That Gap Band 'thing' has to be one of the most pointless pieces of garbage ever to appear on vinyl.

Thanks Ian. Imagine buying a CD in the full knowledge that you are getting crackles with it!

It was a set for completists who wanted to say that they had every Top 50 track on CD, but it was unfortunate that it had to stop with 1962. In general the quality is excellent. While we are mentioning Garry Mills, his top 20 hit Look For A Star features on the 1960 edition. At the time there was also the same song released in the U.S. by a Garry MILES strangely enough, and this incorrect version appears on this collection, but listed as Garry MILLS. Apart from that, excellent collections, with the later years released by two companies, Acrobat and then the superior Fantastic Voyage versions.

I'd never heard of Garry Mills, so looked him up while POTP was on. At first I thought he was an American because of the spelling of the name. Still looks good. So many acts having hits in 1961 were born in 1941. My mother has half the 1961 chart on vinyl in her record cabinet still, from then. She has 8 or 9 of the No1 singles from '61. I always consider it her year! She looked just like Helen Shapiro back then too, didn't a lot of girls seem to, was/is the same age and bought both her chart toppers. I'm going to make sure she watches TOTP 1979 next Thursday when her beloved Cliff Richard is No1. She bought that too!

Thought of you Rich t'other day when my Ipod shuffle spewed out Sir Clit's finest moment on the bus home from work

On his Top 10 hit Look For A Star, on the vinyl single it is spelt Garry, but on the track played today I'll Step Down, it is spelt Gary. Right, think we must be all Garry Mills'd out now, or we will be boring people!

I'm not sure whether I should be flattered or freaked out by that admission JBO!

As far as His Majesty King Sir Cliff is concerned I am only an enthusiast for a certain small period out of his half century plus of hitmaking. Broadly speaking the late 70's and 80's. You won't find me jigging away to efforts like Goodbye Sam Hello Samantha, Congratulations, Millennium Prayer or any of his 1961 forgettable hits anytime soon.

I was just walking down the mall where he skated in Wired For Sound earlier. Hallowed ground is that.......outside John Lewis at Milton Keynes Shopping Centre! Needless to say I have that video on my iPod. That track and its sentiments are still as utterly relevant today as in the early 80's. Cliff is cool, if you pick and choose wisely.

Still a guaranteed floor-filler as any DJ can attest to.

Hey David, don't you think there is always room for the occasional nonsense titled record? Oops Upside Your Head is an okay dance sound, even if the title and apparent dance that goes with it leaves me cold. Anyway, you're the one who has previously taken umbrage at a track called Sha-La-La-La-La-La-Le by Small Faces only officially being No3 when you assert it was really No1. Surely it's every bit as pointless nonsense as Gap Band when you think about it logically for a moment!

Flattered, of course


Wired For Sound is up there of course, but it's no Carrie

That area looks scarily the same today as it did in 1981! Unless you notice there's nothing outside the centre then compared to today!

I actually think the Centre:MK should play that song permanently down there as a tribute

Along with We Don't Talk Anymore, Carrie, I Just Don't Have The Heart, Stronger Than That & Devil Woman, it is Harry Webb at his finest!

Just out of interest, I wonder which of the city's subways he skates through in the video, with the black girl in his leathers?!?

You are not wrong there. The inside skating bit is identical in every way. Where there was nothingness in 1981 outside that is now the MK Theatre. He was also skating around the new business district in the outside daytime shots, the mobus strip is still there. The underpass at night is hard to tell exactly as there are many in the central area much the same as that. Not too far from the shopping area or business district looks likely. Who was his black lady dancing companion I wonder? So much was still under construction at the time, the nearby station didn't open till the following year. Even now there is plenty being built, and amazingly a few waste patches waiting development even in Central Milton Keynes itself. I've grown up with it since a baby from scratch. Notice for a split second in the video he even briefly drove around one of the hundreds of roundabouts!

If anyone knows of any other reasonably well known music videos that have been filmed in MK then I'd sure love to know. There must have been others, surely? I love the simplicity of some of these videos of that time, unlike the over polished and produced homogenous ones nowadays.

Carrie, so much love of this 1980 hit on here, I agree too, so why is it virtually never heard on radio? Very odd considering it is one of his very credible tracks.

Hi Rich. I would agree with you if the whole song consisted of nothing more than Sha La La La Lee but it doesn't.

Does anyone think that this show could play a few less of Tony's favourite disco /soul /motown stuff as every time I listen the shows seem to be full of it

David, I actually went to the trouble of checking out the full lyrics to that song before I posted my comment in your direction! It still felt appropriate I thought, even after checking them all out.

I really was having a Lazy Sunday yesterday.


Is anyone else here surprised that Tony is not playing 1964 this coming weekend? After all it is his 50th anniversary of broadcasting on radio in the coming few days isn't it, yet he's doing 1979 and 1986 at the weekend. I'm a bit surprised POTP did not grab the obvious opportunity that anniversary presented.

July 19 1980
40 MARIANA - GIBSON BROTHERS - Although I like this, I do think their other hits were better. I do find the singer's shouty vocals quite scary, though.
38 OOPS UP SIDE YOUR HEAD - GAP BAND - This brings back memories of doing the row boat "dance" to this at family parties as child, although the lyrics certainly went over my head at the time!
31 UPSIDE DOWN - DIANA ROSS - There was no way Tony would skip Diana, which I know will have annoyed some listeners, but I really think this is one of her best singles, and a shame it couldn't quite make it to No. 1.
20 THERE THERE MY DEAR - DEXY'S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS - While I won't moan about this being played, for those who don't like the disco hits, I've cetainly no desire to hear this one again in a hurry.
19 EMOTIONAL RESCUE - ROLLING STONES - No, really can't stand this one either, though they still had another decent hit still left in them at this point - Start It Up.
16 LET'S HANG ON - DARTS - They should have packed up well before this. My fave version of this song is definitely the Barry Manilow cover from the following year.
14 EVERYBODY'S GOT TO LEARN SOMETIME - KORGIS - I'm not sure off-hand if they had any other hits aside from this and If I Had You, but they are both really good singles and this one, in particular, has certainly endured.
11 TO BE OR NOT TO BE - B.A. ROBERTSON - This is one of BA's songs that he sings himself that I do actually like.
10 MORE THAN I CAN SAY - LEO SAYER - While You Make Me Feel Like Dancing will always be my fave Leo single, I think this is a decent effort from him and not a surprise it gave him a big hit.
08 CRYING - DON MCLEAN - I think this and the Roy Obison verision are both great - though it's hard not to hear the song now and not think of the Only Fools And Horses version!
07 BABOOSHKA - KATE BUSH - I'm sure I've said before that I'm not a huge Kate Bush fan, but don't mind this one. Maybe it's because I like the story to it.
05 COULD YOU BE LOVED - BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS - Can't say I've been won over by the Bob Marley songs I didn't know that have been on the TOTP repeats, but this is one I do like. That's probably because it's played more often on the radio.
04 CUPID - I'VE LOVED YOU FOR A LONG TIME (MEDLEY) - DETROIT SPINNERS - I only discovered this song when collecting mp3 singles of every top 10 single of the 80s and totally and utterly fell in love in with it. Such a sweet, feel-good, song.
03 JUMP TO THE BEAT - STACY LATTISAW - I've already declared my love for this song. It still sounds great today. It is hard to believe that she was so young when she recorded it. Obviously people had the good sense to realise what a cool and credible song it is, no matter the age of the singer.
02 USE IT UP AND WEAR IT OUT - ODYSSEY - I've no idea what exactaly it is they're going to use up and wear out, but there's no denyting that this is a fantastic disco track. I actually think it would be even better minus the whistles!
01 XANADU - OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN / ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA - An absolutely magical sounding song! It's such tragedy that a film that has such a fantastic soundtrack is so terrible.

Not Played
20 - BACK TOGETHER AGAIN - ROBERTA FLACK AND DONNY HATHAWAY - This is yet another one of those puzzling songs for me that I like if I hear it on the radio (though it wasn't in this case) but forget about immediately afterwards and I don't know why.
17 LOVE WILL TEAR US APART - JOY DIVISION - Quite disappointed this wasn't played, though a bit too dark a song for me to want to listen to that often.
15 SIMON TEMPLAR/TWO PINTS OF LAGER AND A PACKET OF CRISPS PLEASE - SPLODGENESSABOUNDS - It would've made my day to have heard Two Pints Of Lager... As I've said before, what's the point of a retro chart show if you're not going to play lesser heard songs.
13 747 (STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT) SAXON - Like some hard rock songs, but this isn't really my cup of tea. This could've been played, though, to give the chart some variety.
12 FUNKY TOWN - LIPPS INC - Wow, this chart really was spoilt with classic diso tracks. Love this, and the Puesdo Echo version too.
09 PAUL MCCARTNEY - While this should probably have been played, I'm sure Tony has played this I think all the other times he's done a chart that it has featured in. I much prefer his big hit from this year, Coming Up.
06 UB40 - I gave this a listen, as I couldn't remember it off-hand, but, One In Ten aside, none of UB40's earlier hits really grab me. Forgettable.

I have always liked The Rolling Stones 'Emotional Rescue' single. It is a rather unusual offering from the Stones, which shows they were not merely prepared to coast on more typical Stones styled retro sounds. The song is an unusual amalgamation of more contemporary late seventies styles. Maybe Jagger had been influenced by Barry Gibb in his falsetto vocals, although the overall feel isn't that closely related to the Bee Gees. The Emotional Rescue album wasn't very good though, and especially when Jagger attempted to emulate Jimmy Pursey's punk credentials on 'Where The Boys Go'. I would agree though that 'Start Me Up' and the Tattoo You album from 1981 were the last things the Stones released with any real artistic merit. After that it was downhill all the way.

Goodbye Sam Hello Samantha isn't bad. But Wired for Sound is absolutely dire. One of the all time worst singles. "I Like Tall Speakers / I Like Small Speakers". Dreadful. And cassettes certainly aren't relevant today.

Agree with all those except of course, as per my previous post, the abysmal Wired for Sound. I would add All My Love from the 60s plus two classics from 1976, Miss You Nights and best of all I Can't Ask For Anymore Than You, Cliff's greatest ever single. (Surprised the anti SAW brigade, led by General Rich Tea, haven't had a go at you for daring to like the brilliant I Just Don't Have the Heart!)

Most Cliff songs I dislike and I think he is a dreadful individual, but 'Wired for Sound' I can listen to and never tire of. It's cheesy yes, and of its time of course, but combined with the camp video it's just a fun, happy song

ClareB - rather than taking up space by quoting your whole post, just to say I agree with you much more than I disagree and especially with your comments on the Top 4 and in particular Number 4. Indeed, such an uplifting record and whoever thought to make a medley of those two songs was inspired.

Where the mighty SAW are concerned, I'll always fight my corner

I actually liked that IJDHTH back in August 1989 even as a teen surprisingly, and I only heard one of the follow-ups Stronger Than That about a year ago and I found it just as catchy as it's a true SAW feel-good song

Fair enough, each to their own choices. Like I said I personally hate it. But Cliff has released so many singles that by the law of averages most people will like at least a few although both of us agree that it is only a few! But to be fair his better ones are very good.

100% agree! Us SAW fans need to stick together against the unbelievers!

Very true! I think his vast back catalogue and the mostly unfair lack of radio airplay he gets means so many Cliff songs get forgotten.

'She's so Beautiful' from 1985 is also a decent song but is largely ignored