Tir na nog and Robin Hood, I wish for you the 25th of January 1996 edition of Top of the Pops!
Saw rockers
25-1-96: Presenter: Lulu
(14) SHED SEVEN – Getting Better
Getting the show underway but the song got no better in the charts.
(3) GOLDBUG – Whole Lotta Love
Performing their only hit and this Led Zeppelin cover was at its peak.
(21) ACE OF BASE – Beautiful Life (video) (and charts)
Peaked at number 15.
(15) THE SAW DOCTORS – World Of Good
With their second of four top 40 hits but it got no higher.
(12) UPSIDE DOWN – Change Your Mind
Here with their first of four top 40 hits and it went up one more place.
(11) COOLIO feat. LV – Gangsta’s Paradise
Yet another showing of this former number one.
(20) SKUNK ANANSIE – Weak
Performing their second of ten top 40 hits but this thumping tune got no higher.
(4) 3T – Anything
Tito Jackson's sons are here with their first of four top 10 hits and it went up two more places.
(1) BABYLON ZOO – Spaceman
First of five weeks at number one.
(TOTP2) GENESIS – Turn It On Again (clip of TOTP 13-3-80) (and credits)
A number 8 hit from 1980.
1st of February is next.
ReplyDeleteHey it's Lulu. Looking rather fine. And doing a very professional presenting job.
I like Shed Seven. A run of great singles but I was never tempted to buy an album of theirs. Bit like The Levellers for me really. This is one of their best.
This is just stunning from Goldbug..a great song to turn into a dance smash. Loved this in 96 and it still sounds great now.
Good Ace of Base tune. The most Eurovision tune of the night.
Irish folk rock from the Saw Doctors (goldbug have nicked the saw though). Not feeling this one. I'll pass.
Are we bored of boy bands yet? What we need is a good girl band to shake this up. Pretty boys wjth a pretty awful record. Free poster with the single doing most of the heavy lifting here (i'm guessing).😅 Are these the first “formed from a TV show boyband?” 4 singles and out for this lot as the record label went bust. One of them writes historical fiction now apparently.
Coolio first hit doing better than the follow up. I mean it's a classic but do we need it again over some of the other new entries?
Now for something completely different. Skunk Anasie and Skin. Great tune. Great look. Great voice. This is more like it. Tune of the night.
So Every Tito child starts with a T! Jermaine's kids all start with a J. There's a theme here. I am quite surprised none of the Jackson kids have really made it big. This is actually a nice tune. Not sure why they are peforming it in their pyjamas though? Youngest brother made to carry the backpack as well. Typical.
Hooray Space Man us number one (I may be in a minority here). Love this.
2 strong shows in a row. Liking 96 so far.
Agree about Coolio, as this was an October 1995 studio performance being repeated in January 1996. The obvious one to miss out on this extra slot available was Meat Loaf's new entry at No.23 with Not A Dry Eye In The House which was next in line for a play after the Top 20 new entries this week all got into the show. Not sure if we will see Meat on next week's show in the Top 10 at No.7. Hope so.
DeleteOh, yeah and Culture Beat were also a new entry on the chart at No.31 and at peak with Inside Out, and would not get a play in the Coolio slot either. Good Lord!
DeleteTOTP2 27-01-1996 https://we.tl/t-KU6bxjcpHy
ReplyDeleteplease thank Ben Cook & Robert Thompson from the Popscene facebook group
Thanks Rob, Ben and Robert!!!
DeleteThis one worked first time round with sound, thanks Rob, Ben and Robert!
DeleteOn to the TOTP2 show then, and Genesis on The First Time section, as Johnnie Walker confirms that Phil Collins replaces Peter Gabriel as lead vocals and comes away from the drums to the front of the stage, leaving another person on drums which would have been unusual for Genesis at the start of the 80s, but after that it was quite normal to see Collins anywhere from the front of the stage to the back, if back on drums.
Also it was Genesis's first time on TOTP, as it is coincidence that Peter Gabriel never appeared on TOTP in the studio from Genesis to his own solo career, but under the Phil Collins leadership, Genesis had now embarked on their own TOTP studio journey without Gabriel.
In the Video Stir section, we get new Dublin band Saville's new single and video, singing about preferring the vinyl sound, so just listen to their lyrics, and considering that vinyl had disappeared from the shops a year earlier in January 1995 to make way for CD's, well in singles at least, if not albums too, and love the way Johnnie Walker introduces their video, especially seeing at the beginning and end of the video the classic RSO label that was synonymous with the Grease movie soundtrack singles in 1978 when vinyl was all the rage, and the only medium for so long for buying chart singles and albums.
In Recorded For Recall, there are clips from an April 1971 edition of TOTP that was not wiped, so a real collectors edition, especially with Jamaican ska band Dave & Ansil Collins at No.1 with Double Barrell.
Cheers Rob
ReplyDeleteA couple of interesting new entries peaking outside the Top 40 this week and worth a mention:
ReplyDeleteNo.44 The Beat - Mirror In The Bathroom
Re-release of the 1980 single featuring Rankin Roger, who sadly died a few years ago in 2019 aged only 56.
No.45 Bonnie Tyler - Making Love (Out Of Nothing At All)
Reworking of Jim Steinman's single originally released by Air Supply in 1983 which only managed a No.80 position in the UK, but ironically was stuck at No.2 in America for three weeks, and kept off the No.1 spot By Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse Of The Heart. Good Lord, the Top 2 in the singles chart in 1983 America were songs by Jim Steinman, with no Meat Loaf in sight!
Decent episode bar a couple of missteps, I enjoyed all four opening tracks quite a lot.
ReplyDeleteUpside Down are one of the worst 90s boy bands - though they have a LOT of competition in that bracket.
More Gangsta's Paradise?? Why??
Skunk Anansie - best of the night, hands down.
3T - Not my thing but much better than Upside Down.
Babylon Zoo - Great number one, nothing else like it really.