TOTP 80.2 10/01/1980

Repeat showing: from 22.01.2015 

pic: @sotc80s 

"Kid" Jensen's first presenting appearance of the eighties. Again, one of Radio 1's better DJ's at the time. His Canadian accent may have irritated many, yet his championing of many interesting 'new-wave' acts more than justified his presence at the Beeb.  OK then....

Madness - My Girl (chart rundown)
After last week's debut and prestigious 'first band on' spot, Madness stormed into the charts at no. 14, and so obviously deserved the no less prestigious chart-rundown backing music spot.

UFO - Young Blood
And this week's prestigious first band on spot goes to....UFO! Who? Predominantly a seventies 'heavy metal' album and live group, they attempted to re-invent themselves in 1979 with a change of lead guitarist and the George Martin produced LP No Place to Run. The poor Young Blood single would scrape into the Top 40 after this dire performance which wreaks of 1970s 'c*ck-rock' posing. Brightly coloured 'eighties' clothes do not a modern band make.

Abba - I Have a Dream
Back among the big guys now with mega-stars Abba giving Pink Floyd a run for their money with this sentimental track from their super-selling disco-orientated Voulez-Vous album. Much like Floyd's single, Abba's song also feature a children's choir, albeit expressing a rather different sentiment. The clever thing about this song was that it sounded Christmassy without actually being about Christmas, therefore giving it lasting power long after the last turkey scraps had been thrown out. That said, it dropped down the charts the following week.

(The BBC programme website lists Rose Royce - Is It Love You're After here but it was not featured on this repeat showing).

Joe Jackson - It's Different For Girls
Back onto the British new-wave groove now with this new-croon number from Joe Jackson and his merry men. Jackson had already enjoyed chart success in 1979 with Is She Really Going Out With Him (a re-issue from the previous year), and this was a worthy successor taken from the I'm The Man album. The interim single release of said album's title track had failed to chart.

Sheila B. Devotion - Spacer
A rare trip to the Continent now with sexy Sheila (née Annie Chancel) & B Devotion (supposedly the group) and their sci-fi disco hit. It was a tardy follow up to 1978's euro-kitsch version of Singin' in the Rain, but the Nile/Rodger's (Chic) production team had given them a kick up the derrière, ensuring steady progress up the charts and into the annals of Euro-disco. Sheila and pals give Legs & Co. a few hi-tech ideas with some flashy silver jumpsuits, 'spacey' visual effects and some strategically placed laser beams.

The Skids - Working For the Yankee Dollar
Some proper 'new wave' at last! In the crazy world of TOTP the jump from Sheila B's disco posing to Richard Jobson's on-stage "dancing" is but a small one. Dunfermline's finest were no strangers to the charts or indeed to TOTP having already had three hits over the course of 1979. Yankee Dollar had been hovering around the lower end of the Top 30 since early December, so undoubtedly this studio performance was a repeat, but nonetheless enjoyable. From their Bill Nelson-produced album Days in Europa.

KC & The Sunshine Band - Please Don't Go 
Back down to earth with a thud with this wearisome piece of American MOR which had been creeping up the charts for some time, now at no. 7. Made slightly more interesting with this Legs & Co. performance although quite what the ballet-esque costumes and moves have to do with anything is anyone's guess. The song's 'last dance at the disco, possibly with snog' appeal meant it was destined to go even higher. Short interview with 'KC' afterwards, who also gets to introduce...

Dollar - I Wanna Hold Your Hand
I was surprised to see this come up as Dollar's shiny glossy pop surely belongs to 1981 rather than '79 into '80. Full credit to them for being somewhat ahead of their time, and for this tasteful minimalist cover of the Beatles' classic which I'd quite forgotten about. Thereza Bazar's dress is a clever nod to both current ska-style fashion as well as 1960's Beatles-chic. Also noted that Dave 'n' Thereza have the same hair.

The Nolans - I'm in the Mood For Dancing
More home-grown talent in the form of the all singing, all dancing Nolan Sisters (the change of name imposed by Epic Records after signing for them in '79) who would go on to score one of their biggest hits with their version of Brit-disco, with an Irish flavour no doubt favoured by Terry Wogan. TOTP production went all out on this one editing together video of the Nolanettes performing both on the regular stage and on the raised platform, the latter angle also incorporating some male bottoms.

Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall (Pt. 2) (promo)
Amazingly still at the top spot, with its parent LP also at no. 3 in the album charts. The single sold over one million copies in the space of just over one month. Such popularity even earned them this rather odd centre spread in Smash Hits. This was the last of its five-week's stint at the top, although in March the single would make it to the top state-side for a further four. It would get banned in South Africa later in the year on the grounds that black children were using it to condemn apartheid education in Soweto.
Back on TOTP and it's the promo-film again of course, the opening shot showing London in all its grim and gritty fin-de-seventies glory.

Booker T & The M.G.'s - Green Onions
It was presumably the nation's new-found love of ska music which had led some record company to dig out this old hit from 1962 for the pop-pickers, who now had it creeping back into the Top 30. Even yer Granny could tap her foot to this one.

Enjoy the Circus Championships and I'll see you next week.

Year 2020 edit: The Skids' performance was not a repeat, whereas Dollar's was.

TOTP 80.1 03/01/1980

It's appropriate that the first show of 1980 was introduced by fresh-faced Radio 1 DJ Peter Powell. As a relative youngster (28 at the time) Powell had his roots in the sixties and seventies but also had his finger on the pulse of newer music and would go on to champion many of the new pop acts of the early eighties. But on with the show..

The Clash - London Calling (chart rundown)
The single was stable at no. 29, which may not have put it in good stead in TOTP terms, but it was an appropriate opener to the decade by one of the more commercially successful punk bands and the song which definitely summed up of the mood of the time. It would go on to reach a peak no. 11 position two weeks later. The eponymous album had been released shortly before Christmas 1979 and would become a classic of the genre and the period. As far as I know the Clash never actually went on TOTP.

Madness - My Girl
The first new TOTP performance proper of the eighties, appropriately featuring the large '1980' numbered background. Madness had already become successful with two top 20 singles in the second half of '79 (One Step Beyond reaching  no. 7 in November) and with this instantly likeable new single they could do no wrong.

Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime (promo)
Definitely a festive 'left-over', about as appealing as cold turkey sandwiches on December 28th, but Macca's synthy Christmas single had gone up one place to no. 6, post-Chrimbo. It would plummet the week after despite this last ditch attempt to push it at the January sales.

Pretenders - Brass in Pocket
This is more like it - melodic pop with a 'new-wave' feel and a slinky 'post-punk' female vocalist to go with it! The single had already rocketed up to no. 5 and would indeed go on to do even better.

David Bowie - John I'm Only Dancing (promo)
Correct title: John I'm Only Dancing (Again), this was a 'left-over' form the seventies in more ways than one. Originally released in 1972, the song was remixed and revived apparently in order to up Bowie's sales, after the moderate success of late 70s singles DJ and Boys Keep Swinging, and to cash-in somewhat on the current dance/disco craze (hence its release also as an 'extended version' on 12"). The single was featured here as a promo-film, and did little to up the songs chart success as it would remain stable at no. 12 the week after. But no matter, Bowie would go on to do much greater things later in the year.

( - the BBC programme website list three songs here which were not featured on the repeat broadcast. I'd be interested to know if these were actually featured on the original broadcast.)

Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rappin'
More left-over turkey and, oh dear, it would also seem to be a Christmas song that time forgot. It may have been groundbreaking in its genre but one gets the impression that the UK/TOTP public was hardly ready for it. A non-chart feature, it disappeared without a trace after this showing.

Billy Preston & Syreeta - With You I'm Born Again
More music from Motown, or thereabouts, although this ballad would fare much better than the above mentioned rappin'. Released at the end of 1979, it was a new entry at no. 24. Apparently from the soundtrack of the film Fast Break (apparently) although I doubt that had much to do with its success. Like it or not, we'll be hearing a lot more of this in the coming weeks.

Chic - My Feet Keep Dancing (Legs & Co,)
Staying with our American cousins, more disco fodder here, as interpreted by in-house dance troupe Legs & Co. Not Chic's best-known song, and indeed it would be their last UK chart hit of a long run which had begun over two years earlier. A steady climber at no. 21, the song would slowly drop back down the charts, notwithstanding Legs & Co.'s admirable interpretation.

Dr. Hook - Better Love Next Time
As was often the case with the first song featured in each programme's running-list (see My Girl above) the song before the Number 1 was usually a new non-chart song, presumably because maximum audience attention would be at the show's opening and  just before the no. 1 (did people just tune in to see who was no. 1?). Anyway it's more American faux-country 'n' western  MOR this week with Union City's finest sons Dr. Hook (formerly Dr. Hook & The, er, Medicine Show). They had enjoyed a UK No. 1 single just a month earlier with When You're In Love With a Beautiful Woman, and although this follow-up and the subsequent Sexy Eyes would also fare well, their UK chart days were numbered.

Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall (Pt. 2) (promo)
And so to the this week's Number 1, the first of the eighties. Ironically it was the Floyd who had knocked the above mentioned Dr. Hook off the top spot in the second week of December 1979, continuing to stay there for some time. There's no doubting Another Brick in the Wall's now legendary status, although far from being a standard pop single, this extract from the concept album The Wall remains one of British pop history's most unlikely hits. Presumably it was the "we don't need no edu-cay-shun" chant, inspired, unsurprisingly, by Alice Cooper's School's Out hit, which appealed to many young record buyers across the land. Despite Pink Floyd's 'rock dinosaur' label, if anything it goes to show that it was the British artists (rather than the Americans) who were producing the most interesting and innovative music at the time (see Clash / Madness / Pretenders above).

Rose Royce - Is It Love You're After (closing credits)
As if to prove my last point, it's back to the yawnsome Motown-y ballads to ease us out of the programme. Not time for bed just yet though: White Rock is on next, so we can enjoy the "thrills, skill and immense courage of the (Winter) Olympic heroes".

See you next week.