Hit girl
19/10/89 (Mark Goodier)
D Mob introducing Cathy Dennis – “C’mon & Get My Love” (36)
We get the show underway with D Mob's third of five top 40 hits and Cathy's first of eleven, but of course she would go on to be an amazingly successful song writer for many other artists.
Billy Joel – “We Didn’t Start The Fire” (7) (video)
At its peak now.
Martika – “I Feel The Earth Move” (33)
In the studio and this livelier tune became her second of three top ten hits when it peaked at number 7.
Adeva – “I Thank You” (28) (breaker)
Peaked at number 17.
Queen – “Scandal” (26) (breaker)
Went up one more place.
De La Soul – “Eye Know” (24) (breaker)
Peaked at number 14.
Cher – “If I Could Turn Back Time” (9) (video)
Went up three more places.
Deborah Harry – “I Want That Man” (21)
In the studio with long time Blondie partner Chris Stein with what became her third of four top 40 solo hits when it peaked at number 13.
Sybil – “Don’t Make Me Over” (34) (video)
Peaked at number 19.
Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers – “That’s What I Like” (1) (video)
First of three weeks at number one.
Oh Well – “Oh Well” (37) (video/credits)
This Fleetwood Mac cover was their only top 40 hit and it peaked at number 28.
26th October is next.
D-Mob introducing Cathy Dennis - ok so it is not 'featuring' but now comes a new trend of 'introducing'. Good lord, whatever next? Anyway, as D-Mob were pretty average fodder at this stage, Cathy Dennis stole the limelight, looking great in what she was wearing, as she had a great figure up there on stage, and just as a good a voice I must say.
ReplyDeleteDeborah Harry - now 44 years old in 1989, and 10 years after Heart Of Glass, but at 44 she was looking just as good as on Heart Of Glass, and had aged very little. She rarely came to the TOTP studio when with Blondie, but now as a solo performer, she seemed to make it over the pond to the TOTP studio at the drop of a hat it seems.
Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers - just love this one for the Hawaii-5-0 signature tune at the beginning. Hawaii-5-0 I remember in the 70s as must-watch evening viewing as a child growing up with the evolution from black & white to colour TV at home, and watching the series in glorious colour when colour TV was only just getting into most homes in Britain.
Also, I just love the Jive Bunny colour bunnies transposed on top of the black-and-white footage, dancing the Hop. Brilliant stuff, and looking forward to see the second half of the video in the next couple of weeks at No.1.
A cover-heavy edition, presided over well by a typically enthusiastic Mark, though I have never thought that buttoning your shirt up to the top without a tie is a good look. The caption writers didn't cover themselves in glory this week - If I Could Only Turn Back Time?
ReplyDeleteWe begin the show with our first glimpse of Cathy Dennis, who as Angelo mentions is probably now better known as a stellar songwriter than she is for her rather middling career as a performer. She is a bit upstaged here by the heavyweight keytarist, and the song feels underpowered to me. Cover number 1 comes from Martika, with the opening track from Carole King's Tapestry album. It's not as good as the original, but does at least do something a bit different with it by applying a glossy pop-rock sheen. An energetic performance from Martika too, complete with tea cosy on her head, but the big stardom predicted by Goodier would not materialise in the end.
More from the breakers next time, so on to the artist formerly known as Debbie Harry, still looking good as she performs in the studio for the first time in a decade. Nice to see Chris Stein there too, by now recovered from the mysterious illness which Debbie had nursed him through. This is a good, punchy single which wouldn't have disgraced the Blondie catalogue, though the "here comes the 21st century" line feels a bit premature - it's 1989 Debbie, not 1999!
Cover number 2 is the work of Sybil, sadly not the Empress Ruscoe but Sybil Lynch, who would grab a couple of Top 20 hits with Bacharach and David covers. She is a better singer than Dionne Warwick, but I don't care for this languid dance-influenced version of one of the composing duo's best songs, which has the same slightly depressing effect as that version of Wishing On a Star on the previous show; not sure what the point of the magician was in the video. The third and worst cover of the night is saved for the playout, as a bunch of German chancers desecrate Peter Green's blues-rock masterpiece, adding insult to injury by adding crappy animations of a guitar to the video, when of course there is no guitar to be heard on this dancey version. Truly dreadful stuff - what they are covering here is of course strictly speaking Oh Well part 1, which on the original then segues into the masterful instrumental that makes up part 2.
Emperor Rosko / Empress Ruscoe. Brilliant!
DeleteLast watched this on a DVD-R back in 2010, the highlights of this episode is okay in most terms... Looking forward 2 watching the BBC4 version tonight, of course this is the only showing of the episode, cos BBC4 aren't showing another chance of this tomorrow night...
ReplyDeleteD Mob/Cathy Dennis - Excellent track, this was Cathy Dennis's first UK Top 40 and only as a featured artist, despite Dancin' Danny D's rap is the best, her other hit 'Touch Me' (reached the top 100) but it wouldn't become a proper hit until May 1991.
Billy Joel - Another showing of the video from his album Stormfront, mentioning all historical icons from his birth right up to 1989 including the Profumo Affair, The Beatles, and JFK.
Martika - She's in the studio again, this time it's a cover of the Carole King classic, i'd already knew Big Fun covered this before Martika in the summer of 1989 and it failed to reach the top 75.
Breakers - Adeva's 'I Thank You' is not one of her best songs, sadly she disappeared from our charts for a little while after this, i'd already know 'In and Out of My Life' (she done originally, was re-done by Onephatdeeva in 1999 with the James Gang/Fatboy Slim sample used around it) and the one we will be seeing in over five years time, also Queen are doing a song named after a film from the Profumo affair, as their song is about tabloids of the press, and De La Soul do a Otis Redding-sample based song with 'I know I love you better?' as its the third track taken from their 5 Feet and Rising album.
Cher - Another showing of the video, despite it'll be shown in a Hollyoaks episode if it was this week according to their music playlist on Spotify, i'd already know Cher is still singing with her backing band on a navy ship in a video.
Deborah Harry - Her second UK Top 40 hit mentions about the 21st century, cos she wants that man, as its her first TOTP appearance in the studio in over ten years since she was with Blondie when she performed 'Dreaming' and 'Sunday Girl', we'll be seeing them again in over five years time in the TOTP repeat run with 'Maria'
Sybil - Monochrome video, a cover of the Dionne Warwick classic, then she'll cover another of her songs in the upcoming TOTP repeats at the end of August this year on BBC Four.
Jive Bunny - The first of three weeks at the top for another song of theirs with the sound of the Hawaii Five 0 theme with the cartoon bunny and his surfboard.
Oh Well - A dance re-make of the 1969 No. 2 Fleetwood Mac classic to play us out, really well done as there is a bunch of dancers representing with an animated hand-written character in the white background.
De La Soul's album was called 3 Feet High and Rising, not 5 Feet! You'd have to be really tall if you were 5 feet high and rising!
DeleteThe "I know I love you better" line is lifted from "Peg" by Steely Dan, with Michael MacDonald on backing vocals.
Deletei don't know if donald fagen and walter becker were aware of one of their recordings being lifted by talentless oiks to (c)rap over (i think some were still getting away sampling without consent at the time), but shame on them if they were!
DeleteAnyone else cringe every time Mark said "Yo!"?
ReplyDeleteD Mob and Cathy D, the redheaded siren of 90s Brit dance tries her hand at house, with fair results. Might have been better without the rap, but you could say that of a lot of dance hits of the coming era.
Billy has the dead bodies eliminated from his video this time around - was that uberpatriotic criminal Col Oliver North behind him at the end?
Martika follows up a pretty decent original with a desperate, by the numbers cover. What Carole did to deserve this I'm not sure, but this is as tinny as SAW at their worst. The perils of not having a strong follow up single, somehow this made the Top Ten.
The family friendly Cher video version, at the time the joke was you could make a whole new person out of the bits and pieces she had had removed through cosmetic surgery.
Debs next, and I can thoroughly recommend her autobiography from a few months ago, it's a cracking read. She mentions this song and the opening line about Harry Dean, Stanton that is, whose ears pricked up when he heard this and he sought her out, so they went out for a short while. Anyway, the song itself isn't up to Blondie classic status, but it's a bit of fun and you can't begrudge her its success.
I though Sybil would be cancelled (topical humour), but nope, here she is warbling her way through a reserved cover of the old Dionne Warwick classic, but it never tugs at the heartstrings in the same way.
Anyone remember how to spell myxomatosis? Ah, good old spellcheckers. Bad old record.
Even Fleetwood Mac were not immune to their archive getting plundered. I remember liking this at the time, and the original was given some airplay too, but time has not been too kind to this cover, it does sound clunky at this remove.
I always wondered why they used a really difficult work to spell like Dyslexia to pinpoint dyslexia. Something like 'ug' would have been far easier. And no, I'm not taking the mickey. Seriously.
DeleteWell, dyslexia is a medical term for what used to be called word blindness, but I imagine most words are difficult to spell if you have it.
Deleteyes arthur, i have long-pondered the irony of most people who can read and write easily not being able to correctly spell a word that refers to those who cannot read and write easily...
Deletei remember when i was about 8 or 9 and looking at the school notebook of my sister (who was two years younger than me), where she had written something like "i went to school toddy". which as a smartarse even then (who could spell better when younger than she was) had me falling about laughing accordingly. yet despite that it has turned out to be a classic case of the tortoise and the hare, as unlike myself she has always exceeded what limitations she had in terms of getting on in this life!
THX - I didn't realise until today that Debbie Harry's song was written by Tom Bailey and Alannah Currie of Thompson Twins fame. Apparently Alannah had her own crush on Harry Dean Stanton, hence the lyric, but although she met him she never got off with him. Perhaps he found her too scary...
Delete@John G: Yes, that's all in the book! Amazing how a viewing of Paris Texas can affect people!
DeleteThe Billy Joel video had a massive edit at the end. It sort of jumped from early 60s to near future thus eliminating the non family friendly pictures behind him. Oliver North was a fairly recent scandal at the time of recording.
ReplyDeleteLawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania, Ole Miss, John Glen, Liston Beats Patterson........
DeletePope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician Sex, JFK Blown Away, What Else Do I Have To Say....
We didn't start the fire, it was always burning since the world's been turning.......
The bit where is says British Beetlemania - don't laugh but I always thought the lyric was 'British Beef, Romania..'
DeleteThe fact that Billy Joel, as Angelo correctly states, is now at its peak at No.7 in Britain on this episode, it may be pleasing to know that a couple of months later in December 1989, he made it No.1 in America for two weeks with this superb single, charting the history of the world between 1949-1989 in his first 40 years of life, which in interviews with the great man confirmed that this was his inspiration to write such a brilliant summary of the post-war world.
DeleteFunnily enough, the Deborah Harry video for I Want That Man was just shown on the Now 80s video channel, at No.36 in Pat Sharp's House Of Fun 40. They are still only at No.34 with Jackie Wilson Said by Dexys Midnight Runners, so you can catch the rest of this chart all the up to 10.30pm this evening, so get watching!
ReplyDeleteCher's If I Could Turn Back Time came in at no.25 on this same Pat Sharp House Of Fun 40.
DeleteD Mob - D minus
ReplyDeleteMartika - quite good, but not a patch on the sublime original, one of the stand out tracks from Carole King’s Tapestry.
Breakers:
Adeva - video detracts from the track which is quite smooth. I await the studio performance
Queen: one of their weaker tracks, scraping the barrel that was The Miracle.
De la soul: alright. Too much rap, not enough tune, but the judge is out. 2 will turn out not to be the number...
Debbie Harry - a foot tapper but not a patch on her earlier or later Blondie tracks.
Sybil - getting bored with saying this every week - yet another tuneless cover not a patch on the original
Oh well - ooh a cover, you don’t hear them very often. However... this was actually ok (but not a patch etc)
Yo! It’s Goodiebags, beaming as usual and thankfully not wearing shorts this time. Sadly not his best half hour by a long chalk.
ReplyDeleteAh, Norwich. The quiz of the week, Robert Howard out of The Blow Monkeys , The Farmer’s Boys (an underrated indie band who pre-Smithed The Smiths and were brilliant) and Canaries fan Cathy Dennis – she’ll be wearing a Norwich City shirt in a later edition. A perfectly acceptable tune to start the show.
Now, that would have been scary. You get married and carry your new wife over the threshold only to find Billy Joel in your kitchen having broken in. A fine song as I previously stated.
Early mugshots: Bye, thanks and rest in peace, London Boys. Aerosmith with “Love An Elevator”? Really, Mark?
Martika dressed for an audition with Shakespear’s Sister and giving us a hi-NRG version of one of Carole King’s best. I do prefer the original.
Mark, why look over to the stage for a video? Imposing Adeva with some uptempo wine bar disco.
Ah, now. Freddie definitely looked paler and gaunt. Still got that half mic for full effect, though the song was a dirge.
I always liked De La Soul’s mellow take on rap, though ripping off both Otis Redding and Steely Dan is a bit near the mark.
Was it me or did the breakers seem to last almost as long as the other non-breaker videos?
So Cher’s rock and roll, ay, Mark? Not fully on form tonight, son. Hmm, Cher in jeans with loads of CND markings on a big multi-turreted kill-you vessel. Lots of bubbling under seamen there. Ahem
.
A bit of a coup for Deborah to turn up. The “that man” bit reminded me for some reason of a saying by Foggy Dewhurst in “Last Of The Summer Wine”. Alert Brucie, there’s a cuddly toy on the keyboard.
A nice Bacharach and David stat before a ridiculously loud boom thump row. Never mind Sybil, where’s Basil?
Welcome back to the top, Jive Bunny? Speak for yourself, Mark. Hawaii F-F.
We finish with a Kwiksave budget video for a cover as weak as own brand 3% lager. This wasn’t a big hit? Oh well – or should I say, just as well!
The Managing Director of Waterstones is also based in Norwich, as he was on Breakfast TV yesterday interviewed on video regarding the reopening this week of this chain as a non-essential business. Also of course Nicholas Parsons's Sale Of The Century on ITV Anglia for many years bellowed out "And now from Norwich...." at the start of the show.
DeleteThe Billy Joel single was a touch of pure genius, as only an American would pay tribute to the Beatles as 'British Beatlemania' implying that the Americans were not involved with this mania, as in Britain it was just 'Beatlemania'.
Martika's interesting looks attributable to being born to Cuban parents, would imply that Shakespeare's Sister look Cuban. Wonder if they would see that as a compliment or not?
I've always said that it would be better to have one full single on the show in the same slot of The Breakers three one-minute snippets of three different songs, but the Breakers section seems to have been lingering on and off since 1986, with no sign of being dropped anytime soon.
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Delete(Rewrite - that singer isn't called Cathy Tennis, Arthur!)
ReplyDeleteI alluded to "Sale Of The Century" by mentioning the quiz of the week but maybe I was a bit obtuse. I can just imagine a band from Norwich called Quiz Of The Week using a sample of John Benson's announcement to introduce them on stage!
As for Martika, I meant to say I thought she was dressed like Siobhan in her Shakespear's Sister garb.
By the way, for anyone interested, that D Mob and Cathy Dennis tune peaked at number 15.
Martika reminded me of Ally Sheedy here, maybe because it was Ms Sheedy's birthday yesterday.
DeleteOh, and Britpoppers Sleeper had a hit called Sale of the Century, sadly sans John Benson. Louise and the boys were Londoners, though.
DeleteAhhh, ms sheedy. How many of us here are old enough to remember her jailbait role in Hill Street Blues?...
DeleteShe's older than me, so I have no guilt about thinking Matthew Broderick was a lucky boy in WarGames.
DeleteTOTP connection: well, a TOTP2 connection, in Debbie Harry's book, she really has a go at presenter Johnny Walker, he obviously rubbed her up the wrong way during an interview when he said she "walked out on" Chris Stein once he got better. It wasn't like that at all, she protests.
ReplyDeleteMr Charts this week with a much improved show from last week.
ReplyDeleteD Mob do a Beatmasters/Coldcut and introduce us to redhead Cathy Dennis who of course is much better known today as a hit songwriter. “C’mon & Get My Love” is a lively little pop tune and a great start to the show.
Billy Joel up next with our first edited tune of the night. From verse 2 to the end. I checked out the whole video to “We Didn’t Start The Fire” on You Tube which was excellent and this is a great song.
Nice hat Martika. Another edited number and it works well to get most of the song into 3 minutes. I've seen some lack of love for “I Feel The Earth Move” on here already but I loved it in 1989 and I still love it now. How to make a really great pop song? Just watch this.
Breakers:
Question? Can you OVER mime. Step forward Adeva. “I Thank You” is not a bad number but not a massive hit either.
Queen – “Scandal” Was this from the film? Don't remember this at all and it doesn't leave much of an impression I'm afraid. Freddie is looking thin.
"Eye Know" a few De La Soul tunes – but I have no recollection of this one. It's OK. No classic.
Cher back next with a pre-watershed version of “If I Could Turn Back Time” I don't think this a TOTP edit but a clean version of the video.
All American Girl Deborah (not Debbie) Harry claiming that she's a 21st Century Woman but all she wants is A Man. Very modern Debs.
Looking and sounding great though and as Goodier says it's a great Pop song.
It's Jive Bunny week - Swing The Mood goes back up!
Sybil possibly pre-PWL days with a fairly non-descript number.
A bit more of the Jive Bunny video this week. 3 weeks means we might get to see the whole thing.
Oh Well – A Fleetwood Mac cover? Really? Decent enough house tune.
No, Queen's Scandal wasn't in the film, PSB and Dusty Springfield's Nothing Has Been Proved was the theme song from that.
DeleteJust a coincidence then...
DeleteHi Anonymous! Here's my weekly request for the original archive versions of the following shows, all from 1977. They are 13/01, 5/05 and 3/11. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteSorry brie dont have any of those
DeleteOK, thanks for trying!
DeleteLots of FF for me on this one, and I’m late, so I’ll skip the usual blow by blow account and just focus on a few.
ReplyDeleteCathy Dennis and D Mob – C’mon and get my love – Well strike me, never realised Cathy started out like this. Introducing indeed, poor introduction.
Martika – I feel the earth move – Proving that some songs should be left well alone. Great album ‘Tapestry’ btw.
Queen – Scandal – The forgotten hit from this era as it didn’t make ‘Greatest Hits vol 2’. I wonder why. B Side was great though; an alternative version of ‘My life has been saved’ which would later surface in a different version on ‘Made in Heaven’.
Cher – If I could turn back time – I watched the video on YT and there was cheering and different outfits, so this must be a cleaned up version?
Deborah Harry – I want that Man – So it’s Deborah now. What next? Catherine Bush? Actually not a bad tune and I believe that nobody has remarked on the Thompson Twins connection as this was written by Tom and Allanah.
Jive Bunny and the Master Mixers – That’s what I like – Teasingly we get a little more this time! Love it.
A little more does not even enter the second half of the video, despite being at No.1. Let's just hope that for the next two weeks at No.1 we get the second half with Jive Bunny in evening tuxedo leading us into Runaround Sue by Dion, and the Hawaii-5-0 finale.
Deletesct, it was mentioned earlier that Alannah Currie had the initial crush on Harry Dean Stanton and wrote that particular opening line of the song. Bet she was pleased when Debs had the dalliance with HDS instead of her!
DeleteJust heard that snooker legend Willie Thorne has died at the age of only 66. I remember we had the Snooker Loopy top 10 hit in 1986 on these TOTP reruns not so long ago.
ReplyDeleteHe was the one who first called the corner pockets by their nearest colour, like the 'green pocket' or 'yellow pocket', where for years before it was always termed, bottom left hand or right hand pocket by commentators, and to this day, all the commentators only call the corner pockets by their ball colour, following Willie's invention of the term.
For someone who only reached the Quarter Finals twice at the World Championship held at the Crucible during his entire playing career, Willie Thorne did pretty well. A nice personality, great in the commentary box and he had a good punt at Strictly Come Dancing too. RIP Willie.
Deletein my view he was one of the best smooker commentators, if not THE best. and yet he always had to take a back seat to dennis "blarneyman" taylor (typical clinical analysis: "his wife is such a lovely lady") and stephen "i'm only doing this because i won the world championships more often than anyone else" hendry!
DeleteD Mob / Cathy Dennis - This is a good dance tune, and Cathy herself I've always found attractive. Dancing Danny D would help her with production on her early solo singles.
ReplyDeleteMartika - One of those that's alright to listen to now and again but it's clearly not a classic of the era.
Deborah Harry - This one isn't bad, but it's somewhat inconsequential.
Sybil - This is pleasant enough, though not the best thing she ever did.
Oh Well - Not much love for this on here, but I liked it then and I still do!
RIP Dame Vera Lynn, one of the oldest people to chart x
ReplyDeleteAccording to BBC News THE oldest person to chart after her records recharted earlier this year.
Delete