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Post by at40petebattistini on Jul 16, 2011 13:38:55 GMT -5
"Stairway to Heaven" was released as a 45, in its full LP version, as a promotional copy only. Unfortunately, it never made it as a commercial release. cgi.ebay.com/Led-Zeppelin-Stairway-Heaven-7-Promo-45-RPM-Record-/220811909012?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item33696a5794If it had, how high up the chart would it have climbed? The promo copy says 1972. If it would've been released then, it might've climbed to number 65. Then, by popular demand, it might've been re-released in 1973 and reached number 41! One more Hot 100 appearance in 1975 and it finally gets a few plays on AT40, stopping at number 35. During that time period, numerous 45s took two or three chart appearances to "break on thru to the other side" so, I believe, that could've been a legitimate scenario. How's that for speculation?!
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Post by blackbowl68 on Jul 16, 2011 13:59:58 GMT -5
Hey Jude forced AM stations to abandon their rule that no song be longer than 3 minutes. Stations said flat out that they would not play a song if it was longer than 3 minutes. I was born in that year, so I can only spectulate. I'm more inclined to believe that like American Pie, Hey Jude is a radio friendly ditty where some stations could opt to cut out the 4-minute coda or have an early fade out. (Same could be true for the record it kept from the top, Mary Hopkin's 5-minute epic "Those Were The Days," by cutting out a verse or two.)
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Post by reachinforthestars on Jul 16, 2011 14:40:45 GMT -5
"Stairway to Heaven" was released as a 45, in its full LP version, as a promotional copy only. Unfortunately, it never made it as a commercial release. Yes, that was the stereo/mono promo 45. The copy on eBay looks like it is in amazing shape. Almost too amazing. I also seem to recall seeing a 33 1/3 EP in Jukeboxes, which had "Stairway To Heaven" on one side and a couple of their singles on the other side. So Atlantic did pretty much everything to promote the song, except releasing it commercially as a 45.
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Post by pizzzzza on Jul 16, 2011 14:48:07 GMT -5
Hey Jude forced AM stations to abandon their rule that no song be longer than 3 minutes. Stations said flat out that they would not play a song if it was longer than 3 minutes. I just thought of another "longer than normal" song from AM radio days of the 60s...."MacArthur Park" by Richard Harris...which was also a monster hit.
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Post by jdelachjr2002 on Jul 16, 2011 15:06:32 GMT -5
Hey Jude forced AM stations to abandon their rule that no song be longer than 3 minutes. Stations said flat out that they would not play a song if it was longer than 3 minutes. Only the Beatles can make PDs play longer records (plus they make great music if the DJ had to go to the bathroom.
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Post by bestmusicexpert on Jul 16, 2011 15:15:11 GMT -5
I used to have a 45 with Stairway on one side and Whole Lotta Love on the other.
I doubt it would've gotten higher than #30 without shortening it, then it would have been ruined and maybe not....
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Post by reachinforthestars on Jul 16, 2011 15:32:17 GMT -5
I used to have a 45 with Stairway on one side and Whole Lotta Love on the other. I believe that was a UK promo single released in the 90's.
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Post by bigal on Jul 16, 2011 16:35:33 GMT -5
Well NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN was a long song too, and was trunicated for the 45, and it hit #2, but like someone said, songs like that is easy to edit as a 45, (just like LAYLA or FREE BIRD was easy to edit too) but STAIRWAY would be quite difficult.
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Post by vto66 on Jul 16, 2011 16:42:36 GMT -5
"Stairway to Heaven" was released as a 45, in its full LP version, as a promotional copy only. Unfortunately, it never made it as a commercial release. cgi.ebay.com/Led-Zeppelin-Stairway-Heaven-7-Promo-45-RPM-Record-/220811909012?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item33696a5794If it had, how high up the chart would it have climbed? The promo copy says 1972. If it would've been released then, it might've climbed to number 65. Then, by popular demand, it might've been re-released in 1973 and reached number 41! One more Hot 100 appearance in 1975 and it finally gets a few plays on AT40, stopping at number 35. During that time period, numerous 45s took two or three chart appearances to "break on thru to the other side" so, I believe, that could've been a legitimate scenario. How's that for speculation?! I would think that 'Stairway" would have peaked somewhere in the Top-10, (maybe No. 2 at the most), considering how popular of a radio hit it's been, even in 1972, what with "American Pie" being such a big hit.
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Post by marv101 on Jul 16, 2011 19:32:52 GMT -5
'Led Zeppelin 4' was released on Nov. 8th, 1971, but I doubt that it could have prevented either 'American Pie' or 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' from finishing #1 for the year in 1972, depending on which trade magazine you followed back then--Billboard, CashBox or Record World'.
However, some AM stations did indeed play it, most notably the beyond-legendary KHJ, which essentially reinvented top 40 radio under the guidance of Bill Drake & PD Ron Jacobs when it was launched in May of 1965, demolishing KFWB, which flipped to all-news in March of 1968, and KRLA/Pasadena, whose lineup included Casey Kasem, Bob Eubanks, who went on to a stellar second career as a game show host, most notably 'The Newlywed Game', and Charlie O'Donnell, who also went on to another successful career as the announcer on 'Wheel Of Fortune' before passing away last year.
Although Stairway To Heaven' was never released as a commercial single in the US, that didn't stop format behemoths such as KHJ from playing it several times a day for a few years during the seventies.
Elton John's 11-minute opus 'Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding' was aired on another top 40 powerhouse, KCBQ/San Diego when it was released in 1973 under another legendary PD, Buzz Bennett.
Top 40 radio began losing TONS of young listeners in the early seventies due to the rise of FM radio, who were thrilled with the far superior audio quality, and not being inundated with 15-18 minutes of commercials PER HOUR on their hometown AM top 40 station.
Hearing such anthems as 'Stairway To Heaven' and 'Funeral For A Friend' on AM radio in the early 70s was startling to lots of us, and the 6:00+ long singles which hit top 40 radio in the early 70s (Harry Chapin's 'Taxi' & 'WOLD', as well as the 7:35 minute-long stunner 'American City Suite' by Cashman & West immediately come to mind) certainly stood out as well.
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Post by saltrek on Jul 16, 2011 22:03:21 GMT -5
There is a website that has accumulated old radio stations surveys and put them in a database.
Obviously, they don't have every station for every week, but i thought I would search for Stairway To Heaven. Here are the results!
#21 on KELO Witchita on 8/21/72 Hit bound on WAVZ New Haven on 9/2/72 Moves from 10-6 on WAMS Wilmington, DE on 9/11/72; then moves from 2-3 on 10/2/72 Moves 12-10-9 on KRIZ Phoenix from 9/16/72 thru 9/30/72 Moves 16-11-6 on WFIL Philadelphia from 10/2/72 thru 10/16; then spends at least 2 weeks at #1 for the first 2 weeks in November Moves from 3-6 on KKAM Pueblo on 12/22/72
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Post by dukelightning on Jul 17, 2011 8:12:00 GMT -5
There is a website that has accumulated old radio stations surveys and put them in a database. Obviously, they don't have every station for every week, but i thought I would search for Stairway To Heaven. Here are the results! #21 on KELO Witchita on 8/21/72 Hit bound on WAVZ New Haven on 9/2/72 Moves from 10-6 on WAMS Wilmington, DE on 9/11/72; then moves from 2-3 on 10/2/72 Moves 12-10-9 on KRIZ Phoenix from 9/16/72 thru 9/30/72 Moves 16-11-6 on WFIL Philadelphia from 10/2/72 thru 10/16; then spends at least 2 weeks at #1 for the first 2 weeks in November Moves from 3-6 on KKAM Pueblo on 12/22/72 I have a question and an observation. Were these all FM stations? Observation....this was a lot later in 1972 than I would have expected. Thanks for sharing.
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Post by saltrek on Jul 17, 2011 8:49:54 GMT -5
KELO was 1320 AM WAVZ was 1300 AM WAMS was 1380 AM KRIZ was 1230 AM WFIL was 560 AM KKAM was 1350 AM
Also, all those stations were top-40 format stations.
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Post by dukelightning on Jul 17, 2011 9:06:31 GMT -5
Thanks and that helps me figure out why it was so late in the year. Those and really any AM top 40 station played Black Dog and Rock & Roll earlier in the year when they were singles and then as in the case with More Than a Woman by the Bee Gees, started playing Stairway as a de facto next single from the album. Now you have to talk about songs like My Ding-a-ling and I can See Clearly Now instead of Am. Pie and First Time Ever as the songs STH needed to overtake to hit #1. Says here that it was definitely possible.
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Post by reachinforthestars on Jul 17, 2011 12:06:56 GMT -5
There is a website that has accumulated old radio stations surveys and put them in a database. Obviously, they don't have every station for every week, but i thought I would search for Stairway To Heaven. Here are the results! #21 on KELO Witchita on 8/21/72 Hit bound on WAVZ New Haven on 9/2/72 Moves from 10-6 on WAMS Wilmington, DE on 9/11/72; then moves from 2-3 on 10/2/72 Moves 12-10-9 on KRIZ Phoenix from 9/16/72 thru 9/30/72 Moves 16-11-6 on WFIL Philadelphia from 10/2/72 thru 10/16; then spends at least 2 weeks at #1 for the first 2 weeks in November Moves from 3-6 on KKAM Pueblo on 12/22/72 Yet look in that same site for an LP cut that truly was more AM radio-friendly that may actually have had a chance to reach #1 if commercially released as a single. That would be Elton John's "Pinball Wizard". You'll see there is more activity than there was for "Stairway To Heaven". The stations I listened to while growing up in the 70's charted LP cuts and Elton John was Top 5 in all of them. None of them played "Stairway To Heaven". Also interesting is that the lone station which lists "Stairway To Heaven" at #1 justifies it on their survey by stating, "Based on requests and LP sales". Yet if you look at their top 10 LP chart also on that same survey, Zep 4 is nowhere to be found. It's almost like they decided to apply historical sales of the album to this song? Or maybe a wannabe FM DJ/Program Director at the station who really liked the song.
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