I want to be a hippy and I want to get the 1st of February 1996 edition of Top of the Pops!
I got the flower
1-2-96: Presenter: Lee Evans
(22) QFX – Everytime You Touch Me
Opening tonight's show with their first of five top 40 hits, but it got no higher.
(5) RADIOHEAD – Street Spirit
Performing the fifth single from their top 4 album, The Bends, and number 5 was its peak.
(20) E-MOTION – The Naughty North And The Sexy South (video) (and charts)
At its peak, until the remix later this year.
(2) THE BLUETONES – Slight Return
With their first of four top ten hits, and from their number one album, Expecting To Fly, but it could get no higher.
(17) NORTHERN UPROAR – From A Window
Their first of three top 40 hits, but it got no higher.
(12) TECHNOHEAD – I Wanna Be A Hippy
In the studio with what will become their only top ten hit when it peaks at number 6.
(9) DOG EAT DOG – No Fronts
With their only top ten hit and it was now at its peak.
(NEW) MEAT LOAF – Not A Dry Eye In The House
Here tonight to perform what will become his fifth of six top ten hits when it peaks at number 7.
(1) BABYLON ZOO – Spaceman
Second of five weeks at number one.
(TOTP2) BUDDY HOLLY – Oh Boy (clip of Ed Sullivan Show 26-1-58) (and credits)
Number 3 (for the Crickets) in 1958.
E-Motion - Good Lord, this video had too much strobe - I was trying to focus on the hotties in the video, but I just gave up. Anyway, I think the original lyrics come from an Adam Ant song from the early 80's but not sure which one.
ReplyDeleteChart rundown - I just about spotted a new entry by Elton John called Please, and was a rare absence from Elton in the TOTP studio, as this was not high enough in the charts at No.33 to bring the man into the studio, and the song fell badly the following week, well outside the Top 40.
Meat Loaf - the song was much better than the studio performance which was not one of Meat's best, having recently had a No.2 hit in November 1995 with I'd Lie For You And That's The Truth, kept off No.1 only by Coolio. Need to check out the Meat Loaf video for the new single 1996 single which looked interesting on the top 10 rundown.
Top 10 rundown - we had Cher at No.8 and Meat Loaf at No.7 on the same Top 10, and considering they got to No.5 on the same single Deadringer For Love in Feb1982, who would have thought that exactly 14 years later to the week that they were also at peak, but separately on their own singles in the Top 10! Add in George Michael at No.3 on the same Top 10, and you have three 80s icons in a 1996 Top 10 single chart!
TOTP2 03-02-1996 https://we.tl/t-k7MziA5yOL
ReplyDelete(please thank Ben Cook & Robert Thompson from the Popscene facebook group)
No sound again on this one, so Lurker can you do your conversion to a sound enabled copy again for us?
DeleteThanks Rob, Ben and Robert!!!
DeleteCheers Rob, much appreciated.
Delete50th episode special!
When does Steve Wright take over?
I really didn't think Johnny Walker voiced so many episodes.
I'm really enjoying them.
@Dory It does has sound.
It's just the device you are playing it on, does not have that audio codec.
That's why I convert it to aac.
I'm assuming you are watching it on a chromebook or similar.
Anyway I've worked my magic, here is the re-audio file.
https://we.tl/t-nvSWEQgwlQ
It's fine, I decided I will only be watching the TOTP2 episodes while Johnnie Walker is the host, as he has a good presenting style and has new music and videos that may not make it to the main TOTP, as well as oldies, but when Steve Wright eventually takes over, its only oldies and we have reviewed them over the years anyway in these TOTP reruns.
DeleteSome interesting pieces on this TOTP2 edition. On the First Time section, I didn't know that Depeche Mode's first time on TOTP was their single New Life, as I always thought it was Just Can't Get Enough, which was their biggest impact single, and Basildon is a better place for having brought them to the pop scene.
DeleteIn Recorded For Recall with clips from a June 1976 TOTP, Jonnie Walker emphasised it was the long hot summer of '76, so that famous summer of eventual drought must have been at the early stages at that point.
The Archive Playout section had a trio of hits from Buddy Holly & The Crickets from The Ed Sullivan Show in January 1958, and Holly died a year later aged only 22, so he would have been 87 had he still been alive today.
@Dory I'm not bothered converting them, it doesn't take long.
DeleteI have to admit that the Johnny Walker episodes of TOTP2 are way better than Steve Wright.
I've just looked it up and Steve Wright took over in '97.
So it must be have been Chris Cowey, who became executive producer in '97, that decided on the format change.
I do like Steve Wright episodes, but there is more substance in the Johnny Walker TOTP2
Getting fed up with reading moans about audio, can see why we quit sharing stuff here now can't you!!! All you need is vlc player on pc or phone, nothin wrong with files, just you lot got codecs missing.
DeleteThis is the comedy episode isn't it? Lots of silliness abounds so Lee Evans is a good pick to host.
ReplyDeleteOpening with QFX and a perfectly average track is made memorable by some of the craziest dancing we've ever seen. Wearing tin foil.
Radiohead - OK less comedic but incredible song. Probably my favourite of theirs, or joint with Lucky.
Comedy is back with EMotion. The song is poor but the video is fun.
Bluetones - it is a brilliant song but I grow tired of Spotify trying to play it if I leave it on Autoplay so I do get a bit why Mark Morriss always moans about playing it. Even though it probably still makes him decent money.
Northern Uproar - and this lot were often the butt of jokes in the music press, mainly for being 'ugly' I seem to recall, which was pretty cruel. This is by far their best track. Still enjoy it.
Technohead minus all their lyrics continue the comedy. I was in my final year at school in Grimsby. You bet I heard this song way too often (and way before it came out). So love/hate memories of it!
DED -This one was fun!
Meat Loaf - Classic overblown pomp but decent enough.
Standard dance opener from QFX. Lots of shiny kitchen foil and a live vocal but as bland as you can be.
ReplyDeleteOne of Radioheads intellectual numbers. Meaning it's very slow, dull and boring. Next…
E-Motion on video. Thought it was Damon albarn for a minute. Not the world's best dance tune is it?
Finally a decent tune. Bluetones a great bamd and another Greatest Hits album I own. Proper 90s indie tune. Easily tune of the show.
Here come the kids. Its the English Ash, Northern Uproar. Tune is average indie pop at best but I'll take this over the dance tunes tonight.
Speaking of rubbish dance tunes. Stoned too strong a word for BBC One. Didn't the Smurfs cover this?
Not sure this will go down as a classic TOTP episode (sarcasm in print) and now Dog Eat Dog. Oh dear me…
Save us Meatloaf. He really was camped out at the totp studio's in the 90s wasn't he. Second best on tonight after Bluestones. Not that it was hard.. slightly understated for Mr Loaf I thought.
Number one in 6 countries. World domination awaits…possibly. Great tune.
Nice lad in black and white at the end. Good tune. I predict he will go far.
Three songs peaking outside the Top 40 this week and worth a mention:
ReplyDeleteNo.62 Chynna Phillips - Naked And Scared
One of the three girls on Wilson Phillips who stormed into the charts in 1990 with Hold On, now going solo in 1996, this looked like her only single on her own, and with a song title like that, is it any surprise? Anyway, her mother is Michelle Phillips of the Mamas And Papas.
No.67 Bates - Billie Jean
The video was shown on TOTP2 the previous week in the Video Stir section, and is a German punk band singing the lyrics of Michael Jackson's same song title from 1983, but with a more ghastly ending for Billie Jean in the video.
No.72 Jimmy Nail - Big River '96
Remix of his original single released only three months earlier which got to No.18, so not sure why it had to be remixed so soon after the original instead of releasing new material.