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Post by mkarns on Dec 7, 2019 22:24:19 GMT -5
Casey says "8 of the Top Ten songs are ballads". I guess my definition of a ballad is different than his  I suppose "Rock Steady" and "Shaft" are the non-ballads in his mind (?) but I'd say the Cher and Sly hits are in a gray area at best. As a 'story song', "Gypsies..." fits the original definition of a 'ballad' better than most. I thought his definition of "ballad" was stretching it a bit, including songs ("An Old Fashioned Love Song" is another) that are a bit more uptempo than what I think of as a ballad. Still, there was apparently an increasingly soft tone to the pop charts around this time that may have spilled over into Casey's delivery. At the Charis Music Group site, the cue sheets for the following week (12/11/71) include several pages of master log sheets and a rundown which includes some handwritten notes, including the observation that "Shows have gradually become more 'lay-back'" and there wasn't enough excitement in Casey's voice. |
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Post by at40petebattistini on Dec 8, 2019 1:42:40 GMT -5
I’ve long believed that part of Casey’s delivery during 1971’s year-end show (January 1, 1972) was his most laid-back behind the AT40 mike. And perhaps there’s one reason for that – at least 22 of 1971’s Top 40 singles ranked on Billboard’s Easy Listening charts at some point during the year. Obviously, most of those were ballads. And I’m convinced that the music that made its way to this countdown had to be one reason for Casey’s relaxed performance. Worth mentioning, the show was still produced in real time then -- Casey sat through each song until production was complete.
But that Easy Listening chart...note that a few of the songs reaching the Easy Listening survey in 1971 were head scratchers. The best example? I can’t imagine any radio station with a middle-of-the-road format playing Dean Martin, Jack Jones and the Sounds of Sunshine, then dropping in “One Fine Morning” by Lighthouse. However, believe it or not, that Canadian rocker spent 4 weeks on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart.
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Post by darnall42 on Dec 8, 2019 6:23:47 GMT -5
LM Radio will air the AT40 from December 8th 1979 this week
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Post by Hervard on Dec 8, 2019 12:21:19 GMT -5
This week's presentations (Weekend of December 14-15, 2019): December 16, 1978 - 4 hours (OPTIONAL ORIGINAL HOUR 1). American Top 10: The Top 60 Christmas Songs - Part 2 - December 24, 2005 (HOLIDAY) - 3 hours. Cue sheets: December 16, 1978: charismusicgroup.com/Cue%20Sheets/12-16-78.pdfI'm going to go out on a limb and guess 12/16/1972 for the show for the weekend of December 21-22. Can't be the 12/23 show, since that was the year-ender, which was run last year. 1977 and 1975 also have somewhat long droughts, but the last shows of both years were both played last year, so those are obviously out. 12/19/1970, my secondary guess, is also ripe for a repeat, since that was last played in 2014. The 1972 show I mentioned was last played in 2009, so that's why it's my first guess, while 12/19/1970 is closer to the show date. However, 1970 is a possible candidate for the year-ender, as it's been longest since we've heard that one, so that explains why it's my second guess. |
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Post by rgmike on Dec 8, 2019 15:08:12 GMT -5
As a 'story song', "Gypsies..." fits the original definition of a 'ballad' better than most. I thought his definition of "ballad" was stretching it a bit, including songs ("An Old Fashioned Love Song" is another) that are a bit more uptempo than what I think of as a ballad. Still, there was apparently an increasingly soft tone to the pop charts around this time that may have spilled over into Casey's delivery. At the Charis Music Group site, the cue sheets for the following week (12/11/71) include several pages of master log sheets and a rundown which includes some handwritten notes, including the observation that "Shows have gradually become more 'lay-back'" and there wasn't enough excitement in Casey's voice. Guess there weren't enuf "uptempo GD numbers, man!" |
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Post by mrjukebox on Dec 8, 2019 17:08:59 GMT -5
This weekend's countdown from 12/4/71 featured "Desiderata" by Les Crane-A year later,a parody called "Deteriorata" briefly made the Hot 100-It was narrated by Norman Rose & the female singer was a then unknown Melissa Manchester-It's worth checking out.
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Post by doofus67 on Dec 8, 2019 18:23:10 GMT -5
This weekend's countdown from 12/4/71 featured "Desiderata" by Les Crane-A year later,a parody called "Deteriorata" briefly made the Hot 100-It was narrated by Norman Rose & the female singer was a then unknown Melissa Manchester-It's worth checking out. Label image: www.45cat.com/record/bta218 |
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Post by rgmike on Dec 8, 2019 19:16:14 GMT -5
That was quite a condensed version of "American Trilogy" we got this week.
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Post by pb on Dec 8, 2019 19:48:16 GMT -5
That was quite a condensed version of "American Trilogy" we got this week. As I mentioned in my critique the last time they aired the show, they gave only the briefest sample of the James Brown song too. I remember someone (Pete Battastini or Ken Martin?) mentioning that they could never find a 45 of "An American Trilogy" that wasn't noisy. |
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Post by kchkwong on Dec 8, 2019 21:51:37 GMT -5
Predictions for the optional extras:
Da Ya Think I'm Sexy - Rod Stewart
I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
Lotta Love - Nicolette Larson
The Christmas Song - Nat "King" Cole
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Post by mkarns on Dec 9, 2019 0:36:54 GMT -5
That was quite a condensed version of "American Trilogy" we got this week. As I mentioned in my critique the last time they aired the show, they gave only the briefest sample of the James Brown song too. I remember someone (Pete Battastini or Ken Martin?) mentioning that they could never find a 45 of "An American Trilogy" that wasn't noisy. Rob Durkee's AT40 history book cites record librarian Earl Jive as saying "I believe there were scratches and pops on every copy we had" of "An American Trilogy". Jive was replaced as AT40 librarian by Ann Beebe, who recalled buying a boxful of records presumably to play on the show and found that while driving them in her car in the California heat some of them melted. At that time, before remastered CD's and online streaming, it was sometimes difficult to find good sounding copies even of current hit records, let alone oldies. The first AT40 Christmas special, also from December 1971, skipped over several songs that made its rankings because they couldn't find quality copies to play, and some of the songs that were played weren't the most recognized hit versions presumably because of the same problem. This was later corrected so that the 70s Christmas countdowns we hear from Premiere now are played as originally intended, with the original recordings in high quality sound. |
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Post by trekkielo on Dec 9, 2019 12:43:58 GMT -5
I’ve long believed that part of Casey’s delivery during 1971’s year-end show (January 1, 1972) was his most laid-back behind the AT40 mike. And perhaps there’s one reason for that – at least 22 of 1971’s Top 40 singles ranked on Billboard’s Easy Listening charts at some point during the year. Obviously, most of those were ballads. And I’m convinced that the music that made its way to this countdown had to be one reason for Casey’s relaxed performance. Worth mentioning, the show was still produced in real time then -- Casey sat through each song until production was complete. But that Easy Listening chart...note that a few of the songs reaching the Easy Listening survey in 1971 were head scratchers. The best example? I can’t imagine any radio station with a middle-of-the-road format playing Dean Martin, Jack Jones and the Sounds of Sunshine, then dropping in “One Fine Morning” by Lighthouse. However, believe it or not, that Canadian rocker spent 4 weeks on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart. An opposite example would be later in the dynamite decade, when Casey Kasem told the story about "Music Box Dancer" by Frank Mills in 1979!  |
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Post by kchkwong on Dec 9, 2019 22:15:43 GMT -5
Optional extras as confirmed by jdelachjr2002:
Hour #1: "You've Got A Friend" - James Taylor (original AT40 Archive extra)
Hour #2: "I Will Survive" - Gloria Gaynor
Hour #3: "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" - Rod Stewart
Hour #4: "The Christmas Song" - Nat "King" Cole (original AT40 extra)
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Post by djjoe1960 on Dec 10, 2019 10:20:45 GMT -5
I’ve long believed that part of Casey’s delivery during 1971’s year-end show (January 1, 1972) was his most laid-back behind the AT40 mike. And perhaps there’s one reason for that – at least 22 of 1971’s Top 40 singles ranked on Billboard’s Easy Listening charts at some point during the year. Obviously, most of those were ballads. And I’m convinced that the music that made its way to this countdown had to be one reason for Casey’s relaxed performance. Worth mentioning, the show was still produced in real time then -- Casey sat through each song until production was complete. Pete,
I always wondered about Casey's laid back delivery on the 1971 year end show--and I assumed maybe he was a little under the weather or was just tired. One other possibility is that they were going for that laid back FM jock style that was popular at the time. As you indicate the show was still being recorded in 'real time' so maybe the mellow sound of the songs--mellowed Casey as well.
Regardless, 1971 was the year that I really started to listen to pop/rock radio and I am disappointed that AT40 didn't play more than the Top 40 for that year.
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Post by OnWithTheCountdown on Dec 10, 2019 12:54:56 GMT -5
I’ve long believed that part of Casey’s delivery during 1971’s year-end show (January 1, 1972) was his most laid-back behind the AT40 mike. And perhaps there’s one reason for that – at least 22 of 1971’s Top 40 singles ranked on Billboard’s Easy Listening charts at some point during the year. Obviously, most of those were ballads. And I’m convinced that the music that made its way to this countdown had to be one reason for Casey’s relaxed performance. Worth mentioning, the show was still produced in real time then -- Casey sat through each song until production was complete. Pete,
I always wondered about Casey's laid back delivery on the 1971 year end show--and I assumed maybe he was a little under the weather or was just tired. One other possibility is that they were going for that laid back FM jock style that was popular at the time. As you indicate the show was still being recorded in 'real time' so maybe the mellow sound of the songs--mellowed Casey as well.
Regardless, 1971 was the year that I really started to listen to pop/rock radio and I am disappointed that AT40 didn't play more than the Top 40 for that year.
I wonder if Ken Martin might do the same for the 1971 year-end that he did for 1973; expand it to 80. 1971 was also the first year Opus had the year-end special too; seems to be a rare find though. That's the only one of those I'm missing in my collection. |
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