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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2016 18:49:58 GMT -5
I was born in 1977. You'll need to ask someone who was around listening if this would have been largely acceptable back then.
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Post by Mike on Jun 29, 2016 18:52:16 GMT -5
Was it cool to air this show in 1976? Wasn't around in 76, but my impression is that: 1) People weren't hyper-research-focused in 1976. 2) Accordingly, one could probably get away with airing just about anything as long as it didn't land you in front of the FCC. Negative feedback on particular programming didn't really have the ways to show itself or filter its way back to the station directly the way it can and does happen now.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2016 19:27:06 GMT -5
To point one I think you are correct. The other two things I'll add is one to go along with that point, there were several other specials dedicated to the 50s forward.
Point 2 I'd make is (and I only kind of know this from documentary videos I've seen of the time) America in celebrating its 200th birthday was waxing nostalgic for most anything American and because of the bicentennial, this would have been far more acceptable THAT year than even the following year.
Again, that's just my very rudimentary take on it from what little I've seen of that era. I could be entirely off base with it.
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Post by djjoe1960 on Jun 29, 2016 19:32:52 GMT -5
Being 15 when this show first ran I remember hearing a little bit of it but remember it was hard to get into with most of the songs from the 1940's to kick the show off. I recall tuning out and only coming back to find out that Silly Love Songs was still at #1. I thought Afternoon Delight by Starland Vocal Band would be #1 because of the cool sounding line of 'sky rockets in flight' --but it wouldn't be #1 til the following week. I think most of the country was so hyped up on the Bicentennial, most people didn't really care what was on the radio that week end.
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Post by kenmartin on Jun 29, 2016 19:38:26 GMT -5
To Paul's point. There were stations that bulked at running the Bicentennial show even in 1976. The Chicago station didn't play it. Others moved its start time to "hide" the first hour. It was a controversial decision on the part of Watermark, for sure. Tom Rounds knew there was trouble brewing and pretty much said so in the letter included with the program addressed to the affiliates. The letter says "The American Top 40 Bicentennial Special undoubtedly represents the greatest departure we've ever made...or ever will make... from a contemporary sound. But...after all...this is our one and only bicentennial. Proper and ample promotion will make it all work...and that's up to you". You being the radio station. Thanks to Pete Battistini including a copy of the memo in his book.
My station has a reputation for airing special weekends and it's become somewhat of a destination on the weekends. Lots of feedback from listeners saying they enjoy the departure from the regular music during the week. I'm selling the show as a slice of Americana and using the old saying "If you don't know where you've been, you can't know where you're going."
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Post by michaelcasselman on Jun 29, 2016 19:53:42 GMT -5
The first hour is a bit of a slog-through if you're not familiar with or hip to the big band-era stuff, although it is punctuated with a few standouts like "I'll Be Seeing You" and "Sentimental Journey". By the time you get to the first commercial break on hour 2, you're up to "Rock Around the Clock".
Would a person in 1976 listening to a 30's song like Guy Lombardo's "It Looks Like Rain In Cherry Blossom Lane" be put-off any more than, say, someone from 2016 listening to 1977's "Undercover Angel" (#1 the week of July 9, '77, which I assume would be next in sequence)? Alan O'Day was essentially a one-hit wonder in comparison... Guy Lombardo was still active and doing New Years Eve shows up until the mid-70's, so he was still somewhat in the public eye, even if he was predominantly skewing to an older demo.
Then "Shadow Dancing"... "Bad Girls" (or was it "Ring My Bell"?)... "Coming Up"(live? studio?)... oof. I guess the lesson here is that if you were to take any one particular day/week of the year and project backwards 40 or 80 years to make a similar programming event, you'd inevitably have a few clunkers scattered throughout.
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Post by mitchm on Jun 29, 2016 21:31:05 GMT -5
I am definitely planning on listening to the WTOJ countdown on the 4th, especially the pre-1955 part. I am all about listening to songs I seldom hear, so I am going to listen to several songs that made #1 and that I am totally unfamiliar with. When I first started listening to Top 40 music on the radio daily in 1967, the station I listened to didn't play anything popular before 1956, so I am going to be filling in some gaps. I like going outside my music comfort zone occasionally. I'm sure I'll hear at least a few gems.
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Post by lasvegaskid on Jun 29, 2016 22:27:10 GMT -5
I was born in 1977. You'll need to ask someone who was around listening if this would have been largely acceptable back then. Complex question. As far as teenage listeners most of my male friends didn't (admit to) listen to AT40 anyway.... too wimpy. Not enough AC/DC and Black Sabbath. As far as the chicks, they would have tuned out. However, you have to remember that in 1976 AM radio was still king and there were still were still a decent amount of middle aged adults listening. And current CHR/AC stations still had split formats with special "Sunday at the Memories" type programming. There were few designated oldies only stations. So for them, it would have been a nostalgia trip like a classic rock station is today.
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Post by mkarns on Jun 29, 2016 23:22:21 GMT -5
There should be a few classic pre-late 60s tunes in there: "Tossin' and Turnin'" ('61), "I Get Around" ('64), and, of course, "Satisfaction" ('65). Granted, there's also a few 'huh?' songs like "Alley Oop" ('60) and "The Stripper" ('62)! Can't remember how they chose the pre-Hot 100 years' songs (Hot 100 started in August 1958), even though I do remember hearing this show back when it first ran, but if they used the "Best Sellers" chart for pre-59 years then "Rock Around the Clock" ('55) and Elvis' "Teddy Bear" ('57) should be in there as well. Unfortunately, so will "The Purple People Eater" ('58)! Those latter three are in there, fortunately.
Actually "Alley-Oop" and "The Stripper" aren't in there. 1960 and 1962 are represented by "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" by Connie Francis and "I Can't Stop Loving You", by Ray Charles. (1961 has not "Tossin' and Turnin", but "Quarter to Three" by Gary US Bonds, another R&B rocker that's held up better than most other oldies of the time.) But in terms of chronological order "I Get Around" is probably the first song included that really gets much recurrent play now given the paucity of 1950s/early 60s (let alone pre-rock era) oldies programming today. I've heard the original show before, and I have to say I liked the first part, with the 1930s/40s/early 50s songs, which Casey said might have sounded odd to many listeners in 1976 (to say nothing of 2016.) But I'm much more into history overall than most casual listeners then or now. (I've been replaying for myself the top 40 of each year chronologically as calculated by Joel Whitburn, and am currently up to 1931, nine years before Billboard's charts began.)
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Post by dukelightning on Jun 30, 2016 6:42:53 GMT -5
I have heard the original show too and I am in the minority here but I liked it. I was interested in what sounds were popular back in the pre-rock era and also how those sounds evolved over the years. So partly an educational experience and granted, not a normal countdown experience. And one of those songs was a guilty pleasure...Nat King Cole's "Too Young". But had I been listening to AT40 in 1976, I doubt if I would have the same opinion as I had now and a few years ago when I heard the show. As I was into music from the 70s and not much else back then as a teenager.
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Post by Hervard on Jun 30, 2016 7:35:20 GMT -5
I wonder how a show like that would hold up today? It would start off with "Windy" by the Association and end on "Can't Stop The Feeling" by Justin Timberlake (I believe that's still #1, right?) Most of the #1 songs of the past 40 years are played on some radio station or other today (60s are being phased out on oldies stations, but they still play late 60s occasionally). Not sure if there were oldies stations back in 1976 that played 30s and 40s music, but there probably were a few.
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Post by kenmartin on Jun 30, 2016 9:08:19 GMT -5
American Top 40 with Casey is really a time trip in itself. Certainly back in the day it was listened to by the Top 40 teenager, so listening to older music would have been a stretch. Today, we're all adults ... perhaps we appreciate history a little more than when we were young. I think it's fascinating to hear stories from the past and if you can augment that story with music (the ultimate time machine) all the much better. I think that's part of the reason why the original AT40 shows still hold up today. I know there is going to be a lot of discussion about the songs I chose for the last half of the show and from whence the chart data originated. That being said, and with a little bit of trepidation, attached is the PDF playlist for the show. 4th of July's Greatest hits ... 40 + 40
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Post by djjoe1960 on Jun 30, 2016 10:33:56 GMT -5
Y'know, if stations began this with hour #3 of the original (Satisfaction-Rolling Stones)--this would make a good 4 hour special. And as I indicated earlier, yes as a 15 year old when the original show ran I couldn't get into those early songs from the '30's and 40's so I turned AT40 off and only came back to catch the last few #1's.
By the way, did the mistake of playing the wrong Ozzie & Harriet Nelson song ever get corrected? I think I have read elsewhere that Whoa Babe (an instrumental) got played instead of Says My Heart.
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Post by kenmartin on Jun 30, 2016 10:50:07 GMT -5
Y'know, if stations began this with hour #3 of the original (Satisfaction-Rolling Stones)--this would make a good 4 hour special. And as I indicated earlier, yes as a 15 year old when the original show ran I couldn't get into those early songs from the '30's and 40's so I turned AT40 off and only came back to catch the last few #1's. By the way, did the mistake of playing the wrong Ozzie & Harriet Nelson song ever get corrected? I think I have read elsewhere that Whoa Babe (an instrumental) got played instead of Says My Heart. Yes, it's been fixed for this version. Cleaner versions of songs were included as well. Some of the songs used were not the original versions but instead were re-recorded versions (Sleepy Lagoon, Third Man Theme, Too Young). Plus, any version that was electronically re-channeled for stereo have been replaced with true mono versions. All of those have been replaced as well.
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Post by dukelightning on Jun 30, 2016 11:15:45 GMT -5
Those AC or Hot AC #1s you chose for 1992 and beyond seem out of place compared to the type of music represented by the songs prior to that. But you either wanted to count down more listener friendly songs or use charts that Casey counted down longer than he did for AT40.
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