Songs That Were Much More Popular On WLS And WCFL Than On The Billboard Hot 100

[Schroedingers Cat]

Here are some of the songs that did much better on WLS and WCFL than on the Hot 100. You may come up with more.

Seeds-Pushin’ Too Hard #1 WLS #2 WCFL #36 Hot 100

Cryan’ Shames-Could Be We’re In Love #1 WLS #1 WCFL #85 Hot 100

Bob Seger-Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man #1 WCFL #2 WLS #17 Hot 100

New Colony Six-Love You So Much #2 WLS #4 WCFL #61 Hot 100

New Colony Six-I Will Always Think About You #1 WLS #1 WCFL #22 Hot 100

New Colony Six-Things I’d Like To Say #2 WLS #3 WCFL #16 Hot 100

Dean Friedman-Ariel #4 WLS #26 Hot 100

 

[KeithE4]

In the case of the New Colony Six and the Cryan Shames, among others, they were Chicago-based bands. No surprise that Chicago rock stations played their records.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Bob Seger could also be considered a quasi local artist. Many of these types of "regional" bands played concerts at such regional venues as Mt. Holly in Michigan. You can find some of these on the very incomplete Concert Database, and more completely listed on many local station surveys. The NC6, The Ides of March, and The Critters from NJ were some of them.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

KKRZ Portland played Portland based Nu Shooz'"I Can't Wait" almost a year before the rest of the country. And The Buoys'/Rupert Holmes' mining disaster ballad "Timothy" charted months earlier in the area of Pennsylvania where a similar disaster with three miners involved occurred eight years earlier. Holmes denied that there was a connection or any memory of the actual mining disaster. We all know about lawyers though. All kinds of local connections and events influence regional breakouts and airplay though.

 

[TheBigA]

In the case of the New Colony Six and the Cryan Shames, among others, they were Chicago-based bands. No surprise that Chicago rock stations played their records.

Chicago-based bands on a Chicago based record label: Mercury. Cryan Shames were on Destination, also based in Chicago. This was at a time when record labels, other than RCA and Columbia, were small local businesses. They didn't have national promo staffs until the 70s.

 

[radioman148]

The World Through A Tear by Neil Sedaka peaked at number 4 on WLS in Oct 1965. The song only reached number 76 on Billboards Hot 100. As we all know Sedaka was not a Chicago artist.

 

[briancraig]

Two that I remember from the 1970s:

Brownsville Station—I’m The Leader Of The Gang
10 at CFL and 11 at WLS but only 48 Billboard

Star Baby-Guess Who
3 at WLS and CFL. 39 at Billboard

 

[TheBigA]

The World Through A Tear by Neil Sedaka peaked at number 4 on WLS in Oct 1965. The song only reached number 76 on Billboards Hot 100. As we all know Sedaka was not a Chicago artist.

In fact the airplay on WLS may have been the only airplay that song received. It was towards the end of Sedaka's career with RCA, and his career had been hurt by the British invasion. He was ice cold on the radio at the time. His previous national hit was in 1962. I see he recorded a German version of the song. I tried to find some connection for the success of that song in Chicago, and I can only assume he made some personal appearances in the area at the time.

 

[radioman148]

In fact the airplay on WLS may have been the only airplay that song received. It was towards the end of Sedaka's career with RCA, and his career had been hurt by the British invasion. He was ice cold on the radio at the time. His previous national hit was in 1962. I see he recorded a German version of the song. I tried to find some connection for the success of that song in Chicago, and I can only assume he made some personal appearances in the area at the time.

Good point. I like the song-always did, but I never understood why it was so popular on WLS and basically nowhere else. Very surprising.

 

[TheBigA]

Brownsville Station—I’m The Leader Of The Gang
10 at CFL and 11 at WLS but only 48 Billboard

Likely a similar story to Bob Seger. They were a band from Michigan. They did have a big hit with Smokin' In The Boys Room, but that was it. They were on Big Tree Records, a label that had a few other hitmakers at the time.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

The World Through A Tear by Neil Sedaka peaked at number 4 on WLS in Oct 1965. The song only reached number 76 on Billboards Hot 100. As we all know Sedaka was not a Chicago artist.

Actually, "The World Through A Tear" showed up on currently 120 weekly charts on ARSA. I'd have to count the number of stations. It was first played on WTAC and WMCA. WTAC also broke "It Could Be We're In Love" before WCFL and WLS. Bob Dell was the PD at WTAC at the time, and was the Concert Promoter for Mt. Holly. Haven't found a survey yet that shows the "Shames" playing Mt. Holly, but information is incomplete. The NC6 did play there. Bob showed up a few years later at WIND, using his full surname DelGiorno. I have wondered why he didn't promote concerts in Chicago, but as "The Benny Goodman Story" and "Jersey Boys" revealed, concert promotion and venues were controlled by a certain "Organization" that was once said not to exist.

 

[TheBigA]

Actually, "The World Through A Tear" showed up on currently 120 weekly charts on ARSA.

Did any of them play it as much as WLS? As I said, Neil was ice cold on the radio and RCA let he contract lapse in 1966.

 

[radioman148]

Did any of them play it as much as WLS? As I said, Neil was ice cold on the radio and RCA let he contract lapse in 1966.

The "World Through A Tear" reached #33 on WMCA. Never charted on WABC in Sedaka's home town.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

If this link works, you can see what the peaks were on each station. Keep in mind that WLS Surveys were more available in collections compared to most smaller market stations, hence more are archived at ARSA. WJET in Erie is surprisingly complete though, where it reached #3. It was on the WMCA chart for 4 weeks.

ARSA | About This Site

An historical archive of Radio Surveys & Nostalgia.

las-solanas.com

 

[TheBigA]

The "World Through A Tear" reached #33 on WMCA. Never charted on WABC in Sedaka's home town.

You can play the hometown card when you're new. Not when you're over. Sedaka was over in 1965. In 1965, WABC was playing anyone from England. It didn't matter how corny.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

I never did believe that station charts completely and actually reflected sales and requests. If you ever noticed, there is a disclaimer at the bottom on the vast majority of charts that says something like "and [our] judgement of the records' appeal". In many cases, I suspect this was a large part of chart "research". It's not payola if you truly made a station judgement of appeal, and did not get "rewarded" for it in any way.

 

[davideduardo]

You can play the hometown card when you're new. Not when you're over. Sedaka was over in 1965. In 1965, WABC was playing anyone from England. It didn't matter how corny.

But if you look at the lists, they were also heavy into Motown and the Beach Boys and some of the Phil Spector type things as well; after a couple of more years they got into Credence, the Guess Who and, of course the more commercial "San Francisco Sound" rock.

 

[TheBigA]

But if you look at the lists, they were also heavy into Motown and the Beach Boys and some of the Phil Spector type things as well; after a couple of more years they got into Credence, the Guess Who and, of course the more commercial "San Francisco Sound" rock.

All of which explains why it was easy for them to overlook an overproduced dud by Neal Sedaka.

 

[TheBigA]

I never did believe that station charts completely and actually reflected sales and requests.

Especially when we learned many years later that the record store folks weren't telling us the truth when they gave us sales numbers. I spent a few years in record retail and got to see it from both sides.

 

[radioman148]

All of which explains why it was easy for them to overlook an overproduced dud by Neal Sedaka.

You can play the hometown card when you're new. Not when you're over. Sedaka was over in 1965. In 1965, WABC was playing anyone from England. It didn't matter how corny.

Which is one of the reasons that I was so amazed that WLS was so heavy on this record. It stayed in the Top 10 for awhile, not just a week or two. WCFL was just getting started and hadn't published their record survey yet. We can't tell whether they were playing this record also.