K-Earth at 6.5, August 2020

[oldies76]

And, FYI, no song in the known universe beats Despacito. It's the most viewed video in history. It still gets millions of views a week, 38 months later.

You do realize that the streaming platform has given many of today's songs a HUGE advantage that any older songs, that were hugely popular in their day, didn't and couldn't benefit from.

Think the Beatles, Saturday Night Fever, Michael Jackson "Thriller", the MTV revolution, The Macarena and others.....

So yes, "Despacito" is the most viewed video in the history of streaming, since roughly 2005.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

No, very few different people wanted to hear it and listened several times each.

And some people see reference to an old song and want to hear what it is like. Does not mean they liked it.

Correct. Getting a million views on YouTube isn't a huge accomplishment.

The very unusual "Drop Kick Me Jesus through the Goalposts of Life" by Bobby Bare, which barely cracked into the top 20 country chart in 1976, has a couple million views on YouTube. I am fairly certain nostalgia for this song is low, but interest may come from those who hear about it as a novelty song (that's how I first heard of it), or who see its title in a list of Grammy nominations.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

Correct. Getting a million views on YouTube isn't a huge accomplishment.

The very unusual "Drop Kick Me Jesus through the Goalposts of Life" by Bobby Bare, which barely cracked into the top 20 country chart in 1976, has a couple million views on YouTube. I am fairly certain nostalgia for this song is low, but interest may come from those who hear about it as a novelty song (that's how I first heard of it), or who see its title in a list of Grammy nominations.

I just added one. Hadn't heard that one in years and it is hilarious. Amazing how a good song can improve your day, especially in these ridiculous times we live in now.

Poor Bobby is a little confused on his football rules though. Only punts are dropkicked. If you want to score through the goalposts, the kick has to placekicked. But no worries Bobby, I get where you are going.

 

[TheBigA]

Poor Bobby is a little confused on his football rules though.

Don't blame Bobby...he didn't write it. The songwriter was Paul Craft, who also wrote Midnight Flyer for The Eagles and Brother Jukebox for Mark Chesnutt & Keith Whitley.

I originally thought Shel Silverstein wrote it. It sounded like something Shel would write, and Bobby recorded some of Shel's songs. Shel would have known the rules of football.

 

[CTListener]

I just added one. Hadn't heard that one in years and it is hilarious. Amazing how a good song can improve your day, especially in these ridiculous times we live in now.

Poor Bobby is a little confused on his football rules though. Only punts are dropkicked. If you want to score through the goalposts, the kick has to placekicked. But no worries Bobby, I get where you are going.

If the kicker drops the ball to the ground and kicks it, on the bounce, through the goalposts, the kick is good. That's what a dropkick used to be in the Stone Age of football. A punt is a different play altogether. Patriots Coach Bill Belichick let Doug Flutie kick an extra point that way toward the end of a game, I believe one that Flutie had decided was going to be his last.

 

[davideduardo]

By the way, earth's population is approx 7.8 billion

And is highly underestimated in third world nations that do very imperfect census activities, if they do them at all.

The best estimates are around 8.8 to 9 billion, taking under-counts into the figure.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

And is highly underestimated in third world nations that do very imperfect census activities, if they do them at all.

The best estimates are around 8.8 to 9 billion, taking under-counts into the figure.

"I really don't think they are in any salable demo, so worrying about them and trying to cater to their tastes is pointless."

See how ridiculous that point is when you keep reverting to it?

 

[davideduardo]

"I really don't think they are in any salable demo, so worrying about them and trying to cater to their tastes is pointless."

See how ridiculous that point is when you keep reverting to it?

What does that have to do with world population estimates?

In any case, unless there is considerable advertiser interest, there are groups of older people who are best served by non-commercial stations, paid satellite or customizable streaming options.

 

[davideduardo]

Even though "Honey" was the #11 song on the WABC Top 100 of 1968 I never heard it on the station once it dropped off the charts. Other songs which didn't chart as high like "Love Child", "Born to Be Wild", "Lady Madonna" and "Hello I Love You"
got frequent gold airplay. So even over 50 years ago the powers that be decided not to play "Honey".

Actually, the "powers" did not make the decision. Management simply saw the research, as primitive as it was by today's standards, and realized the song had turned violently negative. Listeners made the decision; radio just figured it out and acted accordingly.

 

[michael hagerty]

Actually, the "powers" did not make the decision. Management simply saw the research, as primitive as it was by today's standards, and realized the song had turned violently negative. Listeners made the decision; radio just figured it out and acted accordingly.

Exactly.

"Honey" was one of those songs that was done when it fell off the chart. Some songs like that might have had a longer life in MOR and AC gold libraries---but if you weren't there, you can't imagine the burnout on "Honey".

I was there, and I'd put it in the same category as Tony Orlando and Dawn's "Tie A Yellow Ribbon", Carpenters' "Sing", Morris Albert's "Feelings" and Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life"---songs that hit a chord for a moment, were over-exposed and produced, as David says, a "violently negative" response.

Do you remember how, when we were having this same damn argument SEVEN years ago, Steve Thompson said he'd push the button on Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" in the first two notes because they play it too often? I asked him how long it had been since he'd listened to more than the first two notes. He guessed about 20 years. But he was still tired of the song---didn't want to hear it.

That's the kind of reaction David's talking about with "Honey" and the others.

 

[TheBigA]

Some songs like that might have had a longer life in MOR and AC gold libraries---but if you weren't there, you can't imagine the burnout on "Honey".

The other thing about this is that WABC didn't play much gold. They were primarily a currents-based station. That's likely the case for other Top 4os around the country at the time. I can't remember what the percentage was, but it was very low. They played a lot of Beatles when they were current. They even played album cuts from time to time. But once those songs were done, they moved on.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

Exactly.

"Honey" was one of those songs that was done when it fell off the chart. Some songs like that might have had a longer life in MOR and AC gold libraries---but if you weren't there, you can't imagine the burnout on "Honey".

I was there, and I'd put it in the same category as Tony Orlando and Dawn's "Tie A Yellow Ribbon", Carpenters' "Sing", Morris Albert's "Feelings" and Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life"---songs that hit a chord for a moment, were over-exposed and produced, as David says, a "violently negative" response.

Do you remember how, when we were having this same damn argument SEVEN years ago, Steve Thompson said he'd push the button on Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" in the first two notes because they play it too often? I asked him how long it had been since he'd listened to more than the first two notes. He guessed about 20 years. But he was still tired of the song---didn't want to hear it.

That's the kind of reaction David's talking about with "Honey" and the others.

If I remember correctly, it isn't the song that burned him out it, was radio's overplaying of the song. "Brown-Eyed Girl" is a great song...once in a while. But for years KRTH had it in the rotation seemingly once every other hour. That of course shows such a lack of imagination on the programmers' part - "Hey Brown-Eyed Girl has 98% favorability, we will put this in the maximum rotation". Yeah, everyone likes the song until they have heard it 10 times this week at work where KRTH is playing all day.

Lately I have been appreciating one of my childhood faves, The most AOR band ever, Boston. Their first two albums are phenomenal. But I haven't listened to them for years, not because the music was bad, but because every rock radio station burned the records to a crispy-crisp where I didn't want to hear any of it for years. After tuning them out for years, now the songs seem enjoyable again, like visiting an old friend. But if they were forced on me again KRTH style, I would immediately go back to tuning them out.

 

[davideduardo]

If I remember correctly, it isn't the song that burned him out it, was radio's overplaying of the song. "Brown-Eyed Girl" is a great song...once in a while. But for years KRTH had it in the rotation seemingly once every other hour. That of course shows such a lack of imagination on the programmers' part - "Hey Brown-Eyed Girl has 98% favorability, we will put this in the maximum rotation". Yeah, everyone likes the song until they have heard it 10 times this week at work where KRTH is playing all day.

In the entire history of measured airplay, there is no song that was played more than Brown Eyed Girl. It wasn't KRTH alone; it was every station in the format.

It was only dropped because it is so old, and today's classic hits stations play mostly very late 70's to a touch of early 90's. Interestingly, the song was a bigger oldies hit than it was when new, as it was not a spectacular song as a current.

And if you look at the older end of the participants in a music test today, they still love the song. If there were significant stations serving folks over 60, they'd be playing it three or four times a day.

 

[TheBigA]

In the entire history of measured airplay, there is no song that was played more than Brown Eyed Girl. It wasn't KRTH alone; it was every station in the format.

You'd be surprised how popular that song is with millennials, who likely grew up listening to it in the car driving to soccer practice with their mom. Before COVID I went to lots of concerts by current artists, and several of them did that song as a cover. When they got to the chorus, the entire arena would sing along, especially the "la-dee-da" part. The same obviously with Sweet Caroline. No burn at all with either of those songs.

 

[semoochie]

The other thing about this is that WABC didn't play much gold. They were primarily a currents-based station. That's likely the case for other Top 4os around the country at the time. I can't remember what the percentage was, but it was very low. They played a lot of Beatles when they were current. They even played album cuts from time to time. But once those songs were done, they moved on.

The other thing is that songs would have their chart runs, drop off and that was it. There were no recurrents. A year later, a select few would re-emerge as gold titles.

 

[TheBigA]

The other thing is that songs would have their chart runs, drop off and that was it. There were no recurrents. A year later, a select few would re-emerge as gold titles.

At some point, the "Living Strings" would do a version of it for the Beautiful Music stations, and that would guarantee it would never again receive pop radio airplay.

 

[CTListener]

The other thing is that songs would have their chart runs, drop off and that was it. There were no recurrents. A year later, a select few would re-emerge as gold titles.

WRKO-FM Boston, an early experiment in automated Top 40, had a category called "Arko-Matic" which came up once every couple of hours at most and included songs that had dropped from the playlist 3 to 6 months previous, a precursor of the recurrent concept. The only gold (the "FM Flashback" category) that was played was pre-British Invasion. You'd hear the Beatles' current hits but not their early ones. "Hello Goodbye," yes; "She Loves You," no.

 

[davideduardo]

The other thing is that songs would have their chart runs, drop off and that was it. There were no recurrents. A year later, a select few would re-emerge as gold titles.

While that was true when Top 40's would only play currents, by the time we got into the mid-60's an occasional "flashback" or "golden" or, as the term developed, "oldie but goodie" would drop into the programming.

Many stations thought a rest was needed between current play and coming back as gold. But as we got into the 70's, the addition of recurrents to gradually drop out of high rotations was implemented. At my Top 40 station I recall creating a "recents" category around '65, and since I was pretty much imitating stations like WQAM and WIXY back then, it was likely a copied idea and not something I came up with on my own.

But generally, only a couple of those older songs an hour were played, sometimes with a feature like "#1 then... #1 now" with an oldie leading into the top song of the week.

 

[davideduardo]

At some point, the "Living Strings" would do a version of it for the Beautiful Music stations, and that would guarantee it would never again receive pop radio airplay.

I think an early indicator that Beautiful Music had jumped the shark was when the independent Beautiful Music consortium tried to get a lush instrumental version of "Innagaddadavida". At one point, every Top 10 song was a candidate for an instrumental version by the custom music services.

 

[radio128]

The other thing is that songs would have their chart runs, drop off and that was it. There were no recurrents. A year later, a select few would re-emerge as gold titles.

WABC did play some recurrents. Big Dan referred to those songs as "encore music."