Well, it has taken me nearly a year to upload all the CKOC ALL HIT 40 charts that were not available as "take-home" charts from the record stores. They were transcribed from my notebooks and I had the same experience presenting them in this blog as I did listening to them back in the '80s and early '90s. The experience became less fun and more of a chore as the years wore on. This is probably due to the fact that the music that CKOC was playing near the end (1990-91) was for the most part terrible.
Contrast some of the junk that was charting during CKOC's final years to some of the songs that didn't even crack the Top 20 ten years earlier in 1980-81. Songs like "Things Gotta Change" by Cruiser, "Somebody's Knockin'" by Terri Gibbs or "Try Walkin' Away" by Murray McLaughlan may not be well-remembered by the average listener today, but even though they never became as big as "Rock Lobster" or "Physical", they were still well-written songs you could sing along with. Not so with tripe from the early '90s such as "Temptation" by Corina or "Power Windows" by Billy Falcon.
I'd like to end with my Top Ten most underrated songs from the period this blog spanned, August 1985-February 1992. None of these songs cracked the Top 30 on CKOC yet deserve another listen all these years later. Most of the videos for them can be found in previous posts. Note that half of my list are from 1989.
#1. TANGO by Dalbello, #34 in April 1989
#2. I KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE SOMEWHERE by The Moody Blues, #33 in August 1988
#3. I DROVE ALL NIGHT by Cyndi Lauper, #31 in July 1989
#4. HANGIN' ON A HEART ATTACK by Device, #35 in August 1986
#5. TELL IT TO MY HEART by Taylor Dayne, #35 in January 1988
#6. AMERICA IS SEXY by Paul Hyde, #32 in November 1989
#7. I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE by Martika, #31 in October 1989
#8. CUDDLY TOY (FEEL FOR ME) by Roachford, #37 in June 1989
#9. HERE I AM (COME AND TAKE ME) by UB40, #34 in July 1991
#10. SENZA UNA DONNA by Zucchero & Paul Young, #34 in January 1992
This is a great sight! Any chance of seeing any CKOC charts from 1960 to 1984? CKOC once had specials on the Top hits from 1957 on weekday afternoons. I'm curious as to what they were based on, if CKOC charts didn't exist then.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible to obtain the first (I think) Top 500 from 1969. I realize there are probably too many easy listening songs for most people's taste here. What I would like is a Top 1150 of all time based solely on chart statistics with no omissions or "rock and roll" substitutes. As you may have guessed, a lot of my favorite songs of the 50's 60's and 70's have nothing to do with rock and roll. I really miss the Top 40 format, as Joel Whitburn mentioned in his Billboard Top 40 Hits book that featured anything and everything.
P.S. I still miss the Wednesday night countdowns.
Thanks,
Ted from Toronto
I only have a consecutive chart run beginning from December 1978 so can't post any from the '60s or 70s. I chose to post those that were not available in print form in record stores. I don't have the first Big 500. 1970 is the earliest poster I own.
DeleteCan you post or get me the charts from late May 1983 - early Dec. of the same year . I am trying to calculate whether Every Breath You Take or Tonights the Night was a bigger hit.
ReplyDeleteEvery Breath You Take was by far the bigger hit . It spent 20 weeks in the top 10 and 16 of those weeks in the top 3 . Tonights the Night equaled the 11 weeks at number one but spent only 16 weeks in the top 10.
Deleteany chance you have the complete charts 1980-1985. I am trying to write a book about Canadian music.
ReplyDelete