Post by Dan40 on Aug 18, 2022 18:53:04 GMT -5
Here's some additional extremely interesting information about the Billboard Hot 100 as written in a 1976 book that I have called Rock File 4.
In 1974/75:
During one six-week stretch, every #1 single became #12 the next week, a statistical improbability. During the first four months of 1975, only two records in the #1 position retained that slot the next week, both Elton John singles; the #2 singles otherwise automatically ascended to #1.
How the Hot 100 was compiled, according to its director of charts at the time:
...as many as 185 titles will be checked...whereas the published chart only lists 100 titles plus 10 bubbling under titles. The dealer one-stops are asked to rate the products as far as movement as: Very Good, Good or Fair. We assign points - 20, 10, 5. We also ask them for their Top 15 product and assign 15 points to their first choice, down to 1 for the 15th choice. We also use radio from the bottom of the chart to the top... products can only come on to the chart by radio airplay itself or by heavy disco play or by a combination of radio, disco play, and sales. We canvass over 124 radio stations and these are stations that have been recommended to us by the top record promotion men of all labels... The stations used for the Hot 100 are rated 1, 2, 4 and 6 depending on their strength in their marketplace. The weight of a single based on its cumulative radio play is totalled and included in the sum total which now includes dealer and one-stops and is printed on a computer sheet for [my] review. The final chart is made from this computer printout. The printout has the week's sales of each product, the week's top 15 sales points, the total radio points for the week, and a comparison of the previous week's points. "I do not position the chart based exactly on the computer printout because there are many other factors involved such as whether the artist is on tour, where there are TV spots currently being played, whether there are radio spots on the product, and whether the single is tied into an LP [or vice versa]. The computer does not place product on the Hot 100. All positioning is done [by me] on the basis of information at hand."
About an unusual leap on the chart in 1975 made by a future #1 song:
'Nobody in town believes it! The fix has to be in somewhere. No one is getting requests for it, and we're not getting sales report from the stores. Besides, no record jumps like that.' - Music Director of a Boston radio station. The leap from 23-5 achieved by Tony Orlando & Dawn's "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)" did indeed look suspicious, for no record had taken that big of a jump since Wings' "Live and Let Die" shot from 21-3 in summer of 1973... It was a big jump, [which] an Elektra Records official conceded... it was decided that if any single was going to be a hit this month [April 1975], it would be [it]. The national promotion director made sure of that: he pushed that one personally.
My head is spinning from reading this. All that data he had at his disposal and he still winged it. That explains why the John Lennon situation - his chart was arbitrary and subjective, basically what we do every week: curated preference!
Thanks, Bill for posting that. I think I want to read that book now!