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Post by cayleytable on Aug 27, 2024 7:05:51 GMT -5
I realized while listening to this past weekend's 8/20/83 show that ELO's 19th Top 40 hit, "Rock 'N' Roll Is King," peaked at #19. This makes me wonder: a) is 19 is the largest value of N for which an act's Nth hit peaked at #N, and b) how many other acts have songs that satisfy this condition for some number N? Obviously there are a slew whose first Top 40 hit went to #1 and no doubt there are plenty of others for N = 2 and 3. Did anybody do it more than once? (ELO came close with "Telephone Line" and the 2 Xanadu hits.) I'm sure I'll be doing some digging myself for the classic Casey era, but maybe some of you already know something about this.
Apologies if this topic has already been hashed out in another thread--I didn't see anything in a quick search.
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Post by doofus67 on Sept 3, 2024 1:01:00 GMT -5
I would say this topic is definitely something new. Not to mention a great idea! To qualify for the list, an artist had to achieve at least five top-40 singles, and only songs from that artist's fifth hit on made it. If both sides were shown on the chart, it still counts as one single, unlike in early editions of Joel Whitburn's Top 40 Hits books, which I referred to extensively! Peak dates came from the Records and Charts Database. Yes, a few artists pulled off this feat twice. I limited the listing to songs that charted during the original Casey era, July 1970 through August 1988. As you'll see, one song was still climbing towards its peak as of Casey's last episode. | Artist | Song | Number | Peak pos | Peak date | | The Kinks | "Lola" | 9th | #9 | 10/24/70 | | Cher (solo) | "The Way of Love" | 7th | #7 | 3/25/72 | | The Rolling Stones | "Happy" | 22nd | #22 | 8/19/72 | | Chicago | "Feelin' Stronger Every Day" | 10th | #10 | 8/18/73 | | Three Dog Night | "Let Me Serenade You" | 17th | #17 | 12/1/73 | | Ringo Starr | "Oh My My" | 5th | #5 | 4/27/74 | | John Denver | "Back Home Again" | 5th | #5 | 11/9/74 | | Ringo Starr | "Only You" | 6th | #6 | 1/11/75 | | Carole King | "Nightingale" | 9th | #9 | 3/1/75 | | Frankie Valli | "Swearin' to God" | 6th | #6 | 7/26/75 | | The Temptations | "Glasshouse" | 37th | #37 | 8/30/75 | | Linda Ronstadt | "Heat Wave" /
"Love Is a Rose" | 5th | #5 | 11/15/75 | | Earth, Wind & Fire | "Sing a Song" | 5th | #5 | 2/7/76 | | Seals & Crofts | "Get Closer" | 6th | #6 | 7/24/76 | | The Eagles | "Life in the Fast Lane" | 11th | #11 | 6/25/77 | | Stevie Wonder | "Another Star" | 32nd | #32 | 10/8/77 | | John Travolta | "Summer Nights" | 5th | #5 | 9/30/78 | | The Who | "Who Are You" | 14th | #14 | 11/4/78 | | Elton John | "Part-Time Love" | 22nd | #22 | 12/16/78 | | Kenny Rogers (solo) | "She Believes in Me" | 5th | #5 | 7/7/79 | | Dr. Hook | "When You're in Love
with a Beautiful Woman" | 6th | #6 | 8/11/79 | | The Little River Band | "Lonesome Loser" | 6th | #6 | 9/29/79 | | Fleetwood Mac | "Tusk" | 8th | #8 | 11/3/79 | | Carly Simon | "Jesse" | 11th | #11 | 11/1/80 | | Heart | "Tell It Like It Is" | 8th | #8 | 1/10/81 | | Eddie Rabbitt | "Step by Step" | 5th | #5 | 10/17/81 | | Air Supply | "Here I Am" | 5th | #5 | 11/21/81 | | Neil Diamond | "Be Mine Tonight" | 35th | #35 | 7/3/82 | | Fleetwood Mac | "Gypsy" | 12th | #12 | 10/23/82 | | Billy Joel | "Allentown" | 17th | #17 | 2/5/83 | | Sheena Easton | "We've Got Tonight" | 6th | #6 | 3/26/83 | | Electric Light Orchestra | "Rock 'n' Roll Is King" | 19th | #19 | 8/20/83 | | John Mellencamp | "Pink Houses" | 8th | #8 | 2/11/84 | | Huey Lewis & the News | "If This Is It" | 6th | #6 | 9/15/84 | | Prince | "I Would Die 4 U" | 8th | #8 | 2/2/85 | | Heart | "What About Love?" | 10th | #10 | 8/24/85 | | Miami Sound Machine | "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You" | 5th | #5 | 8/1/87 | | ABC | "When Smokey Sings" | 5th | #5 | 9/19/87 | | Cher (solo) | "We All Sleep Alone" | 14th | #14 | 6/11/88 | | Whitney Houston | "Love Will Save the Day" | 9th | #9 | 8/27/88
(#15 on 8/6) | Honorable mention:
James Brown | "I'm a Greedy Man" | 36th | #35 | 12/11/71 |
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Post by cayleytable on Sept 3, 2024 7:35:42 GMT -5
Wow, wow, wow! Thanks for all your work, doofus67!
I had started on this myself, using my own copy of Whitburn's Top 40 Hits, but had gotten only through the C's. (I had missed "We All Sleep Alone.") A few nuggets that don't make the cut due to looking just at fifth hits or beyond: Bread did it with their 1st and 4th hits ("Make It with You"/"If"), as did the Captain & Tennille ("Love Will Keep Us Together"/"Shop Around"), while the Carpenters did it with their first 3 Top 40 songs ("Close to You"/"We've Only Just Begun"/"For All We Know").
I was confounded by double-sided hits in the case of Chicago. Whitburn lists the #7-peaking "Beginnings"/"Colour My World" as their 6th and 7th top 40 hits, respectively. But if that counts as just one entry, I think that would make the #10 hit "Feelin' Stronger Every Day" their 10th Top 40 record?
Finally, I did find one song that you don't have listed: "When Smokey Sings" by ABC was their 5th Top 40 hit, and it reached its peak of #5 on 9/19/87.
Again, thanks! This is great.
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Post by LC on Sept 3, 2024 7:55:06 GMT -5
And the odds against some of those occurrences, especially in the 20s and 30s, must be astronomical....
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Post by doofus67 on Sept 3, 2024 23:52:49 GMT -5
Yup, you nailed both Chicago and ABC. That gives you 41 songs by 37 different artists.
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