Honey, it's getting close to seven, and time for the 3rd of January 1991 edition of Top of the Pops!
Happy Boo Year!
3-1-91: Presenter: Gary Davies
(29) BETTY BOO – 24 Hours
Getting the new year underway on this live show and the song went up four more places.
(34) BILL MEDLEY & JENNIFER WARNES – (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life (video)
Had made it to number 6 in 1987, this time around it reached number 8.
(31) GAZZA – Geordie Boys (Gazza Rap) (video)
Got no higher.
(14) BLACK BOX – The Total Mix (video)
Went up two more places.
(11) SEAL – Crazy
One of only two acts in the studio tonight and the song was heading towards number 2.
(25) C & C MUSIC FACTORY feat. FREEDOM WILLIAMS – Gonna Make You Sweat (video)
Became their first of two top ten hits when it peaked at number 3.
(5) CLIFF RICHARD – Saviour’s Day (video) (Album Chart)
From his number 3 album From A Distance...The Event.
(4) PAVAROTTI, DOMINGO & CARRERAS – O Sole Mio (live clip) (Album Chart)
From the number one album In Concert.
(3) PHIL COLLINS – Do You Remember (live clip) (Album Chart)
From his number 2 album Serious Hits...Live!
(2) ELTON JOHN – Sacrifice (video) (Album Chart)
From his number one album The Very Best Of Elton John
(1) MADONNA – Vogue (video) (Album Chart)
From her number one album The Immaculate Collection
(23) ANTHRAX – Got The Time (video)
Peaked at number 16.
(21) PATSY CLINE – Crazy (video)
Became her biggest hit when it peaked at number 14.
(1) IRON MAIDEN – Bring Your Daughter… To The Slaughter (video)
First of two weeks for the band's only number one.
(36) ORCHESTRA ON THE HALF SHELL – Turtle Rhapsody (video) (and credits)
Got no higher.
January 10th is next.
Betty Boo had already peaked at 25 in December explaining why it fell out of the Top 40 the next week.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned previously on this forum, a highly unusual occurrence at the time of a song on the show not at its peak. Talking of time, Anthrax's hit is a cover of a track from Joe Jackson's debut album "Look Sharp".
DeleteIt seemed to have been featured because she went back up a place in the post-Christmas lull.
DeleteAlways available, Betty Boo dresses up as a Liquorice Allsort for her studio performance of a ditty we'd previously seen on video. Still don't know why she opted for a song rather than a rap, but I liked it more this time. Must be her natural exuberance.
ReplyDeleteBecause the film was on TV (!) Bill and Jen get a second bite at the cherry, in fact I'm not sure we saw this on the show first time around, I don't remember that video, anyway. Wedding disco/hen night staple, weird how the film's set in the 60s but they dance to music from the 80s, how old is Patrick Swayze supposed to be anyway? etc, etc
Possibly the most lavish video we've seen on TOTP, they must have spent a fortune on this one, no expense spared. Yes, it's Gazza, doing a Gazza strip. At least Kevin Keegan stopped after one single.
Black Box again, strictly filler, then Seal is the only other studio act, much the same as last time. Seal covering Patsy Cline would have been something to hear.
Clavilles and Cole with a cool, stylised video, taking a leaf out of Snap's book for this one. It's OK, but there was better to come.
Then the top 5 albums, every one a greatest hits compilation of some kind. I suppose record tokens were being spent across the land.
Anthrax with a surprisingly respectable cover for such an unrespectable bunch, this succeeds better than you would expect the thrash metal style would. They seem to be playing so loudly, whole buildings are being demolished.
And here's Patsy, looking like amateur night on US cable TV, with the other Crazy. Nice song, a bit sorry for itself, but I don't know if this presentation does it justice.
Then to take advantage of the low sales at this time of year, Iron Maiden cashed in and hit the top spot. I think this tune was taken from the soundtrack from Nightmare on Elm Street 5, hence the lyrics. Concert video, quelle surprise.
Did the Turtles get the bloke who made Gazza's video to make theirs? The sound of the bottom of a barrel being scraped. The Secret of the Ooze spawned no hits a year later, as far as I know.
It was a little strange that Betty Boo was on stage on her own, and without her two Booettes that played keyboards for her on stage on her previous singles, but hey, better some Betty than no Betty at all.
DeleteThe fact that Orchestra On A Half Shell was played as playout at No.36, this video-heavy show featured main slots all the down to No.36 which is quite an achievement, as normally we would only get that low in the rundown with a Breakers section, but considering that all the videos on the show got around one-and-a-half minutes of their videos played, it was like the whole show was Breakers.
Good Lord, I just spotted that Betty Boo after this TOTP performance at No.29, crashed down all the way to No.47 the following week, so maybe in hindsight it would have been better to have had her group with her instead of coming to TOTP on her own this week!
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ReplyDeleteIt feels so wrong to start a new year without a Big Hits and The Story Of... I don't like it.
ReplyDeleteBetty Boo - this was my favourite of hers at the time, but not sure it's aged well.
Bill'n'Jen: It seems weird now that TV showings of films could put songs back in the charts in an era of physical formats but pretty sure this wasn't the first instance and it won't be the last. For one, the Pretty Woman TV premiere will put It Must Have Been Love back up there in a couple of years (and maybe some others from that soundtrack too?)
Gazza - it feels uncomfortable watching him with his top off. Well, it feels uncomfortable watching Gazza full stop knowing how his life spiralled not long after this.
Black Box - So fed up of megamixes now.
Seal - for me his best solo track (though I prefer Adamski's Killer overall).
C&C Music Factory - I like this a lot but hard to hear it now without imagining Marge Simpson doing 'Every Simpson dande now'
Albums - look what everyone's mum got for Christmas (with the possible exception of Madge, I got that one and my mum was not a fan!)
Anthrax - I've always enjoyed this one and it's kind of a precursor to the likes of Blink-182.
Patsy Cline - not sure why this is here, was it on an ad? Great song, terrible video.
Iron Maiden - One of my favourite bizarro number ones. I used to find it hilarious.
Turtles: Yeah, enough already.
AT this point in time I was definitely not watching as I was getting ready for my wedding! My wife and I certainly didn’t choose the dreadful new no1 as our first dance (‘Sometimes when we touch’ by Dan Hill in case anyone wondered…..).
ReplyDeleteBetty Boo – 24 Hours – From Tulsa? Getting a bit tired of the novelty.
Medley & Warnes – (I’ve had) The time of my life- I was wondering what on earth this was doing back in the charts when Gary told us afterwards. Great song, but amazing that a TV premiere carried so much weight in those days. Saying that, we’ve had the likes of The Thorn Birds Theme and Ghost doing likewise.
Gazza – Geordie Boys (Gazza Rap) – The Lindisfarne collaboration was bad enough….
Black Box – Total Mix – Argh!
Seal – Crazy – First crazy song on this show and it still sounds great. A highlight of the show.
C&C Music Factory – Gonna make you sweat – Note sure it made me sweat….
Albums – They must have been getting sick of Pavarotti and his mates by now. Nice to see the ‘Saviours Day’ video…and Madonna’s ‘Immaculate Collection’ only seems to have one track on it. Actually I did buy that album and to my disgust some of the hits were re-recorded or something; they didn’t sound right anyway.
Anthrax – Got the time – Joe Jackson wrote that? Steppin’ out it ain’t
Patsy Cline – Crazy – I was looking forward to hearing this great track but it doesn’t sound at its best in this version that the beeb unearthed.
Iron Maiden – Bring your daughter to the slaughter – Given all the great HM tracks that didn’t make No1 this feel like scraping the barrel and for me is a very unworthy chart topper. This record spent five weeks in the top 75. Say no more, but in the record books it will always have bragging rights over classics such as ‘The Air that I breathe’.
Orchestra on the Half Shell – Turtle Rhapsody – Turtle obsession persists into 1991…
sct i've never had the misfortune to be in matrimony (!), but you have made me wonder what i might choose as the "first dance" tune in the unlikely event that ever happened?
Deleteimmediate contenders that come to mind are art garfunkel's version of "i only have eyes for you" and "walk in love" by manhattan transer. or maybe i'd pick one of the many recordings i have of burt bacharach's "the look of love"? anyway, perhaps other contributors who have had that experience can tell us their selections?
as thx notes: by this point singles sales were not only at their traditionally nadir of the year, but by then had substantially nosedived in general in the last half decade. so no surprise maiden's enterprising manager rod "smallwallet" made the most of that - also setting a template that would no doubt be taken advantage of in years to come
as readers may know, i am no fan of the beatles. but even so, i think it's outrageous that the likes of boyzone and westlife are officially credited with as many no.1 hits as them (if not more) despite selling a tenth of what they did! if that?
Deleteas they say: there are lies, damn lies, and statistics ha ha
Not ‘first dance’, but when I got married second time around we played meat loaf ‘rock n roll dreams come true’, but due to a delay after we began we actually tied the knot to ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’...
DeleteGreat one, Charlie! :-D Our first dances were "Stranger On The Shore" followed by "Moon River".
DeleteFirst dance we had was Bob Seger “we got tonight”. Not exactly a lyrical paen to fidelity thinking about it.
DeleteFirst Dance. John Lennon, Woman. Bit of class 👍
DeleteBetty boo - 24 hours. Pleasant enough, but not got the pizzazz of her earlier hits
ReplyDeleteBill medley and jennifer warnes- at first i thought this was back in the charts due to the righteous brothers recent no 1, which would have been ironic as he didn’t sing on it. the actual reason, dirty dancing being on tv, was interesting - the days when tv shows and adverts could launch rereleases
Gazza - absolute dribble! (Did you see what I did there?)
Black mix - yet another megamix. All this proves is that they all sounded the same
Seal - I liked this at the time, and still do. Were the gloves a tribute to Alvin Stardust? (That was a joke, by the way, and shows my age)
C&c music factory - another I liked at the time, and still did this time but it sounded different to how I remembered it. Was this different mix from the single?
Top 5 albums - nothing new in the selection shown
Anthrax - well this is different - I quite liked it! (Serendipity that this should be on TOTP rerun the weekend of Italy’s HM win in Eurovision) [pre post look at comments reveals this to be a cover of a Joe Jackson song - well I never!
Patsy cline - as mentioned above, rereleased from an advert
Iron Maiden - more HM. I remember this being a planned post Christmas release when less sales are needed to chart. [pre post read reveals this comment already made]
More Turtles - don’t remember this! Barrel. Scrape.[pre post - and another. I didn’t peek, honest]
Well, I quite enjoyed that! No FF (not even the Turtles)
Smooth Gaz introduces a right old Variety Pack of music on this show. Shame it wasn’t a cereal. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteA dreadful ill-fitting top for Betty, no-one to sing the line “I need you 24 hours”. Not fully thought through, this, though Betty gets plus marks for applauding the audience at the end.
The “Dirty Dancing” song simply reminds me these days of the Comic Relief skit with Paddy McGuinness and Leigh Francis (Keith Lemon), the latter as Baby. Brilliant jump and lift in their routine, admittedly.
Gazza predicts his future with alocholic rap. Oh dear.
Why have Katrin mime on one track when she can lip sync to three? Awful. Bill Medley gets on three mugshots and at least sings on two of the singles, compared to Katrin’s two and zip.
Think back to early 1980 and before, and try to imagine the Top Of The Pops Orchestra accompanying Seal, who also joins in the Broocie “What a wonderful audience” vibe by clapping them before and after his powerful mime.
In my day, C&C was a soft drinks manufacturer with a factory in nearby Sunbury-on-Thames. I much preferred that C&C to this one.
The album chart again, Yawn and FF times 5.
Now we’re talking! Tony Blackburn might have called Anthrax ‘a bit of that sort of metal’. This stays very true to the original version. Really enjoyed it!
Patsy Cline, with a great keening voice, and an ultra-regional clip which would be like having Adele on “About Anglia” these days.
Tonight’s TOTP is sponsored by Marshall stacks. Cliff’s turkey and non-alcoholic snowball followed by Iron Maiden’s whole hog roast and booze cocktail. Bring it on!
What a prick in the white top next to Gaz in the outro, followed by... turtle soup, anyone?
Ooh Gary Davies. It's LIVE. It's 1991.
ReplyDeleteGulf War, Bryan Adams, Robin Hood, Hubble, USSR, Yugoslavia, Freddie Mercury, Sex in the charts!
I was 16/17. Just left school and stating a 30 year career in retail that came to an abrupt end last year.
So let's start with a 1990 hangover...
BETTY BOO – 24 Hours
Plastic fantastic Ms Boo with a catchy little number that deserved better. Boo-ettes still hungover from New Year obviously. Fabulous start to the show. Happy holidays Betty.
BILL MEDLEY & JENNIFER WARNES – (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life
Great film. Great soundtrack. Great tune.
*New chart font* Nice.
GAZZA – Geordie Boys (Gazza Rap)
Well this is shit. Filmed in a taxi. No expense spared. Can we get Ant + Dec to cover this?
BLACK BOX – The Total Mix
Mimimg ahoy. Pass. Can't believe I liked this at the time.
SEAL – Crazy
Best tune of the night. Quality this one. I really like his voice and he had some great tunes to go with it.
C & C MUSIC FACTORY feat. FREEDOM WILLIAMS – Gonna Make You Sweat
Awesome dance tune this one. Still love listening to this. Sounded so fresh and different in 1991 and it's aged really well. Like.
Xmas money went on a cassette that was December's number one album. Result!
ANTHRAX – Got The Time
Noise. Next.
PATSY CLINE – Crazy
Well done to the researcher for finding this clip. Not my cup of tea. Clearly popular though. Never realised she had died so long ago.
IRON MAIDEN – Bring Your Daughter… To The Slaughter
And our first concert video of the year...this again is not my sort of music but I don't mind it. Maiden did Heavy Metal well and I can appreciate it.
ORCHESTRA ON THE HALF SHELL – Turtle Rhapsody
Shame these Turtles weren't more endangered.
It's unfortunate that The C&C Music Factory only got one play on TOTP on this show at No.25, cos two weeks later when they were still going up and at No.3, they didn't get played when they should have, as it was two weeks after their first play, and it could have got them a No.1 the following week if TOTP had played them that week at No.3.
DeleteIn any case they made it to No.1 with this same track in America a few weeks later in February 1991, and stayed on the top spot for two weeks, so what was TOTP's failure of judgement was America's jump for joy.