LOOK OUT, OL' MAC IS BACK

Fred,

I could have sworn Mac McAnally was played on American Top 40 back in the late '70s. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the song, but it was country (or at least "country-flavored"), which leads me to believe he probably hit the country charts long before 1990.
 
Also, I could have sworn I heard Casey Kasem verbally correct the placement of two or three songs near the bottom of the top 40, later in his countdown show. This happened in early 1977, and it involved Elton John's "Bite Your Lip (Get Up and Dance!)."

His comment ran along the lines of, "We've just received word from Billboard that a few of the songs we've already heard were played in the wrong order. Instead of 'Bite Your Lip' at No. 28, and '[missing song name]' at No. 29. '[Missing song name]' should have been No. 28 and 'Bite Your Lip' should have been No. 29."

Again, this may have involved three songs, but obviously enough time has passed that the details are a little fuzzy.
 
Am I just dreaming? And if I'm correct, how could this have happened? Once the charts are published, aren't they "locked in" for that week? In other words, Billboard would never publish a "corrected" version, would they?

And if I'm correct that this would never have happened, why did Casey get it wrong? And let's say it was an honest mistake on the part of Casey or one of his staffers. Wouldn't they have had time to go back and re-record that segment of the show, with the songs in the correct order?
 
Sorry if none of this makes any sense.
 
Andy Ray
Carmel, Ind.
andy46032@att.net

 
Dear Andy,

Let's tackle your question about Mac McAnally first, before we figure out if you have dreams about "American Top 40."

I remember when McAnally was signed to the Ariola America label in the '70s, because I was a fan of the label and I liked Mac's music. He did indeed have a brush with the top 40 portion of the Hot 100 with his first chart single. "It's a Crazy World" entered the survey the week of July 9, 1977 and went on to peak at No. 37. At the time, McAnally was considered a pop artist, and the single did not cross over to the country chart.

Six years later, McAnally had his second Hot 100 hit. Now signed to Geffen, Mac's "Minimum Love" maxed out at No. 41. Again, this song did not find its way to the country tally.

McAnally didn't make his debut on Hot Country Songs until the week of Feb. 3, 1990, when "Back Where I Come From" made its bow, ultimately peaking at No. 14.

As for "American Top 40," I've dreamed about being back in the record store where I once worked and spinning 45s on the in-store record player, so it wouldn't be a surprise if you've dreamed about listening to Casey Kasem count down the top 40 hits on his legendary radio series.

When I read your e-mail, my first thought was that the idea of Casey receiving a call from Billboard about corrected chart positions while he was "on the air" couldn't be true, for several reasons. "American Top 40" was not broadcast live; it was recorded in a studio and sent to radio stations on disc. So, no one from Billboard could have called during the "broadcast" and corrected the chart. If the "AT40" staff did get word of a change in the charts while recording Casey's tracks -- and the odds of that timing are very small -- they would have simply recorded new tracks and corrected the error, as you suggest.

But I wanted to find out if this really happened or not, so I contacted Rob Durkee, who wrote the definitive book on the "American Top 40" program and who worked for many years on the show's staff.

Rob wrote back, and I think you'll find his explanation enlightening, so let me quote it directly:

"Believe it or not, Fred, the March 12, 1977 'American Top 40' show contains what your reader described. It really happened. The show was still three hours long. In the first segment of hour three, Casey began that hour with 'New Kid in Town.' Then, after Casey's backsell of the Eagles song, he welcomed two new 'AT40' affiliates. Next, Casey pointed out how his staff had just received a call from Billboard regarding new and corrected numerical positions for three songs that had been already played.

"Casey said he'd give an update after the next record, which was 'The Things We Do for Love.' After the 10cc song, Casey mentioned that the new numbers were: 'I Wish' by Steve Wonder (fell to No. 32), Elton John's 'Bite Your Lip (Get Up And Dance!),' which held at No. 28 and Olivia Newton-John's 'Sam,' which moved up six to No. 26. Then Casey played 'Boogie Child' by the Bee Gees at No. 12.

"This happened 12 years before I joined the show, Fred. But I've got a good hypothesis as to what happened.

"As you're probably aware, there are deadlines to be met in terms of getting AT40 fully recorded and sent out to affiliates. I'm guessing that they had already put into production all of hour one and probably all or most of hour two. At that point, I'm guessing that Casey and his staff decided that there wasn't time to completely re-do the show from No. 32 through probably most or all of hour two. So, as a compromise to the show's listeners and chart fans, the updated corrected numbers announcement was quickly inserted between No. 13 and No. 12."

Andy, Rob's explanation makes a lot of sense to me and I hope it clears up this 32-year-old mystery!


'COUNTRY BOY' X 4

Hello Fred!
 
It isn't often you have two songs make jumps of at least four spots into the top three, which is the case of Alan Jackson's "Country Boy" (5-1) and Blake Shelton, whose "She Wouldn't Be Gone" vaults 9-3, possibly the biggest jump into the top 3 of the Hot Country Songs chart since Darryl Worley's "Have You Forgotten" vaulted 9-2 the week of March 29, 2003.
 
Jackson's latest No. 1 becomes his 25th, good enough for eighth place among artists with the most No. 1 country hits, 18 behind the champ, George Strait (43).

It's also believed to be the fourth No. 1 with the words "Country Boy" as its title or in its title, following John Denver's "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" (May 31, 1975), Don Williams' "I'm Just a Country Boy" (Nov. 5, 1977) and Ricky Skaggs' "Country Boy" (June 15, 1985).
 
Congratulations, Alan!
 
John Maverick
Burt County, Nebraska


Dear John,

I always appreciate your insights into the country music charts. If Billboard ever creates a position for Deputy Chart Beat Columnist in Charge of Country Music, you're a prime candidate.


IN THE SUMMER TIME

Hi Fred,

Just a question about Donna Summer's Hot Dance Club Play total of No. 1s... This may not be more than a difference between the way you and Joel Whitburn compile statistics, but perhaps you could shed some light on this.

You mentioned in your Jan. 22 Chart Beat column that "Fame (The Game)" is Summer's 13th No. 1 dance club hit. I know that there is some gray area regarding the dance chart between March 29, 1975 and Aug. 21, 1976 (former music publication "Record World" had a national disco chart which Whitburn adopted into his "Hot Dance/Disco 1974-2003" book, since Billboard's chart was not national at the time).

That said, there are two Summer No. 1s which occurred during this Record World phase: "Love to Love You Baby" in 1975 and "Try Me, I Know We Can Make It" in 1976. I am assuming that you are not counting these two songs? Otherwise, Summer's total of No. 1s is really 15, not 13.

If you are disregarding Record World information, what about the chart that Billboard *did* publish in between those weeks? Did those two Summer songs miss No. 1 according to Billboard, but instead hit the top spot in Record World?

In the grand scheme of things I'm sure this is not a huge deal (13 No. 1s on any chart is quite impressive), but I was just curious about what you thought of Joel Whitburn's Record World inclusion and how/why you didn't include those two songs.

Just wondering,

Eric Hiller
Boston, Mass.


Dear Eric,

I received a couple of e-mails just at deadline asking why I cited 13 No. 1 hits for Donna Summer on the Hot Dance Club Play chart instead of 15, and my guess was that readers making this inquiry were using Joel Whitburn's dance book as their source of information.

You were the only reader who correctly surmised why I used the figure of 13 instead of 15. Joel does use information from the Record World charts for the period of time before our official Club Play chart began. That's his prerogative and I have no problem with him doing that as long as he makes it clear where his information comes from (and he does).

But in citing Billboard statistics, I would never use chart information from another source, whether it be Record World or our other former competitor, Cash Box.

In Whitburn's R&B singles book, he uses chart data from Cash Box for the period of time between 1963 and 1965, when Billboard didn't publish any R&B singles chart. I understand that this is done for continuity but, again, when I cite Billboard chart stats from the R&B singles survey, I wouldn't include information from Cash Box.