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.

Top 5 Records (August 2012)

1) songs - Jackie DeShannon
2) if i crawl, you crawl - Nature Set
3) Penguin Prison
4) rapproacher - Class Actress
5) ashes and roses - Mary Chapin Carpenter

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.

MV : "Only shallow" by My Bloody Valentine