Stand by for action ~ Five. Four. Three. Two. One. The 19th of July 1990 edition of Top of the Pops is go!
Hey Henry
19-7-90: Presenter: Mark Goodier
(2) CRAIG McLACHLAN & CHECK 1-2 – Mona
He's making his studio debut and getting tonight's show underway but the song could get no higher.
(4) PARTNERS IN KRYME – Turtle Power (video)
Will be number one next week.
(21) DIANA ROSS – I’m Still Waiting (video)
It got to number one in 1971 but this remix peaked at 21.
(27) INSPIRAL CARPETS – She Comes In The Fall ®
A repeat showing but the song got no higher.
(32) PAUL YOUNG – Oh Girl
In the studio and the peaked at number 25.
(5) F.A.B. feat. M.C. PARKER – Thunderbirds Are Go (video)
At its peak.
(14) MADONNA – Hanky Panky (video)
This rather saucy song from her number 2 album 'I'm Breathless' peaked at number 2.
(31) DREAM WARRIORS – Wash Your Face In My Sink
Performing live in the studio but did someone turn down the sound? Their first of three top 40 hits and it peaked at number 16.
(1) ELTON JOHN – Sacrifice (video)
Fifth and final week at number one.
(28) PAULA ABDUL – Knocked Out (video) (and credits)
Peaked at number 21.
26th of July is next.
Was that a naturally curly barnet on Craig or was it a perm? Not sure what he looks like now, though he was in the news recently.
ReplyDeleteAn actual one hit wonder as defined by the Guinness book as hitting Number 1 and getting nothing else in the hit parade at all. On the novelty end of the rap scale, but it does tell a story. Using the subtitles I finally found out what the chorus was singing - it's spelling out TURTLE!
Not very nice remix of a perfectly nice song by Miss Ross, with clips of Mahogany (which this tune is not from) repeated for the video. Tony Blackburn made the original a hit in this country, as he never fails to point out when he plays it.
Inspirals we've seen, then it wouldn't be 1990 without an insipid cover version, so step up Paul Young to hoarsely offer an old soul number. He really was relying on the covers by this stage - was this is last appearance?
The FAB mob remixed The Prisoner theme next, which sounded a bit better than this dog's breakfast. They have characters speaking the wrong lines in the video!
Then arguably the worst song Madonna ever had a hit with, the hymn to sadomasochism Hanky Panky. This is bloody awful, with unpleasant lyrics pretending to be naughty and a terrible arse-slapping dance routine for what passed for the video. Justifiably forgotten.
Dream Warriors, this is a lot more fun, Canada's answer to De La Soul and some very involved lyrics to complement the wacky jazz choice for their backing track. Liked these guys, but they disappeared pretty quickly.
At last we can hear Healing Hands - bah, nope, it's Sacrifice again. Then the video for Paula Abdul which looks like half a video seeing how much of it is clips of her previous efforts. The song? Middling pop.
We haven't got rid of Paul Young yet. Although his chart career was about to dive, he had a number 4 with "Sensa Una Donna" duetting with Italian singer Zucchero, plus two more top 20 hits with an awful Crowded House cover and a song called "Now I Know What Made Otis Blue".
DeleteI always thought that Senza Una Donna was Young's finest work, albeit with the help of Zucchero on shared lead vocals. It was far superior to anything that Young did solo between 1983-1990 in these TOTP reruns so far, and with a superb video to boot.
DeleteI forgot about that Zucchero dirge, and thankfully also forgot about Paul's pointless Crowded House cover, too! He really was Mr Karaoke at times.
Deletei can understand why paul young seized upon "don't dream it's over" to try and sustain his fast-fading pop career, as to my recollection it wasn't a hit in this country when released by crowded house several years earlier. i thought his and the original version were pleasant enough, but much better was to come from neil finn & co in the early/mid 90's
DeleteI must confess to really liking 'Senza Una Donna'. Lovely tune. I look forward to hearing / seeing that but equally look forward to laughing anew at Zucchero's over emoting. Definately a joke at school that appearance was.
DeleteHi Wilby! I had to look this up to check, but Crowded House made number 27 with "Don't Dream it's Over" in 1987. Its re-issue nine years later peaked at 25. Deserved far better.
DeleteIncidentally, that woman in the red top was apparently aiming for the "Most Annoying Audience Member Award", haven't had one of those quite that bad in a while.
ReplyDeleteAfter the dreadful 05/07 edition where I was considering following JohnG’s example and ducking out, this show was actually quite good. Mark Goodier’s style is, well….good.
ReplyDeleteCraig McLachlan – Mona (Bo Diddly) – I really like this. The only other song called ‘Mona’ was by the Beach Boys and released as the lead track on an EP in 1977 that never charted. That ‘Mona’ is an interesting song and unique arrangement, consisting of one long endless verse. There is no chorus. bridge, or instrumental break, and it's all done up with a Phil Spector style "wall of sound".
Partners in Kyrme – Turtle Power – Were these guys just lucky enough to get to record something to accompany what was the biggest phenomenon at the time? One hit wonders, they went back into their shell after this hit.
Diana Ross – I’m still waiting (remix) – Ugh! If it ain’t broken don’t fix it! The story of this is similar to Elton John’s ‘Sacrifice’. (as noted by THX) Tony Blackburn contacted the record company in 1971 and said he would make it his record of the week if they released it as a single…..and they did. The rest is history. Funnily enough it was not a hit in the US.
Inspiral Carpets – She comes in the fall – Is that ‘Fall’ as in the US way of saying ‘Autumn’? ‘The Fall’ is the only ELO track on Xanadu not to be released as a single and is therefore on of the most obscure ELO tracks recorded. Not particularly inspired by the carpets, so I swept it aside with FF.
Paul Young – Oh Girl – Great version of the old Chi-Lites hit. Back to the format of the prominent backing singers as in ‘Everything must change’ and they look very smart here. Looking forward to Paul’s superb duet with Zucherro.
FAB featuring M C Parker – Thunderbirds are Go – Was there a Gerry Andersen revival around this time? I think that there probably was. I found the visuals more enjoyable than the sound, but no sign of Joe 90.
Madonna – Hanky Panky – I really couldn’t imagine anyone writing lyrics with references to ‘spanky’ in it these days. It’s not one of her best efforts but is certainly different!
Dream Warriors – Wash your face in my sink – Pretty awful actually, even with the muffled sound.
Elton John – Sacrifice – Last week at the top. How many double A Side no1s were there that actually lived up to the billing? Well the Beatles did two that spring to mind, maybe three if you include ‘I am the Walrus’ with ‘Hello Goodbye’. In the US ‘The Long and Winding Road’ was a double A with ‘For you Blue’, as was ‘Something / Come Together’. I’m not convinced that this excellent record from Elton really was a double A in the true sense of the word…..like ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ / ‘First cut is the deepest’ to quote another example.
Paula Abdul – Knocked out – Foxy Paula’s back with a boxing theme and a brief snatch of a cartoon after her last ‘Roger Rabbit’ style video. Nice end to the show.
Maggie May / reason to believe?...
DeleteYeah Rod liked his double A sides. In the case of 'Maggie May' I believe it was actually the official B Side, although 'Reason to believe' did get a lot of play.
DeleteYou're right Sct353, 5/7 was a real low. Lately the show seems to have been chiefly concerned with featuring every single Soul II Soul inspired '70s cover in the charts making for a very samey presentation. It's picked up a bit in the last week for me and I recall the late '90 and 1st half of '91 editions as being rammed with diversity and joy. Can't wait to see those ones again.
DeleteSct353, I remember The Fall on the Xanadu album, as one side of it was all ELO on their own , including The Fall, and the other side was Olivia's duets with Cliff Richard. The Fall was one of those songs for loners it seemed, and many pop groups were loners deep inside, hence having to express their feelings in their own music, and I think The Fall was one of these types of songs.
DeleteA comment on She Comes in the Fall - strangely, I had always thought that this was about domestic abuse, and she only came when being mistreated. Perhaps that is just my twisted mind...
DeleteThe Fall! The greatest punk / new wave band to only reach number 30 in the singles chart!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteAh the Fall. That noncey fraud John peels favourite band I believe.
DeleteAh the Fall. That noncey fraud John peels favourite band I believe.
DeleteAh the Fall. That noncey fraud John peels favourite band I believe.
Deletesadly, peelie's all-time favourite band was not the charlatans
DeleteI see what you did there Wilber and concur! I never quite understood why he’s not mentioned at least as unfavourably as, say DLT. Peel was far worse!
Deletegive me dlt over peelie anyday. seriously, in the late 80's/early 90's (during which time peel jumped musical ship once again to nail his colours to the hip indie-dance mast), dlt was playing some really good not-especially-commerical stuff on his sunday show in my opinion (prefab sprout being a good example. plus i always enjoyed playing "give us a break" when it was featured
Deleteperhaps one of the finest moments in that time was when travis had to promote what was on peel's show later that evening, and corpsing as a result of informing listeners that one of the featured bands was called bogshed!
i remember reading that after peelie croaked, one of those vinyl-covered flip-top singles boxes was found somewhere in his den that contained his top 50 singles of all time. and that one of them was by sheena easton!
DeleteYes! DLT for me and my older sister was essential listening around that time. Followed by Fluff and Pick of the Pops! You mention him playing Prefab Sprout. Absolutely. The first newly released album I ever bought that wasn't a 'Hits' album was 'Jordan The Comeback' after DLT played 'We Let The Stars Go' one Sunday morning. I didn't hear that anywhere else and just loved it. I think he played 'Black Velvet' long before it made the charts as well.
DeleteFunny enough I never rated either. Thought DLT was well past his “best” long before he was thrown out in 93. I did love his meltdown though, brilliantly sent up by Enfield/whitehouse.
DeleteI was thinking more of the sleeping with a minor (peel) v grabbing a boob (DLT) which, whilst certainly not good, is nowhere near as bad as what peel the saint did!
Craig McLaghlan - Good Lord, how did this dross get to No.2?
ReplyDeletePartners In Kryme - straight in at No.4, it was strange that the lead singer was heavily clothed in coat and scarf in a freezing cold environment, considering our chart here was in July! I guess the movie and music video was filmed a few months earlier in the winter of 1989/90, and released in the summer of 1990, but still it was strange in July when we were wearing shorts and t-shirts and on our summer holidays!
Interesting that FAB featuring MC Parker had peaked here at No.5, when two days later the ITV Chart Show had them predicted to go up further to No.3 on their top ten rundown of 21.7.90:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFzt3Kug32g
This top ten video rundown also featured Healing of Hands going down to No.2 for those on here that preferred it to Sacrifice, The ITV Chart Show only showed Healing of Hands throughout its time in the charts.
simple answer to the craig mclachan query - it was bought probably almost exclusively by the many fans of "neighbours"!
DeletePartners in Crime - remember this, just plain dull...
ReplyDeleteDiana Ross - another c@@p remix of a great song (with an even worse video)
Paul Young - don’t remember this at all, but quite enjoyed it. Looked it up, and was surprised to see it was a cover, and listened to the original chilites version - he didn’t change it a great deal, but I preferred his version.
Madonna - she churned them out in those days didn’t she? Nice Change of pace, and could have been a 50s single (cf Queen Crazy Little Thing Called Love)
Dream Warriors - nightmare more like - truly unbelievably awful! FF
Paula Abdul - more of her Janet Jackson lite. Yawn!
Following the comments on "Hanky Panky", I couldn't resist loading this advert for a very short-lived confectionery featuring that there Arthur Lowe...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amvW0OTn9Xc
I remember quite a lot of now defunct sweets and snacks, but not this one Arthur!
DeleteMark on good(ier) form tonight.
ReplyDeleteI guess Craig McLachlan’s bassist was 1 and drummer 2 in the band name. An ineffective, innocuous and bland cover to start the show.
Thankfully, Partners In Kryme only charted with this drivel, though The Orchestra On The Half Shell scraped the top 40 with a cash-in follow-up called “Turtle Rhapsody”. I preferred The Wombles myself.
Absilutley pointless and horrible re-mix of a sweet Diana Ross classic. I’m still waiting for a re-mix that sounds better than the original.
Inspriral Carpets cutting a rug again. Ahem. I rarely watch repeat performances but enjoyed this.
Paul Young, dressed like a lime flavoured Lemfizz tablet if you’re old enough to remember those from the 70s sweet shops. An adequate if safe sounding cover.
Great Thunderbirds clip, best watched with the sound down.
Ooer missus, it’s Carry On Madonna. Just a bit embarrassing, really.
No lip sinking (harumph) for the next act. Can(ada) U Kick It?
FFS! Give us “Healing Hands” for one week at least!
Paula Abdul sees us out with an anonymous track. File next to Glenn Medeiros comeback.
Glen Madeiros had just reached No.1 in America at this point with the same tune, and stayed at top spot for two weeks till the end of July.
DeleteA bit niche, maybe, but one remix better than the original is Brian Eno's remix of Lopez by 808 State and James Dean Bradfield.
DeleteSee next episode for DNA's excellent re-working of 'Tom's Diner'.
DeleteWhat is with the HATS!
ReplyDeleteHenry has made it to the UK for his appearance on every single kids tv show in the UK. A nearly number one as well. Great performance, great song.
T-U-R-T-L-E-POWER
The family film of summer 1990 and of course a huge number one song as well. The cartoon to follow was rebranded as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the UK, non of your Ninja stuff over here thank you.
Love this Diana Ross remix. First time I'd heard the song so this is the original version for me. Love both versions though.
A repeat of the Carpets. Didn't realise this one did so well.
Trendy Paul Young up next, a nice 80s hangover. Lovely little tune. A Wifey favourite.
F-A-B This did rather well didn't it!
A bit of Hanky Panky with Madonna? Don't mind if I do. A free concert as well. We are spoilt. Not her finest hour musically.
Hooray its the Dream Warriors. A massive fan of both of their 1990 hits. Still sounds great and loads of fun, they throw everything at it including the kitchen sink….. sorry, I'll get my coat…
Still no Healing Hands
Paula Adbul has knocked out another tune and we have a boxing video (I see what you did there). Average at best.
The TNMT movie was also one of the most censored films of all time in 1990, to remove all sight of one turtle's nunchakus. Oo-er missus. The censors even took out a bit where a string of sausages are used like that weapon.
DeleteI remember there being a lot of press coverage about the nunchakus. Think the BBFC were under a lot of pressure to cut violence with weapons out during this time.
Deletein my ignorance, i was thinking the reason for censoring the nunchakus was because they were testudine genitalia!
Delete