The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / The Most Interesting Music May Be The Stuff You Didn't Hear On Radio

**Posted by RadioActive** October 16, 2024 9:42 am

We all listened to the radio to hear the hits, but back in the 60s and 70s, very few of us got to sample the Bubbling Under in Billboard - songs that never even cracked the Top 100. According to radio researcher Sean Ross, there's gold in them thar stiffs, and many of them are outlined in a new chart book called "Ranking The 70s," by a guy named Bill Carroll (not THAT Bill Carroll.)

In this entertaining column, he outlines some new "old" faves no one but the artists who made them ever heard, and why they're now of tremendous interest.

And by the way, for the record (45s, of course) there's also a version called "Ranking the 60s" by the same author.

The Very Bottom Of The Billboard Charts

**Posted by RadioActive** October 16, 2024 11:31 am

Thanks to an offline DM, it appears there's an error in the Ross article. The chart info he quotes is apparently based on Cash Box, not Billboard. Still interesting, but worth the clarification.

**Posted by mace** October 16, 2024 4:26 pm

I checked the Record Research site to see if a book was ever published on the Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart. Nope. The closest is Hit Rrcords #101-150: 1959-1982. The chart information is from Music Vendor Magazine which was eventually retitled as Record World.

**Posted by Dale Patterson** October 16, 2024 7:25 pm

mace wrote:
I checked the Record Research site to see if a book was ever published on the Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart. Nope. The closest is Hit Rrcords #101-150: 1959-1982. The chart information is from Music Vendor Magazine which was eventually retitled as Record World.

Here's the Bubbling Under book you were looking for...

https://www.amazon.ca/Joel-Whitburns-Bubbling-Under-1959-1985/dp/0898200822

**Posted by paterson1** October 16, 2024 7:28 pm

Dale, you will play many of these cuts on your station?

**Posted by newsguy1** October 16, 2024 8:13 pm

My friends and I spent our university years getting our degrees, but what we really majored in was the UBC radio station, CITR.
We, and our successors took it from a nothing AM carrier current campus radio station to a groundbreaking FM Vancouver radio station.
Once we took over from the students who ran it like a campus club, we transformed it into a station that specialized in weird and avante garde music and other programming that carries on to this day.
We were lucky enough to attract members who became really innovative music programmers whose playlists ended up being poached by commercial radio in town.
we put out our own playlists and distributed them to music stations and stores in Vancouver.
Record companies started sending us free albums of music from bands and artists you'd never hear on commercial radio.
And it was good stuff.
The station ended up sponsoring concerts with these artists.
Some of them went on to do quite well, always "bubbling" beneath the surface.

**Posted by mace** October 16, 2024 8:20 pm

Dale Patterson wrote:
mace wrote:
I checked the Record Research site to see if a book was ever published on the Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart. Nope. The closest is Hit Rrcords #101-150: 1959-1982. The chart information is from Music Vendor Magazine which was eventually retitled as Record World.
Here's the Bubbling Under book you were looking for...

https://www.amazon.ca/Joel-Whitburns-Bubbling-Under-1959-1985/dp/0898200822

Thanks Dale. I was sure there was a Bubbling Under book, but couldn't find it. I suspect it is currently out of print and has been removed from the Record Research catalogue.