I have Sirius XM in my car and I like it a lot. One of my favorite features is that on the weekends, you can hear classic Top 40 countdowns from the past.  70s on 7 runs complete Casey Kasem American Top 40 countdowns, and the 80s on 8 station does what they call the “VJ Big 40” with the original MTV VJs providing commentary between the songs.  For example, last weekend it was the charts from October 19, 1974 and October 21, 1989.  It’s an interesting contrast, because on the 70s station you’re getting a snapshot from that week in time, but on 8 it’s from the present-day perspective.  Casey can only tell you how a song has done so far, but Alan, Mark, and Nina often share a song’s eventual peak, or give info on what happened to the artist since the 80s.  (NB: there are similar countdowns on the 60s on 6 and 90s on 9 channels, I’m primarily into 70s/80s).  

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Since it’s impractical for me to be in the car during the entire show, and I’m not interested in paying for the internet streaming option, this summer I started replicating the Top 40 countdowns on my Spotify account. It was part curiosity, part being a completist, and part wanting to discover hidden Yacht Rock gems from the 1976-1984 charts for possible http://www.yachtornyacht.com consideration. Fortunately, Billboard.com stores EVERY week’s chart, from time immemorial.  It’s a great resource (with some limitations).  At first, I was just using Spotify to listen to whatever sections of the Top 40 I had missed while not driving.  Next it became easier to grab all of 40-1 without regard to what I’d “heard already.” Then I started noticing songs I recognized at positions 41, 42, etc, and decided to go for the entire Hot 100 for the week! That’s 2.5 times the music I was listening to before :D There is....currently a backlog.  As I write this, I’m listening to the Hot 100 from Oct 13, 1984, which aired two weeks ago. 

Spotify is very good, and has an extensive music library, but there are occasionally songs I can’t find on there: either the artist isn’t on at all, or specific songs/albums aren’t available. Other times you only get a live version, or one that’s (ick) re-recorded. Theoretically for a song that I’m not already familiar with, a re-recorded version shouldn’t bother me, but even if I don’t know how, they always sound “off.” With the dance/disco stuff, sometimes there’s only unfamiliar remixes, which tend to have long running times. For all genres, I like to select the “single” or “7″ edit” whenever possible. Karaoke “in the style of” versions can be helpful for identifying the correct single length, as can Discogs. Listening to the original single version is for historical accuracy as well as being a more efficient use of my time. 

Most of the time, if Spotify doesn’t have what I would consider a suitable version of a song, I find that someone has uploaded it to YouTube and I listen there.  When I see a still image of the 45, then I know I’ve come to the right place. Since I have begun this process, only rarely have songs eluded me entirely.  The internet is pretty cool like that.  As you can imagine, the earlier years like 1970/71 will have more gaps on the Spotify side, requiring periodic visits to YT. But for the most part I can replicate the charts rather well. 

As for the listening itself, a few comments. You quickly learn that there are Top 10 hits that are not well known today, like they just didn’t become part of the canon of what we think of for “seventies songs” or “eighties songs.” Obviously well-known songs can be at any position of the chart, eventual hits can enter at a low position or make a slow climb down before falling off.  Among the stuff that is unfamiliar to me, I don’t find a lot of outright BAD songs, more bland and forgettable.  There is always more country than you expect, especially in the early 70s and again after the 1980 movie Urban Cowboy.  In the Casey Kasem broadcasts, he will often let you know a song’s relative position on the country or R&B chart as applicable, especially a #1 on those charts. 

I really like when the 80s one is from 87/88/89 because I have a decent shot of remembering more of those tunes. I started kindergarten in fall of 1986 and that school bus was my first exposure to current hit radio (Q-102FM) That’s where you have those “I haven’t heard that in FOREVER” jams. Do I occasionally worry that a forgotten 1988 tune is going to jar something unpleasant loose in my brain? Yes, but in a way that I feel comfortable joking about. The electronic dance/freestyle songs in a 1987 chart from last month recalled as well as  explained my childhood desire to get a Casio keyboard for Christmas - what 80s kid wouldn’t want to recreate those fun, danceable beats? 

In any year, it’s interesting to hear those follow-up singles that didn’t quite make it, the solo album attempts by the lead guitarist, and the wacky novelty songs. There’s way too much James Taylor, and I keep seeing the name and beard of Paul Davis. There’s plenty of big artists who had songs that never charted that high.  I’m not a big slow song guy, and as such I tend to find them overrepresented in the higher chart positions, in my mind driven by horny people from the past requesting and dedicating the sappy tunes to their sweeties. I’m not *fully* anti-slow-song; one of my favorite discoveries I’ve had so far is “Sail On” by the Commodores. It hit #4,  but I’d never heard it before I went through the Sep 15, 1979 chart.  Or maybe I’d never truly listened. Anyway, great bittersweet sort of song, and that particular 79 chart was excellent from t to b. 

Since each station has ten years to choose from, they do a pretty good job spreading it out so that you’re not listening to, say, charts from 1984 two weeks in September.  If I was slightly more dedicated to this project, I could track which songs from Jul 31, 1971 were still on the chart played this week, Oct 23, 1971, but that will be left as an exercise for no one. The only real bummer is when I research singles from my faves like Yes or Genesis, and find they didn’t chart at all here.  “Don’t Kill the Whale” was a recent example--it spent 4 weeks on the UK singles chart in September of 1978, reaching #36, but couldn’t crack the Hot 100 here. I listened to that Oct 7 1978 chart, and there’s plenty of boring tunes that “Whale” should have beat. (Plus then some enterprising country DJ sharing a building with a rock station could have started playing the B-side “Abilene” on his or her show!) 

Overall I feel like I will keep doing this until I get bored, or more likely until I let the backlog get too unmanageable like I did with some podcasts that I like but no longer subscribe to. Although once my family plan switches to unlimited next month, I’ll be able to listen to my playlist in the car as well as in the house, which should help with the backlog. 

Thank you for reading about my current weird obsessive project.