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Scanner
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| Posted: 04 January 2023 at 2:22pm | IP Logged
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I caught the end of AT40's year-end countdown for 1980 on
the Classic American Top 40 online station this morning and
was reminded how Casey Kasem would compile the results
differently than what was published in Billboard. For
example, he played "Do That To Me One More Time" at #3, but
Billboard ranked that at #5. ("Magic" was #3 per
Billboard.) Does anyone know why AT40 diverged for this
countdown annually and how they compiled their ranking
(different time period, Top 40 vs. entire Hot 100, etc.)?
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JMD1961
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| Posted: 04 January 2023 at 2:44pm | IP Logged
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He didn't always deviate from Billboard. Only sometimes.
I found a website with more details.
https://leemichaelwithers.tripod.com/at40_yearend.htm
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FrankG
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| Posted: 04 January 2023 at 5:53pm | IP Logged
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Thanks so much for that article - very interesting. I'd
love to know why the AT40 staff decided to switch back and
forth between their own year-end list and Billboard's.
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Scanner
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| Posted: 04 January 2023 at 7:02pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for the quick response! I first listened to the
year-end countdown in 1978. I wondered why "You Light Up
My Life" ranked at #3 when it spent its ten weeks at #1 in
1977. It was my introduction to the concept of a "chart
year." (Years later, when I tracked down the 1977 year-end
Billboard, I was stunned "Light" did not even make the
year-end Top 100 at all!) I never realized just how
inconsistent AT40 was with the methodology they used to
count down the year-end top 100 records from year to year.
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Vince
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| Posted: 05 January 2023 at 12:39am | IP Logged
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This is just my guess. What may have prompted AT40 to
compile their own year-end countdown for 1980 was
Billboard (BB)'s weird survey period for their 1980 year-
end pop singles chart. It ran from 10/6/1979 through
9/27/1980. It resulted in "Rise" making the list at #54
and "Another One Bites the Dust" and "Woman in Love" not
being included. 1981 through 1984 had similar situations
although the BB's survey periods began roughly the first
week of November and ran through the end of October, or
mid-November for 1984.
AT40 probably went back to using BB's YE survey in 1985,
because BB started counting songs
entire chart runs, even it began before the survey
period. BB estimated points for songs that had not
completed their chart life by the end of the year.
Crediting full chart runs was similar to what AT40 did in
the early 80s.
Edited by Vince on 05 January 2023 at 12:42am
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Paul Haney
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| Posted: 05 January 2023 at 12:26pm | IP Logged
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It's been widely speculated that Billboard made a mathematical error when they put "Some Kind Of Wonderful" by Grand
Funk at #6 for 1975. No way it should have ranked that high!
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JMD1961
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| Posted: 05 January 2023 at 1:44pm | IP Logged
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Paul Haney wrote:
It's been widely speculated that
Billboard made a mathematical error when they put "Some
Kind Of Wonderful" by Grand
Funk at #6 for 1975. No way it should have ranked that
high! |
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The one that always stood out to me was "Devil's Gun" by
C.J. & Company that finished #100 in 1977, despite only
peaking at #36 on the chart.
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Paul Haney
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| Posted: 05 January 2023 at 2:06pm | IP Logged
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JMD1961 wrote:
The one that always stood out to me was "Devil's Gun" by C.J. & Company that
finished #100 in 1977, despite only peaking at #36 on the chart. |
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At least that record charted for 29 weeks, which was a huge total back then (especially for
a song that only peaked at #36).
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Scanner
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| Posted: 05 January 2023 at 2:36pm | IP Logged
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My personal favorite was when Olivia Newton-John's "Magic"
was not included on the 1980 year-end AC chart. Five weeks
at #1 and 20 weeks on the chart all during the 1980 chart
year - her biggest AC hit ever. Yet, Billboard ranked
Maxine Nightingale's "Lead Me On" as the #8 hit of 1980.
Too bad it charted during the 1979, not 1980, chart year!
"Lead" was even the #3 AC song of 1979 thanks to its seven
week run at #1. I always wondered whether Billboard mixed
up one N last name (Newton-John) with another
(Nightingale)!
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RoknRobnLoxley
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| Posted: 06 January 2023 at 11:14am | IP Logged
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I think I posted elsewhere, Fred Bronson recalculated the Billboard year-end charts in his book "Billboard's Hottest Hot 100 Hits" based on assigning a carryover record's total points into just 1 year, whichever year achieved the most points, not splitting them into 2 years. Makes sense to me...
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LunarLaugh
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| Posted: 06 January 2023 at 11:40am | IP Logged
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I use the Bronson book (my print edition is from the early
90s) as a guide for looking up or compiling big hits of
certain years instead of the old Billboard charts.
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Scanner
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| Posted: 06 January 2023 at 1:36pm | IP Logged
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Year-end charts will always be imperfect thanks to songs
whose chart runs overlap years. "Physical" is the perfect
example. Its six weeks at #1 in 1981 and four weeks at #1
in 1982 would not be enough for it to rank as the biggest
hit of either year based on a true calendar year. It might
not even be enough for the song to rank among the Top 10
songs of either year! But, combine its chart runs from
1981 and 1982 together and you have the biggest hit of the
1980's!
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Scanner
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| Posted: 13 January 2023 at 8:18am | IP Logged
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Hearing George Harrison's "What Is Life" on the radio this
morning reminded me of another year-end chart error from
Billboard involving Olivia Newton-John again. In 1972,
Billboard ranked her cover of this song as the #34 AC hit
of the year. Yet, it peaked at #34 and only spent three
weeks on the chart! I wonder what song was not ranked
because of that.
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davidclark
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| Posted: 13 January 2023 at 6:11pm | IP Logged
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Yeah, those Billboard Year-end charts have their flaws (some more than
others), but sometimes it's "understood" as songs that chart at the end of a
year are penalized. I believe there are 42 #1 songs over the years that never
appeared on a Yearend chart. I believe all but one of these would have had
enough "points" to rank somewhere in a yearend top 100, if all points were
assigned to one year (of course, they couldn't have been assigned to the
first year, only the second). Some examples:
Tokens, The - The Lion Sleeps Tonight (1961)
Crystals, The - He's A Rebel (1962)
4 Seasons, The - Big Girls Don't Cry (1962)
Tornadoes, The - Telstar (1962)
Singing Nun, The - Dominique (1963)
Beatles, The - Yesterday (1965)
Rolling Stones, The - Get Off Of My Cloud (1965)
Byrds, The - Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season) (1965)
New Vaudeville Band, The Winchester Cathedral (1966)
Beatles, The - Hello Goodbye (1968)
Peter, Paul & Mary - Leaving On A Jet Plane (1969)
Steam - Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye (1969)
Supremes, The - Someday We'll Be Together (1969)
Partridge Family, The - I Think I Love You (1970)
Ringo Starr - Photograph (1973)
Stevie Wonder - You Haven't Done Nothin' (1974)
Steve Miller Band - Rock'n Me (1976)
1976 was the last year this happened.
Edited by davidclark on 13 January 2023 at 6:16pm
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whyaduck
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| Posted: 13 January 2023 at 9:20pm | IP Logged
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Scanner wrote:
My personal favorite was when Olivia Newton-John's "Magic"
was not included on the 1980 year-end AC chart. Five weeks
at #1 and 20 weeks on the chart all during the 1980 chart
year - her biggest AC hit ever. Yet, Billboard ranked
Maxine Nightingale's "Lead Me On" as the #8 hit of 1980.
Too bad it charted during the 1979, not 1980, chart year!
"Lead" was even the #3 AC song of 1979 thanks to its seven
week run at #1. I always wondered whether Billboard mixed
up one N last name (Newton-John) with another
(Nightingale)! |
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Did they correct that at one point? I have a complete set of Billboard text charts from 1955 to mid-2007 and this is how it appeared there:
1980-Top100
01 "Call Me" Blondie
02 "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" Pink Floyd
03 "Magic" Olivia Newton-John
04 "Rock with You" Michael Jackson
05 "Do That to Me One More Time" Captain & Tennille
06 "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" Queen
07 "Coming Up" Paul McCartney
08 "Funkytown" Lipps Inc
09 "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" Billy Joel
10 "The Rose" Bette Midler
11 "Escape (The Piña Colada song)" Rupert Holmes
12 "Cars" Gary Numan
13 "Cruisin" Smokey Robinson
14 "Working My Way Back to You/Forgive Me, Girl" The Spinners
15 "Lost in Love" Air Supply
16 "Little Jeannie" Elton John
17 "Ride Like the Wind" Christopher Cross
18 "Upside Down" Diana Ross
19 "Please Don't Go" KC and the Sunshine Band
20 "Babe" Styx
21 "With You I'm Born Again" Billy Preston and Syreeta
22 "Shining Star" The Manhattans
23 "Still" Commodores
24 "Yes, I'm Ready" Teri DeSario & KC
25 "Sexy Eyes" Dr. Hook
26 "Steal Away" Robbie Dupree
27 "Biggest Part of Me" Ambrosia
28 "This Is It" Kenny Loggins
29 "Cupid/I've Loved You for a Long Time" The Spinners
30 "Let's Get Serious" Jermaine Jackson
31 "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer" Kenny Rogers & Kim Carnes
32 "Sailing" Christopher Cross
33 "Longer" Dan Fogelberg
34 "Coward of the County" Kenny Rogers
35 "Ladies' Night" Kool & the Gang
36 "Too Hot" Kool & the Gang
37 "Take Your Time (Do It Right)" The SOS Band
38 "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" Barbra Streisand & Donna Summer
39 "More Love" Kim Carnes
40 "Pop Muzik" M
41 "Brass in Pocket" The Pretenders
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davidclark
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| Posted: 14 January 2023 at 8:52am | IP Logged
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whyaduck, when referring to "Magic", Scanner mentions the 1980 year-end
AC chart, not the "Hot 100" YE chart.
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Vince
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| Posted: 16 January 2023 at 11:40pm | IP Logged
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Billboard's Year-End AC chart for 1980 looks like it has an
eligibility period from August 1979 though July 1980. That
is even worst than the eligibility period for their 1980
pop singles chart, which runs from 10/6/1979 through
9/27/1980.
Edited by Vince on 18 March 2023 at 5:15pm
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Scanner
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| Posted: 18 January 2023 at 1:27pm | IP Logged
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I think you're right, Vince. I never realized how skewed
that list is towards songs that charted during the first
half of the year...or peaked in 1979. JD Souther's "You're
Only Lonely" and Herb Alpert's "Rise" were #2 and #9
respectively for 1980, but reached #1 in 1979 just like
"Lead Me On." Besides "Magic," I wonder how many other
songs were screwed out of a year-end placement that year
because of that timeframe. I especially wonder why
Billboard would have chosen such a timeframe - they needed
five months to compile this?
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EdisonLite
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| Posted: 11 March 2023 at 3:23pm | IP Logged
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Scanner wrote:
I first listened to the
year-end countdown in 1978. I wondered why "You Light Up
My Life" ranked at #3 when it spent its ten weeks at #1 in
1977. It was my introduction to the concept of a "chart
year." (Years later, when I tracked down the 1977 year-end
Billboard, I was stunned "Light" did not even make the
year-end Top 100 at all!) |
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Didn't "You Light Up My Life" peak at #53-ish for 1977 (even though all 10
weeks of its #1 run were in 1977)? I remember hearing Casey's year-end top
100 in 1977 on the radio and shocked it was that low (though the next year
it would be #3 for the year). But then again, maybe Billboard and AT40 were
2 different YE charts for '77. Did it chart or not in Billboard's YE for '77?
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eriejwg
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| Posted: 11 March 2023 at 5:06pm | IP Logged
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Debbie Boone did not chart in the year end for 1977.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-
End_Hot_100_singles_of_1977
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Topic: AT40 Year-End Countdowns
