Sunday Afternoons with Casey Kasem and ‘American Top 40’
As my earliest music icons go, Casey ranked right up there with Tammy Wynette, Air Supply, and Olivia Newton-John.
It’s impossible for me to detach music and memories of the ’80s from American Top 40, the weekly radio countdown show that Casey Kasem hosted from 1970 to 1988 and, later, from 1998 to 2003. As my earliest music icons go, Casey, who died in 2014 at age 82, ranks right up there with Tammy Wynette, Air Supply, and Olivia Newton-John.
I listened to his American Top 40 countdown for the very first time the Sunday he was counting down the Top 40 of Billboard’s Hot 100 for the week ending July 19, 1980. Billy Joel was on top with “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,” which had succeeded Paul McCartney’s “Coming Up,” a chart-topper that had previously debuted at №73 on the Hot 100 the week ending April 26 (much more on that chart week later).
I don’t think I missed an episode of American Top 40 between my first one and 1983’s year-end episode. (The TV spin-off, America’s Top 10, was must-see TV every Saturday between 12:30 and 1:00 pm.) I loved my suspense-filled Sunday afternoons after church. I’d sit in the living room with my ears glued to my little transistor radio, wondering who would rise and who would fall, though…
