4/21/15

Every Year-End Number One Song You Know Is WRONG!

Rich Appel (above), lists himself as a "boss jock", professor and writer on his Twitter account and may have inadvertently added two new credentials to his CV after Billboard recently ran his seven-part series Revisionist History on their website: chart revisionary and chart saboteur, depending on which way you lean. In his own words, this is what he did:
each year's top song has been "re-computed," based on Nielsen SoundScan-measured digital sales since 2004 (when iTunes became the standard) and Nielsen BDS-monitored airplay since 2010, using a formula where sales and airplay are weighted fairly equally.
Using this new data, Appel revealed his findings:
not one of the original No. 1 songs for any year from 1961 through 2003 remains at the top of the heap now. That could be due to several factors: greater interest in songs licensed for use in movies, television series or commercials; heavier airplay for several older titles on genre-based radio formats such as classic rock and adult R&B; and, as a result, few places left on modern commercial radio for many straight-ahead pop songs which ruled the roost on top 40 in their day.
My fellow chart fans, here are those "new" Number Ones as Appel has revealed them on his seven Revisionist History articles thus far (links to those articles are at bottom of this page.)  Click on song title to play in Spotify.

1962Monster Mash - Bobby Pickett
1967Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
1968All Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix Experience
1969Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond
1970All Right Now - Free
1971Baba O'Riley - The Who
1973Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye
1974Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
1975Sweet Emotion - Aerosmith
1976Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
1977Hotel California - Eagles
1978We Will Rock You / We Are The Champions - Queen
1979September - Earth, Wind & Fire
1980Another One Bites The Dust - Queen
1982Don't Stop Believin' - Journey
1984Thriller - Michael Jackson
1985Summer of '69 - Bryan Adams
1987Livin' On A Prayer - Bon Jovi
1989Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N Roses
1992Under The Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers
1993Plush - Stone Temple Pilots
1994Interstate Love Song - Stone Temple Pilots
1995All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey
1996What I Got - Sublime
1998Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) - Green Day

What do you think?  
Fresh new perspective on history or pointless pastime?







Rich's chart revisionist efforts are shared by many like-minded individuals and each year for the past eight years around Tax Day (April 15th), he has indulged and invited his listeners to submit their Top 10 I.R.S. songs!  (I.R.S. in this case means It Really Shoulda been a Top 10 hit!)  Then he counts down the Top 104 vote-getters across two days on his show That Thing With Rich Appel on Rewound Radio.  The list below are my favorite picks from the Top 104 Songs for 2015!  For a complete list of the top 1040 songs from 2015, click here.

songartist2015yearHot 100 peak
GOD ONLY KNOWS The Beach Boys 5196639
BORN TO RUN Bruce Springsteen9197523
DRIVER'S SEAT Sniff 'n the Tears13197915
SO VERY HARD TO GO Tower of Power14197317
SOLITARY MAN Neil Diamond19196621
SAUSALITO SUMMERNIGHT Diesel 35198125
KENTUCKY RAIN Elvis Presley38197016
THE SUN AIN'T GONNA SHINE (Anymore) The Walker Bros.41196616
SOS ABBA42197515
DOUBLE SHOT (of My Baby's Love)Swingin' Medallions45196617
SOUL DEEP The Box Tops46196918
BABY I NEED YOUR LOVING Four Tops47196411
IT'S A SHAME Spinners48197014
HOLD ON! I'M A COMIN' Sam & Dave 51196621
RIVER DEEP - MOUNTAIN HIGH Ike & Tina Turner57196688
SUAVECITO Malo60197218
SOMEDAY, SOMEWAY Marshall Crenshaw62198236
DON'T WORRY BABY The Beach Boys63196424
I MELT WITH YOU Modern English67198378
OUR LIPS ARE SEALED The Go-Go’s 69198120
SINCE I DON'T HAVE YOU The Skyliners70195912
PIANO MAN Billy Joel73197424
DO IT AGAIN The Beach Boys75196820
STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN Led Zeppelin771972
AT LAST Etta James80196147
I GOT YOU Split Enz81198053
QUESTIONS 67 AND 68 Chicago82196924
UP IN A PUFF OF SMOKE Polly Brown83197516
I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU The Flamingos86195911
ALONE AGAIN OR Love87196899
RUNAWAY Jefferson Starship89197812
FOOL (IF YOU THINK IT'S OVER) Chris Rea95197812
MIGHTY LOVE Spinners96197420
KNOWING ME, KNOWING YOU ABBA97197714
AND I LOVE HER The Beatles99196412
WHAT DO ALL THE PEOPLE KNOW The Monroes103198259
WISHING YOU WERE HERE Chicago104197411

1 comment:

  1. Sorry, but this revisionist history is total B.S. to me! Why do people have to try to rewrite the past? I'll stick to the official charts, thank you very much.

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