Be sure to tune in to Phil Nee’s THOSE WERE THE DAYS radio program this Saturday Night (September 18th) as we count down The Top 40 Favorites from 1971 as voted on by the Forgotten Hits Readers and Those Were The Days listeners.
In fact, we’ll be doing a whole lot more than that …
Phil tells me he’s filled the full six hour time slot
with a bunch of extras that also earned your votes … and has even dug out some
of his great artist interviews from the archives to air again as part of this
very special countdown.
You can listen live here: WRCO AM FM
Radio Richland Center Wisconsin
(Just click on the 100.9 Headphones and it’ll take you right to the show … airing from 6 pm till Midnight THIS SATURDAY NIGHT!!!) kk
Nine of the Top 10 songs on this week’s Hot 100 list are by Drake?
How is this possible?
Ed #1
Because the charts have become so convoluted and fucked up that they no longer mean anything. (And watch … next week at least three of these songs will disappear from the chart completely.)
But maybe not … because Drake now also occupies 21 of
the Top 100 positions. (As I recall, at
the peak of Beatlemania, they held down 14 positions.)
Of course, THOSE were all individual releases … Drake’s
songs all come from the same album and, thanks to downloading, streaming and
YouTube views, he captures the new crown for most Top Ten Hits in a single week
and most charted hits in a single Hot 100 Chart.
Does this mean that Drake is bigger than The Beatles???
Sure he is … just watch 50 years from now when his
albums are all rereleased in box set form and millions of fans rebuy them. (That’ll happen, right???)
But, based on the new methodology of computing the
charts, Drake now has an incredible 258 Hot 100 Chart Hits, which actually
allows him to pass the Cast of “Glee!” This means that he has added over 100 new chart entries since Joel Whitburn’s
last Top Pop Singles book was published in 2019. (Joel confided in us earlier this year that in the new
edition of this book, which will take us thru 2022, Drake will occupy over four
full pages of chart data!) Unreal! (kk)
Perusing thru this week's edition of The Super Charts, I see that
Paul McCartney's single "Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey" drops down one
position from #3 last week to #4. #3 would therefore be the peak position for
the single, unless it moves upward next week. Fine, but it appears there is a
serious flaw in whatever methodology is used to determine weekly numeric
position movements in this revisionist oriented chart.
Kent always professes that The Super Charts are the most accurate
representation of hit singles, but how can this be so if "Uncle
Albert" hit #1 in all three music / radio industry weekly
magazines? It hit #1 for the week of September 5th in Billboard, Record
World and Cashbox, albeit for one week only. Still, a record that hits
the top spot IN ALL THREE magazines means the record was a certified #1 hit
single all across the U.S.A.
However ... The Super Chart awarded a peak position of #3, a single
heading DOWNWARD by Sept 18th, two full weeks after the national peak at the
top. What gives? The Super Charts methodology has never been
revealed for some reason. If it takes into account computation of the week by
week chart position as shown in each of the three magazines aforementioned,
well something is askew then ... personal bias, maybe?
"Uncle Albert" hit the #1 position in every major market,
according to the ARSA archive, except for KHJ, a station that was LATE adding
the single to the playlist anyway. It only peaked at #3 there. Even the
perpetual, always tardy / after the party WABC had it hit #1 in late
September.
I can understand if a single hit #1 for one week in only one of the
three magazines, but does not hit #1 on the Super Chart. Or reaches #1
for two weeks in one of the music mags but not the other two. That song
possibly might not make #1 on the Super Chart given the competition for that
week ...
But, jeez, a song hits #1 in all three mags yet receives a far
lesser representative #3 peak on the Super Charts?
Borrowing the words of our current commander-in-chief: "C'MON MAN!"
Mike Markesich (a life-long
chart geek and former DJ)
There have been a couple of examples where a record
hit #1 in all three trades but did NOT reach #1 on The Super Charts. (As mentioned previously, that has always been
a point of contention of mine … if ALL three trades say it was a #1 Record, we
cannot argue that point … we should have assigned it a #1 showing at some point
in time. However, Randy Price’s position
has always been “But then that takes away from another record that actually
earned enough points to rank #1 on The Super Charts, which is also true. As such, I have chosen to defer to Randy on this one.)
Looking at all three trades, I guess I’m confused by
your assessment of “Uncle Albert”’s showing.
When you say the chart for “the week of September 5th,”
I am assuming that you are referring to the charts dated “Week Ending September
11th … ANOTHER point I always hated about the way the trades
distinguished their chart dates (because the cover date issue never matched the
chart dates.)
But using this case in point …
“Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey” was #5 for the week
OF September 5th in Billboard, falling from #1 the previous
week. They listed “Go Away Little Girl”
by Donny Osmond as the #1 Record in the Country for this week. (“Uncle Albert” WAS #1 the previous week in
Billboard, ending September 4th.)
Cash Box showed “Spanish Harlem” at #1 and “Uncle
Albert” at #3. (“Uncle Albert was still on
the rise in this publication, moving from #9 to #3 and then, over the course of
the next two weeks, climbing to #2 and then #1 … so again, NOT #1 at the same
time in Cash Box as it was in Billboard which, by this point, was three full weeks
earlier.)
Record World is the ONLY publication that showed “Uncle
Albert” at #1 for the week ending September 11th (or OF September 5th). It climbed from #10 to #1 for that one week. (By the following week, it fell to #6.)
So while it did, in fact, reach #1 in all three trades, it NEVER hit #1 at the same time in all three of them or it absolutely WOULD have ranked #1 on The Super Chart as well. (In compiling the Super Charts, points are awarded for each record's performance for each individual week. The fact that "Uncle Albert" was #1 in three DIFFERENT weeks never allowed it to accumulate enough total points in the same to warrant reaching #1.)
So, for comparison’s sake, when “Uncle Albert /
Admiral Halsey” was #1 for a week in each publication, here is how it ranked in
the others:
(Note: All
dates are “Week Ending” dates as shown in the publications at the time)
#1 in BILLBOARD (9/4) –
#9 in Cash Box; #10 in Record World
#1 in RECORD WORLD (9/11) –
#3 in Cash Box; #5 in Billboard
#1 in CASH BOX (9/25)
#6 in Billboard; #12 in Record World
Using even the most rudimentary math (#1 = 10 pts, #2 =
9 pts, etc.), that means that for the week of 9/4, “Uncle Albert / Admiral
Halsey” would have had 13 pts
9/11 = 24 pts
9/18 (not even shown above as it wasn’t #1 in ANY of
these publications for this particular week), 21 pts
9/25 = 15 pts
Using that exact same formula, here’s what I come up
with:
9/4 – Uncle Albert would have come in at #6 with its
13 points (despite being #1 in Billboard only) behind Take Me Home, Country
Roads (27); Spanish Harlem (24); Smiling Faces Sometimes (20); How Can You Mend
A Broken Heart (19) and Mercy Mercy Me (15)
9/11 – Uncle Albert would have come in at #3 with 24
points (despite being #1 in Record World only) behind Spanish Harlem (28
points) and Smiling Faces Sometimes (25)
9/18 – Uncle Albert would have placed at #4 with 21
points (and was not #1 in ANY of the major trade publications) This time it would have fallen behind Go Away
Little Girl (27); Spanish Harlem (25) and Smiling Faces Sometimes (23)
And finally for the week ending 9/25, it would have
come in at #5 with 15 points (despite being #1 in Cash Box only, it was already
descending down the charts in both Billboard and Record World) – behind Go Away
Little Girl (28), The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down (24); Maggie May (24) and
Ain’t No Sunshine (22)
Then, just for shits and giggles I looked at the
actual Super Charts for these four weeks (keeping in mind that Randy uses a far
more sophisticated system in determining the rank order than I just did in the
illustration above of 1-10 for a Top Ten Record) and here’s what I find …
Week Ending 9/4 - #1 = Take Me Home Country Roads
9/11 - #1 = Spanish Harlem
9/18 - #1 = Go Away Little Girl
And, without giving too much away,
9/25 - #1 = Go Away Little Girl
How about that … they match MY list exactly!
Randy’s explanation was exactly the same as mine (albeit far
more precise than my long-winded one) …
Kent,
As
you have undoubtedly guessed, this is another situation similar to "Good
Vibrations."
Here
are the individual national chart positions for "Uncle Albert" during
the month of September 1971:
Sept.
4: #1 BB / #9 CB / #10 RW
Sept.
11: #5 BB / #3 CB / # 1 RW
Sept.
18: #5 BB / #2 CB / # 6 RW
Sept.
25: #6 BB / #1 CB /
#12 RW
The
records that finished ahead of "Uncle Albert" on the SuperCharts for
each of those weeks had higher average chart positions.
– Randy Price
To echo your sentiment, Mike, I’m not sure why Cash Box was
so late to the party on this one … I think this was most likely a #1 Record all
over the country at some point in time.
(Here in Chicago, it topped the WCFL Chart for four straight weeks … yet
never reached the summit across the river at WLS.)
But I stand by my assessment of The Super Charts as
being the most accurate representation of chart history. The numbers don’t lie … and this is where
these songs REALLY fell for the weeks shown.
There are no emotional ties or bias attributed to any
of what you refer to as “revisionist” rankings.
They are NOT “revisioned” … they are EXACTLY as they appeared at the
time … so again, while there are instances like these where I may not
personally agree with the exact result, I cannot argue that the exact same
method was used to DETERMINE those results for every single week between 1955 and 1982, without any bias or 20/20 hindsight. It's the only fair and representative way to compile such a list.
Should “Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey” have shown up as a #1 Record?
In my heart, I say “Yes” … and, I suppose if we DID partake in the "revisionist" approach to the charts that you accuse us of, we could have easily given up that first week of Donny Osmond at #1, just like The Beach Boys could have earned a week on top for “Good Vibrations.” This way, Donny STILL would have earned his #1 Record for “Go Away Little Girl” for the second week it spent there and McCartney would have earned his #1 Record as well ... but the truth is, "Uncle Albert" only earned enough points that week to land at #3. To show anything else would create the very biased hindsight you're referring to. As such, Randy’s logic won out on this one … and I have to stand behind it … because when questioned about topics like this (as we were today by you in somewhat of an accusatory tone), I know the numbers back up exactly what we’re saying. These are the absolute spots on the chart that these records earned at that moment in time.
Think about this for a second ...
For just this isolated four week period, the three major trade publications in America, each purporting to be presenting the most accurate representation of the biggest records in the country at the time, each came up with a COMPLETELY different assessment of the #1 Record all four weeks. Essentially, they couldn't agree on anything in this regard. As such, I would suggest (argue?) this to be the very reason we NEED The Super Charts! (kk)
Hello Kent,
Today I was catching up on the
Forgotten Hits blog and to my shock and / or amazement, I saw the two postings
about Tom Konard.
Tom and I have been very close
friends since the mid-70s. He was responsible for helping me get my first
job in radio with WVFV in Dundee at the time. You remember it now as
WWYW-FM or Y103.9. (Greg Brown was once on air and program manager of
WVFV.) He also had me narrate two of his profile productions and was
responsible for getting me a voice-over job on a commercial that ran on
WGN for over five years. He had a record collection that most could only
dream about owning. Most consisted of two copies, one of which was never
opened.
When he left WCFL, he started his
own business, "The Aircheck Factory," by gathering airchecks from
announcers all over the world. If Art Vuolo was Radio's Best Friend for
his video collection, Tom was Radio's best friend for audio. His aircheck
collection consisted of thousands of hours of radio personalities along with
documentaries and profiles he would produce for stations. It is a
travesty that his stepson tossed all his work out. I'm sure that
there are many subscribers to Forgotten Hits that at one time or another knew
Tom. I managed to stay in touch with him even when he moved to Belgium
with his wife Sabine, who was originally from there.
In recent years he developed health
issues. This past July I had been talking to him almost daily, then the
communication went silent. I have learned so much from your Forgotten Hits
blog, but never thought I would learn about him this way. He was a
wonderful human being and loved by many. He will be sorely missed.
I am extremely grateful to Carolyn
for contacting you about Tom. He spoke of her often to me. As a
personal favor, would you please contact her by forwarding this email and give
her my email address. I would love to talk to her about Tom.
Thank you so much for the dedication
and work you put forth in keeping Forgotten Hits the wonderful, entertaining
and informative website it is. Someday you may retire, but please never
quit doing what you do for all of us radio / music lovers now worldwide.
Bill T. in Fort Worth Texas (aka Bill Emerson WVFV 103.9 FM.)
Cher was cute, and a neighbor whose daughter went to school with my older brother, gave us a 45 of "Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves" around the end of 1975, among a considerable pile of records which I played to death on a record changer that (I think) may have also come from said neighbor. But I got tired of her as I grew older ... (Some other tunes in that stack o'wax: "Do You Love Me" [the Contours, long before Dirty Dancing], "Be My Baby" [the Ronettes, also heard in that film, encouraged me to buy a Spector compilation album], "Pretty Little Angel Eyes" [Curtis Lee, another Spector production just before his Wall of Sound fame])
-- Bob Frable
And, of course, Cher, too, first came from Phil Spector’s stable of artists way back when.
(You can read our extensive Phil Spector Series here … dwelling on his musical contributions rather than his ultimate downfall. Prior to dying in jail a convicted murderer, he WAS a revolutionary record producer … although all the while an apparent nut case as well.)
Phil Spector Revolutionized The Way Records Were Made ... (fhphilspector.blogspot.com)
Coincidently, you can read more on how “Gypsys, Tramps And Thieves” helped to revitalize Cher’s career here:
When Cher Scored a Revival Hit With ‘Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves’ (ultimateclassicrock.com)
And, speaking of revolutionary ‘60’s female
vocalists, it looks like there’s another new Dionne Warwick documentary in the
offering …
But then those of you who are members of Dionne's Psychic Network probably already knew this!!!
Dionne Warwick on Her ‘Don’t Make Me Over’
Documentary, The Hollywood Reporter
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/dionne-warwick-documentary-dont-make-me-over-interview-1235010424/
You’ll find an interesting 1970 musical timeline here: 1970: The Year in Rock Music | Best Classic Bands
Kent,
This
weekend on the pro football games, I saw twice a commercial (new) for what I
believe to be Crown Royal Whiskey. It is just some 15 seconds long and is over
before it begins.
Well,
in the background, is a song I believe to be from the early part of 1958. The
song is question is I'M ON MY WAY HOME by singer Cliff Thomas on Phillips
International record label, which incidentally was a big record here in the OKC
area on local top 40 radio station at the time KOCY-AM.
Whether
this was from another song, I don't know. Maybe one of your readers somehow
caught it this weekend. This is the time of year when one sees new commercials
on air.
Larry
I did not see that one and have to admit that I
wouldn’t have recognized it if I did!
I have never heard of this song OR this artist … and,
just checking our trusty Joel Whitburn Comparison Book Guide, showing EVERY
record to make the national charts between 1954 and 1982, I don’t see that this
one charted at all … so likely a Local Hit in the truest sense of the word.
I did hear, however, a commercial Sunday Night using
The Guess Who’s “These Eyes” … and that has to be the VERY first time I’ve ever
heard a Guess Who song used in a commercial.
(I couldn’t tell you what it was for as I was in the other room at the
time and only heard it playing in the background.)
But if the Bachman-Cummings Songbook is coming out,
profiling these two great songwriters, we just may be hearing MORE Guess Who
tracks in the future. (I’ve got to
believe it’s a pretty lucrative return on your music … not to mention the
opportunity to introduce it to a whole new legion of fans, who may soon be looking
to download it for themselves.
I don’t care what ANY of these artists said fifty years ago … right now, commercialism is KING!!! (kk)
UPDATE: I just saw a commercial tonight for the first time (couldn't tell you the product) that used a good, solid portion of the great Dramatics' song "Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get." I can only tell you that it sounded SOOO good! Our music lives on again! (kk)
And this in closing ...
I have three lava lamps, a bean bag chair and the entire house has the fake wood paneling.
Jack
And don’t forget the VW Bus with the “Don’t Come Knockin’ If You See Me Rockin’” bumper sticker!!! (kk)
