AT40 Year-End Countdown Ties

[joman]

Do you think it was odd that there were songs tied for the year on AT40's year-end countdowns of 1974 and 1975? Of course they used Billboard's year-end rankings for both of those years. Here are the songs that were tied on those year-end countdowns:

1974:
Tied for #91-"My Mistake (Was to Love You)" by Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye and "Helen Wheels" by Paul McCartney & Wings

Tied for #85-"I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song" by Jim Croce and "The Lord's Prayer" by Sister Janet Mead

Tied for #54-"You Won't See Me" by Anne Murray and "Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up" by Barry White

Tied for #44-"Living for the City" by Stevie Wonder and "Smokin' in the Boys Room" by Brownsville Station

Tied for #37-"Rock Your Baby" by George McCrae and "Nothing from Nothing" by Billy Preston

1975:
Tied for #97-"You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" by Bachman-Turner Overdrive and "Third Rate Romance" by Amazing Rhythm Aces

Tied for #71-"Never Can Say Goodbye" by Gloria Gaynor and "Cut the Cake" by Average White Band

Tied for #66-"You Are So Beautiful" by Joe Cocker and "One Man Woman/One Woman Man" by Paul Anka

Tied for #27-"Angie Baby" by Helen Reddy and "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" by Freddy Fender

Very odd indeed, don't you think? Another odd occurrance in the 1975 year-end show on AT40 that was mentioned in another post was "Some Kind of Wonderful" by Grand Funk ending way up at #6 for the year. It didn't spend that much time on the chart compared to the other songs in the top 10 for the year (and top 20, etc.).

[at40petebattistini]

It's been previously pointed out that there's an interesting coincidence with Grand Funk's appearance at #6 for 1975, and the band's ranking at #6 for 1974.

Regarding ties in the year-end shows, I've seen radio station lists where local tallies resulted in a tie between two records. What's unique about some of them is they counted the two records in one position and then went to the next number in the countdown. For example, at WDRC in Hartford for 1971, two songs were tied at #72 in their year-end Top 100. A song was then in the ranking at #71. This particular survey, in fact, had 10 positions with tied songs. Even more interesting, for #91, there were *three* songs. So for the Top 100 in Hartford that year, a total of 112 songs were ranked. Now that's bonus coverage.

[at40petebattistini]

I forgot to point out, as you know, the discrepancy between 1974's Top 100 and 1975's list. And that coincides with, in case of a tie, going on to the next chart position (1974) or skipping a number (1975).

[vince]

1974 and 1975 were the only years BB listed ties as having the same position on their year end chart. Other years had point total ties, but they were broken by peak position, weeks on the chart, or preference of person compiling the chart.

What is odd is not all the songs listed by BB as ties have a point total tie. BB used their standard inverse point system to calculate the year end charts for both 1974 and 1975. 100 points for #1, 99 points for #2, down to 1 point for #100. Number ones got an additional 100 bonus points for each week at #1.

1974, “Helen Wheels” has 948 points while “My Mistake (Was To Love You)” has 947 points. “Rock Your Baby” has 1271 points while “Nothing From Nothing” has 1370 points as of the 10/26/74 cut off. BB may have forgotten “Nothing From Nothing”’s #1 bonus points. The other oddity is “You’re Sixteen” at #31 and “If You Love Me (Let Me Know)” at #32, both have 1306 points and were not listed as ties.

1975, “Angie Baby” has 1312 points while “Wasted Days And Wasted Nights” has 1336 points. Not listed as ties, both with 1302 points were “Jackie Blue” at #30 and “Fire” at #31.

The other songs listed as ties do have matching point totals.

Nobody has been able to explain “Some Kind Of Wonderful” ranking at #6, other than it was an error. “Wonderful” only has 1052 points and should have placed around #75.