About two-and-a-half years ago, I did a post on trivia associated with the songs and artists on an April 1974 show. It was fun enough, so I’m going to take another whack at that sort of thing, this time on this weekend’s featured 10/6/79 countdown. I’ll repeat some categories I used then but introduce a few new ones, as well.
Song with the longest AT40 run: M, “Pop Muzik,” 20 weeks
Song with the shortest AT40 run: Mary MacGregor, “Good Friend,” 2 weeks
Acts in their final week ever on AT40:
Chic, Maxine Nightengale, Maureen McGovern
One-hit wonders:
Ian Gomm, France Joli, Moon Martin, Patrick Hernandez, Sniff ‘n the Tears, Nick Lowe, M
Two-hit wonders:
MacGregor^, Nightengale^, McGovern^, Bonnie Pointer
(^ = second appearance)
Other acts making their final AT40 appearance:
Bob Dylan (ignoring his turn in U.S.A. for Africa), K.C. and the Sunshine Band (though not for K.C. himself), Michael Johnson, Wings (looks to me it was just McCartney after this), Lobo, Gerry Rafferty
Acts with more than five years since their previous AT40 appearance:
McGovern, Herb Alpert, Robert John (Dionne Warwick was at #3 with the Sprinners on the 10/5/74 chart)
Act with more than five years until his next AT40 appearance:
Robert Palmer
Acts who wrote another song on the show besides their own:
Gomm (co-wrote “Cruel to Be Kind” with Lowe), Martin (wrote “Bad Case of Lovin’ You”)
[Note: Ashford & Simpson were at #41 and would be on the 10/13/79 show–they wrote “The Boss.”]
Acts with a #40-peaking song in their future:
Stephanie Mills (a duet with Teddy Pendergrass), Diana Ross, Pointer, Donna Summer
Acts with a #1 duet in their future:
Jennifer Warnes, Kenny Rogers, Ross, Summer, Michael Jackson (McCartney, Michael McDonald, and Lionel Richie are on the show with their groups; Barbra Streisand had just fallen off)
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Warnes, McCartney, and (I guess) Jackson all had two duets make it to the top in the 80s, but only Warnes took home Grammy hardware–both times, even–for her collaborations. I wasn’t a huge fan of either duet, but found other songs of hers more to my taste. In grad school I picked up Famous Blue Raincoat, her collection of Leonard Cohen songs, not long after it came out in late 1986. And I certainly liked her two 70s AC/country/pop solo hits, particularly “I Know a Heartache When I See One,” which is sitting at #33 this week, heading toward its destiny of topping out at #19 a month later. It’s great to sing along with; maybe I should put it on my karaoke to-do list. Wikipedia informs me that we’re hearing Andrew Gold on backup vocals–I should have sussed that out a long time ago.
The Music of My Life 