>>>I just hate to see it misconstrued ... Dick Biondi wasn't the first person in America to think The Beatles were going to be the next big thing ... they weren't even the next big thing in England yet (although they were certainly on their way.) kk
What’s really interesting about this statement is the fact that one of Biondi’s fellow WLS jocks DID recognize the potential for The Beatles to catch on here in America … and filed for what officially became the First Beatles Fan Club in the United States … and THAT credit belongs to popular WLS DJ Art Roberts.
From our “WHO PLAYED THE VERY FIRST BEATLES RECORD IN AMERICA” series …
Art Roberts officially founded BEATLES FAN CLUB #1 here in the United States ... he had read about all the fuss they were causing overseas and figured that if they EVER caught on here, at least HE would be able to lay claim to the very first BEATLES U.S. Fan Club. (In yet another case of irony, it was ART ROBERTS who took over DICK BIONDI's timeslot on WLS after he left the station!)
In another case of irony, Biondi left Chicago and went to KRLA, a big Top 40 Station in Los Angeles. KRLA was the radio station that jumped on the NEXT Beatles single, “From Me To You,” which WLS completely ignored in favor of the Del Shannon cover version. (Shannon had recently toured the UK with The Fab Four and saw the incredible crowd reaction they were receiving … “From Me To You” was their first official #1 Record overseas, so he decided to cut his own version of that tune when he got back to The States. (It was a minor hit here, reaching #15 on the WLS Silver Dollar Survey and peaking at #67 nationally in Cash Box Magazine … then spots lower in Billboard.)
The following year, when Beatlemania was in full swing here, Biondi was one of the jocks (along with future Newlywed Game host Bob Eubanks) that introduced The Beatles live on stage at The Hollywood Bowl. (I doubt that even THEN he told the guys, “You know, I was playing your record a year ago in Chicago and it completely fizzled.”)
>>>The dates make PERFECT sense. If Biondi premiered the record on Friday, February 22nd (which is what we are suggesting), that would be Week 1.
Whether he played the song first, there is proof of his playing in 1963 on youtube. You hear him playing it and talking over on a tape from 1963 with other songs from the period. The fact that Dick was gone from WLS that summer, six months before the Beatles hit in ’64, proves he did at least play it very early, as did all the other WLS jocks. ANY of them could have aired it and likely ALL of them did. WLS had no problem playing songs not on the playlist right thru the late 60's, as I have some taped. Same as WCFL, who of course would NOT have played Please Please Me in ‘63.
Clark Besch
I tried to find the clip that was there a few years ago of Biondi playing “Please Please Me” on the air ... but apparently it’s gone now.
It just showed an old table-top kitchen radio dial with the aircheck playing over it … but the clip purported to be the very first airing of the song, which it was not. However, Biondi DID play it first … and it went into rotation on WLS in February of 1963 … not HEAVY rotation necessarily, but as I mentioned before, it aired at least once a day during the Silver Dollar Survey Countdown, which aired Monday thru Friday. (kk)
Thanks for straightening out the Beatles thing - I can see now where I messed up. I was looking at the wrong position number of Please Please Me on March 15th char that showed 4 weeks played. Duh!
But I agree with you, in that there is so much info and so many opinions coming from so many directions that it's very hard to get the real story.
Thanx for clearing things up.
Mike
The thing about it is that NOBODY documented it at the time … because it truly was insignificant at that point. It wasn’t until The Beatles hit it big a year later that anyone here was paying attention. At that point, “Please Please Me” was re-released … and this time it went all the way to #3 nationally in all three major trades … and MIGHT have made it all the way to #1, were it not for the OTHER two massively successful Beatles singles it was competing with at the time, “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You.”
On April 5th, The Beatles had The Top Five Songs in the country … the following week they had a total of FOURTEEN songs on The Billboard Singles Chart!
# 1 – Can’t Buy Me Love
# 2 – Twist And Shout
# 4 – She Loves You
# 7 – I Want To Hold Your Hand
# 9 – Please Please Me
#14 – Do You Want To Know A Secret
#38 – I Saw Her Standing Here
#48 – You Can’t Do That
#50 – All My Loving
#52 – From Me To You
#61 – Thank You Girl
#73 – There’s A Place
#78 – Roll Over Beethoven
#81 – Love Me Do
Plus there were novelty songs on the charts ABOUT The Beatles (“We Love You Beatles” by The Carefrees and “A Letter To The Beatles” by The Four Preps)
Suffice to say that it was a FAR cry from February of 1963 here in The States!!! (kk)
Here's a Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Fan Vote update …
George Michael has just barely inched his way ahead of Cyndi Lauper …
When I checked the tote board this morning, Michael had 268,189 votes and Lauper had 267,537, a spread of only 650 votes (!) So I think this is going to be a very close race down to the finish line.
Meanwhile, nearly 40,000 votes behind in third place is Warren Zevon, followed by Soundgarden and Iron Maiden, now in the top five. Willie Nelson is next as the only other artists with 150,000 votes or more to date.
Watch for periodic updates as we get closer to the April 28th closing date. Stay tuned. (kk)
With The Oscars just around the corner, a lot of attention is being paid to the Best Original Song category as this REALLY seems to be Rihanna’s year so far.
Billboard Magazine notes that 27 songs that won The Oscar for “Best Song” also made The Top Ten on Billboard’s Chart. (I maintain that that number would be considerably higher if some of the more deserving songs nominated had won in this category … but hey, we’ll take what we can get!)
You can view the complete list here: https://www.billboard.com/photos/oscar-winning-songs-hot-100-top-10-hits-1235253678/#recipient_hashed=fa7e92da6f6e66bffcf0bcbf863670c6eb37d7159eb4d0ea1e44fecd5ec87eeb&recipient_salt=3a1d6b09af3b92ad7e38f8327cf18febeb049fd1c9a251b66957a07d9375735c
Kent:
I hope you're doing well. I saw this and thought of you immediately. I'm not a big podcast guy, but this one is worth it.
Here's an excerpt from the Plain English podcast on Spotify by Derek Thompson that starts by telling how, in 1991, Billboard changed from self-reported sampling to third-party gathered data for chart construction, and how it reflected different tastes -- something I know you know. The rest, about how the music itself changed is pretty interesting, too. About how melody was the driver in the last century and rhythm is the driver now.
In the podcast, he also takes on why there can be 24 songwriters credited and the lack of key changes.
Basically, this describes why, if you like the music of the last century, you may not like what you're hearing now -- even though he doesn't say it in that way.
Bill Carroll
P.S. I've started assembling Ranking the 70s, Version 2.0 -- this update, now eight years on from the first version -- is based on Billboard and is much richer in detail about singles, albums, writers, producers and the artists themselves -- essentially follows the same outline as RT80s. I'm hoping to have it ready to go in a couple of months.
How does technology shape art?
Why has songwriting become more of a visual skill in the 21st century?
Why are today’s hit songs shorter than songs from any period since the Beatles?
What happened to the guitar solo intro — and the classic rock genre in general?
How did rap and hip-hop take over the charts?
Derek welcomes the musician, writer, and data analyst Chris Dalla Riva to discuss the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that music hits have changed since the 1960s.
If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com.
You can find us on TikTok at www.tiktok.com/@plainenglish
In the following excerpt, Chris Dalla Riva discusses how a methodological change in 1991 allowed the Billboard charts to more accurately reflect American music tastes.
Derek Thompson: So, in the last few years, you have been a fount of fascinating work on how pop music is changing and how the sound of hits is changing. And I want to pick up where I left off in the open and ask you about 1991. How would you describe the significance of 1991 and the sea change in the sound of music since then?
Chris Dalla Riva: Yeah. 1991 is interesting because at the end of the day, it was just an accounting change from Billboard. We went from surveying record stores to actually looking at point-of-sale data. And what we saw from that was, first, that America’s tastes were very different than we thought. Hip-hop and country, especially, were much more popular than had previously been known.
And secondly, our tastes were much stickier. What I mean by that is things started staying at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for longer periods of time. For example, between 1960 and 1980, the longest there was a no. 1 was, first, for nine weeks. That was first established in 1960. “Hey, Jude” matched that in 1968. 1977, it went up to 10 weeks. Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical” matched that 10 weeks.
Over 20 years, you have the record move up a single week. Then in 1992, Boyz II Men gets it to 13 weeks with “End of the Road.” And then over the next three years, it goes 14 weeks and then 16 weeks. The 16-week record wasn’t broken, but it was matched by “Despacito.” And then it was broken by “Old Town Road” a couple of decades [after the record was set.] But we saw very quickly that our tastes were very sticky. We wanted to keep hearing the same thing over and over again.
Thompson: Yeah, it’s like the old Billboard guard had throttled the accurate reflection of American tastes. It wanted everyone to think that we liked maybe hair bands or rock music a little bit more than we actually did. It wanted us to think that we liked hip-hop and country a little bit less than we actually did. It wanted us to think that our tastes were changing week to week and month to month a little bit more than they actually are. And suddenly, I just think it’s so interesting, yes, that this Billboard
methodological change really overturned what we think of as American taste in music
We’ve watch a few episodes of that new Gina Rodriguez series “Not Dead Yet” …
All I can say at this point is “Not Impressed Yet” …
But what I DID happen to notice is that Gina’s character has been wearing some VERY cool music-related T-Shirts on the show. (In back-to-back episodes we caught her dressed in a Beach Boys and then a Pink Floyd “Dark Side Of The Moon” T.) So I have to give props to their fashion designer! (The premise of the show is that Gina writes an obituaries column for the newspaper she works at … and visits with the spirit of the recently deceased just prior to them crossing over, learning a life lesson in the process … and gaining a better perspective and insight into that person in order to be able to write a much more meaningful and personal obit.) Yeah, far-fetched, I know … but Ghosts are big this season. (Witness CBS’s FAR superior comedy “Ghosts,” which has ALL the TV critics raving.) kk
And check this out ...
You can BUY the Beach Boys T-Shirt she wore for $175 thru a company called "Worn On TV!!!" (Expensive ... but still, kinda cool!!!)
"Sweet Dreams" by The Eurythmics was on the charts 40 years ago … and I thought that this pic I stumbled across really fits the bill!
Mike Wolstein
