Flashback: American Top 40 - October 17, 1992

[Cerebro]

Since Lady GaGa's "Born This Way" is a top 10 debut on AT40 this week (and, according to Seacrest, the highest debut since The Beatles debuted at #6 back in 1970 with "Let It Be"), I thought it might be a good time to jump back 19 years to the week when the highest debut in AT40 history REALLY happened. You might recall back in the fall of '92 that Madonna was getting a lot of press for her controversial book, Sex. Naturally, that press served as good cross-promotion for her, then, latest album, Erotica. The title track exploded, but it was also a quick burner spending only 8 weeks on the chart:

2-2-5-6-9-20-30-40

During 1992, AT40 was using Billboard's "Top 40 Airplay Monitor" chart. Today the chart is known as "Hot 100 Airplay" (in the magazine) and "Radio Songs" (on the web site).

Here's the AT40 chart where it all went down...

AMERICAN TOP 40 - OCTOBER 17, 1992
LW TW Artist - Title
34 40 INXS - Not Enough Time
36 39 K.D. Lang - Constant Craving
--  38 Eric Clapton - Layla
30 37 Richard Marx - Take This Heart
38 36 Peter Cetera - Restless Heart
--  35 Jon Secada - Do You Believe In Us
32 34 Del Amitri - Always The Last To Know
--  33 Bobby Brown - Good Enough
31 32 Genesis - Jesus He Knows Me
24 31 Shakespear's Sister - Stay
29 30 House Of Pain - Jump Around
26 29 Guns 'N Roses - November Rain
33 28 Trey Lorenz - Someone To Hold
25 27 Cathy Dennis - You Lied To Me
--  26 Shai - If I Ever Fall In Love
28 25 Annie Lennox - Walking On Broken Glass
27 24 Def Leppard - Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad
22 23 Charles and Eddie - Would I Lie To You?
21 22 Firehouse - When I Look Into Your Eyes
23 21 TLC - What About Your Friends
17 20 Color Me Badd - Forever Love
12 19 Technotronic featuring Ya Kid K - Move This
19 18 Snap! - Rhythm Is A Dancer
14 17 Jade - I Wanna Love You
11 16 Elton John - The One
10 15 Bryan Adams - Do I Have To Say The Words?
15 14 En Vogue - Free Your Mind
08 13 Bobby Brown - Humpin' Around
13 12 Arrested Development - People Everyday
18 11 Mary J. Blige - Real Love
09 10 Toad The Wet Sprocket - All I Want
16 09 The Heights - How Do You Talk To An Angel
07 08 Hi-Five - She's Playing Hard To Get
05 07 Jon Secada - Just Another Day
04 06 K.W.S. - Please Don't Go
03 05 Patty Smyth with Don Henley - Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough
02 04 TLC - Baby-Baby-Baby
06 03 P.M. Dawn - I'd Die Without You
--  02 Madonna - Erotica
01 01 Boyz II Men - End Of The Road ** 9 weeks @ no. 1 **

SNEAK PEEK: Gloria Estefan - Always Tomorrow
LONG DISTANCE DEDICATION: Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse Of The Heart
FLASHBACK: 1980
5 The Pointer Sisters - He's So Shy
4 Air Supply - All Out Of Love
3 Diana Ross - Upside Down
2 Barbra Streisand - Woman In Love
1 Queen - Another One Bites The Dust

DROPPERS:
George Lamond - Where Does That Leave Love? (from 40)
Vanessa Williams featuring Black Sheep - Work To Do (from 39)
Prince and The New Power Generation - My Name Is Prince (from 37)
Celine Dion - Nothing Broken But My Heart (from 35)
Tom Cochrane - Life Is A Highway (from 20)

[jebsib]

DSoes anyone remember if Shadoe made a big fuss over her high debut that week? I recall the minute the show abandoned the Hot 100 chart, statistics became fewer and fewer.

BTW, any idea why BB calls the same chart (Hot 100 Airplay) something different on its website (Radio Songs)? Seems incredibly confusing!

[Lozzy]

Thanks for posting! :)

[friday]

Looking over the charts from 1992, they come across as very strange to me. The worst thing about them is they denied Nirvana from ever being played on AT40 until after Kurt Cobain's death. "Smells Like Teen Spirit," despite peaking at #6 on the Hot 100, and hitting the top 10 on R&R, somehow missed the top 40 on this chart. Now I know R&R was still using playlist data at that time, but I can't believe the difference between spins and audience, even with different panels, was so great as to produce such wildly different results.

[jebsib]

Notable Nirvana peaks on Hot 100 Airplay:
Smells Like Teen Spirit peak : #41 (Just missed top 40) - I can only guess that Billboard placed audience emphasis on larger market urban stations that were loathe t play such a radical new rock sound, whereas smaller market stations spun it like crazy, providing R&R with their spin based #10 CHR peak)
Come as You Are: # 62
About a Girl : #22 - by this point, top 40 had collapsed, and many big market stations had become modern-rock lite.

[Cerebro]

Mar 5, 2011 17:40:24 GMT -5 jebsib said:

DSoes anyone remember if Shadoe made a big fuss over her high debut that week? I recall the minute the show abandoned the Hot 100 chart, statistics became fewer and fewer.

Yes, a fuss was made. At the beginning of the show, I recall that Shadoe did, in fact, mention that we would be hearing the highest debut in AT40 history. Hot 100 or no, Shadoe, like Casey before him, was always great with chart stats.

Mar 5, 2011 17:40:24 GMT -5 jebsib said:

BTW, any idea why BB calls the same chart (Hot 100 Airplay) something different on its website (Radio Songs)? Seems incredibly confusing!

Your guess is as good as mine. I do agree that it seems needlessly confusing.