If you were going to make move to be the Xmas No 1 of 1988, now was the time to make it. With just days to go before the festive chart topper was revealed, a spot on this TOTP would have been very sought after. I have to say though, with the possible exception of Erasure, none of the other songs on the show stood a chance of challenging Sir Cliff. That’s not to say they were crap songs, they weren’t (well not all of them anyway) but it would have taken a gargantuan leap of faith to believe that anything other than “Mistletoe And Wine” would have been top of the heap come Christmas Day.
Take for example the first act tonight who are Bon Jovi with “Born To Be My Baby”. Now I was in a bit of a Bon Jovi phase at this point so I was quite receptive to this second single release from their “New Jersey” album but the idea that it could topple Cliff was fanciful at best. Its starting position of No 22 meant it would have taken Formula 1 type acceleration to get anywhere near the top of the tree. It was very reminiscent of “Livin’ On A Prayer” in terms of subject matter dealing as it did with the struggles of a blue -collar couple trying to make their way in life but believing that it was God’s will that they would somehow. It was very familiar territory sound-wise as well with its wailing rock guitars and a ‘na ne nah na ne na nah’ refrain running right through it.
Now apparently there is an acoustic version of this which Jon Bon Jovi thinks is the better version of the song than the rockin’ wig out that we are all familiar with. I wonder what it sounds like….
Nah (na ne na nah) – not for me. Much prefer the souped up version.
“Born To Be My Baby” went Top 3 in the US but didn’t get past this No 22 peak in the UK despite yet another personal appearance in the TOTP studio, something the band seemed very committed to, having done the same for nearly all of their preceding singles. Oh and the hats look ridiculous guys.
A live vocal up next from unlikely 1988 chart star Petula Clark. She was 56 at the time but she still knew how to turn on the star quality up on stage. Her voice sounded pretty good as well despite having to battle with the dreadful remixed backing track. I love the way she didn’t need anything else up there with her – no backing singers, no dancers, no band – just her, a microphone and her talent.
“Downtown ’88” made it all the way to No 10 despite being a complete bag of shite compared to the 60s original whose legacy extended to an appearance in an episode of Seinfeld in which George Costanza and Jerry try to decipher where George’s boss’s project is happening by analysing the lyrics to “Downtown”…
When U2 toped the charts a few months prior to this with “Desire”, I hadn’t been that impressed. I couldn’t quite get to grips with the song’s strident edge. Follow up “Angel Of Harlem” was much better to my ears. Like its predecessor, it was taken from their live/studio hybrid album “Rattle And Hum” and seemed so much more melodic with its swooping and soaring counterparts. It’s the rolling brass parts that really make it for me though.
The lyrics reference John Coltrane, Birdland jazz club, JFK airport and of course the Angel of Harlem herself Billie Holiday or rather her nickname ‘Lady Day’, all culled from the band’s first visit to New York City. The look of the band in the video perfectly captures in time this period in their career with its links to the “Rattle And Hum” album cover.
“Angel Of Harlem” peaked at No 9 in the UK and No 14 in the US
After Petula Clark’s live turn earlier, we have another next courtesy of New Order who had infamously been down this route before five years prior with a live rendition of “Blue Monday” – a performance which has gone down in the annals of pop music history as why sometimes it’s better to just mime. Did they make a better job of it with “Fine Time”? Well, overall it’s a bit more cohesive but not sure it was really worth the effort and what was up with Hooky? Why is he just stood there motionless, the bass guitar at his side for the opening minute or so. OK, maybe his bass parts didn’t feature until later on but it looks distinctly odd.
Ultimately the single did rise from its position of No 15 here to a peak of No 11 so maybe it was worth it after all.
Up to No 4 are Erasure with “Crackers International EP” or “Stop” as most people knew it as that was pretty much the only track that received any airplay. Fair play though as it was a stomping pop track which was a guaranteed floor filler at most Sunderland nightclubs that I frequented. Around this time I got a local school to ask some of its pupils to complete a questionnaire that I had complied as part of my third year dissertation about the music industry and what made some songs hits and others not. No doubt it was just given out to those unfortunates in detention after school one day but it was still pretty useful data. One of the questions was ‘What was the last 7″single you bought?”. I’d just put it in there to try and retain their interest really but of the 30 answers that I got back, “Stop” was easily the biggest with 20% of the responses. Not up there with Gold discs and the like but if you’re reading this Andy and Vince (they might be!), you had the approval of at least one Sunderland secondary school.
A week or so after the release of the EP came “Crackers International Part II” which had a much more Christmassy cover and included the duo’s version of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”. I’d never heard this before so I sought it out on YouTube…
…is that really Andy Bell singing?! I know he has a high pitch but that falsetto is Aled Jones-esque! In 2013, they went full on Santa and released a whole album of Christmas songs called “Snow Globe”. It’s OK actually if you want a slightly different festive playlist to the usual suspects.
Some Breakers next starting with The Four Tops and “Loco In Acapulco”. Yet another track taken from the Buster soundtrack, the fact that the song was co-written by huge Motown fan Phil Collins and legendary Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier meant a further Motown link up was perhaps always going to happen. Sure enough, The Four Tops were given the song to record and it would prove to be their last hit pretty much anywhere in the world.
For me, the rhyming of ‘Loco’ with ‘Acapulco’ was always a bit too cheesy and therefore was never going to stand up against some of their 60s Motown canon favourably but I guess you cannot deny its joyful exuberance.
“Loco In Acapulco” made No 7 on the UK chart.
Kim Wilde‘s annus (steady) mirabilis that was 1988 was still going strong come December when she scored her fourth Top 40 and third consecutive Top 10 hit with “Four Letter Word”. Amazingly, some seven or so years into her career, this was Kim’s first straight ballad single release and also the last single that was written together by her father Marty and brother Ricky.
I always thought it was a decent enough attempt at a ballad if a little slight and perhaps a style of song didn’t best suit Kim’s vocals. The instrumentation on it sounds like it wouldn’t have been out of place soundtracking the ‘Our Tune’ section of the Simon Bates show. There’s a bit towards the end of the video where I’m sure she’s standing against the same red sky backdrop that was used for Robert Palmer’s “Addicted To Love’ video.
“Four Letter Word” peaked at No 6 and was Kim’s last Top 10 hit of the decade.
Londonbeat were a curious thing weren’t they? They had a terrible name and they never seemed to quite find their audience but some of their tunes were OK I thought with “9 AM (The Comfort Zone)” being a case in point. With sweet vocal harmonies to the fore, this retro yet classic sound really stood out against the rest of the charts and certainly made my ears prick up. I seem to recall a lot of the media predicting big things for them but unable to produce an immediate follow up, it would take another two years before they really got into their stride with the No 2 hit “I’ve Been Thinking About You”.
“9 AM (The Comfort Zone)” was written about the experiences of the blond guy with the dreadful haircut (Willy M) when travelling back on the New York subway after clubbing all night, stinking of gin and sweat and being sat next to the suited and booted commuters on their way to work.
Despite a few personnel changes over the years (including Willy M moving on), they are still a going concern.
Last week a Breaker, this week the chart’s highest climber and it’s keytars ahoy in this performance of “Good Life” by Inner City. Two on the same stage? That must be a record surely? One of them looks a bit like Nile Rodgers. It isn’t is it?
*searches Nile Rodgers Inner City on the internet*
I don’t think it is but I did get a result for my search. Nilerodgers.com includes this post from 2012:
http://www.nilerodgers.com/blogs/planet-c-in-english/1172-in-da-house
So there you go. Nile is defo a fan of Inner City. Look, it’s better than anything I’ve got to say about the record so let’s stick with this eh?
The Top 10 looked like this:
10. U2 – “Angel Of Harlem”
9. Status Quo – “Burning Bridges (On and Off and On Again)”
8. Rick Astley – “Take Me To Your Heart”
7. Phil Collins – “Two Hearts”
6. Inner City – “Good Life”
5. Bros – “Cat Among The Pigeons / Silent Night”
4. Erasure – “Crackers International EP”
3. Angry Anderson – “Suddenly”
2. Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan- “Especially For You”
1. Cliff Richard – “Mistletoe And Wine”: Cliff and Christmas have become so entwined as to be almost inseparable.Was it always thus? Well, we could probably all quote “Mistletoe And Wine”, “Saviour’s Day” and “The Millennium Prayer” as Cliff’s most obvious and heinous dalliances with the Christmas market. However, there is also an oft overlooked Christmas song that he recorded back at the start of the 80s which is actually much more palatable than any of the aforementioned atrocities. “Little Town” was released in 1982 as a contemporary reworking of the traditional Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and was actually included as an extra track on the 12″ and CD single versions of “Mistletoe And Wine” and I personally much prefer it to that massive stinking piece of shit.
“Mistletoe And Wine” doesn’t even make sense. I’m pretty confident that in any word association exercise ‘mistletoe’ would be associated with ‘kissing’ wouldn’t it? Or maybe I haven’ thought this through properly. I guess, it could certainly be argued that many a kiss under the mistletoe at any given Xmas party across the breadth of the country was enabled by the consumption of wine I suppose. Pretty sure Cliff didn’t have that particular scenario in mind when he rewrote the song’s original lyrics though.
The play out song is “You Are The One” by A-ha. This was the fifth and final single to be lifted from their “Stay On These Roads” album and would also be the trio’s last hit of the ’80s. For me it was very much in the same vein as the previous single “Touchy” and not one of their finest tunes. I mean, it bounced along quite nicely but it was hardly a stand out career moment like “The Sun Always Shines On TV” or the album’s title track.
For a third time this show there is a New York tie in with the video filmed in and around the city with Morten, Mags and Pal (perhaps unwisely) recreating the sailor outfits look from the the Frank Sinatra / Gene Kelly / movie On The Town.
“You Are The One” peaked at No 13.
| Order of appearance | Artist | Song | Did I Buy it? |
|
1 |
Bon Jovi | Born To Be My Baby | Not the single but I had the album New Jersey |
|
2 |
Petula Clark | Downtown ‘88 | Not the horrid ’88 remix but I think my wife may have the original on something |
|
3 |
U2 | Angel Of Harlem | Don’t think I did |
|
4 |
New Order | Fine Time | Nope |
|
5 |
Erasure | Crackers International EP | Not the EP but “Stop” is on their first Greatest Hits collection CD which I have |
|
6 |
The Four Tops | Loco in Acapulco | Nah |
|
7 |
Kim Wilde | Four Letter Word | Nope |
|
8 |
Londonbeat | 9 AM (The Comfort Zone) | No but I did find it intriguing |
|
9 |
Inner City | Good Life | Not my thing at all |
|
10 |
Cliff Richard | Mistletoe And Wine | Cliff can shove his mistletoe up his arse – NO! |
|
11 |
A-ha | You Are The One | No but it’s on their Greatest Hits CD which I have |
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.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000c5y9/top-of-the-pops-15121988
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/2018/12/december-14-27-1988.html
TOTP Rewind - the 80s 