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  1. #1
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    US Music Mags R&B charts -- 1960's

    Anyone here know how Billboard, Cashbox & Record World mags went about compiling their R&B charts back in the day ?
    In 1965, Capitol Records seems to have decided it was missing a trick by not releasing much soul stuff [[at the time, soul 45's were occupying numerous slots on US Top 100 chart listings. The label signed a number of black acts [[mostly based in either the LA or New York / Philly areas) and set about generating hits [[well that's what they hoped for). Capitol had great connections with just about all US pop format radio stations, so getting airplay for its new 45 releases on those stns wasn't really a problem. But they had no real existing relationship with R&B radio stns.
    A 3 strong promo team was set up to facilitate breaking into the R&B market, but going was very slow for them. Most of their soul 45 releases put out in the initial 6 months of 1966 failed to make much impact on black radio stns [[& hence in the black market). A couple of the 45's got pop stn spins and went on to chart on those pop stns, but the going was tough on R&B stns.
    Verdelle Smith had radio hits and her outings even made a few R&B stn playlists. 'Old stagers' for Capitol, such as Lou Rawls and Nancy Wilson also did OK, but just about all the 45's from their new acts struggled to make any impact.
    Singles from the likes of Gail Kelly [[Bunny Shivel), Frank Polk, Ruben Wright, the Magnificent Men, Billy Preston, Lou Lawton, the Checkmates Ltd, Duncan Brothers, Tommy Hunt and the Thrills all failed.
    HOWEVER, back to my original question.
    I'll use Ruben Wright's "I'm Walkin Out On You" 45 as an example as it has a strange US R&B chart history. It was released in February 66 and at first did very little. I guess that the Capitol promo team eventually established relationships with R&B radio jocks and Ruben's 45 was one that seemed to benefit from this.
    It entered Billboard's R&B chart in mid May and stayed on their chart for 6 weeks, peaking in mid June @ # 29. A week after that, it was on Record World's R&B chart for a solitary week. It never did make it onto Cashbox's R&B chart.
    So the same 45 had a decent chart track record according to Billboard, made a fleeting chart appearance according to Record World and failed to make any impact according to Cashbox.
    The mags must have adopted wildly different methods to compile their charts; anyone here know how they went about the task ?
    Attachment 20071

  2. #2
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    Ruben's track was the B side of the 45 when it escaped in the UK ... "Hey Girl" being the plug side ...

  3. #3
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    A scan of the UK single [[B side) ...
    Attachment 20073

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