40th anniversary of the first AT40 show

[Caseyfan4everRyanfanNever]

With the 40th anniversary of the first AT40 show coming up this year, I thought a good project may be for us to come up with a list of the 40 most memorable AT40 shows (including those hosted by Casey, Shadoe, and Ryan) or the 40 most memorable Casey shows (including all of those hosted by Casey (AT40 1970-88 and 1998-2004, Casey's Top 40, and all of the AC and HAC shows that Casey hosted). In short, this would be a list of the 40 top AT40 shows as voted on by the members of this board along with comments why you think the show deserves to be considered. Personally, I don't see this turning into a broadcast but maybe someone else does.

I also thought about a countdown of the Top 40 songs counted down on AT40 over the years but found this to be problematic due to changes in chart methodologies that would result in songs peaking in Y2k dominating the chart unless weights of some sort were provided. If member votes, rather than chart data were used, this could be done more easily. A coundown of the Top 40 AT40 artists may be a bit easier, however.

[vto66]

One that definitely has to be on that list is the 12/13/1980 show that featured Casey's stirring tribute to John Lennon (which was actually a last-minute alteration, since the show had been taped prior to Lennon's murder). Who could listen to Casey's words at that moment without feeling the tears well up in their eyes? I know I couldn't.

[mrjukebox]

You'd have to include the very first "AT40" show from July 4,1970-One of my favorite human interest stories is the one Casey told about Louis Armstrong being the first American artist to dethrone The Beatles after they had dominated the #1 spot for 14 consecutive weeks in early 1964.

[mkarns]

A few AT40's that I thought of:

7/7/73 and 4/5/75 (Disappearing Acts)
10/30/76 (first of several tellings of the Al Jarvis story)
8/26/78 (first LDD)
10/7/78 (first four hour show)
9/14/85 (most memorable for what DIDN'T air)
8/13/88 (first Shadoe show, with the "Hall of History" feature)
1/26/91 ("Star Trek" show, with Shadoe)
1/28/95 (last Shadoe show, with a nice LDD to fans that few US listeners heard at the time, as it had been pulled from American airwaves six months earlier)
3/28/98 (Casey's resurrection of AT40)
1/3-10/04 (last Casey/first Seacrest AT40, which confounded a lot of listeners with the new chart with no recurrent rule which brought back several prior hits)
7/4/09 (Ryan pays tribute to Casey who signed off from AT20/10 that week)

[at40petebattistini]

While an interesting suggestion, it obviously calls for subjective responses. One thought to consider -- due to wide program diversity over 40 years -- divide up the four decades and list the 10 "most memorable" programs from each. That might equalize the responses.

[Caseyfan4everRyanfanNever]

Although Pete's idea seems good to me, apparently, the silence shown since I agreed with him has proven that others would rather do this as I suggested before. Let's not get bogged down over method but instead lets talk about the shows we enjoy the most.

[Hervard]

For a Top 40 countdown of the past 40 years, they could use the top song of each year (that is, all points totaled, not just within the chart year). Since 2010 would be only half over, they could insert the top song of the year so far as an extra. Other extras could be memorable album cuts that didn't chart (i.e. "Into The Groove", "Stairway To Heaven").

[caseyfan100]

How about this for Premier and the 40th anniversary of American Top 40,for the weekend of July 3rd and 4th of this year. For the 70's,it's obvious that the 1st ever show from 1970 should be aired. For the 80's instead of a countdown how about a retrospective with Casey and others who put the show together maybe talking about their recollections of how the show was done,when they would get the list of the 40 for the week,the behind the scenes work and the important songs of the eras,favorite long distance dedications and other stories
that would be of interest like the most interesting chart questions from listeners and Casey could even play some of his favorite songs from the last 40 years.
It might not be a big success to the casual listener,but it would be heaven for us geeks.

[jaxxalude]

Shadoe's Xmas show in 1993 must definitely be there. Yes, the one with the LDD where there was no song, and Shadoe almost broke down in tears over the little girl who passed away.

[pecueca12]

podemos comparti at 40 shadoe stevens mi correo es [e-mail]

[theblackswan]

Check out my recordings of Casey Kasem's AT 40 the 70's & 80's. Check out my website at theblackswan.606h.net/ Feel free to download the shows.

[dukelightning]

Mar 13, 2010 15:48:28 GMT -5 Caseyfan4everRyanfanNever said:

With the 40th anniversary of the first AT40 show coming up this year, I thought a good project may be for us to come up with a list of the 40 most memorable AT40 shows (including those hosted by Casey, Shadoe, and Ryan) or the 40 most memorable Casey shows (including all of those hosted by Casey (AT40 1970-88 and 1998-2004, Casey's Top 40, and all of the AC and HAC shows that Casey hosted). In short, this would be a list of the 40 top AT40 shows as voted on by the members of this board along with comments why you think the show deserves to be considered. Personally, I don't see this turning into a broadcast but maybe someone else does.

I also thought about a countdown of the Top 40 songs counted down on AT40 over the years but found this to be problematic due to changes in chart methodologies that would result in songs peaking in Y2k dominating the chart unless weights of some sort were provided. If member votes, rather than chart data were used, this could be done more easily. A coundown of the Top 40 AT40 artists may be a bit easier, however.

I don't suppose what I propose will be done by Premiere and maybe by SXM. But one of the stations could do it as a marathon at some point. I would want to hear a show from each era that Casey had in terms of his delivery. Start out at the beginning..1970-71 when he trying to be hip and was fast paced...then into the mid 70s when he was laid back....then 1979-80 when was very energetic....later in the 80s when he had settled down....and finally 1988 when he was really polished with all his rhymes off song titles and artist names. That's 18 hours by my calculations! A station that plays both the 70s and 80s could do it.