Can't live, if living is without the 17th of February 1994 edition of Top of the Pops!
This is what happens if you have too many E numbers, kids.
17-2-94: Presenter: Simon Mayo
(28) SAINT ETIENNE – Pale Movie
Getting the show underway but the song got no higher.
(7) CAPPELLA – Move On Baby
Performing their third of four top ten hits but this one got no higher.
(12) CROWDED HOUSE – Locked Out (video) (and charts)
At its peak.
(ALBUM TRACK) DINA CARROLL – Hold On
From her number 2 album So Close.
(42) SINEAD O’CONNOR – You Made Me The Thief Of Your Heart
She's grown her hair and is live in the studio but the song could get no higher.
(18) URBAN COOKIE COLLECTIVE – Sail Away (video) (Breakers)
Got no higher.
(19) SASHA – Higher Ground (video) (Breakers)
Got no higher.
(16) MEAT LOAF – Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through (video) (Breakers)
Peaked at number 11.
(31) THE WILDHEARTS – Caffeine Bomb
Making their studio debut with their first of thirteen top 40 hits, but this one got no higher.
(9) 2 UNLIMITED – Let The Beat Control Your Body
Here tonight and the song went up three more places.
(1) MARIAH CAREY – Without You (video)
First of four weeks at number one.
(NEW) FREAK POWER – Rush (studio montage) (and credits)
Norman Cook and his latest band, but this single only made it to number 62.
24th of February is next.
St etienne - nice start to the show. Vocals felt a little low in the mix
ReplyDeleteAccapella - above average (just) dance track, although the vocals were a little flat
Crowded house - don’t remember this. Weird video. Weird track.
Dinah carroll - slinky album track. Nice vocals.
Sinead o’connor - not very impressed with this.
Breakers - got a fair slice of the tracks for the breakers for a change
Wildhearts - what the hell was this? Seriously though, bit shambolic but I liked it. Very similar to eno track third uncle (boy, that’s showing my age!)
2 unlimited - if aint broke, don’t fix it. No limit version 3 but entertaining enough.
No Charlie, it's Capella, not acapella! They've been going since 1989 when they debuted with Helyom Halib if anyone remembers that, but their 1993-1994 comeback in this new phase was the one that most people remember.
DeleteRe your interesting 2-unlimited comment, Meat Loaf did a superb single called If It Ain't Broke Break It, which is on the Bat Out Of Hell III album from 2006 if you care for a listen.
Great show this week, with both 2-Unlimited and Capella on the same show - which one made more techno noise?
ReplyDeleteSaint Etienne - while I love Sarah Cracknell singing this jolly tune, it wasn't one of their best ones, and considering it crashed down 11 places to No.39 following this studio appearance at No.28, the less said the better.
The Breakers - Meat Loaf was a rock solid new entry at No.16. This song was actually written for Meat as far back as 1981 by Jim Steinman, but as the two men were in a spat at the time, Steinman had to record a whole album on his own called Bad For Good which contained this single, and Steinman even had his own video for it which I thought was much better than Meat Loaf's later version in 1994:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTOtCoVqgbs
Mariah Carey - straight in at No.1, and interestingly enough, the 1972 original by Neilson was a new entry at No.65 this week and would continue to rise while Carey was at No.1.
The original version of Without You was by Badfinger from their 1970 album No Dice. Though Nilsson was the first to have a hit with it.
Delete(Arthur Nibble here - unable to log on as usual for some reason).
DeleteWithout You" was something of an albatross in its early years. Both songwriters hung themselves over band / financial issues, and Harry Nillson died of heart failure a year after a cardiac arrest.
I have just rewatched the 'Britains Biggest Hits of the 70s' 1972 episode. It's a joy with such an eclectic mix (Hi there Terry Dactyl, Lieutenant Pigeon and The Pipes and Drums and Military Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards) but it's No4 that really stands out as true quality which sounds as good now as it ever did. Yes it's the Richard Perry produced Nilsson track 'Without You'. The man had a four octave voice for heaven's sake, but this record stands out high above all his recordings and for me is probably in my all time Top 10. As for Mariah, I think she had a good stab at it, but nothing compares to Nilsson's version.
DeleteThree songs at peak position this week outside the Top 40:
ReplyDeleteNo.64 David Lee Roth - She's My Machine
Roth already 9 years after his biggest hit Jump in 1985, was still at it in 1994 with new music and sexy videos.
No.75 Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - I Love Rock 'n' Roll
I wonder if she was using the same black & white video when this was first in the charts in 1982?
No.84 Sheryl Crow - What I Can Do For you
This was officially Crow's first single released in the UK, and was re-released in late 1995 which did a little better to peak at No.43, so we haven't seen her breakthrough yet at this point in 1994.
We’re now close to that point where singles start to peak in their first chart week. Oo, we now get descriptions of chart placings (top 20 etc.) in the artistes’ intro label.
ReplyDeleteSaint Etienne sounding more like Santa Esteban with that Hispanic influence. Run out of lyrics early in the tune. Nice moped outro link by Si. Those two-wheelers made me hungry for a Vespa beef curry!
A new clear sound (geddit) for Capella but, my, that woman’s vocals wouldn’t have been out of place in a tug of war, they were that ropey.
Non-mugshots: Jack Duckworth at number 40! New Kids On The Block are back? Help! First of three top 22 smashes for Dutch trance troupe Atlantic Ocean.
Last we see of Dina for a ‘re-run year’ or so. Decent enough album track with more depth lyrically than you’d get from, say, Kenny Thomas.
No longer Shinehead O’Connor, listed as “bubbling just outside the top 40”. May as well have said ”Not a single, last time you’ll see this”.
Breakers in order: uptempo rave, soul rave with an annoying video, and Meat and two veg melodrama.
Fine intro by Si for Kiss meets Batman enemies. That cleared the cobwebs! Loud, complex, loads of words, made a change.
Always good to see Anita, even if it was leftovers from another 2 Unlimited track heated up.
Ah. Quick. FF.
We finish with a mellow groove but not sounding like a hit, twinned with another daft montage.
Quite a weird episode this one. What's with the 'new entry in the top 30' captioning nonsense?
ReplyDeleteSaint Etienne I always enjoy but this perhaps wasn't their best TOTP performance.
Perfectly decent TOTP fodder from Capella and Crowded House.
Then another album cut from Dina (we had Don't be a Stranger months before it was a single). I love her but this was kind of pointless.
Clearly Sinead got booked before they knew the chart position but it feels wrong to see a song at 42 on the show. I like her but this one is pretty dull.
Breakers could all arguably feel a bit robbed given they're higher in thw charts than the majority of tonight's content.
I like the Wildhearts in theory but their songs are never that memorable.
I'd forgotten we had four weeks of Mariah to come. I can see why it got there but it's going to grate quickly.
And still not convinced about putting songs that aren't in the chart over the credits but nice to have something there I guess.
Just noticed I forgot my critique of Crowded House's track.
DeleteNot in the studio? must be on tour. unusual video and a song something akin to punk speed for these lads. Made a nice alternative to their admittedly pleasant MOR midtempo norm.
That's a young Angelina Jolie in Meat Loaf's video.
ReplyDeleteWatched the Meat Loaf video in full today, as this Breakers clip is all we would see of it, as the following week going up to No.11 was not going to be shown if only on video, as videos higher than No.11 would get the chart rundown slot, or if at No.1, otherwise the show only could accommodate studio performances, so Meat Loaf would miss out on this particular single.
DeletePotter Mayo is back and makes a mess of saying SAINT ETIENNE. Patsy Kensit weeping in a corner wishing she was as effortlessly cool as Sarah Cracknell. Wonderful tune, great live performance and the highlight of the show by a mile.
ReplyDeleteA lesser know CAPPELLA tune next. And clearly that's because it's crap.
Love the CROWDED HOUSE video for Locked Out. Like the tune as well. What are NKOTB still doing charting in 1994?
Brit Award winning DINA CARROLL proving that every track from her MILLION SELLING album is worth hearing.
SINEAD O’CONNOR has dressed up, grown her hair and clearly been influenced by Bjork. I was not expecting to like "You Made Me The Thief Of Your Heart" but I was pleasantly surprised. A nice, if understated number with a strong live vocal.
Breakers:
URBAN COOKIE COLLECTIVE – Has the album. Like this one.
SASHA – UK Haddaway knock-off minus the talent.
MEAT LOAF – Same song, different words.
Far too much caffeine for THE WILDHEARTS. How did this band have 13 top 40 hits and I don't remember them at all? Easy. They were shit.
2 UNLIMITED next. Are you watching Cappella, you do it like this. The audience Let The Beat Control Their Bodies and offer a nice distraction. Decent dance record.
I know it's MARMITE CAREY but I do like her rendition of "Without You".
Mayo gets his second flop, this time from Freak Power with a very swinging sixties sound. Has the title card crash changed again?
I had to look it up, but the Sasha of the Higher Ground track (which admittedly also didn’t grab me) is none other than the “No. 1 DJ in the world” who started DJing in the late 80s at the Hacienda then moving to the (equally legendary) Shelley’s club in Stoke (whose car park raving was featured in an Altern-8 video a few TOTP years back).
ReplyDelete