The most significant……the most valuable program

[Matt Cameron]

For wall-to-wall music, the year-end countdowns are great, but you don't get any human-interest stories, which is what AT40 with Casey was always about for me.

[Indycolt]

Pete,
I'd have to agree with some of these other "posters"--that very first show would have to be one that goes into the Library of Congress. The first one...the original one...lots of good songs and artists. If it wasn't for the first show,the others never follow.

2)I'd submit the Top 100 of 1976,simply because I remember exactly where I was when that aired. A special nod would go to the top 100's of 1974 and 1975,but the '76 countdown I heard via the AFRTS while living in Germany. The countdown began airing in the afternoon and finished around Midnight. I happened to carry a radio with me for some outside festivities while we would record it at the same time on a deck at home. To this day,a classic!

[TomBest]

I don't think it should be a year end countdown, as those have a different pacing and feel. It would have to be a weekly countdown as that is what we heard the vast majority of the time. The first show is significant, but it does not represent how the show evolved. Instead I would nominate the 12/13/80 show. It has the archive feature and the LDDs. However most importantly it is the John Lennon tribute show, and that makes it stand out from an ordinary countdown.

[Matt Cameron]

tombest said:

I don't think it should be a year end countdown, as those have a different pacing and feel. It would have to be a weekly countdown as that is what we heard the vast majority of the time. The first show is significant, but it does not represent how the show evolved. Instead I would nominate the 12/13/80 show. It has the archive feature and the LDDs. However most importantly it is the John Lennon tribute show, and that makes it stand out from an ordinary countdown.

That's two votes for 12/13/80! (See my much earlier post)

[Radioman]

OK, Pete made a really though question out here.
And it already became a "burning" topic.
For me, it is probably the same with many other people on this board: It is almost impossible to pick only ONE show for each. But I will stay on the topic question and here are my votes:

1.) The show for congress library would be 5-14-1988
because I was listening to that show several times, more than on any other show. This should qualify that programme, even I can't name a specific reason for why I was listening to it more often than to other shows.

2.) The master programme I would be responsible for is the 8-22-1987 show because of personal memories.
It's even more though to pick only ONE here than for question 1)


General comments:
The question was for AMERICAN TOP 40 with Casey Kasem, wich excludes Guesthosted Programmes and other Casey programmes.
If it would have been a general question, my votes would have gone to a WW1 special and for a Charlie Van Dyke programme.

[TomBest]

I know we all have our favorite eras of music based on special times in our life or good songs and Dec 1980 doesn't qualify for me...but let's set that aside and look at the significance of this program.

I already mentioned that this program contains the features that AT40 is noted for: LDD, top 3 recap, and even the archive feature that ran 1978-81.

But I should point out this fact: John Lennon died on Monday 12/8. On Tuesday they had Casey record his tribute that you hear leading into "Just Like Starting Over" which was #4. The show was re-edited and shipped to radio station for airing on the upcoming weekend. Some stations got the "Emergency Replacement disc" and some did not.

But the tribute, and the efforts of the AT40 staff in pulling this together makes this program extraordinary and it has all the features that we commonly associate with a typical weekly countdown... I think 12/13/80 has to be the one.

[Indycolt]

Ok Tom,you may have a point about not including the YE Countdowns. That could be for a separate category. Still,I don't know that I can pick just one show. My favorite era is the January 75-June 77 era,as I lived in Germany for that stretch and those shows always mean more to me. The 12/13/80 show is a keeper too. To those of you who have the "Shannon Lynn" version,you get the original show and the bonus disc that was rush-released to the radio stations. Shannon did a great job combining it all--the original and the replacement--to make one great CD-R package. I always preferred McCartney to Lennon,but thats an important show for any collector to have.

[Matt Cameron]

I just got a CD copy from Shannon of the 12/13/80 program and played Casey's Lennon tribute for my sister to hear. She was too young to remember it the first time around. She was in tears by the time Casey was finished.
It truly is one of the great moments in radio.

[BROWNJB1]

I got one for you, the AT40 show from June 30, 1979. On that show, the Top 5 songs on the Hot 100 that week were all sung by women. It was the first time that had happened.

5. Chuck E's In Love...Ricki Lee Jones
4. We Are Family...Sister Sledge
3. Bad Girls...Donna Summer
2. Hot Stuff...Donna Summer
1. Ring My Bell...Anita Ward

Besides the Top 5 songs being sung by women, Donna Summer became the 1st female artist to have 2 songs in the Top 3 in the same week, and if that wasn't enough, the Top 4 songs that week were also sung by African-American women.

[Karstens]

This is not a direct answer to Pete's question. However, I found these nine shows from the Shadoe era the most valuable to collectors, meaning the most difficult to find within the popular trading cirlces. Some of these shows were never heard in the U.S. that might explain why they are hard to find.

Every Casey show 1970-88, except the original masters of the first show & second show's third hour is out there.

9-11-93
11-6-93
12-4-93
7-2-94
9-17-94
10-29-94
11-5-94
12-3-94
12-24-94

Now, there is another show of extreme value because it was never played in some markets, 9-15-01. The radio station within my market did not play the show because it never arrived, so they used a Rick Dees show from a "sister station" that did arrive. I guess you could call it "When The World Stopped Turning" show. This was the only time over the past 8 years that a show never made it in the mail. Nowdays with downloading, it's unlikely that a world event could stop AT40 from being broadcasted.

I agree with the comments made about the John Lennon tribute show. It was one of the most stirring moments of AT40.

[GQ]

brownjb1 said:

I got one for you, the AT40 show from June 30, 1979. On that show, the Top 5 songs on the Hot 100 that week were all sung by women. It was the first time that had happened.

5. Chuck E's In Love...Ricki Lee Jones
4. We Are Family...Sister Sledge
3. Bad Girls...Donna Summer
2. Hot Stuff...Donna Summer
1. Ring My Bell...Anita Ward

Besides the Top 5 songs being sung by women, Donna Summer became the 1st female artist to have 2 songs in the Top 3 in the same week, and if that wasn't enough, the Top 4 songs that week were also sung by African-American women.

This is great!! I didn't realize this, probably because I don't have a copy of this week




How about the two weeks in 1978 when the back-to-back #1s were from the same movie soundtrack? But this probably doesn't fit Pete's original intent does it?

In following Karsten and getting away from the original intent of this topic how about the show dated 29 February 1992. The only show on Leap Day!!!!! Not very exciting is it.......

[Shadoe Fan]

karstens said:

This is not a direct answer to Pete's question. However, I found these nine shows from the Shadoe era the most valuable to collectors, meaning the most difficult to find within the popular trading cirlces. Some of these shows were never heard in the U.S. that might explain why they are hard to find.

Every Casey show 1970-88, except the original masters of the first show & second show's third hour is out there.

9-11-93
11-6-93
12-4-93
7-2-94
9-17-94
10-29-94
11-5-94
12-3-94
12-24-94

Yes, these are very hard to find. I need these to finish my Shadoe collection for my Show-by-Show site. If you know where these can be found, please send me a message.

Thanks!

[vto66]

For Question Number 1: the 12/15/1979 show with British pop group Buggles spending their first, and last, week in the American Top 40 with "Video Killed the Radio Star." The significance here? Nearly two years after this song came and went, its accompanying video was used to launch a crazy little thing called MTV!!!

For Question Number 2: the show from November 1978 where Anne Murray's "You Needed Me" (one of my all-time favorite songs ;D ;D ;D) was the No. 1 song in the land!! I would have picked the 6/14/1980 AT40 show, since this was the first one I remember listening to, but I think this was one of the weeks where Casey had a guest host.

[mrjukebox]

The most valuable "AT40" program is a no-brainer-It would have to be the very first countdown from July 1970-Some great songs such as "Silver Bird" by Mark Lindsay,"United We Stand" by the Brotherhood of Man,"Teach Your Children" & "Ohio" by Crosby,Stills,Nash,& Young-My favorite human interest story from that first show was Louis Armstrong dethroning the Beatles from the #1 spot with "Hello Dolly" in 1964-Louis was the first American artist to top the "Hot 100" in five months-The last American artist that hit #1 before the Beatles was Bobby Vinton with "There! I've Said It Again" in January 1964.

[Shannon Lynn]

The most valuable? The missing third hour of the second AT40 show would have to be. What has amazed me is how many people think the 'hack' job I did ( I could do so much better now LOL) a few years ago in creating the third hour is the actual one. I just pieced that together using the Billboard chart, the prior week and few weeks after that date. Will that ever surface? Doubtful but I know Pete Battistini and me are always on the lookout for it.

It was missing as far back as to when Rob was writing his book and screening all of the shows.

I won't try to get at a most significant show but the most significant period was 1972/1973 when AT40 was on the ropes and the powers that be chose not to pull the plug. Imagine if they had given up in the show's infancy?

Happy New Year all and thanks for all of your support!! A second thanks to all who occasionally peruse the charismusicgroup website. Traffic has gone from an average of 400 visitors per day a year ago to over a thousand a day, it floors me!

Shannon