Dribs and drabs of meaningless trivia as I look over this countdown:
–The show leads off with, respectively, the third and second of the four songs “You Light Up My Life” fought off and kept at #2 during its legendary run at the top: “Boogie Nights” and “Nobody Does It Better.” Later on, at #24, we hear the first, “Keep It Comin’ Love.”
–One-eighth of the tunes on the show peaked at either #17 or #18 (okay, that’s only five songs): “How Much Love,” “Don’t Worry Baby,” “You’re My World,” “Black Betty,” and “Telephone Man.”
–That game gets more than a little silly as you go higher, since such a high percentage of songs eventually climb into the Top 10, but this week the stat noted in the previous paragraph also holds for songs peaking in positions #10 and #11: “You Made Me Believe in Magic,” “Star Wars Main Title,” “Swayin’ to the Music (Slow Dancin’),” “Barracuda,” and “On and On.”
–The Brothers Johnson have the biggest moving song within the 40, “Strawberry Letter 23,” which jumps 13 positions to #10. That means last week they were at…
This wasn’t the only time George and Louis made a big leap into the top 10–in late May of 80, “Stomp!” would spring from #16 to #7.
–Three of the four songs that are in their last week on the show are by acts that won’t ever have another AT40 hit. Two of them are the funk group Slave and songwriter Alan O’Day, both one-hit wonders; the third is reaching the end of a substantial six-year run. Helen Reddy wound up with thirteen songs that Casey played. Ten made the Top 20, six of those going Top 10, with three #1s (in a somewhat odd twist, O’Day penned one of those, “Angie Baby”). “You’re My World” was one of the #18-peaking songs above, here at #26. Reddy is still around, though I’ve seen reports over the last couple of years that she is suffering from dementia.
The Music of My Life 