AT40's First Show 07/04/70

[Matt Cameron]

By the numbers:
-features hits by Three Dog Night, the Four Tops, the Jackson 5, the Fifth Dimension, and the Five Stairsteps (Casey refers to them as "the Stairsteps", but they were still billed as "the Five Stairsteps" on the record label).
-features two hits by CSNY ("Ohio" and "Teach Your Children")
-features three of Tony Burrows' five Top Forty appearances (he's the lead singer on White Plains' "My Baby Loves Lovin'", Brotherhood of Man's "United We Stand", and the low scratchy voice heard on the Pipkins' "Gimme Dat Ding"). He also hit the Forty as lead singer of Edison Lighthouse' "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" and First Class' "Beach Baby"). I'm not sure if any of these groups actually existed outside the confines of the recording studio.
-featues four extras, in addition to the Top Forty, for a total of 44 songs played in just over 2 hours and 15 minutes! Try that with the songs of today!
-features the number one and two artists of the rock era (Elvis and the Beatles, of course) at #'s 9 and 8, respectively.
-features two of the greatest One-Hit Wonder songs ever (Alive & Kicking's "Tighter, Tighter" and the Five Stairsteps' "O-o-h Child")
Boy, Casey's radio persona was still a work in progress, huh? Loved how his voice dips to a whisper at some times.
A very enjoyable show, and a definite time capsule!!

[Scott Lakefield]

While a great show for all of the great information you provide, I just couldn't get into the "early Casey" voice. Just WAY too laid back and a little boring.

[Matt Cameron]

Agreed, I really enjoyed the "Classic Casey" Era (late 70s-mid 80's), but it was neat to hear Casey crack a joke here and there (like introing John Phillips' "Mississippi" with "M-i-ss-ss-....." then outroing it with "....i-ss-i-pp-i") and noting that Mark Lindsay (on the chart with "Silver Bird") had gold-plated hub caps on his Rolls. "..and I'll bet he doesn't park it on the street."
It was obvious that Casey and the AT40 staff's knack for prediction-making started out bad. Introing Mountain's "Mississippi Queen" at #21, he stated "..it's gonna be a big one!" No, it isn't. The song peaked at #21 that week. Although in fairness, that song still gets played on AOR radio today, so it's survived a lot better than other bigger hits on the chart.

[Deleted]

I remember the Mark Lindsay intro especially because he didnt take a breath through it.

[Matt Cameron]

I noticed that! Seems like on that song and a few others (like the story read during "Satisfaction") that Casey was hurrying, trying to finish reading the copy before the song lyrics started. I love the fact that in the early days they recorded the show basically in "real time", which took 18 hours for that first show. I'd have loved to have been there!!

[Scott Lakefield]

Exactly it...which I think gave the show a nicer flow. I'm not big on the fact that today, they don't always put Casey's voicetracks over the song intros. Even when you knew it was a production room creation, there's nothing like hearing Casey "hit the post."

[Matt Cameron]

I agree with you, Scott. When I was a kid, I had this image in my head of Casey actually spinning the tunes on the turntable as he's introing them. Alas...
Anybody remember a couple years ago when Casey told the story on AT40 of this orchestra from Europe that played instruments made from vegetables? He ended the segment by taking what sounded to me like a big bite of celery, then said, with a mouth full of food, "Mmm, now on with the countdown!" I thought that was hysterical.

[BrettVW]

I do remember that, although I do not have a recording of it. I also remember the crazy clip he played.

I remember another instance in early 2003 when he was introing "I Drove All Night" on AT40, and was talking about Celine Dion and all of her siblings and the crazy sleeping arrangements they had when they were kids. He laughed so hard, started to read the next line, said "uhh" paused and had to restart. That was great and I was glad they left it in the show. They should definately do that sort of stuff more often.

[Hervard]

BrettVW said:

I do remember that, although I do not have a recording of it. I also remember the crazy clip he played.

I remember another instance in early 2003 when he was introing "I Drove All Night" on AT40, and was talking about Celine Dion and all of her siblings and the crazy sleeping arrangements they had when they were kids. He laughed so hard, started to read the next line, said "uhh" paused and had to restart. That was great and I was glad they left it in the show. They should definately do that sort of stuff more often.

I remember that one. He laughed when Celine said that one of the boys had to sleep with his brother's toes up his nose. I probably would have made a face, since that sounds totally gross.

Casey also laughed during the aforementioned veggie orchestra story, when he was talking about how "Redepsky (sp?) March" was "March of the Radishes" in English. He had to start the line over, too.

[Scott Lakefield]

Yes, just makes it sound more natural. I have no idea which show it was, but I remember a CT40 show from the early 90s on which Casey did a story about the Chipmunks. He teased it into a break, and then they speeded-up the CT40 jingle such that it sounded like Alvin, Simon, and Theodore singing "Casey's Top 40." Love that kind of stuff!

[Matt Cameron]

Jeez, I was thinking of that Celine Dion story at work today!! Casey laughed so hard he lost his place in the copy! I love stuff like that. So much more fun to listen to than forced humor.

[Hervard]

liberaljag said:

Jeez, I was thinking of that Celine Dion story at work today!! Casey laughed so hard he lost his place in the copy! I love stuff like that. So much more fun to listen to than forced humor.

Hmm, I don't remember Casey laughing that hard. Then again, I had just woken up and was still half-asleep. I'll have to somehow get a copy of the show sometime (I believe it was April, 2003)

[Matt Cameron]

Yeah, that's a memory that stuck with me. He started chuckling and you could hear him stumble a second or so on the script. Funny stuff.