American Country Countdown - October 24, 1987

[mellongraig]

Wow, check this out! From 1987, a full original broadcast of the program from YouTube:



Features national ads

[skuncle]

Great find! Anymore of these out there? How about any sites that post the old country charts?

[tcat]

Here is a cool German site of every Bob Kingsley Top 100 country songs of the year from the 90s; even 1999, where on the old American Country Countdown website, it was only the top 50 available. Here is the full top 100 each year. No overlap so 1000 songs from the 90s.

www.thomasreil.de/english/country/z_acctitel.htm

Hope this helps.

Also, if you like the 80s, here are the top 100 country songs with Bob Kingsley for each year in the 80s.....

media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/top100-89.html
media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/top100-88.html
media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/top100-87.html
media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/top100-86.html
media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/top100-85.html
media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/top100-84.html
media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/top100-83.html
media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/top100-82.html
media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/top100-81.html
media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/top100-80.html

There you have it; Bob Kingsley's Top 100 Country Songs of the entire year for every year from 1980 to 1999!!! Quite the collection there! Believe it or not, chart turnover was so much faster that all the way through 1996, this is almost entirely top 10 material from the year (even in the lower rungs of the countdown!!!) That's how many hits there were per year back then! (more like 50 top tens a year now and just over 100 that even reach the top 40 at all.) In a chart year (December of the year before to November of the current year) here is how much the country charts slowed down between 1995 and 2000 (Not sure why but it seemed to coincide with country becoming much more mainstream in the late 90s):

1995 - 105 top tens - 6 of them missed the top 100 entirely. Only 1 non top ten finished in the top 100. That was "Between An Old Memory and Me" by Travis Tritt. Peaked at #11 and finished at #99.
1996 - 96 top tens - Only 1 of them ("Vidalia" by Sammy Kershaw) cannot be found in the year's top 100. Only 5 non-top tens finished in the top 100 that year. The lowest peaking songs to finish in 1996; "Heaven Help My Heart" by Wynonna Judd. Reached #13 and finished at #93. "All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down" by the Mavericks. Peaked at #13 and finished at #97. "Giving Water To A Drowning Man" by Lee Roy Parnell. Peaked at #12 and finished at #100. "Born In The Dark" by Doug Stone. Peaked at #12 and finished at #96. "Love Remains" by Collin Raye. Peaked at #12 and finished at #87. Everything else in there reached the top 10 at peak.
1997 - 90 top tens - Only "Watch This" by Clay Walker (Peaked at #4) missed the top 100 this year. That means 11 non-top 10s made it. The lowest peaking songs in this year end countdown are "He Left A Lot To Be Desired" by Ricochet and "Maybe He'll Notice Her Now" by Mindy McCready. Both peaked at #18 and came in at #100 and #99 for all of 1997. As you can see, already, the charts are gradually slowing down. Still this ties with 1991 (By far the slowest chart year of the early 90s with only 90 top ten songs. 1990 had 102 top tens and 1992 had 103.)
1998 - 77 top tens - Just 99 top 20s - VERY NOTICEABLE CHART SLOWDOWN NOW!!! Every top 10 and all but 3 top 20s from that year finished in the top 100. That means 4 non-top 20s are in here. Lowest peaking songs in the countdown; "The Note" by Darryl Singletary only reached #28 at peak but still squeezed in at #99 for the year. "If You Can't Be Good Be Good At It" by Neal McCoy reached #22 but still finished comfortably at #92 for the year. "Of Course I'm Alright" by Alabama peaked at #22 and finished at #98 and "She's Got That Look In Her Eyes" by Alabama peaked at #21 and finished at #100. To say the least, much fewer hit records that year! This was the last top 100 on country radio. In 1999, Bob Kingsley shortened it to the top 50. However, on the website above, I do happen to have the entire official American Country Countdown top 100 of 1999 posted. Even compared to 1998, look how slow the turnover is in that final year in the 90s......
1999 - 61 tops tens - 83 top 20s - 100 top 30s - WOW! Only 100 songs got into the top 30 at all that year!!! Every top ten, every top 20, and all but 2 top 30s from 1999 are in that countdown!!! That means that the two lowest peaking songs did not even go top 30!!! Bob Kingsley does the weekly top 40 in country music and the 2 lowest peaking songs of 1999 BARELY made it into the first hour of that four hour show on their highest weeks; "Take Me" by Lari White only reached #32 but still finished at #99 for the year and "Are Your Eyes Still Blue" by Shane McAnally reached #31 and squeezed in at #98 for all of 1999. This is the most recent top 100 I have from American Country Countdown.
2000 - 52 top tens - 72 top 20s - 92 top 30s - No year end countdown for this year....BUT... Bob Kingsley did do the top 50 of the year which was all top tens and only 2 top ten hits missed! IF he had done the top 100, it would have included almost every song that got ANYWHERE on the top 40 at any point that year!!! CRAZY ISN'T IT!!! That is actually about where chart turnover has remained for the last 14 years or so. Therefore, if it seems like new songs broke a lot faster in the 80s and 90s, that is absolutely right! Only half as many hit songs in 2000 as in 1995!!!

If anybody knows what slowed the country radio charts down so much in the late 90s, please tell me! I know the facts but have no idea why that happened. Fascinating though isn't it. Anyway, those are all the year end countdowns from top 100 days in the 80s and 90s. Hope it brings back some memories.

[tcat]

Notable songs that peaked in the top ten but did NOT finish in the top 100 at all: In the 80s, the charts were so fast there were often 120 top tens in a single year!!! (Total chart turnover every month!) I will not post those; too much trouble and I am much more familiar with the 90s. (I was born in '87 so I was only 6 months old when that countdown above was aired.)

Between 1990 and 1993, Bob Kingsley's year end countdown was the exact same as Billboard. In the 80s it was different (and I think much more "accurate" too) and 1994 to 1999 it was different as well. That means that there were some very odd rankings in the early 90s; EX; Despite spending 4 weeks at #1 , "Friends In Low Places" by Garth Brooks was only #28 for the year in 1990!!! Anyway, here are top 10s AND notable songs that MISSED the top 100 entirely to give you a "COMPLETE" archive of 90s country radio hits and their chart peak;

1990:
"Story of Love" - Desert Rose Band - #10
"When Its Gone" - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - #10
"Country Club" - Travis Tritt - #9 (December of 1989 which is chart year 1990)
"A Few Old Country Boys" - Randy Travis and George Jones - #8
"Yet" - Exile - #7
"My Heart Is Set On You" - Lionell Cartwright - #7
"Lonely Side Of Love" - Patty Loveless - #6

1991:
"Feed Jake" - Pirates of the Mississippi - #15
"Right Now" - Marry Chapin Carpenter - #15
"Like We Never Had A Broken Heart" - Trisha Yearwood - #4
"Hurt Me Bad (In A Real Good Way)" - Patty Loveless - #3

1992:
"Something In Red" - Lorrie Morgan - #14
"First Time For Everything" - Little Texas - #12
"We Shall Be Free" - Garth Brooks - #12
"A Long Time Ago" - The Remingtons - #10
"Just Call Me Lonesome" - Radney Foster - #10
"Some Guys Have All The Love" - Little Texas - #8
"Even The Man In the Moon Is Crying" - Mark Collie - #5
"You Don't Count The Cost" - Billy Dean - #4
"Then Again" - Alabama - #4
"Look At Us" - Vince Gill - #4
"If There Hadn't Been You" - Billy Dean - #3
AND TWO SURPRISES: "Forever Together" by Randy Travis (Late 1991-AKA Chart Year 1992) and AMAZINGLY the Alabama classic "I'm In A Hurry And Don't Know Why" went all the way to #1 in 1992 but were nowhere to be seen in Bob Kingsley's Top 100!!!

1993:
"Cadillac Ranch" - Chris LeDoux - #18
"TROUBLE" - Travis Tritt - #13
"Anywhere But Here" - Sammy Kershaw - #10
"When She Cries" - Restless Heart - #9
"Love Without Mercy" - Lee Roy Parnell - #8
"Lost And Found" - Brooks and Dunn - #5
"Burn One Down" - Clint Black - #4
"Life's A Dance" - John Michael Montgomery - #4
"Sure Love" - Hal Ketchum - #3
"Two Sparrows In A Hurricane - Tanya Tucker - #2
AND ONCE AGAIN, "I Cross My Heart" by George Strait (December of 1992 which is chart year 1993), a huge #1 classic completely misses the top 100!!!

In 1994, Bob Kingsley stopped following Billboard's Year End Countdown and in my opinion, started getting more "accurate" rankings. At least more inclusive rankings. Here are notable misses between 1994 and 1999 (My Elementary School Years and a time country was undergoing major changes including the massive slowdown of the charts mentioned in my previous post)....

1994:
"Take It Easy" - Travis Tritt - #21
"She Thinks His Name Was John" - Reba McEntire - #15
"The Cheap Seats" - Alabama - #13
"Independence Day" - Martina McBride - #12
"Where Do I Fit In This Picture" - Clay Walker - #11
"Goodbye Says It All" - Blackhawk - #11
"That's My Baby" - Lari White - #10
"Girls With Guitars" - Wynonna Judd - #10
"Somebody New" - Billy Ray Cyrus - #9
"Daddy Never Was The Cadillac Kind" - Confederate Railroad - #9
"Jukebox Junkie" - Ken Mellons - #8
"Indian Outlaw" - Tim McGraw - #8
"Renegades, Rebels, and Rogues" - Tracy Lawrence - #7
"One Night A Day" - Garth Brooks - #7
"Queen Of My Double Wide Trailer" - Sammy Kershaw - #7

1995:
"I Was Blown Away" - Pam Tillis - #16 (Removed from country radio after Oklahoma City Bombing)
"Bubba Hyde" - Diamond Rio - #16
"I Got It Honest" - Aaron Tippin - #15
"Go Rest High On That Mountain" - Vince Gill - #14
"The Woman In Me" - Shania Twain - #14
"When A Woman Loves A Man" - Lee Roy Parnell - #12
"This Thing Called Wantin And Havin It All" - Sawyer Brown - #11
"Who's Bed Have Your Boots Been Under" - Shania Twain - #11
"Don't Stop" - Wade Hayes - #10
"Down In Flames" - Blackhawk - #9
"Upstairs Downtown" - Toby Keith - #9
"Lipstick Promises" - George Ducas - #9
"Stay Forever" - Hal Ketchum - #8
"Lead On" - George Strait - #7

1996:
"Who's That Girl" - Stephanie Bentley - #32
"Grandpa Told Me So" - Kenny Chesney - #23
"The Fever" - Garth Brooks - #23
"4 to 1 In Atlanta" - Tracy Byrd - #21
"There's A Girl In Texas" - Trace Atkins - #20
"She Said Yes" -Rhett Akins - #17
"It's All In Your Head" - Diamond Rio - #15
"Out With A Bang" - David Lee Murphy - #13
"High Lonesome Sound" - Vince Gill - #13
"Almost A Memory Now" - Blackhawk - #11
"Vidalia" - Sammy Kershaw - #10

1997:
"That's How I Got To Memphis" - Daryl Dodd - #36
"455 Rocket" - Kathy Mattea - #21
"What If Jesus Comes Back Like That" - Collin Raye - #21
"Heartbroke Every Day" - Lonestar- #18
"Don't Love Make A Diamond Shine" - Tracy Byrd - #17
"Watch This" - Clay Walker - #4

1998:
"Honky Tonk America" - Sammy Kershaw - #31
"Love Happens Like That" - Neal McCoy - #29
"Did I Shave My Legs For This" - Deanna Carter - #25
"Papa Bear" -Keith Harling - #24
"Matches" - Sammy Kershaw - #22
"I Wanna Remember This" - Linda Davis - #20
"A House With No Curtains" - Alan Jackson - #18
"Where Your Road Leads" - Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood - #18

1999:
"I Was" - Neal McCoy - #36
"Fool I'm A Woman" - Sara Evans - #35
"It's Just A Matter Of Time" - Jason Sellers - #35
"You Don't Need Me Now" - Clint Black - #29
"My Kind Of Woman/My Kind Of Man - Vince Gill and Patty Loveless - #27

That's it. As you can see, lots of top tens missing in the early 90s (and even #1s in 92 and 93) but by 1999, every song that made #26 or higher (no exceptions) finished top 100. I listed ALL top 10s that missed and after that I would list highest charting songs that missed and/or most memorable songs that missed! For the official top 100 songs in country music according to Bob Kingsley during all of those years (including NONE of the "notable misses" I listed above) here are the charts one more time:
www.thomasreil.de/english/country/z_acctitel.htm
www.thomasreil.de/english/country/z_acctitel.htm
www.thomasreil.de/english/country/z_acctitel.htm
www.thomasreil.de/english/country/z_acctitel.htm
www.thomasreil.de/english/country/z_acctitel.htm
www.thomasreil.de/english/country/z_acctitel.htm
www.thomasreil.de/english/country/z_acctitel.htm
www.thomasreil.de/english/country/z_acctitel.htm
www.thomasreil.de/english/country/z_acctitel.htm
www.thomasreil.de/english/country/z_acctitel.htm

That's it. Hope you 90s country junkies enjoy...Feel free to comment below!!!

[tcat]

Here are 4 more Bob Kingsley American Country Countdown Archives; just the top 50 this time...1979 (Oldest countdown archived by Bob Kingsley) and 2000, 2001, and 2002 before country music really went down the drain!!!

1979: media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/top50-79.html

2000: media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/2000top50chart.html
2001: media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/2001top50chart.html
2002: media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/2002top50chart.html

[mellongraig]

Wow - great information there. To be honest, I don't know either what caused songs to spend more weeks on the countdown from the late 90s onward, even despite tweaking recurrent rules after it dropped out.

[davewollenberg]

What I found unusual was that Holly Dunn hit #1 in Nov. '90, with 'You really had me going', but, it ALSO missed the top 100 songs of either '90 or '91.

[tcat]

You are exactly right about Holly Dunn's "You Really Had Me Going" missing in both 1990 and 1991. Strange thing is after 1993, there were no more #1 songs missing the top 100 of the year. My belief is that this is because Bob Kingsley stopped following Billboard and had his ACC Top 40 staff rank the songs instead. Billboard ranks songs based on December of the year before to November of the current year and so does Bob Kingsley. However, I think Billboard is extremely biased towards songs that peaked in the middle of the year whereas Bob Kingsley tries to be more inclusive of songs that peaked earlier or later in the year. Also occasionally Billboard overlaps songs if they hit #1 in Nov or Dec (AKA: They make it low on BOTH countdowns) With Bob Kingsley there is no overlap. The song completely misses one year but is ranked "fairly" in the year it makes it in. To compare, here are the Billboard Top 75 countdowns of these years. (1990 to 93 you already have the full top 100 from Billboard because it is identical to Bob Kingsley)....Here in 1994 to 1999. Some of Billboard's top 75 rankings are vastly different from Bob Kinglsey's Top 100 rankings and in most of those years there were #1 songs that missed Billboard's year end countdown entirely (Of course many if not all of them may have come in between #76 and #100 which unfortunately Billboard does not give access to)... Interestingly enough though, with the exception of 1995 (Billboard - "Sold" by John Michael Montgomery = Bob Kingsley - "I Like It I Love It" by Time McGraw) they got the same #1 song of the year in all these years (1994, 96, 97, 98, and 99) Here is how Billboard ranked songs during the mid to late 90s.
1994 www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1994/hot-country-songs?page=9
1995 www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1995/hot-country-songs?page=9
1996 www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1996/hot-country-songs?page=9
1997 www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1997/hot-country-songs?page=9
1998 www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1998/hot-country-songs?page=9
1999 www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1999/hot-country-songs?page=9
Just for comparison, here are Bob Kingsley's countdowns from the 90s once again.
www.thomasreil.de/english/country/z_acctitel.htm
As I said, Billboard's Top 75 of 1990 - 1993 is the exact same as Bob Kingsley's so in those years, you get the full top 100. There are some incredible differences though and I am not sure which one is actually more "accurate." My theory is that Billboard ranks most played songs on the radio that year and so they might be more "accurate" but Bob Kingsley has a 100 percent different chart each year and gives each song more credit. In many ways they are both accurate in their own way. EX: In 1994, Faith Hill's "Wild One" did 4 weeks at #1 and Bob Kingsley put it at #4 for the year. Billboard only ranked it #74. I think Bob Kingsley is right that it was a huge hit early that year, but maybe due to peaking so early in the year, it was less played later in the year? I was surprised in 1990 "Friends In Low Places" was only #28. I suspect Bob Kingsley would have ranked it much higher had he not been following Billboard then. However, since it came out late in the year, those other 27 songs really might have gotten more airplay over the full course of 1990. I am skeptical for example that in 1999, "How Do You Sleep At Night" by Wade Hayes was the #74 most played song of the year. It peaked at #13 in late 1998 but was completely out of the country top 40 by mid December 1998. I have a hard time believing therefore that it was anywhere to be seen in the top 100 most played country songs of 1999. I think some of the "newer" songs that made Billboard's top 75 but were being saved up for 2000 by Bob Kingsley probably did indeed receive more airplay in 1999 than "How Do You Sleep At Night." I definitely find it hard to believe that "Are Your Eyes Still Blue" by Shane McAnally which peaked at #31 in October of 1999 was the 98th most played song of 1999 while huge #1s like "When I Said I Do" by Clint Black and "He Didn't Have To Be" which peaked in December were nowhere to be seen in the whole top 100 of Bob Kingsleys. Which rankings do you think are more accurate for 1994 to 1999? I think Billboard is more accurate, but I like the way Bob Kingsley is more inclusive; No overlap between years and the year a song peaking on the "border" or the year makes it, it gets a higher ranking. IN CONCLUSION, FOR AIRPLAY ONLY IN THAT YEAR, BILLBOARD, BUT FOR HOW BIG A HIT THE SONG WAS OVERALL, BOB KINGSLEY. Any opinions here? Also, I would love to find #76 to #100 from Billboard from 1994 to 1999 just out of curiosity. Unfortunately I do not think that is available anywhere because the weekly Hot Country Songs then was only the to 75 positions. Hope you find this post to be interesting.

[tcat]

By the way, Bob Kingsley's weekly top 40 during those weeks was completely identical to the top 40 portion of Billboard's weekly top 75. For individual weeks, HERE are some Billboard Magazine archives....To see Hot Country songs, click on a particular week and scroll down about half way through the magazine. You may find some of the other charts from other genres in this era to be interesting too..... Here are some additions from 1991 to 1994.....http://books.google.com/books?id=ZQgEAAAAMBAJ&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=1&atm_aiy=1990#all_issues_anchor
Here is 1995 to 1999.....Has almost every single week in this 5 year period (which happens to be the five years that chart turnover slowed down so much and we went from about 100 top tens to about 50 top tens per year (see post above))....http://books.google.com/books?id=ZQgEAAAAMBAJ&source=gbs_all_issues_r&cad=1&atm_aiy=1995#all_issues_anchor
You can also get the top 10 portion for every single week from before the 70s up to the current week in 2014. Just scroll down the page, click on the year to find a year you want to view, find a month, and then pick which week. Once on that chart, you can click "Next Week" or "Last Week" on top as well. Here is a week I really liked: May 27, 1995. Would love to find a Bob Kingsley archive from this week. Ty Herndon hit #1 with his very first hit, "What Mattered Most" and John Berry was at his peak of #2 with "Standing On The Edge of Goodbye." Two distinctly great voices of 90s country. Here is the chart. You can navigate and see the top 10 from any other week you would like from there.....http://www.billboard.com/charts/1995-05-27/country-airplay

Long story short, at least in the 1990s, Bob Kingsley and Billboard used the exact same weekly chart. It is just funny that they had such different rankings for their year end chart. Would love to hear any thoughts in this from my previous post.

[tcat]

Here are some more late 80s country archives.....RARE COUNTRY did some excellent You Tube episodes......

Here is 1986..."The RETURN of Country Music"....These two are my personal favorites from him....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NBfqKlxHBQ and part 2.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkW72ObTgFQ Once again, here are Bob Kingsley's Top 100 of 1986 (Won't list them now but there were at 125 top ten songs from that year which means 25 of them missed this countdown! Lots of chart turnover then! Here they are again....) media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/top100-86.html By comparison, Billboard's Top 50 (WOW! Only the top 50 in a year with that many hits!!! Pretty slack if you ask me but here they are......http://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1986/hot-country-songs?page=9

1987: I was born on April 16, 1987 and it certainly was a great year for Country Music. Thanks for posting that entire top 40 countdown from 10/24/1987. Here is Rare Country's #1s of 1987 on you tube....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=413KDPetFCY 119 top 10s and once again, here is Bob Kingsley's top 100 of the year....media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/top100-87.html AND Billboard's Top 50....http://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1987/hot-country-songs?page=9

1988: AWESOME year in Country Music. First, Rare Country.......https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyJh9EnkHCU Now Bob Kingsley: media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/top100-88.html AND NOW Billboard's FULL top 100 country songs of 1988. In a year when 131 songs reached the top 10, 32 of them missed Billboard and interestingly enough, ONE non-top 10 still made it...Johnny Rodriguez "I Didn't Every Chance I Had" peaked at #12 and still came in comfortably at #81 for the year. Must have peaked in the middle of the year and done a lot of weeks on the charts to gain all those airplay points. Cool to compare Billboard and Bob Kingsley in 1988 and 89 due to having a full top 100 chart from both. www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1988/hot-country-songs?page=9

1989: Amazingly Rare Country did not do any videos for this year even though this is often seen as one of the most pivotal years in Country Music due to the "Class Of '89" including Garth Brooks, Clint Black, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and many others who would define the 90s and beyond. Here is Bob Kingsley.....media.radcity.net/zacc/year_end_charts/top100-89.html and here is the full Billboard top 100. Once again neat to compare the two of them.http://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/1989/hot-country-songs?page=9 119 top tens that year so needless to say 19 misses in both.

Here is Rare Country in 1990, 91, and 92 on You Tube (I really hope he gets to 1989 soon........)
1990: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV8SL-cYg8I
1991: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EooXSXIZ410
1992: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSq8GQxuZZ0

None of these unfortunately on You Tube between 1993 and 1998. Here is a different you tube artist who does modern country music videos with #1 country songs of 1999.....The oldest video posted by Small Town South.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcq3IcJu3_k

Anymore 80s and 90s country archives would be awesome!

[tcat]

Anyway hope you enjoy all the above responses and chart archives.

Attachments:

1989 COUNTRY FINISHED PRODUCT.vpj (13.71 KB)

[davewollenberg]

Would anybody like to have Billboard do another top 40 country chart show? They could use the airplay-only chart for their data. I'd like to hear other thoughts on this idea, gang. Mediabase ISN'T the only chart out there!

[BrettVW]

Of course, but these shows don't want to pay for it.

[jmorgan]

There is a new show that's been on Sirius for about a month now called the Throwback 30. It's hosted by Trace Adkins and counts down the top 30 songs on Billboard's country chart for a week during the 2000's decade.

As for hearing classic Kingsley countdowns, you will have the opportunity to hear them starting the weekend of May 2-3. A new show called ACC Rewind will air on all Nash Icon stations across the country, and they will feature countdowns from the 90's through the 2000's.