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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A link to that Guardian article on TOTP. Not entirely accurate but relatively funny,
My feelings after watching a very few episodes were: that’s all I need to know. I lived through this rubbish once, have no desire to do so again.
That’s surprising, to be honest.
One of the benefits this series is providing is showing the whole picture. (The context, indeed, yes I’ve just seen yr Elton review). An old copy of the NME will show you, alongside small introductory paragraphs and/or mentions of punk, Ramones, etc, are small ads for “Band seeks singer, influenced by The Faces, etc” to show you the past was still prevalent (which is what the retrospective movies tend to leave out)
As I say, there is so much I remember from individual episodes and yet a fair bunch I could convince myself I never saw (but I must have)…
TOTP2 always veered towards Go West iirc which I’m guessing was Steve Wright’s doing – just as a Mark Radcliffe TOTP2 leans towards indie.
Everything is cherry picked at the moment. A slow, real time trawl through the BBC archive suits me fine. I’d also be happy if they were screening old MOTDs in full, as ITV were doing with The Big Match last year. Not for everyone, but not edited by someone (inevitably with some kind of bias) in 2011.
The quality of TOTP2 was very much reliant on who was at the helm.
Johnnie Walker – Good, interesting choices on the whole
Steve Wright – Some good bits mixed with a whole load of “why would anyone want to see this again?” and way too much recycling of his ten or twenty favourites. Also Steve seemed to be trying to use the position to introduce the UK to MOR country music.
Mark Radcliffe – Promising, but I’ve only seen occasional specials so far, has it been canceled now?
I’ve not seen a new TOTP2 for a long time.
I think these re-runs are a fantastic piece of television history, and the Petridis article was lame “will this do”-ism of the highest order.
Agree with Witchita and others. Part of the enjoyment lies in seeing the programme in its entirety, but then I am watching TOTP as a light entertainment show from 1976 as much as a pop music show, and am getting as much from the DJ links, lighting, studio audience and so on, as I am from the music.
TOTP2 was dreadful, patronising v/o from Steve Wright, performances cut to about 2 minutes, with awful trivia graphics overlaid, and no sense of context.
I am amazed frankly that the BBC are doing this with TOTP. So unusual to see them treating their archive with the respect it deserves for once. Right, I’m off to write a letter to Barry Took…
One thing I will concede is the annoyingness of TOTP2′s on-screen text. They could only fit about six words on at a time and it was uninteresting (probably patronising) stuff – could’ve just scrolled it, or made it more like VH1′s Pop-Up Video where the snippets of trivia were presented with a touch more wit.
We’ll see how “whole” the picture is when the reruns get to One Hundred Ton and a Feather.
Well, they managed to keep Marmalade’s “Golliwog” bass drum in the picture, so I doubt they’ll excise JK from the TOTP history. It’s not Dale producing this…
TOTP2′s on-screen text was more than annoying, it was too often wrong!
“We’re playing this because Barry White is 65 Today!!” um, no he’s dead. And it’s not his birthday even if he was alive….
To be fair, the performances had to be truncated as the DJ usually was crashing the intro or the fade (witness DHamilton’s rubbish jokes halfway into Tina Charles’ song intro)
re rubbish jokes. “here’s a TOAST to marmalade” AMAZING
TOTP2 ‘factoid’ on Saint Etienne’s I Was Born On Christmas Day – “funnily enough, none of the group were!” Err, nice fact checking.
Re 135: and then the glass re-appeared next to Robin Sarstedt! BBC scrimping of the highest order.
Re Tina Charles. Not the most flattering outfit.
Re Tina Charles – she must be one of the few people who looks better 30 years later – there’s a clip of her from about 5 years ago on You Tube doing ‘I Love To Love’ looking slim, sophisticated and generally very sexy – and she must have been past 50 then if she was a day.
Also regarding her voice one thing it always had was power as the 5000 Volts hits prove and she must have been one of the earliest victims of the common practice of the 1988-92 (and after) era when she was replaced when they needed someone to do the 5000Volts television appearances by a miming model.
#124 – Revisionist desecration? Yeah, well put, some people do think that.
Although – and I’m sure you’ll laugh at this – the use of the word ‘desecration’ is itself an example of the attitude of those who put together TOTP2: nothing new here, firstly simplify, then exaggerate. What the postmodern revisionists then do (though not contributors here, I hope) is either sneer or otherwise assume superiority (if sneering’s inappropriate (cf TOTP2 re: Eva Cassidy), safe in the knowledge that the simplification-exaggeration will make any alternative viewpoint look absurd.
I honestly don’t see TOTP2 can be defended against the accusations of “revisionist desecration”. The most robust defence would be that the approach makes for good entertainment, and I can’t argue with that, though it’s not my cup of tea.
I agree TOTP2 and TOTP1976 could co-exist, but introducing the former’s approach to the format of the latter would ruin it.
One of the top YT results for TOTP2 is John Foxx’s ‘Underpass’ with a terribly snarky intro and outro by Wright. Not denying his approach spoiled the programme but that’s just poor execution of a fine concept, and I enjoyed and defend the show because of the concept which to me really is a no-brainer on paper (before you decide who narrates, or who chooses the clips and how).
Similar argument as with Later With Jools really – don’t take it away, just make it better (if that means taking Jools away then OK)…and again there’s no real reason to not repeat older Later shows or compile from them, just as they’ve done with The Old Grey Whistle Test before.
Re 137: Oh, I meant that comment – Tina was a very cute girl, and she would’ve looked cuter if she wasn’t wearing a weird puffball of a shirt. She’s still this side of 60, and I’m glad to see she still looks good .
I love her voice, instantly recognisable. I’m On Fire is one of the best UK disco 45s.
Can I just slip in with a RIP for Flick Colby, whom we lost a couple of days ago. All of the gals are going across to New York for her funeral. Flick’s work certainly left its mark, mainly on the bed-sheets of many a growing teenaged boy, of which the Swede was one. God bless you, Flick!
Heavy Metal Kids – proto punk? I remember seeing this and thinking it really stuck out like a sore thumb, quite scary. The backing group look like the Fat Strokes, but Gary Holton still looks like some kind of Clockwork Orange/New York Dolls hybrid. A bit of bleedin’ ENERGY at last. Too scary to crack the Top 50.
JJ Barrie looks embarrassed as well as bored.
The Wurzels – the between verse adlibs are considerably less funny than My Old Man’s A Dustman: “she were a nice bit of stuff an’ all”, “who loves ya baby?”, dear lord.
Archie Bell & the Drells – well, this partially makes up for the UK’s shameful snubbing of their 1968 no.1 Tighten Up. Sweet bassline, intense without being particularly melodic.
Mac and Katie Kissoon – again not a hit of any stripe, but if had been then surely Bob Crewe/Bob Gaudio would’ve sued for the chorus’s similarity to Can’t Take My Eyes Off You. Katie is a fine singer, I should note, and I don’t think she was ever given a song or a production to suit her skills.
Flippin heck! That’s a dog rare original copy of David Bowie’s first album! Don’t wave it about like that!! Er, easy to see why Ruby Flipper were soon given the heave for Legs & Co. Bowie and Brett Anderson might have appreciated the peculiar suburban angst of their routine, but not exactly the best way to remember Flick Colby.
Bellamy Brothers – makes me think of air fresheners. “Just feel the thunder as it warms your face” is silly.
The Real Thing – hard to believe they were knocking about in the Merseybeat era as The Chants – how old would the likes of the Swinging Blue Jeans have looked by now? This is pretty undeniable, esp. given the Top 3 competition of JJ Barrie/Wurzels/Robin Sarstedt. It’s a proper record. Did they ever make a decent album?
…and Abba again.
…instrumental on the credits, anyone?
Pretty good show bar the two novelty number ones.
Re:142 I thought it was the best of the repeats so far. Wayne was always my fave character in AWP so it was lovely to be reminded of the late Gary Holtons screen charisma. Some good soulful pop tunes on there.
Incidentally if you include Fernando there were 4 songs on the show that would be number one at some point. I wonder if any other episodes could claim that.
Really thouugh No Charge is a record that seems to grow worse each time I hear it.
Hmm, I remember the HMKids song, didn’t remember they did this one on TOTP…
Ruby Flipper, um,did they sack the guys after week one? Not seen them since!
Still, the Wurzels gave us “I drove my tractor through your haystack last night”, which does sound like something Iggy might have dreamed.
OK, that’s a bizarre song, Mac and Katie: “The two of us are both in love with you”….
It turns out the two are Katie and her heart. Not Mac and Katie both pursuing the same person. Or maybe they meant their mum?
Ok, there are the Rub Flipp guys. Blokey and Other Blokey.
Re 144: True enough. And, in a pub game of old, there are numerous songs that could be improved by a west country accent. Warm It Up by Kris Kross sticks in my memory.
The instrumental at the end, I think was the artist at 28 or so, hang on I’ll have to iplayer it back…
Yes, Mistura. I have no idea why it was in the chart, it was one of those records that never seemed to get any play at the time, and that short snippet was all I’ve ever heard. So, I could be wrong, but the guy has a trombone in the pic, so I guess it’s that one.
OK, I also looked it up and it’s called “The Flasher”. So, that’s that question answered then.
I’m entirely in favour of showing whole episodes (I can imagine how i’d feel watching the ‘only I remember these’ songs of the 80s). I just wish they’d arbitrarily scoot on a little, so the project doesn’t vanish before we’ve even hit next year! Personally, I’d show pure uncut episodes, but only on weeks there was a New Number One, just for pacing. I did like the strange Bowie tv dance sofa thing this week.
What was the point of Mac Kissoon in Mac and Katie Kissoon? Poor old Katie, struggling manfully with a mess of a song, and all Mac can do is shuffle about in an oversized romper suit and contribute the odd “uh-huh.”
The late Ms Colby said that she started Ruby Flipper because with male dancers involved this would allow more complex routines.
I bet she thought she was being really inventive with the “TVC15” routine; Pan’s People (effectively) on the screens while bored-looking ballet school graduates do first year PE class rollovers.
No wonder the single stiffed at #33.
The Real Thing made one great album – 1977′s 4 From 8, featuring the original “Children Of The Ghetto.”
“The Flasher” by Mistura featuring Lloyd Michels, who in a different life was one of the flugelhorn players on Michael Mantler’s The Jazz Composer’s Orchestra.
Bez and Katie Kissoon