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PopArchivist
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| Posted: 28 March 2019 at 9:00pm | IP Logged
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A lot of board members on here know I am very into mono and the top 40 of each decade. One of the more frustrating things is that there are a lot of gems of each decade that never got to chart because of Billboard or other chart rules. if charted these airplay radio hits were easy top 40 and even sometimes bonafide top 10 hits.
With that being said, because I am working to assemble the top 40 already, I thought it would be interesting to list here the essential airplay only hits. To qualify, the song cannot be listed in the Hot 100 Joel Whitburn annual for any chart position (Even though the Hot 100 starts in 1958, Joe's annual starts in 1955). It truly has to be something that never charted. While Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles most recent editions do document these classics, they do miss some that a lot of the board members here would consider essential.
I would like to do this for every decade if everyone is on board. For example a song like I Got A Woman by Ray Charles was released in December 1954 and went to #1 on the R & B charts in 1955. So for the 1950's we are just focusing on 1955-1959 in this thread to keep things simple.
I look forward to seeing what everyone lists for classic non charting airplay hits from this era.
Edited by PopArchivist on 28 March 2019 at 9:02pm
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Paul Haney
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| Posted: 29 March 2019 at 4:26am | IP Logged
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Do you have the Record Research books that cover the
Music Vendor (later Record World) and the Cash Box
charts? There are LOTS of titles listed in those books
that did not chart in Billboard (especially the 1955-59
era). I'd highly suggest The Comparison Book, which
makes it easier to compare the titles.
We are also currently doing a series of books based on
the Top 10 individual market airplay charts that appeared
in Cash Box. 1956 and 1957 are now available and we also
plan on doing 1958 & 1959 in the future. Those books
contain ONLY those hits that never charted in any of the
major trades, yet were good enough to make the Top 10 on
a radio (airplay) chart. Those aren't just regional
artists either. Lots of "airplay" hits for artists like
Elvis, Bill Haley, etc.
Edited by Paul Haney on 29 March 2019 at 4:31am
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Hykker
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| Posted: 29 March 2019 at 5:04am | IP Logged
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They may or may not have been regional artists, but most
likely were regional "hits", as there were few avenues for
stations to compare playlists (especially pre-payola).
Something could get tons of airplay in Chicago and be
completely unknown in Atlanta or Boston.
Of course, airplay didn't necessarily translate to sales,
especially if a given song was an album cut...most teens
then didn't have money to buy many albums. Again, it comes
down to how do you define a hit?
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PopArchivist
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| Posted: 29 March 2019 at 5:48pm | IP Logged
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Paul,
Even with those books there are still a lot of airplay only hits for the other decades that are classics.
Hykker the Beatles Getting Better for example was not a released single but its become a well known song just from all the placements on tv. You can't compile an airplay list for example without including Gimmie Shelter or Stairway to Heaven. Certain songs are clearly hits because even today they are considered to be iconic and have taken on a life of their own. If they charted they would have been huge hits but instead they were on albums.
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Hykker
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| Posted: 29 March 2019 at 6:24pm | IP Logged
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PopArchivist wrote:
Hykker the Beatles Getting Better
for example was not a released single but its become a
well known song just from all the placements on tv. You
can't compile an airplay list for example without
including Gimmie Shelter or Stairway to Heaven. Certain
songs are clearly hits because even today they are
considered to be iconic and have taken on a life of their
own. If they charted they would have been huge hits but
instead they were on albums. |
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But the topic of this thread was 1950s turntable hits
that never charted. It was a whole new game post-"Rubber
Soul" where album cuts became legitimate hit songs.
The early years of the rock era aren't all that familiar
to me either...I was only in the first grade in 1956, and
most of what music I know from then was via hearing them
as oldies.
Even some of the late 60s/early 70s songs we now know as
classic rock (the Stones song you mentioned for example)
never got much Top 40 airplay...we certainly didn't play
it where I worked in 1969 (granted, not a full-blown
T40...more of a small-market try-to-have-something-for-
everyone station that only played "the hits" after 3PM
and on weekends).
Edited by Hykker on 29 March 2019 at 6:28pm
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Paul Haney
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| Posted: 30 March 2019 at 4:01am | IP Logged
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That's why I believe the 1956 and 1957 books we did on
the regional Top 10 charts are so valuable. For example
"Mean Woman Blues" by Elvis Presley shows up on nearly 50
charts alone! Songs I wouldn't suspect, like "Melodie
D'Amour" by Edmundo Ros appears on nearly 40 of those
regional charts. Also keep in mind, that rock and roll
was very slow to be adopted by many stations at the time.
You'll still find plenty of Joni James, Patti Page, Eddie
Fisher and the like well into the late 1950s.
As for sharing the info, any station with a subscription
to Cash Box could see those charts and I do believe that
if enough stations were reporting an "album cut", it
could get even more exposure. In fact, there are several
songs on those charts that were only available on albums
or EPs at the time (hence they were ineligible for the
main national charts). Billboard also had regional
charts, though not nearly as extensive as those in Cash
Box.
I've discussed this with Joel, who was actively listening
at the time, and he tells me that he would hear such
songs as "Mean Woman Blues" and wonder why they weren't
charting in Billboard.
Instead of attempting to cobble together a list decades
after the fact, why not just get those books to determine
what was getting played at the time? Just in those two
books alone, there are over 3,000 titles! Remember,
these are Top 10 charts, not something that peaked at #60
on a 60 position playlist or was listed as "hitbound" for
a week or two.
Edited by Paul Haney on 30 March 2019 at 4:14am
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Paul C
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| Posted: 30 March 2019 at 7:37am | IP Logged
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“Mean Woman Blues” was issued as a single in Canada, b/w “Have I
Told You Lately That I Love You”. Canada did not have a national chart
at the time, but on the playlist of CHUM in Toronto, “Have I Told You
Lately That I Love You” reached #13.
Please correct me if I am mistaken, Paul, but it appears that prior to the
introduction of the Billboard EP chart, EP’s could chart on the album
chart and individual songs from EPs could chart on singles charts.
During the lifetime of the EP chart (1957 to 1960), EPs could not chart
on the album chart and songs from EPs could not chart on the singles
charts. After the EP chart was discontinued, songs from EPs once
again began to appear on the singles chart. In the mid-60s, a number
of entire EPs charted on the Hot 100, not the individual songs.
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Paul Haney
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| Posted: 31 March 2019 at 4:23am | IP Logged
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Paul, that appears to be the case. Billboard used to
tweak the chart policies on occasion. Their charts, their
rules.
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PopArchivist
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| Posted: 04 April 2019 at 9:43pm | IP Logged
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Well Hykker let's approach this from another view point. What other charts existed during the 1955-1959 period?
There is the R & B Charts Book, which if I recall runs from 1942 to 2016 and Whitburn updates that every few years.
You have the Cash Box Regional Hits 1956 and 1957 and Cash Box Pop Hits 1952-1996 that Paul Haney would recommend, which I will pick up....
Hit Records 1954-1982 which is another resource.
Top Country Singles 1944-2017, which can add numerous hits which charted on this chart but did not appear on billboard during the 50's...
Christmas in the Charts 1920-2004, which speaks to hits which got tons of airplay but were staples each year but relegated to album releases and not released as 45's..
Those are my resources (and of course the lists in the new Top Pop Singles 1955-2018 book that Paul will announce eventually :) so that we can see all the consensus picks.)
Paul anything else I missed?
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Top 40 Music on Compact Disc : Chat Board
Topic: 1950’s Airplay Only Hits
