aretha franklin ain’t no way

Ed, I do not know how many times I have responded to how I derived a "concensus" top 40 that appears in the database but I will respond one more time. There were 3 major trade publications in the rock and roll era, Record World, Billboard and Cash Box. Each had their own system for rating hit singles and quite often, chart positions were actually purchased so to even the playing field so to speak I averaged chart positions to form a concensus Top 40. Let's look at "Ain't No Way" which reached #71 on Cash Box, #38 on Record World and #16 on Billboard. Sum those 3 numbers to get 125 and divide by 3 to get an average chart position of 41.6. Billboard's chart position of #16 does look a little out of line with the other trade publications don't you think?

Edited by Pat Downey

From a radio airplay perspective, The Gavin Report Charts are among the most reliable guages. The 1968 Gavin Top 100 lists both sides together at number 53. Interestingly, the listing is:
53. AIN'T NO WAY/& f. - Aretha Franklin
"(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been" Gone isn't listed by title even though (according to the charts)it was more popular. For whatever reason, Gavin elected to list the two songs as one single. It's also noteworthy that this is Aretha's highest ranking for the year 1968, above THINK & flip and I SAY A LITTLE PRAYER.    

Yes, according to The Gavin Report's year end Top 100 survey, Aretha's single with (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone as the A Side and Ain't No way as the B Side is ranked as number 53 for the year 1968. I Say A Little Prayer is ranked at #88 and Think/&flip side is ranked #96. The Gavin Report compiled their charts based on radio airplay and had a reputation of chart integrity (they didn't accept record company advertising in their publication).    

You're right about Gavin being dependent on radio stations airplay reports. But, the positive side of the issue is that a Gavin Chart offered a snapshot of a records' status as a radio hit on Top 40. The Gavin staff gathered lots of airplay info from the reporting stations. I don't remember them ever asking about number of plays (unlike today's airplay analysis), but they did check on several other factors. This data was used in determining the most popular songs ranked by airplay instead of sales. The Billboard chart was usually quite different from the Gavin Top 30 for a particular week, and normally lagged a few weeks behind.
I guess comparing Gavin and Billboard is "apples & oranges" because one is based on radio airplay and the other is based on record sales.