If we were hearing the real Jan. 1, 1980 #AT40 countdown, we'd be hearing the debut of the epoch dividing "Rapper's Delight" at #37, mostly because of sales since pop radio doesn't know what to do with it.

Just noticed that the guitarist on the decidedly unswampy "The Way We Were" is throwing in some country-funk riffs from "Rainy Night In Georgia." #AT40 #ThisSoundsLikeThat

For #AT40 friends and others keeping up with new music, these are the songs that were not just big hits in 2025 but trend-defining.

Ruin two bands by combining them: Sweet Ratt

Looking for a break from holiday music? My Big Hits Energy playlist didn't take six weeks off. It's refreshed and ready for 2025 for #AT40 friends and others. open.spotify.com/playlist/0Hg...

Hey, I don't even try to avoid "Last Christmas." (I work with holiday radio and would have been done by Dec. 1, anyway.) But in the last 12 hours, I have heard two *different* versions of "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer." Not Whamageddon but #Grandmageddon. #AT40

Here's a great lesser-known Chris Rea song I found as an oldie on European radio in the late '90s, proving that he rolled deep. You'd be hard pressed to pinpoint exactly when this is from if you didn't know because it's an interesting mix of elements. #AT40 www.youtube.com/watch?v=SInT...

Chris Rea's "Fool (If You Think It's Over)" is one of the defining songs of the #AT40 thread. In Canada and the UK, he's all over the radio now because of "Driving Home For Christmas. I'm glad he had a great second act there, even if the US is spottier on his '80s hits. RIP.

I am so happy to see @kylieminogue.music-social.com's "X-M-A-S" as the UK's Christmas No. 1 this week, taking it back from older titles (not that "Last Christmas" wasn't deserving) and previous years that were mostly novelties/oddities. If it could only happen here. #AT40

"Take a Chance on Me" into "Take On Me." The radio music plotting software puts two Nordic songs of similar intent next to each other, creating #MomentsOfMusicSchedulingGrace.

When Casey Kasem called Michael Jackson "one of the most successful lead singers in the history of popular music," they had just hit their second anniversary as a hitmaking act. #AT40

My personal "greatest single of all time" changes several times a week, but it always changes when I hear "Respect Yourself" again. #AT40

Always listening for great new music. Here's the latest installment of my hits/should be hits playlist--Big Hits Energy! Shares welcomed/appreciated. #AT40 open.spotify.com/playlist/0Hg...

The best radio station name that I've heard in a while is a Wyoming station that was just sold today. It's not just Classic Rock. It's "Vintage Vinyl." #AT40

I don't do a lot of interviews with artists or radio people. I was particularly proud of this one. #AT40

In advance of the Stranger Things premiere, one of the UK's major broadcasters has launched an '80s radio channel based on the station in the TV show. #StrangerThings

There's always somebody who doesn't like any song, but the first hour of today's #AT40 is going to be pretty solid all through the not-so-dirty-thirty.

You can't tell from just the snatch of artwork below, but somebody finally wrote a (pop/punk) Christmas song called "Merry Xmas, You Filthy Animals." You can hear it, and other new holiday songs, through the article below. #AT40

"You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" is so versatile that it was also the Floaters' follow-up to "Float On." #AT40 www.youtube.com/watch?v=czcP...

Before I heard this episode of #AT40, I learned "Patch It Up" from Australian oldies stations, where it was a much bigger hit. Another one that Eddie Rabbitt wrote for Elvis.

What you're hearing on #AT40 -- Casey going into "Abraxis" to play "Oye Como Va" as an album cut is typical of what Top 40 radio was going through then. For a few years, AM radio struggled to figure out what rock records to cross over, not unlike Top 40 trying to choose music from TikTok now.

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...