AT40 Year-End Countdowns

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.)?

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.

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

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!

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.

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)!