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Post by woolebull on Oct 29, 2014 16:41:26 GMT -5
Many of us know that "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees (and of course his Cast of Idiots) hit number one on October 16, 1976. I have a question that I don't know can be answered, but I would like the opinion of others who followed the charts back then.
While many of us know that it went to number one, I never knew the staying power the song had. I just looked it up, and it stayed at number 2 FOUR weeks after it dropped out of number one. In fact, it stayed at number two under three different songs, which is amazing considering it had already peaked at number one.
For my question: I know one city that didn't play the song at all: Memphis. Could no airplay from one mid size market have stopped Dees from having a massive number one? If I remember correctly, "Disco Duck" is one of very few songs that kept its bullet after dropping from the top spot ("Let's Dance" and "Everytime You Go Away" did it as well, IIRC). Again, I don't know if it can be answered, but I remember some very close calls for songs not making number one just because it wasn't ranked number one on an airplay list or two, like "Don't Wanna Fall In Love" by Jane Child in 1990. The assumption would be that "Love" would have still been ranked high at those stations at the time. In Memphis, if I've read right, "Duck" wasn't played at all.
Any ideas on this? I don't know how, "Billboard" monitored radio play in the mid 70's and how it tabulated in its rankings, so any insight would be appreciated. Dropping at 1 and holding at 2 for a month, however, makes me think that possibly not playing in Memphis truly did hurt the song.
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Post by mga707 on Oct 29, 2014 17:10:52 GMT -5
Many of us know that "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees (and of course his Cast of Idiots) hit number one on October 9, 1976. I have a question that I don't know can be answered, but I would like the opinion of others who followed the charts back then. While many of us know that it went to number one, I never knew the staying power the song had. I just looked it up, and it stayed at number 2 FOUR weeks after it dropped out of number one. In fact, it stayed at number two under three different songs, which is amazing considering it had already peaked at number one. For my question: I know one city that didn't play the song at all, Memphis. Could no airplay from one mid size market have stopped Dees from having a massive number one? If I remember correctly, "Disco Duck" is one of very few songs that kept its bullet after dropping from the top spot ("Let's Dance" and "Everytime You Go Away" did it as well, IIRC). Again, I don't know if it can be answered, but I remember some very close calls for songs not making number one just because it wasn't ranked number one on an airplay list or two, like "Don't Wanna Fall In Love" by Jane Child in 1990. The assumption would be that "Love" would have still been ranked high at those stations at the time. In Memphis, if I've read right, "Duck" wasn't played at all. Any ideas on this? I don't know how, "Billboard" monitored radio play in the mid 70's and how it tabulated in its rankings, so any insight would be appreciated. Dropping at 1 and holding at 2 for a month, however, makes me think that possibly not playing in Memphis truly did hurt the song. I don't have an answer, but I'm intrigued that the song was not played by any Memphis station. I'm assuming the reason is that Dees was a Memphis radio DJ at the time. I can understand why a competing station would not have played his record, but why would his own station not have played it? Were there a legal or FCC regulation involved? |
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Post by woolebull on Oct 29, 2014 17:36:33 GMT -5
My understanding is that you are correct that a competing station would not play the song. The intriguing part was that Dees was forbidden to play the song on his own station. He eventually was fired from the station because he mentioned it. You bring up an interesting possibility about regulations prohibiting it. Aside from that, however, it would seems illogical for a station to not showcase one of its DJ's, particularly when the DJ was in such a unique position for publicity. NOTE: I'm not sure when Dees was fired, but the song was still not played in Memphis while it was hot. Even Dees appearance on "American Bandstand" was not shown in Memphis due, in part, to the ban of the song in the city. The other part was that pro wrestling was on. That's hilarious to me  |
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Post by chrislc on Oct 29, 2014 20:00:42 GMT -5
Perhaps if Disco Duck had been played in Memphis, Chicago would have waited until 1982 for their first #1 song.
Or a Butterfly Effect on All Things Chicago if they hadn't hit #1 in 1976.
Maybe then Cetera leaves the group and then never meets Grant who then never meets Gill who stays married to his first wife.
All because of Disco Duck. Who knew?
Or - maybe if Disco Duck had been #1 for a month the Disco Backlash would have started before Saturday Night Fever came out.
Travolta stays on Welcome Back Kotter - no Pulp Fiction - no Grease - no Xanadu - no Physical - and Foreigner is #1 for 10 weeks.
And there is no We Are Family so the 1979 Pirates use Just When I Needed You Most as their fight song and finish 6th.
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Post by woolebull on Oct 29, 2014 20:17:45 GMT -5
I like your butter effect theory! In all seriousness, I think Chicago could have at least lost a week at the top. Like I said at the beginning, I don't know the number of songs that have dropped from the top and kept its bullet (and there were some years that songs just were not allowed to drop without a bullet), but to do so had to be rare. I'd like to say it was unheard of in that time to drop from 1 and hold on to 2 for so long, but "Stayin' Alive" dropped all the way to six before rebounding for, I think, five weeks at the 2 slot. Still, to hold at 2 after being 1 and have three songs replace each other at the top while "Duck" held on at 2 is a pretty unique chart run. Maybe that's why Dees has never used "Billboard"  |
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Post by mkarns on Oct 29, 2014 20:42:35 GMT -5
You all are right about Rick being disallowed from playing "Disco Duck" on his own station; the station management apparently considered it a conflict of interest. Other local stations understandably wouldn't play it since they didn't want to implicitly promote their competition.
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Post by blackbowl68 on Oct 29, 2014 21:26:32 GMT -5
I disagree with the theory that "Disco Duck" was banned in Memphis. It just wasn't played on the radio there. But I'm sure it sold like hotcakes in Memphis!
I'm also guessing Watermark had exclusive rights to the Billboard charts when Rick started his Weekly Top 40, since it was a local show in L.A.
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Post by woolebull on Oct 29, 2014 22:52:07 GMT -5
I disagree with the theory that "Disco Duck" was banned in Memphis. It just wasn't played on the radio there. But I'm sure it sold like hotcakes in Memphis! I'm also guessing Watermark had exclusive rights to the Billboard charts when Rick started his Weekly Top 40, since it was a local show in L.A. I'm sure it sold quite well in Memphis. I don't think anyone is saying that it wasn't sold. The question ultimately boils down to whether or not one mid market's ban of airplay of a single could have altered the airplay tabulation for the song. As for Billboard, I was just kidding. But it leads to another question...did Dees ever say on his show that "Disco Duck" went to number one? If he did, it's kind of funny he would use stats from one chart when his show used (for the majority of the time) another chart. |
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Post by mkarns on Oct 29, 2014 23:03:58 GMT -5
I disagree with the theory that "Disco Duck" was banned in Memphis. It just wasn't played on the radio there. But I'm sure it sold like hotcakes in Memphis! I'm also guessing Watermark had exclusive rights to the Billboard charts when Rick started his Weekly Top 40, since it was a local show in L.A. I'm sure it sold quite well in Memphis. I don't think anyone is saying that it wasn't sold. The question ultimately boils down to whether or not one mid market's ban of airplay of a single could have altered the airplay tabulation for the song. As for Billboard, I was just kidding. But it leads to another question...did Dees ever say on his show that "Disco Duck" went to number one? If he did, it's kind of funny he would use stats from one chart when his show used (for the majority of the time) another chart. A couple of weeks ago a 1987 WT40 was played when he referred to it as such. Rick was pretty inconsistent in citing past chart data, often citing Billboard for periods of time covered by Radio & Records. |
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Post by woolebull on Oct 29, 2014 23:45:10 GMT -5
I'm sure it sold quite well in Memphis. I don't think anyone is saying that it wasn't sold. The question ultimately boils down to whether or not one mid market's ban of airplay of a single could have altered the airplay tabulation for the song. As for Billboard, I was just kidding. But it leads to another question...did Dees ever say on his show that "Disco Duck" went to number one? If he did, it's kind of funny he would use stats from one chart when his show used (for the majority of the time) another chart. A couple of weeks ago a 1987 WT40 was played when he referred to it as such. Rick was pretty inconsistent in citing past chart data, often citing Billboard for periods of time covered by Radio & Records. I seemed to remember him doing that. I agree Rick was pretty inconsistent in citing past chart data. Heck, he was pretty inconsistent in citing the present chart data as well. |
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Post by dukelightning on Oct 30, 2014 14:36:29 GMT -5
Perhaps if Disco Duck had been played in Memphis, Chicago would have waited until 1982 for their first #1 song. Or a Butterfly Effect on All Things Chicago if they hadn't hit #1 in 1976. Maybe then Cetera leaves the group and then never meets Grant who then never meets Gill who stays married to his first wife. All because of Disco Duck. Who knew? Or - maybe if Disco Duck had been #1 for a month the Disco Backlash would have started before Saturday Night Fever came out. Travolta stays on Welcome Back Kotter - no Pulp Fiction - no Grease - no Xanadu - no Physical - and Foreigner is #1 for 10 weeks. And there is no We Are Family so the 1979 Pirates use Just When I Needed You Most as their fight song and finish 6th. And thus are not referred to as the last team to win game 7 of the World Series on the road. That is, until last night! |
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Post by jmack19 on Oct 30, 2014 15:18:48 GMT -5
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Post by mga707 on Oct 30, 2014 16:15:03 GMT -5
So that brings up two questions: 1) Was WHBQ the station Dees was on or a competitor? Just answered my own question: It was a competitor. Dees was on 680AM WMPS in 1976. 2) Did the station actually play the song or was it a 'paper add'? The answer to the first is easy to figure out. The second, not so easy 38 years later. Wikipedia says that rival stations refused to play it, which sounds logical--why give the 'other guy' free publicity. If so, then it was just a 'paper add'. |
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Post by woolebull on Oct 30, 2014 18:02:47 GMT -5
So that brings up two questions: 1) Was WHBQ the station Dees was on or a competitor? Just answered my own question: It was a competitor. Dees was on 680AM WMPS in 1976. 2) Did the station actually play the song or was it a 'paper add'? The answer to the first is easy to figure out. The second, not so easy 38 years later. Wikipedia says that rival stations refused to play it, which sounds logical--why give the 'other guy' free publicity. If so, then it was just a 'paper add'. It could have been a "paper add" for sure. Or, by 10.2.76, Dees had been fired so other stations were free to play it. Still, even if WMPS had let Dees go by October, I would think that if I was another Memphis station I would still leave "Duck" alone. As for "Physical", it was banned by many stations. However, I think it is safe to say that being banned somehow didn't hurt its run in the least. It was blessed to chart on the Hot 100 during that crazy time between 1978 and May of 1983. "I Want Your Sex", I feel, is a more accurate example of how a song banned by many stations can altar chart history. |
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Post by saltrek on Oct 30, 2014 18:48:29 GMT -5
Doing a Google search, I've come upon references that Rick Dees was fired from WMPS on 9/13/76. He was then hired by WHBQ after a 45 day non-compete clause ran its course. So, knowing they were going to hire Rick Dees, it would seem that WHBQ had no problem adding Disco Duck to the rotation. Rick stayed at WHBQ until 1979 when he went to KHJ in L.A.
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