AT40: The 70s ... This Week's Show

[ontheair]

Well, I came upon it completely by accident. Off to one side of the welcoming page of WHNN
(http://www.whnn.com), under the current Mid-Michigan temperature, you'll see a small picture of Casey. Click on the link under the picture and follow the link on the page that comes up.

[upland1425]

Thank you for your valuable info I will look into that site every week. Should any of you locate the same for the '80s show, please advise.

ontheair said:

Well, I came upon it completely by accident. Off to one side of the welcoming page of WHNN
(http://www.whnn.com), under the current Mid-Michigan temperature, you'll see a small picture of Casey. Click on the link under the picture and follow the link on the page that comes up.

[drummer1965usa]

Excellent show this weekend from 3/5/1977! It was fun to hear "Crackerbox Palace" and "Living Next Door To Alice" again for the first time in many, many years (probably since the original airing!). Casey's story about a panicked Barry Manilow getting his own gig as a supporting act for Bette Midler in the early 70s was a good one, as was the one about David Soul, the co-star of a "violent" TV show, having a tender love ballad on the charts.

[redsox]

was this the episode in which Casey almost screws up the countdown?

[ontheair]

I don't think he screwed up this particular countdown, but I know _I_ screwed up recording the first hour, and missed the AT40 Extra. (If anyone can email me an mp3, I'd appreciate it.)
Speaking of the 70s, last week I acquired the Bicentennial Special LPs (and next week I hope te receive the AT40 Double Dozen LPs). Now, the Bicentennial Special is famous for the wrong song being played for the 1938 entry. Can anyone recall other instances during the regular countdown when the wrong record was played?

[mrjukebox]

In his book,"American Top 40:Countdown Of The Century",author Rob Durkee mentions that when Mark Elliott filled in for Casey the weekend of January 6,1979,he played "An Everlasting Love" by Andy Gibb instead of Andy's then current smash:"Our Love (Don't Throw It All Away")-I also believe that during the Shadoe Stevens regime,the B side of a Guns & Roses song was played instead of the hit side.

[briguy52748]

Agreed with drummer1965usa on the wide variety of stories. Also noteworthy: The number of country crossover hits that were in the Top 40. And these weren't remixes like you'd hear today on Top 40 radio, but country and pop radio having the same version. All these songs made the Top 40 of Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and thus, were played at some point during the late winter/early spring of 1977 on AT40's country sister show, "American Country Countdown":

• "Moody Blue" — Elvis Presley
• "Say You'll Stay Until Tomorrow" — Tom Jones
• "Southern Nights" by Glen Campbell
• "Torn Between Two Lovers" by Mary MacGregor
• "Right Time of the Night" by Jennifer Warnes
• "Sam" by Olivia Newton-John

Also inside the Hot Country Singles' Top 40 during the spring of 1977 was Johnny Carver's cover version of Smokie's "Living Next Door to Alice." As such, the March 5, 1977 AT40 was great for its snapshot of what was also popular on country radio at the time; Elvis and Tom Jones each had had No. 1 country hits with their songs, and Glen Campbell would soon join them (imagine that — three No. 1 country songs in the Top 40, and one of them, "Southern Nights," would also top the Hot 100).

Wonder if Shannon Lynn has any copies of the March 5, 1977 "American Country Countdown" (or the cue sheet) where we can all compare notes with the AT40 of the same week?

In any event, the country crossovers, the stories and 11 No. 1 hits (at the time, former, current or soon-to-be, of course) makes this show an A-plus IMO!

Brian

[drummer1965usa]

I think what redsox is referring to is what happened during the following week's program, 3/12/1977, when three songs were played out of order from the way they were listed in Billboard. One was "Sam" by Olivia Newton-John, but I can't recall what the other two were. During the third hour of the program, Casey corrected the mistake, which helped out people like me who were keeping track of what was being played. I think this was also the week that "Hotel California" debuted in the Top 40, and "Go Your Own Way" was perched at #10 to become the first of what would be, by the end of the year, a (then) record four Top 10 songs from the same album.

[Scott Lakefield]

This weekend's (3/15-16/08) edition of "Casey Kasem's American Top 40: The 70s" features a rebroadcast of the show from 3/2/74.

[tacomalo]

admin said:

This weekend's (3/15-16/08) edition of "Casey Kasem's American Top 40: The 70s" features a rebroadcast of the show from 3/2/74.

BUMMER! I was hoping for 3/9/74---instead we get another show already played on XM! At least XM isn't doing a repeat...until next week

[ontheair]

WHNN has posted the current show's cue sheet; however, you may encounter difficulty with their link this time (it caused my computer to freeze); to avoid that, here's a direct link:
images.radcity.net/5874/2492885.pdf

[vto66]

tacomalo said:

admin said:

This weekend's (3/15-16/08) edition of "Casey Kasem's American Top 40: The 70s" features a rebroadcast of the show from 3/2/74.

BUMMER! I was hoping for 3/9/74---instead we get another show already played on XM! At least XM isn't doing a repeat...until next week

I guess maybe better luck next year for that 3/9/74 show.

[mrjukebox]

Here's my prediction for next week's "AT40-The 70's":3/22/75-It makes perfect sense to air this countdown since it aired exactly thirty-three years ago next Saturday-FYI:XM is running the 3/29/75 show next weekend.

[briguy52748]

Another good show here. Several of the year's top hits, including what became the No. 1 song of 1974 (Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were") are included. Plus, once again, we have a brace of country crossover hits that were also featured on "American Country Countdown," which by this time was up and running strongly after just five months on the air.

The country crossovers, for those of you who keep track of such things:

• "There Won't Be Anymore" by Charlie Rich (on its way to No. 1 on the Hot Country Singles chart)
• "Let Me Be There" by Olivia Newton-John (which had peaked at No. 7 back in December on the country chart)
• "A Love Song" by Anne Murray (on its way to a No. 5 peak on the country chart)
• "I Love" by Tom T. Hall (which had gone No. 1 back in January)

There was also "Sunshine on My Shoulders" by John Denver, which didn't quite make the Top 40 of the country chart but would gain oldie airplay in time in that genre.

As far as covers by country artists, there was:

• "Americans," which Tex Ritter — who had died exactly two months earlier — had recorded and placed in the Top 40, ironically right around the time of his death.
• "Last Time I Saw Him," which Dottie West covered. Her version of the Diana Ross tune was released in May and made the top 10 of the Hot Country Singles chart in July.
• "Seasons in the Sun," the No. 1 song on this week's AT40 re-broadcast. The country cover was done by by Bobby Wright (son of country legends Johnny Wright and Kitty Wells). Wright's version began a six-week run on ACC at the end of March, eventually peaking at No. 24 on the Hot Country Singles chart.

And — although it wouldn't happen until 2004 — country singer Toby Keith would record a cover version of "Mockingbird" featuring his daughter, Krystal (this week's version, of course, was the Carly Simon-James Taylor duet, itself a cover).

Topping it off: A reader question asking about the biggest country crossover hit of all time: "The Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton, which spent six weeks atop the Hot 100 chart in 1959 (and 10 weeks on the Hot Country C&W Sides chart). However, Casey must have been referring to songs only since October 1958, when the entire chart system in Billboard was consolidated into all-encompassing charts (from the old airplay-only and sales-only charts; there had earlier been a jukebox plays-only chart), as there were a few titles that spent much longer at No. 1 on both charts. "Slipping Around" by Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely (1949), and "Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis Presley (1956) both immediately come to mind.

Incidentally, "There Won't Be Anymore" was Billboard's No. 1 country song of 1974. That means we have the rare instance of (what would become) the No. 1 song of the year for the Hot Country Singles chart (Rich) and Hot 100 (Streisand) featured on American Top 40 in the same week. It would happen again in the summer of 1975, when Glen Campbell ("Rhinestone Cowboy" on the country chart) and the Captain & Tennille ("Love Will Keep Us Together" on the Hot 100) were on AT40 for several weeks at the same time.

Anyhow, another good show.

Brian

[ontheair]

I used to have this week's show on vinyl years ago, so it's a treat to hear it again, but it's been so many years that I don't remember what was edited out of it for the rebroadcast.