Dees show

[Deleted]

Could someone please answer a question for me? I have never heard the Hot AC version of the Rick Dees "Weekly Top 40" but I recorded this show from him off the internet that is only counting down 30 songs and is nowhere near the same chart as the CHR chart I hear. Is this the Hot AC version fo the show? or something else?

[Hervard]

Yes, that is the Hot AC version of the show and it should match up to the Hot AC chart in the R&R Magazine (or on the website anyway).

However, it never used to be this way at all. It was basically the chart that Dees was using (he deviated away from the R&R CHR/Pop chart from June, 1995 through July, 1997) with holes punched in it.

What that means is that Rick used the same chart as his original Top 40 version of the show, without the non-playable songs for Hot A/C (i.e. hip-hop, rap, heavy metal songs), which, of course, left holes in the chart. Those holes were usually filled with songs that had been recently sent to recurrent on the CHR/Pop chart (which explains how "Wonder" by Natalie Merchant was suddenly back on the chart at number one in the summer of 1996, during the three weeks that the Fugees were at #1 on Rick's chart (which seemed to be a combination of the CHR/Pop and CHR/Rhythmic charts)) or a song that was doing rather well on the Hot A/C chart that was not yet on the CHR/Pop chart.
Those songs were usually in the Top 20, although occasionally, he'd replace songs between 21 and 30. More on that later.

And, instead of having the same recurrent song representing the same non-Hot AC song, Rick would always be switching things around. I remember one week in 1997, to replace the #21 song, he played "A Little More Time With You" by James Taylor, and didn't play it the next week (or any other time, for that matter). As a result, it was like it debuted at #21 and departed the following week - a totally unlikely chart situation. And some songs had very erratic chart runs. I remember in September, 1996, Toni Braxton's "You're Making Me High" was number 28, the next week it was #3, then it was #26 or something like that the next week. Does any song on the face of the earth make such a chart run? I think not!

In other words, the chart was totally inconsistent and it created a virtually impossible situation for people who wrote the chart down on a weekly basis, although I wrote down the Top 40 songs from the website and at the bottom of the page, wrote the number of the replaced songs and the song they were replaced with.

An example - on the September 6-7 show, there were six non-playable songs in the Top 20 - "2 Become 1" at #4, "Do You Know (What It Takes) at 6, "Men In Black" at 8, "I'll Be Missing You" at 13, "Return Of The Mack" at 14 and Coco Jamboo at #20. Under the Top 40 chart, it looked like so:

Hot A/C:
#4: You Were Meant For Me/Jewel
#6: Shame On You/The Indigo Girls
#8: Barely Breathing/Duncan Sheik
#13: Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?Paula Cole
#14: To Make You Feel My Love/Billy Joel
#20: Four Leaf Clover/Abra Moore

Under those, I wrote the Sure Shot, which kicks off the show every week. In many cases, the Sure Shot caused Rick to skip over a song, usually in the Top 20 (you know, when he just mentions a song and its position and then goes on to the next one). In these cases, in parentheses, I'd write the number of the skipped song after the title and artist of the Sure Shot. Either there was no skipped song in the Top 20 this week or this was before I began the practice of writing down the number of the song, since there's no number after the Sure Shot for the week of the chart I'm using as an example (which, by the way, was "Janie Don't Take Your Love To Town" by Jon Bon Jovi)

Another thing - the show is four hours long and there are 30 songs. The other ten songs were Hot A/C extras and were usually all played during the first two hours, and then it was the regular countdown songs from #20 on. As far as I know, the Weekly Top 40 Extras are still done that way. But, from what I've heard, the chart now goes by the R&R Hot AC chart. I guess the producers of the Rick Dees show finally realized that you can't take the Top 40 chart, poke a few holes in it and call it Hot A/C. Kind of sad it took it this long to catch on, but whatever...

Anyway, I hope this clarifies your question, Paul.

(This should probably moved to General Music Discussion, or maybe there should be a thread called "Other Countdown Shows" created)

[nenad]

As an addition to earlier post I'd like to say that it Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 (actually almost 35 or so) HotAC is based on R&R HotAC chart.

I listen(ed) to it few times when Z99 switched from CHR/POP Rick Dees WT40 and added AT40 with Ryan to the station.

I wasn't listening to the show in the past - I have few copies in my trading collection, but I cannot compare whether the chart is accurate or not... but I what I can say is that there's always actual R&R Top 30 songs played nower days, and rest is filled with songs bubbling under Top 30 and few pop hits from the past years... so sometimes you could say it is actually Top 35 - but those songs (#31-35-36 or so) are just mentioned as extras.

Cheers.

[Hervard]

nenad said:

I wasn't listening to the show in the past - I have few copies in my trading collection, but I cannot compare whether the chart is accurate or not... but I what I can say is that there's always actual R&R Top 30 songs played nower days, and rest is filled with songs bubbling under Top 30 and few pop hits from the past years... so sometimes you could say it is actually Top 35 - but those songs (#31-35-36 or so) are just mentioned as extras.

And that's the way it should be. Actually, since the R&R's Hot AC chart is now a Top 40 (up until May, 2002, it was a 30-position chart), there wouldn't really be any reason that they couldn't start using the entire chart, since that's pretty much what it's like now.

[Karstens]

The reason they could not use the entire 40 position chart is because the stations don't want minor songs that aren't on their playlist played for a countdown.

The PD/MD probably would say "If you play those songs, we drop the show. Accurate chart of all 40 songs, who cares!!! We just want our music format followed by a national star for four shows, so our regular DJ gets a day off."

OR

Will the show adjust to like the new AT40 with a ton of recurrents based only on stations airing the show, thus no minor songs breaking the tight playlist.

[nenad]

Karstens,

Don't really think that your theory holds in this case.

They still play the songs that are bubbling under Top30 - most of them are though new(er) songs, not yet entered Top 30 or with a very short chart run before falling off the Top 30.
But - the difference is that - those songs are not introduced on the show as #31....40 (their actual chart position), they are introduced as "extras".

[Hervard]

nenad said:

Karstens,

Don't really think that your theory holds in this case.

They still play the songs that are bubbling under Top30 - most of them are though new(er) songs, not yet entered Top 30 or with a very short chart run before falling off the Top 30.
But - the difference is that - those songs are not introduced on the show as #31....40 (their actual chart position), they are introduced as "extras".

And I imagine some of the songs are ones that don't even make the top 30, right? If so, then, as I said, they might as well just go to a 40-position chart, since it's the Rick Dees Weekly Top 40, not the Rick Dees Weekly Top 30 or Top 35 or whatever.
Either that, or they could replace these minor songs that the PDs don't want played on their station or they'll melt - with songs that recently went recurrent, just like they used to do with the hole-laden Top 40 chart they used before, only without switching things around to confuse listeners.
Although, now that I think about it, it would be kind of hard to do. For one, they don't know what songs aren't going to make the Top 30 and besides, they would run out of recurrent songs. I guess the best thing to do (for the stations that want to avoid the obscure song at all costs) is just to play a recurrent song as if it's returning to the chart and have it follow the chart run of the song that looks like it's going to chart low, then once it makes it up into the Top 30, start playing the song and drop the recurrent.
Of course, that might be pretty difficult to do as well, so I guess having a Top 30 and playing "bubbling under" songs as well as songs from past years is the easiest thing to do and eliminates headaches, which would likely result from doing it the way I was thinking.

[Deleted]

I don't get this involved....I like the music. I just asked the question many moons ago so I knew what the heck it was I was listening to. I like the show, although it is very pieced together which sucks.

[donmccullen]

Karstens said:

The reason they could not use the entire 40 position chart is because the stations don't want minor songs that aren't on their playlist played for a countdown.

The PD/MD probably would say "If you play those songs, we drop the show. Accurate chart of all 40 songs, who cares!!! We just want our music format followed by a national star for four shows, so our regular DJ gets a day off."

OR

Will the show adjust to like the new AT40 with a ton of recurrents based only on stations airing the show, thus no minor songs breaking the tight playlist.

...and that is why AT40 has no recurrent rule

[Hervard]

Actually, now that I think about it, Rick could somehow get a hold of a chart that has a whole slew of recurrents like the AT40 chart. That way, they could go to a full Top 40 chart since, as I said, it's the "Rick Dees Weekly Top 40", not "The Rick Dees Weekly Top 30" or "Weekly Top 35". It seems to make no sense for it to be called a "Top 40" show if the number of actual songs in the countdown is not 40.

The question some people are probably asking is "What about the Hot A/C Extras from the 1990s?" Well, Rick could still play a few of those, too, inserting them into the countdown in place of a song that's on its way down the chart and everyone is getting tired of (one of the recurrents that's been on since 2002 would be ideal) and then mention that song after the "replacement extra" is played (i.e. "Santana and Michelle Brance popped in at number 35 with 'The Game Of Love'..." and on with the song at #34).

There's even a few times Rick plays a "Special Request" on the Top 40 show and doesn't need to insert an extra, since, I'm guessing, there are a few songs on the chart with unusually short playing times.

BTW, I realize that "upper management" would be responsible for this and I know that Rick or the staff don't have any say in it. This is just a possible solution.

But even if they don't use this idea, the Hot AC show as it is right now is a lot better than it was in the late 1990s when the chart was basically the CHR/Pop chart with holes poked in it.