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Al Peffley
These top fifty and fourty hit lists were marketing ploys by the big record producers and distributors who wanted to peddle their music "products" to people with money (like our parents at the time), not young teenagers who had little to spend on records, let alone fast food and gas (if they could drive.) Those who could afford a car bought 45's produced by groups like the Beach Boys and local bands.("In my Room" written by a talented artist with mental problems; it became a classic with our worldwide peers.) The Beatles were being influenced by the Beach Boys. Local rock groups, like the Wailers, Paul Revere & the Raiders, the Sonics, and the Statics, were popular in '62-'63 with most of us, not national groups or crooners that my mother liked. The production of modern rock and roll music was in its early stages of refined development with new instruments being played and the scaling back of emotional, repetitive lyrics in hit songs from across the pond... Popular music was loosing its foothold on people with money who set the music market culture with TV appearances and traveling concert promotions. More use of tainted drugs from Asia and South/Central America by artists and listeners alke was the down side of the time period. In 1963 my family lost its wage earner, so my 45 records buying habit was very limited or put on hold; a car radio was my main source of musical entertainment in 1963. My senior friends had better jobs than I did, but I saved some money to go to teen dances at the Cove, the dancehall at Five Corners [Update: the Target Ballroom that was once an indoor achery range], and the Castle, when I was not working. I basically ignored those top [whatever] record lists. Country and Western music was not attractive to me at the time. What PNW teenager could not just wait for the next Gene Pitney, Al Martino, or Johnny Tillitson record to be released in 1963??? People who answered poll surveys on daytime phone calls were normally not teenagers at school or fathers at work, they were usually stay-at-home moms who liked 1950's music... Record sales were probably more influenced by Mid-West and East Coast buying trends than West Coast purchases? (Bill would know this better than I.)
I'm not a Facebook fan, but here's a great PNW history, nostalgic website to peruse [with some been there, done that places, and Seattle radio memories; I have been friends with the Oberto brothers who sponsored and raced hydroplanes for years]:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/963356231676311/posts/1163744878304111/
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