What is the best era for top-40 radio, and why?

[Systematic Chaos]

Personally, I like all kinds of music from the British Invasion period right on up to now. I was glued to my radio almost every day from the time I was in 5th grade (1979) until the late 80's. However, the music I enjoy from the last several years isn't anything you'd hear on the majority of radio stations.

I've listed several time periods below and I'd like to know people's opinions on which one is the best. Keep in mind that the Alternative period wasn't top-40 in the strictest sense, but I include it because for a number of years it was popular enough to warrant an entire radio format.

Okay everyone, have fun! :)

[MrBenchley]

1. 1955-1963

The great thing about top 40 radio in the late 1950s to early 1960s was that it WAS the top 40. Not the top 40 rock or the top 40 easy listening or the top 40 progressive adult alternative, but the plain top 40...

So in the course of an hour you could hear Fats Domino followed by Patsy Cline followed by Percy Faith followed by Eddie Cochran followed by Domenico Modugno followed by Sam Cooke followed by the Fendermen followed by the Chantells followed by Acker Bilk...and on and on...

[Kahuna]

8. I agree 100% with your answer. I could listen to...

the Shirelles and Mary Wells, and then hear Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and The Four Seasons.

[sally343434]

2. All periods have their moments...

By 1989 (the last option on your poll), TOP-40 as a format was in steep decline and practically dead. By the time the horrible 1996 Telecommunications Act allowed a few people to own most radio stations in the country, it was essentially gone.

Of course, all periods have their moments and good music, but the zenith of TOP-40 music was the Summer of 1967. Here's the Boss 30 list from the late and very lamented KHJ in Los Angeles for 8/30/67:

1. The Letter/The Box Tops
2. Brown-Eyed Girl/Van Morrison
3. Ode to Billie Joe/Bobby Gentry
4. The Look of Love/Dusty Springfield
5. Gimme Little Sign/Brenton Wood
6. Reflections/Diana Ross & Supremes
7. Baby I Love You/Aretha Franklin
8. All You Need Is Love/Baby You're A Rich Man/The Beatles
9. Mr. Soul/Buffalo Springfield
10. There is a Mountain/Donovan
11. San Franciscan Nights/Eric Burdon & Animals
12. Carrie Anne/The Hollies
13. Apples, Peaches, P. Pie/Jay & The Techniques
14. I Dig Rock n Roll Music/Peter Paul and Mary
15. Happy/The Sunshine Co.
16. Come Back When You Grow/Bobby Vee
17. You're My Everything/The Temptations
18. You Know What I Mean/The Turtles
19. Words/The Monkees
20. Cold Sweat/James Brown
21. Twelve Thirty/Mamas and Papas
22. Hypnotized/Linda Jones
23. Incense and Peppermints/Strawberry Alarm Clock
24. I Make A Fool of Myself/Frankie Valli
25. Museum/Herman's Hermits
26. Never My Love/The Association
27. Love Bug/Martha & the Vandellas
28. Groovin'/Booker T. and the MGs
29. Two Heads/Jefferson Airplane
30. Walkin' Proud/Pete Klint Quartet

Of course, this is only the top 30 for a single week. Here is just a small list of some other charting songs for 1967, and there are many, many more:

I Was Made To Love Her/Stevie Wonder
White Rabbit/Jefferson Airplane
A Whiter Shade Of Pale/Procol Harum
Light My Fire/Doors
Can't Take My Eyes Off You/Frankie Valli
Windy/Association
Come On Down To My Boat/Every Mothers' Son
Don't Go Out Into The Rain/Herman's Hermits
Hip Hug-Her/Booker T. & The MG's
A Thousand Shadows/Seeds
Gentle On My Mind/Glen Campbell
Bluebird/Buffalo Springfield
A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You/Monkees
Penny Lane /Strawberry Fields Forever/Beatles
I've Been Lonely Too Long/Young Rascals
At The Zoo/Simon & Garfunkel
I Think We're Alone Now/Tommy James & The Shondells
Western Union/Five Americans
The Happening/Supremes
When I Was Young/Eric Burdon & The Animals
I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You/Aretha Franklin
Jimmy Mack/Martha & The Vandellas
Somebody To Love/Jefferson Airplane
Happy Together/Turtles

Today, of course, all formats are so "specialized" that music formats would never include a broad range of popular music types. And the classic local DJ's of the past, such as Real Don Steele, Robert W. Morgan, Humble Harve, etc., at KHJ, Cousin Brucie at WABC (New York), Harry Harrison at WMCA (New York), or Art Roberts at WLS (Chicago), have all been replaced with a single "voice tracked" DJ in some dark booth somewhere providing bland service for many stations across the country. It's McRadio!

All the personality DJ's are now in talk radio, unfortunately. Even OxyRush used to do Top-40 in the early 70's as "Jeff Christie" at KQV in Pittsburgh.

[mlawson]

3. I totally agree on the Summer of Love.

Seems like even then, we knew it!! I was turning 17, and I guess everything sounds good then.

What was 'Hypnotized', by Linda Jones?? I don't seem to recollect that one.

[NightTrain]

6. Linda Jones' "Hypnotized" is a wonderful soul ballad.

It reached #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the only real hit that Linda Jones had. She died in 1972 from diabetes-related health problems at age 26.

[absyntheNsugar]

4. 70's Glam was underrated!!!!

C'mon...Sweet, Bowie - mid 70's Pap was catchy, hooky and althogh completely mindless, it was fun.

And don't say it has to do with my generation - I'm an X-er who was only 4 years old when Ziggy Startdust came out!

[DBoon]

5. Yes

I was in high school at the time. Little did we suspect that glam was the rumblings of punk (New York Dolls) and new wave (Roxy Music).

Most of the progressive rock that was so popular turned out to be a dead end - the last baroque gasp of Seargent Pepper.

We had "glitter rock" dances in high school - you were supposed to wear glitter. The band played Bowie, Mott the Hoople, Alice Cooper, etc.

Oddly, the other style of rock at the time that had "legs" was heavy metal. I would never have believed that 25 years later Ozzie Osbourne would be heading up a sitcom.

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. The era when it finally dies

and art finally begins to be recognized and appreciated by the masses.

That's my snob retort. Otherwise, you'd have to go way back to the 1940s.

[Squeech]

9. There were only two years

that you could sound exactly like you wanted to sound and still get a recording contract: 1967 (Summer of Love, choose your own examples) and 1977 (experimental punks like Wire, Pere Ubu, Television, Talking Heads, the Shirts, the Clash, the Germs, Human League-- although most of these bands either broke up or morphed into something marketable, the original punk explosion was a wonderful thing). And since the punks got hardly any Top 40 airplay, that leaves the '60s by default.