While I may not be able to pinpoint the exact date I got hooked on Top 40 Countdowns, I CAN narrow it down to a two week period ...
It happened sometime between Friday, June 19th, 1964 ... and Thursday, July 2nd.
I know this because the very first Top 40 Countdown I ever heard was Dex Card counting down The Silver Dollar Survey on WLS ...
And the #1 Record that week was "Little Children" by Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas ...
And Billy occupied the #1 spot on The WLS Silver Dollar Surveys dated June 19th and June 26th.
I LOVED this record ... bought it as soon as I heard it ... and actually here in Chicago, where WLS usually listed BOTH sides of a two-sided hit at that week's position, Dex probably played BOTH sides of the record when it reached #1.
(The new survey ... and thus the new countdown ... always came out on Friday back then. In fact, if you look at their June 19th chart, you'll see two other two-sided hits listed ...
The Beatles are at #4 with "Love Me Do" / "P.S. I Love You" and Dionne Warwick is down at #37 with her latest hit, "Walk On By" / "Any Old Time Of The Day.")
Back then, WLS referred to these as "TSW"'s ... Two-Sided Winners ... and there were quite a few of these making the charts during the mid-'60's. (It seemed like you could always count on seeing both sides of a Beatles record, a Beach Boys record, an Elvis record and a few others that seemed to consistently tantalize us with their "more bang for your buck" 45's.)
Dex Card counted down Chicago's Top 40 Hits every weekday from 3:00 - 6:30 ... JUST in time to catch it when you got home from school.
It was essentially the same show every day ... in fact, I wondered (even back then) why he didn't just tape ONE show and air it for the next five days, as the countdown wouldn't change again until the following Friday!
Taking a look at the June 19th chart, we see a few surprises ...
Bobby Rydell's version of "A World Without Love" sits at #14 ... and I do remember WLS playing it quite a bit, even if the Peter and Gordon record was quite clearly the preferred version.
The Beatles' German version of "She Loves You," "Sie Liebt Dich" is this week's #17 record ... that's FAR higher than it ever got on the national charts (where it peaked at #97 for a solitary week in Billboard.)
"Hickory, Dick And Doc" by Bobby Vee was another favorite record of mine at the time. It would peak at #18 on WLS (despite a #63 national showing.)
The following week we see The Four Seasons' future #1 Hit "Rag Doll" premiering on the chart. It will go on to be one of the biggest hits of the summer.
But the one that I'll always remember is Billy J. Kramer's #1 Hit here in Chicago
