A man decides after thirty years that what he goes there for is the 13th of December 1990 edition of Top of the Pops!
Ee-aye-ee-aye-oh!
13-12-90: Presenter: Simon Mayo
(34) SHAKIN’ STEVENS – The Best Christmas Of Them All
Getting the show underway with a lesser known Xmas hit which peaked at number 19.
(13) THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS – You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ (clip of TOTP 28-1-65)
Had been a number one in 1965, this time around it made it to number 3.
(14) YAZOO – Situation (Remix) (video)
From their 1982 album Upstairs At Eric's, this became the duo's fifth and final top 20 hit when it peaked at number 14.
(15) MALANDRA BURROWS – Just This Side Of Love
In the studio tonight to perform what became the only top 40 hit for the Emmerdale Farm actress when it peaked at number 11.
(24) INXS – Disappear (video) (Breakers)
Peaked at number 21.
(27) ENIGMA – Sadness Part 1 (video) (Breakers)
On its merry way to number one.
(30) GEORGE MICHAEL – Freedom (video) (Breakers)
Went up two more places.
(31) THE CARPENTERS – (They Long To Be) Close To You (video) (Breakers)
Had peaked at number 6 in 1970, this time around it made it to number 25.
(32) SEAL – Crazy
In the studio to perform what became his first of four excellent solo top ten hits when it peaked at number 2.
(22) BLACK BOX – The Total Mix (video)
Peaked at number 12.
(10) CHRIS ISAAK – Wicked Game
At his peak.
(1) VANILLA ICE – Ice Ice Baby (video)
Third of four weeks at number one.
(17) DIMPLES D – Sucker D.J. (and credits)
At her peak.
20th of December is next.
Another mixed bag as 1990 draws to a close with a couple of peeks into what '91 has in store.
ReplyDeleteShakin' Stevens; Shakey is back, dressed as a fire extinguisher and doing his rockapointless thing for the christmas chart. This must be his last appearance surely. Lots of screaming going on which must've been an order from the gantry. Not the worst xmas single of them all but would never be anywhere near my playlist for May / December.
The Righteous Brothers; I feared this would have clips of 'Top Gun' running through it but thankfully no. Total classic so can't really criticise. Lots of the well known totp performance from 1965 but without the moments with the audience members. Btw was that appearance recorded in the States and sent to the show for broadcast? Always wondered.
Yazoo; A dance makeover of the one Yazoo single I've never been that bothered about. Doesn't improve it of course. The video is a nice watch with the camera on passers by idea later taken up by Blur for the 'For Tomorrow' video.
Malandra Burrows; My CD copy of 'Second Annual Report' by Throbbing Gristle hasn't been played in a while.
INXS; A little burst of this before a longer showing in the next edition. I bought this single at the time and still think it's a pretty good.
Enigma; A brief as it gets clip of a single bound for No.1. The only ambient dance No.1? Don't know any others. Certainly one of a kind and would be easily one of my singles of the year if it wasn't so totally part of 1991 for me. Can't wait to have more of this. Marvellous.
George Michael; Another very brief clip which is something of a missed opportunity as it was a real talking point when it came out. What little was shown still looks iconic (Christy Turlington was my favourite).
The Carpenters; Another reissue, another guess as to why but, well, sounds and looks great.
Seal; What's coming up No.2.
No one would've begrudged Seal starting his solo career with a forgettable 'give me a chance, I was on a No.1 single' effort. Instead he comes along with an absolutely cracking record, one that kicks off a year as perfectly as any I can think of. Another single of the year that will have to not be for this year. If I reach seventy (sorry sairvunty) years old I would be just as excited by this single as I was when I was fifteen.
Black Box; We've had the miming to someone else's voice on a cut-up of a record and miming another's voice on a cover version. We might as well get the same pretence on a mix of all the stuff they've already put out. Damn you Katrin! Stop looking so fantastic.
Chris Isaak; Great but seen before...
Vanilla Ice; Not so great but seen before....
Dimples D; Another repeat. Hmm ok. A studio appearance accompanying the credits. Not seen that for a while.
I think Shakin had one more hit the following Xmas in 1991, as by now he had stopped doing the regular singles releases through the year, as 1990 had several singles failing to break the top 40, so this appearance was a bit of a comeback since his last TOTP appearance in early 1990, and seemed to concentrate only on the Xmas market from this point, so effectively retired.
DeleteIt's quite mysterious as to how a January 1965 TOTP footage of the Righteous Brothers on a wiped show, suddenly appears in December 1990 for the current chart, and also the video footage of the courting couple surely was not on the January 1965 performance, as they were not known to intersperse studio and video footage on a TOTP studio appearance, so it would be interesting to hear from anyone on both of these counts, as I'm totally confused!
It looks like the scenes with the couple were in all the places where the camera switches to members of the studio audience. Maybe it was thought that a straight repeat of the clip was too retro for 1990. It does have the feel of a specially commisioned for Totp promo clip.
DeleteI think about half of the 28th Jan 1965 show exists. The same with 19th August 1965 the video footage of which crops up on various compilations; Byrds, Sonny and Cher etc.
A confounding din of screams accompanies Shaky's final (regular) appearance on TOTP, and it's a festive single owing a lot to Lonely This Christmas by Mud, only sped up. Prefer this to the actual Christmas Number 1 from 1990.
ReplyDeleteThe Righteous Bros, well, it's a classic of course, helped by Phil Spector's Wall of Sound, and at one point it was the song with the most radio airplay of all time. The familiar performance is mysteriously intercut with what looks like footage from an educational short.
Yazoo get the remix treatment, sounds a bit cheap and nasty compared with the original, though unlike the next remix they had to hit the charts, it has not replaced its original on radio playlists. Video is high concept on a low budget.
Neighbours was spawning hit artistes, so why not Emmerdale (did they still have the Farm in the title at that point?). All I can say to Malandra is "Nay, Mr Wilkes", this is pure synthetic cheese for cruise ships.
We see all the Breakers again apart from George, whose video yet again shows off his disdain for being a massively successful pop star who was allowed to do anything he wanted. It was a real burden. See also: Robbie Williams, who made a point of having a bigger hit with it later on.
I was always lukewarm on Seal's solo career, he had a good voice and a good look, but the results were always kind of middle class dinner party trying to be cool in front of the neighbours. They screamed for Shaky and not this more impressive specimen?!
Black Box apparently doing the Stars on 45 move, but all we hear and see is one of their previous hits almost in entirety. Maybe this was a new video for it?
Simon says he was baffled by Wild at Heart, not sure why, for David Lynch it's pretty straightforward. Is Chris's guitar named after him, or was he afraid it would be nicked?
Back to the video for Vanilla Ice, my, those rhymes are pure gorgonzola, then a repeat of Dimples D, seemingly because we'd reached the video quotient for this week.
It seems George Michael since going solo after Wham refused or was not invited to the TOTP studio to perform, as all we were getting was short video clips for each new single release. Considering that he had been solo for a few years by 1990, it was becoming like Madonna who never performed in the TOTP studio, but George Michael was still living in the UK, so not sure why the TOTP studio was cumbersome for him to come and perform, as he would have surely had more solo No.1's?
DeleteI thought that this new Yazoo re-release of a 1982 B-side and remixed for 1990, sounded like a hustling Jam (The Jam) much like Paul Weller's hustling tones on his earlier Jam singles before The Style Council days. On Black Box, Simon Mayo supported your view when he said at the end of the clip that all their hits were on one single on this new Total Mix!
George was having issues with his record company at the time, hence his whingeing Freedom! lyrics and lack of appearance in the video.
DeleteChart Rundown - a new entry this week by Orchestra On The Half Shell with Turtle Rhapsody was a continuation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles phenomenon now about six months in full flow since the big No.1 in July.
ReplyDeleteThis new tune seemed to flirt with the top 40, as it fell out the following week to No.41 and then over Xmas went back in at No.38, and luckily got shown on the playout the on the first TOTP show 0f 1991 when at a peak of No.36, so we will get to see them on the 1991 TOTP opening show with Gary Davies, before they slide out of the Top 40 the following week for good.
I have to say, despite some recent utterings from me that this was a pretty enjoyable show overall. Nice style from Simon (echoing PP’s ‘The Pops’).
ReplyDeleteShakin’ Stevens – The best Christmas of them all – Was it? Don’t hear this one very often unlike his other yuletide offering. It’s a nice bouncy way to start the show however. Heard ‘This ‘ole House’ on the radio the other day and it does still sound pretty good, as does Rosemary Clooney’s original.
Righteous Brothers – You’ve lost that lovin’ feeling – A mini revival for the brothers thanks to a well celebrated spooky movie. So who were the passionate couple shown interspersed with Bobby and Bill?
Yazoo – Situation (remix) – A big surprise! What prompted this remix and release I wonder? The original on the B Side of ‘Only You’ sounds pretty good without the remix. No sign of Vince and Alf in the video just a collection of shots that you’d see recorded on mobile phones these days. Looks like one chap is on Waterloo Bridge.
Malindra Burrows – Just this side of love – Nice record, but Malindra who? Never watched Emmerdale Farm so maybe that’s why I am in the dark.
Breakers – INXS – I can do without Hutchence’s preening but a London tube train caught my eye. Enigma – Ah, it’s great… more later. George Michael – Was it some kind of in joke calling this ‘Freedom!’. Nothing like the well known other one. Carpenters – Well it was lovely to see a clip of one of the very best female singers ever. ‘(They long to be) Close to you’ wasn’t the lead track however as the seasonal ‘Merry Christmas Darling’ was on the front of the picture sleeve along with a limited edition Christmas card being included. No video for that I guess… Incidentally, the recent orchestrated Carpenters release featured MCD amongst all the other (non-seasonal) tracks which makes for weird listening in any month other than December.
Seal – Crazy – First of two ‘Crazy’ songs to be in the charts at this time – Patsy Cline’s song written by Willie Nelson is heading up as well and is at no47 this week. Funnily enough, the first song that comes to mind for me when the title ‘Crazy’ appears is Mud’s debut hit single from 1973 written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn. Oh yes, as Nicky says, great performance from Seal. I was hoping he wouldn’t trip over the mic stand he dropped.
Black Box – The Total Mix – The kind of record to avoid.
Chris Isaak – Wicked Game – This is a repeat worth seeing if only for the slinky backing singers. I do like the Dire Straits / Chris Rea groove though. Anyone who watches snooker may recall that the instrumental bit from this on a loop was used to accompany the ‘shot of the (World Championship) tournament’ footage one year.
Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby – Just unbelievable how this hogged the top spot.
Dimples B – Sucker DJ – Easy to FF.
Ah, here is the full TOTP original footage of The Righteous Brothers, but without the courting couple as seen interspersed on the 1990 re-release:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DHI-g4Fq4w
My only conclusion is that the January 1965 footage which Simon Mayo is referring to is probably the second appearance on TOTP, where they must have decided to add in some video footage of a courting couple, as the original TOTP clip on U-tube with the full Brothers uninterrupted by any movie footage says 1964. Anyone know of any other explanation as to why there are two different TOTP 1964/65 versions?
Three songs peaking this week just outside the top 40 and narrowly missing out on a TOTP appearance:
ReplyDeleteNo.42 - Technotronic with their first flop called Turn It Up ft Melissa & Einstein. Good Lord, they were only to have two more Top 20 hits in 1991, and then it was all over for them as far as new singles go.
No.44 - A-Ha with I Call Your Name - the first song of theirs failing to make top 40 since their debut in 1985 with their biggest hit Take On me.
No. 45 - The Beautiful South with My Book. This was the first follow-up to their No.1 A Little Time, and so this is an example of how a No.1 single is followed up by a flop not even making Top 40, and maybe it was because the last fronting line up with Dave Hemmigway on A Little Time was totally done away with and thrown out, going back to just Paul Heaton on his own:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J2yS8lPtE0
....and, of course, Paul Heaton got sued by Soul II Soul for nicking the chorus of "Back To Life" for the very end part of this flop.
DeleteI did think it was a little strange that anyone would remove a winning formula on a No.1 record to change the lead vocals for the follow-up single. Heaton while the familiar face of The Beautiful South didn't have as good a voice as Dave Hemingway who took The Beautiful South to more success than Heaton, by means of Song For Whoever, a No.2 in 1989, and A Little Time, a No.1 in 1990. The mind boggles.
DeleteSimilar story with The Stranglers, who insisted on following up "Golden Brown" with "La Folie", a less than commercial track sung in his native French by Jean-Jacques Burnel. It tanked at number 47.
DeleteNice to see Rod Stewart in the studio audience, just at the start.
ReplyDeleteNow now, that is a fine looking lady I will have you know!
DeleteFinally, after about three months, we’re back!
ReplyDeleteAlways good to have the Mayo on board.
First up it’s Shaky, as in shaky recent chart career, with a song for a time of year as cold as May 2021 currently is. Finish as you started with your act there, fella. Never a big fan but ta anyway. Shut those baying kids up!
Ooer, the second Righteous Brother’s turned up this time. I still prefer this version of the song, though...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJvGdOC6D1Y
Yazoo – great song, nondescript remix, crap video.
Next up, a singer who really should have used the pseudonym Emma Dale. Boom boom tish! Malandra is actually a portmanteau – no, that’s not in France. A portmanteau is the first half of one word and the second of another making up a new word. In this case, a combination of Malcolm and Sandra, her parents’ names. Obviously an actress with an eagle’s eye for the right camera. This sounded like Gloria Estabygum.
Inxs. Disappear. I wish they would.
Great! Monk rap, and the first Mayo record of the week mention of the night.
Can you spot George Michael? He broke free. See what I did there?
Great swing for Karen. One of their better songs.
Second Mayo record of the week mention of the night (“Kinky Boots”) prior to Seal looking more like a bat with his coat before giving a doozie of a performance.
I loved Simon’s satire about the Black Box rehash.
Three repeats to finish, including another chance to see Chris Isaak’s backing singer frugging out of time and wearing a stick-on dress two sizes too small. Only just noticed the matching Action Transfers on both backing singers’ arms. Not just thrown together, that.
Thought that Righteous Brothers link was heading to Cilla's version which was out at the same time as the brothers.
DeleteDecember 1990 - Now officially the longest month in history thanks to a prince and some snooker balls.
ReplyDeleteAnd Xmas is coming too...well it is dark and miserable outside, nice of the weather to join in...
SHAKIN’ STEVENS – The Best Christmas Of Them All
This is a rather lively Xmas tune from Shaky. The tinsel is out as well, Cliffmas has started (that is what we are calling it now isn't it?)
THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS – You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’
Now this is an old TOTP clip and possibly one of the most played music clips in TV history? Not sure about the film snippets but she clearly wasn't leaving him out in the cold.
YAZOO – Situation (Remix)
Dance Yazoo next and I'm not sure how "official" this was judging by the video. The remix is a good one but it looses some of the charm of the original.
MALANDRA BURROWS – Just This Side Of Love
A star from the pre=plane crash "Farm" days of Emmerdale next. A nice tune for the Mums and Dads to buy this Xmas. It's OK but nothing special. It's all Drugs, Drink and Death in Emmerdale nowadays, barely a cow in site (save Charity Dingle).
Breakers:
INXS – Hope this won't "Disappear" too soon. Really decent tune and Mick in his "sex-god" phase.
ENIGMA – Sorry Enigma you are 3 weeks early for 1991, come back in January.
GEORGE MICHAEL – Searching for "Freedom" from Sony so we get some Supermodels instead. I'm fine with that. Robbie Williams stole this for when he left Take That. Must admit I think Robbie did it better.
THE CARPENTERS – Live from the set of Play School. Not a fan.
SEAL – Crazy
Great tune. Serious muscles. Why is he gyrating in front of Davros' chair?
BLACK BOX – The Total Mix
Proving that Ride On Time was a one-off it's the Shit-Mix from BB. Technotronic have already shown us how it should be done. Will SNAP! have learnt when theirs comes along?
CHRIS ISAAK – Wicked Game
Always get this guy confused with Harry Connick JNR (hence my film star observation last week). Song hasn't improved since last time.
VANILLA ICE – Ice Ice Baby (video)
Great live performance last week. Video not great in comparison and I'm skipping this one now.
(17) DIMPLES D – Sucker D.J. (and credits)
A (repeated) live performance for the play out and still loving this one.