I'm scheduling a Classic Hits station. I decided to replace Meatloaf's five-minute '90s ballad and as I did I thought "...but I won't do that." #AT40

After "The Way I Want to Touch You," "Muskrat Love," "Do That to Me One More Time," and this, you would have thought that Captain & Tennille had a *great* private life. #AT40

I saw Al Stewart a decade ago and he complained (good naturedly) about still having to sing "Time Passages," which he considered a trifle. Said it was like Chuck Berry having his biggest hit with "My Ding A Ling." #AT40

"Strange Way" by Firefall is a favorite and very much in that category of songs that are exactly why we need an #AT40 reruns and Saturday thread.

For years, "Straight On" and "Dog & Butterfly" were the last two Heart hits that counted as Canadian Content before they left their boyfriends and returned to America. About a decade ago, it was decided that they had left earlier, so now Cancon Heart stops with "Heartless," from summer '78. #AT40

A little weekend reading for anybody now thinking about how Taste of Honey won the new artist Grammy over Elvis Costello or the Cars. #AT40 radioinsight.com/blogs/320021...

Eric Carmen's career was very heavily built on genre exercises and soundalikes--Beatlesque, Specteroid. Realizing this morning that "Change of Heart" (despite another classical riff) is basically his Hall & Oates record (and slightly bigger than the real Hall & Oates song). #AT40

Fall '78 was funk's peak moment. There were multiple Parliament/Funkadelic spin-offs and copycats on R&B radio. "One Nation Under a Groove" stands out on #AT40 but there was a lot of cosmic sloppiness at the moment.

Tim Weisberg finally got to meet Marilyn Martin at the mixer for #AT40 acts known only as left-field duet partners.

Stephen Bishop's "Everybody Needs Love" must have begun with him telling the bassist "just play the 'You Keep Me Hanging On' opening riff until we find a groove." #AT40

I found Crystal Gayle very appealing, but I didn't much like her snoozy ballads. But I was also listening to Country in fall '78--rare for a teenager--and the follow-up to "Talking in Your Sleep" was pretty hot for Country at the time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcUQ...

I had a great senior year of high-school, driven, in part, by putting even more distance from 6th/7th grade. There's a lot of music in this week's #AT40 that I don't really like ("My Life" for instance), but I didn't mind, because I was in a good mood.

Just for some perspective, before writing an anti-McCarthy song that would be hard to imagine today, Gene Cotton had recording Christian music. #AT40

It is three whole days into Christmas radio and I have finally heard "Last Christmas" into "This Christmas" (the Mary J. Blige version). #MomentsOfMusicSchedulingGrace

Greetings #AT40 and other friends. Saturday night is alright for the update of my "today's best pop music" playlist: Big Hits Energy! open.spotify.com/playlist/0Hg...

I've read that Peter Cetera didn't like singing about Howdy Doody. It wasn't *his* childhood. In many ways now, "Old Days" is as uncomfortable to hear now as "The Immigrant." #AT40

Two Motor City (associated) acts decide to branch out in 1975. Alice Cooper makes one of the earliest power ballads. Grand Funk goes power pop. They win. Well, aesthetically anyway. They didn't have another hit and Alice had three more ballads. #AT40

Among my latest "this sounds like that" revelations, which I have all the time... "Don't Call Us We'll Call You," "Hijack," and "Do It Any Way You Wanna" all use a similar guitar riff within a six month span. #AT40

Another word for Gordon Lightfoot's "Rainy Day People": Codependent. #AT40

What war do we think Roger Whittaker was singing about in "The Last Farewell," if he was leaving somewhere tropical to go back to old stormy England and there seemed to be a war in the way of getting there? #AT40

"Telling your existing talent to post more on social is like telling your dog to do algebra." Stingray's Steve Jones on why it's better to add existing influencers to the morning team as they did in PEI at Ontario Association of Broadcasters. #OAB2025

Greetings to #AT40 and other Bluesky friends. If you're keeping up with today's hit music (and some that just sounds like a hit), here's this week's updated version of Big Hits Energy! open.spotify.com/playlist/0Hg...

Maybe Winfred Lovett of the Manhattans heard "Me & Mrs. Jones" and thought, "I wonder how that relationship ended." Robert John probably heard "Kiss and Say Goodbye" and thought "let me write a song with that lyric." #AT40

In the summer of '76, Herb Alpert heard that horn solo on "More More More" and thought, "I could make a disco record." #AT40

I was fortunate to see Sir Paul in M/SP last Friday. His nod to this album wasn't "Silly Love Songs," but "Let 'Em In." The #AT40 Dirty 30 contribution was "Letting Go."

Summer of '76 was strong for great "radio records." "The Boys Are Back in Town" may be my perfect summer song, but there are a half dozen great ones on this countdown. #AT40

The best song title of 2025 so far ("Gas Station Love") and much more on this week's Big Hits Energy playlist of new, uptempo pop, R&B, rock, and more. For anybody looking for the variety they heard on #AT40 (or even just 15 years ago). open.spotify.com/playlist/0Hg...

Thanks to @tombreihan.bsky.social for the shout-out. Return now to a moment where Alt's breakthrough acts were trying hard to squander their stardom, but in this case couldn't.

Start your week with Big Hits Energy! Top 40 hits from around the world and some that should be. This week, something I never expected to feature, two from Temper Trap! open.spotify.com/playlist/0Hg...

The narrative about "Life of a Showgirl" is "mixed reaction," but that doesn't jibe with what I've heard from people, or take into account the people now angry at Taylor Swift no matter what. Meanwhile, there's nothing mixed about this. www.billboard.com/music/chart-...

The good news is that Bad Bunny has heard all the comments about "it should have been a Bay Area artist" and invited a local legend to guest with him. So ladies and gentlemen, singing "We Built This City," please welcome .. STARSHIP! #AT40

Billy Joel, "My Life" into Talk Talk, "It's My Life." #MomentsOfMusicSchedulingGrace

I just heard an Australian oldies station go from Abba/Does Your Mother Know to Split Enz/I Got You. Both are still hits on the radio there, but not in the U.S. Made me very happy. Must be what it's like for *normal* U.S. listeners to go from "Dancing Queen" into "Eye of the Tiger." #AT40

Because new music should be for every day. Here's this Sunday's Big Hits Energy, my playlist of uptempo hit music (and songs that should be) with special emphasis on keeping #AT40 and other friends current. New music this week from Sublime to Sombr to Saskatoon! open.spotify.com/playlist/0Hg...

About me and "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep"... #AT40

I like "Liar" by Three Dog Night. Whenever I've had the chance to ask in the course of my radio industry work, many people really *do not* like this song (if they know it). For one thing, nobody likes to be told off by a song. #AT40 musicmaster.com/index.php?p=...

Looking for some ridiculous but mundane news to break up the doomscrolling this morning? www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

I actually know somebody involved in the making of John Travolta's "Let Her In." I'd like to know what possessed them to give him a high note to hit at the end. #AT40

Since summer '76 is the peak time for TV themes... Is there any TV theme that ought to be a hit song now? I kinda like the 1967 sunshine pop feel of "Only Murders in the Building." TV themes would sound out of place now, but they kinda did in 1976, too. #AT40

Interesting to consider how the two most enduring bands from summer '76 are Abba and Queen ... and they're not without similarities. #AT40

I can't wait for #AT40 tomorrow to share this with the group. A just unearthed version of the Rolling Stones goofing around with "Shame Shame Shame" by Shirley & Company. It's not far, by the way, from here to "Hot Stuff," the disco song they did release in 1976. www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU-g...

Thanks to @cmolanphy.bsky.social and #HitParadePod for bringing this column to life about the varying things that being #1 means these days. #AT40

I was sorry to hear about the death of ex-Cricket Sonny Curtis. "The Buddy Holly Story" turned the rest of the band into cyphers, and villains, but he got a Country hit out of it. #RIP #AT40 www.youtube.com/watch?v=L17S...

"Heaven Must Have Sent You" was one of the first instances of a song needing a significant remix to become a hit. (The original was more like the '60s Motown original by the Elgins.) Somewhere, Mariah and J-Lo were taking notes. #AT40

"Bad Case of Loving You" has one of my all-time favorite place memories (driving back from Busch Gardens to DC with a high-school friend). It became a column. #AT40 radioinsight.com/blogs/169603...

"Born to Be Alive" is waaay too goofy for many people. That's part of why I love it. One of those songs that I consider to be "beyond good and evil." #AT40

It is during Top 40's greatest moments of confusion that you get the left-field comebacks. (Think of Roberta Flack and James Ingram in 1992.) Consider that on this week's #AT40 countdown with the return of Maureen McGovern and Lobo. (Mary MacGregor charted that fall, too.)

"Hot Summer Nights" by Night is a meta-#AT40 song. It was first Walter Egan's attempted follow-up to "Magnet & Steel," nine months earlier. This song was such an obscure fave that I heard a station in Providence playing it in 1988 and pulled the car over to tape it as proof. #AT40

Diana Ross had gone 3+ years since "Love Hangover" without a smash. When "The Boss" wasn't bigger, I remember thinking that maybe radio was just done with her forever. A year later, that would change dramatically. #AT40

It's amazing now, but Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" came out in mid-July and for the first month, it just kinda sat there. Very similar to Diana Ross' "Upside Down" a year later, which wasn't even a single right away. #AT40