Top of the tonsils
09/02/89 (Mike Read & Sybil Ruscoe)
Samantha Fox – “I Only Wanna Be With You” (20)
Getting us underway with this Dusty Springfield cover which peaked at number 16.
Rick Astley – “Hold Me In Your Arms” (26)
Became Rick's penultimate top ten hit when it peaked at number 10.
Yazz – “Fine Time” (11)
Became Yazz's fourth and final top ten hit when it went up two more places.
Hue & Cry – “Looking For Linda” (23)
In the studio performing what sounds like a live vocal and the song peaked at number 15.
Def Leppard – “Rocket” (31) (breaker)
Peaked at number 15.
Poison – “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” (33) (breaker)
Peaked at number 13.
Texas – “I Don’t Want A Lover” (32) (breaker)
Peaked at number 8.
Michael Ball – “Love Changes Everything” (12)
In the studio but disappointingly not singing a live vocal, but the song very much became his signature tune and his only top ten hit peaking at number 2.
Bobby Brown – “My Prerogative” (9) (video)
Went up three more places.
Morrissey – “The Last Of The Famous International Playboys” (6)
Not looking particularly playboyish with his shirt hanging out, and the song got no higher.
Marc Almond & Gene Pitney – “Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart” (1) (rpt from 19/01/89)
Third of four weeks at number one.
Mike & The Mechanics – “The Living Years” (2) (video/credits)
Just couldn't knock Marc and Gene off the top.
16th February is next
The new format seems to have settled down a bit in these last couple of shows, with less in the way of brutal cutting, though there is a noticeable edit to Love Changes Everything on this one, and we don't get much of The Living Years again. It’s Mike’s last regular appearance, and he signs off as part of an odd couple double act with Sybil, who looks like a rabbit in the headlights during a couple of the links, confirming to my mind that she really wasn’t cut out for this gig. Mike continues to regale us with his chart knowledge, but blots his copybook with a bizarre rambling intro to Rick Astley while also calling the Will to Power medley a “double-A side”. Still, at least he got a kiss from Yazz to finish…
ReplyDeleteSam Fox was just four days away from her ill-fated presenting gig at the Brit awards when she appeared on this TOTP, and this much-covered classic provided her with a last visit to the Top 30. You can tell SAW have their fingerprints all over this, and while Sam performs it like a trouper, this is a lamentably undistinguished version. Another SAW artist next, and indeed this would be the last hit Rick enjoyed as part of their stable. It’s another pleasant ballad that Rick wrote himself, once again performed in the studio with a band, but by this point his songs were beginning to sound indistinguishable from each other, which was doubtless a factor in the subsequent split from his mentors.
Yazz is in a dress that shows off her fabulous legs, and she is singing a lovely reggae-tinged number that may well be my favourite hit of hers - shame you don't hear it more today. Hue and Cry return after a long break caused by several flop follow-ups to Labour of Love, with Pat Kane providing a good live vocal that helps to compensate for his dodgy sartorial choices. Unfortunately I have never warmed to this rather cloying song, and Linda, like Tracie, is not a name to make you feel all romantic! In any case, the Kane brothers would have no further hits of any great significance after this.
It's time for another big Lloyd Webber ballad, and young Michael Ball seems to be enjoying his TOTP debut; he gets so into the miming that he even ejects some spittle when pretending to hit the high note at the end! I wouldn't quite put this in the top league of ALW tunes, but it's still a good song. It's not mentioned by our hosts, but Mozza's performance is actually a Smiths reunion minus Johnny Marr. Another decent solo effort from the old curmudgeon, propelled by a catchy chorus.
It was quite a fitting last TOTP show for Mike Read to get an embrace and kiss at the end of the show from Yazz. He is the last of the 70s TOTP presenters left at this stage, and from next week it will be Steve Wright left as the longest standing one from erm the early 80s, not making it to the 90s on TOTP, in a 1989 year that we see Richard Skinner, Mike Read and Steve Wright finally calling time on their TOTP career.
DeleteSmamfa Fox with her Brits 89 hair, not far away from "You don't look like 'em, George!" and "I can't see the autocue!" excruciating embarrassment. All went off the rails after that, but this cover is not exactly classic, with a heavily processed vocal and tinny production. She really goes for it in selling the mediocrity, mind you.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of mediocrity, Rick Astley about to head down the dumper himself, though unlike Sam he picked himself up and dusted himself down, and after a long rest made a couple of successful comebacks. Presumably he still performs this one, but I bet nobody calls out for it. Or sings along.
A change of pace for Yazz as she attempts her impersonation of Sade, quite successfully too as this is a decent, sultry little number, and displays more range than some, though this was about it for her hits.
Hue and Cry, this was based on a true story that happened to Pat when he met a runaway woman on a train one day. All very well, but it's an annoying song that he makes even more irksome by oversinging it live as if he's Cleo Laine or something.
Michael Ball with the song that follows him around to this day, if he'd sung this at Eurovision he would have won. But as it was, it was more banal ALW material dressed up with orchestral and vocal bombast.
Bobby Brown, well, maybe it wasn't much more than we had last week, but this is probably his finest three minutes on record, you can tell why this was a hit, it sounded genuinely fresh. How were we to know he was not that great of a guy?
A theme develops with this part, as latterly shamed Moz shows up for his paean to the criminal element as seen through British tabloids, they loved their mums, only went after their own, etc. Oddly I found I knew all the words to this, must have made an impression. Fair dos, he did show up in the studio, and practices laying on of hands with his fan club.
Anyone remember that outtake of Gene Pitney on This Morning where he was ready to mime to his new single, but calamity struck when he could hear it playing and stood on the docks like a proper lemon? Anyhoo, this is still at number one.
Mike and his Miserabilists stuck at no.2, and cut mercifully short. Takeaway from this episode: Sybil has stopped shouting!
Gene could NOT hear it playing, I meant!
DeleteRick Astley in what looks like the area where the main stage used to be, but now built on top of it with a higher and smaller stage to match all the other stages in the TOTP studio in equal sizes.
DeleteYes indeed, Yazz in a dress for the first time was something to savour, and didn't she fill it very well? Pity there were no more hits, and her chart career was very short, from 'Coldcut featuring Yazz & The Plastic Population', to 'Yazz & The Plastic Population' to just 'Yazz' with this new number. All this in only one year or so. Wonder what she is doing nowadays?
the subject matters of mozzer's homage were still very much in the public eye at this point, despite having been banged up for their crimes at least 20 years previously. so much so that the krays biopic was released soon after this, with spandau ballet's kemp brothers returning to their thespian roots after a decade of living the high life as pop stars
DeleteThe Krays (the 1990 film) isn't too bad, but these days I've had enough of crappy gangster Britflicks. Tom Hardy played Ronnie and Reggie recently, despite looking nothing like them.
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ReplyDeleteTwo acts nurtured by Stock-Aitken-Waterman open this episode - but both were on their way down in terms of chart success.
ReplyDeleteSam had scored two smashes in the US the previous year with 'Naughty Girls (Need Love Too)' and 'I Wanna Have Some Fun', both written and produced by hip-hop team Full Force. The former model looked set for world superstardom - but because neither of her Stateside smashes had made much impact back home, she was somehow coerced into recording yet another cover of Dusty's debut, as if the world needed it! Sam's rendition was totally unoriginal; it was in the same key as The Tourists' hit cover and, with the repetition of the phrase "I only..." in the coda, echoed the 'needle sticking' effect used on the latter version. I feared at the time that she had taken the wrong turning by going back to SAW, and I would be proved right: an ill-fated bid for Eurovision glory would follow in '95 before reality TV beckoned.
Rick's 'Hold Me In Yarrarrms', as my Dad used to call it, was the title song of the former SAW beneficiary's mostly self-penned second album. 'She Wants To Dance With Me', as I have previously mentioned, was derivative - but overall the album demonstrated considerable musical progress and growing emotional maturity.
The polished if understated soul ballad 'Cry For Help', from Rick's third album 'Free', would provide him with a respectable No.7 placing on both sides of the Atlantic in '91, to be followed by the Canadian Top 10 hit 'Hopelessly' in '93. He would then disappear from public view before his mid-Noughties comeback as a cult hero via the World Wide Web. Unlike Samantha Fox, Rick has always been worthy of much greater success than he has actually achieved.
Staying on the subject of progress, Yazz proved once and for all that there was more to her than dance-pop with the reggae-flavoured 'Fine Time'. Sadly, it would be her final British Top 10 hit, though she would score a major club hit in the US with 'Treat Me Good' in '90. She would record a number of cover versions later in her career, most of them only managing to crawl into the 41-75 bracket.
Scotland's second most talented singer-songwriter duo took to the stage next with a largely forgotten sophisti-pop gem. If any act in that genre deserved to be bigger, Hue & Cry did.
To close, Gene and Marc team up on a song that makes use of the North American past participle 'gotten' - but was actually the work of British songwriters Roger Cook (Blue Mink's co-lead singer, not the burly investigator) and Roger Greenaway.
In '69, Roger C attempted a solo career with the album 'Study', which EMI released under the billing 'Roger James Cooke' (with a final 'e'). One single from this album that deserved more attention was this stunning torch ballad, composed by a secondary school music teacher from Leicestershire and sung in duet with future New Seeker Eve Graham:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVaKQ997ZTM
On top of Samantha Fox's 1988 successes in America with Full Force, she wasn't quite finished there in 1989, as she even got presenter duties on American TV shows such as this clip from the summer of 1989 presenting Was Not Was on Daytona Beach singing Walk The Dinosaur:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zol1TBEHacM
Suffice to say that Samantha must have come back to the UK for a short while at the start of 1989 for this week's TOTP opening song, and, like Sheena Easton, I think the Americans took her to their hearts a lot more than the British, but hey, sometimes that's the way it goes.
Not a personal favourite of mine. In fact dinosuar flavoured songs haven't been top of my list - 'Brontosuarus' by the Move being another case in point. I did like T.Rex though... featured on the screen in Def Leppard's 'Rocket' video.
DeleteI didn't know Roger Cook(e) released his own material himself. In fact, I see his first single was a cover of Elton John's 'Skyline Pigeon'. The duet with Eve Graham is quite pleasant for its time.
Delete"Gotten" was actually an old English word that crossed the Atlantic when North America was colonised, but while it died out here it persisted in what became the United States.
DeleteThat reminds me of Bardo's Eurovision entry in 1982 called One Step Further, when the parting line at the end goes "I could have tooken one step further!"
DeleteBefore I forget, I must mention that actress/impressionist Kate Robbins, on a TV variety show of the day, parodied Gene & Marc's duet thus: "Someone's gotten hold of my hit/And made me sing with this other twit!"
Delete'Gotten' is still used quite regularly around Birmingham, though it always sounds wrong to these ears!
DeleteStill not keen on the sound of Sybil’s voice but Mike is good value as ever. I have to say that the top five this week are all top drawer.
ReplyDeleteSamantha Fox – I only wanna be with you – Dusty’s version of this is definitive but I’ve yet to hear a duff version (even this SAW produced version). The Rollers version particularly intrigued me with the fuzz guitar infills on the track and the footage on YT shows that the younger Roller had joined at this point in the evolution of the band. Here’s the ToTP footage – assume we must have seen this at the start of the repeat run (even though it’s Saville).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pt7aE-ktus
Rick Astley – Hold me in your Arms – Don’t remember this but it’s pleasant enough.
Yazz – Fine Time – Quite a surprise to see Yazz in a nice dress after the somewhat harsh looking outfits she wore for the last two hits. It does suit the slower tempo of this nice song though.
Breakers – Def Leppard – I don’t know about ‘Rocket’ (prefer Mud’s hit of the same name) but the B Side that Mike Read refers to is actually credited to Stumpus Maximus and the Good ol’ Boys; think Sensational Alex Harvey Band and ‘Delilah’ and you get the picture. This is definitely not Englebert Humperdinck and it’s actually excruciating!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB6xYQOPnkY
Poison – Never heard of this before (keep thinking Alice Cooper which isn’t a million miles away) whilst Texas and Sharleen were just embarking on the big time, but I had forgotten it all started in 1989.
Michael Ball – Love changes everything – Ah! Wonderful. This is the song I think of with this title, definitely not Climie Fisher. A tour de force that deserved to top the charts. Has ALW ever written a more moving and passionate song? I think he’s actually singing live here, or at least it is rerecorded, as I am familiar with every note of the track, and it definitely sounds subtly different.
Bobby Brown – My Prerogative – At the opposite end of the scale to Michael.
Morrissey – Last of the Famous International Playboys – This really did chart straight at no6… and then went down and out rapidly. Can’t say I’m surprised it didn’t go any higher, only that it made the top10 in the first place. On the flipside, No79 this week and beginning a slow climb to the summit is something far more worthwhile; yes, revived by the Kittens some years later, it’s the Bangles and ‘Eternal Flame’ which we’ll need to wait another six weeks before it even penetrates the top40.
Marc Almond and Gene Pitney – Something’s gotten hold of my heart – Repeat of the rudely interrupted only studio appearance.
Mike and the Mechanics – The Living Years – After a brief snatch of the early part of this classic a couple of weeks ago we get a brief snatch of the latter parts of the song. It definitely is Paul Young vocally silent on this track stood behind the keyboard on the left of the screen.
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DeleteHi Anonymous! I'm on to ask if you've got the original archive versions of the following shows all from 1977. They are 20/01, 17/03, 28/04, 26/05, 28/07, and 10/11. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous! Can you got 21/07/83, archive version (not uk gold). Please
Deletesorry brie don't seem to any of them.
DeleteHi brie, I'm revisiting 21/11/74 & 30/01/75 as some new footage has emerged. I will post them when completed but it's going to take a little time!
DeleteDon't worry mate, there's no rush. You're giving us more than I expected anyway!
DeleteNo worries , Anonymous, thanks for trying!
Deletegia here it is, quality not great though.
ReplyDeletehttps://we.tl/t-FUaNlgy0QO
Thanks!!!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete(Take 2 after a couple of typo clangers...)
ReplyDeleteBye and big thanks, Readie. You were way better than many hosts and shaded it with others. Shaded – see what I did there? Harumph. Sybil obviously on stilts for the first link.
No way Sam Fox would make number four with this shite. Aren’t we going to see all the nominees then? Nice pelmet, showing legs which made me forget what she was originally famous for.
A surreal Morrissey song title intro by Readie for “Shake You Down” by Gregory Abbott. No, hang on...
Yazz’s mellow lilting reggae groove should be on the radio more. Obviously singing live as if her mic was on.
Pat Kane always fancied himself and his na na na vocal style, didn’t he? A song immediately dated by the mention of InterCity. I’m suffering commuting on South Worstern Railway these days. Linda may not be a slinky female name for a ballad, but it didn’t stop The Beach Boys either.
Def Leppard there with “Damp Squib”, or “Catherine Wheel” as it just went round and round with no consequence.
Poison to my eardrums next. Always hated this.
Bite through the milk chocolate and chew, real slow. Hang on, that was “Texan”. Celtic yeehah here with Sharleen already putting down a marker for the next female rock pin-up.
Mountain Ash’s best known son next, with the second old style mic of the night after Yazz. Not for me, this, but thousands obviously liked it. Depends on your aspects of love of music. See what I...never mind. From Readie’s intro, was Sybil celibate, after a husband or had she just finished a relationship and wanted some ‘me time’?
Bobby Brown sounds more of a lothario dirtbag than Roachford if you inspect the lyrics. Still, it’s his prerogative. See...no, sorry!
Sybil should have done an obtuse Rick Astley link before The Smiths Mark II Without The Talented Guitarist. Sadly, Morrissey is famous these days for being something much darker than a playboy.
A ridiculous salad lettuce chop for the number one, followed by a last look at our final host of the 70’s before mechanically hitting the FF big time.
Hey, Texan! My choice of chocolate bar when I was little. You wouldn't catch me eating something that chewy now, mind.
Deletei don't remember the texan chocolate bar, but my favourite chewy variety as a kid in the 70's was cadbury's curly wurly. like thx that's not something i'd eat these days (even though i think they are still around) as i've lost enough teeth already and don't want that stuff yanking more out!
DeleteTexan had a cartoon ad campaign featuring a cool cowboy slowly munching one of the bars during some moment of conflict, with the problem dissipating by the time he'd finished chewing!
DeleteSorry, my remark about Sybil’s relationship status was meant to be linked to Readie’s intro to “I Don’t Want A Lover”. Nine years on and still rubbish at typing my critiques!
ReplyDeleteThe very professional Mike Read and the clearly out of her depth Sybil Ruscoe with tonight's proceedings.. Time for Sybil to depart now..
ReplyDelete“I Only Wanna Be With You” having made Number 4 three times is a great chart fact Mike, and none of them were as poptastic and danceable as this offering from Sam Fox who has forgotten the bottom half of her suit.
Musically a backward step from her but clearly what the British audience wanted.
No idea what Mike was wittering on about as he introduced Rick Astley. Rick still proving he was a cut above the rest of the SAW audience. The first of tonights tunes to get brutally cut short. Have we cut down on the timings even more this week, it certainly felt like it. “Hold Me In Your Arms” a nice MOR number.
Yazz slows it down with “Fine Time". I still can't believe she disappeared so quickly. This is a great ballad and has a very modern vibe to it. Bit reggae in places.
Hue & Cry with a live vocal that totally drowns out the backing in the chorus. “Looking For Linda”
one of those radio staples that's decent enough but never in anyones favourites list...
Breakers:
Def Leppard – I love “Rocket” but now I want to know what the b-side was?
Poison – Proper power ballad alert. Nice
Texas – Welcome Sharleen and the start of a great career for the band. “I Don’t Want A Lover” is a less poppy beginning from them and one of their finest tunes.
Michael Ball probably saving his voice for the stage so mimimg “Love Changes Everything”. Sadly not the Climie Fisher song but this is decent enough if show tunes are your thing.
Another helping of Bobby Brown having his first big hit.
Morrissey getting a massive new entry with “The Last Of The Famous International Playboys”
Actually quite enjoyed this but couldn't sing it back to you. Forgettable, which is what I had done since 1989 until now.
Marc & Gene followed by Mike & The Mechanics getting a very raw deal for the biggest 2 selling records of the last 3 weeks. The Pops clearly had enough of both songs.
Morgie, Def Leppard's B-side was a crap cover of an Englebert Humperdinck biggie, so follow the link if ye dare...
Deletehttps://www.45cat.com/record/lep6#comments
Not quite time for Sybil to depart yet, but she'll be gone by the end of the year - she only does four more shows.
DeleteThanks Arthur. I will never be able to unhear that. .
DeleteAwful 😂😂😂
As noted in my review above, 'Release Me' in this guise was even worse than the Sensational Alex Harvey Band's demolition of 'Delilah'! Defintley one for the 'Bottom 30'.
DeleteI didn’t realise how many ‘flops’ Marc Almond released. He managed 25 UK chart entries with four making the top five, which were a collaboration with Bronski Beat, a duet with Gene Pitney, a Soft Cell rehash and another cover version. The chart topping duet was his 12th UK top 75 entry after Soft Cell, of which only three had made the mugshots, and one of those peaked at 40. After his foray with Gene Pitney, Marc had 13 other chart entries, of which seven (and only one of the last five) reached the top 40.
ReplyDeletei got the impression that after the high-profile soft cell era ended marc almond opted to emulate scott walker by pursuing a career as a cult figure rather than a pop star (they both recorded numerous songs written by jacques brel, who was likely their role model for choosing the path less-travelled). so i don't suppose he was too disappointed that the vast majority of his solo singles were not very successful chart-wise?
DeleteMatthew Wilder anyone?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51293945
Just goes to illustrate once more how the internet moves in mysterious ways, but good for him to get another moment in the limelight - I had no idea he had been No Doubt's producer. Looks like TikTok is going to be this year's "thing". I'd never heard of it until a few weeks ago, and now it seems to mentioned every five minutes!
DeleteI don't know about TikTok, but my best mate played in a disco band in the early 80's who were signed to the same indie label as a music and mime duo called Tik and Tok!
Deletetik (or was it tok?) sort-of became the face of new romantic movement, even though he never actually managed to breach the charts either as part of that duo or the dance troupe shock. the latter also contained one carole caplin who was later known not only for her association with ex-PM tony blair but also entrepreneur/con man peter foster, that was the one-time paramour of samantha fox - who is still milking her page 3 success as a pop star at this point!
DeleteTik and Tok charted brifly with 'Cool Running' at no69 in October 1983 and supported Gary Numan.
DeleteNot sure if anyone saw BBC Breakfast this morning, which had none other than Marc Almond on the sofa, where he explained how the duet with Gene Pitney came about, and that they first met when making the video for Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart.
ReplyDeleteWould be interesting viewing if it shows up on UTube I guess, as Utube only seems to have his 2012, 2015, 2017 interviews on the BBC Breakfast sofa! At this reappearance rate, he should be back again there in 2022/23!
Samantha Fox - Unlike Steve Wright who last time seemed positively disgusted that someone had dared cover this song again, I like the song and (inevitably given that it's SAW) don't mind this version either.
ReplyDeleteRick Astley - Interesting look on Sybil's face once Mike Read has finished his baffling intro. As for the song itself, it's alright but nothing special. Amusing that he throws his hands up in the air at the end as if to say 'is that it then?!'
Yazz - Like a Sade song, but much much less dull, it's aged very well indeed.
Hue & Cry - I've always hated this, from the vocal to the 'so twee it hurts' reference to 'ciggies'.
Michael Ball - Not for me. I'm more interested in finding out whether he really is the hedgehog on The Masked Singer.
Morrissey - Despite the subject matter, a surprisingly entertaining song. Shame it would be his last decent single for years.
Long way behind... can’t remember what I have commented on before
ReplyDeleteSam fox - mike read stole my number 4 fact.. fairly limp cover (I wrote that, then considered a second comment...)
Rick - dull
Yazz - dull
Hua and cry - don’t remember this. It’s ok
Breakers - ok, ok, better
M Ball - Comes to something when a Webber song is the highlight of the show so far.
B Brown - dull (but short)
Morrissey - never been a great Smiths/Morrissey fan, but this is... ok
Picks up with two repeated repeats...