Top of the Pops

Ah, but the Sausage Roll thing isn't something new anymore is it? Maybe in 2018 it was. I'd welcome something new and original next year.

The concept isn't, but that's like complaining that Michael Bublé releases a cheesy ballad every Christmas.

I was cynical about Ladbaby before too but having watched some of their videos, especially the one with their emotional reactions to going to number 1 and how it helps the charity etc, but this year I'm cheering them on. At least unlike some of the other campaigns like the Boris one or the Rage Against The Machine one, there's no unpleasantness around the thing. It's just a silly song by a really sweet couple that puts a smile on people's faces and is making money for a really good cause.

I think this year more than ever that's something to root for. Especially as there's no real alternative - it's not like there's a genuinely massive new pop record out there at the moment that deserves it more.

One of the less popular Christmas number 1 campaigns in the past that I quite enjoyed - and even helped out with - was in 2010 when one was started to get 'Surfin' Bird' by The Trashmen to the top. Most dismissed it as just some random old novelty song far inferior to RATM the previous year, but it had been recently been used (many many times) in a popular episode of Family Guy, which at that point was at its viewing peak at least in the UK where every social gathering would often end up with everyone mentioning their favourite episodes. A big "flashmob" was organised outside of the Odeon in Leicester Square with plenty of attendees on the Facebook event page, but it took place on a freezing cold afternoon and therefore only about six of us showed up which led to a rather underwhelming afternoon with some obvious embarrassment that we'd been the only ones sad enough to attend.

It got to number 3 which was pretty good going, stopped by Rihanna and whoever won The X Factor that year, but few noticed or cared and it left the chart soon after. Shame as it's a really fun song and reminds me of some entertaining nights out in clubs and house parties when it would play and everyone would re-enact Peter Griffin's dance from the Family Guy episode below. It hadn't charted top 40 before or since so I'm glad it got a brief moment of success at least.

I'm several pages late to this, but the Scottish chart wasn't anything that anyone paid a great deal of attention to. It got a countdown show on Saturday lunchtimes on Clyde 1 (and presumably the other SRH stations), but as far as I know that was about it.

To be honest The Trashmen weren't particularly successful as a group first time round, and Surfin' Bird was their only major hit in the US as well, which got to Number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, but they had nothing of any particular note afterwards, and disbanded in the late 1960s. The song didn't even chart at all over here in the 1960s, assuming it was released in the first place. It's use on Family Guy, partly as a running joke and also as a key plot of the I Dream of Jesus episode of that show, was instrumental in driving it up the charts and its ultimate success 45 years later.

Incidentally whenever the episode was repeated on BBC Three the entire soundtrack for that episode was too fast, so the music sounded like the sort of thing you hear when they speed up film playback from 24fps to 25fps which was quite jarring if you'd heard the YouTube "normal" version and everybody complained about it on BBC Three's Facebook page but they couldn't or wouldn't do anything about it. When the show moved to ITV2 the problem was still there on that episode but it wasn't as bad. I don't know what its like on the DVD.

Love the set for this year's show, gorgeous and festive, and also colourful and 'on brand' with the neon pink and blue.

No studio audience, we've seen and heard a virtual one, and the social distancing aspect doesn't stick out like a sore thumb with the staging.

I’m really loving this year’s Top of the Pops. I think with no audience, more thought and consideration has been put into the staging of the acts, which means it’s more visually stimulating to the viewers.

The staging of the song sung by Celeste with the reflections of the Christmas trees and the neon signs in the background switched off made it feel much more haunting and majestic.

They’ve done very well considering Top of the Pops is probably the one show over the years that’s thrived from the use of their audience.

Not revealing the Christmas Number One... interesting.

It looks like they're using the 4K version of Shakin' Stevens video.

Yeah, makes sense not to spoil it early.

Does anyone know what would happen when the chart rundown comes to the Boris Johnson song? Will they not play it or beep it or ignore it?

I don't know if it was timed as well, but Surfin' Bird was used in the 2009 GCSE Music Exam (OCR Board) as part of the aural exam, having to dissect the tune in questions (can't remember what the questions were, it was more than 11 years ago!). Unfortunately for us doing the exam that day, "I Dream of Jesus" had premiered on BBC Three just three days earlier, and when it came on, there was so much sniggering, that the invigilators had to stop the tape to let us regain our composure! Thanks OCR, great timing!

Must admit I find it interesting, having been repeated a lot (even for Family Guy's standards) in the early part of 2010, after an airing on September 6th, the episode didn't make another apperance on Three until July 6th 2011! I could be entirely barking up the wrong tree, but could the BBC have chosen not to show it in December as not to give it airtime so they would be seen as impartial for the Christmas number 1?

Probably go to Newsbeat for analysis