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Post by mga707 on Jun 11, 2023 13:45:56 GMT -5
Cher was initially offered "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" but Sonny turned it down. Logical lapses in that song big enough to drive a semi truck through...
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Post by rgmike on Jun 11, 2023 13:51:09 GMT -5
Cher was initially offered "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" but Sonny turned it down. Logical lapses in that song big enough to drive a semi truck through... True, tho' that wasn't Sonny's reason. He thought TNtLWOiG would "offend Southerners". But a few moths later he deemed "Half Breed" totally non-offensive (yeah, I know, Cher has native American blood.)
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Post by briguy52748 on Jun 11, 2023 14:12:59 GMT -5
This is despite the fact that the 6/12/82 show announced a ranking of the 40 best albums in rock history. I'm thinking the #1 album would have been between Rumours and Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack. Well, I’m now intrigued. What would an “AT40 Top Albums Of All Time” special have looked like? I could imagine such a special would have included the No. 1 country album of all time (through 1982) and the top R&B album of all time (through 1982), as ranked by their respective genre’s album charts … if they were not already ranked in the all-time top 40 list. And just out of curiosity, anyone have any guesses — or if there was an official reason — why this special never came off? I could have seen a “Top 40 Country Crossovers” special in either 1984 or 1985. In ‘82, we were coming off the biggest boom period for crossover since the mid-1970s. Wonder what other specials we could’ve had in this time frame? Brian
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Post by mkarns on Jun 11, 2023 14:17:23 GMT -5
Cher was initially offered "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" but Sonny turned it down. Logical lapses in that song big enough to drive a semi truck through... Speaking of driving vehicles through things, 6/12/82 is one of what must be at least four or five shows from 1977-87 in which Casey told the story of the destruction of Fat Albert's Saloon in which Kansas were playing, which culminated in a drunk backing his car right into the building. It's of course a good story that most acts can't tell from direct memory....
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Post by lasvegaskid on Jun 11, 2023 14:37:40 GMT -5
During the 6/12/1982 countdown, Casey mentioned the staff working overtime on a special countdown of the top 40 albums of the rock era. Did anything ever come of it? I'm guessing coming up with a metric was a nightmare. Sales data is proprietary within labels. You could use RIAA certs but those are optional and not always a good measure. If you use chart performance how do you adjust for the 60s where albums sold swat, then the 70s and 80s when sales exploded (and if you wanted to stretch the concept out to today where sales are back down to peanuts)
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Post by Mike on Jun 11, 2023 14:44:54 GMT -5
I think Queen hit rock bottom (pun intended) with "Body Language." It's Exhibit A for what killed their career in the US. “Body Language” also had a pretty racy (at least for its time) video that was banned I believe by MTV. I respectfully disagree that was what killed their career. They would have one more Top 40 hit with 1984’s “Radio Ga Ga” which would peak at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100. It would be the next single “I Want To Break Free” (it wouldn’t even break the Top 40) that I believe killed Queen’s success in the US, despite putting out great music until Freddie Mercury died 7 years later. The “I Want To Break Free” music video had the band in drag, pretty harmless stuff but it was banned by MTV and I sure there was a lot of homophobia, especially since it was rumoured that Freddie was gay. The video is actually pretty funny. That’s when I believe their career died in the US. Shame too. They released some good music after “The Works” album and “I Want To Break Free”. They would release three more albums before Freddie Mercury’s death in 1991. Sad that American audiences wouldn’t look past Freddie’s sexuality and radio and MTV just stopped playing their music. Worse, really - the video isn't merely "oh, they went drag for the video", it is specifically a parody of the British soap opera Coronation Street. Which is fine for Britain - not just because they were more open-minded even in 1984, but because the reference is specific to that country. Problem is, that doesn't work elsewhere, which means you get left with...just "going drag for the video". This is an instance where they really would have needed to shoot a separate video for other world markets - and may have even informed making that a regular practice, as now that I think of it, I can't think of any instances prior to this where a song would have had separate videos for different areas, but after this, it would certainly be a thing. Conversely, this same sort of "what applies to Britain doesn't apply elsewhere" would cut in the other direction some years later in 1992-93 for the movie The Crying Game - which failed in Britain (where it was released first, in October 1992), due to its heavily political tone, in particular a sympathetic portrayal of an Irish Republican soldier. But since those politics didn't mean nearly as much to U.S. audiences, what the movie would instead have to go on would be the "sexual politics", as it were - consequently, it would be a decent-sized hit here.
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Post by mkarns on Jun 11, 2023 14:44:59 GMT -5
I'm thinking the #1 album would have been between Rumours and Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack. Well, I’m now intrigued. What would an “AT40 Top Albums Of All Time” special have looked like? I could imagine such a special would have included the No. 1 country album of all time (through 1982) and the top R&B album of all time (through 1982), as ranked by their respective genre’s album charts … if they were not already ranked in the all-time top 40 list. And just out of curiosity, anyone have any guesses — or if there was an official reason — why this special never came off? I could have seen a “Top 40 Country Crossovers” special in either 1984 or 1985. In ‘82, we were coming off the biggest boom period for crossover since the mid-1970s. Wonder what other specials we could’ve had in this time frame? Brian I don't think that by 1984 or 1985 a top 40 country crossovers special would have worked anymore with CHR affiliates, though American Country Countdown could have done a special of the biggest hits that crossed over to the pop chart. Maybe if Casey were doing adult contemporary countdowns by then (which he didn't start until 1992) it might have worked there. I guess a 1980s top albums of all time special could have merged sales data and chart performance. Maybe they couldn't arrive at a workable formula or get reliable enough data, or the result was too weighted to some specific period of history or included too many albums from long ago that wouldn't have been familiar to 80s pop radio listeners? (Casey did specify that it was to be a countdown of the top 40 rock albums, so a lot of soundtracks and Broadway cast albums, as well as pre-rock era pop, would presumably have been excluded.) Or logistically it just wasn't ready for July 4th weekend for whatever reason, and the concept was abandoned. Hopefully at least the AT40 staff was paid for the extra hours Casey said they put into it.
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Post by skuncle on Jun 11, 2023 17:04:08 GMT -5
I always liked the songs Chips Moman produced, particularly the country stuff he did in the 70's. Another 70's producer whose work I like is Snuff Garrett. He did a bunch of country stuff in the 70's as well as Cher's 70's hits and Vicki Lawrence's "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia". It was Snuff Garrett with help from Leon Russell that led to a number of hits for Gary Lewis & The Playboys and Brian Hyland's hit The Joker Went Wild. Garrett produced Lizzy & The Rainman for Tanya Tucker. That song was co-written by Kenny O'Dell the writer of Behind Closed Doors and a pop hit in the 60's Next Plane To London. The other co-writer was Larry Henley the lead singer of the Newbeats (Bread And Butter). Henley went on to write a song called Wind Beneath My Wings which was recorded by a number of artists including Lou Rawls,Gary Morris and Bette Midler. Hal Blaine played drums on Lizzy On The Rainman. The drums on Lizzie And The Rainman are what make that song so great. Tanya does that song still but they totally whimp out on the drum part, it's just a gentle roll, not a thundering one like on the record.
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Post by briguy52748 on Jun 11, 2023 18:25:50 GMT -5
I don't think that by 1984 or 1985 a top 40 country crossovers special would have worked anymore with CHR affiliates, though American Country Countdown could have done a special of the biggest hits that crossed over to the pop chart. Maybe if Casey were doing adult contemporary countdowns by then (which he didn't start until 1992) it might have worked there. I guess a 1980s top albums of all time special could have merged sales data and chart performance. Maybe they couldn't arrive at a workable formula or get reliable enough data, or the result was too weighted to some specific period of history or included too many albums from long ago that wouldn't have been familiar to 80s pop radio listeners? (Casey did specify that it was to be a countdown of the top 40 rock albums, so a lot of soundtracks and Broadway cast albums, as well as pre-rock era pop, would presumably have been excluded.) Or logistically it just wasn't ready for July 4th weekend for whatever reason, and the concept was abandoned. Hopefully at least the AT40 staff was paid for the extra hours Casey said they put into it. I think 1984 would have been the absolute latest we’d have seen a country crossover special. There were several recent crossovers that I’m guessing were still in recurrent status the July 4 weekend of 1984, such as “ To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before” by Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias, and “ Islands In the Stream” by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, among others. Maybe not so much 1985, however. My own answer for why the Top Albums special never came off? My own gut tells me the list would have had many Broadway/pre-1970s soundtrack albums. To wit: You include Grease and Saturday Night Fever, you also have to include Oklahoma! and West Side Story, maybe Camelot. Certainly, a comedy album or two, as by people like Bob Newhart and Bill Cosby, would also crack the Top 40, too. My gut says the formula and even timeframe (post-1955) was set and was working … but too many songs outside the formula of 1982-era CHR to make it an accurate survey. FTR: ACC’s first special of the 1980s, at least since the 1970s decade-end special in January 1980, wasn’t until 1983 and the “Book Of Records” (to mark 10 years on the air). Brian
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Post by lasvegaskid on Jun 11, 2023 18:59:26 GMT -5
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Post by at40petebattistini on Jun 11, 2023 21:42:09 GMT -5
During the 6/12/1982 countdown, Casey mentioned the staff working overtime on a special countdown of the top 40 albums of the rock era. Did anything ever come of it? In an interview with AT40 staffer Matt Wilson described in my 80s book, the album special had been abandoned once he returned from a leave of absence in 1982. Although Matt was AT40's statistician at the time, he indicated that producer/writer Don Bustany had developed a complex formula for the album special. Apparently, that included sales information which was difficult or impossible to obtain from some record companies. I made a feeble attempt to compile a Rock Era, best-selling album list a few years ago, using Billboard stats thru the end of 1981. During my research, I discovered that Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass had no less than 5 gold LPs from the 1960s, with each charting 125 weeks or longer. And soundtracks from The Sound Of Music and West Side Story lasted on the album chart approximately 200 weeks apiece. In order to have an album countdown on Top 40 stations in 1982 that didn't turn off a sizable chunk of audience, some genres (such as AC and show soundtracks) would've had to have been axed. Perhaps this type of information also contributed to giving up on the idea.
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Post by Mike on Jun 11, 2023 23:22:03 GMT -5
I can't see AC being THAT big of a deal-breaker as to warrant being axed from an album countdown in 1982, at least not solely due to AC being AC. But if they would've taken up like half the countdown or so...then perhaps?
As an aside, for the countdown week that got us talking about all this, the countdown's #1 song was also the week's #1 AC song - but this week would be it for that chart, as "Any Day Now" would take over there next week.
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Post by Jessica on Jun 11, 2023 23:24:15 GMT -5
KOSF airing the 1988 show. Currently at #25 (Wait by White Lion).
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Post by at40petebattistini on Jun 11, 2023 23:37:45 GMT -5
I can't see AC being THAT big of a deal-breaker as to warrant being axed from an album countdown in 1982, at least not solely due to AC being AC. But if they would've taken up like half the countdown or so...then perhaps? As an aside, for the countdown week that got us talking about all this, the countdown's #1 song was also the week's #1 AC song - but this week would be it for that chart, as "Any Day Now" would take over there next week. As far as I could tell, albums by The Kingston Trio, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, The Platters, Johnny Mathis, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, and multiple Herb Alpert/Tijuana Brass LPs were potential candidates for a 'best of Rock Era' album countdown. It's my belief that most of those AC artists may not have been met favorably with a Top 40 countdown audience in 1982.
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Post by mga707 on Jun 12, 2023 0:39:58 GMT -5
I can't see AC being THAT big of a deal-breaker as to warrant being axed from an album countdown in 1982, at least not solely due to AC being AC. But if they would've taken up like half the countdown or so...then perhaps? As an aside, for the countdown week that got us talking about all this, the countdown's #1 song was also the week's #1 AC song - but this week would be it for that chart, as "Any Day Now" would take over there next week. As far as I could tell, albums by The Kingston Trio, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, The Platters, Johnny Mathis, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, and multiple Herb Alpert/Tijuana Brass LPs were potential candidates for a 'best of Rock Era' album countdown. It's my belief that most of those AC artists may not have been met favorably with a Top 40 countdown audience in 1982. Agree. Herb and the TJB were an LP chart juggernaut in the mid-'60s, with 8 of the 9 albums they released between the beginning of 1965 and mid-1968 reaching the top 10. The only one that didn't was an album of older, previously-unreleased recordings from 1963 that reached #17 in early 1966. And of those 9 top 10 albums, 5 reached #1, with a total of 32 weeks topping the chart. All of the Brass' eight top 10 LPs stayed on the chart (a 150-position chart until April 1967, when it expanded to 175 and then to 200 in May) for a minimum of 49 weeks, with four remaining for over 100 weeks, the longevity-holder being 1965's "Whipped Cream and Other Delights", iconic cover and all, lasting an amazing 185 weeks--about 3 and a half years--on the LP chart. Lastly, the group scored 11 straight Gold-certified albums between 1963 and 1969. Alpert and his band were huge album sellers in the '60s.
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