1977: With his label refusing to release Stevie Wonder's Isn't She Lovely as a single, David Parton nipped in with a shameless cover, had a top five hit and went on television sing-shouting it with his eyes tightly shut as if in the midst of constipation and filling gaps by kissing hands and running round in a circle. Legs & Co spent the month's budget in one go on an appropriately designed set for Rose Royce's big hit.
1983: The Maisonettes, a second shot by one of City Boy of 5-7-0-5 brief fame, exhibit both the tidy beard and the parallel backing singer fashion of the time. Other notable detail: with dual presenters brought in at the start of the year, this was the first Pops of a total of sixteen to be co-hosted by its greatest double act, Peel and Jensen, the Rhythm Pals.
1994: That point was an interesting time for Pops, in the "may you live in interesting times" sense, as the first stories about its impending axing were doing the newspaper rounds at the end of 1993, so bad were the viewing figures when Ric Blaxill took over as series producer. That can't have been helped by chancers like K7, who can't decide whether their image is that of a rap collective or a supercharged boy band. Never trust an outfit whose DJ joins in with the routines.
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