New RR #101-#150 book out next month!

EdisonLite wrote: Speaking of calling Record Research, I've called twice this past week - spoke to a Brent and a woman whose name I don't remember. But they told me there are only 3 people who work in the office. Paul, I take it you are the 3rd! They mentioned the first name of the 3rd person, but I don't recall what they said. Guess I just missed you!

Ha! Yes, there's just Brent, Jeanne and myself. Just ask for me next time and I'll be glad to talk to you (we all take turns answering the phones, so you may just get "lucky" and get me right away)!

Bondy wrote: Paul, I just received the Record World bubbling under book and have to tell you that I'm dissapointed. This book should of had a lot more titles that bubbled under. Apparently,the book only lists records that did not appear in any of Whitburn's Billboard books. I think that for $50.00 the book should contain ALL the records that Bubbled Under in Record World including those that went on to make the top 100. This book has only 176 pages while the top 100 book has 418 pages. Whitburn charges the same price for both books. Somehow, this doesn't seem fair. The Bubbling Under book should of been complete with all the records that bubbled under or at least cost half the price. What do you think?

There is also
one more important piece of info that may have been
overlooked here. If a song made the Cashbox charts and
will be in a future RR book then it would also not be in
this Bubbling Under volume for RW. Can you confirm this
Paul?

Wow, that's a real shame. That's even more disappointing than just the Billboard charted hits not being in this RW Bubbling Under book.

Yesterday, when I tried explaining to a friend why not all the RW 101-150 peakers were in the RW book, my reasoning backfired. I explained to him that it had to do with the time involved in researching - not so much the peak position of a song because that could easily be obtained when the researcher went through the bubbling under charts (and he clearly had to go through each one for the RW book). I explained that it probably had to do with the time involved in determining other very time-absorbing factual info such as group members, record label and #, etc. THEN I realized this WAS already determined - because all that bio & label info would be listed in the Billboard books already published. NO NEW research was needed, just the peak #. So I really wish they'd included those songs, and now I know we'll never get the peak positions of RW Bubbling Under songs if they made the Billboard charts OR the Cashbox charts! This is really sad because I really wanted those numbers. Paul, can you guys at least do some kind of update for the missing pieces, even if we have to buy a pdf file with the peak position of the missing songs? That's more money we'd have to spend just for what we (or at least, I) thought I was already purchasing, but I do want that info very much.

And what about the R&R charts? Did the researcher also cross reference the Radio & Records charts to make sure each song didn't peak in those charts as well?

Also - what will be missing from the Cashbox books (particularly, a Bubbling Under book)?

And don't get me wrong, I appreciate the time and work that went into the RW book. But it seems to me, the time the researcher spent to cross reference and check that a song didn't make the Billboard Hot 100, the Billboard Bubbling Under, the Cashbox charts and (perhaps) the Radio & Record charts, instead he simply could have noted the song's peak in RW - and gotten the artist and label info from the Billboard books.

Edited by EdisonLite

In the '90s, I bought from Radio & Records their "chart book" - it wasn't a published book like what we're used to, but rather xeroxed pages in a 3-hole type of folder. It went from '74 to '96 (was '74 the year they started, and if so, what's the first issue date?), and contained the following:

The year-end charts
The peak positions of all songs that reached the top 15 in any given year

My question is: how far below #15 did the pop and AC charts go? Does anyone know?

Wow, I didn't realize the # of positions changed that much. Thanks, Aaron - I'll check out that link. Is there any website or database that lists all R&R pop peak positions (even beyond the top 15 they published in the looseleaf notebooks they sold to those who asked)?

[UPDATE: I just checked that link, which answers my question. It lists all pop peaks. COOL!!!'

Also, did Cashbox and Record World have AC/Easy Listening charts from the '70s until their respective demises (in '93 and '92)?

Edited by EdisonLite