Actually what this explains is the week in 1964 that the Beatles held down all five top positions in the chart. Even as a Beatle honk myself, I never understood how that was physically possible even at the height of Beatlemania in 1964. It wasn't that the public was buying all five of those records in amounts that would account for such a phenomenon (although they were buying them in droves too, for sure), but more than that, it was that record stores were ordering every Beatles disc they could get their hands on as quickly as possible, so they mass ordered all five available singles. One of my life's mysteries is now solved.
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Los Angeles + Riverside-San Bernardino Radio Ratings: October 2014
- Thread starter pjc1961
- Start date
Actually what this explains is the week in 1964 that the Beatles held down all five top positions in the chart. Even as a Beatle honk myself, I never understood how that was physically possible even at the height of Beatlemania in 1964. It wasn't that the public was buying all five of those records in amounts that would account for such a phenomenon (although they were buying them in droves too, for sure), but more than that, it was that record stores were ordering every Beatles disc they could get their hands on as quickly as possible, so they mass ordered all five available singles. One of my life's mysteries is now solved.
The BeeGees held down the top three spots in 1978.
I don't remember what happened but I may have tuned out the later chart performers. I think it was the #6 song because it looked like she was heading for the top again. About the only way to check is tie in the song's release date with the beginning of Soundscan. There were actually two changes close together. They started monitoring both sales and airplay. It could've been either one of them.
Right. And there's no real way of knowing which of those five records was actually most popular.
Apart from special orders of catalog product. records were ordered by stores in multiples of five. That made ties not only possible, but likely very common, especially in lower-charting songs.
If nine singles moved 1,000 copies each that week and 1,000 copies was good for #83, Billboard, which didn't list ties, had to decide internally which one charted as #83, which was #91, and in what order in between the other seven would chart. How? Coin toss? Dart board? Titles drawn from a hat? A check to see which label was spending the most on advertising that week? That part I've never been able to confirm.
Ties at the top would presumably be less common, just because of the sheer number of stores ordering and re-ordering hot product at different levels based on size of the city, the store and their anticipated demand. But it is still mathematically possible, and when you have five records by the same artist all in the top five, it's reasonable to assume retailers were placing equal or nearly-equal orders for each.
Same basic phenomenon.
One thing to keep in mind about chart numbers from the pre-Soundscan era: Though Casey Kasem and the AT40 staff, out of showmanship, put the weekly chart numbers into a dramatic narrative that made it feel like a race with #1 on the Hot 100 the finish line, the top spot was a statistic, not an award. All it said was that (at wholesale) at least five more copies of that record moved that week than the number two record.
Maybe. Unless it was actually a tie (see post above).
For radio programming purposes, it's immaterial...you need to determine what your audience wants to hear now, not what they liked 40 years ago...but for chart fans, the only accurate way to determine the biggest hits of the year would have been to get an accurate total of copies sold each week, with a second column showing the running multi-week total (the way movie box office results are shown today), and then adjusted for returns of unsold copies 90 days or later afterward.
That system would have been the closest to accurate possible in the pre-Soundscan era, and would have resulted in year-end charts that would probably be shocking in their difference from what we've seen.
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Thomps2525
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Michael, don't the year-end Billboard charts actually cover from December of one year through November of the next year? The year-end charts, because of publishing deadlines, can not and do not reflect the calendar year. In 1972, there were two songs that each spent six weeks at number one, eleven weeks in the top ten, 15 weeks in the top 40 and 18 weeks on the Hot 100. Rather than have a tie, Billboard ranked The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face as the number one single for 1972 and Alone Again Naturally was #2. American Pie, which debuted on the Hot 100 in the week of November 21-27, 1971, was #3. I'm guessing that American Pie sold many thousands more copies than either of those other two songs. And I Gotcha was #6 for the year? Really? That's hard for me to believe. Uh-huh, huh!
Steve: Yes. Songs that debuted near the end of a calendar year were at a disadvantage on Billboard's year-end charts.
American Pie might have actually lagged behind...the single split the song in two...half on the A side, half on the B. Most people I knew bought the album rather than the single.
Speaking of American Pie, it seems strange to hear it often on 100.3 The Sound.
And how often?
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K.M. Richards
Guest
And who really cares?
Obviously Super cares. He is talking about LA Radio and lives in the MSA so there is no need to chase him off the board.
And he didn't say it that it was strange to hear the song on the Sound, but rather that it was strange to hear it so often. As a depressing dirge of a song that clocks in at seven minutes plus, I can understand the point.
Thanks Channel Flipper.... You get it .... As for the rest of you figure it out. Don McLean's anthem was one of my favorite songs back in the day (in case you think I hate the song)
I don't know...there are big chunks of the song with driving tempo. It's only depressing if you know the story. When he does it today, most people don't.
It was interesting watching Garth Brooks do it in Las Vegas. He was born in 1962, so he missed the "day the music died" aspect, but really loved the Irish folk aspect to it. He has a big smile on his face the whole time he sings it. Sort of a different approach.
The reason I asked why is that KSWD has replaced KLOS as the spiritual successor to...itself. And in late '71/early '72, KLOS, which was really hitting its stride, played the daylights out of American Pie, at a time when the majority of spins on KHJ were of part one of the single version. To me, American Pie is a very logical song for The Sound to play.
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Thomps2525
Guest
I've mentioned the Doors' Break On Through, which was a big hit in Los Angeles but stalled at #125 on Billboard's Bubbling Under chart. I have another good example of a Los Angeles hit that didn't do well nationally. (Yes, I know that nobody actually asked for another example.) Love was led by Arthur Lee and, like the Doors, was a Los Angeles group. In 1968, Alone Again Or reached #7 on KHJ but made it to only #123 on the Bubbling Under chart. A longer version of the song was released in 1970 and made it to #99.
As for The Sound, which was still KRBV for a few weeks before it could get the KSWD call letters, the station originally was Adult Album Alternative. It went on the air with this announcement: "Welcome to what we hope will be a new beginning for Southern California and music fans everywhere." Apparently KSWD fared no better with the AAA format than KSCA did. The Sound is now almost identical to KLOS. The "new beginning" evolved into the "same old songs."
As for The Sound, which was still KRBV for a few weeks before it could get the KSWD call letters, the station originally was Adult Album Alternative. It went on the air with this announcement: "Welcome to what we hope will be a new beginning for Southern California and music fans everywhere." Apparently KSWD fared no better with the AAA format than KSCA did. The Sound is now almost identical to KLOS. The "new beginning" evolved into the "same old songs."
Because that's what works.
It is often meaningless to try to equate national chart positions with album rock in the pre-Soundscan era, especially the 60's and 70's. This would be a great example. "Break On Through" was a mega hit for the Doors and has been a staple on AOR and classic rock stations since its release in 1967. It's chart position as a single is irrelevant. In fact, "Break on Through" has been played so many times, even Jim Ladd won't play it anymore. (Just kidding, of course he will, right there in a big ol' block with "LA Woman", "Peace Frog", "Back Door Man" and "The WASP (Texas Radio with the Big Beat)")
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Thomps2525
Guest
Yes, BigA, playing "the same old songs" is what works. That's unfortunate for those of us who want variety. It's sad that unique formats never fare well in Los Angeles. The old KNX-FM "Mellow Rock" format was probably the most successful. For many years KGRB played big-band music from the original 78-rpm recordings but never had any ratings to speak of. KSCA's AAA format didn't last long, nor did KIIS-AM's disco format. In 1980-81, KFSG played Southern Gospel music on Saturdays but it didn't attract much of an audience, even though sister station KHIS in Bakersfield played Southern Gospel full-time and did fairly well. KCMG's "Jammin' Oldies" format wasn't really what I would call unique, and after a few days we were hearing the same few songs over and over---just not the same songs that other stations were playing over and over. And remember in 1998 when 1650 AM was "K-Traffic" KKTR? That format deserved to die!
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