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Post by bandit73 on Jan 6, 2007 22:21:01 GMT -5
What song had the weirdest chart run of any on AT40 when it used the Hot 100?
Usually a song would go up the charts at a somewhat predictable rate, peak, and then drop just as predictably as it went up. Most songs didn't jump all over the charts. But I know there's a couple of songs from the mid-'70s that had a weird chart run:
"Why Me" by Kris Kristofferson "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" by BTO
I'm too young to remember when these songs were on AT40. I think I found out about their weird chart runs years later from an AT40 question letter. In BTO's case, I think it was because Billboard suddenly began factoring in the record's flip side.
I don't remember too many songs with really weird chart runs in the '80s. I vaguely remember "Like No Other Night" by 38 Special having a somewhat unsual chart run, in that it suddenly jumped into the mid-teens on the chart, then suddenly dropped really fast. There were a lot of songs that had unusually fast or slow chart movement, but generally they didn't dance all over the chart.
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Post by mstgator on Jan 7, 2007 9:56:27 GMT -5
Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" certainly had an odd Hot 100 chart run, but only during the weeks before and after it hit AT40 (its Top 40 run was pretty standard).
As far as songs bouncing around inside the Top 40, there weren't that many during the '80s or the first two years of the '90s. The most you'd ever see would be a song appearing to peak, then slipping for a week or two before moving back up briefly (like "True Faith", "I'll Never Let You Go", Salt-N-Pepa's "Do You Want Me").
For the '70s, my favorite (aside from the two that you mentioned) is "Ecstasy" by the Ohio Players, which had this chart run around the Top 40: ...49-49-34-34-45-34-42-35-34-31-45-off the Hot 100. I think that's the only time during AT40's "classic" period that a song ever debuted in the Top 40 three times in one Hot 100 run.
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Post by bandit73 on Jan 7, 2007 12:17:51 GMT -5
I was going to mention "True Faith" as one of the more unusual ones of the '80s. Also, I thought the chart run of "Rock The Night" by Europe was weird, because it jumped up like 7 notches or something and then suddenly dropped.
In the '80s, whenever a song moved back up after dropping, Casey would always say, "Here's a song that can't make up its mind which way it wants to go."
Also, I remember that certain Michael Jackson-related songs had an unusually short chart life despite a very high peak position. "Thriller" and "State Of Shock" come to mind. I seem to recall that around 1990, some of New Kids On The Block's songs also had very short chart lives, even if they hit #1.
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Post by coldcardinal on Jan 7, 2007 15:37:51 GMT -5
I was going to mention "True Faith" as one of the more unusual ones of the '80s. Also, I thought the chart run of "Rock The Night" by Europe was weird, because it jumped up like 7 notches or something and then suddenly dropped. In the '80s, whenever a song moved back up after dropping, Casey would always say, "Here's a song that can't make up its mind which way it wants to go." Also, I remember that certain Michael Jackson-related songs had an unusually short chart life despite a very high peak position. "Thriller" and "State Of Shock" come to mind. I seem to recall that around 1990, some of New Kids On The Block's songs also had very short chart lives, even if they hit #1. Yep. And the singles from Bad also had relatively short runs, despite the first 5 hitting #1. For example, I Just Can't Stop Loving You: 37, 16, 10, 6, 2, 2, 1, 3, 12, 23, 39 Bad: 40, 29, 16, 8, 4, 1, 1, 5, 11, 24, 37 I always found Duran Duran's "Rio" to be one of the more peculiar chart runs. It took a huge leap on April 30, then promptly stalled out. Specifically: 40, 35, 31, 17, 16, 14, 14, 21, 38 The regularity of the up-then-down motion in the '80s always amazed me as a kid. Granted, I understand that singles build up radio play and sales, and then fall, in a fairly smooth manner. But since chart position also depends on competition with all other contemporary songs, I was shocked at how few songs ever jumped around, even by a couple of notches. I remember being surprised when Peter Gabriel's "Big Time" went 8-9-8.
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Post by BROWNJB1 on Jan 7, 2007 22:48:54 GMT -5
There are a 3 other songs from the 1970's that had weird chart runs on AT40. In 1971, Olivia Newton-John's very first Top 40 hit "It's Not For You" had a unusual chart run. It debuted on AT40 on July 17, 1971 at No. 37, and seven weeks later on Septenber 4, 1971, it peaked at No. 25. In its first 8 weeks in the Top 40, it moved up only 12 spots, and it didn't even hold at any positions, or drop any positions. Another Top 40 songs that had a weird chart run, was "I Go Crazy" by Paul Davis. It debuted in the Top 40 on October 29, 1977, and it didn't even reach its peak position until 5 months later in March 1978, when it peaked at No. 7. , and what made it's chart run so weird is that on its way to the Top 10, it held at the same position 3 times. On the weeks of December 3-10, 1977, it was No. 25, then on the weeks of December 17-31, 1977, it stayed at No. 23, and during the weeks of January 7-14, 1978, it was at No. 21 for 2 weeks. Unbelievable, a song that stalled at 3 different positions on its way to No. 7. That's a song that didn't quit. Another song from the 1970's that had a weird chart run was "Get Closer" by Seals & Crofts. On July 24, 1976, "Get Closer" vaulted into the Top 10 from 16-6, and stayed at No. 6 for 2 weeks, then fell out of the Top 10 for 2 weeks, and went back in the Top 10 at No. 9 and stayed there for 2 weeks. "Get Closer" had a weird summer in 1976.
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Post by dougray2 on Jan 8, 2007 2:15:19 GMT -5
I think the BTO song "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" had the strangest chart run of all. It hit #1, then fell to 12, 34, and then suddenly jumped back up to #8 for 2 weeks. I've always wondered why this happened, but that was 3 years before I heard AT40 for the first time. Another weird chart run was "Sad Eyes" by Robert John. It started very slowly, 38,36,34, 32, then jumped to 23 and 16. Then it appeared to peak at #6 for 2 weeks before jumping up to 2 and then to #1.
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Post by Adrian on Jan 9, 2007 9:32:42 GMT -5
I think the BTO song "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" had the strangest chart run of all. It hit #1, then fell to 12, 34, and then suddenly jumped back up to #8 for 2 weeks. I've always wondered why this happened, but that was 3 years before I heard AT40 for the first time. If I recall, "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" was a double-A single, and Billboard's policy then was that whichever single was getting more airplay and sales would be the "lead" single. When "You Ain't..." was losing spins and falling down the survey, the flip side "Free Wheelin'" was getting an airplay boost, so the double-A single rose back up to #8. AT40 could've played the "Free Wheelin'" song then but never did, nor gave an explanation for the sudden rise of the song, so the casual listener would assume that the song "You Ain't...." suddenly became popular again.
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Post by TomBest on Jan 19, 2007 22:13:15 GMT -5
I didn't buy Casey's explanation in the fall of 1974. The charts were just weird that season. Several songs, including "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" would rise to number and then fall out of the top ten the following week and leave the 40 shortly after. #1 Songs immediately falling out of the top ten was a rare event before (and since) and here it was happening every week. I remember seeing the chart ahead of the show and wondered how Casey would explain it. To me it seemed like a correction. After that the charts seemed "back to normal".
As for "Free Wheelin'". It wasn't listed on the 11/30/74 chart the week of the jump, but it was the rest of the run. Funny, I have no recollection of the song then and now.
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Post by dougray2 on Jan 20, 2007 3:36:13 GMT -5
I have never heard the song "Free Wheelin" before. I don't think it was a popular B side like "Sally G" and "Calypso". I have a copy of the Hot 100 Charts of the 70s, and for some reason the fall of 74 had some strange chart movements. "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd hit #9, fell to 19, then 2 weeks later moved back up to #8 where it peaked for 2 weeks, then fell all the way out of the top 40. That same week "Steppin Out" by Tony Orlando and Dawn fell from it's peak of #7 out of the top 40. That set a record for biggest fall which stood until 1982 when "Even The Nights Are Better" by Air Supply fell out of the top 40 from #6.
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Post by at40petebattistini on Jan 20, 2007 5:12:57 GMT -5
Here's another oddity from 1974. It's not too often when one artist debuts with two songs the same week in the Top 40. It happened September 7, 1974 with the Mac Davis songs Stop & Smell The Roses and One Hell of a Woman. Of course, One Hell of a Woman was in its 24th week in the Hot 100 then and, for the second time, debuted on AT40. By the way, are there other examples where an artist debuted the same week in the Top 40 with more than one song? I'll bet there are but I can't think of another one.
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Post by bandit73 on Jan 20, 2007 14:24:12 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure the entire decade of the 1980s went by without a song leaving the top 40 and then reentering (unless it was a rerelease). I seem to remember that remake of "Always And Forever" doing this in 1990, and Shadoe mentioning that this was the first time this had happened since "One Way Or Another" by Blondie in 1979.
Another song from the '70s with weird chart movement was "Ariel" by Dean Friedman. (Supposedly this was a big New York hit first, then caught on elsewhere later.)
There was a record around 1977 called "Devil's Gun" that may have hit the lower reaches of the top 40, but I think it was mentioned later for setting some kind of record for most weeks in the Hot 100 that peaked below a certain position. This may have been another one that reentered the top 40 after leaving. I'm not sure about this though.
Then there's songs that stay on the chart for a very short period of time despite peaking pretty high, such as "Old Days" by Chicago or "Big Shot" by Billy Joel.
A weird example is "I Can't Stand The Rain" by Eruption, that I think peaked at #18 and had only 6 weeks in the top 40, yet still managed to make the year-end top 100, which just shows how long it spent on the "lower 60" of the Hot 100.
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Post by mstgator on Jan 20, 2007 18:50:08 GMT -5
Yeah, "Old Days" definitely had a unique chart run. It debuted at #17, and seven weeks later fell out of the Top 40 from the exact same position. Don't think I've ever seen another song spend its entire run on AT40 inside the Top 17.
As for "Devil's Gun", it started out with a fairly typical chart run, peaking at #36 in its ninth week on the Hot 100. After falling off AT40 though, it proceeded to spend an additional twenty weeks bouncing around below the Top 40 before finally dropping off the chart. It ended up at #100 on Billboard's yearend tabulation for 1977 (which AT40 didn't use).
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Post by bandit73 on Jan 20, 2007 19:21:47 GMT -5
Something else weird: Around late 1982 or early 1983, a lot of songs that peaked at #4 or lower spent at least 5 weeks at their peak position. One of the more unusual ones was "Muscles" by Diana Ross. If I remember right, it zoomed up the chart super-fast, peaked at #10 for 6 weeks, then dropped like a rock.
"Hold Me" by Fleetwood Mac may have held a record for most weeks at its peak position outside the top 2. It spent 7 weeks at #4.
Once in early 1983, there was a week when at least the entire top 10 stayed the same. This also happened once in the late '70s when the entire top 13 or 14 stayed the same.
I remember when "Down Under" was the last song to have nonconsecutive weeks at #1, and I waited for years for another song to repeat this feat. It never happened again in all the years AT40 used the Hot 100.
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Post by TomBest on Jan 21, 2007 13:42:44 GMT -5
I can vouch for the Ariel being big in New York in 1977 before catching on in the rest of the country. In May it gots lots of airplay. I moved to North Carolina in June and it wasn't on the radio until it hit the 40 again in July.
I lived in the New York area from mid 1974 - mid 1977 and WABC was still king. It seemed to take a while for many top 40 songs to make it to WABC's chart. (Revealed on Tuesdays afterschool with DJ Dan Ingram.) And other like "Ariel" were hits in NY long before the rest of the country. For is an example from 1975 that illustrates both.
"The Hustle" hit #1 in May 1975, a full two months before it hit #1 on AT40. Meanwhile, "Love Will Keep Us Together" was the breakout national hit, but not yet big in NY. However, it did hit #1 in New York and seemed to hang on all Summer. That's my recollection.
I googled "WABC's charts" and confirmed this. In fact LWKUT's sixth week at #1 in NY is the same week it regained it's bullet on AT40 (8/16/75). So there's another strange chart run, Love Will Keep Us Together falling quick, then slow and then rising in Summer 1975 because it was finally big in New York and eventually a bigger hit in New York than it was nationally.
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Post by coldcardinal on Jan 21, 2007 15:24:11 GMT -5
Something else weird: Around late 1982 or early 1983, a lot of songs that peaked at #4 or lower spent at least 5 weeks at their peak position. One of the more unusual ones was "Muscles" by Diana Ross. If I remember right, it zoomed up the chart super-fast, peaked at #10 for 6 weeks, then dropped like a rock. "Hold Me" by Fleetwood Mac may have held a record for most weeks at its peak position outside the top 2. It spent 7 weeks at #4. Once in early 1983, there was a week when at least the entire top 10 stayed the same. This also happened once in the late '70s when the entire top 13 or 14 stayed the same. I remember when "Down Under" was the last song to have nonconsecutive weeks at #1, and I waited for years for another song to repeat this feat. It never happened again in all the years AT40 used the Hot 100. Ha! You beat me to it. Yeah, that period of stagnation was weird, especially considering that it coincided with the most exciting, rapid change in the types of songs charting (the 2nd British invasion). I think the weirdest in that lot was Allentown -- 6 weeks at #17. Also, Separate Ways -- 6 weeks at #8. Heart to Heart -- 5 weeks at #15. Also, What About Me (Moving Pictures) spent a heck of a long time to get only to #29: 37,37,36,35,34,34,34,32,30,30,29,29
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