Awful songs that somehow made it.

smigeon

How about “Grandad” by that bloke off Dad’s Army.

koneguitarist

Clive Dunn, that will be in show 3 or 4 

hollywoodrox

prowla said:

hollywoodrox said:

ICBM said:

JohnS37 said:

The Final Countdown.

That's so cheesy I actually like it now. The guitar solo is brilliant, total Blackmore pastiche.


One I heard on late-night TV the other day having mercifully forgotten about for decades - Lily The Pink, by Scaffold. The band name should have been carried out...

Jack Bruce ,graham Nash and some others appear on that too, can’t remember if mc cart yes on it 

I saw Europe supporting Deep Purple a couple of years ago - they were really good.

The Scaffold - featuring John Gorman (of Tiswas fame!).

Jack Bruce and graham Nash appeared on it with scaffold I think both doing backing vocals I just couldn’t remember if mc cart Ed was on there too. There was one clip where they play it and get the verses mixed up 

hollywoodrox

That’s a great song

merlin said:

Total Eclipse of the Heart. 

hollywoodrox

koneguitarist said:

2nd Show 
Goody Goody Gumdrops 1910 Fruitgum Company 
Itsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini Timmy Mallett
Little Arrows Leapy Lee
running bear Johnny Preston
Beach Baby beach First class
My boomerang won’t come back Charlie Drake
Lily the Pink The Scaffold 
Telephone man Meri Wilson
Ernie Fastest Milkman Benny Hill 
Hello Muddah Hello Faddah Alan Sherman 
mouldy old dough Lieutenant Pigeon 
Is this the way to Amarillo Tony Christie
Can Can Bad Manners 

I’ve got beach baby on vinyl 45 somewhere it’s a masterpiece 

Neill

hollywoodrox said:

koneguitarist said:

2nd Show 
Goody Goody Gumdrops 1910 Fruitgum Company 
Itsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini Timmy Mallett
Little Arrows Leapy Lee
running bear Johnny Preston
Beach Baby beach First class
My boomerang won’t come back Charlie Drake
Lily the Pink The Scaffold 
Telephone man Meri Wilson
Ernie Fastest Milkman Benny Hill 
Hello Muddah Hello Faddah Alan Sherman 
mouldy old dough Lieutenant Pigeon 
Is this the way to Amarillo Tony Christie
Can Can Bad Manners 

I’ve got beach baby on vinyl 45 somewhere it’s a masterpiece 

Yes it is - that's basically John Carter who is/was an absolute pop legend.  He was behind names such as The Ivy League and White Plains who recorded a number of classic pop songs in the 60's.

I'm not having "Amarillo" either - at least not by Tony Christie, the pride of Sheffield.

koneguitarist

My mate played in First Class as part of the touring band, none of them were on the song or even met anyone who was part of it. 

guitars4you

Years ago in Portugal, I met a guy who claimed to be the bass player in the Wombles - Easy enough claim to make as no one knows what they look like - So I quickly asked who the guitar player was and he quickly replied 'my mate Chris Spedding' - So I accepted his 'fame' 

guitars4you

fob said:

Livin' On A Prayer

if it is cheesy then it is good cheesy - IMO a good song

russpm

That stupid bloody 'You've got to Fly' by Cast.

guitars4you

2 songs I detest

Lady in Red - Chris De Burgh
Tainted Love - Soft cell  - must be their version as I like Imelda May's version 

and from Frozen - Let it go could quite easily get into that list

Neill

guitars4you said:

Years ago in Portugal, I met a guy who claimed to be the bass player in the Wombles - Easy enough claim to make as no one knows what they look like - So I quickly asked who the guitar player was and he quickly replied 'my mate Chris Spedding' - So I accepted his 'fame' 

I was amazed when I read that Chris Spedding actually was the guitarist in the Wombles, I mean I knew he played on the records but why would they need to employ real musicians to wear the costumes?  Must have been some musicians union thing I guess.

EricTheWeary

Neill said:

guitars4you said:

Years ago in Portugal, I met a guy who claimed to be the bass player in the Wombles - Easy enough claim to make as no one knows what they look like - So I quickly asked who the guitar player was and he quickly replied 'my mate Chris Spedding' - So I accepted his 'fame' 

I was amazed when I read that Chris Spedding actually was the guitarist in the Wombles, I mean I knew he played on the records but why would they need to employ real musicians to wear the costumes?  Must have been some musicians union thing I guess.

Some songs on TOTP were re-recorded versions so Mike Batt might have wanted him at hand for that? 

The Wombles were great, just joyful music. 

Neill

EricTheWeary said:

Neill said:

guitars4you said:

Years ago in Portugal, I met a guy who claimed to be the bass player in the Wombles - Easy enough claim to make as no one knows what they look like - So I quickly asked who the guitar player was and he quickly replied 'my mate Chris Spedding' - So I accepted his 'fame' 

I was amazed when I read that Chris Spedding actually was the guitarist in the Wombles, I mean I knew he played on the records but why would they need to employ real musicians to wear the costumes?  Must have been some musicians union thing I guess.

Some songs on TOTP were re-recorded versions so Mike Batt might have wanted him at hand for that? 

The Wombles were great, just joyful music. 

I think you're right, at least in theory.

However, that musicians union rule about bands re-recording their songs to mime to was almost universally ignored in the end.  There are many anecdotes about how bands got around this, I think it was Elvis Costello who told the story about their manager taking the sound engineer to the pub while the band "recorded" their backing track which, of course, just involved them making a copy of the original studio recording. 

I never really understood what the point was anyway.  I thought the whole idea was to help session musicians who generally just got paid for the one recording.  But, with a few exceptions, by the 1970's most bands were playing their own instruments on the original recordings anyway, so I don't see how making the band re-record a song helped anyone.

Of course the worst scenarios were where it was a solo artist and they had to wheel out the TOTP orchestra who almost without exception made a hash of the whole thing.  The worst example I can think of was when Althea and Donna were at number one with "Uptown Top Ranking".  The orchestra manfully tried to replicate the original track the girls sang to (which I think was basically Sly and Robbie) and it was toe curling awful.

scrumhalf

The Althea and Donna one was spectacularly awful, and came at roughly the time that "light entertainment" was kicked into touch by TOTP. Round about that time we had to endure "One Day At A Time" by Lena Martel, which seemed to spend about a year at number one and was one of the best arguments for punk/new wave. 

hollywoodrox

Neill said:

hollywoodrox said:

koneguitarist said:

2nd Show 
Goody Goody Gumdrops 1910 Fruitgum Company 
Itsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini Timmy Mallett
Little Arrows Leapy Lee
running bear Johnny Preston
Beach Baby beach First class
My boomerang won’t come back Charlie Drake
Lily the Pink The Scaffold 
Telephone man Meri Wilson
Ernie Fastest Milkman Benny Hill 
Hello Muddah Hello Faddah Alan Sherman 
mouldy old dough Lieutenant Pigeon 
Is this the way to Amarillo Tony Christie
Can Can Bad Manners 

I’ve got beach baby on vinyl 45 somewhere it’s a masterpiece 

Yes it is - that's basically John Carter who is/was an absolute pop legend.  He was behind names such as The Ivy League and White Plains who recorded a number of classic pop songs in the 60's.

I'm not having "Amarillo" either - at least not by Tony Christie, the pride of Sheffield.

My baby loves lovin is a great song 

Neill

hollywoodrox said:

Neill said:

hollywoodrox said:

koneguitarist said:

2nd Show 
Goody Goody Gumdrops 1910 Fruitgum Company 
Itsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini Timmy Mallett
Little Arrows Leapy Lee
running bear Johnny Preston
Beach Baby beach First class
My boomerang won’t come back Charlie Drake
Lily the Pink The Scaffold 
Telephone man Meri Wilson
Ernie Fastest Milkman Benny Hill 
Hello Muddah Hello Faddah Alan Sherman 
mouldy old dough Lieutenant Pigeon 
Is this the way to Amarillo Tony Christie
Can Can Bad Manners 

I’ve got beach baby on vinyl 45 somewhere it’s a masterpiece 

Yes it is - that's basically John Carter who is/was an absolute pop legend.  He was behind names such as The Ivy League and White Plains who recorded a number of classic pop songs in the 60's.

I'm not having "Amarillo" either - at least not by Tony Christie, the pride of Sheffield.

My baby loves lovin is a great song 

I agree - and there's a lot more where that came from.  At the time a lot of us sneered at what we called "bubblegum" pop, but time has treated a lot of these old recordings kindly and a lot of stuff from that era stands up really well - certainly compared to what passes for pop music these days.  

I think what we didn't appreciate at the time that guys like John Carter, Roger Cook, Roger Greenaway, Tony McCauley, etc were really clever musicians who had learned their trade, and what we heard in 2-3 minutes was the end result of a lot of hard work.  it's just too easy for folk with no musical ability to produce a song these days. 

duotone

EricTheWeary said:

Rowby1 said:

Birdy Song. 

When I was dating the future MrsTheWeary we had a romantic weekend in Paris. We were in a candle lit restaurant and an accordion player came to the table, realised we were English and proceeded to play the Birdie Song. 

Been watching more of those TOTP 1990s episodes, Jive Bunny and the Master Mixers - bloody hell, who was buying those? 

Also meant I’ve heard the Candy Flip version of Strawberry Fields Forever. FFS. 

Whilst I’m on - anything by Boney M. 

Cinderella Rockefella by Esther and Abi. I don’t hate it but much like Shaddupa Yer Face ( that kept Vienna by Ultravox off the number one slot!) it was a major hit that we seem to have made a collective decision to try to forget. 

My parents bought one for me! I remember going to Chapel St. Market in Islington in the run up to Christmas & got it there. It was a staple for journeys in the car cassette player. I’m sure I still have the cassette in a cupboard somewhere. 

EricTheWeary

duotone said:

EricTheWeary said:

Rowby1 said:

Birdy Song. 

When I was dating the future MrsTheWeary we had a romantic weekend in Paris. We were in a candle lit restaurant and an accordion player came to the table, realised we were English and proceeded to play the Birdie Song. 

Been watching more of those TOTP 1990s episodes, Jive Bunny and the Master Mixers - bloody hell, who was buying those? 

Also meant I’ve heard the Candy Flip version of Strawberry Fields Forever. FFS. 

Whilst I’m on - anything by Boney M. 

Cinderella Rockefella by Esther and Abi. I don’t hate it but much like Shaddupa Yer Face ( that kept Vienna by Ultravox off the number one slot!) it was a major hit that we seem to have made a collective decision to try to forget. 

My parents bought one for me! I remember going to Chapel St. Market in Islington in the run up to Christmas & got it there. It was a staple for journeys in the car cassette player. I’m sure I still have the cassette in a cupboard somewhere. 

These days you could call the NSPCC for that. 

russpm

Oh Superman by Laurie Anderson
Kissing with confidence by Will Powers
Country House Blur
Roll with it Oasis