Tonight Bono it's me instead of you
25/12/84
Frankie Goes To Hollywood – “Two Tribes”
A mysterious voice introduces this seasonal cold war opener which was number one for nine weeks in the summer. And Holly seems to have a raccoon on his head.
Howard Jones – “What Is Love?”
A live vocal from Howard for his number two hit from the beginning of the year.
Duran Duran – “The Reflex”
Performing their spring number wa-wa-wa-wa one.
Nik Kershaw – “I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”
Performing his biggest hit, which rose to number two.
Culture Club – “The War Song”
Another number two here, the much maligned War Song, although personally I quite like it.
Thompson Twins – “Doctor Doctor”
Sneaking into the party with a lowly number three!
Jim Diamond – “I Should Have Known Better”
He only had the one week at number one, so its good to see him in the studio again.
Wham! – “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” (video)
Jim introduces Wham, explaining that George should have been in the studio, but was feeling under the weather ~ maybe a bit too much Xmas pudding!
Paul Young – “Love Of The Common People”
Paul's come as a lumberjack, but where are the Fabulously Wealthy Tarts?
Duran Duran – “The Wild Boys”
Time for seconds now, starting with this autumn number two hit. And after introducing his 'noisy dressing room neighbours', Paul Young helps them out in the chorus.
George Michael – “Careless Whisper” (video)
Again on video, shame he couldn't make it into the studio to perform this solo number one hit.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood – “The Power Of Love”
Holly has swapped the raccoon for a black dressing gown, but Paul seems to be sitting this one out, a song that made it to number one for just one week in December.
Thompson Twins – “You Take Me Up”
This time performing a number two hit from the summer.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood – “Relax”
They first appeared in the studio in January performing this tune, then it was banned, seemingly by Mike Read, but in time for Xmas, the power of Top of the Pops has now unbanned it allowing Frankie perform their third number one of the show.
Band Aid – “Do They Know It’s Christmas” (+ credits)
A very ambitious studio performance of the Xmas number one, that was very close to being quite brilliant ~ if only George had made it into the studio, and Bono hadn't mysteriously turned into Paul Weller. But everyone else is here, even Sting has made it in for his bit part, and Sade and Banarama and Marilyn and the Quo - pretty much the whole gang are here for a fabulous finale.
Having already reviewed this episode when we had the 1984 run, I'm going to review instead my picks of the Channel 5 Top 30 of 1976 which was on TV last night, so here goes:
ReplyDeleteNo.27 Billy Ocean - Love Really Hurts Without You
It was great to see Billy on this show now at age 71 reviewing this single from 45 years ago, and how it propelled his career later on. This is a real classic from his singles catalogue, and still sounds so good today.
No.24 CW McCall - Convoy
Good Lord, never seen this cafe video of McCall himself singing, as the only footage we all knew in the 70s before the UTube era was the TOTP showing of the lorry video about trucking, but here for the first time we could see what McCall looks like.
No.18 Hank Mizell - Jungle Rock
Similarly never seen Hank himself singing it until this video, which must have been from another TV show, as TOTP at the time had no footage of him available throughout the year, and had to use Pans People in one of their last outings before disbanding, and even on the Xmas 1976 show at the end of the year I think Legs & Co had a go at it, as by then Pans People had split up, and did not reunite for the Xmas Day TOTP show.
No.5 Dr Hook - A Little Bit More
It's the intro of this tune that always stood out for me, which bolstered the rest of the song, and a very strong No.2 for four weeks in 1976, only stopped from No.1 by Elton & Kiki's duet across those four weeks, and this is my second favourite tune of Dr Hook after Sylvia's Mother.
No.3 Pussycat - Mississippi
Wow, what a cool tune, and my favourite of the year. Just love the boat video, and great singalong nature of the song, and wished I could go back in time to 1976 to join them on that boat. Would have made made a great summer holiday and cruise at the time if people could afford it in those days.
No.2 Elton John & Kiki Dee - Don't Go Breaking My Heart
As mentioned above, the reason for Dr Hook not getting to No.1 despite four weeks held off at No.2, this was I think Elton's last video before covering up the baldness with a hat, which seemed to follow shortly after this single and video.
Amazed not to see Bohemian Rhapsody in the top 30.
ReplyDeleteIt was in the 1975 Top 30, so I would not have expected them to give them another listing in 1976, even though the single was probably comfortably in the top 30 for 1976 too.
DeleteIt's like some of the current music video channel's like Now 70s and Now 80s with shows called, Every No.1 of the 70s, or Every No.1 of the 80's, leaving out several No.1's along the way, thinking that we are all idiots and would not notice.
Wondering what the Official Charts Company used to base this data on as this is what occurred with 1994 (Taken from the comment section here: https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/official-top-40-best-selling-songs-of-1994__33326/ ):
Delete"DUS = Defined Universe Sales. The universe in this instance is the overall "universe" or collection of retailers that report sales to the OCC through Kantar Millward Brown. By 1997 that universe amounted to 99% of all retailers selling singles and 95% of all retailers selling albums. For singles, that meant it included nearly every sale. However when Millward Brown took over chart compilation duties in February 1994 and began the DUS system it was closer to 75% for singles and probably less for albums. The charts back then were compiled under a chart panel system which sampled retailers and which would estimate total market sales. The old panel sales system was replaced by DUS in April 1997 for compiling the weekly charts.
The end result is, if DUS figures are used for sales for 1994 to Quarter 1 1997 they will be lower though the variance will be less the closer the sales weeks get to April 1997. The OCC have used DUS for 1994 when compiling this list. However there are no sales for January 1994 included as those sales aren't on the relevant computer system: they were collected by Gallup and not Millward Brown. I still think there is an error with the figure given for Wet Wet Wet. I'm sure the OCC once gave the DUS figure as being 1.3m. The OCC at least need to recheck the figures stated in the article. "
Sorry I have had a busy week so have not had a chance to pen any comments on last week's ToTP Christmas 1991, the 1975 Top 30 show nor the 1976 Top 30 show. I have just watched the 1975 show today and noticed that some No1's from that year were missing in the Top30 and not even mentioned in passing.
Delete1) Another novelty record; Billy Connolly's 'D.I.V.O.R.C.E'. All the more odd as Tammy Wynette's own No1 from that year certainly did feature.
2) Status Quo's only No1 'Down Down'.
3) The Tymes' 'Ms Grace'.
4) Mud's 'Lonely this Christmas' missing from 1974 & 1975.
Otherwise, a great show. Never realised that Clare Torry ('The Great Gig in the Sky') sung on 'There's a whole lot of loving'. Dominic Grant and co. certainly sung on later releases such as the excellent cover of 'You don't have to say you love me'.
Oh, and what was that Telly Savalas video all about?!
I am enjoying these top 30 countdowns from the 1970s .... it really takes me back. The researchers have done a good job tracking down clips.
DeleteA lot of clips have come from the Dutch equivalent of TOTP, called Top Pop. Their staff obviously didn't wipe as many shows as the BBC did.
Mud might have missed out on a placing but so did Slade with their most famous hit "Merry Xmas Everybody" in the 1973 countdown. Not even a mention.
Also Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" should have been top 5 in the 1975 countdown.
The cut off point for compiling these charts must have been early December.
Paul Weller as Bono - TOTP's funniest moment?
ReplyDeleteRight up there with the Quo and 'Margarita Time'.
DeleteThe way Weller really goes for it in the Bono part is very funny followed by his "go away" expression when he realises what's happened.
DeleteThe July '67 recovered shows brought up another funny moment, thankfully preserved on YouTube. Alan Freeman"s intro to 'Death of a Clown'. "...it's Ray Davies".
"DAVE DAVIES!!!. You did that on purpose didn't yer!"
Sad to hear that John Miles has passed away aged 72.
ReplyDeleteJohn recorded what is for me an all time classic; 'Music', given the complete 'McArthur Park' production job by Alan Parsons. John also sung on several Alan Parsons Project albums, most notably the last proper project 'Gaudi' where he handled the epic 'La Segrada Familia'.
RIP John
Really sad to hear. Although I didn't get into pop music till around 1978, the song 'Music' in 1976 was one of those that still had a familiar sound if hearing it on a school bus radio or on TV in the mid 70s, even if you didn't follow the pop charts.
DeleteWhen watching it on the first TOTP episode of the current BBC4 reruns on the 1st April '76 episode, his TOTP studio performance was just outstanding, especially the slowing down and re-pacing during the second half of the track was just pure pop gold.
Don't forget John Miles' Slow Down, an absolute tune.
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