You told me that you'd love me if I ever change, welcome to the 3rd of February 1994 edition of Top of the Pops!
Come in out of the smoke
3-2-94: Presenter: Simon Mayo
(18) ROZALLA – I Love Music
Getting the 'return of the radio 1 presenters' era underway but the song got no higher.
(24) THE CHARLATANS – Can’t Get Out Of Bed
In the studio tonight but the song got no higher.
(9) RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS – Give It Away (video) (and charts)
Their first of four top ten hits but this one got no higher.
(22) WENDY MOTEN – Come In Out Of The Rain
Became her only top ten hit when it peaked at number 8.
(23) JOE ROBERTS – Lover
Here tonight and the sing went up one more place.
(19) THE ORB – Perpetual Dawn (video) (Breakers)
Went up one more place.
(12) DEEP FOREST – Sweet Lullaby (video) (Breakers)
Went up two more places.
(25) BASS BUMPERS – The Music’s Got Me (video) (Breakers)
Got them no higher.
(37) GIN BLOSSOMS – Hey Jealousy (via satellite)
Their biggest hit and it peaked at number 24.
(NEW) MARIAH CAREY – Without You
Performing here tonight what will soon be her first number one.
(1) D:REAM – Things Can Only Get Better
Back again for their third of four weeks at number one.
(NEW) THE FLAVOUR – No Matter What You Do (I’m Gonna Get With U) (studio montage)
(and credits)
Er..... peaked at number 81.
10th of February is next.
Welcome back, Si! It’s been too long.
ReplyDeleteSi reminds us how you pronounce Rozilla – the ‘e’ sounds like an ‘i’. Sadly, Roz is more grown up, festooned with a large ensemble and it’s that ‘your career’s got to the stage where you need to do a cover’ time, hence the functional O’Jays re-tread.
Tim Burgess has torn himself away from Sarah Cracknell to get back with his lads for what sounds like a good attempt at a Red Hot Chili Peppers mid-tempo track. Talking of which…
Gold sprayed posey repetitititive funky rawk and a good example of it. Unusual ‘rolled R’ effect when “Give it” is sung in the chorus.
Oo! Arrows with the rundown now. Reminded me of that edition where Tommy Vance talked patronisingly through the then new arrows to a similarly seated audience member.
Non-mugshots: Hyper Go-Go with the second of three top 40 nods (the third being a re-run of their first non-mugshot track), the only top 40 week for P.O.V. Featuring Jade, and the chart peak for Slo-Moshun’s only top 40 showing.
A great chart forecast by Si for Wendy’s add-water-and-stir soul ballad, complete with catchy but very long chorus.
Another poor TOTP segue of two ballads together. “I wanna give it to you when I get home” – is Joe referring to a cup of tea or a Chinese takeaway? Missus!
We then get what must be the shortest ever segment for the breakers (in sequence reggae rave, kiddie chorus, and zzz). “Why bother?” part 1.
No, Gin Blossom with huge mic, the original London Bridge burnt down. Duh. Lead singer not present for the intro, though I liked his subtle’ Starclub’ baseball cap. Fine track by the lads from Arizona if a tad overlong.
Mariah when she was still mildly bearable.
Si announces our chart toppers with the Catholic version of their home city and not the Protestant alternative of Londonderry. Plenty of energy on that stage.
The Flavour? Who??? Salt ‘n’ Pepa rip-off merchants by the sound of it, backed by a daft collage of what we’ve just watched. “Why bother?” part 2.
The Orb clip on The Breakers had some gargling sound by the vocalist. What was all that about?
DeleteWell, mostly an improvement on the previous episode and welcome back Simon!
ReplyDeleteNot Rozalla's best but I do quite like her as a performer.
Charlatans - great stuff, this is more like it.
RHCP keep up the pace with a song that I always enjoy hearing.
Wendy Moten - although the Whitney trills are a bit much I do enjoy this one.
Joe Roberts is a snooze
Breakers are good, with Enigma and Deep Forest and the Orb we're in a very ambient esque mood thos part of 94 apparently.
Unusual for a band at 37 to get a live link up, especially when they're not household names, but the Gin Blossoms track is pleasant enough.
I see we haven't gotten out of the previews with this new era. I guess a Mariah exclusive is something that's becoming A Big Deal and this is the release that's going to take her from big to stratospheric.
Do you think somewhere Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell were watching this, seeing Simon reference John Major in the intro to Things Can Only Get Better and taking notes?
Weird choice of outro song when they could have used a chart hit but I'm quite happy to have the exit song restored.
And hello to the chunky font used for the numbers and arrows. I don't think it looks super great but overall a nice start for the new regime.
From "The Story...", Mariah apparently appeared as a backdated thank you to Stan 'Rotten' Appel for giving her a chance in the studio in the first place. Double-edged sword as it means she gets decent prime time publicity, but it may have been a genuine 'ta' in the first place.
DeleteTop Ten Rundown - very disappointed that Enigma at No.4 did not get the video slot for the chart rundown in preference to Red Hot Chilli Peppers at No.9. Considering Enigma was a breaker last week at No.9, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers I feel should have been a Breaker this week, to give the video slot to Enigma which was surely ahead in the queue. Enigma were not even played the following week still going up at No.3, and were again sidelined for the video slot to Aretha Franklin lower down at No.5.
ReplyDeleteFirst thing, rip to David Crosby and Tom Verlaine. Two absolute legends, one I imagine more easy to be in a band with than the other. Crosby the heart and engine room of The Byrds, Verlaine the guitar solo voyager. Both with amazing voices, Croz sounding youthful to his last days. Man, why didn't you sing 'Everybody's Been Burned' instead of 'Hey Joe' at Monterey?? Proud to have seen him with S&N at Glastonbury '09.
ReplyDeleteA new start with a return for Simon Mayo who shuts the door on the Appel years with a faint "now where were we?" air that I don't think is very becoming of him. Great to see him back though but his first edition isn't very good. Blaxill clearly just warming up. I'll try to avoid the B word throughout this year because for me it just yells complacency and there's NOTHING complacent about this year. Should be a fantastic ride through all sorts of music with 'Dog Man Star', 'Tiger Bay', 'Definately Maybe', 'Vitalogy', 'His 'N' Hers' all coming out.
Rozalla; Where's 'Rozookie' Simon? A decent cover of a '70s tune. I don't think there'll be too many of those to come. Being into any music as long as it's groovy. Well that's not that much music then is it?
The Charlatans; A little of what's to come with a lively performance of
'Can't Get Out Of Bed' which Tim Burgess has done to mooch insouciantly about the stage which is probably the main purpose of the song. Good enough but much better to come from them.
Charts to Abbey Road's rudest traffic disruptors with 'Give It Away'. "Whoaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!' indeed. I bet they all needed a cold drink after that.
Wendy Moten; No chance of that making No.1 Simon. Amazed that even got in the Top 10. The Whitney ballad sound must've helped and it has a strong title hook.
Joe Roberts; Late period New Manisms. The suit and hair combination must've been the main reason this made the charts.
Breakers which new boy Ric clearly would like to dispense with. The Orb still putting out things from 2 years ago though there wouldn't have been much for the TOTP viewer from the current album 'Pomme Fritz'. "Here's 'We're Pastie To Be Grill You' with the charts!"
Deep Forest; gorgeous and haunting single which was very cool for a brief moment and would be very prescient if released now. Astonishing that this was in the Top 20 within the same 2 month period as 'Girls and Boys'.
Bass Bumpers; Nothing much there.
Gin Blossoms; The satellite link is thankfully kept but not a great thing to signal that it's still going. Good band name.
Mariah Carey; A great year but there were some awful chart toppers and this is soon to be one. The late Pete Ham and Tom Evans' desolate cry made into a horrible piece of over singing. Lots of candles, all remarkably staying lit.
D Ream; A thunderous bit of irony from Simon not that he could've known. I think Alec Douglas Home is supposed to have said that The Beatles would be his ticket to election success.
Heard this enough now.
A not very good single with a not very good mix of what we've just seen to end.
ReplyDeleteRozalla - only realised that this was a cover because I recognised the lyrics. It was alright
Charlatans - nice. Very ‘live’ sound. Presumably this was one of the few times that a band actually rerecorded a track for the show 😀
Red hot chilli peppers - always liked this, and it followed the charlatans track nicely - almost as if someone had actually given some thought to the programmes track listing!
Wendy moten - bog standard whitney territory. Don’t remember this getting to number one 😂
Joe roberts - no barry white is he? Rubbish.
Gin blossoms - pleasant enough, but didn’t really go anywhere (and took a long to do that)
Mariah Carey - now this DID get to number one, Si. Fairly excruciating cover with extra wibbly wobbly ending to all the lines.
So onto the Ric and roll era and Boy Mayo is back as Harry Potter Mayo. A nice professional presenting performance showing us what we had been missing for a lot of the last 2 years.
ReplyDelete1993 has decided to change how we pronounce ROZALLA and she gives us a fairly faithful cover of "I Love Music" which I rather enjoyed.
Making the successful jump from Indie into the upcoming Brit Pop its's THE CHARLATANS with a tune I'm not familiar with. "Can’t Get Out Of Bed" dig from Mayo (has the whole Edwina/Major thing blown up yet?)
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS – I can't imagine what I made of this band or this video at the time. Certainly a bit of a shock to the system and Top Ten as well. "Give It Away" is a great rock tune and their success is well deserved. I see the chart rundown has newly fonted numbers and a rather annoyingly distracting arrow that they would do well to ditch.
One for the "whatever happened to" file it's WENDY MOTEN with the gorgeous "Come In Out Of The Rain". Glad to see the R1 DJ's are just as crap at predicting number ones as their predecessors were. Like this tune a lot.
JOE ROBERTS sing about his "Lover" and it's 3 of the most forgettable moments of 1993 to date.
Breakers: Now to renamed as "Why bother with the breakers"
THE ORB – Fine after a night out.
DEEP FOREST – I bought this and remember really liking it at the time
BASS BUMPERS – Cover? Bit of dance nonsense
Didn't think I would recognise the tune from the GIN BLOSSOMS but I suspect "Hey Jealousy" must have been on a lot of compilation albums over the year as I did recognise it, and enjoy it.
So we continue with the new and exclusives for now and Diva Scary gives her a rather fine rendition of "Without You". Overplayed on the Radio in the 90s but it's nice as I haven't heard it for quite a while. Great vocal.
D:REAM still Number One and another great live performance of "Things Can Only Get Better". Has anyone ever been so happy to be Number One? He can't quite believe it can he?
Who is going to keep track of the predictions to see if they were right?
Odd studio montage, not sure I like that? I did quite like THE FLAVOUR tune though, all 20 seconds of it. That title card crash at the end made me jump! I'll be prepared next week.