Happy New Opening Title Sequence!
05/01/89 (Andy Crane & Mark Goodier)
Erasure – “Stop” (2)
The duo get the new year underway but Stop could go no further.
Kim Wilde – “Four Letter Word” (9) (rpt from 22/12/88)
This was now Kim's eighth and final top ten hit and it went up three more places.
A-ha – “You Are The One” (15) (video)
Went up two more places.
Duran Duran – “All She Wants Is” (25) (breaker)
Became the band's penultimate top ten hit when it peaked at number 9.
Boy Meets Girl – “Waiting For A Star To Fall” (31) (breaker)
Their only hit and it peaked at number 9.
Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine – “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” (28) (breaker)
Peaked at number 16.
Climie Fisher – “Love Like A River” (37)
A somewhat sweaty performance of their final top 40 hit and it peaked at number 22.
Inner City – “Good Life” (4)
Inner the studio but this good tune went up no higher.
Neneh Cherry – “Buffalo Stance” (6)
A second studio performance and the song went up another three places.
Kylie Minogue & Jason Donovan – “Especially For You” (1) (rpt from 22/12/88)
They finally made it to the top and would stay there for three weeks.
The Four Tops – “Loco In Acapulco” (7) (video/credits)
At its peak.
January 12th is next.
Having spent his first year in charge gradually weeding out the old guard of presenters, Paul Ciani now turns his attention to the look of the show and gives us some snazzy new opening titles and graphics. The new logo is an improvement on its predecessor, but the chart rundown is a bit too bright and "busy" for my liking. Mark and Andy make for a likeable enough opening pairing of the year, though apparently Andy was very disappointed that Tribe of Toffs had started going down the charts as he had been a prime mover in popularising their record and had wanted to introduce them on this show. He also seems to be having problems with his mic, sounding rather harsh and Dalek-like on some links.
ReplyDeleteThis edition is almost identical to the one before Christmas, thanks to the usual stagnant nature of the charts over the festive season which sees a number of songs that had been falling start climbing again. At least Erasure turn up for a new performance with Andy in multi-coloured waistcoat, and we get to see a bit more of the A-ha video, which feels like a homage to On the Town. Climie Fisher give us the only new song of the night, as already plugged by them on Christmas Day. If sung by somebody with a more powerful and expressive voice, this might have been quite good, but as it is file under "mediocre".
Inner City share Climie Fisher's predilection for leather jackets and keytars, but in a sign of things to come for the show get abruptly cut off, before Neneh and her munchkins return for another lively performance but one in which it is less obvious that the star is pregnant. Kylie and Jason finally displace Cliff, though too late for Christmas, and the Tops round things off with a very cheap-looking video which annoyingly flashes up random words from the lyrics for no good reason.
It was not only the new opening title and graphics that were revamped, but also the TOTP studio. For the first time we have now lost the main stage with the legendary video screen, a constant feature for 9 years between 1980-1988, and that most recently featured the array of TV screens in the background throughout 1988.
DeleteThere seems to be no main stage any more, but rather several equal-sized ones, and a new video screen placed very high on one of the small stages, and above the performers heads, that is if you look for it, as it is not easily visible at people height.
Or it could be that what was the main stage before, is where Neneh Cherry is performing, but made smaller with video screen removed, as I could not find any other resemblance of it throughout the show. Anyway, 1989 seemed to bring in a total revamp of both the graphics and the studio sets in a huge overhaul shake-up of the show. Good Lord.
Just had another look at the show, and the old main stage with the original video screen is still there with the pyramid of small TV screens, but made redundant it seems, and you can see it on Inner City's left and to our right on one particular shot in the middle of the song, so it has not been removed just yet!
DeleteYes, it's a bit of a shame that the main video screen stage got dropped at this point, as it did provide a focal point for the TOTP set. It looks a bit more anonymous without the main stage, just as it did in the late 70s.
DeleteNow having watched all the January 1989 episodes, the loss of the main stage has been detrimental to the show's appeal, and surely lost its way from this point as a result. I know there was no main stage in the late 70s, but the longevity of the main stage between 1980-1988 gave the show its extra appeal in my opinion. Seems to be one of the unpopular changes in 1989 revamp of the show.
DeleteThey might as well have repeated the previous episode considering how little change there was in the charts, but at least we got to see the new look, if not the new, brutal editing style.
ReplyDeleteErasure were back, still like this but a bit worried about Andy being in the news recently to claim he was abducted by space aliens who wanted to have sex with him, but he turned them down because he was gay (wut?). I do hope this is the usual tabloid garbage, if it isn't he doesn't sound very well.
Kim has been in the news too, but although she's a firm believer in space aliens, it was thanks to her new tour. She credits her voice being much improved ever since she gave up the cigarettes and booze, so enjoy the evening if you're off to see her.
We get a little more of the A-ha video after the last time it was on, giving us a look at the fun ice cream parlour sequence, but I note the boys fail to bust even the least energetic dance moves. Ann Miller would be most displeased.
The Breakers we see again, then finally something different with Climie Fisher, Simon sounding like Shari Lewis's Lambchop on his vocal. Not the most exciting of records, and no wonder their fame faded after it.
Inner City on repeat, but Neneh has made it to the studio and has obviously been told to cover up judging by her big girl's blouse. Those backing singers remind me of The Frank Chickens, don't think it is them, though.
Kylie and Jason finally break Clifford's stranglehold and settle in at the top. Still recovering from seeing Kylie naked in that Michael Hutchence documentary over Christmas.
Then the "will this do?" video for The Four Tops, I'm not warming to this any more after all these years.
The opening titles were a big improvement and I like the font that's being used for the graphics, but the chart rundown - not a fan. One picture of Cliff Richard or Phil Collins was bad enough, but four??!!
DeleteWorst thing about the chart rundown (and I know this is incredibly petty) is that the arrows on the climbers and, er, droppers have a flashing effect on them to simulate a rising or falling, but the non-movers don't have any flashing on them at all. Couldn't they have put a sideways effect on them?
DeleteThey probably ran out of budget for that THX.
DeleteIf we get to 1991, we can look forward to the chart rundown with just the new entries and climbers.
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ReplyDeleteTonight's episode brought us at least two classic - and nowadays somewhat underrated - hit songs.
ReplyDeleteThe first came courtesy of Kim Wilde, whose father and brother once again turned up trumps - this time with a sumptuous ballad that suggested that The Carpenters had become regular listening in the Wilde household. Indeed, when I first heard the song on Radio 1 all those moons ago, a chord progression in the chorus made me think of 'Yesterday Once More'. Strangely, despite the considerable success of 'Four Letter Word' across Europe, it did not register in the US. I am sure Karen would have loved the song and, with her brother's assistance, made a splendid job of it; tragically, though, FOOD had been a four-letter word for her.
The second evergreen on tonight's menu was Boy Meets Girl's 'Waiting For A Star To Fall'. Can ANYONE dislike that song? Certainly, one middle-aged lady loved it so much, she wrote to ITV some years later to ask if 'our Cilla' could arrange for her to obtain a copy. Sure enough, the tardy record buyer soon found herself sitting in the audience of 'Surprise Surprise' to be informed by Cyril (as John Lennon used to call her) that a copy had been located. This was duly and ceremoniously presented to the lucky lady while the LWT orchestra played a brassy MOR arrangement of the hit. The rest of the audience rightly applauded - but couldn't she have checked out compilation albums or CDs at her local charity shop or a car boot sale? Anyway, I never tire of the US duo's only smash (as performers); some critics compared them to Dollar at the time of its release. Sadly, unlike their former beneficiary Whitney Houston, George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam never became superstars.
Totally agree regarding Boy Meets Girl, and amazed that performers were still flying in from America as late as 1989 to perform on TOTP, as we will see them in the studio on the next show.
DeleteI wonder how long that flying-in trend would continue, as I don't think it was for much longer, but yet another element to observe during the coming 1989 episodes (or beyond)?
Anyway, Waiting For A Star To Fall was one of my favourite songs of 1989, and couple with Freebird/Baby I Love Your Way, also just entering the same chart, we were in for a smashing month of January of 1989 just from these two songs alone!
American performers appearing on the show continues for about seventeen more years, not counting Christmas specials.
DeleteGood Lord, you mean that all the way till the demise of TOTP in 2006, that Americans were flying in to be on the show, even when the show's ratings had fallen dramatically by then?
DeleteYup, Britney, Christina, Beyoncé... all the big names appeared.
DeleteSo welcome to 1989, which thanks to kiddies out spending their Xmas money feels very much like December 1988.
ReplyDeleteAnd what a dogs dinner of a first show...full of repeats but a shiny new look unfortunately hindered by shouty Andy Crane who took about 4 goes to get a link right (A-ha with All She Wants Is anyone...) and Mark Goodier proving he is an excellent Radio DJ and should have stayed there. When will he get a suit that fits!
Like the new titles, and the chart rundown. breakers cut a bit shorter and some definite editing of some of the performances. Fast and furious.
Erasure with a new performance of “Stop” now at number 2. Well deserved as well and this performance had quite a bit of energy to it.
First repeat of the night for Kim Wilde – “Four Letter Word” doing the business for her.
A-ha with a great video to “You Are The One". Absolutely amazed this wasn't a top ten hit.
Breakers:
Duran Duran – Go all moody and dancey with “All She Wants Is”. This is actually one of my favourite songs of theirs but we only got to see the title line repeated again and again..
Boy Meets Girl – One of the best songs of 89 appears early doors. “Waiting For A Star To Fall” is a lovely ballad. I believe they were well known songwriters for hire and kept this one for themselves. Spawned of course TWO dance hits at the same time form Sunset Strippers and Cabin Crew in the early noughties.
Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine – Nice to see a "live" video that is actually a live performance although we don't get much Rhythm to get us going.
Climie Fisher lucky to get a studio turn at number 37. Any other time of the year they would have missed out. “Love Like A River” is actually really good. I don't recall this at all but I really enjoyed it. Whatever happened to them....one of them died early I believe.
Inner City – “Good Life”, Great Tune.
A "post pregnant" Neneh Cherry with a similar performance of “Buffalo Stance” with a nice edit courtesy of TOTP. Quality song and a deserved big hit.
Kylie & Jason on repeat and look, there's the old TOTP logo “Especially For You”
Awful video from The Four Tops to play us out. Nice tune though.
Some spit and polish required on the new look...oh and some new songs too....
There were three Boy Meets Girl sampling dance hits - first was Mylo, who really did something special with it with In My Arms. Then he was ripped off by the far less imaginative other two.
DeleteI'd forgotten about Mylo. Well remembered.
DeleteHeck, I still give his Destroy Rock 'n' Roll album a spin every so often, it's great!
Delete“Waiting For A Star To Fall” was written for Whitney Houston and, luckily, she turned it down.
DeleteJust looking further down the chart there are a couple of tracks I really liked at the time.
ReplyDeleteReggae Philharmonic Orchestra with their version of Minnie The Moocher. This got played before a movie I went to see over Xmas (no idea what the movie was now) and it stuck in my head,
Also Will to power at number 39. Baby I Love Your Way / Freebird. This was the first time I heard this song and so it's the definitive version for me,
Getting into serious “I don’t recall much of this stuff” territory now and I can’t think I’ll be hanging on here much longer. This edition served up a fair share of dross with Inner City, Erasure and Milli Vanilli simply not being worthy of any comment from me.
ReplyDeleteKim Wilde – Four Letter Word – I believe that this was a track from 1986 rerecorded. Vocals sound low in the mix, they’re certainly not belted out. Nice song though, but a definitely less sexy outfit this time around.
A-Ha – You are the one – (or should I say ‘All that she wants is’?). Nice track and quirky video which I believe features the Twin Towers.
Breakers – Duran Duran (also with a song called ‘All that she wants is’) and what a clunker this is! What a mighty fall (temporarily) from the days of Rio. Boy meets Girl – a classic…and the band are wearing their favourite shirts. Gloria Estefan – the video well captures the excitement of the band in concert and I’m looking forward to seeing this in full.
Climie Fisher – Lover like a River – Underwhelming.
Kylie and Jason – Especially for you – Had no1 written all over it from the word go. Some songs do. Some don’t get there (Hi there Hollies – currently at no76 having peaked at no60 with the wonderful ‘The Air that I breathe’).
Four Tops – Loco in Acapulco – Why do we need subtitles? Great to see Hurst’s winning goal. They think it’s all over…it is now (whatever happened to Nick Hancock?).
Taking a look at the chart nether regions as Morgie did, I note that another former no1 had emerged in remixed form and thankfully not troubled the scorers too much. If you think the original of Boney M’s ‘Marys Boy Child’ is bad enough then take a listen to the excruciating remix version which stood at no74 this week.
Ringing in the new in several ways this new TOTP year, and not necessarily for the better in most cases.
ReplyDeleteChange number 1 – the pinball starting sequence, at least elbowing the dated cassette intro to pasture.
Oh God, we’ve got the stop frame antics with Erasure again. Couldn’t they have erased those?
Changes 2 and 3 – the main stage has been mothballed, as have the end song credits. Boo and boo.
Change number 4 – horrible, overbusy and overly graphic mugshots, but at least we now get the song titles, naturally in oh so 80’s lower case throughout.
Nice pretend look down to Kim there, Goody. Also nice to have this fine mellow tune repeated.
A worthy repeat for A-Ha. What was that song called again, Craney?
A shit vid and even shitter song next. DD FF.
Boy Meets Girl STILL doing well, Mark? Wonderful song, at least we got the chorus here.
Gloria‘s in her leather chaps outfit again. Oy-yoy indeed!
I really wish Climie Fisher had stayed in the recording studio. Was this called “Facial Sweat Like A River”? Yuk for both the singer and the song.
Then come the two real highlights for me, kicking off with a bouncy second outing for “Good Life”.
Neneh next, probably in a Paul Ciani endorsed ‘keep it covered’ outfit and with a cracking tune. I don’t think those were the Frank Chickens (a Japanese comedy / singing duo who released at least six singles between 1984 and 1989) on BV’s, but they were definitely a step up from the previous annoying munchkins.
Five photos for Kim Wilde in the mugshots there!
An FF for the already seen Oz duo’s studio turn, and a quick FF for the awful Speak and Spell vid for an even more rancid idea for a film.
didn't the frank chickens practically invent karaoke? that reminds me of another similarly silly name of a band that started up around this time: the frank and walters
DeleteThe Frank and Walters were an Irish bunch, who nearly had a big hit with a great tune called Indian Ocean. Nearly.
DeleteThe Frank and Walters made number 11 with "After All". I saw them a few years ago and they did a superb rockabilly version of Kraftwerk's "The Model"!
DeleteYes, After All I think inspired the title of Danny Baker's chat show (did they use the song as the theme tune?).
Deletethe frank and walters were named after a couple of local tramps. at the time most town and city centres had one or two such characters that stood out and were regarded as figures of fun and/or a drunken nuisance. nowadays of course it seems you can't move for vagrants and/or beggars in the streets, even in suburban areas such as the one where i live. a sign of the times, and definitely (another) one that modern life is rubbish...
DeleteI forgot to mention Neneh Cherry's tune namechecks its producers, Bomb The Bass, in the lyrics. Stock, Aitken and Waterman nevr got a credit shoehorned into one of their tracks, now, did they?
ReplyDeleteCompletely oblivious to this until I did a lazy check on the internet, but it turns out Neneh Cherry's daughter Mabel has recently had three UK top 10s and three top 20s, either on her own or in collaborations. Blimey!
ReplyDeleteTo add to Arthur's list of changes in a fifth - the revamped show is now recorded in stereo. I guess they decided to start adding the Radio 1 feed on the master recording unlike previous editions running alongside the R1 simulcast.
ReplyDeleteI'd been waiting to see when they made the switch, as other BBC programmes had been used previously to guinea-pig stereo, but this only became apparent years later on video and DVD releases (Doctor Who was used several times).
The earliest US example I've come across on DVD is The Equalizer, so Stewart Copeland's excellent soundtrack sounds even better! Could it have been the first US drama to go stereo - who knows?
Well that didn’t take long to fast forward through...
ReplyDeleteStart with 3 carry overs from last year.
All the new tunes seemed to be so insipid other than Duran duran who forget to write a tune. Inner City and Neneh Cherry were the best of a very poor bunch.
A quick review from me as I only caught up at the weekend.
ReplyDeleteErasure - One of their best songs and had it not been for the Christmas free for all frenzy it would surely have hit top spot. A good performance all round from Andy and Vince.
Kim Wild - I didn't much care for this song and she surely was heading for the dumper at this point, despite a brief stay of execution off the back of a Michael Jackson support slot.
Aha - It's no Take on me but a brilliant song with average video.
Duran Duran - Why were they not this good when peopke still wanted to listen? I liked this song a lot.
Boy Meets Girl - An evergreen staple of 80s radio and quite right too.
Gloria Estefan - I hated this then and hated it just as much now. A standard live in concert video where the band looked like they were having fun. Not me though, it made me cringe.
Climie Fisher - They had better songs than this and lest we forget that Simon Climie wrote I knew you were waiting for me. This was totally forgettable though. It made me think it should be pkayed over the end credits of an 80s Rom-com.
Inner City - I could always get the year of release of this song correct in any music trivia quiz, but despite this it still reminds me of a 90s song. Was it ever remixed or re-released? It's a classic song and a great performance.
Neneh Cherry - Nevermind looking good today, it still sounds good today. I always liked the dancers on her TOTP performances of this song, to me they were almost as watchable as she was. It's a fantastic song and a great performance.
Kylie and Jason - Jason Donovan definitely knew what side his bread was buttered taking part in this. With the benefit of hindsight I don't think Kylie really cared one way or the other. The story has been told a thousand times that it was never a planned collaboration until Woolworths placed a pre-order for the rumoured duet between the two, and forcing SAW to throw something together. How much truth there is in that I'm not sure, but the SAW marketing team sure exploited the opportunity. I can't believe it held Erasure off the top spot but it is totally inoffensive and served a purpose at the time.
The Four Tops - An 80s song that sounded like it was from another era, to the point you would question if it was a cover or reissue if you did not know any better. A Timeless song by a classic act.
Inner City's 'Good Life' was remixed in a more latin style (hence the additional subtitle 'Buena Vida' in 1999 when it made the Top 10 again.
DeleteThe new titles are rather good, but I'm also not a fan of the chart rundown graphics or the growing practice of chopping songs to bits (most noticeable here on a-ha's video and Neneh Cherry getting a big edit in the bridge)
ReplyDeleteThe only song unique to this edition is one I rather like, though I agree that Simon Climie's vocal could be a bit better. It's still a good pop song though.