Cheeky girl
30/11/89 (Gary Davies)
Kaoma – “Lambada” (7)
Getting the show underwearaway tonight and the song went up three more places.
Inner City – “Whatcha Gonna Do With My Lovin’” (12) (video)
At its peak.
808 State – “Pacific” (10)
A second time in the studio but the tune was now at its peak.
Gloria Estefan – “Get On Your Feet” (23) (video)
Got no higher.
Jimmy Somerville & June Miles-Kingston – “Comment Te Dire Adieu” (14)
Also in the studio again but (unlike Jimmy's singing) the song got no higher.
Rob ‘N’ Raz featuring Leila K – “Got To Get” (32)
Their only top ten hit and it peaked at number 8.
Kate Bush – “This Woman’s Work” (30) (breaker)
Peaked at number 25.
Tears For Fears – “Woman In Chains” (26) (breaker)
Got no higher.
Tina Turner – “I Don’t Wanna Lose You” (33)
In the studio to perform what became her fifth of nine top ten hits when it peaked at number 8.
New Kids On The Block – “You Got It (The Right Stuff)” (1) (video)
Second ot three weeks at number one.
UB40 – “Homely Girl” (6) (video/credits)
At its peak.
7th of December is next.
A casual Gazza shows off his biker look, while smoothly guiding us through a show full of stuff we have already heard. Kaoma make it to the studio for a predictably lively performance complete with gratuitous buttock shots when those tiny skirts go flying up high. For the last thirty years I have always thought the lead vocalist was a man, so I stand corrected on that front! Another look at the Inner City video, missing out the pool/snooker table romp, and then 808 State once again don’t bother to dress up for a new performance virtually identical to the first.
ReplyDeleteWe finally get a new song at this point in the show, though unfortunately it is quite a formulaic upbeat effort from Glo. An energetic “in performance” video does its best to make up for the lack of musical inspiration – I assume that Glo is once again being backed by an uncredited Miami Sound Machine here. Jimmy ‘n’ June have another studio outing, with a keyboardist who seems determined to get in on the action, while the trumpeter sadly discards her beret this time. Some Swedish rap next, which would be pretty forgettable were it not for what sounds very much like an INXS sample bringing it to life. However, the enormous hood on that gold parka sticks in the memory more than the record!
Unfortunately, this fine TFF ballad would not feature on TOTP beyond this very brief breaker clip, but it was the song that introduced the world to the powerful voice of Oleta Adams, and we should be hearing more from her before too long. Tina is back, entering her sixth decade dressed more demurely than normal, which is in keeping with the laid back feel of this pleasant but unexciting tune. Then, in keeping with the general theme of this show, we finish with yet more stuff we have heard before.
The sexy skirts and hot buttocks on Kaoma to open up the show were extraordinary, and perhaps not seen like this in the TOTP studio since Legs & Co, and even Legs & Co did not show them this much. Gary pointed out that Kaoma have been at No.1 with this lambada for the last 5 months. Good Lord, that beats the Bryan Adams No.1 in the UK in 1991 with 3 or 4 months at No.1 I seem to recall.
DeleteYes, he said that it was number 1 in Portugal for that long. I suppose they understood the lyrics there!
DeleteI'm guessing the Portuguese weren't that bothered about their charts.
DeleteThat sets me wondering - have any Portuguese artists ever had a hit in the UK charts?
DeleteI suppose Nelly Furtado sort of counts, as her parents were Portuguese, but she was born and brought up in Canada.
Deletethanks to a portuguese friend of mine, i have discovered that nuno bettencourt (guitarist of extreme) was born in portugal. so i suppose he counts, even though he moved to the states at a very young age?
DeleteI Googled "Portuguese pop singers" and must admit I hadn't heard of any of them.
DeleteThe highlights of this episode (I never saw yet) and it is surprisingly getting a late-night repeat showing on BBC Four tomorrow night (early hours of Sunday morning) as follows:
ReplyDeleteKaoma - The latin band finally appear in the studio althoughly, there was no Pitbull rap back then, over literally the summer dance craze hit was now nearing a top ten hit.
Inner City - The monochrome video makes its appearance and sadly its their two minutes of fame, with their final hit of the 80s and their decadence continues into the 90s, afraid not one of their good songs.
808 State - Superb track. Absolutely chilled, their second appearance in the studio to this track with synthesizers.
Gloria Estefan - The third of her tracks taken from the Cuts Both Ways album, she has a major latin feel to this track and one of her best songs so far.
Jimmy Somerville - This again as it's a ruinable cover of the Francoise Hardy 1965 classic, but I just agree it is good, we'll be seeing him again with another cover version on his own in the TOTP repeats on the 7th of August 2020 which is a 1978 Sylvester hit.
Rob 'N' Raz / Leila K - Swedish rap time next, as Leila K.'s debut hit as she's only a featured artist in the first of her songs, there is two music video versions of this actual record on YouTube. The U.K. showed the first video version of the song. She made it into the studio with Rob'n'Raz, which I recall they were one hit wonders.
Breakers - Kate Bush does a ballad from the 'Sensual World' album, which would later be used in a NSPCC commercial and Maxwell covering it, Tears for Fears and Oleta Adams' video is set around a boxer who is desperate to be training to fight and Oleta Adams' first U.K. hit, only as a featured artist.
Tina Turner - Her final hit of the 80s and second track taken from the 'Foreign Affair' album, she makes it in to the studio noner-less and the video for this song was filmed in Italy.
NKOTB - Yet again, their second of three consecutive weeks at the top, same monochrome video.
UB40 - Play-out track time, honestly we finally get a glimpse of the video, a 1974 Chi-Lites cover would be the first of many for UB40 on their 'Labour of Love II' album, which interestingly covers such as 'Kingston Town', 'Here I Am (Come and Take Me)' and 'I'll Be Your Baby Tonight' will immediately follow on uninterrupted 1990 TOTP run.
This was the best show for quite some time, with the highlight being Kaoma's sexy girls and moves on the centre stage, and Leila K who is a Moroccan-born Swedish native who brought a fresh sound for the 90s, and her finest rap accomplishment came in 1993 with Open Sesame which featured some of the best mid-song male rap that I have ever heard, and at 2:10 into the song:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GV_5dRrWH4
Suffice to say that here this week, Leila K is a 'feature' on Rob n Raz, much like the Beatmasters and Cold Cut would help an upcoming artist feature on their own record before that 'feature' would go on to get their own record contract.
DeleteBy 1992/93 Leila K went the same way as Yazz, The Cookie Crew, Lisa Stansfield, etc, to have her own solo career, and on Open Sesame in January 1993, she went full circle by 'featuring' a new male rapper on her own single, of which rap took on a whole new posture as on the above link. Qudos to Leila K, one of the forgotten heroes of the early 90s.
I ass-ume those camera angles on Kaoma's performance were entirely intentional? The band look to be in their fifties, but the dancers are a lot more youthful, inadvertently showing the reason not many Brits were tempted to try the actual dance outside of making a joke of it.
ReplyDeleteBit more of the first half of Inner City, then the proudly Mancunian (re the T-shirt) 808 State, but much as before, and then we get Gloria's bog standard Latin beats record which despite being called Get On Your Feet features frequent shots of Glo getting off her feet and leaping into the air in freeze frame. Poor direction all round.
Terry and June get a makeover nobody could have anticipated, then the episode's highlight with Swedish-Moroccan dynamo Leila K (get the pronunciation right, Gary, she even says it on the record) offering a real sparkle. She was huge in Europe, but managed to sabotage her career over and over thanks to her personal problems - she was wanted by the police shortly after this was a hit.
We'll see Kate in the next show, but this Tears For Fears song struck me as a bit of a slog at the time, and it still sounds leadfooted now, all very self-serious and hard to enjoy. Not too sad this is all we hear.
RIP Eddie Large - oh, wait, it really is Tina Turner, offering up an opening line aimed squarely at her target audience by this stage. As it goes, preferable to her previous hit, but mostly because you don't hear this that often.
The New Blockheads have apparently never heard of the concept of a seatbelt, that looks extremely dangerous and could have ended their career pretty sharpish had they hit a bump in the road. Then back with the arses for the UB40 video we've seen the middle bit of before.
Oh, and watching the start of this show I thought, "I bet I know what Angelo will choose for a screengrab for this blog entry". I was not disappointed.
ReplyDeleteHaHa, I would have chosen it too. It's not possible to have a better shot for the blog. Brilliant stuff Angelo!
DeleteI don't know if "brilliant" is the word I'd use, but "obvious" certainly is.
DeleteIt was just purely accidental of course :-)
DeleteDon't worry, Angelo, I wasn't having a go - I knew you'd turn the other cheek.
DeleteBoom boom tish!
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ReplyDeleteTook a while for the new stuff..
ReplyDeleteKaoma - lorra people, not so much underwear...
Gloria Estedan - didn’t realise this was a new song until I read the comments prior to posting!
Rob n raz - bog standard rap. Recognised Leila K voice, and looking her up I Realised had a cd by her covering ca plane pour moi, which I doubt we will see on TOTP given it got to 69
Breakers
Kate bush - hardly heard enough to comment.
Tears for tears - dull follow up to sowing
Tina turner - Nothing of a verse, but chorus is better. Co written by Albert Hammond who must have been getting long in the tooth by then.
Albert Hammond still on tour saw him down our way in Drogheda last year some repertoire of songs he wrote/co-wrote
DeleteIt was quite interesting to note that with Gary Davies presenting on his own this week, that throughout 1989, only the male presenters presented on their own, and the female presenters had to present in twos. There are two possible reasons I would think:
ReplyDelete(i) The BBC/TOTP did not want female presenters presenting on their own.
(ii) The female presenters did not want to present on their own, and preferred to have another person for support.
Would be interesting to know the real reason, but it was certainly odd.
Anthea did virtually present one show solo in '89 (I know Tim Smith was there too, but he was more of a pointless guest than a proper co-host). However, it was certainly the general case that only the men were trusted to present on their own at this point, though that would change the following year.
DeleteGary’s back introducing a contrasting set of acts.
ReplyDeleteKaoma - Lambada – As noted before what on earth made this suddenly become a big hit in 1989? Nice visual performance but the mystery remains.
Inner City- What’ya going to do with my lovin’ – I’m gonna check out the full video! Not a bad song.
808 State – Pacific 7- Another weird sounding hit for 1989….but not in a bad way.
Gloria Estefan – Get on your feet – Nice energetic performance but average song.
Jimmy Somerville & June Miles-Kingston – Comment Te Dire Adieu– If Jimmy has recorded a better song then I haven’t heard it. Love this and they seem to enjoy performing it. Was June any relation to Paul who dueted with Sarah Brightman on ‘Pieu Jesu’?
Ob n’ Raz – Got to get – ooops where’s my FF.
Breakers – Kate Bush – More wispy waily indecipherable lyrics as usual. Tears for Fears – I’m cross!! We should have seen more of this great track. No mention of Oleta Adams again (nor Phil Collins on drums, although to be fair we don’t hear the drums on this very brief snatch). A great song undersold here.
Tina Turner – I don’t wanna lose you – FF
Block thing – The right stuff –FF
UB40 – Homely Girl – Aha! We get to see the very start of the video this time and very enjoyable it is too! – even more so than the Lambada girls! I love this cover although I note a couple of weeks ago it was the subject of much derision!
RIP Jack Charlton. One of the lucky few to have won the World Cup and featured on a no1 single (‘Back Home’ in 1970). It’s lesser known that Jack (or Jackie as he was known in those days) released a solo single on the Bell label (label mates with the likes of David Cassidy, Gary Glitter and the Rollers) but a quick listen here will show that he was wise to stick to football.
https://www.45cat.com/record/bell1247
I'm with you SCT353. Love that UB40 track and one of the follow ups "Be your baby tonight".
DeleteAlthough they do like a lot of covers the musicianship is a always great and they clearly love what they are doing.
Sct353, you must have liked those gorgeous legs on the minidress girls at the start of the video. That would make two of us if so. The song was OK, but not one of their best.
DeleteMorgie, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight in 1990 with Robert Palmer joining UB40 on the track is something special to look forward to, and certainly one of the songs of the decade, never mind the year.
This was more like “Newsbeat” than TOTP, with Gary Davies giving relentless tour details for up to a year ahead.
ReplyDeleteKaoma with no bum notes but plenty of bum. Come on, Gran, have a go!!!
No potting the pink on the snooker table in this video re-run of Inner City’s overly boomy yet smooth soul with lovely vocals by Paris.
Next it’s the return of the electronic woodwind, manic drummer and Widow Twankey again on keyboards. Oh yes it is!
Just how do you wash that costume Gloria’s in? One of her upbeat tunes which sounded like it could easily have been performed by Debbie Gibson.
Jimi in council estate chic and June still not looking a natural lead singer but giving it her best shot.
After Neneh and Betty, Leila’s next on the female rap conveyor belt. Hated the chorus, much preferred those outfits.
Morning, Darling! Kate looks lovely but shrills a load of nothingness, sadly.
It’s The Roland Show! Oh, look, Curt does get two seconds of fame and guest vocalist Oleta doesn’t merit a namecheck.
50-year-old Tina starts with the lyric “Women of a certain age”. Now, listen here, Sonny! After a waffly eight-minute verse we get to a decent chorus. At least this isn’t “The Best”.
KNOB FF, followed by the Soul Drainers. Never mind “You look better in the dark”, by this stage in their career UB40 sounded better with the volume off.
The Tears For Fears video I just took the pains to watch, being a whopping 6-and-a-half minutes long, and double-pain by the video being in black & white.
DeleteI must say that the song while a very good one, is only probably fitting for easy listening alone in private, and not really commercial enough for the pop charts, hence stalling at No.26 with only a Breakers feature.
sct353, I can't find anything on that there net which shows the Miles-Kingstons as related. This edition should have been called "Peak Of The Pops", so many of the singles on it were at their chart zenith.
ReplyDeleteaccording to wiki june is the sister of bob kingston, who was one of the guitarists in tenpole tudor - presumably the feral-looking guy with the quiff and mutton-chop sideboards?:
Deletehttps://img.discogs.com/yRCzRCaHmNgMYmNO-rSMqK0MPz4=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-2892422-1518993608-5450.jpeg.jpg
But was she any relation to the double bass player in Instant Sunshine?
Deleteactually the above debate over june's possible relatives did make me think about the journalist miles kington - who i remember doing a stint as presenter in the beebs "film" review series but never knew he was in a band. however the spelling isn't quite the same
DeleteOr even 'Peek of the Pops!' :-)
DeleteOoh Gary presents the best show in a while.
ReplyDeleteReinforce the stage its the French/Brazilian Pans People dancing the "Lambada" and with much success in Portugal. A lively summer tune for a dark November night!
Inner City get a stylish b+w video for a Smooth FM friendly song. “Whatcha Gonna Do With My Lovin’” is a pleasant tune, just remarkably forgettable.
Kate Bush and TFF only get breakers slots but we get this identical 808 State performance again. I like the tune but didn't need to see it again.
Gloria Estefan with the funky number from her latest album. “Get On Your Feet” suits a concert video. Nice happy party song.
Jimmy Somerville & June Miles-Kingston are back. As with 808 State we didn't need this again but I like the song so didn't hearing it once more. The keyboard player clearly loves his keyboard.
Next up tune of the night and that girls got some energy. Leila K belts out “Got To Get” and I LOVED this tune in 89 and still a big fan now. If I see it on one more 90s compilation though I will lose it!
Breakers:
Kate Bush – Don't hear enough of “This Woman’s Work” to judge it. Is she wrapping herself around Captain Darling?
Tears For Fears clearly not doing personal appearances so Oleta is robbed of a full showing of “Woman In Chains”. We need to see more of this.
2 performances for the price of 1 - It's Tina Turner. clearly filmed at the same time as The Best. “I Don’t Wanna Lose You” is a great song as well.
New Kids On The Block still got “The Right Stuff” it seems.
More of UB40 and their odd looking “Homely Girl(s)” to play out. Still like this tune a lot.
Novelty New Entry Alert as Number 53 this week courtesy of the Radio 1 weekend breakfast show.
DeleteBruno Brookes, Liz Kershaw, Jive Bunny and Londonbeat...I kid you not...
It Takes Two Baby... although in this instance it clearly needs four of them..
https://youtu.be/3-Uuw8hawe8
Be warned... it's not great!
Luckily that was its chart peak!
DeleteLate as usual, but I'm not going to say anything on this edition particularly. It was around this time in my life (late November 89 certainly) when I got flu and was in bed for about a week drifting in and out of consciousness. Mum left Radio 1 on for me so songs such as 'Fools Gold', 'Pacific State' and 'Eve Of The War' are ingrained on my brain.
ReplyDeleteI never use the phrase 'man flu', in fact I hate it. If you've had the real thing, rather than just a cold or virus, you know about it and probably don't make light of it. Truly a horrible experience, and I don't want a repeat by catching Covid...
I think I had it once. If it is the feeling where you are weighed down like a weight on your head that you find it hard to stand up and hard to stay awake, I must have had the real flu a few years later, around the mid-90s.
DeleteThat's a pretty good description. I think I barely eat or drank anything for about a week and mostly slept.
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