About a month ago, CKOC web subscribers were sent a lengthy Rate the Music survey containing 500 songs in which we rated them from "Dislike a lot" to "Like a lot" and the results would be used to determine the rankings of the Big 500 Fall 2013 Edition. Perusing and rating the songs made my heart sink since all of them seemed pulled from the playlist of the short-lived-now-defunct Vinyl 95.3 (2010-2013).
The list eschewed any 1950s classics or any pre-Beatles, Kennedy-era goodies by everyone from Dion to Ricky Nelson to the entire Phil Spector catalogue. Needless to say, I was less than excited about this fall's countdown when some of my beloved oldies would be now replaced with the likes of The Travelling Wilburys, Bryan Adams and even songs from the Footloose soundtrack!
When the countdown got underway Tuesday morning, I felt a little better when the opening strings of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" laid claim to the #496 spot. So no, those malt-shop oldies hadn't ALL disappeared from the countdown, but by the final day, it was obvious from the 110 casualties from last spring's edition that CKOC is now moving forward and trying less to appeal to Baby Boomers and more to the late boomers/Gen X listeners who had been Vinyl's prime audience back in 2010. And talk about criminal---of those 110 songs that are gone ten of them were Elvis hits! Even more curious is the fact that certain songs from the Doo-Wop era such as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" or "All I Have To Do Is Dream" survived the axe yet slightly less-old oldies like "Sealed With a Kiss", "The Shoop Shoop Song" and even "This Diamond Ring" did not.
It's true---time marches on and while I would gladly say good riddance to "Soldier Boy", "Chapel of Love" or anything by Bobby Curtola, I missed hearing "It's My Party", "Tossin' and Turnin'" or "Johnny Angel" on this fall's Big 500. Even though they are close to (or more than) 30 years old now, I still can't accept "Dancing in the Dark" or "Billie Jean" or even "Dancing Queen" as Golden Oldies. Sorry 1150.
