Always found that lyric about, 'puppy dog tails in the House of Lords' a bit strange. Don't know what that was all about. Mind you I've often wondered what Life On Mars by Bowie was supposed to be about, too.
they were actually a 'power pop' band which the music press were briefly trying to hype as the next big music movement after punk.
The music press at the behest of the music industry, who were desperate to get some returns on the thousands they'd spent signing up punk bands who, with the exception of the Stranglers, hadn't shown much consistency in shifting units ...
Tonight's hits were produced by Andy Arthurs, who had by this time already started producing 999 and was previously an engineer on Band On The Run (spot the connection in relation to this week's show ). Somewhere in between his work with McCartney and his short-lived role as a new wave producer, Arthurs also fronted a group called A Raincoat who had a very Sparks-esque single in 1975 called 'I Love You For Your Mind (Not Your Body)'. Issued on EMI, it got loads of radio play, but never charted and, as far as I know, isn't available anywhere now - unless anyone out there knows otherwise ...?
Always found that lyric about, 'puppy dog tails in the House of Lords' a bit strange. Don't know what that was all about. Mind you I've often wondered what Life On Mars by Bowie was supposed to be about, too.
Wont that lyric from the 1987 song Once Upon A Long Ago ?
Also "coming up" in the spring is the excellent follow up by Wings which made the top 5, and with a little luck we shall be seeing and hearing "With A Little Luck".
For a solo effort by Mac, try Take It Away, a 1982 hit. Waterfalls was classy in 1980 too. I've always just loved Ebony & Ivory too, and the piano keys video.
We may be jumping to 26th January 1978 next week, but those haters of Mull Of Kintyre can hate just a bit longer, we may jump three weeks but it will still be at No1! For its 9th and final week.
Regards the 1987 Mac hit Once Upon A Long Ago, his final Top Ten solo effort to date, I've mentioned it before, but for any newcomers the amazing fact that both McCartney, and George Harrison left the Top Ten with a new song for the final time in exactly the same week in late 1987.
(22) ODYSSEY – Native New Yorker (and charts)
Good
(NEW) EDDIE & THE HOTRODS – Quit This Town
Not as good as Do Anything, way off the mark
(19) JULIE COVINGTON – Only Women Bleed (video)
Good musical, made me blush in my youth:o
(NEW) LONG TALL ERNIE & THE SHAKERS – Do You Remember
Makes Terry Wogan look good
(13) DAVID SOUL – Let’s Have A Quiet Night In (danced to by Legs & Co)
Like those rugs but the song :yawn:
(NEW) THE BABYS – Isn’t It Time
Good one
(28) TERRY WOGAN – The Floral Dance
LOL, you have to laugh
(NEW) TONIGHT – Drummer Man
Not bad, The Majorettes song
(23) BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS – Jamming (video)
Bouncing Bob Marley - good one
(NEW) BROTHERHOOD OF MAN – Figaro
Dross
(1) WINGS – Mull Of Kintyre (video)
Christmas hangover #
Althea and Donna - Uptown Top Ranking
Good one
As previously mentioned, it seems the best music was used as the intro and outro most annoyingly. The Odyssey track is the best on this edition by a mile. After this hit, strangely they waited until Summer 1980 for the next hit, a No1!
Whoever the heck Long Tall Ernie & The Shakers were, the only question crossing my mind as I watched them was which pub near to TV Centre they had dragged them out of and into the studio that day? I immediately noticed the Chris Ecclestone likeness too. Never in a million years should they have been on TOTP with such patent amateur rubbish. Couldn't even mime, my God.
I think David Soul was pushing his luck by now. He should have just kept it at 3 singles, then his chart career would look quite impressive, with a 1-2-1. Nice set Legs & Co had to prance around this week.
The Baby's, it was a few moments before it clicked that I was looking at John "Missin You" Waite. Know nothing of the group, but quite enjoyed the record, enough to give it a second listen. Red trousers too! All the rage at the moment, and I got a pair just like that for Xmas. :cool:
Wogan just knew he was taking the P, if he was taking himself seriously then I would have been more worried. How he manages to look essentially exactly the same today as back then is lucky on him. No Wigon there I think!
Tonight's lead singer immediately reminded me of Roger Daltrey and The Who in his performance. The song was nothing though.
After Figaro I think we can say goodbye to Brotherhood Of Man as a major singles success group, bar some minor hit later in '78, which I've no idea what it goes like.
Just before Peter Powell introduced the No1 by Wings I suddenly did a double take, and a triple take, as the unexpected features of Bruno Brookes stared almost menacingly into my TV screen from the right! He was planning his future TOTP and Top 40 domination right there and then! I wonder if he knew Powell even at that point, and that is how he got on the show. After all, didn't Powell become his manager/agent later on?
It was an odd TOTP this 5th January edition. All over the place. For the first time it is almost possible to say that this weeks Top 10 might just be better than back then? After all, nothing of the David Bowie calibre was on tonight was it!
As I didn't actually see this tonight, it's not the one where they showed a cartoon video to the song, is it? I seem to recall something from the time about TOTP playing Native New Yorker over a strange cartoon video set in a high-class New York hotel, set somewhere in the 1920s-40s. It looked like an old cartoon that seemed to fit the song, or had been edited to.
Have a look at the list of number 1s to come from 1978
Up town top ranking............................Althia and Donna
Figaro..................................................Brotherhood of Man
Take a Chance on Me.........................Abba
Wuthering Heights...............................Kate Bush
Matchstick men and matchstick...........Brian and Michael (5 weeks of that!!!!)
Night Fever..........................................Bee Gees
Rivers of Babylon................................Boney M
You're the one that i want....................Olivia Newton John & John Travolta
Three Times a Lady.............................Commodores
Dreadlock Holiday................................10CC
Summer Nights....................................Olivia Newton John & John Travolta
Rat Trap...............................................Boomtown Rats
Do ya Think I'm Sexy...........................Rod Stewart
Mary's Boy Child..................................Boney M
FootyGirl I really think you should hide that behind a spoiler, as although many already know that list, some will not want it spoilt beforehand. Oh, and by the way, Brian & Michael were 3 weeks top, not 5, unless you mean TOTP performances? My first ever record.
Thanks Phoenix for the Waterfalls link. Never seen that video that I can recall. The track sounded even better than I last remembered, and didn't Paul look so young even though it was by then the 80's! That track is just the kind I could have imagined (excuse pun) Lennon writing too. :cool:
FootyGirl I really think you should hide that behind a spoiler, as although many already know that list, some will not want it spoilt beforehand. Oh, and by the way, Brian & Michael were 3 weeks top, not 5, unless you mean TOTP performances? My first ever record.
Thanks Phoenix for the Waterfalls link. Never seen that video that I can recall. The track sounded even better than I last remembered, and didn't Paul look so young even though it was by then the 80's! That track is just the kind I could have imagined (excuse pun) Lennon writing too. :cool:
FootyGirl I really think you should hide that behind a spoiler, as although many already know that list, some will not want it spoilt beforehand.
I can understand people not wanting to know what will be on TOTP next week but not putting up a list of number ones or other chart details seems a bit extreme. After all its exactly the information that people used to buy the Guinness Book of Hit Singles to have..Indeed many people take delight in talking about chart data.
I'm holding my original vinyl copy from 1978 in my hands right now, the smell of the vinyl, the aroma of the cover, aahh, but I can pass on playing it I think! I even recall them doing the song on Blue Peter back then, as well as TOTP. Not sure why Lowry was all the rage back then, even though he had passed away a couple of years before. We used to talk about him a lot in school for some reason. At home we had a long picture of a single matchstick man in black, and nothing else, framed in the front room.
I'm holding my original vinyl copy from 1978 in my hands right now, the smell of the vinyl, the aroma of the cover, aahh, but I can pass on playing it I think! I even recall them doing the song on Blue Peter back then, as well as TOTP. Not sure why Lowry was all the rage back then, even though he had passed away a couple of years before. We used to talk about him a lot in school for some reason. At home we had a long picture of a single matchstick man in black, and nothing else, framed in the front room.
If I remember correctly thr St Winfired's SC were the backing vocals on that song
Two years respite before they re-surfaced with in my opinion is a hideous song:eek:
And the fabulous Abba had a disco classic out in 1978
I can understand people not wanting to know what will be on TOTP next week but not putting up a list of number ones or other chart details seems a bit extreme. After all its exactly the information that people used to buy the Guinness Book of Hit Singles to have..Indeed many people take delight in talking about chart data.
I don't disagree with a word you have said above TUC, and I am just the same, but one click reveals all, but if you didn't want to see it, then you can't un-view it.
Which reminds me, where is our resident chart geek Ian, aka Highlander69, my TOTP BBC4 twin?:D I was hoping he'd be back tonight with the start of the shows proper again.
Comments
Long Tall Ernie and the Shakers.... from Holland
Long Tall Eddie & The Shakers..........it seems Eddie is no more as well
http://themusicsover.com/2010/08/25/arnie-treffers/
Back in 1984 some DJ said on the radio that John Waite was Britt Ekland's ex-boyfriend and he wrote 'Missing You' about her.
I heard two different recordings of that song on the radio in 1984: a ballad (:)) and a rocked-up "disco" version (:()
Always found that lyric about, 'puppy dog tails in the House of Lords' a bit strange. Don't know what that was all about. Mind you I've often wondered what Life On Mars by Bowie was supposed to be about, too.
The music press at the behest of the music industry, who were desperate to get some returns on the thousands they'd spent signing up punk bands who, with the exception of the Stranglers, hadn't shown much consistency in shifting units ...
Tonight's hits were produced by Andy Arthurs, who had by this time already started producing 999 and was previously an engineer on Band On The Run (spot the connection in relation to this week's show
Wont that lyric from the 1987 song Once Upon A Long Ago ?
Makes a change.
It may have been. I may be mixing them up. Haven't heard either for a long while.
Also "coming up" in the spring is the excellent follow up by Wings which made the top 5, and with a little luck we shall be seeing and hearing "With A Little Luck".
For a solo effort by Mac, try Take It Away, a 1982 hit. Waterfalls was classy in 1980 too. I've always just loved Ebony & Ivory too, and the piano keys video.
We may be jumping to 26th January 1978 next week, but those haters of Mull Of Kintyre can hate just a bit longer, we may jump three weeks but it will still be at No1! For its 9th and final week.
Regards the 1987 Mac hit Once Upon A Long Ago, his final Top Ten solo effort to date, I've mentioned it before, but for any newcomers the amazing fact that both McCartney, and George Harrison left the Top Ten with a new song for the final time in exactly the same week in late 1987.
A Song For All Seasons isn't a chart single - but Northern Lights should be on screen in July this year (1978/2013, this is!) ...
Very good track! I get the impression not widely recalled, but one of his solo best, in my view!
A reminder below.
Paul McCartney, Waterfalls
As previously mentioned, it seems the best music was used as the intro and outro most annoyingly. The Odyssey track is the best on this edition by a mile. After this hit, strangely they waited until Summer 1980 for the next hit, a No1!
Whoever the heck Long Tall Ernie & The Shakers were, the only question crossing my mind as I watched them was which pub near to TV Centre they had dragged them out of and into the studio that day? I immediately noticed the Chris Ecclestone likeness too. Never in a million years should they have been on TOTP with such patent amateur rubbish. Couldn't even mime, my God.
I think David Soul was pushing his luck by now. He should have just kept it at 3 singles, then his chart career would look quite impressive, with a 1-2-1. Nice set Legs & Co had to prance around this week.
The Baby's, it was a few moments before it clicked that I was looking at John "Missin You" Waite. Know nothing of the group, but quite enjoyed the record, enough to give it a second listen. Red trousers too! All the rage at the moment, and I got a pair just like that for Xmas. :cool:
Wogan just knew he was taking the P, if he was taking himself seriously then I would have been more worried. How he manages to look essentially exactly the same today as back then is lucky on him. No Wigon there I think!
Tonight's lead singer immediately reminded me of Roger Daltrey and The Who in his performance. The song was nothing though.
After Figaro I think we can say goodbye to Brotherhood Of Man as a major singles success group, bar some minor hit later in '78, which I've no idea what it goes like.
Just before Peter Powell introduced the No1 by Wings I suddenly did a double take, and a triple take, as the unexpected features of Bruno Brookes stared almost menacingly into my TV screen from the right! He was planning his future TOTP and Top 40 domination right there and then! I wonder if he knew Powell even at that point, and that is how he got on the show. After all, didn't Powell become his manager/agent later on?
It was an odd TOTP this 5th January edition. All over the place. For the first time it is almost possible to say that this weeks Top 10 might just be better than back then? After all, nothing of the David Bowie calibre was on tonight was it!
Love that track!
As I didn't actually see this tonight, it's not the one where they showed a cartoon video to the song, is it? I seem to recall something from the time about TOTP playing Native New Yorker over a strange cartoon video set in a high-class New York hotel, set somewhere in the 1920s-40s. It looked like an old cartoon that seemed to fit the song, or had been edited to.
Figaro..................................................Brotherhood of Man
Take a Chance on Me.........................Abba
Wuthering Heights...............................Kate Bush
Matchstick men and matchstick...........Brian and Michael (5 weeks of that!!!!)
Night Fever..........................................Bee Gees
Rivers of Babylon................................Boney M
You're the one that i want....................Olivia Newton John & John Travolta
Three Times a Lady.............................Commodores
Dreadlock Holiday................................10CC
Summer Nights....................................Olivia Newton John & John Travolta
Rat Trap...............................................Boomtown Rats
Do ya Think I'm Sexy...........................Rod Stewart
Mary's Boy Child..................................Boney M
Thanks Phoenix for the Waterfalls link. Never seen that video that I can recall. The track sounded even better than I last remembered, and didn't Paul look so young even though it was by then the 80's! That track is just the kind I could have imagined (excuse pun) Lennon writing too. :cool:
Edit; Good one FootyGirl!
Edited - 3 weeks - it felt longer:eek:
I can understand people not wanting to know what will be on TOTP next week but not putting up a list of number ones or other chart details seems a bit extreme. After all its exactly the information that people used to buy the Guinness Book of Hit Singles to have..Indeed many people take delight in talking about chart data.
I'm holding my original vinyl copy from 1978 in my hands right now, the smell of the vinyl, the aroma of the cover, aahh, but I can pass on playing it I think! I even recall them doing the song on Blue Peter back then, as well as TOTP. Not sure why Lowry was all the rage back then, even though he had passed away a couple of years before. We used to talk about him a lot in school for some reason. At home we had a long picture of a single matchstick man in black, and nothing else, framed in the front room.
If I remember correctly thr St Winfired's SC were the backing vocals on that song
Two years respite before they re-surfaced with in my opinion is a hideous song:eek:
And the fabulous Abba had a disco classic out in 1978
I don't disagree with a word you have said above TUC, and I am just the same, but one click reveals all, but if you didn't want to see it, then you can't un-view it.
Which reminds me, where is our resident chart geek Ian, aka Highlander69, my TOTP BBC4 twin?:D I was hoping he'd be back tonight with the start of the shows proper again.