A look at Britain's best-selling discs, artists, and news from the Top 40. Including performances from Generation X, Earth, Wind & Fire, Olivia Newton-john, and Barry White. Introduced by Mike Read.
Last Broadcast
Thu 4th Jan 1979 19:10
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Christmas Day 1978
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11/01/1979
Presentation
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Thu 4th Jan 1979 19:10
Performances Featured
Performance Type Guide
This guide lists every type of performance badge that you are likely to come across on the website, and what the peformance type badges mean.
Repeated performances are indicated by
T in the Park Performance
A repeated live performance of an artist’s track performed at T in the Park.
Childen In Need Performance
A repeated live performance of an artist’s track performed at the BBC Children In Need show. Typically these repeated performances were featured from 2007 onwards when the weekly TOTP editions stopped, but the Christmas specials continued.
Radio 1 Live Lounge Performance
A repeated live performance of an artist’s track performed in the Radio 1 Live Lounge.
Satellite Performance
Sometimes artists couldn’t appear in the Top of the Pops studio and often would performance on location via Satellite for the programme. Performances were usually live, but sometimes they were mimed.
Music Video
When an artist couldn't appear in the Top of the Pops studio they would often send in their music video to be played on the show.
Played Over TOTP Studio Montage
An artist’s track would be played in the background, while a montage of stills or video clips played on screen. This typically happened in the mid-1990s during the end credits.
Short Clip
A short music video or live performance clip was shown. This was typically used during special edition of the show, or for an album or promotion video.
Short Video Clip
A short music video or live performance clip was shown. This was typically used during special edition of the show, whilst the presenter discussed the end of year charts and big music news of the year.
New Zealand Studio Performance
An artist would perform in the Top of the Pops studio live in front of an audience, but for the New Zealand local version of the show. This performance type only featured once during the show’s history.
USA Studio Performance
An artist would appear in the Top of the Pops studio in America, perform their track, but they would mime to the track usually. Occasionally the performances would be live. A version of the show was broadcast in America in the late-1980s.
Played Over Stills
An artist’s track would be played in the background, while a montage of stills played out on screen.
Electric Proms Performance
A repeated live performance of an artist’s track performed at the BBC Electric Proms. Typically these repeated performances were featured from 2007 onwards when the weekly TOTP editions stopped, but the Christmas specials continued.
Mimed Performance
An artist would appear in the Top of the Pops studio, perform their track, but they would mime to the track. They would not pre-record live vocals or a new instrument arrangement. Even though artists would appear in the studio with instruments, they would pretend to play them "live".
Live Mimed Performance
An artist would pre-record vocals and the musical backing track with the Top of the Pops orchestra (typically) before the show was filmed. Then the live recording of the track would be played to during filming, a the artist would mime to the pre-recorded "live" track.
Live Performance
An artist would perform in the Top of the Pops studio live in front of an audience. There would usually be a backing track or a supporting band, alongside live vocals.
Played Over Charts
An artist’s track would be played in the background, while the Top 40 or Top 30 chart rundown would be shown on screen. This happened fairly frequently from 1975 to 1981 at the start of the show.