I give marks out of 10 to every song – based on whatever criteria you like, here’s your opportunity to say what you’d have given more than 6 to from 1976. Tick as many as you like.
Loading ...And use the comments to discuss the year as a whole, if you like.
Tom in FT /Popular • featured content/Pop/popular year poll • 9,635 views
All, 1–25, 26–50, 51–75, 76–100, 101–125, 126–150, 151–175, 176–200, 201–225, 226–250, 251–275, 276–300, 301–325, 326–350, 351–375, 376–400, 401–425, 426–450, 451–475, 476–500, 501–525, 526–551.Back up to post. More comments: All, 1–25, 26–50, 51–75, 76–100, 101–125, 126–150, 151–175, 176–200, 201–225, 226–250, 251–275, 276–300, 301–325, 326–350, 351–375, 376–400, 401–425, 426–450, 451–475, 476–500, 501–525, 526–551.
All the UK number ones since 1952, reviewed in order and rated by whim. As featured on Radio 2, The Times, Metro, Paul Cornell's LiveJournal, etc etc.
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The fellow who rode home from Gaddafi’s compound in a gold golf-cart would certainly have scorned Dixons as a loot-source…
This week’s instalment of TOTP, not too shabby:
Remarkable how much of the top 30 was full of ‘soul’ acts (with a smattering of country in the 20s)
Jimmy Saville – hypnotically bizarre – gave the impression he was on another plane
Slik – pleasant but dull pop – interesting given that Midge had turned down chance to be in the Pistols
David Dundas – Blue Jeans – I could imagine him 50 years earlier singing something similar in a cocktail bar – ‘I put my cream Bags on – I put my Oxford Bags on’ – fo-de-oh-doh
Billie Joe Spears – sounded good – glitzy image somewhat at odds with content of song – I’d have hated this at the time but liked it a lot this time around
Steve Harley et al – irritatingly cynical performance – I became more interested in identifying the castle
KC et al – good song, dull choreography
Dorothy Moore – interesting parallel with Billie Joe Spears – classy song of female desire dressed up for mainstream consumption with an elegant dress and a winning smile
Billy Ocean – competent performance, slightly dominated by an alarming mustard coloured jumpsuit
Twiggy – song and performance suffered by comparison with BJS – but that may have been due to this being a TOTP orchestra version(?), I seem to remember the song sounding marginally better on the radio
EJ/KD – getting a bit tired of this now – but still a perky tune
Jesse Green – not enough of this over credits to do it justice – good to dance to, doesn’t
well, this week I started my “punk/new wave” off the TV grab DVD compilation. Takes me back, I used to have a Video cassette nearby to grab various performances from around the eighties until the mid nineties. They’re all in the loft now.
Any road up, the Slik one seemed a suitably ironic place to start. How long to wait until Eddie and the hot rods, anyone?
Oh, there’s Sheer Elegance and their “please you underage girls stop pestering me for sex even though you’re lovely and I should get some credit for saying no actually” song that didn’t set the charts on fire the last time it was on, getting a second go. Must be the longer repeat then.
Steve Harley. Is that Tynemouth Castle? Ah, maybe not: there’s a horse.
That Jesse Green song was another one of those records that hit because of the instrumental version on the b-side. (The other example is by that man we cannot speak his name anymore)
500 volts being the other extra…
re 328 Jesse Green etc – a foretaste of things to come as once we hit the post 1988 era many of the tracks became hits due to instrumental versions or more accurately they were instrumentals and they recorded a quick vocal version to get more pop action.
This was especially true of hardcore and even more of trance and which probably reached its absolute nadir with the Vincent De Moor’s ‘Flowtation’ debacle in about 1996 – a massive instrumental for months on Dutch import that filled the floor everywhere everytime it was dropped and built a right buzz for its eventual British release only for that release’s A side to emerge as an absolute abomination of an obviously hastily thrown together vocal track which obliterated everything that had made the original track so perfect and killed any chance of it becoming a pop hit too.
I really liked “Nice and Slow” even though it wasn’t. Pity they cut it after twenty seconds.
Kiki Dee seems to grow increasingly more interested each time they show that clip. I even noticed a rather nice “come hither” glance she gives Reg on this last viewing. If they’re still top next week, she’ll probably have the whips out for him. Alas, baby he’s not that kind.
I still play Jesse Green out – vocal side! I remember that being the version on the radio at the time, but was way too young to have heard it in discotheques.
Steve Harley – Clun castle?
Dundas – actually wearing “blue jeans” this time.
Slik – verse v close to Free’s Wishing Well, chorus a bit flat agaaaaiin. Think Martin & Coulter would’ve learnt after Requiem’s below par showing. Good performance from moody Midge, mind.
Billie Jo – to tell the truth, I’d rather stay in that small cafe out of the way… Can’t work out her age at all. 35? JS can’t even manage the song title. What I’ve Got Is Mine. Oh dear.
Dorothy Moore – oh gosh, never ever tire of this.
Billy Ocean – does anyone know if this or Love Really Hurts were ever played at any Northern Soul nights? Too cheesy? Love Really Hurts is, I think, the best Motown pastiche ever, genuinely strong, and I can imagine it being played at Wigan before it charted. Andy? Anyone?
The Chanter Sisters’ single is notably different to their TOTP performance, a bit slower, better arrangement…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSQt5apmqIU&feature=related
I think the chorus is a killer, myself. Odd lyric – “I’m just a pleasure steamer” puts even Diana Ross’s “Remember me as a big balloon” in the shade.
I remember their version of Band Of Gold being a Radio 1 favourite. They turn it into a novelty song. It is fucking awful.
#331 HI Wichita. Don’t want to cause a fuss, but have to acknowledge prev discussions and the energy around them. Anyway, I did look into the “effect” on download sales TOTP 1976 has had on some titles. Obv – “effect” is a leap of faith, simplified assumptions – eg what if someone went down well at Glastonbury and I didn’t even know they played? – Keeping it short: Misty Blue has seemed to do REALLY well out of it (whereas Fox S-S-Single Bed = nothing!) – I’d be interested to know how this makes you feel (tho I suspect the emotions aren’t deep !)
How it makes me feel? I’m chuffed if Misty Blue has done well, and pretty sure Dorothy Moore hasn’t played at Reading or Green Man. I think it’s been on TOTP four times hasn’t it? I didn’t get it when I was 11, which isn’t that surprising.
Curious to know actual stats on Liverpool Express downloads (maybe the most divisive song aired this far, to my surprise).
S-S-Single Bed has been an East London turntable hit for a few years now, maybe people are sick of it!
331: I’ve never heard of Billy Ocean being played at a ‘proper’ Northern Soul night – I think even Wigan Casino would have thought him too poppy – Wigan’s much criticised poppier stuff at ‘excused’ itself by having an obviously stompin’ beat and/or being a genuine mid-60s recording.
It may just have sneaked into a NS set at youth clubs/nightclub under 18 sessions with stuff of the ilk of Jimmy James.
Tomorrows TOTP seems massively over-familiar, with 5000 volts again (they were on last week!) David Dundas too! I thought that was one rule they pretty much kept to (no performer on two weeks in a row except for number ones).
also, Repeats from 2 weeks ago, from Twiggy and JWakelin
Still, there’s new Hot Choc. But that’s the only new performance (I think). Hey, at least DLT’s a new performance!!!
#334, I ask because sometimes mixed (or just plain negative) emotions occur when one realises people have caught up with one’s own preferences.
You Are My Love experienced a sharp upturn in downloads, but it’s highest highs still don’t quite reach the underlying demand of say, You To Me Are Everything or Combine Harvester.
#336. Again, a bit jumpy about stating this but the two broadcasts were from a fortnight apart, so the “successive weeks” rule was not transgressed here.
ah, fair enough then.
Re337 & 338: I think this information is really interesting and it must be great to be privy to it the various unusual fluctuations in downloads amongst all the tens of thousands of tracks.
I wonder what kind of figures you’re talking about when you mention slight increases and what kind of number of weekly downloads would somethig like ‘Combine Harvester’ usually have – as it seems from the above that it sells a certain number of downloads week in week out notwithstanding any TOTP re-runs etc.And then I suppose to get a truly accurate picture you’d need to factor in the 95%(?) of downloads that are ilegal.
All really enlightening stuff.
Ditto. Is download information published anywhere? I’m very curious.
TOTP had some competition at the time from ‘So it goes’ presented by Tony Wilson. This was broadcast around the same time as the recent TOTP repeats:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUndMGRCu_o
# 340, 341
The Top 200 Download Chart is published, without sales figures. I’d love to state where, how to subscribe etc but I realise that to do so would be to advertise – and to start a post by saying “let me tell you about this site I like, I think you should subscribe” would turn this into a different kind of forum. Can someone in charge hear my plea and give me a green light?
The sales figures themselves are still more “commercially sensitive” and it’s costly, financially, to get a licence to see the figures.
Latest TOTP (19th August 1976):
DLT showing too much pasty flesh than necessary (i.e. any) but marginally less annoying than before:
Hot Chocolate: lively – Errol Brown’s stage movement reminding me of Freddie Mercury at times
David Dundas – same clip as last time – zzz
5000 volts – light entertainment mediocrity
Dancing Queen – interesting to see something that has become so iconic introduced in such an offhand manner
Bryan Ferry – another compelling take on an old tune – helped I suspect by Chris Spedding”s guitar riff – but the film clip serves to emphasise the distance between Bryan, Jerry and us plebs in a way that the Abba clip avoids
Wings – top tune, survives Ruby Flipper’s antics – and the ‘Phil and Don’ line links back nicely to the previous tune
Steve Harley – Beatles’ tune link to the previous – I didn’t like this last time, but it seemed slightly less irritating tonight
Jesse Green – another top tune – safari jacketed flute player produces trumpet noises – nice to see audience dancing to this
Twiggy – Here she goes again – with the same limp TOTP version of a fairly lightweight tune as last time
EJ/KD – etc, etc. TOTP obviously fed up with it give a shortened version
Couldn’t identify the last tune – sounded like the Stylistics
Not only did they introduce DQ in an offhand manner, they chopped the first verse just as (no doubt) half the audience were singing along to it! And DLT said it was in at 26 when it was 23.
The play-out was indeed the Stylistics’ “Sixteen Bars”. Cue Radio 1 gags about the song being the result of a pub crawl – “I wrote a love song in 16 bars…”
Sad to learn via the web that George Ford, the perma-smiling bassist with Cockney Rebel, diedin 2007. Apparently (sorry if this is common knowledge) he was the half-brother of Emile Ford of Checkmates fame and played with the band for a while. He was a much-in-demand session player and worked with Cliff for many years before moving with his family to Toronto in the 80s, where he worked with Long John Baldry and set up a home-restoring business.
Wichita, Mark and lonepilgrim were speculating upthread about the castle in the “Here Comes The Sun” video – a little bit of digging reveals that it’s Dunsoghly Castle in County Dublin – http://www.irelandseye.com/aarticles/travel/attractions/castles/dunsogc.shtm
which also appears to have been used in the filming of “Braveheart”. It was built around 1450 by Sir Rowland Plunkett, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, and stayed in the family until the 1870s. According to this forum discussion
( http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056307461 )
you used to be able to ask at a nearby house for the key to the tower and go and do some plane-spotting. A fellow called Eddie Jordan (presumably not that one) organises visits and is trying to promote interest in the castle with a view to increasing public access and boosting tourism.
And a Popscene thread on Cockney Rebel reveals that their original bassist from “Judy Teen” days, Paul Jeffreys, was killed in the Lockerbie bombing while flying out on honeymoon.
Re :345 That’s strange as I looked him up as well as 1) it was pretty unusual (still is) to see a non-white musician in a rock band and 2) he seems to be particularly enjoying himself in all the clips you see of him – but it wasn’t easy to track down much information – got it off a site for bass-players in the end. I think things are made more difficult by the legal problems (even to this day) of describing what actually happened in the sacking/disappearance of various Cockney Rebel musicians.
Re 347: Really?? You wouldn’t think Steve “Nice” would wield that much legal clout.
That was by way of tribute to Tom “Tom” Hibbert, who passed away this week. As an iconoclast I think his writing is at least on a par with Paul Morley – I still think of them as Dame David Bowie, Thumbsaloft, and Lord Frederick Lucan of Mercury… Sniff. Parp. Wibble.
Who the hell did he think he was?
His features always started Q magazine on a high note – in addition to the ones mentioned in the Guardian obit, his interviews with Bros, DLT and the Chippendales (“people say the Chippendales is a bad thing, but hey, Shakespeare in his time had his critics”) stick in the memory. I didn’t know his last 14 years were rendered so miserable. RIP.
*Classic Hot Chocolate (now viewed as one of their best ever hence the subsequent remixes)- and massive on Capital Radio over that unending summer – just the kind of record that should have been played in a heatwave – really takes me back to melting tarmac, heat haze and the bleached parchedness of my local playing-fields where I spent many of those long summer holiday afternoons. Not much of a hit though it probably didn’t spread didn’t outside the London area and Capital’s catchment area. Maybe why I don’t associate it with transistor radios on Weymouth beach like Jimmy James and David Dundas!
* There’s an uncanny similarity to Paul Weller about Steve Harley by this stage.
*DLT mentioning re Jesse Green “it’s good to see disco’s still with us”, after only 2 years and in the calm before the storm, little knowing what would happen around 1977/78 as it took over the world.
*I think those might be Abba’s kids dancing in the ‘Dancing Queen’ clip – good to see their bassist and drummer in the video too.
It seems they’re regularly only showing every other TOTP* which is messing things slightly up as it conflicts with one of the few rules TOTP did zealously stick to of not showing the same record (obviously excluding the No 1)two weeks in a rows and doesn’t do too much for continuity on these repeats.
It may we miss the delights of the Wombles’ drought cash-in ‘Rainmaker’ which was on towards the end of the drought ie in the next 2 or 3 weeks.
*I think they’re missing out the other editions for the simple reason that they haven’t got copies anymore – a situation I believe is the case right up until the end of 1977 – and I think there’s an edition as recent as late 1982 which the BBC don’t have in their vaults (but what with people starting to buy video-recorders en masse around 1979/80 they’ll be copies of that one hanging around somewhere).