Скачать или смотреть Top of the Pops - Episode 298 (9th October 1969) - Missing Episode Reconstructed

At 7.05pm on Thursday, 9th October 1969, the BBC broadcast Episode 298 of Top of the Pops, presented by 44 year-old Radio 1 disc jockey, Pete Murray.

The episode was wiped not long afterwards, but thankfully an audio recording exists, recorded by a viewer on quarter-inch reel-to-reel tape.

Although some of the songs would have used the original sound recordings, many feature the Top of the Pops orchestra, directed by Johnny Pearson, as backing.

The number one record this week was "Je t'aime... moi non plus" by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, a song banned in several countries due to its overtly sexual content. Top of the Pops did include a short instrumental version at the start of the show over the chart countdown, but they ended the show with the Number 2 record.

This was the first, but not the last time, that the number one record would be skipped on Top of the Pops. A similar fate befell Frankie Goes to Hollywood with their number one single, "Relax".

This reconstructed episode allows you to once again enjoy the hits from this week, 55 years ago. How many of these songs do you remember? The hits included were as follow:

00:43 TOTP Orchestra - Je T'Aime... Moi Non Plus (1)
02:15 The Temptations - Cloud Nine (20)
05:16 David Bowie - Space Oddity (13)
09:25 Esther Ofarim - Saturday Night At The World (-)
12:38 The Hollies - He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother (16)
16:56 Lou Christie - I'm Gonna Make You Mine (11)
19:36 Bobbie Gentry - I'll Never Fall In Love Again (2)

Obviously, these clips may not match what was originally shown - I've tried to find performances from the same era - in some cases they may be from programmes that aired after this episode, e.g. the David Bowie clip is from the 15th Ivor Novello awards, recorded 10th May 1970 at Talk of The Town in London. I wanted to use the 1969 German TV performance but it was blocked by YouTube - however, you can view it in an alternative edit of this episode on the TVRDb Rumble channel.

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