Who was the first Black artist to perform on ‘Top of the Pops’?
It’s difficult to envision in this modern age of music consumption, but for over half a century, the nation’s pop charts rested heavily on Top of the Pops; the BBC’s weekly musical showcase had the potential to make or break pop stars, but, more than that, it also reflected the shifting sands of society within its weekly run-down, too.
You can tell a lot about a time period based on its pop charts, and thus TOTP has become a rather valuable source for cultural historians in exploring the attitudes and moods of a certain moment in time.
Whether simply gauging the moments that a particular movement or genre burst into the mainstream, like when both The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays appeared on the same episode in 1989, or the political mood of the period, the historical importance of the television programme should not be underestimated.
During the late 1970s, for instance, the emergence of multi-racial groups like The Specials and The Selecter on Top of the Pops marked an incredibly important cultural moment for UK society at the time, which was still deeply ingrained with institutional racism, and at that time, there weren’t many Black faces on prime-time television at all, let alone Black musicians performing alongside white musicians. Even for the fairly conservative BBC of the time, it was a landmark moment felt across the nation.
Neither Neville Staple nor Lynval Golding, however, was the very first Black face to appear in the Top of the Pops studio. For that pioneering figure, we have to travel back all the way to 1964 – TOTP’s inaugural year. Tragically, looking back upon the early days of the programme isn’t always easy, both because it was presented by the since-disgraced Jimmy Savile, and because the vast majority of episodes and performances have since been lost.
Reportedly, the BBC’s policy at the time was to re-use old tapes in an effort to save money, meaning a lot of the broadcaster’s programming from the 1960s and early 1970s has since been lost entirely, and TOTP’s early days fell victim to that same policy. Even the one and only live performance by The Beatles on Top of the Pops wasn’t spared from this musical massacre, shrouding the show’s early years in an unshakable air of mystery.
So, who was the first?
We do know, however, that the first Black performer to appear on the show was the Jamaican icon Millie Small. Before the realm of ska and rocksteady music had birthed the skinhead subculture, and long before The Specials made it into the charts with their blend of ska and punk energy, Small had a transatlantic hit with her rocksteady rendition of the R&B track ‘My Boy Lollipop’.
Reaching number two in the UK charts in 1964, ‘My Boy Lollipop’ earned Small a spot on the April 1st edition of Top of the Pops, miming alongside the likes of The Bachelors, Billy J Kramer, and even The Beatles. Although her appearance didn’t inspire the song to go one step further, to number one, it was groundbreaking nonetheless.
Even if it was just a mimed performance, it must be remembered how rare it was to see Black faces on British television at the time; The Black and White Minstrel Show, for instance, was at its peak during the mid-1960s, which should give you some indication of just how primitive a time 1964 really was.
So, yes, on a surface level, ‘My Boy Lollipop’ was just a simple pop-ska song, but on a much deeper level, its popularity reflected the shifting society of the United Kingdom at that time, as the Windrush generation and their incredible record collections made their way over to UK soil, enriching the music and culture of the nation forevermore.
