Once there was a kid who got into the 21st of April 1994 edition of Top of the Pops!
Mmmassive hit
21-4-94: Presenter: Mark Goodier
(8) BITTY McLEAN – Dedicated To The One I Love
Getting our show underway and the song went up two more places.
(11) C.J. LEWIS – Sweets For My Sweet
Performing what became his first of two top ten hits when it peaked at number 3.
(26) THE PRETENDERS – I’ll Stand By You
In the studio tonight with what will be their sixth and final top ten hit when it peaks at number 10.
(4) ERASURE – Always (video) (and charts)
At its peak.
(17) CRYSTAL WATERS – 100% Pure Love
Here in the studio and the song went up two more places.
(5) CRASH TEST DUMMIES – Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
Mmmaking their debut with their only top ten hit and it peaked at nummmber 2.
(ALBUM TRACK) DEACON BLUE – Dignity
From their number one album greatest hits album, Our Town, this song had only made number 31 back in 1988, this time around it peaked at number 20.
(3) TONY DI BART – The Real Thing
A second time in the studio and the song will get to number one.
(1) PRINCE – The Most Beautiful Girl In The World (video)
First of two weeks at number one.
(NEW) JOE ROBERTS – Back In My Life (studio montage) (and credits)
Peaked at number 39.
28th of April is next.
2-3-78: Presenter: Noel Edmonds
ReplyDelete(17) BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS – Is This Love (and charts)
(2) DARTS – Come Back My Love
(16) SAMANTHA SANG – Emotions (video)
(18) TOM ROBINSON BAND – Don’t Take No For An Answer ®
(5) KATE BUSH – Wuthering Heights
(NEW) NICK LOWE – I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass
(25) RITA COOLIDGE – Words (video)
(21) EARTH, WIND & FIRE – Fantasy (danced to by Legs & Co)
(NEW) ANDY WILLIAMS – Sad
(1) ABBA – Take A Chance On Me (video)
(14) GERRY RAFFERTY – Baker Street (and credits)
Now then, March 1978 and Darts with a perfect show opener. I seem to remember this one as the most played Darts hit of the year. Samantha sang was singing a Bee Gees production, and the Rita Coolidge video was just fantastic and the highlight of the show for me, with Legs & Co making a perfect dance routine to Earth Wind And Fire. Looks like nothing was edited out from this show, so possibly it was a 30-minute show first time round in 1978.
DeleteSamantha Sang actually looked like Barry Gibb in drag!
DeleteI agree with you Dory, the '78 edition just a magnificently entertaining 30 minutes. So much variety and so much great music. The set from this period is always good to revisit looking like a cross between an arboretum and a fairground hall of mirrors. Noel Edmonds does a good understated job and this has been easily one of my favourite repeats.
ReplyDelete'Is This Love' is a beautiful chart accompaniment and we cut to...
Darts; Probably my favourite single of theirs and though they didn't ever do much beyond faithfully recreate '50s hits they do with such style and good humour. Den not with them for much longer and he's his usual sparkly presence. Was it in Griff Fender's contract that he had to wear only normal suits? Brilliant start.
Samantha Sang; So much better than than the four minutes of melisma torture that was Destiny's Child's version, the original version of 'Emotions' which comes in a vid that looks like it's been rolled around a basement floor a few times and is a misty late '70s delight. An extra star for the moments where her two selves appear on screen miming to the Bee Gees voices!
Tom Robinson Band; 'Clever' Noel intro: Poor.
The track that they were allowed to do and this is a blistering performance. I like how Tom always tries to be moody
on the show but can't help breaking into a "yes, I'm on Top of the Pops!" gesture. Favourite DJ on the radio so this is always going to be a winner for me. Great sound this one has. Another keyboard player sporting comic hairy gloves. A TOTP in joke of the time perhaps.
Kate Bush; Classic performance of an all time classic single.
Nick Lowe; A new release spot and I feared this would get cut out but thankfully not. Always great to hear this and nice to see his old Brinsley Schwartz compadre Bob Andrews tinkling (eccentrically) the ivories.
Rita Coolidge; A great voice and a lovely cover of 'Words'. Another Bee Gees number but then you remember what year we're dealing with. I really hope BBC4 show 'We're All Alone' somewhere down the line, an all time favourite song.
Earth, Wind and Fire; 'Clever' Noel intro; Poor.
Some dramatic camera effects for a very exotic looking Legs & Co with zooms and overlays making for a compelling few minutes. The set not quite so fantastical but good to see Pauline get some close ups. She looks amazing here.
Andy Williams; A song which slows the momentum of the show a little perhaps but it's hard to complain about a live vocal from the croon master even if he is dressed like he's off to buy a newspaper. Has he been on the show before? A vocal powerhouse as you'd expect and the audience almost in darkness look pretty riveted.
Abba; Classic No.1. Amazing, I've seen this video an unguessable amount of times and I don't think I've ever before noticed the bit where Benny leaves his chair to chase Frida!
And we finish with 'Baker Street'. What a fantastic time!
Ps, I meant to say Noel's intro to Earth, Wind and Fire was good.
DeleteMic, from the bespoke Popscene website, this was only Andy Williams' third of four TOTP studio outings, the others being for "Solitaire", "The Other Side Of Me" and the 1999 re-issue of "Music to Watch Girls By".
DeleteThanks Arthur. Surprised he didn't appear in the studio in the early '70s when he had a few top 10 hits. I had a look and saw 'Solitaire' was from Jan '74 which seems to be one of the great lost periods for the show. I don't think anything survives from the BBC archives from that month though some of 31st Jan '74 from presumably a domestic recording is on YouTube. Maybe the edition with 'Solitaire' exists on domestic VHS somewhere out there.
DeleteI recall 'Solitaire' being on ToTP and Andy was singing in front of a roaring fire...
Delete(17) BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS – Is This Love (and charts)
Enjoyed the chart rundown…
(2) DARTS – Come Back My Love
Typically OTT performance by this trendy band that ‘everyone played’ at the time. They didn’t manage 180 hits however.
(16) SAMANTHA SANG – Emotions (video)
Love it! Sultry, sexy and breathy delivery from Sam (real name Cheryl Gray). I could never understand why this wasn’t credited as a duet with the Bee Gees in the same way that ‘Immortality’ by Celine Dion was. Vocal sound not unlike Fern Kinney.
(18) TOM ROBINSON BAND – Don’t Take No For An Answer ®
From the ‘Rising Free’ live EP with ‘Sing if you’re glad to be gay’, ‘Martin’ and ‘Right on Sister’ this is a good studio live rendition.
(5) KATE BUSH – Wuthering Heights
This must just have come across as weird initially with Kate’s wide-eyed live performance with a rather inferior backing track to the original. The guitar solo by Ian Bairnson is not heard here of course and for me is the best bit along with Andrew Powell’s orchestral arrangement.
(NEW) NICK LOWE – I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass
Nick’s debut never did much for me. Keyboard player from the Rah Band maybe?
(25) RITA COOLIDGE – Words (video)
Nothing could top the Bee Gees original but I do really like Rita’s version here with that harmonised refrain. Love this video which looks like all are enjoying themselves….and yes, love to see a show with ‘We’re all alone’ featured (around August ’77 as I recall).
(21) EARTH, WIND & FIRE – Fantasy (danced to by Legs & Co)
The best EWF track for me and only made No14. Ideal dance material for the girls.
(NEW) ANDY WILLIAMS – Sad
Not heard this before and I see it didn’t chart. Not particularly memorable. I would recommend Andy’s version of Tony Hazzard’s ‘Getting over you’ however which was a minor hit in 1973.
(1) ABBA – Take A Chance On Me (video)
What can I say? So good it hurts. I was at a Quiz Night last Saturday and one of the questions I knew the answer to straight away amongst all the geography stuff I hadn’t a clue about was ‘how many UK number ones did Abba have?’. The answer can be found repeatedly mentioned on the Beatles White Album.
(14) GERRY RAFFERTY – Baker Street (and credits)
I guess Gerry was on the show another time with his smokey video. Great song to end a well spent half an hour as noted by other aficionados above. More please!
Back to this week's 1994 edition, and CJ Lewis brings a refreshing 90s reboot to the 1963 summer No.1 for The Searchers, and I quite liked the Lewis style on this one, getting us ready for the summer of 1994!
ReplyDeleteChart rundown - Kate Bush was at peak position of No.21 and had no TOTP action, presumably cos she wasn't available for the studio, so they gave The Pretenders at No.26 a slot ahead of Bush cos they could appear in the studio. Bush fell badly to No.53 the following week in a huge tumble down the charts by having no TOTP airing.
Also on the chart rundown at No.31 was the debut single by Oasis, and they too were not invited to TOTP to perform this, as they were only starting up at this point and relatively an unknown entity. They will however be at the forefront of the pop charts later in the year!
The Pretenders - first Top 40 single since Xmas 1986 with Hymn To Her, it is quite extraordinary that they were away for so long, especially seeing how good Chrissie Hynde looks in 1994. Definitely a good choice at No.26 ahead of Kate Bush at No.21 who got no play on the show.
Crash Test Dummies - strangely the only one appearance on the show during its chart run, this was in the last period of the 7-inch vinyl single as someone on here mentioned it was their last ever 7-inch single before the vinyl finally disappeared from the record shops in 1994. I had also by now bought my last 7-inch vinyl which was Doop.
Prince - finally at No.1, but this was not the official video, which you would have had to watch The ITV Chart Show to see, but I think this footage on TOTP was a specially made film piece for the show. I did like the Prince lookalike beside Mark Goodier throughout the show!
Dory, that was me buying "Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm" as my final single from an actual open record-selling store.
Delete"Crash Test Dummies - strangely the only one appearance on the show during its chart run" ...it jumped to number 2 the next week then started falling.
DeleteI always get that Crash Test Dummies hit confused with the hypnotic Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders 1964 No5 hit 'Um,um,um,um,um,um'.
DeleteHmmm! :-D
DeleteDory, the Oasis and Kate Bush absences really made me miss the Breakers.
ReplyDeleteThat aside, lots of big 94 hits here, a really solid episode overall.
Bitty M is nice enough, CJ Bolland is a good summery tune and one of the best Pretenders songs. Starting strong!
Always is beautiful though a shame they're not back in the studio.
100% Pure Love didn't always get much play in the years since, but it has had a bit of a mini resurgence recently after a really good lipsync to it on RuPaul's Drag Race a couple of years ago. Good stuff.
Crash Test Dummies one of the weirdest but most distinctive songs of the yeaz.
Deacon Blue doing an old song from their Greatest Hits is possibly the weirdest moment of the episode but Dignity remains a solid track and the studio performance is good.
I really hated Tony Di Bart at the time and I don't know why now. This is perfectly fine.
Prince - calling himself Prince is he?
Credits - Oasis and Kate Bush were right there and we get this?
CJ Lewis I mean. CJ Bolland hitting the charts is still a bit away.
DeleteOo! It’s Rinse, the tribute Prince act opening the show.
ReplyDeleteTwo reggae-tinged cover abominations to start with. Thanks, Ric. CJ Lewis’s real first initials are S (for Steven) and J, by the way.
Fine vocal by Chrissie Hynde. I tried to find out who ProGlen (on the front of her T-shirt) were. All I could get was Gleneagles Golf Club’s merchandise store.
Erasure, trying to be the Pet Shop Boys in the vid (snow for March, great idea) but ending up more like the butcher’s delivery lads.
Non-mugshots: Oasis and PJ& Duncan loom menacingly, plus the second and final top 40 scraper for Urban Species and the first of five entries we’ll see for Beaconsfield’s finest Fluke.
Crystal Waters had a third hit? She sounded half a note off key for parts of this.
Ah, Now, The easiest single ever to order at a store due to its name. Weird and wonderful and what pipes Brad Roberts has. Note the way he suspiciously looks down at the audience when mooing the choruses. For the record, their drummer didn’t actually do the drumming on this track which seems a bit strange.
We follow with Deacon Blue’s best in my opinion, released a single for the third time over here. On the first occasion it made number 45 in the Netherlands and 67 in Italy and that was it. Drummer walking on nonchalantly during the first verse.
The look on Rinse’s face for Tony Di Bar’s’ intro said it all. Priceless. This eventually knocked him off the top? Jeez.
A decent R ‘n’ b flava for Prince’s special take on the chart topper but I yearned for the proper version.
Joe Roberts, great according to Goodiebags. To each their own, I guess.
A much better edition from its Princely intro onwards and Mark Goodier doing his usual good job.
ReplyDeleteBitty McLean; Hardly an essential start though with 2 covers of '60s hits which reminds me of an edition from 1979 that had covers of three hits from the 50s and '60s (courtesy of Darts, UK Subs and Dollar) as the opening three numbers. Like then it doesn't do much for this show and I still can't get into Bitty's bland version of 'Dedicated To The One I Love'.
C J Lewis; Annoyingly cheery version of a '60s classic No.2 though this is a little bit better. The original is very cheery too but has one of the great guitar parts and I just love The Searchers. An especially unarsed set from the production crew for this cover; Vague blobby shapes floating around a projection screen that could've been brought down from a Television Centre meeting room. A few backing singers do their own dance moves while two keyboards or samplers sit at the side with only one being played. Did the other bloke not turn up?
The Pretenders; A long time away but what a great return for Chrissie and co. Beautiful song sung with great feeling and with a really powerful key change into the chorus.
Erasure; Another very striking video with the chart rundown. I'd forgotten how beautiful and artistic the video for 'Always' is. Like PSB I didn't pay any attention to what singles were on there The bluey lighting and the snowfall just gorgeous and Andy really revelling in his dreamy role. Is that Vince in the phantom costume? (maybe on stilts). You won't be able to strum your acoustic with nails like that.
Crystal Waters; The la da dee lady returns with a reasonable song and she looks fantastic. Also cheerfully handing the vocal work to the audience who initially just whoop then eventually realise that the words 'Pure' and 'Love' aren't too difficult to say.
Crash Test Dummies; You're right Mark. A very unusual single and still sounds one of a kind. Both completely daft and so beautiful. I don't think I've ever heard the coda of this single and not welled up. This really should've been a No.1 for at least one week after Prince.
Deacon Blue; Album track which shouldn't have a place in Ric Blaxill's new exciting revamp but I'll take this because, a) it's Deacon Blue and b) I don't think 'Dignity' ever got a feature on the show when a single despite definitely hearing it on the way to secondary school every morning for what seemed like weeks. Great to see it performed here and amazing such a strong song couldn't make the top 30.
Tony Di Bart; Bleating his way slowly to the top. Not the shiny suited tosser I imagined him to be from this record but still very dull. I did a real double take when I saw who was standing quietly beside Mark in his intro to that.
Prince; But here he is! With a whole new version of 'The Most Beautiful Girl In The World' just for TOTP. Predictably (or not actually. This is Prince) it's nowhere near as good as the single version with most of the shimmering parts and the falsetto removed though we are treated to a classic Prince screech halfway through. Hard to complain though like you wouldn't if Jimi Hendrix turned up on TOTP in 1968 to do a relatively dull version of 'All Along The Watchtower' on an acoustic. A gesture that Prince had absolutely no need to make, it's nice to be reminded of what a generous soul he was.
Goodnight from Mark and then that bloke who the show has taken a hugely disproportionate liking to.
Just read up a bit about Crash Test Dummies' Brad Roberts.
ReplyDeleteThe first two verses of "Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm mmmm" are sort of auto-biographical. Brad was involved in at least a couple of bad car crashes before the song was written (and then had a major crash in 2000) and he has a birtthmark on his spine which caused bullying at school.
I wonder if The Real Thing ever recorded a song called "Tony Di Bart" as a thank-you?
ReplyDeleteGiven nick lowe’s appearance on this show, its worth reminding people that after Bowie did the Low album, Nick Lowe released an EP called Bowi…
DeleteBy this show, I meant this week’s flashback shows…
DeletePrince says HI first up and makes appearances around the studio tonight but doesn't perform live. So if we are charitable he's a perfectionist that needs 20 takes. If we are uncharitable then it's not really Prince. Anyone know his whereabouts in April 94?
ReplyDeleteA reggae double bill up first. BITTY we've seen before then on comes C.J. LEWIS. Our second sixties hit with added swagger this year. Sweets For My Sweet a great choice though and would have made a great summer hit.
Chrissie is proper rock n roll isn't she. THE PRETENDERS didn't have a huge amount of hits but when they are the quality of "I’ll Stand By You" you can't complain.
Great video from ERASURE as always. Andy has come as Lord President of the Time Lords to fight the monster.
Two major chart acts making their debuts in the rundown. Oasis beaten (by 4 places) by PJ and Duncan. Who will win that battle I wonder?
CRYSTAL WATERS back with another catchy dance number currently doing the rounds as a Years and Years hit. 100% Pure danceability.
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm. Very odd. Very Weird. Very Good. If Nick Cave did Pop.
.
From their Greatest Hits (the cassette of which I wore out) DEACON BLUE with a fine rendition of Dignity. Always love this band.
TONY DI BART back with slightly more clothing on show. Mark predicting The Real Thing will be Number One.
Didn't think much of this slowed down funky mix from Prince. He was an odd boy...
Liked what I heard of JOE ROBERTS.