Top 7 things about Classic American Top 40 on iHeartRadio

We’re counting down now to my top seven thoughts about Classic American Top 40 from the 70s and 80s (I’m there for the 80s), back in the days when it felt like the charts really meant something, on iHeartRadio. And it doesn’t stop till we get to the top!

#7 Casey Kasem had a voice and charisma that made him perfect for counting down the hits. He was the best ... sorry, Rick Dees.

#6 It's always fun to rediscover good tunes that you forgot you knew. One of those that resides in my current playlist as a result of listening to these shows is Sylvia's hilarious country crossover hit "Nobody" (#15 in 1982). Your nobody called today / She hung up when I asked her name …

#5 The writers for this show had a curious obsession with the geographical identity of the artists. Born in Brooklyn, grew up in Queens, recording out of Nashville, vacationing in the Poconos ...

#4 I’ve always had an inordinate interest in music charts — I think it is somewhat tied to OCD tendencies. It's satisfying to know that both of The Motels’ substantial hits peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 (or "the Hot Hundred" as Kasem sometimes called it), among endless other chart minutiae.

#3 Listening to the shows from the 80s, one thing that has struck me is how the big power ballad duets of that era, often teaming major stars, are a lost art. Songs like "We've Got Tonight" by Kenny Rogers and Sheena Easton, "Separate Lives" by Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin, and "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" by Aretha Franklin and George Michael. A number of them were movie soundtrack songs — another driver of the charts that has diminished in today’s music scene. 

#2 Another thing that has struck me is that there are some fine tunes from the first half of the decade that never resurface in 80s playlists or flashback radio shows. One such nugget that I recently playlisted is John Lennon’s excellent "Just Like Starting Over" from 1980, and there are countless others.

#1 If you listen with any regularity, you'll almost immediately begin to hear repeats, because a relatively small number of countdowns (considering how many there were) are in rotation. If you listen frequently, you'll be able to recite the long distance dedication letters along with Casey and sometimes know what song is coming next. I know there's one show in which Belinda Carlisle debuts at #30 with "Circle in the Sand," one in which Level 42 holds at #7 with "Something About You" and one in which Diana Ross moves 40-29 with a ridiculous song written by Michael Jackson called "Muscles" about unbridled desires for beefcake men (!) . It'd be great to hear some "new" old countdowns added to the rotation. I'd actually love to hear shows from the Shadoe Stevens era as well (Kasem departed in August 1988, so the tail end of the decade is underrepresented). Stevens presided until the 1995 cancellation, and there was still some fun left in the top 40 format into the first half of the 90s, although I pinpoint the beginning of the end to be somewhere around "Rump Shaker" (#2 in 1992).

Till next time, keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars!