AT40 Flashback - November 30, 1991
Dec 1, 2011 8:06:16 GMT -5
Post by Cerebro on Dec 1, 2011 8:06:16 GMT -5
I thought it might be fun to take a trip down memory lane, as it was 20 years ago this week that a major shift occurred on the AT40 chart (and on the Billboard charts as a whole) making it one of the most memorable weeks in the show's history.
20 years ago, Billboard began their longstanding partnership with Nielsen. The magazine radically changed the methodologies used to calculate their charts when they started using actual airplay and sales data tabulated, respectively, by BDS and Soundscan. Those changes went into effect with the charts published in the Billboard issue dated November 30, 1991 (the first issue to count towards the 1992 chart year). Between the chart change, the continued splintering of top 40 radio, and radio's resistance to playing "harder" rock and rap tracks that were charting due to sales moreso than airplay, AT40 made the decision to drop the Hot 100 and switch over to an airplay only chart. In this case, the Top 40 Radio Monitor (now known as Hot 100 Airplay) chart.
The drastic change caused a lot of bizarre things to happen that first week. As I, at the time, had no knowledge of the behind-the-scenes happenings, i remember listening to this show and scratching my head wondering what the heck was going on. First, Shadoe Stevens hardly mentioned any chart movement throughout the show. Then, when I started hearing all of these old songs that had fallen off the chart weeks ago, I was really confused. There were 5 debuts and 7 re-entries which, of course, resulted in a whopping 12 droppers! Almost a third of the chart had turned over. Unreal! The 5 biggest droppers ("Something Got Me Started", "Ring My Bell", "Lies", "Get A Leg Up", and "Don't Cry") all fell off from their peak positions. Two of the other droppers, "Too Legit To Quit" and "Forever My Lady", would re-enter the chart a few weeks later as they "caught up" with the new methodology. In addition to the re-entries, several older songs that were, steadily, dropping down the chart had, inexplicably, taken a 180 and shot back up the chart. The biggest offenders were "Emotions" (rebounding 24 spots), "Do Anything" (back up 14), and "Hole Hearted" (back up 17). On the plus side, I was quite impressed by some of the huge jumps some newer songs were making, particulary the 33 notch climb of "Black Or White" in it's second week on. Surely, a feat worthy of the king of pop.
Here's the first post-Hot 100 AT40 chart. You can see from the LW positions just how strangely the whole thing went down.
AMERICAN TOP 40 - NOVEMBER 30, 1991
LW TW Artist - Title
-- 40 Shabba Ranks featuring Maxi Priest - Housecall (Your Body Can't Lie To Me)
-- 39 Lisette Melendez - A Day In My Life (Without You)
-- 38 Shanice - I Love Your Smile
32 37 Lisa Stansfield - Change
-- 36 Stacy Earl - Love Me All Up
26 35 Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch - Wildside
34 34 Rod Stewart - Broken Arrow
-- 33 Kym Sims - Too Blind To See It
RE 32 Scorpions - Wind Of Change
RE 31 Color Me Badd - I Adore Mi Amor
RE 30 Bonnie Raitt - Something To Talk About
09 29 Curtis Stigers - I Wonder Why
17 28 Chesney Hawkes - The One And Only
RE 27 Luther Vandross - Don't Want To Be A Fool
11 26 Naughty By Nature - O.P.P.
RE 25 Vanessa Williams - Running Back To You
28 24 Gloria Estefan - Live For Loving You
06 23 Roberta Flack and Maxi Priest - Set The Night To Music
RE 22 Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch featuring Loleatta Holloway - Good Vibrations
13 21 Salt-N-Pepa - Let's Talk About Sex
05 20 Bryan Adams - Can't Stop This Thing We Started
22 19 Genesis - No Son Of Mine
RE 18 Firehouse - Love Of A Lifetime
25 17 CeCe Peniston - Finally
19 16 Tony Terry - With You
12 15 Nia Peeples - Street Of Dreams
31 14 Extreme - Hole Hearted
16 13 Richard Marx - Keep Coming Back
07 12 Amy Grant - That's What Love Is For
30 11 Mariah Carey - Can't Let Go
24 10 Natural Selection featuring Niki Harris - Do Anything
33 09 Mariah Carey - Emotions
15 08 Karyn White - Romantic
02 07 Prince and The New Power Generation - Cream
04 06 Boyz II Men - It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday
08 05 Paula Abdul - Blowing Kisses In The Wind
21 04 Color Me Badd - All 4 Love
03 03 P.M. Dawn - Set Adrift On Memory Bliss
35 02 Michael Jackson - Black Or White
01 01 Michael Bolton - When A Man Loves A Woman ** 2 weeks @ no. 1 **
FEATURES:
SNEAK PEEK: Karyn White - The Way I Feel About You
LONG DISTANCE DEDICATION: Cher - If I Could Turn Back Time
FLASHBACK: 1990
5 Bette Midler - From A Distance
4 Deee-Lite - Groove Is In The Heart
3 Stevie B - Because I Love You (The Postman Song)
2 Mariah Carey - Love Takes Time
1 Whitney Houston - I'm Your Baby Tonight
DROPPERS:
Roxette - Spending My Time (from 40)
Big Audio Dynamite II - Rush (from 39)
Metallica - Enter Sandman (from 38)
Geto Boys - Mind Playing Tricks On Me (from 37)
Hammer featuring Jerry Glanville - Too Legit To Quit (from 36)
Jodeci - Forever My Lady (from 29)
Van Halen - Top Of The World (from 27)
Simply Red - Something Got Me Started (from 23)
D.J. Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince - Ring My Bell (from 20)
EMF - Lies (from 18)
John Mellencamp - Get A Leg Up (from 14)
Guns 'N Roses - Don't Cry (from 10)
20 years ago, Billboard began their longstanding partnership with Nielsen. The magazine radically changed the methodologies used to calculate their charts when they started using actual airplay and sales data tabulated, respectively, by BDS and Soundscan. Those changes went into effect with the charts published in the Billboard issue dated November 30, 1991 (the first issue to count towards the 1992 chart year). Between the chart change, the continued splintering of top 40 radio, and radio's resistance to playing "harder" rock and rap tracks that were charting due to sales moreso than airplay, AT40 made the decision to drop the Hot 100 and switch over to an airplay only chart. In this case, the Top 40 Radio Monitor (now known as Hot 100 Airplay) chart.
The drastic change caused a lot of bizarre things to happen that first week. As I, at the time, had no knowledge of the behind-the-scenes happenings, i remember listening to this show and scratching my head wondering what the heck was going on. First, Shadoe Stevens hardly mentioned any chart movement throughout the show. Then, when I started hearing all of these old songs that had fallen off the chart weeks ago, I was really confused. There were 5 debuts and 7 re-entries which, of course, resulted in a whopping 12 droppers! Almost a third of the chart had turned over. Unreal! The 5 biggest droppers ("Something Got Me Started", "Ring My Bell", "Lies", "Get A Leg Up", and "Don't Cry") all fell off from their peak positions. Two of the other droppers, "Too Legit To Quit" and "Forever My Lady", would re-enter the chart a few weeks later as they "caught up" with the new methodology. In addition to the re-entries, several older songs that were, steadily, dropping down the chart had, inexplicably, taken a 180 and shot back up the chart. The biggest offenders were "Emotions" (rebounding 24 spots), "Do Anything" (back up 14), and "Hole Hearted" (back up 17). On the plus side, I was quite impressed by some of the huge jumps some newer songs were making, particulary the 33 notch climb of "Black Or White" in it's second week on. Surely, a feat worthy of the king of pop.
Here's the first post-Hot 100 AT40 chart. You can see from the LW positions just how strangely the whole thing went down.
AMERICAN TOP 40 - NOVEMBER 30, 1991
LW TW Artist - Title
-- 40 Shabba Ranks featuring Maxi Priest - Housecall (Your Body Can't Lie To Me)
-- 39 Lisette Melendez - A Day In My Life (Without You)
-- 38 Shanice - I Love Your Smile
32 37 Lisa Stansfield - Change
-- 36 Stacy Earl - Love Me All Up
26 35 Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch - Wildside
34 34 Rod Stewart - Broken Arrow
-- 33 Kym Sims - Too Blind To See It
RE 32 Scorpions - Wind Of Change
RE 31 Color Me Badd - I Adore Mi Amor
RE 30 Bonnie Raitt - Something To Talk About
09 29 Curtis Stigers - I Wonder Why
17 28 Chesney Hawkes - The One And Only
RE 27 Luther Vandross - Don't Want To Be A Fool
11 26 Naughty By Nature - O.P.P.
RE 25 Vanessa Williams - Running Back To You
28 24 Gloria Estefan - Live For Loving You
06 23 Roberta Flack and Maxi Priest - Set The Night To Music
RE 22 Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch featuring Loleatta Holloway - Good Vibrations
13 21 Salt-N-Pepa - Let's Talk About Sex
05 20 Bryan Adams - Can't Stop This Thing We Started
22 19 Genesis - No Son Of Mine
RE 18 Firehouse - Love Of A Lifetime
25 17 CeCe Peniston - Finally
19 16 Tony Terry - With You
12 15 Nia Peeples - Street Of Dreams
31 14 Extreme - Hole Hearted
16 13 Richard Marx - Keep Coming Back
07 12 Amy Grant - That's What Love Is For
30 11 Mariah Carey - Can't Let Go
24 10 Natural Selection featuring Niki Harris - Do Anything
33 09 Mariah Carey - Emotions
15 08 Karyn White - Romantic
02 07 Prince and The New Power Generation - Cream
04 06 Boyz II Men - It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday
08 05 Paula Abdul - Blowing Kisses In The Wind
21 04 Color Me Badd - All 4 Love
03 03 P.M. Dawn - Set Adrift On Memory Bliss
35 02 Michael Jackson - Black Or White
01 01 Michael Bolton - When A Man Loves A Woman ** 2 weeks @ no. 1 **
FEATURES:
SNEAK PEEK: Karyn White - The Way I Feel About You
LONG DISTANCE DEDICATION: Cher - If I Could Turn Back Time
FLASHBACK: 1990
5 Bette Midler - From A Distance
4 Deee-Lite - Groove Is In The Heart
3 Stevie B - Because I Love You (The Postman Song)
2 Mariah Carey - Love Takes Time
1 Whitney Houston - I'm Your Baby Tonight
DROPPERS:
Roxette - Spending My Time (from 40)
Big Audio Dynamite II - Rush (from 39)
Metallica - Enter Sandman (from 38)
Geto Boys - Mind Playing Tricks On Me (from 37)
Hammer featuring Jerry Glanville - Too Legit To Quit (from 36)
Jodeci - Forever My Lady (from 29)
Van Halen - Top Of The World (from 27)
Simply Red - Something Got Me Started (from 23)
D.J. Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince - Ring My Bell (from 20)
EMF - Lies (from 18)
John Mellencamp - Get A Leg Up (from 14)
Guns 'N Roses - Don't Cry (from 10)
