Disco Charts: Were They Fixed? (Billboard, Record Mirror...)

[markydefad]

Originally Posted by STEPHEN L FREEMAN

And I wouldn't put much stock in any charts after 1977. Especially Billboard. Considering the gentleman responsible for those charts, for 2 decades, got indicted for embezzlement, or something equally distasteful, in the mid-80's, by influencing the charts.

Now you can't drop that little bombshell and not elaborate. Who are you referring to????? Who went to jail?

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

Originally Posted by markydefad

Now you can't drop that little bombshell and not elaborate. Who are you referring to????? Who went to jail?

I wrote that last piece while I was at work. And damned if I didn't hit the "submit reply" button, when I thought: "This is about the guy who started the Disco charts. I gotta get home to my books and fact-check, before Marky reads this!"

Here's the deal... It's a bit more complicated than I remembered, but I'll try to keep the explanation simple.

Bill Wardlow aka "The Father of Disco" was remembered in his 2002 obituary as such:
"Willis "Bill" Wardlow, former associate publisher and director of charts for Billboard, died Dec. 29 in L.A. He was 80.
Wardlow helped launch Billboard's monitoring of disco-a precursor to the current Club Play and Maxi-Singles Sales charts. "He propelled disco into the phenomenon that it became," says Marvin Deane, a former promoter who worked with Wardlow in the '60s and '70s. Wardlow's 55-year career also included stints at Columbia and Capitol."

He was fired from Billboard in April of 1983. "The magazine was apparently unhappy with his handling of the charts." Tom Noonan/Billboard - 1987

more later... I have to go eat dinner...

Okay... Back with 2 computers, 2 books and a full stomach. Now, where was I?

Al Coury was brought in by Robert Stigwood, to manage RSO Records. - "There are those who believe Al Coury was the greatest promotion man of all time. He inspired more fear than any human being in the industry. The quintessential Al Coury anecdote also said a great deal about the making of the Billboard charts in the Disco era." By April of 1978 RSO had racked-up 5 consecutive Billboard No. 1's, between the BEE GEEs and (after insane promotion work) Andy Gibb. But, for love nor (a whole lot of) money, they couldn't get the Yvonne Elliman record to No. 1.

There was a Billboard conference in Venice, Italy. Coury was asked to be on a panel, but resisted. Until he heard that Bill Wardlow, who did the magazine's charts, would attend. He arrived on the same flight as Bill. And RSO's International person, the late Michael Hutson, took them to the most expensive hotel. A trip around Venice in a Gondola. And on their way back to the hotel, after a hugely expensive dinner, Al told Michael "I'm finished here. I'm taking him home." Michael asked "What's going on? Who is this guy?" Al said, "This is Bill Wardlow. It's about my f*%*ing Yvonne Elliman record! I've GOT to get it to No. 1 somehow!" The next week, Yvonne Elliman was No. 1

And if you think this was simply about pushing his artists, consider this: When "If I Can't Have You" hit No. 1 on Billboard, it established 3 Records:
1. It was the fourth number one single from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, the only motion picture to produce that many chart-topping 45s.

2. It was the fourth consecutive number one single to be written by Barry Gibb, breaking the record set by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who penned three consecutive number ones in 1964.

3. It was the sixth consecutive number one single for RSO Records. No other label until that time had ever had more than two consecutive 45s reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100. RSO dominated the chart summit for 21 weeks in a row, and would log another 10 weeks at one before the last day of 1978.

Having Yvonne, herself, get a No. 1, was probably the least of their reasons. (You didn't see promotion like that again for her, did you?) RSO had so much more than that riding on this particular No. 1 slot, in May of 1978.

The most influential promoters of Disco became the roots of "The Network". (A group of Promoters, the most powerful being Joe Isigro, who each controlled particular "regions" of the country's radio airplay.) "The Network took root in about 1978, the peak year of Disco. Disco created the climate that made The Network possible. More important, the Disco phenomenon was fueled by hype, by the belief that hits are bought, not born." It would take the record industry a long time to find out this was not a profitable way of doing things. And when the labels tried to boycott The Network, it backfired and gave The Network more power to actually STOP hits! -- Fast forward -- 11/30/89 The Payola Grand Jury indicted Isigro on 51 counts. (Including drug-trafficking, for sending a package of Cocaine to a radio DJ, via Federal Express.)

After all the Grand Jury dust cleared, so many people had "talked", to get out of going to prison, that The Network members were tracked all the way back to RSO in 1977.

PHEW! And that was the SHORT version!!! If y'all want to know any more, you can start reading and doing your own research.

[kdavid13]

Reminds me of when RECORD MIRROR stopped publishing the Hi-NRG chart because of a situation with Ian Levine...

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

Originally Posted by kdavid13

Reminds me of when RECORD MIRROR stopped publishing the Hi-NRG chart because of a situation with Ian Levine...

I was on the Hi-NRG Panel, at The Winter Music Conference, for a few years. I recall the distributors coming up to the open-mike, and being merciless about Ian Levine. But that's another thread.

[Cdnbob]

Originally Posted by STEPHEN L FREEMAN

I was on the Hi-NRG Panel, at The Winter Music Conference, for a few years. I recall the distributors coming up to the open-mike, and being merciless about Ian Levine. But that's another thread.

Gee, has Ian been a s**t disturber again. Kind of interesting to hear this as he also doesn't have a great reptuation in Doctor Who circles either which is where I first came to know of him.

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

Originally Posted by Cdnbob

Gee, has Ian been a s**t disturber again. Kind of interesting to hear this as he also doesn't have a great reptuation in Doctor Who circles either which is where I first came to know of him.

My recollection from the WMC Hi-NRG Panel is from the early 90's. Nothing recent.

[drlove]

re: Stephen Freeman's comment of:

Here's the deal... It's a bit more complicated than I remembered, but I'll try to keep the explanation simple.

* * * * *

Thanks, Stephen, for sharing those details and recollections and research findings. My discomusic.com profile lists RSO as one of my fave all-time disco labels (I even have one of the giant inflatable promotional "cows" pictured on the label), so I greatly appreciated some background scoop on the promotional tactics that helped RSO virtually have a complete lock on the charts throughout 1978 (thanks to Saturday Night Fever, the various Gibb brothers, and the release of Grease).

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

Originally Posted by drlove

Thanks, Stephen, for sharing those details and recollections and research findings. My discomusic.com profile lists RSO as one of my fave all-time disco labels (I even have one of the giant inflatable promotional "cows" pictured on the label), so I greatly appreciated some background scoop on the promotional tactics that helped RSO virtually have a complete lock on the charts throughout 1978 (thanks to Saturday Night Fever, the various Gibb brothers, and the release of Grease).

My pleasure!

Although Disco was the splashiest, gaudiest and (at times) the most decadent branch of Pop Music... The Recording Business, overall, is fascinating in every direction imaginable!

RSO and Casablanca (where my heart is) were both financed by Polygram. In a move that Polygram (one of the 3 largest Music Corporations in the world, at that time...) mishandled, almost to the point of bankruptcy. (It's estimated that Casablanca, alone, by 1980 had put them in-the-red, somewhere in the "high tens of millions" of dollars. Translate that into today money...) Polygram didn't return to profitability until 1985.

There was a rivalry between RSO and Casablanca. (Though it didn't last too long. Because Casablanca, eventually, blew right past RSO.) And Polygram's German, home-based, head-honchos had no problem fanning the flames between them.

If you really want to learn some incredibly fascinating stuff about the labels and the people who ran them (Stuff that makes, even the most infamous Artist/Producer drama, look like a Saturday morning cartoon!), read books about the Record Industry. As opposed to books about Disco.

Here's 2 GREAT books to start with, that will have you freakin' glued-to-the-page...

"Hit Men : Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business" Amazon-U.S. | Amazon-U.K.
by Frederic Dannen - 1991 Knopf Publishing Group
and
"Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, the Music Business, and the Mafia" Amazon-U.S. | Amazon-U.K.
by William Knoedelseder - 1993 HarperCollins Publishers

P.S. Hold onto that Cow!!! It's worth a small fortune.

[Bernie]

For those coming in late on this thread: The above posts were originally part of a thread on the Village People. I split these posts off from the original thread and created this new one here as it deserves more attention.

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

Originally Posted by Bernie

For those coming in late on this thread: The above posts were originally part of a thread on the Village People. I split these posts off from the original thread and created this new one here as it deserves more attention.

Thanks, Bernie.

Although only intending, at first, to make a side-bar comment...
I jumped at the chance to squint through indexes, dog-ear book pages, lose myself in google-land, and slide into full-throttle Historian mode.

I just LOVE this stuff! The business of music has intrigued me, since I was a kid. It's truth is infinitely more interesting than fiction.