Take me away to the 16th of June 1994 edition of Top of the Pops!
Have I got hits for you
16-6-94: Presenter: Angus Deayton
(8) THE GRID – Swamp Thing
Getting the show underway with their only top ten hit and it peaked at number 3.
(ALBUM TRACK) 2 UNLIMITED – No-One
From their number one album Real Things, and it would go on to peak at number 17.
(9) MARIAH CAREY – Anytime You Need A Friend (video) (and charts)
Went up one more place.
(19) D:REAM – Take Me Away
In the studio tonight and the song went up one more place.
(NEW) TONI BRAXTON – Love Shoulda Brought You Home
Performing a song that will eventually peak at number 33.
(NEW) THE SPIN DOCTORS – Cleopatra’s Cat (via satellite)
Became their fourth and final top 40 hit when it peaked at number 29.
(24) CHAKA DEMUS & PLIERS – I Wanna Be Your Man
Here tonight and the song peaked at number 19.
(NEW) ROBERT PALMER – Girl U Want
Performing in the studio but the song only made it to number 57.
(1) WET WET WET – Love Is All Around
Third of fifteen weeks at number one.
(NEW) GUN – Word Up (studio montage) (and credits)
Became their only top ten hit when it peaked at number 8.
23rd of June is next.
The Grid - superb show opener, and similar to their last TOTP studio appearance in 1993 on an earlier single called Crystal Clear. This one had just as much fun, and great dance grooves, and was to be their most successful single reaching No.3.
ReplyDelete2-Unilimited - unusual to have them as an album track, and not chase their chart position as a single, so this was truly special, and I must say a really good tune too if they are interested in releasing it as a single. Just love the smooth lyrics and more gentle 2-Unlimited than what we are usually accustomed to hearing.
Chart rundown - hmm, Ace Of Base having come in as a new entry at No.14 the week before, and still not getting a slot on the show this week at No.7. Strange that. Wonder if there was something wrong, even though it was a cover of the Aswad No.1 from 1988. Considering that Aswad themselves were a new entry on the same chart at No.28 with Shine, and also not on the show this week, it may explain why TOTP ignored both singles this week for a main slot.
Chaka Demus & Pliers - Good Lord, what a comedown after their first three singles all making Top 10, one of which also No.1. However this new single completely passed me by, and no wonder.
I would have taken Shine and Don't Turn Around over everything on this episode. Baffling lineup.
DeleteDear LORD the last two episodes clearly used up all the content because what the heck was this? Almost as many songs not in the charts as actual hits.
ReplyDeleteSolid opening with The Grid and I have a soft spot for Gun's Word Up cover (or I would if it was actually in the charts). Chaka Demus and Pliers are fine I guess and I don't really like the Mariah or D:Ream songs but at least they're hits. Ugh, everything else was terrible, including Angus D's presenting.
Horrible episode.
Alongside Aswad and Ace of Base as Dory mentioned, we could also have had The Prodigy (climbing to 4) or even Big Mountain at 2. Terrible.
DeleteAlways thought Angus Deayton was a smug, pretentious arse and this show cemented that for me. Still, he did have a top three single… in Australia, with an excellent Bee Gees mickey-take (“Meaningless Songs (In very High Voices)” by The HeeBeeGeeBees), taken from an album of ‘tribute’ pee-takes of established hitsters.
ReplyDeleteSo many new entries and climbers in the chart this week, and we get an admittedly good album track and four exclusives clogging up half the show. We tune in to see HITS, for feck’s sake. Lobotomy for the show’s artistes organiser.
Solid start , and it goes downhill afterwards, from The Grid, with banjo fella in the same video dentist chair setting and a vocalist with more safety pins on his barnet than ever seen in the ‘bit of that sort of rock’ phase as Tony Blackburn called it. The audience screaming intermittently as if on a theme park rollercoaster.
2 Unlimited almost give us a ballad plus a band behind them. I liked this but too much Ray and not enough Anita for my taste.
Sound down for the screecher. Mugshots: M-Beat’s chart scraper will come back stronger when re-issued the following season (i.e. autumn), the only top 40 week for US country alumnus Bonnie Raitt, and the first of two tickertape hits for Blast featuring VDC.
“Platignum selling album”! I though Platignum made pens. D:Ream with an I:Dentikit hit which felt more like a N:Ightmare.
The most interesting thing about Toni Braxton was her unusual navel, definitely not the Anita Baker tribute act track.
Try as you might, Spin Doctors… World Cup cap, League Two song. Low fives at the end for a top 29 smash. Dibbly dibbly dob a dob back to your flowerpots and feck off for good.
Did Chaka (or was it Pliers) scarper halfway through a turn at the barber’s? Obviously not their best, but certainly tolerable. The backing reminded me of a sped up version of “Float On”.
Robert Palmer’s track was shouty, noisy and forgettable. Follow-up single “Spud U Like” sold even less.
Worst ever top ten reading followed by WWW FF and… erm… the letters “BJ” on the screen? Was this a reference to Angus’s private life? No artistes mention for Gun.
Show – patchy. Host – you can’t polish a turd.
It was exactly one year since Chaka Demus & Pliers arrived on the scene with Tease Me, staying in the Top 10 throughout the summer of 1993, and now this new tune was their fifth, and was a sort of one year anniversary of their debut in the UK charts, but I preferred their 1993 output which was a whole lot better.
DeleteBy the way Arthur, Chaka Demus is the older looking one with the wider figure who in a previous single said "alright my turn" ahead of his verses, and Pliers is the tall lanky one, so which one of them scarpered halfway through?
It was Pliers then like who had what looked like a head of hair one side of his bonce and the other side shorn, unless my eyesight's not what it used to be!
DeleteThat TOTP was complete rubbish. Fast forwarded most of the songs!
ReplyDeleteIt's the "not yet disgraced" Angus Deayton who squeezes a huge amount of words and gags into his minimal screen time. A huge improvement on last weeks hosts.
ReplyDeleteTHE GRID open up with "Swamp Thing" which would lend it's self well to the video slot. Then requested by "No-One" it's an unnecessary 2 UNLIMITED tune. Also not opening the show for possibly the first time in years. A Number One album hey, quite impressive for a club act.
MARIAH CAREY we saw recently but her big new entry gets the chart slot.
How are we spelling platinum this evening? D:REAM showing us they got lucky with their previous 2 records. Take this one away please.
Everyone seemed to love TONI BRAXTON for a while and then she disappeared without trace. "Love Shoulda Brought You Home" is the definition of bland though.
THE SPIN DOCTORS with a song about Cleopatra’s Cat, which is incredibly dull. We still can't spell platinum can we.
CHAKA DEMUS & PLIERS with the weakest of their offerings but still better than everything else so far tonight.
ROBERT PALMER with the only song tonight not to be a Top 40 hit and it's the best thing on, go figure? "Girl U Want" a rocky little number and Robert always gives a good performance.
That was hard work this week. Let's hope their is better to come.
Yep, Palmer peaked at No.57 three weeks later with Girl U Want, but at least he got on the show with it before it flopped outside the Top 40.
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