In fact, starting around 1967-1968 and throughout the 1970s, there were some FM stations in the US that programmed kind of a freeform/Progressive FM rock format playing well chosen deep cuts and during weekends late at night, these stations would play entire albums.
Tom Donahue wrote a legendary article bashing the Top 40 format and ended up launching this idea in Rolling Stone back in 1967.
Columbia Records also did something unprecedented. Release all 5 singles from Moby Grape's debut album from 1967 simultaneously and while the singles Hey Grandma and Omaha did have regional success on AM radio, the FM Progressive stations embraced this more since this is a cohesive album and peaked at #24 on the Billboard 200. Their follow-up album, the Wow/Grape Jam double album, peaked at #20 on the Billboard 200 bestselling albums.
This San Francisco era also launched Quicksilver Messenger Service (another band with successful album sales and acclaim, especially the first couple of albums being revered albums with the psychedelic rock cult and in the case of Happy Trails, it was certified Gold in sales of millions of copies, the late career single Fresh Air from 1970's "Just For Love" was the only single that even peaked in the Top 50.
It's a Beautiful Day, another late 1960s San Francisco era band's song White Bird, from their legendary self-titled debut album, was long played on these FM Progressive stations but when released as a single, the single didn't do as well although their first couple of albums, the debut and its followup, Marrying Maiden did sell very well and charted on the Billboard album charts.
As you & I know, a lot of the outlaw country music wasn't only played on country radio but was played by Progressive FM radio as well. A lot of the late 1960s-early 1970s Gram Parsons style country-rock plus John Prine, J.J. Cale, Steve Goodman, etc. type of roots rock was played mostly on Progressive FM and yes, Hoyt Axton's country hits were played not only on country radio, but also on Progressive FM.
Thank you fro adding the additional backstory, especially about early progressive FM and their embrace of their artists' albums! I had to hold myself back from writing about early Rock FM history here, as I already am long-winded. :-) The subject of 60s/70s progressive album rock deserves its own posts--especially if I can find time to analyze the era's album chart sales.
If you'd like a PDF copy of Tom Donahue's article, let me know as I do have the vintage Rolling Stone articles on DVD-ROM and my copy of this still works on Windows 11.
You're welcome. BTW, in order to reprint any quotes, you have to write to Rolling Stone Magazine and pay the licensing. Rolling Stone is owned by the same company that owns Billboard, Variety, the Deadline.com website, and the Hollywood Reporter and the company is Penske Media Corporation.
Great article Matt As you know from running a callout company, Hits require massive exposure and it often requires many many weeks of frequent 5a-7p plays for a song to become a Top 40 radio hit for the average Joe and Jane. As you noted as well Bradley noted in the comments , there is a historical precedent for multiple songs from a popular artists being released in close proximity often simultaneously. The Beatles Monkees Rolling Stones which I listened to as a teen, BeeGees when I was in my 20s as MD scheduling music, Michael Jackson and Madonna as PD at KZZP in my 30s and after that Consultant for many major markets Top 40s including Z100 during Britney Spears. Katy Perry Justin Bieber multiple song releases getting played at once. As you point out usually they concentrated on 2 songs at once as when they were A and B sides of a single and got equal power rotation. Today with Sabrina's hits you may see 2 songs(Please and Espresso) in power Taste in Subpower, Bed Chem in new and her first CHR radio hit like Feather in Recurrent. But that's a great example of where we stand for creating hits big streamers or not. As you state the major music fans(stans) may handle more than 2 or 3 hits at a time but not your average person. As Jon Coleman taught me with the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve The curve demonstrates that people forget information over time. The curve demonstrates that people tend to rapidly lose their memory of new information unless they consciously review it. The same is true with music where the "Rule of 3" might apply, there is a limit of songs that garner favoriteness in the average person, so programmer be careful
In fact, starting around 1967-1968 and throughout the 1970s, there were some FM stations in the US that programmed kind of a freeform/Progressive FM rock format playing well chosen deep cuts and during weekends late at night, these stations would play entire albums.
Tom Donahue wrote a legendary article bashing the Top 40 format and ended up launching this idea in Rolling Stone back in 1967.
Columbia Records also did something unprecedented. Release all 5 singles from Moby Grape's debut album from 1967 simultaneously and while the singles Hey Grandma and Omaha did have regional success on AM radio, the FM Progressive stations embraced this more since this is a cohesive album and peaked at #24 on the Billboard 200. Their follow-up album, the Wow/Grape Jam double album, peaked at #20 on the Billboard 200 bestselling albums.
This San Francisco era also launched Quicksilver Messenger Service (another band with successful album sales and acclaim, especially the first couple of albums being revered albums with the psychedelic rock cult and in the case of Happy Trails, it was certified Gold in sales of millions of copies, the late career single Fresh Air from 1970's "Just For Love" was the only single that even peaked in the Top 50.
It's a Beautiful Day, another late 1960s San Francisco era band's song White Bird, from their legendary self-titled debut album, was long played on these FM Progressive stations but when released as a single, the single didn't do as well although their first couple of albums, the debut and its followup, Marrying Maiden did sell very well and charted on the Billboard album charts.
As you & I know, a lot of the outlaw country music wasn't only played on country radio but was played by Progressive FM radio as well. A lot of the late 1960s-early 1970s Gram Parsons style country-rock plus John Prine, J.J. Cale, Steve Goodman, etc. type of roots rock was played mostly on Progressive FM and yes, Hoyt Axton's country hits were played not only on country radio, but also on Progressive FM.
Thank you fro adding the additional backstory, especially about early progressive FM and their embrace of their artists' albums! I had to hold myself back from writing about early Rock FM history here, as I already am long-winded. :-) The subject of 60s/70s progressive album rock deserves its own posts--especially if I can find time to analyze the era's album chart sales.
If you'd like a PDF copy of Tom Donahue's article, let me know as I do have the vintage Rolling Stone articles on DVD-ROM and my copy of this still works on Windows 11.
Did you get my PDF attachment?
Yes--thank you!
You're welcome. BTW, in order to reprint any quotes, you have to write to Rolling Stone Magazine and pay the licensing. Rolling Stone is owned by the same company that owns Billboard, Variety, the Deadline.com website, and the Hollywood Reporter and the company is Penske Media Corporation.
Great article Matt As you know from running a callout company, Hits require massive exposure and it often requires many many weeks of frequent 5a-7p plays for a song to become a Top 40 radio hit for the average Joe and Jane. As you noted as well Bradley noted in the comments , there is a historical precedent for multiple songs from a popular artists being released in close proximity often simultaneously. The Beatles Monkees Rolling Stones which I listened to as a teen, BeeGees when I was in my 20s as MD scheduling music, Michael Jackson and Madonna as PD at KZZP in my 30s and after that Consultant for many major markets Top 40s including Z100 during Britney Spears. Katy Perry Justin Bieber multiple song releases getting played at once. As you point out usually they concentrated on 2 songs at once as when they were A and B sides of a single and got equal power rotation. Today with Sabrina's hits you may see 2 songs(Please and Espresso) in power Taste in Subpower, Bed Chem in new and her first CHR radio hit like Feather in Recurrent. But that's a great example of where we stand for creating hits big streamers or not. As you state the major music fans(stans) may handle more than 2 or 3 hits at a time but not your average person. As Jon Coleman taught me with the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve The curve demonstrates that people forget information over time. The curve demonstrates that people tend to rapidly lose their memory of new information unless they consciously review it. The same is true with music where the "Rule of 3" might apply, there is a limit of songs that garner favoriteness in the average person, so programmer be careful
Thank you tremendously for chiming in on this one, Guy! I was hoping a programmer with your expertise would offer additional information.