Hot 100 Debuts - January 1982

While thumbing through his well-worn copy of Billboard Hot 100 Charts - The Eighties, HERC's wandering attention began to focus on the weekly debuts of 1982, and as he looked at the new songs that appeared each week, he began rating each week as if it were a college sport recruiting class with its future performance already recorded.  If you know HERC, you know he loves deriving new numbers out of other numbers. (Top 40 Index? K-Tel Scale?)  Soon the abacus and the slide rule were out as a mathematical formula was hammered into shape that would actually assign a number to each song based on six variables involving chart positions and weeks charted.  Songs that debuted high or peaked high or marked the greatest or fastest climb from their debut to their peak would have advantages.  Chart longevity is also valued though slow rising songs are handicapped.  By averaging the numbers for each group of songs each week, HERC came up with a number that could be used to effectively compare each group no matter how many songs each week featured.

Hot 100 debut	debut pos		title	artist
1/9/1982	76		Pac-Man Fever	Buckner & Garcia	192
1/9/1982	80		Mirror, Mirror	Diana Ross	192
1/9/1982	81		Let The Feeling Flow	Peabo Bryson	123
1/9/1982	83		You're My Latest, My Greatest Inspiration	Teddy Pendergrass	120
1/9/1982	87	*	When All Is Said And Done	ABBA	153
					156
1/16/1982	57	*	Open Arms	Journey	210
1/16/1982	72	*	That Girl	Stevie Wonder	207
1/16/1982	76	*	Spirits In The Material World	The Police	185
1/16/1982	79		Perhaps Love	Placido Domingo & John Denver	87
1/16/1982	80		Daddy's Home	Cliff Richard	160
1/16/1982	81	*	Let's Get It Up	AC/DC	118
1/16/1982	83		I Believe	Chilliwack	140
1/16/1982	85		Bobbie Sue	Oak Ridge Boys	183
1/16/1982	86		Tell Me Tomorrow	Smokey Robinson	139
1/16/1982	87	*	Call Me	Skyy	154
1/16/1982	90	*	Tainted Love	Soft Cell	203
					162
1/23/1982	74	*	Tonight I'm Yours	Rod Stewart	168
1/23/1982	78		Wanna Be With You	Earth, WInd & Fire	104
1/23/1982	80		Tainted Love	Soft Cell
1/23/1982	81		If Looks Could Kill	Player	111
1/23/1982	82	*	Should I Do It	Pointer Sisters	182
1/23/1982	84		Seasons Of Gold	Gidea Park featuring Adrian Baker	40
1/23/1982	85		Circle Of Love	Steve Miller Band	96
1/23/1982	86		Just Can't Win 'Em All	Stevie Woods	128
1/23/1982	87	*	Genius Of Love	Tom Tom Club	144
1/23/1982	88	*	867-5309/Jenny	Tommy Tutone	204
1/23/1982	90		Anyone Can See	Irene Cara	128
					131
1/30/1982	79	*	We Got The Beat	The Go-Go's	207
1/30/1982	81		My Guy	Sister Sledge	162
1/30/1982	83	*	I'll Fall In Love Again	Sammy Hagar	120
1/30/1982	84	*	Take Off	Bob & Doug McKenzie	176
1/30/1982	85		Voice On The Radio	Conductor	78
1/30/1982	86		Don't Let Him Know	Prism	128
1/30/1982	88		Another Sleepless Night	Anne Murray	116
1/30/1982	94		Cool	The Time	25
1/30/1982	96	*	Only One You	TG Sheppard	69
					120

While only two variables are listed in the chart above for each song, that new number HERC manufactured can be found in the far right column, in blue.  The numbers in white in the far right column represent the week above's average so, for the month of January 1982, Week Two had the better number (162) followed by Week One (156), Week Three (131) and Week Four (120) or to put it another way, the average song in Week Two debuted higher on the charts, peaked higher and faster on the charts and spent more time on the charts than the average songs in the other weeks.  Now look at Week Two again.  Here's an excerpt from that week's actual chart dated January 16, 1982:

Now look at this excerpt from the following week's chart dated January 23, 1982.  Notice anything strange?  Is the chart tainted?

For HERC's purposes, the song was averaged in for the second week only, it's original and only debut.