(Pictured: Linda and Dolly confer backstage in 1978.)

Instead of looking at the Bottom 60 of the Hot 100 accompanying the AT40 show I wrote about last week, I thought I would steal an idea from Casey and look into the 6/17/78 edition of Billboard to see what’s at the top of the other charts, but I kept getting distracted by other things. There are full-page ads for the debut album by a new band, the Cars, and for the new album by the Rolling Stones, Some Girls. There is a news item noting that former WNBC jock Don Imus has turned a temporary gig at WHK in Cleveland into a permanent slot, and a feature discussing the rise of a new fad, roller disco. And a small display ad plugs the imminent arrival of “Joel Whitburn’s latest release,” which turned out to be his Pop Annual 1955-1977.

I finally made it to the charts, though.

—The Top Box Office Chart is led by a Memorial Day show in Des Moines, which starred Bob Seger, Foreigner, Nazareth, and Toby Beau. Elsewhere, a news story reports on the show two days earlier at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City at which Seger, Foreigner, and Toby Beau were joined by Head East, Bob Welch, and Uriah Heep. The show was interrupted by rain and delayed by unusually long changeovers between acts. Billboard‘s reporter also says: “Kansas City proved a little tamer than several other cities on Seger’s summer tour. Noticeably absent were the bared chests of young women on Seger’s “Night Moves” song, as well as the general adolescent mischief which has been reported at Seger appearances in other cities this spring.” Foreigner has been headlining some shows by themselves, playing with opening acts including Head East and Welch. Also busy on the road this summer: Foghat, which has been out with acts including the Sweet, Rainbow, and the Atlanta Rhythm Section.

—The #1 song on the Easy Listening chart is “Bluer Than Blue” by Michael Johnson, which knocks “Even Now” by Barry Manilow to #3. Two songs on Easy Listening that are vastly outperforming their Hot 100 number are “You Got It” by Diana Ross at #8 and “One Live to Live” by Lou Rawls at #10. (The latter has nothing to do with the TV soap of the same name.)

—The #1 song on the Hot Country Singles chart is “Two More Bottles of Wine” by Emmylou Harris; it takes over the top spot from Willie Nelson’s “Georgia on My Mind,” from his album Stardust, which is #1 on Hot Country LPs. Bonnie Tyler crosses over from pop with “It’s a Heartache” at #11; Linda Ronstadt is at #14 with the delicate and beautiful “I Never Will Marry,” a duet with an uncredited Dolly Parton, from Linda’s album Simple Dreams. Kenny Rogers is at #18 with a future pop crossover, “Love or Something Like It.” A song Rogers will return to the charts in a big way a few months from now, “The Gambler,” is at #82 in a version by the guy who wrote it, Don Schlitz. Anne Murray’s future #1 pop hit “You Needed Me” is at #30 and moving up. Future country legend Reba McEntire is at #36, duetting with Jacky Ward on “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight,” a cover of the England Dan and John Ford Coley hit from a couple of years before.

—There’s not a lot of action at the top of Hot Soul Singles: “Use Ta Be My Girl” by the O’Jays, “Take Me to the Next Phase” by the Isley Brothers, and “The Groove Line” by Heatwave hold at #1, #2, and #3. The O’Jays So Full of Love and the Isleys’ Showdown are atop the Soul LPs chart.

—Showdown is #4 on Top LPs and Tape, trailing Saturday Night Fever (#1 for the 22nd consecutive week), Chuck Mangione’s Feels So Good, and London Town by Wings. Earth by Jefferson Starship is #5; Gerry Rafferty’s City to City, which will take out Saturday Night Fever on the July 8 chart, is #6. Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon is #200 on the listing of 200 albums, in its 211th week on the chart. It will remain on the chart for nearly 10 more years before dropping off.

As I read about and listen to all this stuff, one overwhelming image comes back to me: how intently I listened to the radio, for hours at a time, every single day, all summer long, knowing that come the fall, I would be doing radio for real. It was dream that seemed to have taken a long time coming true.

(Pictured: in 1982, Pac-Man was the biggest hit of all.)

On the front page of Radio and Records from May 7, 1982, is a story about WBBM-FM in Chicago adopting consultant Mike Joseph’s Hot Hits format. Joseph, already a successful programmer in places such as New York City and Detroit (as architect of the legendary WKNR, Keener 13), reasoned that people wanted to hear the hits, period, so that’s what he gave them. A Hot Hits station played its top five songs once per hour, with a few other current hits mixed in around them. The station’s entire on-air library might be 50 songs, if that.

Joseph’s first major-market Hot Hits station was WCAU-FM in Philadelphia. On 5/7/82, it reported to R&R a conventional-looking list of 40 songs plus a handful of new and uncharted songs. Five songs appear on the list with the letter H, which I am guessing were the ones being heard every hour: “Ebony and Ivory” by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, “Empty Garden” by Elton John, Asia’s “Heat of the Moment,” “Crimson and Clover” by Joan Jett, and “Let It Whip” by the Dazz Band.

Hot Hits peaked in a time when hot-rockin’, flame-throwin’ Top 40 radio was migrating to FM, and Joseph brought those elements to his client stations. The format was crowded with jingles and sweepers, and the jocks were required to keep it tight. If a song intro was 14 seconds long, they had to talk for 14 seconds. If they went 12 or 13, they were likely to be hotlined by Joseph himself, if he happened to be in town. A high-energy presentation was mandatory, even with the softer songs. At WHYT in Detroit, where the format launched in 1983, one of the jocks told me that he would be physically wrung out at the end of every shift.

To determine what “the hits” were, Joseph looked closely at record sales. He played what people were buying. Radio always claimed that this is what it did, but what they meant was “we’re playing the music people are buying as long as it fits our format.” In Philadelphia, Joseph would play R&B and new-wave hits that hadn’t broken big on Top 40 stations elsewhere. In this week, the WCAU-FM list is pretty conventional, but it does include a few songs that never became big Top 40 hits: “Murphy’s Law” by Cheri, Atlantic Starr’s “Circles,” “Apache” by the Sugar Hill Gang, “Mama Used to Say” by Junior, “Genius of Love” by Tom Tom Club, and the Temptations’ “Standing on the Top.”

The pure Hot Hits format burned out quickly. WBBM-FM, newly christened B96, started tinkering with Joseph’s formula almost immediately. Within a year or two, the format’s moment was passing, but its influence lingered. After stations Joseph had consulted let their agreements lapse, they kept some of his principles intact.

After Mike Joseph died in 2018, Sean Ross wrote about his career and his impact. Go read it.

What else was in R&R 40 years ago this week?

Continue reading “Playing the Hits” →

(Pictured: Sonny and Cher, 1967.)

Since we have spent the week in 1967, here’s a look inside the issue of Cash Box dated February 25, 1967. The magazine is less elaborate than Billboard, although it covers the same general ground. Like Billboard, it publishes some charts that would have been highly useful to the jukebox and retail trades, in addition to those of interest to radio and radio listeners. And here’s some of what’s in it:

—On the Cash Box Top 100, “Ruby Tuesday” by the Rolling Stones takes over the #1 spot from the Seekers’ “Georgy Girl,” which falls to #2. “Love Is Here and Now You’re Gone” by the Supremes, “Kind of a Drag” by the Buckinghams, and “I’m a Believer” by the Monkees, which was #1 two weeks ago, round out the Top Five. Three songs are new in the Top 10; the hottest is “The Beat Goes On” by Sonny and Cher, up to #8 from #17 last week. The highest debut in the Top 40 is “There’s a Kind of Hush” by Herman’s Hermits at #23. “Strawberry Fields Forever” by the Beatles debuts on the Top 100 at #39.

—The Looking Ahead chart contains 50 songs this week. “Soul Time” by Shirley Ellis is at #1. Also on Looking Ahead is “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)” by Aretha Franklin. (Elsewhere in the magazine, Atlantic Records takes a full-page ad promoting “I Never Loved a Man” with the headline, “Atlantic Records Proudly Presents Aretha Franklin.”) “I Never Loved a Man” is the highest debut on the R&B chart, at #29. The #1 and #2 songs on that list are holding their positions from the week before: “Are You Lonely for Me” by Freddie Scott and “Hunter Gets Captured by the Game” by the Marvelettes.

—Another full-page ad features a stylized map of London Liverpool noting the locations of Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields, promoting the new Beatles single. Also on the map are the letters P, G, R, and J, presumably indicating the homes of Paul, George, Ringo, and John. A news story reports that Capitol pressed and shipped 1.1 million copies of the “Strawberry Fields”/”Penny Lane” single in a recent three-day period. All three of the label’s pressing plants, in Los Angeles, Jacksonville, Illinois, and Scranton, Pennsylvania, are working full-time on the new single to meet future demand. In 1964, Capitol pressed and shipped 750,000 copies of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in three days, and eventually sold more than 4.5 million.

—Both “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” are mentioned in the Sure Shots column, devoted to records that retailers report selling in quantity or that “give every indication of doing so.” Others listed include the Mamas and the Papas’ “Dedicated to the One I Love,” “Return of the Red Baron” by the Royal Guardsmen, and “Jimmy Mack” by Martha and the Vandellas. The magazine’s Radio Active Charts listing shows that “Dedicated to the One I Love” is the most-added song of the week by radio stations.

—Because the magazine is frequently asked to provide a running list of the year’s top hits to “A&R men, producers, radio stations, etc.,” it has created a monthly one, based on an elaborate point system that gives credit to the top 50 songs in any week. The February chart is led by “I’m a Believer,” which has racked up 1054 points. In second place is “98.6” by Keith, which has 1018.

—“I’m a Believer” is the best-selling single in Britain again this week, just ahead of “Let’s Spend the Night Together” by the Rolling Stones. While on what was officially a private visit to Britain, Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith made some promotional appearances on radio and TV, and held a press conference. Back home, the Monkees dominate the Top 100 album chart, with More of the Monkees and The Monkees at #1 and #2 again this week. SRO by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and the Doctor Zhivago soundtrack hold at #3 and #4. Between the Buttons by the Rolling Stones jumps from #12 to #5.

—The oldest living member of ASCAP, Lady Katherine Bainbridge, died at her home in Hollywood earlier this month at the age of 104. She is known mainly for having written more than 165 hymns. Also getting an obituary is jazz cornetist Muggsy Spanier, who played with the first generation of Chicago jazz stars of the 1920s—Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, and Sidney Bechet—as well as other jazz luminaries during the 1930s. He was either 63 or 64 years old.

—An ad in the magazine says, “If you are reading someone else’s copy of Cash Box why not mail this coupon today!” It’s $20 for a 52-week subscription, $40 to receive it by airmail.