Get on, get on, get on, get on the 6th of September 1990 edition of Top of the Pops!
Adamski is in the building
6-9-90: Presenter: Jakki Brambles
(23) ADAMSKI – The Space Jungle
Getting us underway tonight channeling a bit of Elvis this became his second and final top ten hit when it peaked at number 7.
(14) MARIAH CAREY – Vision Of Love (video)
Peaked at number 9.
(31) TALK TALK – Life’s What You Make It (video)
Had peaked at number 16 in 1986, this time it made it to number 23.
(28) THE FARM – Groovy Train
Making their studio debut to perform what became their first of two top ten hits when it peaked at number 6.
(5) MADONNA – Vogue (video) (Album Chart)
From her number 2 album I'm Breathless.
(4) LUCIANO PAVAROTTI – Nessun Dorma (video) (Album Chart)
From his number one album The Essential Pavarotti
(3) PHIL COLLINS – Something Happened On The Way To Heaven (video) (Album Chart)
From his number 1 album ...But Seriously
(2) NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK – Step By Step (video) (Album Chart)
From their number 1 album of the same name.
(1) ELTON JOHN – Club At The End Of The Street (video) (Album Chart)
From his number 1 album Sleeping With the Past.
(29) CARON WHEELER – Livin’ In The Light
Performing a live vocal in the studio this song became her first of two solo top 40 hits when it peaked at number 14.
(4) DEEE-LITE – Groove Is In The Heart (video)
Went up two more places.
(21) LOOSE ENDS – Don’t Be A Fool
In the studio tonight this became their fourth of five top 40 hits when it peaked at number 13.
(1) BOMBALURINA – Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini (video)
Third and final week at number one. Ah yeah.
(32) JANET JACKSON – Black Cat (video) (and credits)
Peaked at number 15.
13th of September is next.
Elton John there with one half of his double A-side follow-up to his chart topper. This and "Whispers" stumbled at 47, with his next two chart entries peaking at 33 and 63 until a duet with another singer from near Watford gave him another flag on the summit.
ReplyDeleteBear in mind that although Club At The End Of The Street stumbled at No.47 in the singles chart, the double A-side hit Whispers was performed on The Wogan Show, but yeah, you'd think it would have done better thank a peak of No.47, being a follow up single to his no.1 Sacrifice/Healing Hands!
DeleteIn Sept '90 another great single fell a long way short of the top 40; 'Greenbank Drive' by The Christians. I'm sure it got some significant tv exposure just prior to release. Maybe 'The O Zone'. Loved it and still play that 45 every so often. It was actually the main reason I started buying more singles rather than record bits of the top 40 or top of the pops! I see also that The Cocteaus 'Iceblink Luck' is sat at 38 this week. Wouldn't that have been a pleasure to see featured on the show rather than middle ranking metal.
DeleteI don't think the Cocteaus ever did TOTP, I did hear Elizabeth hated performing live due to stage fright. Yes, it would have been nice to see, but I'm not sure there was even a video.
DeleteI tell a lie - just checked YouTube and Iceblink Luck does have a video! And yes, it is woozy, since you ask. Maybe they could have been a Breaker this episode if they'd done that.
DeleteYes I don't remember any appearance for 'Pearly Dewdrops Drops' either for a BBC4 show or otherwise. For me 'Iceblink Luck' joins 'Advice For The Young At Heart' as the great missed single of the 1990 repeats.
DeleteYes I don't remember any appearance for 'Pearly Dewdrops Drops' either for a BBC4 show or otherwise. For me 'Iceblink Luck' joins 'Advice For The Young At Heart' as the great missed single of the 1990 repeats.
DeleteAmong the Cocteaus' chart troublers, my favourite was Bluebeard in 1994, but I can find no evidence they ever were on TV with it.
DeleteAdamski - I did like the main background riff/instrumental chorus, but it was a strange move to do an Elvis theme following the huge success with Seal on the last single. Was also surprised to see Adamski taking to vocals for the first time, as on the first two hits he stuck to keyboards only.
ReplyDeleteMariah Carey - having just come off 4 weeks at No.1 in the USA with this debut single, Mariah looked so good on this video, that even Jackie Brambles admitted at the end of the video clip that she was jealous of how good she looked. Gotta love Mariah!
Bombalurina - first showing of the video, and what a cutie in the bikini, shy of showing herself and keeping a towel on for most of the video. Need some love out there.
Adamski follows up one of the singles of the year by taking leave of his senses and serving up this garbage. I suppose this counts as a 1990 mediocre cover, except he's added his own plinky-plonky tune to it. At points he can barely be bothered miming, as if he's realised how half arsed it is.
ReplyDeleteMariah Scarey, pre-breast enhancement, but we've heard this one before.
And technically we've heard Talk Talk before as well, because this is a reissue. It's a very good song, but far away from the material they had moved onto by this stage that never got within a sniff of the singles charts.
Scouse baggy with The Farm, sounding like Louie Louie with that backing, only more... 90s. Despite the referencing of the 60s. Like this one, not as sentimental as their biggest hit, though I don't know if I'd describe it as "groovy".
Caron Wheeler, well, she's persuaded them to have her sing live, so who knows what Jazzie B's beef with TOTP was in Soul II Soul. Nice to see some synchronised dance moves, like they're The Supremes or something. But the song's not very memorable, no matter how well it's sung.
Deee-Lite again, didn't realise there was a version of this without the rap, I've only ever heard it with. So you just get a minute and a half of parping sounds instead?
Loose Ends, with one original member left since we last saw them according to Jakki, and it's a bit of a step down, the bassline and drums overwhelm what tune there is. Brave try at staying relevant, though.
The video for Bombalurina turns out to be a strangely unsettling and vaguely sinister clip where it looks like they're victimising a poor girl for her poor choice of beachwear. There's a reason the original version of this record is used as a torture device in the 1960s Cold War satire movie One Two Three (Horst Buchholz from The Magnificent Seven the recipient of the torture).
All right, Janet, just accept none of the songs from Rhythm Nation will go Top Ten. She rocks out on this one, with a boring concert video, but it's a good change of pace from the ballads even if the tough attitude is a little unconvincing.
Aha, but Jackson got to No.1 in America for one week in October with this Black Cat tune, so there.
DeleteThat's probably where it mattered most to her, but the UK was not so accommodating. Maybe she was just in the shadow of her brother over here, though later in the 90s she had bigger hits.
DeleteI missed the 6th Sept (recorded the 13th one) but thought I'd add something about 'Groove Is In The Heart'. I thought it very strange that the 'Story Of' doc made no mention of the sales tie between that single and 'The Joker'. For me that was the pop event of the year. Certainly 'Newsround' thought it significant enough to run a story on it. 'The Joker' won out because of highest increase in sales for the previous week then it sped away and 'Groove' couldn't catch it. Appalled we were at school! Such a fabulous single. Also I don't completely agree that Dee Lite put all their best idwas into one single and effectivwly destroyed their career. It is the best thing on 'World Clique' but there are some other fine things on it. Certainly the party could've gone on a bit longer if 'Smile On' had come out as a single.
DeleteMic, they probably missed out the 'should have been joint number one' story as both acts were American and not British, thus not so easy to film in these times, and couldn't / didn't want to say a piece on the show.
DeleteThough if I remember correctly, the Story Of made a howler by saying Dee-Lite Was a UK number one.
DeleteI'm in the Dee-Lite camp on this one. Groove is definitely in the heart!
Deletehaving no idea that the main riff was a sample of an obscure herbie hancock instrumental, i really liked "groove is in the heart" at the time. but now i have since become acquainted with the original recording, i avoid dee lite's rip-off like coronavirus
DeleteA closer look at the outer regions of this week's chart, a new entry at No.74 for Deskee with Dance Dance which peaked here and got no higher, it's an American house group which with this particular tune sounds a lot like Wiggle It by 2 In A Room which reached No.3 a few months later in January 1991. Here's the impressive Deskee video:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0QJA36O9ic&list=RDZ0QJA36O9ic&start_radio=1
Adamski - well I can’t complain that this is a karaoke cover - interesting reimagining as a dance track.. I think vicious Pink did it better with great balls of fire some years later, but it was more than ok.
ReplyDeleteMariah Carey - slightly fuller version than on breakers. Don’t dislike it, but it doesn’t do a lot for me - still sounds too vocally gymnastic.
The farm - I liked this better at the time. Now it sounds like Happy Mondays lite. Still better than a lot of the dance/funk stuff we’ve had on the show recently.
Albums - mostly tracks we’ve seen (that god awful #£@#£& NKOTB again!), but never seen the Elton video before.
Caron wheeler - going so well, but back to the aforementioned dance/funk tracks that we have heard so often before.
Deelite - as mentioned last time, this is one of the dance tracks that have lived beyond the 80s.
Loose ends - well it had a bassline and keyboard didn’t it? - everything else was so far down in the mix it sounded like the loudspeaker’s tweeter was broken. Dull...
Bombalurina - it wasn’t THAT intsie bitsie...
Janet Jackson - wonder of wonders - I liked this. Still sounds like MJ though (cf Dirty Diana)
Yes indeed, it was quite strange that Elton would follow up the hugely successful Sacrifice/Healing Hands by bringing out a cartoon video for Club At The End Of The Street, and this one passed me by at the time, as by only reaching No.47 peak position, I was not aware of this as the follow up to his No.1 record still dropping down the charts!
DeleteJakki looking sassy tonight. She could almost join Whitesnake with that hair.
ReplyDeleteHardly the Seal of approval for the first track by Adamski. Why not just name it after the song he’d done in crap karaoke style? Dreadful. Pack the vocal mic away, lad.
First of two occasions tonight where Jakki precedes a video by looking elsewhere in the studio as if they’re there. Tsk. I’d forgotten how relatively flat chested Mariah Scarey (brilliant nickname there!) was at the start of her career. I still FF’d this after ten seconds.
“Autumnwatch” next with Talk Talk putting the wind up that badger and fox on a cold, dewy evening by the look of it. Fine song, though.
Scally baggy brought to us by The Farm, with the obvious dress code of white jeans stage front and blue jeans if behind a drumkit or keyboard. A Mark King height guitar there too.
The usual suspects in that irrelevant album chart rundown. Couldn’t we have had The Cocteau Twins instead?
Caron Wheeler with a smooth live vocal, unfortunately paired up with a plastic muzak backing and an unremarkable song.
Not the ‘rap’ version of Deee-Lite again. I can inagine a Harry Hill ‘fight’ scenario between Lady Miss Kier and Betty Boo.
You could hardly see the original member of Loose Ends there. More Soul II Soul testcard music.
From the ten seconds I bothered with, they spent pence on the video for the chart topper.
Ooer! Janet goes metal. Wasn’t expecting that. Shame she went down the unoriginal KNOB route of the ‘gig’ video.
Flawless presenting again from Jakki. Mixed bag line up.
ReplyDeleteAdamski – All shook up – I don’t think this version springs to mind when you hear that title mentioned.
Mariah Carey – Vision of love – strange how so early on in her career those ridiculously high notes were in evidence. It’s Ok but not a particular favourite. As for looks? Prefer Jakki myself.
Talk Talk – Life’s what you made it – Animal themed video to a great tune.
The Farm – Groovy Train – We’ve had ‘Night Train’, ‘Love Train’ and of course the comedy series ‘Big Train’. Not to mention ‘Morningtown Ride’ and ‘Train leaves here this morning’….and I suspect many more railway themed tunes. As for the farmers, OK I guess.
Album charts – Pavarotti seemed glued to the top5.
Caron Wheeler – Livin’ in the light – Not bad I suppose.
Dee-lite – Groove is in the Heart – Just something that passes in your head then out of it.
Loose Ends – Don’t be a fool – Been away…haven’t missed ‘em.
Bombalurina – Its bitsy – Ah the video at last….and we don’t see much if the subject matter as the girl wearing it is very shy! Love this. Apparently one of the dancers in the video is Dawn Andrews aka Mrs Gary Barlow. Can anyone verify that and say which one she is?
Janet Jackson – Black Cat – over and out.
Admaski. Bought this. Love this. No apologies.
ReplyDeleteJump and Shake everyone…
Ok so he's not the world best singer but I think it's a great dance tune
Mariah Scary with one of her better tunes here. Her early stuff isn't too bad, even if this video has about 50cents spent on it. 70s Doctor Who had better CSO. Don't mind the tune at all
One of my all-time favourite tunes next from Talk Talk. Love the way this build over that insessant beat and piano rhythm. Just magical.
The Farm. A storming Indie tune this. They weren't around for long but my goodness they had some great tunes (Groovy Train, Mind, Altogether Now). He's even got the Liam Oasis swagger!
oh my word... that Elton John video is awful.
Back to life, back to Caron and she's moved into the (day)light with a tune that might as well be a Soul II Soul tune. An album track though, it's not up to much as a single. Very forgettable. Great voice though.
Deee-Lited to see this again. Robbed of Number One I tell you... robbed!
This really is a fabulous video.
One of them still at a Loose End and back in the charts. Not sure about this one. I want to like it but just can't get excited about it. It's missing something, maybe a better chorus..? Not sure.
It seems so much longer than 3 weeks doesn't it Jakki but now we get the Itsy Bitsy video which is a massive improvement on the studio performance.
JJ in concert with her Black Cat. Another brilliant tune from her. Great end to the show.