Christmas presents are yet to be put away and that New Year hangover has still to shift but TOTP waited for nobody in 1986 and the first new show of the year was upon us on Jan 2nd. The show’s presenters are the now firmly established double act John Peel and Janice Long and tonight’s first act are a band who would come to be firmly established pop stars seen here cementing their reputation with their second hit “The Sun Always Shines On TV” – it can only be A-ha! Having achieved huge success at the third time of asking with “Take On Me”, Morten, Mags and Pal were not about to let the momentum wane and chose this barnstorming tune as a follow up.
I have to admit that I wasn’t sure on first hearing – it wasn’t as incessantly catchy as its predecessor but just a few listens in and I was on board. Building slowly as opposed to “Take On Me”‘s immediacy, it grows into a dramatic synth pop classic, full of highs and lows, stops ands starts like a roller coaster ride. It hints at the band’s potential to write a Bond theme which they duly did just two years later with “The Living Daylights”. My very favourite bit though arrives right at the very end with that final flat chord change after Morten sings “Give all your love to me” before heading into the final “to me” refrain. A small detail that really just works (for me anyway).
“The Sun Always Shines On TV” would go to No 1 for 2 weeks and was their only UK chart topper. And yes, I was still very much wanting Morten’s hairstyle for myself at this point.
As Smash Hits used to say it’s time for a whacky thumbs aloft! Yes it’s Paul McCartney with his long forgotten single “Spies Like Us”. The mid 80s proved to be a difficult period for Macca. After this No 13 single, he released the “Press To Play” album later on in the year which didn’t pull any trees up commercially and then he disappeared until the end of the decade (save for a couple of charity record appearances and a stand alone single to promote his “All The Best” collection) when he returned with the critically acclaimed album “Flowers In The Dirt”.
I never caught the “Spies Like Us” film (and I still haven’t). Had I done I may have understood the reason that I would spend three years at Polytechnic being called Dan after one of its stars Dan Ackroyd.
I could have sworn that this song was in the charts a good few weeks earlier than this as I always associate it with Christmas but it seems not. Here are Level 42 with “Leaving Me Now”. I always liked this – it was an uncharacteristic slow number from the band and it sounded quite sophisticated to the 1986 version of me. I particularly enjoyed the twinkling keyboard bits supplied by Mike Lindup and his also his “Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah” counter vocals.
By the way Janice Long, its not called “Leave Me Now!” as you would have us believe in your intro. Honestly, the amount of times that the Radio 1 DJs got the title of the songs they were introducing wrong was shameful, it really was.
“Leaving Me Now” peaked at No 15 on the charts but they would be back with a bang a few months later with their monster hit ‘Lessons In Love”.
And now, another repeat studio performance for a song we only just saw the other week – Bronski Beat with “Hit That Perfect Beat”. Their record label must have been putting in the hours to promote this single as not only are they back on TOTP but I remember it the song being a staple of Radio 1 daytime playlists. They played the Hell out of it – and why not ? It’s a good song. However one thing has always niggled me about it. “Them beat boy blues seem out of place” sings John Foster early on in the song. It’s ‘those’ John! ‘Those’ not ‘Them’!
Here come the Breakers but only two this week due to the static nature of the first chart of the new year and first up is Jennifer Rush proving that she is no one hit wonder. Who remembers “Ring Of Ice” (apart from saddos with an 80s pop addiction like me)? If you don’t then I’m not surprised as it is one of the most unremarkable pop songs ever committed to vinyl. With lyrics as lazy and lame as…
Ring of ice
Ring of ice ’round your heart
Ring of ice
Ring of ice, break apart
…how could it ever be anything but unremarkable? Somehow it managed to get all the way to No 14 which was nothing compared to the business “The Power Of Love” did but still so much more than it deserved to. Surely she should have just done another power ballad?
The quip from John Peel about her scoring more than Ian Rush was a reference to the mid season slump his beloved Liverpool FC were suffering from at the time. They would recover to win the double in May. Imagine that.
Here’s an interesting one – Sting with “Russians”. This was the fourth single taken from his album ‘The Dream Of The Blue Turtles” whose attendant singles had a very uneven success rate in the charts. Debut single “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free” had been a hit but then singles two and three had both missed the Top 40. “Russians” would go onto make No 12 but a fifth and final track issued in single format was another miss.
So why had we taken to “Russians” so much? It really is an unconventional pop song especially for the mid-80s. The composition incorporates the Romance theme from Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé Suite (I looked that up obviously!) which made for a very chilling and dramatic musical backdrop to its rather sombre subject matter of the tension of the Cold War. The lyrics are very heavy albeit contemporary for 1985 (the Cold War was not resolved until 1989). For example:
“There is no monopoly on common sense
On either side of the political fence.
We share the same biology, regardless of ideology”
Maybe it was the Live Aid effect which seemed to fuse the power of pop music with the will for political change that somehow made it sound so appealing. Whatever the reason behind its success, it remains a stand out track from the Sting back catalogue for me.
As for that bit in Janice Long’s intro about Sting being one of the Top 20 men who men would like to be according to a recent poll? Nah, he’s still a bit of a knacker in my book.
One hit wonder alert! Hailing from Jamaica, Sophia George scored her one and only UK hit with “Girlie, Girlie” but she was a much bigger star in her homeland. On reflection, she was kind of like an 80s version of fellow Jamaican one hit wonder Millie of “My Boy Lollipop” fame. To my immature ears, this sounded like a novelty hit but she was in fact a much more credible artist than the 17 year old me gave her credit for – she even had a compilation album released on legendary UK reggae label Trojan Records. John Peel seemed very enamoured with her in his intro (“Watch her go!”). Never seen such enthusiasm from Peel for a TOTP act.
There’s not much movement in the Top 10 so close to the festive season just finishing hence four Christmas songs in the countdown. These require very little further comment and neither does anything else in the list…
10. Dee C. Lee – “See The Day”: Just about top drop out of the Top 10, Ms Lee would never the day when she was back there.
9. Phil Collins / Marilyn Martin – “Separate Lives”: Christmas can be a lonely time for some people and Phil and Marilyn would have done nothing to cheer them up with this sob-athon.
8. Wham! – “I’m Your Man”: The first of two entries in the Top 10 for George and Andy. Within 6 months Wham! would be no more.
7. Madonna – “Dress You Up”: Not content with complete domination of the pop charts in 1985, she would do exactly the same thing again in 1986. You have been warned.
6. Wham! – “Last Christmas”: It’s Gorgeous George and Randy Andy (as the tabloids often referred to them) again with their re-released festive ditty
5. Aled Jones – “Walking In The Air”: It works well if you are actually watching The Snowman but did we really need a version that we could buy sung by a nausea-inducing chorister who didn’t actually sing the bloody thing in the actual film? The people who bought this should take a long hard look at themselves not least for playing a part in unleashing bloody Aled Jones onto the world.
4. Band Aid – “Do They Know It’s Christmas”: Were the people buying this record feeling guilty for not buying it first time around or were they buying a second copy?
3. Pet Shop Boys – “West End Girls”: Creeping ever closer to being No 1, the song also hit top spot in the US, won Best Single at the BRITs in 1987 and received an Ivor Novello award.
2. Whitney Houston – “Saving All My Love For You”: She could have done the decent thing and returned to No 1 thereby knocking Shaky off top spot. Jan 2nd is not Christmas time.
1. Shakin’ Stevens – “Merry Christmas Everyone”: Oh do piss off Shaky!
Play out music is Elton John with “Wrap Her Up” which was his uptempo follow up to “Nikita”. I thought it was OK, nothing special but I think my sister bought it as she was a big Wham! fan and George Michael is very prominent on backing vocals.
For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:
| Order of appearance | Artist | Song | Did I Buy it? |
|
1 | A-ha | The Sun Always Shines On TV | No but my sister was going through an A-ha phase (don’t tell George and Andy!) so she had it. |
|
2 | Paul McCartney | Spies Like Us | Nope |
|
3 | Level 42 | Leaving Me Now | No but I have a soft spot for it |
|
4 | Bronski Beat | Hit That Perfect Beat | No but I easily could have |
|
5 | Jennifer Rush | Ring Of Ice | Why did anyone buy this?! |
|
6 | Sting | Russians | No – good song though |
|
7 | Sophia George | Girlie, Girlie | Not for me thanks |
|
8 | Dee C. Lee | See The Day | No but I did like it |
|
9 | Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin | Separate Lives | Hell no! |
|
10 | Wham! | I’m Your Man | No but we all have Wham’s Greatest Hits album…don’t we? |
|
11 | Madonna | Dress You Up | No but my sister has the album on cassette |
|
12 | Wham! | Last Christmas | See 10 above |
|
13 | Aled Jones | Walking In The Air | Below, below, below….NO!!! |
|
14 | Band Aid | Do They Know It’s Christmas | First time around yes, second time no |
|
15 | Pet Shop Boys | West End Girls | Thought I did but can’t find it. No matter I have it on CD |
|
16 | Whitney Houston | Saving All My Love For You | I preferred this to D.C. Lee but still didn’t buy it |
|
17 | Shakin’ Stevens | Merry Christmas Everyone | Merry Christmas Yer Arse! NO! |
|
18 | Elton John | Wrap Her Up | No but again I’m sure my sister bought it |
Disclaimer
OK – here’s the thing – the TOTP episodes are only available on iPlayer for a limited amount of time so the link to the programme below only works for about another month so you’ll have to work fast if you want to catch the whole show as I can’t find the full programme on YouTube.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bb2ttg/top-of-the-pops-02011986
I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).
All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.
Some bed time reading?
http://likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com/2016/01/january-1-14-1986.html
TOTP Rewind - the 80s 