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Post by mrjukebox on Feb 7, 2008 21:53:18 GMT -5
How long did "AT40" use the "Shuckatoom" theme?-I believe it started towards the end of 1975.
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Post by vto66 on Feb 9, 2008 1:22:52 GMT -5
As far as I've learned, "Shuckatoom" started as a closing theme for the October 4, 1975 AT40 special about the biggest acts of the Rock Era, and for about a month, it was used to close each AT40 show. Then, the following month, it became the opening theme for AT40, and served as both an opening and closing theme for the show up until September 15, 1979. The following week, "Shuckatoom" was replaced with a new theme which. at first, was used to intro and outro the AT40 broadcast. This only lasted about a month, and by late October of that year, AT40 went back to "Shuckatoom" for opening music, while the new theme continued as closing music. "Shuckatoom" stayed on as AT40's opening theme from then on until the January 7, 1984 show, when it was heard for the very last time, while the closing theme went through several minor changes during that same period.
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Post by ontheair on Feb 18, 2008 1:49:06 GMT -5
Was that Sept. 15, 1979 theme the one with the sax solo in the middle? I'd love to get as clean a copy as possible of that one.  |
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Post by vto66 on Feb 18, 2008 20:21:26 GMT -5
Was that Sept. 15, 1979 theme the one with the sax solo in the middle? I'd love to get as clean a copy as possible of that one. According to what I read in Pete Battistini's "AT40: The 70s" book, "Shuckatoom" was still being used on the Sept. 15, 1979 show and, I believe it was on this very show that the full version of "Shuckatoom" was played for the very last time. The new theme debuted on the next week's show (Sept. 22) and, other than those two end-of-the-year specials (Top 50 of 1979 and Top 50 of the '70s), I don't know whether the "saxophone version" of the AT40 '79 theme was used on a regular basis before early 1982, around the same time Watermark was sold to ABC. I know that the edited, saxless version of this same theme closed AT40 at least as early as October 27, 1979. (XM played this AT40 show last year). That's about as much as I know. |
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Post by briguy52748 on Feb 26, 2008 22:17:09 GMT -5
A related question — the original moog theme had been used since the first AT40 broadcast. At some point, a more mellow, toned-down version was used as the hourly outro and the closing theme, while the original moog theme was used to open the show and each hour. Then, after the Shuckatoom theme began to be used as the main theme, the original moog theme was used for awhile to open each hour and the toned down version to close each hour.
The questions are this, then:
• When did the original "moog" theme go away all together? My guess is sometime in 1976, but I'm not sure.
• When did the toned down version of the original AT40 theme get played for the last time (as the hour close tune)?
Thanks!
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Post by vto66 on Feb 28, 2008 0:40:29 GMT -5
A related question — the original moog theme had been used since the first AT40 broadcast. At some point, a more mellow, toned-down version was used as the hourly outro and the closing theme, while the original moog theme was used to open the show and each hour. Then, after the Shuckatoom theme began to be used as the main theme, the original moog theme was used for awhile to open each hour and the toned down version to close each hour. The questions are this, then: • When did the original "moog" theme go away all together? My guess is sometime in 1976, but I'm not sure. • When did the toned down version of the original AT40 theme get played for the last time (as the hour close tune)? Thanks! Answering the second of the two questions, the last time the "mellow version" of the original AT40 theme was played was on the very last three-hour show, which aired the weekend of September 30, 1978. The following week brought the debut of the new, four-hour AT40 along with a more upbeat closing-hour theme. I'm not sure about the exact date that AT40 stopped using the original version of their original theme. I figure, just like you, that it was sometime in 1976,(This I know for sure, because I heard the original music on an XM rebroadcast of an AT40 show from January 1976) and I would guess that it was sometime around when they had their special Bicentennial countdown that they decided to do away with the original version of the theme and keep the "mellower" version around for a few more years. |
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Post by briguy52748 on Feb 28, 2008 13:13:26 GMT -5
vto66: Thanks for the reply. The final question is this:
• When did the "mellow" version of the original AT40 theme begin to be used? My guess is sometime in 1973 (as the hourly outry and, until "Shuckatoom" was used, the closing theme).
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Post by vto66 on Mar 2, 2008 14:03:55 GMT -5
vto66: Thanks for the reply. The final question is this: • When did the "mellow" version of the original AT40 theme begin to be used? My guess is sometime in 1973 (as the hourly outry and, until "Shuckatoom" was used, the closing theme). According to what I read in Pete's AT40 book, the mellow version was introduced on the January 13, 1973 show. |
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Post by drummer1965usa on Mar 7, 2008 19:40:31 GMT -5
I noticed in listening to the 1/17/1976 a couple of months ago that "Shuckatoom" was used to start the show, but the original Moog music was still in place as an into to hours 2 and 3. I know that by October of that year, "Shuckatoom" opened all three hours and closed the show, as well. When during '76 did the changeover take place?
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Post by vto66 on Mar 8, 2008 12:05:48 GMT -5
I'm guessing that it was the week that AT40 did its special "Bicentennial Countdown" of all the number-one hits from past 4th-of-July's.
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Post by dadetim on Mar 8, 2008 22:39:29 GMT -5
by not knowing the previous weeks before the bicentennial countdown, and listening to that special countdown...you might be right
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kentd
New Member
Posts: 35
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Post by kentd on Aug 6, 2008 11:50:50 GMT -5
Our local college age baseball team has been using the "Shuckatoom" theme at the end of ballgames, amazing how perfect it sounds for that event...
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Post by debwood1999 on Aug 6, 2008 12:31:15 GMT -5
For some reason, that theme doesn't seem to go out of style!:-D
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Post by mkarns on Aug 6, 2008 12:47:45 GMT -5
One thing I've wondered about "Shuckatoom"--AT40 cue sheets from the early 1980s still listed the closing theme as "Shuckatoom Theme From American Top 40 (Markwater Music/BMI)", but from what is said here, and from listening to the broadcasts, it seems that "Shuckatoom" was no longer being used to close after 1979, unless it was in a radically rearranged and rerecorded form. Was the 1979-83 closing theme that, or a totally new and different piece of music (and thus the cue sheets were in error)? If a new composition was being used, did it have a title?
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Post by vto66 on Aug 9, 2008 0:39:15 GMT -5
One thing I've wondered about "Shuckatoom"--AT40 cue sheets from the early 1980s still listed the closing theme as "Shuckatoom Theme From American Top 40 (Markwater Music/BMI)", but from what is said here, and from listening to the broadcasts, it seems that "Shuckatoom" was no longer being used to close after 1979, unless it was in a radically rearranged and rerecorded form. Was the 1979-83 closing theme that, or a totally new and different piece of music (and thus the cue sheets were in error)? If a new composition was being used, did it have a title? My guess is that it was a new composition. I'm not sure of the official title, but I often refer to it as "Coast To Coast." If anyone out there knows what the official title (if it even has one) is, please feel free to respond to this post. As far as why AT40 cue sheets still listed "Shuckatoom" as the AT40 closing theme, I'm not sure why they would, even if it was no longer being used as a closing theme. Maybe the person making up the cue sheets mistook it for a new arrangement of "Shuckatoom" rather than a completely new theme. Again, maybe somebody knows more about this than I do. ;D |
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