Prince

TOTP 23 NOV 1989

Posted on July 10, 2020 by 80stastic

And so we arrive at one of those ‘legendary’ TOTP shows. You know like the one where New Order perform “Blue Monday:” live and its sounded awful. Or that one where All About Eve can’t hear the playback and just sit there motionless for the first minute and a half of “Martha’s Harbour”. Or the one where Culture Club made their first appearance and the whole world went into meltdown about whether Boy George was actually Girl George. And who could forget the infamous ‘Jocky Wilson’ episode when a backdrop of the grinning Scottish darts player as Dexys Midnight Runners performed “Jackie Wilson Said” below it. Or…well…there’s been a few down the years and 23rd November 1989 was another for that was the night that not one but two of the most influential UK bands of the 90s brought their previously underground talents directly into the mainstream via the great British public’s front rooms.

The presenters for this monumental broadcast were Jakki Brambles and Jenny Powell (if only the latter had spelt her name the 80s way like Jakki then they could have been Jakki and Jenni and sound like some awful, cheesy pop duo).

You wouldn’t have guessed how ground breaking this show was from the act opening it. Yes, it’s those dancing clowns Big Fun with their second hit single “Can’t Shake The Feeling”. I mean just look at these arse -wiggling simpletons! Simpletons? Is that fair? Well, in a Smash Hits magazine interview in which they were asked ‘serious’ questions about ‘proper’ issues, they revealed that they never vote and that they read The Sun. So yeah, simpletons.

I’ve seen comments on Twitter saying that “Can’t Shake The Feeling” is potentially the best Stock, Aitken and Waterman tune ever. WTF?! Talk about gaslighting! Somehow this unforgivable scrotum scratch of a song went Top 10 but after just two more Top 40 hits, Big Fun were gone and the world was a better place overnight.

If New Edition were a just a copy cat version of the Jackson 5, then it follows that Bobby Brown was their Michael Jackson in that he broke out from the group to become a superstar in his own right. That might be a stretch too far for some but Brown certainly followed in Jackson’s footsteps when it came to releasing multiple tracks off an album as singles. “Roni” was a fifth and final single from his “Don’t Be Cruel” album and although I’m finding it hard to locate any trace of this song in my memory banks, it is credited with popularising the phrase ‘tenderoni’ and establishing it as part of hip-hop lexicon. Indeed, Big Daddy Kane referenced Brown himself when he rapped on his 1990 track “I Get the Job Done”:

‘I’m Browner than Bobby so won’t you be my tenderoni’

But what did it actually mean? From the songfacts.com website, here’s R&B songwriter/producer and Bobby Brown collaborator Daryl Simmons regaling a story about his songwriting partner Kenneth ‘Babyface’ Edmonds:

“Kenny wrote this song called ‘Roni,’ about this girl we met in Florida that loved Kenny… she loved Babyface, but she was too young. We were saying, ‘She’s a Roni. Man, she’s a Tender Roni, you can’t mess with her.”

Tenderoni was also a brand of macaroni that was popular in the 1950s and discontinued in 1981. Eddie Kendricks released a song in 1976 called “Sweet Tenderoni” about a girl he was infatuated by whilst Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” also uses the term in its lyrics.

Who would have thought that this nothing song would have had such a cultural impact?! “Roni” peaked at No 21 in the UK

I’m pretty sure the next performance is a valedictory one as we wave goodbye to Fine Young Cannibals. Having first graced our TV screens in 1985, they would give us a marvellous collection of pop tunes with a a twist (the twist mainly being Roland Gift’s extraordinary vocals and the bendy leg antics of David Steele and Andy Cox) but “I’m Not The Man I Used To Be” would be their last of the decade. Always more about quality than quantity – there was a three year gap between their debut album and follow up “The Raw & The Cooked” – they were never able to give us a third album. That really wasn’t in their record company’s plans who decided that, to plug the gap, they would release a remix album called “The Raw & The Remix” (awful, awful title) in late 1990.

I remember this album as I had not long stared work at Our Price and I was surprised to find out whilst researching this post that it was a commercial flop. I could have sworn that it received plenty of in-store promotion but maybe I’m wrong (at a distance of 30 years it’s very feasible). The album was basically a collection of the band’s 12′ remixes of their last album’s songs (plus a couple of earlier tracks) including two different versions of “I’m Not The Man I Used To Be” – one was a remix by trip hoppers Smith & Mighty and the other was by Nellie Hooper and Jazzie B (of Soul II Soul). The collection was a flop commercially speaking only reaching No 61 on the album charts. It was a sad end to a career that burnt brightly yet briefly. The band would return to the Top 20 one final time seven years later with brand new composition ‘The Flame” to support their first official Greatest Hits package “The Finest”.

So what was the deal with this one? Why was “The Eve Of The War” from the 1978 album “Jeff Wayne‘s Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds” being released as a single in 1989? And why was it remixed by Dutch producer Ben Liebrand? I do not have the answer as I don’t recall being aware that it was even in the charts at the time. I can only assume that as Liebrand was in demand at this point – he had turned his hand to revitalising both “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers and “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins into being Top 5 hits all over again in ’88 – he thought he would turn his attention to a more left field project. It seemed that his midas touch was unbeatable as “The Eve Of The War” was a bigger hit even than either of those peaking at No 3.

During my whole 10 years at Our Price, “Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds” was always one of those albums that turned over steady sales throughout. Whether it was classified as ‘core stock’ or ‘bestseller’, it could always be relied upon to be bought by some punter at some point. The two-disc album, featuring the likes of Richard Burton, Justin Hayward, Phil Lynott and David Essex has sold 15 million copies worldwide. In 2018, it was named the 32nd best-selling studio album of all time in the UK.

OK, so we arrive at the first of the two performances that make this particular broadcast so memorable. Having appeared for one week in the Breakers section back in the Summer with “She Bangs The Drums”, The Stone Roses were now on the show in person with latest double A-side single “Fools Gold / What the World Is Waiting For“. Originally, the latter track was planned as the only A-side but the group’s label Silvertone wanted the former as the main track. A compromise was reached with that double A-side release though I have to admit that on the radio stations I was listening to at the time, “Fools Gold” got the lion’s share of the airplay. Very much seen as the standard bearer for the emerging new music genre hybrid of indie dance, “Fools Gold” introduced the rest of the country to the ‘Madchester” movement and overarching subculture of ‘baggy’.

The band’s performance here with Ian Brown’s Sgt Pepper-esque military get up and lo-fi vocals allied with the rest of the band’s effortless cool was a strident image to behold. Except, I have no memory of watching this show at all. What the hell was I doing that was so important at the time? As with The Smiths, I was to miss out on the rise of The Stone Roses for no discernible reason that I can fathom.

Despite this being the band’s mainstream breakthrough, neither “Fools Gold” nor “What the World Is Waiting For” were on their seminal debut album’s track listing of its 1989 UK release. Such was the strength of the single though that, after its original peak of No 8, it re-charted the following year reaching a high of No 22 whilst further remixes of it charted at No 25 in 1995 and 1999.

Apparently the band were not keen on miming on the show and nearly boycotted it but the promise of some amps convinced them to stay. And so they performed on the same show as Happy Mondays….

…or Happy Monday in the singular as Jenny Powell introduces Shaun, Bez and the boys. In the TOTP – the story of 1989 programme, even to this day, Jenny berates herself for cocking the intro up but hey, she’s Jenny Powell so I can forgive her that. Their performance of “Hallelujah” from the “Madchester Rave On” EP sealed the deal – ‘Madchester’ was here to stay and The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays were the official poster boys.

The appearance of Kirsty MacColl with the band on backing vocals (her then husband producer Steve Lillywhite had done one of the “Hallelujah” remixes) lent the shambolic, shuffling performance an ounce of professionalism – certainly she came over as the only adult on stage. However, I’m sure ‘professional’ was not the word that leapt to mind for the majority of the watching millions on their very first introduction to Bez.

I have a distinct memory of dancing to “Hallelujah” in a Worcester nightclub about six months later during a phase of unemployment and feeling a very real sense of release. As I say, this was six months on and during that intervening period I hadn’t really gotten on board with Madchester scene at all. Bizarrely my elder Weller obsessed brother seemed more in tune with it than me. Fast forward another six months and I was living in Manchester and working in a record shop (albeit the very mainstream Our Price) but I always felt like I had arrived too late to experience the crest of the ‘baggy’ wave. I certainly had no money to be frequenting its unofficial HQ The Hacienda nightclub.

Nearly 30 years later I did see Happy Mondays live at the wonderfully named Zebedee’s Yard outdoor venue in Hull. It wasn’t great experience though mainly due to the dickhead crowd of coked up, pissed up middle aged blokes who were trying to reclaim their youth.

Not this pair again! Once more for your delectation come Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville with “Don’t Know Much”. This seems to be a repeat of their live vocal performance from the other week and having watched it then, my mate Robin pointed out to me the unfortunate opening line that Aaron Neville sings. “Look at this face” he warbles so Robin did and from that moment on, he was completely distracted by the birth mark that Aaron has above his right eye. He also has a tattoo of a cross on his left cheek that he got when he was 16 years old but the TOTP make up team seem to have airbrushed that out of the performance.

“Don’t Know Much” peaked at No 2.

Top 10

10. The Mixmaster – “Grand Piano”

9. Martika – “I Feel The Earth Move”

8. Milli Vanilli -“Girl I’m Gonna Miss You”

7. UB40 – “Homely Girl”

6. Iron Maiden – “Infinite Dreams”

5. Kylie Minogue – “Never Too Late”

4. Phil Collins – “Another Day In Paradise”

3. Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville – “Don’t Know Much”

2. Lisa Stansfield – “All Around The World”

1. New Kids On The Block – “You Got It (The Right Stuff)”: Oh blimey! This didn’t take very long did it? T’KNOB are No 1 already and the UK’s population of teenage girls have new poster materials for their bedroom walls. By comparison, last year’s pin ups Bros’s latest single (“Sister”) would struggle to just about make The Top 10. “You Got It (The Right Stuff)” would usher in a slew of New Kids On The Block releases come the new year which would total seven Top 10 singles for the band by the end of 1990 including a further No 1 plus No 2, No 3 and No 4 placed records. Matt and Luke Goss you say? Who are they?

The play out track is “The Arms Of Orion” by Prince featuring Sheena Easton. I’m amazed that this got a second airing given that it was only at No 31 in the charts and even with this exposure would only peak at No 27. I can’t find the video that is used on TOTP I’m afraid but it’s pretty dull stuff anyway just like the song.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Big Fun	Can’t Shake The Feeling	God awful shite -no
2	Bobby Brown	Roni	No
3	Fine Young Cannibals	I’m Not The Man I Used To Be	No but my wife had their album
4	Jeff Wayne	The Eve Of The War (Ben Liebrand remix)	Nah
5	The Stone Roses	Fool’s Gold / What The World Is Waiting For	Shamefully it’s a no
6	Happy Mondays	Hallelujah	See 5 above
7	Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville	Don’t Know Much	…but I know I wasn’t buying this tripe
8	New Kids On The Block	You Got It (The Right Stuff)	Hell no!
9	Prince featuring Sheena Easton	The Arms Of Orion	It’s no again

Disclaimer

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

Whole Show

Since we’ve all been on lockdown, there are people out there with time on their hands some of whom have recorded the whole TOTP show from the BBC4 repeat and made it available on YouTube. So if you did want to watch the whole thing over…

Some bed time reading?

http://likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com/2019/11/i-am-having-some-issues-with-flickr.html

TOTP 16 NOV 1989

Posted on July 7, 2020 by 80stastic

The end of the decade is just a few short weeks away now and the music industry is starting to eye that coveted Xmas No 1 spot. There are plenty of runners in this year’s race as well including Bros, Wet Wet Wet, Jason Donovan, a duet between Cliff Richard and Van Morrison and rather predictably Jive Bunny. God, that’s a roll call of crap and no mistake. In fact, none of those contenders would be Xmas No 1 as that went to….well…that’s for a later post.

As for me, I was once more looking for work as my temporary insurance clerk job had come to an end. I was to find employment in my girlfriend’s home city of Hull as Xmas staff in the department store Debenhams which was handy as it killed two birds with one stone – as as well as earning some money, I could also see my girlfriend as I was staying at her family home. I was put in the toy department which was pretty good as it was busy so no time to get too bored.

It also led to me doing the weirdest job I’ve ever done which was to be Father Christmas at the store’s Xmas grotto. I was 21 years old! I performed the role when the regular guys were on their breaks but the store didn’t want to shut the grotto down. They put talcum powder in my eyebrows to make me look more believable and then I was left to it. The suit stank of sweat and BO ( I don’t think it got cleaned in between Xmases, just mothballed) and I was surrounded my mechanical penguins and snowmen in the grotto itself leading me to question what I was doing with my life at times. At one point when I was Santa’d up the bloody store fire alarm went off and I had to troop out of the building with everyone else dressed as Father Christmas! Ho ho ho! How we laughed! There’s a photo of me in my Santa outfit that I had for years but can’t find it at the moment or I would have included it in this post. Honest I would!

Anyway, back to the music and we start with a group who have never been on the show before. 808 State‘s origin story was located in the achingly trendy Manchester record shop Eastern Bloc when owner Martin Price joined forces with customers Graham Massey and Gerald Simpson to form hip hop outfit Hit Squad Manchester. After this brief flirtation, they shifted to the acid house sound coming out of Chicago and recorded under the name 808 State for the first time.

After a disagreement over the track “Day Ride” that would ultimately become “Pacific State”, Simpson left the group to become A Guy Called Gerald and found success before his previous band mates with “Voodoo Ray”. Undeterred, 808 State eventually released “Pacific State” and took it to No 10 in the charts. I say, “Pacific State” but according to Massey there are about 42 different versions of “Pacific”. The one put out as the radio edit was called “Pacific 707” as referenced by host Simon Mayo. On their album “90”, it’s listed as “Pacific 202”. Confusing eh?

Apparently Radio 1 DJ Gary Davies was the champion of this record as he gave it daytime airplay after hearing it played in the clubs of Ibiza (see also Bruno Brookes’ connection with making “Stakker Humanoid” by Humanoid a chart hit). File both under unexpected tales of Radio 1 DJs of the 80s.

I have a memory of 808 State’s 1991 album “ex:el” being released the same day as “The White Room” by The KLF. Both albums had been long anticipated by fans and we couldn’t get them out onto the shelves quick enough to satisfy demand in the Our Price store in Market Street, Manchester.

The 80s had been very kind to UB40 but by the last two months of the decade, they were in serious need of a fillip. They hadn’t had a No 1 nor platinum selling album since their covers project “Labour Of Love” in ’83 and none of their last three singles had made the Top 20. What to do when you need a big hit? Do a cover version of course! Or yet another cover version in the case of UB40.

“Homely Girl” had been a Top 5 hit for The Chi-Lites in 1974 and was chosen for inclusion on the Brummies next covers album called, of course, “Labour Of Love II”. I don’t think I knew of the original of this song back in ’89 though. Indeed, I’m struggling to recall UB40’s version of it. The cover version route proved to be a profitable decision though as “Homely Girl” went Top 10 and the album went three times platinum in the UK.

I can see how it was a clear daytime play list hit but it’s hardly up there with their cover of Jimmy Cliff’s “Many Rivers To Cross” for example. It strikes me now as cynical and lazy.

Four years later they repeated the trick even more successfully by taking a cover of “(I Can’t Help) Falling In Love With You” to No 1 both here and in the US. Five years after that they did a third covers album (“Labour Of Love III” natch). Some of their early tunes were great so it’s a shame I think that some of their biggest hits were cover versions.

Back in the studio is a man beginning his solo career but he had been troubling the charts compilers since 1984. Jimmy Somerville‘s rise to pop stardom via the vehicles of Bronski Beat and The Communards had been filled with success including three Top 10 albums and a No 1 single which was also the year’s best seller in “Don’t Leave Me This Way”. Could he maintain that success as a solo act? Well, he decided to mitigate any associated risk by starting out on this new phase of his career by becoming a duo temporarily – so not solo at all!

His chosen duet partner was June Miles – Kingston who sounds like she should have recorded that song from The Snowman but who actually had been around the 80s pop scene as long as Somerville himself, having been a member of post -punkers The Mo-dettes, supplying backing vocals to “Our Lips Are Sealed” by Fun Boy Three and doing drumming duties for the likes of Everything But The Girl, Feargal Sharkey (she was one of his duo of drummers I think) and of course The Communards.

Sommerville had shared vocals on the aforementioned “Don’t Leave Me This Way” with Sarah Jane Morris so he clearly wasn’t averse to the practice of duetting. I think my favourite duet of his is this one though…

Jimmy was also not adverse to the art of the cover version. So it was again with his choice of single to launch his solo career. “Comment Te Dire Adieu” had been originally recorded by French singer-songwriter Françoise Hardy with lyrics supplied by well known perv Serge Gainsbourg but it seemed an odd choice of song to me. A French language song given a disco beat? That won’t work surely?! Well, it kind of does somehow. Jimmy and June’s rather charming performance here instills just the right amount of self knowledge that this is all rather strange to get away with it. And those lyrics? I shoved the chorus into Google Translate and it came out with this…

‘Under no circumstances do I want to
Before you overexpose my eyes
Behind a kleenex I will know better
How to say goodbye to you
How to say goodbye to you’

Charming indeed.

Before the Macarena appeared in the latter half of the 90s to blight our lives, there was the “Lambada”. A dance as well as a song, it was brought to the attention of the UK record buying public by the French-Brazilian recording act Kaoma but the story of its inception was much bigger than just them.

Bolivian group Los Kjarkas recorded the original song called “Llorando Se Fue” in 1981 which was so popular in Latin America that it prompted multiple cover versions including one by someone just called Wilkins who caught my eye as he shared the same name as my first football hero Ray Wilkins. Anyway, getting back to the point, one of those covers was by Brazilian singer Márcia Ferreira who retitled it as “Chorando Se Foi” and it was this version that Kaoma plagiarised and took to No 1 around the world. They were successfully sued by Los Kjarkas in 1991.

I’m guessing nobody knew nor cared about that back in ’89 as the “Lambada” dance sensation swept the nation. But what was the dance exactly? Is it the moves seen in Kaoma’s video because they don’t seem very distinctive? Ah yes, the video. I don’t recall seeing it at the time but watching it back in 2020, the, the young boy / girl plot seems very unpalatable. Far too young to be doing all that gyrating against each other. Apparently the children concerned, Chico and Roberta, went onto have a successful recording career together with big hits in France whilst also performing on television programmes in various countries including Brazil, France and Italy. After their showbiz careers ended, Chico became a priest whilst Roberta is now a vet.

Needless to say, “Lambada” didn’t stir my stumps into action at all and the whole phenomenon passed me by somewhat.

Here’s another airing of the studio performance of D-Mob featuring Cathy Dennis and “C’mon And Get My Love”. As she got older and her pop princess halo waned, Cathy sensibly turned her focus to writing for other artists and has become a hugely successful and in demand songwriter for major acts like Britney Spears, Kylie and Katy Perry. If only some other artists had been so sensible. Yes, I mean you Madonna!

Whilst researching Cathy to find something / anything else to say about this song, I found this clip from TV show Surprise Surprise which was a light entertainment programme hosted by Cilla Black that ran from 1984 to 2001 (no really, it did – for that long!). Its premise involved surprising members of the public by making their wishes come true alongside pranks and reuniting guests with long-lost loved ones. In this episode, Cilla surprised young pop fan Steven by arranging for him to meet his idol Cathy Dennis. So far, so good. And what song does she sing for him on the show? Something called “When Your Dreams Turn To Dust”. Err…doesn’t that kind of fly in the face of the show’s concept Cathy?! This particular show must have been from the late 90s as Cilla talks about her new hobby of ‘surfing the net’. Young Steven had set up an early website dedicated to Cathy which leads to an excruciating exchange when Steven, having met his idol, is asked by Cilla “You can’t wait to get home and use your internet now can you?” The poor lad.

Are you shitting me?! Iron Maiden are still clogging up the charts like a turd that won’t be flushed? “Infinite Dreams” was a live single from their “Maiden England” album and was their usual load of old bollocks. According to Wikipedia, it’s about ‘how the character of the song sees disturbing visions about afterlife and other mystic things in his dreams, but is scared about if he will ever be able to wake up again’. Like I said, same old bollocks.

Apparently this was the last single to feature “The Trooper” era line up as founding member Adrian Smith (not a very heavy metal name is it?) left in January 1990 as he didn’t approve of the band’s musical direction. They should have listened to Adrian. Quick! Someone get that shitty stick! The bog’s blocked again!

Just the two Breakers this week and we start with a third single to be lifted from Prince‘s “Batman” soundtrack album. I must admit to not remembering how “The Arms Of Orion” went at all. Its very release seems like a bit of an afterthought as the album had been out since June with the film premiering in June also in the US and in August in the UK.

Having listened to it again, it does seem very forgettable. Recorded as a duet with previous collaborator Sheen Easton, it’s a real plodder with some hokey lyrics about constellations and the moon. According to the Prince Vault website, the track is credited both on the album and single as “Prince with Sheena Easton”, one of only a few times that co-credit has been given to anyone other than Prince’s bands the Revolution and the New Power Generation. Maybe Prince knew it was a duff tune and wanted to share the blame.

“The Arms Of Orion” peaked at No 27 in the UK.

Outdoing Prince in the number of singles to be released from an album stakes come Fine Young Cannibals with the fourth track from their “The Raw And The Cooked” album in “I’m Not The Man I Used To Be”. This was a very slow paced lament of a song with some very introspective lyrics. Despite that, the song’s backing features some almost house music like beats. It’s basically a confused mess of a song but not one entirely without merit.

“I’m Not The Man I Used To Be” peaked at No 20 and the band would release a fifth single from the album early next year but that really was taking the piss and it failed to make the Top 40. Meanwhile, if you want an alternative song that has (roughly) the same title as the FYC one, I can heartily recommend this ….

What a revelation from Simon Mayo this is! Phil Collins‘s latest album “…But Seriously” is not being released on vinyl format in the US. They’re only making it available as cassette or CD! Well I never! This must have been quite the big deal back then. When I joined Our Price a year on from this, we still had a sizeable vinyl offering. By the end of the 90s though it had all but disappeared from the chain’s racks and indeed nearly everywhere else. Of course it is making a big comeback today (at ridiculously inflated prices). Even the cassette is making small in roads into building bigger sales apparently. What next? A comeback for the 8 track cartridge?

Anyway, back to Phil. Look I’ve got nothing else to say about him and “Another Day In Paradise” so I’m going to trot out my Phil Collins anecdote again. I once attended a wedding when, as we all sat in the registry office awaiting the bride’s arrival, the music being played while we waited was a Phil Collins compilation. That would be bad enough you may think but the track listing gave this wonderfully unsuitable trio of songs one after the other:

“I Wish It Would Rain Down” (on your wedding day!)
“Against All Odds” (as in ‘you coming back to me is against all odds’!)
“Separate Lives” (with its ‘now that we’re living separate lives’ lyrics!)

Top 10

10. Double Trouble And The Rebel MC – “Street Tuff”

9. The Mixmaster – “Grand Piano”

8. Jive Bunny And The Mastermixers – “That’s What I Like”

7. Martika – “I Feel The Earth Move”

6. Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville – “Don’t Know Much”

5. Milli Vanilli – “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You”

4. Kylie Minogue – “Never Too Late”

3. New Kids On The Block -“You Got It (The Right Stuff)”

2. Phil Collins – “Another Day In Paradise”

1. Lisa Stansfield -“All Around The World”: Still at No 1 is Rochdale’s finest. Back in the early 90s, I spent a year working in the Our Price store in Lisa’s hometown and although it was clearly suffering from the effects of recession, I really enjoyed my time there. We were one of the most popular shops in the town and the staff formed a great little team. Sadly, I was not at work the day that Lisa came into the shop though I was assured that she was absolutely lovely. I was in the day that Rochdale’s most famous actress came in though. Ann Friel wanted to return a CD without the receipt. I think I relented and gave the refund – I must have been starstruck.

As with Iron Maiden, so it is with Inner City. They were still having hits this late in the decade? “What Cha Gonna Do With My Lovin’” was actually a cover version I have only just now learned, with the original being released by Stephanie Mills of “Never Knew Love Like This Before” and “The Medicine Song” fame. I’m not familiar with Stephanie’s version nor can I even recall Inner City’s take on it. The video surprised me though as it places an emphasis on the band performing with actual proper instruments – and there was me thinking all their stuff was done by drum machines and synths.

“What Cha Gonna Do with My Lovin'” peaked at a respectable No 12.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	808 State	Pacific 707	Had I been living in Manchester then I may have but I arrived a year later and so I didn’t.
2	UB40	Homely Girl	A big no
3	Jimmy Somerville and June Miles Kingston	Comment Te Dire Adieu	No but it’s on my Jimmy Somerville / Communards / Bronski Beat Best Of CD
4	Kaoma	Lambada	F**k right off
5	D-Mob featuring Cathy Dennis	C’Mon And Get My Love	No
6	Iron Maiden	Infinite Dreams	The stuff of nightmares more like – no
7	Prince featuring Sheena Easton	The Arms Of Orion	Nah
8	Fine Young Cannibals	I’m Not The Man I Used To Be	No but my wife had their album
9	Phil Collins	Another Day In Paradise	Another day in Hell more like – diabolical. NO!
10	Lisa Stansfield	All Around The World	It’s a no from me
11	Inner City	What Cha Gonna Do With My Lovin’	Nope

Disclaimer

OK – here’s the thing – the TOTP episodes are only available on iPlayer for a limited amount of time so the link to the programme below only works for about another month so you’ll have to work fast if you want to catch the whole show.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000kjmk/top-of-the-pops-16111989

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

Some bed time reading?

http://likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com/2019/11/i-am-having-some-issues-with-flickr.html

TOTP 07 SEP 1989

Posted on May 31, 2020 by 80stastic

There are just four months left of the 80s as we enter September ’89 in these BBC4 TOTP repeats. Will the decade go out with a bang or a whimper? Let’s find out….

….what the deuce is this? Marillion without Fish? Yes, with Mr Dick having quit the band the previous year, the prog-rockers decided to carry on regardless and recruited a new singer in Steve Hogarth. Apparently Steve wasn’t that arsed about the gig having already received another offer of employment as @TOTPFacts reports…

"… At about the same time, Matt Johnson of The The asked me to play piano on his tour. I always say I had to make a choice between the most hip band in the world, and the least." #TOTP
— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) May 22, 2020

Heh. Anyway, in a surely unexpected decision, Hogarth threw his lot in with Marillion and set about recording a new album, the lead single of which was “Hooks In You”. It seemed to me to have been written to be a much more mainstream sound than their previous work with the intention of attracting radio airplay. Hogarth was clearly a different type of frontman to Fish (a sight less ugly for one thing) so maybe it made sense to try a new musical direction as well.

There was a BBC poll back in 2002 asking the nation to vote for its favourite ever TOTP performance and I seem to recall that the Marillion fan base mobilised itself to bulk vote for “Hooks In You”. I can’t find anything about it online though and in any case it didn’t work as the poll winners (as they so often were in the 80s) were Duran Duran with “Rio”.

One last thing, was the Song’s Fish reference intentional do you think? Fish…hooks….anyone?

Richard Marx had already been a US phenomenon for a couple of years before he finally broke though over here with “Right Here Waiting” which was already his third US No 1 record and his sixth Top 3 hit in total. By comparison, he’d got no higher than No 50 in our charts. I’d heard some of his earlier stuff and it was all a bit insubstantial for my tastes although I’d quite liked “Don’t Mean Nothing” with its “Werewolves Of London” type rhythm.

So why did “Right Here Waiting” do the trick for him over here? Well, although he’d done some slower numbers before, this one was a cards out on the table, full blown weepy ballad with a distinctive piano melody that seemed to tug at the heart strings of the UK record buying public. The timing of its release probably helped as well coinciding with the end of the Summer and being perfectly positioned to be ‘our song’ for all those holiday romances.

Although it was a No 2 hit over here, it was unlucky to come up against the year’s best selling song one place above it in “Ride On Time” otherwise it could well have been a No 1. Spotify UK revealed just ahead of Valentine’s Day 2013 that “Right Here Waiting” is their most popular love song based on streaming figures from their love song play lists.

That hair though…..

They loved their Italian house music on TOTP back in the day didn’t they? A third outing for “Numero Uno” by Starlight next and I’ve got very little left to say about it. Given though that these were the same people behind “Ride On Time”and that this was in the charts simultaneously, couldn’t TOTP have doubled up when they got Black Box on for a performance and recorded them doing “Numero Uno” as well? Who would have fronted them? Did they need a front person for this one? Couldn’t they have just got some random dancers in to throw some shapes?

A second hit from the Batman soundtrack for Prince next. I always preferred “Partyman” to “Batdance” – at least it sounded like a proper song as opposed to the latter which didn’t seem to have much of a structure at all. It’s hardly one of his best though is it? I also never really bought into the whole ‘Gemini’ persona that Prince adopted for this project. I know it’s clearly a play on the ‘Two-Face (Harvey Dent)’ character from the original comics but given his prodigious creativity, I would have thought that Prince may have come up with something more original.

“Partyman” peaked at No 14 thereby becoming the only single from the soundtrack to be a bigger hit in the UK than in the US where it stalled at No 18.

Another act on for the third time now as Alyson Williams dons her hat one more time to perform “I Need Your Lovin”. It wasn’t just the towering head gear though, there was also the enormous Dynasty style shoulder pads. Of her look, Alyson said ‘I like to feel forceful when I’m on stage… I like to be seen’ which is kind of ironic as after this hit, we never saw her in the UK charts again.

“I Need Your Lovin” peaked at No 8.

What is Bruno Brookes blathering on about? Well, yes he’s trying to introduce next act Depeche Mode but he’s making a right hash of it. According to Brookes, the Basildon group have got a new album coming out in October called “Wild”. Erm… no they haven’t Bruno. That would be Erasure. Depeche Mode’s album was actually called “Violater” and didn’t arrive in the shops until the following March. How can you get such basic facts wrong?! Jesus!

And that’s a nice segue into the first single from it which is “Personal Jesus”. What a tune this is! Uncharacteristically based around a strident blues guitar riff, it was a big hit all around Europe (although surprisingly only No 13 in the UK) and also did the business for the band in America where it was their first single to make the Top 40 since 1984’s “People Are People”and was their first gold-certified single there.

It’s often said that the quality of a song can be determined by the amount of cover versions it receives. If it’s a real top notch song then it will also lends itself to being covered in a different musical style altogether. There can be no bigger accolade then than having Johnny Cash cover your song….

“Violater” would become a huge success for Depeche Mode especially in the US where it went three times platinum. Indeed, the band were treated to scenes of hysteria over there when a signing event at a Los Angeles record store drew around 17,000 fans. The band were forced to withdraw from the event due to security concerns and their early exit nearly caused a riot. Did somebody say “Hysteria”?

An iconic song and video now but it had a strangely muted reception in the UK. Having taken two years to record a follow up to her commercial breakthrough album “Control”, Janet Jackson returned with new single “Miss You Much” as the official taster for her next album “Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814”. Essentially a concept album addressing social and political themes, its huge commercial success was seen as a game changer in terms of mainstream music and the norms it was expected to follow in terms of generating huge sales.

“Miss You Much” was huge in the US where it was No 1 for four weeks and the second biggest selling single of the year (for purposes of comparison, the No 2 biggest seller of the year in the UK was Jive Bunny). Yet in the UK it could only manage a peak of No 22. Not even the legacy making video could persuade us to part with our cash for it over here. Its choreography and final chair routine are now widely regarded as iconic in popular culture and influenced the work of such musical heavyweights as Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys. Ahem.

Here’s Mr Pin Up of 1989 now as we get Jason Donovan with his latest single “Every Day (I Love You More)”. Although a No 2 hit over here, around the rest of Europe it caused relatively few ripples in the charts. Was the bubble bursting already?

A fifth and final single release from his “Ten Good Reasons” album, it was paint by numbers Stock, Aitken and Waterman fodder and there was certainly no need for Jason to resort to miming with an acoustic guitar as he does here. Stay strong everybody. Not long now until the time of Jason Donovan pop star will be over (well, at least until he does that Joseph song in a couple of years time).

Top 10

10. Martika – “Toy Soldiers”

9. Starlight – “Numero Uno”

8. Alice Cooper – “Poison”

7. Beatmasters and Betty Boo – “Hey DJ/I Can’t Dance (To That Music You’re Playing)”

6. Tears For Fears – “Sowing The Seeds Of Love”

5. Cliff Richard – “I Just Don’t Have The Heart”

4. Big Fun – “Blame It On The Boogie”

3. Jason Donovan – “Every Day (I Love You More)”

2. Jive Bunny and the MasterMixers – “Swing The Mood”

1. Black Box – “Ride On Time“: Finally the rabbit has been culled and his shitty little record is no longer No 1. They may not have been to everyone’s liking but we should all be a teeny bit grateful to Black Box and their Italian House record for deposing “Swing The Mood”. Interestingly, TOTP show the first performance of the band this week (i.e. the one where Katrin Quinol flashes her flesh as opposed to the one where she’s more covered up). Hmm. I wonder what the thinking was behind that decision?

My knowledge of the chronology of The Cure’s singles discography is definitely dodgy for the latter part of the 80s. Whilst I know “Lovesong”, I couldn’t have told you when it was released or from which album. It turns out that it was from “Disintegration” and that it was almost unbelievably a No 2 hit in the US whereas it stalled at a much more modest No 18 over here. Go figure…

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000jb8k/top-of-the-pops-07091989

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

Some bed time reading?

http://likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com/2019/09/september-6-19-1989.html

TOTP 22 JUN 1989

Posted on April 10, 2020 by 80stastic

Simon Mayo and Gary Davies are our hosts for tonight’s TOTP and they seem to spend the majority of the show in very close proximity to each other (almost leaning into each other’s necks at one point) and start the show by brandishing their bare legs together. I think it was to make a point that the Summer of 1989 was a hot one but if they were trying to promote themselves as the new Wham! they failed dismally.

Opening the show tonight are Living In A Box with the title track of their second and final album “Gatecrashing”. It must have been a lean week for booking acts as they’d only moved up two places from No 39 to No 37 and yet still managed to bag themselves a studio appearance. The extra exposure made little difference as the single moved up just one place the following week before tumbling out of the Top 40 altogether. In its defence, it was probably doomed from the start. It was initially scheduled for an April release to consolidate on the success of previous Top 10 single “Blow The House Down” but had to be pulled after the Hillsborough disaster (in their hometown of Sheffield) due to its unfortunate title. By the time an acceptable amount of weeks had been deemed to have passed, all momentum had been lost. That’s one theory. Mine is that it wasn’t much cop as a song in the first place.

Undeterred, the band would return with their joint biggest hit ever later in the year, the polished ballad “Room In Your Heart”.

Next the last great Bond theme in my opinion. Licence To Kill was the second and final film to feature Timothy Dalton as 007 and Gladys Knight‘s theme tune has all the classic hallmarks of a Bond song. Yes, that’s probably because it was based on the horn parts from the Goldfinger theme but for me that doesn’t detract from it and it deserves a high place in the list of Best Bond songs ever. I’m assuming there is one….

*checks internet*

…OK, I found this list from Esquire magazine which ranks all 24 James Bond tunes (including the latest by Billie Eilish) and “Licence To Kill” comes in at No 13. Respectable but I would have thought it would be higher. “Live And Let Die” is of course No 1.

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/g26729930/james-bond-theme-songs-ranked/

Maybe I just an old giffer but some of the songs that have been recorded by today’s artists just don’t even sound like Bond themes to me. Even when I was a younger man and the likes of Madonna, Sheryl Crow, Tina Turner and Garbage took on the chalice, I didn’t like any of them either. So that for me is why Gladys Knight (sans pips) remains the last great Bond song. You are free to disagree of course.

“Licence To Kill” peaked at No 6.

Simon Mayo goes all intellectual next when he makes reference to Italian film maker Federico Fellini and his movie La strada whilst introducing the new video from U2. Bloody pseud! Anyway, the video is to promote “All I Want Is You” which was the fourth and final single to be released from their “Rattle And Hum” album and was probably the best of the four in my opinion.

Supposedly written about his wife, the quiet verses are Bono talking to her whilst the guitar refrains (which are archetypal The Edge creations) at the end of the verses are her reactions. Bloody pseud!

The video (which barely features the band) caused some debate amongst the band’s fans as to who is supposed to have died at the culmination of it. The dwarf or the trapeze artist. You’ll have to watch it yourself to form your own opinion*

“All I Want” peaked at No 4 making it the second highest placed single of the four released from the album.

*Spoiler alert! The Edge is quoted as saying it is the trapeze artist who dies.

Ooh! The Bangles are live in the studio! After being on video for every one of their TOTP appearances for “Eternal Flame” of which there were many, they have finally made it to London to perform follow up single “Be With You”. Despite not being on lead vocals for this one, Susannah Hoffs still manages to steal the limelight in her sparkly mini dress.

This was pretty much their last single release as a band first time around (they split in 1989 before a reunion in 1998). Their discography tells me that there was one final single released from the “Everything” album called “I’ll Set You Free” but it did nothing and was not really anything more than a goodbye to the fans. Talking of which, it is now time to say goodbye to The Bangles in this blog as I don’t think we’ll be seeing them again. Thanks for everything!

Clannad and Bono next with “In A Lifetime” and its one of those studio performances intercut with parts of the video appearances. This seemed to be a family thing with Clannad as that format was used previously for sibling and one time band member Enya when they combined her sat at the piano in the studio with her official promo for “Orinoco Flow”. Back then I assume it was either because the show’s producers thought Enya on her own would be too boring or because her record label wanted to get the most for their money out of the rather expensive looking video. Or both.

In the case of Bono and Clannad, I think it was just because Bono was too busy to join the folksters in the studio so they had to shoehorn him in via the video otherwise it would have looked weird. Which raises the question of why didn’t they just show the video again anyway? What did having Clannad in there in person add to the performance? I may be being harsh here but they don’t look the most exciting thing I’ve ever seen on stage. That said, Maire Brennan does have very piercing eyes.

Over the course of this blog, I’ve found many examples where a song taken from a film soundtrack has ended up being far more enduring than the film itself. Off the top of my head there’s “Against All Odds” and “Together In Electric Dreams”. I’m sure there are others. In the case of Prince and the very first Batman film (if you discount the film made out of the Adam West TV series), it’s a case of the opposite I’m afraid. I could never understand the appeal of “Batdance”. It doesn’t even sound like a cohesive song in that it seems to be a load of riffs, grooves and bits of film dialogue all spliced together and just shoved out there to promote the film rather than being a properly composed song. It doesn’t even feature in the film itself.

Oh yes, the film. Starring Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as The Joker, the hype around it was enormous but for me it was just about justified and certainly the movie did the business at the box office taking in over $250 million in America alone. It didn’t come out in the UK until August, so long after “Batdance” had been and gone. Given the interpretations of The Joker that have come since (Joaquin Phoenix and Heath Ledger for two), it seems strange now to think that we were all in awe of Nicholson’s rather cartoonish portrayal.

Despite being a No 2 in the UK and a No 1 in the US, I’m guessing that “Batdance” is not one of Prince’s most fondly remembered tunes, not even by diehard fans, and only features on the most comprehensive of his compilation albums.

In the long running serial of rappers with not very ‘in the hood’ real names, we have another entry in Rapper KG Demo of the London Rhyme Syndicate who D-Mob collaborate with on “It Is Time To Get Funky” who are up next. The name he was given at birth? Basil Reynolds.

I hated this track then and I still hate it now. Bloody rubbish as my Dad would say. And yes, I do realise I have actually become my Dad when talking about today’s music as that’s bloody rubbish as well.

“It Is Time To Get Funky” peaked at No 9 (somehow).

The Beautiful South released a total of 34 singles over the course of their career but only achieved one No 1 record – there should have been many more including this their debut “Song For Whoever” that fell just short at No 2. Paul Heaton’s vocals are so distinctive. I can’t imagine anyone could ever have impersonated him on Stars In Their Eyes for example.

*checks to make sure*

WHAT! Someone did in 1997 singing “One Last Love Song”. I can’t find a clip on YouTube but I can only assume it sounded nothing like him!

Someone who rarely gets any accolades for his voice is fellow band member Dave Hemingway whose vocals I have always found to be very pure and perfectly pitched.

There’s a great video compilation of their first ten or so singles called “The Pumpkin” that I used to own on VHS that included some very funny bits in between the songs that’s well worth looking out for. My own personal Beautiful South claim to fame is that I used to work with bassist Sean Welch’s partner up until recently. I think he’s into photography now.

Top 10

10. Madonna – “Express Yourself”

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

8. The Beautiful South – “Song For Whoever”

7. Cyndi Lauper – “I Drove All Night”

6. Cliff Richard – “The Best Of Me”

5. U2 – “All I Want Is You”

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

3. Prince – “Batdance”

2. Jason Donovan – “Sealed With A Kiss”

1. Soul II Soul – “Back To Life”: They’ve knocked Jason Donovan off his perch (no mean feat in 1989) and are set for a long Summer of ‘A happy face, a thumpin’ bass, for a lovin’ race!’.

The iconic ‘Back to life, back to reality’ line was used as the inspiration by the aforementioned Paul Heaton to base one of his songs around, the rather wonderful “My Book” whose lyrics include ‘Back to bed, back to reality’. Sadly it only made No 43 in the charts unlike Soul II Soul’s blockbuster of a tune.

The play out video is that weird combo of Placido Domingo and Jennifer Rush with “Till I Loved You”. I thought I recognised the song title but not the pairing of Domingo and Rush (almost Liverpool’s front line in the 80s there) so I checked it out. I was right! A version was also recorded and released by another bizarre duo, this time Barbara Streisand and Don Johnson (yes Miami Vice‘s Don Johnson).

Hang on…Wikipedia says then girlfriend Barbara Streisand. Don Johnson went out with Barbara Streisand?! I never knew that!

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Living In A Box	Gatecrashing	Nah
2	Gladys Knight	Licence Top Kill	Don’t think I did
3	U2	All I Want	No
4	The Bangles	Be With You	No but I assume it’s on their Best Of album which I have
5	Clannad and Bono	In A Lifetime	No but I think my wife bought it first time around in 1986
6	Prince	Batdance	Nope
7	D-Mob	It Is Time To Get Funky	Negative
8	Beautiful South	Song For Whoever	No but I had the album it was from
9	Soul II Soul	Back To Life	No but I think my wife had their album
10	Placido Domingo and Jennifer Rush	‘Till I Loved You	NO

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000gx1t/top-of-the-pops-22061989

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

Some bed time reading?

http://likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com/2019/06/june-14-27-1989.html

TOTP 10 NOV 1988

Posted on December 1, 2019 by 80stastic

Blimey! There’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. Sybil Ruscoe! Wasn’t Sybil on the Radio 1 Breakfast show with Simon Mayo? Or was that Jakki Brambles? Hold on…

*checks Wikipedia*

Yeah she was the weather and travel reporter on the breakfast show (Brambles took over from her). She progressed into news and sports broadcasting on Radio 5 live and Channel 4 and now runs her own media company. But before all of that, she was drafted into present TOTP a few times such was the level of her popularity on the breakfast show. As well as not hearing the name Sybil Ruscoe much these days, how many Sybils have you ever heard of? I think there are officially just three in the world – Ruscoe, Basil Fawlty’s wife and that singer who had a hit with a cover of “Walk On By”. That’s it.

Let’s see what songs the Ruscoe Sybil had to present on her debut TOTP appearance…

Oh dear. Brother Beyond are first up with “He Ain’t No Competition” the follow up to their No 2 hit “The Harder I Try”. Like its predecessor, this was more of the same Stock, Aitken and Waterman produced bilge. Insanely catchy pop confection with an ever so slight Motown sheen to it, written at exactly the right tempo to allow lead singer Nathan Moore to wiggle his backside profusely to excite the teeny boppers. Utter, utter garbage. I mean just look at them. Look at the gormless way the guitarist and keyboard player are moving. How did anybody fall for this crap?

“He Ain’t No Competition” made it to No 6 which seemed to suggest this lot might be around for a while but it all soon went downhill very shortly after this. Thank you the gods of pop music.

A second airing of the Bryan Ferry video for the re-release of “Let’s Stick Together” next. I never knew there were so many versions of this song until now. There’s the Wilbert Harrison original, the Canned Heat version (retitled “Let’s Work Together”), a Bob Dylan version, a Dwight Yoakam countrified redesign and this blistering take on it by KT Tunstall….

I guess it will always be Ferry’s treatment of the song that will be seen as the definitive version though. The plundering of his back catalogue as a promotional tool for “The Ultimate Collection” retrospective album continued into the following year with the release of “The Price of Love ’89” but it failed to make the Top 40.

Here’ future No 1 Robin Beck in the actual TOTP studio hoping to change people’s perceptions that her hit “First Time” is not just a Coca Cola advert jingle and is in fact an actual proper song. Well, yes it was – but not a very good one. Coming on as some sort of sub-standard filler track for a Heart album, it’s really not up to much to my ears.

She seems to be channelling her inner Slash in this performance with her choice of head gear. Either that or she looks a bit like Noel Fielding if you squint. And did Robin drink Coca Cola herself? Yes she did according to a Smash Hits interview. Every day. Maybe every day was like the first time.

Just the two Breakers this week with the first being another song (just like “Let’s Stick Together”) that has been covered many times. From probably the best known version by The Beatles to the downright weird by Alvin and the Chipmunks, “Twist And Shout” has been recorded over and over again by a legion of artists since it was first written in 1961 by Phil Medley and Bert Berns. Surely everyone knows this song? The 1988 take on it came from Salt ‘N’ Pepa and was from their “A Salt With A Deadly Pepa” album. From the opening lines ‘Yo Salt your mic, Yo Pepa your mic, Yo Spin you hype, We’re def you’re right’ you knew this wasn’t going to be a completely faithful rendition. However, the sepia tinted video combined with the 60s style suits they wore were a definite homage to the song’s past.

Apparently reticent about recording it at all, they must have been glad they did as it went all the way to No 4 in the UK charts. Reggae duo Chaka Demus and Pliers took Salt ‘N’ Pepa’s concept of applying a different musical genre to the song and ran with it all the way to No 1 in 1993. It was a load of bollocks though.

As with Guns ‘N’ Roses track “Welcome To The Jungle”, here was another rock act that needed two attempts at getting one of their songs to finally be a hit. And what a hit. INXS had originally released “Need You Tonight” in 1987 but it failed to break into the Top 40. Following the global success of their “Kick” album and the singles “New Sensation” and “Never Tear Us Apart”, it was given another chance and it went onto be their biggest hit either side of the pond (No 2 in the UK and No 1 in the US).

The song is quite beguiling I’ve always thought. It slinks along from start to finish without seeming to have a conventional verse – bridge – chorus structure. It just sort of plays out against a continuous funky riff. No doubt the more musically schooled of you out there would be able to advise me otherwise but that’s how I perceive it.

For all the suggestive lyrics such as ‘slide over here’ and ‘there’s something about you girl that makes me sweat’ that Michael Hutchence imbues with such innuendo, I seem to remember that a lot of my female friends at the time had a thing about the band’s drummer. Maybe they preferred a clean cut young man, something that Hutchence definitely wasn’t.

I am always conflicted by Chris De Burgh. Some of his early work is actually good but his mainstream success with the heinous “Lady In Red” and his suspect extra marital activities have made him a rather odious character. Chris obviously decided that he liked the idea of chart success once tasted and wrote the schmaltz ridden ballad “Missing You” to enable his return. Fair play to him I guess because it worked. The single went all the way to No 3 whilst parent album “Flying Colours” went straight in at No 1 on the UK album chart. Well I never.

As with the Brother Beyond stooges, Chris has no idea what to do with himself up there on stage and ends up doing some weird, jerky arm dancing and some running on the spot. It is the epitome of uncool. His bass player’s hair doesn’t help the cause either.

The chart run down sees the BBC sticking to its guns about not being seen to promote the Acid House craze. There’s no mention of the offending song titles for Jolly Roger (“Acid Man”) nor D Mob (“We Call it Acieed”).

Another outing for Deacon Blue this week as “Real Gone Kid” continues to climb the charts. I always liked this song enough but for me there were loads better tracks on the album (“When The World Knows Your Name”). In fact, I would go as far as to say that “Real Gone Kid” was one of the weakest songs on there. It still beat the pants off most of the chart fodder around at the time of course.

As ever, I would have been monitoring the hairstyles of any male performer on TOTP to see if there was anything I should be trying to recreate on my own head. The overgrown floppy middle parting look that Ricky Ross was sporting here was never going to persuade me though. In later years Ricky would write for a number of artists including KT Tunstall whom I mentioned earlier. I don’t just throw this thing together you know.

The Top 10:

10. Deacon Blue – “Real Gone Kid”

9. Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine “1-2-3”

8. Brother Beyond – “He Ain’t No Competition”

7. Art of Noise with Tom Jones – “Kiss”

6. Robert Palmer -“She Makes My Day”

5. Robin Beck – “First Time”

4. Milli Vanilli – “Girl You Know It’s True”

3. Yazz – “Stand Up For Your Love Rights”

2. Kylie Minogue – “Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi”

1. Enya – “Orinoco Flow”: Enya’s album sales have been phenomenal with an estimated 75 million records sold worldwide. Curiously though, for all that commercial success, she only had a further two Top 10 singles in the UK after this. Indeed, if your life depended on it, how many Enya song titles could you name other than “Orinoco Flow”?

What the fuck is Donny Osmond doing on the show?! Well yes, obviously it’s to plug his latest single but that little cameo at the show’s end is awkward in the extreme. For the record, I checked and that single (“If It’s Love That You Want”) never did make it into the Top 40 as it peaked at No 70.

The play out track is “I Wish U Heaven” by Prince. This was from his “Lovesexy” album (the one with him nude on the cover) and followed previous singles “Alphabet Street” and “Glam Slam” into the charts peaking at No 24. Not sure if I remember this one (there were so many to be fair). Let’s have another listen….

…yeah it does ring a bell now but it wasn’t one of his most memorable tunes for me. According to Wikipedia, the B-side was a little ditty called “Scarlet Pussy”. Now I wonder what that could have been about?

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Brother Beyond	He Ain’t No Competition	Emphatically no
2	Bryan Ferry	Let’s Stick Together	Not the single but it’s on my compilation LP Street Life
3	Robin Beck	First Time	And the last time – no
4	Salt ‘N’ Pepa	Twist And Shout	No but it was on my wife’s Now 13 cassette
5	INXS	Need You Tonight	No but I have the album I think
6	Chris De Burgh	Missing You	Missing you? Are you shitting me? NO
7	Deacon Blue	Real Gone Kid	Not the single but I had the album on cassette
8	Enya	Orinoco Flow	No
9	Prince	I Wish U Heaven	Nope

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000bhfr/top-of-the-pops-10111988

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

Some bed time reading?

http://likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com/2018/11/november-2-15-1988.html

TOTP 12 MAY 1988

Posted on August 29, 2019 by 80stastic

We’ve arrived at one of those weeks in the history of TOTP where everything has gone weird. Weird how? Well, tonight’s show includes at least three songs that would fall into the ‘novelty’ category plus perhaps one of the most unloved Beatles covers of all time. Add to that the biggest but most heavily criticised Prefab Sprout hit ever, a bad young brother and an Aussie soap star spearheading a period of formulaic conveyor belt pop the like of which hadn’t been seen since – well the last two years if we’re counting but you know what I mean – and it all leads to the conclusion that the charts were just…weird.

Despite the charts being all over the place, some things remained the same, specifically Mike Read’s lame humour. How this man enjoyed a long radio and TV career is one of those enduring riddles wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. The myth that he was an entertainer must surely have been propagated by himself. Maybe his high profile in the early part of the decade when he was not only a Radio 1 DJ and TOTP presenter but also the host of weekend children’s programme Saturday Superstore turned his head. Perhaps he thought he was actually up there with some of the pop stars that he interviewed on his show. How else do you account for that way in which he gives himself licence to be the unfunniest man on the planet?! The Dunning Kruger theory was surely modelled on him.

We get an early taster of his ‘wit’ when he launches straight into a Loadsamoney impression at the top of the show. ‘Top of the Wads!’ he trills whilst waving some tenners about – hilarious! After last week’s video, Harry Enfield is in the studio this time to do his “Loadsamoney (Doin’ Up The House)” single. With this being 1988, if you’re single was a dance track or even a parody of a dance track, you had to have some samples in it. “Loadsamoney” followed the trend by sampling Abba, The Kinks, and even the soundtrack from Cabaret.

It all looks a bit hackneyed and tired now but back then Loadsamoney was genuinely funny. My favourite part of the whole phenomenon though was his alter -ego and nemesis Buggerallmoney. It was probably the accent (which on reflection fluctuates wildly and is far from perfect) as I was a student in Sunderland at the time so it resonated I guess.

“Loadsamoney (Doin’ Up The House)” peaked at No 3.

In a Smash Hits magazine feature around this time, the publication referred to Prince as a ‘perv’ which the press probably couldn’t get away with labelling someone as today without being libelled. By ‘perv’ did they mean sexually promiscuous? Or did they use that term as a catch all phrase for a bit bonkers?

What I didn’t know at the time but which @TOTPFacts has now ingrained indelibly on my mind is a popular theory behind the meaning of “Alphabet Street”…

What's "Alphabet Street" about? We'll, it does start with the words "I'm going down…", so cunnilingus (specifically, the "alphabet technique" – ie spelling out each letter with your tongue) is the leading theory. #TOTP

— Top Of The Pops Facts (@TOTPFacts) August 16, 2019

…err….let’s move on…next!

This is much safer. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again. I loved The Adventures. I think this would have been their one and only TOTP appearance (if you discount lead singer Terry Sharpe’s outing with punk band The Starjets in 1979 and his cameo in Bananarama’s “Shy Boy ” video and I do) which is unbelievable and just wrong in my book. “Broken Land” is a great track but they had so many others that were also worthy Top 40 hits but somehow it just never happened for them in this country.

They were managed by Spice Girls svengali Simon Fuller (“I think he made all his mistakes with us” quips Sharpe) but his influence couldn’t change their chart fortunes and by 1993 and after four albums and at least two label changes they were gone. Or were they? Apparently they still play sporadic gigs together and remain huge in Japan and Indochina.

Watching this performance back, they remind me of their celtic contemporaries Deacon Blue which is no bad thing (no you f**k off!) and certainly the studio audience seem to be enjoying it (albeit they could be being whipped up by some TOTP lackeys instructing them to do so) as does the waving to the crowd Sharpe.

“Broken Land” peaked at No 20 in the UK Top 40 but should have been much bigger.

Some 80s R’n’B pop stylings next courtesy of Narada Michael Walden with his only UK hit “Divine Emotions”. I pretty much used up all of my comments (meagre as they were) on this in the last post and I can’t even find a clip of the TOTP studio performance shown here so I’ve had to resort to including the official promo video.

If you watch the actual TOTP broadcast, Narada looks like he’s auditioning to be a Jackson but he comes across as a very distant cousin at best. Not for me thanks.

The Breakers this week start with a football song that, despite current revised opinion decreeing it one of the worst songs ever recorded, for a while was actually considered as not entirely awful until New Order’s “World In Motion” blew it out of the water two years later and remains the yardstick for a football/credible song crossover (I’m not counting “Three Lions” which despite its place in our cultural history is still actually a shite song).

Released to coincide with their FA Cup final appearance of that year – we were still in an era when that was a big event and merited a cup final song- “Anfield Rap” by Liverpool FC was co-written by their player Craig Johnston and UK rapper de jour Derek B and was an unusual for that genre attempt at humour with its roll call of accents and hip hop vibe.

Based around the concept of celebrating the multi nationality make up of the 1988 team, it’s actually full of stereotypes with lyrics like:

We’re Ireland lads
Och-ai the noo
And there’s four of us
And only two of you
So if you want nai trouble, and you don’t want a slap
You’d better teach us the Anfield rap
Don’t forget us paddies
And me the Great Dane
And I’m from London mate so watch your game

Then there’s the awful, awful rhyming of the lyrics such as ‘hell’ with ‘Arsenal’ and even worse, ‘Barnes’ (as in John) with ‘bananas’. It’s simply ludicrous. The whole thing is held together by the two genuinely scouse players in the team Steve ‘Macca’ MacMahon and John ‘Aldo’ Aldridge (both of whom were utterly vile individuals on the football pitch) whose objective with regards to their team mates was “We’ll have to learn ’em to talk like us”. ‘Teach’ you morons, ‘teach’ not learn! Or have I missed some small irony here?

Hysterically Liverpool would lose the FA Cup final that year when it was played two days after this TOTP was broadcast to Wimbledon in one the competitions’s biggest ever upsets. Even better was the fact that the aforementioned Steve MacMahon got tanked by Wimbledon hard man Vinnie Jones very early on in the game. You can just imagine Vinnie thinking “You can stick your Anfield Rap up your arse mate!”

Even better, later on Aldridge became the first person to miss a penalty in an FA Cup final at Wembley…

I watched that final with my housemates two of whom were scousers and Liverpool fans alongside an Everton supporter from Southport. The Liverpool contingent took the result very badly I recall.

“Anfield Rap” made No 3 in the UK singles chart.

Oh Jesus! Mike Read’s at it again! He’s already tried this ‘gag’ about him having to rebuff Belinda Carlisle‘s supposed advances on a previous show but here he is once more trying the same approach. It’s just embarrassing and the TOTP twitter audience deservedly gave him pelters for it when the programme was shown on BBC4 the other week. OK so ignoring Read, Belinda’s new single here is “Circle In The Sand” which rather predictably is a ballad after her two previous faster paced hits.

Another track lifted from her “Heaven On Earth” album, it never really did a lot for me. I found it a bit dull if I’m honest. The accompanying video does nothing to relieve the tedium with its oh so predictable setting on a beach – who would have thought it?! Belinda gives a decent Stevie Nicks impression in the middle part but that’s as interesting as it gets for me. Wikipedia says that the melody borrows heavily from “Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)” by Mike and the Mechanics but I can’t really hear it and have never made that connection before.

The other month I had to attend a compulsory manual handling training session at work (stay with me). The woman who ran it made a very dry subject actually entertaining. One slide that she used asked the question ‘Slips, trips and what else?’. ‘Falls’ was the most popular answer in the room. The answer that she revealed though was Belinda Carlisle. Why? Apparently the instructor had been to see Belinda in concert once and she’s skidded across the stage and fell on her arse as she made her entrance. I don’t think anyone in the session was expecting that answer.

“Circle In The Sand” helped to maintain Belinda’s run of hits throughout 1988 by reaching No 4 in the UK and No 7 in the US.

After already helping to write one of this week’s breakers (“Anfield Rap”), here’s Derek B in his own right with “Bad Young Brother”. When he was on the show the other month with his previous hit “Goodgroove” I just couldn’t remember him at all. Let’s see if this one rings any bells…

…still nothing I’m afraid so I’m going to have to fill….

…err…Derek doesn’t sound like your typical rapper’s name does it? In fact, you don’t hear the name at all these days do you (be it rappers or anyone really)? Indeed how many famous Dereks have there been? Not counting Mr B, I can think of the actors Nimmo and Jacobi and the 70s footballer Derek Dougan. That’s it. Oh and Mr Derek from Basil Brush.

That Prefab Sprout song now. “The King Of Rock ‘N’ Roll” was the second single from their “From Langley Park To Memphis ” album after the ever radio friendly “Cars And Girls” somehow failed to make the Top 40 (twice in fact!). With its nonsensical lyrics (‘Hot dog, jumping frog, Albuquerque’) to the fore and a rather literal and cartoonish video, it struck a chord with the UK record buying public who made it the group’s biggest commercial hit by sending it to No 7.

Now I really like Prefab Sprout and I liked this enough at the time but it really isn’t representative of their body of work. Revisionism has almost dismissed it as a novelty song. Look at this poll on Twitter from the other night:

But what's the WORST shit novelty record on this edition of #TOTP? (POLL)

— Frederic Heath-Renn (@flahr) August 16, 2019

That’s harsh to say the least! What was it all about? I had no idea but the internet says it was the story of a washed-up 1950s star who is only remembered for his one-hit novelty song. Oh the irony!

So to the final of those Twitter poll novelty songs. Starturn On 45 Pints are actually in the studio to perform “Pump Up The Bitter”. What on earth are they going to do? Let’s see then…

…hmm. It doesn’t really translate that well to the TOTP studio does it? They’ve got some bloke gurning on the turntables, the guy playing Starturn in a what looks like a highly flammable gold lame suit and ‘concert chairman’ Albert Charlton (not his real name) on the spoons. It all looks a bit limp and sad really. The audience seems a little non plussed as well, like they were expecting some belly laugh extravaganza but instead got a lame knock knock joke.

It turns out that founding members J Vincent Edwards and Colin Jennings had proper musical backgrounds writing songs for the likes of Cilla and 1975 Top 10 hit “Right Back Where We started From” which Sinitta would end up covering before the decade was out. You wouldn’t know it from this though.

That Beatles cover is next. Wet Wet Wet‘s version of “With A Little Help From My Friends” was part of a fund raising project for the charity ChildLine and on one hand the decision to pair up the popular Scottish popsters and their cheesy, grinning heart throb lead singer with this irresistibly rousing song from the Beatles canon made great sense. If you want to raise a load of cash with a charity single then get in someone who’s right on the money popularity wise and a song that everyone knows. Sorted! I think this version’s failing and the reason it has very little credibility though is pretty much down to Marti Pellow. He just looks so smug up there. The other double A-side was the much more worthy treatment of “She’s Leaving Home” by Billy Bragg which hardly got played on the radio at all but was far more enduring. Still , it was for charity and it’s hard to knock anyone involved in raising money for a worthy cause I guess. Pellow though….

The Top 10…

10. Michael Jackson with the Jackson 5 – “I Want You Back”

9. Prince – “Alphabet Street”

8. Hazell Dean – “Who’s Leaving Who”

7. Danny Wilson – “Mary’s Prayer”

6. Bananarama – ” I Want You Back”

5 .Wet Wet Wet / Billy Bragg – “With A Little Help From My Friends / She’s Leaving Home”

4. Harry Enfield – “Loadsamoney (Doin’ Up The House)”

3. New Order – “Blue Monday ’88”

2. S’Express – “Theme From S’Express”

1. Fairground Attraction – “Perfect”: They’ve made it all the way to No 1! I don’t think I did them justice in a previous post when I kept my comments to a minimum but that was only because I knew they would be on again soon enough and here they are. Despite being a four piece, visually they were all about lead singer Eddi Reader with her distinctive kooky style, flaming red hair and awkward yet joyful dance moves. Yet again though I am doing her a disservice as the most memorable thing about Eddi is her wonderful voice. OK – I’m not a massive fan of “Perfect” but she has done much better things than that. “Roses” from her 2009 album “Love Is The Way” is just lovely as is possibly her best known solo single “Patience Of Angels”. I saw her live at the Beverley Folk Festival a few years back and she was astonishing. After her proper gig, I caught her in a small tent just singing without any backing and her voice was so strong and tuneful. It tales a very talented person to be able to do that. I still don’t like “Perfect” that much though.

Although hardly one of her most celebrated tunes, “Got To Be Certain” was actually a very important record for Kylie Minogue as, in one fell swoop, it prevented her from being a one hit wonder immediately whilst also giving her a foundation to build on the initial success she found with “I Should Be So Lucky”. It’s also dreadful.

I remember my scouse housemate at the time John being appalled that one of his old school mates that he’d met up with on a visit back to Liverpool had admitted that he’d bought “Got To Be Certain”. ‘He likes proper music like Prince and Springsteen usually’ John told me. So why’s he bought Kylie I asked. ‘He said it was just a bit of fun’ replied John whilst shaking his head. We never spoke of it again.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Harry Enfield	Loadsamoney (Doin’ Up The House)	I liked Loadsamoney but not enough to buy this single
2	Prince	Alphabet Street	Sure I’ve got it on something
3	The Adventures	Broken Land	No but I have the album “The Sea Of Love”
4	Narada Michael Walden	Divine Emotions	No
5	Liverpool FC	Anfield Rap	I ‘m a Chelsea supporter – of course not!
6	Belinda Carlisle	Circle in The Sand	Nope
7	Derek B	Bad Young Brother	It’s another no
8	Prefab Sprout	The King Of Rock ‘N’ Roll	Not the 7’ but I have it on their A Life Of Surprises compilation
9	Star Turn On 45 Pints	Pump Up The Bitter	Amusing but no
10	Wet Wet Wet	With A Little Help From My Friends	Nah
11	Fairground Attraction	Perfect	No but I think my wife may have had the album
12	Kylie Minogue	Got To Be Certain	Oh dear me no

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0007n22/top-of-the-pops-12051988

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

Some bed time reading?

http://likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com/2018/05/may-4-17-1988.html

TOTP 05 MAY 1988

Posted on August 22, 2019 by 80stastic

After last week’s post where I once again expressed my incredulity at the popularity of James Brown, I added my blog to a Facebook group asking the question ‘Does anybody else not get James Brown?’. Somebody replied ‘Morrissey probably’. After chucking to myself, I began to examine my own musical preferences in much more detail and suddenly realised that I didn’t own much music made by black artists at all. Shit! What was that all about and how had it happened? I basically seemed to like skinny white boys playing guitar music. Was I that shallow or worse was I kidding myself about my perceived liberalities? After a while I began to realise the truth that my friend Robin once enlightened me with when I tried to tell him that he couldn’t just dismiss the whole of Elton John’s back catalogue as crap which was ‘Yes I can – musical taste is subjective – I thought you knew that’.

With Robin’s words ringing in my ears, I nervously review this TOTP. The presenters are Bruno Brookes who seems to have caught the eye of the programme’s producers and is getting a lot more gigs than he used to. His partner by comparison is an absolute novice. Adrian John?! I remember the name but not his show which was probably because it was the very early morning pre-breakfast show – as an old hand at this student lark by this time, I was not used to rising from my pit before 10.00 am unless I really had to.

The first act tonight is Joyce Sims with “Walk Away”. I didn’t like this record much at all but that is no reflection on any lack of political correctness as previously established. I just found it a bit dull and repetitive. Joyce would scrape into the UK Top 40 just one more time in 1989 with a song called “Looking for a Love” which I cannot recall at all but she continues to make club appearances to this day. By comparison, I haven’t been in a nightclub this century. Fair play to you Joyce.

Next a song that had not only been a hit before but was (and still is I think) the biggest selling 12′ single in the UK ever. Everybody knows New Order‘s “Blue Monday” so why was it re-released just five years after its initial introduction to the world as “Blue Monday ’88”? Was it to promote their “Substance” Best Of album? Maybe but that was released in August ’87 some nine months or so previous and the ’88 remix isn’t on it so that theory doesn’t really hold water. This version was produced by Quincy Jones and apparently the group were signed to his Qwest Records label by this point so maybe he just wanted a hit single out of his new charges.

I do remember it being back in the charts but I wouldn’t have guessed that it was such a big hit making No 3 (as opposed to its original No 9 peak). Those in the know attribute its success to the fact that it was commercially available in 7″ format for the first time unlike its ’83 counterpart which makes sense I guess. The video looks a bit like a 6th form art group project to me and nowhere near as visually arresting as the iconic “True Faith” promo.

The nerves have got the better of Adrian John as he introduces soft rockers Magnum‘s hit single “Start Talking Love” as ‘Sweet Talkin’ Love’. He tries to style it out but we can all see what’s happened. So who were Magnum? Apparently they had been in existence for 14 (FOURTEEN!) years before they started to ingratiate themselves with the UK record buying public enough to score some Top 40 action. They were the house band at the legendary Birmingham nightclub The Rum Runner whilst later residents Duran Duran were still running around in shorts. Would it be unfair to say that their back story goes a long way to explaining why they didn’t look that fresh faced in 1988?

They’d already had a minor Top 40 hit earlier in the year with “Days Of No Trust” before this one became their biggest ever single peaking at No 22. Wikipedia tells me that the album it was taken from (“Wings Of Heaven)”) was a top 5 album which only goes to show how big a market there was for this type of stuff back in the day. I’m sure that Magnum would have been a staple of the soft rock show on local North East radio station Metro at this time which I would sometimes find myself listening to as I attempted to do some work as a student at Sunderland Polytechnic.

Here’s the Breakers and we start with a novelty record from Harry Enfield whose Loadsamoney character was a huge hit on Channel 4’s Friday Live programme. I loved this comedy concoction back then and would seem to spend many a Friday night in front of a TV screen awaiting his arrival. Such was his cultural impact it was inevitable that a cash-in single would be released (similar to the “Chicken Song” and Spitting Image two years previously) and “Loadsamoney (Doin’ Up The House)” was the result. Playing on the populist vote it went for a sound that sampled the big dance tunes of the time with the likes of Bomb The Bass and M/A/R/R/S all getting the Enfield treatment. Was it funny? I thought so at the time but watching it back now, I would like to think that my funny bone has grown a bit since this.

“Loadsamoney (Doin’ Up the House)” went all the way to No 4 in the UK Top 40.

A great, great record from a great, great band next. I first encountered The Adventures in 1984 when they released two fine singles in “Another Silent Day” and “Send My Heart” neither of which troubled the chart compilers. I was so impressed though that I bought their debut album “Theodore and Friends”. Unfortunately for this bunch of Belfast guys (and girl) nobody else did the same. By the time 1988 rolled around, it seemed like they had been completely forgotten. Suddenly though, “Broken Land” was being played on the radio everywhere and the band finally had that Top 40 hit they so richly deserved. Indeed, it was on the airwaves so much that it became the most played song on Radio 1 in 1988.

A change of label to Elektra had seemingly done the trick and a song about The Troubles in their home country proved the unlikely source for a pop hit. Many a comparison was made between the song’s melody and that of “Wouldn’t It Be Good” by Nik Kershaw (Alan “Night Owl” Robson on late night Metro radio certainly said so a few times) which I can hear but which didn’t diminish the song’s appeal at all for me.

Despite all that airplay, “Broken Land” only made it to No 20. It was backed up by a great album called “The Sea Of Love” but the band never made a Top 40 appearance again despite two more albums over the next five years – a fact that anyone who ignored their talents should be ashamed of.

Narada Michael Walden (just Narada to his mates) had previously been the drummer in jazz fusion (there’s a term to strike terror into my heart) bands such as Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra* before becoming a producer of much more mainstream artists like Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Lionel Richie.

In 1988 he tried his luck as an artist with the single “Divine Emotions” which was a Top 10 hit in the UK. To me it sounded like it belonged in 1985 though with the likes of Steve Arrington.

* In my early Our Price career I worked briefly with a guy who liked weird shit like Mahavishnu Orchestra which he would play whilst on processing duty (ex employees will know what I mean). It was horrible. Even worse, he then mentioned to the manager that I had been playing some Alison Moyet one day and that he had been appalled. Cheeky git!

For all his musical genius, Prince‘s UK chart positions were pretty random and inconsistent. For every “Purple Rain” (No 6) there was an “I Would Die 4 U” (No 58), and for every “Kiss” (No 6) there was a “Mountains” (No 45). This pattern continued with the release of “Alphabet Street” from his “Lovesexy” album which was a No 9 hit but subsequent singles from the album reached No 29 (“Glam Slam”) and No 24 (“I Wish U Heaven”). My personal theory is that Prince was too prolific. Nobody could release that amount of work without there being some slips in quality surely?

I always liked “Alphabet Street” (there you go, I was over thinking this black artists thing). It’s as funky as hell and has some great bits in its structure where Prince breaks it all down with some pregnant pauses (‘I would like to…watch’) and a nice Beatles tribute with its ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah’ motif.

“Lovesexy” was one of those albums that would always turn up as sale stock or in the special purchase sections during my Our Price days, presumably because the album never sold as well as predicted. It was released in place of the infamous “Black Album” that was intended as the follow up to “Sign O’ The Times” but was pulled after Prince decided it was evil (so it says on Wikipedia). It was finally released in November 1994.

As was the trend around this time, here’s another act going for the record number of tracks taken from an album and released as singles. The Christians had already released four singles from their self titled debut album before “Born Again” made its entry into the world. Presumably they wanted to give the album one last sales push and extended its sales life. If so, the title of their fifth single was most apt. Presumably the choice of that title was very deliberate to tie in with the band’s name (Born Again Christian?) and the lyrics certainly seem to be a tale of redemption with the protagonist being saved from the blight of some sort of addiction by a loving relationship.

Despite this TOTP appearance, “Born Again” would only go up one place to a peak of No 25 adding weight to the theory that five singles from one album is pushing it just a little too much unless your name was Michael Jackson.

Ooh some jangly indie pop! The Primitives followed up Top 5 hit “Crash” with “Out Of Reach” which couldn’t live up to its predecessor’s success and, similar to The Christians before them, would not benefit much from this TOTP appearance as it failed to rise above this No 25 peak.

The band were on tour in the UK around this time and played at Sunderland Polytechnic where I duly covered the gig for the music section of the student newspaper. I have no recollection of what I wrote about the gig and don’t have a copy of the paper but I do remember taking some photos of the band (most of which were unusable) which I kept for many years but sadly cannot find now.

I quite liked “Out Of Reach” with its breakneck pace hurtling towards a very abrupt conclusion. Tracy Tracy looks great here too. They probably should have been bigger than they were and stuck around the charts for longer than they did but longevity in the music business is a very hard trick to pull off it seems otherwise we’d all still be listening to the same acts now as we were 30 years ago.

Top 10

10. New Order – “Blue Monday ’88”

9. George Michael – “One More Try”

8. Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5 – “I Want You Back ’88 Remix”

7. Pet Shop Boys – “Heart”

6. Natalie Cole – “Pink Cadillac”

5. Bananrama – “I Want You Back”

4. Hazell Dean – “Who’s Leaving Who”

3. Danny Wilson – “Mary’s Prayer”

2. Fairground Attraction – “Perfect”

1. S’Express – “Theme From S’Express”: Another week at No 1 and another TOTP appearance. After the all out 70s fashion onslaught the last time they were on the show, they’ve toned it down a little bit this time despite what Adrian John says at the song’s end. Mind you, he’s right about the guy on keyboards who seems to have taken Starsky and Hutch‘s Huggy Bear as the inspiration for his look.

Hell’s teeth I’d nearly forgotten all about this! “Pump Up The Bitter” by Star Turn on 45 pints. Parodying the ‘Stars on 45’ early 80s medley phenomenon, this North East trio updated that craze by covering (almost) “Pump Up The Volume” by M/A/R/R/S. Based around the premise of a club singer (Star Turn) in a fictional North East working men’s club, compere Albert Charlton would also interject with announcements and a spot of spoon playing. It’s dreadful of course but as I was a student in Sunderland at the time, the accents resonated with me and my Poly mates and I actually found it not just tolerable but almost amusing.

Subsequent releases failed to have the same effect on me or anybody else but original member J Vincent Edwards (Charlton) continued releasing parodies into the 90s and beyond covering the likes of Blur, Whitney Houston and (God help us) Franz Ferdinand.

“Pump Up The Bitter” made No 12 on the UK charts.

Order of appearance	Artist	Song	Did I Buy it?
1	Joyce Sims	Walk Away	I did…walk away…no
2	New Order	Blue Monday ‘88	Not this version but I have the original on my Substance CD
3	Magnum	Start Talking Love	Nah
4	Harry Enfield	Loadsamoney (Doin’ Up The House)	I liked Loadsamoney but not enough to buy this single
5	The Adventures	Broken Land	No but I have the album “The Sea Of Love”
6	Narada Michael Walden	Divine Emotions	No
7	Prince	Alphabet Street	Sure I’ve got it on something
8	The Christians	Born Again	No but I have the album
9	The Primitives	Out Of Reach	Negative
10	S’Express	Theme From S’Express	No but my wife had their album ‘Original Soundtrack’
11	Star Turn On 45 Pints	Pump Up The Bitter	Amusing but no

Disclaimer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0007f4t/top-of-the-pops-05051988

I make no claim to the rights of this show and all ownership and contents including logos and graphics belongs totally to the BBC or copyright holder(s).

All opinions on the music and artists featured are my own. Sorry if you don’t agree.

Some bed time reading?

http://likepunkneverhappened.blogspot.com/2018/05/may-4-17-1988.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 Rewind – the 80s

My memories of 80s chart music

TOTP 23 NOV 1989

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TOTP 16 NOV 1989

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TOTP 07 SEP 1989

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TOTP 22 JUN 1989

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TOTP 10 NOV 1988

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TOTP 12 MAY 1988

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TOTP 05 MAY 1988

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TOTP 27 AUG 1987

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TOTP 20 AUG 1987

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