Billboard's Hot 100

[michael hagerty]

I would like to know the month and year they started doing this. It would affect the way I look at my Whitburn books. I would also like to know how much weight was given to airplay vs. sales.

The October 11, 1980 issue of Billboard is the first where the Hot 100 chart mentions airplay as part of the formula. That squares with my memory as the change having taken place about the time I was transitioning from music to news.

In 1985, a column detailed the methodology in use at that time. Airplay was determined by the chart positions of records on the weekly surveys of 200 Top 40 stations that reported to Billboard each week. Sales was based on a points system applied to the 30 best-selling records at 200 individual (both mom & pop and chain) record stores around the country. A year later, the column included distributors in that mix, which brought wholesale back into the picture.

The exact ratio of airplay vs. sales isn't disclosed. However, given how far singles sales had fallen by 1985/86, and how tight playlists were, I'm surprised they could get a list of 100 records from radio playlists and the 30 best-selling records from 200 retailers.

 

[michael hagerty]

I have a question: If the Hot 100 was a reflection of wholesale only, how do you account for the chart positions of B-sides?

Most were two-sided hits that shared a chart number. Ones that charted separately could have been based on which song the order was placed for (i.e. a store orders 10 copies of "Fortunate Son" instead of "Down On The Corner").

 

[davideduardo]

The October 11, 1980 issue of Billboard is the first where the Hot 100 chart mentions airplay as part of the formula. That squares with my memory as the change having taken place about the time I was transitioning from music to news.

Golly. That is 22 years after The Gavin Report was first issued... with station airplay as the basis.

 

[michael hagerty]

The October 11, 1980 issue of Billboard is the first where the Hot 100 chart mentions airplay as part of the formula. That squares with my memory as the change having taken place about the time I was transitioning from music to news.

Golly. That is 22 years after The Gavin Report was first issued... with station airplay as the basis.

Yep. But again, Billboard's business model was a simple one until then: Make a chart for everything, even if it only runs once a month, and sell as many ads as possible to record companies urging distributors and stores to buy the records and watch them climb those charts.

And it worked great...they made tons of money.

Until Radio & Records, publications that focused on the radio aspect of the business tended to be mimeographed sheets with little, if any (I think Gavin chose zero) advertising. Billboard was a cash cow.

 

[CTListener]

The October 11, 1980 issue of Billboard is the first where the Hot 100 chart mentions airplay as part of the formula. That squares with my memory as the change having taken place about the time I was transitioning from music to news.

Golly. That is 22 years after The Gavin Report was first issued... with station airplay as the basis.

Yep. But again, Billboard's business model was a simple one until then: Make a chart for everything, even if it only runs once a month, and sell as many ads as possible to record companies urging distributors and stores to buy the records and watch them climb those charts.

And it worked great...they made tons of money.

Until Radio & Records, publications that focused on the radio aspect of the business tended to be mimeographed sheets with little, if any (I think Gavin chose zero) advertising. Billboard was a cash cow.

Did Variety have the same sort of business model and the same sort of relationship to the movie industry? How about Broadcasting, with all those cool ads with cartoons of smiling microphones and big sparks coming out of towers? Broadcasting wasn't ranking anything, but it still got a bunch of industry-related advertising.

 

[michael hagerty]

The October 11, 1980 issue of Billboard is the first where the Hot 100 chart mentions airplay as part of the formula. That squares with my memory as the change having taken place about the time I was transitioning from music to news.

Golly. That is 22 years after The Gavin Report was first issued... with station airplay as the basis.

Yep. But again, Billboard's business model was a simple one until then: Make a chart for everything, even if it only runs once a month, and sell as many ads as possible to record companies urging distributors and stores to buy the records and watch them climb those charts.

And it worked great...they made tons of money.

Until Radio & Records, publications that focused on the radio aspect of the business tended to be mimeographed sheets with little, if any (I think Gavin chose zero) advertising. Billboard was a cash cow.

Did Variety have the same sort of business model and the same sort of relationship to the movie industry? How about Broadcasting, with all those cool ads with cartoons of smiling microphones and big sparks coming out of towers? Broadcasting wasn't ranking anything, but it still got a bunch of industry-related advertising.

I think Variety is the reason Billboard didn't cover legitimate theater and movies to a large degree. Billboard was founded in 1894, Variety in 1905.

Broadcasting launched in 1934 and was, for most of its life, much more about the advertising and financial side of broadcasting. Advertising was largely equipment and services...budget items that General Managers would usually have the say over.

 

[davideduardo]

How about Broadcasting, with all those cool ads with cartoons of smiling microphones and big sparks coming out of towers? Broadcasting wasn't ranking anything, but it still got a bunch of industry-related advertising.

Check out http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Broadcasting_Individual_Issues_Guide.htm

There you can find about 3,000 issues of Broadcasting from October, 1931 to when the magazine changed name in 1992.

 

[RIN3GUY]

I would like to know the month and year they started doing this. It would affect the way I look at my Whitburn books. I would also like to know how much weight was given to airplay vs. sales.

The October 11, 1980 issue of Billboard is the first where the Hot 100 chart mentions airplay as part of the formula.

This is quite interesting because I have always attributed the difference in chart rankings to the fact that Billboard included a mix of sales and airplay, whereas Cash Box was sales only. However, now I am at a loss to explain discrepancies between the two, at least before Oct. '80.

 

[michael hagerty]

I would like to know the month and year they started doing this. It would affect the way I look at my Whitburn books. I would also like to know how much weight was given to airplay vs. sales.

The October 11, 1980 issue of Billboard is the first where the Hot 100 chart mentions airplay as part of the formula.

This is quite interesting because I have always attributed the difference in chart rankings to the fact that Billboard included a mix of sales and airplay, whereas Cash Box was sales only. However, now I am at a loss to explain discrepancies between the two, at least before Oct. '80.

Cash Box factored in jukebox play.

 

[CTListener]

The October 11, 1980 issue of Billboard is the first where the Hot 100 chart mentions airplay as part of the formula. That squares with my memory as the change having taken place about the time I was transitioning from music to news.

Golly. That is 22 years after The Gavin Report was first issued... with station airplay as the basis.

Yep. But again, Billboard's business model was a simple one until then: Make a chart for everything, even if it only runs once a month, and sell as many ads as possible to record companies urging distributors and stores to buy the records and watch them climb those charts.

And it worked great...they made tons of money.

Until Radio & Records, publications that focused on the radio aspect of the business tended to be mimeographed sheets with little, if any (I think Gavin chose zero) advertising. Billboard was a cash cow.

Did Variety have the same sort of business model and the same sort of relationship to the movie industry? How about Broadcasting, with all those cool ads with cartoons of smiling microphones and big sparks coming out of towers? Broadcasting wasn't ranking anything, but it still got a bunch of industry-related advertising.

I think Variety is the reason Billboard didn't cover legitimate theater and movies to a large degree. Billboard was founded in 1894, Variety in 1905.

Broadcasting launched in 1934 and was, for most of its life, much more about the advertising and financial side of broadcasting. Advertising was largely equipment and services...budget items that General Managers would usually have the say over.

Much like the presses, typesetters, plate-making machinery and mailroom equipment that graced the pages of Editor & Publisher, I suppose. Still, I remember a good deal more self-congratulatory advertising for radio stations and groups of radio stations in Broadcasting than the same sort of advertising for newspapers and newspaper chains in E&P.

 

[michael hagerty]

The October 11, 1980 issue of Billboard is the first where the Hot 100 chart mentions airplay as part of the formula. That squares with my memory as the change having taken place about the time I was transitioning from music to news.

Golly. That is 22 years after The Gavin Report was first issued... with station airplay as the basis.

Yep. But again, Billboard's business model was a simple one until then: Make a chart for everything, even if it only runs once a month, and sell as many ads as possible to record companies urging distributors and stores to buy the records and watch them climb those charts.

And it worked great...they made tons of money.

Until Radio & Records, publications that focused on the radio aspect of the business tended to be mimeographed sheets with little, if any (I think Gavin chose zero) advertising. Billboard was a cash cow.

Did Variety have the same sort of business model and the same sort of relationship to the movie industry? How about Broadcasting, with all those cool ads with cartoons of smiling microphones and big sparks coming out of towers? Broadcasting wasn't ranking anything, but it still got a bunch of industry-related advertising.

I think Variety is the reason Billboard didn't cover legitimate theater and movies to a large degree. Billboard was founded in 1894, Variety in 1905.

Broadcasting launched in 1934 and was, for most of its life, much more about the advertising and financial side of broadcasting. Advertising was largely equipment and services...budget items that General Managers would usually have the say over.

Much like the presses, typesetters, plate-making machinery and mailroom equipment that graced the pages of Editor & Publisher, I suppose. Still, I remember a good deal more self-congratulatory advertising for radio stations and groups of radio stations in Broadcasting than the same sort of advertising for newspapers and newspaper chains in E&P.

That's because ad agencies and rep firms read Broadcasting. Those ads were considered an investment in growing national ad revenue.

 

[semoochie]

I have a question: If the Hot 100 was a reflection of wholesale only, how do you account for the chart positions of B-sides?

Most were two-sided hits that shared a chart number. Ones that charted separately could have been based on which song the order was placed for (i.e. a store orders 10 copies of "Fortunate Son" instead of "Down On The Corner").

If that's the case, you would think it would drag down the ranking of both A and B sides.

 

[michael hagerty]

I have a question: If the Hot 100 was a reflection of wholesale only, how do you account for the chart positions of B-sides?

Most were two-sided hits that shared a chart number. Ones that charted separately could have been based on which song the order was placed for (i.e. a store orders 10 copies of "Fortunate Son" instead of "Down On The Corner").

If that's the case, you would think it would drag down the ranking of both A and B sides.

"Down On The Corner" peaked at #3, "Fortunate Son"'at #14.

Could be part of why CCR never had a #1 single.

 

[RIN3GUY]

On Cash Box, CCR's "Lookin' Out My Back Door" did reach #1. On Record World that one and their first two big hits reached #1 as well. Eric Carmen's "All By Myself" also reached #1 on both those charts, but not Billboard. It seems odd that "All By Myself" would have been a big juke box hit to account for the difference, which makes me wonder what criteria Record World used. If it measured airplay, then "All By Myself" and probably a few others should be considered de facto #1 hits since Billboard added that in a few years later.

 

[michael hagerty]

On Cash Box, CCR's "Lookin' Out My Back Door" did reach #1. On Record World that one and their first two big hits reached #1 as well. Eric Carmen's "All By Myself" also reached #1 on both those charts, but not Billboard. It seems odd that "All By Myself" would have been a big juke box hit to account for the difference, which makes me wonder what criteria Record World used. If it measured airplay, then "All By Myself" and probably a few others should be considered de facto #1 hits since Billboard added that in a few years later.

I'll research Record World's methodology, but I don't remember anyone being a reporting station for Record World, and Billboard's move to include airplay was controversial enough in 1980 (turntable hits that stations charted high purely on requests were now going to be factored into a sales chart) that it'd be surprising if Record World was doing it in 1976, much less 1970.

By the way, as someone who was programming in 1976, "All By Myself" was inescapable. Remember that jukeboxes were in as many bars as they were pizza parlor and other "good time" places. Feeling sorry for yourself while you drown your sorrows songs were big jukebox records. This one just wasn't country.

 

[firepoint525]

I have a question: If the Hot 100 was a reflection of wholesale only, how do you account for the chart positions of B-sides?

Beginning with the week that "Come Together"/"Something" by the Beatles went to #1, the chart positions for both sides were combined into one listing. This is what caused that particular single to go to #1. Otherwise, "Come Together" would have had a peak position of #2, while "Something" was probably destined to reach only #3.

I am guessing that subsequent chart peaks shown for B-sides since then were for airplay only. I remember on one of those retro AT40s that I heard recently, Casey Kasem played "Long and Winding Road" by the Beatles along with its b-side "For You Blue." For my money, "For You Blue" was just simply NOT a "hit," although maybe it got some airplay back at that time. (Had it charted separately, it probably would not have had a very impressive peak position. (I see some b-sides in my Whitburn books shown with "F" for peak position, meaning that it was a flipside only.) And George's solo single "My Sweet Lord" shows "Isn't It a Pity" as a double-sided "hit" in a similar fashion.

I remember having to give someone a convoluted explanation of why "Strawberry Fields Forever" was not included on the 1 CD. ;D

 

[firepoint525]

I have a question: If the Hot 100 was a reflection of wholesale only, how do you account for the chart positions of B-sides?

Most were two-sided hits that shared a chart number. Ones that charted separately could have been based on which song the order was placed for (i.e. a store orders 10 copies of "Fortunate Son" instead of "Down On The Corner").

If that's the case, you would think it would drag down the ranking of both A and B sides.

"Down On The Corner" peaked at #3, "Fortunate Son"'at #14.
Could be part of why CCR never had a #1 single.

That was their last single to be listed that way. They had subsequent b-sides that "charted," but no peak position listed. The way I see it, those b-sides got a "free ride" to their peak positions by "piggybacking" with their A-sides.

Their biggest hit appears to be "Proud Mary" with three weeks at #2, with its followup "Bad Moon Rising" not that far behind. The latter was probably their most frustrating, since it appears that it was held out of #1 by, of all things, "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet"! ;D

 

[michael hagerty]

I have a question: If the Hot 100 was a reflection of wholesale only, how do you account for the chart positions of B-sides?

Beginning with the week that "Come Together"/"Something" by the Beatles went to #1, the chart positions for both sides were combined into one listing. This is what caused that particular single to go to #1. Otherwise, "Come Together" would have had a peak position of #2, while "Something" was probably destined to reach only #3.

I am guessing that subsequent chart peaks shown for B-sides since then were for airplay only. I remember on one of those retro AT40s that I heard recently, Casey Kasem played "Long and Winding Road" by the Beatles along with its b-side "For You Blue." For my money, "For You Blue" was just simply NOT a "hit," although maybe it got some airplay back at that time. (Had it charted separately, it probably would not have had a very impressive peak position. (I see some b-sides in my Whitburn books shown with "F" for peak position, meaning that it was a flipside only.) And George's solo single "My Sweet Lord" shows "Isn't It a Pity" as a double-sided "hit" in a similar fashion.

Billboard did not include airplay in its Hot 100 tabulations until October, 1980.

I'd have to look at the individual weekly chart, but "The Long And Winding Road" may have been listed as a two-sided hit for a week or more. Stations were divided on having a second slow Beatles single after "Let It Be", and some (including KHJ) played "For You Blue" as well.

There was also some advance build-up for "For You Blue". In late 1969, when it was believed the next Beatles album would be "Get Back", "For You Blue" was rumored to be the single. Unauthorized copies were aired on KRIZ in Phoenix and other stations before the cease and desist orders arrived from Apple.

 

[firepoint525]

I'd have to look at the individual weekly chart, but "The Long And Winding Road" may have been listed as a two-sided hit for a week or more. Stations were divided on having a second slow Beatles single after "Let It Be", and some (including KHJ) played "For You Blue" as well.
There was also some advance build-up for "For You Blue". In late 1969, when it was believed the next Beatles album would be "Get Back", "For You Blue" was rumored to be the single. Unauthorized copies were aired on KRIZ in Phoenix and other stations before the cease and desist orders arrived from Apple.

Interesting, as that would have meant two consecutive Harrison A-side singles for the fab four, or at least two out of three.

 

[michael hagerty]

I have been able to find nothing that indicates that Record World factored airplay into its charts.

The magazine went out of business in 1982...18 months after Billboard added airplay to its formula.

Most of you may already know this, but Record World's name from its inception in 1946 until 1964 was Music Vendor. Again, an industry magazine not intended as a reflection of consumer activity.