There have been a few Christmas singles that have sold over a million in the UK:
Slade - Merry Christmas Everybody (first released 1973)
Harry Belafonte - Mary's Boy Child (1957)
Band Aid 20 - Do They Know Its Christmas? (2004)
Wham - Last Christmas (1984)
Boney M - Mary's Boy Child / Oh My Lord (1978)
Band Aid - Do They Know Its Christmas? (1984)
White Christmas by Bing Crosby may or may not have sold a million in the UK depending whether you include sales from reissues.
Wham was never a number one being released the same week as Band Aid and is the biggest selling single never to reach number one in the UK.
Boney M's song is a medley including a version of the Harry Belafonte song.
Ref: everyhit.com UK christmas songs
List of UK million-seller singles.
Monday, 26 December 2011
Tuesday, 20 December 2011
Go-Jos usurped by Pan's People on Top of the Pops
Stories from the Radio 2 documentary, Super Troupers, 19 December 2011:
The first dance troupe on Top of the Pops were the Go-Jos created by Jo Cook. There had been appearing regulaely on the show for over 3 years when in May 1968 Pan's People were given a chance. The first that the Go-Jos knew of it was seeing them on the show. The producer, who had taken out for a drink by members of Pan's People, told the Go-Jos that he just felt like trying a new troupe. The new troupe stayed for nearly 8 years.
Pan's People were always signed to the show as individuals. So there were always paid standard union fees for their performances and never made much money from the show.
Ruby Flipper so upset the bosses that it was agreed soon after they started that they would only have 6 months on the show while a new all-female troupe was recruited to replace them. Apparently they had a particular problem with a coloured man dancing with white girls. After 6 months they were indeed replaced by the all-female Legs & Co. It was not until Hot Gossip that the racial issue was overcome.
The first dance troupe on Top of the Pops were the Go-Jos created by Jo Cook. There had been appearing regulaely on the show for over 3 years when in May 1968 Pan's People were given a chance. The first that the Go-Jos knew of it was seeing them on the show. The producer, who had taken out for a drink by members of Pan's People, told the Go-Jos that he just felt like trying a new troupe. The new troupe stayed for nearly 8 years.
Pan's People were always signed to the show as individuals. So there were always paid standard union fees for their performances and never made much money from the show.
Ruby Flipper so upset the bosses that it was agreed soon after they started that they would only have 6 months on the show while a new all-female troupe was recruited to replace them. Apparently they had a particular problem with a coloured man dancing with white girls. After 6 months they were indeed replaced by the all-female Legs & Co. It was not until Hot Gossip that the racial issue was overcome.
Monday, 28 November 2011
TOTP 1976 - Why "Legs & Co" ?
The dancers performing to Lalo Schifrin's Theme From Jaws, 28/10/76
So here you are dancing on Top Of The Pops in 1976, the men of Ruby Flipper have been ditched along with the name after less than six months and you are going to have a new name thought up by a member of the public. For three weeks you have been cleverly credited as ??????, there being 6 dancers. There are lots of entries so there has to be at least one good name amongst them. But the name that is chosen is "Legs & Co". It must have been such a disappointment. There are accountancy firms with better names than that. Pans People was a much better name in comparison even if it was a very Sixties name. If that was the best entry what were the other entries like? At least the BBC has managed to wipe the edition were the name was announced. I guess the name reflects the poor taste of the mid-Seventies.Top Of The Pops dance troupes:
Dec 1964 - May 1968 GoJos
May 1968 - Apr 1976 Pan's People
May 1976 - Oct 1976 Ruby Flipper
Oct 1976 - May 1981 Legs & Co
Nov 1981 - Sep 1983 Zoo
From Pan's People onwards, the choreographer was Flick Colby. The Go-Jos created by Jo Cook and Pan's People formed by Flick Colby existed before appearing on the show but the other troupes were created for the show.
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Different Band Names in Different Countries
Some bands have to change their names for different countries because of existing bands with the same name in those countries. Thus "The Spinners" from America are known as "The Detroit Spinners" in the UK so as not to be confused with "The Spinners" from England. Similarly "The Beat" from the UK are known as "The English Beat" in America because there was an American band with that name. "The Charlatans" from the UK are known as "The Charlatans UK" in America for the same reason.
It can affect solo artists. Sean Combs has used several different names from Puff Daddy to P.Diddy to Diddy. However he can not use the name Diddy in the UK because there was already another artist using that name, so in the UK he currently uses P. Diddy instead but is Diddy in America. America seems not to have heard of Ken Dodd and his Diddymen.
Some names are very popular. There are at least 2 American bands called "The Uniques", one from Louisiana and one from Florida. Wikipedia lists 4 bands with the name "Paradox", with one each from Canada, England, Ireland and Thailand.
Sometimes the band is too obscure to matter. Hence the British bands The Eagles, Nirvana and Hanson were overwhelmed by their later American namesakes and no name changes were necessary. In the case of Blue, a court case decided that the two groups with that name, a boyband formed in 2001 and a scottish rock band formed in 1973, were sufficiently different to avoid any confusion and they could both use the name Blue.
@londonscreen13
It can affect solo artists. Sean Combs has used several different names from Puff Daddy to P.Diddy to Diddy. However he can not use the name Diddy in the UK because there was already another artist using that name, so in the UK he currently uses P. Diddy instead but is Diddy in America. America seems not to have heard of Ken Dodd and his Diddymen.
Some names are very popular. There are at least 2 American bands called "The Uniques", one from Louisiana and one from Florida. Wikipedia lists 4 bands with the name "Paradox", with one each from Canada, England, Ireland and Thailand.
Sometimes the band is too obscure to matter. Hence the British bands The Eagles, Nirvana and Hanson were overwhelmed by their later American namesakes and no name changes were necessary. In the case of Blue, a court case decided that the two groups with that name, a boyband formed in 2001 and a scottish rock band formed in 1973, were sufficiently different to avoid any confusion and they could both use the name Blue.
@londonscreen13
Friday, 4 November 2011
Covers of Cover Versions in Pop Music
Sometimes a cover version can do better than the original version. The original artist then can end up performing the song as if doing a cover of the cover. An example is Neil Diamond copying UB40's reggae version of "Red, Red Wine". His original version had been quite different but it was the UB40 version that everyone knew, so that was how he did the song in concerts after UB40 had had the big hit with their version.
Similarly Madness had a big hit with a very different arrangement of Labi Siffre's song "It must be love". However a version of the song copying the Madness arrangement was used iin a television commercial. Because they were not performing on the music used in the commercial nor had they written the song Madness received nothing from the use of the song although it was so similar to their version that many people thought it was them performing on the commercial. The royalties of course went to Labi Siffre.
"House of the Rising Sun" was a traditional folk song. Dave Van Ronk used to perform the song at concerts in New York and was going to record a version of it. However Bob Dylan copied his version and recorded it for his first album in 1962. So when Van Ronk performed this at later concerts it appeared that he was copying Dylan even though Van Ronk had performed the song first. In a strange twist another arrangement of the song became a big hit for The Animals, so that Bob Dylan stopped performing the song because people thought he was covering The Animal's version.
Similarly Madness had a big hit with a very different arrangement of Labi Siffre's song "It must be love". However a version of the song copying the Madness arrangement was used iin a television commercial. Because they were not performing on the music used in the commercial nor had they written the song Madness received nothing from the use of the song although it was so similar to their version that many people thought it was them performing on the commercial. The royalties of course went to Labi Siffre.
"House of the Rising Sun" was a traditional folk song. Dave Van Ronk used to perform the song at concerts in New York and was going to record a version of it. However Bob Dylan copied his version and recorded it for his first album in 1962. So when Van Ronk performed this at later concerts it appeared that he was copying Dylan even though Van Ronk had performed the song first. In a strange twist another arrangement of the song became a big hit for The Animals, so that Bob Dylan stopped performing the song because people thought he was covering The Animal's version.
Two acts at number 11 in the same chart, Top of the Pops 1976
On the episode of Top of the Pops 1976 (21 October 1976 edition) shown on Thursday, there were two no.11s. After Elvis Presley at 13 came The Real Thing at 11 and Smokie at 11. This was not a mistake but a rare case of tied places in the chart.
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