Our group declare to be trueLooking at your posts, I'm rather glad I don't get to see the #TOTP '97 episodes in real time.
It gets better: we need never hear Elton's Dirge again, and get the far superior A-side next time.
(Evening, all.)
Hosts for Mystery Year Number One: Simon Mayobe but Anthea Turner.
"Can you keep a secret?" - Brother Beyond
Brother Beyond have turned their one song into a hit for the fourth time, and even the fans are not impressed by Nathan's tease of an ice-hockey top.
There was a rather ace instrumental mix of this track, all groove and no vocals.
"I beg your pardon" - Kon Kan
Based on Lynn Anderson's "Rose garden", but done to the contemporary hip-hop styling.
M'learned friend @u0421793 reports that they're still performing.
The song was written by Canadians, performed by Canadians, produced by Canadians: it's 100% Can Con.
KON KAN I beg your pardon
"Americanos" - Holly Johnson
The sparkling gold suit, with glamorous hostesses wearing spangly gold dresses! And to think the reaction was disappointed - the consensus was "this is great, but it's no 'Love train'".
Holly has been living with an AIDS diagnosis since the early 1990s, surviving thanks to the miracles of modern drugs. In the next hour, a tribute to a TOTP presenter who couldn't avail of that miracle.
"Straight up" - Paula Abdul
I think this video clip works better than the studio perfomance from a few weeks earlier.
Sorry, folks: MC Skat Kat was her *next* big hit.
Breakers!
The Cookie Crew - "Got to keep on", three blokes dad-dancing in their cosy sweaters, with some aggressive soul vocals and a whooshing brass line. They'll be in the studio next week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2g-azUdlNY
Yello had another hit, "Of course I'm lying" is a very strange song, laidback and mildly threatening.
Cookie Crew - Got to Keep On (Studio, TOTP)
Roy Orbison - "She's a mystery to me", a warm and fuzzy and one of the best things Bono ever wrote. Could have seen more of that, Paul TOTP.
T'Pau - "Only the lonely", something to do with steps appearing out of the wall and a continuous pan to the right like it's a strip cartoon. They'll also pop in next week.
"People hold on" - Coldcut featuring Lisa Stansfield
Lisa's the star of the show, with a dapper grey jacket and no hat; the camera finds her and doesn't want to let go. No surprise, when Mr. Coldcut next to her has a big bucket hat and silly shades.
This remains a superlative soul vocal, exactly where we'd hope house music would end up.
And if there are any snowmen in the studio: melt.
"If you don't know me by now" - Simply Red
Mick Hucknell has another live vocal, something denied to Lisa Stansfield. Light grey suit looks odd on him, maybe it's the hair and the open neck that looks distracting.
By now, the backlash was in full swing - one critic wrote, "Vapid, stereotyped nonsense. Hucknall brazens rather than emotes his way through the vocal performance."
"Baby I don't care" - Transvision Vamp
The band Guns n' Roses wanted to be, but couldn't quite hack. Fizzing bundle of energy, cracking guitar riff, great feminine vocal.
Wendy's in a beret, and a sparkling off-the-shoulder dress that's mostly rags beneath the waist. She finds the camera enough to tell us that she doesn't care, and makes sure she's in shot during the guitar solo.
Song of the night, obvs.
Wendy James bumped into television royalty on this day. No, not Simon and the other TOTP host, but charades goddess Dame Una Stubbs.
Wendy met Una while they were both jogging in Hyde Park at some unearthly hour of the morning, and they circled the Serpentine together.
History does not record if Una invited Wendy in for coffee.
First mystery year was 1989.
This next edition of #TOTP is a Mick Hucknall-free zone.
It was last seen on 1 April 2011, the start of the BBC4 re-runs.
1 April 2011 is closer to where the TOTP reruns are now - September 1997 - than to today.
"Girls girls girls" - Sailor
We join TOTP during the music hall revival, and Sailor were still banging out the hits.
Quite literally: their defining sound is the banging piano - specifically a double-backed nickelodeon, with two people playing at once.
The band continued to play until 2014, bringing such covers as "Cotton eye Joe" into their show. Members Pete Lincoln and Oliver Marsh still perform from time to time.
"Theme from 'Mahogany' (do you know where you're going to)" - Diana Ross
Tony Blackburn is in heaven.
"I'm your man rock 'n' roll" - Tarney-Spencer Band
Trevor Spencer on drums, Alan Tarney sings and does most of the rest of the work. The Aussie duo stayed together for three albums, never quite having a hit.
Trevor returned to Oz. Alan wrote for Cliff Richard and produced A-ha's hit albums.
"Fernando" - ABBA
The group's first effort at a slow song, telling its story through lyric rather than percussion. Seems to be doing quite well for them.
"I'll never love anyone any more" - Laurie Andrew and Zero
His only attempt at a hit single, and it wasn't a hit.
Laurie would later write for Cliff's comeback album "Green Light", for Boney M, and on the soundtrack for "The Breakfast Club" - but his brother penned the Simple Minds hit.
"Jungle rock" - Hank Mizell
Pan's People dance to the rockabilly single, which had been recorded in Hank's garage, and produced to achieve a heavy sound.
A re-release from 1958, making it to #TOTP after being dug out for a bootleg compilation album.
Hank was contacted and made it to Europe in May; his spot on Top Pop marks an unlikely Dutch number one single.
TOPPOP: Hank Mizell - Jungle Rock
"Music" - John Miles
Prog rock was also a thing, and John tries to evoke the spirit of the recent hit "Bohemian rhapsody" with a song that goes lots of places.
Not entirely sure he succeeded.
Still, absolutely no pantomime elephants on this performance.
"S-s-s-single bed" - Fox
Fox were singer Noosha Fox and songwriter Kenny Young, he's the tall chap at the back.
Some argue that Noosha was an influence on Kate Bush: breathy delivery, charismatic presentation, the way she does her own thing and shuts out whatever the audience think.
Taken from the group's album "Blue Hotel", which is this hit and lots of easy listening music.
Kenny died in 2020; Noosha still lives, and you may know her son as the science writer Ben Goldacre.
"Hey Jude" - The Beatles
EMI's contract with The Beatles had expired at the start of 1976, which let the record company re-promote all the group's works.
"The Singles Collection" featured all 22 of The Beatles' original singles, plus the new release "Yesterday". A "Singles Collection 1962–1970" box was sold so customers were encouraged to buy all 23 of the discs.
Same idea was used almost thirty years later by The Estate Of Elvis Presley.
"Save your kisses for me" - Brotherhood of Man
They're hoping to do rather well at Saturday's Eurovision Song Contest in The Hague. My money's on "Pump-pump" from YLE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZf_pr5JBUw
Playout is "Hello happiness" - The Drifters.
Our second mystery year was, yes, 1976.
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 1976 FULL SHOW - THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS (NOS) - (AS BROADCAST)
Kenny Everett tribute special next, from 1973.
After that, BBC4 has highlights from the 6 Music festival, and documentaries about Primal Scream and Sam Smith.
BBC2 tomorrow has songs that became hits when they were covered. BBC4 has the best of Kenny Everett's entertainment career: all microphones bent.
Whatever you're doing this weekend, have a great one!