November/December Charts of Yore

I’m in a pattern of putting these up after every two months’ worth of shows; why stop now?

11/15/80
For a fine blow-by-blow of this chart, you’ll want to check out Neck Pickup here. Just for the record, the missing LDD was “Love Will Keep Us Together.”

Hello/Goodbye: The first three songs on the show were by newbies.

As for my rankings, it’s great to see old pal Al Stewart on top. I’m disappointed in myself for not letting Boz get any higher than #13, though.

11/19/77
This comes from my lazy period, a couple of weeks after I’d broken my left wrist. It’s one of three lists on a single 8.5″ by 11″ sheet (the last three weeks of November are on it).

Hello/Goodbye: Player, High Inergy, and Bob Welch all bow in for the first time.

Next, a couple more of WKRQ’s lists. The 1977 chart is the second one in my collection; this may be just about been the time I began listening to them. Overall it feels like they’re a little behind the times–a lot of songs in the bottom half of the chart had already faded nationally. I hated that Kenny Loggins song back then. As for 1980, I’m not surprised to see the Stones so high, nor the Kansas and Seger cuts present.

And here are the backs. Don’t remember Bruce Ryan, but I doubt I was listening in the mornings in late 1977, anyway. Regarding the $1 million prize: Cincinnati radio had a huge promotion war in the second half of 1980. An upstart Top 40 station started it by giving away $500,000 to a listener in the late summer, followed by a like prize to a school. As you can tell, Q102’s owner upped the ante; hope Mary used the money wisely.

Bonus 1977 coverage! I re-discovered this putting this post together. It’s on the back side of the sheet with the above 1977 chart. I believe the correct chronological order is left-bottom-right, but don’t ask what the * and @ symbols mean, ’cause I don’t remember. Sorta like Q102, certain songs were hanging around for a loooong time: for instance, “Easy,” “Give a Little Bit,” and “Whatcha Gonna Do?” had been gone from AT40 for over a month by this point (I had all three 45s, though, and I’ll bet I played them a bunch). I guess maybe I’ve always been a chart maker…

Four more below the fold…

12/1/79
Ah, those #1 songs from 1976–all were on the first chart I wrote down (“Silly Love Songs” followed “Love Hangover” at the top–for four weeks–but it also preceded it, so it had been played at the end of hour 3 on the 11/24 show).

Hello/Goodbye: This is all for Lauren Wood, Kermie, and Niteflyte (apologies for the misspelling).

12/5/81
It’s the first show after Casey and crew had finished recapping the #1 songs of the 60s, so that middle space on the front suddenly looks pretty empty.

I’m surprised to have noted the Extra from hour three, since I wasn’t sure I even listened to any part of this show. This was the weekend of the state Beta Club convention in Louisville during my senior year in high school; there’s a bit of a story there that I may tell someday.

Hello/Goodbye: I got nothin’.

Here’s what I was thinking. Can you tell what was at #7 the week previous?

“When She Was My Girl” was the first and only song by Black recording artists to top my list over the thirty-two months I kept track. While it didn’t help that 1982 was likely the whitest year in popular music (at least on the Hot 100), I absolutely wish now that I’d paid closer attention to, and appreciated more, the R&B and soul music of my younger years.

12/9/78
Still packing all the extra songs like lemmings into tiny metal boxes at the bottom, when I had so much real estate available…

Hello/Goodbye: Two in a row with no action on this front.

12/18/76
Even though I was just a seventh-grader, failing to realize that was Al Green at #39 is quite embarrassing now; what’s worse that I didn’t get it right in the remaining two weeks “Keep Me Cryin'” was on the chart, either.