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Post by bottlerocket on Feb 25, 2012 16:47:16 GMT -5
For me, it's hard to pick a week based on the music (each year is like a different child for me - I love each in their own way) or Casey (he was consistently better than anyone else in this role.) However, there is probably only one show during the Casey years that I would not download if it aired -- the Top 50 songs of the 70s. In no way does that represent, in my mind, the top 50 songs of the 70s as represented by the weekly Billboard charts and, therefore, I have no interest in acknowledging it as part of my collection.
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Post by johnnywest on Feb 25, 2012 18:11:28 GMT -5
Even worse for 1993 to 1999, thanks mainly to grunge and alternative crap. And, oh yeah, (c)rap. I don't care for rap either, but I believe there were quite a few weeks in 1999 (and also 2000) when there were no rap hits on the countdown at all. It's when Top 40 was going through a Latin phase, with songs by Santana, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony and (to a lesser extent) Christina Aguilera.
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Post by johnnywest on Feb 25, 2012 18:19:52 GMT -5
The Giants of Rock & Roll show (7/4/86) was a pretty bad idea. The show was a DJ survey of top producers. The show played songs that spanned 30 years and the songs played didn't fit into a countdown theme. Yeah, I forgot about the "top producers" show. The general audience doesn't know a thing about who produced what and probably don't even care. And as someone else mentioned, there were some guest hosted shows that were pretty bad. Martha Quinn filling in for Shadoe Stevens comes to mind.
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Post by jdelachjr2002 on Feb 25, 2012 19:30:15 GMT -5
I have written two posts about this special today so might as well add it to this list. The top 40 new artists of the 80s special in 1988 because of all the artists not included in it. Due to oversight or being anal about qualification, artists like Sheena Easton, Pat Benatar, Prince and Bryan Adams were not eligible even though they are as associated with the 80s as Madonna and Duran Duran. Sheena Easton was eligible for inclusion so her omission was simply an oversight. Prince and Pat Benatar had the tough luck of having their very first singles - though they peaked in 1980 charts - begin charting on the last 1979 charts ("Heartbreaker" debuted on 12/22/1979!). Bryan Adams' first chart appearance was much earlier in the 1970's.
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Post by mkarns on Feb 25, 2012 22:44:45 GMT -5
I have written two posts about this special today so might as well add it to this list. The top 40 new artists of the 80s special in 1988 because of all the artists not included in it. Due to oversight or being anal about qualification, artists like Sheena Easton, Pat Benatar, Prince and Bryan Adams were not eligible even though they are as associated with the 80s as Madonna and Duran Duran. Bryan Adams' first chart appearance was much earlier in the 1970's. Is that "Roxy Roller", by "Sweeney Todd featuring Nick Gilder"? (#90 in August 1976, though #1 in Canada). I think Casey played a piece of it once in the 80s, though I personally probably wouldn't count it if I were making up that list (I'm not sure if Bryan was even credited as vocalist.)
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Post by dukelightning on Feb 25, 2012 22:57:36 GMT -5
Correct on both the song in question and whether it should have counted. I would have said if your first top 40 hit peaked in the 80s, you qualified for that special. All 4 artists I mentioned would have qualified in that scenario.
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Post by 80sat40fan on Feb 26, 2012 12:38:20 GMT -5
If I had to select a regular countdown for least favorite, I would say 12/19/1981. While I wasn't wowed with any of the debuts, there was at least some decent chart movement in the first third of the countdown. And then the "mechanical" part of the countdown kicked in: #26, #24, #22 and #20 all held steady so that #25, #23, #21 and #19 could move up two notches. #18 was up one notch. #17 was down ten notches from the week before so that ten of the next twelve songs could move up one notch each. At least Hall & Oates jumped from 13 to 6 for a little excitement. The fact that a classic like Centerfold by J. Geils was up two notches that week (25 to 23) yet zoomed up 12 notches to #11 the next week said this wasn't the most accurate countdown.
If I had to select a bad hour of a countdown, the first hour of 7/10/1982 is my pick. Five songs held their positions from the week before (40, 38, 37, 35 and 33), and only one of the songs that hour would crack the top 20 (Melissa Manchester). What is interesting is the following week, 40/J Geils dropped to 55, 38/Van Halen fell to 54, 37/Blondie slid to 53, 35/Neil Diamond slipped to 52, and 33/Heart descended to 51. Five songs all hold their positions one week and then somehow remain in order and are back to back the following week? Really?!
Chart movements could make or break a countdown for me. Nothing wrong with songs holding at the same position for a few weeks but when so many songs outside of the Top 10 hold their positions or have similar chart movements... those are the "not so great" countdowns for me.
Great topic!
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Post by matt on Feb 26, 2012 23:01:59 GMT -5
I'm sure there's someone who may disagree with me but just one program comes to mind -- the July 2, 1977 special, The Top 40 Girls of the Rock Era. It's like one big pointless oldies program culminating with "Tammy" by Debbie Reynolds at #1. Pete--have to admit when I first saw the title of this show a couple years ago (I was a little too young to remember when it actually aired), I thought "Girls of Rock and Roll--must be a show of the top women artists in rock and roll." Then found out it was merely a show of songs with girls' names in the titles. Kinda weird...
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Post by BrettVW on Feb 26, 2012 23:19:55 GMT -5
It's funny to think of slow chart movement in the 70s and 80s, and then to think of AT20 and AT10 from the last decade when songs would hold in position for months at a time... thank goodness those shows were filled with extras and stories.
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Post by JMW on Feb 26, 2012 23:28:47 GMT -5
If I had to select a bad hour of a countdown, the first hour of 7/10/1982 is my pick. -- Chart movements could make or break a countdown for me. Nothing wrong with songs holding at the same position for a few weeks but when so many songs outside of the Top 10 hold their positions or have similar chart movements... those are the "not so great" countdowns for me. This is the exact reason why I didn't like the 7/10/1982 countdown as a whole; it was the only countdown in the three years I've been listening to these shows where I couldn't wait for it to be over.
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Post by johnnywest on Feb 29, 2012 15:45:31 GMT -5
It's funny to think of slow chart movement in the 70s and 80s, and then to think of AT20 and AT10 from the last decade when songs would hold in position for months at a time... thank goodness those shows were filled with extras and stories. On AT10 in 2008, Casey noted that "Feels Like Tonight" by Daughtry had spent 8 straight weeks in the #10 position - the all-time record in that position (although it didn't peak there).
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Post by mkarns on Feb 29, 2012 16:06:19 GMT -5
It's funny to think of slow chart movement in the 70s and 80s, and then to think of AT20 and AT10 from the last decade when songs would hold in position for months at a time... thank goodness those shows were filled with extras and stories. Isn't that a major reason why American Top 20 (the softer AC version) became American Top 10? With such slow chart movement and relatively little change in the songs and artists charting, Casey and others must have thought, correctly, that a much more interesting show could be made by somewhat downplaying the countdown and emphasizing stories, extras, and thematic "spotlights".
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Post by dukelightning on Feb 29, 2012 16:15:44 GMT -5
That reasoning is why I have always thought the entertainment value from just a chart perspective of AT40/20/10/CT40 was at its highest during the 70s. There was a lot of chart movement and the suspense factor was high. I have not listened to countdowns for about 20 years but I can sense that the suspense factor is way down. I mean how exciting can it be to wonder for the first 3 hours of a show whether Joe Artist is going to stay at #6 for a 9th consecutive week or not?
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Post by JMW on Feb 29, 2012 17:55:37 GMT -5
I have not listened to countdowns for about 20 years but I can sense that the suspense factor is way down. I mean how exciting can it be to wonder for the first 3 hours of a show whether Joe Artist is going to stay at #6 for a 9th consecutive week or not? Plus, that information is probably already online before the show airs.
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Post by tarobe on Mar 4, 2012 0:30:50 GMT -5
I have two words for "safe" radio: the first is a verb, the second a pronoun. Would that verb be in the imperative mood, and would that pronoun be second person singular?
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