Cash Box chart question

This is a theory meant for entertainment purposes only. Please treat it like
a UFO sighting. I think I saw something in the late 70s, but I am not sure.

First off, I am not looking to sling mud on any person, or any trade
magazine here. (I also ask my friend Paul Haney for permission to cite
some "menusha chart specifics", from my RR books. I try to do this only
rarely. But, to me, citing some specific chart-run-facts handy here is
necessary to my theory. There are many reasons why I always buy all the
RR books - the info it provided me here is just the latest instance why I'm
so glad I do. So whether BB or CB is your trade mag choice, RR, Mr.
Whitburn & Paul Haney now hook us up either way!)   :)

Brian, I really enjoyed your last post. I found Al Coury's "four #1 BB 45s in
a row written by Barry Gibb" mission totally fascinating. It was all new
information to me. And it really helped me to better understand the
extremely unusual hit journey of the second of the 4 songs, and 4th in the
6-string of consecutive RSO #1s (How Deep Is Your Love/Baby Come
Back/Stayin' Alive/(Love Is) Thicker Than Water/Night Fever/If I Can't Have
You): Andy Gibb's "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water". It's always puzzled me.

His first single, "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" debuted in April, was a
4-week #1 in July/August in the summer of 1977. Million seller. It spent
over 30 weeks on the Hot 100. His debut LP, "Flowing Rivers" came out in
July '77. Trust me when I say that it is highly unusual for the all-important
second single, for a new hit act, to not come until 3 months after the first
hit has peaked, and is on the way down the charts. Even more so when the
follow-up track (....Thicker....) has already been long ready to go, just
sitting there on his album. Finally, it debuts on 11/5/77, and at a way-
less-than-impressive #89. During the final 8 weeks of 1977, here's the
song's Hot 100 progress: 78-67-53-43-39-37-32.

In 12/77, one month after "...Thicker..." comes out on 45, "Stayin' Alive"
does the same. To no one's surprise, the latter quickly flies up the chart,
replacing RSO's "Baby Come Back", and begins its 4-week run at #1 on
2/4/78. And guess which 45 debuts on BB in that very same issue? "Night
Fever". It's in the Top 20 just two weeks later, the Top 10 the next, and
begins its 8-wk run at #1 just 3 weeks later, on 3/18/78.

It turns out that there was just a two-chart-week window between the two
Bee Gees #1 hits from SNF - 3/4/78 and 3/11/78. It's safe to say that
RSO knew that Night Fever" would hit #1 BB, 6 weeks after its 45 release,
from the moment they put it out. It was very unusual to see another Bee
Gees 45 be put out as soon as "Night Fever" was. "Stayin' Alive" was
nowhere near over yet. It had just started its full month at #1. But can you
say "RSO Master Plan?". And can you say "could we (RSO) possibly thread
the needle?" Let's go back to "...Thicker...".

Historically, the first week of a new year is an especially good time to
successfully promote tracks to radio. In part, because "superstar" releases
were always issued in time for holiday consumer buying. And it was
coming off of the only, generally accepted "It's OK to freeze your station
playlist for a week or two" time of the year: Christmas/New Years'. So it
was always a major week for all in the industry, to get "back to the grind".

Only a handful of "secondary" Top 40 stations had added "...Thicker..." in
its first 9, 1977 weeks (in Idaho, S Carolina, Hawaii, for example.) Looks
like just barely enough stations played it for the song to keep its essential
BB "bullet", which was usually around a 10-place upward move, if below
the Top 40. Check back to the end of my fourth paragraph for its
progression. That's exactly what happened.

Once 1978 began, the song had just finally cracked the Top 40. Suddenly,
markets like Detroit, Kansas City, Washington DC, and
Hartford/Springfield kicked in, and finally added the now over two-month
old 45. Why now? Why not earlier? Didn't radio know who Andy Gibb was
until then? Not likely. All I do know for sure is that all it would take for
stations to *not* add a record that week would be if the RSO rep would
say to us "You know, _____, we're just not 100% sure about the Andy Gibb
record yet. Hey, you and I are friends. And I'd hate to ask you for an add
on it until I'm totally sure." Now record reps were usually a million %
behind every single song they wanted us to add that week. But they also
knew that it helped their credibility with us if, on occasion, they'd share
some "off the record" info with us. (wink wink.) Even though it was 100% a
game, at both ends. Labels want to sell records the most. Radio wants
high ratings the most. So we both always tried to co-exist, as cordially as
possible, all the while knowing that we have very different ultimate goals.
Bottom line? They needed us, and we needed them.

During January of 1978, "....Thicker...." had begun on BB at #32, and
ended it at #10. And now I'm hearing it move up big on AT40 each week.
And on my favorite Hartford Top 40 station as well. But, by 2/1/78, the
song has still not been added at my station. I was a bit surprised. Now, I
had only just started interning there then. And I had very little, if any,
contact with the music department. All I was trying to do was to make a
good impression. They had no idea then, that I was basically a walking
Top 40 music encyclopedia, collector, and deep historian of the station,
as best as I could be, being just a 20-year-old, loyal listener. I also
remembered that the station had also never played another recent hit on
RSO, 1976's "Love So Right", for reasons still unknown. And were
extremely late to add RSO's "Disco Duck", as well.

Well, as always, I tuned in to the on-air reveal of the new, weekly Top 30
survey. Wednesday nights, at 7PM. Guess what song debuts that week
(2/5/78) at the unheard-of, high position of #14? You guessed it. "(Love
Is) Thicker Than Water". More than three months after it first came in.

By 2/1/78, with "...Thicker..." now in the national Top 10, I'll bet the # of
remaining, BB-reporting Top 40 "holdouts", that had still not added the
song, were in single digits. So why do I get this feeling in my gut, that
earlier this very same week, RSO's Al Coury had asked his secretary for a
list of stations where "...Thicker..." was either not being played at all yet,
or was "underperforming", as to its low ranking on a survey. (This info
would be easily "gettable" for a guy in Coury's position.) As a reporting
station, my local station surely appeared on it. Then, within just a couple
of days, the record is suddenly added at #14. After it had been collecting
dust there for more than 3 months?   

Now I am not privy to anything that happened with the song that week,
between our then-MD and the station's RSO record rep. All I can say is
that RSO must've made a *very* persuasive case to the MD/PD! I honestly
have no recollection. I was still in college, and really wasn't there all that
much yet. But I can surely see something like a "free Saturday Night Fever
soundtrack giveaway weekend", or even Andy Gibb himself calling in for a
quick, on-air "phoner", as things RSO could've dangled at us, in exchange
for a quick, sky-high "...Thicker..." add. Especially if RSO is trying to
"thread the needle", and position the song as a viable #1 BB candidate in
between a possible "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever" #1 gap, just 5-6
weeks later. And while that Wardlow guy at BB could surely get away with
some chart liberties outside the Top 10, even he would have to know, at
least back in 1978, that when he ranked a song as #1, he'd better have
both the nationwide station airplay and sales data to justify it to his
bosses.     

Hey, I'm certainly not trying to throw my own station under the bus here.
I'm sure any other straggler Top 40 stations got a similar "impassioned"
call from RSO. All history now shows us is that "(Love Is) Thicker Than
Water" did manage to occupy the #1 spot for both of the two weeks
between "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever". Neither "...Thicker..." nor "If I
Can't Have You" seems to have had reached #1 on more than a handful of
local station surveys, based on info I can browse now. So that may have
been why Coury wanted to take advantage of every in-person meet-up he
could possible get with Wardlow, at this key time for his label, and for his
immediate #1 goal, if you will....

Thanks for indulging my wild imagination. A little numerical data can be a
very dangerous thing!    :)

Edited by jimct

Oh, and thanks, 80smusicfreak, for the tip about the highest charting song in Cash Box that didn't chart in Billboard (not including the Wayne Newton oddity). I've never heard of it before, but I'm going to seek it out now. Very interesting...

The Wayne Newton song "The (Elvis) Letter" (the way it is
titled on the cd) is on the promotional cd single Curb
1008.

The problem with Cash Box in the late 1980s/early 1990s is the songs that were obviously hits that didn't even make their Top 100 chart. Some examples: "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" by Spin Doctors, "Nothin' To Hide" by Poco and "You Could Be Mine" by Guns N' Roses (although that one, at least, hit #104 on the "Looking Ahead" chart).

Speaking of the "Looking Ahead" charts, we're now done with the weekly research and will be putting the new book together. Hopefully it'll be out this summer. There are well over 3,500 non-Billboard hits from that chart and yes, we're including EVERYTHING that peaked on that chart, not just those non-BB hits.

BTW, "Walkin' The Fence" by Couchois also hit #85 in Record World.

Edited by Paul Haney