Garth Brooks - "More Than A Memory"

[S4C]

tfmachado said:

he'll be #1 on the country charts this week... it'll the second week, right??

First week. Debut. Numero Uno. #1....

[sbp17]

tfmachado said:

love to see some records being broken (assuming he is breaking some)!!

Yeah, he kind of broke a small, insignificant record. It'll never be remembered.

Apparently, I had no life outside of this board yesterday because it's funny reading comments or questions that were already addressed ad nauseum yesterday.

[Uncle Lumpy]

somebody60 said:

lumpster said:

Hes single handedly severly damaged and maybe even destroyed several other artists careers in his drive for global domination(including Trace Adkins, Tanya Tucker & Deanna Carter).

Not saying I don't believe you, but how did he do that? I really haven't been following Country music very long (since the end of 2002 when I got the CMT channel), so I'm very curious to hear what happened.

A local paper here in Nashville done a article on Garth and Pat Quigley after Garth threw a temper tantrum and had the former head of Capital fired. He then apparently hand picked this Quigley fella to step in and run the show , even though he knew NOTHING about country music(he thought Patsy Cline was still alive). Garth wasnt happy that his record Fresh Horses only sold 4 million copies, so he wouldnt release Sevens to the label til Scott Hendricks was fired. He got his way and all promotion was pulled from every artist on the Capitol roster so that Sevens could sell a whoopin' 5 million. All of this happened right about the time Deanna Carters follow up to Strawberry Wine was shipping, which we all know was a huge sales disappointment compared to SW. Trace Adkins seemed poised to be the next country superstar at the time, but only found lukewarm support from radio as all the singles from his disc More all pretty much flopped. Tanya Tucker was still going pretty strong at that time and had just recently released her 30th record Complicated, and had already had the first single become a top ten hit when all promotion was yanked and only seen one additional single released only to watch it flop.

There were more examples , but thats all I can remember from a 8 year old article....

[mst3k]

Garth "only" debuts at #4 on the Mediabase Country chart, for what it's worth.

pdf.mediabase.com/PDFChart.aspx?id=099111117110116114121036036036036049050047049055047050048048054032055058052

[sbp17]

Lumpster, what you say could be completely true and I have no idea so I will not comment on that. However, some of those artists didn't help themselves.

Deana Carter's first single on the new cd was Absence Of The Heart. That song was unbearably slow and cold and completely absent of any kind of hook. You don't lead off a cd with that kind of song. She then followed it up with what I believe is one of the top 5 worst country songs of ALL time, You Still Shake Me. That song was ten kinds of atrocious.

lumpster said:

A local paper here in Nashville done a article on Garth and Pat Quigley after Garth threw a temper tantrum and had the former head of Capital fired. He then apparently hand picked this Quigley fella to step in and run the show , even though he knew NOTHING about country music(he thought Patsy Cline was still alive). Garth wasnt happy that his record Fresh Horses only sold 4 million copies, so he wouldnt release Sevens to the label til Scott Hendricks was fired. He got his way and all promotion was pulled from every artist on the Capitol roster so that Sevens could sell a whoopin' 5 million. All of this happened right about the time Deanna Carters follow up to Strawberry Wine was shipping, which we all know was a huge sales disappointment compared to SW. Trace Adkins seemed poised to be the next country superstar at the time, but only found lukewarm support from radio as all the singles from his disc More all pretty much flopped. Tanya Tucker was still going pretty strong at that time and had just recently released her 30th record Complicated, and had already had the first single become a top ten hit when all promotion was yanked and only seen one additional single released only to watch it flop.

There were more examples , but thats all I can remember from a 8 year old article....

[TFMachado]

sbp17 said:

tfmachado said:

love to see some records being broken (assuming he is breaking some)!!

Yeah, he kind of broke a small, insignificant record. It'll never be remembered.

Apparently, I had no life outside of this board yesterday because it's funny reading comments or questions that were already addressed ad nauseum yesterday.

sorry if I ruined your day by not knowing much about country charts history... :(

[dcowboy77]

congrats (probably not the right word to use though judging from the posts in here) to wqyk 99.5 tampa who won the garth spin championship....they spun this song 129x last week....thats an avg. of over 18x per day....wow

[sbp17]

tfmachado said:

sorry if I ruined your day by not knowing much about country charts history... :(

No, no, no, I didn't mean that as a slam against you. It was a slam against my pathetic life yesterday and how I spent too much time on this board. Anyone like yourself who just ventured into the thread could not have possibly known what was discussed because there were so many posts on this topic just yesterday alone.

[Marv]

I'm going to be very interested in watching the 'burn factor' on this, considering how many stations were playing it 50+ times last week, which is anywhere from 20-50% higher than the normal number of spins for a song in a 'power rotation' at any given country station.

[TFMachado]

sbp17 said:

tfmachado said:

sorry if I ruined your day by not knowing much about country charts history... :(

No, no, no, I didn't mean that as a slam against you. It was a slam against my pathetic life yesterday and how I spent too much time on this board. Anyone like yourself who just ventured into the thread could not have possibly known what was discussed because there were so many posts on this topic just yesterday alone.

oh, ok...

and don't worry... we all spend more time in here than we should!! :(

[Uncle Lumpy]

Your probably right about Deana , Ive never been a huge fan of her but I did kinda like You Still Shake Me. To this day ,Traces "Dont Lie" is still one of my all time favorites from him. And that entire disc is probably my all time favorite as well. Tanyas first single at the time was "Little Things" , I believe it was a top ten , and I dont think the second single "Riding Out The Heartache" even charted. All of this happened at the time of Garths temper tantrum... thats more than a coincedence...

I wish I could find the original article...I DID find a follow up to it however...

So Garth Brooks hasn't hurt EVERY artist
By Michael McCall

JULY 13, 1998: Pat Quigley, the head of Capitol Records in Nashville, called recently to dispute a comment in a June 18 Scene music column about the current state of country music. Understandably, he took issue with the statement that the actions of his company's primary record seller, Garth Brooks, had hurt other artists on the Capitol roster. Quigley was quick to point out that Brooks has performed duets on recent albums by Suzy Bogguss and Steve Wariner. Not only does Brooks' presence on these records virtually guarantee a greater amount of radio airplay and sales for these artists' albums, the superstar also voluntarily waived the requisite fee for his performance.

True, we were wrong to imply that every artist on Capitol has been hurt by the extravagant amount of promotional money and staff time currently being funneled toward Brooks. (After he was so upset at selling only 4 million copies of Fresh Horses, the singer has seen sales of his 8-month-old Sevens leap all the way to 5 million, now that he's getting everything he wants from the label.)

Wariner obviously is enjoying a career comeback, and Brooks has played an instrumental role in that success--at Brooks' encouragement, Wariner became Quigley's first signing to Capitol after he took over as division chief. So it makes sense that Brooks would want to make sure his colleague was a success.

As for Bogguss, she attended a Capitol staff meeting in which Brooks stood up and characterized Capitol as his family, saying that he wanted to help out his kin in any way he could. Bogguss immediately contacted Brooks and asked him to sing on her next album, Nobody Love, Nobody Gets Hurt, which came out last month. It was a brilliant stroke on Bogguss' part; with Brooks having just made his statement, how could he refuse?

Cynics that we are, we can't help but think that both of these generous acts support the perception that Capitol Records is controlled by Brooks, and that Quigley is little more than a brash, outspoken puppet doing his master's work. After all, it was Brooks' hardball, behind-the-scenes maneuvers that got Scott Hendricks booted from the company, and it was his full endorsement of Quigley that got the marketing man bumped up to the top position. Now it appears Brooks has similar sway over the label's roster as well. If he shows support, then an act gets moved to the top of the batting order. Meanwhile, young acts formerly in development at Capitol, including well-regarded talents such as Dean Miller, have been unceremoniously put out on the street.

Quigley did challenge us to come up with a Capitol act who has been harmed by Brooks' actions. At the mention of Trace Adkins, the label head howled, saying that Adkins' first-quarter sales for his latest release have been exponentially larger than the first-quarter sales for his debut. Well, yes, that's true, but he was unknown at the time of his first album. The question is whether he's getting the staff support and percentage of promotion money due to one of the label's fastest-developing new acts. That's a subjective call, of course, but there are those who think Adkins is suffering because of the attention and money being directed toward Brooks and Wariner.

We also asked Quigley about artists who've been dropped from the label. Needless to say, they've not benefited. But, in Quigley's defense, rosters regularly get trimmed, especially when a new executive takes over.

In answering the question, the label head did let go of a bombshell. He would be glad to show us a letter from Tanya Tucker, he said, in which she is requesting to leave the label. That's big news, of course, but Quigley's implication is that he's not forcing her out.

For us, though, Tucker's possible departure further reinforces the idea that Capitol is becoming the stable that Garth built. Quigley may not have asked her to leave, but why does she want to find another label? Could Quigley possibly think that she's volunteering to step out of the way because she believes Garth deserves more attention than she does? No matter what Tucker may write in the letter--official notices of resignation are one of the greatest repositories of deceptive politeness in the biz world--she clearly believes it's better to cut ties and start anew rather than stay where she's not fully appreciated.

There's no mistaking that Pat Quigley wholly believes his actions are in the best interest of Capitol Records, himself, and his best-selling artist. He also believes that old-school forces in Nashville have it out for him, and that the Nashville Scene has joined their ranks. He characterizes himself as a New Yorker and an outsider with good ideas, and he mentions RCA's Joe Galante and Mercury's Luke Lewis when talking about a "circling of the wagons" that he perceives is taking place among the Music Row powers-that-be. "I've never met either one of them," he says of the two label heads, both of whom have publicly criticized Quigley's methods. "Never once have they called or asked to meet with me or discussed with me the ideas I have or what I'm trying to accomplish here."

Maybe Quigley doesn't know it, but when Galante and Lewis started working in Nashville, they were outsiders too. Galante is a New Yorker who faced vocal and widespread opposition on Music Row when he took Jerry Bradley's job at RCA Nashville in 1982. But Galante, who also has a background in marketing, eventually earned respect from the local and national music industry for his fresh ideas in the '80s. In 1990, he left Nashville to return to New York and take over all of RCA's domestic operations. After a difficult run in New York, he returned to RCA Nashville in 1994.

Lewis, a Florida native, spent more than 20 years in Dallas, Boston, New York, and Los Angeles before coming to Nashville in 1993. He worked his way up the ranks at CBS and MCA before taking over the chief Mercury Records post in Nashville five years ago.

In short, neither exec would consider himself part of a good-old-boy circuit. Nor do they seem like the type of men who would engage in a circling of wagons. But the fact remains: Nashville music insiders are questioning Quigley's methods. For instance, what does it mean that Capitol was the only Nashville-based label not to present a new artist at Fan Fair? And what does it mean that Capitol is currently operating without a single employee in its talent and A&R department?

Quigley is breaking with convention on several fronts, and that's going to get him criticized. It's probably too early to tell whether his choices are shrewd or reckless. In the end, what will count most are the sales figures, profit margins, and even the quality of the music. We'll grant that Quigley has one thing right: He's shaking up Music Row.

[Zazie]

Just taking a look at the numbers -- anybody think 127 spins in Tampa over the last week was sufficient? After all, there are 168 hours in a week -- there's plenty of room for improvement. Plenty of unGarthed hours. I want to hear from people in Tampa who didn't get their fill of the song.

Or how about 84 spins in Phoenix? 12 spins a day, I can do the math -- for every hour they played it, they missed one. I'm sure the complaints are flowing in.

22 stations in all played Garth 48 times or more. Brand new song. OK, Garth's been away; his return is news no matter how many returns he makes. Play the song. He's sold 100 million, he's no Amy Dalley, so play the song. He's a proven artist, to say the least, so give it some spins.

But I think what they actually did is pathetic. Another reason country radio is increasingly irrelevant to me. If I didn't love charts, I'd never listen at all....

[recjus85]

zazie said:

Just taking a look at the numbers -- anybody think 127 spins in Tampa over the last week was sufficient? After all, there are 168 hours in a week -- there's plenty of room for improvement. Plenty of unGarthed hours. I want to hear from people in Tampa who didn't get their fill of the song.

Or how about 84 spins in Phoenix? 12 spins a day, I can do the math -- for every hour they played it, they missed one. I'm sure the complaints are flowing in.

22 stations in all played Garth 48 times or more. Brand new song. OK, Garth's been away; his return is news no matter how many returns he makes. Play the song. He's sold 100 million, he's no Amy Dalley, so play the song. He's a proven artist, to say the least, so give it some spins.

But I think what they actually did is pathetic. Another reason country radio is increasingly irrelevant to me. If I didn't love charts, I'd never listen at all....

I'm shocked WQYK didn't get the 168 or whatever spins. I've only heard the whole song once, but I've probably heard pieces of it about 50 or so times. Probably more. Only once on a station besides WQYK. Don't know how often the other station around here played it, but it couldn't have been much. I actually listen to the other stations a lot more.

[sbp17]

recjus said:

I'm shocked WQYK didn't get the 168 or whatever spins. I've only heard the whole song once, but I've probably heard pieces of it about 50 or so times. Probably more. Only once on a station besides WQYK. Don't know how often the other station around here played it, but it couldn't have been much. I actually listen to the other stations a lot more.

The only other country station in Tampa appears to be WFUS. They only played it 22 times but in looking at their playlist, they play the hell out of recurrents. Good Directions is their number one song for the week.

[recjus85]

Yea, and it's a million times better than when they first started. They still don't play much of them, but they would hardly ever play a song that didn't reach the top 10 (really top 5). Independence Day, She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy, and a few other like that were the only ones they's play.

WCTQ in Sarasota, and WPCV are the next two closet stations (WPCV is the one closet, and the one I listen to the most). WCTQ played it 28 times, and WPCV only played 7 times. WWKA out of Orlando don't think played it last week. Didn't see it on their top 50 list, and the 50th song (Free & Easy by the way lol) was only played twice. So it might've gotten a play but I doubt it.

[bks]

Here are the official Billboard/R&R numbers:

1 (debut) 36.34 million 4,349 spins

In terms of spins BDS shows him at #4.

[queensporsche]

Here's something funny. I live in Seattle which has TWO country stations who allegedly played this song more than 50 times each (which REALLY pisses me off considering how they hem and haw about playing other superstar artists' songs until they "test well"), and I have not heard this song once. I also have Sirius Satellite Radio. So I have three sources that i switch back and forth between and I have not heard this song on the radio. What a weird coincidence. Actually, I don't really know if I WANT to hear ths song now or not. I haven't heard a Garth Brooks song I really liked since he called Baton Rouge and then hung up on all his fans by leaving.

[rowdawg21]

bks said:

Here are the official Billboard/R&R numbers:

1 (debut) 36.34 million 4,349 spins

In terms of spins BDS shows him at #4.

Thanks for the info.

That means that Garth finished about 4.5 million ahead of Rascal Flatts (the highest song that is still gaining audience). Rascal Flatts has the early lead on the real time tracker.

This article is on R&R's site:

Brooks Makes History With 'Memory'

By Wade Jessen

As expected, Garth Brooks becomes the first artist to open at No. 1 on the R&R Country chart, as "More Than a Memory" (Pearl/Big Machine) arrives with 36.3 million impressions. Brooks' audience tally bests Rodney Atkins' "These Are My People" (Curb) by 3.2 million impressions, as Atkins' song is pushed 1-2 after crowning the list for one week.

While Brooks' song wins the format's audience penetration race, "Memory" opens at No. 4 on the Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems most-played tally. The single, which arrived at radio on Monday, Aug. 20, amasses 4,349 plays. Atkins' single spends a second week atop the Nielsen BDS detections tally with 4,593 spins.

Brooks replaces Kenny Chesney as the artist with the highest debut in the 17 year-old Nielsen BDS era, following Chesney's No. 16 bow last week with "Don't Blink" (BNA). Brooks also replaces Chesney and Buck Owens as the all-time high debut leaders. Prior to Chesney's bow last week, Owens' No. 16 opener with "My Heart Skips a Beat" in March 1964 was the chart's highest since it expanded from 30 to 50 positions in January 1964.

While Brooks' No. 1 start is a first for the country chart, there have been prior instances on other non-country charts driven solely by airplay data.

[EmersonDrive13Rocks]

whynotnow said:

carrietakethewheel said:

Sadly I don't see it dropping below #5 either.

Putting a ONE in front of that 5 would make me happy...

That would make me happy also but it won't happen unfortunately.

[dcowboy77]

zazie said:

Just taking a look at the numbers -- anybody think 127 spins in Tampa over the last week was sufficient? After all, there are 168 hours in a week -- there's plenty of room for improvement. Plenty of unGarthed hours. I want to hear from people in Tampa who didn't get their fill of the song.

Or how about 84 spins in Phoenix? 12 spins a day, I can do the math -- for every hour they played it, they missed one. I'm sure the complaints are flowing in.

22 stations in all played Garth 48 times or more. Brand new song. OK, Garth's been away; his return is news no matter how many returns he makes. Play the song. He's sold 100 million, he's no Amy Dalley, so play the song. He's a proven artist, to say the least, so give it some spins.

But I think what they actually did is pathetic. Another reason country radio is increasingly irrelevant to me. If I didn't love charts, I'd never listen at all....

actually they had 129 plays.

[S4C]

lumpster said:

somebody60 said:

Not saying I don't believe you, but how did he do that? I really haven't been following Country music very long (since the end of 2002 when I got the CMT channel), so I'm very curious to hear what happened.

A local paper here in Nashville done a article on Garth and Pat Quigley after Garth threw a temper tantrum and had the former head of Capital fired. He then apparently hand picked this Quigley fella to step in and run the show , even though he knew NOTHING about country music(he thought Patsy Cline was still alive). Garth wasnt happy that his record Fresh Horses only sold 4 million copies, so he wouldnt release Sevens to the label til Scott Hendricks was fired. He got his way and all promotion was pulled from every artist on the Capitol roster so that Sevens could sell a whoopin' 5 million. All of this happened right about the time Deanna Carters follow up to Strawberry Wine was shipping, which we all know was a huge sales disappointment compared to SW. Trace Adkins seemed poised to be the next country superstar at the time, but only found lukewarm support from radio as all the singles from his disc More all pretty much flopped. Tanya Tucker was still going pretty strong at that time and had just recently released her 30th record Complicated, and had already had the first single become a top ten hit when all promotion was yanked and only seen one additional single released only to watch it flop.

There were more examples , but thats all I can remember from a 8 year old article....

Wow. That's very interesting about Trace Adkins. I know it probably wasn't the only factor, but I've always wondered how that album did so poorly.

[sbp17]

Not sure where to post this question but what does the increase represent on the R&R BDS Real Time Tracker?

[rowdawg21]

It's interesting to look at the effect that this song is having on Garth's gold songs. "Ain't Going Down (Til The Sun Comes Up)," "Friends In Low Places," and "Two Pina Coladas" were all in the top 10 of the Gold Chart at this time last week (at #8, #3, and #5 respectively). This week "Ain't Going Down" has lost 33 spins (down to #27), "Friends" has lost 120 spins (down to #38), and "Two Pina Coladas" has lost 165 spins (down to #63).

"The Dance" was at #49 last week. Right now it's at #96 with a spin decrease of 82. "Rodeo" has gone from #48 to #81 with a loss of 69 spins. "The Thunder Rolls" went from #60 to #93, losing 53 spins. "Two Of A Kind, Working On A Full House" is at #105 this week after being at #51 last week, dropping 75 spins. "Unanswered Prayers" dipped from #86 to #144 and lost 65 spins. "Shameless" went from #96 to #153 with a loss of 67 spins.

Other songs not in the top 100 last week:
"Papa Loved Mama" went from #102 to #138 and lost 42 spins.
"If Tomorrow Never Comes" went from #109 to #172 and lost 79 spins.
"The River" went from #116 to #168 and lost 62 spins.
"That Summer" went from #147 to #152 and lost 9 spins.
"Much Too Young (To Be This Damn Old)" went from #174 to #204 and lost 14 spins.
"What She's Doing Now" went from #145 to #207 and lost 72 spins.
"She's Every Woman' went from #254 to #342 and lost 18 spins.
"Callin' Baton Rouge" went from #242 to #351 and lost 39 spins.
"Standing Outside The Fire" went from #276 to #407 and lost 36 spins.
"Somewhere Other Than The Night" went from #395 to #637 and lost 23 spins.

Looking at the recurrent chart, "Good Ride Cowboy" lost 30 spins.

Those lost spins add up to 1153, or approximately 28% of the first week spins of "More Than A Memory." So about 70% of last week's spins for "More Than A Memory" came from the current/recurrent/gold songs of other artists.

[edwin1961]

I just don't understand this but my radio station has yet to play this song and it's #1? You mean this song is THAT good!?

It boggles my mind.

Is country radio THAT starved for new music that just because it's Garth, it goes to #1. I must be in the minority, but he really wasn't one of my favorites when he came out in 1989 and still isn't today.

[Zazie]

edwin1961 said:

I just don't understand this but my radio station has yet to play this song and it's #1? You mean this song is THAT good!?

It boggles my mind.

Is country radio THAT starved for new music that just because it's Garth, it goes to #1. I must be in the minority, but he really wasn't one of my favorites when he came out in 1989 and still isn't today.

When did being "good" become a criterion for chart success? We all love some and hate others and are indifferent to a third group. But the songs don't stop climbing because somebody in the audience doesn't think they're good.

Does the name Rascal Flatts ring a bell? I can't stand 'em. So I guess they'll stop going to the top now. Or they would if they just knew my opinion....

[Marv]

Rowdawg---I knew that all of those first week spins for 'MTAM' had to come at the expense of numerous artists, including Garth's library cuts---thanks for the solid research.

I also noticed that almost half of the twenty most-played recurrents for the week ending this past Saturday actually gained spins, which is also very bizarre. That would include 'Find Out Who Your Friends Are', as it continues to march towards a top three/top four finish on the year-end charts.

Zazie-- I agree with you as well--any radio station which played this tune more than 40 times in its opening week is a really disgusting radio station.

42 SPSPW (Spins Per Station Per Week), or once every four hours, is plenty of airplay for a song on any adult-oriented format.

[WamuFive]

marv said:

Zazie-- I agree with you as well--any radio station which played this tune more than 40 times in its opening week is a really disgusting radio station.

42 SPSPW (Spins Per Station Per Week), or once every four hours, is plenty of airplay for a song on any adult-oriented format.

Marv, good to see you're on board with us, "reasonable" folks. lol

[sbp17]

marv said:

Zazie-- I agree with you as well--any radio station which played this tune more than 40 times in its opening week is a really disgusting radio station.

Exactly. I believe I said this earlier but I can understand and appreciate taking a chance on new material from a format hitmaker but to play a song so much that it goes number one before you get any type of feedback just seems a bit crazy.

If I was the other station in Tampa, I wouldn't play it at all and then promote that fact. It's doubtful that you would see a noticeable shift in ratings after one week but it would be interesting to see.

[EmersonDrive13Rocks]

marv said:

Zazie-- I agree with you as well--any radio station which played this tune more than 40 times in its opening week is a really disgusting radio station.

42 SPSPW (Spins Per Station Per Week), or once every four hours, is plenty of airplay for a song on any adult-oriented format.

I completely agree!!! If I was running a country station the maximum spins per week for any song would be around 45 and that would only happen with a select few songs. 40 spw would be the normal amount for a 1 song if I was running a country radio station.

I probably would've played "More Than A Memory" a reasonable 14 or 15 times in the 1st week.

[S4C]

I haven't read this thread front to back, page to page, so I don't know if it's been mentioned...

But I guess I haven't congratulated rowdawg21's cousin Billy Montana on writing the number-one, all-time record-breaking Garth song. So congrats to him and the fellow writers. Hopefully he buys himself a nice vacation house with the profits he'll be raking in (assuming he doesn't have one).