It won't be shown on BBC4 because apparently host Mike Smith did not give his consent to being repeated.
Ever get that nagging feeling you've forgotten to sign something.....
4-11-82: Presenter: Mike Smith
(42) WHAM! – Young Guns (Go For It)
What a debut to not be able to show on BBC4! The first of ten top top hits, which included four number ones, with this peaking at number 3.
(28) DIANA ROSS – Muscles (video)
Flexed its way to number 15.
(37) BLANCMANGE – Living On The Ceiling
Another debut on the show, this being the first of three top ten hits for the band when it peaked at number 7.
(30) JOHN COUGAR – Jack And Diane (video)
This had been an American number one, but 25 was its peak here, and his only top 30 hit.
(10) SHAKIN’ STEVENS – I’ll Be Satisfied (video)
At its peak.
(20) DARYL HALL & JOHN OATES – Maneater
Another former American number one, Maneater became their biggest hit in the UK reaching number 6.
(22) THE PIRANHAS feat. BORING BOB GROVER – Zambezi
Went up five more places.
(11) KOOL & THE GANG – Ooh La La La (Let’s Go Dancin’) (danced to by Zoo)
Also went up five more places.
(1) CULTURE CLUB – Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? ®
Third and final week at number one.
(24) SHARON REDD – Never Give You Up (video) (crowd dancing) (and credits)
Went up four more places.
That leads us to November 11th 1982, which will be on BBC4 next Friday.
Darn, this was a really good show! I have no wish to speak ill of the dead, but Mike! Ye eejit!
ReplyDeleteWham was definitely a band for the girls rather than the boys when I was at school, but watching the band now they were so exuberant it's difficult not to admire them. Also, possibly the first and last pop song to endorse abortion. Wham was so much better than the self-important yawnfests that George Michael inflicted on us once he went solo. A genuinely exciting debut.
Diana Ross, cashing in on the eighties obsession with big, sweaty musclemen. They were all over the movies, and here they are in a music video too. As for the song, file under "trying a bit too hard", supposedly sultry but actually very camp.
Another great debut with Blancmange, I loved this at the time, the Indian influence was inspired and the lyrics were memorably eccentric - but were they really not allowed to say "bloody" on TV?
Why was he John Cougar, then John Cougar Mellencamp, then John Mellencamp? Is he calling himself Cougar Mellencamp now? Anyway, groaning bit of self-mythologizing, all a bit unironic about what Gene Wilder calls "the common clay" in Blazing Saddles. He calls them something else, too.
Shouty Shaky, then Hall and Oates in the studio, not bad. Excellent production on this added to an insistent tune makes for an atmospheric, lyrically woman-fearing minor classic.
The Piranhas back, at least they've spelled Bob's name right this time. His comically disinterested act is pretty amusing, and you don't get tunes like this now, which makes it that bit more entertaining.
For a change, a Zoo routine that doesn't make you want to cringe, a neat melding of song and dance. OK, maybe the chap in the shiny pink suit was overdoing it.
A repeat of Culture Club's previous performance and Miss Redd to end on. And wise words about firework safety from the amiable Smitty. What a shame we couldn't see this on the TV. I know we always say that, but it's really true this time.
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Deletethe kinks had to change coca cola to cherry cola in "lola" in order to avoid a blanket ban on airtime. although the beeb presumably didn't get the inference of the song's lyrics, otherwise it might have been banned for that reason too!
DeleteThe Geordie folk-rock duo Splinter missed out on the chance to follow up their only British hit 'Costafine Town' in '75, when their 'Drink All Day' was banned by the BBC for containing the word 'bloody'. The George Harrison-mentored pair did perform the song on a few ITV shows such as '45' and 'Geordie Scene', however; you can find it on YT. I'm willing to bet my last penny that the man who would 'drink all day' and 'drink all night', according to the lyric, was a legendary rock guitarist. Fancy a game of dominoes, Derek?
DeleteNot sure I really understand this ‘can’t show Mike Smith ToTP shows’ but I guess we are where we are. I wonder if there are any other TV programmes sitting in the vaults that can never be broadcast again? I recall Smithy more for doing the new chart spot on ‘Breakfast time’ every week, on Wednesday’s I think. I used to quite like his presentation.
ReplyDeleteThanks Glenn and Calvin for making it available.
So have BBC4 viewers missed much? A few acts worthy of note actually and I agree with THX that it’s a shame it’s not being broadcast.
Wham – Young Guns – Little did we know who this burst of talent was strutting his stuff on this lively outing. Presumably that’s Pepsi and Shirley performing alongside? Great dance record and performance. I think I have seen this a number of times, so obviously it was OK to show excerpts from Smithy shows as long as it didn’t show Smithy?
Diana Ross – Muscles – Strangely laid back track from the Queen of Mowtown. A bit improvement on some other hits such as ‘Work that body’.
Blancmange – Living on the ceiling – This has definitely been shown on the likes of ToTP2 and I have to say I love it! “Up the cuckoo tree” is not the lyrics on the single so this must have been a clever piece of dubbing. The tune is infectious with that unusual sitar featuring. Maybe this will be repeated on a future show shown on BBC4 so it gets deserved wider exposure again.
John Cougar – Jack & Diane – After the JK slot the other week we get to see all of this. Ingenious video and reasonable song.
Shakin’ Stevens – I’ll be satisfied – Surprised it made no10. Didn’t bother re-watching the video again.
Daryl Hall & John Oates – Maneater – great song, soon to top the US charts four weeks. Great to see that the UK didn’t miss out this time.
Piranhas – Zambezi – Two very attractive jockeys are in evidence here larking around with those snakes that you use to exclude drafts under doors by the looks of it! Everyone’s having fun again.
Kool and the Gang – Ooh la la la – Tailor made for Zoo this one.
Culture Club – Do you really want to hurt me – Not for me FF.
Sharon Redd – Never give you up – Rick Astley’s back you know, oh no that’s ‘never gonna give you up’….
It is Dee C Lee and Shirlie who are with Wham in this performance - Pepsi would come along later after Dee C left for The Style Council and fleeting solo success...
DeleteI always had thing for Shirlie from Wham!, even before Pepsi arrived. In case I had any doubts, they were completely dispelled when the video for Club Tropicana was released a year later in 1983 with Shirlie in bikini attire for most of the video. She ended up with one of the Spandau Ballet males in love and marriage. Doh!
Deletept II...
ReplyDeletejohn cougar: before he decided his stage name was silly and wanted to use his (even-sillier) real surname instead (or rather as well). but whatever he called himself couldn't disguise the god-awful banality of his music. fortunately (unlike his fellow americans) us brits realised his limitations and gave him a wide berth accordingly
hall & oates (or "daryl hall & john oats" as the chart rundown caption has it - was that the same hapless employee who failed to get smith's agreement for repeat showings, or another relation?): starting their steady decline from the zenith of "i can't go for that" to the nadir of "method of modern love"
I remember Steve Wright used to refer to him as John Cougar Melonhead, and that's now stuck in my mind, cheers Steve.
DeleteI liked Method of Modern Love, though it was oddly annoying they didn't spell out "modern" in the spelling bit of the chorus.
Out Of Touch was on the same album as Method Of Modern Love. There was no break between it and the preceding track, most annoying when you wanted to include it on a compilatuon tape.
DeleteSorry I meant compilation. If it's not publishing posts twice, it's spelling errors...
Deletei could have done without having to watch & break down/analyse a second edition of the show in the same day, but being the cynic i am i thought i had better catch it on youtube (thanks calvin!) before the "smitty" estate no doubt does whatever it can to deny us all the viewing pleasure (or pain)...
ReplyDeletehost: oh dear, an inauspicious start what with wearing a "dad" jumper, having a suspect way of pronouncing "man-eater", not telling us what the outro track was, and (worst of all) using that old fall-back/cliche of mentioning pop stars having birthdays. it reminds me of when i tried listening to stuart maconie when he started as a DJ on radio 1 - up to that point as far as i was concerned the guy walked on water with his down-to-earth pithiness, wicked sense of humour and microscopic knowledge of pop music. but as the show went on, it became readily apparent that he had been told to prepare a playlist based on pop stars' birthdays... or had even had one given to him! he even admitted as such on air that it wasn't his choice and he didn't personally care that much for some of what he was playing, but he really shouldn't have bothered unless he ensured he got cart blanche what to play what he liked. as far as i was concerned it was a complete sell-out, and he not only lost my listenership as a result but my respect too. however i suppose it paid for his holiday homes...?
wham: yes, we are being denied it officially thanks to the beeb employing incompetent employees (who were no doubt hired due to sharing the same DNA as more senior staff members) failing to sort the red tape out. but it's a well-worn clip thanks to the consequent rise to superstar status of andrew ridgeley. the music is still pretty good as a slice of early 80's dance pop, although the rapping is somewhat embarrassing now. if you listen to the lyrics, then it seems george is already giving off signals that he's not actually that interested in the ladies - not that anyone realised at the time of course. i can't say i care much for shirley's "pitta bread wrap" skirt, but then again i never really cared for what was rather a plain jane either - surely martin kemp could have done better than that? ridgers is yet to start playing air guitar, so those duties are assigned to a very boyish-looking guy (who's prettier than shirley!) behind them - i wonder what happened to him?
diana ross: from the dim recesses of my memory i thought that wacko had something to do with this wispy dirge, and wiki has confirmed that he wrote it and supplied backing vocals for his "godmother". sadly it seems quincy jones wasn't on hand to make a silk purse out of this particular sow's ear. despite the presence of he-men in the video (other than silent film star buster keaton that is - what the hell was he doing there?), wasn't muscles actually the name of wacko's pet snake? i wonder if he's now slithering about amongst the overgrown foliage and tumbleweeds of what used to be (as a friend mis-calls it) "never never land"?
blancmange: so where does the camera focus after smitty's intro for this? i'll give you one guess! i thought this was okay at the time but nothing exceptional, but i now realise it is a true synth-pop classic of the era. and with a proto bit of world music thrown in too! a nice touch to have those indian guys on tabla and sitar there (i don't suppose they were anywhere near when it was actually recorded?), but they should really have been on some kind of platform. and why had neil arthur bothered with a guitar when there obviously isn't one on the recording - maybe as a show debutant he felt a bit exposed otherwise? apparently their name has gay connotations, although (unlike george michael) if mr arthur and/or his synth collaborater stephen luscombe were that way inclined then nobody ever found out...
this review is back-to-front because i'm still having uploading issues!
DeleteOnce you've written your thoughts, try copying them and if the message doesn't appear, paste them into the blank box and try again. Might work!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Deletefor quite some time now i've been drafting my offerings on sticky notes before copying and pasting into the "add comments" box. but it's only in the last couple of weeks that things have either failed top upload. or more worryingly seem to upload okay and have then disappeared the next time i view the page! anyway, i'll try and use the edward de bono approach to get over the problem if i can...
Deleteby the way, that's me with the removed comment above - i'd realised i was registered with google so tried posting through that instead, but i'd rather use my nickname here than my given one!
btw, according to my google account i've apparently got 6 "followers" - does that mean i can now start up the cult of wilberforce?
Hello Gavin, ahem, Wilberforce. Nice to know your real name, even if it was by accident! I guess you could have not mentioned it, and none of us would have known it was you.
Deleteif anyone bothers to click on the "wilberforce" link then they'll be directed to my personal website, the title of which is my given name. so i'm not really letting any great secret out or anything. but for the purposes of contributing here i still wish be known by my "handle" (a bit like those guys that give horse racing betting tips in the tabs!)
DeleteIneresting, my time at Grammar school was 1979-1986, so it seems I was just starting as you were just finishing up secondary school, so you would probably remember the original TOTP shows from around 1970 onwards, whereas my earliest recall of these shows was around 1976, with my earliest memories of the show being Kisses For Me by Brotherhood of Man, which was bang on the start of the BBC4 repeats, so for me it was perfect timing for commencing blogging on these repeats when BBC4 started showing them in 2011.
Deletemy first abiding memories of watching totp are circa 1972, with the likes of sweet, slade and especially g*ry gl*tt*r who was probably my favourite pop star at the time. although unlike peers like boy george, i have no recall whatsoever of bowie doing "starman"! i also don't remember "the jean genie" from around then either... even though i was a massive fan of sweet's "blockbuster" that was not only competing for the summit at the same time, but of course based on exactly the same riff...
DeleteAmidst the online comment that the non-appearance of the Smitty shows on BBC4 has generated, it has been claimed that one possible reason he withheld permission for repeats is that he was embarrassed by his TV past. On this evidence I don't really understand why, as he does a professional enough job, and I always thought back in the 80s that he was a decent - if overly ubiquitous - presenter. However, marks are lost for the bow-tie and jumper combination, and the occasionally OTT facial expressions that he employs. I also don't understand why the cheerleaders couldn't keep their hands off him - I suppose he was a bit better looking than some of the Radio 1 DJs, but even so...
ReplyDeleteSmitty, along with everyone else, would doubtless not have conceived at the time how huge his fellow debutants Wham would become. I don't care that much for the early singles, but even at this stage George's knack for pop songwriting is obvious, and the well-drilled nature of the performance shows how determined he was to, as their later album put it, "make it big." However, I do always feel a bit sad watching old clips of George now, knowing that he would eventually turn into a dope-addled, self-pitying husk who to a considerable degree has squandered his talent.
I also thought there was some kind of Jacko connection with Muscles, and thanks to Wilberforce for confirming it. Musically this was probably Miss Ross' best post-Motown single release up to this point, though it's still nothing special. The video is a complete turn-off, however, thanks to the bevy of unappealing musclemen and the fact that I just don't buy Miss Ross as a sex symbol! Good to see Blancmange in the studio with this irresistible fusion of synthpop and Indian rhythms, even if the singer looked a bit smug in his cravat and shades. The best song of the night, though clearly "bloody" was deemed a highly offensive word by the Beeb at this time...
As I've mentioned before, I quite like Jack and Diane, though Cougar's vocals are of that gruff blue-collar American school which I don't think has much appeal to British record buyers, hence its lowly chart placing over here. The video is a technically inventive one, and I like the disembodied hands appearing on screen to clap at the appropriate moments. Another good single from Hall and "Oats," who were still at this time on an unstoppable run of success in the States. This was another case where I wasn't sure if they were in the TOTP studio or if the performance was taken from The Late Late Breakfast Show - I think it may well have come from the latter. While we are talking about other shows, it's worth noting that the very first edition of The Tube would be broadcast the day after this edition.
The Piranhas return with a performance largely indistinguishable from the first one, though for some reason the girls have come dressed as jockeys this time. The lion on one side of the stage explains where Smitty got the head from in an earlier link, something that initially seemed a bit weird. Zoo turn out en masse for Kool and the Gang, and just about get the routine right, though the guy in the pink suit fancies himself a little too much! Thankfully he is nowhere in sight during the dancing to Sharon Redd at the end.
It's interesting when Angelo says "It won't be shown on BBC4 because apparently host Mike Smith did not give his consent to being repeated" - and then we get it uploaded on Dropbox for this blog. A "repeat" refers to a television repeat, is not the same as an upload I guess, as he must have overlooked that, so we are lucky to see it I guess. Agreed with John G that when you watch this episode, he is as professional and presentable as Powell, Bates, etc, so I also don't understand. If he really was embarrassed by this particular episode of TOTP, it is quite sad really, and he should instead be proud.
DeleteWhen I picked up this edition on Dropbox, there was only the first 15 minutes of the show available, and it cut out at the start of Shakin' Stevens. Did anyone else have the same problem, and can someone get the whole show for us on WeTransfer?
ReplyDeleteYes, same here. Thanks to Glenn for making it available even though it’s in truncated form.
DeleteSorry to swear, but this is getting f#cking ridiculous. Yet another pivotal act or screening (the sighting of Jocky Wilson , most of The Human League’s finest year, Rosie wobbling her boobs to “Ai No Corrida”...erm...) which gets shown on the BBC4 start of year “Story Of” documentary and doesn’t get anywhere near an actual Thursday or Friday night showing. Thanks for nothing, Smith.
Wham! were choreographed to within an inch of their lives. George joins Phil Oakey and Martin Fry in namechecking himself in one of his own compositions, but why didn’t Andrew get the chance to sing “Hi George, meet my fiancée”? That would have made more sense.
“Work That Body” mark 2 for Diana Ross. Loved her big hair, hated all that beefcake and found the flying Superdiana section unintentionally hilarious.
Blancmange’s catchy Asiatic floor filler was recently used in some advert depicting city workers on treadmills. Oh dear.
A innovative video for John Cougar – and I was wrong, we do get to see his hand between Diane’s knees – but I find that “life goes on” lyric incredibly depressing. Just what a suburban 54-year-old fed up with his job needs to hear right now.
There's a download button at the top right of the page at Dropbox that allows you to get the whole episode. What you watched was the preview!
Deletearthur much as i would like to point the finger at the smarmy mr smith for this situation, the fact is that he is blameless and it's the incompetent dolts at the bbc who are to blame. hopefully now that's there's an increasing furore brewing due to these absurd circumstances, they and smith's estate will do the decent thing and sort this mess out so future shows of his can be broadcast?
DeleteThanks THX for the tip, but when trying the download, it says Quicktime cannot download Avi. file. can someone who has been able to dowload the full show, please get it on WeTransfer, the mother of all file-sharing options.
DeleteDory, I did mention on the thread for the previous show that this edition is available On YouTube, in 2 parts and minus Shaky, courtesy of Calvin Henderson:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTtQWa4B2K4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSIJfvsdQcM
Aha! Sorry about that. Thanks to all concerned for the downloads and technical advice.
DeleteSo, part two of the Nibble critique starts with...the American Andrew Ridgeley! Did John ever earn his oats by singing lead?
Poor Boring Bob Grover – mis-spelt last week and not given an individual credit this week. Shame we never got to see John Peel introduce his ex- indie faves. I’d have liked to see how he coped. I take it Tight Fit still had the safari outfits from the costume hire shop, so Kim and Maz were dressed as elephant jockeys. Shame they weren’t dressed as safari hunters in order to gun down the idiot (kettle)drummer!
Nice outfits for the Zoo gals, but the lights were so dim I couldn’t work out how telegenic they were. I guess it’s why that prat was wearing a luminous pink outfit.
Culture Club in the studio, Mike? Really? What, this week? I’m sure we’ve witnessed that blue rinse George effect and his skipping at the start of a previous show.
I can’t believe they relegated Sharon Redd to the outro instead of showing a re-run of her “Are you eyeing up my dinner?” video.
Maybe someone should have done a segue of Bazza and Raw Silk to give us “I Wanna Do It With You To The Music”. Then again...
I just saw that there were 7 shows posted on this blog in the last 10 days, and it is becoming a bit farcical I'm disappointed to say, when this was supposed to be one show a week, and then all these complications of Yewtree and now Mike Smith has made this a big chore for many of us.
ReplyDeleteI did read there was a chance the Mike Smith issue could be sorted out in the future. Nothing concrete, though.
DeleteYeah, it may be something like the TOTP issues a few years ago in the 1978 and 1979 editions with showing clips from movies from Grease, Saturday Night Fever, Watership Down, etc, but the beeb seemed to resolve them at around the time of the 1980 repeats when we saw Barbara Streisand's Woman In Love being kept in as it was first broadcast, and not paste on a Legs & Co performance like they did on the Grease songs shown on TOTP. Since then we have also seen the Fame, Rocky and other similar movie-origin No.1s being left alone on the TOTP repeats, and not tampered with. Maybe if we are lucky, they will also resolve the Mike Smith issues, and soon start showing them, whatever the real issues are.
DeleteI can understand Mike Smith's family respecting his wishes if he didn't want his TV appearances repeated, but I don't get this "not signing a licence extension" thing. So presumably John Peel and Tommy Vance did then?
ReplyDeleteI think only the beeb knows the truth regarding why these Mike Smith shows are not being shown, as there seem to be so many different theories, yawn, yawn....so let the beeb give us the whys and wherefores of this Smith farce.
DeleteI still wonder who we'll get to see first - Mike Smith or The Smiths?
DeleteLet's hope the Smiths signed a licence extension otherwise it could be neither...
DeleteThe more I watch the Piranhas effort with Zambesi, the more it tells me that they were looking to copy the Captain Sensible No.1 formula with Happy Talk, coming so soon after.
ReplyDeleteSimply, take a song from a similar time and space, and put the same colours, costumes, two girls, a couple of animal outfits and you could have winner here.....no!
This was no Captain Sensible.
Anybody else unable to use the link due 'excessive traffic'.Anyboby else able to share this one ? Pleeeeeeease
ReplyDeleteHas anyone got the 11.11.82 edition with David Jensen? Although BBC4 will be showing it on Friday, it will likely remove the JK slot once again, so can we start scouting for the full show from now, so that when the blog goes up on Friday, we can add the link to the full show including JK's American charts, in order to blog on Friday the whole unedited show with JK?
ReplyDeleteFull JK version of 11.11.82
Deletehttp://www.4shared.com/video/-7ScufDEba/TOTP_111182_Full_JK_version_.html
Wow Anonymous, it played immediately.
DeleteI'll wait till Friday to blog this, so as not to be out of synch, but thanks, especially for the JK link - brilliant American music this week. "I keep forgetting I'm not in love anymore" - classic lyrics!
dory are you actually jonathan king in disguise?
DeleteGood Lord Gavin, no. How can I be if I was14 years old in 1982, and King was already presenting the American charts on TOTP as an adult. Good Lord, the first time I went to America was in 1994 when I went for a trip to New orleans as a 26-year old to see the jazz festival. I mean King must have travelled to America hundreds of times by then!
DeleteFurthermore, my interest in the American chart segments of TOTP is that the Americans in the 80s were a much more romantic bunch than us Brits, and a lot softer on the edges, like candy floss you could say. For example, Michael McDonald on this segment singing "I keep forgetting I'm not in love anymore" has always been for me one of the best lyricists in the history of pop.
DeleteOther American acts with romance in the November UK charts were Chicago, Fat Larry, Dionne Warwick, Kids From Fame, etc, having massive top ten hits on our shores in the UK, so the romance did have a big effect on the British public, which is why the JK segments are an important part of the whole equation.
that's a joke dory - you seem to be obsessed with seeing his (airbrushed) segments of the show! by the way, mind you, the man himself is such an egotist that if it really were him then i don't suppose he'd hide behind a pseudonym... unlike me! talking of which: i'd prefer it if you (or anyone else here) refer to me as wilberforce (or variation of that) rather than my given name. thanks
Deleteoops - some of the above reads a bit JS-like (by the way, mind you,...!)
DeleteA belting show was this. Mike Smith doing some Kenny Everett type expressions. Wham with a fantastic routine that captured the song well. I was beginning to get a semi on with that Diana Ross video. Cor blimey guvnor.
ReplyDeleteHaving had a full view of the Diana Ross video following your comment, I do see the male desire factor here when Miss Ross herself was filled with desire in the video. Miss Ross certainly had a figure to die for (let alone a semi Stu), and the sight of her in bed with four men could be a thrill factor for some. The video did get a fairly long play by TOTP (I think the full 4 minutes) and a treat for the men watching, albeit on early evening viewing.
DeleteThe Ross video likely inspired the video for It's Raining Men by The Weather Girls a couple of years later, as there are lots of similarities in the lyrics and videos for the two songs, with what looked like the same musclemen in the two videos!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFJO5LcWGfk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5aZJBLAu1E
how do we know that stu wasn't referring to the beefcake?
DeleteEach to their own of course, but I found the whole video of the preening prats revolting.
DeleteDory, Have you managed to Download the 4/11/82 edition yet? I've twice put up on here how I managed to do it but both times the instructions have been taken down. All I can say is you'll have to do it by clicking on the onscreen instructions and not by using a download programme like Quicktime because they won't do it.
ReplyDeleteI ended up following John G's tip to watch it from Utube (2 parts) instead of the dropbox link.
DeleteWith regard to Quicktime, it automatically goes to that application on my Mac, so it is not as though I have used Quicktime to download it - it just does so automatically.
Well the first of many TOTPs for Mike Smiffy Smith and a pretty assured debut. It took Powell & Bates along time to get to this level of competence!
ReplyDeleteWham - What a way to open a show, you could say George was really 'going for it'! John G is right by the way it was Dee C Lee who went on to be Mrs Paul Weller. She would have a big hit a few years later with 'See The Day'.
Diana Ross - Not being a muscle man myself some might accuse me a being jealous but most girls I've been out with aren't interested in muscles (which is probably why they went out with me I hear you say!!)
Blancmange - Absolutely love this and Don't Tell Me from 84 I think. A real slice of classic 80s pop!
John Cougar - I think this was an American No.1? Could hear a real Springsteen influence on this one. Crap video though!
Shaky - Nah rubbish this one. I can't believe it made the top ten but I suppose Shaky was still pretty indestructible at that time.
Hall & Oates - Now that's better, one of the great singer/songwriter combos of all time. I find it hard to believe that they didn't have better success in the UK. In fact, I think this was their biggest UK hit but another US No.1.
Piranhas - Utter Shite
Kool & The Gang - Not one of their best but still makes the feet tap. I think you could say that K&TG were the opposite of Hall & Oates. Great success in the UK but not too much Stateside.
Culture Club - I think Smithy points to them as if they were in the studio but I am fairly sure this is a repeat performance. Anyone else pick up on this?
Sharon Redd - A bit forgettable and not as good as 'Can You Handle It'
All in all an above average show for me let down by Shaky and Piranhas. Scores 7.5
"Jack And Diane" was indeed a Stateside number one. Dee C. Lee's stage name was an amalgamation of her first name's first letter and her surname - her real name's Diane Sealy. You can probably sing the lyrics and vocal line of "See The Day" over the tune to Bily Preston and Syreeta's "With You I'm Born Again" and vice versa.
DeleteHow anyone can put the Dee C. Lee song in the same breath as the brilliant and somewhat heavenly Billy Preston & Syreeta number is somewhat astonishing. Sorry Arthur, but I beg to differ here. I did listen to both tracks, and there is no fit of Dee's lyrics onto their tune, or even vice versa for that matter. even if there was, then Billy Preston & Syreeta were the original, and Dee would be the tamperer.
DeleteCome to think of it, I could just imagine Paul Weller saying to Dee C Lee, "come bring me your softness" which are the first words of the Billy Preston track, and Dee replying with Syreeta's first words, "come give me your sweetness", as Dee was to become Weller's wife, and that Weller would hopefully snog her more meaningfully than the girl he snogged on the video for The Bitterest Pill I Had To Swallow.
DeleteWhat's more, I much prefer Shirlie Holliman myself
i agree with arthur's assessment that you could probably sing both these songs over what is virtually the same backing. maybe mrs modfather did rip off said chord structures (or at least used the same ones unknowingly), but even now it's hard to prove plagiarism for anything other than lyrics and melody. in terms of personal taste both songs are pretty dire to my ears, although hers is less vomit-inducing. and how can anyone even begin to imagine the gum-chewing hard-as-nails modfather spouting drivel like "come give me your softness"? mind you billy preston was a convicted pedo and arsonist, so such cringeworthy lovey-dovey lines aren't that convincing coming out of his mouth either!
DeleteFinally got around to watching this (on YouTube). I still think Mike Smith and Graham Dene sound similar on the wireless, and I guessed right - according to Wikipedia Smith took over the breakfast show in July 1980 and Dene returned in (obviously) 1982.
ReplyDeleteI agree with others that he made a polished debut, but it was during the Wham! performance that it struck me how, since the watershed which occurred shortly after Michael Hurll took over, debut artists arrived 'fully formed'. Previously, singers or bands making their debut were a little unsure, a little nervous perhaps, and it showed (except in a few cases when they just went for out-and-out attention seeking). Hopefully they would get another appearance and then further hits and they would hone their craft. 'Nowadays' it doesn't seem to be like that anymore.
Oh no! It's Hall & Oates with THAT bass line! Phil Collins would cover the original - 'You Can't Hurry Love' - then Billy Joel ('Tell Her About It') and then the Shillelagh Sisters ('Give Me My Freedom', which built the entire flamin' melody on it!). It was SO tedious!!
Most entertaining: The Piranhas. Bob Grover's facial expressions when 'playing' the trumpet were hilarious! This isn't the same line-up as on 'Tom Hark', but I don't know if any other original members were present here.
20th, did you spot the mis-spelling of Hall & Oates in the chart rundown. On their caption, it is spelled OATS instead of Oates. Why did some buffoon drop the E in Oates? Did he like porridge oats for breakfast, or did he simply not like this American duo coming over to Britain to perform in the TOTP studio this week?
DeleteHave to admit that I didn't Dory, but it was mentioned above and I should have been looking out for it. It's certainly not the first time the caption artist screwed up but after that Jockey Wilson thing how do we know whether it was a genuine mistake or an in-joke?
DeleteSpelling was always poor on both the TOTP top 30 (Suzi Quatro was almost always spelled Suzy) and later on the TOTP2 on screen captions
DeleteYeah, I had a sneak preview of tonight's BBC4 airing of 11.11.82 with David Jensen, as it was kindly provided by Anonymous further up this blog (cos of the JK insert that BBC4 will not show tonight) and found that in the chart rundown they have spelt wrongly for the second week running Hall & Oates as "Hall & OATS". There, go have your porridge TOTP.
DeleteNot too much to say about this one, Wham were good but we've all seen that clip hundreds of times now. The Diana Ross song is presumably a rejected Jacko tune as it's so weak. Blancmange are brilliant, I love all their singles.
ReplyDeleteJohn Cougar's song is nice enough, the one thing you can say is that the riff is memorable enough to have been appropriated by a few other acts over the years - Simply Red most notably, but even Jessica Simpson managed to get a decent song out of it.
The Hall & Oates song is OK, not as goos as 'I Can't Go For That' though.
And the rest we've seen before!
NOOO!
ReplyDeleteThe file has gone!
Why?
Just found John G's post about YouTube
DeleteThanks! Watching it now.
a post i've submitted several times about having difficulties keeping up watching these reruns thanks to restricted viewing opportunities keeps disappearing! is it because i made mention of anne frank and/or the bottom inspectors?
ReplyDeleteIs this still available anywhere. Dropbox says file is missing and you tube had been removed. Help.
ReplyDelete