As promised, here is the 1st Annual Forgotten Hits Joel Whitburn Day, kicking off with this proclamation by Chuck Buell ...
Next, how about the answers to our Joel Whitburn Trivia Contest, with answers and commentary provided by long-term Record Research Employee Paul Haney ...
Q 1: Name the Wisconsin city where Joel Whitburn born?
A: Wauwatosa – A bit of a tricky question ...
While Joel was raised and lived most of his life in Menomonee Falls, he was actually born in Wauwatosa, which is another suburb of Milwaukee.
Q 2: What was Joel Whitburn’s middle name?
A: Carver – A somewhat unusual middle name, it derived from his ancestors, some of which had the surname of Carver.
Q 3: Joel’s wife, Fran, is a native of which Central American country?
A: Honduras – Joel and Fran both attended Elmhurst College in Illinois, but they didn’t meet until Joel’s younger sister Julie introduced her friend Frances Mudgett (who had come to the U.S. to study) to Joel. Just one problem ... Fran was already engaged to someone else! Fran eventually broke up with her other beau and ended up marrying Joel in 1964. Much of Fran’s side of the family still lives in Honduras to this day.
Q 4: Name the sport that Joel played on a semi-pro level in the 1960s.
A: Basketball – At 6’6”, Joel excelled at basketball. He even had a court built directly above his famous record vault at his home in Menomonee Falls. Every week we’d play a pickup game and once in a while I had the nearly impossible task of guarding him and took more than one of his elbows to the chops. Joel had an outstanding mid-range shot that he rarely missed.
Q 5: What year did Joel Whitburn publish his first reference book?
A: 1970 – Joel started his weekly research in September of 1965. By 1968, he began typing up individual artist cards. However, it wasn’t until 1970 when he published his first actual book, simply titled Record Research. One of his first customers was a West Coast DJ by the name of Casey Kasem. Coincidentally, American Top 40 launched at almost the exact same time as Joel’s company.
Q 6: “The Joel Whitburn Record Research Report” column debuted in Billboard magazine in what year?
A: 1973 – In early 1973, Joel and Billboard publisher Claude Hall came to an agreement. In exchange for advertising his books, Joel would write a column that would focus on different chart facts and feats. Thus, in the Billboard issue dated February 3, 1973 (on page 22), the first column was published. Many consider it to be a precursor to the Chart Beat column, which Paul Grein started in 1981.
Q 7: When discussing his favorite recording artists, Joel often mentioned “the three E’s” – Name them.
A: Duane Eddy, The Everly Brothers and Elvis Presley – Joel’s favorite artist of all-time was Duane Eddy. It was a huge thrill for Joel to become good friends with Duane. In fact, Duane and his wife Deed attended Joel’s daughter Kim’s wedding in 1994. What a thrill it was for me to spend over an hour drinking beer and talking with Duane about his life and career at the reception that day. For the record, the other two artists in Joel’s all-time Top 5 were Ricky Nelson and The Beatles.
Q 8: According to Joel Whitburn, what was the worst 45 rpm record of all-time?
A: “There Is A Tavern In The Town” by Wally Cox – This non-charted novelty song by TV’s “Mr. Peepers” was released in 1953. Joel bought it without hearing it and once he did listen to it, he instantly regretted it! Just a couple weeks before he died, he played it for me and once again reiterated the fact that it was “the worst song ever recorded.”
Q 9: What year was Joel Whitburn inducted into the Menomonee Falls High School Fine Arts Hall of Fame?
A: 2015 – Joel was honored when his Alma Mater notified him that he would be inducted into their Hall of Fame. Over the years, I have made similar pleas for Joel to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. Maybe someday …
Q10: Name the title and artist of the so-called “phantom record” that Record Research employee Paul Haney tracked down for Joel Whitburn in 2016.
A: “Ready ‘N’ Steady” by D.A. – Ever since it first appeared on Billboard’s Bubbling Under chart in the summer of 1979, Joel always kept a lookout for this record. We even offered a reward for anyone who could produce this record. I’ll never forget the day we got the recording in the mail ... Joel was so excited to finally cross the final record of his want list. The whole story has been well documented elsewhere, but I will say that tracking it down has been a big highlight of my 30+ years of working at Record Research.
Here's a copy of this elusive track, sent in by Paul Haney himself, so our readers can enjoy it. (It's actually not a bad little track!) Really weird how this managed to chart based on Billboard's strict criteria at the time ... and yet somehow it managed to bubble under for three weeks, peaking at #102.
From Joel's own "Top Pop Singles" book:
"Rock band formed in San Francisco, California. Led by Dennis Armand ("D.A.") Lucchesi (vocals) and Jim Franks (guitar) with Stu Blank (piano), Ira Walker (bass) and Dean Revello (drums). Also know as D.A. and the Dukes. The 'Bubbling Under" charts published by Billboard in 1979 showed the label and number as Rascal 102, even though there were no actual records pressed. (Although there would later be an actual Rascal record label started by Lucchesi's brother, David). For several years, this was thought to be a "phantom" recording. An investigation by Record Research in 2016 finally unearthed he actual recording, which never made it past the studio master stage. Dennis Lucchesi died on 8/18/2005 (age 60)."
How Billboard gathered ANY information on this unknown track (or even knew about it!), is beyond me ... yet incredibly, they charted it ... a record that didn't actually exist, a record you couldn't really buy and a record that virtually NOBODY had ever heard!!! (lol)
Here it is today, in Forgotten Hits, for of our curious readers out there ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppC-MoELrcQ
And there you have it ... all ten answers to this year's trivia contest.
Did anybody get 'em all???
Yes ...
In fact, we had FOUR folks on the list who knew all of the answers to the questions presented in this year's contest ...
Ed Erxleben, Randy Price, Scott Paton and Colin Donahue (who prefaced his answers with the comment "Damn, Kent, I didn't do this much research for my college essays!") ... got all of 'em right ...
And it was Ed Erxleben of Oak Lawn, Illinois whose name was drawn out of our proverbial "hat full of qualifiers" to claim the Record Research Book of His Choice. (Which was, by the way, TOP POP SINGLES, 1955 - 2018)
You can take YOUR pick of the litter (with literally dozens and dozens to choose from) at The Record Research Website. EVERY book will make an EXCELLENT edition to your music book library! (kk)
https://www.recordresearch.com/
Twenty of Joel Whitburn's books line the shelf of my library. Two of them are gifts from Joel himself, inscribed by Joel personally. I've purchased several more than that.
When a new edition came out, I would donate the old one to the library. Some I had to discard because they were just too worn out. His books were often a buyer's guide for me introducing me to new music and artists.
Ed #1
Ed Erxleben
After having collected Record Research chart books since the first one in 1970, It was my pleasure to talk to Joel on the phone when we were both attempting to complete our collections of Music Vendor chart data for the period of January-April 1964. Those issues are missing from the Library of Congress collection, and issues from that period were only occasionally offered on eBay. At that time, each of us had a few issues that the other didn't and we sent each other scans of the charts from those issues. Eventually, we were able to track down all the issues from that period, so Joel was able to include complete chart data in Record Research's Hit Records book, featuring the history of the Music Vendor/Record World pop charts, and I was able to incorporate that data in my SuperCharts for those months.
It was with great sadness that I learned of Joel's passing earlier this year, and I'm happy to see that his name, and the Record Research company, will be kept alive under the able management of Paul Haney and Joel's daughter Kim Bloxdorf.
– Randy Price
Hey Kent,
I never had the good fortune to meet Joel Whitburn in person, but, happily, I had several nice conversations with him over the phone.
My first acquaintance with his flagship book, “Top Pop Singles,” was when I started working at “American Top 40” in 1976. This compendium of all the Billboard Hot 100 hits was like the Holy Grail, and I treated the well-worn, yellow paperback with great reverence. At the office, we never referred to the book by its actual title ... it was always “The Whitburn.”
It wasn’t until I left AT40 that I took the plunge and bought my own first copy of a Record Research book. This started a tsunami of acquisition that continues to this day. Ardent record and book collector that I am, over the past 40-some years, I have purchased almost every book that Joel and his staff have created. I am a completist collector, just as he was. A few days ago, I received my copy of the new Gavin Report book, and it was bittersweet knowing that it was Joel Whitburn’s final project.
My admiration for Joel could not be greater, and not just for his invention and industry in creating such a valuable resource for music lovers and historians, but because he spent his life pursuing his passion and created a great professional and personal life for himself and his family.
Whenever I reach for “The Whitburn,” I will remember the really good man behind it.
Hope you and the family have a nice Thanksgiving in store.
Gotta throw my hat in the ring on the Whitburn trivia contest.
Having purchased nearly every one of his books over the past 40 years, I surely wouldn't mind winning one of the remaining volumes I need.
My responses are below.
Thanks, and all my best to you and your family.
Scott Paton
Joel Whitburn’s sudden and unexpected death earlier this year hit all of us who knew him or purchased volumes from his vast catalog of reference books hard. (It all sounds a little too “It’s A Wonderful Life”-ish, I suppose … but you never really realize how many lives a person has touched until they’re gone. Joel Whitburn was part of MY life every single day since I first discovered his books back in 1973. There hasn’t been a single day since that I haven't consulted at least one of them for one reason or another.)
The latest Record Research book to be published is “The Gavin Report: 1958 – 2000.” This project was very near and dear to Joel’s heart. We talked for several years about how cool it would be to gather all of these influential reports into one historic volume, both acknowledging it to be a near impossible task … I mean, who saved all of these weekly newsletters for the past 64 years?!?!
And yet, he was able to pull it off … and his dedicated staff worked diligently to make it all happen. Paul Haney, a Record Research employee for over thirty years, told me how much it would have meant to Joel to hold the final product in his hands.
You can buy this book (along with dozens and dozens of others) through the Record Research Website … https://www.recordresearch.com/
Today, we do our small part to help pay tribute to the innovator and entrepreneur that Joel was …
Who knew that there were so many of us chartaholics out there?!?!
But his books tapped into every aspect of the music fan … from record collector to music and chart historian to deejay to program director.
Thank you for joining us in our First Annual Joel Whitburn Day celebration. (kk)
I first talked with Joel back in the mid-70s, shortly after his second paperback music book came out. Since then, I have talked with him a couple of times and been a regular purchaser of many of his books. I've used the books while DJing at a half-dozen stations from Illinois to Alaska. However, I never realized he was an alum at Elmhurst College, Elmhurst IL. For 15 years, I was the faculty advisor for Elmhurst's WRSE-FM, where we used his books regularly. I left there during 2009, but just this week I learned of his association with Elmhust when I read his name in the college's memorium section of its magazine. Thanks, Joel, for helping me sound more informed on the radio than I deserved.
Jon M
St. Charles, IL
We have two daughters who also graduated from Elmhurst College, so your letter hits close to home.
In all the years I worked with Joel as a colleague, I only actually met him in person once. (I will kick myself for the rest of my life for never making it up to Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, to see his massive, one-of-a-kind record vault, housing EVERY record to make EVERY chart in the three major trade publications. I had an open invitation for YEARS to do so … yet every time we talked about going, another year would pass and, much like The Chicago Cubs said for decades, it always became a case of “Maybe Next Year.” We were both amused by the idea of our “two Frans” getting together, too, while he took me on what could only be the most incredible musical journey.)
While Joel and I talked numerous times over the years of doing Forgotten Hits (of which Joel was a TREMENDOUS supporter, often giving away copies of his latest books to a “lucky Forgotten Hits Reader”) … covering everything from new book ideas, philosophies on how the charts were calculated, to starting the official Top 40 Hall Of Fame … the only time we ever met in person was quite by accident many years before Forgotten Hits was even a glimmer in my eye.
In Joel’s quest to collect every chart record, no matter how minor or seemingly insignificant it may have been, we bumped into each other in a used record store in Oak Park, Illinois, one day. He had a stack of albums under his arm.
By then, I was already a long-time fan and collector of his books, having discovered the very first one in the Rosary College Library in neighboring River Forest. When I saw that such a book existed (this was a “library bound edition” that ran through 1969 … but had an addendum at the end to capture the chart information for 1970), I was completely blown away!!! Where could I get such a book?!?! (Turns out, you couldn’t … not yet, anyway ... he hadn’t made them available to the public yet) … so I would spend my lunch hour in the library every day, copying all of the details of my personal favorites into a huge notebook, rediscovering records I hadn’t heard in years and, in many cases, forgotten all about. (Hmm … maybe Joel’s first book was the subliminal inspiration for Forgotten Hits after all!!!)
Naturally, as soon as I found that you COULD buy a copy, I ordered it IMMEDIATELY. (My first was the little bitty orange 1972 edition, which I still have stored away somewhere, the perfect binding unable to keep up with my repeated use, finally giving way and forever ever after being held together with a massive rubber band! Lol) … but that day we just chatted for a few minutes and he showed me what he had found … and said that he regularly made the rounds to the used record stores wherever he might find himself … Joel himself working from his own, very specialized “Want List” just like the rest of us!
Back then, many of us were regular visitors to the then monthly record shows that were happening all over the Chicagoland suburbs. (Joel’s books BECAME the Want List for many collectors out there … I can’t tell you how many people I would run into at these shows carrying a copy of a book and then verifying their check list to see if the 45 they just found in somebody’s For Sale Bin was one of the ones they needed or not. In fact, in some of Joel’s specialized editions over the years, he would actually PRINT a check box next to the title so that you could keep track of what you still needed to complete your collection! The guy TRULY knew his audience!) kk
You can read our original tribute to Joel when we first learned of his passing …
https://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2022/06/our-forgotten-hits-tribute-to-joel.html
