I am 21 years old! I’m not obviously (I’m a very middle aged 51) but back in 1989 I had just obtained the key of the door when this TOTP aired with my birthday having been two days earlier. Those intervening 30 odd years have taken their toll on my memory banks so I’m not entirely sure now how I celebrated the day although I do have an image in my mind’s eye of my housemate Ian crafting a makeshift canopy out of plastic shopping bags in our student house’s back garden so I think a barbecue was involved. As for the songs that were in the charts around my 21st? Let’s have a look see….

First up tonight are Transvision Vamp with their new single “The Only One”. After really enjoying the brattish, cartoon punk pop of “Baby I Don’t Care”, I found myself being completely underwhelmed by this one. I wasn’t…err… the only one (ahem). Smash Hits magazine’s review of the single said:

“To me, it sounds very much like their last single except that there’s less of a tune”

I knew what the reviewer meant. It was full of bluster and posturing with Wendy James yet again proving herself to be a bit of a ‘growler'(!) when it came to the vocals but it was all very repetitive and just didn’t seem to go anywhere to me. Ah yes, Ms James. Quite what was going on with her delayed entrance in this performance. The rest of the band are frugging away like good ‘uns for a fair few seconds before Wendy walks on stage triumphantly with arms loft. And what had she been doing just before arriving as she’s absolutely glistening from head to toe in sweat?! Had she been for a run? A session down the gym? Or …err…some other strenuous activity? Best not dwell on that any longer.

“The Only One” peaked at No 15.

For all the fuss about “The Best Of Me” being Cliff RIchard‘s 100th single, I don’t recall it at all. All the promotion for it must have passed me by though to be fair I probably wasn’t the target market. This was Sir Cliff’s first single since ’88’s Xmas No 1 “Mistletoe And Wine” and it’s No 2 peak (it went straight in at that position) was probably seen as a decent return for a follow up but I’m guessing I’m not alone in it having passed me by. From the title I assumed it had been released to promote some sort of Greatest Hits album but Wikipedia tells me that wasn’t the case and it was just a track from his latest studio album “Stronger”.

Listening to it now it reminds me of another ballad that was a big hit a couple of years later. Maybe it’s just that it also has a similar title but does it not sound a bit like “Save The Best For Last” by Vanessa Williams? “Best Of Me” was a cover and had originally been written and recorded by someone called David Foster (no idea) while Richard Marx (I do remember him) also had a hand in it. Apparently neither had anything to do with Vanessa’s tune though.

Guns N’ Roses have been promoted from the play out video slot in last week’s TOTP to a place in the main body of the show this time around with their rock classic “Sweet Child O’ Mine“. Presenter Nicky Campbell describes the track as being from their “brand new album” but as that album was actually “Appetite For Destruction”  which had been released on July 21, 1987 I’m not sure that’s the best use of the phrase that there’s ever been. Yes, it had taken UK audiences a while to catch onto the band’s appeal (hence “Sweet Child O’ Mine” having to be released twice for it to become a Top 10 hit over here) but even so.

On October 15, 2019 this became the first music video from the ’80s to reach one billion views on YouTube. The previous year, the band’s “November Rain” promo also became the first ’90s video to reach the one billion mark on that platform.

A first TOTP appearance now from a band who would become a fixture of the UK charts for the next 20 years and indeed so entrenched in the nations’s psyche that its reported that one in seven UK households own a copy of their 1994 Greatest Hits compilation “Carry On Up The Charts”. They are , of course, The Beautiful South who as Campbell rather grandly advises “rose like a phoenix out of the ashes of The Housemartins” after the latter split in 1988. Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway were the members of that band that remained together and alongside Dave Rotheray, Dave Stead and Sean Welch formed a new venture who would specialise in thoughtful, melodic and often bittersweet pop perfection.

Debut single “Song For Whoever” was a calling card for their sound and a sublime statement of their intent. Written from the view point of a cynical songwriter using the names of past conquests to inform his PRS cheque bringing compositions, it was a subversive kick in the eye for the charts stagnating with Aussie soap stars and the already stale sound of house music. I was in from the opening line “I love you from the bottom, of my pencil case”.

This early band line up was yet to feature what would become a succession of female vocalists but the unusual double lead singer structure still made them stand out, as if the music wasn’t enough itself.

“Song For Whoever” peaked at No 2 in the UK charts.

The Breakers are back! Having been missing for the past few shows, those ‘happening’ records are back! Not sure if Vixen really fall into that category though. Described in the music press as ‘the female Bon Jovi”, this glam metal outfit had achieved a minor chart hit in the UK earlier in the year with “Cryin” but they were a bigger deal in the US where there was more of an appetite for their brand of soft rock anthems. “Love Made Me” was the follow up and was more of the same. I’m guessing that their record plugger had to do a lot of pushing to secure the a slot on TOTP given that they were hardly a household name over here. If The Bangles were genetically merged with the Wilson sisters from Heart then Vixen would have been the result of the experiment.

In a curious little TOTP footnote, Richard Marx, responsible for Cliff RIchard’s “Best Of Me” song earlier in the show, also co-wrote one of Vixen’s most well known songs (in the US anyway) “Edge Of A Broken Heart”.

“Love Made Me” peaked at No 36 in the UK.

Donna Allen next with the second of her two hit singles “Joy And Pain”. The chorus to this one sounds familiar but it’s not really my cup of tea at all and Donna’s Wikipedia page doesn’t have much of interest on it at all. So I think I’ll move on….

…oh…hang on….it does say that in 2013 she attempted a career comeback (after having pretty much given up on music by the end of the 90s) by appearing on talent show The Voice. Didn’t the UK version of the show have a similar story of an ex pop star relaunching themselves as well?

*checks Wikipedia*

Yes! That bloke from Liberty X (remember them?). He went on The Voice and won it. Using that springboard, he became the lead singer of Wet Wet Wet replacing Marti Pellow when he left the band. Rather less successfully, Jay Aston of Bucks Fizz also auditioned on the show in the same year. None of the judges turned their chairs round for her. There’s probably a joke to be found in there that ties in with her also less than successful attempt to be an MP when she stood as a Brexit Party candidate in the 2019 General Election (oh the irony of someone who owes their whole career to The Eurovision Song Contest supporting the Brexit Party) but I won’t go there. Or maybe I just did.

Back to Donna Allen though. “Joy And Pain” peaked at No 10 in the UK charts.

The final Breaker is…what? New Model Army? Again? This lot seem to constantly be on the Breakers section. Right, I’m checking their discography to clear this up…

…OK so I was right. “Green And Grey” was the band’s third Top 40 single of the calendar year all from the album “Thunder And Consolation” though none of them made the Top 30. I recognise the title of this one at least. Let’s have a listen to it again…

…no don’t remember this one either. Quite good though. Unlikely as it sounds, as genuine chart stars, they sneaked their way into Smash Hits magazine under an article called ‘Ten Really Interesting Facts About New Model Army’ one of which was ‘They’ve got a great new single in the charts called Green And Grey” and the last one was ‘sounds interesting eh?’. Not what you would call top quality investigative journalism then.

As MC Skat Kat once rapped, ‘It’s my home girl, Paula Abdul‘! Yes, it’s one of the breakout phenomenons of the year back with a follow up to “Straight Up” and it’s the title track from her album “Forever Your Girl”. Whilst its predecessor had been quite an accomplished and well produced dance /pop crossover, this one just sounded like twee nonsense sung in a high pitched caterwaul to me. Paula would admit herself that she wasn’t he strongest vocalist out there but then neither was Madonna to be fair. Even so, this track sounded so inconsequential as to hardly be there at all. The use of young girls in the promo to parody the notorious “Addicted To Love” video seems ill judged at best, especially viewed through 2020 eyes.

Unlike over here where the song only made No 24, our American counterparts were much more enthralled by Ms Abdul and sent this to No 1 (the second of four from her album). I think we got this one right.

Possibly a fact dulled by the passage of time but a reminder here that there was more to D-Mob than just “We Call It Acieed”. The rather belated follow up to that tabloid baiting single was “It Is Time To Get Funky” this time with the London Rhyme Syndicate (LRS) and DC Sarome. Unsurprisingly, I couldn’t be doing with this nonsense. There didn’t seem to be anything original going on here at all. A load of rapping and then a cliched slogan of a chorus. No thanks.

After this No 9 hit, D -Mob or Dancin’ Danny D as he was sometimes known decided to turn his attentions to launching the career of Cathy Dennis who would very briefly become a chart sensation at the start of the next decade before developing into a songwriter for other artists. Her pretty impressive track record includes eight UK number ones including “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” for Kylie Minogue and”I Kissed A Girl” by Katy Perry and five Ivor Novello awards.

A big moment in 1989 next as Soul II Soul go big time. Yes they had already had a Top 5 hit with “Keep On Movin” but if that song lit the the blue touch paper on their career, then “Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)” blew the doors off. Not only was it a UK No 1 but it also made No 4 in the US.

The original album version was an a cappella track but the single release which we all know had that crucial shuffling, reggae / hip hop hybrid backing that made it so distinctive. That and of course Caron Wheeler’s vocals.

The video, though essentially just a basic performance promo also became iconic. There was something about that jungle setting (actually Epping Forest) and the carefree dancing that just worked.

Mention should also go to Claudia Fontaine (prominent in the video) who was Wheeler’s band mate in Afrodiziak who provided backing vocals for many an act throughout the 80s including The Jam, Elvis Costello, Special AKA , Heaven 17 and Howard Jones. Claudia sadly passed away in 2018 aged just 57.

Top 10

10. Donna Summer – “I Don’t Wanna Get Hurt”

9. Neneh Cherry – “Manchild”

8. Guns N’ Roses – “Sweet Child O’ Mine”

7. Lynne Hamilton – “On The Inside”

6. Sinitta – “Right Back Where We Started From”

5. Madonna – “Express Yourself”

4. Natalie Cole – “Miss You Like Crazy”

3. The Christians, Holly Johnson, Paul McCartney and Gerry Marsden – “Ferry Cross The Mersey”

2. Cliff Richard – “The Best Of Me”

1. Jason Donovan – “Sealed With A Kiss” : Scream! It’s Jason! And the TOTP studio audience certainly do as the nation’s favourite heart throb goes straight in at No 1 with his version of the Brian Hyland hit. You can actually hear some young girl sighing ‘Jason’ in the instrumental break.

I guess it was a clever move on behalf of Stock, Aitken and Waterman to get him to release a cover of a big slushy ballad at this point in his career, capitalising on his teen audience following who could buy the single and listen to it in their bedroom fantasising that it was all about them and Jason. The valedictory blown kiss in his performance here couldn’t have been better scripted. For those of us who weren’t obsessed school girls, it was all a bit toe curlingly awful. There are still two more hits to come from the Aussie boy wonder before 1989 is through. For the love of God….

The play out video is “Cruel Summer ’89” by Bananarama. This was the trio’s last UK release and hit of the entire decade and it’s a strange one for sure. I remember it being out again around this time and certainly remember it being a Top 10 hit on its original release back in ’83 but I cannot recall nor find anywhere on the internet quite why the song was re-released in ’89. Was it featured in a film or advert? Maybe they just wanted to maintain their profile while they were busy doing a world tour. It was a stand alone single and the only album it is on is 2005’s “Really Saying Something: The Platinum Collection” so that supports the theory.

I say the song was  ‘re-released’ but its actually a new version of the song with newbie Jacqui O’Sullivan ‘s vocals replacing Siobhan Fahey. More than that though, it’s got some horrible, clunky production all over it which references to it on the web are calling a New Jack Swing version. I thought New Jack Swing was an early ’90s thing no?

Anyway, the video for it is a compilation of previous promo clips as the girls were too busy with their aforementioned world tour to shoot a specific one themselves. Supposedly Siobhan Fahey is included on the video (albeit just a couple of frames worth) but I’ve sat through it and can’t spot her.

“Cruel Summer ’89” peaked at No 19 whilst the original ’83 release was a No 8 hit.

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/m000gp1h/top-of-the-pops-08061989

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/2019/05/may-31-june-13-1989.html