Casey Kasem American Top 40

[RGMike]

"Ken Loggins and Jim Messina" is how L&M are identified on the Billboard chart in Jan '73. Your mama don't dance, and your daddy don't crocodile rock.

And now Carly's gonna gavotte. On a yacht. In apricot.

[Gazoo]

HA! Casey intros Elvis' "Separate Ways" with a Mae West anecdote (!) and then says the King has been making the charts for 17 years... "and considering how well he takes care of himself, and how well he's taken care of by the Colonel, there's no reason to believe he won't still be around 17 years from now."

Oh Casey, if you'd only known.

I just heard this now.  Wow, the irony.  The song is NTM and pretty inconsequential, but I'm glad I heard it.  Is there any '70s Elvis that's really really worth seeking out?

[Gazoo]

Casey's '80s land us in 1985 this week.  John Parr's forgotten "Naughty Naughty" was nice to hear.  And who woulda thunk that Jermaine Jackson would appear in both the '70s and '80s countdowns this week?

[Gazoo]

BOS, though, goes to Culture Club's COMPLETELY forgotten "Mistake No. 3" (which doesn't even appear on my CC GH comp).

[RGMike]

HA! Casey intros Elvis' "Separate Ways" with a Mae West anecdote (!) and then says the King has been making the charts for 17 years... "and considering how well he takes care of himself, and how well he's taken care of by the Colonel, there's no reason to believe he won't still be around 17 years from now."

Oh Casey, if you'd only known.

I just heard this now.  Wow, the irony.  The song is NTM and pretty inconsequential, but I'm glad I heard it.  Is there any '70s Elvis that's really really worth seeking out?

Funny you should ask, as this week on 'LNG I heard both the original version of "The Wonder of You" by Ray Peterson (who?) whose version actually charted twice (in '59 and '64). Elvis' take is a fave of mine and an improvement on the orig. 'LNG also played "Don't Cry Daddy", a sappy Mac Davis comp (the wife dies, the kids comfort dad) that hit #6 right before "Kentucky Rain". "I've Lost You" (#32 later in 1970) is a decent ballad, but there really isn't much that I'd call essential in the decade (pre-'77)besides "Burning Love" and his 1974 cover of Chuck Berry's "Promised Land" (def better than JT's version the same year). "My Boy" (#20 in '75) pales in comparison to the Richard Harris orig (which, TANC, we just missed hearing on last week's chart, where it peaked at #41). I happen to like "Moody Blue" and "Way Down", tho' they're permanently linked to his death in my head.

[Gazoo]

This '80s countdown is actually really great.  BOS votes to General Public's "Tenderness," Kool & the Gang's "Misled" (my favorite of their songs), and New Edition at their Raydio-est with "Mr. Telephone Man."

[RGMike]

Kool & the Gang's "Misled" (my favorite of their songs

Misled married Mr. Wood and they had lots of little pencils together.

[Gazoo]

3DN's "Pieces Of April", maybe their least-played oldie

Back in the early '90s, I participated in a few Usenet music-discussion boards, including one called rec.music.misc.  One day someone started a thread on songs about murders ("Hey Joe," "Down by the River," and the like).  I chimed in, "I've got pieces of April," thinking myself clever.

Without missing a beat, someone immediately replied: "Is that why there was a mourning in May?"  He won.

[RGMike]

This week Casey's in Feb 1976 -- a "sweet" Valentine's Day chart that features "Sweet Love" and "Sweet Thing", as well as 7 songs with "Love" in the title, and Ms Ronstadt's fab forgotten cover of "Tracks of My Tears".

http://www.whnn.com/goout.asp?u=http://images.radcity.net/5874/3459244.pdf

OTOH, we also get "White Knight", a CB-themed record so awful it makes "Convoy" seem like Dylan.

[SFGuy]

If you have XM, they will have Feb 1974 this weekend.

[Gazoo]

Wow, Lionel Richie's close to unhinged near the end of the Commodores' "Sweet Love," new at #39.

[Gazoo]

OMGWTFLOL of the week has to go to Donny & Marie, "Deep Purple."  Hush!

[Gazoo]

OTOH, we also get "White Knight", a CB-themed record so awful it makes "Convoy" seem like Dylan.

Oh sweet lord, this is abominable.  NTM and I wish it'd stayed that way.

[Gazoo]

Ooh, a favorite of mine at #19: Helen Reddy's "Somewhere in the Night."  Barry Manilow would do slightly better 3 years later, changing the lyric slightly (from "music to magic to end" to "music to my gentle wind") and aiming squarely for payoff notes.

[Gazoo]

As an aside: This week's Chart Beat Chat from billboard.com had this interesting tale:

Dear Fred:

Andy Ray's query concerning Casey Kasem's show for the week ending March 12, 1977 reminded me of an earlier incident. For the week ending June 9, 1973, Casey apparently didn't have the Hot 100 by recording time. Instead, Casey (and his staff, I presume) estimated the positions.

Only four positions turned out to be correct:

No. 1:  "My Love" by Paul McCartney & Wings
No. 2:  "Frankenstein" by the Edgar Winter Group
No. 28:  "Leaving Me" by the Independents
No. 31, "No More Mr. Nice Guy" by Alice Cooper.

Most of Casey's estimated positions were way off, with many moving in the opposite direction from what actually happened. I wonder if anyone could shed some light on this mystery.

David Dana-Bashian
Garden Grove, Calif.


Dear David,

The Hot 100 for the week-ending June 9, 1973 is a memorable chart because Billboard changed chart methodology that week. It was such a radical change that "Last Week" numbers were omitted, as there was not much connection to the prior week's chart. I remember that Hot 100 because suddenly "Bad Weather," a Stevie Wonder composition recorded by the Supremes, debuted after being available for weeks. But then it was gone the following week, never to return.

That doesn't answer your question, but it's why I remember that chart. As I did last week, I turned to "American Top 40" expert, Rob Durkee, who worked with Casey Kasem on the show and who has written a book about the series.

Rob replied that he didn't work on the show in 1973 but promised to check with Pete Battistini, who wrote a book about the series' '70s years. Pete responded that the AT40 staff received the new Billboard chart on May 30, 1977, and recorded that week's show. It was sent to stations the next day and then Billboard called Tom Rounds at the Watermark production company to let him know that the chart had been revised. It was too late to re-record that week's AT40, so the numbers you heard were from the original chart that was discarded.

I can't ask the folks who compiled the June 9, 1973 chart for Billboard what happened because they are no longer with us. I don't mean they don't work for the magazine anymore, I mean they are no longer with us, physically. But I thank Rob and Pete for their expertise.