Question on Sweet Home Alabama

[beegee3]

This is another chart oddity from 1974: Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" hit #9 in its seventh week on the Top 40, then fell from #9 to #19, then moved back up to #15, then to #8, where it stayed for two weeks before falling out of the Top 40, from #8 to #44.

That was a few weeks before "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" rebounded from #34 to #8. I've heard the theories that the BTO song's reversal was because of interest in the B-side, but the singles for "Sweet Home Alabama" didn't seem to have anything notable on the flipside. Does anyone know why "Sweet Home Alabama" rebounded like that?

[cachiva]

I grew up in New England, and remember when this song came out. It was certainly a hit, but not a top 10 hit there. I'm thinking that when it finally hit the top ten (at #9) that a lot more radio stations picked up on it, and that would have generated more sales. But, there was no SoundScan back then, so the 2-week lag makes sense. This is just a guess on my part. I came up with the "regional" theory about this after listening to American Top 40 for the first time this past year on Sirius XM, and there were LOTS of songs that made the lower 10 postitions or so, that never got airplay in Boston. These included all of the Elvis songs after "Burning Love", almost anything country, and stuff like the Blue Ridge Rangers. Oh, and no James Brown, either. I think that songs could be big hits back then even if a segment of the country did not get to hear it on the radio. And I am amazed at how songs and groups that were radio staples back in Boston in the 70's, like the J Geils Band, made barely a dent in the charts nationally.

[doomsdaymachine]

Mar 11, 2013 21:50:11 GMT -5 cachiva said:

I grew up in New England, and remember when this song came out. It was certainly a hit, but not a top 10 hit there. I'm thinking that when it finally hit the top ten (at #9) that a lot more radio stations picked up on it, and that would have generated more sales. But, there was no SoundScan back then, so the 2-week lag makes sense. This is just a guess on my part. I came up with the "regional" theory about this after listening to American Top 40 for the first time this past year on Sirius XM, and there were LOTS of songs that made the lower 10 postitions or so, that never got airplay in Boston. These included all of the Elvis songs after "Burning Love", almost anything country, and stuff like the Blue Ridge Rangers. Oh, and no James Brown, either. I think that songs could be big hits back then even if a segment of the country did not get to hear it on the radio. And I am amazed at how songs and groups that were radio staples back in Boston in the 70's, like the J Geils Band, made barely a dent in the charts nationally.

As a native New Englander, I can back up most of what this poster wrote.

As the '70s went on, Top 40 radio in my native Hartford, CT grew increasingly more conservative, i.e. white and pop-ish. Certainly by the middle of the decade, you'd never hear country or the funkier soul stuff on any top 40 station in my neck of the woods. And it was our loss!

[dukelightning]

I did an internship at the major AM top 40 station of the day in Albany, WTRY in late 1981. They did not play "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" nor "Let's Groove". I asked them about it seeing as how both were or were about to be #3 hits. Well first they showed me a chart that showed "Let's Groove" at #13. It happened to be Radio & Records. First of all, I thought what the H is this, having never heard of or seen R&R in my life? (Little did I know how this publication would figure into the industry in the years to come). You guys play AT40 every week and yet you are basing your playing of a song on how it is charting on some OTHER publication! Of course, we now know that R&R was used because it is based on airplay. But I also was incredulous that top 40 station was not playing a song that was '#13' on a chart. It was because they only played a song if it reached the top 10 which of course is a total joke and one that many of us can relate to.
The irony of all this is that with them playing AT40 and those songs reaching #3, you actually could hear those songs TWICE on AT40 for awhile because they played the song in the top 3 recap and in the countdown itself.
BTW, these songs were played on the FM top 40 station WFLY which picked up AT40 about 6 months later after WTRY dropped it. So yes certain stations went conservative but others were less so and it seemed to depend on whether it was an AM or FM station back in the later 70s and early 80s.

[tarobe]

I got into rock and roll when I was 10, in 1973. The local station WRVK (1460 AM in Renfro Valley, KY) was a small watt, mainly country station. But every weekday afternoon a DJ named John Grider had a show, the Johnny G show, in which he played Top 40 pop, rock and soul hits. Johnny G's playlist was basically Top 40, but was slightly regional, so a number of records were played that didn't make AT40.. He played no country hits, since the station's other DJs played them in heavy rotation every day and every weekend. Therefore, Top 40 hits by the likes of Donna Fargo, Joe Stampley, Charlie Rich, Conway Twitty etc. were skipped. There was plenty rock, such as Grand Funk, Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Brownsville Station, Edgar Winter, Rolling Stones and all four Beatles solo. There was plenty pop, too, like the Carpenters, Bread, Lobo, Tony Orlando and Donny Osmond. And there was lots of soul. Despite an all-white community and listening area, Johnny G spun the Stylistics, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Diana Ross, O'Jays, Al Green, Spinners, etc.. Everyone except James Brown and Marvin Gaye. Never did hear them, and never could figure out why. Other Motown acts were played, like Stevie Wonder, Four Tops and Temptations, and grittier funk R&B was played too, like Sly and the Family Stone, Ohio Players nd Ike and Tina Turner. But no Marvin and no JB.