The Daily Dose/May 27, 2025
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
OH HELL, HERE WE GO: This past weekend we heard our all-time favorite radio show, Casey Kasem’s American Top 40’s countdown of the Top 50 hits of the 1970s – the Countdown of the Decade as it’s known. For our money, it remains one of radio’s finest efforts, certainly better than anything we ever did when we plied that more or less honorable trade ages ago.
Dry, Technical Matter: There is a 24/7 AT40 channel that plays their year-end top 100 hits of the year shows every holiday weekend. They generally throw in one of Casey’s special shows, and once a year or so, they’ll play the Countdown of the Decade.
Fly In The Ointment: One thing we’ve always quibbled with – and something we’ve discussed here before – is how songs are ranked. Casey says several times that the countdown is computed by AT40 staff based on data from Billboard’s weekly charts….Fair enough, though further details appear to be a proprietary secret, though we would not have a seizure of the system awarded points for reaching each chart position.
Stop Us If You’ve Heard This Before: It’s different than the system we would use. For our money, the only criterion is a song’s peak position. In this case, every song went to #1, so you’d break ties with the number of weeks at #1, weeks in the Top 5, Top 10, Top 40, and on the Hot 100. Honestly, we don’t see how anybody ranks songs any other way. Using the points method, it is entirely possible a #2 song could outrank a #1 song in a year-end survey, which happens a lot and is utterly whack. My song went to number one, yours didn’t, therefore my song is bigger than yours.
The Bottom Line: You’re probably thinking we were going to bore everyone with a comparison of Casey’s Top 10 and ours – they are different – but we won’t bore you with that. Yet. We will save it for next time.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow declines to read an email for health reasons. Today’s Diary.
The AFDM showed it to me and it was fairly long (typical AFDM thoroughness, no doubt), tho to avoid stroke we didn’t actually read it…
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On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it.
In 1703 – The city of St Petersburg is founded by Russian Tsar Peter the Great to give Russia a year-round seaport. The city is located at the mouth of the Neva River, about halfway between Finland and Estonia. The city served as Russia’s capital from 1713-1728 and again from 1730-1918, when it was moved to Moscow and today has a population of roughly 5.3 million, the northernmost European city with more than one million people. The site had originally been the site of a fortress built by Swedes in 1611.
In 1961 – Ralph Boston establishes a new world record in the long jump at the Modestp Relays in California. Boston jumped 27 feet, one=quarter of an inch, to break the record of 26 feet, 11 inches he had established in August 1960. Boston would break the record by 1.5 inches in July, and all told held the world six different times. The world record is now 29 feet, 4.25 inches, done by Mike Powell in 1991.
In 2017 – Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber is at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the first of a record-tying 16 consecutive weeks with Despacito. The song went to #1 in 41 other countries, including Ukraine and Great Britain, and was Billboard’s 2nd-biggest song of the year. It remains the only #1 song by Fonsi and Daddy Yankee and was the fifth of nine #1s for Bieber. The song tied the mark established by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men with One Sweet Day and the record is now 19 weeks, by Lil Naz X and Billy Ray Cyrus (Old Town Road) and Shaboozey [A Bar Song (Tipsey)]
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
But his time is not now, and so the legend dies.
Charles Kuralt
Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.
Chief Justice of the United States Salmon P Chase presided over the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
What was Billboard’s #1 song of 2017? – Answer next time!
