Incidentally, if anyone is wondering who Graduate were (that are listed in my post above) they included both members of Tears For Fears who were formed in 1981 after Graduate split up. The Elvis mentioned that should be playing ska is Elvis Costello.

Anyone else remember this great song that missed the top 75 in March 1980?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oUqRXz9KkA

The channel "Yesterday" had an old top of the pops the other day so keep an eye on their schedules too.

Ironic given that 2 of the 3 examples of bad music you mentioned are American! Alternatively we got ABC, Yazoo and Tears for Fears. And i know what i'd prefer to that American snooze fest. And so did the Yanks considering the second British invasion of their charts was about to start

I still don't believe 'Thriller' to be an exceptional album, for all its success. There is probably one truly exceptional song, and that is "Billie Jean", although there is little doubt many of the tracks are pretty catchy and work to a large degree. I quite like "Human Nature", too. However, it was the combination of Jackson blending R+B with rock, and making music that was multi faceted racially, that made MTV feel that it was impossible for them to overlook (and i am especially referring to "Beat It"), and then also Jackson being able to blend a storyboard type video, with his choreographed dance moves that really sealed the deal (the American Werewolf style video to "Thriller" the title track in particular). "Thriller" is still a better album for me, than the follow up, 'Bad', even if i do feel it is less of a classic album, song for song, than many would have you believe. I think though, Jackson inadvertently set the template for all those manufactured acts glossy dance videos, that very much in the years since, have represented style over substance. The power of the music video became all important like never before after 'Thriller' set the trail. Madonna's success especially, owes so much to it.

Wow!! Interesting read!! - I presume the 10,000 is made up of both old & new & download tracks etc?!

I wouldn't have thought there'd be more than one or two hundred songs released each week up & down the country by various acts - I could be wrong though.
I also would've thought that if these artists are barely scraping into the Top 100 with their songs that they wouldn't hold on to a record contract for too long! Even big name bands and X Factor winners have been dropped when they fail to make the Top 40 consistently.

Yes - so true! Billie Jean, Thriller & Human Nature are the only real stand out tracks on 'Thriller' - the rest is "filler" as they say. Out of all the 50+ million sales of the album - I have never owned a copy, nor ever had the urge to buy a copy either!

Regarding Michael Jackson & Madonna (the King & Queen of Pop music through the 80s and beyond) - I always thought one - Michael - started off with really strong singles, at the start of the decade, that got worse & worse over time, whereas Madonna - started off with teeny bubblegum pop which mainly became more mature & advanced over time - well up until the Noughties anyway!

Agree - and I'd add that there was infinitely more exciting and influential music coming out of the US at that time than featured in the Billboard Top 10. Thankfully British ears would be more open to it than mainstream American ears were.

Of course, 'I Keep Forgettin'' isn't a complete stranger to the UK singles charts - it would subsequently appear as a sample in Warren G and Nate Dogg's 1994 Top 5 hit 'Regulate'.

They are playing TOTP 1978 and the TOTP2 2013 Christmas editions about 25 times each other the Holidays, heck they showed them both 4 times each this past weekend

Incidentally watching the 2015 TOTP christmas and the 2013 edition both showed the exact same showing of Shakin Stevens 1985 No.1.

Bit sad that TOTP2 seems only restricted to christmas now.

For fans of Squeeze, this poll is in the Music section...

Packet Of Three: Vote for your favourite Squeeze singles

Partly I think it's because we now have Top Of The Pops showing on BBC4 and also I'd imagine that the BBC have probably run out of clips to show. I've not watched TOTP2 for many years now but can remember that they were beginning to show clips that weren't even featured on TOTP towards the end of the regular run of the programme.

The boys doing the backing vocals on the Clannad song look strangely familiar..

http://i4.liverpoolecho.co.uk/incomi...JS72834296.jpg

"I Ran" flopped as a single due to a typo in the press release calling it "Iran". With the Sha of Iran having just been toppled and the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini, many radio and tv stations thought a chorus of "Iran, Iran so far away" was too political so they didn't play it.

Really? Are you sure that's not an urban myth?

'I Ran' may only have got to Number 43 here, but it was a massive hit in the US and Australia … and I can't imagine the Americans being too worried about political sensitivities in this instance. In fact, I'm sure I read somewhere that the word play (I Ran/Iran) helped the track's success in the States - along, of course, with the heavy rotation it received courtesy of MTV.

Wow, I guess everyone has to start somewhere but TFF look majorly cringey there

Throughout its run TOTP2 used clips from programmes such as The Old Grey Whistle Test to fill gaps where the original TOTP footage was wiped. In early 2000 Lindisfarne's performance of 'Meet Me On The Corner' was shown on TOTP2 which featured a live (or pre-recorded) lead vocal from Ray Jackson over the original studio backing track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYPBF4s8m_Y

In the same month this OGWT clip was originally broadcast (October 1971) John Peel appeared on TOTP miming to Ray Jackson's mandolin on 'Maggie May'.


When the Ivor Novello award winning 'Meet Me On The Corner' became a Top 5 hit in 1972 I doubt if the BBC realised the pleasant ditty was about meeting up with a drug dealer to buy hallucinogens.

In 2006 Paul Weller covered the song at a charity event in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust.

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


On a similar theme I found this pic of Led Zeppelin's 'Physical Graffiti' fitted into its original New York City location...
http://www.popspotsnyc.com/forthcomi..._800_TRANS.jpg

.... and this black and white pic of the New York Dolls (in 1973) superimposed over a recent colour photo of the Gem Spa on 2nd Avenue where the shot for the back of their first album was taken.
http://www.popspotsnyc.com/forthcomi...k_Doll_800.jpg

The link below shows the Gem Spa in September 2016.
https://www.instantstreetview.com/@4...877,270h,0p,1z

Their comeback song from a few years ago called "Sad Man" was also banned as people thought they were singing "Saddam" (Hussein)

I don't think it's even about taste. Taste is just taste, people will differ and people couldn't care less about another's taste unless they are the same, though some never get that. It's about just accepting different styles of music instead of saying they aren't as artistic just because they aren't in someone's preferred style. Having the humility to look at music for what it is aiming to do. Most forum talk on the internet tends to be either flagrantly just about taste (fine I guess) or people using taste to masquerade as a more considered judgement when it just isn't.


Off the Wall has some tracks like It's The Falling in Love, I Can't Help It, Get on the Floor and Workin' Night and Day which don't seem that catchy or amazing. Other stuff is fine but I like more consistent albums. Ironically those who think Thriller is overhyped tend to hype up Off the Wall. And the whole 'king of pop' stuff is just record company hype. And considering he can be as much funk as pop it's even more stupid.

Excellent song!

Blimey - - just seen this now! How old were Curt & Rowland then?!! They look like they've just stepped off the school bus & still in their uniforms!

Presumably the press mistake was only in the UK.

That is really not true at all. People are entitled to have an opinion and a preference. 'Off The Wall' still displays a more genuine 70s soul/disco/funk approach, whereas 'Thriller' begins to have that more forced, and mannered vocal delivery by Jackson in places, which i believe manifests itself even more with 'Bad', and 'Dangerous' (and beyond). I suppose you could say that 'Off The Wall' is more generally soulful and mellow, whereas what Jackson begins to do later seems more mechanical, and a little more forced, or contrived. That is the reason i like 'Off The Wall' better. It is a much warmer sounding album to my ears, and i like Jackson's singing more.

FWIW, I'd agree. The ingredients that made Thriller so big are there for all to see - embracing new genres that would send shockwaves through black music, and pushing visuals to a new level - but, lyrically, it's also marks the start of MJ's paranoia ('Billie Jean') that would grow to such an extent that it overshadowed so much of his later work … so it's not just the music that didn't have the same warmth (although I'd say that 'Billie Jean' is indeed brilliant).

Of course people can have a preference, but it's merely taste. I could easily say that people who like Thriller can like that too. Off the Wall is a smooth sounding album which generally flows. Maybe it has more unity in a sense. But then again variety is also sometimes held to be a great thing isn't it? As in what some claim with early Spandau. In which case Thriller is probably held up higher for variety, and overall it might be catchier which could also explain its success. Having greater unity isn't something I put at the top of what I want from an album, at the top I put consistency, I want to be able to play an album from start to end. I wouldn't want to play all of Off the Wall. I could stomach playing all of Thriller easier. The high points of Off the Wall are very high, but I am judging it as a full album.

It's also easy to put things into some historical story and to say something leads to something else, or that something earlier is more 'genuine' (normally a questionable comment), but I prefer to look at things on their own than trying to construct a story. Rather than wanting to something to be something it obviously doesn't want to be. And all music uses technology/engineering to get a sound, some want to accept different styles and some don't. The same with vocals.

Billie Jean probably relates more to the earlier album, though I can't say it's ever been among my particular favourites from it, he'd moved on to something else. If it was on Off the Wall I'd put it behind several other tracks.

I don't think ''Billie Jean'' relates especially closely to the 'Off The Wall' album, and particularly not as Servalan pointed out so accurately, in a lyrical sense. Jackson by this time was very much reflecting the paranoia that was part of his life, which to a large degree would manifest itself with a harder edge in the way he began presenting his songs, both lyrically and vocally. True, the song doesn't display the rocky elements of say, ''Beat It'', but i still believe it to be a long way from the soul/funk/disco sound of his previous record.

Yes - love Billie Jean!


I'm definitely in the 'Off The Wall' camp! - All the singles from that album were superb & really made Michael Jackson stick out within the soul & disco crowd! - I think if 'Thriller' had had more songs like 'Billie Jean' on it, it would have been a great album too. Instead I think it was overexposed & many of its average songs hyped up by the use of MTV etc. To be honest I'm surprised it was the massive seller it was!