Top of the Nanas
23/01/86 (Paul Jordan & Mike Smith)
The Alarm – “Spirit Of ‘76” (22)
Got no higher.
Eurythmics – “It’s Alright (Baby’s Coming Back)” (12) (video)
Also got no higher.
Nana Mouskouri – “Only Love” (8)
Her only hit single, and it peaked at number 2.
Madonna – “Borderline” (15) (breaker)
Already on her ninth top ten hit, this one peaking at number 2.
Grace Jones – “Pull Up To The Bumper” (20) (breaker)
Became her joint biggest hit, peaking at number 12.
Sarah Brightman & Steve Harley – “The Phantom Of The Opera” (21) (breaker)
The title song from the hit west end show, the song peaked at number 7.
A-ha – “The Sun Always Shines On TV” (1)
First of two weeks at number one.
Five Star – “System Addict” (13) (audience dancing/credits
Became their first of six top ten hits when it peaked at number 3.
January 30th is up next.
hosts: oh no, it's that prize pair of prats once again
ReplyDeletealarm: looking a lot better now that the hairspray has been removed from the mullets, but sonically they still leave me utterly cold. despite the allusion to punk's breakthrough in the title, this sounds a lot more like the boss than the pistols to my ears
eurythmics: my recollection was that by this point the synths had been binned in favour of straight-ahead mainstream guitar rock. however this harks back to their earlier style with what sounds like a boss dr rhythm machine. this is basically two riffs with so-so melodies that are just about okay in themselves, but detract from each other as a result of being ham-fistedly fudged together. oh dear, it features yet another title with stupid parentheses - i don't care for commas in titles either, but surely that makes more sense in this case?
nana: err excuse me producers, this is 1986 - NOT 1968! it's unbelievable that the light entertainment department are still leaning on them to feature their favourites a la lena zavaroni, ken dodd et al (the latter of course spiking blue rondo a la turk's chances of chart success). still, in her case at least the single was actually in the charts (although the reasons why confound me - maybe wigon was pushing it on his R2 show?) so sort-of justified i suppose. it's quite incredible that this was her only hit single, given the generous amount of airtime the beeb gave her in the 60's and 70's. plus of course the millions of albums sales (i think it has been claimed that she outsold the beatles!) that inevitably ended up as charity shop fodder. a few seconds of this was all i needed to hear to confirm that somewhat inevitably it was music for grannies
5 star: the first "proper" 5 star single, if you see what i mean. no doubt they'll be on the show in person shortly, although i can't say i'm looking forward to that
The Alarm track was just wailing, not singing, which probably explains why it feels like Springsteen, but probably worse. I actually likened it to the regular shouting and screaming on Eastenders, a show that I utterly cannot stand. Perhaps a more PC of putting it, is that the tune was like a jamming session.
Delete"Only Love" was the theme tune to an American drama mini-series from around the time called "Mistral's Daughter". Not sure if the series was shown in the UK, but I'm guessing it was and the theme tune was released as a tie-in. Confusingly, two different labels released the single (with different B-sides) within two months of each other!
ReplyDeleteWhizzed through this one quickly, this is becoming a theme. Can you tell that I regard 86 as the most mucially bereft of the decade?
ReplyDeleteThe Alarm - In the Summer of 76, the 4 year old me was probably listening to Elton John & Kiki Dee, ABBA and The Wombles. All of which had more to offer than this drivel. I did laugh at them being included in the documentary series hosted by Midge Ure & Kim Appleby where they blatantly tried to pretend there was a Welsh music scene in the 80s just so they didn't get complaints that Wales didn't get fair treatment compared to Ireland and Scotland (who genuinely DID have music scenes) Still, at least The Alarm only got about 10 minutes. I fast forwarded through that as well...
Eurythmics - Hmm...I probably wouldn't turn it off if it came on the radio but it would hardly get me thrilled either.
Nana Mouskouri - Dearie me. I wish I could recall how this dreary stuff became a hit.
Breakers - Weird how they played Harley & Brightman in full. And not entirely welcome either. I've never been a fan of that Grace Jones track. OTOH, 'Borderline' is one of my favourite Madonna tunes - extremely under-rated.
Five Star - Their first good song, which I'm assuming gets on properly soon.
And I see that Arthur provided the answer re Nana at exactly the same time that I posted my missive!
DeleteI meant to say that the documentary series I referred to is currently on BBC4, that last episode is on tonight. It's not a bad view, but doesn't contain my startling revelations either.
noax i have absolutely no recollection of the nana mouskouri hit either - i probably found it despicable to the point of deliberately obliterating it from my memory ha ha. what with that and the likes of samantha fox to come shortly, yes i agree noax that 1986 is already shaping up as the worst year of the 80's as far as pop music is concerned
Deletei don't suppose they'll bother with the grace jones track again, so maybe i'd better comment now. this is actually from the album before the last one prior to "slave to the rhythm" and thus several years old, so presumably released as a single due to some belated club action? it's not bad, but not the best of the compass point recordings either. i'm surprised with lines like "pull up to the bumper baby in your long black limousine, pull up to the bumper baby and drive it inbetween" (ooh er missus) that mike read didn't try and get it banned!
It was remixed and re-released to tie in with Grace's 'Island Life' compilation I believe.
DeleteYes, I thought the same as you Noax about the tokenistic element involved in The Alarm's appearance in Midge & Kim's show. The Beeb would have done far better to feature Liverpool, which came up with far more important and innovative acts in the 80s than Wales did. I was also annoyed by the 10 minutes that got wasted on rehashing the Band Aid story - how was that relevant to the programme's premise?
DeleteI totally agree with you re Band Aid. Even Bob Geldof said that he didn't want to talk about it. But they made him anyway.
DeleteIf nothing else, it was bad enough having TOTP 85 feature Christmas hits during a baking hot Summer, without another 10 minutes of festive stuff!
it has just occured to me: when siobhan left bananarama, the others should have recruited ms mouskouri to take her place and renamed themselves "ba" and "rama"!
ReplyDeleteHey, is that Gaz Top in the audience? Supporting his Welsh brethren, no less? When did Get Fresh start again?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, yeah, Summer of '69! Oh wait, it's this bunch trying their best Bryan Adams impersonation. Very pedestrian rock, what happened to the tune? Also, leather trousers and braces? Is that cool, Mike?
Quite a nice animated video for this Eurythmics track, obviously all the animating talent in the UK were stuck making music videos and adverts as the market for cartoon shorts and features had dried up, along with the rest of the British film industry. Decent enough tune, quite mellow, though Annie Lonnix (?) looks a bit Village of the Damned here.
Best fact about Nana Mouskouri? She only has one vocal chord, making her career all the more remarkable. A hell of a lot more remarkable than this "halfway through The Two Ronnies" tune. I remember a classmate being absolutely ridiculed for picking this single to claim as a prize in a Music lesson, so I suppose it wasn't only the grey pound that propelled this nearly to the top of the charts.
Superb Madonna single, enough to forgive the by even by then clichéd black and white video. Great bit of pop. Then Grace's great bit of extreme rudeness, best not to think about what she's singing - still gets played on daytime radio, too. Love the burbling baseline. Lastly, practically the whole of the Webber tie-in, fifty billion musical theatre fans can't be wrong. Is Steve Harley bitter about being passed over for Michael Crawford? Let's not forget Mike was voted a better Briton than Margaret Thatcher in that BBC millennium poll.
A-ha, very dapper in their dinner suits for their biggest hit. But don't vote for their videos!
Five Star get a cough and a spit before the recording cuts off, but I think we hear it properly soon.
Get Fresh began just a few months after this show, I think. One animated short film that did come out that year was When the Wind Blows, which remains one of the saddest things I have ever seen - I certainly couldn't bring myself to watch it again.
DeleteIt just occurred to me, wasn't Nana Mouskouri a long lost relative of that other greek icon Demis Roussos, now the late Demis Roussos?
DeleteWhen the Wind Blows was an ever rarer beast: an 80s *feature length* cartoon out of the UK (albeit directed by an American). It's out on Blu-ray with the entire Protect and Survive animations as an extra. Perfect for a miserable 80s night in!
Delete@Dory: Nana was no relation to Demis, but they did record together sometimes.
Deletegaz top (who i have learned was actually a roadie for the alarm, hence his presence in the audience) suffered from the kid jensen syndrome in that after a few years of success on a childrens tv show, he wanted to move on to a more mature audience. however he could hardly carry on using his somewhat-juvenile nickname, so he reverted to his given name of gareth jones instead. but despite that he usually got clumsily referred to (or even sometimes credited) as gareth "gaz top" jones!
DeleteTHX - yes, When the Wind Blows was indeed 80 minutes long. In my memory it was only about 30, but that probably reflects how deeply I got drawn into it. Raymond Briggs based the elderly couple on his own parents, who of course he went on to depict as themselves in the equally moving Ethel & Ernest.
DeleteWilberforce - it seems Gaz (sorry, Gareth) occupies himself making motorsport podcasts these days.
i remember watching "when the wind blows" around this time, and thinking just how ridiculous it was that the idea of putting up some corrugated iron as a shield (or something equally stupid) was going to help you survive a nuclear bomb. the reality was (and still is) that if you are anywhere near the vicinity of something like that happening, then you have as much chance of survival as if planet earth was smashed to pieces by a meteorite. and yet that deadly duo reagan and thatcher insisted on trying to convince everyone otherwise!
DeleteAnnoyingly I was going to mention that it was clearly Gaz Top behind Shitty during his first link. But then completely forgot.
DeleteGaz Top sounds like a weak lager shandy to me!
DeleteWell well well, Smart Smitty and Paul give us a few highs in this show. Thanks to James2001
ReplyDeleteThe Alarm – Spirit of ’76 – What? The hot summer? Lukewarm track that got me FF’ing.
Eurythmics – It’s alright – FF
Nana Mouskouri – Only Love – from the Judith Krantz mini series ‘Mistral’s Daughter’ starring Lee Remick and Stephanie Powers, so presumably that’s why it charted? Nana sported Eric Morecombe style glasses but had been releasing singles in the UK since 1962 which were totally ignored compared with her album sales – ‘Passport’ in 1974 sold shedloads reaching no3 in the UK album charts. This is a fine song however, beautifully sung and performed.
Madonna – Borderline breaker – Yet another track from the ‘Madonna’ album originally released in June 1984 as a single, reaching no56. Now propelled by the fans who bought anything by Madonna this did considerably better this time around. I’ll risk mass derision from people on this forum by calling out another song called ‘Borderline’ as a personal favourite. Yes, in case you didn’t know what I’m referring to, it’s the Chris De Burgh song of that name. The live version on the ‘High on Emotion’ album is simply moving when he gets the crowd to sing the chorus. Certainly that CdB song is miles better than another one coming to our screens very soon!
Grace Jones – Pull up to the bumper breaker – Mayday! FF
Sarah Brightman and Steve Harley – Phantom of the Opera – One of the highlights of 1986 for me. I remember being surprised to see that Steve Harley was singing this as a duet with Sarah. But it works! The video is fabulous and brings back memories of the many times that I have seen the London show. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s theme tune no less and we get a good chunk of it here as a ‘breaker.
A-Ha – The Sun always shines on TV – At last the intro (albeit without the iconic ‘huh’ cruelly edited out of the 7”). Very worthy no1 and the band look chuffed at the reception they received at the end taking modest bows. Definitely a 1986 highlight for me.
Five Star – System Addict playout - ….in complete contrast. FF
Funnily enough Timothy Dalton is also in 'Mistrals Daughter'. We were only harking on about his Bond appearances the other week!
DeleteStephen, I totally agree regarding the Sarah Brightman and Steve Harley duet. Not only was the tune superb, but there's something foxy about Sarah Brightman that I think most men in pop would have been queuing up to duet with her. As well as looking pretty, she scrubs up well in a dress, especially the white wedding dress look in this video. I would definitely have said 'I do' if given the opportunity.
DeleteI think couple of months later or sometime later in 1986 we had Brightman duet with Cliff Richard in another classic video called All I Ask Of You where he got to snog her I think. Some guys have all the luck!
A fuller version of the playout is available here:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsWUyw-zQGY
Evidently someone had decided that Smitty and Paul Jordan had "chemistry," as here they are together again, Smitty in a suit that couldn't be more 80s if it tried. No big goofs outside of Paul's weird failure to pronounce "Lennox" properly, and they actually do work pretty well together, but Smitty is prone once again to punchable facial expressions and annoying movements, particularly when ushering the camera away at the end.
ReplyDeleteThe Alarm up first, with a song that could just as easily be about 1776 as 200 years later, so resolutely un-punk-like is it; still, I suppose this counts as a very early stirring of nostalgia for the punk era. Perhaps the shrinking of their hair volume reflects what seems a clear move here to the middle of the road? Not a great deal of love being expressed here for this Eurythmics track, but this is one of my favourites of theirs. It has a beguilingly sinuous quality about it, and Annie is in great voice throughout; just a shame that it gets cut off before the superb climax. Some of the animation in the video looks pretty good, but Annie and Dave get spliced rather awkwardly into it, and it doesn't seem to be about very much.
TOTP does its bit to revive the spirit of '76 by next featuring a song that would have looked much more at home on the show ten years previously. Mercifully I have no memory of this whatsoever, but it clearly struck a chord with the grannies. Nana performs it like a pro, but her vocal histrionics set my teeth on edge and the song seems to go on forever.
We will see more of the first two breakers imminently, but odd to see The Phantom of the Opera lumped into that category when the vast majority of the song gets played. As was normally the case with Andrew Lloyd Webber, this was released well in advance of the show opening, hence the jarring presence of Steve Harley with his truly stupid mask and even worse attempts at acting - no wonder Michael Crawford would end up getting the gig, plus a whole new costume! Great tune though, and a screamingly camp video, though the ludicrously melodramatic end part is cut where Sarah hits a high note that could shatter glass.
Good that we get the full intro for A-ha as they finally reach number 1, and commendable of them to dress for the occasion as well. Five Star finally come up with a memorable tune as they ascend properly into the big time, and the studio dancers put on their best jerky movements for this - I like the guy in the red shirt who waves to the camera as it pans past him.
I quite liked the animation on the Eurythmics video. I checked out the video in full on UTube cos TOTP chopped out the last minute of the video, and it turns out that we didn't miss much, cos it featured Lennox wailing like she was having a nervous breakdown.
DeleteBest part of the video for me was the gold cadillac smoothly driving along some American highway. Nice touch there, and the only highlight in a generally band tune, and not a Eurythmics classic by any means.
Could anyone help me out I new links for the 1985 Mike Smith episodes as it was my favourite year and I've only just discovered this blog.
ReplyDeletedrykid has them I think
DeleteThere are still quite a few on 4Shared, uploaded by Neil B, but it is risky downloading from there because of viruses - you can just stream them, however.
DeleteThanks for the reply guys, do you have a link to where they are on 4shared?
ReplyDeleteIf you just go into 4Shared and look for TOTP in the search box, you should find the available Smitty shows from 1985.
DeleteThanks for the help! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks to James2001 for a very quickly loading edition. Good knock!
ReplyDeleteShitty and Bore-dan again, not quite so insufferable this time (almost but not quite) and Paul forgot his jacket for the matching look.
Who on Earth was it in that mugshot instead of Talk Talk? Since when were they a soul / dance combo?
On this showing, no cause for Alarm, literally.
Annie Lonnox? I can hear Paul saying “Bonnox!” after his mistake.
Not that bloody video comp again. Sheesh.
Let’s rock! Nana Mouskouri knocking The Alarm into a cocked hat. Actually, a very good live vocal there. Trouper.
I’m getting bored with Madge already / again.
Missus! Grace Jones with “Pull Up To The Bum”. No, Paul, that’s what I call disco filth. Wahay!
That Steve Harley’s let himself go. More a case of “Come up and see me, make me scare the shite out of you”.
A daft intro by Paul into the top spot with our Norwegian mates making a big effort, apart from that boy without a bow tie. Even the hired hand drummer’s wearing one. Tsk. The name’s Bond, Morten Bond.
And we finish with Five Star and “Sys”… ah. Maybe not one of James’s faves. :-D
hi guys Iam just back from holidays and see i've missed a fair amount of TOTP . by any chance does anybody have the "drykid" re-edits and also the 23.01.86 show as the we transfer links dont work anymore thanks Meer
ReplyDeleteMy tablet crashed on the final song so I'm typing this for the second and hopefully final time.
ReplyDeleteKicking off with Welsh wonders The Alarm. They were in the BBC4 documentary a few weeks ago with Midge Ure and Kim Appleby. Interesting stuff about their celtic routes. This song is new to me and I quite like it, not sure if I'll remember it tomorrow though.
Eurythmics up next with one of their lesser played hits. Very moody and atmospheric. These videos mixing cartoon and live action are becoming all the rage aren't they. It's a very well made video,
Which leads us nicely into Video of the year 85. Why can't I vote for A-ha Mike...noooooo
Next up Nana Mouskouri. What a dirge of a record. .bloody awful. I'd rather have Margarita Pracatan.
Quite a few good hits coming through at the bottom of the chart.
How many will we get to see..
Breakers:
Madonna. Again. Best effort for a while. Solid pop tune.
The very scary Grace Jones. Another top tune.
Phantom...This was everywhere in 86. Never understood as a kid why Michael Crawford wasn't on the record? Naff video. She's more frightening than he is..those eyes...
New number one. Well deserved. Quality.
Nice they've dressed for the occasion. And the whole start of the song as well.
Five star with possibly their best song. System Addict a huge fave of me and my Mum in 86