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Post by tarobe on Jul 17, 2011 12:07:06 GMT -5
Maybe, but I doubt it.
The only Led Zeppelin non-single release which I'm sure would have been a Top 10 smash was "All My Love" in 1979. This got substantial Top 40 airplay, and probably would have been their biggest chart hit, probably #3 behind Herb Alpert's "Rise" and "Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough."
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Post by freakyflybry on Jul 17, 2011 12:13:16 GMT -5
"Pinball Wizard" peaked at #9 on R&R in 1975, so it clearly had a lot of airplay there. "All My Love", similarly, got #10 on R&R in 1979. "More Than A Woman", however, only got #21.
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Post by tarobe on Jul 18, 2011 0:26:35 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. I remember hearing Elton John's "Pinball Wizard" a lot on WHAS (Louisville, KY) in May of 1975. I bought the Tommy soundtrack for it, and assumed it was his followup single to "Philadelphia Freedom." I was floored the next month when the record stores began carrying "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" instead. After that, I never heard "Pinball Wizard" on the radio again.
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Post by statenislandfan on Jul 18, 2011 8:37:11 GMT -5
I have Pinball Wizard on a imported 45, months after it was released. I have to dig it out. Not sure what was on the flip side but I think it was a song from the Tommy sound track.
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Post by MrGeno502 on Jul 18, 2011 10:59:17 GMT -5
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. I remember hearing Elton John's "Pinball Wizard" a lot on WHAS (Louisville, KY) in May of 1975. I bought the Tommy soundtrack for it, and assumed it was his followup single to "Philadelphia Freedom." I was floored the next month when the record stores began carrying "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" instead. After that, I never heard "Pinball Wizard" on the radio again. I also live in Louisville and heard Pinball Wizard on WAKY and WKLO. I believe it was on both of their charts. I went to Woolco to buy the 45 but of course it didn't exist! I was 12 at the time.
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Post by bottlerocket on Jul 18, 2011 11:28:34 GMT -5
I love all the first-hand accounts of the popularity of "Stairway To Heaven" at the time. Thank you guys for giving such detailed remembrances. For so many years, I've been hearing that if the song had been released as a single, it would have hit number one but now I see it was more conjecture than fact. Quite a different case than say "Don't Speak" and "Lovefool" in the 90s which were actually number one in airplay but not released as a single.
I have another song which for so long I've wondered about its popularity on top 40 stations at the time though it never charted on the Hot 100. Does anybody know if "Isn't She Lovely" by Stevie Wonder from his "Songs In The Key Of Life" received airplay in 1976 or did the song catch on later? It's hard to believe the song wasn't released as a single since it has become one of his signature tunes. I'd be curious if anyone believes it too would have had a shot at the top...
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Post by dukelightning on Jul 18, 2011 11:39:50 GMT -5
I heard Isn't She Lovely quite a bit....mostly in between the time I Wish and Sir Duke were getting a lot of airplay in the winter/early spring of 1977. Someone can furnish us the R&R peak to give us an idea of how high it would have gotten.....definite top 10 hit there.
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Post by bestmusicexpert on Jul 18, 2011 11:42:08 GMT -5
I always loved the long version of the song. The groove at the end is quite nice!
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Post by Caseyfan4everRyanfanNever on Jul 18, 2011 12:52:27 GMT -5
I heard Isn't She Lovely quite a bit....mostly in between the time I Wish and Sir Duke were getting a lot of airplay in the winter/early spring of 1977. Someone can furnish us the R&R peak to give us an idea of how high it would have gotten.....definite top 10 hit there. Just checked and "Isn't She Lovely" never charted on R&R
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Post by reachinforthestars on Jul 19, 2011 2:38:35 GMT -5
I have another song which for so long I've wondered about its popularity on top 40 stations at the time though it never charted on the Hot 100. Does anybody know if "Isn't She Lovely" by Stevie Wonder from his "Songs In The Key Of Life" received airplay in 1976 or did the song catch on later? It's hard to believe the song wasn't released as a single since it has become one of his signature tunes. I'd be curious if anyone believes it too would have had a shot at the top... I heard this LP track periodically on the radio back then, but never in heavy rotation. The site displaying the old charts did not have "Isn't She Lovely" represented on many charts like it did with "Pinball Wizard". One station had the song at #1, but only paired with "I Wish". It was listed as "Isn't She Lovely/I Wish", like it was a double sided hit. That same station had Eagles "New Kid In Town" paired with "Hotel California" at #3. Of course, in that case, the LP cut (HC) would later be released as a single.
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Post by at40petebattistini on Jul 19, 2011 7:56:08 GMT -5
I believe it's worthwhile to reinforce the popularity of LP tracks being added to Top 40 playlists during the 70s.
As you know, Watermark produced a special edition of AT40 on August 5, 1972 -- the National Album Countdown. This experimental program demonstrated how important LPs were in the mainstream music marketplace. With the exception of not playing a handful of representative tracks, it was a great show.
Though this idea didn't take off initially (possibly due to too much music diversity), the weekly LP countdown idea became reality a few years later with LA deejay Humble Harve's NAC. Too bad those shows aren't available for rebroadcast.
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Post by bestmusicexpert on Jul 19, 2011 8:29:06 GMT -5
I wish they were. I have the 8-5-72 show and it is DYNAMITE! I love the Elton song he plays from Honky Chateau. That was my main reason for buying it from Shannon!
Beginning next week on my 60's show I am playing one album track a week when I recap that week's top 5 albums. I loved it when Casey told us the #1 album and played an album cut for a time in the early 70's. I decided to expand on that a bit but will only be doing the #1 album's album cut.
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Post by franky on Jul 20, 2011 11:26:38 GMT -5
Wow, many thanks to all of you for your comments. I never dreamed this thread would become this informative.
One more song that I can think of is "Desperado" by the Eagles. Was that played on the radio back in the day even though it wasn't released as a single? Or did it become more popular as the years went on? That's one of my favorites from them!!
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Post by dukelightning on Jul 20, 2011 13:32:32 GMT -5
Wow, many thanks to all of you for your comments. I never dreamed this thread would become this informative. One more song that I can think of is "Desperado" by the Eagles. Was that played on the radio back in the day even though it wasn't released as a single? Or did it become more popular as the years went on? That's one of my favorites from them!! I would guess the latter...became more popular as the years went on. And AT40 may have proved it by playing Linda Ronstadt's version of the song as a LDD instead of theirs in 1979. There was no mention of whose version the LDD writer wanted played.
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Post by mkarns on Jul 20, 2011 19:47:04 GMT -5
I believe it's worthwhile to reinforce the popularity of LP tracks being added to Top 40 playlists during the 70s. As you know, Watermark produced a special edition of AT40 on August 5, 1972 -- the National Album Countdown. This experimental program demonstrated how important LPs were in the mainstream music marketplace. With the exception of not playing a handful of representative tracks, it was a great show. Though this idea didn't take off initially (possibly due to too much music diversity), the weekly LP countdown idea became reality a few years later with LA deejay Humble Harve's NAC. Too bad those shows aren't available for rebroadcast. I just read on the SXM message board that 70s on 7 will play Casey's 8/5/72 album countdown in 2 weeks (weekend of August 6-7).
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