The Best of Top of the Pops 1984 (SHM 3160)
Tracks:
Side 1
Side 2
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Sleeve notes:
We’re back - By popular demand TOP OF THE POPS is back. Packed with all those Top 20 smash hits exuberantly performed by The Top Of The Poppers, featuring the very best Chart Sounds from the past year covering a host of musical tastes. Re-commencing with Volume 92, NOW Pickwick will be bringing you a TOP OF THE POPS album every 8 weeks. Volume 1 of TOP OF THE POPS was first recorded in June 1968 with many million copies in this series being sold during its 91 volumes. This Series was exactly what the Pop World needed to keep it rolling, with all the current hits rendered by the finest session musicians in the business. These Session Boys reproduced as closely as possible the vocal and instrumental sounds made famous by the great names of Pop. Volume after volume was released every six or eight weeks - and a new era in recorded Pop Music was born! So Pop Fans - wait no more - don’t let the best sounds of 1984 pass you by without a copy hot off the press of THE BEST OF TOP OF THE POPS. Not only will you be taking a short walk down Memory Lane to the beginning of this year but you’ll also be jumping to today’s exciting sounds. |
Comments: Top of the Pops was discontinued in 1982, so this annual round-up was not compiled from the series, which was dormant, and is therefore an odd man out - it wasn't included in the CD re-issue campaign years later, either. It was in fact compiled from tracks recorded over the year by an external company, probably Coombe Music.
The cover design introduces the computerised type face, which would be re-used for Volume 92. Eighties glamour icon Sam Fox is here to grace this remarkable comeback album. Sam was arguably the most famous girl in her field at the time.
Special mention is due to veteran Top of the Pops vocalist, Martin Jay. Martin sings eleven of the dozen tracks, perhaps accounting for the fact that this LP has virtually no female leads. Martin appeared as early as Top of the Pops Volume 6 in 1969, vocalising "A Way Of Life", and his TOTP work also includes the re-make of "Mammy Blue" for volume 20 in 1971.
The cover design introduces the computerised type face, which would be re-used for Volume 92. Eighties glamour icon Sam Fox is here to grace this remarkable comeback album. Sam was arguably the most famous girl in her field at the time.
Special mention is due to veteran Top of the Pops vocalist, Martin Jay. Martin sings eleven of the dozen tracks, perhaps accounting for the fact that this LP has virtually no female leads. Martin appeared as early as Top of the Pops Volume 6 in 1969, vocalising "A Way Of Life", and his TOTP work also includes the re-make of "Mammy Blue" for volume 20 in 1971.
Chevron cassette albums
Chevron's "Parade of Pops" series came to an end simultaneously with Top of the Pops in 1982.
However the label released a few more similar cassette albums in 1984, under the titles "This Is Music" and "Hits Hits Hits", plus an end-of-year collection called "Top Hits Of The Year". The following tracks appear on these releases, as well as on the above Top of the Pops album: This Is Music Volume 3:
This Is Music Volume 4:
Hits Hits Hits Volume 1:
Top Hits of the Year [1984]:
There are a few more tracks on the Top of the Pops LP which also appear on Chevron's cassettes, although we do not own copies of all of them and are not able to confirm whether they are the same recordings. We do know that "Careless Whisper" is a different version, but "No More Lonely Nights", "Ghostbusters" and "Agadoo" may or may not be the same versions. |
Related release
Pictured left is the top of a 3-LP box set issued by Telstar, probably in 1985. It is entitled "1984 Hit Classics: 50 Smash Hits of 1984". It contains 50 cover versions of 1984's hit singles, and among the selections are eight of the recordings from "Best of Top of the Pops 1984". The shared tracks are: "Relax"; "Hello"; "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go"; "Two Tribes"; "Careless Whisper"; "Agadoo"; "I Just Called To Say I Love You"; "Ghostbusters". |