Top Of The Pops

by **Crazy4Brit** » Mon Jan 09, 2012 12:43 am

Does TOTP still exist?!

by **johnnyboy** » Mon Jan 09, 2012 7:10 pm

No. Though there are 'specials' ie on Christmas Day you can see a specially made TV programme of the year's hits, recorded shortly before Christmas.
There's also a TOTP2 programme whilst it concentrates on archive footage will sometimes have current guests performing...

I have a query about ABBA. I know they performed Waterloo in 1974 and recently I saw them perform Mamma Mia for the Christmas 1976 show. What other songs did they perform?
I believe they did SOS too but footage of this has been destroyed.

by **MFR** » Mon Jan 09, 2012 10:11 pm

Robbie wrote:
johnnyboy wrote:Robbie - where did you get those sales figures? Dancing Queen seems low. I though its sales were around the 860,000 mark.
I've had those figures for quite a while, several years in fact and I'm assuming that they are the actual figures given in the 1977 BPI Yearbook. Perhaps the sales figure from 1976 for "Dancing Queen" has been revised or the higher 860,000 figure is shipments? The BPI used the BMRB panel sales figures for 1976 (and applied a multiplier to convert them into total market sales) and we know how unreliable at times this method can be.

The 770,000 is from the BPI Yearbook and comes from the BMRB, worked out using panel sales x 17. It's probably not a bad choice as the exercise that determined it had only recently been carried out, though it probably errs on the side of generosity.

The chart for that year only goes up to Saturday December 11th (or is it Friday December 10th?) and so is three weeks short of the full-year. I've never seen an updated version, though they would not have had any figures to use for the week of the frozen chart.

by **Graham76man** » Tue Jan 10, 2012 1:29 am

johnnyboy wrote:I have a query about ABBA. I know they performed Waterloo in 1974 and recently I saw them perform Mamma Mia for the Christmas 1976 show. What other songs did they perform?
I believe they did SOS too but footage of this has been destroyed.

They performed SOS 3 times on the 2,16,30 October 1975. It doesn't say "video" so I assume they either don't know it was a video, or it was live. All 3 shows were wiped.

They were not regular live performers on TOTP, something that made them more popular as the films they made boosted sales much better than a live appearance. For instance Take A Chance On Me four way split video was really something to behold at the time!
Seeing old TOTP now with these now famous videos of ABBA, which we are so used to, doesn't really show the impact they made on the viewing public at that time. But to us old enough to remember then it was like going to watch a 3D film now.
There's very few ABBA tracks that don't have a film or video for them! If only other 70's acts had made them :-?

ABBA were a real pioneer of the music video

by **Graham76man** » Tue Jan 10, 2012 1:32 am

Crazy4Brit wrote:Does TOTP still exist?!

I believe it may well do in other parts of the world. It was still going in several countries when the UK cancelled it.

by **johnnyboy** » Tue Jan 10, 2012 5:59 pm

MFR
Re:Dancing Queen's sales

If you used a multiplier of 19 you'd get 860,000.

What were the multiplier rules?

by **MFR** » Tue Jan 10, 2012 7:45 pm

There were no rules.

I believe that around 1975-1976 an exercise was carried out involving the record companies, distributors, retailers and the BMRB to verify the accuracy of the UK charts and to estimate how many times bigger the market was compared to the standard panel of 250 shops.

Comparing what was shipped to the chart sample it was reckoned that the market was 17 times bigger than the standard panel for singles and 20 times bigger for albums.

So the multipliers were set at 17 and 20 respectively and it seems they stayed that way until the early 1990s (although Alan Jones used 18 and 25 respectively in his record Record Mirror round-ups from 1985 to 1987).

The BPI Yearbook printed the estimated sales on the 1976 singles year-end chart (although the chart actually only covers the first 49 weeks) with 17 used as the multiplier. They didn't print figures on any later year-end charts.

The various sales reports continued to print sales in panel sales form. Gallup committed their multiplier recommendations for obtaining market estimates to print from, I think, the weekly report for December 3rd, 1988 onwards.

Prior to that other commentators, such as Alan Jones, may have felt free to ignore what Gallup - and the BMRB before them - were thinking and put their own interpretations on the relationship between the panel sales and the market. But 17 was the official multiplier for singles in 1976.

by **CZB** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 7:49 pm

Tonight's almost-complete rrepeat from 35 years ago.....

13-1-77: Presenter: David Hamilton

(NEW) GALLAGHER & LYLE – Every Little Teardrop
(5) BARRY BIGGS – Sideshow
(21) ROSE ROYCE – Car Wash (danced to by Legs & Co)
(35) DAVID PARTON – Isn’t She Lovely
(7) JULIE COVINGTON – Don’t Cry For Me Argentina (video)
(11) STATUS QUO – Wild Side Of Life (video)
(25) LIVERPOOL EXPRESS – Every Man Must Have A Dream
(32) PUSSYCAT – Smile
(1) DAVID SOUL – Don’t Give Up On Us (video)
(14) STEVIE WONDER - I Wish (credits)

......with just one performance held back for the late-night full version. I think I can predict which one of next week's songs might suffer the same fate - if indeed it is included at all!

Oddly, the end playout track above isn't mentioned in the archive summarising each edition's contents.....

I had to look up the peak position of Pussycat's only UK chart follow-up to the number one "Mississippi"......24.

by **Graham76man** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:14 am

I remember a lot of silly titles for the Julie Covington record were made up :wink:

Such as Don't cry for me Arthur Negas... or Don't cry for me Marge and Tina :lol:

No doubt somebody could remember more or come up with more :wink:

Car Wash was a film about a car wash in the USA!

Next week's chart would see the Stevie Wonder track hit the top ten. But in reality it went down, probably due to poor distribution of the records in all but most of the chart shops. That of course never happens now being all digitial!

by **Thriller** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 7:24 pm

Digital Spy wrote:The BBC is reportedly relaunching Top of the Pops on the internet.

The Radio 1 Official Chart Show will be revamped on February 26 to include online videos, live performances and interviews with artists who appear in the Top Ten.

Host Reggie Yates, who campaigned for the return of Top of the Pops alongside Fearne Cotton, will hand a special prize to the act that reaches number one each week and fans can send in questions via Twitter and Facebook.

"This really is being seen as Top of the Pops for the 21st century at the Beeb and we have high hopes it could be very popular with hundreds of thousands of people watching the show on their laptops," a source told The Mirror.

"It mixes old elements of the hit series with live chats with the acts, chart fans should love it."

Controller of BBC Radio 1 Ben Cooper added: "This is the Chart Show for the 21st century. I'm very excited about this innovation.

"Young people will be logging on to listen, watch and take part in the show. I hope that this will be to our young listeners what listening to the chart and waiting to record your favourite pop songs was for another generation."

Insiders have predicted that the show could end up on TV if its online run is successful.

Olly Murs recently expressed an interest in hosting a new version of Top of the Pops.

"Being seen" as TOTP isn't really the same as actually being TOTP but it's a step in the right direction I guess for the BBC...

by **Blondini** » Sat Jan 21, 2012 9:16 pm

^Yeah. I was gonna post that but decided not to as it's not TOTP in any way. It's just a Reggie webcam! That's nothing new!

by **CZB** » Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:56 pm

Tonight's first-time-since-1977 repeat:

20-1-77: Presenter: Noel Edmonds

(NEW) SLADE – Gypsy Roadhog
(27) DONNA SUMMER – Winter Melody (video)
(6) 10cc – The Things We Do For Love (video)
(30) JESSE GREEN – Flip
(20) ELVIS PRESLEY – Suspicion (danced to by Legs & Co)
(NEW) LEO SAYER – When I Need You
(21) THIN LIZZY – Don’t Believe A Word
(41) GARY GLITTER – It Takes All Night Long
(11) THE DRIFTERS – You’re More Than A Number In My Little Red Book (video)
(NEW) SILVER CONVENTION – Everybody’s Talkin’ ‘Bout Love
(1) DAVID SOUL – Don’t Give Up On Us (video)
(18) BONEY M - Daddy Cool (credits)

I don't ever remember two consecutive performances on "Top of the Pops" being segued together without a link by the DJ presenting - but, unless BBC FOUR have done a bit of further editing other than chopping out the two songs later in the programme, that's when seems to have happened with the two "(video)" items near the beginning.....

Also, Noel Edmonds referred to totals of climbers, fallers and new entries that suggested he was considering the chart as the top forty, rather than the top thirty featured at the beginning of the show. Although Radio One was still only broadcasting a top twenty countdown on Sunday evenings (until November 1978), perhaps, almost two years earlier, they had started to announce the longer chart on weekdays...

by **Robbie** » Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:39 pm

^
Radio 1 was still counting down a Top 30 at the time, it didn't become a top 40 until May 9, 1978...

It looks like Glitter has been completely cut out, the Drifters are featured in the late night repeat. The Mirror ran an article earlier this week about Glitter being featured and it looks like the BBC have cut out his appearance despite saying to the Mirror they would feature the song.

by **Blondini** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:54 am

Glitter shown. It's appalling! Was he trying to make a soul record? :lol:

Noel making a gag about "flashers" hanging round lamp-posts! :lol:

by **Robbie** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:54 am

BBC4 are playing the full, uncut, version of TOTP now. Including Glitter.

by **CZB** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:54 am

Against the odds, the Gary Glitter track is airing as I type, in what would appear to be a full version of the original edition. Although this has followed Thin Lizzy as per the list above, the other excised track from earlier, by the Drifters, actually appeared after Elvis Presley and before Leo Sayer, not as per that list....

by **Robbie** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:55 am

Blondini wrote:Glitter shown. It's appalling! Was he trying to make a soul record?

Noel making a gag about "flashers" hanging round lamp-posts!

It's an awful record! He was well past his prime by now and he looks desolate without his backing band.

by **Robbie** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:56 am

CZB wrote:Against the odds, the Gary Glitter track is airing as I type, in what would appear to be a full version of the original edition. Although this has followed Thin Lizzy as per the list above, the other excised track from earlier, by the Drifters, actually appeared after Elvis Presley and before Leo Sayer, not as per that list....

I noticed The Drifters appeared earlier than in the listing from above.

by **Graham76man** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 1:24 am

TOTP used the top 30 only as 31 to 50 could be hyped by Record companies buying records up. After 30 sales were considered too high, actually by that time this method of buying up records would get you to 39.
Radio One's Sunday chart was just a top 20 till 1978.
Noel was talking about the top 40 as Radio One would have used it by then. As with most things at the BBC the size of the chart was determined by the fact that the BBC was losing audience to commercial Radio or TV. Most ILR stations carried a local top 40 and so the BBC were dragged (screaming & kicking) into expanding the top 20 into a 40! Noel and the other DJ's were on the ball, more than the bosses at the BBC, sometimes they even let slip 41 to 50 :-?

I wasn't a fan of Radio One, because it was only on the AM band. The BBC dragged it's feet on giving it's own FM slot too!

by **Robbie** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 1:29 am

Radio 1 didn't use a top 40 back in 1977, it was still a top 30. As I posted above, Radio 1 started to use a top 40 from Tuesday May 9, 1978.

by **Graham76man** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 1:53 am

Robbie wrote:Radio 1 didn't use a top 40 back in 1977, it was still a top 30. As I posted above, Radio 1 started to use a top 40 from Tuesday May 9, 1978.

But the DJ's had Music Week :wink:

I myself was listening to Ray Stuart on Radio Hallam Saturday 9am while 12am and then when Billy Ocean Red Light... was top, Kelly Temple's Sunday top 40 at 2pm!
I couldn't afford a cassette recorder till about November 1978, so I don't have a recording of any top 40 shows from then. The Sunday Radio One chart was still a top twenty when I had that, I remember recording a top 20 on it featuring Simon Bates! Sadly the tape is now lost :-?

By the way checked the Real Chart for this week in 1977 and the Bar Kays are absent from the 100. As the record was 42 on the BBC chart you can bet that it was hyped :wink:

by **Thriller** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 10:06 pm

I'm glad Glitter was shown, history should not be erased.

by **Blondini** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 10:18 pm

Thriller wrote:I'm glad Glitter was shown, history should not be erased.

No, but that song should! :lol:

by **BrainDamageII** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 10:40 am

Blondini wrote:
Thriller wrote:I'm glad Glitter was shown, history should not be erased.
No, but that song should!

How true, shame his 1st performance of Rock and Roll Part 2 isn't shown (if it hasn't been wiped) it was what TOTP was all about at the time.

by **Graham76man** » Sat Jan 28, 2012 12:04 pm

BrainDamageII wrote:
Blondini wrote:
Thriller wrote:I'm glad Glitter was shown, history should not be erased.
No, but that song should!
How true, shame his 1st performance of Rock and Roll Part 2 isn't shown (if it hasn't been wiped) it was what TOTP was all about at the time.

On Glitter's TOTP performance of it takes all night long.. Having watched it yesterday It was a live performance of the song and so sounded awful compared with the highly polished version. So I hope you were not judging the song on the TOTP performance of it.

Brian you will pleased to know that the performance of Rock and Roll Part 2 wasn't wiped and is here on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nras3c8r45k