From 4th of July's past ...
(courtesy Chuck Buell)
THE #1 RECORDS ON THE 4th of JULY - 1955 - 1990
1955 - ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK - Bill Haley and his Comets**
1956 - THE WAYWARD WIND - Gogi Grant**
1957 - (LET ME BE YOUR) TEDDY BEAR - Elvis Presley
1958 - THE PURPLE PEOPLE EATER - Sheb Wooley**
1959 - THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS - Johnny Horton**
1960 - EVERYBODY'S SOMEBODY'S FOOL - Connie Francis
1961 - TOSSIN' AND TURNIN' - Bobby Lewis**
1962 - THE STRIPPER - David Rose
1963 - EASIER SAID THAN DONE - Essex**
1964 - I GET AROUND - The Beach Boys**
1965 - SATISFACTION - The Rolling Stones**
1966 - PAPERBACK WRITER - The Beatles
1967 - WINDY - The Association**
1968 - THIS GUY'S IN LOVE WITH YOU - Herb Alpert**
1969 - LOVE THEME FROM "ROMEO AND JULIET" - Henry Mancini
1970 - THE LOVE YOU SAVE - The Jackson Five
1971 - IT'S TOO LATE - Carole King**
1972 - LEAN ON ME - Bill Withers
1973 - WILL IT GO ROUND IN CIRCLES - Billy Preston
1974 - ROCK THE BOAT - The Hues Corporation
1975 - LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER - The Captain and Tennille**
1976 - SILLY LOVE SONGS - Paul McCartney and Wings**
1977 - UNDERCOVER ANGEL - Alan O'Day
1978 - SHADOW DANCING - Andy Gibb**
1979 - RING MY BELL - Anita Ward**
1980 - COMING UP - Paul McCartney and Wings
1981 - BETTE DAVIS EYES - Kim Carnes**
1982 - DON'T YOU WANT ME - The Human League
1983 - EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE - The Police**
1984 - WHEN DOVES CRY - Prince**
1985 - SUSSUDIO - Phil Collins
1986 - THERE'LL BE SAD SONGS (TO MAKE YOU CRY) - Billy Ocean
1987 - I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY - Whitney Houston
1988 - THE FLAME - Cheap Trick
1989 - GOOD THING - Fine Young Cannibals
1990 - STEP BY STEP - New Kids On The Block
**Denotes Biggest Song of the Summer for That Year
Enjoy a Happy and Safe 4th of July!!!
Wanna see a recap of the Biggest Songs of Summer for every
year, 1955 – 1980?
Then click on the links below to view:
1955 – 1963: https://fhbiggestsummerhits1955-1980.blogspot.com/
1967: https://fhsummeroflove.blogspot.com/
1968 – 1980: https://fhbiggestsummerhits1955-1980.blogspot.com/2025/03/summers-biggest-hits-1968-1980.html
*****
Remembering July 4th, 1970 ...
55 Years Ago Today
July 4th, 1970 – Casey Kasem’s syndicated weekly countdown
program, American Top 40, debuts, airing at first on just seven radio stations
during the 4th of July Holiday Weekend. It is still broadcast today with its current
host, Ryan Seacrest. Meanwhile, recordings
of Casey’s original broadcasts continue to air all over the country in
syndication.
Casey had built quite a reputation for himself as a jock on KRLA in Los Angeles ... and had one of those perfect radio voices.
The
concept was simple ... let's face it, countdown shows had existed from
the beginning of time ... (or at least since the days of "Your Hit
Parade"!) ...
But
each week Casey would countdown the 40 Biggest Hits in America as
determined by Billboard Magazine, which was considered to be the
industry bible.
He
would throw in interesting facts and tidbits about each song and artist
and, as time went on and more stations climbed on the bandwagon,
feature things like "Long Distance Dedications" and more in-depth
features on any given song or artist.
The
first show took a little over eighteen hours to record ... an unheard
of amount of time in the days before voice-tracking ... plus each record
featured had to be played and recorded in its entirety to reflect "real
time" when being rebroadcast. And, because they hadn't started
pressing these on vinyl LPs yet (that wouldn't happen until much later
in 1971), copies were distributed on 14" reel-to-reel tape that each
station would have to load and monitor during the broadcast.
The
plan all along was for this to be weekend programming ... and what
better time to launch it than Fourth Of July Weekend, 1970! People
would gather together in the backyard for barbecues, and Casey would
have their somewhat-divided attention as he played down each week's 40
biggest hits.
Since
the 4th of July fell on a Saturday that year, the seven stations who
signed on as the original syndicators had the option to run it on
Saturday or Sunday ... or, if they chose, both.
However,
KDEO in El Cajon, California, a station located just outside of San
Diego, decided to jump the gun and air the program on Friday Night.
Thus, they became, on July 3rd, 1970, the very first radio station
ANYWHERE to broadcast an edition of American Top 40.
(The
other six stations ... all of whom followed the rule book and aired the
program over 4th of July Weekend as planned ... were WMEX in Boston,
WPGC in Washington, DC, KPGC in Henderson/Las Vegas, NV, KMEN in San
Bernardino, CA, KHYT in Tucson, AZ and KPOI in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Incredibly, Casey's "home station," KRLA, was NOT one of the original
seven to broadcast the program!)
Because
Casey had to fill three hours with 40 songs ... and songs back then
only averaged about three minutes in length ... there was time to fill
with local ads, commentary and a few "American Top 40 Extras." That
first program consisted of four of these ... "Little Ole Man" by Bill
Cosby, "Spinning Wheel" by Blood, Sweat and Tears, "Satisfaction" by The
Rolling Stones and "Hello Dolly" by Louis Armstrong.
For trivia buffs, the first song broadcast on American Top 40 (at #40 that week) was "End Of The Road" by Marvin Gaye.
#9
and #8 that week were "The Wonder Of You" by Elvis Presley and "The
Long And Winding Road" by The Beatles ... a rare back-to-back event of
the two biggest recording acts in history. (Both were enjoying
two-sided hits at the time!)
What were The Top 40 songs that week?
Well, I can tell you what they weren't ...
They were NOT The Top 40 Songs shown in Billboard Magazine for the Week Ending July 4, 1970.
Because
the show was airing that 4th of July Weekend, it was decided that they
should be counting down the brand NEW Top 40 that Billboard would
publish on Monday for the Week Ending July 11th. (Which, of course,
brings into question as to just how accurate these charts really were
... if Billboard was preparing their charts a full week in advance ...
speculation abounds ... but that's fodder for another day.)
As
such, people listening to the program that weekend already knew what
the new #1 Song was before subscribers were receiving and reading their
brand new issue of Billboard Magazine! (One of the questions most asked
of AT40 at the time was why "The Love You Save" by The Jackson Five
wasn't the #1 Record when they heard that first program. That's because
Three Dog Night knocked them out of the #1 spot the following week with
"Mama Told Me (Not To Come)"!!!)
This
continued to be the practice until the weekend of May 8th, 1971, when,
for the first time ... and from that point forward ... the air date and
the Billboard issue date were synchronized. (Amazing!)
Of
course, I don't know how many of us kids listening at home had ANY idea
about Billboard's weekly Hot 100 Pop Singles Chart ... I know I
didn't! I have since heard that many record stores displayed the
Billboard Chart in their Record Department ... but we didn't see this
here when I was growing up. We had our own WLS and WCFL surveys to
follow (which is typically how the records were displayed in the racks
at the time.) And stores like Woolworths and Korvettes published their
OWN list of most popular 45's ... and had THOSE on display.
