I seem to be caught in a perpetual cycle of deja-vu – all I seem to have done this week is write about old TOTP shows from 1988. The blame for this lies squarely at the feet of BBC4 and their punishing three repeats a week schedule. My head is swimming with the likes of Peter Powell, Simon Mayo, Breakers, Top 40 countdowns Womack and Womack, The Proclaimers and the rest. At least there are some new songs in this instalment. Right, back to it…
We have arrived at that point in time when Pet Shop Boys golden run started to wane. After a run of chart placings that included three No 1s and a No 2 in their previous five singles releases, “Domino Dancing” didn’t quite cut the mustard commercially speaking. The lead single from their forthcoming album ‘Introspective”, it was expected to continue this rich vein of hits but here’s Neil Tennant on what happened:
“…it entered the charts at number nine and I thought, ‘that’s that, then – it’s all over’. I knew then that our imperial phase of number one hits was over.”
It still made No 7 which was hardly a disaster and the hits didn’t dry up completely in any way, shape or form. Indeed, their next ten single releases up to 1993 included five Top 5 placings but Tennant was right about the No 1s. They never had another one again.
As for the sound of “Domino Dancing”, this seemed to be an attempt by Neil and Chris to take a small step in a different direction with more musicians on the record than normal for a Pet Shop Boys release – check out how many people there are up there with them on stage in this performance. The addition of the Spanish guitar seemed especially incongruous. I thought it was OK – it was still immediately identifiable as the Pet Shop Boys despite these changes but it didn’t have the power of something like “It’s A Sin” which was quite startling on first hearing. Ironically, the next single from the album – “Left To My Own Devices” did have that effect on me and remains one of my favourite of the duo’s songs. Maybe that should have been the lead single instead.
Did I say new songs earlier? This is definitely not one of them. How many times is this for “Teardrops” by Womack And Womack on the show? Three? No wonder I’ve got deja vu. And it’s just a repeat of their last studio visit – not even a new performance clip!
It tuns out that Cecil Womack’s elder brother was Bobby Womack whilst wife Linda was the daughter of soul legend Sam Cooke. After Cooke died, Bobby Womack married Cooke’s widow Barbara making him Linda’s stepfather whilst Cecil got hitched to Supremes singer Mary Wells. Keeping up? Then it get’s really complicated. Here’s @TOTPFacts:
Which means….
Bloody Hell! That old US comedy Soap had nothing on the Womack family tree!
OK – this one we haven’t seen on the show before but it isn’t a new song as such. Following in the steps of “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”, “Easy” and “Groovy Kind Of Love”, here’s yet another oldie that was back in the charts. Originally a No 7 hit in 1977, Lovely Day” was re-issued as “Lovely Day (Sunshine mix)” in this year and gave its artist Bill Withers an even bigger hit (No 4). I was surprised at how many of Bill’s other songs I knew when I checked. As well as “Lovely Day”, there’s “Lean On Me”, “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “Just The Two Of Us” for starters.
Of course you can’t mention “Lovely Day” without referring to that elongated note. Wikipedia informs me that even at 18 seconds long, it is only the second longest sustained note after A-ha’s Morten Harket’s 20 second effort in their song “Summer Moved On”. However, Morten’s was in the falsetto range and Bill’s was in the chest voice. So now you know.
I’m not sure the rather clunky remix treatment courtesy of Ben Liebrand adds anything to the original. All those incongruous ‘hey hey’s and clunky back beat – nowhere near as smooth as the original. And why was “Lovely Day” even re-released in ’88? As ever, I think it was to do with an advert….
Three Breakers this week starting with the inevitable re-release of “Revolution Baby” after Transvision Vamp‘s breakthrough hit ” I Want Your Love”. Originally out in ’87 as their debut single when it only made No 77, it made No 30 this time around. Whilst providing some chart consolidation and maintaining the band’s profile, it was possibly not the massive hit that label MCA anticipated. Still very much inspired by glam rock (it owed much to the hits of T-Rex ), it was nevertheless a decent tune in my book despite some cringeworthy lyrics (‘Lucy’s in the Sky, she got tears in her eyes ’cause we’re all on the same side when the mushroom hits the sky‘).
The band followed this up with a fourth release from their album “Pop Art” called “Sister Moon” but it just missed the Top 40. They should have gone for a re-release of another previous single “Tell That Girl To Shut Up” in my opinion. Undeterred, Wendy and co would be back bigger than ever in 1989.
Whitney Houston next with a future No 1 record. “One Moment In Time” was written for the 1988 Seoul Olympics in South Korea and was included on an Olympics album featuring The Bee Gees and The Four Tops amongst many others. Unusually for Whitney, it failed to top the charts in the US but did over here, a trend which was usually reversed for many of her other releases.
There appear to be two versions of the video, a UK and a US one. Not sure why but the UK one shown on TOTP seems to feature Houston much more than its counterpart although both feature many a sporting clip.
Seventeen years later , the song would be the soundtrack for my own personal sporting memory In 2005, my beloved Chelsea were finally Premier League champions. The title was confirmed by a 2-0 win over Bolton and I watched the game in a pub that had the commentary turned down to allow the jukebox to be played. As Frank Lampard ran through to score the second and deciding goal of the game, “One Moment In Time” was playing. It seemed very apt. Play it over the top of the video below from 2.20 for a faithful reconstruction…
Bon Jovi ahoy! Those New Jersey rockers had not been seen in over a year but were back with a new single and album that would cement their status as one of the biggest rock bands on the planet. “Bad Medicine” was that single, a punchy, sing-a-long anthem. I remember reading an interview with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora where they talked about the recording of the album “New Jersey” and how they had taken a few attempts to come up with the songs as many of their initial efforts were just re-writes of “Slippery When Wet”. For me “Bad Medicine” (and indeed follow up single “Born To Be My Baby”) sounded like that’s exactly what they were anyway – and that was just fine by me. To be fair, both those songs were written with Desmond Child who had co-written “Livin’ On A Prayer” and “You Give Love A Bad Name” with the band so that would explain the similarities. The rest of the album was a bit more experimental with tracks featuring flamenco guitars and long, drawn out intros making the cut.
“Bad Medicine” was a No 1 hit in the US but only made No 17 over here.
Oh and I never knew that it inspired this terrace chant about cult 80s footballer Barry Venison….
Blimey! Rick Astley wrote this himself? So says Nicky Campbell and he’s right! If I’d been the tunesmith behind “She Wants To Dance With Me” I don’t think I’d want it announced to the nation thanks very much. The lead single from his second album “Hold Me In Your Arms”, it was pretty much more of the same stuff that we’d come to expect from Rick and despite not being written by Stock, Aitken and Waterman it was produced by them hence the continuity of sound.
A couple of things to note about this performance. Firstly, the female backing singer looks very much like Debbie Gibson. It isn’t her but I’m guessing the lady concerned styled her look on the American popstrel. Secondly, the guy on keyboards, according to Wikipedia, is one David Morris who went onto be a Conservative MP who has received media attention about his expenses claims. Pretty sure nice guy Rick has never been caught up in anything like that and is a law abiding citizen who pays his taxes. Gary Barlow on the other hand….
The Top 10
10. Yazz and the Plastic Population -“The Only Way Is Up”
9. Pet Shop Boys – “Domino Dancing”
8. Inner City – “Big Fun”
7. Yello – “The Race”
6. Bros – “I Quit”
5. Jason Donovan – “Nothing Can Divide Us”
4. Bill Withers -“Lovely Day (Sunshine mix)”
3. Womack and Womack – “Teardrops”
2. Phil Collins – “Groovy Kind Of Love”
1. The Hollies – “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”: No 1 after just two weeks in the charts, the power of a commercial to revitalise a song was truly something to be reckoned with in the late 80s. My mate at poly Robin had been on a trip around Europe with two friends in the Summer holidays. When he returned he couldn’t believe what was happening in the UK charts. I think his exact words were “Why the hell are The fucking Hollies at No 1?”
Final song tonight is “Riding On A Train” from The Pasadenas. I couldn’t really be doing with them but some people were clearly keen as I found an online petition started in 2009 asking for the band to reform and record again. It had 546 signatures when I checked! I didn’t sign it obviously.
| Order of appearance | Artist | Song | Did I Buy it? |
|
1 |
Pet Shop Boys | Domino Dancing | No but I have their PopArt CD with it on |
|
2 |
Womack and Womack | Teardrops | It never really did it for me – no |
|
3 |
Bill Withers | Lovely Day (Sunshine Mix) | Nope |
|
4 |
Transvision Vamp | Revolution Baby | No but I had the album also called Pop Art bizarrely |
|
5 |
Whitney Houston | One Moment In Time | Nah |
|
6 |
Bon Jovi | Bad Medicine | Not the single but I had the album New Jersey |
|
7 |
Rick Astley | She Wants To Dance With Me | As if |
|
8 |
The Hollies | He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother | Not the single but I have their Greatest Hits CD with it on |
|
9 |
The Pasadenas | Riding On A Train | No |
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/m0009tqf/top-of-the-pops-22091988
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/2018/09/september-21-october-4-1988.html
TOTP Rewind - the 80s 