Top Of The Pops: Wednesdays, about 7:00, BBC4

[Rob McCow]

I've been really enjoying these repeats of Top of The Pops from the late 70's. On the one hand, there are some sparkly, entertaining, fun-for-all-the-family pop-tunes that have been carefully crafted for your pleasure. On the other hand, I can see why punk happened.

Highlights so far have included 10cc, Fox and ELO. Si has been particularly taken by Fox's 'Single Bed', which seems to be a Goldfrapp tune that arrived twenty-five years early!

Biggest travesty so far has been the Dave Lee Travis single about his enormous trucking convoy. It was horrendous, the kind of novelty tune that you only hear at Christmas these days.

And Brotherhood of Man - how were they doing it? Admittedly, it's a fairly sweet tune, but why the heck are they still at number one?! Were people buying it merely to keep ABBA off the top spot? Anyway, the official video where the four of them wander through a park and smile at things is an absolute hoot and I've been trying to learn the little dance they do in their studio performance. Walk, walk, walk, wave, jiggle your hips a bit... it's so undemanding.

It may be dated, but it's very comfortable viewing and I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

[Perry Vale]

And Brotherhood of Man - how were they doing it? Admittedly, it's a fairly sweet tune, but why the heck are they still at number one?!

It's just a good tune, I think, and 'the kids' liked it. I was listening to the Robert Elms show this week on BBC London 94.9 and he recounted an anecdote that his 12 year old daughter came up to him this week to say she had a new 'favourite song'. Guess what it was? She must have seen it on these TOTP reruns.

[Rob McCow]

Interesting! But it just goes to show the power of these kinds of programs to promote a tune.

Thanks to the TOTP repeats, I've now heard Save All Your Kisses For Me more times in the last five weeks than I have in my entire life previously!

[SiHart]

S-S-Single Bed is the very essence of a neglected gem. Absolutely sublime song.

[Stephen Morgan]

I'm as sick of "kippers for tea" now as I was back in '76. Thankfully from this week we'll get ABBA at number one for a little while, but worse is to come I can assure you with JJ Barrie's twee little number, No Charge , and The Worzels with some good ole West Country singing while posing on a tractor. Sanity will be restored come The Real Thing in late June. But if you're wondering how The Brotherhood stayed at number one for so long, you might be wondering the same thing when Elt and Kiki get there all through July and August. Aaahhhh, what summer memories that will rekindle.

From this week on BBC4 have bowed to public demand, the recent TOTPs have been edited to fill that half hour slot between half seven and eight o-clock. If you watch the late night repeat at around one o-clock you'll be treated to the full forty minute version. Hopefully that's how they're gonna stay now for the entire run of repeats.

[Paul Clement]

Thankfully from this week we'll get ABBA at number one for a little while, but worse is to come I can assure you

There's not all that much worse than Abba.

[Stephen Morgan]

There's not all that much worse than Abba.

Love them or hate them, there's no getting away from it, ABBA were one of the top groups of the seventies, their music was pure pop, and very well crafted pieces of work, masterpieces in fact. Let no one detract from that.

[SiHart]

Their music was fabulous!

[Stephen Morgan]

S-S-Single Bed is the very essence of a neglected gem. Absolutely sublime song.

I remember buying the original single.

Noosha Fox, real name Susan Traynor who, with her band with her band Fox, had three top twenty hits in '75/76. Check out Only You Can and Imagine Me, Imagine You from 75, they're every bit as good as S S S Single Bed. I'd also recommend their albums Tails of Illusion and Blue Hotel which were critically acclaimed in their day.
Noosha later opted for a solo career and had a minor hit with Georgina Bailey in '77, a pean to then forbidden gay love. If we get to that year with these TOTPs repeats we'll see her perform that one once or twice.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I would ask which Brotherhood of Man song it was - although they all kind of sound the same anyway.

[Simon R]

This year's Eurovision entry from Iceland has a hint of the Brotherhood of Mans about it.

Bananarama covered "S-S-Single Bed" on their 2009 album "Viva"!

[Rob McCow]

It was their winning Eurovision entry, 'Save All Your Kisses For Me'.

[Rob McCow]

Not a great edition this Thursday. That said, Cliff Richard came across far better than I was expecting! Devil Woman isn't a bad song at all and he's a good performer. Barry Manilow gave us a slushy ballad, much as to be expected.

However, the absolute horror of JJ Barry's 'No Charge' cannot be understated. A horribly dull Country & Western tune over which he drawls a sentimental load of drivel about a mom telling her son that there's 'No Charge' for her love. Bleugh. I kept expecting him to start singing, but no it's spoken word all the way through! Ghastly.

Great to see ABBA finally knocking Brotherhood of Man off the number 1 slot!

[Stephen Morgan]

...the absolute horror of JJ Barry's 'No Charge' cannot be understated. A horribly dull Country & Western tune over which he drawls a sentimental load of drivel about a mom telling her son that there's 'No Charge' for her love. Bleugh. I kept expecting him to start singing, but no it's spoken word all the way through! Ghastly.

Great to see ABBA finally knocking Brotherhood of Man off the number 1 slot!

You should hear Tammy Wynette's version!
Honestly though, the song, and JJ Barrie's performance, is dire. It gets to no. 1 in a couple of weeks, how it managed to take the top slot from ABBA was always beyond me.

I thought Cliff, as always, gave a great performance of a great song. I remember a comment from radio one DJ Johnny Wlaker back in the day about Devil Woman being the story of a drag artist with evil intentions, he was making a facetious comment as Cliff had famously withdrawn a previous release, Honky Tonk Angel, on the grounds that he didn't know that the title referred to prostitutes. Ironically that song is now available on the re-release of the 1976 album I'm Nearly Famous. Very good it is too.

What did you think of the Robin Sarstedt number, My Resistance Is Low? That gets to no. 3 and was really only prevented from getting to no. 1 by The Wurzels.

Oh! and which edition did you watch, the half hour version or the later full forty minute one? I'm about to sit down and commit that one to my DVD hard drive.

[MacNimon]

Oh! and which edition did you watch, the half hour version or the later full forty minute one? I'm about to sit down and commit that one to my DVD hard drive.

Thanks for that comment, Stephen. I didn't realise there was a later edition, and to make matters worse every episode I've recorded has the first few minutes missing even though I've set it for series record.

No matter, it's been great seeing all of these again. There's some great stuff in there, and I must agree it's good to see Brotherhood Of Man removed from the top slot. ABBA's Fernando is of a different class, and it's still a favourite of mine today.

[Dino]

What I really love about these repeats is the fact that the BBC isn't trying to be cool. It isn't trying to be your friend. It's just the charts. That's why the show had to die in the end. They could easily be making TOTP now, but the BBC is running scared of the "N" word... "Naff".
They take licence fee money, squander it on unnecessary BBC staff and petty bean counters... BBC, you are not cool. You aren't the "hip" parent who goes to the same concerts-er gigs as your children in a sad attempt to cling to the outdated idea of being "with it".
And there's nothing wrong with that! So why lie to yourself?

We now return you to your Top Of The Pops discussion!

[SiHart]

Last night's episode wasn't a classic at all- the weakest episode so far!

[Stephen Morgan]

Thanks for that comment, Stephen. I didn't realise there was a later edition, and to make matters worse every episode I've recorded has the first few minutes missing even though I've set it for series record.

The forty minute version is being shown again at the slightly better hour of 11:35 tonight (Saturday). Including the four songs snipped from the 7:30 showing (one of which was the Rolling Stones).

[MacNimon]

The forty minute version is being shown again at the slightly better hour of 11:35 tonight (Saturday). Including the four songs snipped from the 7:30 showing (one of which was the Rolling Stones).

HDD recorder is now set. Thanks!!!

[Stephen Morgan]

A good opening act on this edition of TOTPs, City Boy, who's only top twenty hit wouldn't appear for another two years, performed a great track in Hapkido Kid, a single I remember well. Part of City BOy eventually formed The Maisonettes who's only top twenty hit came in 1982 with Heartache Avenue.
Undoubtedly though the performance of the week came from Gladys Knight and the Pips. Midnight Train To Georgia was originally released in 1973 when it became an American no. 1 and gained a Grammy award for best vocal performance. It totally missed out on the UK charts no doubt to Knight and the Pips having just left Motown who were going through a massive re-issue stage, no less than five of their singles were re-issued between 1973/75, the promotion for those overshadowed the new stuff being issued from Buddah, of which Midnight Train was their second release. It eventually became a hit in 1976 when Knight and the Pips toured the UK. It's a great song with an exellent lead vocal from Knight and equally excellent backing from the Pips.
The video of Andrea True's More, More, More was quite amazing. Those tight hot pants showed her figure up quite remarkably. Andrea True was a film star of some repute, how she got a record deal is anybody's guess, but this video features the one ocassion on screen where she is actually on her feet.
As for The Worzels, I always detested that record, unfortunately this won't be it's last appearence.
Anybody watching the "extended" version this week would have been a bit better pleased with the songs cut out, which included another performance from Paul Nicholas, his best yet as he appears with new dance troupe "Groovy Kipper" (a description better suited to Andrea True I think.) Another "lost" track this week was a video performance from The Bellamy Brothers with the excellent Let Your Love Flow.
On the whole though, it was another dissappointing edition, we're still getting some dross amongst the good stuff, that should improve though during the coming summer months when the charts do get a little better.

[Rob McCow]

The video of Andrea True's More, More, More was quite amazing. Those tight hot pants showed her figure up quite remarkably.

Those hot pants should have been an arrestable offence! You could see everything!

Good grief - I wasn't ready for how awful the Wurzels were going to be. I think they'll be fast-forwarded in coming weeks.

[Jonno]

I am enjoying these, despite the inconsistent scheduling. I recorded the first edition out of curiosity but soon decided against trying to record them all. Although I'm familiar with many of the songs, I don't really remember the shows themselves so there's no nostalgia factor for me. I really want to see the 80s editions, which were just that bit slicker - the chart countdown split in 3 towards the end of the show, chart breakers, the odd filmed report from Europe or America looking at their charts...

One interesting thing I've noticed with these shows is that they often feature songs that aren't even in the Top 40 yet, and also seem to feature songs that didn't chart at all, according to my Guinness book? I also didn't realise the dance troupe would perform more than once on the same show!

Here's a trivia question - did last week's edition feature more No. 1s than any other regular edition? As well as Fernando, it featured the following three chart toppers! Beat that!

[Stephen Morgan]

Here's a trivia question - did last week's edition feature more No. 1s than any other regular edition? As well as Fernando, it featured the following three chart toppers! Beat that!

Yes, of course. I hadn't realised that, but I wasn't watching it propelry at the time I was doing something else and meant to watch it again.

I did catch Ruby Flipper's bizarre routine to Bowie's TVC15, what do you think of Ruby Flipper Jonno? Hardly a fitting tribute to Flick Colby that one. Fortunately they were short lived before Legs and Co came in.

[Rob McCow]

I thought the TVC15 routine was pretty good - weird is entirely appropriate to a song where David Bowie's girlfriend gets eaten by his TV set! (Also the song was far, far better than anything else on the show....)

[Stephen Morgan]

The highlight of this week's edition was definately Thin Lizzy's The Boys Are Back In Town, surely one of the best records of the summer of '76? However, my memories of that summer mainly consist of The Manhattans, Candi Staton, New Faces winners Our Kid (ever present that year but only with one hit) Elt and Kiki and the phenomenon that is the singing kaftan, Demis Roussos. Believe me, there is some great stuff to come once the novelty hits are out of the way, just you wait til you see Alex Harvey next week, brilliant stuff.