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Top of the Pops

Top of the Pops is a long-running British music chart television programme shown each week on BBC Two and now licensed for local versions around the world. Each programme consists of half an hour of performances of some of that week's best-selling popular music.

Current Top of the Pops logo

History

Top of the Pops began on New Year's Day 1964 in a studio set in a disused church in Manchester. DJ Jimmy Savile presented the first show, which featured (in order) The Rolling Stones with "I Wanna Be Your Man'", Dusty Springfield with "I Only Want to be With You", the Dave Clark Five with "Glad All Over", The Hollies with "Stay", The Swinging Blue Jeans with "The Hippy Hippy Shake" and The Beatles with "I Want to Hold Your Hand", that week's number one. Savile rotated with three other presenters: Alan Freeman, Pete Murray and David Jacobs. Over 2000 episodes have been shown over the years; and the act that has appeared in the most episodes is the British rock band, Status Quo.

It was originally intended to have only a few programmes but has been going for over 40 years. During its heyday in the 1970s, it attracted 15 million viewers each week [1]. It was traditionally shown on a Thursday night, but was moved to a Friday in 1996, a change which caused some controversy.

By November 2004, viewing figures had plummeted to below three million, prompting announcement by the BBC that the show was going to move again to Sunday evenings on BBC Two, thus losing its prime-time slot on BBC One which it had maintained for forty years.[2]. This move has been widely reported as a final "sidelining" of the show, and perhaps a move towards cancelling it altogether. However, it was insisted that the move was in fact so that the show would air immediately after the official announcement of the new top 40 chart on Radio 1, as it was thought that by the following Friday, the chart seemed out-of-date. The first edition on BBC Two was broadcast on 17 July 2005 at 7pm.

This chart show has seen many changes through the decades: in style, design, fashion and taste. It celebrated its 2000th show in 2002. The show has historically been closely associated with the BBC radio station Radio 1, usually being presented by DJs from the station (although from October 1991 to January 1994 no Radio 1 DJs presented the show, and the association has not been as close as it once was). In its heyday during the glam rock era of the early 1970s, the show featured the tightly choreographed dance troupe Pan's People (later succeeded by Legs & Co.), something which has been widely imitated on similar shows ever since. Acts performing on the show have traditionally mimed to a pre-recorded track and this accounts for a number of performers who never appeared on the show due to a resistance to mime. For a few years from 1991 the show adopted a live vocal to pre-recorded backing track policy. While this resulted in some of the show's best performances — notably Kurt Cobain's singing on "Smells Like Teen Spirit" — it also exposed a number of poor live singers, and was dropped as a general rule.

The logo has been modernised over the years, this is the logo used from 1998 to 2003

In November 2003, the show was radically overhauled in what has been widely reported as a make-or-break attempt to revitalise the long-running series. In a break with the previous format, the show is to play more up-and-coming tracks ahead of any chart success, and also to feature interviews with artists. The new show was hosted by MTV presenter Tim Kash until his contract expired in August 2004. It was not renewed due to his apparent lack of popularity with TV viewers. The show was co-hosted by Reggie Yates and Fearne Cotton until 11th July 2005 every Friday night. Since the move to Sundays, Cotton has continued to host with a different guest presenter each week, such as Rufus Hound or Richard Bacon. It now averages around 1.5 million viewers.

The BBC have also had a show called TOTP2 which shows archive footage from as early as the 1960s of musicians on earlier Top of the Pops shows. It has been shown on BBC2 since September 1994, although the network's new controller Roly Keating announced in the summer of 2004 that it was being "rested" (repeats, however, continue on the digital channel UKTV G2). A more recent spin-off is Top of the Pops Reloaded (previously Top of the Pops Saturday), showing on Saturday mornings on BBC One. This is aimed at a younger audience as is part of the CBBC Saturday Morning lineup.

"TOTP" in the United States

Top of the Pops had short-lived fame in the United States. In 1987, the CBS television network decided to try an American version of the show. It was hosted by Nia Peeples and even showed performances from the BBC version of the programme. The show was presented on late Friday nights and lasted almost a year.

In 2002, BBC America presented the BBC version of Top of the Pops as part of their weekend schedule. The network would get the episodes one week after they were transmitted in the UK. BBC America then tinkered with the show by cutting a few minutes out of each show and moving it to a weekday time slot. Viewer interest was gone and the show was taken off BBC America's schedule.

On January 23, 2006, record producer Lou Pearlman made a deal to bring "Top of the Pops" back to the airwaves in the United States. It is expected to be similar to the 1987 version, but it will also utilize the Billboard magazine music charts, most notably the Hot 100 chart. It is being planned for a possible Fall 2006 launch.

'Edited' TOTP on BBC Prime

An edited version of the UK show can be seen on BBC Prime, the weekend after UK transmission.

Top of the Pops logo when it started in 1964

Although the original four presenters are still alive, five presenters of the show have passed away — Stuart Henry, Kenny Everett, occasional presenter Caron Keating, John Peel and Tommy Vance. In addition, the creator of the show, Johnnie Stewart, died on April 29, 2005.

Send-ups

A number of performers have sent up the format in various ways. Mainly this has been performers who disliked the mime format of the show, often as a more effective protest of this rather than just refusing to appear.

  • While performing their 1982 hit "Jackie Wilson Said" the band Dexy's Midnight Runners were seen performing in front of a projection of the darts player Jocky Wilson. This was a deliberate joke by the band and the production staff, but many people (including, apparently, host David Jensen) didn't realise this and thought it was a genuine mistake. Despite this, to this day, many TV nostalgia shows and other sources still claim this was an error.
  • In 1995 Oasis played their single "Roll With It" featuring singer Liam Gallagher pretending to play guitar, while guitarist Noel Gallagher pretended to sing, just to show how fake the 'live' performance was. It also mocked the habit people had in Oasis' early years of confusing the brothers, not being able to tell them apart. The set ended with the band erupting in laughter at the Gallagher's impressions of each other.
  • For the 1984 Christmas Day edition all of the performers from Band Aid had been booked to appear apart from Bono. The performance of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" witnessed the unlikely scene of Paul Weller lip-syncing to Bono's vocals.
  • In a 2005 performance of "Lyla", Liam Gallagher made no secret of the fact that he was miming his lyrics by walking away from the microphone and chewing gum when he was supposed to be singing.
  • Faith No More lead singer Mike Patton also showed he was obviously miming a performance by sticking his tongue out of the side of his mouth during closeup shots.
  • In grunge band Nirvana's only performance on Top of the Pops, frontman Kurt Cobain "played" his guitar with his fingers inches away from the frets, drummer Dave Grohl danced around in his seat for most of the performance, and bassist Krist Novoselic waved his instrument around his head. For this performance Cobain was trusted to sing live vocals to a pre-recorded backing track: instead, he sang in a low, mournful wail; he was later to claim this was his attempt to sound like Morrissey. This performance has been taken to heart by Nirvana fans, who affectionately refer to it as "Teen Gothic".
  • Singer Les Gray of Mud went on stage to perform with a ventriloquist dummy during the performance of Lonely this Christmas and had the dummy lip-synch to the voice-over in the middle of the song.
  • Fish, the face painted lead singer of early 1980s prog rockers Marillion, made sure that the cameras caught a close up of his firmly closed mouth during a particular section of their single Punch and Judy. The lyric he did not mime to was ... "I'm miming"!

Theme Music

A version of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" by C. C. S. was used as the show's theme tune for most of the 1970s, and also in a remixed version between 1998 and 2003, although ironically the band never performed on the show. In 1981 an original song 'Yellow Pearl' by Phil Lynott was commissioned as the new theme music. This was replaced in 1986 with "The Wizard", a composition by Paul Hardcastle. The theme is currently a remixed version of the one used between 1991 and 1995 and is composed by Tony Gibber.


Trivia

  • As of November 2005, the longest performance was of Green Day's Jesus Of Suburbia lasting 9 minutes.
  • The shortest performance was Super Furry Animals with Do or Die clocking in at 95 seconds.
  • Cliff Richard has performed the most on Top Of The Pops, recording over 150 performances.
  • The most complaints the show recieved for a single episode was in 1994 when Manic Street Preachers performed their song "Faster" in a manner that was seen as intimidating and featured lead singer James Dean Bradfield wearing a balaclava such as would be worn by an IRA terrorist.
  • The show's relaunch with Andi Peters as producer was widely considered the point where Top Of The Pops was Jumping The Shark. It noticeably had Victoria Beckham promote her new song "This Groove", with a performance 7 times in the first 8 shows, including the (pre-recorded) Christmas special.
  • In 1980, the then fledgling heavy metal superstars Iron Maiden became the first band to play live on the show since The Who in 1972, when they refused to mime to their single "Running Free".
  • Super Furry Animals once got the whole audience to sit down during a live performance of theirs
  • Because of the BBC's former policy of deleting old programmes, nearly all of the episodes from the first ten years of the programme's history have been lost, including all of The Beatles' appearances.
  • When Elvis Costello performed "Radio Radio" on the show, he changed the lyrics to criticise Tony Blackburn who was the presenter that week.
  • When John Peel first presented the programme in 1968 he forgot the name of Amen Corner who were appearing that week. Possibly because of this, his next appearance as presenter wasn't until 1982.

Songs which mention Top of the Pops

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
  • The Scottish punk band The Rezillos lampooned the show as a vehicle for vapid commercialism and for paying little or no attention to talented, unknown bands, in their song "Top of the Pops." Ironically the band actually ended up performing the song on the programme (twice) when it entered the charts — it would appear the producers misunderstood the song's lyrics and thought it was an affectionate tribute.


  • "C-30 C-60 C-90 GO!", originally by Bow Wow Wow and covered by Seattle, WA band Pretty Girls Make Graves
  • A song entitled "Top of the Pops" appeared on the Kinks album, Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One
  • Rat Trap by The Boomtown Rats
  • "Me Plus One" by Anne Lilia Berge Strand or more commonly Annie
  • The song "Formed a Band" by Art Brut includes in its lyrics, "We’re gonna write a song as universal as happy Birthday, that makes sure everybody knows that everything is going to be OK, we’re going to take that song and we’re going to play it 8 weeks in a row on Top of the Pops." In their song "Bad Weekend," the band also sings, "sometimes it's hard to stop when your heart is set on Top of the Pops, Top of the Pops." Art Brut Lyrics
  • Akira the Don's single, 'Living in the Future'
  • The New Jersey power pop band The Smithereens recorded a song entitled "Top of the Pops" on their album "Blow Up."

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. Kappa and Fortis. The theme is currently a remixed version of the one used between 1991 and 1995 and is composed by Tony Gibber. Hermes House Band. This was replaced in 1986 with "The Wizard", a composition by Paul Hardcastle. DJ Panic.

In 1981 an original song 'Yellow Pearl' by Phil Lynott was commissioned as the new theme music. Rob & MC Joe. was used as the show's theme tune for most of the 1970s, and also in a remixed version between 1998 and 2003, although ironically the band never performed on the show. DJ Paul Elstak. S. Dennis van der Geest. C. Ramon Sluijter.

A version of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" by C. Martin Schwab. Mainly this has been performers who disliked the mime format of the show, often as a more effective protest of this rather than just refusing to appear. Jan Marijnissen. A number of performers have sent up the format in various ways. Arjan Erkel. In addition, the creator of the show, Johnnie Stewart, died on April 29, 2005. Gerrit Zalm.

Although the original four presenters are still alive, five presenters of the show have passed away — Stuart Henry, Kenny Everett, occasional presenter Caron Keating, John Peel and Tommy Vance. Wouter Bos. An edited version of the UK show can be seen on BBC Prime, the weekend after UK transmission. Lee Towers. It is being planned for a possible Fall 2006 launch. Gerard Cox. It is expected to be similar to the 1987 version, but it will also utilize the Billboard magazine music charts, most notably the Hot 100 chart. Feyenoord home games are known for the incredible atmosphere, probably the best of all the Dutch clubs.

On January 23, 2006, record producer Lou Pearlman made a deal to bring "Top of the Pops" back to the airwaves in the United States. Their stadium song is I Will Survive, the tune is played every time Feyenoord Rotterdam scores at home. Viewer interest was gone and the show was taken off BBC America's schedule. Their motto is: Geen Woorden Maar Daden ("No words but deeds"), a good motto as Feyenoord Rotterdam was founded by hard working labourers from the harbours in the Feijenoord district in Rotterdam-South. BBC America then tinkered with the show by cutting a few minutes out of each show and moving it to a weekday time slot. Eredivisie 2005-2006 | 2005-2006,2nd (28 November 2005). The network would get the episodes one week after they were transmitted in the UK. Eredivisie 2004-2005 | 2004-2005, 4th.

In 2002, BBC America presented the BBC version of Top of the Pops as part of their weekend schedule. Eredivisie 2003-2004 | 2003-2004, 3rd. The show was presented on late Friday nights and lasted almost a year. Eredivisie 2002-2003 | 2002-2003, 3rd. It was hosted by Nia Peeples and even showed performances from the BBC version of the programme. Eredivisie 2001-2002 | 2001-2002, 3rd. In 1987, the CBS television network decided to try an American version of the show. Eredivisie 2000-2001 | 2000-2001, 2nd.

Top of the Pops had short-lived fame in the United States. Eredivisie 1999-2000 | 1999-2000, 3rd. This is aimed at a younger audience as is part of the CBBC Saturday Morning lineup. Eredivisie 1998-1999 | 1998-1999, 1st. A more recent spin-off is Top of the Pops Reloaded (previously Top of the Pops Saturday), showing on Saturday mornings on BBC One. Eredivisie 1997-1998 | 1997-1998, 4th. It has been shown on BBC2 since September 1994, although the network's new controller Roly Keating announced in the summer of 2004 that it was being "rested" (repeats, however, continue on the digital channel UKTV G2). Eredivisie 1996-1997 | 1996-1997, 2nd.

The BBC have also had a show called TOTP2 which shows archive footage from as early as the 1960s of musicians on earlier Top of the Pops shows. Eredivisie 1995-1996 | 1995-1996, 3rd. It now averages around 1.5 million viewers. Eredivisie 1994-1995 | 1994-1995, 4th. Since the move to Sundays, Cotton has continued to host with a different guest presenter each week, such as Rufus Hound or Richard Bacon. Eredivisie 1993-1994 | 1993-1994, 2nd. The show was co-hosted by Reggie Yates and Fearne Cotton until 11th July 2005 every Friday night. Eredivisie 1992-1993 | 1992-1993, 1st.

It was not renewed due to his apparent lack of popularity with TV viewers. Eredivisie 1991-1992 | 1991-1992, 3rd. The new show was hosted by MTV presenter Tim Kash until his contract expired in August 2004. Eredivisie 1990-1991 | 1990-1991, 8th. In a break with the previous format, the show is to play more up-and-coming tracks ahead of any chart success, and also to feature interviews with artists. It is a match between the two largest cities of the Netherlands, one of which identifies with artists and creativity (Amsterdam) and one with hard work and guts (Rotterdam). In November 2003, the show was radically overhauled in what has been widely reported as a make-or-break attempt to revitalise the long-running series. Although Ajax has fought with PSV for the championship in recent years, its main rivalry remains with Feyenoord, culminating every year in the "Klassieker" ("The Classic").

While this resulted in some of the show's best performances — notably Kurt Cobain's singing on "Smells Like Teen Spirit" — it also exposed a number of poor live singers, and was dropped as a general rule. Their archrival is Ajax from Amsterdam and in the past there have been many clashes between the supporters of both clubs, of which the Beverwijk clash in 1997 was the most infamous, leading to the death of Ajax-supporter Carlo Picornie. For a few years from 1991 the show adopted a live vocal to pre-recorded backing track policy. The supporters of Feyenoord are said to be one of the most loyal supporter groups, and are nicknamed Het Legioen, Dutch for The Legion. Acts performing on the show have traditionally mimed to a pre-recorded track and this accounts for a number of performers who never appeared on the show due to a resistance to mime. . In its heyday during the glam rock era of the early 1970s, the show featured the tightly choreographed dance troupe Pan's People (later succeeded by Legs & Co.), something which has been widely imitated on similar shows ever since. Together with Ajax, AZ Alkmaar and PSV, Feyenoord belongs to the top clubs of the Netherlands.

The show has historically been closely associated with the BBC radio station Radio 1, usually being presented by DJs from the station (although from October 1991 to January 1994 no Radio 1 DJs presented the show, and the association has not been as close as it once was). There are two other professional football teams from Rotterdam, namely Sparta and Excelsior. It celebrated its 2000th show in 2002. The average attendance in 2004/05 was 45,288 people. This chart show has seen many changes through the decades: in style, design, fashion and taste. It is located in the Feijenoord district in the south of Rotterdam. The first edition on BBC Two was broadcast on 17 July 2005 at 7pm. It has 50,000 seats and has hosted a record of 10 finals of UEFA club competitions, including the 2002 UEFA Cup Final which was won by Feyenoord.

However, it was insisted that the move was in fact so that the show would air immediately after the official announcement of the new top 40 chart on Radio 1, as it was thought that by the following Friday, the chart seemed out-of-date. The club's Feijenoord Stadion is nicknamed De Kuip, Dutch for The Tub and was built in 1937, and is one of the major European stadiums. This move has been widely reported as a final "sidelining" of the show, and perhaps a move towards cancelling it altogether. The club was founded on July 19, 1908. By November 2004, viewing figures had plummeted to below three million, prompting announcement by the BBC that the show was going to move again to Sunday evenings on BBC Two, thus losing its prime-time slot on BBC One which it had maintained for forty years.[2]. It was previously named Feijenoord, after the Feijenoord district of south Rotterdam, but the club internationalised its name in 1973. It was traditionally shown on a Thursday night, but was moved to a Friday in 1996, a change which caused some controversy. Feyenoord Rotterdam is a Dutch football club from the city of Rotterdam.

During its heyday in the 1970s, it attracted 15 million viewers each week [1]. Intercontinental Cup: 1970. It was originally intended to have only a few programmes but has been going for over 40 years. UEFA Cup: 1974, 2002. Over 2000 episodes have been shown over the years; and the act that has appeared in the most episodes is the British rock band, Status Quo. European Cup: 1970. Savile rotated with three other presenters: Alan Freeman, Pete Murray and David Jacobs. Supercup: 1991, 1999.

DJ Jimmy Savile presented the first show, which featured (in order) The Rolling Stones with "I Wanna Be Your Man'", Dusty Springfield with "I Only Want to be With You", the Dave Clark Five with "Glad All Over", The Hollies with "Stay", The Swinging Blue Jeans with "The Hippy Hippy Shake" and The Beatles with "I Want to Hold Your Hand", that week's number one. KNVB Cup|Amstel Cup winner: 1930, 1935, 1965, 1969, 1980, 1984, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995. Top of the Pops began on New Year's Day 1964 in a studio set in a disused church in Manchester. League winner: 1924, 1928, 1936, 1938, 1940, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1974, 1984, 1993, 1999. . Each programme consists of half an hour of performances of some of that week's best-selling popular music.

Top of the Pops is a long-running British music chart television programme shown each week on BBC Two and now licensed for local versions around the world. The New Jersey power pop band The Smithereens recorded a song entitled "Top of the Pops" on their album "Blow Up.". Akira the Don's single, 'Living in the Future'. The song "Formed a Band" by Art Brut includes in its lyrics, "We’re gonna write a song as universal as happy Birthday, that makes sure everybody knows that everything is going to be OK, we’re going to take that song and we’re going to play it 8 weeks in a row on Top of the Pops." In their song "Bad Weekend," the band also sings, "sometimes it's hard to stop when your heart is set on Top of the Pops, Top of the Pops." Art Brut Lyrics.

"Me Plus One" by Anne Lilia Berge Strand or more commonly Annie. Rat Trap by The Boomtown Rats. A song entitled "Top of the Pops" appeared on the Kinks album, Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One. "C-30 C-60 C-90 GO!", originally by Bow Wow Wow and covered by Seattle, WA band Pretty Girls Make Graves.

The Scottish punk band The Rezillos lampooned the show as a vehicle for vapid commercialism and for paying little or no attention to talented, unknown bands, in their song "Top of the Pops." Ironically the band actually ended up performing the song on the programme (twice) when it entered the charts — it would appear the producers misunderstood the song's lyrics and thought it was an affectionate tribute. Possibly because of this, his next appearance as presenter wasn't until 1982. When John Peel first presented the programme in 1968 he forgot the name of Amen Corner who were appearing that week. When Elvis Costello performed "Radio Radio" on the show, he changed the lyrics to criticise Tony Blackburn who was the presenter that week.

Because of the BBC's former policy of deleting old programmes, nearly all of the episodes from the first ten years of the programme's history have been lost, including all of The Beatles' appearances. Super Furry Animals once got the whole audience to sit down during a live performance of theirs. In 1980, the then fledgling heavy metal superstars Iron Maiden became the first band to play live on the show since The Who in 1972, when they refused to mime to their single "Running Free". It noticeably had Victoria Beckham promote her new song "This Groove", with a performance 7 times in the first 8 shows, including the (pre-recorded) Christmas special.

The show's relaunch with Andi Peters as producer was widely considered the point where Top Of The Pops was Jumping The Shark. The most complaints the show recieved for a single episode was in 1994 when Manic Street Preachers performed their song "Faster" in a manner that was seen as intimidating and featured lead singer James Dean Bradfield wearing a balaclava such as would be worn by an IRA terrorist. Cliff Richard has performed the most on Top Of The Pops, recording over 150 performances. The shortest performance was Super Furry Animals with Do or Die clocking in at 95 seconds.

As of November 2005, the longest performance was of Green Day's Jesus Of Suburbia lasting 9 minutes. "I'm miming"!. The lyric he did not mime to was .. Fish, the face painted lead singer of early 1980s prog rockers Marillion, made sure that the cameras caught a close up of his firmly closed mouth during a particular section of their single Punch and Judy.

Singer Les Gray of Mud went on stage to perform with a ventriloquist dummy during the performance of Lonely this Christmas and had the dummy lip-synch to the voice-over in the middle of the song. This performance has been taken to heart by Nirvana fans, who affectionately refer to it as "Teen Gothic". For this performance Cobain was trusted to sing live vocals to a pre-recorded backing track: instead, he sang in a low, mournful wail; he was later to claim this was his attempt to sound like Morrissey. In grunge band Nirvana's only performance on Top of the Pops, frontman Kurt Cobain "played" his guitar with his fingers inches away from the frets, drummer Dave Grohl danced around in his seat for most of the performance, and bassist Krist Novoselic waved his instrument around his head.

Faith No More lead singer Mike Patton also showed he was obviously miming a performance by sticking his tongue out of the side of his mouth during closeup shots. In a 2005 performance of "Lyla", Liam Gallagher made no secret of the fact that he was miming his lyrics by walking away from the microphone and chewing gum when he was supposed to be singing. The performance of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" witnessed the unlikely scene of Paul Weller lip-syncing to Bono's vocals. For the 1984 Christmas Day edition all of the performers from Band Aid had been booked to appear apart from Bono.

The set ended with the band erupting in laughter at the Gallagher's impressions of each other. It also mocked the habit people had in Oasis' early years of confusing the brothers, not being able to tell them apart. In 1995 Oasis played their single "Roll With It" featuring singer Liam Gallagher pretending to play guitar, while guitarist Noel Gallagher pretended to sing, just to show how fake the 'live' performance was. Despite this, to this day, many TV nostalgia shows and other sources still claim this was an error.

This was a deliberate joke by the band and the production staff, but many people (including, apparently, host David Jensen) didn't realise this and thought it was a genuine mistake. While performing their 1982 hit "Jackie Wilson Said" the band Dexy's Midnight Runners were seen performing in front of a projection of the darts player Jocky Wilson.