Thursday 7 June 2012

Live from Television Centre

So we've had the presenters, what about the bands? Ekeing out those who officially quote inflated numbers as they'd like us to count brief video clips and playouts (hello, Quo; evening, Shaky), here's a YouTube-heavy (sorry) top forty of studio performances:

(recalculated as of 17/6/12)

36= Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich (25 appearances)


36= Gilbert O'Sullivan (25)
36= Steps (25)
36= Suzi Quatro (25)
36= T.Rex (25)
33= Billy Ocean (26)
33= East 17 (26)
33= Westlife (26)
30= Boyzone (27 appearances)
30= Take That (27)
30= The Tremeloes (27)
27= Dusty Springfield (28)
27= Herman's Hermits (28)
27= Smokie (28)
22= Bee Gees (29)
22= David Essex (29)
22= Depeche Mode (29)
22= Erasure (29)
22= Marmalade (29)
21 Gary Glitter (30)
20 The Sweet (31)
18= Cilla Black (33)
18= Pet Shop Boys (33)



17 Wet Wet Wet (36)
14= Elton John (37)
14= The Kinks (37)
14= Tom Jones (37)
13 Manfred Mann (38)
12 Showaddywaddy (38)
10= Kylie Minogue (40)
10= Robbie Williams (40)



9 Status Quo (41)
8 Sandie Shaw (42)


7 Lulu (43)
5= Mud (44)
5= Shakin' Stevens (44)
4 Hot Chocolate (45)
3 The Hollies (51)



2 Slade (56)


1 Cliff Richard (75)




14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why are Wizzard combined with Roy Wood solo?

Simon said...

Because... erm... because they were together on the list I adapted this from.

Noax said...

Lulu in the Top Ten? Only by hanging on to various famous people's coat-tails for the last 20 years, the silly old woman. Can't stand her.

Thanks for Holliedaze - can't beat a Starsound style medley, and god knows, nearly everybody had a go!

Arthur Nibble said...

Cilla Black and Cliff Richard supplemented their numbers by getting plenty of 'new release' appearances for complete flops!

Is there a reverse list, which Elvis would win hands down, for the most hits since TOTP started without a single studio appearance?

Don't forget I'm probably out of PC reach from tonight until Saturday week, so you'll have all the time and space in the world next week to nick all my potential good lines and crowd me out after the next TOTP!

80sBlokeInThe70s said...

I don't think Cliff Richard had many complete flops (possibly 1 or 2 mid-70s)- in the TOTP era he had far more hits than Elvis.

Cliff Richard 1964-06: 105 hits
Elvis Presley 1964-06: 68 hits

(obviously excluding re-entries)

Anonymous said...

The Kinks - FORTY THREE appearances!

And how many exist in the archives?

Steve Williams said...

Surely the reason Roy Wood and Wizzard are combined is because all of Roy Wood's solo appearances were doing re-released Wizzard songs? Or a re-released Wizzard song.

Erithian said...

Are Robbie's 51 appearances all solo or do they include those he made with Take That?

Hersheybar said...

Wot No Abba in the top 30?

Joe Sarnie said...

Roy Wood did appear promoting a couple of his proper solo hits in the 70s (Dear Elaine etc), but admittedly the waters get a bit murky from the 80s onwards. Wonder where Roy would rank if all the appearances with ELO, The Move etc were included too.

Erithian said...

Hersheybar - no Abba, no Queen, no Madonna and, since we're reliving 1977, no Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones (see what I did there?) Of course when you're as big as these acts you don't tend to find time to drop into the TOTP studio, and since studio appearances as opposed to promos/videos are what's being counted, they're not in the list.

Answering my own question above, it seems evident that the figure of 51 for Robbie refers to solo appearances only - so how many of Take That's 32 appearances included him in the line-up? And how many did Ronan Keating make solo on top of his 29 with Boyzone? Didn't he say something in the last TOTP about the number of times he'd been on?

Anonymous said...

Wanna see mah bum?

Noax said...

Blimey, the pop stars really are popping in these days.

To answer your question, no Rod, you've been wiggling it about on the Pops quite enough lately.

Simon said...

I wasn't really happy with the information used for the original post so I've worked it out from a different source, leading a few differences, and also expanded it to 40. And seperated Wood from Wizzard, to the detriment of both.

Val Doonican missed out on the top 40 by one appearance...