The Best of Top of the Pops 1973

The pick of the 1973 cover versions, as with all cover albums they depend on the strength of the charts they covered. 1973 was a decent year but maybe not the best of the 70s but there are some solid tunes here though the "Blockbuster" cover is a bit weedy. "Tie a yellow ribbon" is the highlight, along with "I'm the leader of the gang" which is a good glam stomp though doesn't really sound much like Gary Glitter... but in hindsight that wasn't really a bad thing.

MV : "My resistance is low" by Robin Sarstedt

Don't ask me why but this song (or video performance) has been stuck in my head all year so far.

Top Of The Pops (Volume 29)

I often hunt charity shop LP bins for TOTP LPs but usually i am left disappointed, yesterday however i found this lovely little thing, the early 1973 edition of hit cover versions. It starts off with a rather weedy version of "Blockbuster", more side street VHS video shop to be honest. A cover of Elton John's (Elton sang on a TOTP cover back in the late 60s of course) "Daniel" is quite nice but the covers of "Me and Mrs Jones" and "Substitution" really are well worth the price of admission (which was only a pound anyway).

These days a Gary Glitter track like "Do you wanna touch me" can only be approached with oodles of dark humour (the answer is No! No! Noooooo! of course). ELO's "Roll over Beethoven" is much more wholesome fun. The Top of the Popper session musicians ace the trademark Status Quo sound (not that many chords to remember obviously) and the cover of "paper plane" is very enjoyable. Classic sounds, just a little bit different.

Top Of The Pops (16/02/78)

Its been some time but lets review Top Of The Pops again (nothing to do with Savile, just got out of the habit). And we're into February 1978 with Kid Jensen...

Tom Robinson Band - don't take no for an answer
A high energy rock start to proceedings from their new EP. Tom and the band are on fine form. The organist is playing the organ a claw for some reason. Hopefully a rubber prosthetic one and he is not an alien or hideously deformed in some way.

Kate Bush - wuthering heights
Kate's debut on TOTP and what a debut! A song that sounds like nothing else apart from maybe that it has come down from Mount Olympus, or a mysterious world where nothing really makes sense. What does this song and performance really mean apart from SEX?! Its amazing in every single way...

The Darts - come back my love
From the sublime to the ridiculous. I've never got why so many bands over the years have tried to revive doo-wop, it was bad enough first time around. The singer is wearing a lovely fake leopard skin jacket, Bet Lynch was probably waiting impatiently backstage to get it back.

Legs & Co are up next in full classy flowing white robes to prance to Rose Royce's "wish upon a star".

Billy Joel - just the way you are
Film footage of Billy Joel playing his classic hit. A good time for the charts and the show indeed with this and "wuthering heights" on at the same time. Kid reflects on there being so many good singles around at the moment, indeed there is but i'm not sure if the following can be included in that...

Sweet - love is like oxygen
Its nice and inoffensive but no more. Nice guitar break though at the end.

Elkie Brooks - lilac wine
Elkie is here to brighten things up according to Kid, there is plenty of purple or lilac on the screen anyway. A superbly un-pop song to add some contrast. That is the magic of Top Of The Pops.

The Bee Gees - staying alive
This is the highest new entry naturally, it was all about the disco and Saturday Night Fever at the time. Its a fine song but massive overexposure has not done it many favours over the decades.

Magazine - shot by both sides
Another debut and a glorious new wave thrash. The energy is turned up on stage if not the audience who are probably knackered by now.

ABBA - take a chance on me
ABBA are at number 1, well it was pretty common in the late 70s. We get the classic MV with the split screens. Like with the Bee Gees song its one thats been played so often its hard to get much enthusiasm for the track anymore, but its a fine song and a deserving number 1 with its pop thrills.

Best of Top of the Pops '76

Ah 1976 the heady year that saw the beginning of punk... not that you will find any on this covers compilation of course. The songs reflected genuine chart interest in any case and not what the NME said was cool, thus we have the likes of ABBA's "Mama Mia" and an amazing version of Queen's "Bohemian rhapsody". Indeed this cover version is very good and much more adventurous than the likes of "Under the moon of love" though thats done well too, but the original is not exactly one of my favourites...

What is my favourite song from 1976 (at the moment anyway) is on here, and that is "Mississippi". The days before punk (didn't really) blew it all away were often country rock and disco tinged and there are plenty of examples of both here to enjoy.

Top Of The Pop (28/07/1977)

Noel is here and we're straight into a song - no credits, music nada. It just feels a bit weird, like we've missed the first minutes of the show, anyway...

Steve Gibbons Band - Tulane
And what a way to start the show, well if you like a bit of country rock boogie woogie. Hey i don't mind and Steve is in good voice. The audience also seem more animated than usual, maybe they are sending electric current through the floor?

Noel introduces the chart run down, the Detroit Emeralds providing the music backdrop to the likes of the Sex Pistols and Olivia Newton John. Not sure its working.

Boney M - Ma Baker
In Interwars Period outfits to match the gangster era theme of the song (well vaguely) but the same pop funk fun. The performance seems taken from elsewhere as the audience are all sat down but are clapping which puts them ahead of the usual TOTP crowd.

Showaddywaddy - you got what it takes
This band must have been the favourite of 1970s TV engineers, their different coloured suits must have been very handy when tuning in a TV. What interests me about this lot is that there are so many of them in the band and on stage yet their sound is so traditional and safe. Its like they were formed as a job creation scheme.

Legs & Co. are in a car that looks like it could have been in Death Race 2000 to perform Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers' "Roadrunner". The "dancing" mostly consists of headbanging on the back seat.

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Exodus
Cool people shake their stuff on stage.

Dana - its high time you put some words together
From Bob Marley to Dana... thats the magic of Top of the Pops! Typical light entertainment fare, almost expect to see Morecambe & Wise messing about in the background. There is a bit of a country feel to it though which actually makes the song very up to date... Noel says it'll keep the Dana fans happy. Bit of a back-handed compliment eh?

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - fanfare for the common man
Prog rock in an Olympic stadium. Couldn't happen here... or could it?

Rita Coolidge - we're all alone
Same film footage as a couple of weeks ago. Noel makes the lamest joke ever about the Wirral. I wonder if he did it for a dare.

Thin Lizzy - dancing in the Moonlight
A nice spot is a couple dancing real slow and romantic at one end of the stage. Noel is astonished his prediction that their last song would go to #1 didn't work out. Funny that, his predictions usually are spot on. Yeah right.

Donna Summer - i feel love
Donna isn't here so instead we get large pictures of her for the audience to dance in front of and Legs & Co. gyrate in their car from earlier. Oddly its all very retro-futuristic.

Top Of The Pops - Volume 20 (Hallmark)

Released around the time i was born, thus these were the hot pop sounds exciting the nation while i was ready to make my debut, what a scary thought. Some of the songs are pretty good, the cover of "Maggie May" has been on another of these Top Of The Popper CDs i have reviewed and is a good attempt at the song though the singer sounds more like Joe Cocker than Rod.

"Spanish Harlem" and "The night they drove old Dixie down" also delight, though in the latter case its as much for the subject matter more than anything else, pop songs about the American Civil War are pretty rare these days. Much of the album is bland however. Maybe that just reflects a less than vintage crop of pop tunes at the time to cover, then i arrived and it all changed. Or did it?

"I'm leaving" is the Elvis cover, unfortunately with this series you always imagine they got a cheesey Elvis impersonator to do the song. Best song on the album is the Four Tops cover "Simple game" which is very true to the original and performed very well indeed.

MV : "See Emily play" by Pink Floyd

Taken from the original TOTP performance in 1967 (the show now wiped i believe) but this performance survived though badly distorted and has been restored.

Top Of The Pops (21/07/1977)

DLT is here to present... a song first no chart rundown as usual... and the song is...

John Miles - slow down
Frenetic late-70s funky sub-disco boogie complete with weird vocal effects. Its so magic DLT is caught air guitaring like a BOSS.

DLT explains TOTP is changing, and we have the top 30 rundown with the Tavares as a soundtrack.

The Bay City Rollers - you make me believe in magic
The Rollers are near the end and even seem to have dispensed with the tartan. They've done a MOR pop track too so at least they haven't tried and gone disco.

Brotherhood of Man - Angelo
Pleasant enough song by the Brotherhood...

The Jam - all around the world
...but compared to this it seems to come from another reality completely. This is the youth explosion yeah, the TOTP audience don't get above a mildly energetic jiggle though.

Alessi - oh Lori
Gentle beat and high pitched vocals, though really it is actually better than that. Close your eyes you could almost be in a cocktail bar, or a Berni Inn.

Fleetwood Mac - dreams
Film footage on a stage somewhere and very fine it is too.

The Rah Band - the crunch
Now for something different, how about a keyboardist in a wetsuit and a plastic bag. Why we don't know, and lets face it the answer would no doubt disappoint. Lets just revel in the fact a band from the Blakes 7 universe and somehow managed to make it into our spacetime realm.

Danny Williams - dancing easy
The song seems based on the Martini jingle "anytime, anyplace, anywhere", when the song starts you wonder if you've switched to 70s ITV by mistake. Its a nice song but isn't quite as good as...

Queen - good old fashioned loverboy
The same performance footage as shown a couple of times already i think.

Donna Summer - i feel love
Its the sound of the future, the song that redefines dance music and indeed pop music for the next 20 years but for now is number 1... though Donna isn't here so instead we have Legs & Co jiggling to the synth beats. Then they also run around in unison so the effect is more Benny Hill than space disco.

Best of Top Of The Pops '72 (Hallmark)

Good as some of these Top Of The Poppers covers albums are, a few were not up to par. The "Best of 1972" either reflects the weakness of the charts in that year or simply the "best of" from that year was badly chosen. Some songs are pretty good such as the versions of "Telegram Sam" and "You wear it well" and a few songs fall just the right side of listenable kitsch such as the cover of "Puppy love".

However a lot of the covers are just... bad. But then again a cover of a bagpipe version of "Amazing Grace" is always going to sound pretty off next to glam rock and teen pop. "I'd like to teach the world to sing" is also pretty awful, just like the original then. Make mine a Pepsi out of sheer spite.

Best of Top Of The Pops '71

The best Top Of The Poppers cover versions from the year of my birth, as you might expect (if you are familiar with this series at all) its a bit of a mixed bag.

"Maggie May" is pretty good and is probably the album's highlight though the cover singer sounds more like Joe Cocker than Rod Stewart. The mandolin work is also a bit limited compared to the original but a good song all the same. The sessions musicians also make a decent job of "My sweet lord".

"Knock three times" and "Chirpy chirpy cheep cheep" are also well done, though i am pretty unfamiliar with the original version of the latter song. None of the songs on here are actually that bad though some of them are not that true to the original (which of course was the TOTPers raison d'etre). On the evidence of this 1971 was a pretty decent year for pop and rock...

Top Of The Pops (14/07/1977)

Kid Jensen mangles the English language again to present...

The Real Thing - love's such a wonderful thing
I'm not sure which artists have been on these TOTP repeats the most since BBC4 started reshowing programmes from 1976 but The Real Thing surely must be a contender and here they are again. A pleasing pop number with a little bit of funk. Pleasing but not much more.

Rita Coolidge - we're all alone
Music video time, or rather wandering around a forest looking thoughtful and reflective while singing a romantic song. The romantic solitude effect ruined by the camera crew following her around of course.

The Saints - this perfect day
An Australian band from "just outside the charts", and they are rather punky or at the least you'd describe them as driving power pop if you are allergic to the p-word. Pretty decent they are too though they don't seem to think much of having to mime. The singer kind of ruins the miming effect by accidentally dismantling his microphone stand and almost dropping the microphone. Or maybe that just adds to the PUNK ROCK!!! effect?

The Commodores' sublime "easy" up next but no Lionel Richie alas instead Legs & Co swaying vaguely in time, though not so much with each other.

Dave Edmunds - i knew the bride
Kind of retro (even for then) rockabilly fun, though done with style and a bit of feel not a Showaddywaddy horror.

Jigsaw - if i had to go away
Jigsaw's latest hit requires the singer to wear very tight trousers, its all falsetto and very feminine and rather disturbing. The Bee Gees had a lot to answer for in the late 70s.

Supertramp - give a little bit
Music video, or filmed performance time anyway.

Cilla Black - if i wanted to call it off
In between her 60s heyday and 80s TV hogdom. Cilla seems curiously out of time, probably a song that would be great on a 70s Eurovision but this is Top Of The Pops 1977 baby and its time for...

The Sex Pistols - pretty vacant
The highest new entry and the BBC couldn't ignore this song like they did the other one, though no one could guess that by 2012 "God save the Queen" gets into the Olympic opening ceremony and the Queen herself jumps out of a helicopter. Such futuristic thrills are beyond even the most acid damaged/enhanced imagination, back in 1977 instead we get this studio rampage and brilliant it is too. Better than Cilla Black anyway.

From Sid Vicious to Kenny Rogers who is here to talk to Kid, Kenny has been working in Saudi Arabia, on an oil rig or a camel farm something. Kenny introduces the number one...

Hot Chocolate - so you win again
For the third week, Hot Chocolate are still on top of the chart, and they deserve it.

Top Of The Pops (30/06/1977)

Noel is here to introduce late June 1977's hottest sounds including...

T-Connection - do what you gonna do
We start off with some rather grainy and lo-fi film footage that gets played on a big screen in the TOTP studio as the audience dance funkily... well dance anyway. To be fair the audience seem more animated than usual, not that its hard.

Gladys Knight - baby don't change your mind
And straight into the MV played a couple of weeks ago. Two songs in and nothing studio based yet? The MV itself is one of those behind-the-scenes films of life of the Pips. You know the kind of film, everything is cool and fun and nobody has a cross word for anyone else, those arguments are strictly for the cutting room floor.

John Miles - slow down
Into the studio at last, fast disco based pop played by a motley crew. The band's dressing room must have not had a working light, that must explain the drummer's green PE kit, mind you he is a drummer... Noel thinks the song has #1 all over it, so i guess its peaking in the mid-20s then.

Jesse Green - come with me
Jesse has a bit of a wardrobe faux-pas as his shades, while cool, continually reflect the studio lights giving him the effect like he has some kind of white laser spot on his head. Hopefully the sniper won't fire.

Queen - good old fashioned lover boy
Repeat of the non-TOTP studio performance of an earlier show.

Cliff Richard - what happens when two worlds drift apart
Cliff croons a low-key piano led pop song. Sounds very much like a reasonable if a bit lifeless album filler track but not quite sure what its doing here. Its Noel's record of the week which of course guarantees it was a mighty hit that peaked at... #46, oh.

Legs & Co are in fetching black dresses to dance to the Detroit Emerald's "feel the need in me". The stage set has black and white lines that head off towards infinity giving the whole thing a somewhat surreal air.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - fanfare for the common man
An Olympic tie in! Playing in an empty Olympic stadium somewhere a lot colder than the UK in July. I'm guessing its the Montreal 1976 stadium, didn't they just finish paying for the Olympics?

Hot Chocolate - so you win again
Hot Chocolate's first (and only) number one Noel tells us, after insulting them in the rather awkward segment from ELP's song. Its a good song though maybe flattered by the less than stellar competition at the moment.

Top Of The Pops (16/06/1977)

Kid Jensen presents our shot of rhythm and rock (i'm sure that sounded a lot better in rehearsal).

John Miles - slow down
A "disco smash" according to Kid, i prefer to call it some rather frenetic 70s soft rock. John Miles has a nicely sinister tache and tries some vocal effects using a pipe that hopefully wasn't used to give someone a stomach pump earlier. Its all a little disjointed.

Olivia Newton-John - Sam
A pleasing ballad, a bit bland but well performed. The sort of song and performance you got on a 70s comedy variety show. Half expected Eric and Ernie to come on.

Hot Chocolate - so you win again
Hot Chocolate are always good value, though this isn't their best song. Its performed decently but is a bit of a plodder.

Queen - good old fashioned lover boy
Kid makes a lame Jubilee link to Queen (geddit?) We see Freddie at the joanna and some typical Queen fare. Again not their best song but OK.

Archie Bell & the Drells - everybody have a good time
What kind of "good time" is this Archie considering your group's dance routine seems to consist of synchronised crotch thrusts towards the audience?

Legs & Co (plus some male friends) are on hand to dance away to Bo Kirkland & Ruth Davis' "you're gonna get next to me", all looks a bit of a rip from Soul Train.

Foster Brothers - count me out
More 70s soft rock, with a vague country feel. More dodgy taches too, they much share a barber with John Miles.

Robin the Frog - half way up the stairs
The same film as last time, its hard to get up the stairs when a man has his hand up your bum i guess.

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - anything thats rock and roll
Wow indeed it is Tom Petty, this is not a very good song or performance though. Jet lag?

Kenny Rogers - Lucille
Rod has gone off back to his private skin-tight trouser shop and our new number one is by the teddy bear of country singers Kenny Rogers. He sings in a stage set bar just to emphasise the fact the singer meets Lucille in a... you know... bar.

Top Of The Pops (09/06/1977)

Tony Blackboard is here to present the hottest pop sounds, i wonder who is number 1....? No don't be silly, they were listed at #2 of course. I wonder if they'll be on the show though with their patriotic song for HRH? No.

Osibisa - the warrior
Instead of punk glory we have ...er... bongos (played by someone with a prototype Mr T haircut), flutes, plenty of funk. Its plenty of mess too. Still an inoffensive way to start the show, speaking of inoffensive... well you can't say that about Tony's shirt.

ELO - telephone line
We get the video again, cellos and big hair and bigger pop rock et cetera.

Gladys Knight & the Pips - baby don't change your mind
Straight into another video, whats this MTV or something? We get a behind the scenes video of the band practicing their dance moves, singing in a studio and generally goofing around.

Neil Innes - silver jubilee
Well it is Jubilee Week and we get a song about it. Its all a bit poor really, obvious and bland but also about a trillion times better than Gary Barlow's effort a few decades later. So thats anti-progress.

The Stranglers - go Buddy go
A repeat of The Stranglers appearance for a couple of weeks ago. Punk on TOTP in Jubilee Week! Now that is subversive!

Demis Roussos - Kyrila
Its Summer and people return from holiday to buy stuff like this... Demis croons away in his giant blue outfit like if Brian Blessed did Star Trek. A perfect song for Summer but i bet he wouldn't get far with this on a rainy November night in Stoke. Demis does get some plastic palm trees to sing behind to add the required atmosphere.

Honky - join the party
Another repeat, did the BBC blow all their budget on the jubilee coverage? White boy funk thats not bad, nice synths.

Legs & Co perform The Jacksons "show you the way to go" behind the same plastic trees as Demis earlier. Not sure why they reused the trees for this song but perhaps the unique way the BBC is funded means they have to get their value for money.

Bob Marley & the Wailers - exodus
Neil Innes had a bit of a reggae thing going on earlier, well kinda. Here is the real thing obviously.

Rod Stewart - the first cut is the deepest
And at number two... sorry one is Rod and his tight trousers.

Top Of The Pops (02/06/1977)

Noel is here to announce the hottest sounds, the Sex Pistols excitingly appear at 11 in the top 30 run down, of course they won't get to play on the show but we start with some fancy piano...

Elkie Brooks - saved
Well this is rather fun, a bit of retro (even for 1977) boogie woogie. Nowadays you can see this sort of thing every week on Jools Holland's show but back then it must have seemed quite unusual. Elkie screeching partway through the song though is rather terrifying.

Noel loves it, even getting the audience to cheer again. It was good but not that good Noel. No punk this week but something perhaps even more odd...

The Muppets - halfway down the stairs
A green frog (not Kermit but Robin) sings sadly halfway up the stairs. It isn't up or down or something. It is actually is rather odd but a good odd, kinda.

The Four Seasons - rhapsody
Frankie Valli is here but not in a matching suit with the rest of the band to show that he is the star yeah? The song itself is a bit formless like they've mixed several other bits of song together (and the whole is not really greater than the sum of the parts in this case), it doesn't half have an album filler feel about it.

Twiggy - a woman in love
Twiggy's country song from last year was a surprise (as in it was pretty good), and this is more of the same.

Jesse Green - come with me
Noel makes some strange comment about Jesse's name which falls flatter than week old cola, nice song and nice wide brimmed hat too.

Marvin Gaye's "got to give it up" is presented by Legs & Co who definitely fulfil their "something for the Dads" brief by gyrating in swimsuits on stage with some sexy silhouettes.

Carol Bayer Sager - you're moving out today
Carol's lovely kooky performance from a few weeks ago.

The Strawbs - back in the old routine
Some kind of genial country rock, can't really say this week's show is a vintage one. Anytime Twiggy's song is probably the best on the show you know you are in trouble.

Noel interviews the Alessi brothers and we go into the number one which Noel calls "fabulous" but surely its:

Rod Stewart - the first cut is the deepest
Same footage again, noticed though for the first time how dead Rod's eyes are while he is singing it. Even he is bored of this song!

Top Of The Pops (26/05/1977)

DLT presents the latest pop sounds...

Blue - capture your heart
The orthodox view is that right at the time in Britain punk rock was erupting through the land and nothing would be the same again. Of course in reality many more people were still digging this kind of pleasant, undemanding and polished pop rock. There isn't anything wrong with Blue and this song, its just... too nice.

Olivia Newton John - Sam
DLT thinks she is delicious, hopefully he has eaten already. Its a big song with a big sound that would be right at home on a Saturday night TV variety show. Having said that Olivia performs it quite gently and the song meanders along but then towards the end Olivia tries to throw some life into it. But fails.

Liverpool Express - dreaming
More gentle pop rock. Like the first two songs it drifts along trying not to offend anyone. DLT comes on stage afterwards and gets beaten up by the band in a totally unscripted incident.

Legs & Co have gone all Oriental or as a 1970s pop annual i have memorably calls it "Chineasy". Bryan Ferry's "Tokyo Joe" obviously is the track the girls perform a lot of crude stereotypes too. Nice paper lanterns though.

The Stranglers - go Buddy go
Punk is here at last (or last week if you count The Jam)! After the pop-cheese that has gone on earlier this sounds like it comes from another planet, not that it is their best song by any means. But its pretty good all the same. At least it has some energy behind it.

Marie Myriam - the bird and the child
The Eurovision winner! This is more like it, enough of that punk rubbish already! In truth the song is a bit average and dated (not bad and very Eurovision it just sounds like it should have come from 1965) but Marie is lovely and sings it really well.

ELO - telephone line
Studio performance by some hairy Brummies. The video switches to DLT who looks like he could be part of the band. DLT has a large green frog with him to help him introduce...

Brendon - rock me
The first time he appeared on TOTP Brandon looked a bit like a rabbit in the headlights not totally believing they were letting him on stage. That still hasn't changed. He has a liking for opening his mouth really wide, as if he feeds on flies.

Rod Stewart - the first cut is the deepest
Rod is number one... or should it really be the Sex Pistols? Who really knows. Man those trousers are tight.

Top Of The Pops (19/05/1977)

Kid Jensen invites us to bop and rock.

Suzi Quatro - roxy roller
Suzi! The best way to start this show, or maybe any show for that matter. Suzi is fairly low-key here, singing sweetly in a tasteful yet a bit boring light blue cardigan. Though this seems to match the song which itself is nice but a bit bland. Kid thinks its exciting. Or Suzi is exciting. We can agree there.

Heatwave - too hot to handle
Time for a music video, imaginatively we get flames. We also get a lot of high pitched singing. Dogs whined across Britain during May 1977.

Linda Lewis - the moon and I
Surrounded by early video effects Linda struggles with this song from The Mikado like a reluctant karaoke singer who keyed the wrong number in and was too shy to admit it. Its one of those songs that never seems to end, in fact for some people listening to this entire geological eras have come and gone.

Bay City Rollers - its a game
The kids will prefer this (marginally). Pleasant little song.

Carol Bayer Sager - you're moving out today
Oh this is nice and kooky. Its a bit show tune maybe but sung well and the lyrics are cute. Carol looks like she just come off a day's house decoration which kind of adds to the appeal.

Joe Tex - ain't gonna bump no more
We get the film from Soul Train again with Joe's charming song about a larger lady.

The Trammps - disco inferno
Legs & Co are here dressed like extras from a really bad sci-fi film (golden bikinis with gold plate accessories). Red lights flash over the dancing adding to the futurist feel. You just feel like someone is about to start shooting a laser gun.

The Jacksons - show you the way to go
Why its Michael Jackson! Just as he was starting to show what kind of artist he would one day become... The boys are all in different coloured outfits, like a mix of sci-fi, retro and glitz. Which all seems rather apt.

The Jam - in the city
Punk is here! Or mod or new wave or whatever anyway. Obviously this blows every thing else off the stage et cetera, though to be honest i prefer Carol and Suzi for purely superficial reasons. Ah but this is good, the energy for a start is a refreshing change from the usual.

Rod Stewart - the first cut is the deepest
The number 1, Rod is on good form. After the punk blast that precedes him it does all seem rather ancient though, but maybe Rod knows that and he does a funky thing with his guitar to inject a bit of energy into it. And he wears very tight trousers. Very nice squire but if you drop the plectrum you'll be in trouble.

Top Of The Pops (12/05/1977)

Jimmy Saville (RIP) is here to present the hottest pop sounds including...

Honky - join the party
Well this is fun, though a definite period piece, especially having a band with this name. Its good rollicking white boy soul funk, messy in all the right ways. Great synths too and we have party streamers! They are all the way from Southampton according to Jimmy, that must have been a long way away in 1977. Practically the moon.

Barbara Streisand - evergreen
The video from the movie again, with Kris Kristofferson acting all lovey dovey.

Blue - i'm gonna capture your heart
A basic and decent pop-rock track though if it was a dish on Masterchef they would say it was a bit lacking in oomph. In one of the close-ups one of the members looks into the camera and looks like he wants to eat each and every one of us.

Trinidad Oil Company - the calendar song
Some people like steel drum music, but to others it is something to be endured. I fall into the latter category. They all wear hideous orange and black suits but it doesn't make it any better funnily enough.

Jimmy wears a brown wig and pretends to be his brother Percy to introduce Legs & Co performing along to Piero Umiliani's comedy track "mah na mah na" (the song played on the Muppets and Benny Hill). They are dressed as flowers menaced by a bee.

10cc - good morning judge
Another showing of the early pop video and jolly good fun it is too. But how come he was allowed that guitar in court? Don't they have security or something?

Martyn Ford Orchestra - let your body go downtown
Fairly formless disco-funk. Its OK but instantly forgettable. Its fronted by someone who looks like a mid-70s sports show host.

Legs & Co are earning their money tonight, they are back in matching skimpy outfits to prance around to Marvin Gaye's "gotta give it up".

Billy Paul - let 'em in
What a nice hat, in between verses he starts ranting and sounds like a street preacher.

Dr Feelgood - lights out
Turn up the energy levels, its rock and roll time. Performed angrily, almost punk-like. We haven't yet had punk on TOTP (but its coming soon) i guess the show has to be eased into it. Oddly this is the B-side of their charting single "Sneaking suspicion".

Denise Williams - free
The number 1, nice song, nice performance, nice jump suit.

Top Of The Pops (28/04/1977)

DLT is here with the hottest sounds.

Contempt - money is a girl's best friend
We start with some meaty guitar chords and then we move seamlessly into what sounds uncannily like the tune from a 70s childrens TV show. Oh the singer has a bowler hat and brolly, its even more scary than the drummer who has a massive beard.

The song itself is very weird, very much a novelty tune with more tempo and style changes than i've had hot dinners. I wonder if they recorded this for a laugh and as a surprise to everyone, including themselves, it was released.

Rose Royce - i wanna get next to you
A solo spot for one of Legs & Co. Dancing amid hanging rags. Its all very nice but doesn't really seem to match the song. As usual then for the TOTP dancers...

The Detriot Spinners - could it be i am falling in love
Matching suits, almost matching dance moves. Its all rather generic but not bad.

10cc - good morning judge
We have a pop video, a real pop video too. Man up before the beak, then he is on the streets taking some chick home. He later steals a car.  The judge pulls out a guitar and gives us some hot chords. Yeah baby. All pop videos used to be like this, a golden age.

Joe Tex - ain't gonna bump no more
To save money, no doubt, this comes from Soul Train. Crazy dancing in the background on this decent track though its rather overshadowed by the strange antics towards the end. Joe plays around with his microphone stand almost kicking it into the crowd and then gets knocked over by a large lady. No really.

Kiki Dee - night hours
Back in the studio and time for something much more sensible. No gimmicks here just Kiki and a guitarist sat on stage playing a nice song. Pity though they chose a guitarist to accompany Kiki as the piano track was much higher in the mix. Not exactly the most vintage night of TOTP as this as this was probably the best song.

Billy Ocean - red light
Billy has two scantily clad dancers gyrating on stage in front of him. The hard life of a pop star eh. The dancers (from Legs) represent the "red light" in the title by holding out their hands to stop traffic. So its not about the Reeperbahn then.

Barbara Striesland - evergreen
A clip from "A star is born", she sings into Kris Kristofferson's eyes who tries to look interested.

Barry Biggs - you're my life
Barry has somehow found the worst shirt ever made and instead of burning it has actually worn it on national TV! He did wear a pink suit though on his last TOTP tune i recall so he has form.

ABBA - knowing me knowing you
Still at #1!