Post by Matt Cameron on Jul 4, 2005 7:09:16 GMT -5
"Here we go with the top forty hits in the nation this week on American Top 40. The best selling and most played songs from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Canada to Mexico. This is Casey Kasem in Hollywood, and in the next 3 hours we'll count down the forty most popular hits in the United States this week, hot off the record charts of Billboard magazine for the week ending July 11th, 1970."
To paraphrase The Beatles, "It was 35 years ago today..."
And so began the most popular, celebrated and respected program in the history of radio, with the very first Number 40 song, "End of Our Road" by Marvin Gaye. From the very first human interest story, about Mark Lindsay's $10,000 gold-plated hubcaps, to Casey uttering for the first of thousands of times, "On with the countdown!", to Elvis and The Beatles at back-to-back positions in the Top 10, to the very first Number One hit, "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)" by Three Dog Night.
If you remain an AT40 listener, or if you've moved on to the AC or Hot AC versions, take a minute to say thanks to Casey, Don, TR and Ron for giving birth to The Mothership and for sticking with it when the show was in the red those first few years.
And thanks to Shadoe, Ryan, all the guest hosts (good and bad), all the wonderfully talented people behind the scenes (especially the writers), and all the fans like you and me that live and breathe for this stuff.
Happy 35th Anniversary to both American Top 40 and Casey Kasem. And the countdown continues...
To paraphrase The Beatles, "It was 35 years ago today..."
And so began the most popular, celebrated and respected program in the history of radio, with the very first Number 40 song, "End of Our Road" by Marvin Gaye. From the very first human interest story, about Mark Lindsay's $10,000 gold-plated hubcaps, to Casey uttering for the first of thousands of times, "On with the countdown!", to Elvis and The Beatles at back-to-back positions in the Top 10, to the very first Number One hit, "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)" by Three Dog Night.
If you remain an AT40 listener, or if you've moved on to the AC or Hot AC versions, take a minute to say thanks to Casey, Don, TR and Ron for giving birth to The Mothership and for sticking with it when the show was in the red those first few years.
And thanks to Shadoe, Ryan, all the guest hosts (good and bad), all the wonderfully talented people behind the scenes (especially the writers), and all the fans like you and me that live and breathe for this stuff.
Happy 35th Anniversary to both American Top 40 and Casey Kasem. And the countdown continues...
)
Here's to Casey, Shadoe, and even Ryan!