We lost TV Icon Betty White on New Year’s Eve, less than three weeks shy of what would have been her 100th birthday. (Plans for a TV birthday special will now likely turn into more of a tribute to one of television’s leading ladies)
Between her long-running stint on her husband, Alan Ludden’s “Password,”
(as well as regular appearances on other game shows such as “Hollywood Squares”
and “Match Game”) along with appearances on all of the late-night talk shows,
and starring roles in some of the most successful and celebrated television
series of all time (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Golden Girls,” “Hot In
Cleveland” … as well as recurring roles on “Boston Legal,” “Mama’s Family” and
more.) White never really lost our focus
throughout the years.
Born right here in Oak Park, IL, she got her first big television break
in 1949 as the cohost of “Hollywood On Television” and was nominated for her
first Emmy Award just two years later.
(It would be the first of 26 nominations … and 7 wins!)
Ironically, she appears on the cover of this week’s People Magazine,
announcing her upcoming 100th birthday celebration. She is quoted in the article as saying “I’m
so lucky to be in such good health and feel so good at this age. It’s amazing.”
For nearly twenty years, she also hosted The Tournament of Roses Parade
as well as a ten-year stint hosting Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. She always as a strong activist supporting
animal rights. (And she absolutely stole
the movie with her role in the Sandra Bullock / Ryan Reynolds film “The
Proposal.”) A fantasy romance between
the two has lived on in posts and tweets ever since the movie wrapped.
She has never been off our radar … and we SO wanted to be there to help
celebrate her 100th birthday.
We love you, Betty White. (kk)
I was saddened by the news of Betty White's passing. I grew up watching her on TV, and her work on Mary Tyler Moore's show was a riot.
She missed making it to the century mark by three weeks. ;-(
I was saving this for her 100th birthday.
Mike Wolstein
This one slipped right by us (it looks like it was first announced on December 8th), but apparently our FH Buddy Jim Peterik sold his music catalog to Primary Wave for a reported $20 million.
FH Reader Cliver Topol sent us this clip:
https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2021/12/08/jim-peterik-primary-wave-deal/
In a statement released at the time, Peterik said, “I’m thrilled to be with a company who is as passionate about music as I am. Primary Wave’s roster speaks for itself. It seems that many of my musical heroes feel the same way! I’m looking forward to great days ahead creating new music and finding new homes for the many songs in my catalogue!”
I thought I saw in your notes this morning that Hey Jude was not on the 1998 Top 77 Survey (the 1st one)
According to the Music Radio 77 web
site, it was the first #1 single and has been so for all but one year since
this began.
WABC Musicradio Web Site Favorite
Songs (musicradio77.com)
Rich
That report came from FH Reader Frank B, who
evidently misheard this information during the countdown broadcast. Checking the Official Top 100 Countdown List,
Rewound Radio states that “Hey Jude” has made the Top 77 list all 24 years of
its existence … and only missed finishing in the #1 spot once. (Looking over the list, the only other song
to ever make it to #1 was “Rag Doll” by The Four Seasons. It has made the year-end list 23 times, this
year finishing at #5.)
I apologize for the error. (kk)
The
2021 Top 77 Songs! (musicradio77.com)
From Frank B …
kk …
Disc Jockey Dan Ingram's Least Favorite #1
Song On The WABC TOP 100 Countdown = "TO SIR WITH LOVE" / Lulu (1967)
Disc Jockey Dan Ingram's Favorite #1 Song On The
WABC TOP 100 Countdown = “AQUARIUS / LET
THE SUNSHINE IN" / 5th Dimension (1969)
Listening To The Countdown Yesterday, I Said To Myself, "That Sure Sounds Like Bob Shannon Announcing Song Numbers."
Somebody Sent In A Message Asking The Question. Turns Out I Was Right . Allan Sniffen Said That About 15 Years Ago They Started Using Bob Shannon's Voice From Old WCBS - FM Countdowns On Top 77 Countdown.
FB
P.S. I
listened to the Brian Hyland interview …
He said that Dick Biondi was one of the first
DJ's to play "SEALED WITH A KISS."
And, I ALSO ANSWERED LAST NIGHTS FINAL JEOPARDY QUESTION RIGHT ---
MUSIC LEGENDS ...
In 1957, They Met At A School Fair --
One Was A Fat School Boy And One Was A Drunk.
All Three Contestants Said SiMON & GARFUNKEL.
WRONG --- WRONG --- WRONG ---
The Correct Answer Was = John Lennon & Paul McCartney
FB
Hey Kent –
Congrats
on running another fun-filled year of Forgotten Hits.
Your
site has truly become a daily check-IN for me, and if there's nothing new,
there's always an old archive to check OUT.
Special
thanks for the 1971 Super Charts, I'll miss them.
Interesting
to see how the FH Best of '71 chart will compare with Joel Whitburn's Pop
Annual ranking of the year's best.
To
wit,
20.
Never Can Say Goodbye (J5)
19.
What's Going On
18. Want
Ads
17. Uncle
Albert/Admiral Halsey
16.
You've Got a Friend (JT)
15.
Indian Reservation (Raiders)
14.
Brown Sugar
13. Me
And Bobby McGee
12.
Theme From Shaft
11.
Just My Imagination
10.
Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves
9. Family Affair
8. Go Away Little Girl
7. Brand New Key
6. Knock Three Times
5. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart
4. One Bad Apple
3. It's Too Late / I Feel The Earth Move
2. Maggie May / Reason To Believe
1. Joy To The World
Here's
my own list of most enduring 45s of 1971 …
Mind
you, these are not MY favorites -- (otherwise The Partridge Family’s "I
Woke Up In Love" would be #1) -- just my opinion of which 20 singles have
best stood the test of time 50 years after their release.
Let the
discussion commence!
20. Smiling
Faces Sometimes (Joel Whitburn Pop Annual =#34)
19.
Love The One You're With (#141)
18.
Won't Get Fooled Again (#123)
17.
Treat Her Like A Lady (#31)
16. If
You Could Read My Mind (#52)
15.
Take Me Home Country Roads (#26)
14.
Respect Yourself (#104)
13.
Just My Imagination (#11)
12. Joy
To The World (#1)
11. How
Can You Mend A Broken Heart
10.
Ain't No Sunshine (#35)
9. Brown Sugar (#14)
8. Your Song (#71)
7. Me And Bobby McGee (#13)
6. Maggie May / Reason To Believe (#2)
5. Theme From Shaft (#12)
4. You've Got A Friend (#16)
3. It's Too Late / I Feel The Earth Move (#3)
2. Imagine (#36)
1. What's Going On (#19)
And say
goodbye to 1971 with a re-broadcast of the December 26, 2020 LAFOS featuring
hits and rarities from that date … http://www.mixcloud.com/LAFOS
Sorry,
no Frank Mills "Love Me Love Me Love" -- which was on the CKLW survey
50 years ago this week -- peaking at #10, and which you can hear on LAFOS the
week of February 13, 2022. Also played was the Mamas and Papas "Step Out,"
which should thrill reader Bill Scherer to no end! ~grin~
Sam
Tallerico
LAFOS
(The
Lost and Found Oldies Show)
I miss hearing your shows on the weekend … but still
enjoy listening to these rebroadcasts as well.
Whitburn’s Pop Annual Chart uses his own unique
methodology … It takes the peak position for each hit and then uses “weeks at
peak,” “weeks in the top 10,” “weeks in the top 40,” and “weeks in the top 100”
to eliminate all tie-breakers. As we all
know, this serves a purpose and a means to achieve a list, but it doesn’t say
much for chart accuracy. (For example, a
record that spent one week at #1 … “Harper Valley PTA,” for example, in 1968, really
isn’t a bigger hit than a record that spent three or four weeks at #2 that same
year … it just doesn’t work that way … accumulated points are the key to a fair
and accurate countdown.)
Another thing I’ve never liked about these rankings
(and this has been the MAIN thorn in my side on this issue over all these
years) is that it also backtracks to include the peak date for the whole year,
meaning that if a record hit #1 on December 31st of that given year
(as was the case of The Monkees’ #1 Hit “I’m A Believer”), ALL of its weeks
spent at #1 are factored into the previous year’s ranking … which is what
always annoyed me about “I’m A Believer” by The Monkees, for example … it hit
#1 on the charted dated 12/31/66 and has forever more been shown as the #1
Record Of The Year for 1966 … when in fact it spent SIX WEEKS at #1 in 1967, as
opposed to only seven DAYS at #1 in 1966 ... meaning it SHOULD have been The Biggest #1 Hit of 1967, not 1966 ... you don't "Roll Back" the future weeks a record spends at #1!!! And even at that, it STILL didn't make the top of Billboard's Official Year-End Chart ... that distinction went to Lulu's "To Sir, With Love.")
You’ll find a comparison to Billboard’s ACTUAL
Year-End Chart typically looks nothing at all like Joel Whitburn’s Pop Annual
Chart. (Another reason is that Billboard
typically compiled their chart data from the first of December of the previous
year thru the end of November in the current year to help avoid this very thing
happening.)
As such, Billboard’s OFFICIAL Top 20 Hits for 1971
(from their year-end chart) came out this way:
#20 – The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down – Joan Baez
#19 – Do You Know What I Mean – Lee Michaels
#18 – Mr. Big Stuff – Jean Knight
#17 – You’ve Got A Friend – James Taylor
#16 – Brown Sugar – The Rolling Stones
#15 – Treat Her Like A Lady – Cornelius Brothers and
Sister Rose
#14 – Smiling Faces Sometimes – The Undisputed Truth
#13 – Want Ads – Honey Cone
#12 – Tired Of Being Alone – Al Green
#11 – Me And Bobby McGee – Janis Joplin
#10 – Knock Three Times – Dawn
# 9 – Just My
Imagination – The Temptations
# 8 – Take Me
Home, Country Roads – John Denver
# 7 – Go Away
Little Girl – Donny Osmond
# 6 – Indian
Reservation – The Raiders
# 5 – How Can
You Mend A Broken Heart – The Bee Gees
# 4 – One Bad
Apple – The Osmonds
# 3 – It’s Too
Late / I Feel The Earth Move – Carole King
# 2 – Maggie
May / Reason To Believe – Rod Stewart
# 1 – Joy To
The World – Three Dog Night
SEVEN of those records never made it to #1 at all on
Billboard’s Chart, which ranked 18 records as “King Of The Hill” that
year. (The five #1’s that didn’t make
the cut include “Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey,” which spent a week at #1 in
September and “Gypsys, Tramps And Thieves,” “Theme from ‘Shaft,’” “Family
Affair” and “Brand New Key,” all of which charted too late in the year (see
previous comment) to earn enough points to be included.
The idea of a “FAVORITES” Chart came up this past
year, too … Phil Nee of WRCO and I counted down our Top 71 personal favorites
of the year … (we encouraged FH Readers and WRCO listeners to cast their votes,
too … so this list is really a compilation of the music that most stuck with us
for the past fifty years … music that we still love and appreciate …
Here is how our Top 20 came out …
|
20 |
Woodstock - Matthews' Southern Comfort |
|
19 |
Temptation Eyes - Grass Roots |
|
18 |
Baby I'm-A Want You - Bread |
|
17 |
Maggie May - Rod Stewart |
|
16 |
Black Magic Woman - Santana |
|
15 |
Do You Know What I Mean - Lee Michaels |
|
14 |
Riders On The Storm - Doors |
|
13 |
Me And You And A Dog Named Boo - Lobo |
|
12 |
Lonely Days - Bee Gees |
|
11 |
I'd Love To Change The World - Ten Years
After |
|
10 |
Bell Bottom Blues - Derek and the Dominoes |
|
9 |
Lucky Man- Emerson, Lake and Palmer |
|
8 |
It Don't Come Easy - Ringo Starr |
|
7 |
If I Were Your Woman - Gladys Knight and the
Pips |
|
6 |
What Is Life - George Harrison |
|
5 |
Joy To The World - Three Dog Night |
|
4 |
Mighty Clouds Of Joy - BJ Thomas |
|
3 |
LA Goodbye - Ides Of March |
|
2 |
It's Too Late - Carole King |
|
1 |
Brown Sugar - Rolling Stones |
Moving on to your 20/20 Hindsight Chart, I think you
can make a good point for “What’s Going On” as being perhaps the most
sustaining and relevant song on the list … likewise for John Lennon’s “Imagine”
which, incredibly, only hit #1 on the Record World Chart.
Still, there is no denying the impact and power Three
Dog Night wielded with “Joy To The World” … the song was literally EVERYWHERE,
every time you turned on the radio … and even so, we still couldn’t get
enough. (Incredible to think that with
all their spot-on song selections over the years, Danny Hutton and Cory Wells
didn’t think they should record this song.
Thankfully, Chuck Negron pushed and lobbied for it … and even went into
the studio on his own to lay down a vocal that finally convinced the others to
give it a shot. I don’t think ANYONE
figured it would be as big as it was, #1 for six weeks in both Billboard and
Cash Box that year.
Certainly “It’s Too Late” (and the power of
“Tapestry,” thus giving an additional not to “You’ve Got A Friend”) and “Maggie
May” have only grown in stature since 1971.
I always preferred “Lonely Days” to “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart,”
but it was the latter that topped all three national charts that year. Other songs that have aged well (and still
receive an enormous amount of airplay) are the #1 Hits “She’s A Lady,” “It
Don’t Come Easy,” “Don’t Pull Your Love” and “Brand New Key.”
I’m not sure I could come up with a better 20/20
Hindsight list than yours … but I might rearrange those that made my Top Ten
(as far as lasting relevance goes):
10. Theme From
Shaft
9. Joy To The
World
8. You've Got
A Friend
7. Ain't No
Sunshine
6. Maggie May
/ Reason To Believe
5. Imagine
4. Brown Sugar
3. It's Too
Late / I Feel The Earth Move
2. Your Song
1. What's
Going On
To recap, however, our OWN Top 71 of 1971 Chart, here
are The Top 20 Hits of the Year as determined by a compilation of year end chart information
gathered from all three major music trade publications (Billboard, Cash Box and
Record World) along with Joel Whitburn's Record Research 1971 Pop Annual
rankings and the book "Ranking The '70's" by Dann Isbell and Bill
Carroll, as well as our own research of the weekly 1971 Super Charts.
|
This was OUR findings for the year’s Top 20
Tunes: 20 - Smiling Faces Sometimes - The Undisputed
Truth |
|
19 - Treat Her Like A Lady - Cornelius
Brothers and Sister Rose |
|
18 - Never Can Say Goodbye - The Jackson Five |
|
17 - What's Going On - Marvin Gaye |
|
16 - Brown Sugar - The Rolling Stones |
|
15 - Me And Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin |
|
14 - You've Got A Friend - James Taylor |
|
13 - Mr. Big Stuff - Jean Knight |
|
12 - She's A Lady - Tom Jones |
|
11 - Want Ads - Honey Cone |
|
10 - Take Me Home, Country Roads - John Denver |
|
9 -
Just My Imagination - The Temptations |
|
8 - Go
Away Little Girl - Donny Osmond |
|
7 - One
Bad Apple - The Osmonds |
|
6 - How
Can You Mend A Broken Heart - The Bee Gees |
|
5 -
Indian Reservation - Paul Revere and the Raiders |
|
4-
Knock Three Times - Dawn |
|
3 -
Maggie May - Rod Stewart |
|
2 -
It's Too Late - Carole King |
|
1 - Joy
To The World - Three Dog Night |
Chartaholics like me
who simply LOVE this sort of thing will have ALL kinds of fun determining
(between all of the options listed above) what the REAL Top 20 Hits of 1971 are
… should keep you entertained for HOURS!!!
(lol) kk
Merry Holidays to you and
Frannie,
With the recent posts about Henry Diltz, I
remember the Soundstage America concert that me and you attended. Henry played
banjo (and Christopher Cross was a special guest). I have a DVD of that
excellent show, and I recall they played Daisy Jane twice (my favorite America
song!) due to a technical glitch.
Bob Burns
Absolutely … a GREAT
show. (Henry took several of America’s
LP cover photos, especially during the early years.) As an original member of The Modern Folk
Quintet, his roots were in music before photography, which made him a natural
to fit in with all of the artists he ended up photographing over the years …
they all spoke the same language and Henry was afforded not only INCREDIBLE
opportunities to get up close and personal, but was also gifted with the
incredible TALENT of making the most of those opportunities. (Gary Strobl and Harvey Kubernik have both
schooled me on Henry’s early days as a photographer for “Tiger Beat” magazine …
who knew!!!)
As for the America
Soundstage show, yes, it was EXCELLENT … and I, too, own that DVD (although,
despite relatively good seats, you won’t find either one of us on there! Lol)
You are correct about
them doing “Daisy Jane” twice … Gerry detected some buzzing noise in his
earphone and wanted to do it over … we in the audience heard nothing … and to
this day I maintain that the better live version ended up on the cutting room
floor. Christopher Cross was a GREAT
surprise guest for the program, singing America’s hit “Lonely People,” just one
of my many, many favorites by the band.
America is doing a show
with The Buckinghams at the Genesee Theatre in February. Ironically, the very last show Frannie and I
saw before Covid shut everything down in 2020 was the Buckinghams / America
show at The Genesee … and an excellent show it was … almost exactly two years
to the date of this new one.
I don’t know that our
handle on Covid is any better today than it was during mandatory
lock-down. (Guess who tested positive
the day after Christmas … and we’ve been cautious to a fault.) We, not only as a country but as a global
nation, REALLY need to get ahead of this thing … or these new, stronger strands
will continue to develop. We need to get
EVERYBODY worldwide on board committed to putting a halt to any further
spreading of this virus. We’ve lost far
too many already. (kk)
CBS News did it again, kk ... pulled the Berry Gordy clip
from “Sunday Morning ... no clues when it'll be back ...
--BF
Not quite sure what’s up with
that. I watched the whole thing as I
missed the actual Kennedy Honors ceremony … so it was definitely live at one
time! (kk)
Great to see Gunsmoke at #4 in the ratings for 1971. I watch it every noon time here (HIGH NOON) on MeTV.
Being FROM Dodge City as well as transcribing 36 years of
diaries from my great grandfather, 1870-1906, give the program much more
meaning to myself. I tracked down the history of the land our house was
on in Dodge City and reading the diaries and seeing some things come to life on
Gunsmoke prove that some of the stuff in the show was certainly a good view of
daily life -- even if the diaries do NOT have the wild west gun slinging (he
lived on a farm near Lincoln where I live now.)
MeTV just recently got finished showing the mid 70's shows and went back
to first episodes now, so I see how CBS softened up the Marshall and show as
the decades went on. STILL, an amazing thing to see -- again. Of
course, it was the #1 show in Dodge while I was growing up.
Clark Besch
I was surprised by how few of The
Top 30 shows I watched in ’71 … most of it struck me as a pretty lame list.
(“Funny Face”??? I don’t even remember
that one … so I obviously never watched a single episode … but that would be
true of about a third of the list. I’ll
cop to watching seven of the Top 30 … but even some of those were on their last
legs at this point and were hardly considered “Must See TV” by me at the ripe
old age of 17/18 … where it was FAR more fun to go out and hang with friends
than it was to sit at home and watch TV with Mom and Dad. (Still, some of these were amongst THEIR
favorites … shows like “Mannix” and “Hawaii Five-O” were a couple of Dad’s
favorites … and Mom never missed an episode of “Marcus Welby” or “Ironsides.”)
The nine I watched then: ALL IN THE FAMILY; THE FLIP
WILSON SHOW; SANFORD AND SON; THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW;
BONANZA (last legs); THE MOD SQUAD; ROWAN AND MARTIN’S
LAUGH-IN (OK, those last two might have been Must See TV for me!),
THE SONNY AND CHER COMEDY HOUR and ROOM 222 (loved it!) Never watched THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY while it
was one (WAY to uncool!) but have probably seen nearly every episode since
then.
As for the movies, I was a MAJOR
“Billy Jack” fan … between its original run and its YEARS of showing as The
Midnight Movie, I’ve probably seen it at least thirty times! Liked “The Summer of ‘42” for the obvious
reasons … did I mention that I was a 17/18 year old boy at the time??? … and
the only other film on The Top Ten List that I actually saw in theaters in 1971
was “The French Connection,” an INCREDIBLY exciting movie then … that looks so
incredibly dated now!!! (kk)
|
>>>I noticed that if you didn’t know the
radio station, a lot of them do not identify their city including one I found
of Chuck Buell from 1970.” (Carolyn /
Minneapolis) |
|
Carolyn, Thanx for
bringing back the memories of my “Stock Car Racing and Aviation Test Flying”
Skill Sets with a Classic 1970 WLS ( Chicago ) Hit Parade
Music Survey! I don’t know if
your camera changed the color of it, but the copy I have is
a Mint Green while yours is a Great Blue! Maybe it was printed in a couple of
colors then tho. Either way,
thanx! - CB  The WLS surveys were printed in a variety of colors – I’m not
exactly sure why. (I wonder how many
of these they printed each week … it might have been as simple a case as a
“use up anything you’ve got on your floor” instruction to the printer, just
to get these out in a quick and timely fashion … think about how many record
stores there were back then … and ALL of them had these on the counter, free for
pick up each week!) I know some people outside the Chicagoland area had surveys
MAILED to them each week … perhaps Carolyn’s is blue for that reason. In any event, I had to go back and check out my OWN copy to see
what color survey is in my collection … and it, too is green. (kk) |
I had a huge crush on Susan Cowsill when I was a kid. I think we’re about the same age.
A couple
years ago I got to meet her and the rest of the Cowsills at the Minnesota State
Fair. They couldn’t have been nicer people. Susan was so nice. My wife got the
chance to tell her how big a crush I have on her. I’m so impressed at how well
they all seem to get along after all the crap their Dad put them through.
I hope
you can get her to join the list.
Bill
Nothing would please me more. I think she would make a very interesting and entertaining addition to The Forgotten Hits Family. (The Cowsills continue to put on one of the most entertaining shows out there. If you get the chance to see them in concert as a headliner, do so … while they quite often steal the show at the Happy Together concerts, they’re limited do only doing about four songs per set. To experience the FULL appeal of this group, some 50+ years later, try to catch them as a stand-alone act.) kk
Billboard Magazine
tells us that several new Hot 100 Records were set during 2021 …
You can get caught up
on all of them right here …
Billboard
Charts 2021 Recap: All the History That Was Made – Billboard
Meanwhile, this
headline in Billboard Magazine came as a bit of a shock …
Weekly U.S. Vinyl Album Sales Break Modern-Era Record,
Fueled by Holiday Shopping Weekly
U.S. vinyl album sales surpassed 2 million copies for the first time since MRC
Data began tracking music sales in 1991.
Now Billboard won’t actually let you READ this
article unless you’re a paid subscriber … otherwise, all you get is the teaser
headline.
But we found this commentary from Paul Cashmere,
founder and regular contributor to Noise 11, part of Australia’s Noise Network
… and he spells out not only more news about this incredible achievement … but
also lays it on the line as to who it is that is actually SELLING these massive
amounts of vinyl … and it may not be who the music industry would like you to
think it is. (Paul’s comment at the very
end of this piece echoes the same sentiment that WE have been expressing for
over a decade now.)
Prince, The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac and Queen Dominated Music Sales In 2021 (by PAUL CASHMERE on DECEMBER 30, 2021 in NEWS,NOISE PRO)
One of the few ways to get an actual
read on what is really selling these days is to look at the Vinyl chart. 2021
is a wake-up call for popular acts and the wake-up call is classic rock.
In the end of year vinyl chart of
2021 in the USA Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ was at no 7 with 179,000 sales.
The Top 20 featured The Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’ (1969,
154,000 sales) at no 11, Fleetwood Mac ‘Rumours’ (1977, 144,000 sales) at no
12, Queen ‘Greatest Hits Vol 1’ (1981, 139,000 sales) at no 13, Michael Jackson
‘Thriller’ (1982, 137,000 sales) at no 14 and even Artic Monkeys’ 2013 album
‘AM’ made Top 20 for 2021 with 113,000 sales.
Elsewhere down the Top 50 you’ll find albums from Metallica
(22), Bob Marley (23), Pink Floyd (27), Amy Winehouse (28), Creedence Clearwater
Revival (32), Nirvana (33 and 39), AC/DC (38), more Beatles (42), Miles Davis
(44), Abba (45) and Jimi Hendrix (46).
Demographics speak louder than industry bullshit and The
Big Lie of recent years in the music industry is that streaming figures added
to figures of real physical sales just don’t add up. The music industry has
discovered that merging the data of physical sales and streaming creates an
inflated view of success. However, it is comparing apples with oranges. It is
trying to make you believe that two completely different ways the audience
absorbs music is the same. The music industry wants you to believe that listening is the same as
purchasing. And the reason the music industry wants you to believe
that is that it needs to make you believe The Kid Laroi, Lil Baby, Pop Smoke
and Drake are bigger than The Beatles.
That’s just not
true. In fact, it is complete bullshit.
Amen to that.
(kk)
In a side comment elsewhere in this issue, Paul also observes that the ONLY album in 2021 to actually sell a million copies was Adele’s “30,” which racked up 1,058,000 in real sales (meaning that someone actually paid REAL money to buy a REAL album that they could hold in their hands.) To put some perspective on this, the next biggest selling LP was Taylor Swift’s “Evermore,” with sales of 494,000 copies, followed by Taylor again with her 480,000 copies of “Fearless sold.” Rounding out The Top Five are Olivia Rodrigo (“Sour,” 476,000 sales) and Billie Eilish (“Happier Than Ever,” with 371,000 sales.)
