Kasey Kasem's Top 40 shows

**DTroppens** · 06-30-2012, 11:57 AM

Does anyone else listen to these things every weekend?

Actually, my favorite part of the countdowns are the bottom half. You hear songs you completely forgot about or never really remember (because when you peak at 34, there's a good chance you actually never heard the song more than twice before).

I find the 70s ones pretty interesting. Even though most 70s music isn't my thing, they are ones I never heard (minus 1978 and 1979, 1978 was my first year of serious music listening so I know that year very well) and it's interesting to hear the tidbit trivia.

Anyone interested, here's a list of stations that play the old shows.
All stations & times for American Top 40 - The 80's

**Antrat** · 06-30-2012, 02:54 PM

Just don't play any up-tempo songs when coming back from a sad story.

**DTroppens** · 06-30-2012, 04:03 PM

Rick Dees has a bunch of his 80s and 90s shows on the internet. Here is a link to the 90s ones.

Weekly Top 40 90's Edition | rick.com

**Biff Mayhem** · 06-30-2012, 05:11 PM

Originally Posted by Antrat

Just don't play any up-tempo songs when coming back from a sad story.

*applause*

I used to have a bunch of those shows on LP from when my mom worked at a radio station. Instead of throwing them away, she brought them home. It was pretty cool.

**Porcelain God** · 06-30-2012, 09:36 PM

Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars. As a kid, I listened to the top 40 every week and was pissed off about the rankings as I would be now with any given week of college football rankings.

**DTroppens** · 06-30-2012, 10:29 PM

Originally Posted by Porcelain God

Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars. As a kid, I listened to the top 40 every week and was pissed off about the rankings as I would be now with any given week of college football rankings.

I don't want to admit this but I charted them a bit and kept track on paper. And then I'd create my top 20 of the week. I'd rate my favorite songs at that time. I had a couple of rules. I couldn't put a song on the list unless it actually reached the top 100 (I'd even check Billboard magazines if I wondered if it was on there) and I could keep a song in my top 20 for something like up to 10 weeks after it fell off the chart. But I'd really have to like a song for it to stay on that long. Usually after about five weeks, it would be off the chart.

Also, if I bought an album and liked a song a ton, I could put a song or two not released on it for a week or two and then drop it off.

If an album kind of ended it's "single" life, I could select a song that I liked and put it in my top 20 for about a month as well.

Oh, and I also had my own college football rankings and my own college basketball rankings (keeping a top 50 before there was even a top 25). :)

Gosh, no wonder why my nickname in newspaper class was Stats. And how that didn't get around the school, I'll never know.

I also would tape the year end shows because I was always afraid I'd never hear the songs again. I taped the 1978 top 100 and it's the first year I really know a lot about music. I used one of those recorders where you put it next to the speaker and just hoped everyone would be quiet. Well, that didn't always happen with a twin brother, a sister and another younger brother (at the time). It's just as funny hearing some of the fights on those tapes as anything. I kept most of those tapes, at least the ones that were never damaged. It's pretty cool having them.

**Porcelain God** · 06-30-2012, 11:12 PM

Originally Posted by DTroppens

I don't want to admit this but I charted them a bit and kept track on paper. And then I'd create my top 20 of the week. I'd rate my favorite songs at that time. I had a couple of rules. I couldn't put a song on the list unless it actually reached the top 100 (I'd even check Billboard magazines if I wondered if it was on there) and I could keep a song in my top 20 for something like up to 10 weeks after it fell off the chart. But I'd really have to like a song for it to stay on that long. Usually after about five weeks, it would be off the chart.

Also, if I bought an album and liked a song a ton, I could put a song or two not released on it for a week or two and then drop it off.

If an album kind of ended it's "single" life, I could select a song that I liked and put it in my top 20 for about a month as well.

Oh, and I also had my own college football rankings and my own college basketball rankings (keeping a top 50 before there was even a top 25). :)

Gosh, no wonder why my nickname in newspaper class was Stats. And how that didn't get around the school, I'll never know.

I also would tape the year end shows because I was always afraid I'd never hear the songs again. I taped the 1978 top 100 and it's the first year I really know a lot about music. I used one of those recorders where you put it next to the speaker and just hoped everyone would be quiet. Well, that didn't always happen with a twin brother, a sister and another younger brother (at the time). It's just as funny hearing some of the fights on those tapes as anything. I kept most of those tapes, at least the ones that were never damaged. It's pretty cool having them.

I love hearing the exploits of another stat head at an early age. I had complete notebooks of the basic baseball stats all compiled from me throwing a tennis ball at my garage door. There was a very specific system on what constituted a hit, bob, or error. 8 team leagues with full rankings every three games. Did the exact same thing with football with a nerf ball and a split level house.

20 years later and I could totally start a league all over.

**DTroppens** · 06-30-2012, 11:55 PM

Originally Posted by Porcelain God

I love hearing the exploits of another stat head at an early age. I had complete notebooks of the basic baseball stats all compiled from me throwing a tennis ball at my garage door. There was a very specific system on what constituted a hit, bob, or error. 8 team leagues with full rankings every three games. Did the exact same thing with football with a nerf ball and a split level house.

20 years later and I could totally start a league all over.

It's pretty embarrassing the stuff I did. Baseball was my first love, so when I was about 10, I started "The Name League." It was a league that had kids about 8 to 12 that had the same first names and that was their team. Of course, the Davids were the best. I made a past history where they may have lost a couple of championships, but there was no doubt who was going to win the games I was creating. The sad thing is most of the games were fake scores I'd make up with a couple of highlights I'd make. They'd have tripleheaders and play about 200 games a season. In fact, I'm pretty sure I made it 200 games. I even made my own Encyclopedia of players. Some of the players had played for five or six years and were reaching their peak, others were fading. Some had years they missed games due to injury. A ton of pitchers played regular positions when they didn't pitch. And 30-game winners were frequent.

What else did I do? Pretty much the same thing for a fake football league for about three years. There were two divisions of 7 teams, each playing 19 games during the season. The top three in each division made the playoffs and there were no overtimes. I'd go out in my yard and pretend I was playing the Game of the Day occasionally. And on Sunday nights I'd make boxes complete with offensive stats. They probably didn't make sense beyond the TD stats. Actually, they probably did. I was following football boxes in The Sporting News by then.

Then I was in card and dice games, and now I'm actually making card and dice games. So, not much has changed. Oh, and I'm listening to a 1980s Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 as I type this. When I'm not typing here, I'm working on my soccer cards. Yeah, I haven't changed much, minus those silly leagues.

**hueytaxi** · 07-01-2012, 01:16 AM

Never cared for Kasey much, though I liked to listen to the music of the countdown. Never watched American Bandstand growing up either.

**MelissaG915** · 07-01-2012, 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by DTroppens

I don't want to admit this but I charted them a bit and kept track on paper. And then I'd create my top 20 of the week. I'd rate my favorite songs at that time...

I also would tape the year end shows...

It's official. I'm the female Troppens.

**redshark63** · 07-01-2012, 02:43 PM

I was a big AT40 guy back in the day.

Since I got SIRUS/XM radio w/ my new car and IPod, I have become a regular listening to old AT40's on the '70's on 7 radio station.
'70s Pop Hits

I found this site that I use to look at as I listen to the shows:

AT40 REGULAR SHOWS INDEX

Also, if you are really into the AT40 type stuff, definitely look at Joel Whitburn's Billboard books. I am frequently references the "top pop singles 1955-2002" and have his country and "Pop Memories 1890-1954" books as well:

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&tag=...Mozilla-search

**DTroppens** · 07-01-2012, 08:48 PM

Originally Posted by MelissaG915

It's official. I'm the female Troppens.

I don't know if you'd want to go around admitting that.

**DTroppens** · 07-01-2012, 09:00 PM

Originally Posted by redshark63

Also, if you are really into the AT40 type stuff, definitely look at Joel Whitburn's Billboard books. I am frequently references the "top pop singles 1955-2002" and have his country and "Pop Memories 1890-1954" books as well:

Amazon.com: joel whitburn

I have the book right here next to my computer. When I listen to one of these old top 40s, hear a song I didn't recognize, hear a group that I think they are a bit out of their prime years or whatever, I'll put out the 1955-Present book and answer some of my questions about them. I also have a book that has the top 100s from each year posted. And some of those are actually different than the ones the show presented, because there were a few years where the radio show used a different set of dates or created their own point tabulation varying from Billboard.

Another really good source is wiki. Do a search on pretty much anyone and there will be a discography of that artist's career of pretty much any single that was released. You can see where they peaked in the HOT 100. So if you are a Cheap Trick fan and like Tonight it's You, you can find out "Gosh, that actually did make the Hot 100."

Sometimes I think it would be really cool to take the top 40 and extend it to the top 50 and see how many more interesting songs and groups you'd learn about. The 1970s shows are really interesting to me with those books. When I hear a top 40 with Hot Chocolate, it makes me check to see if I should know any other of their songs. And you see that they had five or six top 40 hits. KC and the Sunshine Band had a hit in 1984. I don't remember it, but hearing them in a recent top 40 from the 70s gave me that bit of trivia. And then, occasionally, they'll ask hint at some trivia that you actually remember from hearing the show when you were a kid. Amazing that can happen.

**DTroppens** · 07-01-2012, 09:04 PM

Originally Posted by redshark63

I found this site that I use to look at as I listen to the shows:

AT40 REGULAR SHOWS INDEX

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I've been on that site quite often. Sometimes I'll pick a song and just follow it from chart to chart. I find the songs that peak at 20 but stick on the charts for eight weeks interesting. They move up from 34 to 32 stay at 32 then go up to 28 after thinking they probably will fall out of the top 40 because it stayed at 32 the previous seek and then jump to 20, only to see it go to 38 the next week. You kind of put yourself in the band's thought process while it's going on.

**redshark63** · 07-01-2012, 09:35 PM

I'm with you Dave. I have downloaded "Do It or Die" ('79) by Atlanta Rhythm Section and "This Time I'm In It for Love" ('78) in the past 2 months just from listening to AT40 and remember the song from so long ago and decided it belongs in my collection.
Also thinking about downloading "Mockingbird" ('74 - James Taylor & Carly Simon).

Now if I could find a download of "Sally G" by Wings, I would be all set. It was not released on an album in the US - On "Wings at the Speed of Sound" in the Import (UK). ITunes does not have it. Any ideas?

**DTroppens** · 07-01-2012, 10:24 PM

Originally Posted by redshark63

I'm with you Dave. I have downloaded "Do It or Die" ('79) by Atlanta Rhythm Section and "This Time I'm In It for Love" ('78) in the past 2 months just from listening to AT40 and remember the song from so long ago and decided it belongs in my collection.
Also thinking about downloading "Mockingbird" ('74 - James Taylor & Carly Simon).

Now if I could find a download of "Sally G" by Wings, I would be all set. It was not released on an album in the US - On "Wings at the Speed of Sound" in the Import (UK). ITunes does not have it. Any ideas?

I really don't do the ITunes stuff. If I want to hear something I don't have, usually I can find it on Youtube or myspace. Sorry can't help any more than that.

**djhutch** · 07-02-2012, 07:26 AM

I can't say I make a point to listen to them, but I catch them occasionally when I'm driving around. Always have had a soft spot for Casey. When I was at my first radio job, I had just been busted down to overnights. Come to find out it was orchestrated by one of the other jocks to try to get me to quit. I was devastated, but 2 days later I got a clipping in the mail from my mom. It talked about a DJ who had something similar happen to him. Was told this was his last chance. On the air that night, he decided to share something about one of the artists that he had read in a magazine - & the phones went nuts. After that, he decided that if he was going down, it would not be without a fight. That guy was Casey Kasem. I decided to go out fighting, too - and though I eventually was fired from that job, I quickly landed another one. That was 20 years ago, & I'm still in the radio business - thanks to Casey .. & mom.

**belcherboy** · 07-02-2012, 09:37 AM

Originally Posted by DTroppens

Does anyone else listen to these things every weekend?

Actually, my favorite part of the countdowns are the bottom half. You hear songs you completely forgot about or never really remember (because when you peak at 34, there's a good chance you actually never heard the song more than twice before).

I find the 70s ones pretty interesting. Even though most 70s music isn't my thing, they are ones I never heard (minus 1978 and 1979, 1978 was my first year of serious music listening so I know that year very well) and it's interesting to hear the tidbit trivia.

Anyone interested, here's a list of stations that play the old shows.
All stations & times for American Top 40 - The 80's

ha ha...I have an app that will record them from the stations that play them. I only listen to the mid to late 80's ones, but I really do enjoy them.

The app I use is TuneIn radio. The pro edition allows you to record.