... the hills are alive with "The Sound Of Music". Quite a wonderful film, and I love the sweeping intro to the film! Julie Andrews sings possibly THE best intro to any film.

Absolutely glorious!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fH2FOn1V5g

And that's before we start to sing "doe, a deer, a female deer..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLm07s8fnzM

Horrible advert. My nan always used to give me a large box of maltesers in my Christmas stocking each year and very occasionally when I've bought a box (it has to be large and when on an offer - they're well overpriced) nowadays it always reminds me of her. Why do I need some tacky sexual innuendo in an ad for sweets of all things? No thanks. Another pet hate of mine from modern TV ads is that they just keep using already well know pop songs to flog products, whereas in the old days the ad agencies would compose their own little memorable ditties instead. A current one that annoys me is Queen's Flash. You can guess what it sells. Infact quite a few of Queen's singles have been used now. Not impressed. I'm also appalled by that festive John Lewis advert wrecking one of my all time favourite singles by one of my all time favourite artists - the glorious No2 we saw in September 1980 from Miss Randy Crawford, One Day I'll Fly Away. That song can NEVER be bettered or even equalled.

I much prefer this hilariously topical spoof which is very funny - https://youtu.be/fPRWNAr3EbQ

Also I was in Superdrug this evening in CMK and as I entered I was greeted by Le Freak by Chic coming out through the audio rather well, which I'll mention due to the Chic love going on here. Some tracks will actively drive me out of a shop almost instantly but Chic will keep me lingering. As for listing a top ten of Nile Rogers produced material I won't bother because it's just impossible to list, although definitely Thinking Of You by Sister Sledge would be in the top three. I had no idea until reading on here that Carly Simon's Why? was a Chic production. Somehow that passed me by but I'll now be adding the composers to my iTunes info for that single. It doesn't sound obviously Rodgers & Edwards to me I must say. It's a surprise to learn it only struggled to No74 Stateside on the Billboard American Hot 100 Chart. So far there has not been a bad word for this song from at least 10 of us on here.

I think the chorus to "Why" has a hypnotic way of drawing the listener in, and its repetition, ties in perfectly with its obsessional type lyric. At least it does with me. Unlike many songs from 82, this song grows with repeated listens, and the more i hear it, the more profound its meaning. Yes, it may be a bit of a slow burner compared with some of Chic's more uptempo tracks, but that is probably true of a number of the best songs in music generally. I can recall "Why" being played quite consistently on radio in around this period, and it tended to stick with me, while others fell by the wayside. It certainly possesses that seductive quality, which can be found in all the best Chic tracks. It is quite different to the 'No Secrets' era Carly Simon, when she was sometimes compared to the likes of Carole King in the singer/songwriter genre of the early seventies. I wonder how much her husband at the time, James Taylor, influenced her in that direction?

Yes I agree - it really trivialises the song when some of these great classics are used to sell cleaning products or a shop brand food. I notice however, that rarely are the original songs used - often just a watered down karaoke version, (possibly because of royalty costs & possibly because the songwriter doesn't want the actual original to be used on a cleaning product)!!
However, having said that, the one good thing about this is that it may be the only time these songs are heard by the youth of today & if it only takes one or two teenagers to enquire what the advert song was that they're listening to - then that could open up a whole new audience for the artist.

One song that gets used a lot, on adverts & TV but always comes across quite nicely, is Tears for Fears' 'Mad World'. I've always liked that song ever since I first saw it on TOTP in 1982 & I think it shows what a well written song it is that whatever the arrangement - it always comes across as a great tune!

I think the version of One Day I'll Fly Away by Vaults, as featured on the John Lewis advert, is rather gorgeous.

Full version...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqqmzBWjO4g

I think it is Bernard Edwards who is doing vocals on ''Happy Man''.

The song i have always enjoyed is ''A Warm Summer Night'' from the 'Risque' album. It is a rather exquisite ballad, that sits wonderfully well on the first side of the record between the the more uptempo singles, ''Good Times'' and My Feet Keep Dancing''. In a sense, it is hardly a master class in lyric writing, as the words are minimal, but the song really doesn't need to be, because it has such a seductive quality. It reminds me a little of the kind of thing Barry White was doing earlier in the decade with The Love Unlimited Orchestra.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9IatdfP_W8

For me, 'Why' is a brilliant combination of performance and musicianship: the hypnotic vocal is matched by an equally hypnotic musical track (especially the bass line - more brilliance from Bernard Edwards). And there's an ambiguity about the lyrics - parts of it feel like 'a woman scorned', but there are suggestions it's about an affair ('You said our love was secret'), with conflict between hurt and resentment. A great piece of work.

Although 'Why' is on the soundtrack for the movie Soup For One, it isn't actually featured in the film. The title track by Chic made no impact when released as a single in 1982 - but everyone will know it as it was sampled by French dance act Modjo on their noughties Number One 'Lady (Hear Me Tonight)' … the Chic back catalogue just keeps on giving.

Yes, with particular regard to "Why"s bass line, it is another of those songs, i feel, that could have made quite an easy transition into reggae form.

And did …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l_q1pHXJs4

Steely & Clevie produced Dawn Penn's 90s Top Ten hit 'No, No. No'. 'Why' makes an easy crossover as a reggae track - but this has none of the haunting qualities the original has …

I have only just caught up with the last 2 editions, after having read this thread.

Am amazed at the "John Wayne" performance. I remember the song (as a 14 year old) as being a bit odd and the band jumping around the stage, but had no idea of the lyric contents and actions being so obvious. Maybe, as another poster said, it was a different and more innocent time. The singer, Jeremy, looked disturbingly grubby and sleazy I thought, Patsy Kensit was married to him very briefly a few years ago?

I watched the Simple MInds concert/interview on the red button as well. I have seen them live a couple of times, once in 1989 at Wembly and again in 2009 in Liverpool. They are a great live band, and I also enjoy listening to Jim Kerr talk in interviews, he has the most calm and relaxing speaking voice. Another of Patsy's exes as well!

Is Eye of the Tiger next for the top spot? I noticed they had sneaked into the lower reaches of the chart.

Not long to the penultimate Jam single, The Bitterest Pill, I think it was released the week before school started back in September. I have mentioned this before, but the lead singer of the Belle Stars sang backing vocals on that track and seeing them perform reminded me.

I agree with you about Simple Minds - great live band.

I didn't know Patsy was also married to Jeremy!?! Although she did have a name a few years back for 'marrying available popstars' so you never know. I could never quite understand how she could swap Jim Kerr for Liam Gallagher - but there's nowt as queer as folk as they say!!

The BIB is what I think about it when I'm writing the blighter, as it can often go into a few hours of rewriting to make it relatively half-decent and not repeating both myself and others too much. I wish I could write it off the cuff, but forensically examining the content of the Pops with unruly cheerleaders takes some effort!

Nothing much gets past my fellow forumites so it's surprising I've anything left to comment on!

Despite some writing to the contrary, the Capers hopefully comes across as an affectionate portrait of the show & the artists and performers contained within.

It's certainly meant to be, and I hope it puts a wry slant on proceedings & is enjoyable to most despite clogging up the DS Servers

Like I'd imagine a large proportion of the population (borne out from the viewing figures of the time), as an impressionable young teen TOTP was 'must-see' TV and one of the first ports of call for culture, style & fashion for myself and no doubt millions of other people from a host of demographics eager to find out what the next big thing would be.

I'm unsure how Rene & Renato would fit in to this equation, but the Charts of yesteryear have a habit of throwing up some clunking anomalies which leave the listener scratching their heads, but all the better for it as it's a lot more interesting (IMO) than the alternative of having X-Factor clones clogging up the airwaves, which is what seems to pass for the playlists of most radio in the 21st Century. Maybe it's an age thing.

Thankfully there's plenty of other outlets to investigate as an antidote to such mind-numbing tedium and a very large shovel is needed to clear out some of the dross, although there are are some guilty pleasures hidden within.

Re the humour contained within the Capers, I'm a massive fan of classic comedy, and my own preferences are for the often surreal & sometimes thought-provoking kind of writing & performing perpetrated by the following (highlights for me in brackets and in no particular order)

Les Dawson (spinning a story with an often poetic use of vocabulary)
Larry Grayson (Generation Game & the antics of his created characters-Slack Alice, Pop-it-in Pete the Postman etc.)
Perry & Croft (Dad's Army)
Galton & Simpson (Hancock)
Clement & La Frenais (Whatever Happened To the Likely Lads)
Eddie Braben (Morecambe & Wise)
Dick Emery (the Vicar)
Billy Connolly (the minutae of ordinary life transformed into the extraordinary)

Too many others to mention from past eras, but a bit more recently...

Harry Hill (TV Burp)
Dom Joly (Trigger Happy TV)
Peter Kay (Phoenix Nights)
Alexei Sayle (Bobby Chariot)
David Renwick (One Foot in the Grave)

Another Capers is on the way and a User Guide is unnecessary...

This is all true. Like many of Patsy's romantic adventures, it didn't last long. I think there's a bit of a troubled soul lurking in there …

She also dated Nick Heywood, after appearing in the video for Nobody's Fool, (if Smash Hits was to be believed at the time) she must have been quite young then..

- Nobody's Fool was out in 1982 - so she would've only been about 14! - Now I know Nick Heyward always looks young - but I doubt he was that young or age at the time, which means he would've been an adult - unless of course, they dated a couple of years later on.

Ahh Nick Heyward, my first crush. He was soon replaced by Martin Kemp who still holds a place in my heart

I may be mistaken, it was a long time ago.

But I think it's fair to say that Patsy was in the world of celeb from a young age, mixing with popular bands/singers/actors of that time, so dating someone of that type was probably normal for her.

She's certainly made a habit of it …

Re. John Wayne Is Big Leggy, I think it used to be the case that you could get away with almost anything as long as it wasn't overt. Most of the "boring old farts" in charge of censorship were old-fashioned types who were actually a bit innocent and wouldn't understand what anything was about unless it was spelt out in plain English. It took someone a bit younger like Mike Read to realise what Relax by FGTH was all about for example.

Re. Why by Carly Simon, the track must have been almost forgotten for a long time because I was interested in pop music from the mid-80s to about the year 2000 and I didn't hear it once or know of anyone making any reference to it during the whole of that time. The first time I heard it was at an NEC show about five years ago. Obviously it had come back into fashion. I wouldn't have guessed it was from 1982 when I first heard it. It sounded a bit more modern.

'Why' was revived on the Balearic scene in the late 80s, earning it a re-release in 1989, when it charted again (peaking at number 56). Then it was sampled by A Tribe Called Quest, as mentioned above, in the 90s. So less forgotten than you might imagine …

Just Googled and found quite an extensive Wikipedia entry about the song …

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne_Is_Big_Leggy

I love that Boy George quote at the end - v funny! But I'm surprised he praised the track - Culture Club's first two singles were way better than 'John Wayne Is Big Leggy' …

As the NME said in 1992, the lah-di-dah-di-dah bit of Why? contains more emotional angst than the entire works of Kafka

I love Why? and everything Rodgers/Edwards really but My Forbidden Lover will always be my favourite. What a groove

Like many kids back in the sixties I was forced to endure that film at the cinema. Managed to avoid it ever since.

I don't think Why is a slow burner, as I said it's catchy and that helps make it an 'earworm'. But that kind of song is always double edged, hear it too much and it could get annoying for some people. I think it's famous and so generally liked and remembered because of the catchiness (you could call it a 'quick burner') but I don't think that necessarily means that most of those people think it's one of the very best records of 82.

The cover Brummy Girl brought up doesn't really add anything to it for me, it still just plays on the la di da and the chorus, the earworm bits. If anything they try and take the focus off that as the rap has more emotion, but the catchiness of the tune is what people will focus on anyway. The production in the original I think helped it become more widely popular and radio friendly as it's quite smoothed over in the mainstream US style, not that edgy.

Chic at their best have more energy I think, their famous songs are dance music. The focus in Why is very much the vocal hooks and I think most of those who are asked about it would comment on that. I've never really heard of Why being considered a great dance song, most people wouldn't think that way.