All researched by Joel Whitburn's Record Research Inc., the international authority, Billboard's charts hold countless surprises and ways to look at popular music. On this edition of American Jukebox we look at Billboard's Hot-100, R&B, and Country charts. To be included on this program the song had to be a #1 hit on one of these charts during the summer of a particular year. #1 on the Hot-100, and another #1 on R&B, and another #1 on the Country chart. These records had to appear between May 15 and September 15 of each summer of the 1970's. These were the giant summer hits in each genre. And in many cases, songs were on more than one chart.

Depending on what part of the country you were listening to the radio, you may have heard different music genres. It is especially noteworthy that much of the South was steeped heavily in Country, while northern cities had a great share of R&B and Hot-100 pop and rock.

Summer by summer, we take #1 hits, one each from the Hot-100, from R&B and from Country. These songs were all on American radios at the same time, during the summers 1970 - 1980.

Where were you listening? What are your summer hit memories? You'll find them here.

Part 1 of this American Jukebox mini-series is Summers Across the Charts: the 1960's.

#1 hits of summers past that appeared simultaneously in their genre on Billboard's Hot-100, R&B, and Country charts. Three from each summer, 1960 – 1969.

All researched by Joel Whitburn's Record Research Inc., the international authority, Billboard's charts hold countless surprises and ways to look at popular music. On this edition of American Jukebox we look at Billboard's Hot-100, R&B, and Country charts. To be included on this program the song had to be a #1 hit on one of these charts during the summer of a particular year. #1 on the Hot-100, and another #1 on R&B, and another #1 on the Country chart. These records had to appear between May 15 and September 15 of each summer of the 1960's. These were the giant summer hits in each genre. And in many cases, songs were on more than one chart.

Depending on what part of the country you were listening to the radio, you may have heard different music genres. It is especially noteworthy that much of the South was steeped heavily in Country, while northern cities had a great share of R&B and Hot-100 pop and rock.

Summer by summer, we take #1 hits, one each from the Hot-100, from R&B and from Country. These songs were all on American radios at the same time, during the summers of the 1960's.

Where were you listening? What are your summer hit memories? You'll find them here.

Part 2 of this American Jukebox mini-series is Summers Across the Charts: the 1970's.

(The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, Ohio, USA)

Since 1986 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has inducted "members" through a shroud of secrecy. Some of the best are inducted. But many of the best are excluded in favor of questionable candidates.

The governing heads of the organization publicly pride themselves on being non-transparent about the process of ballots and nominations. 2021 marked the 35th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Awards. Tina Turner and Carole King "got in." But Dionne Warwick did not. Oh, but the Foo Fighters, the Go Go's and Jay-Z did. This omission is a pattern that is known all too well with these awards as evidenced through the years.

On this edition of American Jukebox we look at some of the members of the Hall, and others that should be but are not.

The original Mama Rose in Gypsy. Ethel Merman -1959.

Broadway is fertile ground for songs about mothers and their lives as wives, caregivers, protectors, and doing the best they can.

So who comes to mind when you think about the character of "mother" on the musical stage? Mama Rose? Golde? Kim in Saigon? The resigned mother who lives in Fun Home? Maybe Mama Morton who runs the jail in Chicago? Or might be Anna with the King?
Sometimes happy, sometimes not. Mothers and their children develop many kinds of relationships on stage. This all about them.

"Looks like we made it," to quote Barry Manilow, through perhaps the worst year many of us have ever experienced. With the successful rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines, Americans can begin to think about resuming normal lives. Fully vaccinated people can visit freely in outdoor settings. Grandparents can see thier children and grandchilcren for the first time in over a year. Simple things like going to dinner at a restaurant is once again possible.

We celebrate all this song. Kool & the Gang's "Celebration." The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun." "Oh, Happy Day" has new meaning. 30 upbeat reminders that we have survived and are no longer "petrified" (thank you Gloria Gaynor).

For me, this is the first live broadcast I've made in 14 months. Because of COVID all of the past year's shows have been produced in my home studio. It's good to alive and "live" again.

The Grammy Awards were established in 1958 to recognize "good" music, elevate the taste in American popular music, and systematically ignore and neglect the tide of rock-n-roll, R&B, and young pop that threatened the fortunes and dominance of the music establishment.

The music establishment of the 1950's, made up of orchestra leaders, record producers, musicians and arrangers were worried about the enthusiasm with which American teenagers were greeting the new music they called rock-n-roll, Rhythm & Blues ("black" music), and young pop singers. They worried as they saw their fortunes start to be impacted and sales decline. In 1957 a group of those leaders in the music business created the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences*. Its first job was to establish an award, not unlike the motion picture industry, that would recognize and promote "good" music and ignore the new tidal wave of rockers through their new "Gramophone Award."

And so began the Grammy Awards. The first ten years of the awards clearly show how the Recording Academy tried to manipulate public taste. In many of the early cases the awards are laughable, even in the context of the late '50s and early '60s. By 1973 the Recording Academy established the Grammy Hall of Fame where they inducted many records annually, many of them overlooked when they were first released, others that pre-date the Grammys, as symbols of significant recordings.

On this edition of American Jukebox we look at the first 15 years of the Grammys and watch the evolution of American music, and include several Hall of Fame inductees. Surprises and a few loud gasps are sure to part of the audience reaction.

Spoilers: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir got the 1959 Grammy for Best Performance by a Group for their "Battle Hymn of the Republic." The Statler Brothers got the 1965 Grammy for the Best Rock and Roll Recording by a Group for their "Flowers On the Wall."

* Today called the Recording Academy.