AT10 5/01/04

[j]

I'm surprised Dido wasn't #1. I thought she's been #1 in audience for quite some time now. Or have they gone back to spins or something?

[Hervard]

I have no idea why Dido wasn't #1. Maybe the fact that this chart doesn't take spins from Delilah into consideration has something to do with it.
Whatever it is, here is the chart:

LC TC SONG/ARTIST
01 01 First Cut Is The Deepest/Sheryl Crow
04 02 100 Years/Five For Fighting
02 03 White Flag/Dido
03 04 You Raise Me Up/Josh Groban
05 05 Forever And For Always/Shania Twain
08 06 Calling All Angels/Train
06 07 Unwell/Matchbox Twenty
09 08 This One's For The Girls/Martina McBride
07 09 Drift Away/Uncle Kracker f/Dobie Gray
10 10 Ain't No Mountain High Enough/Michael McDonald

AT10 Extras:
Ooh Child/Five Stairsteps
Footloose/Kenny Loggins
Only The Good Die Young/Billy Joel
Believe/Cher

Long Distance Dedications:
I Will Remember You/Sarah McLachlan
All My Life/K-Ci & Jojo

AT10 Spotlite:
Let It Be/The Beatles
Forever Young/Rod Stewart
Wonderful Tonight/Eric Clapton
You Are So Beautiful/Joe Cocker
Wild World/Cat Stevens
Love's Divine/Seal
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)/The Eurythmics
Tiny Dancer/Elton John

AT10 Archives:
1973: You Are The Sunshine Of My Life/Stevie Wonder
1973: Love Train/The O'Jays
1981: Take It On The Run/REO Speedwagon
1987: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For/U2
1989: Into The Night/Benny Mardones
1991: Something To Talk About/Bonnie Raitt
1999: Man! I Feel Like A Woman/Shania Twain
1999: Smooth/Santana f/Rob Thomas

Note: When intro-ing the Benny Mardones song, Casey said that it was from 1980 but, since he played the new version, recorded for Benny's self-titled album in 1989, that's why I listed 1989.

British artists were spotlighted this week. So many artists on there that I had no idea were British, such as Joe Cocker. I don't know why, but I do not like the featured song by him, "You Are So Beautiful". It just sounds so depressing, like it should be a "why oh why did she have to leave and go away" sort of song. And when he tries to hit that high note at the end - I don't understand why he let that pass.
I also didn't know that Seal was British. I had to leave the room for a few seconds and when I came back in time to hear Casey introing the song, I thought, "Wow, they've actually taken me up on my suggestion of doing an "AT10 Future Hit". However, in the outro, he said it was part of the AT10 Spotlight. But at least they played a relatively new hit - how many times must we hear "Kiss From A Rose"?
The chart was pretty good, too, for the AC chart. There was actually a little bit of movement. It would have been cool if there had been a debut song, for perfect measure, but that's OK. That would have meant saying goodbye to "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", which I still like a lot. But it is time for "Drift Away" to head on out already! The song has been on the chart since, what, mid-March of last year? Now that the show is a Top Ten chart, they should boot out songs that have been on for a over a year, regardless of chart position. "Calling All Angels" is getting old, as well. What is it doing moving up two spots? It should have moved down. Let Michael McDonald be number six. He deserves it more, since he's been making music for thirty-some years. Oh well, good thing Martina McBride is moving up.

[richie]

It also seems the last couple of weeks that they are not going back to the 60's as much.

[mst3k]

ulij20 said:

Only The Good Die Young/Billy Joel

Cool! Probably my favorite Billy Joel song, and one that doesn't get a lot of AC play (compared to the rest of his catalogue). :)

[chebingeo]

*yawn*

Did Uncle Kracker slip 2 spots, or plummet 2 spots?

[mst3k]

Not sure, but Five For Fighting soared from #4 to #2.

[Matt4319]

Has there ever been a debut on this chart since it went to AT10?

[chebingeo]

Martina McBride has been the only debut.

[richie]

mst3k said:

Not sure, but Five For Fighting soared from #4 to #2.

Yes it did, and it tied with Train for the title of "this week's biggest mover."

[Hervard]

mst3k said:

Cool! Probably my favorite Billy Joel song, and one that doesn't get a lot of AC play (compared to the rest of his catalogue).  :)

It gets a lot of AC play on the station I listen to.  However, since you're from the South, a lot of stations refuse that song airplay, since it's about a guy asking a Catholic girl to lose her virginity.  I heard a lot of stations from the South were forced to drop that song after a few weeks on the chart.  Maybe it's because many Catholic people live down there, but I'm not totally sure.  Anyway, that's why the song did so lousy on the charts.  It was one of those songs that wasn't played on all stations but wherever it was played, it did well.  But the song's climb was stopped at #22 on the R&R chart in the summer of 1978, but I remember hearing the song all the time back then, since WLS, the station my parents listened to back then, had it in heavy rotation.
They also gave decent airplay to his other three 1978 songs, "Just The Way You Are", "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" and "She's Always A Woman To Me".

[mst3k]

ulij20 said:

However, since you're from the South, a lot of stations refuse that song airplay, since it's about a guy asking a Catholic girl to lose her virginity.  I heard a lot of stations from the South were forced to drop that song after a few weeks on the chart.  Maybe it's because many Catholic people live down there, but I'm not totally sure.

Not specifically Catholics, but the South is considered the "Bible Belt", so any songs promoting fornication are deemed inappropriate (heh, at least that's how it used to be, probably not so much anymore, at least in Florida). I remember reading that someone requested "Only The Good Die Young" as a Long Distance Dedication (to their old college buddies) back in 1979, and AT40 had to change it to "Piano Man" for that very reason.

[Hervard]

mst3k said:

Not specifically Catholics, but the South is considered the "Bible Belt", so any songs promoting fornication are deemed inappropriate (heh, at least that's how it used to be, probably not so much anymore, at least in Florida). I remember reading that someone requested "Only The Good Die Young" as a Long Distance Dedication (to their old college buddies) back in 1979, and AT40 had to change it to "Piano Man" for that very reason.

Yeah, that's what Rob Durkee's "Countdown Of The Century" book said in the LDD chapter. They also said that they had to veto a LDD for "You Light Up My Life" by Debby Boone, for fear of listener burnout. But that didn't stop it from being played as a dedication on at least two shows in the 1980s (10/31/82 and 3/24/84, both AT40 Flashback shows in 2001).

[j]

Is it just my imagination (runnin' away with me) or is the Top 8 on AC really strong right now? All 8 songs have over 1800 spins.