Eh? Eh? Eh? Dey do do dat dough don't dey dough?
11/07/85 (Janice Long & John Peel)
The Conway Brothers – “Turn It Up” (18)
This one hit boy band get tonight's live show underway, and considering there was four of them they could have done with turning up the vocal volume a notch! The song peaked at number 11.
Eurythmics – “There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)” (10)
Would become the duo's only number one hit in two weeks time.
Opus – “Live Is Life” (15)
With those perms and tashes they looked more like a scouse version of Black Lace than an Austrian one! The song peaked at number 6.
Russ Abbot – “All Night Holiday” (35) (breaker)
This follow up to Atmosphere was Russ's final hit and it peaked at number 20.
Steve Arrington – “Dancin’ In The Key Of Life” (34) (breaker)
His second and final hit, peaking at number 21.
Jaki Graham – “Round & Around” (27) (breaker)
Peaked at number 9.
The Top Ten Videos:
Eurythmics - "There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart" (10) (video clip)
Mai Tai - "History" (9) (video clip)
Fine Young Cannibals - "Johnny Come Home" (8) (video clip)
Denise LaSalle – “My Toot Toot” (7)
Live in the studio, looking like the love child of Tina Turner and Divine, performing her only hit, and it reached number 6.
Marti Webb - "Ben" (6) (video clip)
Bruce Springsteen - "I'm On Fire" (5) (video clip)
Kool & The Gang - "Cherish" (4) (Montreux clip)
Madonna - "Crazy For You" (3) (video clip)
Harold Faltermeyer - "Axel F" (2) (video clip)
Sister Sledge – “Frankie” (1) (rpt)
Third of four weeks at the top.
Animal Nightlife – “Love Is Just The Great Pretender” (37) (audience dancing/credits)
Their second and final top 40 hit, it peaked at number 28. And we are reminded in big letters that Live Aid is happening on Saturday.
July 18th is next, but its a Mike Smith edition.
Love the hosts as usual. The chemistry is fabulous. However, they had rubbish material to work with this week, so I’ll keep this short and not go on about how much I disliked most of what was on offer. What I did like was:-
ReplyDeleteOpus – Live is Life – Definitely a guilty pleasure and certainly not lyrically up there with the best (“labadab dab dab Life” anyone?!). The single says ‘Recorded live in Oberwart’. This miming performance sounded like the single…but didn’t sound live. I have checked my copy and there are definitely cheers and audience noises on it. The ToTP audience loved it though and so do I!!
Sister Sledge – Frankie – I guess this must be classed as a guilty pleasure too given how much derision has been poured on it! Another showing of the foursome first performance but they don’t seem to want to show the video for some reason.
Elsewhere some lacklustre breakers were notable only for how much the Russ Abbot song sounded like the previous hit. The chart rundown showed the photo from The Crowd sleeve for the first time and man in the middle is clearly Rolf.
Sister Sledge leading up to this single did not make videos for their songs, although we know the video for Frankie was available in June when we saw a clip of the video on the top ten rubdown at No.2 before its 4-week onslaught on the no.1 position. The 18th July TOTP show with Frankie at No.1 for the fourth and final week does feature the video though, albeit interspersed with the end-credits.
DeleteOh yes, there would not have been a caption for The Crowd until this point when it fell out of the top ten, cos the song entered straight in at No.4 and straight into the video rundown. Well spotted sct353.
Another meaning the Opus song could have rather than simply being about live performance is that it could relate to live aid.
Deletelive (performance) is life (saves lives)
Another meaning behind the Opus song could be that they couldn't speak English very well.
DeleteI didn't like the Opus song at the time but I like the live energy of it now. And I think the title must refer to live performance.
ReplyDelete"And everyone gives everything and every song/Everybody sings"
Delete"Live is life, when we all feel the power
Live is life, come on stand up and dance
Live is life, when the feeling of the people
Live is life, is the feeling of the band, yeah"
It's like it's about the interaction of audience and band at live performance as well.
going by the above, opus obviously hadn't grasped the concept of rhyming lyrics - but english not being their mother tongue was surely not to blame for that?
DeleteThe Conway Brothers, sporting American footballer shoulder pads it seems, get us underway with a sound there was a lot of at this time, but I quite like this, it has a sense of fun that's unforced. Also like that the brothers are totally unsynchronised - were they really brothers?
ReplyDeleteEurythmics with their biggest success, a blissed out slice of pure pop that has a touch of the brainwashing cult about it. Nice try at miming Stevie Wonder's harmonica, Annie, but we're not buying it.
Opus, happy to be there and looking absolutely ridiculous, the singer appears to have shown up in his pyjamas. I suppose it was the call and response chorus that won the punters over. Not a patch on the Laibach version, of course.
Breakers, I'd be surprised if we saw a couple of these again, but stranger things have happened. Russ going for the comedy jugular this time in his video.
Denise LaSalle with the curiously aggressive Toot-Toot, obviously enjoying her moment in the limelight, but despite the violent lyrics it's a lightweight earworm otherwise. She runs out of things to do about 2/3s of the way through.
That Sister Sledge clip AGAIN, at least show us the video with the seriously underwhelming sight of Frankie for a change.
Animal Nightlife, not a patch on The Platters, or Freddy for that matter, OK it's a different song but why lift such a recognisable title? Bit of a plod.
Perhaps Animal Nightlife thought they could boost sales by using a familiar title?
DeleteI think the Jaki Graham song is much better than The Conway Brothers.
DeleteYeah, I must admit I have a soft spot for Jaki's singles, she was good at pop.
DeleteCurious that Janice and John didn't mention that Live Aid was just two days away, though the captions at the end certainly did the job! My main memories of the day are Adam Ant bombing after unwisely choosing to perform his new single, and Bono making an arse of himself by jumping into the crowd during U2's set. As it was such a nice day Dad took me to sit in a pub garden after that, so I never saw the Queen performance at the time.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this was not exactly a great show, though our hosts did their normal wry and amusing job, slightly forced opening link aside - I'm not sure what message Janice's top was trying to convey. We begin with the Conway Brothers, all dressed in fashionable white. I'm still not keen on this as the production gimmicks are annoying, though there is quite a good groove buried in there, I suppose. Annie and Dave's biggest hit up next, and they continue the all-white theme, though in their case it does fit with the song. This is actually one of my least favourite of their hits, partly because it has been played to death, but also because I find the vocal histrionics irritating and the song a bit slight by comparison with a lot of their stuff. For some reason everyone seemed to want some Stevie harmonica on their records at this time - presumably it was regarded as a bit of fairy dust that would increase sales.
Opus look like German footballers of the time, as well as their Scouse equivalents. This inaugurates the brief heyday of Austrian pop that would peak with Falco the following year, though I don't really remember this one. It is enjoyably anthemic, though outstays its welcome a bit towards the end. A deeply mediocre set of breakers to follow, and unfortunately we will be getting all of them in full. I see that the Russ Abbot video featured his old sidekick Bella Emberg, who left us recently.
So, what is a "toot toot"? Funnily enough I heard another version of this on the radio last week. I didn't catch who the artist was, but I think it was Fats Domino, of all people - he is on Wikipedia as one of the many who have recorded it. Denise LaSalle's version is bouncy enough, if marred by a very tinny synth. The lady herself was clearly desperate to have Tina Turner's hair, and she turns in an enjoyable performance, with the cheerleaders going overboard with their moves among the audience. Like Bella Emberg, Denise sadly died just a couple of months ago. After that the show pretty much fizzles out, the audience doing their best to dance along to Animal Nightlife's forgettable dirge at the end.
I would tend to agree on The Eurythmics vocal histrionics being irritating. I remember at the time that it was so overplayed on the radio, that I could't wait to switch off. I think the ditty is more popular with the ladies, then and now!
DeleteI noticed at the start of Denise Lasalle's effort, that the camera started the initial shot when she was not ready, hence her nervous-looking face in view at the start, waiting for the tune to get started. Poor camera timing BBC!
Toot Toot has a cajun/Caribbean influence there. I could imagine it being from the early 60s in a 2 minute of so song as well. But over 4 minutes doens't make sense.
Deletewhen i was trawling the bottom end of this week's charts to see of there was something there that was of more quality than the rubbish seen here, i noticed there was another version of "my toot toot" at about no.60 by some guy whose name i can't recall - perhaps the original version? anyway, the la salle thing was a really painful experience for me and something i wish never to cross my path in life again if i can help it, so i'm not going to make the effort to get any of that confirmed!
DeleteThe original version of My Toot Toot, by Rockin' Sidney, was at 91 in the chart in this particular week. His music career stretched back to the 50s, though he didn't record My Toot Toot (which he also wrote) until 1984.
DeleteSidney also hailed from Creole stock in Louisiana, so starry is right to detect a cajun influence on the song.
Deletei've just realised that the singer of opus is a ringer for german striker of the era rudi voller, who is perhaps best remembered for having dutchman frank rijkaard gob on his permed mullet in a controversial 1990 world cup match between the two countries. but did frank do it because the dutch hated the germans (for among other things invading their country in the second world war and starving some of the population to death), or just because he thought rudi's haircut was diabolical?
Deleteregarding john's query as what a "toot toot" is: i don't actually know either, but had it only been recorded by ms la salle (as most probably thought at the time) then i think we could all make a pretty good guess (ooh er, missus). but now we're aware that the guy who wrote it also released a recording of it himself, that makes it somewhat less obvious what it might be
Delete“Toot toot” is Cajun slang for girlfriend, e.g “don’t mess with my / your other girlfriend”, depending on the gender of the song’s singer.
Deletethanks for enlightening us arthur, but in that case it doesn't make sense for denise la salle to be singing it. unless she's a magnus of of course
DeleteBen is still in the top 10 and I think it's a good version, restrained compared to the Michael Jackson performance.
ReplyDeleteAny sightings of the 18th July edition with Mike Smith on hosting duties?. I can't wait to finally see the Frankie video at No.1 for the 4th week and first showing of this American outdoor video, a day in the life of an American postman, thereby putting Royal Mail to shame.
ReplyDeleteOh and not to mention Russ Abbott's debut in the TOTP studio. Bring it on folks!
An absolutely appalling show with nothing - and I mean NOTHING - to commend it.
ReplyDeleteThe Conway Brothers.Is 'Turn It Up' the title or the ignored instruction to the mixing engineer? Why are the vocals so far back? Anyway it's the least-awful tune on display.
Eurythmics. Hate them. Hate her voice. Hate this song. Hate Wonder's harmonica.
Opus. By-numbers lets-sing-when-we're-drunk Europop.
Only Jaki Graham comes out of the Breakers section with any credit whatsoever.
Denise Lasalle. Atrocious.
Scores.Its a big fat zero for the music. And the dearth of any decent tunes must have had an adverse effect on Janice & John who struggle to inject anything of note into proceedings but still cop for a decent 7.
Sadly, having glanced ahead-of-time at upcoming editions I get the feeling my 7,8, and 9 keys are about to get dusty and cobwebby.
You're just about spot on, in that the change in musical direction of the pop charts at this point, left very few bona fide music talents still troubling the charts, examples being The Eurythmics (well this one was certainly not their best), and there was certainly a changing of the guard, as this was also the first year of Stock, Aitken, Waterman, that carved out a new persona to the meaning of pop music.
DeleteI must admit, I'm finding myself commenting less on the individual performances than I did for the TOTP shows pre-1985. It's no wonder that Bama BoogieWoogie and Julie have long since left this blog, as quality performances are becoming hard to come by since the start of 1985.
1985 started off so well but reached an absolute nadir with this show. Shakey's summary of the Eurythmics and Denise Lasalle's efforts I couldn't have put better myself.
DeleteI think the quality improves later in the year after a couple of dodgy 60s covers at no1 we get Midge Ure and the wonderful Jennifer, followed by Feargal and Wham! I won't be bailing out as yet.
the good news (for me, anyway) is that what i consider perhaps the greatest-ever single of the 80's is due later this year. regarding "bailing out": i have designated myself a new provisional date for doing that now, but i'll say more as and when we get nearer to it...
Deletei don't know if this is the right place to comment on live aid or not? but even now thirty-odd years after the event i'm still like the boy in the emperor's new clothes pointing out that some of those acts (that gave up a WHOLE DAY of their lives to appear) subesquently benefitted enormously finanically as a result of much if not all of their otherwise-dormant back catalogue springing back into the charts (U2 and queen were particularly noticeable in that regard, the event even being seen as giving the latter a new lease of life having previously been considered on their last legs). and yet there has STILL been no news whatsoever that those concerned ever gave a penny of their windfalls to that charidee cause!
Deletethe above was meant to be a response to john's comments - not shakey's!
DeleteWere Queen thought on their last legs? They were pretty active in the charts in 84, I know they did some solo stuff as well but that didn't seem enough to split them.
Deletelet me put it this way: they certainly weren't considered the force they used to be by this point, and if they hadn't have participated in "live aid" then i suspect they probably wouldn't have been able to do a wembley stadium gig of their own* the following year
Delete* and with NO proceeds going to charity by the way, as far as i can remember
I've heard the claim about Queen being 'on their last legs' until Live Aid gave them a boost a few times. While it's true that 1982's 'Hot Space' wasn't warmly received by all Queen fans, 1984's 'The Works' most certainly was and had returned them to where they were 4 years earlier (1980's 'The Game'). It should also be noted that 'The Works' was not only the first Queen album to spawn 2 UK top 5 singles, but the first to produce 3 UK top ten hits (top 6 actually). As for 'Live Aid' benefitting act's careers, I'm not sure any of us knew that was going happen as nothing on that scale had ever happened before. It certainly didn't seem to benefit the Boomtown Rats (who released their 'Hold On Me' single at around this time), or Adam Ant come to think of it.
DeleteStill, I consider 'Live Aid' to be a kind of Ground Zero as far as music is concerned. It seemed to go into decline afterwards.
the likes of U2 and queen probably didn't commit to live aid just thinking "this is a great opportunity to cash-in/get a huge chunk of free global exposure/resurrect our career/etc (as the boomtown rats*, adam ant and one or two others proved, it wasn't a guaranteed way of boosting one's profile). but once the extra money started rolling in (be it through sales of previously dead-in-the-water back catalogue, or being able to get gigs in bigger and better venues) as a direct result of taking part, they should have done the right/decent/moral thing and made sure at least a substantial part of it was going to the band aid charidee rather than in their own pockets!
Delete* the rats may not have benefitted in terms of resurrecting their fortunes, but bob biggob himself certainly did so in more ways than one as a result
hosts: why was peel still doing this? surely he hated every single thing that was on the show, and in the charts in general at this point? and worse still, he's actually pretending he does like it, rather than doing his usual "i'm not bothered" routine. but i suppose his "which one's russ"? conway brothers joke was mildly amusing
ReplyDeleteconway brothers: why are two of them doing a "hammering nails into the floor" routine at one point?
eurythmics: at least they'd ditched the guitars (if only temporarily as it turned out) and gone back to some semblance of their early synth-led recordings, but this was still not a patch on that. what i found really annoying about it was that it seemed to be two completely different songs stuck together very badly. ironic that stevie wonder does his guest harmonica player routine on this given that like them he also recently finally hit the top spot after many previously failed attempts, but with something most true fans would think far from their best (if not worse than that)
opus: after the brilliant cod-reggae (if that's not an oxymoron) of scritti politti, it's back to the usual bad variety. has anyone else got this lot confused with the art company, as i do? the lead singer looks like a mulleted version of dieter maier of their swiss neighbours yello (whose excellent early 80's singles "i love you" and "lost again" sadly never got any exposure on the show - unlike this crap!)
denise la salle: just when i thought it couldn't get much worse, along comes this drivel that makes a definite entry into my "top 10 turkeys of 1985" list. i'm not even going to look it up on yt as i had the misfortune to recently be reminded how awful it was when i was putting together a few cd compilations for a friend (not from my own collection i hasten to add, but updating/downsizing his own - sadly this made the cut!). still, at least it gives me an opportunity to trot out my related musical joke (which admittedly works far better aurally than it does on paper) - q: what did the ballerina say to the transvestite? a (singing): quit messing with my tutu!
animal nightlife: the dregs of the "ex-punks trying to play jazz" scene in more ways than one. this really is painful to listen to (in a crowded field, the bass player "wins" the award for most inept performance), and i'm glad for their sakes that the likes of duke ellington and count basie never had the misfortune to have to do so (the phrase "spinning in their graves" comes to mind!). yet despite that, if i had to choose one of the songs on the show tonight to listen to again (excepting the breakers, but including the horror that is "frankie") then this would likely be my pick. which is why this must surely rank as the worst edition so far? and just to add insult to injury three of my favourite singles of the year are knocking about in the lower reaches of this week's chart ("mutual attraction" by change, "genie" by the bb&q band, and "silver shadow" by atlantic starr), but i suspect none of those are destined to be seen or even heard on the show?
No, it doesn't look as if we will get any of the songs you mention there.
DeleteI do like Genie, the top 100 is interesting as usual, several things I like. One that nearly made the top 40 was Goodbye Bad Times
DeleteWe've been talking a lot about Dana on the previous week's thread. She's in at no92 this week with 'Little things mean a lot'...and that's her lot!
Deletea bit more info about a couple of the flop singles i mentioned above: both the change and bb&q band ones were co-produced by the brilliantly-named jacques fred petrus, who was shot dead not long after this (he was rumoured to have had links to the mob). also (as mentioned before) the bb&q (which stood for brooklyn bronx & queens) band single had an uncredited lead vocal by curtis hairston, who had been on totp earlier that year
Delete...Which makes sense of the mugshot of Curtis Hairston for the BB&Q Band.
DeletePeelie was still doing TOTP because he really enjoyed it, the only reason he gave it up was he felt he was becoming better known for TV than the radio, which as his first love was more important to him.
Deletei bet he was a bit pissed-off that the redskins single had nosedived that week - they were probably the only act in the entire top 100 that he would deign to play on his radio show. their demise was inevitable in that they probably had hardly any radio 1 airplay other than that, and (like gary numan) the only people buying it were hardcore fans. but they didn't exactly do themselves any favours either by calling it "(burn it up) bring it down! (this insane thing)" - surely a strong candidate for most pretentious/idiotic/nonsensical bracketed song title ever!
DeleteJanice Long was all over the place in this edition, Peelie barely said anything other than during the rundown, and the music was mostly poor. Yes, another in a long line of forgettable 85 editions.
ReplyDeleteConway Brothers - Badly produced tripe.
Eurythmics - Overplayed, yes. But at least it's a decent pop song and it did save us from yet another week of bloody 'Frankie' at the top.
Opus - Now sadly, I do rather like this. Even though they look ridiculous - surprised no-one's mentioned The Chuckle Brothers yet. Weirdly, this was used quite extensively in a programme for 'Schools And Colleges' which was all about health. You can imagine the kind of thing - 'Don't forget to wash, brush your teeth etc. so you don't become a leper at school'. At the end of the show, all the kids did a 'concert' and mimed to 'Live Is Life'. God knows why I remember this.
Breakers - Nice to see Bella Emberg in the Russ video, even if the song is predictably similar to the previous single. Nice to see Steve Arrington staying attached to that blue pair of curtains in his video too, again the song being nothing exciting. Jaki Graham's song is the best of the lot clearly.
Denise Lasalle - Utterly dreadful. Probably doesn't quite qualify as a housewife classic as - surprisingly perhaps - it doesn't seem to be a radio staple.
Animal Nightlife - Bilge.
During the Conway Brothers' opener, an unusual camera shot exposed how compact the TOTP studio actually was.
ReplyDelete18th July please Angelo!
ReplyDeleteI have been keeping an eye on all the usual places for that show, but nothing has appeared so far. I'm sure it will turn up eventually.
DeleteThanks John
DeleteI'll critique this later but, going back to a recent edition, a mate of mine who doesn't watch these regularly said he caught the show which started with "Call Me" By Go West, the first time he'd seen this since it was first shown, and immediately thought "Is this the take where the backing vocalist's shoe comes off and she has to bend down and put it on mid-song?" and he was right (start of the second verse)!
ReplyDeleteGoodness, that's well-spotted - I just checked it out on YT and it's very difficult to make out.
DeleteAnother fine outing by my fave host(ess) pairing, but not quite their usual standard.
ReplyDeleteI take it “Turn It Up” was directed at the vocals? Thumbs up to the Conway Brother to our right who jumped on the word “up” from the start unlike the others.
Another act sponsored by Daz and Leeds United, with the future bassist from Curve present. I agree the vocal histrionics can be grating, but how Eurythmics’ classic got one week at number one compared to “Frankie” beats me. I actually thought Annie Lennox made a very good attempt at miming the harmonica solo, especially the first half.
Here comes the continental Dean Saunders lookalike and his Austrian smoked cheesy rockers with a tune I prefer now to then, though the vocals are too high and shouty.
They’ve finally spelt Russ Abbot’s name correctly! A phone-in of his debut hit (see Steve Arrington). That video shoot didn’t look warm at all – you could actually see the mist in front of the trees.
I love this Jaki Graham song but worry about the lyric “follow through” – in my area, that’s slang for a wet fart. Sorry about that!
Denise LaSalle looking like a scary cross between Tina Turner and that Tony Green from “Bullseye”, with a rhythm last heard on Sailor’s top 35 smash “One Drink Too Many”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-2aW4WEHSQ
I’m really, REALLY bored with that Monteux clip of Kool and the Gang!
We finish with Animal Nightlife’s wine bar jazz tinged soul, known round my way as shite.
I decided to check out that slightly renamed Opus cover, "Life Is Life" by the then Yugoslav avant-garde band Laibach. This is extraordinary.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB9lObWclFQ
I do think the band missed a trick by not naming an album "Laibach and Think of England"!
Yes I've looked at that, I prefer the original. The brass sounds are good, the vocal doesn't work for me. It's funny they called it 'Life is Life' because that's what most people probably thought the original was called. The original definitely didn't have sad 'c'est la vie' lyrics though.
DeleteThat's a fine joke right there, Arthur. My hat is tipped in your general direction. Reminds me of one of the greatest lines in a pop song. 'How can you lie back and think of England, when you don't even know who's in the team?'
Deletelaibach's cover of "the final countdown" (which is mercifully nothing like the original by europe) is absolutely brilliant!
DeleteHere is the link for 18th July, courtesy yet again of Neil B
ReplyDeletehttps://we.tl/ijaxiThygC
Nice one, thank you :-)
DeleteIt's a wet, miserable March day so got myself a coffee and time to drift back to summer 85.
ReplyDelete(warning: Wifey in room)
LIVE with Janice and John off to a playful start.
This Conway Brothers tune is new to me, but a great start to the show. Lots of energy and great 80s white suits..do you think they were actually brothers? Nah...
Eurythmics with probably their best song and most famous song obviously pre-recorded.
Wifey " I had a jacket like that!"
OK
Is White the compulsory colour tonight!
Love the earrings Annie
Who's the boy on the left, is he on work experience?
Opus bring us back live with far too much hair, no fashion sense and a distinctly Eurovision feel.
I remember this well. Still as cheesy now as it was then. Still one up on Black Lace though..
Interestingly a live vocal but I haven't heard a recorded version of this without the live performance so probably why they had to do this.
Chart time:
BBandQ. Do It All on next week.
Russ Abbot is back - really??? Oh no.
Breakers time:
And here is Russ again. Same backing track as last time..Wifey - "This shouldn't be allowed. Who bought this?
Steve Arrington - back again. This isn't as good as his first hit. Not memorable at all really.
Jaki out on her own with another forgettable tune. Not a great run of Breakers this week.
Funky Lady - Getting her Toot Toot out is Denise LaSalle. Tina Turner wants her wig back Denise.
"sometimes TOTP can be really good..and sometimes it's a load of shit"
Have to agree with Wifey on this occasion.
John Peel must have been so pleased to have come back to this crap.
She even has the Black Lace backing track.
Some of the audience look really happy NOT!
See they are still not playing Born In The USA
All four sisters again. Two more weeks of this...I wonder if they were actually sisters.. etc...
Animal Nightlife play us out. Quite a funky little number..
Well that wasn't one of the best was it? Eurythmics the highlight and nice to have JP back.
Could you put a name to Wifey, or is it a fictional character or barbie doll, and you are actually single? It feels more like fabric than real person, so cough up please.
DeleteNope Wifey is real.
DeleteSpent 2 years teasing me about watching TOTP repeats and now is getting hooked herself.
She is my Wife of 15 years, her name is Christine and she was/is a massive Duran Duran fan..
other bands of brothers that weren't actually brothers (not biologically, anyway) included the doobie brothers and the chemical brothers (the latter were obviously named after their drug habits, but i didn't realise the former were as well for many years after i had first heard of them!). can anyone else think of any more non-brother brother bands?
ReplyDeleteThe Righteous and Walker Brothers immediately leap to mind. The Johnston Brothers, who had a number 1 hit in 1955 with Hernando's Hideaway, weren't related either, though their leader was called Johnston!
Deletei don't think they actually had any hits (not here, anyway), but there were also the cochran brothers - who both actually and genuinely had that surname, although they were not related (one being eddie, who later had success with "c'mon everybody", etc)
Delete