Posted on 07/05/2020 8:33:36 AM PDT by SamAdams76
Fifty years ago today, the first episode of the syndicated radio institution American Top 40 aired. The first station to air it was KDEO, in El Cajon, CA, who presented it on the evening of July 3rd, 1970. It broadcast through six other stations on July 4th and its reach would grow exponentially throughout the years, airing on 1,000 different stations at its peak. Casey Kasem, its iconic longtime host, would count down the most popular songs on the Billboard charts every week.
“Here we go with the top 40 hits of the nation this week on American Top 40 — the best-selling and most-played songs from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Canada to Mexico” is how he introduced his first show. “This is Casey Kasem in Hollywood, and in the next three hours, we’ll count down the 40 most popular hits in the United States this week, hot off the record charts of Billboard magazine…”
The first song ever played on the show was Marvin Gaye’s “End Of Our Road,” in the #40 slot. The show’s first #1 song was Three Dog Night’s “Mama Told Me (Not To Come),” which we reviewed in our The Number Ones column (naturally). Other artists that would get airtime that first week included the Beatles, Elvis Presley, the Jackson Five, the Temptations, and the Carpenters. Crosby Stills Nash And Young’s “Ohio,” which had come out a couple months earlier, came in at #30.
Kasem hosted the show continuously until 1988; it was taken over by Shadoe Stevens until 1995. It then went off the air for a short period, but was revived in 1998 with Kasem as host. (Kasem spent the interim hosting his own Casey’s Top 40.) Ryan Seacrest took the show over in 2004, and it still airs every week.
Check out the first-ever American Top 40 countdown below.
40 Marvin Gaye – “End Of Our Road”
39 Mark Lindsey – “Silver Bird”
38 Eric Burden – “Spill The Wine”
37 Crabby Appleton – “Go Back”
36 B.J. Thomas – “I Just Can’t Help Believing”
35 Aretha Franklin – “Spirit In The Dark”
34 John Phillips – “Mississippi”
33 Flaming Ember – “Westbound #9″
32 Four Tops – “It’s All In The Game”
31 Fifth Dimension – “Save The Country”
30 Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young – “Ohio”
29 Ray Stevens – “Everything Is Beautiful”
28 The Impressions – “Check Out Your Mind”
27 Moody Blues – “Question”
26 Stevie Wonder – “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”
25 Wilson Pickett – “Sugar, Sugar”
24 Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young – “Teach Your Children”
23 The Poppy Family – “Which Way You Goin’ Billy”
(Oldie: Bill Cosby – “Little Ole Man”)
22 The Moments – “Love On A Two Way Street”
21 Mountain – “Mississippi Queen”
20 Bread – “Make It With You”
19 Pacific Gas & Electric – “Are You Ready”
18 Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band – “Love Land”
17 Alive And Kicking – “Tighter & Tighter”
16 White Plains – “My Baby Loves Lovin'”
15 Miguel Rios – “A Song Of Joy”
(Oldie: Louis Armstrong – “Hello Dolly”)
14 Brotherhood Of Man – “United We Stand”
13 Rare Earth – “Get Ready”
12 The Five Stairsteps – “O-o-oh Child”
11 The Pipkins – “Gimme Dat Ding”
10 Vanity Fair – “Hitchin’ A Ride”
(Oldie: Blood, Sweat & Tears – “Spinning Wheel”)
09 Elvis Presley – “The Wonder Of You”
08 The Beatles – “The Long And Winding Road”
07 The Carpenters – “Close To You”
06 Melanie – “Lay Down (Candles In The Wind)”
05 Freda Payne – “Band Of Gold”
04 Blues Image – “Ride Captain Ride”
03 The Temptations – “Ball Of Confusion”
02 The Jackson Five – “The Love You Save”
(Oldie: The Rolling Stones – “Satisfaction”
01 Three Dog Night – “Mama Told Me (Not To Come)”
The local AM station in Findlay, O would play the program on Sunday 9-12 and would give the box set to a listener whose postcard was drawn from the week’s entries. Won it once, in 1974. Big stuff, eh? Thinnest LP’s I ever owned...wish I still had ‘em!
And Bob King
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tighter,_Tighter
I’m still a CD guy when it comes to music. And when I’m looking for something good on Amazon, I always start with a Casey Kasem search. Good stuff.
"Yellow Submarine" for example. Yikes.
Pretty meager pickings.
Not that I was listening as I was patrolling up on the Cambodian border.
“A lot of Beatles’ fans thought Sgt. Pepper was their best album, but for me, it was a big “meh”. “
Day in the Life was always one of my favorites, but Rubber Soul was and still is my favorite Beatles album.
I record his show every week on my Sirius/XM radio and listen to it while I cut grass in the summer and exercise in the winter. Good stuff.
> Your post reminds me, that I need to buy a few rock bottom basic transistor radios. <
I just bought a transistor radio to carry on my walks. But I spent a extra few bucks and got one with digital tuning. No more sliding that line around for me.
Can’t believe everything you see in the movies!
Casey Kasem was,in fact,a worthless phony in real life.Plus there was a huge fight over his estate between one of his wives and his kids. A typically worthless showbiz scum.
I grew up listening to Casey Kasem on WDRC in Hartford, CT, and he played my “Long Distance Dedication” on April 6, 1983. One of the highlights of my youth.
The Beatles went to India and returned with all of the new age crap the we suffer from today. F the Beatles.
I was being sarcastic!
The Beatles went to India and returned with all of the new age crap the we suffer from today. F the Beatles.
Casey Kasem Loses It Over A Death Dedication
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndUk6yX3PBo
Yup,heard it.That’s part of what makes me say “worthless,phony scum”.
I know you were.
So was I.
We’re good.
I always got a kick out of how towards the end of the show, he'd always thank all his "staff" including his statistician and researchers. It was like he had some kind of NASA mission control thing going on.
All he basically did was read the Top 40 off the Hot 100 Billboard chart! You could pick up a copy back then for about $2.
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