We’ve missed an episode that was Mike Smith’d so we have landed in April 1988 and with a show that features a whole ten songs that haven’t been seen before on these TOTP repeats. Watching all these shows back now, it got me wondering how I would have seen any of them when originally broadcast? I was in my second year of being a student at Sunderland Polytechnic living in a shared house with four other guys but only one of them had a TV and that was in his room so unless I crashed his space every Thursday at around 7.30 I don’t see how I would have watched any of them. I think at some point we may have had a portable TV in the downstairs kitchen area but I don’t recall watching many shows via that method. So how did I even know what some of these new acts looked like if I wasn’t seeing them on TOTP? We didn’t have YouTube, iPlayer and Netflix back then, we didn’t even have a access to a VHS recorder to tape them. I’m pretty sure I had left my Smash Hits reading days well behind me by then so that wasn’t an option. Saturday morning TV? Possibly – it was a staple of student living back then not like today when terrestrial TV schedules are full of food magazine programmes hosted by the likes of Sara Cox and that bloke who used to be on Soccer AM. Or maybe it was just by seeing their images on album covers down at HMV and Our Price.
Anyway, I’m pretty sure I knew who Taylor Dayne was by this point as this was her second Top 40 hit in a matter of weeks. My memory tells me that “Prove Your Love” sounded exactly like previous single “Tell It To My Heart” – let’s see if I was right – see you in about three minutes time…
…yep, think I was spot on in my initial assessment. It sounds exactly like it was meant to – a copycat of the first hit to guarantee a second. Probably written in a rush to capitalise on her momentum before the record buying public moved on to somebody else. The Richie Sambora lookalike with the guitar solo in the middle of it is a bit incongruous though. And quite why was she being chased by the press everywhere as presenter Simon Mayo tells us?
*trawls internet*
Well, I’m not sure that I found what she was being hounded for in the press in 1988 but I did find a bizarre website called marriedbio.com which seems to be a foreign language site that has been shoved in its entirety through google translate resulting in some rather odd translations. For example, “Prove Your Love” comes out as “Demonstrate Your Adoration”. There’s more…”Tell It To My Heart” is “Instruct It To My Heart” while flop single “I’ll Always Love you” is re-imaged as “I’ll Generally Cherish You”.
“Demonstrate Your Adoration” “Prove Your Love” peaked at No 8 in the UK Top 40.
I have said this many, many times in this blog but the UK chart fortunes of the singles released from Fleetwood Mac‘s “Tango In The Night” made no sense whatsoever – it was almost deranged. The chart placings in chronological order for said singles were:
9 – 56 – 5 – 54 – 4 – 60
Just bonkers. The last of those hits (and indeed their last ever UK Top 40 hit) was “Everywhere”. Why was this one a hit where other releases from the album had failed? I don’t know is my honest answer and believe me I tried to fathom the reasons why some records were chart hits and some weren’t – I even wrote a dissertation about it for my degree. In the case of this particular song, Time Out magazine went one step further in an article in 2017 where they came up with five reasons why “Everywhere” has become a millennial anthem no less. One of them was that it was, in their words, ‘simply an amazing song’. They went even further (much further) though when they said of it that it ‘is the kind of song a celestial unicorn would listen to before dancing merrily atop a cloud’. Holy shit! I’m not having that. I mean it’s pleasant enough but celestial unicorns? Really?!
Written and sung by Christine McVie rathe than Stevie Nicks for once, it does have a ethereal quality to it with some tinkling synth work and a gently bobbing beat that runs throughout it but a millennial anthem? Apparently it’s all to do with Balearic beats, a 2010 dance remix and a mobile phone advert featuring a moonwalking Shetland pony. Whatever. Sounds like a load of guff to me which incidentally is also what the video they made for it is as well.
Who’s this bloke? Glen Goldsmith? Err? No – sorry – going to have to look him up?
*checks Wikipedia*
Oh OK – he had a few minor hits around this time including “Dreaming” which was actually his biggest (No 12). Apparently he was also on the Band Aid II record but that abomination is not his worst crime against music. No – for Glen did something far more heinous – he helped to write “Mysterious Girl” that gave the world Peter pissing Andre and for that alone he should hang his head in eternal shame. Not content with that though he also inflicted other Andre hits upon us including “I Feel You” and “Natural”. Fuck’s sake man!
Anyway, “Dreaming” was jus the sort of record that I hated back in the day – crappy , plastic soul that was paper thin on any quality. Begone with you sir!
Three Breakers this week. Now I knew that “Pink Cadillac” was a Bruce Springsteen song but I don’t think I knew until now that it’s the B-side to his 1984 hit “Dancing In The Dark”. Natalie Cole‘s version of it gave her a surprise Top 5 UK hit four years later. I wasn’t aware of Natalie Cole before this but she’d been around since the mid 70s doing R&B material that was largely ignored by UK audiences. despite being Nat ‘King’ Cole’s daughter. This out and out pop direction was much more to our tastes though and kick started a small collection of hits throughout the rest of the decade.
“Pink Cadillac” was the Finbar Saunders of 1988 chart hits with its barely veiled sexual innuendos masquerading as car references. Apparently The Boss thought Natalie’s version was pretty cool and was pleased with the way it turned out given that it was being sung by a woman – he had vetoed an earlier attempt by Bette Midler to cover the song. I like the way the video has a Springsteen lookalike in it which indicates Natalie giving credit to the songwriter but also saying ‘yeah I know it’s his song but this is my version’.
A one hit wonder this side of the pond, Perri Arlette Reid was far more successful in her own country. “Girlfriend” was the only UK chart entry for the woman better known as Pebbles (after the Flintstones character nobody will be surprised to hear) which peaked at No 8.
Sounding like it could have been a Prince cast off (it wasn’t) it had just about enough about it for me not to dismiss it as yet another R&B bore. However, I much prefer The Beautiful South’s version which they recorded for their debut album. An unlikely choice but it works.
Fuck’s sake! Another TOTP and another AC/DC song. I had no recollection of the Aussie rockers being in our charts around this time but they seem to be permanent residents. “That’s The Way I Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll” (could they have come up with a more lame and predictable title?) was another single pulled from their “Blow up Your Video” album and reached No 22. I’m sorry but I just never got the boat to AC/DC island. I just don’t see it.
The video was recorded at a show in the Birmingham NEC where I saw my first ever concert – Spandau Ballet since you’re asking and probably the reason why I don’t get AC/DC.
Where the Hell did this come from? Hazell Dean hadn’t been anywhere near the TOTP studio for nigh on four years before she returned with “Who’s Leaving Who”. To be fair, she’s been a bit unlucky with two singles in the intervening years peaking at that most unfortunate position of No 41. So how did she manage to regain her place in the nation’s charts and hearts? As ever with 1988, the answer lay with Stock, Aitken and Waterman. Producers of her last chart entry “Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)”, the trio were also responsible for “Who’s Leaving Who” and before we knew it, Hazell was back in the Top 5 once more. It was as if she’s never been away. Even her hairstyle didn’t seemed to have changed. This just seemed to demonstrate to me the power that SAW had at that time. I imagine the conversation between them going something like this:
Aitken: “What we doing this week Pete?’
Waterman: “Dunno – any more Aussie soap stars loitering in the corridor wanting a hit record?”
Stock: “Nah, that was last week.”
Waterman: “What’s Rick Astley up to?”
Aitken: “He’s busy shooting a video”
Waterman: “Oh hang on. What was the name of that girl from Essex we produced years ago? The one who did the Hi-NRG hits? Hazell something?”
Stock: “Hazell Dean? Nobody’s interested in her anymore.”
Waterman: “Hold my beer. I’ve got an idea”
Hazell’s resurrection was short lived – a couple of minor hits followed later in the year and then it was all over (again) almost as soon as it had started. She is still a firm favourite with the LGBT community and she frequently performs at LGBT Pride events.
Unlike the previous year when Eurovision passed me by completely including our UK entry, 1988’s contest will stay with me forever. Why? Ah well, that ‘s for a later post when the TOTP that was broadcast nearer the date of the actual contest airs. For now though we have a preview of the UK entry which is a song called simply “Go” by one Scott Fitzgerald. Not the celebrated American author responsible for The Great Gatsby but a Scottish bloke who had a duet hit back in the 70s with Yvonne Keeley with “If I Had Words”. Yeah, that’s right, this song…
Is it me or does Scott look like David Copperfield from early 80s comedy sketch show Three Of A Kind in that clip? Anyway, fast forward 10 years or so and he’s gone a bit blonde and is doing a Tom Jones impression. How did he get on at Eurovision? All in good time…
The Top 10 was thus:
10. Kylie Minogue – “I Should Be So Lucky”
9. Eigth Wonder – “I’m Not Scared”
8. A-ha – “Stay On These Roads”
7. Climie Fisher – “Love Changes Everything”
6. Sinitta – “Cross My Broken Heart”
5. Iron Maiden – “Can I Play With Madness”
4. Tiffany – “Could’ve Been”
3. Aswad – “Don’t Turn Around”
2. Bros – “Drop The Boy”
1. Pet Shop Boys – “Heart”: Now then – here’s a coincidence. In the same show where Hazell Dean makes her unexpected return to TOTP after a four year hiatus, the new No 1 is a song that was originally going to be offered to her to record. Yep, “Heart’ was originally earmarked for the Hi-NRG priestess herself and also at one point Madonna but in the end Neil and Chris kept it for themselves and what a good decision that turned out to be. As Gary Davies rightly says, this was their third No 1 in the last 12 months (and fourth in total) but it would also mark the end of their imperial phase.
I was never that struck on “Heart’ though. It sounded a bit one dimensional to me compared to the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink extravagance of “It’s A Sin” or “Suburbia”. I found the ‘ah ah uh uh ah’ refrain that runs throughout it a bit annoying if I’m honest. The fact that it made No 1 made me think that they were now operating on a SAW scale where they could release anything and it would be a huge seller. The massive hits would get dialled down a bit from this point in but nobody can deny their longevity as they continue to record and release new music some 31 years after this performance.
Blimey! Never mind it feeling like AC/DC were permanently on the show at this time, here’s Jellybean again with yet another new single. This time it’s “Just A Mirage” featuring another guest singer in Adele Bertei. As with his previous three UK hits, this track was taken from his “Just Visiting This Planet” album and achieved a respectable No 13 chart peak. In fact, all his singles were reasonably sized hits reaching positions 10,13,12 and 13 which is pretty good going to say they were all shite.
Wikipedia tells me that Adele Bertei duetted with Thomas Dolby on his single “Hyperactive!” which I didn’t know before now.
| Order of appearance | Artist | Song | Did I Buy it? |
|
1 |
Taylor Dayne | Prove Your Love | A big fat no from me |
|
2 |
Fleetwood Mac | Everywhere | No but my wife had the ”Tango In The Night” album on cassette |
|
3 |
Glen Goldsmith | Dreaming | Dreaming? More like a nightmare – no |
|
4 |
Natalie Cole | Pink Cadillac | Nope |
|
5 |
Pebbles | Girlfriend | No but I have the Beautiful South album with their version of it |
|
6 |
AC/DC | That’s The Way I Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll | Bah! No! |
|
7 |
Hazell Dean | Who’s Leaving Who | No |
|
8 |
Scott Fitzgerald | Go | I did not |
|
9 |
Pet Shop Boys | Heart | No but I have it on their “Pop Art” collection CD |
|
10 |
Jellybean with Adele Bertei | Just A Mirage | Negative |
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/m00071fk/top-of-the-pops-07041988
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/2018/04/april-6-19-1988.html
TOTP Rewind - the 80s 