By the moon and the stars in the sky it's the 26th of May 1994 edition of Top of the Pops!
Mind your language
26-5-94: Presenter: Mark Goodier
(5) MAXX – Get-A-Way
Getting tonight's show underway and it went up one more place.
(26) CARLEEN ANDERSON – Mama Said
Performing her second of five top 40 hits but this one got no higher.
(9) THE PRODIGY – No Good (Start The Dance) (video) (and charts)
Peaked at number 4.
(28) BRUCE DICKINSON – Tears Of The Dragon
Here in the studio but this song got no higher.
(13) GLOWORM – Carry Me Home
Performing what became their only top ten hit when it peaked at number 9.
(NEW) ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS – Absolutely Fabulous (video)
The Pet Shop Boys and the cast of the sitcom with this year's Comic Relief record and it peaked at number 6.
(15) GALLIANO – Long Time Gone
Their first of two top 40 hits, this was the biggest but it got no higher.
(NEW) ALL-4-ONE – I Swear
Here with what became their only top top hit when it peaked at number 2.
(1) MANCHESTER UNITED FC – Come On You Reds (video)
Second of two weeks at number one.
(NEW) TIM McGRAW – Indian Outlaw (studio montage) (and credits)
Did not chart.
2nd of June is next.
Maxx - love the show opener this week, especially the sexy blonde police cop on the stage with the black hot pants and nice pins. The Pacman background riff was also great by the way - anyone remember Pacman in the late 70s and early 80s, just before Atari came along?
ReplyDeleteProdigy - oh yes, this was the start of the era for them that I can actually remember, as their earlier 90s stuff was fairly easy to pass by, but this was really good (pardon the pun), and I think this may have been the start of their black & white video trend.
Chart rundown over the Prodigy video - peakers inside the Top 40 who were not to get a showing on TOTP:
K-Klass at No.24 with What You're Missing, turned out to be their final Top 40 single. Alice Cooper as a new entry at No,22 with Lost In America, but we saw him on a Bruno Brookes show introducing this on stage. Moby at No.31 with Hymn would drop badly the following week outside the Top 40, and The Village People were back at No.36 with In The Navy 1994 Remixes, when this original got to No 2 in April 1979.
Pet Shop Boys - how did they stay calm during the video when Lumley and her friend kept interfering with their pyjama costumes and hats? It's absolutely fabulous.
All-4-One - this week's US No.1 is this week's TOTP exclusive in the studio, so not sure if this will also reach the top spot in the UK in the coming weeks.
Maxx - has not aged well... a white guy with a British accent going on about being a New York ragga man? I used to think the female singer looked cool... now she looks like someone's mum. Ah the ravages of time...
ReplyDeleteCarleen A - alright.
Prodigy - this is more like it! One of their best and screams 94 to me.
Bruce D - don't remember this at all.
Gloworm - I do quite like this, seems better than the last time it was featured?
I love PSB. I live AbFab. I do not love this single. Jennifer Saunders looks so young! Clearly Edina must have been older than she was because I'm sure half of the joke at the time was she was a bit old to dress like that and she doesn't look anything like too old now!
Galliano - sounds a bit iffy at first but gets better. Not a bad track.
All 4 one - one of those songs I begrudgingly think is alright.
MUFC - going to seem like a golden age in a few weeks time..
Tim M - well this is weird and slightly racially uncomfortable listening.
It’s Mark on walkabout tonight.
ReplyDeleteMaxx? Minn, more like. A million idiots across Europe had bought that? Now, Georgie Fame’s “Get Away”. That was more like it.
File Carleen’s effort alongside unremarkable Brand New Heavies tat.
Good grief! We get more than ten seconds of The Prodigy for a change. Keith will change his look and then some.
Non-mugshots: Alex Party returns to the chart after a gap of 18 weeks.
Nice hearthrug there, Bruce. Phil Oakey mic stance to boot. Not so sure about the semi-acoustic Scorpions style light metal. Dragon on a bit (see what I did there?)
No pulpit for Gloworm this time round, but full effort once again. Peak of the week for me. Followed by the weak of the week.
Absolutely Shite next. We suffered Dawn French recently, sullying an Alison Moyet video, so it was inevitable we’d get Jennifer Saunders pishing about soon after. Best Comic Relief song yet, Goodiebags? Not much to aim for, especially the fecking Stonk, but we never got to hear Victoria Wood’s effort. I see the PSBs are giving another airing to their toilet roll holder chic from their single before last. Chris Lowe laughing again!
Welcome to Funk Club. Niiiiice! Fine groove by Galliano, accompanied by Jazz Bez with kilt and big stick. Surprised Reeves and Mortimer never signed him up.
All-4-One, aka Boyz II Men II, At least this was better than Color Me Badd. Way better.
Feck off you Reds!
Who chooses this montage outro non-hit shite? They need sacking.
Three songs peaking outside the Top 40 this week for previous TOTP regulars with a mention:
ReplyDeleteNo.47 Saint Etienne - Like A Motorway
First failure for Etienne since their debut single in 1991, as ever since then they at least charted in the Top 40 if not shown on TOTP, but this temporary blip was to be short-lived, as their next two singles were back in the Top 40, so plenty more to come from this lot.
No.51 Alison Moyet - Getting Into Something
We already saw her last ever Top 40 single previous to this one, as this new one and two more singles all flopped outside the Top 40.
No.72 David Lee Roth - Nightlife
New entry, and also peak position for Roth in his last ever single in the UK, in a career stretching back to 1985 with California Girls and that unforgettable video which surprisingly failed to make Top 40 on debut single!
I thought this was a truly dire edition, one of the worst since the repeats began. Only The Prodigy stood out here. This post will be pretty brief.
ReplyDeleteMAXX; I'm trying to remember an advert that featured people repeatedly saying "get away!!" but can't think what it was. The details of this performance aren't much easier to recall 3 days later including a trip to YouTube this morning. A sheriff's car (mural I think) with lights blazing and a gabbling rapper and a woman wailing stuff.
Carleen Anderson; Always nice to hear her sing live and she looks very retro stylish but another song that went straight in one ear and out of the other.
The Prodigy; One '90s classic at least. 'No Good (Start The Dance)' still looking and sounding powerful and ominous. Keith still a cuddly longhair. 'Jilted Generation' another one of those albums I'm still meaning to buy ever since it came out. Also another chart rundown that I didn't follow but there must've been at least a few things better than what was included on the show.
Bruce Dickinson; Dreary. The guitarist very surprisingly resembled Bernard Butler.
Gloworm; Still yelling but no pulpit.
Absolutely Fabulous; Absolute dreck. I saw the whole of PSB's performance at Glastonbury on TV last year and oddly they seemed to omit this one. Odd that a comedy that lampooned popular culture and fandom should come up with a single so entirely unfunny. No surprise that the next Comic Relief single was the first one to be 100 % serious.
Galliano; The first hit for this group and a decent retread of the classic CSN tune 'Long Time Gone'. Every time I've gone to Glastonbury, the day or two before I have to watch the opening minutes of Woodstock movie where the original accompanies the erecting of the stage. An odd connection there in that a guy I went to college with in '92/'93 who also did some work at a recording studio spoke of going off to play drums with Galliano at Glastonbury '93. I hope he did. Really nice chap. Like Arrested Development another member who wanders around for the sake of 'vibes'.
All 4 One; Some lads sitting about and singing a nice enough tune. The Three Musketeers styled title must've done a fair bit of good for the single's fortunes.
Manchester FC; Rubbish (video)
Tim McGraw; Rubbish (out of view)
Call the Police, there's a dodgy live vocal on a dance tune again. The Sheriff is in town for Germany's MAXX. I would like to really "Get-A-Way" from this one, start the car.
ReplyDeleteCARLEEN ANDERSON is very generic and unmemorable. Bit of snogging in the audience as well. On BBC1. Shocking!
Now here's a really great tune from THE PRODIGY. "No Good (Start The Dance)" is a proper anthem and a video that appears to have had 10 pence spent on it (rather than the usual 5 pence).
BRUCE DICKINSON's song I've forgotten already and then GLOWORM are back with a much better showing of "Carry Me Home". Next up an ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS series, Absolutely Fabulous PSB, Absolutely Fabulous tune. I'm ready to be in the minority on this one.
GALLIANO will hopefully be a "Long Time Gone" This is rubbish. Who are they? Critically acclaimed by who? No thank you.
The alternative this Summer to Wet Wet Wet, ALL-4-ONE with another tune to get sick of and we get "treated" to it before it charts! One of them is clearly a school teacher! Why do the US love this sort of thing so much?
Load of rubbish (footballing and musically) to finish.
Think we need an upswing in quality very soon.