AmaSanta
19/12/85 (Paul Jordan & Mike Smith)
Amazulu – “Don’t You Just Know It” (19)
Getting the show off to a tinselly start and the song peaked at number 15.
Band Aid – “Do They Know It’s Christmas” (3) (1985 video)
Last year's Xmas number one, peaked at number 3 this year.
Aled Jones – “Walking In The Air” (14)
His only to 40 hit, it peaked at number 5.
Level 42 – “Leaving Me Now” (28) (breaker)
Peaked at number 15.
Sophia George – “Girlie Girlie” (25) (breaker)
Her only hit, peaking at number 7.
Elton John – “Wrap Her Up” (23) (breaker)
Peaked at number 12.
Pet Shop Boys – “West End Girls” (5)
On its way to number one.
The Top Ten:
Wham! - "Last Christmas" (10) (video clip)
Bruce Springsteen - "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" (9) (stills)
Madonna - "Dress You Up" (8) (live clip)
Phil Collins & Marilyn Martin - "Separate Lives" (7) (video clip)
Dee C. Lee - "See The Day" (6) (video clip)
Pet Shop Boys – “West End Girls” (5) (video clip)
Wham! – “I’m Your Man” (4) (video clip)
Band Aid – “Do They Know It’s Christmas” (3) (video clip)
Shakin’ Stevens – “Merry Christmas Everyone” (2) (video clip)
Whitney Houston – “Saving All My Love For You” (1) (video)
Second and final week at number one.
Paul McCartney – “Spies Like Us” (16) (audience dancing/credits)
Peaked at number 13.
Next up is Christmas Day 1985!
Amazulu - Good Lord, what a fantastic way to start the show with the sexy lead singer. However the song was something like what Black Lace (no pun intended) would put out, but wait, Black Lace have their own new entry at no.39 this week with Hokey Kokey. Amazulu and Black Lace could certainly have combined forces for Xmas 1985 by the looks and hear of things!
ReplyDeleteAled Jones - now isn't Gary Davies right to tell Mike Smith at the end of this song that he looks like Aled Jones? Good Lord, not only is he right, but also I bet Mike Smith would have liked to be Aled Jones' age again on that show. Aled Jones was not without his own problems in later life, so maybe not Smithy!
Sophia George - now this one reminds me of Chaka Demus & Pliers who came to our screens some 8 years later in 1993, when original on-location videos were gradually coming to a halt, certainly at the 1995 juncture, when the axe fell with the arrival of the internet as a cheaper way to make videos appear on location but not, and because of the new tricks of computer graphics. Certainly Girlie Girlie by Sophia Goerge in 1985 came in the heyday of superb video production, right slap bang in their greatest decade, the 1980s!
Elton John - I remember the song, but don't recall that George Michael was on it, and this must have been their first pairing ever, as their later No.1 in 1991 was still some six years off, with Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me.
Wrap Her Up looks like the first time Elton dropped the famous hat since 1976 where he was last proud of his baldness. Wow, it took 9 years until this very point in 1985, but wait, their is no proud of being bald here, it is a wig for the very first time, which has remained on him to this very day in 2018!
Paul McCartney - pointless playout track in my opinion, cos the studio audience couldn't work out how to dance to it. It is rare to find the great Sir Paul being relegated to the playout, but I'm afraid it was the result of the show being confined to only 30 minutes since the introduction of EastEnders that ruined TOTP forever, in terms of a curtailed show with not enough time to show all the climbers at least once in full.
George was also on backing vocals on Elton's previous hit Nikita and David Cassidy's The Last Kiss earlier in the year.
DeleteIt might be the last show before Christmas, but it looks like they were skimping on the decorations in the TOTP studio in ‘85, a few stray bits of tinsel being about as festive as it gets. I suppose Paul Jordan is trying to do his bit by dressing as a kids’ TV presenter, but he could have cheered the mood still further by strangling Smitty with some of that tinsel wrapped around his neck! Still, I enjoyed Paul’s suggestion that Aled Jones was Smitty’s mini-me, and he did a decent job overall, if tending slightly to the Smashie and Nicey end of the spectrum. His co-host was his normal annoying self for the most part, particularly when adopting his ultra-serious voice to introduce Band Aid, and cracking that “Mince Pies Like Us” joke twice, as it was so side-splitting the first time…
ReplyDeleteNot many new songs to chew over this week. Amazulu finally turn up in the studio to add some cartoonish Christmas cheer, but the song is still highly annoying. I don’t remember the Band Aid rerelease or the updated video at all, but the tone of it feels smug and self-congratulatory. For all the impressive statistics scrolling across the screen, we are not given any indication of how much of the aid actually reached the people who needed it most.
Get your hands out of your pockets, young man! Who would have thought that sweet, innocent little Aled Jones would one day be accused of sexual harassment? In fairness it looks as if he has managed to put those allegations behind him now, and I will freely admit that this haunting, lovely song still sends a chill up my spine. Aled’s close association with the song has naturally led many to assume that he sang it in The Snowman, but the film vocalist was another choirboy, Peter Auty, whose version only ever became a very minor hit. Auty has subsequently made a good career for himself as an opera singer.
The breakers will all feature again, but I will say here that Mark King looks quite creepy in his music hall comedian outfit and make-up, while contrary to Paul Jordan I thought Sophia George’s beret looked more pink than red. We get a very rare glimpse of Elton bare-headed in his video - perhaps he thought the hideous mullet would distract attention from the thinness up top? Kiki Dee’s sudden appearance for a pie in the face felt very self-indulgent indeed. Back in the studio, we get a second PSB performance which adds nothing to the first; Chris is still wearing his BOY cap, which is appropriate as he does look very young here.
Thankfully this show features the last Top 10 video countdown, which would be abandoned for the new year and thus free up space for more full-length songs. Unfortunately it survived long enough for us to be subjected to a brief snatch here of Springsteen’s hideous drunkard’s rendition of Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, which is high up on my list of worst-ever Christmas records. Macca’s decidedly unfestive new single plays us out, and it is pleasing to see “Duncan Norvelle” once again present and correct in the studio.
I say thank goodness then that the top ten video countdown came to an end on this show. I always felt that it took away from a whole full-length song even before the show was curtailed to 30 minutes, so can you imagine my further frustration when the video countdown was persevered with even after the shorter TOTP shows? Good Lord, finally the producers realised that the TOTP viewers deserved better!
DeleteMust admit I will miss the Video Top Ten, I liked it.
DeleteBut I agree in the shorter version of the show it had to go.
Thanks again Neil B
ReplyDeleteHearing Spies Like Us reminds me of the Xmas 85 edition of Only Fools and Horses - To Hull and Back, its playing in the pub scene. This means that the episode wasn't long completed before transmission.
hosts: possibly the worst pairing since they decided one man who played records wasn't enough to present the show. so nauseating it almost makes me almost wish for slimy to be there
ReplyDeleteamazulu: i'm sure this lot started out as a credible indie all-female band (well, mostly female anyway) a la the slits? well if so then that's firmly no longer the case with this nondescript rock n roll-style effort. presumably the keyboard player is also in a santa outfit like the singer as she was the only other "official" member of the band a la go west or blancmange
band aid: giving african dictators a second opportunity to buy guns to reinforce their regimes
aled jones: a radio 2 staple which was quite appropriate given that far from disappearing once his voice broke, mr jones has now oustretched his brief career as a boy soprano many times over as a radio 2 presenter
pet shop boys: they were thought to be have been so-called after supposed kinky habits of gay men in some quarters. of course neil tennant came out as a gay man himself quite some time back now, but chris lowe in accordance with his mysterious and enigmatic lowe-profile (ho ho) is still keeping shtum on that front
macca: un utterly forgettable and near-tuneless theme for a film that i seem to remember giving up on as complete rubbish when i once tried to watch it on the telly. for some reason macca doesn't sound very macca-like at all. presumably the only reason it managed to get as high in the charts as it did was because it was him rather than someone else?
re: Chris Lowe
DeleteI have no idea, but I'm still amazed that Vince Clarke from Eraser is not only NOT gay, but married with kids!
And as for Elton & George - Samatha Fox, indeed! Talk about over-compensating!
You do know Samantha Fox is gay?...
DeleteI do now! :)
Delete(was that known back in 1985?)
Maybe it was just me, but I never fancied Sam Fox, she appeared a bit butch to me. Linda Lusardi was a different matter...
DeleteOften wondered what influence Elton had over George Michael.
of course samantha fox and linda lusardi were the beatles and the stones of page three models in the mid-80's, although in my view it was a case of bald men and combs as neither did anything for me. in fact the latter reminded me of an old school chum i still knew at that time, who was nicknamed "monster"!
Deletereg and george not only came from the same neck of the woods (watford area), but also had closet gay issues as well. so it's hardly surprising that reg acted as some kind of mentor. after freddie mercury died, i always thought it was a shame that george didn't replace him in queen as not only was it quite evident he was already washed-up creatively as a solo act by then, but he was also ideally suited to the job!
i'm not sure even samantha fox herself thought she was a magnus at the height of the page three hysteria and attendant (mercifully brief) pop career. i seem to remember there was a disastrous marriage to some ne'er-do-well in the late 80's before she ended up in a relationship with a woman (her manager?) some time in the 90's. can anyone confirm the above?
DeleteI think that those Sam Fox facts are bang on, wilby, and I agree with you that George Michael with Queen should have gone on longer than just the Freddie Mercury tribute concert (where his performance of 'Somebody To Love' was the best of the night by some distance)
DeleteFreddie mercury's passing was some 5 years after George Michael went solo after the end of Wham. It is very rare that someone who moves on from group dynamics to solo for a few years, to just go back to the politics of a group again, so the prospect of George Michael taking over from Mercury to keep Queen going, was always a long shot, especially as he would have to share the profits with a few other people in the group, which would have been a backward step for him financially I would have thought.
DeleteThe only time a soloist tends to return to group dynamics is when a few soloist buddies get together at the end of their careers to do it just for fun, with no financial ambitions, such as The Travelling Wilberrys did, and this worked very well for them over the space of 2-3 years at the end of the 80s. It is foolish for anyone to think that George Michael would join what was left of Queen to record new albums together for the next 20 years or so.
Not missing much here, are we? Unless you're in the mood for Christmas songs, in which case I suggest a strong sedative.
ReplyDeletePSB making an early bid to be the new Humam League given that we've missed their first 2 performances, I notice....
Amazulu - No doubt a favourite at that year's parties. Not a favourite of mine.
Skipping the 2 festive tunes, I do like a couple of the breakers (the Level 42 song in particular is amazing) but not the overproduced Elton one.
The BBC's Christmas present to the TOTP 'lucky' audience: try dancing to Macca's latest hideous single which already sounds clunky guys! Yeah, cheers...
A couple of weeks late with this as I only read it today, but two sisters who were backing vocalists for Feargal Starkey became The Wee Papa Girl Rappers. Were they two thirds of the backing singers on “A Good Heart”?
ReplyDeleteOops! Feargal Starkey - The Undertones with Ringo on vocals! :-D
ReplyDeleteWhen I tried to type Fearful Sharkey the first time, my keypad's autocorrect service typed 'Fearful Sharkey'. Hardly, considering he made it to No.1 for all of a staggering two weeks!
DeleteGotta agree with Noax, I appreciate the download, but skipped through most of it.
ReplyDeleteNo, Paul, the Amazulu ladies are not dressed as Father Christmas, they'd have big white beards and fat tummies if that was the case. They're dressed as Mrs Christmas. If she has a name. Mary?
Good thing for BBC 4 that Smutty prevented this one being shown, though I think Aled Jones' sex pest days are safely behind him now. I'm with John Thompson on The Snowman, watched it once, never again.
That's not a beret on Sophia George, Paul, it's a peaked cap. Maybe he needed to put his contact lenses in? George Michael singing "DORIS DAAAY!" is definitely not gay in any way.
Agree with John G, Bruce's Santa Claus is Coming to Town is dreadful, someone said he makes it sound like a threat, and the Santa laughing at the end sounds like he's having a stroke.
Whitney still there at the top, then mysteriously Macca gets the playout. Was Michael Hurll a big Chevy Chase fan?
Just eatched Story of 1986 - more good songs than I remembered
ReplyDeleteSo this is Christmas....nearly
ReplyDeleteFabulous start to the show with the excitable Amazulu. Nice santa outfits as well. Missing from Spotify so won't make the playlist - never mind.
Band Aid with "the video still looking great" hey Paul? Not quite the right turn of phrase. Glad the song did well.
Aled "mini Smithy" Jones up next with the snowman song. Hated this with a passion at the time but I can see the appeal.
Breakers:
Level 42 - new song to me, have to dig it out for a full listen as it didn't sound too bad, Not as catchy as previous efforts.
Sophia George - OMG I had forgotten this one. And probably with good reason. "Hey Frankie" levels of annoyance after a couple of listens
Elton not giving George a credit on the song. Bit mean. I had never heard this before. Needs a full listen.
What the hell has happened to Elton's hair!!!
PSB again - oh go on then, why not.
Top Ten
Bruce hasn't bothered making a video (or the Beeb wouldn't pay for it). This is not a great version of "santa claus"
Shakey on the right hey Smithy - very good.
Shakey on the right hey Paul - hang on Mike just did that joke
Whitney No 1 again and Macca plays us out - Mince Spies Like Us (groan!)
Not too bad a show, Smithy was OK (even the tinsel running gag was funny) but Paul is terrible and needs to go,
Xmas Day next then - should be at least 35 degrees by then...
Although I remember this Elton song, I had no idea until now, that George Michael featured on it, probable cos I never saw the video at the time, or even this particular episode of TOTP.
DeleteIn fact when Elton and George got to No.1 in 1991 with Elton's original 1974 hit of the sun going down on him, I thought that was their first time together on a single, but that is the exact beauty of these weekly reruns/blogs, in that we can also see things now, that passed us by completely back then. A combined thanks to BBC4 and of course Angelo Gravity!
Oh, and regarding the hair, this is the first time we see any new hair on Elton, as his last single release a month earlier in Nov 1985 with Dionne Warwick & Friends, he was still wearing the hat to cover his baldness.
So is this the point where we see the end of the hat, after 9 years or so with it, since his 1976 No.1 with Kiki Dee, in which he was happy to be bald in that video?
Thanks once again, Neil B.
ReplyDeleteHo ho ho! Actually, I think Shitty found his ideal co-host. Pity for him Paul Jordan was already at least halfway through his TOTP stint.
I’d forgotten Amazulu had a male drummer. I agree Anne-Marie Ruddock looked lovely but, once again, a crap song to start the show. Don’t you just know it? (See what I did there?).
One of my best friends used to work for British Gas and did the boilers of Aled Jones and Rick Buckler out of The Jam. He noticed all the discs on their walls but didn’t click who they were till he’d finished.
A big cheer during the rundown for Aled Jones.
You’d have thought they could afford a new clown suit for Mark King with the success of the last single.
I enjoyed that Sophia George song. Decent acting to the lyrics in the car to boot.
Elton John looking like Trevor Horn with a mullet. Poor Kiki!
That’s right, Shitty, tell us we’re seeing Whitney later. Ruin the suspense of who’s number one!
What a great video for Brooooce!