Today's Classic Hits target demo was listening to Current Hits at what age?

[firepoint525]

Mister CT thinks the Quiet Riot song was "a breath of retro fresh air"? He must have been comparing it to I Put A Spell On You by Screamin' Jay Hawkins!

I compared it to AC/DC, which I hated!

Not sure where he thinks I would have had a chance to hear Slade's version. Radio barely plays everything that is a hit HERE, much less a British hit, "smash" or not. I never heard Slade's version until Slade themselves broke through stateside. If I had had a chance to hear the original first, and not the lame remake, who knows? (QR later covered another Slade song, "Mama Weer All Crazee Now," but it (thankfully) bombed.)

And I loved "Old Time Rock & Roll," but I associate it with my freshman year of high school (1978-79) when it was originally a hit, but it will be forever associated with the image of Tom Cruise dancing to it in his underwear.

Just as an aside, "Sunglasses at Night" was '84, not '83.

 

[firepoint525]

Yeah, I still use the pre-Soundscan rankings for rock and roll songs, most weeks at #1. And trust me, it's not "One Sweet Day!" 16 weeks at #1....good grief!

For me, the "rock era" ended about 1991 or so. Not to suggest that "rock" went away, it certainly didn't. There have been plenty of "rock" songs since then. And there have been songs in many genres that I have liked since then. It's just that CHR is targeted at 18-34s, and I am well past that age group now, so it isn't really aimed at me.

 

[firepoint525]

Okay: To answer your question, it depends on the station and the average age of the audience. A 60-year-old will remember The Beatles. A 40-year old won't.

Gonna split the difference here. As an (almost) 50-year-old, I remember "Got To Get You Into My Life," all the compilation albums, and all of that now-ridiculous "reunion fever." The Saturday Night Live thing, and Howard Cosell asking John Lennon (during a Monday Night Football appearance) when the Beatles were going to "get back" together.

But a now-30-year-old will only remember "Free As a Bird," so I would say that I have it better!

 

[firepoint525]

"Waiting for a Girl Like You" probably ran circles around any number of #1 songs!

Do we want to declare "Waiting" an "honorary" #1?

Someone can verify this, but I believe that something in the "Soundscan era" (for lack of a better term) has broken that record for longest time at #2 without ever hitting #1.

 

[michael hagerty]

Gonna split the difference here. As an (almost) 50-year-old, I remember "Got To Get You Into My Life," all the compilation albums, and all of that now-ridiculous "reunion fever." The Saturday Night Live thing, and Howard Cosell asking John Lennon (during a Monday Night Football appearance) when the Beatles were going to "get back" together.

But a now-30-year-old will only remember "Free As a Bird," so I would say that I have it better!

Amen to that.

But consider...your memory of The Beatles centers around a 10-year-old LP cut released as a single from a band that had been gone for 6 years.

If my math is correct, you were 6 when they broke up.

So, set 30-year-olds aside, get back to the 40-year-old the format needs and you see the issue. It's not that they don't know who The Beatles were, or even know most of their songs, there's just not the emotional investment that comes from being there as it happens. They have other bands and songs for that part of their lives.

 

[semoochie]

This comes back to my question: How can you base a format on what 40 year olds like, when they were never there, to have an emotional attachment to the music, in the first place? I really thought that Classic Hits was a 45-54 format, just waiting to ease out of the mid-60s. Now, if this is indeed the case, then why didn't it work ten years ago, with the then 40 year old? That way, I wouldn't have lost most of my favorites, when I was only 51.

 

[michael hagerty]

This comes back to my question: How can you base a format on what 40 year olds like, when they were never there, to have an emotional attachment to the music, in the first place? I really thought that Classic Hits was a 45-54 format, just waiting to ease out of the mid-60s. Now, if this is indeed the case, then why didn't it work ten years ago, with the then 40 year old? That way, I wouldn't have lost most of my favorites, when I was only 51.

Because today's 40-year-olds are different. We were tied to our music (well, the mass of Boomers were), with only a little bit here or there on either side. It's why Oldies got stuck in the 1956-1972 tar pit for decades.

Today's 40-year-old has been exposed to music in many ways beyond radio throughout their lives...and they like it for what it is. They haven't yet developed strong enough nostalgia for most of the music they grew up with for that to be a viable format.

Remember, the goal has almost always been 25-54. Oldies stations like KRTH and CBS-FM started out playing records that were between 9 and 17 years old...their target was 18-49. It was only because they were scared they'd blow off aging boomers that the format was allowed to stagnate.

 

[CTListener]

I compared it to AC/DC, which I hated!

Not sure where he thinks I would have had a chance to hear Slade's version. Radio barely plays everything that is a hit HERE, much less a British hit, "smash" or not.

Wasn't EVERYONE listening to the countdown on the BBC World Service on shortwave and picking up Melody Maker at the college record store back then? OK .... ALMOST everyone? Ummm ... anyone but me?

 

[oldies76]

Do we want to declare "Waiting" an "honorary" #1?

Someone can verify this, but I believe that something in the "Soundscan era" (for lack of a better term) has broken that record for longest time at #2 without ever hitting #1.

Yeah Olivia did an injustice to Foreigner in 1981. "Girl" certainly deserved to reach #1 that year. As for the most weeks at #2 in the post 1991 era, there was "Work It" by Missy Elliott (10 weeks at #2), stuck behind "Lose Yourself" (12 wks #1) in 2002. The only other song is a #3 hit called "Another Night" by the Real McCoy that peaked at 3 for a mindboggling 11 weeks in late 1994. Crazy huh?

 

[michael hagerty]

Again: The only record that deserves #1 is the one that sells the most copies in a given week.

Olivia didn't do anything to Foreigner. Her buyers bought the single (it was, at the time, thisclose to novelty record status), Foreigner moved a ton of albums in addition to the single.

Looking at it from that perspective, "Waiting" was a much bigger song than "Physical" at the time. Yet another example of singles chart irrelevance.

 

[oldies76]

Again: The only record that deserves #1 is the one that sells the most copies in a given week.

Olivia didn't do anything to Foreigner. Her buyers bought the single (it was, at the time, thisclose to novelty record status), Foreigner moved a ton of albums in addition to the single.

Looking at it from that perspective, "Waiting" was a much bigger song than "Physical" at the time. Yet another example of singles chart irrelevance.

I get the picture here Mr. Hagerty. Personally, "Waiting...." is the better song, contemporary, romantic ballad and a nice, soft change of tempo for a harder rock group, following hits like "Juke Box Hero" and "Hot Blooded".

To be stuck at #2, behind a song that was #1 for 10 weeks, due to a short-lived early 80's fad (Richard Simmons workouts) is just unfortunate, but that's life in the record biz.. Five weeks or less for "Physical" would have been fine by me, to give "Waiting...." a shot at #1 on the Hot 100 chart. Well, it's #1 on my list for 1981 anyways.

 

[semoochie]

That was a very strange time for would-be CHR. It was almost indistinguishable from AC and a lot of them evolved to AC, before the "real" CHRs came on the scene. As such, no one in my city played "Physical" until it was nearly recurrent. If you check the playlists, the established Top 40s and new CHRs both reported to the same chart but the songs were completely different. Thank you, Michael. That's a very good answer and explains a lot!

 

[michael hagerty]

That was a very strange time for would-be CHR. It was almost indistinguishable from AC and a lot of them evolved to AC, before the "real" CHRs came on the scene. As such, no one in my city played "Physical" until it was nearly recurrent. If you check the playlists, the established Top 40s and new CHRs both reported to the same chart but the songs were completely different. Thank you, Michael. That's a very good answer and explains a lot!

Glad I said it right, Semoochie!

As I noted in one of these conversations sometime in the past year, singles sales peaked in 1974 and fell off pretty quickly after that. Album sales actually passed singles sales in 1969, but both went up from there for a few years.

By 1976, I always factored in album sales when I was programming. Take Fleetwood Mac. "Over My Head" peaked at #20, "Rhiannon" and "Say You Love Me" both at #11. But the album was 5 times platinum.

It got to the point really quickly where singles sales was kids too young to buy albums and young adults/adults who wanted a song but not the album, which usually indicated something novelty-ish that they'd tire of.

 

[semoochie]

Now, if you can only get anyone else to listen...

 

[firepoint525]

Again: The only record that deserves #1 is the one that sells the most copies in a given week.
Olivia didn't do anything to Foreigner. Her buyers bought the single (it was, at the time, thisclose to novelty record status), Foreigner moved a ton of albums in addition to the single.
Looking at it from that perspective, "Waiting" was a much bigger song than "Physical" at the time. Yet another example of singles chart irrelevance.

Does anyone have the ONJ album that contained "Physical"? (Don't know if maybe "Physical" was the title track from it.) I am guessing that the followup single "Make a Move on Me" was also on it, and maybe even "Heart Attack" as well. Does anyone know what kind of sales stats that this album put up?

Buying albums by decidedly "pop" artists (particularly those who do not write their own songs) is a bit of a crap shoot. You might get the hits, plus a lot of filler. (Not saying that that was the case with ONJ, only a possibility.)

ONJ was a strange one in the late '70s. She worked so hard to get rid of her "girl-next-door" image that she had cultivated all through the '70s (culminating in "Physical"), only to (apparently) decide that she didn't like her new sultry image after all, and started backing away from even that by the mid '80s. Of course, it is worth pointing out that by the time of "Soul Kiss," she was being beaten by Madonna at her own game!

 

[firepoint525]

I get the picture here Mr. Hagerty. Personally, "Waiting...." is the better song, contemporary, romantic ballad and a nice, soft change of tempo for a harder rock group, following hits like "Juke Box Hero" and "Hot Blooded".
To be stuck at #2, behind a song that was #1 for 10 weeks, due to a short-lived early 80's fad (Richard Simmons workouts) is just unfortunate, but that's life in the record biz.. Five weeks or less for "Physical" would have been fine by me, to give "Waiting...." a shot at #1 on the Hot 100 chart. Well, it's #1 on my list for 1981 anyways.

Apparently, Foreigner learned their lesson, because in late 1984, they tried again with another ballad, "I Want to Know What Love Is," and this time, hit #1 with it in early '85. Of course, one of those snarky naysayers on one of those VH-1 shows said that the only difference was that this time, they added a choir to the song. (But then again, on another VH-1 show, that same choir was praised! So go figure!)

 

[firepoint525]

Amen to that.But consider...your memory of The Beatles centers around a 10-year-old LP cut released as a single from a band that had been gone for 6 years.
If my math is correct, you were 6 when they broke up.
So, set 30-year-olds aside, get back to the 40-year-old the format needs and you see the issue. It's not that they don't know who The Beatles were, or even know most of their songs, there's just not the emotional investment that comes from being there as it happens. They have other bands and songs for that part of their lives.

Yeah, I was about six when they went public with their breakup in April, 1970, about the time that "Let It Be" was hitting #1.

The head-scratcher here was the decision to release "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" as a single in late '76, given that it was not on any album that they were promoting at that time. It was on the blue (1967-1970) compilation, but even that album was three years old by then. And it got some airplay at the time, but barely cracked the top 50.

When the Love Songs album was released in late 1977, no singles at all (that I was ever aware of) were released from it. I could have probably picked a song from it that might have made a cool single, as well as another one to serve as a b-side for it. How well it would have done is another issue, entirely.

 

[firepoint525]

Wasn't EVERYONE listening to the countdown on the BBC World Service on shortwave and picking up Melody Maker at the college record store back then? OK .... ALMOST everyone? Ummm ... anyone but me?

Were you ever in the military, particularly in the early '70s? If so, then you might have had a chance to hear Slade's version on Armed Forces Radio. It might have received a smattering of FM-only airplay here stateside back in the early '70s, but I was in grade school at the time and would have been too young to remember it. (We lived in Memphis at the time.)

I remember hearing someone break it out and play it after Slade themselves broke through stateside in '84.

 

[firepoint525]

Glad I said it right, Semoochie!
By 1976, I always factored in album sales when I was programming. Take Fleetwood Mac. "Over My Head" peaked at #20, "Rhiannon" and "Say You Love Me" both at #11. But the album was 5 times platinum.

(Playing catchup here after being gone for a couple of days!)

Seems to me that the Mac probably left a lot of money sitting on the table in the late '70s. "The Chain," "Gold-Dust Woman," and "Landslide" all got a lot of airplay in the late '70s, but none of those were ever singles. Seems like they all still get a lot of airplay. And it seems like the Stevie Nicks songs, in particular, did the best of all!

 

[PirateJohnny]

Actually, I heard Slade on the AM Top 40 station in my hometown in the early 70s (while they were still current in the UK). In a way, it was college radio before there was college radio. It was staffed by students and after 10pm it sounded more like an FM album rocker, still playing some Top 40 mixed in. I was exposed to a lot of music that way. I heard Jewel Eyed Judy by Fleetwood Mac several years before the Mac hit Top 40 radio in the mid 70s.