Before Hot100

[corey]

Hi, everybody !
As you know, original AT40 used BB's Hot 100 chart.
When Casey refers to past chart achievement, it was based on Hot 100.
Before Hot 100 chart began in August 1958, which chart they based on ? Somewhere on website, Rob Durkee said at some point during the original AT40 era, AT40 staff changed the policy of which chart they based.

When Casey and Shadoe mentioned the longest running number one song, they never refered to Elvis Presley's Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog which spent 11 weeks at #1 in 1956 on BB's Best Seller's and Juke Boxes chart.

Could you please clarify about this ?

[jdelachjr2002]

I believe in the beginning it would be whatever chart a certain song ranked highest on (Best Seller, Disk Jockeys, Juke Box or Top 100 which was used from 11/1955 - 7/1958). In 1982, AT40 began going by the Best Seller chart from 1/1955 - 11/1955 and then the Top 100 from 11/1955 - 7/1958.

[tarobe]

Actually I think that's backwards. In the beginning, AT40 went by the data published by Joel Whitburn in his books Record Research, Top Pop Records 1940-1955, and Top Pop Records 1955-1972. These books used Billboard's "Best Selling Singles" chart from July 20, 1940 to November 5, 1955, the "Top 100" chart from November 12, 1955 to July 28, 1958, and the "Hot 100" from August 4, 1958 on. Whitburn later changed his research methods using all Billboard pop charts from 1955-1958 starting with his Pop Annual in 1979, and AT40 followed suit a few years later.

[jdelachjr2002]

This was what I found from one of Rob Durkee's Countdowns (in this case Top 40 Instrumentals):

#17: LISBON ANTIGUA--NELSON RIDDLE AND HIS ORCHESTRA, 1956

It peaked at #2 and stayed there for seven weeks...with a song that was then 19 years old.

"Lisbon Antigua" was written by Raul Portela, Jose Galhardo, Amadeu do Vale and Harry Dupree. Remember them? We didn't think so.

Anyway, "Lisbon Antigua" by Nelson Riddle and his Orchestra is the #17 instrumental of the rock era. It was kept out of #1 by two songs: "Rock And Roll Waltz" by Kay Starr and an instrumental coming up later in this countdown.

Perhaps you're wondering how we could call "Lisbon Antigua" a #2 peaking song when it's featured in Fred Bronson's book about #1 hits. Good question.

From 1955-58, the magazine AT40 went by had four charts for pop singles: The Top 100, Best Seller, Jukebox and Jockey (airplay DJ reports). However, the Top 100 was a conglomeration chart, being based on the other three. In 1982, the AT40 staff ruled that the Top 100 was the chart to be recognized for the years 1955-58 when it was in existence. It would evolve into the Hot 100 in August, 1958, and would continue to be recognized by AT40 until November 23, 1991.

[tarobe]

AT40 might have decided in 1982 to go by the Top 100, but they weren't doing anything new. I know for a fact that they used this chart in the 1970's because on one of the shows sometime in 1976 or 1977, Casey talked about the song from the movie Around the World in 80 Days. He said that two versions of the film's title song, both of them instrumentals, had hit the Top 40 in 1957, and that two vocal versions didn't. The two instrumental versions were by Mantovani and Victor Young, and the two vocal versions were by Bing Crosby and the McGuire Sisters. This information evidently came from Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Records: 1955-1972 which based all its pre-Hot 100 records on the Top 100. That book lists the peak chart positions as follows:

Mantovani: #25
Victor Young: #26
Bing Crosby: #54
McGuire Sisters: #73

Later Whitburn books use all four pre-Hot 100 charts (Best Sellers, Most Played by Jockeys, Most Played in Jukeboxes and Top 100), so that now these song's peak positions are listed like this:

Mantovani: #12 (based on "Most Played by Jockey" chart)
Victor Young: #13 (based on "Most Played by Jockey" chart)
Bing Crosby: #25 (based on "Best Sellers" chart)
McGuire Sisters: #73 (based on "Top 100")

Since Casey stated that Mantovani's and Victor Young's instrumental versions of "Around the World" made the Top 40 and Bing Crosby's and the McGuire Sisters' vocal versions didn't, they MUST have been using the Top 100.

[mkarns]

What did AT40 do in the early/mid-1990s after it no longer counted down the Hot 100? From 1991-95 did Shadoe use it as his primary reference point for data prior to November 1991, and the Billboard Top 40 Radio Monitor or whatever he was counting down for later statistics?

For AT40 since 1998, Radio and Records seems to be the reference source for chart data up through 2003, as it was for Casey's Top 40 (with Billboard presumably cited for data predating R&R's 1973 founding?), and the Mediabase list used for data since 2004, paralleling what the actual countdowns used. (Of course, by the time we get to the Ryan Seacrest years citations of past chart performance from any source become much less frequent.)

[Shadoe Fan]

Shadoe and the Whiplash Acrobatic Ensemble apparently used the Hot 100 prior to November 30, 1991 and then AT40 history after that (Top 40 Radio Monitor/Top 40 Mainstream)

[tarobe]

Here is another piece of evidence that AT40 was using the Top 100 chart well before 1982:

In 1979, Casey Kasem's American Top 40 Yearbook was published. This book featured articles on every act that hit the Top 40 in 1978, and had a complete list of each act's Top 40 hits. Elvis Presley's Top 40 hits from 1956 to 1958 are are listed as follows:

“Heartbreak Hotel” (#1, 1956)
“I Was the One” (#23, 1956)
“Blue Suede Shoes” (#24, 1956)
“I Want You, I Need You, I Love You” (#3, 1956)
“My Baby Left Me” (#31, 1956)
“Hound Dog” (#2, 1956)
“Don’t Be Cruel (#1, 1956)
“Love Me Tender” (#1, 1956)
“Any Way You Want Me” (#27, 1956)
“Love Me (#6, 1956)
“When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again” (#27, 1956)
“Poor Boy” (#35, 1957)
“Too Much” (#2, 1957)
“Playing for Keeps” (#34, 1957)
“Peace in the Valley” (#39, 1957)
“All Shook Up” (#1, 1957)
“Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear” (#1, 1957)
“Loving You” (#28, 1957)
“Jailhouse Rock” (#1, 1957)
“Treat Me Nice” (#27, 1957)
“Don’t” (#1, 1958)
“I Beg Of You” (#8, 1958)
“Wear My Ring Around Your Neck” (#3, 1958)
“Doncha Think It’s Time” (#21, 1958)
“Hard Headed Woman” (#2, 1958)
“Don’t Ask Me Why” (#28, 1958)
"I Got Stung" (#8, 1958)
"One Night" (#4, 1958)

These positions are EXACTLY the same as those in Whitburn's Top Pop Records, 1955-1972 book and are from the Top 100/Hot 100.

[tarobe]

Feb 26, 2010 21:50:56 GMT -5 corey said:

Hi, everybody !

When Casey and Shadoe mentioned the longest running number one song, they never refered to Elvis Presley's Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog which spent 11 weeks at #1 in 1956 on BB's Best Seller's and Juke Boxes chart.

That's because "Don't Be Cruel" was #1 for only seven weeks on the Top 100, and "Hound Dog" only hit #2.

[corey]

Thank you for all of your information.
It seems Joel Whitburn changed his policy of which chart he based. AT40 didn't.

[tarobe]

I'm not sure as I was. I've been doing a little deeper digging. Sure enough, on AT40's special Bicentennial countdown, 1958 doesn't match the Top 100 (although both songs - "Yakety Yak" and "Purple People Eater" - did reach #1 on the Top 100, they didn't at the same time, so AT40 must have been using another chart.)

Also, Rob Durkee says on his TODAY IN AT40 HISTORY site that the show cited data from the other pop charts on the March 4, 1972 show.

I know for a fact that Joel Whitburn changed his chart data with the publication of his Pop Annual in 1980.

I know AT40 went by the Top 100 before 1982, but they evidently did use the other pop charts as well, at least in the early years. Perhaps 1982 was the year they exclusively used the Top 100.

I remember listening to the show in which "Too Much, Too Little Too Late" by Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams hit #1 (June 3, 1978). Casey mentioned something about Johnny Mathis hitting the #1 spot. Problem is, I can't remember what it was. Seems like I recall that he said that Johnny had waited 21 years to have a number one. If so, then AT40 was using the Top 100 because Mathis hadn't had a #1 record on that chart. But maybe he said this was Johnny's first number one in 21 years. In this case, AT 40 would have been using the other charts because "Chances Are" DID hit #1 on the Disk Jockey chart in 1957.

Perhaps someone who has this show can listen to it for me and let me know which.

[tarobe]

The fact that Casey played "Lisbon Antigua" as an extra on the March 6, 1971 show and and referred to it as " the number song exactly 15 years ago today' proves that AT40 used another chart other than the Top 100 for songs charting before the beginning of the Hot 100, as the song only hit #2 on the Top 100.

I've noticed this especially in the early years. I'm guessing that Joel Whitburn was not yet being consulted. This makes sense. Although Whitburns Record Research book was out, it is a bit rare. It wasn't until 1973 that Whitburns first edition of Top Pop Records appeared.

[freakyflybry]

On this week's 80's AT40 (March 12, 1983), Casey mentioned previous #1 hits with animals in their names. The fact that "Hound Dog" wasn't mentioned suggests he was definitely using the Top 100 then.