Isaac Hayes - By The Time I Get To Phoeni

I noticed that this cut is not in the database even though it peaked at #37 on the Hot 100 in 1969. It was the B-side of "Walk On By" but still charted as that was while Billboard's system allowed B-sides to chart separately from A-sides.

I don't think I've ever heard the 45 version, which apparently runs 6:45 (according to Whitburn.) The only version I have is the stereo LP version from the "Hot Buttered Soul" album that runs 18:41.

Just thought I'd bring its omission to Pat's attention.

Now wait a minute Jim, I do not feel that Cash Box was a more reliable and accurate chart than the Billboard chart. All charts in the old days were subject to chart positions being purchased not just Billboard. I have actually read an article that interviewed a Cash Box chart editor (country charts as I recall) where he admitted that Cash Box chart positions were bought. This "purchase" often took the form of a purchase of advertising space in a publication so that it could be technically concealed.

Even if we disregard the fact that chart positions may have been bought, the chart methodologies of the various trade publications varied from time to time such that one publication may have been more sales oriented and another more airplay oriented so who is to say that one was a more accurate "real" representation of the gauge of the true popularity of a song? I still feel that averaging chart positions is the best way to obtain a concensus top 40 database.

Was Cashbox strictly a sales chart? I don't ever recall any radio stations reporting to them. What was their criteria for reporting status? As we all know, sales figures in pre-Soundscan times were subject to as much "creative interpretation" as were airplay stats. Also, a song that may have sold well in smaller markets where the record stores weren't reporters may have been short-changed and/or records with more urban appeal may tilt the scale the other way. Unlike airplay, where bigger stations=larger audience, a sale is a sale.

I don't know which charts were the most accurate, but even as a teenager I considered Billboard to be "the Bible", as did most other music fans I knew.

Hykker wrote: Unlike airplay, where bigger stations=larger audience, a sale is a sale.

Point taken; however, one of the major driving forces behind record sales was, and still is, airplay. So I've always favored charts that included both airplay and sales figures.