A tie at #20!

[RNH]

I just read the current R+R Hot AC chart. There seems to be a tie at #20 with both KT Tunstall and Jack Johnson equaling 898 plays. However, Tunstall is positioned at #20 and Johnson at #21.

Does anyone know why one song is positioned higher than the other? Is there a tiebreaker rule with R+R?

Is it possible Casey will play both songs? (I hope so! I like Johnson's song after watching the Curious George movie with both my grandmother and niece! I would not like to see it disincluded!) If so, has a tie ever happened on any countdown show? And what was done about it?

[Matt Cameron]

I think they break the tie based on the biggest gain in spins for that week, so Casey will probably only play the Tunstall song.
If I'm not mistaken, a tie at one chart position occurred on one or two countdowns in the early 70's. Perhaps if Pete B. is reading this he can fill us in.
Did you notice last week that R&R had Lifehouse's "You and Me" beating James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" by one spin?

[cdman71031]

There was a tie or two on the 1974 year end in BB. I don't think on the show though but in 1975 I'm sure there was a tie mentioned on the year end show near the bottom of the chart. Can anyone remember where?

[mstgator]

Both the 1974 and 1975 yearend shows had ties (apparently Billboard didn't have a tiebreaker on its yearend charts at that time).

1974 had ties at #37, #44, #54, #85 and #91.

1975 had ties at #27, #66, #71 and #97.

The only other time I recall ties ever being mentioned on AT40 was in a Question Letter about whether there had ever been a tie at #1. The answer was yes (back in the pre-Hot 100 era). There have been instances of ties at #1 on the R&R chart, but they are broken by spin gains and I'm fairly certain were never mentioned by Casey.

[Radioman]

rnh said:

I just read the current R+R Hot AC chart. There seems to be a tie at #20 with both KT Tunstall and Jack Johnson equaling 898 plays. However, Tunstall is positioned at #20 and Johnson at #21.

Does anyone know why one song is positioned higher than the other? Is there a tiebreaker rule with R+R?

Is it possible Casey will play both songs? (I hope so! I like Johnson's song after watching the Curious George movie with both my grandmother and niece! I would not like to see it disincluded!) If so, has a tie ever happened on any countdown show? And what was done about it?

The song beeing played on more stations is positioned higher on the charts. We see only the number of plays on the chart, not at how many stations they might be played.
Why should Casey play both songs ? R&R made a clear decission by positioning one at N° 20 and the other one at N°21, so the AT20 staff will probably not know about the tie in airplays. They simply take the Top 20 and play them in order.
Eventually the #21 song will make it's Top 20 debut later on ...... or it will never happen.
Just think of the many N°2 songs in the history of the charts, who never made it to Number 1 just because of a very small step.

[RNH]

It will be interesting to see if Casey plays both songs this weekend. I suspect he will not.

But it does not matter! The current R+R Hot AC chart is now out and Jack Johnson's "Upside Down" is at #20 all by itself for this week!

(I have a feeling #20 is going to be its peak! We will have a one-week wonder!)

[Radioman]

rnh said:

It will be interesting to see if Casey plays both songs this weekend. I suspect he will not.

But it does not matter! The current R+R Hot AC chart is now out and Jack Johnson's "Upside Down" is at #20 all by itself for this week!

(I have a feeling #20 is going to be its peak! We will have a one-week wonder!)

As I've mentioned above: I can't think of having 2 songs played for the same position. Something like this never happened. And there is no need for a double play at #20, since R&R says there is ONE song at #20, not two .....

And because of Jack Johnson's hit: You never know how it will do on the chart. Just think of the current hit by STAIND right now in the upper part of AT20 ..... and still climbing. No one has this one on the bill, but it came in, held for a while, fell down and now it's up again.
OK, I confess this hit is something special with it's unique sound and flair ..... so you may be right: Johnson's hit will remain a #20 wonder. Eventually we have to see what's coming up below .

[BrettVW]

*spoiler alert*








Casey played KT Tunstall at # 20 and made no mention of a tie. I predicted this is how they would do it, but had an ounce of hope they may have mentioned the tie, which would have been cool.

[at40petebattistini]

I'm a little late with a response but mstgator's reply about ties found within year-end programs is correct. I'm not aware of any songs tied for the same position in a weekly chart.

What is interesting is how Billboard handled the ties for the 1974 and 1975 year-end lists. If two songs were tied at #97, there was no #96. If two songs were tied at #72, there was no #71. However, many radio stations at the time calculated their own year-end surveys and when a tie between records occured, some stations would not overlook the missed position. If there were two songs at #87, the list contained a #86 record, etc.

In retrospect, it's too bad Billboard didn't do that -- we would've been treated with a few year-end countdown extras!