Top of the Pops

Who is old enough to remember looking forward to the weekly release of the Top Forty charts from their favourite radio station. ?

When I was a teenager it seemed so important. There were several charts. Our local Adelaide radio stations had their own and then there was the National chart and the UK and USA ones.

We’d compare them with each other and get excited if our favourite songs were on the way up. We’d also listen to Top 40 shows on the radio. I remember one station used to broadcast Casey Kasem’s America’s Top 40. That often had songs we’d never heard of and always cheesy dedications from listeners.

Of course Aussies of my generation usually wanted to see the Countdown Chart too. Watching Countdown on the ABC on Sunday evening was a ritual for many of us and the end of the show was always the Top 10 songs from the chart.

Even classical music stations have charts. Every year ABC Classic does a Top 100 chart on a different theme and plays all the songs over the June long weekend.

Music charts are a lot more fun than medical charts.

*Featured Image is Sanity at Northgate Shopping Centre, Glenorchy Tasmania by Mr Stan Zemanek