"Rock and Roll's Greatest Hits"

[jcs72]

I used to listen to "Rock and Roll's Greatest Hits" with Dick Bartley on the radio. I started listening around 1995 or so, back when it was good. (Since it was Dick Bartley and he hosted "American Gold", which I loved, I wanted to give "RARGH" a try, and I was a fan since it was similar!) I found it to be a great oldies show. However, once hits from the 1970s started infiltrating the playlist I started to lose interest. (Granted, I love 1970s music, but it is not oldies in my book.) Ultimately in 2006 I heard "When She Was My Girl" by the Four Tops played on this show, and it was from the 1980s! By 2010 I quit listening to the show, period.

Does anyone still listen to it?

[bestmusicexpert]

I do agree on certain formats changing not being correct. If its "Oldies" I prefer it to be 1955-1972 mainly. (For things like The Jackson Five and such to be included)

Classic Rock has a cutoff and adding in 90's alternative like Pearl Jam & nirvana is unwelcome to me.

And so on and so forth.

I also do not listen anymore...

[mrjukebox]

It's evident that Dick Bartley is no Casey Kasem-Casey is a class act-Bartley is nothing but a Kasem wannabe.

[snarfdude]

Given the almost 30 years that Bartley has been syndicated, you might as well say Rick Dees is a Casey wannabe.

It's foolish to compare anyone to Casey Kasem. It's his style, and personality that is his trademark on AT 40 plain and simple.

Bartley's has cut a niche in the oldies market for himself. I remember board oping "Solid Gold Saturday Night" for united stations in the 80s...he does very well with his live request oldies show. went to Westwood One, then ABC where he renamed it "Rock n Roll's Greatest Hits" and with the demise of the ABC Radio brand to citadel media, goes back to United Stations where it is today.

I prefer him doing the live show versus the recorded "American Gold" or as it's called now "The Classic Countdown" to me, his strength is the live show, but to each his own.

No matter what, he's a very solid syndicated oldies host who packages a great product.

[jcs72]

It seems to me that if he plays something from the 1960s on "RARGH" it will have to be a #1 hit and that 1960s songs are the exception now, not the rule. That was my impression in February of last year! Here in Dayton WLQT "Lite" 99.9 quit airing it in favor of Tom Kent's show, whoever that is. (Of course, 99.9 and 94.5 did a station swap within the last year; I say this because 99.9 aired "AT40 The 70s" and it moved to 94.5.)

[markmcneil]

There hasn't been a station around where I live that's carried either of Dick Bartley's shows since 2004. Does he still play songs from the "lost and found file"? That was my favorite part of his "American Gold" show.

[jcs72]

May 7, 2012 23:56:46 GMT -5 markmcneil said:

There hasn't been a station around where I live that's carried either of Dick Bartley's shows since 2004. Does he still play songs from the "lost and found file"? That was my favorite part of his "American Gold" show.

That doesn't ring a bell at all, so my answer is no.

[skyseth]

I used to listen to American Gold some years ago and i finaly realized that he was playing the same songs again and again.
Same situation with his Top 20 on CBS Fm , he plays the same shows of a year gone by one or two years later.
he rarely plays new oldies songs on his shows just the classic hits
again and again , it's not what i expect from a good dj.

[snarfdude]

May 8, 2012 17:09:50 GMT -5 skyseth said:

I used to listen to American Gold some years ago and i finaly realized that he was playing the same songs again and again.
Same situation with his Top 20 on CBS Fm , he plays the same shows of a year gone by one or two years later.
he rarely plays new oldies songs on his shows just the classic hits
again and again , it's not what i expect from a good dj.

I would have to agree with that...to a point. It's not a matter that's he a "good dj" is that he's a smart radio network programmer. You have to bow down to your local stations PD's who don't want to run anything syndicated that's severely off their format. You play it safe and play tried and true over and over again to keep the PDs happy and your show on the air. Corporate radio is like that. Remember, music is the carrot that gets the audience for the advertisers.

Corporate commerical radio isn't for the music fan. It's for the casual music/radio listener that uses the radio as more background noise then anything.

Satellite radio and internet/LPFM's will take far more risks then commerical ever will. I can't knock Bartley for that, but he can be rather repetitive. I have a few months of american gold CDs from a few years back. I just look at the cue sheets and notice that.

[briguy52748]

I think the evolution of "Rock and Roll's Greatest Hits" (and Dick Bartley's other programs) shows that the years are progressing, and what's considered "oldies" has changed.

It used to be, indeed, that "oldies" was 1955-1972, with a few pre-1955 song titles mixed in. The main playlist was pre-Beatles music (1955-1963), and non-British music of later in the 1960s. Lots of Mowtown, lots of soul, lots of pop ... great music. Yeah, you'd get some Beatles, Rolling Stones and the huge British acts. (I sense someone misses Herman's Hermits.)

Then it was bumped to 1955-1974 (with leanings toward 1964-1969 and probably the Four Seasons' "December 1963 (Oh What a Night)" the only post-1974 song mixed in).

Then, sometime in the early 2000s, 1964-1979, with emphasis on the early 1970s, stopping toward 1978 but adding a few iconic 1979 songs (such as "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge).

And now, we've got mainly 1970s and 1980s as our "oldies" span, with some 1960s mixed in (mainly, Beatles, Beach Boys, Supremes, Rolling Stones, a little Mowtown and a few other greats such as "Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding). Some of these stations have even thrown in some early 1990s. Such as, for instance, Bartley is now playing more and more music from 1989 (including "You've Got It" from Roy Orbison and "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel. I think he's also snuck in "Love Shack" by the B-52s and Phil Collins' "Another Day in Paradise.")

Through it all, I'd say the main songs that have stood the test of time, from the beginnings of the oldies format in the late 1970s to today, are those that were released from the late 1960s through 1972. Songs like "I Heard it Through the Grapevine," "Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay," "I Want You Back," the songs associated with Tony Burrows ("Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes," "My Baby Loves Lovin'" and "United We Stand") and all those other great songs from the first AT40s of July-August 1970 (like "Hitchin' a Ride" by Vanity Fare and "Band of Gold" by Freda Payne) ... we'll hear all those songs for awhile yet, alongside the synth-dance pop of Tiffany and Debbie Gibson, the Jets and DeBarge; the huge hits of Michael Jackson and Madonna, Prince, and Hall and Oates; the classic hits of Phil Collins and Genesis, Billy Joel, Journey, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Fleetwood Mac and so forth.

And yes, all those great acts of the 1970s, like the soul of Gladys Knight and the Pips and Aretha Franklin, the country crossover of Glen Campbell and Olivia Newton-John, of course the disco of Bee Gees and Donna Summer, the diverse sounds of Three Dog Night, some of the earlier hits of Elton, Rod and Fleetwood Mac and others ... and on it goes.

It's a great time for classic hits/oldies stations. And soon, we'll hear the soaring soprano of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" (from January 1998), one of the very best songs of all time IMO!

Brian