Top 4000 Radio Songs (1961-85)

vanmeter wrote: I'm fascinated by the Elvis listings here...that things like "Such A Night" did better than, say, "Don't Cry Daddy." Clearly some of his album cuts could've been big singles at certain points.

Actually, "Don't Cry Daddy" (#2020) did do much better than "Such A Night" (#3154).

Elvis still has 13 more hits in the countdown. He placed 8 songs in the Top 1000 and his
highest comes in at #270. Obviously, most his big hits were from 1956-60. I do plan on
going back to those years eventually (once enough surveys are posted) as I'm interested
to see where those big hits would rank. As for album cuts, I know for a fact that "King
Creole" showed up on a lot of radio station surveys back in 1958, so that would be the
best shot for his album cuts. Again, the big problem with album cuts back then is that
they rarely showed up in the actual numbered surveys as they were often shown as just
"extras", if at all.

Paul Haney wrote: Besides, I consider 1961-85 to be the "golden age" of Top 40 radio.

Wow, that's a huge project, I'm doing one myself,
digitizing all the Australian Ktel compilations from CD
and digital sources, so I have some idea how much effort
goes into these off side projects. But me being
pedantic I would have to say the best period in top 40
music was 1967 to 1991. The start being the bubble gum
era of the Archies and Tommy Roe, and the definitive
death of pop being Kirk Cobain screaming his lungs out
at the end of 1991 with "Smells like whatever"

Another "double dip" this morning (80 songs posted).

Just 1400 more to go and we don't stop 'til we get to the top!

Edited by Paul Haney

Posted another "twin spin" today.

Only 1,200 more to go!

I got ambitious and did 3 updates today!

We're now up to the Top 800. Maybe I'll finish by Labor Day?!?

Also, a couple of song notes...

"99 Luftballons" by Nena (#1195) - The ARSA surveys are split almost evenly on the German and English ("99 Red Balloons")
versions. I combined them both as I consider them basically the same. Personally, I prefer the German version.

"We Will Rock You / We Are The Champions" by Queen (#838) - Another judgement call. About 60% of the stations in 1977/78
reported both sides of this record at the same position. Radio & Records also reported it as such. I toyed with the idea
of ranking them separately, but since so many now associate them played together, I decided against it.



Edited by Paul Haney