Fresh Listen: American Top 40

After 55 years, the original American Top 40 is still appointment listening for me, and I’m not alone. For several years, listeners, mostly those who grew up with Casey Kasem, have gathered on social media at Noon ET on Saturday when SiriusXM plays vintage shows from the ’70s on its ’70s on 7 channel. The group is large and vocal enough that a single week’s attempt to take the show out of its prime weekend slot was shouted down almost immediately.

The #AT40 chat began on Twitter but now lives on Bluesky. The liveliest discussion is often around the “Dirty 30,” the No. 31-40 stretch where you find the week’s relative obscurities. The #AT40 group has convened long enough that we’ve mostly heard each chart at least once before, but there was still somebody encountering “That’s Where the Happy People Go” by the Trammps (all the way up at No. 28 that week) for the first time when June, 1976 came up again last week. That’s the sort of song that I’m listening for now.

In my first years as a chart follower, AT40 was most valuable to me for those chart debuts not yet being played on my major-market hometown station. In 1976, the only place I heard Eurovision winner “Save Your Kisses for Me” by Brotherhood of Man was on the countdown. Last week, there were still threaders hearing it for the first time. Whether that’s a public service is up to you (I consider it dubious but curious, like much of the forgotten ’70s).

As the show prepares for its July 4 anniversary, I took a “Fresh Listen” to American Top 40 this week — the current show, hosted by Ryan Seacrest and available in both Top 40 and Hot AC versions, but heard here from 7-11 a.m. Sunday on WHTZ (Z100) New York, 

I was trying to listen from the POV of an early fan, or at least my Saturday-afternoon rerun friends. What would they make of today’s hits? What would they find relevant or at least familiar today? It has happened recently that the same artist appeared on both new and vintage shows on the same weekend. Cheryl Lynn was on 1979’s version for “Got to Be Real” and its new counterpart by dint of being sampled on Kendrick Lamar & SZA’s “Luther.” As a lead artist, the same likely happened for Elton John with “Cold Heart” and “Hold Me Closer.”

Today’s AT40 doesn’t count down the streaming-dominated Billboard Hot 100 — a chart that became an issue for radio more than 30 years ago when it switched to monitored airplay (thus slowing the chart down) and more accurate sales data (meaning more rap and other songs less likely to be on Mainstream CHR). 

The current AT40 chart parallels Mediabase’s Top 40 airplay chart but includes some songs that have already been moved to recurrent. “Espresso” just left. “Too Sweet” is still there, but “Beautiful Things” and “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” are gone, even though they linger around Billboard’s Top 10. The bottom 10 differ the most, about 10 notches slower than the airplay chart, although some songs that haven’t “debuted” yet are heard as chart extras or spotlighted songs from iHeart Radio’s “On the Verge” program.

In other words, this is still the radio POV on the hits — the one where songs build and drop symmetrically, and where Morgan Wallen has one song in the top 40, not three in the top 10, as he does on the Hot 100. That’s different from even the ’70s Billboard chart, where some songs — often the R&B or dance crossovers that most often confound listeners now — could get a boost from either sales or, eventually, club play. I’m OK with having a “radio chart.” I don’t think the casual listener necessarily knows the No. 9 song in either airplay or streaming these days, but I still regard the radio version as closer to whatever shared hit-music experience we still have, or at least more coherent radio.

I don’t think Seacrest ever actually said “radio plays them and AT40 counts them down” last week, but some of the trademarks of the Kasem-era show endure: biggest gainers, biggest droppers, crossplugs for the No. 1 song on other charts, and an updated version of “from coast to coast and around the world, AT40 is heard on great stations like ____.” This week, it was Z100 and AC KIMN (Mix 100) Denver. Instead of listener letters, Seacrest now solicits dedications on the show’s website.

I focused my “Fresh Listen” on the first and last hours of AT40 for the week of June 21. Like all syndicated shows, AT40 had to retool itself after PPM audience measurement prompted radio to tighten presentationally. Many AT40 affiliates now are doubling down on personality as their weapon against DSPs with two-person afternoons or night shows, but the countdown itself continues to move at a good clip.

Here’s No. 40 to No. 31, the show’s first hour:

The produced intro declares “the biggest countdown in the world, the hottest songs in America for 28 million people listening across six continents and broadcasting worldwide from the heart of Hollywood.” Seacrest teases new music from Mariah Carey, a performer from the upcoming iHeart Radio Music Festival, as well as Maroon 5 and that “Alex Warren makes a run for the No. 1 slot with ‘Ordinary.’” He then plays a recap of last week’s top 3, before the song “holding steady in the No. 40 slot.”

• 40 – BigXThaPlug & Bailey Zimmerman, “All the Way.”
• 39 – Jennie, “Like Jennie” — set up by a produced chart-number sweeper.
• 38 – Hozier, “Too Sweet” (week No. 57 on the chart) — Seacrest talks about Hozier’s 10-year remix of “Like Real People Do,” featuring nature sounds and posted on the show’s website.
• EXTRA – Maroon 5 f/Cardi B, “Girls Like You” — Seacrest reels off a list of just-announced iHeart Radio Music Festival performers (Jelly Roll, Ed Sheeran, Tate McRae) and Maroon 5. After, there are teasers for Dasha (“moving up a place”) and back-to-back debuts from Haven Madison and Charli XCX.
• 37 – Haven Madison, “Castle” — preceded by the show’s rejoin stager, then backsold, followed by No. 36 frontsold.
• 36 – Charli XCX, “Party 4 U” — the week’s highest debut.
• 35 – Dasha, “Not at This Party” — Seacrest talks about how the artist is promising to make her new album more personal as well as songs “about the world now.”
• 34 – Sabrina Carpenter, “Bed Chem” — A sweeper ties in Seacrest’s weekday radio gig, “You’re ‘On-Air with Ryan Seacrest,’” followed by the No. 34 sounder.
• EXTRA – Metro Boomin’ f/Weeknd & 21 Savage, “Creepin’” — Preceded by a story about how Metro Boomin’ wants to produce entrance themes for WWE wrestlers. Followed by Seacrest teasing Myles Smith’s “two-million seller, and Max McNown keeps on climbing” as we go into a break.
• 33 – Max McNown, “A Little More Free” — Seacrest talks about the deluxe version of the artist’s “Night Diving” coming out July 18.
• 32 – Myles Smith, “Stargazing” — A bit about how Smith’s life has changed: “He’s touring the world, meeting his heroes, and making music that reaches thousands of people.” He’s managing that by “writing about his feelings every single day.”
• 31 – Gigi Perez, “Sailor Song” — a sweeper going in, Seacrest backsells the song with “the biggest fall of the week” (26-31) and sets up Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season” as an extra with a bit about the upcoming documentary chronicling the album’s creation.

Here’s the top 10, American Top 40’s final hour

• 10 – Chappel Roan, “Pink Pony Club” – a rejoin sweeper promises “the hits you love and the artists who bring them to life”; Seacrest’s break is not about Roan, but a teaser for an upcoming story about Shaun Mendes coming off of a mental-health hiatus. The payoff is following the song: Mendes is back “On the Road Again” with American dates starting in September. Dates are posted on the show’s website.
• 9 – Ed Sheeran, “Azizam”
• 8 – Lady Gaga, “Abracadabra” — Preceded by sweeper/No. 8 stager.
• EXTRA – Sabrina Carpenter, “Manchild” — Carpenter “dominated the summer of 2024,” now she’s back with lyrics that “unfortunately, many people can relate to.” On Billboard, the song had entered at No. 1. On Mediabase CHR, it was No. 14. Here it was in the “breakout spot.” Going into the break, Seacrest teases Benson Boone and the weekend’s release of American Heart, as well as Lola Young’s former No. 1.
• 7 – Lola Young, “Messy” — the highest song already moved to recurrent on the CHR chart.
• 6 – Benson Boone, “Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else” — Boone wants to collaborate with Bruno Mars, and cites him as an inspiration for the new album.
• “ON THE VERGE TRACK” – Role Model, “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out” — Inspired, Seacrest says, by the artist’s re-entry to the dating scene, but “only partially based on true events.” Going into the break, Seacrest teases Warren still holding at No. 3, plus the Weeknd being “a notch closer to his sixth chart-topper.”
• 5 – Kendrick Lamar & SZA, “Luther” — “The numbers get smaller. The hits get bigger,” says Seacrest. He teases Carey’s new song. 
• “AT40 BREAKOUT” – Mariah Carey, “Type Dangerous” — It’s her first new song in seven years, followed by audio of Carey talking about the song she sampled, Eric B & Rakim’s “Eric B is President.”
• 4 – The Weeknd, “Cry for Me” — Sweeper/number stager;
• 3 – Alex Warren, “Ordinary” — “We’re getting closer to the No. 1 song of the week; first, here’s No. 3.” Seacrest asks if McRae, stuck at No.2 last week, will “surge ahead” into No. 1, going into the break. 
• 2 – Tate McRae, “Sports Car” — A sponsorship tag teases the Mediabase charts in Friday editions of USA Today. “Nothing left but the top 2,” Seacrest says, before a story about how McRae likes to use sirens in every song and “the second-biggest song in the land.” 
• 1 – Doechii, “Anxiety” — Unveiled with a bit about how the artist became famous for visualizing her desires on social media, followed by a multiple-voice No. 1 sweeper and Seacrest saluting “Four! Weeks! In a row!”  He congratulates her on the month’s run again afterwards. The countdown ends with a crossplug for Seacrest’s co-hosting gig on “Wheel of Fortune.”

Even though it’s been well more than four decades since I last needed American Top 40 to hear a new song, I did hear one countdown song on the radio for the first time, Madison’s “Castle.” It was also my first time encountering the Jonas Brothers’ “Love Me to Heaven,” an AT40 Extra here, on the radio. But it’s not such a “Dirty 30”; with extras, I’d characterize seven out of the hour’s 13 songs as former powers or close thereto.

It was also nice that even at a moment where most Top 40 “content breaks” consist of yesterday’s celebrity gossip, much of what Seacrest shared was new to me. Ravyn Lenae wants to do movies, but doesn’t think she can memorize long scripts, so would like to be a voice actor in animated features. Morgan Wallen appreciated the “confidence” of duet partner Tate McRae, who nailed her parts on “What I Want” without much prompting (but needed 10 drafts of her own “Sports Car.”) 

There was one piece of news we all know by now. Taylor Swift has her masters back and won’t be releasing “Reputation (Taylor’s Version).” Seacrest also shared a tribute to the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, who had died earlier that week. (Here’s our appreciation and a playlist.) But as in 1976, the show might still have given even today’s more music-savvy ninth grader a piece of intel or two to share at the lockers on Monday morning.

I’ve made a point of keeping up with today’s hit music as more than a matter of professional interest (and I’ve got my own playlist to prove it). Some of that, of course, is a testament to the love of charts and hit music that AT40 helped foster. That excitement always ennobled even a pop-music doldrums. There aren’t a lot of songs on the reruns that are universally slagged off by the group now — maybe “My Ding-a-Ling,” “You Light Up My Life,” or, this week, “Let Her In” by John Travolta. Nostalgia ennobles the rest.

As for today’s hits, whatever I think of “Ordinary” by Alex Warren, there is no doubt that it will be the class of 2028’s prom theme and played again at their 2048 reunion. But would my Saturday crew, mostly of my generation, enjoy today’s countdown? I’d happily stick around if I got the stretch that was Role Model’s “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out,” “Luther,” and Mariah Carey’s “Type Dangerous.” I’d be less excited if I heard “Stargazing” into “Sailor Song.” 

Five years ago, we celebrated AT40’s fiftieth anniversary with Rich Appel’s remembrance of hearing the first show.