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''Top of the Pops'' is a long-running British Music Chart Television Programme shown each week on BBC Two and now licensed for local versions around the world. Each programme consists of half an hour of performances of some of that week's best-selling Popular Music . ''Top of the Pops'' is also sometimes referred to by it's abbreviation ''TOTP''. HISTORY edition of Radio Times magazine.]] ''Top of the Pops'' began on New Year's Day 1964 in a studio set in a disused church in , Pete Murray and David Jacobs . Over 2000 episodes have been shown over the years; and the act that has appeared in the most episodes is the British Rock Band , Status Quo . It was originally intended to have only a few programmes but has been going for over 40 years. During its heyday in the 1970s, it attracted 15 million viewers each week {Link without Title} . It was traditionally shown on a Thursday night, but was moved to a Friday in 1996, a change which caused some controversy. For most of its history the show had very strict rules about which singles could be featured. A song could not appear if it was going down the charts, nor could any track appear on consecutive weeks unless it was at number one. These rules were abandoned in 1997 , possibly as a response to the changing nature of the Top 40 (since the mid-1990s climbers in the charts have become a rarity, with almost all singles peaking at their debut position). By November 2004, viewing figures had plummeted to below three million, prompting announcement by the , as it was thought that by the following Friday, the chart seemed out-of-date. The first edition on BBC Two was broadcast on 17 July 2005 at 7pm. This chart show has seen many changes through the decades: in style, design, fashion and taste. It celebrated its 2000th show in 2002. The show has historically been closely associated with the BBC radio station Radio 1, usually being presented by DJs from the station (although from October 1991 to January 1994 no Radio 1 DJs presented the show, and the association has not been as close as it once was). In its heyday during the Glam Rock era of the early 1970s, the show featured the tightly choreographed dance troupe Pan's People (later succeeded by Legs & Co. ), something which has been widely imitated on similar shows ever since. Pan's People were used when an act was unable to appear in person and no footage of them was available - a common occurrence in the era before promotional videos. Acts performing on the show have traditionally Mime d to a pre-recorded track and this accounts for a number of performers who never appeared on the show due to a resistance to mime. For a few years from 1991 the show adopted a live vocal to pre-recorded backing track policy. While this resulted in some of the show's best performances — notably Kurt Cobain 's singing on " Smells Like Teen Spirit " — it also exposed a number of poor live singers, and was dropped as a general rule. In November 2003, the show was radically overhauled in what has been widely reported as a make-or-break attempt to revitalise the long-running series. In a break with the previous format, the show is to play more up-and-coming tracks ahead of any chart success, and also to feature interviews with artists. The new show was hosted by MTV presenter Tim Kash until his contract expired in August 2004. It was not renewed due to his apparent lack of popularity with TV viewers. The show was co-hosted by Reggie Yates and Fearne Cotton until 11th July 2005 every Friday night. Since the move to Sundays, Cotton has continued to host with a different guest presenter each week, such as Rufus Hound or Richard Bacon . It now averages around 1.5 million viewers. The BBC have also had a show called '' TOTP2 '' which shows archive footage from as early as the 1960s of musicians on earlier ''Top of the Pops'' shows. It has been shown on BBC2 since September 1994, although the network's new controller Roly Keating announced in the summer of 2004 that it was being "rested" (repeats, however, continue on the digital channel UKTV G2 ). A more recent spin-off is ''Top of the Pops Reloaded'' (previously ''Top of the Pops Saturday''), showing on Saturday mornings on BBC One. This is aimed at a younger audience as is part of the CBBC Saturday Morning lineup. Although the original four presenters are still alive, five presenters of the show have died — Stuart Henry , Kenny Everett , occasional presenter Caron Keating , John Peel and Tommy Vance . In addition, the creator of the show, Johnnie Stewart, died on April 29 , 2005 . In common with many shows of the era, editions of Top of the Pops were either Wiped , or not recorded at all, some editions exist partially (largely performances that were either pre-recorded or re-used in later editions). There are also cases of editions which only exist in their raw, unedited form. The oldest complete episode in existence is the Boxing Day 1967 edition (only 4 complete editions from the 1960s survive), the last edition no longer in the archives is dated September 8th 1977, all editions after this date exist in full. LOCAL VERSIONS Europe The TOTP format was sold to RTL in Germany in the 1990s , and aired on Saturday afternoons. It was very successful for a long time, with a compilation album series and magazine. However, in 2006 it was announced that the German show would be ending. Domestic versions of the show continue to run in France , The Netherlands and Italy . An edited version of the UK show can also be seen on BBC Prime , the weekend after UK transmission. United States ''Top of the Pops'' had short-lived fame in the United States . In 1987, the CBS television network decided to try an American version of the show. It was hosted by Nia Peeples and even showed performances from the BBC version of the programme. The show was presented on late Friday nights and lasted almost a year. In 2002, BBC America presented the BBC version of ''Top of the Pops'' as part of their weekend schedule. The network would get the episodes one week after they were transmitted in the UK. BBC America then tinkered with the show by cutting a few minutes out of each show and moving it to a weekday time slot. Viewer interest was gone and the show was taken off BBC America's schedule. On January 23 , 2006 , record producer Lou Pearlman made a deal to bring "Top of the Pops" back to the airwaves in the United States . It is expected to be similar to the 1987 version, but it will also utilize the Billboard Magazine music charts, most notably the Hot 100 chart. It is being planned for a possible Fall (Autumn) 2006 launch. New Zealand The ''Top of the Pops'' brand has also been exported to New Zealand which for many years had to rely on music-video only shows to demonstrate its Top 20 (as well as the occasional season of the UK version of TOTP) as the world's top acts found New Zealand just too far away from the major markets to visit regularly. This all changed when the New Zealand government suggested a voluntary New Zealand music quota on radio (basically a threat that if the stations did not impose a quota themselves then one would be imposed on them). This worked and suddenly the amount of indigenous music played on radio stations shot up, as did the number of New Zealand hits in the top 20. Therefore a new version of a show like ''Top of the Pops'' became feasible for the first time, and the show was commissioned by TVNZ . The show began in early 2004 with host Alex Behan . The hour-long show (as opposed to the 30 minute UK version) which is broadcast at 5pm on Saturdays on TV 2 (New Zealand) contains a mixture of songs recorded in the Auckland TVNZ studios as well as performances from the international versions of the show. The New Zealand Top 20 singles and Top 10 albums are also featured. Alex stayed as host for two years before Bede Skinner took over. Despite a popular fan base in early 2006 tvnz announced that ''Top of the Pops'' has been axed and ideas for new music shows are currently being considered. Africa, Asia and the Middle East An edited version of the UK show can be seen on BBC Prime , the weekend after UK transmission. COMPILATION ALBUMS A number of compilation albums utilising the ''Top of the Pops'' brand have been issued over the years. The first one to reach the charts was "BBC TV's The Best Of Top of the Pops" on the Super Beeb record label in 1975, which reached number 21. Earlier on in the 1970s there was a rival series of "Top of the Pops" albums that reached the charts, however these had little to do with the series, being a range of budget compilation albums recorded by anonymous session singers and released on the Hallmark record label. In the 1990s, the BBC "Top of the Pops" brand was again licensed for use in a tie-in compilation series. Starting in 1995 with Sony Music's Columbia Records label, these double disc collections moved to the special marketing arm of Polygram / Universal Music TV, before becoming a sister brand of the Now That's What I Call Music range in the EMI / Virgin /Universal joint venture. Similarly to the roles of "Top of the Pops" on BBC 1 and BBC 2 in the late 1990s and early 2000s , the compilation albums range featured current hits for the main series and classic hits (such as 70s Rock ) for the "Top of the Pops 2" spin-offs. Number One in the Compilation Charts These albums in the series reached No. 1:
TOP OF THE POPS MAGAZINE Top of the Pops magazine has been running since the 1990s, and filled the void in the BBC magazine portfolio where Number One Magazine used to be. An early feature on the Spice Girls coined the famous "Spice" nicknames for each member (Baby, Ginger, Posh, Scary and Sporty) that stayed with them throughout their career as a group and beyond. SEND-UPS A number of performers have sent up the format in various ways. Mainly this has been performers who disliked the mime format of the show, often as a more effective protest of this rather than just refusing to appear.
THEME MUSIC A version of Led Zeppelin 's " Whole Lotta Love " by C. C. S. was used as the show's theme tune for most of the 1970s, and also in a remixed version between 1998 and 2003, although ironically the band never performed on the show. In 1981 an original song 'Yellow Pearl' by Phil Lynott was commissioned as the new theme music. This was replaced in 1986 with "The Wizard", a composition by Paul Hardcastle . The theme is currently a remixed version of the one used between 1991 and 1995 and is composed by Tony Gibber. TRIVIA
Songs which mention ''Top of the Pops''
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