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Post by bestmusicexpert on Sept 27, 2014 16:20:46 GMT -5
She did very well!
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Post by richie on Sept 27, 2014 16:35:01 GMT -5
The second AT40 show which I've never heard and probably never will. Maybe someday a clean, unscoped, and complete copy will turn up when some old DJ's collection of radio stuff is being sorted through by his heirs... And hopefully they would realize its worth!
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Post by bestmusicexpert on Sept 27, 2014 17:06:57 GMT -5
I still can't believe people back then didn't try to save things like this and tv shows, etc. The wiping of shows was criminal!
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Post by jamie9012 on Sept 27, 2014 18:52:10 GMT -5
I would like to hear the Episode from September 5, 1981 again. When I first heard it in August of 2012, I did not recognize many of the Songs. However, as I have had the chance to hear them, I really want to hear it again.
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Post by doofus67 on Aug 19, 2015 20:37:09 GMT -5
I double- and triple-checked. Neither Premiere nor SiriusXM has ever played the 8/19/78 countdown. I've never heard it myself; I didn't discover AT40 for another six or seven months down the line. Looks like they won't run it this year either.
So, why would this particular show be so important to me? Well, I've seen that week's chart many times. Not only would the music mix bring back a flood of memories of the best summer of my life, but, more important, there's something very distinctive about the chart itself. I'll let Casey explain as only he could. On page 219 of Pete Battistini's book, there's a photo of a script card for the intro to the #1 song. Casey probably read it verbatim. It went something like this:
"Now let me mention something that the chart buffs among you have already noticed. The hits from back at #14 on up through #2 stayed in the same position as last week. Well, when we tallied it up, we discovered that the top 14 positions in the survey remain the same. And when we checked with the Director of Billboard's Chart Department, Bill Wardlow, he confirmed it for us: Never before in the 38-year history of the chart have so many songs at the top of the survey held the same position for two weeks in a row. The reason for it now is the big sales and frequent airplay all of these songs are getting..."
It's my favorite chart event of all time. I even have a catchy name for it -- "the Frozen 14"! In fact, the record still stands to this day. There have been charts where the top nine, ten, 11, or 12 have all held on, but never as many as the top 14, on this day in 1978. The chart had begun to turn over more slowly by then, compared with the '60s and early to mid-'70s, but this kind of stagnation was unheard of. We may never know how, or why, it happened.
More recently, I've made a point of memorizing this block of songs. I won't give it away, except to say that there was music by the Rolling Stones, the Commodores, Foreigner, Donna Summer, and Olivia Newton-John, just to name a handful. Such recall skills came in handy about three years ago, when "Mr. Music," Jerry Osborne, in his weekly column, answered a question on this very topic. He said the record was the top 12, in August, 1982, and January, 2004. I took it upon myself to correct him. If you're interested, here's a link to that column. You'll have to scroll through it a bit, but the full list is there: www.jerryosborne.com/6-18-12.htm
Also, according to Pete, I've missed a story on saxophonist Raphael Ravenscroft leading into "Baker Street"; another story on the first anniversary of Elvis's passing; an update on the great soul singer, Wilson Pickett; and the long version of "Macho Man," for heaven's sakes! Must-hear radio, right? Absolutely!
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Post by countdownmike on Aug 19, 2015 20:51:18 GMT -5
doofus67 that is incredible. I didn't know any of that. 1978 was my favorite late-70s summer of music. I vote for that show just because of what you wrote. My personal favorite was aired by SiriusXM a few weeks ago---show #3. The only one I have left is one from July 1971 that contains "Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)" by the Stylistics. Like the Delfonics song from show #3...it was on for just that one week.
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Post by saltrek on Aug 23, 2015 11:21:34 GMT -5
The summer of '78 is my favorite time for music as well.
As for that famous 'frozen 14" = I've mentioned this before, but it seems worth a repeat.
Back then, my next door neighbor commuted to NYC to work, and he would buy a copy of Billboard from a newsstand in Grand Central Station every Monday. Every Monday evening, I would go over and stand with him on his front porch thumbing through the magazine, examining the Hot 100 and such. So, I always knew the top 40 before it aired.
On the week of 8/12, my next door neighbor exclaimed that next week the top 14 would stay the same. I looked at him like he was nuts. He understood Billboard's bullet policy a lot better than me. All of the top 14 songs had bullets except "Miss You" by the Rolling Stones - which had just fallen from #1 to #4, but was still getting a lot of airplay. He surmised that "Miss You" was not going to drop any further, and that all the other songs had to keep their positions because they had bullets. And voila, 8/19 rolls around and he was right!
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Post by doofus67 on Aug 25, 2015 20:58:39 GMT -5
The summer of '78 is my favorite time for music as well. As for that famous 'frozen 14" = I've mentioned this before, but it seems worth a repeat. Back then, my next door neighbor commuted to NYC to work, and he would buy a copy of Billboard from a newsstand in Grand Central Station every Monday. Every Monday evening, I would go over and stand with him on his front porch thumbing through the magazine, examining the Hot 100 and such. So, I always knew the top 40 before it aired. On the week of 8/12, my next door neighbor exclaimed that next week the top 14 would stay the same. I looked at him like he was nuts. He understood Billboard's bullet policy a lot better than me. All of the top 14 songs had bullets except "Miss You" by the Rolling Stones - which had just fallen from #1 to #4, but was still getting a lot of airplay. He surmised that "Miss You" was not going to drop any further, and that all the other songs had to keep their positions because they had bullets. And voila, 8/19 rolls around and he was right! Thanks. That sheds a lot of light on how it happened. It's as good an explanation as any I could come up with. Why it happened is harder to understand. I do know that the same week's charts in Cash Box and Radio & Records were noticeably more fluid. Oh well. Mr. Wardlow moved in mysterious ways. (See the Chart Manipulations thread; I always say it's a must-read.)
Maybe you could also explain why this countdown has been collecting cobwebs. Is it precisely because of the lack of movement? It's not for a lack of good music by top-name artists, as I alluded to.
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Post by doofus67 on Aug 19, 2016 3:37:32 GMT -5
Again, just like last year at this time, I'm pulling for SiriusXM to cave in and run the 8/19/78 show tomorrow. They haven't done 1978 in a while, if you don't count the Top Acts of the '70s special from Fourth of July weekend. Come on, guys -- hook me up! You would make me SO happy.
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Post by dth1971 on Aug 19, 2016 7:06:11 GMT -5
How about the 8/16/1976 AT40 episode where future Casey countdown rival host Rick Dees was #1 with "Disco Duck"?
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Post by matt on Aug 19, 2016 8:16:15 GMT -5
How about the 8/16/1976 AT40 episode where future Casey countdown rival host Rick Dees was #1 with "Disco Duck"? I think you meant the 10/16/76 show...I am guessing there's a decent chance we'll hear that one this fall.
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Post by dth1971 on Aug 19, 2016 11:48:49 GMT -5
How about the 8/16/1976 AT40 episode where future Casey countdown rival host Rick Dees was #1 with "Disco Duck"? I think you meant the 10/16/76 show...I am guessing there's a decent chance we'll hear that one this fall. OOPS! SORRY!
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Post by mkarns on Aug 20, 2016 11:04:34 GMT -5
Again, just like last year at this time, I'm pulling for SiriusXM to cave in and run the 8/19/78 show tomorrow. They haven't done 1978 in a while, if you don't count the Top Acts of the '70s special from Fourth of July weekend. Come on, guys -- hook me up! You would make me SO happy. Ask and ye shall receive. SXM is doing 8/19/78 this weekend.
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Post by doofus67 on Aug 20, 2016 11:10:52 GMT -5
Again, just like last year at this time, I'm pulling for SiriusXM to cave in and run the 8/19/78 show tomorrow. They haven't done 1978 in a while, if you don't count the Top Acts of the '70s special from Fourth of July weekend. Come on, guys -- hook me up! You would make me SO happy. Ask and ye shall receive. SXM is doing 8/19/78 this weekend. Yes! I'm listening. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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Post by djjoe1960 on Aug 20, 2016 11:30:54 GMT -5
Funny, how this is the first time either SiriusXM or Premiere played this countdown. Just for comparison purposes 8 of the top 16, from the same week, held in the same position on the Cash Box chart.
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