Complete Show – Top Of The Pops – 1978 – Big Hits – 4th January 2013
First broadcast: Fri 4th Jan 2013, 21:50 on BBC Four
Repeat broadcast: Fri 5th Jan 2024, 22:30 on BBC Four HD
A pick ‘n’ mix of Top of the Pops classics from 1978, when in-yer-face punk and new wave rebellion co-existed with MOR suburban pop, disco fever, soul balladry, reggae and prog rock, and when two mega-successful movie soundtracks in the shape of Grease and Saturday Night Fever squared up on the dancefloor. Featuring shouty Sham 69, the cool rebellion of Ian Dury, Elvis Costello and Blondie, the media-savvy clowning of The Boomtown Rats, Kate Bush’s debut with Wuthering Heights, alongside Brotherhood of Man’s perky Figaro, Dan Hill’s sentimental Sometimes When We Touch and the high camp of Boney M’s Rasputin. Bob Marley shares chart space with 10cc’s Dreadlock Holiday, and ELO and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band keep on rockin’.
2 appearances have had to be removed due to copyrights blocking the whole show. More details below.
Tracklist:
0:00:00 – Intro
0:00:43 – Blondie – ‘Picture This’
0:03:12 – Brotherhood Of Man – ‘Figaro’
0:05:24 – Kate Bush – ‘Wuthering Heights’
0:08:36 – Odyssey – ‘Native New Yorker’
0:10:41 – Elvis Costello & The Attractions – ‘(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea’
0:13:26 – Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – ‘Davy’s On The Road Again’
0:16:30 – John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John – ‘Summer Nights’
0:19:02 – The Boomtown Rats – ‘Rat Trap’
0:23:13 – The Motors – ‘Airport’
0:25:18 – Dan Hill – ‘Sometimes When We Touch’
0:28:35 – Sham 69 – ‘Angels With Dirty Faces’
0:30:59 – Yvonne Elliman – ‘If I Can’t Have You’
Removed – Electric Light Orchestra – ‘Mr Blue Sky’ (Soundtrack muted due to YouTube blocking)
0:33:27 – Bob Marley & The Wailers – ‘Satisfy My Soul’
0:36:28 – Chic – ‘Le Freak’
0:38:16 – Jilted John – ‘Jilted John’
0:40:38 – Johnny Mathis & Deniece Williams – ‘Too Much, Too Little, Too Late’
0:43:24 – Ian Dury & The Blockheads – ‘What A Waste’
0:46:21 – 10CC – ‘Dreadlock Holiday’
0:49:47 – Rose Royce – ‘Love Don’t Live Here Anymore’
Removed – Boney M – ‘Rasputin’
