the mix. I remember them getting booed on karaoke TV classic "Baby Hit Me One More Time".
DeleteFour songs further down the charts at peak position, and no TOTP for them in any way, shape or form:
ReplyDeleteNo.39 Black Box - Rockin To The Music
Good Lord, were this lot still going in 1993? Apparently yes, and first song back for nearly two years. They would disappear again until 1995 with a single that would somehow get to No.31, but bye for now until 1995.
No.40 Gloria Estefan - If We Were Lovers
Not one of her best singles, and last top 40 single until late 1994 with Turn The Beat Around which was one of my favourite Estefan singles.
No.43 Cappella - U Got To Know Revisited
Remix of U Got To Know which only charted a few months earlier with a peak of No.6, so strange how they just didn't move on and release a different record from their current 1993 album.
No.45 John Williams - Theme From Jurassic Park
Ah now then, this is just class, and anything in fact by John Williams, as I remember his Theme From ET getting to No.17 in late 1982. Makes for some superb easy listening at any time of the day.
Talking of John Williams, unknown to my wife (who was against it) we had "Cavatina" for our pre-wedding cake cutting photos, segueing into "Bean Bag" by Herb Alpert (the old "It's A Knockout" theme) for the post-cutting shots!
DeleteIt was at that stage she noticed I'd got a goal and some specially coloured Subbuteo teams for her and my hometown football teams placed on the lower layer of the cake!
ReplyDelete9 covers in the chart - when will this hell end?….
Green Jelly win the prize for being both equally awful and entertaining, whilst Sarah Washington made Whitney sound interesting.
Bad Boys inc - torn jeans dint make you bad, but the song lived up to the band name…
Is it me, or does mr vain sound similar to Rhythm Is A Dancer? (Looking at the other postings before my posting, the answer would appear to me no…)
Charlie, some have siad previosly (and I agree) that Culture Beat's hit is a Snap rip-off.
DeleteTo be honest, at the time in 1993 I heard Mr Vain o many times on the radio and never thought it sounds similar to Rhythm Is A Dancer, so it was a bit surprising that a number of people on here have likened the two songs together.
DeleteAnarchy In The TOTP studios as Green Jelly play fancy dress in Bedrock. Crazy performance and I love to see something this mad on the show. Had my eye on the drummer on the left. Song is crap.
ReplyDeleteBecause we've not heard enough of "I Will Always Love You" this year Sarah Washington shows us what a great vocal range Whitney has by murdering this tune live. A dance remix I could of understood but this is a very unnecessary cover.
Billy Joel enters Tom Sawyer territory for his "River Of Dreams" video. Absolutely a fan of this tune.
Take That knock off's "BAD BOYS INC" give us a Take That tune in all but name. "Don’t Talk About Love" got a fair bit of radio play at the time but whatever happened to.....6 Top 40 hits apparently then one became an Actor, one a Sports Presenter, one a Model and one failed to represent the UK at Eurovision. Thanks to the "Talk About Pop Music" website for that update.
Outfit of the night goes to Mrs Vain. As with most dance records it doesn't transfer to the live studio very well but no doubting "Mr Vain" was one of the tunes of 1993.
Breakers:
ICE CUBE feat. DAS EFX – (C)rap music
ALI & FRAZIER – Funky but unrequired cover
JAMIROQUAI – Nice Hat, Nice Message
THE SPIN DOCTORS – Little Miss Spin
Birmingham bad boy Apache Indian with a Dalek-table vocal for "Boom Shack-A-Lak". He did a much better vocal performance of this at the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony earlier this year. If Davros could rap. Stunning tune though and 1993 is doing well for new sounds.
Why why why did they not call themselves "Yazwad"? Missed opportunity! "How Long" is a beautiful song and I have always loved this since it came out.
Another chance to see the "Living On My Own" video from Freddie and then Laters gets a good clubbing which should go down well here.
Green Jelly, brown shite. Dreadful.
ReplyDeleteNice tan on Sarah for a frankly needless cover, but at least she doesn’t bellow it into submission like Whitney did in parts.
Faux gospel in the verses for Billy Joel’s perfectly listenable tune.
Bad Boys my arse. Not literally. We lost Big Fun for this? The dopey cartoon backdrop said it all.
Not Snap, and it isn’t pop, so this must be
Crackle. Culture Beat await that law suit from Turbo, but a fine vocal turn there. Still not used to the female vocalist singing “I’m Mister Vain”.
Breakers: boring sample rip-off cover / needless Ace of Bass sampling cover / never mind Earth, what planet’s he from? / thankfully not a big hit.
Apache Indian’s EP was going to have a longer title until he realised he couldn’t fit it shorn into the back of his head. Law suit from Shaggy awaiting. Follow-up “Poppadum Preach”.
Yazzwad (trade mark) with a pleasant cover that works, unlike about 80% of those we[ve had recently.
Yet another FF for a number one and then… well done, lads. I’ve wanted to do that to Dorky for ages!!