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Posted by: blackcat May 31 2011, 06:08 PM

I don't know if anyone in the UK watches the top of the pops reruns from 1976 on BBC Four on Thursdays, but in between the naff records, there are some real crackers.

Check out Silver Star, by the Four Seasons on YOUTUBE - what a record! Brilliant!

(I can't print YOUTUBE links as yet, only just joined the forum).

Anybody else seen any other cracking records on that programme? Some great stuff on there, in between all the cheese!!!!

Posted by: Tom Radio Kay May 31 2011, 06:38 PM

The amazing S-S-S-Single Bed by Fox was on every other week seemingly:



On the whole it's been quite ropey though, I think epeople definitely have rose tinted glasses for that era of the show. They still played lots of non-hits back then, and repeated things ad nauseam.

Posted by: Suedehead2 May 31 2011, 10:51 PM

I loved Silver Star at the time and it still sounds good today.

This was another of my favourites of the songs shown so far. TOTP showed an edited version but here it is in full



The late Charlie Gillett had a show on BBC Radio London at the time. He played some great music but he absolutely loathed this record.

Posted by: Robbie May 31 2011, 11:52 PM

Silver Star had one of the most volatile chart runs of any record in the 1970s: 27-16-6-9-3-21-16-31-39. Its strange chart run is down to the fact that the then chart compilers, BMRB, made a temporary change to the chart sales week, from the usual Monday to Saturday to Saturday to Friday for a while in 1976. This was done because the chart compilers weren't receiving enough sales diaries on a Monday morning and were trying to avoid having to employ couriers to collect the diaries. Hence for a while the chart week changed in order to get more diaries to arrive on a Monday morning.

The seemingly unforeseen consequence of this was that the Top Of The Pops effect, which boosted Saturday sales of records appearing on the Pops two days earlier fell into the wrong chart week. Instead of boosting sales (and chart position) the following Tuesday when the new chart was unveiled this now happened one week later. Other songs were also affected by this - for example Shake It Down by Mud and Requiem by Slik - but none were quite as affected as Silver Star which managed to drop down the chart (one week by 18 places!) in most weeks after they appeared on the show. They then reclimbed due to the delayed TOTP effect and promptly dropped the following week.

After a while, and after complaints from record labels, BMRB eventually did begin to employ the services of couriers and the chart sales week changed back to the more traditional Monday to Saturday from later in 1976. However BMRB twice more changed back to Saturday to Friday, for a while in early 1977 and again in 1982. Once again the TOTP effect meant that some records began to experience strange chart runs in these periods and once again the complaints from record labels meant that the chart compilers had to change the sales week back to normal. It has even been suggested that this phenomenon in part prevented Golden Brown from reaching the top in February 1982 but I've come to believe that this is just another urban myth...

Posted by: gezza76 Jun 1 2011, 11:43 AM

That would account for "The Model" by Kraftwerk's bizarre blip just before making No 1 then- 10-2-3-1, always wondered that- thanks Robbie

Posted by: Robbie Jun 1 2011, 02:50 PM

Yup, that was another record that was affected by the temporary change in the chart sales week / TOTP effect in early 1982 with the record dropping one place the week after appearing on TOTP before the belated TOTP effect kicked in a week later to take it to number one.

Posted by: blackcat Jun 2 2011, 07:34 PM

Thanks for your posts so far, people, I just think that Silver Star is a fantastic record. Due for a cover version by a modern act, I think!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jun 2 2011, 08:00 PM

Gary Holton (RIP) from the original series of Auf Wiedersehen Pet on tonight

Posted by: AH Gold Jun 2 2011, 08:57 PM

Totally. But I think a cover of S-S-S-Single Bed would do better. Thats the best song I've seen on the TOTP repeats so far, followed by Silver Star, Love Hangover & Requiem in my opinion

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jun 2 2011, 09:02 PM

Fox had a couple good hits before S-s-s-s-ingle bed as well. Noosha Fox then had a solo hit with Georgina Bailey which had nothing to do with Andrew Sachs's grand-daughter who spells her name differently.

Posted by: blackcat Jun 3 2011, 11:22 AM

I reckon Bowie's TVC15 was the pick of last night's show, the song that is, not too sure about the staged dancing to it by "Ruby Flipper", or whatever they are called!!!!!

Posted by: AH Gold Jun 3 2011, 01:36 PM

I've only heard Single Bed so far, I'll check out the others on youtube later. It's such a good song and hasn't dated as terribly as most singles from '76 have. Speaking of which, is it wrong that I don't mind Mud's attempt at disco with Shake It Down?

As for last night's show, there weren't many gems amongst all the dross i.e J.J Barrie - No Charge (how the hell did that get to No.1?????????) and the Wurzels. The Bowie track was probably the best of the lot, besides Fernando.

Posted by: blackcat Jun 3 2011, 05:25 PM

Fernando is a great song, but they cut it short! Was it standard practise in those days to only play half the number 1 song?

They played the whole of the Wurzels, of course. Must not cut that one short, of course. Heaven forbid.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jun 3 2011, 06:42 PM

They often cut the song short if it was a video rather than a live (mimed) performance. Particularly annoying when they cut a song as good as Fernando and play the Wurzels in their horrific entirety.

Posted by: blackcat Jun 4 2011, 10:41 AM

Will be keeping an eye on top of the pops '76 throughout the year. In theory, the music should get better and better as 1976 gets older and 1977 then takes its place, as punk and new wave music then came into their own.

Not too sure how much totps reflected those changes, though.................

Posted by: Tom Radio Kay Jun 4 2011, 10:46 AM

What's weird is they had a live performance of Fernando that I had never seen before a few weeks ago (and I am a HUGE ABBA fan) but every week since they've played the video...

Posted by: blackcat Jun 14 2011, 11:42 AM

It was on Monday this week, boy, cheesy or what! Again, you can see why punk came along looking at some of the records on last night's show.

2 highlights, though - Thin Lizzy's The Boys Are Back In Town came through like a breath of fresh air in between all the dross, and the Rolling Stones Fool To Cry - one of their slower ones - oused class, as you would expect from the renowned sixties veterans.

So why am I watching it? Because of the occasional sparkling gems intweeen the dross, like Thin Lizzy and the Stones.

And it is proof positive that dross can float to the top. I mean, JJ Barrie at number one, and the Wurzels at number two.............who could ask for more?!

Posted by: AH Gold Jun 14 2011, 06:26 PM

Yep, it was pretty poor on the whole. Even though they're terrible, you can understand why records like Combine Harvester, Birdie Song, Adagoo etc did well due to the annoying novelty factor, but I can't understand how No Charge got to No.1! It's not even so bad it's good!

I've just discovered a track in that chart I'm Your Puppet by James & Bobby Purify (don't think it's been played on the TOTP repeats) which is great. Maybe it got edited out before BBC4 started showing the uncut repeats?

Also, the chart claims Tina Charles was at 28, yet the Guiness/Virgin books claim it only reached 31 and that the Bay City Rollers should have been 28 instead (yep, I'm a geek). So, who's wrong?

Posted by: grebo69 Jun 14 2011, 06:39 PM

Polyhex has the chart run as:
48-31-31-{28}-31-28-42

My (old) copy of Guinness has its highest position as #31 so who knows!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jun 14 2011, 06:54 PM

I wonder if any of the members of Our Kid were watching. If so, they must have cringed with embarrassment - particularly if any of them were watching with their children

Posted by: Paul Jun 14 2011, 09:18 PM

Another gem that has come through for me is Night Rider by ELO . I'm glad Paul Nicholas has finally gone away for the time being.We're going to have weeks and weeks of Elton & Kiki though through the summer.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jun 14 2011, 09:32 PM

Oh joy

Posted by: bustarsdotcom Jun 14 2011, 11:13 PM

Watching old Top of the Pops is always worth a laugh!

Posted by: The Moose Jun 17 2011, 09:36 AM

They are worth watching currently if only for the beautiful Cherry Gillespie (Pan's People, Ruby Flipper).

Posted by: Common Sense Jun 18 2011, 05:04 PM

I bought No Charge. Good song with a good message for kids.

Posted by: Common Sense Jun 18 2011, 05:05 PM

Followed by Dancing Queen then Mississippi, which is my fave song from 1976.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jun 18 2011, 06:39 PM

I thought it was sentimental tripe at the time and I still think that.



Neither of those songs are great but they are many times better than No Charge and Combine Harvester.

Posted by: blackcat Jun 18 2011, 07:17 PM

No Charge is not a patch on the real great moral record for kiddies, number one at Christmas in 1969 - "Two Little Boys" by Rolf Harris!

Some good top of the pops stuff on tonight - Saturday - very late tonight, begins after midnight, I think, on BBC Four. For nostalgia junkies only, of course.

Posted by: blackcat Jun 25 2011, 01:54 PM

Roxy Music, with Let's Stick together, was the pick of last Thursday's show, I reckon. Not that they were in the studio to do it, though!

Of other records, well, I have never heard of the Surprise Girls, so their version of one of Macca's best tunes, Got To Get You Into My Life, was...........well, a surprise! Never heard of them before, never heard of them since!

I like the Real thing, got memories from hearing their tunes always.

As for number one, well, I suppose that there have been worse number ones than the Wurzels!!!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jun 25 2011, 02:05 PM

That version of Got To Get You Into My Life was atrocious. Thankfully it wasn't a hit. The Surprise Sisters had a minor hit earlier in 1976 before disappearing into well deserved obscurity.

Posted by: Brett-Butler Jun 25 2011, 10:09 PM

Is there a reason why the first songs played on TOTP 1976 (Glitter Band, Surprise Sisters) weren't " in the pops"? Were they songs that we intended to be hits but never were, or something else entirely?

Posted by: blackcat Jul 1 2011, 08:47 PM

Started off quite well this week, I thought, with Mark Bolan proving to be a good contrast to the later sickening smiling faces of the Brotherhood Of Man!!!

Gallagher and Lyle and Peter Frampton proved good tunesmiths, I even liked Liverpool Expresse's offering.

There's always good music about, in any era. Depending on your taste, of course.

On the negative side...................I take it The Wurzels did eventually slip from number one........................the sooner the better!!!!

Posted by: davetaylor Jul 2 2011, 03:56 PM

They were various R1 DJs Records Of The Week.

Posted by: blackcat Jul 14 2011, 07:37 PM

Very MOR this week, was TOTP 1976, again, roxy music and that magical appearance by Jerry Hall was the highlight of the show for me.

I liked Art Garfunkel's rendition of the Stevie Wonder/Yvonne Wright composition I Believe. Art has a great singing voice.

Played out with the Beach Boys Good Vibrations, a great song, of course, but it says something when a programme has to highlight a song from nearly 10 years before the programme was made to add a bit of class to its closing sequences.

As I keep saying, you can see why punk came along when it did.....................

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jul 14 2011, 08:37 PM

Good Vibrations returned to the chart in 1976. A great summer song for a great summer.

I hope they do a catch up at some point as we are now three weeks behind.

Posted by: blackcat Jul 20 2011, 09:10 PM

Some reasonable stuff on the latest edition, I thought. Some good soul sounds from Dorothy Moore and Candi Staton, an off the wall offering from the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, some interesting sexual innuendo's from 5000 volts, and even a track from Tubular Bells. Tony Blackburn seemed even more happy than normal!

Of course, we are going to have that Kiki Dee and Elton John record bombarding our senses for the next 10 editions or so.

Can't be helped....................

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jul 20 2011, 09:23 PM

I thought this week's was pretty poor apart from SAHB. I didn't dislike the rest as much as I did at the time but it was still decidedly mediocre.

Posted by: blackcat Jul 28 2011, 03:17 PM

LOL! Mediocre aren't the word for this week's edition, in my view. P*ss poor would be a more apt description!

Obviously there was the odd gem - Back In The USSR is one of my favourite tracks off the Beatles White album, although I believe it was released as a single in 1976 to promote one of their Rock and Roll compilation albums.

Good ballads by Liverpool Express and Doctor Hook, if one is into that kind of thing.

As for the rest.........................maybe it is tackful not to say too much!

Let's just say that I preferred JJ Barrie at number one!!!

Posted by: Common Sense Jul 28 2011, 05:22 PM

Jonathan King was edited out!

Posted by: blackcat Jul 28 2011, 07:41 PM

Really, commom sense? Did not know that.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jul 28 2011, 08:04 PM

Neither did he until someone told him

Posted by: Common Sense Jul 28 2011, 10:40 PM

Yes, 100 Ton And A Feather, one of his many pseudonyms, originally sung It Only Takes A Minute in this edition but he's since been a naughty boy like Gary Glitter so gets removed from pop history by the BBC.

Posted by: Common Sense Jul 28 2011, 10:40 PM

LOL.

Posted by: Common Sense Jul 28 2011, 10:40 PM

LOL.

Posted by: blackcat Aug 4 2011, 08:13 PM

Well I always make a comment every week on the latest TOTP 1976 repeat, and this week there were the odd items of interest. I like Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel a lot, I thought that Judy Teen and Mr. Soft, as well as Come Up And See Me (Make Me Smile), were great singles.

But I never liked his version of Here Comes The Sun. I wonder if George Harrison, who wrote the song, liked it?

Harvest For The World by The Isleys is a great record, and it was nice to see the late great Johny Cash singing his stuff. So quite a bit of variety, at least, on these week's show, from rock to country to soul to novelty records.

The Elton John and Kiki Dee run has begun, with the cringe worthy Don't Go Breaking My Heart. Don't get me wrong, I like Elton John's solo stuff and, indeed, some of Kiki Dee's stuff - (Loving And Free was a good song), but this long running number one record is naff, in my book!!!

Anyway, variety is the spice of life.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Aug 4 2011, 11:46 PM

It was far better than last week's dreadful episode.

I liked Come Up And See Me and Steve Harley's version of Here Comes The Sun was very good.

Johnny Cash was good fun

Posted by: blackcat Aug 5 2011, 03:27 PM

One curious item concerning the last show. David Dundas had quite a big Worldwide hit with "Jeans On", which was originally part of a tv advertising campaign for Brutus jeans. He had success with the single in Britain, the US, and Germany in particular, where the single went to number one.

David Dundas is that rare thing in the pop World - a fully paid up member of the House Of Lords!!!! He is Lord Dundas, to all but his close mates, I should imagine!

Quite unusual for a pop star, I would have thought.

And I do like the record, very catchy.

Posted by: grebo69 Aug 5 2011, 09:50 PM

He also composed the first ident music for Channel 4, earning £1000 a week for 10 years!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Aug 5 2011, 10:17 PM

A nice little earner for just a few bars

Posted by: grebo69 Aug 6 2011, 07:27 AM

It was only four notes!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Aug 6 2011, 09:42 AM

I'm sure they played a slightly longer version occasionally but I may be mistaken.

Posted by: grebo69 Aug 6 2011, 02:34 PM

I looked this up and there was a longer version that was played during ad breaks when Channel 4 didn't have enough adverts to show.

Posted by: grebo69 Aug 6 2011, 02:36 PM

The only other one I know of is Christopher Guest (Nigel from Spinal Tap) who is a hereditary peer and therefore now barred from sitting in the Lords.

Posted by: Common Sense Aug 13 2011, 10:32 PM

A little Crazychris TOTP trivia now. One of the very few occasions that they played a song that was falling down the chart was in Sept. 1978 when Talking In Your Sleep by Crystal Gayle had fallen just a place to No.29. Featured on TOTP and it rose to No.15 and peaked at No.11 eventually. Who says TOTP can't make or break a song!!

Posted by: blackcat Aug 18 2011, 08:09 PM

Some good fare on this week, I like Thin Lizzy and Status Quo, and the more gentle songs by Doctor Hook and Liverpool Express were at least good quality MOR stuff.

My favourite bit was the close out, though. I Should Be Dancing by the Bee Gees, great song. Wasn't that the one that John Travolto was grand master class disco dancing too in Saturday Night Fever? I am sure that it was.

Pity that The Bee Gees were not there to perform it. Really summed up the spirit of 1970's disco dancing, that song.

Posted by: Common Sense Aug 23 2011, 02:12 PM

Great country singer Billie Jo Spears sings What I've Got In Mind this week.

Posted by: blackcat Aug 25 2011, 07:14 PM

Yes, common sense, Billy Jo-Spears always worth seeing.

In fact, the whole show this week had too many pretty girls for a red blooded male like me! Twiggy, Ruby Flipper twice, even the audience had some nice energetic females!

All soured by Jimmy Savile appearing in a kilt, of course!! YUK!!!

A record I remember most vividly from the summer of '76 was Simon May, with a track called You Were The Summer Of My Life, I think it was called. Have not seen it on there yet, maybe it was a hit in late summer that year.

Anyway, as long as they keep showing Ruby Flipper every week, I am a happy man!!!

Posted by: Common Sense Aug 26 2011, 09:40 AM

I seem to recall Summer Of My Life peaking in October '76 so it should be on in a few weeks.

Posted by: blackcat Aug 26 2011, 08:10 PM

Yes, you are quite right, common sense, May's song was a hit in around about October that year, I note, having looked it up.

How out of sync is top of the pops '76 at the moment? Must be a few weeks behind. maybe June, 1976? Not sure.

I also seem to recall Dancing Queen by Abba being a bit hit during that summer, but again, maybe my memory is playing tricks again. Dancing Queen was probably months later.

The main thing about summer 1976 is that I can at least remember it, putting the music aside. What a glorious summer. So hot that they appointed a Minister For Drought!
A summer like that may never happen again in our livetimes, glorious for those who are old enough to remember it.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Aug 26 2011, 10:31 PM

This week's programme was from 5 August so it is three weeks behind.

Dancing Queen was number one in the late summer / early autumn. I surprised a friend once by telling him what was number one the day he was born without looking it up I was about to turn 16 when it was number one and it stayed at the top for ages so I was able to date it pretty accurately.

Posted by: ChopStick Aug 28 2011, 11:10 PM

For the people who have been watching all these can i ask if a De la soul video was played on one about 2/3 weeks ago cos i think my girlfriend knowing what a fan i am was winding me up!

Posted by: Common Sense Aug 29 2011, 08:23 AM

Erm De La Soul weren't having hits in 1976 so NO. She was winding you up so you must get her back in some way!!

Posted by: ChopStick Aug 29 2011, 02:02 PM

Ohh are you guys talking about the orginal series getting repeated, I meant a recent TOTP2 i think!!

Posted by: blackcat Sep 1 2011, 07:19 PM

Liked it this week, though some of the records from last week were still hanging around. I like Hot Chocolate, I think that they made some of the best singles of the 1970's. Errol Brown is retired to Barbados now, is he not? A deserved retirement!

I thought that Let 'Em In was one of Macca's best post Beatles productions. Had he wrote that song while in the Beatles, I am sure that they would have had no qualms about putting it out as a single.

And Bryan Ferry was back with another worthwhile cover version.

Abba with Dancing Queen was obviously good to listen too, a timeless classic.

So quite pleased. Who said there was not good music about before punk came along?!

Quiz question this week. They played Bryan Ferry and his song the price of love, and then immediately after they played Wings and let em' in.

What is the very tenuous connection between those two songs?

Answers from knowledgeable pop fans please!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Sep 1 2011, 07:45 PM

They skipped a week which is why some acts (e.g. Twiggy) seemed to be on two weeks running.

Let 'Em In includes a mention of Phil and Don. The Price Of Love was originally by the Everly Brothers (Phil and Don). It was followed on the programme by Steve Harley's version of Here Comes The Sun, written by George Harrison and performed by The Beatles so there's another link.

Maybe you'd like to revive this thread

http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=118591&hl=chain

Posted by: blackcat Sep 1 2011, 09:25 PM

Yes, correct on all counts, suedehead!

I notice Dave Lee Travis said at the end of the programme that there would be a new number one next week! How did he know? Mid-week sales chart, perhaps?

Posted by: Suedehead2 Sep 1 2011, 09:37 PM

Yes, I noticed that but he was wrong. EJ & KD still had another week to go before Abba took over. I'm not sure whether there were any midweek updates in 1976. Perhaps someone can enlighten us.

And I shall award myself a biscuit for getting your qiuz right

Posted by: Common Sense Sep 1 2011, 11:06 PM

Just mentioned that on DS. Abba jumped 16-1 but how did he know Elton and Kiki wouldn't get a 7th week? Thought there were no mids in those days?

Posted by: Common Sense Sep 1 2011, 11:07 PM

He said Abba were at 26 but I thought they entered at 16 that week? Which chart week did we see on TOTP tonight?

EDIT. They must have been at 23 then went to 16 then 1. Strange climb I always thought!

Posted by: blackcat Sep 15 2011, 08:22 PM

The Sky At Night was on last week, so Top Of The Pops 1976 style was back on this week after a fortnight's break.

Bit too MOR for me this time around. Started off well, with Manfred Mann's Earthband, and the excellent Blinded By The Light (was this the one written by Bruce Springsteen, or was it another song by Manfred? Can't quite recall).

And then The Bee Gees track You Should Be Dancing was played, great song, as discussed before. Other highlights included The Chilites, and Gallagher And Lyle had a reasonable MOR song.

As for the rest of the programme, not to my tasts at all. I admire the skill of Acker Bilk, of course, but music to fall asleep too, in my view. And Sir Cliff;s single of August 1976 was not a patch on his brilliant Devil Woman from earlier in the year.

One really great thing about the programme this week, though; lots of dancing by the female dancers of Ruby Flipper! Very nice!!!

As for the music, well, all things considered, I would rather have seen another edition of The Sky At Night!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Sep 16 2011, 09:26 AM

Yes, Blinded By The Light is indeed a Springsteen song. It was on his debut album Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ.

As you say it was a great start to the show but the rest wasn't great. At least it is the last week at the top for Elton & Kiki so we won't be hearing that again (unless they show the Christmas Day programme).

Posted by: richie Sep 16 2011, 10:46 AM

I liked that they didn't show the VT for Elton and Kiki, but just had everyone take to the floor for a wee dance while Noel pestered young ladies in the crowd at the back. Really liked the fact that Ruby Flipper clearly thought the song would be shorter and didn't choreograph a full routine which meant they had to just stand in a line and kick in time for about two minutes at the end.

Not a classic episode though...

And it's a 15 place climb to the top for Abba next week then? Then only a couple of weeks till we get the Wurzels again - oh joy!

Posted by: Common Sense Sep 16 2011, 11:05 PM

Not long until one of my fave songs of all time at No.1, the great Mississippi.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Sep 16 2011, 11:15 PM

Well I suppose Pussycat were better than Pussycat Dolls. Just about.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Sep 21 2011, 09:41 PM

Oh dear, we get Bay City Rollers doing Dusty Springfield tomorrow

Posted by: Common Sense Sep 22 2011, 07:31 AM

Yep The Tourists cover in 1980 was much better.

Posted by: blackcat Sep 22 2011, 01:06 PM

Nice to see a few more entries on this thread during the week, in eager anticipation of the great event, a repeat of Top Of The Pops from 35 years ago! LOL!!

One of my favourite records from the glorious summer of 1976 was never featured on Top Of The Pops, because it was never a big UK hit. It got to number three in the USA, though.

This classic, by Starbuck:



People of a certain age will remember that this was a very big turntable hit in the UK at the time, Radio Luxembourg played it a lot, especially. And yet the song never really took off saleswise in the UK.

Frightening to think that this was from 35 years ago. We are now as distant in time from that great UK summer of '76 as 1976 was to the early years of the Second World War.

What a sobering thought.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Sep 22 2011, 02:40 PM

Ah yes, I remember it well. Capital used to play it a lot at the time. I will try and forget the bit about 1941 as it makes me feel positively ancient

Posted by: Common Sense Sep 22 2011, 06:43 PM

Yes of course I remember that Blackcat. David Hamilton on Radio1/2 played it lots in the afternoons too.

Posted by: Common Sense Sep 22 2011, 06:43 PM

How many times has Twiggy been on? 3 or 4 times!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Sep 22 2011, 07:04 PM

That's the problem with them skipping weeks. If she was actually on every fortnight we end up seeing her every bloomin' week.

Posted by: blackcat Sep 22 2011, 07:28 PM

Well, I do like Twiggy, not necessarily musically, but in other ways!

I liked Kiki Dee's song much better than her song with Elton. Manfred Mann we have discussed before, and an interesting start to this week's show - Eddie And The Hotrods. Their best record was yet to come, of course - Do Anything You Wanna Do - but interesting that the programme started with them.

First nod to seventies punky music from Top Of The Pops, maybe?

Dancing Queen is an all-time classic, of course. Always liked that song. Not much of Ruby Flippar this week, they were about to be re-formed as Legs and Co anyway. The story is that the BBC controller, Bill Cotten, told Flick Colby the cheoreograper on TOTP to form an all female dance troop again (like Pans People, for example), or face the sack! Sounds somewhat sexist, it has to be said.

So one or two items of interest on the show. Do we all still miss Top Of The Pops on Thursdays, in these days of youtube links and digital downloads? Yeah, I suppose I do miss it. Grew up with it, afterall.

Bring back the spirit of '76!

Posted by: Common Sense Sep 22 2011, 08:42 PM

Yes I miss it. The start of it's downfall was when it was moved to Fridays and it couldn't compete with Corrie. Well what can? Stupid decision! I chose Corrie as many others did too!

Dancing Queen is good but over-played now. Someone please tell Gold Radio that Abba recorded other songs apart from that and Mamma Mia!

Posted by: richie Sep 29 2011, 10:31 AM

I didn't realise they were skipping weeks until last week - well, that's not a bad thing really. We'll get closer to the 80s quicker at this rate! That's assuming both BBC4 and the TOTP run keep going - which they surely must.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Sep 29 2011, 11:29 AM

I've not seen any viewing figures. As long as they are reasonable for BBC4, I would hope the repeats will continue.

Posted by: Common Sense Oct 7 2011, 08:36 AM

I miss it on the weeks that it's not on.

Posted by: blackcat Oct 7 2011, 03:05 PM

Well, tuned in at 7.30 p.m. on the dot to bbc four last night, and I was impressed. Very professional presenters, especially the main one, who was very old but very wise, and knew what he was talking about (nothing to do with Jimmy Savile, then!)

And the stars were great! Both recently discovered stars, and old stars that had been around for years. The whole programme really was so good, it was out of this universe it was so good!

Right, so much for The Sky At Night, what about Top Of The Pops!

Seriously, The Sky At Night does have a few musical connections. Isn't Brian May of Queen one of the best astronomers in the country, or something? He has occasionally appeared on the programme as well.

Interesting to note that, of the two programmes, both of which would have been broadcast since at least the mid 1960's, one of the programmes is still going strong - and it is not Top Of The Pops.

Did not comment on last week's show, as there was little to comment on, really. Much the same as the show the week before, the only difference seemed to be Rod Stewart, and his Sailing ditty.

Never really liked him much, to be candid. Liked the Faces a bit (and just LOVED the Small Faces), but Rod never really did it for me. Horrible to think that he could have been lead singer of The Kinks, according to some books I have read. Aargh! That would have been horrible!

That infernal Disco Duck was on again. I said to the female I was watching the programme with that Disco Duck, unbelievably, got to number two. She thought about it, and was about to say how disgusting, when she remembered something; she had bought Bob The Builder when it came out!

So we are all guilty of transgressions in the world of buying questionable pop music. The first record I ever bought was by Jigsaw, called Cry until the tears run dry. Bought that in the summer of 1976. Anyone remember that one? If you do, you are doing well my friends. It sold about 6 copies, one bought by me and the others bought by members of the band!

Let's hope TOTPS '76 is back again next week, because when it is not on, as common sense suggests, I do miss it.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Oct 7 2011, 03:49 PM

Rod Stewart with the Kinks? What a dreadful thought. I've never been a fan of his. The only song I actually liked - The Killing Of Georgie - was, I suspect, on one or more of the programmes they've missed out.

I don't remember the Jigsaw song you mentioned but I do remember Sky High which was also by them.

The programme is back next week.

Oh, and another Sky At Night musical connection - Patrick Moore is an accomplished xylophone player. Loved your intro btw

Posted by: blackcat Oct 7 2011, 07:51 PM

This is for you, suede:



Great stuff! Better than top of the pops anyday!

Posted by: Common Sense Oct 7 2011, 10:04 PM

Never heard of the other Jigsaw song either, only Sky High.

Posted by: blackcat Oct 8 2011, 02:05 PM

For commonsense and suedehead:



Ah, memories of being 14, listening to such rubb.......er, I mean good music in 1976! LOL!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Oct 8 2011, 02:16 PM

Ah, yes, that Jigsaw song sounds slightly familiar. It obviously didn't get as much airplay at the time as Sky High.

And that Jon Culshaw clip is always worth seeing again

Posted by: Common Sense Oct 13 2011, 07:24 PM

Disappointed not to see Pussycat tonight as they climbed to No.3. Maybe next week. Think they climb to 2!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Oct 13 2011, 07:25 PM

Pussycat are on next week. Decent-ish show this week. Next week is not looking good.

Posted by: blackcat Oct 13 2011, 08:00 PM

Yes, anything to do with cats is allright by me!

I enjoyed some of this week's show, I always liked Sherbert's Howzat. Australian, weren't they? Don't recall any other hits by them.

Randy Edelman's song was a very clever slow moving love song, and there were other songs I enjoyed this week.

To be fair, I too am getting a little fed up with Dancing Queen. Bring on Mississippi!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Oct 13 2011, 08:10 PM

Yes, Sherbet were Australian and Howzat was their only hit.

DLT's prediction of a number one for Randy Edelman was 24 places out. Just one more week of Dancing Queen

Posted by: Common Sense Oct 14 2011, 05:29 PM

Do you have the full line-up for next week then?

Posted by: Suedehead2 Oct 14 2011, 06:30 PM

No, but Radio Times lists Pussycat, Paul Nicholas, T Rex, Manhattans and, of course, Abba.

Posted by: Brett-Butler Oct 15 2011, 12:27 AM

Thought you might appreciate this - had me in stitches first time I saw it.

Posted by: Mark. Oct 18 2011, 09:13 PM

Jonathan King had a letter from the BBC Director Channel following complaints about his song being cut from TOTP BBC4 repeat.

Source: http://www.kingofhits.co.uk/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=65&func=view&catid=5&id=75562


Dear Jonathan

Thank you for your email. Please accept my apologies for the delay in
replying.

I am sorry to hear that you were unhappy that your performance was
edited out of an episode of Top of the Pops recently repeated on BBC
Four. The BBC's complaints process begins with a response from the
relevant programme makers and I therefore asked my colleagues in BBC
Four to address this matter. Their response is as follows:

"We are sorry that Mr King's appearance was edited out of this
particular programme. We accept that this should not have happened and
we would like to apologise for any upset this caused.

We can assure Mr King that there is no policy in place requiring any of
his appearances, or those of any one else, to be removed from repeats we
show on the channel. We can also assure Mr King that his performance
will not be edited out of any future repeat of this particular episode
of Top of the Pops."

I hope this response is helpful, but please come back to me if there are
any further points you wish to raise and I will ensure that these are
dealt with in accordance with our complaints process. I want to join
BBC Four in apologising for this incorrect decision.

Best wishes

Mark Thompson
Director General
BBC

Posted by: richie Oct 19 2011, 10:14 AM

I'd have edited that w*n**r out too.

Posted by: blackcat Oct 20 2011, 07:09 PM

Indeed ritchie, I agree.

Liked it this week, liked the way Marc Bolan looked, preferred that to his normal look, in fact! Pity about what happened less than a year later, I reckon that he still had a good few years left of good music in him.

I, like common sense, like Mississippi, surprised that they never had another really big hit. Dutch, weren' they? They could have been the Dutch Abba, if the standard of songs had continued to be as good as Mississippi.

Some good soul on tonight, with The Detroit Spinners and Manhattan, and Smokie's record was probably my favourite record of theirs. So all things considered, quite pleased with this week's show from '76.

It is hard for me to be objective about some of these things............Paul Nicholas and that Disco Duck song may not be the coolest music in the world, but they still bring a smile to my face when I hear them, the memories just come flooding back.

Anyway, reasonably pleased with this week's fare.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Oct 20 2011, 07:26 PM

Oops, I forgot to watch. I'll have to catch up on iPlayer. At least that means I can fast forward through Disco Duck.

Posted by: Common Sense Oct 20 2011, 11:48 PM

Sounds like a load of crap to me. For sure they'll have cut him out on purpose, as they would Gary Glitter.

Posted by: Common Sense Oct 20 2011, 11:51 PM

The follow-up Smile reached No.24 in early 1977 and is a good song. They have others too. I have one of their Best Of albums called Good For Gold and it's excellent. Check one out.

Posted by: Tom *.* Kay Oct 21 2011, 06:40 AM

Disco Duck is poor, but nowherer near as bad as Chris "Rod Stewart wannabe" Norman and Smokie. Actually I didn't think it was a great show yesterday. As a Europop fan, I find Pussycat quite dull. The real Dutch ABBA was a group called Champagne that had some great singles like Rock N Roll Star and the fantastically-titled Oh Me Oh My Goodbye, check them out on Youtube.

My favourite song last night was DEFINITELY the Detroit Spinners

Posted by: blackcat Oct 21 2011, 02:10 PM

Amazing how opinions vary!

Thanks common sense, will check out some more pussycat stuff.

It is also amazing how the memory can play tricks over the years. I could have sworn that Mississippi was a hit in the summer of 1976. Correct me if I am wrong, but these programmes are more from the autumn now, are they not?

Same with Dancing Queen, as well.

Can't quite remember - did the Sex Pistols play on top of the pops? Must have been invited to do so, at some stage.

For some reason, just can't recall too many punk or heavy metal bands on totp over the years.............................

Posted by: Suedehead2 Oct 21 2011, 04:17 PM

Mississippi does sound like a summer song doesn't it?

Posted by: Common Sense Oct 23 2011, 11:49 PM

Yes it does.! It was actually the 3rd best-seller of 1976 with Dancing Queen the 4th, which surprises me as it was No.1 for 4 weeks and Abba were top for 6 weeks!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Oct 27 2011, 07:01 PM

Simon May this week in the days before he became more famous for writing the Eastenders theme. He also did a version of the Crossroads theme and I've a feeling Summer Of My Life was used in the programme.

Posted by: blackcat Oct 29 2011, 12:40 AM

Caught up with the programme on bbc iplayer this week. Liked Simon May's song a lot, and Play That Funky Music by Wild Cherry ----with Ruby Flippar added, of course ------ was great to listen too again.

As I say, hard to be objective about some of these old tunes. When you were around at the time as a teenager, and you were enjoying your last few years at school ----- as I was at the time --------- then records from the year of 1976 are just great memories, whether those records are banal or sublime.

I do hope that they keep showing these repeats. I look forward to these repeats even more than I used to look forward to current editions of top of the pops a few years ago!

Posted by: blackcat Oct 29 2011, 07:31 PM

Very appropriate that I should enter another post on here at this time.

RIP Jimmy Savile.

Very important part of 1960's and 1970's BBC tv and radio presentation of pop music. Bless you Jimmy, and thanks for the memories.

Posted by: davetaylor Oct 29 2011, 10:12 PM

Absolutely! And here is a recording of a BBC World Service edition of "The Vintage Chart Show", that Jimmy presented there from March 1987 - November 1989. Of course previous too this, his "Old Record Club" on Radio One, attracted over 12million listeners each week, between January 85 & September 1987. Jimmy, the very first person in Britain to run a Retro chart type show. Which he first introduced on Radio One in October 1973.

http://www.mediafire.com/?3vm272o679u3b4o

Posted by: fchd Oct 30 2011, 02:24 PM

At least you could have spelled his surname correctly!

Posted by: blackcat Oct 30 2011, 03:18 PM

Yes, quite right too, apologies for the mistake. Should have been one l, not two.

His full name was Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile.

RIP. And thanks for the contribution as regarding his World Service shows, Dave.

Posted by: richie Oct 31 2011, 09:18 AM

I think quite a few punk acts did go on. The Clash famously never would but I've seen a fair few (good and bad) on TOTP2 over the years. That said, did TOTP2 also show clips from the Old Grey Whistle Test?

Metal - your guess is as good as mine. Seem to recall seeing Iron Maiden do Run To The Hills on some clip show but that's a good few years off from '76.

Posted by: blackcat Nov 3 2011, 08:08 PM

Bands with exotic/colourful names were the order of the day for me in this week's edition. Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, The Average White Band, and The Climax Blues Band.

All good fare. As for the records inbetween..................................

Pussycat were about to get knocked off by Chicago, were they not? Pity, great song.

Nice to see the new dance group, which was really the old dance group of Ruby Flippar minus the men and plus a few more women! They would be named Legs And Co in the end, of course.

Love these old editions of totps. Long may they continue.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Nov 3 2011, 08:13 PM

Still two more weeks of Pussycat although that includes next week when The Sky At Night is on instead. Then Chicago for three weeks.

Then it's...

Posted by: blackcat Nov 3 2011, 08:28 PM

Good one suedehead!

Did not realises that Pussycat were number one for so long.

"Showwaddy Waddy" - as I pronounce them - ushered in a retro era of their own, in a way. It was after they came along that we started seeing acts like Shaking Stevens emerge, with tremendous success in the UK market.
Punk seemed to make little difference to the chart topping records of the time.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Nov 3 2011, 09:25 PM

I keep meaning to send an e-mail to the BBC to encourage them to continue showing these programmes. They're a great way to relive music history, effectively "in real time". I just wish they didn't keep skipping a programme each month for Sky At Night.

Posted by: Common Sense Nov 3 2011, 10:44 PM

Three songs that were only minor hits tonight. AWB only reached No.23 and John Miles only 32. Cockney Rebel's song didn't go top 40 at all.

Posted by: Common Sense Nov 3 2011, 10:48 PM

Someone on DS said they've read that ratings are good enough for them to continue next year in to 1977.

They will also be doing an introductory documentary for 1977 like they did with 1976.

Posted by: Grebo Nov 5 2011, 11:42 AM

Hope they do go for 1977 as at least there'll be something decent on it every once in a while.

Posted by: richie Nov 7 2011, 11:26 AM

I hope they continue to do it for good - but if there's any question of it being cancelled then I'd hate for that to happen before they reach the 80s. Makes me wonder if they could skip ahead to, say, 1983 for a year and jump around a bit for variety?

Posted by: blackcat Nov 20 2011, 12:37 AM

Can not watch top of the pops on Thursdays at the moment due to work commitments, and having trouble picking up the interactive service, so a very late night post on this forum for me, having just seen it at 11.55 p.m. on BBC Four this Saturday!!! Is this the latest post ever on these forums?!

All in all, enjoyed the programme, some classy stuff on there. Joan Armatrading, Chicago, Pussycat still at number one, Simon May, some good ballads in there. Lovers of beautiful pop songs, must surely have found something to enjoy in this week's show.

Top of the pops was thought to have substantial power in those days in terms of record sales. Discs featured on the programme often shot up the charts the following week, in fact, rarely did a new top 30 entry go down the charts the week after having been featured on top of the pops, it usually went onto greater chart glory after having been featured on an edition.

Music shows in recent years would certainly not have such power.

Right, late night entry for next week as well then. Long live the spirit and music of '76.

Posted by: fchd Nov 20 2011, 10:02 AM

Rarely did a new top 30 entry go down the following week whether it was shown on Top Of The Pops or not.

Posted by: blackcat Nov 20 2011, 03:43 PM

Well that is probably true, the question is whether a record featured on top of the pops in the 1970's to 1980's period had more chance of higher sales the following week than a record that was not featured.

My best guess is that it would have had a good boost in sales as a result of tv exposure on the nation's number one chart show.

Posted by: fchd Nov 21 2011, 11:10 AM

My guess is yes, it did receive a boost but it wasn't that big of a boost.

Posted by: blackcat Nov 27 2011, 01:59 AM

loved substitute by The Who, one of those records that never seem to sounds dated. Not too sure why it re-entered the charts in 1976, though, having originally been a hit ten years earlier.

Also liked The Steve Millar band, and liked Legs and Co dancing to it! All of these dancers would be in their late fifties at least by now, of course. Frightening thought!

Noel Edmonds, just for a change, gave me some useful information - I did not know that The Climax Blues Band were from the Midlands, I had assumed that they were from the States. Liked their song of the time, anyway.

So a reasonable show. This thread does not seem to attract as much interest now, maybe the novelty of seeing records from 35 years ago is wearing thin!

Anyway, as I keep saying, long live the spirit of '76.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Nov 27 2011, 11:43 AM

They skip a few weeks for Wednesday's programme so we won't get to see the competition result announced. That competition seems so old-fashioned now with entries "on a postcard" and even saying "Include your phone number, if you've got one".

Posted by: steve201 Nov 27 2011, 02:33 PM

What time is this on at?

Looking forward to the christmas edition in a few weeks, Johnny Mathis at the top!

Posted by: blackcat Nov 27 2011, 08:53 PM

On at 7.30 p.m. every Thursday usually Steve, on bbc four, also on the interactive service. Usually repeated late on Saturday nights.

Yes, I look forward to the Christmas one, I bought the Mathis record for my girlfriend at school at the time. What good memories!

And boy, has life been sh*t since then!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Dec 1 2011, 08:12 PM

I was hoping Showaddywaddy would be on tonight so we could hear the real Jimmy Saville introduce them rather than Hugh Dennis.

Posted by: Common Sense Dec 2 2011, 08:49 AM

What was the song that Legs & Co. danced to? Wasn't a hit and I couldn't catch who he said and I didn't recognise it.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Dec 2 2011, 12:02 PM

It was Be Bop Deluxe with Maid In Heaven from their Hot Valves EP. It was a minor hit. It was in its second week at number 36 that week and that's as far as it got. They had a slightly bigger hit earlier in the year with Ships In The Night which you probably do remember.

Posted by: Common Sense Dec 2 2011, 02:11 PM

Thanks Suedey. Was just going to say that the only one I know by them is Ships In The Night.

Posted by: blackcat Dec 4 2011, 01:26 AM

Liked Legs & Co a lot, for some strange reason

That Kursaal Flyers record at the start brought back a lot of memories, that's what I call a creative comedy record, unlike the Wurzels sh*t!

I did like The Chicago record at the time, but didn't one of them die in a bizarre shooting accident later on? Died during a game of Russian roulette, if I remember correctly.

Poignant to see Jimmy present the programme, but he seemed to be enjoying himself doing it.

I liked this week's edition, all in all. Nice stuff.

Posted by: Robbie Dec 4 2011, 04:31 PM

It was a good edition though I've never liked the number 1!

Good to see the TOTP props department working overtime with the washing machines in the background for the Kursaal Flyer's performance!

Posted by: blackcat Dec 4 2011, 09:14 PM

A founder member of Chicago, Alan Kath, did pass away as the result of a strange shooting incident, according to Wikipaedia:

"Kath reportedly had a history of using alcohol and other drugs, including cocaine. Chicago bandmates have indicated that he was also increasingly unhappy.[7] Bassist Peter Cetera said that Kath would have been the first to quit Chicago had he lived, and producer James William Guercio has said that Kath was working on a solo album before he died.[8] Former drummer Danny Seraphine mentions in his autobiography "Street Player: My Chicago Story" that Kath had a high tolerance for drugs.

Around 5 p.m., on January 23, 1978, after a party at roadie/band technician Don Johnson's home in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, Kath took an unloaded .38 revolver and put it to his head, pulling the trigger several times on the empty chambers. Johnson had warned Kath several times to be careful. Kath then picked up a semiautomatic 9 mm pistol and, leaning back in a chair, said to Johnson, "Don't worry, it's not loaded". After showing the empty magazine to Johnson, Kath replaced the magazine in the gun, put the gun to his temple, and pulled the trigger. There was a bullet in the chamber, and he died instantly.[9] It was the week before his 32nd birthday. He left a widow, Camelia Emily Ortiz (whom he married in 1974), and a daughter, Michelle, born in 1976. Camelia was later married to Kiefer Sutherland from 1987 to 1990.

Kath is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California."

Even amongst rock deaths, this one must rate as bizarre.

Posted by: Robbie Dec 5 2011, 04:19 PM

His name was Terry Kath not Alan Kath.

I can still remember hearing the news of his death on Radio 1's "Newsbeat". Although he died on the 23rd his death wasn't reported until the 24th and given that the 24th January was a Tuesday I imagine I heard the story on the 5.45pm Newsbeat as I will have been tuning in to hear the new Top 30 chart which Radio 1 would recap at 6pm on a Tuesday (after having unveiled the new chart earlier that day at 12.45pm).

I've looked up what would have been number 1 on that new chart and it was the atrocious "Mull Of Kintyre" by Wings!

Posted by: davetaylor Dec 14 2011, 11:14 PM

Elaine Coombs aged 16 from Salisbury was the winner & she chose the name of "Legs & Co". Elaine appeared on the show with the girls & Dave Lee Travis. The girls performed their routine to "Spinning Rock Boogie" by Hank C. Burnette. That show is missing, of course. Though maybe Elaine has it?

The 2 Christmas Editions go out on Christmas Morning & 1977 begins with Kid Jensen on 5th Jan 2012, when the 7.30 showing will be edited because it's a 40 minute show in a half hour slot.

Posted by: blackcat Dec 17 2011, 11:39 PM

Loved Jethro Tull in this week's edition, the genius of Ian Anderson showing through. Don't often hear that Christmas record on the radio these days, more's the pity.

One interesting facet of these 1976 shows is the number of times Abba promoted their records by using special promo clips, as they did for their December 1976 hit Money!Money!Money!. They were perhaps the first group to consistently use such promo's since The Beatles in the sixties, and such promo's no doubt helped to usher in the music video age a few years later.

So Showaddywaddy at number one. Bit of a contradiction in their appearance, I always felt. Dressed in teddy boys clothes that belonged firmly to the rock and roll era of the fifties, but sporting long hair that was very fashionable in the sixties!

Paul Nicholas performing Grandma's Party, with Legs and Co dancing in the background dressed up as "grannies" was a sight for sore eyes. I wonder how many of those same dancers are now real life grannies.................

Posted by: Suedehead2 Dec 18 2011, 12:11 AM

Jethro Tull never got the success they deserved.

A double dose of Christmas specials next week on Tuesday and Thursday.

Posted by: Common Sense Dec 21 2011, 05:12 PM

What the hell happened to Legs & Co. dancing to Wings at the end? We just got the credits after DLT had said they were closing with them? Bit surprised to see Laurel & Hardy!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Dec 21 2011, 05:30 PM

That was rather weird. I'm sure the programme was always one hour so there shouldn't have been any need to edit the programme - unless there were even more mind-numbingly tedious trailers than normal to fit in.

Posted by: Common Sense Dec 22 2011, 11:01 AM

Yeah it was in the schedules to start at 8.00 but actually began at 8.09pm!

Posted by: richie Dec 22 2011, 11:39 AM

Legs & Co's bizarre pirate routine to Portsmouth was a real treat last week. Jethro Tull looked like bloody lunatics.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Dec 22 2011, 11:47 AM

Maybe some rather hurried editing then. I watched it on catch-up so I didn't realise it had started so late.

Posted by: Common Sense Dec 22 2011, 10:17 PM

Same today, scheduled in all listings for 8pm but they'd a Bill Withers song at 8 as a filler and TOTP started at 8.07pm. Strange! The Xmas night repeats are are all sheduled to run 50 minutes though.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Dec 22 2011, 11:03 PM

I've just started watching on catch up and was surprised to see it was timed at 50 minutes. However, the BBC website has a scheduled start time of 8.10 and at the start of the programme they referred to "the next 45 minutes". It won't take me that long to watch it though

Posted by: Common Sense Dec 24 2011, 10:59 PM

Just watching TOTP2. Can anyone please tell me what Take A Chance On Me and Chasing Pavement are to do with Christmas?

Posted by: blackcat Dec 25 2011, 01:19 AM

Have just watched both editions on interactive, highlight has to be Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, what a masterpiece of a record. People will still be watching that video and listening to that song a 100 years from now, I am sure.

The only thing is that I could have sworn that it was a 1975 smash. Presumably it was still riding high enough in the charts in early 1976 to warrent an entry on the end of year 1976 top of the pops.

Always interesting to see a young Midge Ure fronting Slik. Malcolm Mclaren wanted him to join The Sex Pistols at one stage. Now that would have been interesting to see, one of the founding members of the Band aid project in The Sex Pistols! Still, Geldof was in an |Irish punk band of course, when all is said and done.

One of Rod Stewart's records that I did like a lot was The Killing Of Georgie, and he presented the record well. So credit to Rod there.

My all-time favourite Sir Cliff record has to be Devil Woman, so that was a highlight, and some of Abba's hits were obviously good to listen too, even if I have heard them so many times before! Not so keen on The Brotherhood Of Man though, obvious Abba imatators who, unfortunately, had quite a bit of success in the UK charts during a period of about 18 months.

Always keen on Legs And Co, of course!

1976 produced some good stuff, but there was still an awful lot of dross about. Thank goodness the Wurzels did not have continued success, thank goodness JJ Barrie disappeared quite quickly, and thank goodness Denis the Greek did the same! Music was about to change, punk was about to happen, bring on the Sex Pistols and The Stranglers, is what I say. That will wipe the smile off Tony Blackburn's face!

On a poignant note, Jimmy Savile presented the last Christmas edition with Blackburn. RIP Jimmy.

So on to 1977. I hope they do keep showing these retro editions from that era. They can be very entertaining, and when all is said and done, some good music was being made at that time, whatever your taste in music was and is, the seventies surely offered some appealing music to you.

Posted by: steve201 Dec 25 2011, 02:22 AM

Yeah BR had 9 weeks at no1 from November 1975 through Christmas and into January 76 so it probably was one of the biggest sellers of that year too!

Johnny Mathis Christmas no1!!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jan 6 2012, 12:32 PM

1977 kicks off tonight

There's a Story of 1977 at 9.00 followed by the first TOTP of the year at 10.00. Then there's another compilation at 10.35 rounded off with a Whistle Test selection.

Posted by: Grebo Jan 6 2012, 06:31 PM

I think it's funny that the BBC are bigging up totp being invaded by punk and new wave but there's nothing on like that until May when The Jam and The Stranglers were on.

Posted by: blackcat Jan 8 2012, 12:40 PM

By and large I liked the documentary on 1977, bit selective with some of the "new wave" artists shown. The adverts were never a big punk band in anyway, and then there was Darts.............................

Nice to see The Boomtown Rats, Stranglers, and Pistols of course. And nice that they mentioned Donna Summer's ground breaking record I Feel Love.

As already stated, yes, the BBC were very late and very reluctant to put punk bands on the box in the top of the pops slot. But they did at least acquiesc to some extent in the end.

Roll on 1977.................better times, better music, and some of us were a lot younger and better looking!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jan 8 2012, 03:03 PM

The inclusion of Darts and The Adverts seemed to be more a matter of who was available for interview than their significance.

I Feel Love still sounds great today and has always been far better than the repetitive Love To Love You Baby. Of course, now it would be by Giorgio Moroder feat. Donna Summer.

Posted by: blackcat Jan 10 2012, 05:55 PM

Mistake in the documentary, was there not? I am sure that they said at one stage that had The Sex Pistols God Save The Queen got to number one, then it would have been the first banned record to do so.

Not so. There was a UK number one in 69 by Serge Gainsborg and Jane Birken, Je t'aime… moi non plus, that was banned.

Only a small point, but a valid one, I think. Wonder what top of the pops did in 1969 when that record topped the charts?

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jan 16 2012, 08:10 PM

Presumably the same as they did when Relax made number one. I assume they ignored it.

Posted by: BillyH Jan 17 2012, 12:17 AM

When 'Je t'aime' got to #1, they played an instrumental version over the opening credits, and finished the show with the record at number 2. So they kinda played it, but without the vocals and not properly introduced.

Posted by: Grebo Jan 17 2012, 12:47 PM

Exactly that. I was at TOTP in Feb 1984 during Relax's run at #1 and I think the final song played was Shaking Stevens and Bonny Tyler duetting.

Posted by: blackcat Jan 19 2012, 12:59 PM

Thanks Billy H, and thanks to suedehead and grebo about the Relax banned single.

Had the Sex Pistols got to number one, they would probably have just played the record at number two, which would have been Rod Stewart anyway!

By the way, I did converse with someone on another forum about the conspiracy theory concerning The Sex Pistols and Rod, and he said that it was - like most conspiracy theories - a load of sh*te! He said that all the available evidence of the time shows that Rod Stewart was easily outselling The Sex Pistols in Jubilee week.

Posted by: fiesta Jan 19 2012, 08:45 PM

.

Posted by: fiesta Jan 19 2012, 08:47 PM

I watched a tv show on the bbc last year I think, which told that it was apparently a story concocted by their manager Malcolm McLaren.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jan 20 2012, 12:18 AM

Yes, it is now generally accepted that Rod Stewart did outsell the Sex Pistols. Depressing but true

Posted by: golfball999 Jan 20 2012, 02:10 PM

I don't think there's much truth in this story.

However, if anyone wants to see some real dirt dished on Rod Stewart, then they would be best to re-check on the blatant hyping of his single 'Tom Traubert's Blues' into the top 10 in 1992.

Posted by: euro music Jan 20 2012, 04:41 PM

Actually this is the full chart run:
60-39-36-43-51-60-69-74-50-50-21-10-2-3-{1}-4-5-13-27-54-75

Posted by: euro music Jan 20 2012, 04:44 PM

Quite right -- this instrumental version was called LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT by SOUNDS NICE -- it was an actual release & peaked at #18

Posted by: euro music Jan 20 2012, 04:47 PM

Back in late 1969 when Alan Freeman was presenting Pick Of The Pops on Sunday on Radio 1, there was a single at #10 called WET DREAM by MAX ROMEO.
The title wasn't mentioned and Alan just said - Up to number 10 is Max Romeo.

Posted by: blackcat Jan 20 2012, 05:47 PM

Thanks for your insights euro music, much appreciated.

As for the programme last night, did not think it was that bad for a start of a year. David Soul at number one - I was a big Starsky and Hutch fan at the time, so I did not object to that - Liverpool Express had their usual high standard middle of the road song, and nice to see Pussycat again, although their follow up to Mississippi lacked the same commercial appeal, of course.

I believe Liverpool Express evolved from some sixties merseybeat band, if I remember correctly. Possibly from "The Merseys" themselves. Nice to see Quo with one of their better numbers as well.

Trivia question for you all - David Soul, by the end of 1977, had had one number two and two number one records in the charts, (with his first three releases) and was thus a whisker away from equalling a then unique Uk number one chart record set by which merseybeat band of the sixties?

No cheating by looking up the answer, now!

A reminder that this was a record with some substance then, long before Westlife came along with their impressive first seven number one singles in a row! (YAWN)!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jan 20 2012, 07:52 PM

That would be Gerry And The Pacemakers who went to number one with their first three releases. The second band to do that were Frankie Goes To Hollywood, also from Liverpool. Both bands recorded a version of Ferry Cross The Mersey.

Sadly the third outfit to achieve the feat was Jive Bunny

Posted by: blackcat Jan 20 2012, 09:16 PM

Yes, well done suedehead. Used to be a time when such feats were considered remarkable achievements, just as going straight in at number one was considered relatively rare.

Not anymore................

Posted by: fiesta Jan 22 2012, 07:09 PM

The amazing thing about 1977,was that Dont Give Up On Us & Dont Cry For Me Argentina both finished as the top 2 selling singles of the year. January is always tradionally the lowest time of the year for record sales, so '77 broke the mold.

Liverpool Express featured Bill Kinsley who had indeed previously been in the Merseys and The Merseybeats

Trivia: Wild Side Of Life (originally Tommy Quickly) by Status Quo was produced by Roger Glover of Deep Purple

Posted by: Common Sense Jan 22 2012, 11:31 PM

The original was by Hank Thompson and it inspired the "answer" song It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels by country Queen Kitty Wells.

From Wiki.

"The Wild Side of Life" is a song made famous by country music singer Hank Thompson. Originally released in 1952, the song became one of the most popular recordings in the genre's history, spending 15 weeks at No. 1 Billboard country charts, solidified Thompson's status as a country music superstar and inspired the answer song, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" by Kitty Wells.

"The Wild Side of Life" carries one of the most distinctive melodies of early country music, used in "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" by the Carter Family and "Great Speckled Bird" by Roy Acuff.[] That, along with the song's story of a woman shedding her role as domestic provider to follow the night life, combined to become one of the most famous country songs of the early 1950s.

According to country music historian Bill Malone, "Wild Side" co-writer William Warren was inspired to create the song after his experiences with a young woman he met when he was younger — a honky tonk angel, as it were — who "found the glitter of the gay night life too hard to resist." Fellow historian Paul Kingsbury wrote that the song appealed to people who "thought the world was going to hell and that faithless women deserved a good deal of the blame."

Jimmy Heap and His Melody Masters first recorded "Wild Side" in 1951, but never had a hit with the song. Thompson did, and his version spent three and one-half months atop the Billboard country chart in the spring and early summer of 1952.

"Wild Side" was Thompson's first charting single since 1949's two-sided hit "Soft Lips"/"The Grass is Greener Over Yonder."Thompson had hooked up with producer Ken Nelson in the interim, and one of their first songs together was "Wild Side."

Posted by: blackcat Jan 23 2012, 12:23 PM

Thanks for your contributions, fiesta and common sense. Certainly one of my favourite Status Quo songs.

Before leaving the subject of last week's programme, mention should be made of the great Stevie Wonder. Two of his best known songs were around in early 1977, I Wish, which they played out the programme with, and David Parton's version of Isn't She Lovely, which Stevie originally wrote for the birth of his daughter.

I have not actually got the Songs In The Key Of Life album. Will have to rectify that fault - sounds like it is a cracking piece of work by the genius that is Stevie Wonder.

Posted by: fiesta Jan 23 2012, 01:45 PM

I have Stevie Wonders Best Of , however I Wish is not included on it!

The story goes that Stevie refused to let Motown edit Isnt She Lovely down from its 6.5 minute album version for single release, so Mr Parton did hid own version for single release.

Aswell as Mr Parton Numerous other artists have dipped into Songs In The Key Of Life over the years for hits of their own, Coolio borrowed part of Pasttime Paradise for his no.1 hit Gangstas Paradise and George Michael & Mary J Blige had a hit with As.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jan 23 2012, 02:47 PM

Yes, that story sounds familiar now. It would explain why the cover was described as "controversial". It also explains why - apart from the length - it is pretty much a direct copy.

I've never been much of a fan of Stevie Wonder and didn't really get the acclaim for Songs In The Key Of Life at the time. However, I can now recognise it as a great piece of work. It remains a travesty that his only solo UK number one was with the dreadful I Just Called To Say I Love You.

Posted by: blackcat Jan 26 2012, 10:18 PM

Some good middle of the road music again this week! Leo Sayer, Donna Summer, even 10 c.c., all with gentleish tunes. Seventies chart music seemed to be stuck, at the highest level, in a kind of middle of the road rut for some periods during 1976 and 1977!

Good to see Slade, with their last hit before they seemed to be sunk by punk for a while. The guide also said that Gary Glitter was due to appear on the programme.

For some reason, can't remember seeing him on it. Wonder why?

Thin Lizzy were probably the main highlight for me this week.

Roll on '77! Julie Covington the next number one I assume. Probably not David Cameron's favourite song at the moment!

Trivia question this week - Leo Sayer wrote songs for which rough voiced sixties vocalist during the early seventies?

Tougher trivia question than my last one, I reckon.

Posted by: Common Sense Jan 26 2012, 11:26 PM

I have The Definitive Collection and it's on that!

Posted by: Common Sense Jan 26 2012, 11:26 PM

The Slade song wasn't a hit.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jan 26 2012, 11:27 PM

Yes, Julie Covington is the next number one but there are two more weeks of David Soul to endure first. I hope there's at least one performance of the definitive version of Don't Cry For Me Argentina to come before then.

There were two occasions where they played two songs in a row with no introduction. Presumably one of them was where they cut Gary Glitter.

Posted by: blackcat Jan 26 2012, 11:30 PM

Maybe that tells a story, then! Times were changing.

Posted by: richie Jan 27 2012, 11:50 AM

Yeah, it was interesting that they were playing non-Top 40 tunes back then in the expectation that they would be a hit. Wasn't one of Slade's best tunes though, has to be said!

Posted by: fiesta Jan 27 2012, 07:14 PM

Adam Faith?

Posted by: blackcat Jan 27 2012, 11:48 PM

No, although the rocker in question has worked with Adam Faith in a film setting.

Don't want to say too much more about it, otherwise I might be giving it all away.

Posted by: fiesta Jan 29 2012, 05:48 PM

ah! Roger Daltrey,... Ofcourse. Great song aswell.

Posted by: blackcat Jan 29 2012, 07:22 PM

Well done fiesta, I know where you were coming from with Adam Faith - used to manage Leo Sayer at one stage, I believe.

Adam Faith and Roger Daltrey later appeared in the McVicar film together.

And in my view, two rock stars who could act very well.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Feb 3 2012, 12:43 AM

Annoying that the original and definitive version of Don't Cry For Me Argentina was cut from the early version. It was in the repeat but that is generally not available on iPlayer

Posted by: richie Feb 3 2012, 10:42 AM

Think last night's was the most boring yet - nearly every song was an easy-listening ballad apart from the Quo and Rose Royce (played over the credits).

Did like Barry Biggs though - never heard of him before.

Posted by: fiesta Feb 3 2012, 08:15 PM

The Andy Fairweatherlow single didnt even make the charts! Just goes to show totp didnt always help propel singles to the top of the charts even in its hey day.

Interesting to note, the first act on yesterday - The Brothers shot into the charts after winning tv talent show Opportunity Knocks.

Posted by: blackcat Feb 4 2012, 04:40 PM

Yes, just watched it on the iplayer, poorish fare this week. Very mellow music from The New Seekers, to Mr. Big - who sound to my ears like Smokie mark two! - and I am getting a bit bored of David Soul myself. Starsky And Hutch was more interesting than this!

The best record was probably the one they played out with, as Ritchie mentioned, Rolls Royce - all 50 or so seconds of it! Even Legs & Co could not muster much excitement in their routine to one of the Eagles slower sounding numbers.

Let's hope for better as TOTP progresses throughout the year.

Easy trivia question this week, Andy Fairweatherlow did indeed have a flop with his record in early 1977, as Fiesta has pointed out, but he did have more success - and made far better music in my view - with which 1960's outfit? Again, no cheating by looking it up on Wiki now!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Feb 4 2012, 04:53 PM

Andy Fairweather-Low was a member of Amen Corner (Bend Me Shape Me, (If Paradise Is) Half As Nice etc). His main solo hit was Wide Eyed And Legless so it was rather unfortunate that he was done for drink-driving shortly afterwards.

The bad news on the David Soul front is that his second number one - Silver Lady - was even more boring . Look out for a mention of the song in tomorrow's chart commentary (unless something unexpected happens)

Posted by: blackcat Feb 4 2012, 07:09 PM

Well done suedehead, the orginal Welsh rockers, were Amen Corner.

Soul also had a number two hit in between Don't Give Up On Us and Silver Lady, with a track called Going In with My Eyes Wide Open. Basically a reworking of Don't Give up On Us is how it sounded to me.

Last time I heard David Soul was living in London, and supporting Arsenal! He must be a pleased man today then.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Feb 4 2012, 09:28 PM

I can't say I remember Going In with My Eyes Wide Open at all. That is probably a good thing.

Posted by: fiesta Feb 5 2012, 01:49 PM

Andy was also in a band with Blue Weaver in the early 70s and had a hit with Natural Sinner as Fairweather.

Posted by: richie Feb 6 2012, 10:52 AM

Getting quite excited though, as we're only a few weeks away from my birth chart - 19th March 1977.

Posted by: DanChartFan Feb 9 2012, 02:10 AM

I know I'm a couple of weeks late with this but I notice that in one recent totp77 repeat they showed a Gary Glitter performance (at least they did on the middle of the night repeat of the repeat that I recorded, if not on the 7:30pm version). Are they even legally allowed to do this? I thought he wasn't allowed to earn any royalties in the UK and that every TOTP repeat still incurred royalties for the featured acts and artists (though probly no repeat fees for the presenters and dancer I should imagine).

Posted by: richie Feb 9 2012, 10:37 AM

I don't think it's illegal for him to earn royalties - I think he just generally doesn't as most broadcasters don't want to play him.

Funnily enough, I noticed last Christmas that his part has been removed from the Jive Bunny 'Let's Party' video.

Posted by: DanChartFan Feb 9 2012, 10:56 PM

I think I read somewhere that GG is now earning a lot of royalties from southeast asian countries who had only discovered him in recent years and that the western media were trying to put pressure on those countries media to stop promoting him, and there was some question about whether it infringed his human rights to prevent him from earning money. Funnily enough he's featured first on tonight's repeat which I've just started watching on my pvr and it's quite weird seeing him in super close up as he lookes creepy even back then.

Posted by: DanChartFan Feb 9 2012, 11:06 PM

Just remembered something else I meant to ask if anyone can answer. The totp 76/7 repeats are of very good sound and particularly picture quality considering their age, except when they were playing a video into the original show, at which point the picture quality seems to suffer quite a bit. Is this some sort of 'photocopying effect' similar to photcopies of letters seeming less sharp than the original (because the tape of the show is effectively copying one video to another at that point in the show), or did TOTP not bother to get the quality of played-in videos right even at the time. Or is there some other reason, technical or otherwise. I only really ask because sometimes some of the the videos are occasionally still played on music channels today and appear in better shape there than the totp 77 recordings of the same vids.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Feb 9 2012, 11:50 PM

Some of the videos are American. American picture quality always looked inferior to UK-sourced material at the time.

Posted by: DanChartFan Feb 10 2012, 12:25 AM

Ah right the NTSC vs PAL thing, I didn't think of that. But I'm not sure that it's the whole story as the videos tend to have more black blobs and scratches and stuff than the rest of the show, which can't be just the differing systems at the time. Probably the US companies sent a copy over to the uk rather than an original, and then TOTP effectively made a copy of the copy when they made the show, so flaws crept in.

Posted by: blackcat Feb 11 2012, 11:24 PM

As danchartfan says, there is some difference between the picture quality of the British clips and the American clips. David Soul's clip looks about 100 years old!

Just watched this week's repeat on iplayer, slightly better stuff, I have always liked Harold Melvin And The Bluenotes classic Don't Leave Me This Way, and liked it even more seeing Legs & Co dancing to it!

Thin Lizzy always good, Boz Scaggs had a good song out at the time, and believe it or not, I vaguely remember buying the Rubettes record at the time! Would never buy a record like that now. But that's life, tastes change.

Bit surprised to see Glitter on this edition, no editing out this time. I wonder if Gary Glitter fans had protested to the BBC about his editing out of other editions? A possibility.

Later I also saw the "How The Brits Rocked America" documentary, and I have always been puzzled as to why none of the big British glam rock acts - like Gary Glitter, Slade, T-Rex, The Sweet - never made it big in America. Afterall, their immediate British predecessors from the sixties had been huge in the States.

Trivia question this week - off the top of your head, can anyone recall Gary Glitter's only UK million selling single?

I bet suedehead knows the answer, as usual!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Feb 12 2012, 12:04 AM

I think it's I LoveYou Love Me Love but I'm not 100% certain.

Posted by: blackcat Feb 12 2012, 06:10 PM

You are right, his biggest Uk hit in terms of unit sales.

There will be very few future UK sales of Glitter records, I would suggest.........................

Posted by: Suedehead2 Feb 12 2012, 06:17 PM

Most of them sound really dated so I doubt they'd sell very many without his misdemeanours. After all, I doubt Alvin Stardust sells much these days.

Posted by: richie Feb 13 2012, 03:56 PM

What was that? I was too busy off downloading 'My Coo-Ca-Choo'.

Posted by: DanChartFan Feb 13 2012, 04:23 PM

blackcat I just checked my DVD copy of this years eps so far and GG definitely appears unedited in the ep Noel Edmonds hosts. Noel tells us that a huge cheer was heard when 'this next chap walked on stage', how the reaction would be different now. Anyway it seems they are showing different version at different times, the last show was either 30, 35 or 40 mins depending on which repeat you watched, me I recorded all three and am gonna try and spot the differences (and hide behind a cushion from GG'S widescreen close up at least 3 more times.. yikes!).
An interesting aside is that in the same ep Noel completely blows a scripted gag after a performance by Legs and co dancing round lampposts. He said 'That really raised the standards... the lamp standards' , I think he meant the punchline to be 'the standard lamps' which still wasn't funny really. And he breaks into giggles a few seconds later, presumably as it dawns on him. I'd go as far as saying Noel was sort of anti-funny throughout, did 70s Brits laugh at his humour?
Richie I wondered why I wanted to download a copy too, then I realised it was just my jealous mind!

Posted by: Common Sense Feb 16 2012, 08:47 AM

His albums sell out very fast as soon as Amazon get them in. I bought two last year. There's still demand for hits collections. Seems only Amazon stock them though, fortunately.

Posted by: Common Sense Feb 16 2012, 08:48 AM

Yes that's it.

Posted by: richie Feb 16 2012, 04:04 PM

Boo, tonight is a 'The Sky At Night' night.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Feb 16 2012, 08:57 PM

Someone on Haven said that the one which would have been on tonight is one of the episodes which is missing. There's a sound recording but that's all. A pity as it is the one week at the top for Don't Cry For Me Argentina Next week it's Leo Sayer.

Posted by: Brett-Butler Feb 16 2012, 09:22 PM

Regarding Mr Glitter, he sold the UK rights to his music a few years back, so he doesn't get royalties for his music being sold/broadcast here, although he still gets money from broadcasts/sales in the rest of the world.

Posted by: richie Feb 17 2012, 09:25 AM

Well, either way my brother will be glad to see the back of David Soul.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Feb 17 2012, 09:56 AM

He'll be back later in the year

Posted by: Common Sense Feb 18 2012, 06:32 PM

I actually prefer Silver Lady.

Posted by: blackcat Feb 18 2012, 11:06 PM

No one is innocent, as the Sex Pistols said. Lots of talk about Gary Glitter and David Soul on this topic recently. We all know about Glitter's misdemeanors, of course, but let's not forget that David Soul is an ex-alcoholic, and his actions, amongst other things, included assaulting his wife at the time when she was seven months pregnant. In short, Soul was a woman beater.

Maybe that makes the lyrics of Don't Give Up On Us slightly more pertinent to the singer who sang them..............

Posted by: blackcat Feb 26 2012, 07:30 PM

Only just got around to watching this week's edition, bit soft and slushy in places, and lots of early to mid seventies glam acts still hanging about! Suzy Quatro, Les Gray, The Rubettes all represented in this week's edition.
Thelma Houston looked way too cheerful given the subject matter of her song! Lots of Bohemian Rhapsody type effects for Mr. Big's single, even some for Leo Sayer's. I think that The Rubettes record was just as good a country sound as any record that came out of Nashville at the time. Must have been their last big hit, as well.

Trivia question for this week relates to the showing of Mud's lead singer Les Gray's version of A Groovy Kind Of Love. About 11 years before the 1977 edition, that same song had been a hit for one of the lesser known sixties beat acts.

And about 11 years after the 1977 edition, A Groovy Kind of Love became a hit again, for one of the better known eighties acts! Can you name both the sixties act that hit the charts with the song, and the eighties act that did the same?

So I want the names of both acts, please, that had hits with A Groovy Kind Of Love, both around 11 years before and around 11 years after Les Gray's 1977 version of the song. No looking it up, now!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Feb 26 2012, 07:41 PM

I know the later one but can't remember the earlier one atm

Posted by: blackcat Feb 26 2012, 07:47 PM

Yes, one of my better trivia questions, I think, this one, trying to work out the earlier version is a bit of a mindbending problem I think.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Feb 26 2012, 08:50 PM

That clue was a bit of a giveaway The first version was by The Mindbenders and the later version was by Phil Collins and featured on the soundtrack of Buster.

Posted by: blackcat Feb 27 2012, 01:28 AM

Correct, suedehead, Wayne Fontana And The Mindbenders had the first hit, Phil Collins had the big number one with it.

Not sure if Les Gray's version was a hit.


If memory serves me correctly, the mindbenders later evolved into 10 c.c. Don't quote me on that though, I might be wrong!!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Feb 29 2012, 09:00 PM

Yes, Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman (half of 10CC or 5CC) were Mindbenders.

Just checked and the Les Gray version got to number 32.

Posted by: blackcat Mar 3 2012, 07:18 PM

Thanks for your last entry, suedehead, and fo the chart info. on Les Gray.

I rarely ever look at wikipaedia myself when setting these trivia questions, by the way, most I make up from my own knowledge of pop music, limited as it is!

I have just seen this week's edition on the iplayer, the best record is the one they played out with, in my view, David Bowie's Sound And Vision, although they did not exactly play a lot of it! Other highlights included Boogie Nights by Heatwave, Earth Wind And Fire - with a particularly hormone stimulating sequence from Legs & Co, I thought! - and another Evita track from Barbara Dickson. Messrs Rice and Webber certainly looked young in those days!

You don't often hear that ELO Rockario song these days either. All in all, not a bad edition.

Trivia question for this week, then. Boogie Nights by Heatwave was written by a particular member of the band, and that same heatwave member later wrote songs for a huge 1980's megastar. Can you name that member, and can you also name the megastar who later had hits with some of that Heatwave members compositions?

All the best until next week, then.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Mar 3 2012, 07:57 PM

I think I'm going to have to let someone else answer this week's questions

Posted by: richie Mar 4 2012, 11:06 AM

I'm guessing it was the keyboardist?

Posted by: blackcat Mar 4 2012, 07:38 PM

It was Heatwave's keyboardist, well done Richie. Now I just need his name, and the name of the megastar he later wrote some songs for.


Additional clue - the megastar concerned really was a big, big star, especially in the eighties and nineties. In fact, in terms of record sales in the eighties, in particular, maybe you could not get much bigger..................

Posted by: fchd Mar 5 2012, 04:05 PM

Presumably it was Rod Temperton, he wrote for a number of high profile stars, so I can't pin down the particular one you are looking for

Posted by: fchd Mar 5 2012, 04:05 PM

Presumably it was Rod Temperton, he wrote for a number of high profile stars, so I can't pin down the particular one you are looking for

Posted by: richie Mar 5 2012, 07:48 PM

I cheated and googled him. Wow! But I can hear elements in 'Boogie Nights' that do indeed lend themselves to the later mega-hit.

Posted by: Grebo Mar 5 2012, 09:40 PM

I think you'll find he wrote the song "Thriller" along with other songs with Jacko.

Posted by: blackcat Mar 6 2012, 10:01 AM

Yes, well done all, including those who cheated!

Rod Temperton was Heatwave's main keyboard player, and later wrote a number of songs for different artists, the ones he wrote for Michael Jackson being perhaps the most successful. These did indeed include the song "Thriller", from the most successful album of all-time, which has sold around 10 billion million copies Worldwide or something!!!!!!

What I don't know is how the two came to work together. Presumably Michael heard Heatwave, liked their songs, and took it from there.


A highly successful collaboration. Full credit to Rod Temperton, perhaps the unsung, hero of the creation that was the Thriller project...............

Posted by: Tim Pardington Mar 6 2012, 10:08 AM

Rod Temperton in 2012 is going back into the studio - he's the producer on Mica Paris's new record.

Posted by: Robbie Mar 17 2012, 11:11 PM

I think Rod Temperton was writing some songs for Quincy Jones and one of them was a certain song called "Thriller".

He must have made so much money from that song, I can remember reading in early 1984 that he'd earned £1 million in royalties in 1983 alone.

Posted by: blackcat Mar 17 2012, 11:46 PM

Thank you for your input regarding Rod Temperton, Robbie.

Disappointed with this week's programme, far too middle of the road and too many smiling faces for me! Barely a highlight to be picked out. ELO perhaps were the nearest act to my kind of taste in music, which is hard but tuneful rock.

Does not seem to be as much interest in these top of the pops repeats as there used to be in any case - or is everyone waiting for punk to come along?!

Hard to think of a decent trivia question this week as well. Well, since the last one was tricky, let's go for an easier one.

ELO were from Birmingham, of course, can anyone, off the top of their heads, name at least four other successful chart acts from arguably England's second city? Remember, Brum acts only, please.

Roll on the next edition, let's hope for better stuff next time around.

Posted by: Robbie Mar 18 2012, 12:07 AM

It wasn't a very good edition at all. One of the problems with the early part of 1977 was that there were far too much MOR acts who had big hits. It's when disco and punk / new wave really catches on in the second part of the year that the charts begin to liven up.

I meant to ask this before, are you the same blackcat who used to post at ukmix? If so I've still got a PM I sent to you on 1 December 2006 giving you a link to a 1950s music website. Again if you are the same poster did you ever visit the site? The link is no longer active so I'd love to know what happened to the website.

Posted by: Robbie Mar 18 2012, 12:08 AM

Bands from Birmingham: one of them was The Move which links to ELO as does Wizzard.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Mar 18 2012, 01:01 AM

I was going to mention The Move but I was beaten to it Duran Duran were from Birmingham as were UB40.

Posted by: steve201 Mar 18 2012, 02:55 AM

Other than thursdays at 7, when else is this TOTPs repeated and is it on the iplayer?

Posted by: Suedehead2 Mar 18 2012, 10:54 AM

It's repeated around midnight on Thursday and again on Saturday night (the time varies). The repeats are the full version of the programme. They are all available on iPlayer. However, if you use the Virgin Media version, you can only get the shorter version shown on Thursday evening (7.30, not 7.00). For the full version you need to go to the BBC website.

Posted by: Grebo Mar 18 2012, 01:23 PM

Black Sabbath were also from Brum.

Posted by: blackcat Mar 18 2012, 03:48 PM

Yes, I am the same blackcat, and I do still post at ukmix, under a different username or two. Don't post under the blackcat username anymore, for various unsavoury reasons which I won't go into on here!

I would certainly have used the link you mentioned, but alas not recently, so I have no idea what would have happened to the website you mentioned.

The number one record from last Thursday's edition, by Manhattan Transfer, would not have been out of place as an early 1950's number one! The edition really was that bad!

As for Brum acts, well done all so far, UB40, The Move, Wizzard, Duran Duran, Black Sabbath all rightly mentioned. There are one or two more I can think of off the top of my head, though.........................

Posted by: blackcat Mar 18 2012, 07:07 PM

No more entries on this, so I will give a clue or two.

Black Sabbath have been mentioned as a brum act. Well, there was another Birmingham based act, formed in the mid sixties, who, like Sabbath, also had a colour mentioned in their name.........................

Also, in the early eighties, a very talented young lady from that part of the World had hits in the UK. Bit of a mystery that one, though.................

Posted by: Suedehead2 Mar 18 2012, 07:43 PM

I'll go for Toyah Wilcox as the second one then

Posted by: Suedehead2 Mar 18 2012, 07:49 PM

I should have got the other one as well. How could I forget the Moody Blues?

Posted by: blackcat Mar 18 2012, 07:57 PM

Well done again suedehead, that's six acts mentioned now from Birmingham.

Might be more, the only other one I can think of is Jaspar Carrott! LOL!

Strangely, can't think of any punk act from Birmingham, which is somewhat surprising.

Still, a lot of talent from Birmingham over the years.

Posted by: blackcat Mar 18 2012, 08:55 PM

Just realised something - there is one very important Birmingham group, again from the sixties, missing from the above list.

You will have to keep on running to find the name of this group.

Posted by: richie Mar 18 2012, 10:43 PM

Next week's show features my birth chart! Must tape that one even if it will be a bit rubbish.

As for Brummie bands - does Stourbridge count? If so then you've got The Wonder Stuff, Pop Will Eat Itself, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and, I'm pretty sure I'm right in saying this, Babylon Zoo

Oh....and The Twang were also-rans from about five years ago.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Mar 18 2012, 11:11 PM

Well Jasper Carrott did have a hit single even if people didn't buy it for the song played on radio



I don't recall ever reading that the Spencer Davis Group came from Birmingham (while I did know about the others even if it took my brain a while to get there) but I assume that's who you mean.

Posted by: steve201 Mar 19 2012, 12:05 AM

Think i will watch on the iplayer, cheers for the info!

Posted by: blackcat Mar 19 2012, 09:13 AM

Yes, although for this one, I did look at Wikipaedia! Spencer Davis himself is a Welshman, but the band were formed in Birmingham. Stevie Winwood, the best known member of the band, went on to success with Traffic, and as a solo artist. And Winwood was born in Birmingham, according to Wiki.

That must be all the main artists from Birmingham mentioned now, certainly the main chart artists. Have enjoyed this trivia question, might set another one like this at some point.

So the next time, say, a Welsh artist is on.......................

Posted by: Grebo Mar 19 2012, 05:55 PM

Just remembered another metal band - Judas Priest were also from Brum.

And on a completely different note so were Fuzzbox!

Posted by: blackcat Mar 24 2012, 04:22 PM

Thanks for your input, Grebo, Judas Priest, in particular, were a glaring omission from the Brum list.

I found this week's edition more interesting. Always considered RED LIGHT as Billy Ocean's best record, much more interesting than his other stuff. A rare chance to hear an Elvis Presley record on Top Of The Pops. No one knew at that stage that he only had about 5 months left to live, sadly.

And a very rare performance on Top Of The Pops 1977 from Barclay James Harvest! With a very hippy sounding number, that could have belonged to 10 years previously.

Trivia question for this week concerns the return of ABBA, with one of their more complex offerings, Knowing Me Knowing You. The song eventually got to number one in the UK, and I can, off the top of my head, think of the other eight UK number one records they had, all of which would, of course, have appeared on Top Of The Pops over the years.

So that's the question - apart from Knowing Me Knowing You, what were Abba's eight number ones here in Britain.

All the best until next week.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Mar 24 2012, 05:54 PM

Waterloo, Dancing Queen, Mama Mia, Fernando definitely made it. For the other four I'll go for SOS, Money Money Money, Gimme Gimme Gimme (there's a theme developing here ) and Chicquatita.

Posted by: Grebo Mar 24 2012, 08:07 PM

Super Trouper was definitely one of them.
Waterloo, Dancing Queen, The Name of the Game, Mama Mia, Money Money Money, Take A Chance On Me, The Winner Takes It All would be my choices.

Posted by: blackcat Mar 24 2012, 08:18 PM

Great attempt, Grebo, as was suedehead's earlier.

Unfortunately, neither of you are quite there yet!

Suedehead, I would advise you to look to the early eighties as well as the seventies, they definately had number ones at the beginning of the the 1980's, and grebo, you are almost there, just need to take one out of the list that involves finance, and put another one in that involves Spanish sounding things!!!

Posted by: Grebo Mar 24 2012, 08:24 PM

Yeah I realised after that I should have had Fernando in there instead of Money...

Posted by: blackcat Mar 24 2012, 09:42 PM

Yes, Grebo, correct. That is how I remember it anyway, if anybody has a different list, then please post here! But I remember it as Waterloo first, then Mama Mia, Fernando, Dancing Queen, Knowing Me Knowing You, The Name Of The Game, Take A Chance On Me, The Winner Takes It All, and Super Trouper.

Money Money Money never got to number one, and surprisingly, nor did some of the late seventies records you mentioned Suedehead, such as SOS, for example.

Arguably The Name Of The Game was their "luckiest" number one, only topped the charts for one week.

My favourite ABBA song? Summer Night City, a great track. Check it out on youtube if you have not heard it. Great song.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Mar 25 2012, 11:26 AM

Yes, blackcat your list is correct. I've now allowed myself to look it up

Posted by: Grebo Mar 25 2012, 12:07 PM

Was just checking chart runs on polyhex and none of their #1 runs was shorter than 2 weeks.
Name of the Game was actually #1 for 4 weeks!

Posted by: blackcat Mar 25 2012, 02:43 PM

Really? Surprises me, working from memory I always remember that particular record as being a short lived number one. But the human memory is a fickle thing, at times!

Still an incredible list of number ones. There were rumours at the beginning of this year that ABBA might reform. Don't know if anyone has any info. on that............

Posted by: Tim Pardington Mar 27 2012, 11:37 AM

Eric Stewart was in The Mindbenders, who would later go on to Hotlegs and 10cc.

Posted by: fchd Mar 28 2012, 12:33 PM

Musical Youth were from Birmingham

Posted by: blackcat Mar 31 2012, 05:42 PM

Thanks for your insights, fchd and Tim Pardington, useful pop data again.

This week's edition was, for the most part, back to middle of the road pap, as far as I was concerned! Brotherhood Of Man, Smokie, Manhattan Transfer, not exactly the kind of music designed to give energy to your soul! The late Marc Bolan and the thirty seconds or so of David Bowie play out music were the only highlights for me. Nevermind, punk just around the corner!

Trivia question for this week. There was two cover versions featured in this week's look back at '77, Sunny, by Boney M, and Have I The Right, by Dead End Kids. Can you name the original artists for both these sixties classic songs?

All the best, everyone.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Mar 31 2012, 07:18 PM

Have I The Right was by The Honeycombs.

Posted by: blackcat Mar 31 2012, 09:55 PM

Well done again, suedehead, you have one of them. The other is perhaps more tricky, though. The original version of Sunny was not by that well known an artist.

Posted by: fchd Apr 1 2012, 04:37 PM

The original version of "Sunny" was by it's writer, Bobby Hebb.

Posted by: blackcat Apr 1 2012, 05:57 PM

Yes, well done fchd, it was Bobby Hebb. I struggle to remember any more hits by Bobby, though!

The song would have been covered by many different artists over the years, Boney M just one of them.

For an additional bonus point, I can think of one more question off the top of my head. As suedehead said, the original version of Have I The Right was by The Honeycombs. My question is - what was considered so unusual at the time about The Honeycombs drummer?

Remember, answers of the top of you head only, please!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Apr 1 2012, 06:48 PM

Was he also the singer?

Posted by: blackcat Apr 1 2012, 11:38 PM

No suedehead, wrong this time.

The original version by the Honeycombs had a very very heavy drum beat at its core, particularly heavy when you consider who was drumming. In fact, surprisingly heavy........

Additional clue - remember The Carpenters? Think of how Karen's career originally started out...................

Posted by: Common Sense Apr 2 2012, 05:43 PM

Female drummer!

Posted by: blackcat Apr 3 2012, 09:21 AM

Yes, well done common sense, a female drummer in an otherwise male group, which is still quite unusual to this day, of course.

Her name was Honey Lantree - I DID google to get that particular name, of course! - and she was a very good drummer for the Honeycombs, whose name was inspired by their feminine drummer.

Sadly, they failed to have anymore big selling records besides Have I The Right, a 1964 number one in the UK, and a million seller Worldwide.

Is top of the pops 77 on this Thursday? I have a sinking feeling that it is the monthly Sky At Night cycle coming up...............

Posted by: Suedehead2 Apr 3 2012, 09:46 AM

It is the Sky At Night I'm afraid. It even gets shown on BBC1 and 2 as well as the three slots otherwise occupied by TOTP

Posted by: blackcat Apr 14 2012, 05:46 PM

Just seen the latest repeat on the iplayer, not much to write home about, really. Middle Of The Road mush most of the time. David Dundas and David Soul made weak follow up singles to their big sellers from months before, Rock Bottom was a very weak Eurovision entry from that year, slushy records from Bernie Flint just added to the dreariness of the whole show, in my humble opinion. As I have said many times before, you could understand why punk came along when looking at some of these old shows.
David Hamilton interviewed Mike Nesmith, pity that they did not play Nesmith's excellent single of the time, "RIO". A great track, I advise a check on youtube if you have not heard it before.

They featured the Welsh lass Bonnie Tyler. Trivia question for this week,then - at least ten Welsh acts, apart from Bonnie Tyler,who have hit the UK charts over the years. If one goes right up to the current date, and starts from when the charts began, you should be able to do it off the top of your head.

All the best,

BC.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Apr 14 2012, 06:01 PM

Andy Fairweather-Low / Amen Corner
Shakin' Stevens
Tom Jones
Stereophonics
Manic Street Preachers
Super Furry Animals
Mary Hopkin

I'm sure others will come to me.

BTW, you may have noticed that the picture quality was rather poor for this episode. That's because it was from David Hamilton's VHS tape of the programme. The original BBC tape has been wiped.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Apr 14 2012, 06:11 PM

Someone is now singing Mercy on The Voice so I can add Duffy to my list

Posted by: Grebo Apr 14 2012, 08:37 PM

Shirley Bassey
Catatonia
Max Boyce

Posted by: Suedehead2 Apr 14 2012, 08:40 PM

How could I forget Burly Chassis?

Posted by: blackcat Apr 14 2012, 11:29 PM

Yes, some good replies so far, well done Suedehead and Grebo, I can think of a few more myself. I will accept part Welsh acts, by the way. Badfinger, for example, were mostly, but not exclusively, all from Swansea. But they were predominently Welsh, so I will include them.

Have been quite a few over the years, considering what a small country Wales is in population terms. There again, it is the land of song..............

Posted by: Grebo Apr 15 2012, 10:04 AM

Marina Diamondis
Lostprophets
60ft Dolls
Feeder (although I did cheat on this one )

Posted by: Grebo Apr 15 2012, 10:07 AM

And while I was looking up/checking about Feeder, I never realised Steve Strange was Welsh.

Posted by: blackcat Apr 15 2012, 03:22 PM

Indeed, Grebo, let's not forget John Cale, of the Velvet Underground either. Most people would think of the Velvet Underground as an American group, but John is a true and proud Welshman.

Also, going from memory only, without googling it, I am sure I read somewhere that Dave Edmunds was Welsh born...............

Posted by: fchd Apr 16 2012, 08:28 AM

Goldie Lookin' Chain were very Welsh

Posted by: Suedehead2 Apr 16 2012, 09:18 AM

Yes, Dave Edmunds is Welsh. I should have remembered him. And, of course, we shouldn't forget Gorky's Zygotic Mynci.

Posted by: fiesta Apr 20 2012, 10:07 AM

Interesting to note that there were three different versions of Sunny in the UK top 40 in the same week in October 1966, the original and versions by Cher and Georgie Fame. Hebb wrote it in tribute to his brother who was killed

Posted by: richie Apr 20 2012, 10:22 AM

Never forget them! Lovely band. Euros' solo stuff is all killer too.

Posted by: blackcat Apr 22 2012, 12:28 AM

Thanks for your input, all, thanks Fiesta for the extra Bobby Hebb info., and thanks to everyone for their lists of Welsh acts. Still a few that could be added. Harry Secombe for example, The Alarm, and one or two acts that never really had big Uk chart hits, such as Gene Loves Jezabel, for example.

There are also quite a few acts who had lots of Welsh blood in them, without being strictly Welsh themselves. Great songwriters like Ray Davies and John Lennon spring to mind in that category. David Bowie's real name is David Jones, so presumably he has Welsh connections from way back. And there will be many other examples.

This week's edition slightly more enjoyable. Regular readers of this thread will know that I like a bit of soul, so I enjoyed records by Denice Williams and the late great OC Smith on this week's show. And a good piece of white soul, if you like, from Elkie Brooks as well.

Trivia question for this week - David Kid Jensen said that the Dead End Kids came from Scotland so, well, the trivia question is obvious! I am sure that most pop fans should be able to reel off at least ten acts from North Of The Border to have hit the UK charts over the years, excluding the Dead End Kids themselves.

I reckon that the final tally will be considerably more than ten!

Best of bonnie Scottish luck to you all on this one.

Posted by: Grebo Apr 22 2012, 12:40 AM

How could I have forgotten The Alarm! Was only listening to them today!

The Skids
Big Country
Bay City Rollers
Simple Minds
Sheena Easton
The Waterboys
Aztec Camera
Jesus & Mary Chain
Primal Scream
Lulu
The Soup Dragons
Teenage Fanclub
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band

I've included 11 coz The Skids/Big Country were both fronted by Stuart Adamson (R.I.P.)

Posted by: Suedehead2 Apr 22 2012, 10:44 AM

Other Scottish acts

Annie Lennox
Rod Stewart (although he was born in England)
Andy Stewart
Midge Ure (I'm not sure whether the other members of Slick were Scottish)
The Proclaimers

Posted by: blackcat Apr 22 2012, 04:28 PM

Thanks Grebo and Suedehead, some good selections so far. Bearing in mind that this is top of the pops 1977, then maybe Barbara Dickson is worth a mention as well.

One of my all-time favourite records was made by a sixties Scottish act, who go well with toast! Wonder if anyone can name them.

Also let's not forget the late great Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street was a classic.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Apr 22 2012, 06:56 PM

Oh yes, how could I forget Marmalade?

Also managed to forget Edwyn Collins and his former band Orange Juice.

Posted by: fchd Apr 23 2012, 07:09 AM

Altered Images!

Posted by: blackcat Apr 23 2012, 09:18 AM

Yes, Claire Grogan and Altered Imageis another one, as well as Orange Juice. The Marmalade record I like a lot is "Reflections Of My Life", an excellent self-penned song by Marmalade.

Other examples I can think of are BA Robertson, Jim Diamond. I think Marillion were Scottish as well.

Bound to be a lot more.

Actually not sure if we should count Rod Stewart, Suedehead. If we count him, we might as well count AC/DC as well!

Posted by: blackcat Apr 23 2012, 01:55 PM

Thinking about it, there is one enormous Scottish act who no one has mentioned yet from the eighties and nineties - they had a number one with an old Troggs song in 1994 that topped the UK charts for.........................................ages and ages!!!!

Very appropriate name for the weather so far this April, as well................

Posted by: richie Apr 23 2012, 02:20 PM

Well, The Skids were technically fronted by Richard Jobson, Grebo...

Blackcat - I refuse to acknowledge that band...

An indie special...

Bis
Urusei Yatsura (#40 for one week in 1997!)
Malcolm Middleton
Cocteau Twins
The KLF (50% Scottish!)
Strawberry Switchblade

Posted by: Suedehead2 Apr 23 2012, 10:14 PM

I think The Drips (as I prefer to call them) are best forgotten

Posted by: blackcat Apr 24 2012, 09:07 AM

Yes, all good acts. Not sure if they were an Indie act as such, but weren't Lloyd Cole And The Commotions Scottish? Come to think of it, what about Bronski Beat/The Communards?

Going back a bit, Lonnie Donegan was Glasgow born, as, I believe, was Donovan.

All more worthwhile acts than Wet Wet Wet, some might say......................

Posted by: Suedehead2 Apr 24 2012, 11:22 AM

Jimmy Somerville is Scottish but Richard Coles isn't so the Communards are half Scottish. The Commotions were based in Glasgow but Lloyd Cole himself was born in Derbyshire.

Posted by: blackcat Apr 24 2012, 01:49 PM

Thanks for the clarification, suedehead. Pretty sure I was right with the older, other two though. Lonnie Donegan and Donovan were both Scottish born.

Don't forget Billy Connelly either. He had one or two comedy record hits in the UK charts.

Also, I believe that the band Texas hailed from that part of the World.................

Posted by: Suedehead2 Apr 24 2012, 01:57 PM

Oh yes, Texas. I saw them live a couple times when they were a support band. I didn't like them then and have continued not liking them ever since.

Posted by: blackcat Apr 25 2012, 09:34 AM

The only other one I can think of at this moment were a soul outfit who had a tad of success in the seventies with what I term white soul music. The AVERAGE pale faced pop fan should be able to guess their name!

Posted by: richie Apr 25 2012, 11:08 AM

I've picked up the pieces of that clue to get the band you're on about...

Ach, there are hundreds of Scottish acts who've had hits over the years.

Even Cicero! Anyone remember him? Great song in 'Love is Everywhere' but appalling lyrics.

Posted by: Grebo Apr 25 2012, 02:59 PM

A few more

Simple Minds
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
The Bluebells
Annie Lennox

Posted by: blackcat Apr 26 2012, 09:36 AM

Yes, maybe I should have set the minimum requirement for Scottish acts at fifty, not ten!

I can think of a few others myself, such as The Average White Band, Deacon Blue, Frankie Miller - all Scottish, I think that I am right in saying.

Don't forget records by various Scottish World Cup football squads over the years as well!

Plenty of talent from north of the Pennines over the years!

Posted by: fiesta Apr 27 2012, 11:02 AM

Talking about Scottish acts what was the first scottish act to top the singles chart? anybody know..

Posted by: fiesta Apr 27 2012, 11:05 AM

Vaguely. I Think Cicero were produced by the Pet Shp Boys IIRC

Posted by: richie Apr 27 2012, 03:14 PM

Yes, he was. He was also one of the first and only acts on their Spaghetti label.

Posted by: Robbie Apr 27 2012, 08:34 PM

I think it was Marmalade with 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da', number 1 in January 1969.

Posted by: blackcat Apr 29 2012, 12:00 AM

Lonnie Donegan was definately born in Scotland, and certainly had at least one number one, which would have predated Marmalade by a good many years. However, there may have been earlier examples of Scottish number ones.

Pretty poor show this week, I liked records by the late Andrew Gold and Billy Ocean, but poor otherwise in my view. Fortunately appearances by punk acts were just around the corner on top of the pops 1977.

Trivia question for this week concerns Abba still being at number one, the superswedes. Can you name at least ten acts from Scandinavia to have hit the UK charts over the years? I am counting Scandinavia as Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and I will lump in Iceland as well.

Actuallly not that easy to think of that many acts off the top of my head, even when counting Abba. I am sure that you lot can do a lot better!

All the best

Posted by: Suedehead2 Apr 29 2012, 09:59 AM

Technically Finland is not in Scandinavia.

Let's get the ball rolling,...

A-Ha
The Cardigans / Nina Persson (with the Manics)
Bjork / Sugarcubes
Basshunter
One member of Placebo
Lordi (if Finland counts)
Alexander Ribak
Ace Of Base
Roxette
Rednex

Posted by: blackcat Apr 29 2012, 02:34 PM

All good choices, suedehead, well done.

I believe that Europe - of final countdown fame - were from Sweden.

Should be noted that the two females who were in Abba also had solo Uk hits, if I remember correctly.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Apr 29 2012, 07:40 PM

For some reason I thought Europe were German but, you're right, they're Swedish.

Posted by: fiesta May 4 2012, 10:55 AM

not forgetting whigfield!

Posted by: blackcat May 4 2012, 08:52 PM

Good one fiesta, and not forgetting Aqua, the Danish/Norwegian duo of "Barbie Girl" fame.

Posted by: Suedehead2 May 4 2012, 10:24 PM

I think it would be better if we did forget.

Posted by: Andrey71 May 5 2012, 09:59 AM

I think it was Rod Stewart with Maggie May back in October 1971.

Posted by: blackcat May 5 2012, 06:51 PM

LOl Suedehead, nothing wrong with a bit of Aqua!

This week's edition had some good soul in in, with studio appearances from OC Smith, Denise Williams, good number from Stevie Wonder. Eddie And The Hotrods started the show, I suppose about as near to Top Of The Pops could get to punky music before The Strangers, Pistols, etc.

Trivia question concerns Lynsey De Paul and Mike Moran singing Britain's Eurovision entry for 1977, Rock Bottom. Have many acts can one name from the British Isles that have won Eurovision over the years? (British Isles means British AND Irish acts).

Half a dozen at least should be achievable by most pop fans.

All the best.

Posted by: Suedehead2 May 5 2012, 11:21 PM

Johnny Logan
Katrina and the Waves
Dana
Brotherhood Of Man
Sandie Shaw
Johnny Logan again

Posted by: Grebo May 5 2012, 11:22 PM

TBH who cares. They all suck anyway.

Especially Bucks Fizz.

Posted by: blackcat May 5 2012, 11:43 PM

LOL!!! Not a big eurovision fan, then, Grebo! Yet there are people out there who love Eurovision.................

Suedehead, nice list. Probably one or two more to be added yet. I think Ireland have won it quite a few times, just can't recall all the acts off the top of my head.

I am in broad agreement with you, Grebo, I don't like eurovision either, the only thing I would say is that without it, maybe ABBA would never have made it big. And I do like some of their stuff, as most pop fans do.

Posted by: Suedehead2 May 6 2012, 12:11 AM

I managed to forget Bucks Fizz I'm not much of a Eurovision fan either although it does seem to have improved in recent years. I've actually started watching it again after a gap of around 30 years.

Posted by: Grebo May 6 2012, 12:25 AM

Nope not a big fan!

But I can always forgive Eurovision just for ABBA. Too many moments of pleasure from them (Mamma Mia not withstanding!)

Posted by: richie May 7 2012, 02:04 PM

Hothouse Flowers won for Ireland didn't they? Then there was that awful 'Rock n Roll Kids' song. Forget who did that.

Posted by: blackcat May 8 2012, 04:34 PM

Yes, I forget who did that rotten "Rock n Roll" song as well, just remember it being a rotten song, basically!

Don't think the Hothouse Flowers won for Ireland, I think, if I remember correctly, they just featured on an Irish hosted edition of the contest.

Suedehead mentioned Sandie Shaw, she was the first British winner of the contest.

I think Sir Cliff may have won on year way back when, as well.

Posted by: fiesta May 10 2012, 01:50 PM

Lulu was a joint Eurovision winner in 1969 with Boom Bang a Bang

Posted by: Grebo May 10 2012, 03:06 PM

I don't think Cliff ever won it.

Didn't he come second with Congratulations and close but no cigar with something else.

Posted by: Shaky Fan May 10 2012, 03:17 PM

Hothouse Flowers performed an extended version of "Don't Go" at the 1988 contest in Dublin. The contest was won that year by Switzerland who were represented by none other than Celine Dion. Incidentally the director for that year was a man named Declan Lowney who went on to direct the first 2 series of Father Ted so he would have been right at home during the making of the "A Song For Europe" episode.

Posted by: Shaky Fan May 10 2012, 03:18 PM

Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan!

Posted by: Shaky Fan May 10 2012, 03:21 PM

Second in 1968 with "Congratulations" and third in 1973 with "Power To All Our Friends"

Posted by: blackcat May 10 2012, 07:06 PM

Thanks for all your clarifications, shakyfan, fiesta and others, strange that the UK has not won the eurovision a bit more often over the years, when one considers how many UK acts have been massive selling Worldwide acts. Anybody know which country has won the most times? Doubt if it would be the UK.

No totps 1977 this week, the sky at night reigns supreme on BBC Four at the moment.

Back next week, I assume................

Posted by: Suedehead2 May 10 2012, 08:38 PM

We get two programmes next week with a 1974 Blue Peter in between

Posted by: richie May 11 2012, 08:44 AM

Sweet - shame I'll be away on holidays...iPlayer time.

Posted by: blackcat May 18 2012, 09:31 AM

Some good soul music in the two editions, as I said before, I do like a bit of soul. Could not remember Denice Williams getting to number one, I must admit, good that one of these quality soul songs that were around at the time sold so well.

Other great soul offerings in the two shows from Stevie Wonder, Rolls Royce, The Detroit Spinners, and even a novelty soul record from the late great Joe Tex, "Ain't Gonna Bump No More With No Big Fat Woman". I can identify with that sentiment, that's something I occasionally did myself in my night clubbing days with the odd overweight partner!

The 10cc offering was also good, and had a good promotional clip with it, when one considers that the pop music video/MTV was still a few years in the future.

One or two novelty records over the two shows, but generally speaking I don't think that they were bad shows musically, it would get better with punk and New Wave, in my view.

Sadly, one number one record from 1977, probably going to be shown around about July/August, was, of course, I Feel Love. RIP the disco queen.

So all of this good soul music around at the time, how about naming a few soul acts that have got to number one in the UK charts over the years? Denice Williams is your starter for ten!

Of course, might be a question of interpretation here - what exactly qualifies as a soul act? For instance, the Jackson 5's Show You The Way To Go might be classed as a soul song, while later Michael Jackson solo efforts such as Thriller and Bad may be classed as a different musical idiom..................

In any case, I do enjoy these shows on Thursdays, bring back a lot of good memories, and a lot of good and sometimes not so good sounds.

All the best,

Blackcat.

Posted by: Suedehead2 May 18 2012, 10:46 AM

The edited version of the second programme was atrocious. Only Andrew Gold and Deniece Williams were any good. The "historian" who made the series on The 70s which ended this week said that it was a great decade for music. If he was made to watch that 30 minutes on a continuous loop, he might think differently. As for the outfits, what can I say? Green jumpsuits, a shirt made from someone's curtains,... The full version included Hotel California to raise the quality.

The song that started the first show was weird and one that I didn't remember at all. As for that appalling thing with Punch, words cannot describe how bad it was.

Two final points. Note the appearance in the top 30 (at number 30 in the first programme) of Television's Marquee Moon. Things were about to change. Second, a bit of trivia about Deniece Williams. She used to be a backing singer for Stevie Wonder. Her song Free prevented SW from having his first UK number one. He ended up getting there for the first time with the execrable I Just Called To Say I Love You rather than the vastly superior Sir Duke.

Posted by: blackcat May 18 2012, 12:43 PM

LOL! Yes, as I say, I like a bit of soul music, suedehead, so that made up for all the dross in between!

I agree, I don't remember the very first song either. Nor do I remember that horrible Punch record! Probably just as well!

Yes, I noted Television in the charts, and punk was about to come in (thank goodness). If I remember correctly, I think The Stranglers might have been the first punk act to appear on it.

Note also the play out music - Rod's "The First Cut Is The Deepest". This was the period when a chart battle between Rod and The Pistol's for Jubilee number one was about to take place. Ah, those were the days!!!! Some excitement in music, some controvercy in the papers and on tv, some rebellion in the land!

Never get that now. If someone makes a rebellious sound now, it is on youtube in five minutes and the novelty of the record wears off so quickly!!!

Different era completely now. Worse era? Depends. A fresh faced 16 year old may find today's music brilliant. For me, it was the sixties and at least some of the seventies music that was the best ever.

Alll depends on one's taste.

Thanks for the feedback on Denice Williams.

Posted by: Suedehead2 May 20 2012, 11:22 AM

Here's some info on the mystery band who opened the first show.

http://yesitsnumberone.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/contempt-breed-familiarity.html

Posted by: Robbie May 21 2012, 05:02 PM

Thanks for the link! Even I couldn't remember them and I used to buy both Record Mirror and the NME at the time. It does make you wonder how TOTP chose some of the acts back then when no-one had even heard of some of the acts.

Posted by: richie May 25 2012, 09:49 AM

I quite enjoyed last night's show - it was the first I'd seen in a few weeks, so the performances were fresh - and no Dead End Kids or Elkie Brooks! Although I suspect they might be back again.

Best of all was the baffling Legs & Co routine for Piero Umiliani - I'd seen a clip of that before, but never the full thing.

Also Sir James being replaced by his twin brother Percy - what fun...

Posted by: blackcat May 27 2012, 12:09 AM

Yes, I found things to savour as well. Again, good soul from Marvin Gaye - and very good and compelling dancing to it from Legs & Co, if you know what I mean, lads! , good soulful cover of Macca's Let 'em In by Billy Paul, and reasonable offerings from 10cc and, of course, the excellent Denice Williams. Some unusual novelty sounds in the programme, very clever novelty record by The Trinidad Oil Company, in which they just sang the months of the year all the way through the song! As novelty records go, quite inventive.

I watched the Saturday edition, which featured extra tracks by Simon May, Kenny Rogers and a very strange offering by Mud, in which the studio lights kept going on and off in tune with the record!

Very appropriate, then, that the best record on the show, in my view, was "Lights Out" by Doctor Feelgood! Their aggressive sound and on stage demeanour was a welcome rest bite from the nice safe records that dominated large parts of the show.

Trivia question for this week, then, please name Doctor Feelgood's biggest UK hit single - should be a piece of cake for anyone who knows their pop stuff.

Second trivia question maybe not so easy, from the top of the head - please name their late great lead vocalist from that seventies era.

All the best.

Posted by: Grebo May 27 2012, 10:38 AM

Their lead vocalist was Lee Brilleaux (I think!) and of course their biggest hit was Milk & Alcohol (a hit long after Wilco Johnson had left the band.)

I so love their album Stupidity (a #1 in 1976) especially this corker:



The Julien Temple directed documentary is well worth a watch. It's been on BBC4 a few times.

Posted by: richie May 27 2012, 04:37 PM

Yep, Milk & Alcohol, I knew that one

Posted by: blackcat May 27 2012, 05:58 PM

Yes, Grebo, right on both accounts, Lee unfortunately passed away in 1994 from cancer.

And thanks for the link, and the Julien Temple documentary recommendation. I have not seen the Dr Feelgood documentary, but if it is half as good as his docs on The Sex Pistols and The Kinks, then it will be worth a watch, I am sure.

And for anyone who has not heard Milk and Alcohol, please check it out on the internet - a terrific record.

Posted by: Suedehead2 May 27 2012, 09:15 PM

Finally got round to seeing the full 40 minute version on iPlayer. It’s quite frightening how many of these songs I could sing to myself before they started despite not hearing them for many years (or even decades). That Simon May song was awful. I vaguely liked it at the time but his voice was so flat! Thankfully it was followed by 10CC, a song I really liked at the time and it still sounds good. As so often with these repeats the only one I didn’t remember was the first song. That slot seems to have been reserved for a song which might be a hit but probably won’t be.

Still no Peter Gabriel

Posted by: blackcat Jun 1 2012, 06:42 PM

Yes, and still no Peter Gabriel, unfortunately.

I liked some of the records on this weeks edition, though. Nice, of course, to see The Jam, who arguably fell under the punk rock banner, although some would say that they were just an updated mod music band. A refreshing sound, whichever way you categorise it.

Maybe the Jacksons best ever song was on the show this week, "Show You The Way To Go". I assume that they were on a tour of the UK at the time, or doing some kind of Uk promotional work, hence the reason for them being in the Top Of The Pops studio.

Good songs from Heatwave, as well, and as novelty records go, Carol-Bayer Saker's offering was slightly better than your average run of the mill novelty song.

Linda Lewis singing Gilbert and Sullivan was a novelty by itself, of course! Did not realise that The Bay City Rollers were still having hits at this time - they were about to be sunk by punk!

Joe Tex's own novelty song was featured on the clip from the Soul Train show.

So an entertaining edition in some ways, but Rod's long stay at the top had just begun. Bad news for The Sex Pistols, I am afraid.

Trivia question for this week? Well, without looking it up, I can think of at least 3 white acts that would have appeared on America's soul train programme over the years, and they were all UK acts as well! Maybe your more knowledeable pop fan can name them, and maybe think of other white acts who appeared on the USA's premier soul show over the years.

All the best until next week.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jun 1 2012, 07:58 PM

I have no idea of any answers to your question so I shall make a guess at Dusty Springfield as one.

I rather liked the Carol Bayer-Sager song at the time and it still sounded decent enough last night.

The first appearance of the Jam was, of course, a very clear sign that things were about to change - thank goodness!

Posted by: Grebo Jun 3 2012, 06:52 AM

I would have David Bowie and The Average White Band as two guesses for the Soul Train question.

Posted by: blackcat Jun 3 2012, 07:36 PM

Correct Grebo, well done, I only know of one other very very big UK star who made an appearance on the show. Maybe the UK's biggest ever solo act................

Sueudehead, I now where you are coming from with Dusty Springfield, but I believe that soultrain was launched in the seventies, probably a bit too late for her main Stateside hits.

Posted by: blackcat Jun 7 2012, 07:57 PM

The other answer to the soul train question was, of course, Elton John.

Having goggled it, I see that white acts like Duran Duran and Michael Bolton later appeared on the programme as well.

No totps '77 this week, it is Sky At Night time. Back next week, I hope and assume.

If anyone is interested in punk, which is often discussed on this thread, of course, there is a "Punk Britannia" programme on at 9.00 p.m. on Friday's. The first one was interesting viewing, although as far as I am concerned, it did not start where punk really started, which in my view was back in the sixties with the "mod" groups.

The programme is on BBC Four, same as totps '77.

All the best.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jun 7 2012, 11:54 PM

The Jam are on again on Thursday

I haven't bothered with Punk Britannia. There have been so many trailers for it that I'm bored before it has even started.

Posted by: blackcat Jun 15 2012, 07:09 PM

Have seen the Thursday edition, not a great show, The Stranglers - who are probably my favourite punk band - and a good solid Bryan Ferry record, Tokyo Joe, being the highlights for me. The Stranglers Go Buddy Go was very punkish, better records lay ahead for them, of course. They were more musical than most punk bands, and should really have been a bigger group, as far as I am concerned.

ELO's Telephone Line is a song I well remember from that era, Jeff Lynn doing a bit of a Lennon-esk performance.

Liverpool Express were on, the Liverpool Football team of the time had a disc in the charts which played out the show, so with all these mersey references, the trivia question is obvious - at least 15 to 20 Scouse acts that have had hits in the UK singles or album charts, or both, over the years, apart from Liverpool Express.

I will start the ball rolling, a foursome I have heard of from Liverpool. Can anyone guess their name, I wonder......................

I reckon that the average pop fan should be able to reel off at least 15 Liverpool acts that have graced the Uk charts since 1952.

All the best.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jun 15 2012, 11:26 PM

Liverpool acts?

Our Kid
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
Teardrop Explodes
Echo and the Bunnymen
Gerry and the Pacemakers
Merseybeats
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Cilla Black
A Flock Of Seagulls
Cast
The Lightning Seeds
Space
The Coral
Ken Dodd
The Icicle Works

Posted by: Grebo Jun 15 2012, 11:46 PM

The La's
The Farm
The Mighty Wah!
The Stairs
Oceanic
Ladytron
Black
China Crisis
Dead or Alive
Half Man Half Biscuit

Posted by: blackcat Jun 16 2012, 12:21 AM

LOL! Sounds like we are going to end up with considerably more than twenty acts! Especially when one factors in all the sixties acts as well, of course.

Anybody have anything to say about the programme? Not really much cop this week, in my view. But top of the pops was designed to try and reflect the variety of music in the charts at the time, and from that point of view, I suppose it was representative of the music around at that moment in '77.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jun 16 2012, 02:05 PM

It was a pretty forgettable programme really although it was good to see an early appearance by THe Stranglers.

Posted by: richie Jun 19 2012, 07:27 AM

Hmm, not many Liverpool acts left now, eh? I'll add Big in Japan though...and Dalek I Love You.

Posted by: blackcat Jun 24 2012, 01:40 AM

Yes, among other Liverpool acts, not already mentioned, are The Searchers, The Fourmost, The Real Thing, and some other group who used to be called The Quarreymen, or something!

This week's episode hardly worth commenting on! A good song from Marvin Gaye, accompanied by delicious dancing by Legs & Co, the only highlight for me.

This week's trivia quiz concerns Rod The Mod, still at number one with The First Cut Is The Deepest. Please name his other UK number ones over the years - I remember at least three number one UK singles from Rod Stewart since he emerged as part of The Faces in the early seventies.

All the best.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jun 24 2012, 09:34 AM

Sailing obviously. The dreadful Da Ya Think I'm Sexy was another. More might come to me later.

Posted by: Grebo Jun 25 2012, 07:32 PM

Maggie May and Baby Jane

Posted by: blackcat Jun 25 2012, 09:02 PM

Yes, brownie points to both Suedehead and Grebo, Rod has had five number ones in the UK by my reckoning, as well as some UK number one albums. Pity that the Faces never officially had a number one, although he was singing the song Maggie May while still with the Faces.

The good news, from my musical taste point of view, is that The Small Faces did have a number one.


All Or Nothing by the Small Faces reached number one in the UK in 1966, I am glad to say. Always preferred The Small Faces to the later Rod Stewart Faces band, I do have a copy of "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake", their chart topping 1968 masterpiece of an album. If anybody has any money to spare, that is well worth a listen.

As for Top Of The Pops 1977, let's hope for better stuff next time.

Posted by: fiesta Jun 26 2012, 02:10 PM

Rod Stewart also had a no.1 with You Wear It Well.

I love the Small Faces my fave band of the 60's along with the Beatles.

Never too keen on Rod and the Faces stuff, always fustrates me when people get confused and think that Rod was a member of the Small Faces. Musically they sound very different imo.

Posted by: Grebo Jun 26 2012, 08:02 PM

The Faces were a fab band. The best knock-about fall-apart-at-any-moment there-by-the-skin-of-their-skin band of the 70s. So many good tunes.

And I still like Rod's Every Picture Tells A Story. Soon slipped into self-parody though.

Posted by: blackcat Jun 30 2012, 10:31 PM

Indeed Feista, I think that The Small Faces were a great sixties band, similiar to The Beatles in that they only recorded for a few years, and, like the Beatles, they had a strong song writing partnership at their core, in their case, the Marriot and Lane partnership.

Thanks for the extra Rod Stewart number one, that makes six UK number ones for Rod, then.

This week's programme had some highlights, The Stranglers, Bob Marley And The Wailers, Gladys Knight And The Pips, and maybe the Jacksons best ever song with "Show You The Way To Go".

It also featured Neil Innes with a Silver Jubilee song. So trivia question for this week - Neil Innes had a number one in the UK in the sixties while part of a very satirical English band. What was that band, and what was that number one?

Also, in the late seventies, Neil took part in another satirical project, this time the satire was aimed at The Beatles. What was the name of that project?

All the best.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jul 1 2012, 11:25 AM

Neil Innes was part of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band who had a hit (although I don't think it was a number one) with The Urban Spaceman. The Beatles spoof were the Rutles who had a minor hit with I Must Be In Love (I've got a copy somewhere). He also worked with Monty Python.

Posted by: blackcat Jul 1 2012, 03:04 PM

Yes, right on all counts, suedehead, and right about Urban Spaceman not being a number one, it was a number five hit in the UK. I sometimes get confused between that record and another novelty sound, (one which was produced by Pete Townsend) by Thunderclap Newman. I think that their record was called Something In The Air, and that particular disc DID get to number one in the UK charts, if I recall correctly.

Continuing with the Beatles connection, the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band appeared in The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour film. The Beatles were big fans of the band. Unfortunately, not many people are fans of that film. The Magical Mystery Tour film is generally considered to be one of the worst things ever to be shown on British television!!

I like the music from it, though. And I liked the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. British eccentricity at its musical best!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jul 1 2012, 06:18 PM

Yes, Something In The Air was a number one for Thunderclap Newman.

Posted by: blackcat Jul 14 2012, 07:44 PM

Back after a two week break, but questionable as to whether it was worth the wait!

Not too many highlights, and one bland number one by Rod Stewart taken over by another bland number one from Kenny Rogers!

Just three good records, in my view. They played out with the Jacksons Show You The Way To Go, and also featured another future number one, from Hot Chocolate, with the excellent So You Win Again. And nice to see Queen make an appearance, of course.

As for the rest, well, some of them I have not even heard of, and some of them, like Kermit, made one as sick as a toad ! Bizarre mixture of records charting in June 1977!

Trivia question for this week? Well I was thinking of doing one for Queen, but everybody knows about Queen, so let's go with Errol Brown and Hot Chocolate. Apart from So You Win Again, can anyone name some other HC hits in the top 20 UK charts over the years? I reckon the average older pop fan should be able to get to about half a dozen, at least.

Also, which famous record label were Hot Chocolate first signed too?

All the best.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jul 14 2012, 10:22 PM

You Sexy Thing obviously became Hot Chocolate's best known song after featuring in The Full Monty. I was never a fan as I thought most of their songs sounded pretty much the same. No Doubt About It was a bit of a departure from the norm. Did you notice that David Jensen got the name of So You Win Again wrong?

Posted by: fiesta Jul 17 2012, 01:54 PM

other HC hits off the top if my head
Emma
Brother Louie (A US no.1 for a band called the Stories)
It Started With A Kiss
Heaven in the back of my cadilac ??
Love is life
what kind of boy you looking for girl
&
You Sexy Thing (been top 10 in 3 seperate occasions 1975,1987 & 1997 )

I know they were signed to Mickie Mosts label RAK.

Posted by: blackcat Jul 17 2012, 04:38 PM

Excellent reply Fiesta, thanks. And thanks to Suedehead as well for suggesting No Doubt About It.

Actually it was not the RAK label I was looking for. They were first signed to a very famous label at the end of the sixties/start of the seventies.

Here's a big clue - their first record on that label was a cover version of JL's Give Peace A Chance, a kind of reggie version. Might be available on youtube if you try.

Last time I heard, Errol Brown had retired and gone to Barbados! So Hot Chocolate were successful enough!

Posted by: blackcat Jul 18 2012, 04:32 PM

Found the above link, which gives you the answer. Apparently John liked this version, and signed them to the Apple label on the basis of this version.

Not too keen on it myself............................

Posted by: fiesta Jul 19 2012, 03:36 PM

Thanks for that Black cat Interesting.

TOTP was on, on Wednesday this week not on today cause of the proms. I just noticed last night.

Posted by: popchartfreak Jul 19 2012, 06:00 PM

Hot Choc were one of the most consistently good singles acts of the 70's, ballads, soul, funk, rock, pop they did it all and did it brilliantly, from Love Is Life in 1970 right through to What Kinda Boy Youre Looking For in 1983/4-ish. Errol Brown even wrote a minor hit for Kim Wilde I think.. but don't quote me!

Posted by: blackcat Jul 19 2012, 07:58 PM

Yes, popchartfreak, agree with you completely, I thought that they made some great records. And So You Win Again was one of the better number ones from 1977, in my view.

As Fiesta stated, top of the pops '77 was on on a Wednesday this week. Some good stuff on it in small doses, I like The Stranglers, a good novelty record from the highly talented Carol Bayer Sagar, some good old fashioned rock from Dave Edmunds.

And a great number one, the Jacksons best ever record in my view, with Show You The Way To Go.

Trivia question for this week concerns that number one. The Jacksons were, of course, a family group, can anyone name anymore family groups to have had UK hits over the years? I will accept answers where only part of the act were of the same family, e.g. the Gallagher brothers in Oasis..

Blood relatives only mind - not interested in husband and wife teams!

I should imagine, again, that the average pop fan could get into double figures with names of such acts (discounting the already mentioned Oasis and the Jacksons, of course!).

All the best.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jul 20 2012, 07:41 AM

Sister Sledge, Everly Brothers, Kings Of Leon, Supergrass, Suede (Neil Codling and Simon Gilbert are cousins), Five Star, The Nolans, The Kinks, Mike and Sally Oldfield, The Proclaimers, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Mystery Jets, The Osmonds (also Donny and Marie had hits together).

That'll do for now

Posted by: fiesta Jul 24 2012, 01:40 PM

The Dooleys, Everly Brothers, Duran Duran. The list would be literally huge!

Posted by: fiesta Jul 24 2012, 01:41 PM

I know that Erroll Brown co-wrote Get Lucky for Jermaine Stewart in 1989.

Posted by: blackcat Jul 25 2012, 08:20 PM

Thanks Fiesta and Suede for the family connections, and thanks Fiesta for the extra Hot Chocolate info.

My own personal favourite family group, apart from the Davies led Kinks, would be The Beach Boys. Excellent group, great records, and all within the same family - in the early days, the Wilson brothers father was their manager! So truly within the family.

Good edition, this week, I thought. Good black music sounds from Gladys Knight And The Pips, The Detroit Emeralds, T-Connection, and that excellent number one from the aforementioned Hot Chocolate.

Add to that appearances by Queen, a strong instrumental from Emerson Lake And Palmer, and Cliff's best record since Devil Woman, and it all adds up to one of the better shows, in my view.

Trivia questions for this week - from what sixties group did Emerson Lake And Palmer evolve from, and which legendary DJ used to frequently call Emerson Lake And Palmer "the worst group of all-time"

All the best.

Posted by: Common Sense Jul 26 2012, 10:24 AM

Was it on last night?

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jul 26 2012, 01:12 PM

It's moved to Wednesday for a few weeks while the Proms are on.

Posted by: fiesta Jul 26 2012, 03:34 PM

I'm not sure, but I think Palmer used to be in Crazy World of Arthur Brown albeit very beriefly. I'm guessing Tony Blackburn was the DJ?..

Posted by: blackcat Jul 26 2012, 05:33 PM

There was a connection with the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, but I was thinking more of a group called The Nice, who also pioneered "prog rock". I think it was Emerson who was a leading member of that group.

Not Tony Blackburn, who is still very much with us. I am afraid that this particular dj passed away a few years ago, unfortunately for the music scene.

Posted by: Common Sense Jul 26 2012, 05:45 PM

Ta, didn't know that!!!

Posted by: Suedehead2 Jul 26 2012, 06:39 PM

Your clue confirms my suspicion that the DJ was the late great John Peel.

Posted by: Grebo Jul 26 2012, 09:18 PM

Duran Duran ?? I thought none of the Taylors were related!

Posted by: popchartfreak Jul 27 2012, 08:55 AM

Yes, agree it was a good edition, many of my own "Number Ones" from the summer of 77 featured, including ELP. Beach Boys: one of the greatest bands of all-time, candidate for best American band of all time...

ELP at the back of my mind I think transformed from one of those forgotten late 60's acts, like The Nice, or something similar. The DJ? Well, John Peel was all punk and turned anti-prog rock around 77, so I'd guess him if it didn't sound too vitriolic (he was a great bloke). Maybe "legendary" would only leave Kenny Everett? Certainly not Fluff Freeman...

Posted by: popchartfreak Jul 27 2012, 08:58 AM

Oops I'm too late with this I just noticed - The Nice confirmed already! sorry...

Posted by: blackcat Jul 27 2012, 09:46 AM

Good input for this week, thanks to all. And yes, it was the late great John Peel who often voiced discontentment with ELP's stuff. If you want some fun, just type in something like "John Peel's reviews of Emerson Lake And Palmer" into a search engine, and see what amusing vitriol comes up!!

Did not quite understand his attitude towards ELP - surely there were worse acts, some of which he might even have featured in his own show! Bless him!

Common sense, surely you have access to BBC interactive? It is always repeated on there.

Let's hope the next show is a good one as well.

Posted by: Robbie Jul 27 2012, 10:02 AM

TOTP this week is possibly my favourite edition of the year so far. Not a single song I didn't like, even Cliff's record was quite good. And an excellent number 1 - 'So You Win Again' is one of my favourite Hot Chocolate songs.

Posted by: popchartfreak Jul 27 2012, 12:33 PM

John Peel and punk generally were reacting against pompousness, ELP were great (I bought the record!) but they were a tad full of pomp. Pop music has always been a case of new acts slagging off the previous batch of well-established stars as new movements come along, so I wouldnt take it too seriously. John Peel also freely admitted in later life that his hippie dismissal of the Monkees as a non-credible band in the 60's (like most of the Rock media) was ridiculous. Time passes and the records speak for themselves if they still sound great. As John Peel noted, "Daydream Believer" sounded a lot better in the 80's than any of the hippie concept albums he was pushing at the time - and the Sex Pistols covered a Monkees song...

1977 TOTP get better from here on in, the year gets seriously good apart from a lul in December, before 1978 comes along with rejuvenated pop music scene and TOTP starts to look a bit more modern. Hooray!

Posted by: blackcat Aug 1 2012, 07:11 PM

Not as good as last week, some highlights, some lows as well! Brotherhood of Man doing their inpression of Abba was a low point for a start.

And Smokie were back again - did not realise that they had had that many hits during this period until these '76 and '77 programmes were shown. A novelty record from Boney M lowered the tone a bit as well, I thought.

Was some good stuff, though, in my view, from the Alessi Brothers - another family act! - Bob Marley And The Wailers, Hot Chocolate, and a great play out record, one of the best disco songs ever, from the late great Donna Summer, and "I Feel Love".

Very poignant to see Andy Gibb perform, the first well known Gibb brother to pass away.

So not as good as last week, but still had some worthwhile moments.

Trivia question for this week - well, the programme started with an instrumental from The Rah Band, and there was a strong intrumental last week from Emerson Lake And Palmer. So, how many UK chart toppining singles over the years can one name that were also instrumentals?

Might have to go back a a few years for some of them, but just the same I reckon that your average chart follower could name at least three or four.

All the best

Posted by: fiesta Aug 2 2012, 03:10 PM

Instrumental number ones

Tornados Telstar (written, produced by the late great Joe Meek. First single by a British Group to top the American charts, a whole year before the Beatles did it!))
Shadows Apache , Wonderful Land
Simon Park Eye Level
Fleetwood Mac Albatross
Eddie Calvert Oh Mein papa
Doop Doop (if it counts?)

Of course theres also Acker Bilk Stranger On The Shore, which althouigh didnt get to no.1 on the 'official' chart reached no.1 on every other chart from the sixties.

Posted by: Robbie Aug 2 2012, 10:12 PM

Richard A Hewson, of the RAH Band (RAH is his initials) was a well known musical arranger and producer by this point. His most famous work was probably as an arranger employed by Phil Spector to work on the 'Let It Be' album. His biggest contribution was scoring and arranging the orchestration for the track 'The Long And Winding Road'. It has been said that Paul McCartney heard what he had done to the song, by introducing those sweeping violins, and tried to get him banned from the studio! Strangely Hewson did go on to work on a McCartney album, being employed by McCartney as arranger for the orchestration for the album 'Ram'. However McCartney was unhappy with the outcome, ditched the recording (for which vocals had yet to be recorded), formed Wings and re-recorded the album in a more conventional manner. The original instrumental version of the album was eventually released in 1977 (in the same month that 'The Crunch' was released!) under the title 'Thrillington'. It's a strange album but worth a listen.

Posted by: popchartfreak Aug 3 2012, 06:16 PM

The single version (not the TOTP re-record) of The Crunch is fab, they also had a run of hits in the 80's (Rah band), and Smokie had plenty more hits to go, some of them weren't bad at all. When passing judgement on TOTP performances don't forget that many of the acts had to sing live along with the godawful (and I mean baaaad) Top Of The Pops orchestra who were more interested in getting a pint in afterwards. Which is why so many acts who had great RECORDS sounded so awful on the show. Brotherhood Of man's Angelo, while an obvious Abba Fernando clone, wasn't that bad a record. Dance records particularly sound rubbish in the studio unless they are in control (such as the brilliant Tavares performances recorded in the States and away from the TOTP orchestra)...

Instrumental No. 1's? Loads of Shadows (Kon Tiki frinstance), plus two offshoots from them Diamonds (Jet harris/Tony Meehan), Mouldy Old Dough was almost instrumental, The Good The Bad & The Ugly (Hugo Montenegro) only had grunts so that must count?

Cant offhand recall any dance instrumentals No.1 but there must have been some, surely...!?

cheers!

Posted by: blackcat Aug 4 2012, 12:10 PM

Thanks for your insights,Robbie, Fiesta and popchartfreak, interesting stuff on the Rah Band in particular.
And good points about top of the pops performances, popchartfreak.

I can think of one or two more instrumentals, but you have got most of them. Many instrumental artists have been very successful in the long player markets over the years, of course, Mike Oldfield the obvious name that springs to mind.

Posted by: fiesta Aug 8 2012, 01:38 PM

The awful Flat Beat by Mr Oizo

Posted by: fiesta Aug 8 2012, 01:40 PM

Hewson also later produced hits for Cliff Richard & Shakin Stevens.

Posted by: blackcat Aug 8 2012, 07:20 PM

Useful stuff on instrumentals, thanks again people.

Just watched the latest edition, good records from Rita Coolidge, The Commodores, Supertramp, and some Australian punkish band I never heard of called The Saints. And that fine number one from Hot Chocolate.

But the most memorable performance was, of course, from The Sex Pistols with Pretty Vacant. Most welcome, especially after having to sit through a rather MOR mediocre offering from Cilla Black beforehand.

I was slightly too young to understand the full impact of punk the first time around, I only appreciate how revolutionary it was in retrospect, as it were. Difficult to see how music could ever have that big an impact today, even if a new revolution does come along in music. Too many other things to focus your attention on these days.

Trivia question for this week - please name as many Sex Pistols British hit singles as possible.

All the best

Posted by: Suedehead2 Aug 8 2012, 11:07 PM

Pretty Vacant (a classic)
God Save The Queen
My Way (dreadful)
Holidays In The Sun
Anarchy In The UK (another classic)

Posted by: Suedehead2 Aug 8 2012, 11:10 PM

What other programme would go from Cilla Black to the Sex Pistols without any comment?

Posted by: blackcat Aug 9 2012, 07:11 PM

Yes, well done Suedehead, all Sex Pistols hits.

A version of the group was still going even after Sid Vicious past away and even after Rotten had left, Steve Jones and Paul Cook were still involved in some projects under the Sex Pistols banner. For example, they did make a hit single - and at the same time, a banned single - with Ronnie Biggs, No One Is Innocent (A Punk Prayer), I think it was called. And there were one or two others made as well.

None nearly as good as Anarchy In The UK or God Save The Queen, of course.

Posted by: Grebo Aug 10 2012, 10:28 PM

Forgot their version of Stepping Stone.

Posted by: popchartfreak Aug 13 2012, 06:34 PM

They also had an inferior version of a brilliant Monkees B Side "I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone". The Monkees version had much more bite n venom to it, it's utterly brilliant, garage punk 10 years early.

The odd thing about MOR at that time (it was almost expected of British female singers) is Cilla was in her early 30's at the time, hardly old at all! As you say, unlikely any music movement could ever get the sort of reaction from the media & public again in these times. Grime is the current equivalent, but most people would barely have heard of it even if they know Dizzee, Tinie & co.

Posted by: blackcat Aug 22 2012, 07:15 PM

Back after a two week break, and some very good records this week. Queen were still charting with Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, maybe not one of their best, but still a lot better than certain other acts who were also charting at the time, in my view.

The Jam had a record charting, Modern World, which I thought was a better record than In The City. There was some bland music about, but good quality songs from Fleetwood Mac, and the Alessi Brothers, who I thought were female when I first heard their record at the time - more like The Alessi Sisters, I remember thinking to myself back in '77. Still a good record, though.

Highlight has to be the number one record, however. After good number ones from The Jacksons and Hot Chocolate, the best number one of the year in my opinion from the now sadly departed Donna Summer.

I Feel Love has to be one of the best disco songs ever, superb production, great performance from the disco diva. I think of it as a ground breaking sound in much the same way as Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys was a ground breaking new sound back in the sixties.

And I Feel Love still sounds so very very fresh today.

So all in all, a reasonable edition.

Trivia question for this week has to be on Donna Summer. Just name as many of her singles hits as possible.

All the best.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Aug 22 2012, 08:20 PM

Winter Melody, Down Deep Inside and Love To Love You Baby spring to mind immediately.

I Feel Love is indeed a fantastic song. I've never been a fan of Donna Summer or disco music but this- thanks largely to Giorgio Moroder - is a classic. Apparently he wrote it after reading Anthony Powell's Dance To The Music Of Time. He wrote a sort of "music through the ages" piece and I Feel Love was meant to represent the future.

Moroder's sound is every bit as distinctive as Phil Spector before him and David Guetta today. Here's some more of his work.

Posted by: fiesta Aug 23 2012, 02:42 PM

This Time I Know Its Fo Real is a good Donna Summer song, unpopular with some as it was written and produced by Stock Aitken & Waterman. Restored her back to the US top 20 for the first time in about 10-15 years if I remember rightly

Posted by: richie Aug 24 2012, 10:36 AM

Don't forget Donna's upbeat version of the great 'Macarthur Park' - not a patch on the Richard Harris version of course.

Posted by: blackcat Aug 24 2012, 07:00 PM

Going back through the selections, belated appreciations to both popchartfreak and Grebo for the Sex Pistols stuff. Yes, I'm Not Your Stepping Stone was a cover of a Monkees song, and the Pistols were fans of The Monkees, presumably grew up watching the old sixties tv series of The Monkees.

And Suedehead, Feista and Richie with some good suggestions for Donna Summer songs. I can think of at least two more off the top of my head. One was a great record called State Of Independence, hit in the early eighties, if I remember correctly.

The other one was Dinner with Gershwin, hit in the late eighties, I believe.

That collaboration that Feista mentioned with Stock Aitken And Waterman gave the SAW team a rare top ten hit in the States, their highest ever chrting record over there.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Aug 24 2012, 09:40 PM

Her version was pretty awful really.


Ah yes, I remember those two now.

Posted by: blackcat Sep 1 2012, 09:44 AM

Some good stuff on this week's edition, some good reggae - Bob Marley - some good soul, from the Detroit Emeralds, good rock from the Steve Gibbons band and Thin Lizzy, that classic disco number one from Donna Summer, a "new wave" hit from Jonathon Richmond, progressive tune from Emerson Lake And Palmer, and if you like MOR, there was Dana, and a MOR rock song from Showaddywaddy. I count Boney's M's song as the novelty record this week.


Tremendously varied programme, as it should be.

Trivia question? Let's have a few hits from the late, great Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy. And a few from the late lamented Gary Moore as well.

All the best.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Sep 1 2012, 01:18 PM

Phil Lynott wrote Yellow Pearl which was used as the TOTP theme tune for some years. Thin Lizzy had a sting of hits including, from memeory, Jailbreak, The Boys Are Back In Town, Whiskey In The Jar and Don't Believe A Word.

Gary Moore's big hit was Parisienne Walkways.

Posted by: Robbie Sep 1 2012, 10:57 PM

SAW had two number 1s in the US, both with Rick Astley - 'Never Gonna Give You Up' and 'Together Forever'. 'This Time I Know It's For Real' peaked at number 7.

Posted by: blackcat Sep 2 2012, 01:09 AM

Yes, quite correct, I forgot about Rick Astley, my mistake.

Thanks, Robbie.

Also, going back to this week's top of the pops '77. maybe I should also have mentioned the Rita Coolidge record; a great song, very memorable melody.

And suedehead, yes, thanks for your Thin Lizzy list. I vaguely remember a great Elvis tribute from Phil Lynott as well, I think it might well have been called "The King's Call". Released around about 1980, if my memory is correct.

I also remember some kind of Christmas collaboration between Phil Lynott and some Sex Pistols members, but hey, my grey cells are working overtime this time in the morning.

Not always easy to remember hits from decades ago off the top of one's head. Thank goodness for the internet and google, some would say.

Posted by: fiesta Sep 4 2012, 12:56 PM

My Fave Thin Lizzy song has to be the one that was on TOTP this week Dancing In The Moonlight, with its infamous line "I always get chocolate stains on my pants". Boys Are Back In Town is undoubtely a rock classic but Ive heard it so much Ive got bored of it.

Posted by: blackcat Sep 13 2012, 08:24 PM

Back after a two week break, a lot of the songs from last time out were still around in the charts, such as Thin Lizzy, Showwaddywaddy, Rita Coolidge, and Donna Summer still at number one, of course.

Highlights for me included the Steve Gibbons Band, Fleetwod Mac, and Eddie And The Hotrods, or The Rods, depending on which source you go by. Do Anything You Wanna Do by The Rods just about summed up the punk philosophy. Unfortunately, not that many people of my generation really followed through on that philosophy.

Trivia question - as many Fleetwood Mac hits as one can think of of the top of ones' head.

All the best.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Sep 13 2012, 08:37 PM

Albatross obviously, their only number one. Plus Rhiannon, Tusk, Go Your Own Way, Sara, Oh Well. One of their best known tracks (or the riff anyway) is now The Chain, used for the BBC's F1 coverage and the chain feature on Radcliffe & Maconie's 6Music show but that was never a single.

Posted by: popchartfreak Sep 14 2012, 11:57 AM

err I could name them all (love the Mac) but I'll spare you! Happy to mention 3 fab "solo"-ish Mac hits though:

I'd rather Go Blind - Chicken Shack (Christine McVie/Perfect)
Trouble - Lyndsey Buckingham (FAB record)
Rooms On Fire - Stevie Nicks (criminally her only Top 40 UK hit, she had plenty of american solo hits that should have hit here too)

Posted by: fiesta Sep 14 2012, 01:52 PM

I like some of the Macs early releases before Buckingham and Nicks joined in the 70's. Man of the world and Oh Well are excellent early hits. Their last top ten hit was Everywhere in 1988 if I remember right. Rooms On Fire as ChartFreak suggested is an excellent song.

According to Guinness World Records Rumours has sold 40 million

Posted by: Common Sense Sep 14 2012, 03:18 PM

Well deserved too. Great great album.

Posted by: blackcat Sep 15 2012, 06:00 PM

Some good Fleetwood Mac replies on here, thanks to all who posted.

The thing I remember about Fleetwood Mac is one of their b-sides being given exposure once, I think it might have been the original b-side of Albatross.

Its title - and don't forget this was well before punk reared its ugly head in the late seventies - was SOMEONE'S GONNA GET THEIR HEAD KICKED IN TONIGHT.

No peace and love for Fleetwood Mac during the hippie era, then.

Posted by: fiesta Sep 18 2012, 03:23 PM

it was the B side of Man Of The World, heres the link for it on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0U-eef6OyQ

Posted by: Suedehead2 Sep 20 2012, 12:16 AM

Michael Hurll, TOTP producer for most of the 1980s has died. RIP

Posted by: blackcat Sep 21 2012, 10:50 AM

Thanks Fiesta, that means that I liked both sides of that particular Fleetwood Mac record. Personally, I tended to like their Peter Green inspired songs more than their later Stevie Nicks/Lindsay Buckingham era records, especially tracks like "Oh Well", a great song. A bit punky as well, in its attitude, when you think about it.

I missed the first ten minutes or so of last night's edition, will have to watch it again on the interactive service. Seemed like a good edition from what I did see, good soul from Danny Williams - his song was based on a Martini advert, was it not? Or maybe it was the other way around.

Great record from The Jam, All Around The World, again, like Eddie And The Hotrods Do Anything You Wanna Do, summed up the punk philosophy perfectly.

Good songs from top quality female singers like Candi Staton and Carly Simon as well, although I could have sworn Carly Simon's Nobody Does It Better - the theme from The Spy Who Loved Me - was a hit a bit later in that year.

Was it a group called Mink De Ville who did "Spanish Stroll"? I missed the name of the group. I remember the actual record oh so well, though.

On the down side, Donna Summer replaced at number one by Brotherhood Of Man.

The freshness and originality of I Feel Love toppled by Brotherhood of Man's watered down version of ABBA's classic Fernando. In my view, anyway.

But all in all, a decent episode from what I seen of it.

Trivia question for this week - Carly Simon's song was from The Spy Who Loved Me. So, I think this question might be fun to try - as many UK hits as one can think of that have been James Bond themes over the years.

The modern James Bond theme songs should be easy enough to recollect. But what about the Sean Connery early Bond films from the sixties? They might prove more of a stumbling block.

All the best,

bc

Posted by: blackcat Sep 21 2012, 11:00 AM

RIP how old was he? Sad news, eighties were a great decade for the programme.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Sep 21 2012, 05:19 PM

Michael Hurll was 75.

Yes, Spanish Stroll was by Mink Deville. I ;oved it at the time and it still sounds good today.

I'm not very good at Bond themes beyond the obvious ones like Diamonds Are Forever and Goldfinger (both Shirley Bassey). There was also The Living Daylights (A-Ha), Duran Duran did A View To A Kill and Wings did Live And Let Die.

Posted by: Grebo Sep 22 2012, 12:56 AM

Off the top of my head (coz I could easily look it up on the Bond themes album I have):

From Russia With Love - Matt Monroe
Thunderball - Tom Jones
Moonraker - Shirley Bassey

My absolute favourite - Nancy Sinatra - You Only Live Twice

All Time High was dreadful but I can't remember who did it now. Think it was Rita Coolidge.

The Man With The Golden Gun - Lulu
Goldeneye - Tina Turner
Licence To Kill - Gladys Knight
Pretty sure Sheena Easton did one.

Posted by: fiesta Sep 26 2012, 01:28 PM

Carly Simon's bond theme is the only one that was a hit not to have the films name in its title, however it is mentioned within the lyrics of the song. My fave bond theme is License To Kill by Gladys Knight, probably closely followed by Live & Let Die by Wings

Posted by: Grebo Sep 28 2012, 08:32 AM

Oh yeah Sheena Easton did For Your Eyes Only

Posted by: popchartfreak Sep 28 2012, 06:20 PM

loved this week's TOTP episode, for me it was the week the music changed noticeably, with electronic/ dance music (Space/Jean Michel jarre/Donna Summer) & punk (Adverts/Rods, Boomtown Rats) heralding in a new age of music. I went off to College shortly after for the first time with new exciting pop music picking up considerably as we said goodbye to old heroes Elvis & Marc Bolan.

Posted by: blackcat Sep 29 2012, 11:12 AM

Thank you for your Bond themes, popchartfreak has beaten me to it this week.

Was a good edition, one of the best for a long while, loved almost every record featured in it.

Was going to set a trivia question regarding Elvis, but naming his UK hits over the years would cause this thread to lengthen to the size of an encyclopaedia!

I have set one for Scottish and Welsh artists in the past, and The Boomtown Rats and Thin Lizzy were featured this week. So, question has to be - name some Irish acts to have graced the UK charts over the years. Will accept acts from both sides of the Irish border.


Should be a long long list.

All the best,

BC

Posted by: Suedehead2 Sep 29 2012, 01:03 PM

Let's ignore the dross such as the Nolans, Terry Wogan, Westlife and Boyzone and concentrate on the quality such as Ash and the Undertones (also Feargal Sharkey and Assembly) and the quirky such as The Frank And Walters and Sultans of Ping FC. Two Door Cinema Club haven't had a top 40 single but Alex Trimble now has courtesy of Underworld and the Olympic opening ceremony. Snow Patrol were formed in Scotland but the members are from Northern Ireland. And I suppose we should mentioin U2 as they have done quite well over the years. Also worthy of a mention

Stiff Little Fingers
The Pogues
Therapy?

His real name of Declan Patrick McManus gives away Elvis Costello's Irish ancestry but it's probably best to draw a veil over Declan Donnely.

Posted by: fiesta Sep 30 2012, 12:35 PM

Little fact about one of the songs on this weeks show-
The Adverts hit Gary Gilmores Eyes was inspired by the mass murderer who asked for his eyes to be donated to science after his execution.

Posted by: blackcat Oct 1 2012, 10:53 AM

Thank you for your list, Suedehead, and your contribution Feista, I did know that about The Adverts record, but most would not.


When talking about Northern Irish pop music I would always add Van Morrison/Them in there as well, of course. A fantastic singer/songwriter, is Van.

Posted by: Grebo Oct 3 2012, 06:55 PM

I know Feargal got a mention up there but how can you not mention The Undertones? And the post break up band That Petrol Emotion, surely one of the most under-rated bands ever.

Posted by: blackcat Oct 4 2012, 02:47 PM

I think Suedehead DID mention the Undertones, Grebo.

That Petrol Emotion were a great band as well, agreed.

Some more Southern Irish acts that maybe we should pay lip service too, like Sinead O'Connor, The Corrs, Clannad, Enya. (I think that they are all from the Irish republic, I stand to be corrected)

Maybe reference should be made to one of the highest rated films ever about pop music, a film that was set in Dublin, and featured some terrific soul sounds, all sung by an Irish "act". The Commitments, of course.

Should also be noted that The Beatles - who are in the news a lot at the moment - were of primarily Irish extraction. Both John and Paul, during their solo years, released records about the Irish situation, and John probably considered himself more Irish than English.

Posted by: Grebo Oct 4 2012, 07:17 PM

Doh! Must have been more tired than I thought!

Posted by: blackcat Oct 4 2012, 07:35 PM

Did not enjoy this week's edition quite as much, still good records about from the likes of Elvis Costello, good soulish sounding records from Rita Coolidge and The Jacksons, and I thought that Way Down by the other Elvis was actually a good record, shame it needed such tragic circumstances to propel it to number one.

Interesting that older acts like David Essex were still appearing on top of the pops at this time.

Lots of Legs & Co this week, okay by me! Not particularly taken with David Soul's Silver Lady, Don't Give Up On Us was a much better sound, if a bit grinding on the ears after so many plays.

Carly Simon's Nobody Does It Better was class, though - Carly Simon seemed to average a big hit in the UK charts once every five years starting from 1972 over a period of about 15 to 20 years! Bizarre!

Trivia for this week concerns that postumous Elvis Presley number one. Simply, name some other postumous records to have topped the UK charts over the years after an act's death. I reckon at least half a dozen is achievable by most pop fans with a knowledge of pop history.

All the best.

BC

Posted by: Grebo Oct 4 2012, 07:50 PM

I actually saw it this week, well most of it.

The only word to describe that Jacksons record was slight. Terrible song.
Costello was class and I do like the cover of Chuck Berry's Tulane although Joan Jett's version was better.

Never liked the Mink DeVille song and Nobody Does It Better was an ace Bond theme.

As for posthumous No 1s - John Lennon, Aaliyah, George Harrison, Buddy Holly(?), Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Cochran will do for starters.

Posted by: richie Oct 5 2012, 10:08 AM

Jackie Wilson, Freddy Mercury, Eva Cassidy, 2 Pac, Notorious B.I.G.

Posted by: fiesta Oct 7 2012, 12:13 PM

I think John Lennon is the only act to achieve more than one posthumous number one. I cant think of any others. Buddy Holly did have one with It Doesnt Matter Anymore. Which was a bit of insensitive title for someone who had just died!

I watched the one from 1973 aswell, however I wasnt keen on Kenny Everett as a presenter.

Posted by: Grebo Oct 7 2012, 09:23 PM

Not quite as apt as Eddie Cochran's - Three Steps To Heaven.

Posted by: kenukcsfant2012 Oct 9 2012, 06:59 PM

It will be a while until the repeats of Top of The Pops are shown again following the Jimmy Saville investigation.

Posted by: blackcat Oct 10 2012, 07:21 PM

Yes, I thought that you were spot on when you said that John Lennon was the only artist with more than one posthumous number one, Fiesta.

Then, thinking about it, I remembered the reason why I asked the question in the first place - ELVIS!

Recall all those old records from Elvis Presley (and at least one remixed record from him) during the noughties that topped the UK charts?

Might not have had much to do with his death, but surely those releases make him the all-time number one posthumous UK record holder.

Posted by: Grebo Oct 11 2012, 05:32 AM

All depends on whether you consider those new number ones or not. Despite what the official chart says, I will never consider any of those re-issues to be separate number 1s.

Posted by: blackcat Oct 12 2012, 01:20 PM

Is this true, Kenukcsfant? It was not on last night, because of The Sky At Night, but I would be very sad if it was off the screens for a long time for the reasons you mentioned.

Can't they just show old editions without Jimmy Savile in them?

Be hard to bear if it is off the screens for months.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Oct 12 2012, 03:39 PM

It's still listed for next Thursday on the BBC website.

Posted by: blackcat Oct 21 2012, 12:28 AM

Late entry by me for this week's edition, mainly because I missed it on Thursday and have only just seen it on the tv.

Were some highlights, not a particularly great show this week though. Good play out music, courtesy of Stevie Wonder, a better than average novelty record from Baccara, and an uptempo number from Leo Sayer were some of the more surprise offerings.

An unusual novelty record from Mari Wilson about a randy telephone repair man, if I read the song correctly! Elvis still at number one, of course, and a rocky start to the show by The Jets.

Some good punk offerings this week by The Boomtown Rats and The Stranglers, the latter always were one of my favourite punk bands. They seemed so much more musical than other punk outfits.

So, trivia question for this week........as many Stranglers hits in the Uk as possible off the top of one's head.

All the best.

BC

Posted by: Grebo Oct 21 2012, 07:59 AM

I'll start this off with the first single I owned (bought at a jumble sale in early 1982!):

Peaches/Go Buddy Go

Posted by: Suedehead2 Oct 21 2012, 08:45 AM

Golden Brown, Duchess, (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)

Posted by: Grebo Oct 21 2012, 09:23 AM

No More Heroes, European Female, Nice n Sleazy, Walk On By, Always The Sun

Posted by: popchartfreak Oct 21 2012, 12:51 PM

something better change, 5 minutes, nice in nice, strange little girl, who wants the world, bear cage, straighten out and a load of tuneful 80's hits ive forgotten...!

Posted by: richie Oct 23 2012, 11:03 AM

Cover version of All Day and All of the Night too. Was Waltz in Black a single in the end?

Posted by: blackcat Oct 24 2012, 12:07 PM

Some good replies here, don't think Waltz In Black was a single, Richie, great track to listen too, though.

I also remember a song called "Big In America", but not sure whether it was a hit or not.

A fine band, and still going, although Hugh Cornwall left quite some time ago.

Should have been bigger, in my view.

Posted by: blackcat Oct 25 2012, 07:32 PM

Two iconic rock classics helped give this week's show substance, in my view. Ram Jam's Black Betty a great rocking track, as was Golden Earrings Radar Love. I think Golden Earring were Dutch, if I remember correctly.

Neither Ram Jam or Golden Earring did much else in the UK charts, as far as I can remember.

Quite a varied programme this week, reasonable middle of the road songs from David Essex, and David Soul, good offering from the late lamented Donna Summer, class reggie, as usual, from Bob Marley, fine dancing from the lovely girls of legs & co.
While I drool over them, the lady in my household, who was watching the programme with me this week, was drooling over Mr. Essex!

Something to do with the way he looked at the camera, apparently.

Lots of promo clips in this week's episode, maybe a sign of the times, with the pop video age just around the corner.

Trivia question? As many David Essex hits as you can name off the cuff over the years in the British charts.

All the best.

BC

Posted by: Suedehead2 Oct 25 2012, 08:18 PM

Ys, Golden Earring were Dutch. Radar Love was originally a hit in 1973 and was the only song of theirs to trouble the chart compilers.

Other David Essex songs - Hold Me Close, Rock On, Gonna Make You A Star, Oh What A Circus (from Evita - I went to his last performance of this in the original West End Cast ), Brave New World (from War of the Worlds) and Silver Dream Machine.

Posted by: fiesta Oct 26 2012, 12:33 PM

The guy from Golden Earring was later responsible for all the Stars On 45 medley hits in the early 80's..

David Essex was on BBC Breakfast this morning

Posted by: blackcat Oct 29 2012, 08:12 PM

Thank you for your contributions, suedehead and feista, David also had a big hit with a song called Tahiti in 1983.

He was also a big star of the films That'll Be The Day and Stardust, winning aclaim for good acting performances in those films.

And he did a stint of acting in Eastenders.

His main hits in the seventies came when glam rock was all the rage, but I can't recall David Essex ever needing to dress up in outrageous costumes. And he continued to have hits through the punk rock era, and into the early eighties.

Perhaps a slightly more relevant figure in British pop that some people would give him credit for.

Posted by: richie Oct 30 2012, 09:25 AM

Well, nobody's gonna say A Winter's Tale so I will. I'm a bit of a sucker for the oboe in it.

Posted by: popchartfreak Oct 30 2012, 09:54 AM

well, i always preferred his more interesting minor hits, so I'll mention the fab epic City Lights, Imperial Wizard, America, Lamplight, and th less good If I Could, Cool Out Tonight...

Posted by: Season One Oct 31 2012, 08:48 AM

I like most of the songs on the BBC 4 repeats which are going to extend into 1978 next year. A very varied year for music including Blondie's debut, the movie Grease, Sarah Brightman & Hot Gossip, more Jam and much more just around the corner.

S-S-S Single Bed is a cracking tune by the short-lived but very memorable group Fox.

Silver Star by the Four Seasons is catchy. A double helping of both the group themselves performing it in the studio and Pan's People dancing to it.

Posted by: blackcat Nov 1 2012, 08:42 PM

Thanks again for all your contributions, and welcome to Season One to this thread.

Varied programme this week, reasonable soul offerings from The Emotions and Denise Williams, punk from The Stranglers, some prog rock from Yes, a slightly better than average tribute record from Danny Mirror (I think he was Dutch as well, was he not?)

Baccara with a future number one, straightforward cover version of Needles And Pins by Smokie, a new but rather bland number one from David Soul.

Trivia for this week - there were two sixties cover versions on this week's show, one of which was Needles And Pins, the other a version of Black is Black, which kick started the show.

Name the two sixties artists who did the original versions. I reckon Needles And Pins should be easy, not so sure if the average modern day pop fan could name the original artist who did Black Is Black so easily without reference to the search engine, though.

All the best,

BC

Posted by: Suedehead2 Nov 1 2012, 11:02 PM

Needles And Pins was a hit for The Searchers although that was a cover version of a song by Jackie DeShannon who was a guest on Jools Holland recently.

Black Is Black was originally a hit for Los Bravos.

Interesting to see Giorgio Moroder even if From Here To Eternity was rather poor by his standard. His work was seen recently on TOTP with Donna Summer's I Feel Love. I hadn't been too keen on her previous work but that was a terrific song. He was responsible for three other number ones - Son Of My Father (Chicory Tip, 1972), Call Me (Blondie, 1980) and Take My Breath Away (Berlin, 1986). The latter were from film soundtracks (American Gigolo and Top Gun). He was also responsible for the soundtrack of Midnight Express and wrote a new soundtrack for one of the greatest films of all time, Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

He also worked with Sparks which is always a good thing. As I've said before, Moroder was the David Guetta of his day and probably the most identifiable producer since Phil SPector.

Thanks to the TOTP thread on Haven for the list of number ones.

Posted by: richie Nov 2 2012, 09:29 AM

Ah yes, Mr Moroder - invented dance music by mistake!

Pretty nasty to liken him to David Guetta though.

Fans should check out his 'Looky Looky' single - a weird synthy version of 'Pa Pa Oo Mow Mow' from the very early 70s (I think).

Posted by: Suedehead2 Nov 3 2012, 05:29 PM

I'm comparing him to Guetta in the sense that they both have a dsitinctive style which means their work is often easy to detect. The same applies to Phil Spector.

Posted by: blackcat Nov 3 2012, 06:22 PM

Correct in all aspects, suedehead - as usual - as regarding the best known versions of Black Is Black and Needles & Pins.

For a bonus, do you know which famous sixties pop singer co-wrote Needles & Pins? (Er, without looking it up, of course).

He was only famous from the point of view of being one member of a very well known male and female duo, who were very successful indeed in the 1960's.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Nov 3 2012, 07:46 PM

I didn't know who wrote Needles And Pins so I looked it up. I won't say who it was in case anyone else wants to demonstrate their knowledge.

Posted by: blackcat Nov 3 2012, 10:19 PM

Fair enough! Are you surprised by the answer, though?

Again, perhaps a better and relevant song writer than most people give him credit for.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Nov 3 2012, 11:45 PM

I'm surprised in the sense that I didnt know it before. However, it's not as if Needles And Pins is completely different from the songs he recorded himself as part of a duo. I assume the same applies to you too (not too subtle hint).

Posted by: fiesta Nov 4 2012, 02:13 PM

I think Sonny Bono wrote Needles & Pins, if I remember right.

Posted by: blackcat Nov 5 2012, 01:31 AM

Correct Feista, the late great Mr. Bono wrote Needles & Pins.

He also worked with Phil Spector before writing most of the songs for the highly successful partnership he had with Cher.

He also eventually became very successful in American politics. Tragically he was killed in a bizarre skiiing accident in 1998.

Posted by: popchartfreak Nov 5 2012, 01:29 PM

Thats been rather generous to Danny Mirror! I don't often hate records, but that has remained fairly consistent in my opinion for 35 years now! OK it was well-intentioned.....

Sonny Bono was a good songwriter, apart from the famous songs he wrote some little gems. Best Sonny & Cher tracks are "Little Man" and the MOR fab "All I Ever Need Is You".

Posted by: blackcat Nov 15 2012, 08:39 PM

Thank you to popcharfreak for his Sony Bono input, this week's edition was advertised as being presented by Dave Lee Travis, but was actually presented by David Jensen. I can only assume that the original DLT presentation was shelved in view of the latest current events.

Pretty soon there won't be any editions to show at this rate! Let's hope that Peter Powell, due to present the next edition, is not arrested within the next week or so.

Liked this week's edition, good rock records from Ram Jam and Tom Robinson, bit of fun from Darts, reasonable ballad from Rod The Mod, a slightly more sophisticated sound from ABBA, and a novel number one from those Baccara Spanish beauties. It has been argued that Yazz's "The Only Way Is Up" is a rip off of Baccara's "I Can Boogie". There is certainly a similiar vibe there.

And play out music from the Sex Pistols. Great stuff.

Other highlights included a reasonable soul song from Smokey Robinson, who presumably was on a tour of the UK at the time, hence a rare appearance from the great man in the Top Of The Pops studio.

And then there was a political song from Boney M! Who would ever have guessed such a thing occurring.

So trivia question for this week, inspired by Boney M's Belfast - let's have a few songs which either mention big cities around the world in their titles, or which are about big cities.

So, for example, I would cite London Calling by The Clash, but also Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks, as both are fundamentally about London.

I reckon lots of records should come into the equation here.

All the best,

BC

Posted by: Suedehead2 Nov 15 2012, 09:01 PM

For the moment let's start with this gem

Posted by: Grebo Nov 15 2012, 09:04 PM

To start with:

Adam & the Ants - Young Parisians
Mobiles - Drowning in Berlin
Editors - Munich
Scott McKenzie - San Francisco
Doors - L.A. Woman

Posted by: Suedehead2 Nov 15 2012, 09:09 PM

There are some obvious once such as

Pogues & Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale Of New York
Mike Oldfield - Portsmouth
Ultravox - Vienna
Special AKA - Ghost Town (about Coventry)
Frank Sinatra -Chicago
Simple Minds - Belfast Child
Darts - Boy From New York City
Pet Shop Boys - New York City Boy
Hello - New York Groove

I'll post some of the more obscure ones later.

Posted by: Robbie Nov 16 2012, 12:44 PM

Supergrass- St Petersburg
Paloma Faith - New York
Bee Gees - Massachusetts
Beautiful South - Rotterdam
Infernal - From Paris To Berlin

Posted by: blackcat Nov 16 2012, 04:36 PM

Thanks Grebo, Robbie, Suedehead, great suggestions so far.

I note that there is quite a debate on the equivalent of this thread on the Haven site. Don't know if anyone wants to start such a debate on here.

Over there some people are suggesting that maybe the BBC might indeed be taking top of the pops 1977 off the screens, in view of two ex-presenters now being alledgedly involved in scandal, the late Jimmy Savile, and Dave Lee Travis (DLT has just been released on bail).

My point of view is that such an action would be unnecessary, I only watch the old top of the pops for the music and the way that music is presented by the artists concerned, I certainly don't watch these old shows because of the presenters.

As far as I am concerned a modern day Adolf Hitler could be presenting these shows, I could not care less. All I care about is the music show cased by them.

One BBC solution would be to phase out all clips of presenters, and just show the music from the programmes, a bit like on Top Of The Pops 2.

That would mean that the programmes would not be going out in their exact original forms, but that's life. I keep watching remastered editions of the old Star Trek series, and no one has complained about those old sixties programmes being altered to cater for a modern audience. So why not do the same with these old top of the pops shows.

But that's just my point of view. Obviously I would not wish distress on any relative of a person who was alledgedly abused by Savile, and if showing his face on the box causes such distress, then yes, don't show his face.

But there must be other ways around this than what I view as the highly drastic step of taking the programmes completely off the air.

Any opinions, this is the place!


Thanks,

BC

Posted by: Suedehead2 Nov 16 2012, 05:27 PM

I doubt we'll ever see the Savile editions now (unless they edit him out). However, from what I know so far, the allegations against Travis probably wouldn't have been seen as an offence when the alleged events happened. So they may be able to show his programmes before long. If they can't then I can see them abandoning the reruns. The number of 1978 shows they would have to miss is more than the 12 slots missed for Sky At Night.

Posted by: fiesta Nov 17 2012, 12:23 PM

Good show this week. Ram Jam, Slade, Darts, Tom Robinson.

Ok trvia question Mary Mason was on with her version of Angel Of The Morning, but does anyone know who took a sample of that song to number one in 2001?

little Fact: Angel Of The Morning was written by the same bloke who wrote Wild Thing for the Troggs, Chip Taylor. A US hit for Merilee Rush and the Turnabouts in the 60's, The Turnanbouts Guitarist Carl was brother of Wilson Sisters from Heart! I was just reading about it yesterday, something I didnt know.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Nov 17 2012, 02:04 PM

Time for another city

Posted by: popchartfreak Nov 17 2012, 04:42 PM

I think you're right. The BBC seem to have gone a bit mad lately, and gone the route of the gutter press, accusing innocent people and paying the price, not accusing apparently-guilty people and paying the price, and now not taking a chance and just banning anything that might cause flack. DLT is not a child molester nor murderer, and accusations are alleged, he hasn't yet been found guilty of anything. I don't recall the BBC banning Michael Jackson records during his trial, or Phil Spector (convicted murderer) Jerry Lee Lewis (married a 14 year old cousin, perfectly legally - albeit unbelievably these days - and there's been no retrospective application of current laws). R Kelly? Chris Brown? They seem to blow whichever way the opinion of the press forces them to (Jonathan King and Gary Glitter never played these days)

Posted by: blackcat Nov 17 2012, 07:56 PM

Not off the top of my head, Fiesta, I know that Juice Newton also had a version of Angel Of The Morning released. Best guess would be some over the top hip hop version hit the charts in 2001!

Wild Thing by The Troggs was one record that defined that whole sixties era. Just as it could be argued that Love Is All Around by Wet!Wet!Wet! helped to define the rather bland 1990's era, in my view.

And the writer of Love Is All Around? Mr Reg Presley, of The Troggs!

Posted by: steve201 Nov 20 2012, 01:01 PM

Didnt think Slade would still have got on TOTPs as late as 1977/78?!

Posted by: blackcat Nov 20 2012, 04:45 PM

Yes, I am surprised at that as well, Steve. I know they had a bit of an early eighties revival, a number two hit in late 1983, if I remember correctly.

And of course, in terms of airplay, at this time of year.............................................

Posted by: popchartfreak Nov 20 2012, 07:05 PM

OK since no-one else is offering, it sounds to me like that errr...UNUSUAL... version by Shaggy that for some reason got to Number One. Shaggy had some decent Number Ones. And then he had this one.

Posted by: fiesta Nov 21 2012, 02:39 PM

You are correct Popchartfreak. Oh Carolina is still his best imo

Posted by: Suedehead2 Nov 21 2012, 06:51 PM

Time for the next city. This offering is from Cork's greatest trio

Posted by: blackcat Nov 22 2012, 08:25 PM

Good contributions on the cities and towns trivia question, thanks to all who posted on that, and thanks to Fiesta and popchartfreak for the Angel Of The Morning riddle.

One epoch making single that we have not mentioned, and which was certainly centred around a certain city, was The Beatles highly creative Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane disc, probably the best double A side ever made, and undoubtedly the most famous record Worldwide about Liverpool.

This week's show was excellent in the main, I thought. Still a bit of rough with the smooth, you have to draw a veil over mediocre efforts from Showwaddywaddy and a really "funny" Barron Knights song, but very good otherwise. Good soul from Dorothy Moore, great mod/punk from The Jam.

I agree with Peter Powell, We Are The Champions probably was Queen's best since Bohemian Rhapsody, and Rocking All Over The World well above Quo's usual fare, in my view.

Abba's number one was maybe not one of their best, but still a highly creative record.

And David Bowie singing Heroes with a live vocal, if I am not mistaken. Excellent!

Many of these acts would go on to give equally excellent performances at Live Aid eight years later.

Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft was one of The Carpenters best ever in my view,
so for a bit of fun this week, how about some more UK hits over the years with a space/science fiction theme? Again, could be a long list, but should be fun to compile!

All the best,

BC

Posted by: Suedehead2 Nov 22 2012, 08:46 PM

We have to start with Bowie with Starman, Life On Mars?, Space Oddity and Ashes To Ashes which revived the character of Major Tom.

Then Ash's first big hit was Girl From Mars with the Star Wars theme as the b-side.

BTW, are you suggesting Long Haired Lover From Liverpool is not the most famous Liverpool song?

Posted by: zeus555 Nov 22 2012, 09:40 PM

The BBC may not show the 'TOTP's from 1978, & later. Apparently, Jimmy Saville
presented it a lot, from then on, & the BBC feels it is not appropriate to show any
'Editions' that he presented.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Nov 22 2012, 09:46 PM

If it was just Savile it would probably be OK. After all, there are 12 Sky At Night programmes to fit in. DLT's arrest has made things more awkward if they continue not to show his programmes as well.

Posted by: Brett-Butler Nov 22 2012, 10:58 PM

I think the only logical solution would be to make brand new episodes of TOTP to plug the gaps.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Nov 22 2012, 11:42 PM

As long as all presenters undergo a full CRB check first.

Posted by: popchartfreak Nov 23 2012, 08:16 AM

Star wars (meco), Magic Fly (Space), Neighbourhood (another band called Space), Star (kiki dee) - OK a different kind of star there:)

Loving The Alien (Bowie), Doctorin The Tardis (Timelords/KLF), Thunderbirds Are Go, ET, Superman themes, X Files theme (this is taking the "theme" literally:)

Posted by: blackcat Nov 24 2012, 10:38 AM

LOL! Long haired lover from Liverpool, highly creative sound from little Jimmy Osmond, clearly Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields do not have a patch on that!

Thank you for the replies so far on the space theme, there are a few rather silly records one could name as well, such as The Firm's Star Trekking, A Spaceman Came Travelling by Chris De Burgh, Urban Spaceman by The Bonzo Dog Do Dah band, Starship Trooper by Hot Gossip.

Must be many more.

As for the question of the future of these repeats, I can only say what I said before - hopefully they will keep showing them, and just ban the Jimmy Savile shows.

If they don't, this thread, sadly, might come to an abrupt end.

Posted by: Suedehead2 Nov 24 2012, 02:14 PM

There are plenty of others who feel the same way about the repeats including some who have made the same suggestion that I made, i.e. show te Savile programmes with his contributions edited out.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-11-22/dont-scrap-top-of-the-pops-bbc4

Posted by: fiesta Nov 25 2012, 11:31 AM

Excellent TOTP this week, lots of my fave songs, Modern World, Heroes, We are The Champs, etc. Kenny Everett is hosting next week.

Song with space theme in its title. The excellent Drops of Jupiter by Train. Not sure weather you could include Telstar by Tornadoes it was sopposed to have a sci fi feel to it.

Posted by: blackcat Nov 25 2012, 01:03 PM

Yes, Telstar by The Tornadoes was probably deemed as being more to do with science fact than science fiction.

Bit of trivia for you, Fiesta and others - what important chart landmark did Telstar achieve in the early sixties?

Not necessarily talking about the UK charts here, though.

Posted by: richie Nov 27 2012, 01:29 PM

I can't see BBC4 repeating TOTP forever though, so wouldn't it make sense to skip a few years to 81,82 or 83 when Saville was more associated with his Fixits and we had the likes of John Peel on introducing Toto Coelo? Wouldn't want to see audience numbers dwindle further if they trudge through 1978 and have it cancelled as I'd love to see some 80s repeats. Or they could stop the week-upon-week thing and just jump around the archives.

Posted by: popchartfreak Nov 27 2012, 06:39 PM

first british band to get a USA number one, I think it was:)

Posted by: blackcat Nov 28 2012, 04:21 PM

Correct, popchartfreak, first British rock act at number one in the USA.

About a year or so before The Beatles made a more substantial and long lasting breakthrough over there.

I have heard that the first British artist ever to get a number one Stateside may have been Vera Lynn, but can't swear to that offhand.

Again, thanks for the replies on the space theme, look forward to the late great Kenny Everitt presenting the next edition. Worth savouring every edition from now on, because you never know when the next edition maybe the last.