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Post by raliverpool on Sept 12, 2016 21:37:46 GMT 1
Sorry but it has to be done:
If I may adapt Hillary Clinton's quote "half of the people who prefer Calum Scott's slowed down over emoted cover version belong in a basket of deplorables".
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Post by raliverpool on Sept 12, 2016 21:40:46 GMT 1
Beloved - Sweet Harmony Back in those blissful sixth-form days with sixth-form girls in modified school uniforms (mmm...Lisa...Claire...Lara), there was a vogue for stupid haircuts. Beloved fell right into the middle of that vogue which overlooked that "The Sun Rising" in particular was a rather gorgeous blissed-out choon. And then they vanished as the rave scene faded away and nobody needed to come down any more. And then after two years of silence they blasted into the top ten with a video whose concept was stolen from my dreams. Perhaps the most stochastic comeback I can remember. Song had the capabilities of being one of those from the soundtrack of an era, but it seems to have slipped through the cracks, so to speak. Beavis & Butthead loved it by the way. And yes, that is Tess Daly. I'll give you more Tess Daly. How did this only reach UK #48 in 1990, becoming their first single to fail to reach the top 40.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Sept 16, 2016 22:09:36 GMT 1
There was a time when you could easily score a hit by just taking a kids' TV theme and aciding it up. It gave top 10s to The Prodigy, Smart E's, Urban Hype and Shaft. Got to the point where it had a genre name, of kiddicore, which sounds sooooo wrong.
Yet easily the best of them all was this one, which barely made the top 30. Video misses out the ITMA opening but this was a splendid and sympathetic take on the Magic Roundabout theme - not the routine that the Carrott turned into a top 5 cut.
What I remember most about this is that whoever was doing the top 40 at the time (Brookes/Goodier) must have positively hated it. Hardly played it in the era when outside the 20 was voluntary. It took Tommy Vance standing in to give it a spin when it stalled at 27. Think it got about four seconds on Top Of The Pops...
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Sept 20, 2016 21:26:34 GMT 1
Fun video, fun song. You'd think with the re-make of the film someone somewhere would have dug out the band with the same name.
Probably one to be filed away with Swans Way's "Soul Train" and Furniture's "Brilliant Mind" in the "I thought they were massive hits" category.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Sept 20, 2016 21:35:01 GMT 1
And having mentioned Swans Way I am reminded of this one...
...by two-thirds of the aforementioned Proustian act, Maggie moving from drums to vox. An outright stormer of a track that certainly deserved to be ginormous. It seemed to stagger around the lower reaches of the 40 before the Beeb finally granted them a TOTP performance.
And, having been reminded of SF...
...can't be bothered to check through the thread to see if I've mentioned this before, but this is a lovely, lovely song, normally the type I would hate but it just totally works. Maybe that it's pregnant with ambiguity. Or maybe because I fancied the pianist.
Very depressing to see the kind of crap that kept this from being a top ten hit. Bloody Dion at number 1, dance b****cks from N Trance, Real McCoy and Rednex, the ordure that was Ini Kamoze and two completely, totally and utterly worthless cover versions from Nicki French and Perfecto Allstars, basically ripping out the joi de vivre of the originals for an audience that had long past caring about quality. Oh, and Mrs Ant/Dec at no. 11.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Oct 11, 2016 22:30:09 GMT 1
There was a time in the mid-noughties when a load of internet groups sprang up and seemingly had found a new way to connect with the audience - directly via myspace in particular. Acts like Art Brut, Long Blondes, Forward Russia! and of course The Pipettes could to some extent get around their utter lack of airplay by getting straight to the audience.
And just as it looked as if there might be a new musical renaissance Murdoch bought myspace and killed it, and Syco basically drowned anyone with any ability with a tidal wave of complete, total and utter sh*t aimed at congenital cretins poured across mainstream media.
Shame. Because there were some intercoursingly great tunes out there.
Like this one.
Although damned if I could find the proper video...
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Post by raliverpool on Oct 11, 2016 22:50:21 GMT 1
If you can't beat them .... F1's Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg's motivational theme tune, whilst Lewis Hamilton's title hopes are falling away nearly as fast as the value of the £ ....
This Californian alternative rock group's 1996 USA #35 & UK #22 hit:
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Oct 12, 2016 11:09:51 GMT 1
There was a time in the mid-noughties when a load of internet groups sprang up and seemingly had found a new way to connect with the audience - directly via myspace in particular. Acts like Art Brut, Long Blondes, Forward Russia! and of course The Pipettes could to some extent get around their utter lack of airplay by getting straight to the audience. And just as it looked as if there might be a new musical renaissance Murdoch bought myspace and killed it, and Syco basically drowned anyone with any ability with a tidal wave of complete, total and utter sh*t aimed at congenital cretins poured across mainstream media. Shame. Because there were some intercoursingly great tunes out there. Like this one. Although damned if I could find the proper video... One of my favourite songs of the 00s and the video isn't available in U.K. but I have a link at home it's hard to find
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Oct 23, 2016 11:53:01 GMT 1
Picked a random chart week and looked down the chart to find the first song I had never heard of. On the basis that that must be a hit so obscure nobody has played it since.
Turned out to be this one:
It sounds familiar for some reason but I can't put my finger on it. Rowles is a New Zealander - the first to hit the charts? - and is still performing. He was meant to be in the Kiwi version of Strictly but had to withdraw under doctor's orders.
I can see why this would not get played much nowadays - it sounds like it's 10 years too late even in 1968. Definitely aimed at the Doonican market.
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Post by Whitneyfan on Oct 23, 2016 12:08:37 GMT 1
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Post by Milliways on Oct 26, 2016 0:55:58 GMT 1
Running with vastar iner's theme, another hit from 2008 that made it onto Now 71 but appears to have otherwise been utterly forgotten
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Oct 27, 2016 9:21:53 GMT 1
Running with vastar iner's theme, another hit from 2008 that made it onto Now 71 but appears to have otherwise been utterly forgotten I heard this on 6music a few weeks ago
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Oct 28, 2016 23:45:31 GMT 1
Saw Ida Maria live. Think VV Brown was supporting. Both were very decent.
One that came to mind on the Guardian's Readers' Recommend. Tony Christie's biggest hit before the re-issue:
This might be even better than "Amarillo". I think there's a musical to be written linking those two songs. Lot of death around in popular music around that era. Wot with "Delilah", "Ernie" and The Shangri-Las.
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Post by Wanderlust on Oct 30, 2016 11:13:44 GMT 1
This from Chieftans and The Corrs
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Nov 22, 2016 22:15:56 GMT 1
Missed the Debbie Harry/Blondie vote thanks to going on holiday. But it means I can add this as a definitive nearly forgotten hit as it didn't make the shortlist...
One of my favourites of hers - certainly in my top five. Gorgeous and uplifting powerpop. Plus I liked the idea of having a magician aid the interpretation on Ver Pops. Why was this not a much, much bigger hit? A proud and worthy addition to the Blondie oeuvre.
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Post by raliverpool on Nov 22, 2016 22:27:58 GMT 1
My all time second favourite Debbie Harry/Blondie song which I could not justify in crowbarring in to the vote:
Debbie Harry's debut solo single "Backfired" from 1981 which stalled at USA #43 & UK #32. She had dyed her hair darker and had a new sci-fi inspired look, as seen in the music video for the song in which she was Voguing 9 years before Madonna "invented it". The video was directed by H.R. Giger, who appeared in the video wearing a mask and mimes the male back-up vocals on the song. Whilst the jazz funk track was produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of the Chic Organisation, as Chic provided the backing track.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Dec 4, 2016 0:58:21 GMT 1
I was in Bhutan for a couple of weeks recently and the prayer flags kept reminding me of this wonderful cut...
OK, it's naif in its message, but...what a voice, what a production, what a joy.
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Post by thehitparade on Dec 4, 2016 17:26:30 GMT 1
Been listening to a lot of R.E.M. lately. This was one of the six Top 40 hits they had in 1991, and probably the least-remembered now.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Dec 6, 2016 20:54:30 GMT 1
I don't remember those Top Of The Pops graphics at all. Carmel - one of those bands where you're not certain if the name is the whole group or just the singer, like with Toyah, Sade and Helen Shapiro - showing Shakatak just how you really add a jazz touch to pop music. Ms McCourt is surely one of the best vocalists ever to hit the top 40, and the one who got the least success commensurate with her talent.
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Post by raliverpool on Dec 6, 2016 21:03:34 GMT 1
^ That song (title) reminded me of Andrea True Connection's mid 1970s hit of the same title later badly covered by Bananarama (sans Siobhan Fahey); and Rachel Stevens .... I was then going to post that but along the sidebar I spotted .....
Fox - S-S-S-Single Bed (1976)
Imagine Alison Goldfrapp crossed with Candice Brown (GBBO 2016 winner) with Macy Gray's voice.
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