FIRST HOUR
Out On The Floor (Dobie Gray)
(1966, 1975)... feel free to show off your fanciest footwork while enjoying this exhilarating slice of Northern soul which reached a modest # 42 in the UK, nine years after its first release
I've Been Thinking About You (Londonbeat)
(1990)... seventeen years after his one and only solo hit Gonna Make You An Offer You Can't Refuse (1973, # 8), Jimmy Helms topped that earlier success as lead singer of Londonbeat ~ I've Been Thinking About You was by far the biggest of four Top 40 hits (# 2) ~ their only Top 10-er
Lucky Number (Lene Lovich)
... from the first of today's featured years~ quirky new wave pop from a singer-songwriter born in the US to an English mother and a Serbian father, who moved to England when she was a teenager
Time-hopping hits which did much better second time around
(What A) Wonderful World (Sam Cooke)
(1960, 1986) ... made it to # 2 as a reissue, having featured in one of a series of TV ads for Levi 501 jeans. The first - and most famous, or maybe infamous ? - was the launderette scene with the hunk in the boxer shorts (actor/model Nick Kamen) getting his jeans washed to a backdrop of Marvin Gaye singing I Heard It Through The Grapevine, which also returned to the chart, by way of a bonus. It's on the playlist in today's second hour...
Saturday Night At The Movies (The Drifters)
(1965, 1972) ... one side of a classic double A side which got as high as # 3 in the UK in '72, sharing the spoils with an equally great song from '65, At The Club
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The Second Summer of Love (Danny Wilson)
(1989)... not as everyone thought, an individual musician who had given his name to the band - a la Manfred Mann ~ Scottish trio Danny Wilson - brothers Gary and Kit Clark and Ged Grimes - did exactly the opposite, adoping a male name from the title of a 1952 Frank Sinatra film. Meet Danny Wilson was a favourite of Gary and Kit's dad. The Second Summer was their second hit (# 23) a year after their first Mary's Prayer eventually made the Top 3
Newsround Tameside: 42 years ago ~ 1979
Sultans Of Swing (Dire Straits)
... their debut hit, originally released the previous year. 'Guitar George - he knows all the chords' was widely believed to be George Borowski, a well respected singer-songwriter who has played many a Tameside gig over the years. Other sources, however, have claimed that line in the lyrics is based on someone else entirely. Looking at the information available online, there doesn't appear to be a definitive answer. Something to ask that Mark Knopfler if our paths ever cross...
Painter Man (Boney M)
.... latest in a run of disco-tastic Top-10ers which had already included two chart-toppers Rivers of Babylon / Brown Girl In The Ring and Mary's Boy Child/ Oh My Lord. The phenomenally successful * Euro-Caribbean vocal group created by German record producer and songwriter Frank Farian, went on to achieve record sales of 80 million+ worldwide (* Source: Wikipedia)
Waiting For An Alibi (Thin Lizzy)
... first single from the album, Black Rose: A Rock Legend ~ the only Lizzy LP recorded while Gary Moore was a member of the band. He left soon after it was completed.
Woman In Love (Three Degrees)
... the trio's biggest hit since their 1974 number 1, When Will I See You Again
Stop Your Sobbing (The Pretenders)
...covering an old Kinks song gave Chrissie Hynde and co their first taste of chart success
Everybody's Happy Nowadays (Buzzcocks)
... single recorded at Stockport's Strawberry Studios by the Bolton punk pioneers who, by this point in time,had secured their place in Manchester music history,
What A Fool Believes (The Doobie Brothers)
... laid-back, radio friendly song which would have been a huge hit if chart positions were based on amounts of airplay. In a sales-driven industry it could only manage a # 31
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SECOND HOUR
Your Mother Should Know (The Beatles)
(1967) … Paul McCartney musically harking back to the first half of the 20th Century for a scene in the made-for-TV movie Magical Mystery Tour in which the Fab Four, wearing white tuxedos, make a grand entrance on a staircase. The song appeared on the Magical Mystery Tour EP and the full soundtrack album. Played today in celebration of Mother’s Day / Mothering Sunday, as is our next song…
Mama Said (Dionne Bromfield)
(2009)...the original was by American girl group The Shirelles who had a long run of hits in the US in the early '60s, but only one Top 10-er here, the Gerry Goffin – Carole King song Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?
Goodnight Midnight (Clodagh Rodgers) 10-11-19
... teaser track for our second featured year when Clodagh, having debuted with Come Back And Shake Me followed up just as successfully
Absolutely Lyricless ~ the instrumental break
... with a winter sports connection
Pop Looks Bach (Ski Sunday theme) (Bob Sleigh & The Downhill Racers)
(1978) ... from the TV show which has been a regular fixture on BBC2 since the late '70s
Barnum On Ice (Richard Hartley & The Michael Reed Orchestra)
(1984) ... one of the tracks on the EP The Music of Torvill & Dean, which also featured Ravel's Bolero, from the duo's gold medal-winning ice dancing performance at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. Barnum was their moment of glory at the previous year's world ice championships
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Cath (The Bluebells)
(1983-84)... best known for Young At Heart, the Scottish indie-new wave band Cath was one of their earlier releases which had stalled at # 62. Reissued the following year, it became their third and final Top 40 single (not including the unexpected return of Young At Heart in the '90s)
Where The Heart Is (Prefab Sprout)
(1997) ... theme song of the ITV series of the same name, (think: district nurses ... paper mill ... village rugby team Skelthwaite Scorpions) which ran for ten series on Sunday evenings, filmed mainly in Slaithwaite ('Slawit') and Marsden, just over the Pennines, near Huddersfield. More recently, the series has been repeated on ITV3
Reflections: 52 years ago ~ 1969
Pinball Wizard (The Who)
... best known song from the rock opera Tommy released later the same year. The Who's brilliant original reached # 4, with Elton John's frantic re-working from the film also making the Top 10 (1976, # 7). In between, 'Who' would have expected The New Seekers to cover the song as part of a Tommy medley, also including See Me Feel Me?! (1973, # 16)
Goodbye (Mary Hopkin)
... written by her Apple Records mentor Paul McCartney as the follow-up to Those Were The Days, her # 1 debut the previous year
I Heard It Through the Grapevine (Marvin Gaye)
... up there as one of Motown's biggest ever hits in the UK, it enjoyed a new lease of life in the '80s when it provided the soundtrack to what is still regarded as the most famous TV jeans ad of all time ~ see also: (What A) Wonderful World - Sam Cooke (first hour)
Badge (Cream)
... featuring George Harrison playing rhythm guitar in his signature style ~ the song which George co-wrote with Cream's Eric Clapton didn't have a title at first Nothing in the lyrics seemed to leap out as an obvious contender. Eric mis-read George's scribbled notes indicating the guitar instrumental 'bridge' as 'badge', causing much amusement, but proving the moment of inspiration which they had been waiting for. After that, the title on the label just had to be ...Badge
Si Tu Dois Partir (Fairport Convention)
... Bob Dylan song previously a hit for Manfred Mann (If You Gotta Go, Go Now) sung in French and performed in lively cajun style by the acclaimed folk rock band. Lead singer Sandy Denny went on to enjoy a successful solo career in the '70s
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher (Jackie Wilson) 10-11-19
... one of those rarities - a hit three times over in three different decades, sticking faithfully to the originally released recording, nothing added, nothing edited out. 1969 was when it had its first outing, reaching # 11 on the chart, returning as a reissue in 1975 (double A side listing with I Get The Sweetest Feeling) and again in 1987
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SHOW THEME:
Rhapsody In Blue (Rick Wakeman)
written by George Gershwin, arranged by Tony Visconti
from the album Rhapsodies (A&M Records, 1979)
Please bear in mind: it's a live show and so, occasionally I might need to change the running order, leave a song out, or play an unplanned extra song which will not be shown in this weekly music blog.
-MW
