Hits 21 - BONUS: Top of the Pops, August 1991

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to Hits 21, the show that's taking a look back at every single UK #1 hit..You can follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Hits21UKYou can email us: [e-mail] 21 DOES NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO ANY MUSIC USED IN THE EPISODES. USAGE OF ALL MUSIC USED IN THIS PODCAST FALLS UNDER SECTION 30(1) OF THE COPYRIGHT ACT 1988

I'm going to be able to be. Hi there everyone, and welcome back to Hitch 21, where me, Rob, me, Lizzie, and me, Ed, are looking back at a random, I say random episode of Top of the Pops. But this week we'll be looking at the Top of the Pops episode from the week that Lizzie was born. So it was Ed's birthday last week, it's Lizzie's birthday this week, and boy, have we got several treats for you. Of course, Lizzie's here because Andy's not here. is away in New Zealand having the time of his life we all hope in New Zealand he is listening from New Zealand with his husband and we just wanted to say hello hope you're doing okay several hours ahead and he's already heard this the episode's already out in New Zealand we're

still recorded it but they're so far ahead in time that they've already got it I'm so tired for half a second I thought that made sense so we are going to just do what we did last time where we are going to jump into an episode of Top of the Pops. I'm just going to get the running order up to let you know what we've got coming up for you. More hits than ever, apparently. There were 10 tracks last week. There are a whopping 13 songs played in this episode, and they somehow squeeze all of them in to a 30-minute slot.

Good evening and welcome to Top of the Pops on the show tonight, Jason Donovan, Martika, Zoe, and also this fellow who's locked himself away in the studio for the last couple of years, making a terrific album and also sporting a hit single. Here at the Top of the Pops studio, the one of the only mid-jaw. So we have, from the beginning, we have Cold Cold Heart by Midgeeur, Charlie by the Prodigy, Sunshine on a Rainy Day by Zoe, What Can You Do for Me by Utah Saints, Happy Together by Jason Donovan,

Romantic by Karen White, Insanity by Oceanic, Love Thy Will Be Done by Martika, Lyft by 808 State, You belong in rock and roll by tin machine, 20th century boy by T-Rex Everything I do I do it for you by Brian Adams

and then the show finishes with Mind by the Farm So general thoughts about this episode Lizzie I gave Ed the floor to open on his birthday last week So it's your birthday this week

August 91 What did you make of this episode What's hip and happening Around the time that you come into the world I think it's a bit tricky to thin down But the main thing I've picked up on is that I think Rave is now fully mainstream in terms of chart presence, although this is a few months after the KLF were at number one.

So the peak might be over already, but I think just in terms of general consciousness, this is the point in time where I think you could maybe argue that we're at peak rave. We might be slightly in the decline, but it's still dominating the charts at this point. there is still a lot of retro around but I think it's being presented in a different way more of like a nod to the past

than a full-blown revival like we had in 1986 but that was the main things I picked up on other than that I think it's a little bit hard to pin down there's no like there's no predominant movement other than rave I don't think yeah I had similar trouble I think last week there was a pretty

pretty clear through line you know obviously odds and sods of certain things that were different and different stuff but yeah the overriding sense was one of hmm especially it comes through in gary david's presenting style as well where it was like nothing's really happening at the moment so we're just kind of excited about the past but not the present um this feels a little different dance house rave definitely here we get the prodigy utah saints oceanic eight to eight state this episode feels a bit more excited about ongoing things in the present year as opposed to just paying a bunch of respect to yesteryear we do get some of that jason donovan midge or of course t rex pop up but aside from jason donovan and midge's song not really being a favorite of mine you know stylistically

and sonically that song does at least feel he's only going back as far as the previous episode that we covered with that kind of beefy stadium pop thing that we get a few times on that 86 episode And obviously, Mark Boland was always looking forwards with what he did anyway, more on that later. One thing I will pick up on, though, again, we're in the early 90s. I'm never going to start complaining about it. The rap representation is lacking. You know, you look over at America, there's Vanilla Ice, NWA, M.C. Hammer, Jodacy, you know, they all land number one albums around this time.

The most hip and urban thing we get in this episode is that Karen White song, that romantic, but even that's more New Jack Swing. I'll complain about this more but we could have had PM Dawn or we could have had the Fresh Prince you know so I think we're still very much getting there on that one but still dances here the baggy Manchester sound gets a bit of a creep

interview as well the 80s hangovers aren't too bad New Jack Swing is acknowledged the random chart entry from yesterday year is a banger because it's just on an advert at the moment so all in all I would say this is an overall improvement it's more consistent

in terms of quality, in terms of the performances and songs we get, but maybe less interesting as a result. Ed, what about you? How do you feel about this episode? Yeah, I think more consistent but less interesting is perhaps fair. It is interesting to see how the, well, vanilla pop acts, should we say, have taken on board some of the superficial signifiers of Rave. if not actually the point and feel of it. So you'll have just people wearing what they probably assumed to be fishing hats and told to dance like a shark in the corner of the stage at some points. But, yeah, I can't disagree with anything you've said.

The only thing that I did pick up as another sort of through line under it is this sort of very bougie sort of body shop spirituality. that sort of swims through the whole thing, which is very much of that era, very global hyper-colour, united colours of Benetton sort of thing going on. Very sort of loose, flowy clothing. And a lot of songs that kind of have sort of general slightly sort of frowny,

you know, I look at the world and see all of the bad things in the world, but then I look at my inner aura or something, and it's okay sort of thing. And the kind of songs, I think, that within a year or two, it would become standard for them to have a sort of gentle trip-hop beat behind them. However, trip-hop has not quite infected mainstream pop yet, so we don't get that as the off-the-rack standby for sophisticated adult pop yet. But that's really it.

I mean, to steal a chart musicism, it is very much the main tease. as they would say it's not quite one thing or the other and I think there are some acts that are very much that feel more dated than others

that could have just been you know they could have been three or four years behind I think the rave stuff at least pushes it into the 90s but yeah

I mean I don't want to go too far into it and how many of these we're going to be covering but the Karen White track that feels pretty stale I'm not surprised I've not heard that before

because it's Kind of like a shaking Janet Jackson thing going on. It's very poundland control or poundland rhythm nation. And it does not feel very early 90s, although as you say, Rob, it's very much in the new Jack swing vein. I think it is a little bit out of time. And this is naturally going to be an era where people are figuring out where to go. However, I think a lot of the stuff doesn't, it doesn't,

V-80s, actually, interestingly, even though it's not quite identifiably the 90s yet, if that makes sense. I just wanted to pick up on something there as well. You mentioned, like, the headshot vibe. I think it's almost like the second Summer of Love is finally sort of filtering down to the provinces. Yeah. And so you're getting blokes who look like hippies with,

you know, that a pirate shirt from Seinfeld, that kind of look. Like the guy on sunshine on a rainy day. Yeah. Got the proper full-decked-out look. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. So what we'll do, I don't think there will be much disagreement over our least favorite song. So I'm going to play a clip of what I imagine will be,

at least not unanimously our least favorite song, but I think at least two of us are going to pick it. So I'm going to play that clip, apologize to the poor artist in question, and then we will come back and discuss our least favorite song of this episode of Top of the Pops from all this 19. So what can you do for me? Tell you what we can do for you now.

We'll bring you the guy who's been working with us at Radio 1 FM all this week. Here he is. The one and only Jason Darwin! Imagine me and you, I do. I think about your day and night. It's only right to think about the girl you love and hold her tide. So happy together. If I should come to love, invest a dime

And you say you belong to me And ease my mind Imagine how the world would be So very fine So happy together Yeah, sorry Jason So Yeah, my least favourite is happy together

Jason Donovan Is that the same for you two Or have you two gone for different ones? No, I've gone for a different one but go on. Yes, I've gone for his coat of monochrome covers. Well, I think what we'll do then is we'll do a slag off Jason Donovan sandwich. Although, no, it wouldn't be.

It would be a defend Jason Donovan sandwich, and slagging off Jason Donovan would be the bread. So whatever Lizzie's content is would be the filler. That would be the actual sandwich. So, yeah, I'll go quickly on this one with Jason Donovan. I don't want to be mean, but this feels like the most pointless and inessential, bit of the episode. Like, if you say the words, Jason Donovan has covered happy together, this is exactly how it would sound in your head. It does nothing to change the song. It does nothing to challenge your perception of the song before you've even heard it. It's literally

only in existence so that his greatest hits album can qualify for the main charts. All this really reveals is that Stock Aiken Waterman kind of stop trying to wrap things up, actually. You know, Jason's been around for barely any time they're doing a greatest hits and kind of seeing him off which doesn't think the greatest hits album doesn't have any dream we'll do on it which was only number one earlier this year but it does have RSVP on it which was a top 20 single

from earlier this year never heard of it as for the performance he is charming and pleasant does nothing out of the ordinary which is precisely why I find him and this cover to be so but Lizzie there's something worse than this apparently what did you think was worse

well I agree I do think it is quite insipid but first I love the original so much that I think I was just about able to overlook it I would rather have had this at number one than any dream will do and also I think just the fact that you hear a couple of girls

screaming suggests it's like okay this is still current. Yes. But there are still fans here. Like, yeah. Rather than my choice, which is Cold Cold Heart by Midge Yore to open up the

episode, I got a real sense of dread when I saw this was the first thing that came up on the episode and I just thought about like, imagine me like coming out and this was the first thing I see on top of the pops. I'd be like, put me back in, I'm not done yet because Midge Yore's on top

of the pops. Oh, I love the Lion King that's what I mean I was just about to say there's a real like fake world music vibe to it it's I know this is like really overly specific but

to me it sounds like the opening music for a nature documentary they would show in primary schools yes yeah it really does the other vibe that I got as well is like some kind of late 80s early 90s kind of like medieval set

swords and sandals kind of movie and shields and battles and things like that I feel like it's going for like you say world music vibe but sounds just more quaint medieval village Well to give him His due he did hold back

From getting a gospel choir On it I thank him for that Because that would have been the you know The era marking staple But he chose some fucking awful Like Pan type things

Yeah exactly Or we're still like If they're like an African choir type thing Like boys don't do on a different beat Or like African tears Oh god Yeah It's like oh get me some singers

Like on that baked beans advert Yeah that's what I want Or that one bank advert Where there's like a kid Going down to like a treasure chest It's like I'm haeha We mention any dream we'll do

This kind of reminds me a bit of it, it's got that saying that sort of vaguely tribal but it doesn't ever reach above that. There's like a real coldness to it and you can tell he's worked really hard on it but Jesus Christ

not the time like like you say Rob this feels like something from 86 like in the shadow of Toto like it doesn't belong here and it's Toto crap so Ed you're going to put another vote in for Mr. Donovan.

It wasn't that far off giving it to mature, probably Jason Donovan, just because it's almost like I have no adverse reaction to it. It doesn't do anything to the original song, except sort of, it has the effect of your listening or watching the turtles playing happy together, but in between you and the sound and the vision of the group, there's just loads and loads of air freshener being sprayed in a massive horrible cloud. So it just sounds and looks obscured by chintziness. And it's just, I mean, it's, as I say, you're just watching it. It's like, oh, but that's almost what makes it even worse because it's so pointless. It banks on the fact

that people don't know the original song. I think it had something of a revival. I'm not 100% sure how well known happy together was by the UK public at this time I think maybe it's kind of come in through osmosis now I might be wrong about that but I didn't know it as a kid however it came in through a lot of culture I was exposed to and it is it's a really good song but this is just that

with the edges sort of smoothed a little bit with a bit of varnish on it and for that I think it's fucking wretched you know it makes me Because I have no reaction to it, that's what makes it worse. Yeah, I'm sort of looking up the history of Happy Together. It reached number 12 in the UK in 1967. Oh, I probably do know it then.

I was just about to say, I remember my first exposure to it. It was on, and I mentioned this in the last episode as well, those compilation adverts that you used to see on, like, Cartoon Network. Yeah. It's like 60s, 60s greats, and it's all like the cheap stuff. and yeah, this was one of them. I seem to remember me hearing it for the first time on an album, it was a compilation album

that my mum and dad used to own. I think they may still own it. It was called like, the jingly, jangly sounds of summer. Oh, gosh. I got introduced to some great, some really great stuff, actually. It was called Good Vives,

the jingly, jangly sounds of summer. Let me find the full track list. I got introduced to September, But girls, big star off that album. Okay. It's much better than its title would suggest, then. Weather with you, crowded house. Have a nice day.

Stereophonics. Big Sir, Echo Beach, do it again by the Beach Boys, brown-eyed girl, don't go back to Rockville, Sicilia. This isn't bad. Yeah, Rag Mama Rag.

Summer in the city. She's Electric, Smile, Supernatals, Wake Up Boo. Celebrate Summer T-Rex. All right. Bohemian like you. can you dig it mock turtles pure the lightning seeds groovy train the farm summer sun by the barracudas walking on sunshine katrina and the waves then you get the old all the kind of classic

stuff on side too you get tamboury man obviously the birds pleasant valley sunday alone again all but covered by calexico pain killer by churin breaks new amsterdam young some young rascal stuff uh summer breeze icely brothers make uh make me smile come up and see me well let's just going all over the place now. It's just lost its shape. Yeah. Happy Together's there. Itchikup part.

Yeah, September girls, Manic Monday. Athlete. What? Remember athlete? I can tell when this was bloody made now. Sunny afternoon by the kinks, days by Kirstie McCall, and the whole thing finishes with good vibrations. The Beach Boys, it was released in 2003.

That sounds about right. The label was Virgin TV. They had the world at their athletes foot. Good for them. So, yeah, I think, you know, maybe it was around the 90s, 2000s where it gets a little bit cheaper to use. I seem to remember it being used on very old advert for a Super Nintendo Mario thingy. That may have been a big input from, yeah, but again, that was around the same time, kind of late 90s, early 2000s. It sounds like I was probably wrong, but I think you're right that it was.

most likely a, you know, a cheap licensing hit. Yeah. Like those, it's, I just, when, when you said that, and you said the name of that compilation, it's like, oh, did it have, uh, bend me, shape me on it? Or San Francisco by Scott McKenzie. Yes. Or no milk today by Herman's Hermits.

These, these kind of cheap licensing 60s hit staples, if you know what I mean. If you're listening to the jingly, jangly sounds of summer released by Virgin TV, be sure to wear a flower in your hair. That album title just sounds like it drips with contempt, doesn't it? The jingly, jangly sounds a fucking summer. To me, it sounded like Lord Fislewick Flanders. The jingling, jingler. Charmed.

Speaking of charmed, should we skip ahead and have a look at our favourite songs of the... this episode song or songs and again I'm going to take a guess at what

two or three of us may pick I'm done I'm there's I'm

you strive for the love and defy I can not be more more satisfied satisfied

even when there's no peace outside my window there's peace inside and that's why

I know long I don't know my run Love that will be done So, favorite song this week's, Lizzie, is there any you want to shout out? Yeah, for me, my pick this week is Martika with Love Thy Will Be Donned. And that's the second episode in a row that I have

nominated a prince song is my favorite song of the week so congrats prince sadly you can't make it three i've checked but um yeah martika is to me one of the biggest what ifs in pop like she had a u.s number one at 19 she's working with prince by 21 and then she just completely retires from music she just packs it in no particular reason just she didn't want to do it anymore I think in an alternate universe she could have been one of the big stars of the 90s like Mariah Carey but yeah she just decided

like there's two more singles she releases after this one and that's a lot she is still about she still performs now and again still it's great but yeah this this could have been a sign of things to come and it's a shame that we don't really get more after this Rob I know you and I both had high praise for toy soldiers

when we talked about Eminem's sample in 2005, I think I might like this even better than toy soldiers. And I love toy soldiers. But, yeah, I think this is done so beautifully. So beautifully, in fact, that it made me want to apologize to Gary Barlow for having a go at him over the whole covert religious pop thing. Because this is essentially a prayer in song form,

and Prince was no stranger to that kind of thing either. But yeah, I think this builds really beautifully. It's kind of structurally interesting. There's not much of like a verse chorus thing going on. It just kind of repeats the same motif, but then lyrics come back in and go back out again. There's a very subtle cocto twin sample that's never been confirmed,

but it just kind of floats under the track and like bubbles up on every, you know, every couple of stanzas. And yeah, I think Marquis' performance is genuinely really lovely. And the bit towards the end where you get the big swell of backing vocals is a very prince touch that I love about this. Yeah, I've been listening to this one a lot recently, and I really like it. Ed, what about you?

Yeah, I wasn't familiar with this. I liked it straight away. I don't think the excerpt in this episode necessarily does it the best. Because you do get the, you know, the big, as you say, crescendo with all of the voices and the, you know, the video footage of soldiers going to war, just sort of, you know, vaguely dissatisfied with the world around kind of stuff. And it does make it sound a little bit busy and self-importance. Interesting that I put in my notes, you know, maybe that, you know, prints emphasizing every single syllable with different things. a bit a bit much but I didn't know this was written or co-written at least by prints until you mentioned it so yeah interesting it's how how how much his his personal stamp comes through on

these things but listening to it in isolation which I was semi-forced to do because for some reason the version of the show I was the episode I was watching kept crashing my internet don't know why but no I listen to the full track and it does build really really really, really nicely. She's got a lovely voice. And it does have more restraint than a lot of the rest of the material in the episode. It's kind of, I got big sort of sensual world era

Kate Bush vibes. Yes, yeah. So it's got that sort of gentle momentum, but it's got more of an organic and less clangorous feel than, say, the hounds of love or dreaming material. but it's got more of a dreamy quality than that it's quite ethereal and there is that big build-up section

which I think might be a little bit OTT for my tastes but it's only one bit that's built up to over a long period of time so it kind of works yeah this was this was a bit special and I'd not heard it before however just if I was coming to it fresh as I was when I first saw this to the episode I think

I might have liked to have seen a little bit more of 808 state. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because while they looked a bit daft in the video with all of the kind of, again, sort of cod, spiritual, reverential spinning around in lights and things, I'm like, wow, this is, this sounds like

quite interesting dance music of the time. It's kind of, it's got lots of pauses and gaps. And I'm like, can we have a little bit more? But we only get a little sample of that. So, so it's kind of a, I'd like to hear more of that, but I'm not sure whether Martika isn't the more lasting track, if that makes any sense. But yeah, that's where I stand on those. Yeah, with 8.08 state, it's a bit of a shame that we don't get, like, In Your Face or Pacific, which are probably there two kind of big singles.

They play in your face quite a lot at City when they're reading the team's out, and it's always a good kind of like, you know, dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun that is good same with utah saints actually we're about a year away from something good which is their like a-ter track a quick mention as well for 20th century boy T-Rex my favourite song on the episode but he's barely around so like I feel like I couldn't really count it

I feel like love thy will be done gets a little bit more time because I think we just get the music video don't we, rather than just a top 40-breaker kind of thing. Well, we got 30 seconds of kiss last week, and we all nominated that. Yes, no, that's true, yeah. But I ended up taking more notes about Martika, just because there's more there. It seems that 20th century boy was just on a Levi's advert featuring a very young Brad Pitt. And that's why that went back into the charts.

But, yeah, Martika, it's a shame this isn't a performance. This would have been interesting to see on an actual TOTP stage, especially after something like Kate Bush coming so close in the last episode that we covered, being able to directly contrast them. This is classy and clever, nice bit of synth pop that has aged surprisingly well, a bit of sophisticated pop as well. I think if this was also

all the mentions of Kate Bush and Prince and stuff like that, as much as that's all true, I think that if this was a deeper cut on, say, like, a more recent Taylor Swift record or even, like, on a Chapel Rowan record, I don't think it would be miles out of place. I think the general vibe is, you know, that kind of frosty, monochrome feel that it kind of has.

You know, that's the kind of atmosphere that I think Taylor Swift or Jack Antonoff that they were going for on them, torture poets department, less so life of a showgirl, which has come out in between our last two episodes. But I think that it has, I was trying to imagine this in a modern setting, and it didn't feel isolated or apart from anything in particular in my head. find it as immediately striking as toy soldiers but i think it becomes just as effective by the end it's a shame it's part of this kind of downscaled you know bit of the episode where they're trying to cram in loads of stuff before the end because i think getting the full thing would have

been you know really something but never mind we get a little window still gets to number nine in the end uh this one nice for a song like this to creep into the top 10 even during a more sort of like alternative friendly decade that the sort of early to mid 90s is But yeah, I am happy with us all picking Martika. I think it's the thing that stands out the most. Maybe because it's the only thing on the episode that, like, they allow to stand out, if you know what I mean? Other songs get more time.

It's just they are not as interesting. Some of the same touch points, but they are shallower, should we say? Are you talking about sunshine on a rainy day or? Pretty much that, but also oceanic insanity and things like that. It does feel like the popular reiteration of something that's not quite understood in a way. And it's a lot of noise and signals, but not really adding up to very much. I think it's kind of a big problem with the episode, in that of the 13 songs we get,

only four of them are in the studio. I can see why they may be pushed back on videos later in the decade. you know when you look at those like late 90s early 2000s episodes they'll very rarely show videos the only show live performances for the most part the advantage with showing little clips of you know the videos and things is that it it does give you a more in-depth aesthetic journey if you know what I mean sure like it's you get a it feels more like a multimedia experience strangely so I do like it when they mix that up a bit and to be quite honest I don't we we don't fucking need to see Jason Donovan in the studio, he has no presence. Yeah, maybe they've just picked the wrong people. Yeah, exactly. Because they were just so dull, because I mean, fucking hell. There is another, like, underlying sort of wet, wet, wet, wet adjacents to a lot of this sort of stuff, like Nidja at the beginning. He's got, he does look like a slightly twisted clone of Marty Pello, if you get where I'm coming from. And so his music,

It's kind of like it's got that similar sort of When When was there Incipid cover of the Of With Little Help from my friends When did that come out? I want to say 88 for With a Little Help from my friends Speaking of Midge,

Mijor by the way I had to notice Because I mentioned Kate Bush's two drummers last week Midgior's got three Three drummers And for what fucking reason I was listening to the song like, I didn't even notice.

Really? Oh my God. I didn't know this. It's like he told someone he was making a jungle album, but he didn't really understand what the genre was. Yeah, that actually was a conversation that I had once in the 90s because I knew my friend who I used to go to his house after school, at primary school,

his stepdad was a jungle musician in the, early night. He's actually made it all on an Atari ST. This is very much showing the era here. Wow. But I remember there was some lad at school who was, you know, he was a bit of a programmer and he said, he could, oh, I could help you make a video game. And he was like, what kind of music do you want? And I said, oh, jungle. And he said, what kind of jungle? Is it an exciting jungle? What's this jungle like? I imagine that was a pretty common conversation until about, until honestly, jungle went out of fashion. So unfortunately, Jungle never quite broke through to the mainstream, did it, in the same way that, you know, the more popular sounds of House did, for instance.

Yeah, Jungle was massive, but House was massive, so, yeah. Should we have a look then at the charts for this week in 91 and complain about the things that they didn't feature or that we wish they had featured? Yeah, we'll play Charlie by The Prodigy because Charlie's the song that the charts get listed over. No one's speaking over the prodigy. No one has to apologize to the prodigy as they did to Tavares in 86.

No one's coming in going, sorry, the prodigy, but I've got to read out the charts. Although I should say that at number 21 this week, there were two songs. They were tied. For 21st position, obviously one of them was that insanity

by Oceanic getting a little thing there. So yeah, they must have sold exactly the same number of copies. I wonder how many times that has ever happened. I do have the ear of a media guy at the official charts company should I go inside how many times did this happen

please let me know ASAP I will expect answers by end of the day or end of the week this is your home week COB COB latest just to say about that I don't think the choice of song

or the top 40 going over it suddenly does either any favours to be honest because it's like they said you know, I'll be honest. Early Prodigy, very hit and miss for me, that first album. I think Charlie has aged pretty horribly, personally. It's got a real mega CD, make-my video kind of vibe to it.

And putting the chart over the top of it said, it's like, well, what song can we play that's like, you know, it's just background music that we can put on as a slideshow, you know, while we do our presentation. And so it kind of both rob attention from each other. And to be quite honest, it's like, Charlie is the dance equivalent of background music. I'm sorry to say,

but it's certainly not the best track on that album, in my opinion. And it's like, woo, we've got a sample of a cat meowing and all that. How quirky and weird and wacky and off wall, they would get better. But, yeah, sorry, carry on, Rob. Yeah, it's no problem at all. So, yeah, we'll play Charlie, and then we'll come.

back and discuss what could have been. Okay, so thank you, Charlie, is that, like, you know, in my notes, I've got, you know, the categories and stuff that, like, in my notes, I've cut the, like, you know, the categories and stuff that were. going to be discussing, I've kind of chopped them down to sort of make them fit on a notepad document on my laptop. And one of them is, this one is just called something in the charts. And whenever I read that, I just think of Aztec camera, just a, somewhere in the charts, there is a song that's just for you. But those songs for me was summertime, Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, PM Dawn, set a drift on memory, Summertime is much better than BoomShake the Room.

It's a shame we've just missed Metallica and to Samman, but that's about it, really. I feel like they have at least covered more songs in this episode, even if they've squeezed them all into what feels like and is, technically, by percentage, a smaller space. Lizzie, what about you? What would you have preferred this week? Yeah, I agree with your picks just because the episode really needed some hip-hop. It feels like it's just this kind of elephant in the room that there's not any on the episode really but I went for a completely different pick something I'd never heard before this week

monsters and angels by voice of the beehive okay I think if this was on the episode it would challenge Martika for my favorite song of the week because like the verse is kind of not similar but they're in the same sort of vibe as like sunshine on a rainy day it's just kind of light and but then that chorus is so good. It's as good as anything by that Abba. Oh, wow. Okay. It really soars. I'd say go and go and check out Monsters and Angels if you've not heard it before.

All right. Ed, what about you? It's what I think, I was going, I was approaching this as if like, well, I am a viewer, and these are just a few songs that I know, what do I think would enhance this episode most by its inclusion in terms of tonal contrast? And it did come down in the end to enter Sandman because, well, I know it's a bit of a Marmite song for folks, even for Metallica fans, and I know it gets a bit overplayed. I still think it's fucking great. It's got a fabulous riff, and the intro to the video is pretty iconic, as they say.

And that just would have, you know, brought a totally different energy without being completely off-putting as well. I mean, it's not like off their earlier thrashier stuff, but that would have been nice. However, there were three clustered right next to each other in the chart that you might have noticed that, like, would have been happy with any of those. Because right next to each other, you've got Enter Sandman, you've got De La Sol. And I'm like, that would have been pretty good. It's one of the highlights off their second album, that actually. But also, lovely R-EM kind of deep-cut single, Near Wild Heaven. which is like one of their pure like jangle pop numbers.

It's not even sung by Michael Stipe. But it's just a really good piece of like jangly power pop. And yeah, but I just would have liked them to mix it up with fucking Metallica. That would have been pleasant because I just never realized that we would have even seen them in any capacity on top of the pops. But we possibly did, even if just in a video clip fleetingly one week. Definitely did. Did we? Yeah.

All right. Was it Enter Sandman? I'm not sure if it was Enter Sandman, but they definitely would have had at least a break as appearance because I know like Rage Against the Machine did around this time. Fair do's.

Well, it's just, you know, I just don't expect it because I just, I keep that in a different box away from the UK pop charts, if you know what I mean. But no, it was genuinely a hit. It wasn't just a metal hit.

It was a genuine hit. Yeah, the music video for Enter Sandman gets played on the episode of the 8th of August. but that's it that's the only music video appearance that Enter Samman gets although they do get a mined performance

in 2003 of the of St Anger and Frantic Oh my God's sake Did they bring the snare with them That's what I want to know The bin lid Yeah exactly the dust bin

Yeah Oh com bang bang bang bang I'm at least trying Look James Hepfield is giving it 110 on a homeopathic metal song. Always, yeah, he is the table. So before we round off, do we have any additional thoughts or shoutouts that we want to make? Yeah, I've got some notes on just the general format.

I think the wizard intro is hilariously dated by this point. It was dated like the week after it came out, in fairness. But I never noticed in the intro before. You know, like the numbers fly in. but it's like five, two, four. Like, what the fuck's that? We'll fix it, folks. We'll fix it, folks.

We'll fix it on the chart. That's number one. And the bonus ball. Yeah. Like with the previous episode, we're about four weeks away from a complete redesign, which we'll probably see in the next episode. Also, yeah, I wish we'd had some more interesting presenters during this run.

Oh, God, yeah. Bruno Brooks, he's fine, but he just seems like he's half asleep at points in this. There was something you pointed out to me before, Rob, but I'll let you say it. Yeah, when he's interested, I think it's Utah Saints that he's introducing where he's like, so-and-so thinks this is quite good. I don't know. See what you make of it. Yeah, exactly.

Like, have an opinion for God's sake. Yeah, I think we should say a little, not a lot, a little about Bruno Brooks. because I just made a note of some of his fucking nonsense introductions because he sorry at one point I think it's when Karen White

is segueing out of her thing he says oh she used to be a backing singer for Julio Iglesias amongst all people I know what he's going for but he makes it sound like yes and he's also worked with everyone else

in the entire world. Julio was the only person I could think of but I think the one I like the most is I believe it was after mid-year where he just says a lot of fun going on over there. Like not only is he just stuck anything to say about the song

that has any evidence of emotional resonance. It's also like he said it's like, well that might have been enjoyable but unfortunately the pleasure of it is partitioned over that side of the studio and will not touch me or you, the viewer. It's just, I got honestly, I think he's worse than the fuckers last week.

He is. It's just, uh, just nothing. And the little he does have to say, he manages to mangle somehow. I'm sorry, Bruno, but fuck me. My only other shout out that I want to give is to that Zoe song, The Sunshine on a Rainy Day.

Because it sounds like something, that all of Atomic Kitten, the later era Spice Girls, Bewitched and Billy Piper, all sang at some point later between sort of like five and ten years from now. It's a shame it's so boring, isn't it? I had this down as later. I thought this was like 95. Yeah.

I don't understand, but she's doing that weird dance as well, where she's walking without moving. Their arms are out constantly, and she's kind of like stepping forwards without getting any closer to the microphone the whole time in that weird kind of black leather swimming costume thing that disappears into her trousers. It's a very unusual performances

because, yeah, you've even got the Seinfeld pirate shirt guy standing next to her playing the guitar, yes. I know what you mean, though, about this, sort of this stuff just like coming with a bargain trip-hot backbeat regardless, which is probably what places it a bit further into the 90s. Yeah. But about 93-94, you know, the middle-of-the-road adult singer-songwriter pop would all have that fake trip-hop beat in the background. Yeah.

Search for a hero. Yeah. No, exactly. One more note about this episode. Isn't it weird that there's only two songs in the top ten? Mm. And one of them is the number one. Yes.

Yeah. Lots of... Yeah. Hmm. Maybe not, I mean, there is a bit of movement in the top ten, but maybe, I don't know, maybe Will Smith saw Top of the Pops and went, hmm, maybe not this week, eh, guys. Maybe I won't come. It was optional, and I know some artists did it.

Usually, they would mine both the music and the vocals along with it. It does appear that Oceanic are, is it Oceanic the group or the song? I don't care that much. Oceionic is the group. Okay, great. I'll be sure to look out the rest of their stuff It's sorry That was that was harsh

Jesus Yeah Yeah but I think she chose to go live With the vocals Which is a bold move I will just say that It was a bold

You know what else is a bold move By Oceanic We're wearing a special K logo On a BBC show Yeah I was trying to make it out Because the quality Is unfortunately not brilliant

No it was special K I know it that as well. The thing is, it's like, it's not, it's not late enough for that to be kind of funny drug slang either. Yeah. So it's just, he's just, he's just wearing breakfast on shirt. It's like Lenny from the Simpsons. It's like, well, it's no special cake. We have one last thing to come to, don't we? Yep. And it was there for a long time. So we're going to say hello, a quick hello, to the number one in August. 91. The only number one there was in August 91, which was Brian Adams. Everything I do,

I do it for you. Now, obviously, me and Ed have already covered this. So we'll see if we have anything more to say about it. But Lizzie, we're going to give you the floor in just a second. We'll say hello to Brian and then we'll come back. There's nothing there to hide Take me as I am Take my life I will give it all I would sacrifice

Don't tell me It's not worth fighting for I can't help it There's nothing I won't know You know it's true Everything I do I do it for you There's no love

and no other could give more love there's no way unless you're there all the time all the way, yeah. So Lizzie, number one on the day you were born, Brian Adams, everything I do, I do it for you. Sounds like your favorite kind of music. This Reagan Stadium Rock.

Oh, I know I'm getting you for Christmas and every subsequent birthday. Reagan Stadium Rock Compilations. That's what you want. Better yet, Reagan Rock by a Canadian, man. Yes. How do we feel about this Reagan Rock by a Canadian? Nah, not for me. It has the nightmare combination for me of being very dull and massively influential.

It's only 1991, but this sort of blockbuster ballad makes for some of the biggest number ones of the entire decade. This has the longest number one stint by a country mile, but without this we might not have had, I will always love you, or my heart will go on, or I don't want to miss a thing, which didn't get to number one in the UK, but did in the US. So rather than talk about this snooze fest again, I wanted to just ask, like, when or why did these sorts of singles suddenly go out of style? Probably because they'd been done so much.

Yeah, but they still existed in, like, the early 2000s, even if it was, like, Nickelback doing a song for Spider-Man, that sort of thing. Oh, I've got a story about that song I'm going to have to share. I may have mentioned it on the podcast before, but if I haven't, I will definitely share that story before the end of this episode. Oh, please do. I think it was hero, wasn't it? Yeah, hero to stay here away. Yeah, that one. Yes.

I think with those kinds of songs going out of fashion had a lot to do in this country anyway with maybe Westlife Corner in that market, they just started doing them as pop songs. Instead of having a movie with them, they were like, because flying without wings is a fucking blockbuster number one in association with a film,

just doesn't have a film. No, no, no, no, no, it does. Oh, it does, of course. But I think them corner in the market with that kind of stuff Plus the key change becoming very obvious I think the only thing that really brings this back into fashion Is the X Factor using that formula But instead of it being with a movie

It's more with You know like the movie of the X Factor series That you've just watched And of course Flying Without Wings was fucking Pokemon on. I went to see it. I got the fucking special edition cards you could get and my hands were so sticky from all the sweets and popcorn that I had to just get rid of the card because you can't wash it. I also couldn't touch it and had nothing to do with it. I forget what cards you got given. But yeah, Ed, are there any like that you can think of that were like, you know, ballads

from this sort of period that were. Yeah, you just triggered in my head. It's not quite the Pokemon Association. I didn't even know that. That's bizarre. But I always forget that I believe I can fly was from space jam. Oh, fucking hell.

Do you remember? Yeah. And I just was trying not to make myself laugh looking at the fucking cover of the single, which combined badass. Oh my God. Here they are, your 1996

Chicago Bowl. Oh god damn it Do you know what though I like Warner Brothers But that film was ass It really was not good Hey did you see the second one Jesus Christ

Did you? The second one was Oh yeah The second one is a low Low mark in my life That was one of the films That when I went and saw And then came out the other side of it

I went Why do I fucking go every week Just to see any old fucking shit And you never saw a film again. But like, when I went and saw it, I came out of it and like, the whole thing is just an advert for Warner Brothers going, look at all the stuff we own the rights to. The big basketball game at the end, which takes place entirely on green screen in a fantasy realm world that's deep below our world or whatever. there are just four whitewalks

stood in the crowd it is unbelievable it just yeah it was there's no story to the film the story is just look at all this shit we own it's just it is a special kind of terrible that movie it really is a special

kind of terrible I feel I ought to watch it then because I thought the first one was completely hollow so this sounds like it's it might almost be impressive. Like nihilistic. Yeah, like, it just, it's vacuousness might be accidentally artful. It's called Space Jam, a new legacy.

The film follows LeBron James enlisting the Looney Tunes A to win a basketball game in a Warner Bros themed virtual world against its rogue artificial intelligence ruler after his younger son is abducted by AI. Yeah, fuck that shit. Oh, Jesus Christ. No imagination.

And it was directed by Malcolm D. Lee as well. Like, who hasn't maybe got like the best CV, but just four years earlier had directed, I think, one of the best kind of boys-style gross-out holiday movies. But for women, that girls' trip from 2017 with Regina Hall, Tiffany Hadish, Queen Latifah. That was a great movie. That was a really, really good movie. Kind of like, you know, a typical kind of like gross-out American pie, 21, 22 Jump Street, Slash, In Between Us. style holiday film thing but with women and it's great and it's a lot of fun it's very very raunchy and very very disgusting and very very funny but then i thought oh maybe he'll get

something out of it no it sounds like the classic case of get an indie darling to make your massive movie and then control the shit out of them yes um as of course everybody will in five years time, very clearly remember the Barry Jenkins directed animated but live action but animated but live action Lion King that's just come out

and Barry Jenkins who did fucking Moonlight and fucking if Beale Street could talk like... How do I know that goddamn name? Oh my God. Oh my God. Okay. If Bill Street could talk like I know Moonlight like won the Oscar and everything but if Bill Street

could talk is a oh my god one of my absolute favorite films ever and definitely one of my favorite films are like the last sort of 15 you know

10 15 years I'll make a note of it yeah it's really really fantastic similarly tender but it's based on novel by Watch's his face oh my god his name's going on my head yeah

Baldwin yeah James Baldwin yeah I was about say Alec Baldwin it's like no that's not he struck a blow for no one beautiful movie really beautiful movie

with a really, really sweet and melancholic soundtrack, which I really enjoyed. And then when that came out, and it wasn't really given much of a billion. And it's like, this guy won fucking best picture three years ago. Why are you not? I had to go and see it at home in Manchester.

They weren't showing it at my local cinema. And I was like, this Barry fucking Jenkins. And then he's like spent the last three years arguing with people on social media. Like, no, my Lion King reboot project is definitely. just as artistically credible as these two films I did, everyone will love it and remember it and it'll be great. There's nothing wrong with just saying, look,

they gave me a lot of money and it felt like a big opportunity to get into a world where maybe I could make bigger pictures that I wanted to make. Exactly. Even if that doesn't happen, there's nothing fucking wrong with saying that at all. It's when they say, oh, no, no, I defend my vision. of it's like, fuck, fuck off, just take the check and fuck off. These things cost money, like, give me a break. What was it, is it Guillermo del Toro that said something like that

where he was kind of like, he has this one for me, one for them policy where he's sort of like, he'll do a film that he wants to do and then he'll do like, you know, like the second blade film so that he can do Pan's Labyrinth. John Carpenter did the same thing. And then he'll do Pacific Rim so that he can make the shape of water. and he'll do Pinocchio so that he can do this Frankenstein thing with Netflix. I seem to recall that David Lynch tried that, but it didn't quite work out.

Like he did June because he wanted to, oh God, what was it called? He wanted to make his passion project that was called something like, what's it called? Like Rocket Boy or something? But he said, his explanation and all that he would ever tell people, it's like, it's got something to do with little people and something to do with electricity and now the big studios are like oh right you make June and we'll get right on that

he was out of June less than halfway along the process I imagine yeah god yeah and then he nearly he tried to get involved again around the same time with um can you tell that we all really love this Brian Adams one by the way although to be fair Ed me and you like it but we just have fuck all to say about it and Lizzie, you hate it, so what is there to say?

But, like, David Lynch, have you ever seen that interview where he's talking about being taken for dinner by George Lucas? And his headache? Yes. Yeah, he was saying, like, so that, you know, he approached me to come and direct this Star Wars, the third return of the Jedi, and he started talking to me about wookies.

and I just developed this this migraine headache it just started so so funny oh I love David Lynch I know I miss it yeah god damn it

he went out on top I mean he did and he had a oh god finishing on that massive project at that age getting that fucking made the return credit to him yeah yeah yeah absolutely

but yeah I don't think David Lynch ever had a shit Hollywood blockbuster number one with a big key change involved. Oh, he should have done. Yeah, maybe for Wild at Heart or like the straight story or something. Yeah, yeah. Maybe that would have applied a bit better, but yeah. So before we go, yes, I have to regale you with this story involving hero by Nickelback,

which was for, was it the second Spider-Man film featuring Toby McIyer? I think it was the first one, wasn't it? Yeah, because it's sort of in that. Of course, it wasn't Nickelback, was it? It was Chad Kroger. Chad Kroger and Jess Summit. It was recorded, can you believe it? It was actually recorded before 9-11.

Because it has a very post-9-11 attitude, isn't it? It does. Maybe proving, like toxicity does by System of a Down, that the world in which we woke up to after 9-11 was already kind of along the way before 9-11 in the same way that the world we now. live in because of COVID, was probably heading towards us anyway. Just a powder keg situation.

Yes, this song, Hero, by Chad Kroger, yeah, which was done for the first Spider-Man film. So, yeah, if the lyrics, if people don't remember the song, the lyrics, I'm so high I can hear Heaven, but Heaven doesn't hear me. They say that Hero could save us. I'm not going to stand here and wait. I'll hold on to the wings of the Eagles, watch as they all fly away. someone told me love with all savers but how can that be? Look what love gave us

a world full of killing and blood spilling. That world never came. Then the chorus repeats and whatnot. So yeah, it's a song about being a hero and saving and being Spider-Man, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, but Chad Kroger. So, yeah, seven years

on from that song coming out, which came out in 2002, I'm at high school and the names of the people involved will be permanently protected in order to save their anonymity. But So around 2008, there was a girl at my school who came in from outside of our school. She joined midway through third year. And she had come from a country that was not the UK.

She come from Europe and not from the UK. And her accent was American. So she was Lithuanian. She had school education in an American school in Lebanon, and then she came to England. and she was a massive nerd and now we were a bunch of boys who were also nerds were in year nine,

you can picture the scene and you can probably like you could probably open a box containing our dating history at that point in our lives and it'd be a big empty fucking box so when a nerdy girl from another country

with an adorable American accent comes into our lives you can imagine what that happened what that does to all of us Only one of us, though, made a video of highlights of us playing Counter-Strike Intercut with slideshow annotations saying, I would kill for you, show some footage of him killing somebody on the game, then show footage of him being killed on Counter-Strike, and then say, die for you while hero.

plays while hero plays. And I wish that video still existed. I remember the title it was called One Boy, Miss One Girl. And I really, really wish it still existed, but it doesn't. And it was the best. And it is

exactly the kind of, like, beautiful and humiliating and gentlemanly way that only a very nerdy and insecure 14, a 15 year old teenage boy could, like, ask someone out. you know what I mean

and then within two and a half years she'd moved away again still lives in the UK but she'd moved away again and you know still friends don't chat very often but you know still friends with her and stuff she was she was great she was

you know she was awesome but like that that video yeah and hero was was playing the whole time that's the only reason I actually know the song that video and it is very much an all bless kind of situation really really is I mean, the only thing

it would stop at me, oh, bless, if they were still defending it now. Yes, I'm sure if they look back and said it's like, yeah. Fuck you, that was really personal to me. I'm like, ah, hmm. Yeah. Bless, I don't, if he ever listens to this, I don't want to make him feel bad or anything.

That's why I've deliberately not used anyone's names. If people know me, they may obviously be able to find some kind of identifying information about the girl involved because, you know, there's only one person who I went to school with who had her history and then moved away again, but I don't

think anyone I actually know listens to this beyond the people who make it. I mean, she might tell them Adam's name. Oh, shit. Yes, his name was John Smith and her name was Jane Doe. But no, yes, very, very

hilarious and beautiful story from not my childhood, but someone else's that kind of briefly interacted with my child. and kind of passed like a wave or a ship in the night and it's so oh I wish I could find it you know they say that if you put things on the internet they're there forever they're fucking wrong because there's loads of special videos on that guy's YouTube channel involving all of us that I wish I still had but they're all gone and that is chief among them yeah counter strike

oh my god I would kill for you brilliant well thank you thank you for that yeah So that is the end of our little coverage of the Top of the Popper's episode from the week that Lizzie was born in August 91. Next time we'll be back for the Top of the Popper's episode that went out for when I was born in 1994, in June 94, and we'll find out what Lizzie thinks of love is all around by Wet, Wet, Wet. I'm sure, I'm absolutely sure that your assessment of it will be glowing. Absolutely glowing. I did win the lottery with the number one, didn't I? Of the three of us, absolutely, yes. Although I know that you are more charitable towards Lulming all around than most people.

I do have more sympathy for that kind of, you know, vaguely large, vaguely pleasant 90s balladry, which is unfortunate. But anyway. So, thank you again for listening. We will see you. next time. Bye-bye now. See ya. Bye. Every single heart there are monsters there are angels.