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

[40fan]

That gal from the station in Georgia has a sweet voice but I have no idea who she is. The plug for WTLB Utica caught my ear. I've given a heads-up to my friends at CNYradio.com to listen for it. Maybe they can give a name to the voice.

I remember at least one station back in '74 that spliced up a "safe" version of the Paul Anka record by cutting "Didn't have to keep it, wouldn't put you through it, you could have swept it from your life but you wouldn't do it" and replacing it with a repeat of the phrase that starts "The need inside you..." I wouldn't call it political correctness, just a matter of 'let's not go there'!

BTW; did Casey ever do any lyric quoting after that song?

In the Don Bowman story; I wonder why there was no mention of Bowman being the host of American Country Countdown or that he had guest-hosted AT40 a year earlier.

Bowman's own record of "Wildwood Weed" was recorded in 1964 and has a few lines not included in Jim Stafford's cover.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar-Ws6PAeLI

[dukelightning]

reachin....I see what you mean about Last Dance so it comes down to Miss You and its staying power that allowed this to happen. In which case, what happened cannot be disputed.

Shall we discuss the week of 4/2/83 when the top 11 were the same. No? We'll do it anyway....lol

In this case, the 2 songs that held this chart up would be You Are at 4 and Back on the Chain Gang at 5. Both were bulleted the previous week and then were held at those positions before taking significant drops out of the top 10 the next week. So my theory is that at least one them should have been dropped the week of 4/2 if the bullet policy did not exist. BTW, holding at 11 was the future #1 Come on Eileen which does not make sense and that would not have happened if the chart was not frozen above it.

This bullet policy was stopped 4 weeks later. I would not be surprised if that change was a reaction to the chart of 4/2/83 either because of internal or external feedback.

40fan mentioned the female radio announcer and as Pete suggested, I will add that to the AT40 firsts if we can get her name.

[reachinforthestars]

Aug 13, 2011 10:23:02 GMT -5 dukelightning said:

Shall we discuss the week of 4/2/83 when the top 11 were the same. No? We'll do it anyway....lol

lol...well I cannot discuss the 80's with as much passion as the 60's and 70's because I feel the music is inferior to the prior two decades. But I was following Billboard chart every week for the first half of the 80's as well as creating my own personal Top 40 chart every week, so I can speak to the 4/2/1983 example.

On the 4/2/1983 chart, I completely agree with you about the bullet policy holding up the chart. It has all of the signs that I was referring to in my prior posts. The song I would focus on most would be "Back On The Chain Gang" since "You Are" had the super bullet the prior week. BOTCG had the conventional bullet showing that it was beginning to lose steam. They allowed "You Are" to go from a super bullet to no bullet that week, which might be considered radical by Billboard's standards at that time! lol

And don't get me started on what Billboard was doing with the country chart in the early 80's. That also drove me away from monitoring Billboard charts in the 80's when chart manipulation was at an all-time high.

[dukelightning]

I didn't follow the country charts very much. I do remember there being incredible turnover at #1 back then. Always thought country fans were fickle or something but your comment implies a Billboard chart policy instead.

[erik]

It was interesting to hear the radio announcers call their own stations. How long did this feature last on AT40? I presume it was for a very brief time as I have never caught a show like this before.

[dukelightning]

fred, you are correct in your assumption....that started on 6/22 and last happened on 9/28/74

[40fan]

Casey says that Fancy's cover of "Wild Thing" is the third time the song made the top 40. The Troggs, of course, had the first. The second (not mentioned) was a 1967 novelty record by comedian Bill Minkin who did it as a tongue-in-cheek impersonation of Bobby Kennedy.

There was earlier discussion here about Three Dog Night's streak of top 10 hits. With "Sure As I'm Sittin' Here" leveling off on this countdown, that's what ended it!

[rgmike]

This weeks countdown began and ended with songs where Brits seem to be writing about American places they've never actually visited. "Beach Baby" is about surfing but references San Jose (not exactly a sufer's paradise; it isn't even in Southern Cal) and Paper Lace don't seem to have a grip on Chicago geography either. Others would include Kim Wilde's "Kids in America" with its reference to "East California". Others?

[dukelightning]

Aug 13, 2011 13:50:55 GMT -5 40fan said:

Casey says that Fancy's cover of "Wild Thing" is the third time the song made the top 40. The Troggs, of course, had the first. The second (not mentioned) was a 1967 novelty record by comedian Bill Minkin who did it as a tongue-in-cheek impersonation of Bobby Kennedy.

There was earlier discussion here about Three Dog Night's streak of top 10 hits. With "Sure As I'm Sittin' Here" leveling off on this countdown, that's what ended it!

You don't have it quite right. It was their top 20 streak that was discussed. (They had no top 10 streak at this point anyway). And it was their next single that ended the top 20 streak.

[bigal]

I might be getting old, but I could have swore ASHES BY NOW by Rodney Crowell moved from 39 to 37 with a bullet (or some other sign), but fell out of the top 40?

[freakyflybry]

Aug 13, 2011 15:03:53 GMT -5 rgmike said:

This weeks countdown began and ended with songs where Brits seem to be writing about American places they've never actually visited. "Beach Baby" is about surfing but references San Jose (not exactly a sufer's paradise; it isn't even in Southern Cal) and Paper Lace don't seem to have a grip on Chicago geography either. Others would include Kim Wilde's "Kids in America" with its reference to "East California". Others?

A UK hit here that never made the US charts, but Tony Christie did a song "(Is This The Way To) Amarillo" yet had never visited Amarillo, Texas.

[dukelightning]

Sideshow is the second big hit for Blue Magic? WTF. Casey, surely a #74 hit does not qualify as a big hit. That was their only other single to this point. Regardless, nothing compares to this gem.

[mrjukebox]

I had heard somewhere that the individual who wrote "The Night Chicago Died" was misinformed about the city-There is no East Side.

[jgve1952]

for bigal and dukedeb: bigal, if you think you're getting old you sure have not lost your sharpness and attention to detail--you are absolutely 100% correct. I searched Google Books for the July 5th 1980 Hot 100 and sure enough Ashes by Now did jump from 39 to 37 with a "star/bullet" and I couldn't find the July 12th Billboard Hot 100, but I did check the Top 40 on OldRadioShows.com and it was not in the Top 40 on July 12th, meaning that yes it did drop after having gotten a bullet. That is such awesome knowledge and I know dukedeb really likes to keep up with such challenges as well as I do! Thanks again bigal for that nugget of chart knowledge. I think most of our friends and families would roll their eyes that we get such thrills from finding these contradictions, but oh well....I am who I am!!!!

[dukelightning]

jgve....thanks for the reference.....you have to wonder if these examples are situations where Billboard intentionally bypassed their bullet rule or if it was an oversight. I would think it was the latter. How could they possibly catch every instance of a bulleted song from the previous week especially at a position like 37 or lower.