Delicate like rain, delicate like snow, delicate like the 17th of June 1993 edition of Top of the Pops!
Old flame
17-6-93: Presenter: Tony Dortie
(20) THE TIME FREQUENCY – The Ultimate High
Getting the show off to an energetic start and the song went up three more places.
(17) SISTER SLEDGE – Thinking Of You (Remix) (video) (and charts)
Got no higher.
(3) HADDAWAY – What Is Love
A second studio performance and the song went up one more place.
(16) STING – Fields Of Gold (via satellite)
At its peak.
(2) GABRIELLE – Dreams
Making her studio debut with what was at the time the highest ever chart debut by a new artist and it will be number one next week.
(33) KINGMAKER – Queen Jane (video) (Breakers)
Peaked at number 29.
(32) BRIAN MAY with COZY POWELL – Resurrection (video) (Breakers)
Peaked at number 23.
(28) THUNDER – Like A Satellite (video) (Breakers)
Got no higher.
(27) NIAMH KAVANAGH – In Your Eyes (video) (Breakers)
Went up three more places.
(19) TERENCE TRENT D’ARBY feat. DES’REE – Delicate
In the studio and the song peaked at number 14.
(NEW) DEBORAH HARRY – I Can See Clearly
Here tonight to perform what became her fourth and final solo top 40 hit when it peaked at number 23.
(1) UB40 – (I Can’t Help) Falling In Love With You (video)
Second and final week at number one.
24th of June is next.
Deborah Harry - Last year of singles as a solo performer, this would be her final Top 30 hit, as for the rest of the 90s, Blondie would be back with some 70s re-releases back in the Top 20 in 1994 and 1995, and then of course a new single in 1999 called Maria.
ReplyDeleteUB40 - only two weeks at No.1, you wouldn't blame anyone for thinking they were No.1 for longer, considering the amount of radio play this had. In fact they would go on to have 7 weeks at No.1 in America with this single in July, August and September, around the whole school holidays period pretty much exactly.
Wierd performance by debbie harry. That magician wouldn’t get past health and safety these days :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat start to the show with The Time Frequency. Not sure how much of that vocal was live and the backing track is doing most of the heavy lifting here. Good dance tune though. Laters starts talking before we actually get to him so the first link is a bit of a mess and he's no fan of yet another Sister Sledge remix. This time completely ruining "Thinking Of You". Fourth Sledge neatly blotted out of the video.
ReplyDeleteA rather lacklustre performance of "What Is Love" I thought from Haddaway. Still a great tune though.
A rather disinterested performance from Sting? Did he think is was a rehearsal? I like "Fields Of Gold" though and most of the Sting tunes from this time.
One of the 90s gems next with Gabrielle storming into Number 2 with "Dreams" (Whigfield will outdo her very soon). I love this song for 2 reasons. One it's a great song, and secondly because it takes the awful "fast car" tune and turns it into something good. Loved the staging of this one as well.
Breakers:
KINGMAKER – Be grateful what you have
BRIAN MAY with COZY POWELL – Usual Brian May sound
THUNDER – Forgotten it already
NIAMH KAVANAGH – Sonia lost to this dross?
Terence and Des’ree make a good pairing and this is a really nice tune. Best in show tonight after Gabrielle.
Deborah Harry with a rather odd performance for "I Can See Clearly". It's very much doing what PSB did with Lisa Minelli in terms of musical temperament and I quite liked it in the end.
UB40 still missing in action but it is a great tune.
Three singles further down the chart at peak position this week, and with no TOTP for them:
ReplyDeleteNo.37 Manchester United & The Champions - United (We Love You)
Hot on the heels of the recent Arsenal single release a few weeks earlier which also only managed a No.34 peak position, it seemed that the days of football singles which were the fashion the 80s, were pretty much over by now, and I can't think that there were any more after this one and after 1993, but no doubt we will see.
No.56 Bobby Brown - That's The Way Love Is
Second song in a row to peak outside the Top 40, but was to have better success in 1994 and 1995, so lots more to come from Brown.
No.72 Everything But The Girl - I Didn't Know I Was Looking For Love
Amazing to think they had a Top 30 single on debut as far back as 1984, but were generally part-timers for Top 40 entries in the 10 years between 1984 to 1994, as many of their singles didn't even break into the Top 40, but the big breakthrough in 1995 with Missing would change everything (but the girl), and give them regular Top 40 singles until 2001.
Of course that song is going to have a big cover version in a few years from Karen Ramirez
DeleteYup, in 1998, but the song title from Ramirez was shortened to Looking For Love.
DeleteAlso, Bjork was a new entry with her stunning debut single Human Behaviour at number 36 this week, dropping out the top 40 the following week. She’s back this week (as in 2022!) with another, rather crazy, newbie.
DeleteAlthough I suppose her true debut was back in 1977 when Iceland was treated to her incredible “Love to Love” cover aged just 12 or so.
What was up with the sound for Sting? Sounded like he was covered in cotton wool.
ReplyDeleteDecent opening with Time Frequency. Could Sister Sledge really not make the studio?
I'd forgotten Des'ree was on Delicate. Nice performance, is it TTD's last hurrah? I don't remember many hits after this one.
Speaking of not remembering, I don't recall the Debbie Harry song either. It also seemed to have some sound issues.
Strong performance from Gabrielle, aka the easiest Masked Singer to guess in history (even more than CeeLo and Lenny Henry)
Rad, according to the bespoke Popscene website, Terence appeared once more in 1995 with "Holding On To You".
DeleteA bit of McRave to start with. One of the better songs of this genre in my view.
ReplyDeleteFully agree with Tony about the dreadful Sister Sledge remixes. Lucky they didn’t have too many hits to desecrate.
“Sorry, Had, mate, the props cupboard’s locked so we can’t do you the palm trees this time”.
From the few seconds I saw of Sting and his happy crew they all looked asleep.
Gabrielle’s tune was well performed and all that but I’ve never liked it.
Breakers: Not Kingmaker’s best and I wish Loz would stop sneering so much / galactic poodle rock / this lot again? How many minor hits did they have? / a thinner looking Gaelic Sonia with some drivel which makes me worry how bad all the other Eurovision finalists’ songs were.
Terence Trent D’Arby smiling?!?! Lovely performance and a good combination of vocals there, but I got bored hearing the title repeated ad infininininitum.
Debs in an interesting dark peekaboo dress, but I’d have preferred Paul Daniels on stage with her. Did I like this song? Not a lot!
Last time for UB40’s cover until Christmas, thank goodness.