Top of the Pops 13 December 1990

 Words: Chris Arnsby

Simon Mayo: “Hello. Welcome to the Pops. If you're sitting at home wondering as to what the Christmas Number One might be, well study the form over the next half hour. We have for you performing tonight Chris Isaak, we have Black Box, and we also have INXS appearing later. First of all, at thirty four, with his thirty fourth hit, Shaky is back.”

 [34] SHAKIN' STEVENS: The Best Christmas Of Them All. I'm not going to let a statistic like that go unchallenged. How are we defining a hit? Let's say, it's a single that gets into the Top 40. Well, starting from Shaky's first Top 40 single, Hot Dog (1980), I make the total twenty nine. The short answer is, I can't really make the numbers work without going all the way out to singles which entered the Top 75. Still, thirty four Top 75 singles is an impressive number. The Beatles only have thirty two Top 75 hits. Conclusive proof that Shaky> The Beatles. Where's his Anthology series?

[13] THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS: You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling. BBC VT. “Some original Top of the Pops footage from January 1965.” Challenge two, accepted.

That would be 28/01/1965. The Righteous Brothers are one of two surviving performances from that edition, the other being Del Shannin, Keep Searchin’ (We’ll Follow The Sun)*.

The survival rate for early Top of the Pops in the archives is abysmal. This clip might have survived because it's been telerecorded to film, judging by the blobs of dirt. The transfer to film would be done to allow easy reuse of the performance, which happened a couple of times in 1965; 04/02/1965 and 25/12/1965. Then the clip was either officially archived or put in a secret stash operated by a few BBC engineers. No, really. All praise to Alan Colegrave, Nick Maingay, and Bob Pratt. The clip was used again on 27/12/1973 for a tenth anniversary special and 31/12/1988 for 25 Years of Top of the Pops.

Simon Mayo is slightly wrong. This isn't just “original Top of the Pops footage”. Fifteen seconds in the picture cuts to black and white film of a big American car pulling up in front of a house and a pair of Grease-style 25 year old teenagers who argue, reconcile, and have a snog as they lose and then recover that lovin' feeling.

Watching the 1990 and 1965 performances side by side it becomes clear this film was added to cover sneaky edits which allow Top of the Pops to zip through the song more quickly.

Where's the footage from? I took a still of the couple sitting in the car and did a Google image search which confidently told me it was from a 1957 film called How Much Affection? A Canadian educational film which asks the big questions like “How far can young people go in petting and still stay within the bounds of personal standards and social mores?” You can watch the film here (https://archive.org/details/HowMuchA1958). I only have one question. How did Paul Ciani find this footage? Did it get used on The Staggering Stories of Ferdinand de Bargos.

*A repeat from the previous week**.

** I'm not sure why, it wasn't Number One.

CHARTS: 40 TO 31

[14] YAZOO: Situation (Remix). Promo VT.

[15] MALANDRA BURROWS: Just This Side Of Love. She's from Emmerdale Farm, apparently.

BREAKERS

[24] INXS: Disappear

[27] ENIGMA: Sadness Part I

[30] GEORGE MICHAEL: Freedom!

[31] THE CARPENTERS: Close To You

[32] SEAL: Crazy. Check out Rod Litherland's new Lighting toy. Behind Seal are four, floor mounted banks of lights with a coloured gel on a roller. It gets quite hypnotic watching the colour change when I really should be watching Seal.

[22] BLACK BOX: The Total Mix. Promo VT.

CHARTS: 30 to 11

[10] CHRIS ISAAK: Wicked Game. BBC VT. Repeated from 29/11/1990.

TOP 10

[1] VANILLA ICE: Ice Ice Baby. Promo VT.

[17] DIMPLES D: Sucker DJ. BBC VT also repeated from 29/11/1190. It's unusual to reuse programme footage under the closing credits instead of the video. Bruno Brookes is hosting next week.

Countdown to Year Zero revamp: 42

Performance of the week: Seal, Crazy.