Like a homing bird I fly to the 30th of November 1995 edition of Top of the Pops!
Berri nice
30-11-95: Presenter: Jack Dee
(20) BERRI – Shine Like A Star
Getting the show underway with her third and final top 40 hit, and it got no higher.
(16) P.J. & DUNCAN – Perfect
Here tonight with their eighth of fifteen top 40 hits but this one got no higher.
(6) PASSENGERS – Miss Sarajevo (video) (and charts)
At its peak.
(13) GARBAGE – Queer
Performing the second single from their top 6 debut album, Garbage, but it got no higher.
(NEW) THE CHILDLINERS – The Gift Of Christmas
Here in the studio and the song will peak at number 9.
(NEW) THE BEATLES – Free As A Bird (video)
A second showing for the video and the song will peak at number 2.
(2) COOLIO feat. LV – Gangsta’s Paradise
Another showing for this former number one.
(7) ENYA – Anywhere Is
A second studio performance but the song was now at its peak.
(1) ROBSON & JEROME – I Believe
Fourth and final week at number one.
(TOTP2) ROXY MUSIC – Dance Away (footage from Snowtime Special: Abba In Switzerland 16-4-79) (and credits)
A number 2 hit from 1979.
7th of December is up next.
Don't remember the other Berri hit but it's a decent dance tune and a good foot stomping start to the show..That dress must be hot! Was she delivered by Amazon?
ReplyDeleteDecent PJ and Duncan tune alert. There had to be one. Ballad from the boys. Is it nearly xmas.
Different Passengers video this week. Still not loving the tune.
Garbage. Tune of the night. Love everything about this first album. A band I really wish I'd seen live.
Child line was a massive deal back then and I still remember the ads. Will probably be Esther Rantzens legacy. A cast like a Smash Hits cover party. Sean Maguire, Boyzone, East 17, Deuce, MN8, Ultimate Kaos, Peter Andre, John Reid. No idea who the 2nd rapper was or the female singers (one of whom sounded like Lousie but wasn't). Song is actually not terrible.
Nice to see the Beatles video in full and then Coolio shifting some serious units.
Still loving this Enya tune.
Jack Dee does a good job and not a bad show.
The two rappers in the Childliners performance were East 17’s Terry Caldwell (miming the absent Tony Mortimer’s part) and CJ Lewis.
DeleteThanks. CJ Lewis. Knew the voice but couldn't work it out.
DeleteYeah, CJ Lewis was the best one on this ensemble of the current hot performers of that time. What I want to know is who was the gorgeous blonde in the front row of the group with the white T-shirt and black leather trousers, as I don't recognise her from the pop elite of that time?
DeleteI also spotted Dannii Minogue and a pre-fame Backstreet Boys shoved right to the back!
DeleteWell-spotted re Backstreet Boys Mickey C! That's insane (or should I say Insania to make a really bad Peter Andre joke).
DeleteI don't remember this Berri track at all. Not very interesting sadly, her pacamac skirt is more entertaining.
ReplyDeletePJ and Duncan - Didn't U krazy Kats just come out? They really had more hits than you remember, huh?
Passengers - A* to the person running the chart captions timing the 'time for East 17' line with East 17's chart position.
Garbage - Excellent, love them so much. Garbage is one of my all time favourite albums, along with a few others from this year.
Childliners - Featuring one of the worst lyrics in the history of pop 'Who said that Christmas was only for kids? We may think it isn't but we all know it is.' I had some Childline album (maybe from 1996?) with a lot of indie acts on it, the main thing about it I remember was some kid dressing as Jarvis Cocker on the cover and I think it had Pulp's cover of Whiskey in the Jar on it. I probably still have it somewhere. It wasn't great but it was better than this single.
Free as a Bird video again? Why? I know that album was a big deal but still...
Someone on the show really likes Gangsta's Paradise, don't they?
Enya - have to stan the drummer theming. Very Christmassy.
Regarding The Childliners, it could be because it sounded a lot like The Nightcrawlers song Push The Feeling On, as John Reid of The Nightcrawlers was in the group on that stage, although not getting his own lines, but encouraging the rest of the group. A quick look in Wiki says that the single was written by Tony Mortimer of East 17, but the more you hear it the more it sounds like The Nightcrawlers.
DeleteChart rundown - three new entries this week on the rundown at peak position this week, so we do not get to see them on this run:
ReplyDeleteNo.33 - Technocat featuring Tom Wilson
Really recommend this one, as the video was shown on TOTP2 preceding this episode, as one of tomorrow's hits section.
No.39 David Bowie - Strangers When We Meet
A sign of the times and now a familiar sight on the chart rundowns where Bowie peaks in the 30s and get no higher in the charts. Was soon to change in 1996 when collaborating with The Pet Shop Boys on Spaceboy, so really looking forward to that one to alleviate Bowie's chart woes on his own solo.
No.40 DJ Jazzy Jeff - Boom Boom Shake Shake The Room
Re-entry of this original 1993 No.1 effort, and not sure why it was released again in 1995?
TOTP2 02-12-1995 (courtesy of Ben Cook & Robert Thompson from the Popscene facebook group - thank them not me!) https://we.tl/t-xrTgrVgUSe
ReplyDeletecheers Rob
DeleteFeatured on this TOTP2 edition in The Video Stir section was the new video from The Artist Formerly Known As Prince with his new single Gold. It was to enter the charts the following week as a new entry at No.10, but no play on TOTP, in favour of having two Live By Satellite performances on the same show.
DeleteIn Recorded For Recall featuring May 1979, there was the Summertime Special clip of Boney M with Hooray Hooray It's A Holiday, with one of Boney M backing singers in the long black dress with a see through in the chest area of her low-cut dress.
In Tomorrow's Hits, we got the first showing of the famous Pulp video for Disco 2000 as the story of a girl's one night stand with a man she met that evening at the Disco, but the video wasn't shown on the main TOTP show as far ahead as 14.12.95 in favour of a Live By Satellite performance from France.
Thanks Rob, Ben & Robert!!!
ReplyDeleteWas it some of the music offerings that caused Jack Dee to fade down the comedy on this edition? Two singles inspired by serious subjects and the return of The Beatles meant he wasn't going to be overly arch but he was surprisingly unfunny. Almost seemed like he just couldn't be bothered. He does get a few witticisms out and his link to Robson and Jerome was a corker.
ReplyDeleteBerri; Dreadful start from the act that did one of my least favourite singles of 1994. Well sung but I don't want to hear this sort of stuff yet. The costume uniquely awful and I've just watched some of April 1976.
PJ & Duncan; No
Passengers; The same video as last week which is still very powerful. The guitar and the moment when Pavarotti enters is really spine tingling still. They still didn't go to the very end so we miss the whole of the haunting image that is on the single sleeve. The message is clear enough.
I looked close at the charts again Rad after you mentioned the appearance of East 17 when Bono asks if there's a time for them. Brilliant! Made me think of the occasion when Frankie Valli 'Grease' played over the Top 30 rundown and his voice entered at the exact moment his still appeared on screen!
Garbage; Another classic from them. Shirley Manson such a great singer. I don't think I know a catchier single where a good proportion of the chords sound completely off. A funny moment when the odd bit after the chorus caused the audience to suddenly go mad as if Take That had just turned up.
The Childliners; Enjoyed that and I've never disliked anything written by Tony Mortimer. A real pop supergroup on stage and a decent tune. So how come this doesn't seem to ever get played at any Christmas since? I've never seen a Xmas compilation that featured it. Good to see Terry Caldwell actually make his voice heard.
The Beatles; A none more serious Jack links to the full video for 'Free As A Bird' from Ringo's first drum smack to the end George Formby impersonator whose presence seems a little mystifying. George's input? I spotted a couple more references; A Paperback Writer, a Helter-skelter and I presume a reference to the car crash at the start of 'A Day In The Life'. Still prefer 'Now and Then' but it's a great reminder of that period when The Beatles were all around.
Cooling feat LV; Back up and back on again. No complaints.
Enya; For me this one is just a little too fey and the rhymes are rather silly but the wordless part is attractive.
More flowers on the piano and soldiers who've got lost on manoeuvres from the 'Mistletoe and Wine' video and en route to a concert by Andre Rieu.
Robson & Jerome; Well it's toss but does at least have a Jack Dee link which may well be the most dismissive link in all of these repeats. His false smile at the end was hilarious.
Roxy Music to end, with the performance at Abba's special in Switzerland in April 1979 which by delightful coincidence was on in full last night.
I noticed a couple of interesting singles peaking outside the Top 40 this week and worth a mention:
ReplyDeleteNo.54 Van Morrison - No Religion
Not long after his 1994 Brit Award and performance of Gloria, Morrison now with his third single of 1995, and all peaking outside the Top 40.
No.87 David Essex - Bella Bella
Not sure if this was his last ever single, as his last Top 75 single was in 1994, and previous to that was in 1987, but very little to chart after 1985.