On the radio today I heard them talking about the so called “Phantom Number One” songs form Billboard magazine, as listed by Billboard magazine
These were songs that would have went to number one if they had been released as singles. But they weren’t released as singles so they were not able to chart
(This policy changed today a song can chart on airplay alone)
The DJs said their were five of them.
Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin Pinball Wizard by Elton John More Than A Woman by The Bee Gees Into the Groove by Madonna
But I didn’t hear the fifth song. I can’t find anything on the internet about it.
I was wondering if anyone could hazard a guess or had access to Billboard magazine’s site to do a search?
What is this DJ using as proof? Since they weren’t released as singles, what makes him say that these would have been all Number Ones? And I’m assuming that this is for the US Singles chart, right?
What was the combination of sales and airplay that was used back then to chart singles? Are they saying that the airplay alone for those songs was so massive that if released as singles and sold zero quantity, they would have made #1 on airplay alone? Was that possible?
There are ways of tracking airplay (Radio and Records, a trade publication, has been doing it since at least the early '70s.) So in theory it could be calculated.
Elton John’s Pinball Wizard got massive airplay long before it was released as a single (I was playing it in mid-1975). A Day in the Life and the Neil Diamond/Barbara Streisand duet of You Don’t Bring Me Flowers are a couple of others I can remember that got huge airplay even though they hadn’t been released as singles.
This is going to pinpoint my age pretty clearly (not that I try to hide it, anyway), but as a kid, I clearly remember my older sister having a 45 of Riders On the Storm, so apparently, it was released as a single.
In his most recent work, Joel Whitburn lists several songs that were #1 on the airplay charts but which were not released as singles, all dating from the mid-1990’s and later.
“Maybe I’m Amazed,” the great single-that-never-was from Paul McCartney’s first solo album. My local AM rock & roll station couldn’t include it in their weekly Top 30 survey because it wasn’t a single, but they gave this song and “Every Night” plenty of airplay and listed them on the printed surveys after the actual chart. Years later, McCartney released a live version with Wings as a single, and got to #3 with it.
Not that this is proof, but I remember Casey Kasem talking about this very thing back in 1985, when Into the Groove was big - he claimed then that had it been released as a single, the airplay chart alone would’ve made it #1.
Another DQ, I’m afraid. I’ve got the original 45 of ‘Valley Girl’ in my attic with all my old records. Still have the picture sleeve on this one with Moon hugging Frank.
I heard Elton John’s version long before I ever heard The Who’s original version. Strange. I heard the original and wondered what happened to the piano …