Chubby called when he got the word, he said I suppose you've heard about the 7th of September 1995 edition of Top of the Pops!
Bleep of the pops
7-9-95: Presenters: Jo Brand & Mark Lamarr
(13) NIGHTCRAWLERS feat. JOHN REID – Don’t Let The Feeling Go
Getting tonight's show underway but it got no higher.
(18) WHIGFIELD – Close To You
In the studio with her fourth of five top 40 hits, and this one peaked at number 13.
(8) DONNA SUMMER – I Feel Love (video) (and charts)
This remix was her tenth and final top 10 hit and it got no higher.
(14) MICHAEL BOLTON – Can I Touch You...There
In the studio tonight and the song peaked at number 6.
(11) CELINE DION – Tu M’Aimes Encore (To Love Me Again) (via satellite)
A culminé à la septième place (peaked at number 7).
(NEW) JANET JACKSON – Runaway (video)
Will peak at number 6.
(20) SMOKIE feat. ROY CHUBBY BROWN – Living Next Door To Alice (Who the F**K is Alice)
Fifteen years since their last chart hit, Smokie return with what will be their seventh and final top ten hit when it peaks at number 3, with a little help from the rather naughty Roy Chubby Brown.
(NEW) ERASURE – Stay With Me
Performing what will become a number 15 hit.
(1) MICHAEL JACKSON – You Are Not Alone (video)
First of two weeks at number one.
(NEW) SIMPLY RED – Fairground (video) (and credits)
Soon to be number one.
UGH what a terrible episode!!! Britpop haters might be happy but so much dirge.
ReplyDeleteA couple of inferior tracks from artists whose peak is already past open and they're probably a highlight. Surprisingly I remembered most words to the Whigfield ballad despite not having heard it since then.
I Feel Love is a classic, but nothing new for 95.
Michael Bolton - terrible
Celine - dull
Janet - not an awful song but the cultural appropriation in the video is pretty cringe to modern eyes.
Smokie/RCB - It was a weird single then and age hasn't helped it. I imagine the audience got a lot of stern warnings before the recording.
Erasure with a slightly dull track.
MJ - I appreciate it's a decent song but yet another drippy ballad in an episode full of them?
And I can't stand Simply Red so I'm going to have a fun few weeks...
I have to agree with Rad, a poor show this week with a couple of exceptions. Starting with the presenters. Jo Brand doing most of the heavy lifting thankfully as I like her and she's funny. Lamarr I never found funny and Buzzcocks improved greatly after he left. He's embarassingly cringey here as well.
ReplyDeleteThere was loads of great dance music around in 95, then there was this naff number, so dull I'd forgotten it. Singer still gives me the creeps. Next the obligatory ballad from Whiggers. Is it Xmas? Piano player miming all the wrong notes and backing singers miming the solo part of the chorus. Under rehearsed and forgettable.
Donna with original VT (how many of the audience understood that term) and then dodgy barnet Bolton is back. It's still a NO from me Michael.
My favourite Celine tune next. Absolutely adore this number. Apparently "To Love Me Again" in English. Direct translation is "You Still Love Me". She then performed an English version on her Falling Into You album called "If That's What It Takes". Whatever it's called it's wonderful and I'm a huge fan of this.
I was going to mention cultural appropriation in the Green Screen JJ vid as well. Song is cheesy but fun and I don't mind it at all.
Roy Chubby Brown next. When I worked in WHS in the 90s his video sales were astronomical. Never on the telly normally so a rare sight here. The tune is annoying (and was everywhere for a while) but it's fun. Shame Gompie got there first. How many of the studio audience sang "bleep".
Erasue just beautiful and best studio tune and performance by a mile tonight. They really were a class act weren't they.
MJ can have his Number One as the song is a good one.
Ginger Alert! Hucknall Incoming!
Of course! Thanks Morgie. I knew that someone else did the Living Next Door To Alice 'joke' but couldn't remember the name. As I recall that version (a sort of playground chant) got mild airplay then was immediately superseded by Chubby Brown's version which you then couldn't get away from.
DeleteHave to disagree, I thought this was a better episode than of late, except for the dreary presenters which didn't help it along.
ReplyDeleteThe Nightcrawlers ft John Reid - I don't recall this one at the time, but I thought it was really good, and right up there with their first single Push The Feeling On, sounding a lot like it. And those gorgeous girls propping up Reid were a delight to watch in their minidresses or mini-nighties whichever takes your fancy. Wish I could be 18 again on the look of that stage.
Whigfield - Close To You
At first I thought it was going to be a Carpenters cover, but none of it, and although another tune I don't recall, I thought it was just fine, especially to see Whigfield in a change of dress and music style, bringing her to a new older audience I would imagine. Just great music here.
Donna Summer - I Feel Love
The original Giorgio Morroder video from 1977, with a young sexy Donna Summer at her peak, I never tire of hearing the song or watching the video. Brilliant disco era reminiscing for me.
Janet Jackson - Runaway
Have to say I love the video more than the song, and especially Jackson's smile which has been her greatest asset throughout her career. Agree with Morgie regarding the video which was very refreshing in the last weeks of summer in September 1995 with autumn just around the corner.
Smokie ft Roy Chubby Brown - Living Next Door To Alice
This 1978 re-release with the help of Chubby Brown was a refreshing injection of nostalgia to the show, and I just love its melody and harmony from a long-gone romantic era of the 1970s, which by the time of an unromantic 1995, longed for those 70s days back again. Well certainly I did in 1995....and now.
This was a real bargain basement of an edition saved only by a couple of singles and a good turn by the comedians present. Well, two of them. Well, one of them. I really like Mark Lamarr but he was rather annoying here, with his 'where am I?' routine. Jo Brans probably should've done the job on her own but there were a few good exchanges between them and his asking if Throbbing Gristle would be on was a funny moment. Music mostly bleeping awful.
ReplyDeleteNightcrawlers; The lank haired bloke has come to the studio to sing something very proto 'X Factor'. Can't remember it from 1995 or from 2 hours ago.
Whigfield; Good to see her really get a chance to sing but the song was real formula '90s piano ballad waftiness.
Donna Summer; The original promo clip for 'I Feel Love' which to me didn't do the single much of a service (prefer Legs & Co swaying back and forth in a car) now with the new remix playing over the top which adds nothing to the original. Pity about England's batting yesterday morning.
Michael Bolton; A funny link at least to tent haired Michael and his band all of whom have sartorially welcomed in 1993. Ooh pan pipes! Tune better than usual for him.
Celine Dion; Another satellite clip for Celine and a beautiful ballad sung in French. She looks serene against the New York skyline which will be seen again shortly and the best thing on the edition so far. But please something a little more upbeat now?
Janet Jackson; Ah. That's better! To the rescue comes the '90s queen of cute Janet Jackson. All of her singles from this period are unfailingly joyous and if only the singles or whatever their called, today had just some of her qualities. 'Runaway' another sunny interval with a dreamy chorus that has an air of The Band's 'Chest Fever' about it. So catchy and enjoyable. The video mindblowingly dated and '90s happy; hop around the world and back home in time to feed the dog. No you wouldn't do it like that now but it gave me a good optimistic feeling. Highlight of the show by a long way.
Smokie feat. Roy Chubby Brown; He was huge at the time as Morgie pointed out but his presence here will surely be completely baffling to viewers under 35. I never enjoyed his comedy and this sounds lame in the extreme. Who the f***k thought this was worth pursuing? I noticed that there were no close ups of audience members when Roy said his lines.
Erasure; Not their catchiest but a beautiful song with some very impressive vocals from Andy. Their chart dominance now in the past but entering their final days with grace.
Michael Jackson; Janet's bruv with maybe his last really great single. Very understated and even the video which must've cost a fortune has an unobtrusiveness to it. No one aged 36 should have hair as good as that. Poignant to see him laughing with Lisa Marie, now both gone.
Mark has dropped the confused routine right at the end and does a fall back into the crowd while looking like Morrisey. Jo thankfully hasn't changed from start to finish and the show ends well with Simply Red, who not only haven't made the charts with 'Fairground ' yet, they don't seem to have got the video ready yet either. So it's a compilation of TOTP appearances over the years before Mick Hucknall in an unattractive superimposition and jacket tells us he's on next week. Good single and look forward to hearing it again.
Yes, have to agree regarding Janet Jackson. That video really made my weekend, and I forgot it was winter until Monday morning.
DeleteA really charming video which was very warming. You're right she does have a lovely smile and the sweetest of pop voices. I don't think she ever actually scored a UK No.1 which seems very unjust.
DeleteIt's probably less well known that the first release of 'Living Next Door to Alice' was by New World as a follow up to their big hit (and seldom heard now) 'Sister Jane'. I thought it was a fine record and remember hearing it a lot on the radio at the time (1972). But it surprisingly flopped. Chinn/Chapman had faith in the tune however and gave it to Smokie who were riding high with a string of hits, and it followed the No11 hit 'I'll meet you at Midnight' and went into the top 10.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty heartbreaking with its lyrics about being fainthearted and missing the chance to say how you feel. It sounds like something Thomas Hardy might have written if he'd grown up in the 1970s. That's the reason I hate Chubby Brown's version. I know who Alice is and it's very touching. Maybe I didn't drink enough Alcopops in '95.
DeleteHa! Novel Writing!... A Saturday Afternoon in November was approaching the time of twilight and the vast tract known as Egdon Heath embrowned itself moment by moment.
DeleteVery good Sct! I wonder what '90s acts Thomas Hardy would've been into. The Cardigans perhaps.
DeleteThree new entries lower down the charts at peak positions this week and worth a mention:
ReplyDeleteNo.36 Squeeze - This Summer
Final throw of the dice for this group dating back to the late 70s with Cool For Cats, as the curtain comes down on a long career of singles releases.
No.68 Big Country - You Dreamer
They already had their final Top 40 single a couple of years earlier in 1993, and this was their penultimate chart release before calling it a day in 1999 with one more single which similarly only got to No.69.
No.85 Hootie & The Blowfish - Only Wanna Be With You
Third of three singles in their debut year of 1995, and third to fail to make the Top 40, but I remember when they were introduced to a new British audience on TOTP2 earlier in the year with their debut single Hold My Hand, which I thought was brilliant.
Couldn't believe that Hootie never had a Top 40 single. Got a couple of their albums and listened to them only the other day. Great band.
Delete