oldies76 said:
michael hagerty said:
oldies76 said:
michael hagerty said:
And most of the time, that's smart.
I appreciate your agreement here. Obviously the "tuneout" thread isn't going to well, but I hope you understand.
What's your take on Foreigner's dilemma in 1981, stuck at 10 weeks at #2, thanks to the long run at #1 by Olivia Newton-John. Talk about frustration. And we all know which song is better!
Well, that gets us back to the issue of chart reliability that David and I keep coming back to.
Even if you take the charts as gospel (and I'd advise against it), then you need to look at the demographics. Who was buying singles as late as 1981 and who was buying LPs?
Foreigner may have been stuck behind Olivia on the Hot 100, but on the LP chart they were crushing her. And it was "Waiting For A Girl Like You" that was driving the LP sales, which makes it a much bigger song than "Physical".
It's got to be the methodology the singles chart was using back then. If airplay and sales were factors, then more people bought "Physical" 45's than Foreigner's. Seems like I heard "Waiting For A Girl Like You" more times than "Physical" on the Mighty 690 back in late 1981 and early 1982. But of course, the Richard Simmons fad back then might have helped Olivia too.
And here we need to get into what matters and what doesn't.
First: By 1981, very few people over the age of 16 were buying 45s anymore. And the number of copies of 45s sold was at an all time low and continuing to fall.
Second: Billboard did factor airplay into the Hot 100 numbers. That gives Olivia an immediate edge, because she was getting play on Adult Contemporary stations as well as Top 40. A lot of ACs were still scared of Foreigner at that point, though "Waiting" was the record that broke down the wall for a lot of them. Foreigner made up some of that with AOR play, but those stations didn't repeat songs as often as Top 40 (which in 1981, was running its power records anywhere from every hour and 10 minutes to every hour and 40 minutes), and AC, so Olivia wins on tonnage and repetition.
Third: Olivia was bigger than Simmons. She helped him. "Physical" worked on two levels. The song was about sex, the video was about aerobics. It was one giant double-entendre. It was as close to being a novelty record as you can get and not be a novelty record. It sold to a lot of people who liked or wanted to have a copy of the song for whatever reason, but knew they weren't really Olivia fans. That boosted her single sales a bit.
Fourth: With Foreigner that close to Olivia on the Hot 100 for that many weeks, and with Olivia certifed Gold (1 million copies sold), it's reasonable to assume that Foreigner was within a hundred thousand or less of that.
Now, flip over to the album charts (I'm using the December 19, 1981 issue of Billboard on Google Books...the last regular issue of the year). Foreigner is #1 and has gone platinum (1 million copies sold). Olivia is at #6 and has yet to even crack gold (500,000 copies). The reality here, combining 45 and album sales, is that Foreigner has moved very close to two million units total....possibly three million, because we don't know how close to double platinum that album is. Livvy can't be at more than 1.4 million total if that.
And, bringing in the "they buy what they like" argument from the other thread...the majority of the people buying Olivia were spending a dollar for the 45. The majority of the people buying Foreigner were shelling out for an album that listed for $8.98.
And finally, among people over the age of 16 (but under 35), Album Rock stations were killing Top 40s in 1981.
By virtually every measure, then, Foreigner had a bigger record than Olivia did, despite what the Hot 100 says. And modern-day research will bear that out. You'll hear "Waiting For A Girl Like You" on the air today. I'd be stunned to hear "Physical" in regular rotation. It's one of those songs that people grew out of after the moment.
