CBS-FM Artists A to Z Countdown

[oldies76]

Well, WCBS is at it again...this time playing songs from their massive library in alpha order, by Artist. Beginning with ABBA to ZZ Top. Should be an interesting 5 days or so. BRING IT ON!! Specialties like this, is what makes you, most likely the number one classic hits station in the United States.

And they are not hesitant to do it either, unlike many other major market stations around the country.

The countdown begins 9am est, Tuesday morning 11/24.

 

[DToTheJ]

They are playing one song per artist. It took them just over three hours to get through the A's. The B's kicked off with The Babys at 12:16 PM.

 

[DToTheJ]

For those who wish to keep score:

Abba - Dancing Queen 9:01am

Gregory Abbott - Shake You Down 9:05am

ABC - When Smokey Sings 9:09am

Paula Abdul - Straight Up 9:14am

Ace - How Long 9:18am

Bryan Adams - Summer Of '69 9:30am

The Ad Libs - The Boy From New York City 9:34am

Aerosmith - Dream On 9:37am

A-Ha - Take On Me 9:42am

Air Supply - Lost In Love 9:45am

Jewel Akens - The Birds And The Bees 9:57am

Morris Albert - Feelings 10:02am

Alive & Kicking - Tighter, Tighter 10:05am

The Allman Brothers Band - Ramblin' Man 10:08am

Herb Alpert - This Guy's In Love With You 10:13am

The Amazing Rhythm Aces - Third Rate Romance 10:17am

Ambrosia - How Much I Feel 10:29am

America - A Horse With No Name

The American Breed - Bend Me, Shape Me

Leroy Anderson - Sleigh Ride 10:40am

Lynn Anderson - Rose Garden 10:43am

The Angels - My Boyfriend's Back 10:45am

The Animals - The House Of The Rising Sun 10:56am

Adam Ant - Goody Two Shoes 11:05am

Apollo 100 - Joy 11:08am

The Archies - Sugar, Sugar 11:11am

Argent - Hold Your Head Up 11:14am

Louis Armstrong's Orchestra & Chorus - What A Wonderful World 11:28am

Ashford & Simpson - Solid 11:30am

Asia - Heat Of The Moment 11:34am

The Association - Windy 11:38am

Rick Astley - Together Forever 11:40am

The Atlanta Rhythm Section - So Into You 11:44am

Atlantic Starr - Always 11:57am

James Ingram - Baby, Come To Me (w/ Patti Austin) 12:04pm

Gene Autry - Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane) 12:07pm

Frankie Avalon - Venus 12:10pm

The Average White Band - Pick Up The Pieces 12:12pm

Now, who's going to post the B's when they're done? ;D

 

[vinceapple]

CBS's WOGL in Philly is doing the top 1000 of all time and it started Monday morning at six. I can just imagine, when CBS FM gets to the Beatles, they play "Hey Jude." When they get to the Rolling Stones, they play "Satisfaction." When they get to the Turtles, they play "Happy Together." And on and on and yuck!

 

[oldies76]

They are playing one song per artist. It took them just over three hours to get through the A's. The B's kicked off with The Babys at 12:16 PM.

One song per artist is not enough. Within each artist with multiple hits, like the Beatles or Abba...etc.., they should have played those hits in alpha order too.

 

[mjb1124]

For what it's worth, they played "Cry Like A Baby" (which I haven't heard in a while) over the heavily played "The Letter" when they got to The Box Tops. Same goes for Boston with "Don't Look Back" instead of "More Than A Feeling". So it might not always be the most obvious song.

I don't think it would be a good idea to play every single hit by a group as prolific as The Beatles in alphabetical order. That would take hours. I could see maybe doing 3 or 4 songs per artists (provided that they had that many hits). But I would imagine they'll go through the list multiple times, and play different songs each time.

 

[lalumia]

kudos to CBS FM for the inclusion of Adam Ant,one of the most colorful stars of the early 80s/birth of MTV era..

 

[lalumia]

and right now they're playing "Ohio" by CSNY, which was banned from the airwaves at 77WABC despite being a top ten selling single in the NY market(same thing happened to "Ballad Of John & Yoko" by The Beatles, "Walk On The Wild Side" by Lou Reed,and "All The Young Dudes" by Mott The Hoople, all massive NY hit singles that WABC fled from...(the last two because of the glitter rock phobia of the early 70s)

 

[BruceS8852]

I believe that when they get to ZZ Top, they start again at A. Obviously one hit wonders will be only heard during the first go round. This will continue until Sunday evening.

Bruce

 

[DToTheJ]

kudos to CBS FM for the inclusion of Adam Ant,one of the most colorful stars of the early 80s/birth of MTV era..

Sorry, when they got to the C's, they didn't do Cherry Vanilla...

 

[DToTheJ]

I recall over a decade ago, when VH1 did something similar with videos in order of artist. I recall watching about 15 Tom Perry videos in a row during that special.

of course, this was back when VH1 played videos... :

 

[lalumia]

nor did they do Wayne(who is now Jayne) County during the "C"s, when they could have played Wayne's name dropping show stopping 1976 underground smash "Max's Kansas City 1976" a five minute plus ode to that NYC den of iniquity,..
more importantly, when they get to S will it be the Miss Ross Supremes, or the 70s Supremes fronted by the delectable Jean Terell?(Gordy wishes that all trace of that version would disappear, but the recordings are too fabulous for that to happen)

 

[mary]

This is AWSOME! I am hearing songs I NEVER hear on WCBSFM I loved when they did A to Z songs but now the Artists A to Z is even BETTER Great JOB my Friends ;D THANKS

 

[oldies76]

This is AWSOME! I am hearing songs I NEVER hear on WCBSFM I loved when they did A to Z songs but now the Artists A to Z is even BETTER Great JOB my Friends ;D THANKS

It's great, but the only drawback is that only one song per artist is being played, so that eliminates hundreds of songs from this countdown, that otherwise aired on the songs A to Z last year.

But at least CBS-FM is going above and beyond, where as most other classic hits stations never even attempt to do a specialty this large and in this way, specifically those west coast stations. Kudos to WCBS!!

 

[lalumia]

amazing, hearing some of these songs, it's addictive, The Reflections and Ruby & The Romantics intermingled with records that should have had NY Top 40 airplay (based on sales and popularity) but didn't, notably, most recently the previously mentioned "Walk On The Wild Side" by Lou Reed and "Love Is The Drug" by Roxy Music, two of many hits shunned by a balls-less 77WABC back in the day..
how I longed to be a teen with a radio in the UK between 1965-1974;
no wonder the UK pop scene remained so vibrant through the decades...but I digress,,
Congrats to CBS FM for once again, outdoing themselves.. I can't turn the radio off for fear that I might miss something(like it was 1964 all over again,when I just about to really become a teenager)

 

[RadioFixerCLE]

nor did they do Wayne(who is now Jayne) County during the "C"s, when they could have played

Because Wayne freakin' County doesn't fit the freakin' format of the freakin' station.

Get over it already. :

 

[oldies76]

ZZ Top at 10:13pm est. Playing the A's again, starting over.

 

[disney fanatic]

I hope CBS-FM does well with this A-Z thing with artists in ABC order instead of songs. I hope that maybe next year, they might some more songs that are rock songs and particularly albums cuts that WBPM plays like the Beatles "Hey Bulldog" which was the track off the "Yellow Submarine" album, plus some more heavy metal type stuff that you don't hear on CBS-FM before like Guns & Roses "Welcome to the Jungle", or some other good songs off the "Bat Out of Hell" album like the title song and "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth" by Meatloaf. I hope CBS-FM would add more rock songs in the A-Z countdown in the future.

I listened to Randy Turnip's show on WBPM earlier today, and I did recorded that as well. I hope I will post this aircheck in two parts soon. This will be an example on what CBS-FM needs to play more WBPM-ish rock songs in the future.