(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.

(Pictured: the Jackson Five.)

Not long ago, I paged through Billboard magazine from the week of November 7, 1970, as one does.

A headline story on page 1 says that in response to the recent drug-related deaths of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Al “Blind Owl” Wilson of Canned Heat, MGM Records president Mike Curb has terminated the contracts of 18 MGM artists he accuses of promoting hard drugs. The artists are not listed by name, although Curb claims that some of them are top sellers. History would show that most of them were marginal at best.

Elsewhere, jukebox operators are concerned about the increasing length of records and its impact on their revenue. More than half of the songs on the current Hot 100 run more than three minutes, and the average song runs 3:32. “Green Eyed Lady” by Sugarloaf runs 5:58, and both “Closer to Home” by Grand Funk Railroad and “Fresh Air” by Quicksilver Messenger Service run in excess of five minutes. (Anne Murray’s “Snowbird” is the shortest, at 2:08.) Some operators have refused to program the longest popular singles, but most admit that if a record gets big enough, they have no choice. The long-song trend is not expected to reverse. Bill Prutting of jukebox manufacturer Seeburg says, “You can write about long singles until doomsday, but labels cannot tell their artists how long their singles should be.”

The magazine reviews a number of new albums, including Bob Dylan’s New Morning, Greatest Hits by Sly and the Family Stone, and I (Who Have Nothing) by Tom Jones. Several new Christmas albums are reviewed, by the Williams Brothers (Andy and his siblings), Ed Ames, Buck Owens, Charley Pride, and Jose Feliciano. The review of Feliciano’s album says he “adds interesting new dimensions to old Christmas favorites,” but doesn’t mention a new song from the album that will remain on the air for the next half-century: “Feliz Navidad.”

Charley Pride is #1 on the Hot Country Singles chart with “I Can’t Believe That You’ve Stopped Loving Me.” Among the other songs in the Top 10 are “Sunday Morning Coming Down” by Johnny Cash and “It’s Only Make Believe” by Glen Campbell, which have crossed over to pop. Other pop crossovers include “Snowbird,” “For the Good Times” by Ray Price, “Amos Moses” by Jerry Reed, and Lynn Anderson’s “Rose Garden.” The hottest record on the chart, up 30 spots to #37 in its second week on, is “Coal Miner’s Daughter” by Loretta Lynn. Merle Haggard’s Fightin’ Side of Me is #1 on Hot Country LPs.

Billboard‘s Top Soul LPs chart is dominated by Motown: Third Album by the Jackson Five, Temptations’ Greatest Hits Volume 2, and Still Waters Run Deep by the Four Tops are in the top three positions. Also riding high: Signed Sealed Delivered by Stevie Wonder, the self-titled solo debut by Diana Ross, and Ecology by Rare Earth.

Rare Earth, signed to a Motown subsidiary, is not the only rock act on the Soul LPs chart. Santana is at #6 with Abraxas, Cosmo’s Factory by CCR is #13, Band of Gypsys by Jimi Hendrix is at #16, Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen is at #24, and Led Zeppelin III debuts at #44. (Led Zeppelin III and Abraxas are #1 and #2 on the Top LPs chart; the Jackson Five and Creedence Clearwater albums are in the Top 10.)

On Easy Listening, “We’ve Only Just Begun” by the Carpenters continues to dominate, in its fifth week at #1. Also in the Top 10: “It Don’t Matter to Me” by Bread, James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain,” and the hottest record on the Easy Listening chart, “Stoney End” by Barbra Streisand, up 14 spots to #8.

The #1 song in Britain is the Matthews’ Southern Comfort cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock.” In Canada, it’s “Cracklin’ Rosie” by Neil Diamond. In Singapore, “Candida” by Dawn is #1, and in Spain it’s “El Condor Pasa” by Simon and Garfunkel. In the United States, “I’ll Be There” by the Jackson Five is #1 for a fourth week; “We’ve Only Just Begun” and “Fire and Rain” hold at #2 and #3. One song is new in the Top 10: “I Think I Love You” by the Partridge Family, up from #17 last week.

The magazine’s radio column, Vox Jox, runs down the on-air lineup at WLS in Chicago: Larry Lujack, Joel Sebastian, Chuck Buell, Scotty Brink, Kris Stevens, Jerry Kaye, new arrival Steve Lundy, and weekender Bernie Allen. On the other end of the wave in his Wisconsin bedroom, a 10-year-old kid listens to them, and it won’t be long until he wants to be like them.