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Top Of The Box - The Complete Guide To BBC Records And Tapes Singles
From Every Loser Wins to Awesome Dood!, the story behind every single released by BBC Records And Tapes.
Between 1970 and 1990, BBC Records And Tapes released almost three hundred singles, ranging from some of the best known and most loved theme tunes in television history, to full-length versions of ones that nobody had even asked for a short version of to begin with. Along the way they also put out one-off oddities by everyone from George Formby impersonators and up-and-coming folkies to a 'computer orchestra' and some posh blokes going on about how marvellous The Queen is. Oh and there's the one that's just the sound of someone hitting a phone.
Possibly the most bafflingly diverse catalogue of singles ever issued, viewed as a whole, it's a fascinating indication of what really was popular - and sometimes unpopular - with viewers at the time. Top Of The Box tells the story behind each of these singles, taking in familiar names, cult artists and obscure bafflements alike, and including the likes of Simon May, Peter Howell, Nick Berry, David Munrow, Roy Castle, Anita Dobson, Fascinating Aida, Aled Jones, Hazel O'Connor, Richard Stilgoe, Spike Milligan, Johnny Dankworth, Eric Clapton, The Grange Hill Cast, The Dooleys, Alan Hawkshaw, Enya, Keith Mansfield, Julie Covington, Georgie Fame, Godiego, Lena Zavaroni, Brown Sauce, Alan Price, Russell Grant, Kenneth Williams, Floella Benjamin, The Not The Nine O'Clock News Team, B.A. Robertson, Paddy Kingsland, Richard Denton & Martin Cook, The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and of course Keith Harris & Orville. So many singles by Keith Harris & Orville. Including one that wasn't even released...
Between 1970 and 1990, BBC Records And Tapes released almost three hundred singles, ranging from some of the best known and most loved theme tunes in television history, to full-length versions of ones that nobody had even asked for a short version of to begin with. Along the way they also put out one-off oddities by everyone from George Formby impersonators and up-and-coming folkies to a 'computer orchestra' and some posh blokes going on about how marvellous The Queen is. Oh and there's the one that's just the sound of someone hitting a phone.
Possibly the most bafflingly diverse catalogue of singles ever issued, viewed as a whole, it's a fascinating indication of what really was popular - and sometimes unpopular - with viewers at the time. Top Of The Box tells the story behind each of these singles, taking in familiar names, cult artists and obscure bafflements alike, and including the likes of Simon May, Peter Howell, Nick Berry, David Munrow, Roy Castle, Anita Dobson, Fascinating Aida, Aled Jones, Hazel O'Connor, Richard Stilgoe, Spike Milligan, Johnny Dankworth, Eric Clapton, The Grange Hill Cast, The Dooleys, Alan Hawkshaw, Enya, Keith Mansfield, Julie Covington, Georgie Fame, Godiego, Lena Zavaroni, Brown Sauce, Alan Price, Russell Grant, Kenneth Williams, Floella Benjamin, The Not The Nine O'Clock News Team, B.A. Robertson, Paddy Kingsland, Richard Denton & Martin Cook, The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and of course Keith Harris & Orville. So many singles by Keith Harris & Orville. Including one that wasn't even released...
- GenresMusic
116 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 2015
3 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Tim Worthington
21 books12 followersWriter and occasional broadcaster. Somewhere between Jennifer Eccles and King Midas In Reverse.
"The Dominic Sandbrook of things that don't matter" according to one reader.
Lots more to read at http://timworthington.blogspot.co.uk/
"The Dominic Sandbrook of things that don't matter" according to one reader.
Lots more to read at http://timworthington.blogspot.co.uk/
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 10, 2016
A comprehensively catalogued and richly annotated discography of BBC Records (And Tapes) singles output may seem foolhardy, insane even, but this is what vintage telly archivist Tim Worthington has done with his latest book, Top Of The Box.
The history of BBC Records itself is a fascinating one, as the corporation - ever mindful of their remit as a non-commercial public service - were slow to exploit the commercial potential of many of their hit shows. Sound tracks of comedy favourites such as Not Only But Also, The Goon Show and Hancock's Half Hour would be licensed to established labels such as Decca, Parlophone and Pye Records.
BBC Enterprises' Records & Tapes division came into being in 1967, and their output initially consisted of instructional and educational recordings, but in 1970 they tentatively dipped a toe into the water of wider commercial concerns with a 45 single of themes from the first of their hugely popular, prestigious, historical dramas, The Six Wives of Henry VIII. This is where Top Of The Box's story begins.
For the early years of the label's inception, its singles output mainly consisted of themes from its most popular shows re-arranged for commercial consumption, from the bittersweet and evocative theme song for "Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads" by Highly Likely, to endless iterations of the Doctor Who theme tune with an ever-changing array of B sides (most renowned being Peter Howell's "Astronauts", a pounding slice of electronica worthy of early Human League or Jean Michel Jarre). Just the titles alone will give pangs of nostalgia to anyone over a certain age, with themes from everything from The Duchess of Duke Street, The Water Margin and Grandstand, to The Changes, The Body In Question and The Great Egg Race.
What's most fascinating about this volume, as it itemises release after release in chronological order, sprinkled with Worthington's commentary offering context on each release's parent series, some wry commentary and arcane trivia, is how, as the Beeb enters the aspirational 1980s, BBC Records somewhat over-reached themselves by attempting to not only meet public demand for melodies from well-loved, popular shows, but also dared to surf the zeitgeist and manufacture its own commercial successes.
For one star collaboration - Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen's "Edge of Darkness", as classy, transatlantic and A-game as the drama of the same name - there's Justin Hayward and Tony Visconti's "Star Cops" theme "It Won't Be Long". We have the "Ayatollah Song/Gob On You" 45 by the cast of Not The Nine O'Clock News, which failed to duplicate the massive success of its parent show, despite having the luxury of a punkish picture sleeve. There's other home-brew manufactured sensations such as Swap Shop spin-off Brown Sauce's "So You Want To Be A Winner"; Keith Harris & Orville; Grange Hill's "Just Say No", and Saturday Superstore talent show winner Claire Usher's "It's 'Orrible Being In Love When You're Eight And A Half".
What you get with this book isn't just the factoids but also the fall-out. Who knew that the twelve inch single of "It's 'Orrible" was one of the lowest charting 12" singles of the 1980s, or that Claire had a follow-up single that didn't even dent the Top 75.
It's at this point that Tim's Beeb 45 chronology peaks and the bubble bursts, as we're confronted with an array of singles inspired by the success of EastEnders - "Something Outta Nothing" by Letitia Dean and Paul Medford, the culmination of a 'battle of the bands' storyline deliberately contrived to expand the EastEnders brand into other media; closely followed by Nick Berry's "Every Loser Wins" and, in 1986, Anita Dobson doing a Dennis Waterman and 'singing de feem toon' with the classically awful "Anyone Can Fall In Love". What's clear from this section of Tim's compendium is the only winner was Simon May, who instigated all of the above EastEnders toe-tappers but also got another freak hit out of another soap he was affiliated with - yuppie-yachting boardroom drama "Howards Way", with its vocal theme (featuring Marti Webb on vocal duties) just skirting the top 10.
So, in essence, what we have is a kind of alternative history of the changing tastes and styles of the BBC's mainstream presentations, as essayed by the bigwigs of BBC Records & Tapes, who as often as not didn't have their fingers on the pulse as were stumbling blindly, with occasionally surprising results.
Top of the Box is, therefore, partly a useful document of the BBC's changing relationship with its audience; a testament to the capricious nature of television culture itself; and a fact-filled cornucopia of info and trivia for pop cult obsessives.
This book is one of those strange cases where you didn't realise you needed such a title until it existed, fulfilling all those nerdy needs of seeing a transient, disposable culture documented and itemised for posterity. Just say yes.
The history of BBC Records itself is a fascinating one, as the corporation - ever mindful of their remit as a non-commercial public service - were slow to exploit the commercial potential of many of their hit shows. Sound tracks of comedy favourites such as Not Only But Also, The Goon Show and Hancock's Half Hour would be licensed to established labels such as Decca, Parlophone and Pye Records.
BBC Enterprises' Records & Tapes division came into being in 1967, and their output initially consisted of instructional and educational recordings, but in 1970 they tentatively dipped a toe into the water of wider commercial concerns with a 45 single of themes from the first of their hugely popular, prestigious, historical dramas, The Six Wives of Henry VIII. This is where Top Of The Box's story begins.
For the early years of the label's inception, its singles output mainly consisted of themes from its most popular shows re-arranged for commercial consumption, from the bittersweet and evocative theme song for "Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads" by Highly Likely, to endless iterations of the Doctor Who theme tune with an ever-changing array of B sides (most renowned being Peter Howell's "Astronauts", a pounding slice of electronica worthy of early Human League or Jean Michel Jarre). Just the titles alone will give pangs of nostalgia to anyone over a certain age, with themes from everything from The Duchess of Duke Street, The Water Margin and Grandstand, to The Changes, The Body In Question and The Great Egg Race.
What's most fascinating about this volume, as it itemises release after release in chronological order, sprinkled with Worthington's commentary offering context on each release's parent series, some wry commentary and arcane trivia, is how, as the Beeb enters the aspirational 1980s, BBC Records somewhat over-reached themselves by attempting to not only meet public demand for melodies from well-loved, popular shows, but also dared to surf the zeitgeist and manufacture its own commercial successes.
For one star collaboration - Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen's "Edge of Darkness", as classy, transatlantic and A-game as the drama of the same name - there's Justin Hayward and Tony Visconti's "Star Cops" theme "It Won't Be Long". We have the "Ayatollah Song/Gob On You" 45 by the cast of Not The Nine O'Clock News, which failed to duplicate the massive success of its parent show, despite having the luxury of a punkish picture sleeve. There's other home-brew manufactured sensations such as Swap Shop spin-off Brown Sauce's "So You Want To Be A Winner"; Keith Harris & Orville; Grange Hill's "Just Say No", and Saturday Superstore talent show winner Claire Usher's "It's 'Orrible Being In Love When You're Eight And A Half".
What you get with this book isn't just the factoids but also the fall-out. Who knew that the twelve inch single of "It's 'Orrible" was one of the lowest charting 12" singles of the 1980s, or that Claire had a follow-up single that didn't even dent the Top 75.
It's at this point that Tim's Beeb 45 chronology peaks and the bubble bursts, as we're confronted with an array of singles inspired by the success of EastEnders - "Something Outta Nothing" by Letitia Dean and Paul Medford, the culmination of a 'battle of the bands' storyline deliberately contrived to expand the EastEnders brand into other media; closely followed by Nick Berry's "Every Loser Wins" and, in 1986, Anita Dobson doing a Dennis Waterman and 'singing de feem toon' with the classically awful "Anyone Can Fall In Love". What's clear from this section of Tim's compendium is the only winner was Simon May, who instigated all of the above EastEnders toe-tappers but also got another freak hit out of another soap he was affiliated with - yuppie-yachting boardroom drama "Howards Way", with its vocal theme (featuring Marti Webb on vocal duties) just skirting the top 10.
So, in essence, what we have is a kind of alternative history of the changing tastes and styles of the BBC's mainstream presentations, as essayed by the bigwigs of BBC Records & Tapes, who as often as not didn't have their fingers on the pulse as were stumbling blindly, with occasionally surprising results.
Top of the Box is, therefore, partly a useful document of the BBC's changing relationship with its audience; a testament to the capricious nature of television culture itself; and a fact-filled cornucopia of info and trivia for pop cult obsessives.
This book is one of those strange cases where you didn't realise you needed such a title until it existed, fulfilling all those nerdy needs of seeing a transient, disposable culture documented and itemised for posterity. Just say yes.
December 7, 2015
Firstly allow me to divert any accusations of bias and state that I have a small credit in this book and am probably at the bullseye of the target market. The credit is due to supplying a snippet of information on an unreleased BBC single and the book is entirely presuited to me because I run a website and twitter account dedicated to BBC Records.
The format of the book is a list with each record given an entry and ordered by the RESL, BEEB or other catalogue number. There's no index but there is a lot of cross referencing between the entries. Thus, you are directed to other releases of relevance. Where the singles also appeared on BBC albums, such as one of the 'Top BBC TV Themes' compilations, you get a catalogue reference for those too. This doesn't always make it the most rewarding read through, if you want to consume it in that way, but it isn't particularly off-putting either. There aren't, alas, any cover photos in the book, Perhaps one day a full-colour coffee-table version will be made.
The content is toned down compared to some of Tim Worthington's more deliberately (albeit affectionately so)mocking, absurd, meta-critical and occasionally ribald blog posts. There are some easy laughs to be had as you encounter certain items, but those lazy associations are generally avoided in favour of facts and suitable context. Opinion is largely reserved for the bigger picture and not for dwelling on artistic choices or hindsight enhanced views of certain children's entertainment. In fact most of the author's critique is aimed at the label's choices and lack of nous in the business of marketing and promotion rather than the artists. Artists who were in many cases not at all interested in scaling the pop charts or being pop stars (see Fascinating Aida and the documentary of that very topic). Personally I could have done with a bit more humour, but it's a difficult line to tread. When used as a reference guide it's not helpful to have a series of in-jokes, asides and playful teasing of the subject jumbled amongst the facts. Even, as they are, thoroughly enjoyable in the right setting. You can therefore find that type of thing on the blogs and the more serious and (if you will excuse the pun) worthy (sorry) Worthington in this and his other publications. This is actually a worthy endeavour though. As Tim points out himself, a lot of this material is not being looked after and curated by the Beeb and it takes efforts like this to highlight that.
There are a lot of records to get through. Some releases, quite rightly, get more space than other's simply because they are more interesting and popular releases. The level of research on show is not exhausting and you get what you need to know without feeling burdened with extraneous details. Occasionally I wondered what else I could learn about a particular TV programme or the people responsible for a release, but the scope of the book is the 7"s released and not everything else around them and indeed behind them. The right balance is found.
Is it complete though? Yes, I think so. Mention is made of language (Pronunciation Practice) 7"s but they aren't in all honesty interesting enough to have full entries. The missing catalogue numbers are in-line with the current known state of the discography and in many cases Tim has clearly unearthed some stories behind them and at least said what they might have been. I'm certain that if more evidence comes to light updates will be made and a reissue of this book will be made.
I will mention that there are a few errors in the editing, but only because I'm sure they will be corrected in due course and by the time you read the book they might be there.
As as an avid fan of the label this book is a dream come true for me. Even a casual fan or all-round classic vinyl collector should find plenty to fascinate them in this book. My theory is anyone who buys classic vinyl will have a BBC Records release in their collection somewhere and probably several. I thoroughly recommend it to any such enthusiast and even if you're merely thinking of buying, if you've read this far you must be tempted.
The format of the book is a list with each record given an entry and ordered by the RESL, BEEB or other catalogue number. There's no index but there is a lot of cross referencing between the entries. Thus, you are directed to other releases of relevance. Where the singles also appeared on BBC albums, such as one of the 'Top BBC TV Themes' compilations, you get a catalogue reference for those too. This doesn't always make it the most rewarding read through, if you want to consume it in that way, but it isn't particularly off-putting either. There aren't, alas, any cover photos in the book, Perhaps one day a full-colour coffee-table version will be made.
The content is toned down compared to some of Tim Worthington's more deliberately (albeit affectionately so)mocking, absurd, meta-critical and occasionally ribald blog posts. There are some easy laughs to be had as you encounter certain items, but those lazy associations are generally avoided in favour of facts and suitable context. Opinion is largely reserved for the bigger picture and not for dwelling on artistic choices or hindsight enhanced views of certain children's entertainment. In fact most of the author's critique is aimed at the label's choices and lack of nous in the business of marketing and promotion rather than the artists. Artists who were in many cases not at all interested in scaling the pop charts or being pop stars (see Fascinating Aida and the documentary of that very topic). Personally I could have done with a bit more humour, but it's a difficult line to tread. When used as a reference guide it's not helpful to have a series of in-jokes, asides and playful teasing of the subject jumbled amongst the facts. Even, as they are, thoroughly enjoyable in the right setting. You can therefore find that type of thing on the blogs and the more serious and (if you will excuse the pun) worthy (sorry) Worthington in this and his other publications. This is actually a worthy endeavour though. As Tim points out himself, a lot of this material is not being looked after and curated by the Beeb and it takes efforts like this to highlight that.
There are a lot of records to get through. Some releases, quite rightly, get more space than other's simply because they are more interesting and popular releases. The level of research on show is not exhausting and you get what you need to know without feeling burdened with extraneous details. Occasionally I wondered what else I could learn about a particular TV programme or the people responsible for a release, but the scope of the book is the 7"s released and not everything else around them and indeed behind them. The right balance is found.
Is it complete though? Yes, I think so. Mention is made of language (Pronunciation Practice) 7"s but they aren't in all honesty interesting enough to have full entries. The missing catalogue numbers are in-line with the current known state of the discography and in many cases Tim has clearly unearthed some stories behind them and at least said what they might have been. I'm certain that if more evidence comes to light updates will be made and a reissue of this book will be made.
I will mention that there are a few errors in the editing, but only because I'm sure they will be corrected in due course and by the time you read the book they might be there.
As as an avid fan of the label this book is a dream come true for me. Even a casual fan or all-round classic vinyl collector should find plenty to fascinate them in this book. My theory is anyone who buys classic vinyl will have a BBC Records release in their collection somewhere and probably several. I thoroughly recommend it to any such enthusiast and even if you're merely thinking of buying, if you've read this far you must be tempted.
August 20, 2020
Very niche but interesting book about records released on the BBC label
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews