Top of the hot temptations
07/09/89 (Bruno Brookes)
Marillion – “Hooks In You” (32)
Marillion without Fish is like chips without him too, but the song went up two more places.
Richard Marx – “Right Here Waiting” (15) (video)
Became his first of two top ten hits when it peaked at number 2.
Starlight – “Numero Uno” (9) (video)
At its peak.
Prince – “Partyman” (20) (video)
Peaked at number 14.
Alyson Williams – “I Need Your Lovin’” (11) (rpt from 24/08/89)
Peaked at number 8.
Depeche Mode – “Personal Jesus” (25) (video)
This first glimspe of their new darker sound peaked at number 13.
Janet Jackson – “Miss You Much” (30) (video)
Peaked at number 22.
Jason Donovan – “Everyday (I Love You More)” (3)
He's in the studio in his George Michael outfit and the song went up one more place.
Black Box – “Ride On Time” (1) (rpt)
First of six weeks at number one.
The Cure – “Lovesong (33) (video/credits)
Peaked at number 18.
14th September is next.
Bruno does a fairly good solo job here, but was a bit less assured than Gazza the week before, and annoyingly pretends that both Alyson Williams and Black Box are with him in the studio. Marillion make a Fishless appearance, and I was pleasantly surprised by this, a bright and breezy little rock track shorn of the pretensions of much of their earlier work. Steve Hogarth looked a decent frontman too, very different from Mr Dick but with good stage presence; he was also an early exponent of the curtains hairstyle which would become so ubiquitous in the next decade.
ReplyDeleteJudging from his hairdo in this video, Richard Marx was still very much stuck in the early 80s. He was massive in the States at this time, but would find big hits somewhat harder to come by on this side of the Pond, this particular song being an exception. It's a pretty standard ballad really, nice enough but not that great - I prefer Hazard. Prince is still in his Joker guise in his promo, and I wonder if this was made at the same time as the Batdance video. Musically this is typical funky fare from the Purple One, fine if you like that kind of thing, I suppose, but it doesn't do that much for me.
Rather more to my liking are Depeche Mode with the lead single from their Violator album, which would finally turn them into big stars in the US. Personal Jesus signifies a dramatic shift in sound, away from synths and to a more guitar-led style, but it is still combined with the old Mode gloominess and works very well; the next single, of course, would be even better. The video feels a bit seedy, the setting appearing to be a Wild West brothel, but the girls are admittedly nice to look at! While the Mode were breaking new musical ground, Janet Jackson sticks rigidly here to her patented Jam & Lewis-produced template, and the results are not terribly original or inspiring, with a video that offers up yet another tightly-drilled but dull dance routine.
Jason's pretending he can play the guitar again, but I suppose it gave him something to do with his hands. I had more or less forgotten this one, but a half-decent chorus saves it from being wholly generic SAW fodder. Black Box are on repeat for their first week at number 1, and we end with The Cure sitting in a suspiciously studio-bound cave. The song does what it says on the tin, being quite a pleasant ballad, but as was the case with Janet Jackson the band don't really stray from their musical comfort zone.
wasn't this around the time of all the hype and hoo ha over prince's "black" album being recorded and then not released for some reason? thus adding to his "we're not worthy" status even more
Deletei remember borrowing it a few years later from a library after it did finally get a release, and wondering what all the fuss was about as (to my recollection it was basically half-arsed instrumental dance grooves
The Black Album was supposed to be released in 1987 as the follow-up to Sign O'the Times, but it looks as if Prince had some kind of drug-induced breakdown, decided the record was in some way "evil", and pulled it from release. It did eventually come out in 1994.
DeleteOf All The Studio Acts On This Show Only Marliion Was Not A Precord (Jason Donovan) Or A Repeat(Alyson Williams and Black Box).
ReplyDeleteThat studio audience got their money's worth, didn't they!
DeleteJust as Fish from Marillion will always be Fish from Marillion, Steve Hogarth will always just be Steve Hogarth. They would plough this samey furrow for the next umpteen years, and this was about as interesting as they got. Some of the most loyal fans in music, mind you.
ReplyDeleteRichard Marx, the singing barnet, with a slowie, it sounds like he's about to drop off but as the video indicates, he was very successful in a stadium filling way in the US. All very earnest, but he sounds middle aged before his time. I agree with John G, Hazard was better.
Slightly more of Starlight - why couldn't this have been No.1, British public? It was so much better than what we got.
Prince with the soundtrack to the scene where The Joker destroys the art gallery in Batman '89. Really liked this way back when, and if it's not his most innovative tune, it's professionally put together and grooves along nicely. Spot the Kim Basinger lookalike in the video - was the real thing not available? Didn't they go out for a while?
Alyson repeats on us, then the video for Fast Fashion's comeback which set a new horizon for them, and mentioned Jesus in the lyrics for a spot of contrived would-be controversy. But with a ramped up production this was musically impressive, even if it heralded a heroin-tastic new phase in their careers too. I bet actual Old West prostitutes were never as well-scrubbed as these models. I've seen Deadwood!
How did I forget about this Janet Jackson song? It sounds absolutely terrific, powers ahead like an Olympic sprinter, way better than what her brother was doing at this stage. The Jam and Lewis production had a lot to do with it, but this should have been massive. Her next hit did better, I think.
Jase back in the studio, not really playing guitar because nobody can bloody hear a guitar on the record. As for the ditty, bland, midpaced, keep the fans happy place holder.
Yeah, yeah, new number one, but The Cure were more interesting to me, this was a speedy item that belied the moody sound, a very decent combination. Another band with hugely loyal fans, but I can understand that more with them, this is very listenable, rather this than Love Cats for the millionth time.
Agreed THX, the Partyman video from Prince was just a superb piece of work ,and just when I thought videos were becoming boring by late 1989 with cheap budget like Lil Louis, Starlight, etc, this one from Prince just took apart that notion.
DeleteThe two feature girls in the video were just heaven sent, I mean if you call the blonde in the sexy black dress a Kim Basinger lookalike, then yes please.
I quite liked the gorgeous brunette in the sexy red minidress, pure body perfection for a partyman like Prince, and probably every non-party man watching the video. Good Lord, when is his next single and video coming? On this showing, I can't wait.
Candy Dulfer was playing saxophone in the band. We'll be seeing more of her soon.
DeleteLoletta Holloway Love Sensation is the base of Ride On Time. I bet you've all already heard it- but i don't remember it ever being on the Pops tho
ReplyDeleteNo, it wasn't, Loleatta didn't have a chart hit in the UK till 1991.
DeleteBruno surrounded by a bevvy of beauties up on the platform here tonight!
ReplyDeleteMarillion – Hooks in you – Fantastic! One of my favourite records of 1989 and what a debut for Steve Hogarth (aka ‘H’ (no not that one)). Everyone thinks of Marillion as Fish fronted but this lineup has remained intact since 1989 – Hogarth, Pete Trewavas, Ian Moseley, Mark Kelly and of course, Steve Rothery. Great B Side too ‘After me’ – different style.
Richard Marx – Right there waiting – I’m being spoilt! Two of my 1989 favourites in a row. I’ll recount the story of this one; I went to see Stevie Nicks live at Wembley Arena and Marx was the support act. He started off his set with a mix of AOR rockers and then the lights came down and he played this. A magic moment. Easily the highlight of the entire (live) show for me.
….and then basically the show is all downhill from here. I won’t go through line by line (some are just not worth mentioning) but Donavan’s effort is more pure SAW (as if we haven’t had enough) and the Robert Smith of the Cure looks like he’s down in the Cheddar Caves or Wookey Hole Caves.
Thought – will we get a minute of Black Box by the time we reach week 5?
I don't think Ride On Time had a video, so we can only hope by week 5 they'll be going "You know what the No.1 is, so we can skip it."
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DeleteCorrect, there was no video for Ride On Time when it was originally in the charts in Aug to Oct 1989, but The ITV Chart Show used a regular clip for Black Box which I presume was from another ITV show where the group seemed to be on a stage-prop garden of some sort, as of course they would not have been allowed to show any TOTP studio performance, so this clip shows what the ITV Chart Show showed in their top ten rundown for Black Box at No.1, and here at the end of this clip:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFozQRuD9fY
Looks like we have got six weeks of repeated studio performances to look forward to, I'm afraid...
DeleteI seem to recall the mimer dressed in dungarees for one performance, so I think there's at least one more new performance to come.
DeleteAccording to Popscene they did return to the studio for the Christmas show, so that might be the performance you are thinking of.
DeleteThe ITV video was, I believe, taken from an appearance they made on the Saturday morning show Ghost Train.
DeleteGood Lord, I don't even remember such a Saturday morning show, let alone an appearance by Black Box!
DeleteBruno is starting to get annoying and this particular episode was not very good. I think my interest in watching TOTP regularly was starting to wane around this period which was no coincidence. I would have been nearly 17 and starting to discover music from sources other than the radio.
ReplyDeleteMarillion-I remember the hoo ha when Fish left and was replaced by Steve Hogarth, and let's not forget that line up has well and truly outlasted the Fish years. It was pleasant enough but not very memorable.
Richard Marc-Bigger over there and he ever was here. It was not my thing then and that's not changed.
Prince - It was OK but not too disimilar to the Batman theme. Was he not struggling financially until he got the Batman gig?
Depeche Mode-this is great. I can always sing the words and the guitars are amazing. I remember the publicity for this single being very low key as they made use of the Classified adds in local papers to publicise it. I remember seeing it in my local paper inviting you to call a number to find your own Personal Jesus. No mention of the band and I never did call the number but apparently you heard the song if you did.
Jason Donovan - 1989 really was his year but why did he always pretend to play the guitar when there was probably no guitar anywhere near the recording session.
Black Box - I'm tired of this already.
The Cure - I like this song a lot, and like Depeche Mode, they were starting to become megastars in the US.
Haha, tired of Black Box already, and only one week into their 6 weeks at No.1. I'm thinking the same and looking forward to the next No.1, which will be erm Jive Bunny, back with their follow up single in October 1989 to the now deposed whole of August No.1, Swing The Mood.
DeleteMy memory is getting worse, because I remembered Miss You Much by Janet Jackson was used for Jennifer Lopez to dance to in the recent film Hustlers, the hard-edged crime movie about strippers. Jen was a big fan of the Rhythm Nation album when she was younger.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that Bruno announced that the upcoming Depeche Mode album would be called 'Wild', but was actually called 'Violator' on release. Erasure released an album titled 'Wild' in late 89. So did Bruno get his bands mixed up or did Vince Clarke do the dirty on his old band and steal their album title?
ReplyDeleteI spotted that too. Given that 'Violator' ultimately didn't come out until 1990 I assume that your guess is correct re Erasure getting there first!
DeleteHi Anonymous! I'm on again to ask if you've got any of the following shows in their original archive state that BBC4 either cut links from or didn't show at all, due to Mike Smith. They are all from 1987 and are 8/01, 19/03, 30/04 (all links to Smithy), 24/09 and 8/10 (Smithy shows) Cheers!
ReplyDeletehi brie, no linked shows sorry and only have 24/09 here it is :
Deletehttps://we.tl/t-dVGht4Zzwg
Thanks for this one, mate. Great stuff!
DeleteI feel so sorry for that studio audience, stuck with just Trevor dressed like an accountant (again) and one studio act. Talking of which...
ReplyDeleteA very confident TOTP debut for Non-Fish, though I wished his shirt was done up more. Okayish stadium rock, I suppose.
Richard Marx, bigger than sliced cookies, Trev? Ay? A well put together song but not my bag so not full marx here. See what I did there?
Starlight at numero nove. Not my cup of limoncello.
Early mugshots: “Love in An Elevator” going up. Sorry. This will NOT be a running gag from me.
Next it’s Mr Shrinking Violet – okay, purple. Sounds like he’s had one of those helium balloons beforehand.
NO, Trev! Alyson Williams aka Cornetto Head isn’t in the studio. We’re not falling for that one.
Depeche Mode next with a brilliant track to these ears. Basildon was never like that. Nicely cut “reach out touch faith” duo-gender pose.
Mid mugshots: They’ve finally got the title of that Lil Louis track right!
Oh dear, more boring Jackson dancing choreographed to within an inch of its life and another boom thump disco noise. When this finished, I didn’t miss it much.
I didn’t love Jason’s tune more either. The law of diminishing returns kicking in. Go metal, lad.
NO, TREV! Black Box aren’t in the studio either. Get a grip, man!
We finish with one of The Cure’s best, with Robert Smith in full comedy mode. I bet the other band members loved their cameos.
Smooth FM's Top 500 'As voted by you (but provided they're on our list)' has concluded today. George Michael still no1 with 'Careless Whisper'. New entry straight in at no2 - track called 'Bohemian Rhapsody'....straight in? so didn't make the 500 last year? I can only assume it wasn't on the list in previous years. No3 is Sheeran, and there's far too many Jacko records in the 500 for my liking - 'Human Nature' at no26 anyone?
ReplyDeleteThe only one I can see from the current ToTP chart (unless I've missed one) is one of my favourites as it happens - 'Right here waiting' by Richard Marx at no456
https://top500.smoothradio.com/2020/
What, no Jive Bunny or Black box?
DeleteIs this a record - only two FF!?
ReplyDeleteMarillion - a good start. Lead singer, Steve, looked he was trying too hard, but I enjoyed the overall performance.
Richard Marx - pretty dull ballad. Fortunately very short.
Prince - joker is back. Reminiscent of When Doves Cry, we get a fair run at this video
Depeche Mode - always liked this. Never seen the video before, and again a good run of it. Sergio Leone won’t have lost any sleep, but it was interesting enough.
Janet Jackson - surprisingly I enjoyed this, although the dance looked like a dance equivalent of Karaoke Michael routine
Jason - forgettable ‘more of the same’, but I was very impressed the way he made the acoustic guitar sound like a keyboard.
The Cure - not one of their most famous tracks, but it had my foot tapping.
Already i'd enjoyed much watching this episode than the previous 31/08 episode, but you'd had Marillion kick off the show with their new lead singer Steve Hogarth and 'Kicks in You' must've been taken from their new upcoming album, whilst Fish was concentrating on a much profiled solo career with 'Big Wedge', whilst Richard Marx on video has highlights of his Repeat Offender tour in monochrome, despite this song was kicked out of the U.S. singles chart the previous week by Paula Abdul with 'Cold Hearted', whilst that week in America was NKOTB's 'Hangin' Tough' (despite we wait a few more weeks til we see them do 'You Got It (The Right Stuff)' on the 09/11/1989 episode but yet again (on video!), as with we got Prince dressed up as half a Joker to 'Partyman' for the second single to his Batman soundtrack, you'd got Janet Jackson's 'Miss You Much' video (in monochrome!), which spent four consecutive weeks in the U.S. in October 1989 also Jason Donovan performing 'Everyday', it is a good song but althoughly he was held out of the top spot by Black Box in their six-week reign with 'Ride on Time', speaking of that song, it climbed to the top spot and cursed the bunny out for six weeks until we see him again in a couple of episodes time in two weeks from now.
ReplyDeleteThe Cure play us out with Robert Smith in one of the videos that won the MTV Video Music Awards, only a shame this was held off by Janet Jackson in the U.S. charts in October 1989 for one week at number two.
Just been reading the new Radio Times magazine out this week, with an article on page 7 called 'Don't wreck BBC4', with the writer backing a "Save BBC4" petition on change.org
ReplyDeleteWith regard to the TOTP repeats, it does not look like anything will change, because BBC4 announced that the channel will focus on the rich archive of the BBC, and no longer produce new material for the channel, such as what the writer has been doing up to now.
If this is the case for now, i.e., focussing on repeats, then for our purposes on here, there should be no change as TOTP repeats are part of the 'rich archive'. The only threat to the TOTP repeats would be if the channel is pulled altogether, which does not appear to be on the cards at the moment.
Good news Bruno - you're presenting the show this week.
ReplyDeleteBad news Bruno - only 1 of the acts has actually bothered to turn up and even the lead singer of them has buggered off...just do your best...
Marillion. New singer. Same old Heavy Metal Lite. “Hooks In You” amazingly forgettable. Next,
Richard Marx obviously big everywhere else but the UK judging by this video. “Right Here Waiting” one of those massively overplayed records at the time and ever since. It is a nice tune though so I'll forgive him. Pleasant.
Starlight - yep, still enjoying this.
Don't recall this Prince follow up to Batdance at all. “Partyman” was rather funky and not a bad video either. I enjoyed that. Not up with his best but not bad.
First attempt of the night by Bruno to convince us he has a full studio, spectacularly sold down the river by the Vision Mixer who just cuts to Alyson Williams. The spotify missing “I Need Your Lovin’”
is nice enough but I'm bored with it now.
Now this is more like it. Depeche Mode with “Personal Jesus”. Easily their best single from probably their best album. I always forget this was 89 as I assume this was a 1990 release for some reason. Quality tune and very atmospheric video as well. Tune of the night.
Janet Jackson returns and oh my word what a return. Amazing video for “Miss You Much” from one of my all time favourite albums "Rhythm Nation". Still sounds fresh and exciting today. Fantastic stuff.
Watch out now for the disappearing Bruno...he's on the bridge...he's not on the bridge...as we cut to
Jason Donovan from 3 months ago miming and strumming away to “Everyday (I Love You More)”
One of his weaker, by the numbers tunes I'm afraid.
Black Box are indeed "in the studio" Bruno, just not tonight. “Ride On Time” begins it's 6 weeks stint at the top clinging onto the Loletta version...
I notice another doppelganger had entered the bottom of the chart...Felly I'm looking at you!
Finally Sideshow Bob sings us a “Lovesong" which makes me want to shoot myself...anyone know a Cure for that?
I hope you're not implying Felly didn't do all her own singing?! Oh, wait, she didn't...
DeleteMarillion - Not too bad a song actually, though Steve Hogarth is a bit too hyper.
ReplyDeleteRichard Marx - As this type of song goes, it's OK, but I preferred 'Satisfied' from thi period which was huge in the US but not here.
Prince - This one's never done anything for me.
Depeche Mode - Funnily enough, this is the only single from 'Violator' that I don't care for much. The other 3 are all great.
Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation is her album that I like the most, though strangely none of the singles from it performed particularly well. This is good, but there are better singles to come.
Jason Donovan - Obviously a pre-record, and the sound quality on the clip is awful! This is typical, decent PWL pop.
The Cure - One of their very best songs, covered more recently by Adele of course.
Overall, another average show, although Bruno was much more convincing in this one I thought. He seems to work better on his own.
Could be Bruno preferred not to share the limelight?
Delete