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Post by michaelcasselman on Jul 31, 2023 14:30:17 GMT -5
This last week's AT40 the 70's featured the 7/31/1971 show which had the Raiders' "Indian Reservation" at #2 and also included the made-up story of how John Loudermilk was coerced into writing the song. As the final credits for the show began to run, there was a 'correction' spoken by Larry Morgan concerning the made-up nature of the song.
Now, to my knowledge, this is the first time that any story on AT40 was given such treatment, and it begs the question about the need for such corrections and what stories would possibly deserve this type of overt editorial correction.
Pop music history is replete with tall tales, whether it was about how groups got together, tales from on the road touring, song origins, etc. How many of these tales, that may have eventually been told by Casey (or Shadoe, for that matter) on AT40 would rise to the level of needing correction?
If - IF - Premiere was to ever incorporate shows from 1989 into the rotation, would there be a need to annotate the sordid story behind Milli Vanilli as the credits ran?
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Post by johnnywest on Aug 2, 2023 12:55:54 GMT -5
Several times Casey did a story on John Mayer having synesthesia (seeing music as colors). He was bringing it up in a lot of interviews but years later admitted he didn't really have it.
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Post by OnWithTheCountdown on Aug 2, 2023 13:37:21 GMT -5
Several times Casey did a story on John Mayer having synesthesia (seeing music as colors). He was bringing it up in a lot of interviews but years later admitted he didn't really have it. I don't remember the artist's name, but there was another artist Casey mentioned who saw music as colors. I heard the show several months ago but not sure which show it was (might have been Casey's Top 40). |
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Post by papathree on Aug 2, 2023 15:05:47 GMT -5
I've always taken it on faith that anything Casey said about an artist (except, perhaps, for stating his personal preference for an artist or song . . . or his occasional personal anecdotes about his own experiences in radio) was read from a script of some sort that was written for him to read into the microphone. Granted, the AT40 scriptwriter(s) did not have the benefit of the World Wide Web as a research tool, but there were many times their stories were inaccurate to some degree, and blatantly false in others, yet they gave them to Casey to read as fact.
When I ponder how or why that was allowed to happen, I picture in my mind the classic scene from the 1989 movie "Major League" where Bob Uecker (playing live radio baseball commentator Harry Doyle) utters some foul language during his live play-by-play, and his color-man next to him in the booth reacts by shoving his hand to cover up Harry's microphone and exclaims, "You can't say that on the air!" Then Harry replies, "Aw the hell with it. No one's listening anyway."
So I've always thought that the AT40 scriptwriter(s) searched for whatever "story" material they could get from other sources (printed material, from record labels, or AT40 west coast researchers, or AT40 east coast researchers, or AT40 statisticians, or whomever), and there was no such thing as "fact check" back then. Then they typed up whatever they had, and the stories eventually made it to Casey to read, verbatim, as if they were gospel. That process worked great as long as the story's source was being honest and not shading the truth. I've also read accounts where Casey himself explained that his goal was always to tell "positive" stories instead of "negative" stories, so I imagine there might have been some pre-production "spin editing" to stories to remove anything that might reflect poorly on the artist or on the song Casey was telling about.
Here are just a few examples of script errors that come to mind:
On 8/8/70 (chart date) Casey said that teenage Andy Williams sang the parts "sung" by Lauren Bacall in the movie "To Have and Have Not." He didn't.
On multiple shows Casey claimed that The Jackson Five's first four record releases reached #1. That claim would have been accurate if he had stated "first 4 MOTOWN releases."
On multiple occasions Casey said Olivia Newton-John was "Australian," or "from Australia," or was "born in Wales," none of which are true.
On multiple occasions Casey said Andy Gibb "was Australian," or "from Australia" even though Andy was born in England of English parents, and he lived in several countries besides England. One of them happened to be Australia.
On 4/8/72's show Casey said painter Vincent Van Gogh was "French." Even though he was Dutch.
On the show from 12/30/72 Casey said "it wasn't until a year ago that pop songs relating to astrology had any success." I guess the scriptwriter(s) forgot about The 5th Dimension's #1 hit from 1969.
In the show from 3/24/73 Casey stated that Seals & Crofts were members of The Champs when that group recorded their #1 hit "Tequila." They did not become members of The Champs until years later.
In the show from 1/12/1974, in his intro to "If We Make it to December," Casey claimed that "Merle Haggard first hit American Top 40 with a song called 'Okie from Muskogee.' Here's his second big Top 40 record." Since American Top 40 didn't exist during "Okie's" 1969 to Jan 1970 chart run, and since "Okie" peaked at #41, it's hard to understand why Casey would call it an American Top 40 hit. And since it didn't make the `40, then "Make it Through December" would be Merle's FIRST Top 40 record, not second.
I could go on, but I've probably gone on too long already.
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Post by papathree on Aug 2, 2023 16:36:10 GMT -5
And here's yet another blatant example of "false reporting." In the show from 4/26/75 Casey said this in his intro to Paul Anka's "I Don't Like to Sleep Alone."
"This is Casey Kasem in Hollywood on American Top 40. And now on AT40 I have the current hit by the superstar who was nearly a passenger on that airplane that crashed 16 years ago killing three pop stars of the `50s. They were all part of a concert package touring the midwest and they had a two-day layover at Clear Lake, Iowa. Three uh the performers, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, 'n' J.P. Richardson, known as The Big Bopper, decided ta charter a plane and go on ahead ta Fargo, North Dakota a day early . . . even though they'd be flying through a storm. They had room for a 4th passenger and this singer, only 17 at the time, wanted ta go. But his manager Irv Feld said, 'I promised yer father I'd keep an eye on ya, so you stay, and ya travel with me.' The singer stayed, and Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper took off without 'im in ta the storm. As Don McLean put it in 'American Pie,' that was the day the music died. And that teenager who had wanted ta go with them but didn't was Paul Anka. He's at #15 this week with his current hit."
Casey's writer(s) gave him three completely false claims in this story's script. (1) Paul Anka was not "nearly a passenger" because (2) Paul was NOT EVEN ON that tour with Buddy Holly in 1959, so "they" were not all part of the concert package; and (3) the plane DID NOT HAVE ROOM FOR A 4th PASSENGER because it had room onboard for a total of only 4 people. It was a 4-seat Bonanza. Pilot + Buddy + Richie + J.P. = 4 seats occupied.
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Post by mkarns on Aug 2, 2023 16:40:59 GMT -5
Several times Casey did a story on John Mayer having synesthesia (seeing music as colors). He was bringing it up in a lot of interviews but years later admitted he didn't really have it. I don't remember the artist's name, but there was another artist Casey mentioned who saw music as colors. I heard the show several months ago but not sure which show it was (might have been Casey's Top 40). Maybe Billy Joel, or John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers? I looked synesthesia in Wikipedia and they're about the only musicians listed with it whom Casey would have talked of then. |
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Post by jlthorpe on Aug 2, 2023 19:13:05 GMT -5
I've wondered if the story Casey told of Steven Tyler smashing his car to avoid hitting a deer (from October 7, 1978, the first four-hour show) really happened the way it was described. Knowing the members of Aerosmith (including Tyler) were dealing with drug problems, I'm thinking his car accident was due to that and the deer story was a cover-up.
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Post by mstgator on Aug 2, 2023 21:21:57 GMT -5
I don't remember the artist's name, but there was another artist Casey mentioned who saw music as colors. I heard the show several months ago but not sure which show it was (might have been Casey's Top 40). Maybe Billy Joel, or John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers? I looked synesthesia in Wikipedia and they're about the only musicians listed with it whom Casey would have talked of then. There's also the male half of Groove Theory (Casey talked about it both on a regular show and during the 1996 yearender). |
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Post by mkarns on Aug 2, 2023 21:50:35 GMT -5
On the very first AT40 in July 1970, Casey told a story about Melanie taking an afternoon to film a TV appearance in the Netherlands, and that supposedly led to half of all Dutch households buying at least one of her records. In December 1971, he repeated the story but expressed some doubts about whether that show really led that many people to buy her records, but said it was a good story so he was retelling it anyway.
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Post by OnWithTheCountdown on Aug 3, 2023 4:51:03 GMT -5
Maybe Billy Joel, or John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers? I looked synesthesia in Wikipedia and they're about the only musicians listed with it whom Casey would have talked of then. There's also the male half of Groove Theory (Casey talked about it both on a regular show and during the 1996 yearender). That might have been it. I've been in late 1995-early 1996 in recent weeks and months and couldn't remember for sure, with all that's going on and all the shows I've heard. They all run together...sign of getting older. |
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Post by dth1971 on Aug 3, 2023 5:35:15 GMT -5
This last week's AT40 the 70's featured the 7/31/1971 show which had the Raiders' "Indian Reservation" at #2 and also included the made-up story of how John Loudermilk was coerced into writing the song. As the final credits for the show began to run, there was a 'correction' spoken by Larry Morgan concerning the made-up nature of the song. Now, to my knowledge, this is the first time that any story on AT40 was given such treatment, and it begs the question about the need for such corrections and what stories would possibly deserve this type of overt editorial correction. Pop music history is replete with tall tales, whether it was about how groups got together, tales from on the road touring, song origins, etc. How many of these tales, that may have eventually been told by Casey (or Shadoe, for that matter) on AT40 would rise to the level of needing correction? If - IF - Premiere was to ever incorporate shows from 1989 into the rotation, would there be a need to annotate the sordid story behind Milli Vanilli as the credits ran? Has this happened to Ryan Seacrest on current AT40 sometimes as well? |
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Post by mct1 on Aug 5, 2023 0:14:32 GMT -5
On the 2/13/88 show, Casey stated that Debbie Gibson's full first name is "Debrita", but she goes by Debbie because Debrita sounds too much like the word "debris". I've never heard this anywhere else, and as far as I can tell, it isn't actually true; all information I can find is that Gibson's full first name is Deborah. I have to think this was some kind of joke that was picked up by AT40 staff under the mistaken belief that it was real.
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Post by mkarns on Aug 5, 2023 0:56:05 GMT -5
This last week's AT40 the 70's featured the 7/31/1971 show which had the Raiders' "Indian Reservation" at #2 and also included the made-up story of how John Loudermilk was coerced into writing the song. As the final credits for the show began to run, there was a 'correction' spoken by Larry Morgan concerning the made-up nature of the song. Now, to my knowledge, this is the first time that any story on AT40 was given such treatment, and it begs the question about the need for such corrections and what stories would possibly deserve this type of overt editorial correction. Pop music history is replete with tall tales, whether it was about how groups got together, tales from on the road touring, song origins, etc. How many of these tales, that may have eventually been told by Casey (or Shadoe, for that matter) on AT40 would rise to the level of needing correction? If - IF - Premiere was to ever incorporate shows from 1989 into the rotation, would there be a need to annotate the sordid story behind Milli Vanilli as the credits ran? Has this happened to Ryan Seacrest on current AT40 sometimes as well? Probably at times, though Seacrest's greater reliance on directly talking with or quoting from artists means that false or inaccurate stories likely most often aren't his or the AT40 staff's fault. And there's a lot of reference to current entertainment news items that may be accurate at the time of the original broadcast but ultimately don't hold true over time (the same has always been true for Rick Dees' shows as well.) |
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Post by dth1971 on Aug 5, 2023 8:12:15 GMT -5
Has this happened to Ryan Seacrest on current AT40 sometimes as well? Probably at times, though Seacrest's greater reliance on directly talking with or quoting from artists means that false or inaccurate stories likely most often aren't his or the AT40 staff's fault. And there's a lot of reference to current entertainment news items that may be accurate at the time of the original broadcast but ultimately don't hold true over time (the same has always been true for Rick Dees' shows as well.) One inaccuracy Rick Dees did in 1987, Rick mentioned when "Never Say Goodbye" by Bon Jovi was on the Weekly Top 40 chart (using R&R as the chart source) it had been released as a single (But it never was, that's why it never made Billboard's Hot 100 used for AT40). Billboard magazine even once reported in 1990 that after "U Can't Touch This" by M.C. Hammer made the Hot 100 (and Shadoe AT40) with it being released as a 12" vinyl single a cassette single was being planned, but the "U Can't Touch This" cassette single was never released as so "U Can't Touch This" went the 12" vinyl single on the Hot 100 route like "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang did in 1980. |
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woody
Junior Member
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Post by woody on Nov 28, 2023 14:33:22 GMT -5
I just heard this story on today's show. Casey said he was going to tell his most incredible story ever on AT40.
After listening to the story, I felt it was truly hard to believe that someone would be captured, car thrown over a cliff, tortured, then be released to write a song like that without reporting this to the police. Truly bizarre and I can't believe AT40 fell for it.
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