Casey Kasem American Top 40

[RGMike]

Hour 2 is a treasure-trove: the mighty 'berries, Joe Simon's "Power of Love" (BOS2), VHMs to Mouth & MacNeil ("once, I said, I want a shoe") and the fabulous Detroit Emeralds. And always a shout-out to 3DN's best-ever single, "Black & White".

"Where is the Love?" asks Donny... "out on that window ledge", replies Roberta. Damn, that just NEVAH gets old.

VVHM the J-5's "Lookin' Thru the Windows", always one of my fave forgotten singles of theirs -- a fabulous production.

Best Cheeze of Chart: Wayne Newton. I'll say it again: Tom Jones must still be kicking himself for not getting his hands on this one.

[RGMike]

I did love Babs live on "Sweet Inspiration/Where You Lead," I forgot to mention.

Not too many artists have hit the 40 twice with diff versions of the same song, not to mention she did it in consecutive years.

TANC and Holy Crap: Casey answers a letter about this very thing happening!  "It's All in the Game", "Walk Don't Run" and Babs' "WYL" are the 3 instances.

back-to-back WOSes for the awful "Motorcycle Mama" and the execrably saccharine "Happiest Girl in the USA". Skippidy-doo-dah-dreadful. 

Best mixology of set: lime in de "Coconut"; best fuzztone guitar: "Goodbye to Love".

[Tinka Cat]

Best mixology of set: lime in de "Coconut"; best fuzztone guitar: "Goodbye to Love".

didn't Dave Morey say the guitar solo in GTL is one of the best ever recorded?  well, someone did, somewhere. 

it is great, comes out of nowhere, languishes a bit, then speeds up into that climax of farewell breakup sex!  (That's why some folks call the song "Goodbye to Pants"  )

[RGMike]

Casey tells a precious story about how Jim Croce was going to become a teacher instead of a musician - until he got shoved across a classroom by a 260-lb. "heavy-duty mama."  It's good for us all that he didn't bump no more with no big fat woman.

Oh, I get it: a Precious story!! LOL!

[RGMike]

Casey's '83 chart starts with us being saved by Zero!



Followed by LRB, being uncharacteristically raucous on "You're Driving Me Outta My Mind".

VHM George Benson, imploring the princess, "Lady Love Me (One More Time)"

I wish the producers of that year's Bond flick had had the balls to actually commission a song called "Octopussy". Instead we get Rita Coolidge's single pussy and the bland "All-Time High".  Meanwhile EJ wants to "Kiss the Bride". Yeah, right.

WOS Sergio Mendes, the sort of faceless, devoid-of-personality adult-contempo dreck that made the early '80s a trial for many of us.

Our Canuck friends play this lovely Gordon Lightfoot song "Dream Street Rose" (?) a lot as one of their "extras" -- NTM until I heard it here; it never charted in the US.

[RGMike]

AAAACK! Hour 2 begins with Stallone's baby bro, Frank. Did Michael Sembello write this? It sounds like "Eye of the Tiger"-meets-"Maniac".

BOS1 Shalamar's fabtastic "Dead Giveaway"; WOS2 Air Supply, just about past their sell-by date with their last really big single, "Making Hits Out of Nothing But Pablum". And speaking of sell-by dates: the Stray Cats score their 3rd and final Top Ten hit with the formulaic "Sexy + 17".

"Gunter glieben glauchen globen" -- Def Leppard got somethin' to SAY! But only if zie sprechen Deutsch.

It's astounding how many forgettable, generically-titled, mid-charting singles Journey had in ther '80s. WOS3 "After The Fall".  Ah, but there's cheeze and then there's CHEEEEZE:  BOS2 Irene Cara's "Flashdance". What a feeling, indeed.

[RGMike]

Quite a few lesser hits by big names in Hour 3: Rick Springfield's "Human Torch Touch"... ELO's "RockNRoll is King"... Quarterflash's "Take Me To Heart"... Loverboy's "Hot Girls in Love" and Asia's "Don't Cry" -- seriously, how many of those can you hum off the top of your head?

BOS3 Bonnie Tyler's fortuitous pairing with Jim Steinman. Gotta get AL to play the fab Nikki French dance remake of this one in a '95 set

[Gazoo]

Quite a few lesser hits by big names in Hour 3: Rick Springfield's "Human Torch Touch"... ELO's "RockNRoll is King"... Quarterflash's "Take Me To Heart"... Loverboy's "Hot Girls in Love" and Asia's "Don't Cry" -- seriously, how many of those can you hum off the top of your head?

I'm an hour behind you, enjoying these songs like the Quarterflash that I have no memory of at all.

The ELO track got heavy video airplay, as I recall.

[Gazoo]

WOS Sergio Mendes, the sort of faceless, devoid-of-personality adult-contempo dreck that made the early '80s a trial for many of us.

Harrumph.  I *love* "Never Gonna Let You Go."  I would have agreed with you if the countdown had included the follow-up, "Alibis," though.

And I adore the title "Hot Girls in Love."  Joe Francis must have grown up on this shit.

[RGMike]

WOS Sergio Mendes, the sort of faceless, devoid-of-personality adult-contempo dreck that made the early '80s a trial for many of us.

Harrumph.  I *love* "Never Gonna Let You Go."  I would have agreed with you if the countdown had included the follow-up, "Alibis," though.

Sorry. I loved Mr Mendes' '60s incarnation -- he had a *sound* then; you knew it was a Sergio Mendes record immediately. But "NGLYG" could be absolutely anybody. Which is why he had "Alibis" and then disappeared again.  Plus, I'll forever associate "NGLYG" with WPLJ's format-switch in '83. After over a decade of being the kings of NYC AOR, they switched to Top 40 that spring and played that song heavily -- hearing it one afternoon was how I knew something had happened to the format. 

[RGMike]

BOS4 MJ's "Human Nature" on his B-Day.  Centric and BET have been running Jackson stuff all wknd.

final BOS before I head out: the Boy and his Club, "I'll Tumble 4 Ya"

[SFGuy]

BOS1 Shalamar's fabtastic "Dead Giveaway"; WOS2 Air Supply, just about past their sell-by date with their last really big single, "Making Hits Out of Nothing But Pablum". And speaking of sell-by dates: the Stray Cats score their 3rd and final Top Ten hit with the formulaic "Sexy + 17".

Jim Steinman wrote and produced that Air Supply song as well as the Tyler song. In October, he would have the #1 and #2 written and produced song for 3 straight weeks.

[SFGuy]

Elton John wants to "Kiss the Bride"? I think he would rather kiss the groom.

[SFGuy]

How does Premier decide which "AT 40" extra to play? Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" never came close to the top 40 (it peaked at 84).

[RGMike]

How does Premier decide which "AT 40" extra to play? Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" never came close to the top 40 (it peaked at 84).

That *was* odd -- their explanation was apparently that it charted twice and never made the 40 despite being an AOR staple.