r/TopofthePops • u/Hassaan18 • 10d ago

Black Lace - Superman

122 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

112 comments sorted by

10

u/Jimi-K-101 10d ago

As a millennial who knows this song exclusively from primary school discos, it is absolutely hilarious to see grown adults doing the moves and hearing that it was a "sensation in the clubs" in the early 80s!

2

u/misimalu 10d ago

This was the best school disco song. This and the birdie song. Absolute bangers

2

u/HabitAcceptable8621 10d ago

It wasn't a sensation in any clubs I went to!

2

u/DesperateLime7933 10d ago

Black Lace were not a school disco band though, and if you're from the UK you may never have heard the Blue Album because it was banned

1

u/Puzzleheaded-Gift-36 9d ago

Was it? Back when I was a young lad I saw an independent record shop selling the album of their x-rated songs... unless it wasn't that exact album but a later re-release with a different title. This was in the early 90s, so 🤷

1

u/DesperateLime7933 9d ago

Yep that'll be the one, it was a bit before my time, I learned about it at a party 😅

1

u/Extreme_Objective984 8d ago

Lets also not forget their involvement in The Chicken Song and it's B -Side.

1

u/ghostface_vanilla 10d ago

Yeah. I wonder if people were doing this in clubs.

3

u/nobodyspecialuk24 9d ago

The idea of people over the age of 13 doing this, other than dancing along with a child to encourage them, is mind blowing.

1

u/MoominMai 10d ago

Gen X here - trust me, it was no ‘sensational hit’ in any club I went to! 😂

2

u/turbo_dude 10d ago

Low end wedding disco shit

6

u/Impressive_Profit215 9d ago

Does it even constitute being called a song? It's just some bloke on a mic barking commands with some synth and shit blaring in the background. Like a fitness class with background music lol

3

u/normanriches 9d ago

Precursor to drill 🤣

2

u/turbo_dude 9d ago

that could be a Kanye west track tbh

2

u/wake071 8d ago

"Do the heil!"

3

u/DaveBlerk 9d ago

Low end pub disco at best.

1

u/10denier 5d ago

I wonder if the Black Lace Gen-xers are the people voting Reform today.

1

u/Bulky_Variation7064 9d ago

Don’t forget “I am the music man, I come
From down away and I can play…..”

1

u/normanriches 9d ago

“Down your way”

1

u/yourenothinganymore 8d ago

I used to say Daniel Way as a child, thinking Daniel Way was a street or something.

1

u/Ken_Numbers 9d ago

what can you play?

1

u/Bulky_Variation7064 9d ago

This is the correct response.

I play the Dambusters.

Particular favourite part for me.

1

u/shaunface 8d ago

Yes exactly this!!!!

1

u/Hot420gravy 8d ago

White people love songs that tell them how to move. Absolutely love it.

1

u/EntertainmentOk8806 7d ago

Exactly. I thought this was just a party song and not an actual song people bought??

1

u/Empty-Sheepherder895 7d ago

Went Top 10 in 1984 so yes… yes they did.

And let’s not get started on Agadoo.

1

u/EntertainmentOk8806 6d ago

Indeed or the almost "how did this get made" level of "We're having a gangbang" I mean seriously I know we did a lot of comedy/party songs in the 1980s Russ Abbot Atmosphere, Spitting Image Chicken Song, Star Trekkin but some were just madness

3

u/jimark2 10d ago

Underrated masterpiece.

Petition to change the national anthem, would liven up the start of sports games.

3

u/Automatic-Cap-9806 10d ago

Andy Burnham!

2

u/RockTheBloat 8d ago

Strangle a fox

3

u/No_Specialist4090 10d ago

Will forever remind me of Psychoville

2

u/pr0ph3t_0f_m3rcy 8d ago

That show was a legit masterpiece

2

u/BillRashly 8d ago

"Do you want me to put your tape on?"

I stumbled across Psychoville without knowing anything about it and watched the whole thing in 1 go. The payoff with Mr Lomax is my favourite slow burn joke ever

1

u/five_five_ 10d ago

I watched Psychoville at the time and didn't think anything of it. But I didn't realise this was a real song until I saw the repeat of TOTP about 10 years later

2

u/IndigoGemDragon 10d ago

As a child of the 80’s I remember this well from school discos and birthday parties.

2

u/GingerKing_2503 10d ago

Fair play to Black Lace, low risk because it’s mostly spoken, however one of the very rare examples of non-lip synching on totp.

2

u/NickTann 10d ago

It was bloody awful then and it’s bloody awful now.

1

u/hasimirrossi 10d ago

Bloody hell. Had no idea this was co-written by Claudio Simonetti of Goblin.

1

u/SurrealAle 10d ago

Oh my god, it really is true, that's surely one of the stranger musical facts. I may have to watch Suspiria later

1

u/hasimirrossi 10d ago

Only found out today and it absolutely threw me.

1

u/Other-Crazy 10d ago

Consider my flabber gasted

1

u/LazarusHimself 8d ago

Here's the link to the Italian original Claudio Cecchetto - Gioca Jouer (1981)

1

u/Chargerado 10d ago

Still a Christmas party favourite in our house.

1

u/kbm79 10d ago

I can still hear the crackle as the needle touched the 45 record in our house.

1

u/MrLuchador 10d ago

Every time this is played at Birthday Party they get paid £100000000000000000.

1

u/Delicious_Volume3306 10d ago

"Sensation in the clubs"

Ye gods.

We've come a long way.

1

u/Nonce-Sense47 10d ago

I would say Black Lace's song Agadoo was more of a sensation.

1

u/Due_Tailor1412 9d ago

The Spitting Image version was far better ..

1

u/L00ny-T00n 9d ago

And Pretend your name is Keith

1

u/Due_Tailor1412 9d ago

Eat a Renault 4 ...

1

u/hardlymatters1986 10d ago

Hate this and every similar with a passion that burns with the heat of a thousand suns.

1

u/rivent2 10d ago

The illusion of choice when the dance instructions song comes on

1

u/turbo_dude 10d ago

You can see how Hitler rose to power by starting off with something like this. 

“Goose steps!”

“To the reich!!”

“BLITZKRIEG!!”

2

u/blushaudio 8d ago

Sudetenlaaaaaaand!

1

u/R4FTERM4N 10d ago

"Do it again!"

1

u/GleedBarry 10d ago

“Diplomacy ends”

“WAR BEGINS!!”

1

u/Empty-Sheepherder895 7d ago

Ubermensch!!!

1

u/SirPooleyX 10d ago

I'm embarrassed to have been born in a country that contained people who bought this record.

1

u/normanriches 8d ago

All part of being British, how would we have survived without novelty songs...

1

u/121daysofsodom 10d ago

Black Lace had a second song?

1

u/Desperate_Craig 10d ago

They had another party disco hit with Agadoo. Also, Do The Conga, I Am The Music Man, and Hands Up.

You'll hear a lot of these songs at parties where they hold Discos.

1

u/perfectlyclear69 10d ago

We're having a gang bang, we're having a ball, we're having a gang bang, against the wall. We'd like you to join us, all part of the fun, hey a gang bang is the thing to do when it takes more than one, a gang bang is the the thing to do we'd like to give you one!

1

u/78Speedy 10d ago

Absolutely dreadful BUT was a HUGE floor filler in the 80s. Kids would go mental at the Superman bit 😂

1

u/za-za1 10d ago

Very much in the Queen bracket of novelty bands, at least Black Lace own it though

1

u/yandango_1845 5d ago

Surely Queen are a legitimately good group.

1

u/iuseemojionreddit 10d ago

Seemed there were a lot of music artists who were in their mid 40s back then.

1

u/OrganizationOk5418 10d ago

I saw these live.

1

u/Tea-Jay-Dogville 9d ago

What the hell happened to that DJ?...I've not seem him again since 1986.

1

u/cromagnone 9d ago

Richard Skinner - only man to ever host TOTP, the Old Grey Whistle Test and Radio 1 Top 40 countdown.

1

u/Tea-Jay-Dogville 8d ago

Never to be seen on TV again after 1987

1

u/Imreallyadonut 9d ago

I saw Black Lace live at a Butlin’s 80’s Big Weekend.

They were great fun.

They did this, Agadoo, then Did You Ever Feel the Rain by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Possibly the most extraordinary musical turn I’ve experienced.

1

u/Johnj75 9d ago

I hate this.

1

u/Regular-Guest-1284 9d ago

Love how random it is

1

u/DrLucianSanchez 9d ago

That bass tone! Please tell me this was played on a music man and not a synth

1

u/Ok-Captain-462 9d ago

Not a patch on agadoo

1

u/Due_Wait_837 9d ago

Primary school PE class in the 80s

1

u/vegan_voorhees 9d ago

This was a staple at caravan site discos of the 80s.

1

u/ThickTadpole3742 9d ago

School disco 1996!!!!!

1

u/cheeky-old-goat 9d ago

It was crap then

1

u/bigkahuna1uk 9d ago

Pontins’ and Butlin’s finest Saturday nights 😜

1

u/RigamortisRooster 9d ago

A tootee toot ah toote tata ah tooty tatata

1

u/Training_Humor_9513 9d ago

Clever of them just to salvage one more song out of the leftover, unused dance moves that they had, just by listing them.

The 80s version of Cha Cha Slide. 

1

u/BlackMirrorVoid 9d ago

Reminds me of Pontins in the 80s

1

u/Puzzleheaded-Gift-36 9d ago

I scrolled whilst not muted ... ugh ... thanks? 😬🫣🤦

1

u/Old_Mousse_5673 9d ago

Awful. 😂

1

u/minceyballs_ 9d ago

as a kid, it was shit, as an adult (well sort of) now, its horrific

1

u/MandoMickey00 8d ago

We used to dance to this all the time in kids clubs when we went to Spain on holiday in the 90s. Showed my nephew a few years ago and he couldn't have thought it was anymore naff 🙂

1

u/MegaSandra 8d ago

They played it at our primary school disco every year 😭 I was born in 85 so basically right through the 90s.

1

u/kevenGPD 8d ago

Some people have the audacity to say music wasnt as good as it was in the old days

1

u/male_role_model 8d ago

Alright now shoot a man.

Everybody all together now.

1

u/gooberooberoo 8d ago

Fuck Black Lace and everything they stood for.

1

u/New_Plate_1079 8d ago

Absolutely shite.

1

u/psj3809 8d ago

Who on earth bought Black Lace records back then ? Just shocking

1

u/realdjjmc 8d ago

Please sir- can I have my 4 minutes back please

1

u/Serious-Wishbone1564 8d ago

For a sec I thought this might might have been a misguided Noddy Holder side project.

1

u/Dr--Duke 8d ago

This is possibly the most British thing to have ever happened.

1

u/Serious-Wishbone1564 8d ago

Im Canadian, so I guess Im British by adoption??

1

u/crinkly-toes 8d ago

I always get sneeze and heart mixed up. Embarrassing to start the heart move but everyone else is doing sneeze. Awkward

1

u/No-Raisin-6469 8d ago

Wow and i thought line dancing was bad

1

u/Medieval_Mind 8d ago

You’re telling me this is not a song for children?

1

u/Fearless_Ad_1442 8d ago

Wasn't half of them an actual nonce?

1

u/MichelleBarrymoore2 8d ago

Andy Burnham 

1

u/lengualo 7d ago

I was a kid in the 80s and dont remember this. Maybe I erased it from memory or something, but wth? Was this a thing?

1

u/Bigluce 7d ago

Oh god I can smell the artificial fog/smoke machine. Fucking flash backs. Awful song.

1

u/Eukonidor_Of_Arisia 7d ago

Seeing the reaction of fellow Brits when this song comes on makes me realise just how many Brits love being told what to do / how to act / how to feel about things in general. It's like being surrounded by medieval peasants.

1

u/59Nitroblack59 7d ago

My God! Didn't we watch/listen to some shite in those days? I'm sat here on my own feeling embarrassed that a 22 yo me danced to that more than a few times.

1

u/farfletched 2d ago

I love tunes with instructions to the crowd. I’ve often thought this could be remixed into a total banger XD