1 of 1- RadioActive
- Moderator
Offline 
"Top 40 Hit Clock" Counts Down Entire History Of Music Song By Song
If you haven't been following the Elvis Dead special thread, I thought this was so neat, it deserved its own topic. It's called the "Top 40 Hit Clock" and it's an old radio special that was apparently sold to stations several years ago.
According to an All Access article from 2015:
"Without DJ talk that would break the spell of a music flow featuring 50 years of carefully researched songs, Top 40 Hit Clock starts ticking at the birth of rock and roll in the mid-'50s and rolls on through the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s -- all the way through the millennium without a repeated song.
"The great hits are presented in chronological order of the dates of their popularity and appearance on the record sales charts of the nation. The songs are heard in order, month by month, year by year as Top 40 Hit Clock becomes a musical calendar, recalling the hits from the times of the listener's lives."
I only wish I had discovered it earlier. They're already up to 1975 and the audio quality is superb!
The Top 40 Hit Clock Replay
- RadioActive
- Moderator
Offline
Re: "Top 40 Hit Clock" Counts Down Entire History Of Music Song By Song
It appears this is running on a loop - they're suddenly back to 1964!
- •
Thread Starter- Dale Patterson
- Member
Offline
Re: "Top 40 Hit Clock" Counts Down Entire History Of Music Song By Song
RadioActive wrote:
If you haven't been following the Elvis Dead special thread, I thought this was so neat, it deserved its own topic. It's called the "Top 40 Hit Clock" and it's an old radio special that was apparently sold to stations several years ago.
According to an All Access article from 2015:
"Without DJ talk that would break the spell of a music flow featuring 50 years of carefully researched songs, Top 40 Hit Clock starts ticking at the birth of rock and roll in the mid-'50s and rolls on through the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s -- all the way through the millennium without a repeated song.
"The great hits are presented in chronological order of the dates of their popularity and appearance on the record sales charts of the nation. The songs are heard in order, month by month, year by year as Top 40 Hit Clock becomes a musical calendar, recalling the hits from the times of the listener's lives."
I only wish I had discovered it earlier. They're already up to 1975 and the audio quality is superb!
The Top 40 Hit Clock Replay
I love it! This exact same idea was broadcast on XM Radio from 2002 to 2007. It was called "IT: The History of Pop Music" and it was an annual event, beginning in September and lasting five weeks. It started in the '30s and went up to the present on the various Decades channels.
"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
- Fitz
- Member
Offline
Re: "Top 40 Hit Clock" Counts Down Entire History Of Music Song By Song
It appears this is running on a loop - they're suddenly back to 1964!
They seem to be going back and forth right now. I heard:
Things I Should Have Said - Grassroots ( 1967)
I'm A Believer - Monkees- ( 1966)
Windy - Association ( 1967)
Since You've Been Gone - Aretha Franklin ( 1968
Mony Mony - Tommy James and The Shondells (1968)
Love Me Two Times - The Doors ( 1967)
The Grassroots song was at best top 20 and The Doors top 25.
Last edited by Fitz (August 5, 2020 9:09 pm)
Cool Airchecks and More:
- RadioActive
- Moderator
Offline
Re: "Top 40 Hit Clock" Counts Down Entire History Of Music Song By Song
The Grassroots song was at best top 20 and The Doors top 25.
That just makes it better in my mind! Songs you never hear on the radio, a sort of Oh Wow!-like service that Dale Patterson currently runs, although most of the songs on the Clock tend to be huge hits that are still played today.
- •
Thread Starter