Pet Shop Boys | TOTP Rewind – the 80s

TOTP 17 DEC 1987

Posted on June 5, 2019 by 80stastic

It’s nearly Xmas! Well, in 1987 anyway and the race for the festive No 1 is nearly over. We’ve seen some fallers with some heavily backed prospects fading or pulling up and now the runners and riders are jostling for positions as the as the last bend approaches. In the end it would turn out to be a mad dash between two songs – one from a band in the form of their life and one from out of left field that would go onto be one of the biggest Xmas tunes of all time. But for now…

After their last single “Sweet Little Mystery” had necessitated two out of court plagiarism settlements, you would have thought that someone in the Wet Wet Wet camp would have been on their guard when it came to releasing a follow up but no, the choice of “Angel Eyes (Home And Away)” plunged them into another legal battle. After Van Morrison and John Martyn’s cases were upheld and co-writer credits allocated, the next claimant was Chris Difford. Not content with stealing the lyrics from Van the Man, Marti Pellow almost wholesale stole a verse from the Squeeze song “Heartbreaking World”. The evidence m’lud:

Angel Eyes (Home And Away) lyrics:

The saddest thing I’ve ever seen on my tv screen
Was a dying man who died for his dream
Toughest thing I’ve ever heard
Was that new-born scream in this naked world

And some of those “Heartbreaking World” lyrics:

The saddest thing I’ve ever seen

Was a starving face on my TV screen

The saddest thing I’ve ever seen
Was a football fan dying for his team
The toughest thing I have ever known
Was a soldier boy who never made it home

The greatest thing I’ve ever seen
Was a newborn child looking up at me
The greatest sound I’ve ever heard
Was a baby’s cry in this wicked world

Well, that’s pretty conclusive I think. Difford thought so too and sued. Pellow even admitted the theft:

Marti Pellow: "My first dealing with Chris was when he sued me. I stole one of his lyrics from [the album] “Così Fan Tutti Frutti” and used it on “Angel Eyes”. It must have been in my subconscious – that's my story, anyway!” #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) May 30, 2019

Happily, it was a case of all’s well that ends well as Pellow ended up being managed by Difford and even lived in the same house as him for a time. As for the song itself, the 19 year old version of me thought it sounded pretty classy actually – especially after the knockabout fun of “Sweet Little Mystery” – with its interjecting strings and mellow soulfulness.

Could it have been the Xmas No 1? Possibly but looking back I think the record label got the scheduling of the single’s release all wrong. Not officially out in the shops until 30th November, it had less than a month to hit the top and in the 80s that was a big ask. In the late 90s, singles would go straight to No 1 propelled by massive first week discounting but that was years away. Added to that, the band had only been on people’s radar for a matter of months so it wasn’t a given that all their releases would be massive hits. Indeed, it’s first chart position was at No 44 before a gentle rise into the Top 40 at No 32. The week of this TOTP performance it was No 21. Steady but unremarkable progress. It just didn’t have enough time to pull in those massive sales before Xmas. It did however reach No 5 ultimately to become their third consecutive Top 10 hit. They were on their way.

I always hated this next one. Not the original Cole Porter song which is a beautiful song but the Simply Red version of “Everytime We Say Goodbye” always reeked of cynical record company sharp practice to me. The fourth single to be taken from the band’s “Men And Women” album, it was very much a case of using a cover version to halt a reversal of commercial fortunes. How many times have we seen this done during these TOTP repeats? The album’s singles had proven to be a case of diminishing returns:

“The Right Thing” – No 11
“Infidelity” – No 31
“Maybe Someday…” – No 88

That last chart position in particular must have caused palpitations at the record company and so they shoved out “Everytime We Say Goodbye” which returned the band to the Top 20 (No 11). I recall a lot of fuss at the time about how Mick Hucknall was born to sing a standard like this (much like my Mum always says that Rod Stewart was born to sing The Great American Songbook) but I just didn’t like it. Or maybe I just didn’t like Mick. He pulls some odd grimaces while performing here, a bit like Andrew Strong of The Commitments fame, possibly consciously to convince us that he was being sincere and not desperately eyeing the Xmas No 1 spot.

Danger! Mike Read alert! Yes, the eternally unfunny one’s turn in the co-presenter hot seat has come around again. What gems will he have for us this time during his links? His first attempt is so lame it nearly declares itself a duck before sloping off screen. After Simply Red he attempts to tickle our funny bones with the comment “How strange the change from Michael to Gary…” as he hands over to his presenting partner Gary Davies. Do you get it?? Do you see what he did there? He only appropriated a line from “Everytime We Say Goodbye” to form a link!! Did he really think this stuff was in any way humorous?!! Talk about being deluded. He’s almost up there with Donald Trump.

The horse that came from nowhere out of the pack of chasers and nearly caused a photo finish to be required is up next. What else is there to be said about “Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl that hasn’t already been said and written? There’s even an hour long documentary dedicated to the story behind the making of the song.

One thing to say about this performance though relates to the lyrics controversy and specifically the lines:

“You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it’s our last”

The BBC insisted that MacColl’s singing of “arse” be replaced with the less offensive “ass” which she dutifully obeys but she does smack her own behind in protest. In December 2007, Radio 1 edited out the words “faggot” and “slut” from the song for fear of offending the nation but relented after listeners, the band and MacColl’s mother claimed it was ridiculous.

History shows that “Fairytale of New York” didn’t quite complete its quest to be Xmas No 1 but the following tweet from @TOTPFacts is testament to the place it holds in the nation’s hearts.

A re-release in 1991 took it back to number 36. It was then absent until 2005 when a second re-release charted at number 3, after which it has re-entered the chart every year due to downloads/streaming – climbing as high as number 4 at Christmas 2018. #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) May 30, 2019

A couple of nearly Xmas Breakers next. Level 42 had been enjoying a strong 1987 with three Top 10 hits prior to this but “Children Say” rather let the side down with its No 22 peak. Maybe it was just a case of one too many singles to be pulled from the same album (“Running In The Family” had already been out for nine months by this point). Or maybe it was because it’s just not a very good song. It kind of drifts along with no purpose before the chorus featuring Mike Lindup’s falsetto vocals meanders by with what sounds like too many words to fit in.

The video doesn’t feature the Gould brothers Phil and Boon as they had recently left the band. We wouldn’t see Level 42 for another year when they returned to the charts with the much more memorable “Heaven In My Hands” single.

Some cynical record company practice that I did approve of next. In an attempt to cash in on the publicity and sales generated by the sensation of the year that was Rick Astley and his attempt at the Xmas No 1 that was his cover of Nat ‘King’ Cole‘s “When I Fall In Love”, EMI did the only thing they could in retaliation and re-released Nat’s version. Rick’s ghastly take on it included a brutally blatant Xmas tie -in video complete with snowy Wintery landscape and log cabin. Utterly shameful.

Happily, Nat came to the nation’s rescue and split the sales with his version peaking at No 4 whilst Astley had to make do with No 2 and in the process was deprived of a very possible Xmas No 1. I recall my housemate John being very chuffed about this eventuality as he detested Rick Astley.

Oh blimey it’s Belinda Carlisle! There was many a young man that I knew around this time that was very taken by Belinda and I certainly wasn’t resistant to her charms either. What? Oh, the song. Yes. OK. Err… “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” was damned catchy and seemed to coincide with a guilty soft rock secret that I seemed to be developing at the time so I thought it was pretty good. It has of course gone onto become a classic of that genre and featured on many a driving compilation.

Did I know of her Go-Gos background back then? I’m not sure I made the connection immediately and to be fair she had certainly changed her image from that earlier new wave era but of course we all soon knew about it. Moreover, she would be joined in the UK charts a few months later by her band mate Jane Wiedlin with her high adrenalin piece of perfect pop “Rush Hour” but that’s all for another day.

When I worked in Our Price in Rochdale in the early 90s my first manager there said he’d been to a Belinda live gig on some freebie record rep tickets and her backing band had been complete soft metal heads who spent the whole time rocking out. I’m guessing it may have been the guitarists in her backing band in this performance. Status Quo had nothing on these guys.

Typically, the cretinous Mike Read has to pretend he has turned down Belinda’s amorous advances towards him. For the love of God man! Couldn’t you just do the links for once?!

The pre-Xmas Top 10….

10. Jellybean and Elisa Fiorillo – “Who Found Who”

9. Madonna – “The Look Of Love”

8. Pogues with Kirsty MacColl – “Fairytale Of New York”

7. Shakin’ Stevens – “What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For”

6. Mel and Kim – “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”

5. T’Pau – “China In Your Hand”

4. Alison Moyet – “Love Letters”

3. Michael Jackson – The Way You Make Me Feel”

2. Rick Astley – “When I Fall In Love”

1. Pet Shop Boys – “Always On My Mind” – The present incumbent at the top of the pops only needed to last another week to bag the ultimate chart crown of the year- the Xmas No 1. It was in doubt right up to the last minute though as a seemingly unstoppable momentum propelled The Pogues to within an inch of glory but Neil and Chris survived the full force of Shane Magowan, Kirsty et al to claim the coveted spot.

Never originally intended for a single release, it was the duo’s contribution to an Elvis tribute programme which had aired back in August to commemorate the 10th anniversary of The King’s death. A compilation of Elvis’ greatest hits had been released to coincide with the event (‘Now That’s What I Call Elvis’ my housemate John had christened it) – suddenly Elvis was back in fashion. The cover of “Always On My Mind” had been scheduled to be the B-side to previous single “Rent” until their manager pulled rank after seeing the cover’s potential.

As the Xmas No 1 race came sown to the wire, I was firmly in the Pet Shop Boys camp although I can see now the true genius of “Fairytale Of New York” and that it would have been a deserved festive chart topper as well. Whatever your preference between the two songs, surely we all agreed that either was preferable to Rick Astley.

History has been kind to both songs.”Always On My Mind” was voted the top cover version of all time in a BBC Music vote back in 2014 whilst “Fairytale Of New York” was voted as Britain’s ‘favourite Christmas song’ in 2012 following a nationwide survey of ITV viewers and is a staple of festive playlists everywhere.

The play out video is Madonna with “The Look Of Love”. This must surely be her least remembered hit of the entire decade and possibly of her whole career. The third single from her “Who’s That Girl” soundtrack, it peaked at No 9 which meant it was her first single not to make the Top 5 since “Lucky Star” in 1984. I’ve just watched it back and just 10 seconds later, I can’t recall how it goes. Give me ABC any day.

It was an ignoble ending to 1987 for her which had included two No 1 records earlier in the year. We would not see her in our charts for the whole of 1988 but she would be back with a bang in 1989…

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Wet Wet Wet	Angel Eyes (Home And Away)	No but my wife had the album on cassette
2	Simply Red	Everytime We Say Goodbye	Simply No
3	The Pogues with Kirtsy MacColl	Fairytale Of New York	Not the 7” but we all have this song on something surely?
4	Level 42	Children Say	Nah
5	Nat ‘King’ Cole	When I Fall In Love	No but I am eternally grateful to it for keeping Rick Astley from the No 1 spot
6	Belinda Carlisle	Heaven Is A Place On Earth	No but its on my iTunes
7	Pet Shop Boys	Always On My Mind	No but its on my Pop Art greatest hits CD
8	Madonna	The Look Of Love	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/m0005hjd/top-of-the-pops-17121987

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/2017/12/december-16-29-1987.html

TOTP 22 OCT 1987

Posted on May 14, 2019 by 80stastic

It’s late October 1987 and seven days on from the Great Storm (which I neglected to comment on in last weeks post on the day that it actually happened). I was firmly ensconced back into student life in Sunderland Poly at the time and I do recall it being a bit windy in the North -East that night but it was nothing compared to what some parts of the rest of the country suffered. Anyway, back to the music and tonight’s TOTP seems to be some sort of UK/US hybrid with a couple of links to LA to somebody called Nia Peeples who Wikipedia tells me was a singer and actress who was best known at the time for being in the TV version of Fame. She must have been in the later series as I don’t remember her from its 1982 heyday. More of Nia later though…

In the UK studio we have Was (Not Was) with “Walk The Dinosaur”. The band has the feel of a funked up pre-historic version of Kid Creole and the Coconuts here. Well, they do have a singer in a wide brimmed hat and some scantily clad female dancers. I love the fact that Don and David Was look like some sort of mad musical scientists in this performance. You can almost see them thinking “Look what glorious concoction we have brewed up in the studio”.

A few years after this I purchased their wonderful collection album “Hello Dad…I’m In Jail” which includes some great tracks including this, possibly my favourite of theirs and better than anything the Godfather of Soul ever did (No you f**k off!)…

Our first trip to the US TOTP studio is next. So what was this US TOTP all about? Apparently it went out on the CBS Network and ran for 26 shows between September ’87 and March ’88. Its lack of success was probably due to the surfeit of music shows that already existed over the water or maybe US audiences just couldn’t understand Gary Davies’ British accent.

The act that the aforementioned Nia Peeples introduces are Los Lobos with “Come On Let’s Go” which feels like a bit of an anti-climax as a start for this new venture to be fair although Nia does her best to big them up in her intro.

I didn’t mind the song and I liked the film it was taken from (La Bamba) but I’m not sure Los Lobos were the most exciting band to look at on stage. Harsh? Maybe but the lead singer hardly moves at all! He should have taken a leaf out of Marty McFly’s book. That’s how you do a rock ‘n’ roll number …sort of.

Next is a single that was hardly a failure but was kind of an anachronism during the performer’s ’87-’88 imperial phase. “Rent” by the Pet Shop Boys was a No 8 hit which is certainly not to be sneered at (Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran would have given their right arms for such a big hit at this time) but it did stand out as a blip in their run of chart placings which went:

“It’s Sin” – 1
“What Have I Done To Deserve This” – 2
“Rent” – 8
“Always On My Mind” – 1
“Heart” – 1

The single’s provocative title misled many a listener into thinking it was about a rent boy but Neil Tennant dismissed this notion stating it was written from a female perspective with the protagonist forgoing happiness in return for financial security in a relationship of compromise.

The sound of it is certainly downbeat and drenched in melancholy with that haunting keyboard refrain running throughout it. It’s also quite beautiful as well I think. Maybe it was too fragile and spare for the casual pop fan to buy into after their more recent rousing songs like “Suburbia” and “It’s A Sin”. Was it a poor choice of single then? Possibly. Maybe the more uptempo “One More Chance” would have been a better track to be taken from the “Actually” album in terms of a higher chart placing. It was hardly a mis-step in their career though. We’ll see them again soon enough with the Xmas No 1 single.

Back across the pond again now. Fancy some dumb-ass American rock?* You’re in luck for here come Kiss with “Crazy Crazy Nights”. To be fair, I always quite liked this in a non-demanding, fine-on-the-radio-but-I-wouldn’t-buy-it kind of way. Yes it’s loud and brash but it’s also fun. It was certainly a sing-along favourite in the student house I lived in.

I don’t know too much about Kiss but I’m guessing that this era of the band isn’t their fans’ favourite. “Crazy Crazy Nights” was taken from the album “Crazy Nights” ( I always wondered why the album title had one ‘crazy’ less) and its intentional catchiness sounded like it had been written by a band in need of a hit. And it worked though maybe not in the way the band had expected. A minor No 65 hit in their native US, it was far more successful in Europe and was Top Ten in the UK (No 4) and Norway (No 7).

In my head, this was the first time that the band had appeared without their trademark make-up but Wikipedia tells me that isn’t the case and that they had unmasked as long ago as 1983 with the “Lick It Up” album and tour.

*I’m guessing the two guys either side of Simon Bates may have. Were they for real or were they strategically placed stooges?

After one synth pop duo in the Pet Shop Boys come the act that matched them hit for hit throughout the decade – Erasure. Much like the former’s song on tonight’s show, “The Circus” was also an understated single which was in direct contrast to their previous uptempo releases. Featuring an unlikely accordion and some social commentary lyrics, it was the fourth single released from their album of the same name. Unlike “Rent” though, I never cared for it much. Maybe it was the accordion. It just sounded really convoluted and lacking in melody to me. Whatever I thought about it made no difference to the song’s success though as it was a No 6 hit.

The Breakers are still here and it’s a case of another month another hit for The Cure, this time with “Just Like Heaven”. This was their ninth consecutive Top 40 hit since 1983 and was the third single to be lifted from their “Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me” album. I must admit that around this time I kind of lost track of the band a bit and although I know and like the song, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you what year this had been released without looking it up. It has that familiar Cure feel to it, all other worldly and yet intensely catchy. Yep, it’s a good song in my book and made No 29 on the UK charts.

Robert Smith was in the news again recently as The Cure were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and he seemed less than overwhelmed by the prospect. This is just brilliant…

What?! A Ray Parker Jr song that isn’t “Ghostbusters”?! It’s true! Actually I do remember this one (despite it being utterly forgettable) as it was another fave of my student housemates. I think they were being ironic. Students eh?

Absolutely nothing like “Ghostbusters”, “I Don’t Think That Man Should Sleep Alone” has a vague hint of “Moonlighting” about it but otherwise is just generic late night soul music with some thinly veiled f**k buddy lyrics:

“I can’t seem to get warm enough
Even with four blankets and a sheet
I may as well be honest girl
I think I need a little body heat”

This ghastly number somehow rose to No 13 in the UK charts. Just awful.

One of the most iconic videos of the year, nay the decade next! Ask anybody who lived through this era to picture George Michael in their mind’s eye and this will almost certainly be the image that they conjure up. One year on from Wham!’s farewell, George was about to launch this re-invented version of himself on a global scale. The title track from his multi -platinum “Faith” album, this song was a No 1 hit around the world including the US where it was the best selling single of 1988.

It took me a while to get into it to be honest. The church organ version of Wham!’s “Freedom” as the intro before the stripped back production of the Bo Diddley style guitar was a world away from his earlier material alongside Andrew Ridgeley and even from the lush layers of “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)”. After the notoriety of ‘I Want Your Sex” though, at least this one was catchy.

The stubble, ripped Levi’s, Ray-Bans and leather jacket image would be lampooned many times over the years and indeed Michael himself would distance himself from it by effectively killing it off in his “Freedom ’90” video via detonation. I think my favourite send up of it though occurs in this video…

The Top 10 was thus…

10. George Michael – “Faith”

9. Fatback Band – “I Found Lovin”

8. Billy Idol – “Mony Mony (Live)”

7. Erasure – “The Circus”

6. M/A/R/R/S – “Pump Up The Volume”

5. Bananarama – “Love In The First Degree”

4. Kiss – “Crazy, Crazy Nights”

3. Abigail Mead and Nigel Goulding – “Full Metal Jacket”

2. Jan Hammer – “Crockett’s Theme”

1. Bee Gees – “You Win Again”: Seeing off competition from a drill instructor and Miami Vice, the brothers Gibb are top of the heap again. In the last post I made mention of The Alarm’s ever changing hairstyles to which my old Poly mate Andy remarked “Never mind The Alarm, we were all in awe of Barry Gibb’s amazing hair” and he’s right! Look at it! It seemed to grow in so many different directions all at the same time. There’s about three different styles in there all on one head! And none of it moved! Ever! Quite remarkable!

The play out video is “Love In The First Degree” by Bananarama which has rocketed into the Top 5 thereby vindicating the group’s decision to sell their souls to the Devil otherwise known as working with Stock, Aitken and Waterman.

I met up with a couple of friends this weekend and whilst we were watching this particular TOTP on iPlayer my mate Steve came out with “So are Bananarama back together as a threesome then?” Err…’threesome’? I think maybe the word you were after was ‘trio‘ Steve?! So who was my favourite ‘Nana? Ooh no! That looks wrong written down doesn’t it? Not ‘Nana. Whose using the wrong word now eh?! OK – who was my favourite member of Bananrama? It was always Keren but nowadays I’m wondering if I may have overlooked Siobhan all this time. Sorry Sara.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Was (Not Was)	Walk The Dinosaur	No buy it’s on my collection CD of theirs which is ace
2	Los Lobos	Come On Let’s Go	Nope
3	Pet Shop Boys	Rent	No but it’s on my Pop Art collection CD
4	Kiss	Crazy Crazy Nights	Nah
5	Erasure	The Circus	No but my wife had the album
6	The Cure	Just Like Heaven	Don’t think I did
7	Ray Parker Jr	I Don’t Think That Man Should Sleep Alone	I don’t think that man should have a hit – No
8	George Michael	Faith	No and somehow I avoided the ubiquitous album as well
9	Bee Gees	You Win Again	No thanks
10	Bananarama	Love In The First Degree	No

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0004nrj/top-of-the-pops-22101987

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/2017/10/october-21-november-3-1987.html

TOTP 27 AUG 1987

Posted on April 28, 2019 by 80stastic

After the gibbering fool that was Steve Wright last week, we have Gary ‘safe pair of hands’ Davies on presenting duties for tonight’s show. Up first and making their TOTP debut are Then Jericho with “The Motive”. This lot thought they were going to be huge and for a while so did I. Coming on like a rockier version of Duran Duran and with a lead singer in Mark Shaw who looked liked John Taylor, how could they fail? Apparently they’d been around for a couple of years by 1987 and had already released five singles before finally cracking the charts with “The Motive” but I hadn’t heard of them up until this point. I have strong memory of them being on The Roxy which was ITV’s ill conceived weekly music show that was supposed to rival TOTP but only lasted one series. Quite why I recall them on that show but not TOTP I really don’t know.

Back to the music though and the chugga-chugga rhythm guitar builds slowly until the urgent sounding bridge which leads into the almost frantic chorus that includes some hysterical whooping vocals from Shaw….and I loved it. Their brand of tuneful, guitar driven rock/pop really was right up my street back then. A very respectable No 18 placing boded well for future chart glories but the re-released follow up single “Muscle Deep” flopped for a second time so the band retreated to lick their wounds and regroup. They returned two years later with their biggest hit “Big Area” and a moderately successful album of the same name before splitting in 1990.

When I worked in Our Price in the 90s, one of my colleagues was obsessed with Mark Shaw so I’m guessing she wasn’t very impressed with his (fleeting) appearance on the 2003 reality TV show Reborn In The USA. The premise of the show was that ten faded British pop stars would perform in America where they were unknown in the hope of revitalising their careers. Mark Shaw was one of the contestants but he only lasted a few days on the show which ran for eight weeks. As I recall he spent most of that time drunk, belligerent and upsetting his fellow contestants. I’m pretty sure he picked up a hooker at the airport as well, something like that anyway. Deciding he didn’t need the hassle, he quit the show but that wasn’t the last we ever saw of him. He is still performs on the 80s retro circuit under the name of Then Jericho to this day.

Next up it’s the video again for “What Have I Done To Deserve This” by Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield. Up to No 2 by now, I have to admit that I find the video a bit dull to be honest despite the over the top stage costumes for the chorus line extras. The most interesting thing is when the normally static Chris Lowe throws a few shapes in slow motion. I think it’s meant to be arty and interesting but it doesn’t do it for me. The song was included in the full-length Pet Shop Boys musical film It Couldn’t Happen Here which I must admit I have never seen but having read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia, it sounds like sub The Prisoner style nonsense.

Dusty’s career was revitalised by “What Have I Done To Deserve This” though and she would go onto have two more Tennant and Lowe produced hits in “Nothing Has Been Proved” and “In Private” before the end of the decade.

And now we find Wet Wet Wet who are two for two in terms of Top 10 hit singles with their second ever release “Sweet Little Mystery” now at No 6. The Wets have an interesting discography I think, certainly in the earlier stages of their career. Struggling to find their sound after being signed to Phonogram, they decamped to Memphis to record with Al Green’s producer Willie Mitchell. What they came up with was a set of eight songs, five of which were the initial versions of tracks that appeared on debut album “Popped in Souled Out”. In an interview with http://www.udiscovermusic.com, bassist Graeme Clarke had the following to say about that time:

“What we made was a discovery record, and we do feel it would have been a hard album to sell. It was a fairly dark record. We loved it, but we needed a more pragmatic approach. The advice we were given was that we needed to do a more commercial album.”

Nothing unusual about the existence of early / demo versions of songs that are quite different to their commercially released counterparts of course. Indeed, record labels are now actively trawling their vaults to unearth previously unreleased tracks to be included in their ever expanding deluxe box set re-issue campaigns. Back in 1987 though, such a practice was unheard of so when the Wets Memphis sessions songs were released as a bona fide album in 1988, well that was unusual. Despite the band having been in the public’s consciousness for just one year, so high was Phonogram’s investment in and expectation of the band that they thought it appropriate and necessary to release “The Memphis Sessions” as a stop gap between their debut and second albums. The album was a success and went to No 3 in the UK charts and included the early alternative version of “Sweet Little Mystery”…

They finally released their official second album “Holding Back The River” in late 1989 and this was unusual as well. Why? Well, it was a very mature sounding record compared to the pop appeal of predecessor “Popped In, Souled Out” dealing with themes such as alcoholism in the album’s title track. Although it was commercially successful, the singles from it performed moderately on the charts to say the least. They returned with their third album “High On The Happy Side” in 1992 which was much more radio-friendly and included No 1 single “Goodnight Girl”. It would have made much more sense to have released “High On The Happy Side” as the follow up to their debut album and then tried to experiment with a more grown up sound on the historically difficult third album. Essentially what the band had done was to release what should have been their third album second and vice versa. Still, it didn’t work out too bad for them after all did it?

“Sweet Little Mystery” would peak at No 5 in the Top 40.

Somebody else with a second consecutive hit single is Colin Vearncombe under the vehicle of Black. After “Sweetest Smile” had been a No 8 hit just weeks before, a re-release of “Wonderful Life” would duplicate that peak and simultaneously become Colin’s most well known song. The title track of his No 3 hit album, this performance features a live vocal from Vearncombe (which I think he also did with “Sweetest Smile”) and he does a fine job too. The song itself is undoubtedly melancholy in sound but with those intriguing lyrics searching for some sort of life affirming positivity, it was certainly an arresting song and one which leant itself to commercial hijacking – it has been used in at least three TV ad campaigns including Standard Life insurance, Emirates Airlines and Premier Inn.

A Top 10 hit all around Europe, I liked it. It had a more conventional structure to it than “Sweetest Smile” (it had a proper chorus!) and undeniable hooks. Did it become an albatross around Vearncombe’s neck? Possibly but then it was also responsible for turning his life around. He was homeless when he wrote it after the break up of his first marriage.

One last thing, is that Billie Piper stood next to Gary Davies in the intro to this one?

*checks Wikipedia*

No, she was only 4 at the time of this broadcast!

A first outing on the show for a new band next who would have a decent career at the latter part of the decade. As Gary Davies tell us, T’Pau had already had a hit with “Heart And Soul” in the US before the UK cottoned onto it after it was used to soundtrack a Pepe Jeans advert. It’s a great pop song with its slowly building intro leading into that memorable chorus with that throat shredding vocal from flame haired lead singer Carol Decker. I have to admit that I had quite a thing about Ms Decker for a while back there. Apparently so did Miami Vice’s Don Johnson as she was offered the role of his wife in the show but it eventually went to Sheena Easton (more of whom later).

“Heart And Soul” was a No 4 hit in the UK and the US.

The Top 10 looked like this…

10. Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram – “Somewhere Out There”

9. Def Leppard – “Animal”

8. Pseudo Echo – “Funky Town”

7. New Order – “True Faith”

6. Wet Wet Wet – “Sweet Little Mystery”

5. Spagna – “Call Me”

4. Sinitta – “Toy Boy”

3. Michael Jackson – “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”

2. Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield – “What Have I Done To Deserve This”

1. Rick Astley – “Never Gonna Give You Up”: Rick hits the No 1 spot! Famously the tea boy at the Stock, Aitken and Waterman studios before he became a huge pop star, Rick was often mistaken for a black singer based purely on his voice before people realised what he looked like. As for those looks, I always thought he was an unlikely looking heart throb, and always seemed very boy -next-door to me but that didn’t stop a lot of the female contingent of my Poly course from swooning over him. It can’t have been his dancing that did it for them surely?!

The play out video is Prince and Sheena Easton with “U Got The Look”. Smash Hits magazine described Sheena as a “foxy temptress” in the video but argued that it must have been Prince and his pervy pals that had influenced her as she used to be “formidably straight-laced” and talked about liking “sweeties” but hating “lumpy custard”. “Now look at her – up there with all those pervs! Whatever next?” they end the article with. Well, as previously mentioned, next for Sheena was the role of Don Johnson’s wife in Miami Vice. She ended up getting shot and dying. That could have been you Carol Decker!

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Then Jericho	The Motive	I did didn’t I? Where’s my copy then?
2	Pet Shop Boys with Dusty Springfield	What Have I Done To Deserve This	No but it’s on my Pop Art CD of theirs
3	Wet Wet Wet	Sweet Little Mystery	No but my wife had the album
4	Black	Wonderful Life	Don’t think I did
5	T’Pau	Heart And Soul	No but I had the album. I did – really!
6	Rick Astley	Never Gonna Give You Up	No but I recognize the single sleeve from its image on Wikipedia so maybe my sister bought it
7	Prince and Sheena Easton	U Got The Look	No

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0004j84/top-of-the-pops-27081987

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/2017/08/august-26-september-8-1987.html

TOTP 20 AUG 1987

Posted on April 24, 2019 by 80stastic

It’s still August 1987 here at TOTP Rewind and tonight’s presenters are Steve Wright (oh shite) and a pregnant Janice Long! No it wasn’t ex-beau Peter Powell’s baby but her partner Paul Berry whom she married as recently as September 2017. Belated congratulations Janice! Now, on with the music….

At the time that Wax were having a hit with “Building A Bridge To Your Heart”, its composers had a combined age of 78 and there were only two of them! Graham Gouldman was 41 whilst partner Andrew Gold was 37. As the former admitted in a Smash Hits interview “Curiosity Killed The Cat we ain’t”. Gouldman also was of the opinion that ‘it is rather impertinent of us to carry on making records. But what else am I supposed to do? I’m just a humble songwriter’. And a damned fine one in my opinion. Now 72, he began his career as a tunesmith way back in the 60s writing songs for the likes of The Hollies, The Yardbirds and Herman’s Hermits before becoming one of the main songwriters in the hugely successful 70s band 10cc.

A few years back I watched him on one of those BBC Songwriters Circle programmes along with Roddy Frame and Neil Finn where they all performed acoustic versions of their songs together. I have to admit I was more interested in seeing Roddy and Neil perform but I was blown away by Gouldman and had no idea that he had written all those songs made famous by other artists. “Building A Bridge To Your Heart” will no doubt never be talked about in such revered tones as the likes of “I’m Not In Love” but he and Gold look they are having a great time being back on TOTP in this performance.

If you thought we must have seen the last of Five Star by now then think again. We are still not a Five Star-free zone yet. However, if the writing wasn’t on the wall just yet then their pop career demise could certainly be sighted if you read between the lines. Ironically, “Between The Lines” was the name of their third album which did indeed precipitate their fall from the affections of UK pop fans. “Whenever You’re Ready” was the first single from it and while its No 11 peak was hardly a disaster, I’m sure their record label would have expected another Top 10 hit especially after a run of six out of their last seven single releases that did just that and given that it was a brand new song not yet available on any album. Not only did the single under perform, so did the album which spent only two weeks in the Top 10. Two further releases from the album formed a diminishing returns pattern to the point that by the end of the year plans to promote the album any further were shelved. Some minor hit singles in the following year and that was it for the Pearson siblings.

How did their commercial collapse come about? I honestly think it was a case of overkill. They had released a single every two to four months since 1985 (11 in total before “Whenever You’re Ready”) with most of them, if not identical, then definitely sticking to a formula. Did their audience just get bored of them? It’s either that or their fans just grew up and moved on from that squeaky clean sound and image. My wife’s cousin’s kids certainly fell into that category. Or could it be that people finally realised that they were just crap? Eliot Fletcher (courtesy of @TOTPFacts) knew the score…

Now on line two, here’s Eliot Fletcher with a question for Five Star: https://t.co/FtvvLJFQl4 #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) April 19, 2019

It’s a cool, handsome dude on next according to Steve Wright’s introduction. Who can he mean? Yes it’s that man Sherrick again with his totally forgotten hit (at least by me) “Just Call”. In the studio this time, he chances his arm with a few dance moves for good measure. If Colonel Abrams had ever attempted a Luther Vandros impression he would have been Sherrick.

I think the following tweet sums it all up nicely:

This is like Jobfinder music with a vocal on top. #totp
— William Ham Bevan (@HamBevan) April 19, 2019

Sadly, Sherrick and indeed the good colonel are no longer with us.

Can I just say yet again at this point that Steve Wright was just dreadful at presenting TOTP. His cry of ‘Yo!’ as he introduced Sherrick was arse clenchingly excruciating. To think a few years earlier I’d thought he was hilarious on Radio 1, poor misguided fool that I was.

Back to the show though and here’s Bon Jovi doing a….ballad? A soft rock ballad but a ballad nonetheless. After the driven rock of their first two hits “You Give Love A Bad Name” and “Livin’ On A Prayer” and the dramatic cowboy themed “Wanted Dead Or Alive”, this seemed like new territory for the band. It would be a genre they would keep coming back to faithfully over the next couple of decades though. Being the fourth and final single to be released from the massive selling “Slippery When Wet” album, perhaps predictably, “Never Say Goodbye” didn’t perform as well as its predecessors topping at out No 21.

Did I like it? Yeah I liked it enough at the time although it’s not one of their better songs but it will always be about this lyric for me:

“Remember when we lost the keys and you lost more than that in my back seat baby”

Dear oh dear! What a sleazy line!

Apparently it was based on “Hearts Of Stone’ by Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes. Let’s have a listen then….

It’s almost the same song! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all that I suppose. We wouldn’t see Bon Jovi in our charts again for nearly exactly a year as they struggled to write a follow up album to ‘Slippery WhenWet” but finally did so when they basically just rewrote it and called it “New Jersey”.

“He was wearing one of my old vests” quips Wright at the song’s end. Steve…listen mate…just do one will you.

Here’s the Breakers….after the sweeping epic that was “Sign O’ The Times” and the downright weird “If I Was Your Girlfriend”, Prince was back with a cracking three and a half minute pop song in “U Got The Look”. The 1987 version of me saw this as returning to much more familiar ground after pushing the barriers of expectation with those previous two releases. Sheena Easton’s involvement came about after the Purple One had asked her to do some backing vocals on the track but he liked her contribution so much he made it a full blown duet and a lustful one at that. Featuring lines such as:

Your body’s heck-a-slammin’
If love is good
Let’s get to rammin’

we all knew what he was singing about. However, it was nothing compared to the frankly filthy “Sugar Walls’ he had written for Sheena a couple of years before.

“U Got The Look” made No 11 in the UK but was a No 2 hit in the US.

We’re getting towards the end of The Smiths recording career now but it’s not over just yet. As well as being one of their most provocative and well known song titles, “Girlfriend in a Coma” was also the lead single from their fourth and final studio album “Strangeways, Here We Come”. It was also the first release since the devastating news for Smiths devotees that Johnny Marr had left the band. Why did he leave? Wikipedia suggests it was all to do with Cilla Black! Eh? Well, the B-side to “Girlfriend in a Coma” was a cover of Cilla’s “Work Is A Four Letter Word” which Marr hated:

“That was the last straw, really. I didn’t form a group to perform Cilla Black songs.”

Many years later I read the Douglas Coupland novel Girlfriend in a Coma which was named after The Smiths’ song and a fine read it was too. Around the same time, I actually met Johnny Marr! I was working on the counter at Our Price in Altrincham, Cheshire and Johnny popped in to buy the Ali G video that had been released that day. Unfortunately for Johnny we’d sold out but he insisted we had some as he’d just rung up and been told by a colleague that we had it in stock. Sadly said colleague hadn’t checked and so, coward that I was, I rang her upstairs in the office from the counter and said to her “Well you’ll have to come and explain to Johnny Marr that he’s left the studio early for no good reason as we’ve sold out because I’m not doing it”. To her credit, my colleague did just that. I’ve felt bad about it ever since.

“Girlfriend in a Coma” reached No 13 in the UK charts.

The Pet Shop Boys No 1 single that never was? Possibly. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe had just entered their imperial phase with the chart-topping success of previous single “It’s A Sin”. They followed it up in a very un-obvious way. Whilst many in the music press confidently predicted that “One More Chance” from the album “Actually” would be the next single release, Neil and Chris instead went for their collaboration with 60s icon Dusty Springfield “What Have I Done to Deserve This?”. Dusty had been in the pop wilderness for nigh on two decades (none of her recordings from 1971 to 1986 charted on the UK Top 40 or Billboard Hot 100) until her renaissance was ushered in by the unlikely saviours of this synth pop duo. Tennant was already a huge Dusty Springfield fan and so the chance to record with her couldn’t be allowed to pass by.

The resulting song would be a No 2 hit both here and in the US. It was kept off the top spot only by Rick Astley (who would have the biggest seller of the whole year) in the UK and by George Michael (who had whipped America into a ‘Faith” frenzy) Stateside.

It took me a while to get used to it. Their previous two singles had been such huge sounding songs. From the swashbuckling “Suburbia” to the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink production on “It’s A Sin” – once heard, you couldn’t ignore them. “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” felt like it was almost understated next to them but it was a grower. Tennant’s deadpan vocals – so isolated and remote sounding on their previous hits – miraculously gelled with Springfield’s velvet tones to great effect and by the end of the Summer I thought it was great. I wasn’t sure about Dusty’s 80s hair though.

Heeere’s Sinitta! The woman who never seems to age is enjoying a huge hit with “Toy Boy” and despite the salacious nature of the song, her backing dancers have resisted the urge to follow the recent trend of oiling up semi naked and have their chests fully covered.

Apparently written by Pete Waterman in just five minutes, I think Carl Savage summed the whole thing up succinctly on Twitter recently:

He spent 5 whole minutes writing this shit?
— carl savage (@carlsavage) April 11, 2019

“Toy Boy” peaked at No 4 on the UK charts

Top 10 time…

10. Pet Shop Boys with Dusty Springfield – “What Have I Done To Deserve This”

9. Wet Wet Wet – “Sweet Little Mystery”

8. Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram – “Somewhere Out There”

7. Los Lobos – “La Bamba”

6. Def Leppard – “Animal”

5. New Order – “True Faith”

4. Sinitta – “Toy Boy”

3. Rick Astley – “Never Gonna Give You Up”

2. Spagna – “Call Me”

1. Michael Jackson – “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”: For the second week running, TOTP is unable to show the culmination of its programme as Jackson didn’t make a video and he wasn’t in the country to drop into the studio. Taken from the album “Bad”, this was the first of five singles to go to No 1 in the US. It wasn’t quite the same story in the UK with “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” being the only single to top the charts over here but the pattern was very nearly replicated with the other releases securing the following positions 1 – 3 – 3 – 2 – 4.

Fast becoming the proxy No 1 in Jackson’s absence is Spagna with “Call Me”. Here she is yet again in the studio. If I wasn’t sure about Dusty Springfield’s hair then Spagna’s was positively unnerving. This style is never making a comeback! She’s still knocking about though and released a single as recently as 2016. I’ve just checked out the video for it on YouTube and she doesn’t have the same hair. Phew!

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Wax	Bridge To Your Heart	I think I’ve got it on a CD somewhere
2	Five Star	Whenever You’re Ready	Hell No!
3	Sherrick	Just Call	I’ll pass thanks
4	Bon Jovi	Never Say Goodbye	No
5	Prince / Sheena Easton	U Got The Look	No but I have it on CD somewhere
6	The Smiths	Girlfriend In A Coma	Nope
7	Pet Shop Boys with Dusty Springfield	What Have I done To Deserve This	No but it’s on my Pop Art Best Of
8	Sinitta	Toy Boy	As if
9	Michael Jackson	I Just Can’t Stop Loving You	No and I didn’t have the album either but it’s on my promo HIStory CD which I got when working at Our Price.
10	Spagna	Call Me	I didn’t even pick up the phone – no

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00048qj/top-of-the-pops-20081987

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/2017/08/smash-hits-july-29-1987.html

TOTP 16 JUL 1987

Posted on April 7, 2019 by 80stastic

After last week’s extravaganza of oiled up male dancers as part of the Shakin’ Stevens performance, we start with another eyeful of the same thing this week as Bananarama return to the charts with “I Heard A Rumour” which spearheaded their successful but also line up changing Stock Aitken and Waterman period. Strictly speaking, the previous year’s “Venus” had been their first collaboration with SAW but this was the first single from the “Wow” album that was written and produced entirely by the Hit Factory. It undeniably bears all the hallmarks of a sound that would dominate the UK charts until the end of the decade and beyond. The album would yield four Top 20 hits, two of which were Top 5 whilst “I Heard A Rumour” was a No 4 hit Stateside.

For all that success though, the band would lose Siobhan Fahey before the last of those four singles had been a hit to be replaced by Jacquie O’Sullivan whose time in the group would make for interesting reading if she ever decided to write her autobiography. But that’s all for another day…

Back to those dancers and it’s all very gratuitous and unnecessary really. As for the Nanas, the dance moves seem a little more choreographed and in sync than they have been previously – a SAW influence maybe? I’ve posited a theory many times on this blog that you could always see that Siobhan would leave the band as she never seemed to wear the same outfits as Keren and Sarah. It’s in evidence again here as she has a distinctly different look to that favoured by the other two.

Is this still in the charts? In my head “Under The Boardwalk” by Bruce Willis had been a hit much earlier in the year but here’s that video for it again in mid July.

It’s not the biggest crime against music ever but it’s also not a patch on this version by Tom Tom Club is it?

Apparently there was a second Bruce Willis album called “If It Don’t Kill You, It Just Makes You Stronger” released in 1989 but by then Moonlighting had finished, Willis had started on the Die Hard series of films and nobody was really interested in Bruce as a singer anymore.

This is a great performance and one which I recall vividly. Hue And Cry had only released one previous single on a major label before “Labour Of Love” hit big for them. There was an element of luck about it all though. Following in the steps of the Sex Pistols and Wah! who both ended up on prime time TV shows only because another act had bailed (Queen in the case of the Sex Pistols and the infamous Bill Grundy interview and Duran Duran in the case of Wah!), Hue and Cry found themselves on TOTP because of Los Lobos. The “La Bamba” hit makers were booked for the show initially but a visa problem meant that the video had to be shown instead. Enter the brothers Kane. The back story to their appearance gives more substance to Simon Bates saying “I’m delighted Hue And Cry have made it” implying that otherwise the show may have been a little bit shorter this week.

I thought “Labour Of Love” was great. It fair whips along with its “super bad” groove (to paraphrase the lyrics) and its funked up sound. Oh yes, those lyrics. Yet another anti-Thatcher rant, the first time I heard this song I thought Pat Kane was singing “gonna whip-drop my neighbour”. I did think it was odd that he would be singing about beating up his neighbour (possibly over a boundary dispute). Once I knew the correct words it made much more sense.

I loved Pat Kane’s ever so slightly too big suit in this performance. It’s as if he was saying “Well if I’m going to perform in front of a TV audience of millions, I’m going to do it right and wear my Sunday best togs”. He seemed so retro and cool to me at the time. I must have been home from Poly by this point as I have a definite recall of seeing this at my parents’ house.

“Labour Of Love” made No 6 on the UK charts and helped establish Hue And Cry as makers of not always successful but definitely quality songs. I’m pretty sure I even bought it for my brother’s birthday on a limited edition 10″ no less.

Oh God! I didn’t think we had got to this stage already – the stage where I have to tell my Kenny G story. Looking here like a cross between Kevin Keegan and Brian May, Kenny Gorelick is one of the most successful musicians of all time selling 75 million records worldwide (I kid you not) and “Songbird” was his breakthrough success becoming a No 4 hit in the US and No 22 over here.

Some six years on from this, my Kenny G story took place. I was working in Our Price at the time and was on a works’ night out that ended up at a nightclub where I was well and truly pissed. A guy I worked with called Andy was also there. Andy loved his mainstream pop music and was quite a character. He named his car Jason after Jason Donovan and just about shoved me out of the way one day so he could get to serve Barbara Knox (Corrie’s Rita Fairclough) in the shop. He also loved Michael Bolton and asked me, whilst I was pissed in the nightclub, if I would go with him to see the poodle haired one in concert in Sheffield. And I said yes. Now remember, I was under the influence – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Andy bought the tickets the next day before I could back out and so I found myself travelling to Sheffield a few weeks later to see Michael Bolton. And what has this to do with Kenny G? Well, Kenny was the support act. Yes, just when I though it couldn’t be any more of a surreal experience, it turned out that ‘the G man’ (as Bolton referred to him) was on the same bill!

I seem to have blacked out anything that I witnessed that evening from my memory. I certainly don’t remember anything about Mr Gorelick’s contribution but the mere mention of him always makes me think of this story.

One final thing, I wonder who the character of Lars in the film Serendipity was based on?

Mel & Kim‘s third consecutive hit of the year next and it was the title track of their album “F.L.M”. The video is shown this week as sadly their story was about to take a tragic turn when Mel’s health started to fail her. After collapsing shortly after performing at the Montreux Pop festival, she was unable to promote the single and so this video was cobbled together including the Thunderbird style puppets which weren’t a hit with the real thing.

Kim Appleby: “We had no idea a video was being made and what the concept would be. We didn’t get to see the video until it was aired on TV. We were horrified when we saw it! Let’s just say the puppets didn’t go down too well…" #TOTP

— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 29, 2019

Mel’s health would never recover and she would sadly die in 1990 from pneumonia after receiving chemotherapy treatment for cancer of the spine.

The aforementioned Los Lobos are the first of the Breakers tonight with their version of “La Bamba”. These Tex-Mex rockers had been around since 1973 but came to global attention when they recorded some songs for the soundtrack to the film La Bamba. Starring Lou Diamond Phillips, it told the story of Richard Steven Valenzuela, a Mexican – American teenager who rose to fame as the rock ‘n’ roll star Richie Valens before losing his life in the air crash that also claimed Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper.

The film was well received but its legacy was even more important. In 2017, the film was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and was seen as a turning point in the marketing of mainstream films to the Latino community. Despite its accolades, you hardly ever see it shown on TV these days which is a shame as I loved it when I saw it at the cinema on its release.

Back to Los Lobos though who contributed versions of six Valens songs for the soundtrack album including “La Bamba” which started life as a Mexican folk song. Here’s @TOTPFacts with the earliest ever recording of it from 1939:

The earliest (surviving, at least) recording of "La Bamba" was released in 1939, by El Jarocho (Alvaro Hernández Ortiz): https://t.co/LtbXNLRJjP #TOTP

— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) April 4, 2019

The Los Lobos version would go to No 1 in both the UK and the US and made them international superstars. I liked “La Bamba” but I liked the film much more and by the end of the song’s stint at the top of the charts, I’d had enough of it. The band released their versions of ‘Come On Let’s Go” and “Donna” as follow ups but neither got anywhere near to replicating the success of “La Bamba” which was a shame as I preferred both songs to their more successful predecessor.

One of The Cure‘s lesser known singles up next – lesser known to me at least as “Catch” failed to make much of an impression on me at the time. Taken from their “Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me” album, it only reached No 27 in the UK charts and wasn’t released as a single at all in the US.

The song has a weird tie-in with Sylvester Stallone that I wasn’t aware of until now. The lyrics were inspired by the film Rocky 2 in which Rocky’s wife Adrian falls into a coma during childbirth. Trying to help bring her out of the coma, Rocky writes a poem for her which includes the line “…..and you kept trying to slip so I could catch you….”. Robert Smith was affected by this so much that he wrote “Catch”. This led onto Smith writing a song for Stallone’s Judge Dredd movie and to them both contributing their voices to episodes of South Park.

There was so much press about who this next act actually were but there really wasn’t a story there at all as we all knew it was George Michael doing the singing. It was only that his label Epic wouldn’t let him be credited that created any sort of mystery at all. Boogie Box High was the brainchild of George’s cousin Andros whose sole contribution to the history of the charts was this fairly faithful rendition of the Bee Gees classic “Jive Talkin”. On reflection, it’s hard to work out what all the fuss was about. No doubt Michael’s popularity would have induced his fans to purchase the single. It’s only recently that I’ve been made aware of the other musicians who were part of the project including Nick Heyward on choppy guitar and the Style Council’s Mick Talbot on keyboards.

There was a second single and an album but by then George’s fans had the all conquering “Faith” album and its six attendant single releases to buy and there was no money left for Boogie Box High.

This next one must have slipped me by as I wasn’t sure how it went at all before watching this back at which point my memory cells stirred from their 32 year slumber and it rang a vague bell. Freddie McGregor had been recording music since he was 7 years old as ‘Little Freddie’ and had therefore been in the business nearly 25 years before he scored a No 9 hit with “Just Don’t Want To Be Lonely”. There seemed to be some appetite for this brand of lovers rock in the UK at the time. Remember Boris Gardiner going to No 1 the year before? A year later Aswad would go mainstream and score a No 1 hit with “Don’t Turn Around” which “Just Don’t Want To Be Lonely” could have been a blue print for. Seeing as I wasn’t a Boris or Aswad fan, I’m afraid Freddie didn’t so anything for me either.

Top 10:

10. The Firm – “Star Trekkin”

9. Heart – “Alone”

8. Black – “Sweetest Smile”

7. Mel & Kim – “F.L.M.”

6. A-Ha – “The Living Daylights”

5. Atlantic Starr – “Always”

4. Terrence Trent D’Arby – “Wishing Well”

3. Madonna – “Who’s That Girl”

2. Bruce Willis – “Under The Boardwalk”

1. Pet Shop Boys – “It’s A Sin”: In a Smash Hits interview about the making of the video for “It’s A Sin”, Neil and Chris were asked what the seven deadly sins were. They could recall six but the last one eluded them. “U2?’ suggested Chris. What a card!

The play out video is “Who’s That Girl” by Madonna. Taken from the soundtrack of the film of the same name, it was yet another No 1 in both the US and the UK but for me it was really poor. It was just a weaker version of previous single “La Isla Bonita” wasn’t it? The Smash Hits review of it certainly agreed with me describing it as ‘little more than “La Isla Bonita” Part Two‘. The review goes on to make the point:

‘The really bizarre puzzler is that of anyone else had the audacity to release not just one but two soppy Spanish songs in quick succession they would be treated to universal scorn. But Madonna is regarded as a Goddess – like being, incapable of mistakes. Which seems terribly unfair really doesn’t it?’

I am in complete agreement. “Who’s That Girl” is a stinker. It seems that the film is as well. Not that I’ve actually seen it. As with La Bamba that never seems to be on TV, Madonna’s 1987 attempt at being a film star is also conspicuous by its absence. Critically panned, the reviewer Dan Dinicola described it thus:

“Who’s That Girl is not simply an awful film, it is positively unbearable. It’s a movie without a head or a brain, a picture of such crass stupidity that it can’t even make you angry. Instead it numbs you to death with its moronic platitudes, its pretensions to comedy. … It’s a vanity project which is so amateurly produced and conceived that it makes you want to cringe in shame.”

Ouch!

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Banarama	I Heard A Rumour	Their SAW period wasn’t my favorite of theirs – no
2	Bruce Willis	Under The Boardwalk	Nope
3	Hue And Cry	Labour Of Love	No but I bought my brother the 10”
4	Kenny G	Songbird	God NO!
5	Mel & Kim	F.L.M.	I didn’t hate it but I didn’t like it enough to buy it either
6	Los Lobos	La Bamba	Nah
7	The Cure	Catch	Not for me this one
8	Boogie Box High	Jive Talkin’	Another no
9	Freddie McGregor	Just Don’t Want To Be Lonely	Really not my bag
10	Pet Shop Boys	It’s A Sin	Not the 7” but I ‘m sure I had the album on tape at one time.
11	Madonna	Who’s That Girl	Absolute stinker – NO!

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0003m0j/top-of-the-pops-16071987

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/2017/07/july-15-28-1987.html

TOTP 09 JUL 1987

Posted on April 3, 2019 by 80stastic

Want a break from Brexit? I have the perfect distraction. Join me here at TOTP Rewind for a trip back in time to July 1987 when nobody had heard of Jacob Rees-Mogg, Theresa May wasn’t even an MP and Dominic Raab had yet to start shaving.

And if you thought you had witnessed the ultimate depths of madness with Brexit, think again. What the actual fuck is this all about?! Shakin’ Stevens with some half naked, oiled up male dancers?! This redefines lunacy. Yes, 50s throwback Shaky decided that to still be relevant in 1987 he should take to the stage with four guys who look like they had clearly failed the audition to perform on that “Male Stripper” record. Instead they find themselves in some bizarre parallel universe where Shaky is the ringmaster of risqué. I can’t have seen this particular TOTP as this came as a total and unwanted surprise to me and there’s no way once seen this can be forgotten.

“A Little Boogie Woogie (In The Back Of My Mind)” is the song that he’s performing but that is rendered completely incidental by the shenanigans on screen. Are those dancers wearing codpieces?! I’m not sure which is worse, their routine or when Shaky decides to join in with some lassoing action, a few seconds of running man and that awful trademark move of his when he stands on his insteps together with feet pointed inwards. Oh God – I can’t un-see this!

Somehow this god awful shit reached no 12 on the charts. What’s more, we haven’t even got to the end of his 80s hits yet. There’s another five Top 40 singles to come. And you thought Brexit was the worst never ending nightmare imaginable.

Another outing for the latest Bond theme next. Apparently A-ha did not have a great working relationship with Bond score composer John Barry when they collaborated on “The Living Daylights”. Barry had previous with the the last Bond theme incumbents Duran Duran and it was they whom he slagged off to A-ha in an attempt to befriend them. Some derogatory comments about women followed and it it didn’t sit well with those nice Norwegian boys at all. With the “A View To A Kill” theme having pulled in some big numbers sales wise, it was felt that A-ha could do a similar job and they were offered the gig. By this time, Duran were on a downward trajectory commercially. I wonder what they made of A-ha not only stealing their position as the No 1 pop group in the world but also their Bond theme mantle?

Check this out! A live vocal from Colin Vearncombe aka Black on “Sweetest Smile”! Given the emotive quality of his voice, it’s no surprise that he chose to make records that sounded so haunting, hypnotic and earnest. It’s a classy performance and nice to see a double bass on display probably for the first time since….Carmel four years ago (maybe)? By the end of the song it seems like you can’t remember anything before Vearncombe started singing and makes Shaky’s greased up nonsense seem like forever ago even though it was actually only about seven minutes previously that we had to endure it.

A whole stack of Breakers this week and first up are Genesis who, after last week’s excruciating little chat with Simon Bates, have wisely decided not to venture anywhere near the TOTP studio again so we get the video for “Throwing It All Away”. It’s just live concert footage from their “Invisible Touch” tour mixed in with some backstage and soundcheck larking about. All pretty dull stuff much like the song itself. This was the fifth single to be released from “Invisible Touch” and as such was predictably the lowest charting of those singles. It was a different story in the US where it was the second single released from the album and reached No 4.

To me it always sounded not only like a bog standard Phil Collins solo ballad but also very similar to the other slowie pulled from the album “In Too Deep”. We wouldn’t see Genesis in the charts for another four years when they returned with the “We Can’t Dance” album but Collins would release his No 1 everywhere album “…But Seriously” in between to keep us all entertained. Thanks for that Phil.

*blogger bites his knuckles*

The Jackie Wilson re-release bandwagon rolls on at a pace with the third of his posthumous singles to make the UK charts in little over 6 months. “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher“ is a great song no doubt but I was 19 and wanted to hear some groovy new sounds not recycled hits of the 60s by dead people. This was 1987 after all. Give us.. err…Living In A Box? Curiosity Killed the Cat?

Mel & Kim next proving there was more to them than just “Respectable” and “Showing Out” although to be fair, “F.L.M” was pretty much more of the same. The title track for their album, it doesn’t stray too far away from the formula that made them stars but seeing as it was written and produced by Stock Aitken and Waterman again, why would it? Supposedly standing for ‘Fun, Love, Money’, “F.L.M.” made a respectable (ahem) No 7 on the charts. Fuckin’ lovely mate.

Despite having originated as far back as the 60s, I wasn’t that familiar with Heart in 1987 and certainly not their “Barracuda” era success. I was faintly aware that they had released some soft rock power ballads back in ’85 that had been big hits for them in the US but had met with indifference over here but not much else. “Alone” changed all of that though. The UK audiences took this overwrought, beseeching rock anthem all the way to No 3 (unsurprisingly it was a No 1 in America).

Around this time, the ITV regional stations would fill their late night schedules with some odd programming but one show that I used to watch was Casey Kasem’s America’s Top 10 and seeing “Alone” on there is one of my abiding memories of the song. As well as being a well known DJ, presenter and music historian, Casey was also of course the voice of Shaggy in Scooby Doo. What was not to love about Casey Kasem?!

Back to Heart though and I think the reason that “Alone’ stood out was the stripped back piano intro and bridge before it wanders into that familiar territory of the huge AOR chorus. To be fair, it could easily have been sung by Cher or even Bonnie Tyler at a push. Apparently it was actually covered by Celine Dion about 20 years after Heart had a hit with it but it’s their version that we all know.

Off the back of the success of the single in the UK, a rush of Heart singles were re-released the following year which made strides into the UK Top 40 meaning we’ll be seeing much more of them in future TOTP repeats.

Here come The Christians with the second of four hit singles for them in ’87 “Hooverville (And They Promised Us The World)” was an anti-Thatcher diatribe comparing 80s Britain with the shanty towns built in America during the depression of the ’30s under the presidency of Herbert Hoover. My US history knowledge wasn’t all that it should be at that time so that reference may have been lost on me. Hopefully I didn’t think it was about dissatisfied vacuum cleaner customers.

As for the sound of the single, I thought it was more melodic than the strident and bold “Forgotten Town”. It was a good, solid proper record. Garry Christian’s vocals are damned smooth and very underrated in my book.

“Hooverville (And They Promised Us The World)” peaked at No 21 in the charts and I’m pretty sure my course mate Roy bought this one on cassette single no less.

Here’s the Top 10…

10. Curiosity Killed The Cat – “Misfit”

9. John Farnham – “You’re The Voice”

8. Whitney Houston – “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)”

7. Atlantic Starr – “Always”

6. Cliff Richard – “My Pretty One”

5. A-ha – “The Living Daylights”

4. Terrence Trent D’Arby – “Wishing Well”

3. The Firm – “Star Trekkin”

2. Bruce Willis – “Under The Boardwalk”

1. Pet Shop Boys – “It’s A Sin”: Still riding high in top spot, for me there will always be a tie -in between this record and the film Name Of The Rose which was on circulation in UK cinemas around this time I think. Starring Sean Connery and a very young Christian Slater, it was the cinematic representation of the 1980 Umberto Eco novel, an historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in 1327. For me it associated with “It’s A Sin” on a very basic level in that Slater’s character (the young novice monk Adso) shags a peasant girl but I’m sure it was much more involved than that but not having watched it since 1987, I can only comment on my memories of 32 years ago.

I doubt the song shares the same associations for Neil Tennant or Chris Lowe.

The play out video is Terrence Trent D’Arby with “Wishing Well”. I commented on this song in a recent post that it was unusual for its lack of a chorus. Here’s @TOTPFacts with some more on that:

Martyn Ware on “Wishing Well”: "When it came to the chorus, I thought we needed something a bit more playful – some kind of weird Disney-like elephant walking along thing – and that was the baritone sax." #TOTP

— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 22, 2019

For me, one of the song’s hooks is the idiosyncratic way that TTD annunciates “Underneath a sycamore tree” as “Underneath a sycamore tray“. I never really got on board with “Wishing Well” to be honest but what did I know? It went all the way to No 4 in the UK and was a No 1 in the US.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Shakin’ Stevens	A Little Boogie Woogie (In The Back Of My Mind)	For the love of God NO!
2	A-ha	The Living Daylights	No but my sister had it. The last of a run of 8 A-ha singles she bought before moving onto George Michael
3	Black	Sweetest Smile	No but I have it on CD somewhere
4	Genesis	Throwing It All Way	Nah
5	Jackie Wilson	Higher And Higher	It was never going to happen
6	Mel & Kim	F.L.M.	I didn’t hate it but I didn’t like it enough to buy it either
7	Heart	Alone	That would be no
8	The Christians	Hooverville (They Promised Us The World)	No but my mate Roy did
9	Pet Shop Boys	It’s A Sin	Not the 7” but I ‘m sure I had the album on tape at one time.
10	Terence Trent D’Arby	Wishing Well	No but I think my wife had the album

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0003f2q/top-of-the-pops-09071987

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/2017/07/july-1-14-1987.html

TOTP 02 JUL 1987

Posted on April 1, 2019 by 80stastic

David Bowie’s Roker Park gig of the previous week’s post, was a bit of a watershed moment as it pretty much marked the end of my first year as a student at Sunderland Poly. There may have been a couple of weeks before I actually returned to my home town of Worcester but in my head it all happened pretty much at the same time. After having lived in a bubble of student unreality for the last nine months, this wasn’t going to be easy to get my head around. For start, I wouldn’t be seeing my girlfriend (now wife) for a couple of months after being used to seeing each other everyday. Maybe TOTP would have cheered me up….

Oh Christ! Simon Bates is the solo presenter tonight and he’s not on good form as we shall see. “Here’s a band who haven’t been on show for three years” proclaims Simes as he introduces ABC with “When Smokey Sings”. They were on two weeks ago you tool! Martin Fry has opted for a spotless cream suit for this appearance ( I seem quite obsessed with his wardrobe choices don’t I?) and he looks every inch the consummate showman. His backing singers could have worked on their routine a bit though. There’s a bit of swaying, a bit of wafting their arms about, some freeform wigging out and finally a bit of do-si-do! This performance wasn’t enough to shift the single any further up the charts and it peaked at No 11.

A big 80s ballad up next by Atlantic Starr who basically re-recorded their previous UK hit “Secret Lovers” from the previous year, tweaked it a bit and released it as “Always”. This was actually taken from their seventh (!) album as they had been around in one form or another since 1976 and is a big drippy love song that I can imagine was popular with love birds as the last dance of the night up and down the country.

The video is similarly sloppy cataloguing the life of a couple through getting married, having kids and into old age. Despite its rather obvious sentiments and sickly production, it was kind of affecting for those of us facing a period of time away from our partners which was exactly what I was looking at as the end of term approached.

As for Atlantic Starr, it never really got any better for them than this. “Always” was a No 3 hit over here and a No 1 in the US but aside from one final return to the Top 3 Stateside in the early 90s, this was pretty much it although the band are still together today so I guess they did last for ‘always’.

Back to Bates and there is a woman in the studio audience to the side of him with the most ludicrous poodle perm hair ever! Probably in her late 40s now, she must have been sat at home knowing this moment would be arriving and cringing. The act he introduces are Curiosity Killed The Cat performing “Misfit” at the Montreux Pop festival. This would have been the band at their optimal peak and Boss Cat Ben gives it his all despite nearly losing his hat at one point

After going into the stratosphere it was pretty much (ahem) down to earth for them after this. Their next single was the woeful “Free” which included one of the worst lyrics ever in my humble opinion which is:

“If we can’t be free then we don’t want to be we”

It stank the place out and the record buying public held their noses, grimaced and turned their backs on the band and “Free” duly bombed out at a paltry No 56 peak. They returned twice (albeit briefly) in ’89 with “Name And Number” and in ’92 as a trio with a cover of Johnny Bristol’s “Hang On In There Baby” before heading for the 80s nostalgia circuit come the new millennium.

Here’s three Breakers for you. First a new band with a dull name but some great songs. Black were essentially just Colin Vearncombe and after operating on the peripheries of the indie music scene for a few years, he got picked up by major label A&M off the back of his song “Wonderful Life” which would eventually become his defining moment when re-released in ’87. Before all of that though, he made a breakthrough with the very sombre sounding “Sweetest Smile” which to me sounded nothing like anything else in the charts at this or perhaps any other time in the whole of the decade. Whilst it could have been dismissed as miserable, you could also make a case for it being tender and fragile which is the point of view I’m taking. It is a beguiling song in that, much like Terence Trent D’Arby’s “Wishing Well”, it doesn’t really have a chorus just that ‘ba-be-ba-bur’ refrain.

I liked “Sweetest Smile” which made No 8 in the charts and also “Wonderful Life” (which did likewise) but my favourite songs by Black would appear on second album “Comedy” a year later which were “The Big One” and “You’re A Big Girl Now” which are just great to my ears.

Sadly Colin died in 2016 from head injuries following a road traffic accident.

Billy Idol in reflective mood? Surely some mistake? No – here’s the evidence. “Sweet Sixteen” was the third single to be lifted from his “Whiplash Smile” album and was positively downbeat compared to his previous hits on which he’d found solo success like “White Wedding” and “Rebel Yell”. It’s essentially an acoustic ballad with lyrics based around a really strange origin. Supposedly a true story, in 1923, Edward Leedskalnin was dumped by his fiancée at the altar in Latvia. Afterwards, he emigrated to Homestead, Florida where he built Coral Castle, a monument made of coral. When asked what it was for, he would reply “It’s for my Sweet Sixteen”. Well, as stories go, it’s got more about it than the one which inspired “Rebel Yell” which was that Billy once saw The Rolling Stones drinking a brand of whiskey called..err… ‘Rebel Yell’.

Despite the fact that Billy still sounds like a pub singer doing Elvis, I quite liked “Sweet Sixteen” and even considered purchasing the album but in the end I bought neither which was probably the right decision. In my opinion, if you need some toned down Billy Idol, you can do no better than “Eyes Without A Face”.

Do you remember when Bond themes sounded like Bond themes? Before the likes of Sam Smith, Jack White and Chris Cornell got their hands on them? A-ha‘s take on this phenomenon that has almost become a genre of music in itself was classic heyday Bond and followed very much in the same footsteps as previous incumbents Duran Duran. “The Living Daylights” was punchy, dramatic and with a prominent, swirling string arrangement courtesy of John Barry. It ticked all the boxes for me.

I was surprised to find out that it wasn’t a bigger hit. No 5 in the UK, No 1 in their homeland of Norway and Top 10 around Europe but apparently nothing in the US. I would have thought a Bond theme back then was guaranteed bigger numbers than that. Maybe it suffered from circumstances. This was the first film to feature anyone other than Sean Connery or Roger Moore (if you discount George Lazenby) in the lead role. Timothy Dalton was the new man cast as the iconic character so maybe there was some wariness about the project as a whole from Bond fans. Just a thought.

And yes, nearly two years on I still wanted Morten’s hair.

Dear oh dear! How wrong can you be? Simon Bates introduces Broken English by predicting that they will be the ‘The band for the 90s’!! In which universe Simon? Bates was shown to be wrong on so many levels. Firstly, “Coming On Strong” had such a retro sound being basically a Rolling Stones cover band. Secondly, they only ever released one more single which bombed and their only album didn’t see the light of day until 2007, missing the 90s entirely by a good 7 years! @TOTPFacts sums it up nicely:

Simon got unaccountably over-excited there, didn't he? "A BAND FOR THE '90S!!!" Simon, they're a Rolling Stones clone. Go home, you're drunk. #TOTP

— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 21, 2019

By the way, I can’t find the TOTP clip anywhere so here they are on another music show, possibly ITV ‘s rival to TOTP The Roxy which Broken English were one of the first acts to appear on.

The Top 10…

10. Cliff Richard – “My Pretty One”

9. Whitesnake – “Is This Love”

8. George Michael – “I Want Your Sex”

7. Curiosity Killed The Cat – “Misfit”

6. John Farnham – “You’re The Voice”

5. Terence Trent D’Arby – “Wishing Well”

4. Whitney Houston – ” I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) ”

3. Bruce Willis – “Under The Boardwalk”

2. The Firm – “Star Trekkin”

1. Pet Shop Boys – “It’s A Sin”: More Simon Bates and his links full of untruths. He confidently assures us that “this is the No 1 song for the first time on TOTP”. Err…no it isn’t. It was on last week you moron. Jeez! Did he never check his facts before going on TV in front of millions of viewers or even watch the show if he wasn’t on it?! The arrogance of the man!

As for the performance itself, Neil Tennant has taken inspiration from the “Stop Making Sense” era David Byrne wardrobe with a huge brown overcoat that swamps him. It looks like a monk’s habit. Maybe that was the idea.

There then follows an excruciating interview with Genesis for some reason. They’re ostensibly on the show to plug two charity shows which of course is laudable but when Bates ask Mike Rutherford about his wife being pregnant it descends into ultimate cringe when the latter says he doesn’t know how he managed to impregnate his wife when he’s been away on tour so much and have only seen each other for a day. At this point he raises his fist in a ‘phwoarrh” gesture egged on by Phil Collins. No, no, no, no, NO!

The play out video is Simple Minds with the live version of “Promised You A Miracle”. If you ever wondered about the origins of the song, here’s @TOTPFacts to put you out of your misery:

“Promised You A Miracle” was inspired by the brass on a funk track which stand-in drummer Kenny Hyslop taped off the radio while in NYC. Nobody remembers what the original funk track was! #TOTP

— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) March 21, 2019

What @TOTPFacts doesn’t tell you is that Kenny Hyslop used to be the drummer with Slik of “Forever And Ever” fame who included a very young Midge Ure in their ranks. I remember Look In magazine going wild over Slik back in the day believing them to be the next Beatles. They weren’t.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	ABC	When Smokey Sings	No but I have it on my “Absolutely” Best Of
2	Atlantic Starr	Always	Never
3	Curiosity Killed The Cat	Misfit	I didn’t as it goes
4	Black	Sweetest Smile	No but I have it on CD somewhere
5	Billy Idol	Sweet Sixteen	It was a near thing but no
6	A-ha	The Living Daylights	No but my sister had it. The last of a run of 8 A-ha singles she bought before moving onto George Michael
7	Broken English	Coming On Strong	Running away fast!
8	Pet Shop Boys	It’s A Sin	Not the 7” but I ‘m sure I had the album on tape at one time.
9	Simple Minds	Promised You A Miracle (live)	Didn’t feel the need to acquire this one either

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0003f2k/top-of-the-pops-02071987

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/2017/07/july-1-14-1987.html

TOTP 25 JUN 1987

Posted on March 27, 2019 by 80stastic

It’s 25th June 1987 and it’s been two days since I saw David Bowie play live at Roker Park in Sunderland. It wasn’t a life changing event for me. It wasn’t even a great gig but it’s one of those stories in my life that I will always remember. I’ll come back to Bowie later on as, although this is a blog based around TOTP, it’s also about my memories of 80s music and on that basis, it certainly warrants inclusion.

The reliability of TOTP being on TV on a Thursday night is, at this point, still an absolute constant. Over the years, FA Cup final replays and even a general election a couple of weeks prior to this broadcast haven’t been able to remove it from its position at the heart of the nation’s habits and routines. It cared not a jot that I had seen a true musical icon performing live a couple of days earlier. TOTP didn’t flinch at this monumental happening. No, it couldn’t give a stuff and nothing was going to make it deviate from dishing me up Cliff Richard, a novelty No 1 and that bloke off Moonlighting (again).

Tonight’s presenters are that unlikely pairing of Simon Bates and Peter Powell again and the latter is on very odd form tonight. More of that later. First act tonight is Chris Rea and as seems appropriate in this Bowie themed post that he’s doing a song called “Let’s Dance”. Obviously its not a cover of David’s No 1 from 1983 but Chris’s own song and the performance here is all a bit strange. Chris shuffles about the stage looking like the whole thing is a real bind and he would rather be anywhere else than on TOTP. His backing band include the unusual sight of an accordion player (complete with 80s style moustache) and some other guys who look like they’ve come straight from performing in their covers band’s regular slot down their local boozer. And that’s all before we get onto Rea’s Fletcher Christian style pony tail! None of this can distract me from my opinion that “Lets’ Dance” is not only not one of Chris’s best songs, it’s just not a good song full stop.

The song was recycled 10 years after this to become the FA Cup final song for his home town team Middlesborough with added contributions from Bob Mortimer. My beloved Chelsea were Boro’s opponents in the final that day and as well as the match winning 2-0 we also had the better cup final song courtesy of Suggs and “Blue Day”. Yes we did!

Here’s that Bruce Willis video again for his version of “Under The Boardwalk”. It was written by one Artie Resnick whose name reminds me of Artie Fufkin one of my favourite characters in the brilliant This Is Spinal Tap film. Artie’s most quotable lines were:

Artie: [after nobody turns up, at an album-signing promotion] You know what I want you to do? Will you do something for me?

David St Hubbins: What?

Artie: Do me a favour. Just kick my ass, okay? Kick this ass for a man, that’s all. Kick my ass. Enjoy. Come on. I’m not asking, I’m telling with this. Kick my ass.

Oh and if you must listen to a cover of this Drifters classic, how about John Mellencamp’s rather than Bruce bloody Willis…

Stand well back! Imperial phase coming through! Yes it can only be Pet Shop Boys who, after a misfiring start, a huge No 1 in “West End Girls” followed by some fine tunes that achieved commercially average chart placings, are set to embark upon a run of unparalleled success. Over the next nine months they released five singles starting with “It’s A Sin” that achieved the numbers 1, 2, 8, 1 and 1 of which the fourth was the Xmas No 1. They also released a three times platinum LP (“Actually”). This was unbelievable success which I think sometimes goes under the radar with more made of the likes of Westlife and Take That in the 90s and One Direction and Little Mix more recently.

The first time I heard “It’s A Sin”, I was staggered by its huge production. Talk about the kitchen sink! There’s everything in there. Obviously huge synthesizers and orchestra sound effects but also a NASA countdown, a thunder clap, passages of Latin, a choir singing ‘Amen’ and of course, running throughout it, Neil Tennant’s deadpan vocals. It was absolutely epic! Drenched in references to Catholic guilt, it had its origin as as far back as 1982 but Neil and Chris decided to omit it from their first album “Please” and to keep it back for their second album. Imagine the confidence to hold back a song like “It’s A Sin” when you are trying to break into the fickle world of pop. Only Noel Gallagher comes to mind as having done a similar thing when he kept back “All Around The World” for Oasis’s third album despite having written it a the same time as the material for their debut LP “Definitely Maybe”.

“It’s A Sin” went straight into the Top 40 at No 5 which was a feat in itself back then. it would be No 1 soon enough.

The Top 40 countdown is next and as fortune would have it, who’s that in at No 40 but David Bowie which seems a reasonable place to return to the story of his gig that I attended. Actually the word ‘gig’ doesn’t even begin to cover it. This was a fully monumental theatrical show complete with a 60 ft high spider with protruding legs, 3-story high mobile scaffolding, clips of film and projected images. Bowie also had what was then cutting edge wireless microphone technology at his disposal for the first time and he employed it extensively to allow him to move about the stage freely and interact with the dancers and musicians and to perform pre planned set pieces.

Before all of that though were the support acts. For this leg of the tour we got Screaming Blue Messiahs and Big Country. The latter were brilliant and if I’m honest the most enjoyable part of the evening. The former? Well, my mate Robin said he was only going just to see them and wasn’t bothered about Bowie and I don’t think he was kidding. You may recall their only ever hit “I Wanna Be a Flintstone”. You may not.

Finally it was time for the great man himself and after keeping us waiting and waiting, he finally arrived on stage over an hour late. And what did he say to the crowd once he’d finally arrived?…

My Glass Spider tour programme which is currently 32 years old…”Good evening Newcastle!”. To a crowd of Mackems in the Sunderland football club stadium! It didn’t go down well at all.

Finally though the show was happening and to be honest I can’t recall too much about it. Wikipedia tells me the set list included classics like “Heroes”, “Let’s Dance”, “Fame” and “Fashion” as well as nearly every song from his underwhelming “Never Let Me Down” album. I do remember the song “Glass Spider” which gave the tour its name with its pretentious dialogue intro and Bowie being lowered from the spider structure onto the stage. I also remember the long walk back to my student halls at the end of the night. There’s a film of one of the shows from the tour on Sky Arts which I should probably watch to refresh my memory. I am super pleased that I went though and can say that I saw one of the world’s greatest ever musical icons live.

Back to TOTP after that Bowie interlude and this is the time in the show that Peter Powell starts to lose it. Check out his intro to “Wishing Well” by Terence Trent D’Arby:

“This is Terence Trent D’Arby and ‘Wishing…long pause….

*don’t say “I was Lucky”…don’t say “I Was lucky”*

…WELL!”

I always though this was a curious song not least because it doesn’t seem to have a proper chorus. Instead you get that instrumental break that sounds like a jingle for an advert. I hadn’t realised before I did some research that this had been huge in the US. I always thought that TTD had been a bigger deal over here than in the States but although “If You Let Me Stay” had under performed over the pond, “Wishing Well” had been an actual No 1 record. It was a smash over here too peaking at No 4.

His two male backing singers in this performance are quite hard to take seriously. The height difference and the jaunty baseball cap make them look like some awful 80s comedy duo.

Just the two Breakers this week which is the cue for more peculiar pronouncements from Peter Powell. The Simple Minds? Really Pete?!

Coming off the back of the hugely influential track “Sign O’ The Times”, I guess the next Prince release was always going to struggle to make its mark but I really didn’t get “If I Was Your Girlfriend”. Maybe I wasn’t emotionally mature enough to understand what Prince was trying to do lyrically which was to sing the song from the perspective of being his lover’s platonic girlfriend. Or maybe it was just that I wasn’t musically mature enough and found the song’s sound quite ponderous without much in the way of melody. Either way, it wasn’t for me then and still isn’t now.

“If I Was Your Girlfriend” made No 20 in the UK but was a relative failure in the US topping out at No 67.

Time for The Simple Minds then (you had one job Powell, one job!). Why was a live version of “Promised You A Miracle” in the charts? Well, much like Bruce Springsteen the other week with his live version of “Born To Run”, they had a live album to promote. “Live In The City Of Light” was a double LP that documented the band’s Once Upon A Time world tour and was a No 1 for them. The only song picked from it to promote the project was their debut hit from 1982. I always though it was not the most obvious choice given that they were into their stadium rock phase and songs like “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” and “Alive And Kicking” had been huge global hits showcasing that sound.

Jim Kerr couldn’t look more 80s than he does in the clip here with his big shouldered jacket and massive mullet. “Promised You A Miracle” the live version got to No 19 which was six places lower than the original studio version.

Already into the fourth decade of his recording career by this point, Cliff Richard was nowhere near finished with us by 1987. In truth, his 80s output had been a bit sketchy. Huge hits early on like “Carrie” and “Wired For Sound” led to some medium sized hits like “She Means Nothing To Me” and “Never Say Die (Give a Little Bit More)” and by the mid point of the decade he was having more misses than hits. Some collaborations turned his fortunes around. A No 1 for Comic Relief with The Young Ones in 1986 was followed by the duet with Sarah Brightman “All I Ask Of You”. Teaming up with another artist didn’t always work for him though. “Two Rivers” that he recorded with Elton John no less stalled at No 44.

“My Pretty One” would give him his first Top Tenner completely on his on for four years though. As Simon Bates tells us, it was written by Alan Tarney who had composed the aforementioned “Wired For Sound” for Sir Cliff but he hadn’t been the first singer to have a go at the song. Anyone remember Jamie Rae? I’m guessing not and that’s no surprise. He was a here today gone tomorrow Scottish wannabe pop heart throb who released two singles in the mid 80s one of which was the original version of “My Pretty One”. Play Jamie’s version and see if you can hear any difference from Cliff’s (apart from the vocals obviously). I’ll wait…

Exactly the same right? Jamie disappeared from the pop world before he had a chance to make it big but the story of why is a moving one:

Jamie Rae 30 years on: The former teenage heart-throb back on stage at Pleasure Beach

I guess if Peter Powell’s weird intonations were ever going to sound in context then this week’s Top 10 rundown would be it as we get “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” from Starship and “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me Now” from Sam Fox. Why does he continue to refuse to say the word ‘sex’ though when announcing George Michael at No 4. Simon Mayo was allowed to say it the other week.

10. Starship – “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”

9. Curiosity KIlled The Cat – Misfit

8. Sam Fox – “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me Now”

7. John Farnham – “You’re The Voice”

6. Johnny Logan – “Hold Me Now”

5. Pet Shop Boys – “It’s A Sin”

4. George Michael – “I Want Your Sex”

4. Bruce Willis – “Under The Boardwalk”

2. Whitney Houston – ” I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)”

1. The Firm – “Star Trekkin”: The second and final week at No 1. I’ve not been able to get this out of my head since hearing again for the first time in 32 years! As awful as it is, you have to admit it’s catchy. Also, full marks to whoever was responsible for the Dr McCoy impersonation. The ‘It’s worse than that he’s dead Jim’ line is spot on.

God the TOTP producers loved this didn’t they?! How many times has John Farnham been on the show with “You’re The Voice”? To be fair, the single did hang around the charts for what seemed like an eternity so I guess he was guaranteed to pick up a few appearances. The song spent 18 weeks in the Top 100 and 12 of them in the Top 40 including seven week on week rises.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Chris Rea	Let’s Dance	Nah
2	Bruce Willis	Up On The Boardwalk	A resounding NO!
3	Pet Shop Boys	It’s A Sin	Not the 7” but I ‘m sure I had the album on tape at one time.
4	Terence Trent D’Arby	Wishing Well	Nope but I think my wife had the album
5	Prince	If I Was Your Girlfriend	No – didn’t get it at all.
6	Simple Minds	Promised You A Miracle (live)	Didn’t feel the need to acquire this one either
7	Cliff Richard	My Pretty One	Let me see….NO!
8	The Firm	Star Trekkin’	The very idea!
9	John Farnham	You’re The Voice	A guilty pleasure but I never bought it

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00038ls/top-of-the-pops-25061987

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/2017/06/june-17-30-1987.html

TOTP 16 OCT 1986

Posted on December 4, 2018 by 80stastic

So they finally did it…we prayed this would never happen but doomsday has arrived! The apocalypse is upon us! Instead of four horsemen though it’s two Radio 1 DJs that signify the end of the world. The TOTP producers have eventually paired up the ghastly Simon Bates with the dreadful Steve Wright as a duo(denum) of shitness. We can only hope that tonight’s music is a damn sight better than the presenters….

…and it’s a great start with possibly my favourite Pet Shop Boys song ever “Suburbia”. Despite being the fourth single to be released from debut album “Please”, it was actually the second highest charting of the lot (after “West End Girls”) peaking at No 8. A friend from my course at Sunderland Poly described the song at the time as ‘swash-buckling’ and I can see what he meant. There are lots of dramatic sound effects thrown into the single mix (which is radically different to the album version) such as the barking dogs intro and the sound of smashing glass but it’s that buccaneering piano melody that strides throughout the whole song that does it for me. Neil Tennant’s deadpan vocals contrast with it perfectly and the whole thing sounds almost joyous which is completely at odds with the subject matter of the lyrics about the dissatisfaction of urban life and inner city riots.

In this performance, Neil doesn’t seem sure what to do with himself at the song’s beginning and opts for some dad dancing before giving that up as a bad job. He has to fall back on it once more though at the song’s instrumental break – I’m convinced he would have been better off just striking a rapper style crossed arm pose and pouting. The cowboy hat is an odd affectation and surely that coat is too big for him.

This single ushered in their imperial phase where three of their next five singles went to No 1 and great as they were, I think I prefer “Suburbia” to any of them.

Bah! The run of great music didn’t last long! Here comes Cliff Richard and Sarah Brightman with “All I Ask Of You”. I’m wondering if I did see this TOTP in the TV room of my halls of accommodation as I recall this being on one show that I caught. I must have been struggling to shake the TOTP Thursday night ritual in my early days of student hedonism.

Taken from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical The Phantom Of The Opera, this wasn’t ever going to do it for me. I mean I’ve seen the stage version of the musical and enjoyed it and the song fits in just fine in that format but as a song in the pop charts? Not for me.

And what was all the fuss about the video that Simon Bates insisted on saying was “So over the top you won’t believe”. No it isn’t. It’s just a load of green screen backdrops consisting of clouds, crashing waves and a beach with Cliff and Sarah imposed over the top looking all lovey dovey at each other. Nothing over the top at all. David Bowie dressed as a Pierrot clown with a load of new romantics on a beach followed by a bulldozer in the video for “Ashes To Ashes” – that’s over the top. Simon Le Bon strapped to a rotating windmill which dunked his head beneath the water in the promo for Duran Duran’s “Wild Boys” – that’s over the top. All that the video for “All I Ask For You” does for me is strengthen my opinion that its director Ken Russell was a charlatan.

Despite my criticisms, “All I Ask For You” made No 3 on the UK charts.

After a painfully weak joke about Cliff wearing one of John Travolta’s suits from Steve Wright (did he really think this stuff was funny?!), we’re onto someone who’d had a massive surprise No 1 hit recently (so recent it’s still in the Top 40). After stumbling upon a magic formula for a flukey huge hit, Boris Gardiner did what any sane person would do for the follow up. He practically released the same song over again! “You’re Everything To Me” was almost a replica of “I Want To Wake Up With You” to my ears and seeing as I didn’t like the latter, there was no way the former was going to end up in my singles box!

@TOTPFacts explains the similarity between the songs below:

Like “I Want To Wake Up With You”, “You’re Everything To Me” was the work of country & western songwriter Ben Peters. #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) November 29, 2018

I can’t find a clip of him performing this turgid piece of lover’s rock in the TOTP studio so you’ll have to make do with the official video if you’re reading this after the BBC4 link has expired.

Bloody Hell! Is this still in the charts?! Marti Webb’s version of the BBC drama Howard’s Way theme tune entitled “Always There” is back on the show. This has definitely been on before and I have very little else to say about it. Marti’s in the studio this time and as with Boris G, I can’t find the clip on the internet so I’ve used the closing credits again instead.

Marti always seemed to be one of those performers who would crop up on the Two Ronnies show as the guest singer when I was a kid (or was that Barbara Dickson?) but that really doesn’t do justice to her theatre career which included the lead roles in Evita and Tell Me On A Sunday. She is still treading the boards to this day aged 74 now and appeared opposite Tommy Steele in The Glenn Miller Story at the London Coliseum just this year.

Some Breakers next and first up are The Housemartins with “Think For A Minute”. A very different style to their previous hit the jaunty “Happy Hour”, “Think For A Minute” did what it said on the tin and made you stop and reflect. The downbeat tempo and thoughtful lyrics which ponder the sadness and isolation of modern living (and possibly the effects of unemployment) combine to produce a poignant but beautiful vignette.

As with Pet Shop Boys and “Suburbia”, the single version was radically different from the album cut and made No 18 in the charts.

A curious tale up next concerning one of the biggest bands of the 80s. My recollection of this was that The Police had decided to re-record some of their classic hits for a new album. What we would possibly call today a re-imagining of their songs. The first one to come out of the project was “Don’t Stand So Close To Me ’86”. It was a radically different version – the tempo had been slowed right down and the chorus elongated almost. At the risk of sounding like a football pundit, it sounded much more ‘expansive’. At this point, as I remember, the band fell out and split so the project went unfinished. With no new material to promote, the label A&M put out a greatest hits collection instead (“Every Breath You Take: The Singles”) with “Don’t Stand So Close To Me ’86” tacked onto it and also issued as a single in its own right.

Reading up on this period of the band’s history though, there was a lot more to the story involving broken collarbones and a row about which digital synthesizer to use in the mix that would eventually cause the group to effectively disband for 20 years. It’s all on Wikipedia if you want to read about it. As for the single, I didn’t like this new version. It wasn’t as good as the original so I couldn’t see the point. For once the UK public seemed to agree with me and the ’86 version only made No 24 on the UK Top 40 whereas the original had been the best selling single of 1980.

Oh God! In what has become an increasingly consistent trend in the charts of ’86, we now have some more utterly banal and anonymous US R’n’B. I’m sure Midnight Star have been on TOTP before…

*checking*

Yeah, they were on the other month with a song that sounded exactly the same as “Midas Touch”. That one was called “Headlines” and they are both stop-you-in-your-tracks gut wrenchingly awful. That is all.

Despite having been heard on the show as its new theme tune since April, “The Wizard” by Paul Hardcastle had not been available to buy commercially until now. With the song being an instrumental with a few spoken word bits thrown in, Paul does his best to give a super charged performance which takes in about six keyboards. The show’s producers weren’t sure though so they’ve thrown in some video footage of a mummified woman and a dog splashing around in some water (cause that’s sure to make it so much more interesting!) plus a bank of multi screens to spice it up a bit.

The resulting performance is summed up perfectly by Ian McDougall on Twitter:

Paul Hardcastle looks like a youth from a John Hughes film who's programmed his keyboards to make a proper sexy lady appear#totp
— Ian McDougall (@IanMcDougall1) November 29, 2018

“The Wizard” proved to have limited magical powers when it peaked at No 15.

The Top 10….

10. A-ha – “I’ve Been Losing You”

9. The Bangles – “Walk Like An Egyptian”

8. Pet Shop Boys – ‘Suburbia”

7. Cliff Richard and Sarah Brightman – “All I Ask Of You”

6. The Communards – “Don’t Leave Me This Way”

5. Status Quo – “In The Army Now”

4. Paul Simon – “You Can Call Me Al”

3. Five Star – “Rain Or Shine”

2. Madonna – “True Blue”

1. Nick Berry – “Every Loser Wins”: Nick Berry is No 1 and for a brief moment he is one of the biggest stars in the UK. Propelled to fame by EastEnders and his character Wicksy who was popular with the male audience as ‘a bit of a lad’ but also with the nation’s female population as a pin up. An album was rush released to cash in on the success of “Every Loser Wins” but it bombed only reaching No 99 in the album charts. Despite this, Berry’s Wicksy character remained a big part of the soap until he left in 1990 for fear of type casting. He resurfaced in 1992 in popular 60s village policeman drama Heartbeat which also relaunched his pop career when he scored a No 2 hit with the show’s theme tune, a cover version of Buddy Holly’s “Heartbeat”. After six years of walking the beat, Berry jacked it in. A brief stint in BBC drama Harbour Lights which he wrote, directed and produced followed before he retired from acting to run his own production company ….

….until this short but memorable cameo in EastEnders in 2012….

For those of us old enough to remember, Nick Berry will always be Wicksy. We could have done without “Every Loser Wins” though.

The play out video is Status Quo with statistically their joint biggest hit of the 80s “In The Army Now”. The title track for their 1986 album, this is a real stinker! Quite why this got all the way to No 2 is a mystery to me. A cover of a song by two Dutch brothers called Bolland, it chugs along with very little melody and its lyrics deal with the idea that life in the army is not all it’s cracked up to be by the recruitment brochure. It’s pretty grim stuff.

The two previous singles taken from the album which were “Rollin’ Home” and “Red Sky” I hadn’t minded despite them being pretty brainless but likeable standard Quo fare but “In The Army Now” just sounded all wrong to me.

The video includes a new bassist called John “Rhino ‘ Edwards who was brought into the line up to replace Alan Lancaster who had left the group after his relationship with Francis Rossi had become strained. Edwards remains the band’s bassist to this day but for years was still referred to as ‘the new guy’.

For posterity’s sake, I include the chart run down below:

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Pet Shop Boys	Suburbia	Not the 7″ but I have it on my Pop Art collection CD.
2	Cliff Richard & Sarah Brightman	All I Ask Of You	A very definite no
3	Boris Gardiner	You’re Everything To Me	The G man did nothing for me
4	Marti Webb	Always There	Nope
5	The Housemartins	Think For A Minute	No but my wife has the album London 0 Hull 4
6	The Police	Don’t Stand So Close To Me ‘86	Nah
7	Midnight Star	Midas Touch	An Aladdin’s cave full of gold wouldn’t have convinced me to buy this
8	Paul Hardcastle	The Wizard	Pfft!
9	Nick Berry	Every Loser Wins	No! No! NO!
10	Status Quo	In The Army Now	Status No!

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bt4828/top-of-the-pops-16101986

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?

01b-smash-hits-8-21-october-1986-225x300

http://likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com/2016/10/october-8-21-1986.html