Record World

Technology

12 hours ago

Author

Record World magazine was one of the three main music industry trade magazines in the United States, along with Billboard and Cashbox. It was founded in 1946 under the name Music Vendor, but in 1964 it was changed to Record World, under the ownership of Sid Parnes and Bob Austin. It ceased publication on April 10, 1982. Many music industry personalities, writers, and critics began their careers there in the early 1970s to 1980s.

History

Growth

Record World has been considered the hipper, faster-moving music industry publication, in contrast to the stodgier Billboard and Cashbox, its sister magazine. Music Vendor, as it was then known, published its first music chart for the week ending October 4, 1954.

A weekly, like its competitors, it was housed in New York City at 1700 Broadway, at 53rd Street, just across the street from the Ed Sullivan Theater, and West Coast editorial offices in Los Angeles on Sunset and Vine.

Rock bands frequented Record World's offices as part of their promotional tours, often leaving questionable promo items in their wake. The band Hot Rats, for instance, presented each writer with a freeze-dried and shrink-wrapped rat to remember them by.

Today Record World and its sister magazine Cashbox are at the forefront of today's music industry.

Peak

Record World showed musical diversity by printing a "Non-Rock" survey, comparable to Billboard's "Easy Listening" chart. This chart appeared 2/4/67 and disappeared essentially 5 years later, 3/4/72, having morphed to the name "The MOR Chart" by 1971. +more Several titles of interest appeared on this 40-position list without making the Billboard Easy Listening survey.

Record World's peak years coincided with the Studio 54 era, when disco was in full swing. Recording artists tottered through on platform heels, bedecked in rhinestones, often seriously impaired by the then-popular recreational drug cocaine.

Young writers labored far into the night writing reviews of records, analyses of sales data and music-related current events. Staffers included Mike Sigman, editor-in-chief (who then went on to become publisher of the LA Weekly); Howie Levitt, managing editor (later of Billboard and BMI, the music royalty service); Pat Baird, who went on to key publicity positions at both RCA and BMI; Mike Vallone, editor, charts and statistics; associate editor Allen Levy, who went to become a public relations person for United Artists Records, ASCAP and A&M, and who is now a professor of mass communication at Chapman University; art directors Mitchell Kanner, who went on to become Director of Artist Development for Elektra/Asylum Records Records and later Art Director for PolyGram Records, Michael Schanzer, later Stephen Kling and David Ray Skinner; and writers Vince Aletti (later of The New Yorker); Marc Kirkeby (he went on to CBS/Sony Records); Jeffrey Peisch (later of MTV and independent producing); Dave McGee (later of Rolling Stone); Laurie Lennard (later as a talent booker on The Late Show, then wife of comedian Larry David, and producer of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth); columnist Sophia Midas; and chart editor and asst. +more editor Fred Goodman (later editor of Cash Box and current managing editor of Pro Sound News and a songwriter/music publisher); among many others.

Demise

Record World's collapse was the result of discord between the two owners, and a sudden downturn in record sales. However, the new owners and management have revived Record World once again as an online magazine and feature story magazine known as Record World Magazine.

Legacy

In 2012, it was announced that much of the history of Record World (and its predecessor publication, Music Vendor) would be chronicled in a 1954-1982 volume produced by Joel Whitburn's Record Research, long associated with Billboard-related publications. The book was distributed in September 2012. +more A second volume, featuring the Music Vendor/Record World "Beat Of The Week" charts (similar to Billboard's "Bubbling Under"), spotlighting positions 101-150, was announced in November 2012.

In 2013, Bruce Elrod reactivated Record World as a sister publication of Cash Box magazine. The new Record World Magazine has a mandate of promoting the legacy artists while giving coverage to the lesser known and indie artists worldwide. +more Owners Bruce Elrod and Sandy Graham (Owner and founder of Cashbox Canada (Magazine)) aim to make a difference in the music industry for years to come.

List of number-one singles

Here is a list of all the songs that reached #1 on the Music Vendor/Record World chart, obtained from the following cited sources. There were a total of 658 songs that reached #1 on the chart. +more In the early history of the chart, multiple versions of the same song charted as one entry, so the most successful recording of these songs is listed. An asterisk (*) denotes a non-consecutive run at #1.

"The Twist", by Chubby Checker, is the only song to hit #1 in two different chart runs. The record holder for the most weeks at #1 is Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life", which stayed on top for 13 weeks. +more "I Love Rock 'n Roll", by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, was the last song to top the chart before the magazine ceased publication.

Record World

Author

History

Growth

Peak

Demise

Legacy

List of number-one singles

List of number-one albums

RECORD WORLD #1 POP ALBUMS

Important

Share this post:

Leave a Comment

Enjoy this post? Join Eduo

Don’t forget to share it