AT40 Year-End Countdowns
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Topic: AT40 Year-End Countdowns
Posted By: Scanner
Subject: AT40 Year-End Countdowns
Date Posted: 04 January 2023 at 2:22pm
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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.)? |
Replies:
Posted By: JMD1961
Date Posted: 04 January 2023 at 2:44pm
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He didn't always deviate from Billboard. Only sometimes.
I found a website with more details. https://leemichaelwithers.tripod.com/at40_yearend.htm |
Posted By: FrankG
Date Posted: 04 January 2023 at 5:53pm
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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. |
Posted By: Scanner
Date Posted: 04 January 2023 at 7:02pm
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Thanks for the quick response! I first listened to the
year-end countdown in 1978. I wondered why "You Light Up My Life" ranked at #3 when it spent its ten weeks at #1 in 1977. It was my introduction to the concept of a "chart year." (Years later, when I tracked down the 1977 year-end Billboard, I was stunned "Light" did not even make the year-end Top 100 at all!) I never realized just how inconsistent AT40 was with the methodology they used to count down the year-end top 100 records from year to year. |
Posted By: Vince
Date Posted: 05 January 2023 at 12:39am
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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. |
Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 05 January 2023 at 12:26pm
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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! |
Posted By: JMD1961
Date Posted: 05 January 2023 at 1:44pm
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. |
Paul Haney wrote:Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 05 January 2023 at 2:06pm
At least that record charted for 29 weeks, which was a huge total back then (especially for a song that only peaked at #36). |
Posted By: Scanner
Date Posted: 05 January 2023 at 2:36pm
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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)! |
Posted By: RoknRobnLoxley
Date Posted: 06 January 2023 at 11:14am
| I think I posted elsewhere, Fred Bronson recalculated the Billboard year-end charts in his book "Billboard's Hottest Hot 100 Hits" based on assigning a carryover record's total points into just 1 year, whichever year achieved the most points, not splitting them into 2 years. Makes sense to me... |
Posted By: LunarLaugh
Date Posted: 06 January 2023 at 11:40am
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I use the Bronson book (my print edition is from the early
90s) as a guide for looking up or compiling big hits of certain years instead of the old Billboard charts. ------------- https://thelunarlaugh.bandcamp.com/ - Listen to The Lunar Laugh! |
Posted By: Scanner
Date Posted: 06 January 2023 at 1:36pm
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Year-end charts will always be imperfect thanks to songs
whose chart runs overlap years. "Physical" is the perfect example. Its six weeks at #1 in 1981 and four weeks at #1 in 1982 would not be enough for it to rank as the biggest hit of either year based on a true calendar year. It might not even be enough for the song to rank among the Top 10 songs of either year! But, combine its chart runs from 1981 and 1982 together and you have the biggest hit of the 1980's! |
Posted By: Scanner
Date Posted: 13 January 2023 at 8:18am
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Hearing George Harrison's "What Is Life" on the radio this
morning reminded me of another year-end chart error from Billboard involving Olivia Newton-John again. In 1972, Billboard ranked her cover of this song as the #34 AC hit of the year. Yet, it peaked at #34 and only spent three weeks on the chart! I wonder what song was not ranked because of that. |
Posted By: davidclark
Date Posted: 13 January 2023 at 6:11pm
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Yeah, those Billboard Year-end charts have their flaws (some more than
others), but sometimes it's "understood" as songs that chart at the end of a year are penalized. I believe there are 42 #1 songs over the years that never appeared on a Yearend chart. I believe all but one of these would have had enough "points" to rank somewhere in a yearend top 100, if all points were assigned to one year (of course, they couldn't have been assigned to the first year, only the second). Some examples: Tokens, The - The Lion Sleeps Tonight (1961) Crystals, The - He's A Rebel (1962) 4 Seasons, The - Big Girls Don't Cry (1962) Tornadoes, The - Telstar (1962) Singing Nun, The - Dominique (1963) Beatles, The - Yesterday (1965) Rolling Stones, The - Get Off Of My Cloud (1965) Byrds, The - Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season) (1965) New Vaudeville Band, The Winchester Cathedral (1966) Beatles, The - Hello Goodbye (1968) Peter, Paul & Mary - Leaving On A Jet Plane (1969) Steam - Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye (1969) Supremes, The - Someday We'll Be Together (1969) Partridge Family, The - I Think I Love You (1970) Ringo Starr - Photograph (1973) Stevie Wonder - You Haven't Done Nothin' (1974) Steve Miller Band - Rock'n Me (1976) 1976 was the last year this happened. ------------- dc1 |
Posted By: whyaduck
Date Posted: 13 January 2023 at 9:20pm
Did they correct that at one point? I have a complete set of Billboard text charts from 1955 to mid-2007 and this is how it appeared there: 1980-Top100 01 "Call Me" Blondie 02 "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" Pink Floyd 03 "Magic" Olivia Newton-John 04 "Rock with You" Michael Jackson 05 "Do That to Me One More Time" Captain & Tennille 06 "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" Queen 07 "Coming Up" Paul McCartney 08 "Funkytown" Lipps Inc 09 "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" Billy Joel 10 "The Rose" Bette Midler 11 "Escape (The Piņa Colada song)" Rupert Holmes 12 "Cars" Gary Numan 13 "Cruisin" Smokey Robinson 14 "Working My Way Back to You/Forgive Me, Girl" The Spinners 15 "Lost in Love" Air Supply 16 "Little Jeannie" Elton John 17 "Ride Like the Wind" Christopher Cross 18 "Upside Down" Diana Ross 19 "Please Don't Go" KC and the Sunshine Band 20 "Babe" Styx 21 "With You I'm Born Again" Billy Preston and Syreeta 22 "Shining Star" The Manhattans 23 "Still" Commodores 24 "Yes, I'm Ready" Teri DeSario & KC 25 "Sexy Eyes" Dr. Hook 26 "Steal Away" Robbie Dupree 27 "Biggest Part of Me" Ambrosia 28 "This Is It" Kenny Loggins 29 "Cupid/I've Loved You for a Long Time" The Spinners 30 "Let's Get Serious" Jermaine Jackson 31 "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer" Kenny Rogers & Kim Carnes 32 "Sailing" Christopher Cross 33 "Longer" Dan Fogelberg 34 "Coward of the County" Kenny Rogers 35 "Ladies' Night" Kool & the Gang 36 "Too Hot" Kool & the Gang 37 "Take Your Time (Do It Right)" The SOS Band 38 "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" Barbra Streisand & Donna Summer 39 "More Love" Kim Carnes 40 "Pop Muzik" M 41 "Brass in Pocket" The Pretenders |
Posted By: davidclark
Date Posted: 14 January 2023 at 8:52am
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whyaduck, when referring to "Magic", Scanner mentions the 1980 year-end
AC chart, not the "Hot 100" YE chart. ------------- dc1 |
Posted By: Vince
Date Posted: 16 January 2023 at 11:40pm
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Billboard's Year-End AC chart for 1980 looks like it has an
eligibility period from August 1979 though July 1980. That is even worst than the eligibility period for their 1980 pop singles chart, which runs from 10/6/1979 through 9/27/1980. |
Posted By: Scanner
Date Posted: 18 January 2023 at 1:27pm
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I think you're right, Vince. I never realized how skewed
that list is towards songs that charted during the first half of the year...or peaked in 1979. JD Souther's "You're Only Lonely" and Herb Alpert's "Rise" were #2 and #9 respectively for 1980, but reached #1 in 1979 just like "Lead Me On." Besides "Magic," I wonder how many other songs were screwed out of a year-end placement that year because of that timeframe. I especially wonder why Billboard would have chosen such a timeframe - they needed five months to compile this? |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 11 March 2023 at 3:23pm
Didn't "You Light Up My Life" peak at #53-ish for 1977 (even though all 10 weeks of its #1 run were in 1977)? I remember hearing Casey's year-end top 100 in 1977 on the radio and shocked it was that low (though the next year it would be #3 for the year). But then again, maybe Billboard and AT40 were 2 different YE charts for '77. Did it chart or not in Billboard's YE for '77? |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 11 March 2023 at 5:06pm
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Debbie Boone did not chart in the year end for 1977.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year- End_Hot_100_singles_of_1977 ------------- John Gallagher Erie, PA https://www.johngallagher.com" rel="nofollow - John Gallagher Wedding & Special Event Entertainment / Snapblast Photo Booth |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 11 March 2023 at 6:14pm
| Was the AT40 Top 100 of 1977 different from Billboard's that year? |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 11 March 2023 at 7:15pm
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Looks like Debbie Boone did appear on the year end AT40
chart for 1977 at #51. http://www.hbr3.sakura.ne.jp/at40/1977.htm ------------- John Gallagher Erie, PA https://www.johngallagher.com" rel="nofollow - John Gallagher Wedding & Special Event Entertainment / Snapblast Photo Booth |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 11 March 2023 at 8:37pm
My memory only had it off by 2 positions. Not bad considering I heard that countdown 45 years ago :) |
Posted By: Vince
Date Posted: 18 March 2023 at 5:13pm
Yes. AT40's 1977 year-end countdown had had "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" at #1, and "You Light Up My Life" at #51. Billboard's 1977 year-end pop singles chart had "Tonight's the Night" at #1, and "You Light up My Life" was not included. YLUML came in at #3 on Billboard's 1978 year-end pop singles chart because the eligibility period began the first week of November 1977, thus 7 of its 10 weeks at #1 were 1978 survey period. |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 19 March 2023 at 4:29am
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I just came across this. WLS in Chicago had Debbie Boone at
#1 on their Big 89 of 1977. (John Landecker's favorite song in the whole world LOL) https://www.wlshistory.com/big89/1977.htm ------------- John Gallagher Erie, PA https://www.johngallagher.com" rel="nofollow - John Gallagher Wedding & Special Event Entertainment / Snapblast Photo Booth |