Eleven days until Christmas and the race to be the festive No 1 of 1989 has been completely hijacked. No, not by The X Factor (that wouldn’t enter the UK’s popular culture for another 15 years) but by the news that the Band Aid project from five years previous was being revitalised with a new recording of “Do They Know It’s Christmas” by the stars of 1989, produced (inevitably) by Stock Aitken and Waterman. From the moment on Friday 1 December when Bob Geldof called Pete Waterman to ask if he would consider producing a new version of the song, all bets were off for what would be Xmas No 1. It was recorded just two days later with a first airplay coming on the Tuesday of that week. It was officially released into the shops on Monday 11th so would not be eligible for inclusion in this week’s TOTP (not being in the Top 40 by that point) but we all knew what would happen the following week.
So where did this leave this week’s chart hopefuls? Well, pissing in the wind in terms of retaining any hopes of being the Xmas No 1 but there are another 39 Top 40 places to be filled so let’s see who did just that.
Tonight’s presenter is a solo Nicky Campbell and he turns in a weird and sometimes spiteful performance. The weirdness is on show from the off as he introduces tonight’s opening act. To start with he’s got a vile psychedelic style shirt on which he has somehow coerced two male studio audience members to adopt as well. Then he starts babbling about saunas in reference to Rob ‘N’ Raz featuring Leila K hailing from Sweden before making the connection that they, like saunas, are hot, steamy and enervating. Wait, enervating you say Nicky? I think that’s where your simile falls down a bit. ‘Enervating’ means ‘to make (someone) feel drained of energy or vitality’. Is he saying that Rob ‘N’ Raz will drain you of energy due to the excessive dancing you will do to their tune “Got To Get”? Or is he saying that the act are already looking a bit lethargic before they’ve even performed? I just don’t think it works Nicky. I bet he was really proud of that intro as well. To top it all off he gets the name of the song wrong by calling it “Got To Give It”. It’s a poor start I have to say.
As for the song, if you close your eyes you could imagine it being sung by one of 1989’s biggest stars Neneh Cherry. Well, almost. Of course, it was actually sung by Leila K who was discovered by Rob and indeed Raz at a rapping talent contest at which they were both judges. So she was a bit like the Swedish Sonia in a way – albeit without the squeaky scouse voice and red hair.
“Got To Get” peaked at No 8.
Next we see the catty side of Campbell as he makes a snide remark whilst referencing Madonna‘s forthcoming movie. “Madonna’s back! Watch out for her forthcoming film Dick Tracy. She’s made it with Warren Beatty…but then again, who hasn’t”. Again, I bet he was so pleased with himself for that one. Now of course, Beatty was well known for his womanising ways and indeed, he and Madonna did date whilst getting together during the filming of Dick Tracy but it still sounds like a cheap shot from Campbell to me.
Back to the music though and “Dear Jessie” was the last single (in the UK) to be lifted from her “Like A Prayer” album and it was all swooping strings and lullaby lyrics tied to a sugar coated melody. Probably just the wrong side of cutesy but I guess it was a nice enough tune for the Xmas market. Also, it was perfect for any parent with a child called Jessie (I used to work with someone who fell into just that category). The track was never released in the US where the record label instead went for two other album tracks in “Oh Father” and “Keep It Together”.
The video is predominantly an animation with Madge depicted as a Tinker Bell type fairy figure. The animation looks pretty basic compared to today’s standards but was probably perfectly acceptable back in 1989. I’m sure Gabriel the Frog from Bagpuss is in there somewhere. It also got me wondering if it could have been the inspiration for the video for the 1998 Spice Girls single “Viva Forever”.
As predicted by Campbell, “Dear Jessie” did indeed go Top 5 in the UK when it peaked at exactly No 5.
Now then, if it’s Christmas it must be time for Cliff Richard right? Well, yes but this year he was playing supporting actor to legendary grump Van Morrison who had enticed Cliff to duet with him on his single “Whenever God Shines His Light”. Before the Band Aid II announcement, this was briefly being talked about as an outside bet for the Xmas No 1 – well Cliff had form in that area having bagged the previous year’s top spot. It’s a well…pleasant (is that the right word?) number and there was a lot of talk how their two voices together shouldn’t work but somehow they do. I’m not sure about that at all. Cliff’s out and out pure pop voice seems completely at odds to Van’s more authentic growl to me.
“Whenever God Shines His Light” ultimately stalled at No 20 but Cliff got his Xmas No 1 anyway as part of the Band Aid II project. Not wishing to share the limelight with anyone else, he produced another Xmas No 1 the following year with “Saviour’s Day”.
It’s that “Deep Heat ’89” thingy again by Latino Rave who were less a group and more a marketing tool to promote the Telstar “Deep Heat” compilation series. I suppose I can understand why this might have worked well in a club environment and was a quick win for any DJ playing it but personally I was sick to the back teeth of hearing “Pump Up The Jam” et al by this point. Nice use of Rocky Horror Picture Show lips in the video though.
“Deep Heat ’89” peaked at No 12 and there were no further hits accredited to Latino Rave.
Very much a forgotten Wet Wet Wet single I would imagine, “Broke Away” was the second single to be released from their “Holding Back The River” album. Described in Smash Hits as having a decent chance of being a No 1 at any other time of the year, like its predecessor “Sweet Surrender”, it always seemed a bit lightweight to me. It’s all very atmospheric and well crafted and all that but it never seems to really get going. And what a curious performance this is. Drummer Tommy is strumming a guitar, Graeme has swapped his standard bass guitar for a double bass and what’s with Marti Pellow’s hat? He also drops a thousand yard stare into the outro which seems ever so slightly inappropriate in a wistful ballad. Surely the experience wasn’t that traumatic Marti?
Possibly very disappointingly for the band, “Broke Away” peaked at No 19.
Another particularly snide barb from Nicky Campbell in his next intro when he has a pop at Tina Turner‘s age. Referring to her upcoming concert at Woburn Abbey he trills ” She’ll be playing to an audience of 50,0000 people which is one for every year of her life”. There really wasn’t any need for that surely?! At the time of this TOTP, Campbell was 28 years old whilst Tina had just turned 50. He is now 59 – by his 1989 standards, he’s fair game for people making ageist remarks about him.
Anyway, I’m sure Tina had more important things on her mind than Nicky Campbell at this time like playing to 50,000 people at Woburn Abbey for one and a new single in “I Don’t Wanna Lose You” for two.
Oh this is perfect! I hadn’t realised this before but the opening lines to the track are:
Women of a certain age
They learn to rely and judge all his responses
Consider yourself judged Campbell!
“I Don’t Wanna Lose You” peaked at No 8.
A genuine 80s supergroup up next as Electronic make their debut. While Nicky Campbell correctly points out the “triumvirate” of Bernard Sumner, Neil Tennant and Johnny Marr, he omits a name check for the drummer up there on stage with them who is none other than ex-ABC drummer David Palmer. Bit rude Campbell. To be fair though, it was the other three that that generated the excitement about this project which came about in a very loose way but which would exist as a going concern (on and off) for the whole of the next decade. With Sumner looking to start a solo career outside of New Order and Marr looking for projects following the demise of The Smiths, they collaborated to produce the track “Getting Away With It”.
Apparently looking for a quintessentially English singer for the song, their initial choice was Nick Heyward – I would have loved to have seen Nick back in the charts with such a credible venture but when asked, he was going through a period of low esteem and didn’t have the confidence to put himself out there. Neil Tennant was seen as a viable alternative to fulfill the brief and his affected vocals certainly work well with the song’s structure and sound (at least much better than Cliff’s on Van Morrison’s tune earlier!). Anne Dudley of Art Of Noise conducted the orchestra to be found on the record whilst its lyrics (penned by Tennant and Sumner) supposedly are a wry swipe at the public image of Marr’s ex-band mate, Morrissey.
The Electronic working arrangements were so loose that it took them 18 months after “Getting Away With It” was in the charts before they released their debut self titled album and when it did finally appear their first hit wasn’t even on it! I was working in Our Price by then and I’m sure that we got in some import version of the album that did include “Getting Away With It” in the track listing but the original standard UK edition didn’t. Subsequent reissues of it have consistently righted that wrong.
The single was a sizeable hit peaking at No 12 in the UK (and it also made No 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US) and it was easily one of the better songs in the charts at this time (albeit the competition wasn’t up to much).
Top 10
10. Andy Stewart – “Donald Where’s Your Troosers?”
9. Madonna – “Dear Jessie”
8. Tina Turner – “I Don’t Wanna Lose You”
7. Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville – “Don’t Know Much”
6. Jeff Wayne – “The Eve Of The War (Ben Liebrand Remix)”
5. Kaoma – “Lambada”
4. New Kids On The Block – “You Got It (The Right Stuff)”
3. Soul II Soul – “Get A Life”
2. Jason Donovan – “When You Come Back To Me”
1. Jive Bunny And The Mastermixers – “Let’s Party”: Ye gods! The horror continues! Not content with two consecutive No 1s, the UK public decided that what we really needed this Xmas was a third Jive Bunny chart topper! The people behind the rabbit (I won’t dignify their existence with a name check) must have been incredulous that they could pull off this shit trick for a third time!
This was probably the easiest of the lot to concoct with it being Xmas and all. At the time, the notion of Xmas compilation albums was just a fledgling concept and households didn’t have access to all those Xmas faves of yesteryear as we do now. I think there was the original “Now – The Christmas Album” (they played that continually in the toy department of Debenhams where I was working that Xmas) and that was probably about it.
So… just shove a couple of well known festive tunes together (Slade and Wizzard in this case) and use something called “March Of The Mods” (a hit in 1964 for Joe Loss and his Orchestra) to string it all together and bingo! It’s so lazy and cynical and yet people fell for it …again! Even Nicky Campbell refers to it as a Xmas Turkey! Incidentally, they didn’t have permission for the original Wizzard track so they got Roy Wood to re-record it if you were thinking that the sample doesn’t sound quite like the original. Shame on you Roy!
Thankfully, “Let’s Party’ only lasted one week at the top due to Band Aid II thereby giving us all a valid (and the only) reason for being thankful for its existence.
In a strange turn of events, Alexander O’Neal is the play out track for the second week running with his “Hit Mix (Official Bootleg Mega-Mix)” single. I’m not sure having the same track as the play out video in consecutive weeks has ever happened before in these TOTP repeats but I could be wrong. To complete his rather bizarre performance as host, Sarky Campbell doesn’t even bother to announce it.
| Order of appearance | Artist | Song | Did I Buy it? |
| 1 | Rob “N” Raz featuring Leila K | Got To Get | I didn’t heed the instruction in the title of their single I’m afraid – no |
| 2 | Madonna | Dear Jessie | No but I think my wife had the Like A Prayer album |
| 3 | Van Morrison and Cliff Richard | Whenever God Shines His Light | No but I think it’s on my wife’s Best Of album of the grumpy one |
| 4 | Latino Rave | Deep Hest ‘89 | Big no |
| 5 | Wet Wet Wet | Broke Away | Nah |
| 6 | Tina Turner | I Don’t Wanna Lose You | Nope |
| 7 | Electronic | Getting Away With It | Seems not but I really should have |
| 8 | Jive Bunny And The Mastermixers | Let’s Party | Let’s not – NO! |
| 9 | Alexander O’Neal | Hit Mix (Official Bootleg Mega-Mix) | And no |
Disclaimer
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/2019/12/december-13-26-1989.html
Whole Show
Since we’ve all been on lockdown, there are people out there with time on their hands some of whom have recorded the whole TOTP show from the BBC4 repeat and made it available on YouTube. So if you did want to watch the whole thing over…
TOTP Rewind - the 80s 