(Credits: Far Out / BBC)
Sun 12 October 2025 19:30, UK
When you read about the first woman to do many things in music, you somewhat come to expect to be slightly depressed at the lateness with which feminism managed to enter the fray. Top of the Pops surprisingly bucks that trend.Â
It’s a refreshing tonic amid what is sometimes a slew of mud when looking back at women’s places in the rock and pop spheres of decades gone by, even if in certain minds those times may not seem so long ago. Of course, it would be naive to suggest that Top of the Pops was in any way the answer to all these woes, but the fact that it inadvertently waved a flag for women making their way in the industry, perhaps without even realising it, says a lot about their long-lasting trajectory to come.Â
When the first ever episode of the iconic show was broadcast on New Year’s Day of 1964, no one could have known what a cultural behemoth a slot on the evening’s telly counting down the week’s charts would go on to assume. While there were certain misses, such as its first and most longstanding host being Jimmy Savile – of course, the less said about that the better – but it didn’t diminish what is still ultimately a standout legacy of music, bringing the charts alive and into the living rooms around the country.Â
In this sense, the fact that the first ever woman to perform on Top of the Pops was also the first ever artist to perform on it as a whole speaks volumes about the gravitas that females have and have always had in the business – it’s just that we needed the space to hear it. As such, as the first ever performer on the first ever show, Dusty Springfield led the charge with her rendition of ‘I Only Want to Be With You’. The world was forever changed.
What other acts were on the first episode of Top of the Pops?
Without ever wishing to diminish the work of Springfield or the monumental gravitas of what she achieved in this context, the feat is somewhat caveated by the fact that she was indeed the only woman to appear on that first-ever show. It was still only the beginning of 1964, after all; the world hadn’t yet quite woken up to the fact that men didn’t entirely rule the roost. The British invasion had only just started its first initial battle, and the notable absence in all of this was, of course, the women.Â
In this sense, the first ever episode of Top of the Pops followed a familiar pattern with the rest of the line-up ensuing with The Rolling Stones performing ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, The Dave Clark Five with ‘Glad All Over’, The Hollies with ‘Stay’, The Swinging Blue Jeans with ‘Hippy Hippy Shake’ and The Beatles with ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’. A bizarrely coincidental collection of songs containing people wanting things, but history was made nonetheless.
In a romantic world, you would like to think that the enduring success of Top of the Pops was down to the rousing dose of female power that got it off the blocks and racing its way into the stuff of legend – but no one is that naive. The male-dominated scores of an industry bulldozed its way to victory as always, but it does seem like a smug little win to know that Springfield was truly the one to kick it all off.
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