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 • 9,618 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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Re 100: Shameless promotion of the 785th Cliff Lp on the show.
Clearly compliance wasn’t such an issue in 1976.
I’m enjoying the promo pictures of the artists on the top 30 run down at the beginning of the show. The Wurzels loitering about on a harvester; The Four Seasons in ill-advised matching suits; Pretty much all male artists in ill-advised suits.
It seems Mud’s last eight singles didn’t even chart. They would have been up on the record company chopping block much quicker today.
Yes, but check how many record labels those eight singles involved.
At least one of them was after Les left and they got a female singer to replace him. The record wasn’t bad at all, but it wasn’t Mud really they’d have been better off changing the name..
I’m afraid that fings only get worse, kids. Next week (or perhaps the week after) the pious Hoser Barrie is top and then after that the bloody Wurzels. As my great hero, Johnnie Walker said back in the day: “That’s the first time one comedy record has replaced another at number one”. Spot on. There wasn’t just a weather drought back in the spring and summer of ’76!
And this at the time when (as I recall) R1 jocks were apt to refer to the chart as the “Fun Thirty.” What a dreadful drought of a mainstream; it reads and sounds like the Village chart and I’m surprised they didn’t hire Fenella Fielding to do the countdown.
#102: Your first two questions can be answered by the Aspergic policy which dictated what could and couldn’t be on the show, i.e. if the single were still climbing (or even a non-mover, provided it hadn’t gone down) it could be shown at fortnightly intervals (it only got a third shot if it made the Top 10).
As for Diddy David Hamilton, I’m afraid he was quite a hit with ladies of a certain age at that time.
Well, there was more fun to come when every song played that didn’t actually feature the artist on video would have handclaps and party noises overlaid to up the fun content.
It really made for the Village broadcast of the re-issue of “Love will tear us apart”, which complied with the rule by peaking at ‘slightly higher’ than the original issue.
Nope; in 1983 it peaked at #19 as opposed to #13 in 1980. Maybe they were scared Paul Young would belt out his soulful, passionate, honest version.
I keep threatening to upload that ‘performance’ to youtube.
Basically, it was one of the ‘zoo’ dancers giving it plenty of pose-dancing at the fade-out of the show…
# 105 – I would truly loved to have had Finella Fielding doing the countdown live from “Green Dome Studios”. It would have been piped through every residence in The Village, of course, on a North Korean basis and poor old Number Six would have had to have discovered who was not only number six but at the other twenty-nine places too. The Prisoner would have been driven bonkers. And I don’t think sexy Miss Fielding’s promise of a strawberry ice cream would have done much to improve the old misery’s mood either.
Not even a Strawberry Letter from number 23?
Still think these weeks we’ve seen are far from poor for the charts – this week the chart positions 20 (possibly) 15-30 are full of good soul tracks – and if this era is crap how bad were the mid-80s.
Maybe having a few bad number 1′s is tarring the whole chart with the same brush but once again look at the mid-80s and probably any other time (I don’t know much post-80s as I didn’t follow the charts by then).
Or is the argument that TOTP was crap because surely that’s largely down to the fact that all of those decent soul tracks were American and with a few exceptions the budget didnt stretch to flying them across the Atlantic.Incidentally I’ve noticed James and Bobby Purify got to about 15 and havent been featured at all not even with the dancers.
To me the mid-70s were great – amazing soul and funk (and not really my scene but also the heyday of probably the largest musical movement of the era – Northern Soul). A year earlier and a few of the more poppier tracks/cash-ins from that scene would have even been on TOTP.
On another tip I didn’t think the Showaddywaddy song was too bad – I hadn’t heard it since I heard it at the time on ‘Saturday Scene’
(children’s Saturday morning show on ITV)as I was just about to go round to a nearby street with my mum to pick up some button-holes for my cousins wedding later that afternoon- funny what obscure memories these repeats can jog.I remember liking it the time too – it wasn’t much of a hit though.
PS I don’t know why they picked the O’Jays ‘Livin for the Weekend’ to play out with as it didn’t get anywhere near the Top 50
I wish they’d skip a couple of weeks, because the chart is getting very samey and I’m sure the series will end before they get to the years I remember…
I like seeing clips I’ve never seen before, but have unfortunately failed to unearth any forgotten jewels, just stuff that deservedly stayed in the bottom 20.
Also I found Peter Sarsesdt completely inexplicable.
The thing that really hits home for me is how dreadful the TOTP Orchestra was in its approximation of the original backing on solo recordings. What an arcane rule. The MU have a lot to answer for. It almost makes you wince when you know a solo performer is on next.
Reading the Kate Bush biography at the moment, and apparently she was so upset by the BBC backing on her debut appearance that she’s never appeared live since.
The (musical) revolution will not be televised. RIP Gil.
Heather (#112), I’m not really suprised that you found Peter Sarstedt “completely inexplicable”. The artist you refer to was actually brother Robin. Having said that, if you care to log back to Peter’s big # 1 in 1969, you will find him savaged by the Popular hounds, who certainly found him inexplicable, amongst other things. I was amongst a very small number who championed him and his song, which I still love to this day.
The ”This is why Punk had to happen” orthodoxy will have been further cemented by these feeble offerings no doubt, which is a shame because as #111 alluded to there was plenty of fine music making the charts, especially with Soul slowly merging into Disco. Purists of the former probably still break down in tears over it but it was a period which produced some of the most thrilling pop I’ve heard. Oh, and as bad as the mid-80′s may have been the fag end of the decade was surely even worse for mainstream pop (excluding the nascent dance scene)
#112. It’s been suggested that BBC4 should show programmes from varying years to keep thing fresh and sustain interest because at this rate enthusiasm is going to drop off sharply.
The Guardian piece today has really got my goat. If we had to watch 1960, 1968, 1971, 1975, 1985, 1986 or 1999, any of these in real time, someone with ADD would cry “worst year ever”.
In the few weeks it’s been on, TOTP ’76 has brought us I’m Mandy Fly Me, Silver Star, Single Bed, Jungle Rock, Don’t Stop It Now, More More More, Love Hangover, Fool To Cry, Shake It Down, Midnight Train To Georgia and Silly Love Songs, all records I’ve liked enough to buy. That’s more than one a week. Stack that up against a theoretical 2011 TOTP.
Half the fun of TOTP was ALWAYS “did you see that shower of shit last night? Thank God Blondie/Buzzcocks/Betty Boo/B*witched were on to save the show.”
I’d still prefer a TOTP2-style approach but use the original footage of presenters rather than linking it all thru a Steve Wright narration. I think the ‘random shuffle’ aspect of TOTP2 worked well enough but a focus on particular years or styles of music through the ages would also be fine.
I think they should keep it as it is – I hardly watch telly and this is the first thing ive ever checked out regularly on iplayer.I think the shit and the obscurities and seeing stuff you remember but hadn’t thought about for 35 years even taking the piss out of the djs – the whole package is what makes it so good to watch.
If they were just gonna cherry-pick what someone thinks we want to see – what’s the point? we’ve all got different ideas of what should be shown and LITERALLY what’s the point when if we just wanted to watch isolated clips you only have to go to YouTube anytime you want to do that. I hope they keep it going as it is indefinitely or at least up until about 1979.
Re 116 – I completely agree with you as I’ve said before the charts are of a generally high standard maybe occasionally let down by the number 1 – but when havent they been? in my list above off the top of my head I even managed to miss classics like “I’m Mandy Fly Me” and “Disco Connection” and “Movin” (even “Let Your Love Flow” was thought good enough to be a hit again in the 2000′s) I had so many good ones to pick from.
The point is that TOTP2 was a reasonably entertaining show! It may have prioritised some forms of pop over others but not to the extent where this overshadowed the flipping back and forth thru time aspect, which allowed for contrasts and comparisons just as valuable as those you might find in any given week’s full episode. There’s no reason why it couldn’t have an even-handed approach (although I think at least a focus on the hits at the upper end of the charts is also reasonable).
“Even handed” according to who? There’s the rub. It’s more Reithian to show the entire package, viewing figures be damned. Plus we’re ALL learning something from it, even know-it-alls like me (I have no memory of that excellent ELO flop, or that Marmalade performance with the Love Thy Neighbour drumkit…). Who’d remember THEM, or show them again?
Upper end of the charts means we’d miss Can, who must be due in the next few weeks (sorry… is this Bunnyable??).
Anyway, my main point was the Guardian piece is kneejerk and Alexis P has no context because 1976 is the ONLY year to ever have all its TOTPs repeated.
116, 118, 120. Yup, this can only succeed in its present format. I wonder whether TOTP2′s fans take the same approach to their old photograph albums? Get out the scissors and a marker pen – “I’d have so much more fun if I only ever remembered the people I still like today and / or people who wear clothes which are now accepted as funny-looking eg flares, kipper ties.”
There’s been a couple of comments upstream that suggest the rules were enforced rigorously in 1976, but they weren’t. The rules were there to stop the program being very “pluggable”, but the rules
a) weren’t so strict back in 1976 and
b) weren’t rigorously enforced until the spell 1980 – 1991 (and even then there were some ways of getting round the rules).
111. re: The O’Jays record. It got very close to the Top 50 – and spent 6 weeks in the “Star Breakers” section of the chart.
“Star Breakers”? Please tell me more, never heard of ‘em!
@wichita, 116. That’s a good list of tracks alright. I haven’t been able to watch these totps – they do sound trying – but that Alexis P. column surprised me too. Abba and Queen in their pomp, 10cc for cool kids, Bowie sounding like he’s on a transatlantic express to Berlin for the very cool kids, and (following up on Love Hangover) big disco items like Love to love you baby, Boogie Fever, You Should Be Dancing, (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty, Play That Funky Music, Love Rollercoaster high in the charts for everyone. I just don’t see how any pop-picker can be too down on all that…
#120 I’m sure I saw Can on TOTP2, and quite a few things I was pleasantly surprised they’d bothered to include (thinking more 90s dance stuff).
#121 Think that’s a daft analogy – people really think TOTP2 was some kind of revisionist desecration? May not have been perfect but it was most welcome given there was no other convenient way to re-watch – even now that applies (shoddy rips from people’s dusty VHS tapes being put up on YT isn’t going to cut it).
Showing whole episodes is obviously great (painfully slow process aside) but I wasn’t suggesting one approach replace another, rather that they co-exist (just as TOTP and TOTP2 did).
#whatever..
TOTP2 was a ‘cherry pick’ and it’s run its course. All the top moments have been shown, I think….
So, all that’s left are the inexplicable, and the ‘buried treasures’. Oh, and your mate’s uncle who appeared once but missed the chart and has no record or proof of it happening…
This week in short: A bunch of repeats, a bunch of ‘second appearances’ (The Mud one was much better this time), and the iplayer hasn’t put the 40 min one on! oh, and I don’t recall the Marmalade one.