Oh no, the fascist capitalist pigs are making me sing on the telly!
26/07/84 (Janice Long & Dave Lee Travis)
Phil Fearon & Galaxy – “Everybody’s Laughing” (12)
Went up two more places.
Queen – “It’s A Hard Life” (23) (video)
This throwback Play the Game soundalike made it to number 6.
Neil – “Hole In My Shoe” (2)
'This one's for you Freddie!' At is BBC4-less peak.
Windjammer – “Tossing & Turning” (33) (video)
Their only hit, peaking at number 18.
Hazell Dean – “Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)” (35)
Went all the way to number 4.
Jeffrey Osborne – “On The Wings Of Love” (31)
His biggest hit peaking at number 11.
Shakatak – “Down On The Street” (15)
Went up to number 9.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood – “Two Tribes” (1)
7th of nine weeks at number one!
Echo & The Bunnymen – “Seven Seas” (16) (audience dancing/credits)
At its peak.
Back to BBC4 next for August 2nd.
The tension with Phil here is when or if he will attempt the flip, and... he does and flies straight into the camera! Comedy masterclass! Then in an "I meant to do that" way he does a nonchalant backflip! Buster Keaton couldn't have done it better.
ReplyDeleteQueen with a lavish video for a bog standard song, though oddly Freddie ends up sporting Brian May's barnet in the latter half. Didn't think it was as weird as DLT did, though.
Neil bringing the more intentional comedy, wisely not doing a total repeat performance, carefully scripted ad libs well to the fore.
No memory of Windjammer, was it Mr Windjammer or was that the name of the group? He reminds me of Tony from EastEnders, only without the hat. As for the song, nice enough smooth soul but nothing great.
Hazell Dean with what for me is her best song, storms along with some verve and, well, high NRG. Nice line in kiss off lyrics, too. Surprisingly, she's not wearing white stilettos.
Jeffrey Osborne with a tune perfectly suited for Olympics coverage. He looks pretty nervous, good thing he was miming. It's all a bit quasi-inspirational, complete with false uplift key change - too clinical for me.
Shakatak back, can anyone work out what the backing singers are chanting under the chorus? It's escaped me.
Frankie hanging onto the top slot like grim death, then Echo and the Bunnymen a surprisingly not bad choice to dance out to.
What probably made this your best Hazell Dean song was that it sounded very much like The Dooleys from 1979, a bit like a speeded up version of The Chosen Few which got as high as Np.3 for The Dooleys, and a cracker of a tune.
DeleteI must admit I would never have made the connection between Hazell Dean and The Dooleys. The Dooleys on speed?!
DeleteNot sure if you already knew this THX, with your reference to Olympics coverage, but the LA Games started two days after this edition was first broadcast.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I suspected the Games were on about that time, though I didn't realise how close to this episode's transmission. Jeffrey must have been coining it in.
DeleteThanks as ever to Neil B for this. DLT and a newly-blonde Janice make for a lively team, with the Hairy Cornflake tactile but respectful of his female co-host. I don't know why DLT's latest wacky hat seemed to provoke such mirth, however.
ReplyDeleteA fair amount of repetition this week, though at least all the performances are new. Phil Fearon makes up for his failure to do a flip last time by giving us two on this occasion, and I thought that this was the better of Neil's two appearances, with a suitably hippyish backing band with him this time and some amusing business with the vocal effects and dry ice at the end.
The extravagance of the Queen video has the effect of dwarfing what is a pleasant but perfectly ordinary song. There is a far better track with the same title (co-written by Leo Sayer) recorded by Roger Daltrey for his debut solo album in 1973, the grandiose production of which might have fitted this video better. Windjammer were evidently aiming at the aspirational crowd with their slick sound and video which seeks to portray a sophisticated 80s urban lifestyle, complete with a couple of early cordless phones. Not bad, but not exactly memorable either.
Hazell Dean's tune is probably the pick of the show, on its way to giving Stock, Aitken and Waterman their first Top 10 hit. They did become very formulaic and tiresome at the height of their success in the late 80s, but some of the earlier records are pretty good and this is one of them, the best example of High NRG we have seen on the show so far. Hazell continues with her Kelly Marie-style performance set up, I notice. Jeffrey Osborne (once famously confused with George Osborne by Barack Obama) next, looking resplendent in chinstrap beard, white pullover and leather trousers. I don't remember this from the time, though it has since become a firm radio staple. It's a decent song, tuneful enough to avoid being too treacly, and Jeff gives it a very smooth vocal. On to Shakatak, and singer Jill's hair seems to be a little less unruly than last time, but Bill Sharpe is once again wearing something loud, though I'm not sure if it's a shirt or a jacket. Seven Seas isn't the most obvious playout tune, but the audience bob along to it pretty well.
I think The Hairy Bastard was howling at the "floor manager"'s reaction to Miss Shakatak's revealing and skintight dress. Yeah, Dave, the "floor manager".
DeleteI'd say the joke about "the dew on the grass" works better in Neil's version than it does on the original.
queen: all that's missing from this ironic video are the legendary dwarves with the cocaine-loaded silver trays strapped to their heads (by the way john, was your mention of "dwarfing" a joke reference that to that apocryphal story of music biz bacchanalia?)
ReplyDeletewindjammer: what exactly is a windjammer? even though this has all the acoutrements of 80's dance/club music, for some reason it never clicked with me. until now that is
hazell dean: from one end of the dance spectrum to the other. the tune itself is actually quite catchy (if somewhat reminiscent of the recent no. 1 hit "hello"), but the lumpen rhythms have me running for the hills. by the time stock aitken & waterman have gotten into their stride and killed the goose that laid the golden pop eggs, i shall have long-since stopped writing reviews here, but i'd actually like to give credit where credit is due whilst i am, and heap praise on their first two singles they did with princess the following year (even if they were ripping off jam & lewis like no-one's business!)
jeffrey osborne: some people might say this is soul music because it's a black guy singing, but it had been someone like joe cocker then nobody would mistake it for anything other than the cabaret schlock it is. does jeffrey deliberately shave the areas between his beard and tache, or is he unfortunate in that they don't meet up of their own accord? either way, it's highly annoying!
I regret to say that wasn't a joke on my part Wilberforce, just pure coincidence! A windjammer is a type of ship with sails.
Deletethanks for that john - despite a childhood spent living less than a mile from the english channel, i was never a nautical type...
DeleteWindjammer is also a term for a tight fitting upper garment with elasticated neck and cuffs which keeps the cold out - also known as a windcheater. Ding! Frank Muir!
DeleteA very bubbly DLT hosts with the ever cheerful Janice. He’s certainly puzzled by the Queen video which I felt owed a lot to the ‘Masquerade’ section in ‘Phantom of the Opera’….or vice versa as it predates that come to think of it.
ReplyDeletePhil Fearon & Galaxy – Everybody’s laughing – It’s hard not to be captivated by acrobatic Phil and his cohorts and this jolly opener.
Queen – It’s a hard life – Democracy ruled for the single releases from ‘The Works’. Roger wrote ‘Radio Gaga’, John ‘I want to break free’, Freddie ‘It’s a hard life’ and Brian ‘Hammer to fall’. Freddie looks like a giant prawn in this sumptuous video and this single's sleeve featured a rare ‘photo shopped’ version with Roger’s head looking different to standard issues.
Neil – Hole in my shoe – Heavens above, this cover got to no2; as high as the original which was denied by a much better song at no1 I hasten to add.
Windjammer – Tossing and turning – and FF
Hazell Dean – Whatever I do – This is beyond parody! Kelly Marie once again but it’s catchy and bouncy so I’ll give it that, and Hazell is enjoying herself too.
Jeffrey Osborne – On the wings of love – I bought this at the time and was surprised to see 1982 on the label credit. Turns out it was originally released in early 1983, so I guess it was re-released after the success of the excellent ‘Stay with me tonight’. It inspired an excellent TV advertised compilation CD in 1991 called, would you believe, ‘Wings of Love’.
Shakatak – Down on the Street – Peelie’s mate wears yet another loud shirt for this piece of unmistakeable Shakatak.
Frankie – Two Tribes – Ah well, another week gone by. Nearly time to bring on George again.
Echo & the Bunnymen – Seven Seas – I should have spelt ‘Rhye’ as such a couple of weeks ago in my comments and not ‘Rye’. Strange to playout on this and not one of the new entries….and Lionel Richie is on the way down now too.
Thanks again Neil B.
You can see on this TOTP studio performance of Jeffrey Osborne, the three or four regulars in the TOTP studio audience who have been appearing every week on the show for several months, and that blonde standing in front of Osborne at several points in the video has been a regular studio audience dancer since early 1983 and has a aroused sort of look about her every time.
DeleteDid that Windjammer performance have 2 chart positions on the caption?
ReplyDeleteIt did! Simultaneously No.33 & No.31 apparently - quite a feat.
DeleteThanks again to Neil B. I tried watching this last night but the download said it would take four days! Tonight it took four minutes.
ReplyDeleteDLT and Blondie Janice made a good pair, bouncing fizzily off each other, though they made loads of mistakes in the rundowns- I made it five - with songs not named or titles truncated and artists mispronounced.
Everybody’s laughing at that ballsed up flip, Phil! Great storytelling miming, though. I liked the gals’ chart position tops but, surely, they should have worn 1 and 2 for better effect.
Another weird video for DLT after David Sylvian’s recently. I’ve currently got next to no hearing in one ear through wax buildup (sorry!) and that’s the ear I decided to listen to Queen through.
I enjoyed DLT’s Neil impersonation as much as the solid display you’d expect from a comic actor. Was that comic actress Doon McKichan on ‘backing vocals”?
Anonymous disco / R&B from Windjammer, a New Orleans act who were originally called Windstorm.
The mugshot mis-spelt Hazell Dean and her lads should have worn blue to own up to that “Blue Monday” rip-off.
A third non-top 30 song in a row next, and an anthemic slowie from Jeffrey Osborne, but surely a chunky jumper doesn’t go with leather trousers, especially for a ballad.
Oo! Gill Saward looking her finest yet. She can’t run from the floor manager in that skirt, mind. A standing drummer for a scampi-in-a-basket act? Hmm.
A surprising choice for outro, but Echo and the Bunnymen made for a surprisingly good indie disco finish.
Ooh goody, a contraband edition! I don't rate this one all that highly for music, but otherwise it certainly had its moments.
ReplyDeleteHazell Dean was about 28 at this time and her career goes back to the previous decade (45cat confirms this - and she didn't have the second 'l' in her name originally). I never realised that she had teamed up with SAW as early as 1984 but listening to this number today all those SAW clichés are plainly obvious.
Apart from Neil's 'backing musicians' and the No.1 repeat, only one band this week. Personally I thought that Bill's JVC keyboard looked more stylish than Jill's dress. Ye gods, she looked like she had an altercation with a barbed wire fence. All that was missing was the blood...
Forgot to mention... Did anybody else think that "I climbed on the back of a giant anchovy and crawled off through a gap in the carpet" was an improvement on Dave Mason's original lyrics?
Deletei wonder if nigel planer put in a claim for some of the songwriting royalties as a result of tinkering with the lyrics? i would guess not, but presumably he had a right too?
DeleteNot too much that I'm sad about missing in this edition, and it's a shame that DLT was back in 'wacky hat' mode.
ReplyDeleteQueen - One of their middling singles, which is probably why you don't hear it much now despite it having made the Top 10.
Windjammer - Spectacularly dull.
Hazell Dean - Highlight of the show by far. A great song, and as one of the few people here (possibly the only one?) who enjoyed SAW music right the way through to the end - more or less - I would say this is one of their finest. Sadly, they did a remix for the first 'Hit Factory' compilation which wasn't very good and that's the one that turns up on other compos now instead of the superior original.
Jeffrey Osborne - Also incredibly dull.
The rest we've already seen.
I've done a bit of digging and found this Hazell number on a compilation called 'Stock Aitken Waterman Gold'. It sounds like the recording heard on this show but apparently with a little bit more reverberation. However, it's a typical 2000s-era 'loudness war' master, so I may simply be hearing an 'artefact' of this.
Delete