| Adult Contemporary (billboard Chart) |
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Information AboutAdult Contemporary (billboard Chart) |
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Like most other Billboard charts since 1998 , airplay-only songs are allowed to enter the Adult Contemporary chart besides commercially available singles. The first song to reach the AC chart without being available as a retail single was Stevie Wonder 's "Isn't She Lovely" in 1977. COMPARISON WITH THE HOT 100 As noted in the above history of the chart, although some people would assume that The Billboard Hot 100 and the Adult Contemporary (AC) chart are the same thing, they are not. The AC chart lists only pop/contemporary songs, while the Hot 100 includes songs from every genre. This situation has created some notable chart listing comparisons between the AC chart and the Hot 100 over the years. Pop songs generally tend to chart higher on the AC chart than the Hot 100 chart since on the Hot 100 they are competing with songs from other genres, such as country or hip-hop. One example of this was pop singer Amy Grant 's 1991 single "That's What Love Is For" from her '' Heart In Motion '' album. The single topped the AC chart but reached the #7 position on the Hot 100. In fact, every one of Grant's singles have done better on the AC chart than the pop chart, and some have even charted solely on the AC chart. There are exceptions to this, however. In 1988 The Beach Boys topped the Hot 100 with their pop single "Kokomo." "Kokomo" did not make it to the top spot on the AC chart, however, and it peaked at #5, even though "Kokomo" was a pop/contemporary song. Other notable singles by adult-appeal artists which reached #1 Pop while coming close but falling short of the top spot on the AC chart have included "Top Of The World" by The Carpenters , "You Needed Me" by Anne Murray , "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" by Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond , "Crazy For You" by Madonna , and "Don't Wanna Lose You" by Gloria Estefan . In other instances, an artist with an established AC track record may release an uptempo song that is not as accepted at AC radio as at top 40 radio. Olivia Newton-John 's biggest pop hit, "Physical," reached only #29 on the AC chart, and several of her other early 1980s pop hits, including "Heart Attack" and "Twist Of Fate," were shut out from the AC chart entirely, despite the fact that Newton-John had amassed nine #1 AC hits from 1974 to 1980. CHART HISTORY Billboard has published an adult-music chart since July 1961 ; it was originally called "Easy Listening" and was simply a listing of the top singles on the Billboard Hot 100 excluding those with rock and roll overtones. The #1 song on the very first Easy Listening chart was "The Boll Weevil Song" by Brook Benton ; the first female artist to top the chart was Connie Francis with her version of the standard "Together." In the early years of the Easy Listening chart, the top song on the chart was generally always a Top 10 pop hit as well. The methodology for compiling the chart at that time allowed some teenage-appeal artists to have Top 10 Easy Listening hits with their softer or ballad releases (for example, Shelley Fabares with "Johnny Loves Me" and Lesley Gore with "I Don't Wanna Be A Loser"), regardless of whether Easy Listening and Middle-of-the-Road radio stations were actually playing those songs. Over the next several years, the chart went by a variety of names, including "Middle-Road Singles" and "Pop-Standard Singles." In 1965 , Billboard revamped the Easy Listening chart to better reflect what middle-of-the-road stations were actually playing, and the composition of the chart changed dramatically. As rock music continued to harden, there was much less crossover between the Hot 100 and Easy Listening chart than there had been in the early half of the 1960s. Several #1 Easy Listening hits of the late 1960s, such as Andy Russell 's "It's Such A Pretty World Today" and John Gary 's "Cold," failed to make the Hot 100 at all, simply "Bubbled Under," or made the chart in only minor positions. In 1967, only one single reached #1 on both the Easy Listening and Hot 100 charts - "Somethin' Stupid" by Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra . Many of today's AC radio listeners may be surprised to learn that a great number of the 1960s songs played on modern-day AC and oldies radio, such as "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" and "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers , "Brown-Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison , "Respect" by Aretha Franklin , "Downtown" by Petula Clark , and "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas & The Papas , were considered too hard-edged by adult-oriented radio stations when they were originally released and never made the Easy Listening chart (or, in the case of "Unchained Melody," did not chart AC until they were re-released years later). The songs that ''were'' popular on Easy Listening radio during the 1960s have, for the most part, been relegated to Music Of Your Life and other Pop Standards radio formats. This situation began to change toward the end of the 1960s and into the early and mid-1970s. By then, the audiences that middle-of-the-road stations were trying to attract were those who were more likely to identify with rock and roll than with the music of their parents' generation. They gravitated toward so-called "chicken rock" stations, which played Top 40 music without a hard rock edge and a good amount of oldie material. In addition, more contemporary-styled artists who recorded adult-appeal music, such as The Carpenters , Bread , The Fifth Dimension , Barry Manilow , Olivia Newton-John , Neil Diamond , Helen Reddy , Barbra Streisand and John Denver began to be played more often on Top 40 radio. Once again, there was a good amount of crossover between the Easy Listening and Hot 100 charts, and many more songs reached #1 on both charts. Billboard changed the name of the Easy Listening chart to the younger-sounding "Adult Contemporary" in 1979 , by which time, like most other music formats, the format had transitoned from the AM dial to the FM dial. Since then, the amount of crossover between the AC chart and the Hot 100 has varied based on how much the passing pop music trends of the times appealed to adult listeners. Not many Disco or New Wave songs were particularly successful on the AC chart during the late 1970s and early 1980s, and much of the hip-hop and harder rock music now featured on CHR formats would be unacceptable on AC. Nevertheless, there is a long list of performers during that time who have amassed an impressive number of hits on both charts, such as Elton John , Madonna , Eric Clapton , Cher , Hall & Oates , Celine Dion , Mariah Carey , and Whitney Houston , as well as, more recently, Backstreet Boys , Faith Hill , and American Idol champion Kelly Clarkson , among many others. SEE ALSO |
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