"Strange" - Wet Wet Wet
Evening all. Missed last week, so didn't get the chance to rave about Olive's splendid "You're not alone", a warm hug at the end of the night from some ultra-cutie we'll never see before or after.
Anyway, "Strange" is the new single by Wet Wet Wet. The Spice Girls are back to host, about the 255th time producer Mark Wells has featured them in his 13-week reign.
"Ashes to ashes" - Faith No More
Not a Bowie cover, but a brooding song with an excellent choir arrangement and scuzzy chundering guitars.
The album, "Album Of The Year", was widely seen as disappointing - apart from this track, which is absolutely brilliant, up there with "Mid-life crisis" and "Everything's ruined" as mid-tempo crunchers. Completely forgotten about this boomer.
"Sweet lips" - Monaco
Peter Hook and David Potts return! The second single is another guitar-driven anthem, perhaps not *quite* as memorable and immediate as their first.
Monaco had been on tour with The Charlatans, and I got to see them live at the Wulfrun a couple of weekends later. Very decent music, the static stage show suited their style.
"Closer than close" - Rosie Gaines
Gaines' album had been recorded in the early 90s, and got caught up in Prince's spat with Warner Brothers. Eventually emerged some years after it had been recorded. This title track was a honeyed slow groove, exactly the track for mixers to bootlegged and cut up.
Frankie Knuckles' mix was the massive hit. It's funky disco house, a throwback to the late 70s and the late 80s and pleasantly contemporary.
"Time to say goodbye" - Sarah Brightman & Andrea Bocelli
There is no Eurovision stuff in this edition. However, "Con te partirò" almost counts - Andrea Bocelli originally entered it to the 1995 San Remo festival, which would have found RAI's entry if Italy had bothered to compete.
Loosely translated into English in 1996, when it also gained the bolero rhythm. (ctd)
You can't keep a good song down: this is Germany's biggest-selling single *ever*, and got a brill disco cover by Donna Summer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKwUNILu2P8
"Time to say goodbye" is about chapters of your life ending. Perhaps appropriate for departing producer Mark Wells who has remixed #TOTP in his three months - it's become a mainstream show, more interested in the enduring hits than this week's fad.
"Waltz away dreaming" - Toby Bourke & George Michael
A tribute to George's mother Lesley, who had died at the end of February '97.
George won the Ivor Novello awards for Top Songwriter ("Older") and Top Airplay song ("Fastlove"); the Spices "Wannabe" took Best-Selling Single, and International Hit
"I wanna be the only one" - Eternal & Bebe Winans
This is worth sitting through Yog and Bourke for!
Makes the world seem brighter, the sky clearer, and worthy of endless play for the joy of hearing the whole thing all over again.
"I have peace" - Strike
Staying with the fashion of the summer, we have a dreamy piano opening, and it heads into a laidback rap with gospel groove. Victoria Newton's vocals turn this from "decent" to "good"; another warm hug at the end of a good night's dancing.
The sample is "Leaving me now", so it's the most interesting Level 42 have been since the invention of The Network Chart.
To the 6th of June 1997!
"I wanna be the only one" - Eternal & Bebe Winans
Another week, another costume, and it looks like they've got the health 'n' safety memo: no fire pillars.
The term "key-change of joy" was surely invented for the last moments of this song.
...but let's not play this again tonight, k?
Jayne Middlemiss is our host, the first time we'll see her through the years - and not the last.
"Ti amo" - Gina G
A flamenco-tinged tale of a holiday romance, backed by the BBC's latest attempt to cut down on its laundry bills by putting some sheets on top of fans.
Not a cover of Laura Branigan's song from the "Self Control" album, but the offspring of "La isla bonita" and "All that she wants".
"Waltz away dreaming" - Toby Bourke & George Michael
Toby Bourke is a singer-songwriter from Ireland, he'd released an album in 1994 and had exactly one fan.
Not to drag the departed too badly, but we've missed quite a few big hits while Mark Wells was producing. Orbital, Eels, Primal Scream all ignored from the top ten. And we've missed "Coco jamboo", a monster Eurohit from Mr. President. We could be seeing this, folks!
"Closer than close" - Rosie Gaines
Rozalla sang, "You never love me the same way twice". Rosie took the advice on stage, and never performed "Closer than close" the same way twice.
Gaines' record company were happy to license out their hit to every compilation going - after so long sitting in a vault, they wanted as many people as possible to finally hear it!
And if you thought that interview with Ronan Keating was dull...
"Open road" - Gary Barlobe
The sixth-best singer in Take That does the title track of his forthcoming album.
Our producer tonight is Chris Whatmough, who was a big talent at Radio 1, and stepped in for one week before Chris Cowey takes the reigns.
If only the supply producer could have got Kevin Greening - [email protected] - to host.
"Paranoid android" - Radiohead
After that slice of rockspell, there's a pain in the diodes right up my chart. Thankfully, a band inspired by Pink Floyd can relieve my ache.
The lead single from "Ok Computer" comes in four distinct movements, like a proper rhapsody (cf Queen, Gershwin...)
Ambitious, complex, sweeping; it's songwriting talent freewheeling down a steep hill with the brakes off. No wonder they didn't want to share a studio with Barlobe.
After Radiohead...
"Mmmbop" - Hanson
"The cheeriest, brightest, shiniest pop song ever."
Smash Hits sent Ben Knowles to spend the afternoon with Zac, Isaac, and Taylor. He said it is "about as much fun as you can have fully clothed."
How many brothers Hanson were alive in the first Mystery Year? Tell you in half an hour.
To the first Mystery Year!
John Peel the court jester and David Jensen, Esq, have their names on their sweatshirts. They have each other's name on their sweatshirt. Oh, such wags!
"Hey little girl" - Icehouse
Performed in their stripey shirts. Look and sound like a bunch of suburban accountants on an awayday.
"Rock the boat" - Forrest
Straightforward cover of the Hues Corporation song with an impressionistic video.
Some years later, this song was picked up by a post-peak Stock Aitken Waterman, and given to their female vocal group Delarge. Whisper it softly, I think this is a bit of a lost classic.
"Na na hey hey kiss him goodbye" - Bananarama
Over the years, we'll come to appreciate this as typical Bananarama: lots of hair flicks, lots of dancing on the spot, more charm and sass than vocal talent.
"Baby come to me" - Patti Austin and James Ingram
The smoothest of smooth soul, sweet seduction sounds from a pair of under-rated vocalists. Smouldering!
And now, John and David combine the ITV Chart Show with Beavis and Butthead.
Fun Boy Three, heading for a not-very-amicable separation.
The Thompson Twins, on your side, in your patch.
Madness, they make it look so easy because they're so good.
Tears For Fears, we've got the lift, but where's the kangaroo?
Musical Youth had a second top ten hit, "Never gonna give you up" is completely forgotten.
The Eurythmics, with a line they'll reuse on the achingly nostalgic "Seventeen again".
Don't think I've heard this song by Toto since it came out. Can they play Gary Barlobe again?
Kajagoogoo, Limahl had just left the band due to hirsute differences.
Bonnie Tyler, proving once again that she's the role model for Jim Steinmann songs.
"Billie Jean" - Michael Jackson is number one, proving that #TOTP is happy to play a chart-topper by an accused sex pest.
From this week: Bucks Fizz tried to perform on Saturday Superstore, but only half of the band could make it to Jersey. An early video link was still more convincing than AI compositing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK7wMp_ckDY
Just one member of Hanson was alive when this #TOTP episode was broadcast in 1983 - Isaac was two, Taylor would emerge on the 14th of March.
And finally! Lord Gary Davies and Anthea Turner GBP.
"Blow the house down" - Living In A Box
You know, if they are living in a box, it won't take much to blow the walls down.
For this album, Richard Darbyshire is the focus of the band; he's the photogenic one who plays guitar and sings, tonight is dressed in some sort of Andean kaftan.
"Blow the house down" is a tour de force, loud and lairy, perfect starter.
"Stop" - Sam Brown
Sam's in her mid 20s, blonde in a way that suggests it's from a bottle, has an emotional catch in her voice.
Here, Sam sings about a cheating lover, in a style that appears calm and serene but is really full of anger and barely-repressed rage. Smash Hits was impressed: "Barnstormer of a performance, gutsy but strangely vulnerable at the same time."
Sam's only big hit: the great voice was wasted on an unambitious second album, and her moment passed.
"Too many broken hearts" - Jason Donovan
The best 4.2 seconds of the entire show, the guitar-and-drum introduction. Then we get a video with Jason walking round the outback, standing on a mountain top, chopping wood, and locking eyes with a cute young woman riding a horse.
After seeing this video, the Musician's Union wrote Jason a stroppy letter, because you're only supposed to mime playing the guitar if you can actually play the guitar. Ditto singing.
Oh, breakers! Depeche Mode with a live version of "Everything counts", from their live album "101".
"Wages day" - Deacon Blue, their fast song that *isn't* "Real gone kid". They'll be in the studio next week.
"This time I know it's for real" - Donna Summer's last big hit, and Stock/Aitken/Waterman's best of the year. She's also in next week's show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lbzKBFpVsY
"Mean man" - WASP, the schlock rock band.
Our group declare to be true
Ian K Tindale
Girl about village