Billboard vs. Cash Box: The Year-End Top 10s, Part 2

It’s time for our second installment comparing the top hits each year of a decade between the top two music trade publications in the United States back in the day:

Billboard…

…and Cash Box!

As with the 1960s (and 1959) entries:

The year-end top 10 for each publication is given…
With the position of where the song finished in the other publication given in parentheses….
CB is short for Cash Box, while BB is short for Billboard. If it’s the same position on both, then no notation follows.

And here we go!

1970

Billboard

1. Simon and Garfunkel
“Bridge Over Troubled Water”
(#5 CB)

2. The Carpenters “(They Long to Be) Close to You” (#16 CB)
3. The Guess Who “American Woman” (#7 CB)
4. B.J. Thomas “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (#13 CB)
5. Edwin Starr “War” (#18 CB)
6. Diana Ross “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” (no CB)
7. The Jackson 5 “I’ll Be There” (#42 CB)
8. Rare Earth “Get Ready” (#4 CB)
9. The Beatles “Let It Be”
10. Freda Payne “Band of Gold” (#3 CB)

Cash Box

1. Norman Greenbaum
“Spirit in the Sky”
(#22 BB)

2. The Jackson 5 “ABC” (#15 BB)
3. Freda Payne “Band of Gold” (#10 BB)
4. Rare Earth “Get Ready” (#8 BB)
5. Simon and Garfunkel “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (#1 BB)
6. The Shocking Blue “Venus” (#33 BB)
7. The Guess Who “American Woman” (#3 BB)
8. The Poppy Family “Which Way You Goin’, Billy?” (#26 BB)
9. The Beatles “Let It Be”
10. Three Dog Night “Mama Told Me Not to Come” (#11 BB)

Some big aberrations, here.

For the first time since 1964, Billboard has a Top 10 entry that’s nowhere to be found among the top 100 ranked for 1970 by Cash Box, and it wildly diverts over what the biggest hit was from the Jackson 5.
Going in the other direction, Cash Box seemed to have highly inflated the numbers for “Spirit in the Sky” and “Venus.”
This would be the last time the Beatles made either list as the group broke up this year. Only two members of the Fab Four appeared on a year-end top 10 list afterwards. To find out the first one, read on…

1971

Billboard

1. Three Dog Night
“Joy to the World”

2. Rod Stewart “Maggie May” (#23 CB)
3. Carole King “It’s Too Late” (#2 CB)
4. The Osmonds “One Bad Apple” (#9 CB)
5. The Bee Gees “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?” (#4 CB)
6. Paul Revere and the Raiders “Indian Reservation” (#3 CB)
7. Donny Osmond “Go Away Little Girl” (#8 CB)
8. John Denver “Take Me Home Country Roads” (#10 CB)
9. The Temptations “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)” (#7 CB)
10. Tony Orlando and Dawn “Knock Three Times” (#18 CB)

Cash Box

1. Three Dog Night “Joy to the World”
2. Carole King “It’s Too Late” (#3 BB)
3. Paul Revere and the Raiders “Indian Reservation” (#6 BB)
4. The Bee Gees “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?” (#5 BB)
5. Tom Jones “She’s a Lady” (#25 BB)
6. Lynn Anderson “Rose Garden” (#41 BB)
7. The Temptations “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)” (#9 BB)
8. Donny Osmond “Go Away Little Girl” (#7 BB)
9. The Osmonds “One Bad Apple” (#4 BB)
10 .John Denver “Take Me Home Country Roads” (#8 BB)

There’s more alignment between the two this time around, with 8 shared hits in the two lists and a consensus #1.

All the ones on Cash Box hit #1 there, but so did “Maggie May” for 3 weeks as well. The latter looks like it should’ve been on that publication’s top 10 for the year over “She’s a Lady” or “Rose Garden,” in my opinion.
Also, Donny Osmond becomes the first artist to appear as a soloist and a member of a group in 2 separate entries for the year-end top 10 charts. It’s the only time he’s ever appeared in a year-end top 10.

1972

Billboard

1. Robert Flack
“The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”
(#19 CB)

2. Gilbert O’Sullivan “Alone Again Naturally”
3. Don McLean “American Pie” (#1 CB)
4. Nilsson “Without You” (#5 CB)
5. Sammy Davis Jr. “The Candy Man” (#23 CB)
6. Joe Tex “I Gotcha”
7. Bill Withers “Lean on Me” (#14 CB)
8. Mac Davis “Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me” (#17 CB)
9. Melanie “Brand New Key” (#9 CB)
10. Wayne Newton “Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast” (#4 CB)

Cash Box

1. Don McLean
“American Pie”
(#3 BB)

2. Gilbert O’Sullivan “Alone Again Naturally”
3. Melanie “Brand New Key” (#9 BB)
4. Wayne Newton “Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast” (#10 BB)
5. Nilsson “Without You” (#4 BB)
6. Joe Tex “I Gotcha”
7. Al Green “Let’s Stay Together” (#11 BB)
8. Luther Ingram “(If Loving You is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right” (#16 BB)
9. The Looking Glass “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” (#12 BB)
10. Robert John “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” (#21 BB)

Another fairly strong correlation between the charts here, but man,…

I sure wish one of them wasn’t “Daddy, Don’t You Walk So Fast.”

Also, the disparity between “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” as the top one in Billboard versus its lesser placement in Cash Box is the biggest difference ever in that category.

The Cash Box listing is more listenable to me overall, even with Robert John’s wan remake of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
Speaking of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” that’s only the second #1 remake of a previous #1 hit in Cash Box to make the year-end top 10. The first was Donny Osmond’s redo of “Go Away Little Girl,” the previous year.

1973

Billboard

1. Tony Orlando and Dawn
“Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree”

2. Jim Croce “Bad Bad Leroy Brown”
3. Roberta Flack “Killing Me Softly With His Song” (#21 CB)
4. Marvin Gaye “Let’s Get It On” (#11 CB)
5. Paul McCartney “My Love” (#6 CB)
6. Kris Kristofferson “Why Me” (no CB)
7. Elton John “Crocodile Rock” (#4 CB)
8. Billy Preston “Will It Go Round in Circles” (#20 CB)
9. Carly Simon “You’re So Vain” (#7 CB)
10. Diana Ross “Touch Me in the Morning” (#5 CB)

Cash Box

1. Tony Orlando and Dawn “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree”
2. Jim Croce “Bad Bad Leroy Brown”
3. Helen Reddy “Delta Dawn” (#14 BB)
4. Elton John “Crocodile Rock” (#7 BB)
5. Diana Ross “Touch Me in the Morning” (#10 BB)
6. Paul McCartney “My Love” (#5 BB)
7. Carly Simon “You’re So Vain” (#9 BB)
8. Clint Holmes “Playground in My Mind” (#12 BB)
9. Billy Paul “Me and Mrs. Jones” (#15 BB)
10. Three Dog Night “Shambala” (#31 BB)

For the first time since 1968, The Top-2 year-end rankings are the same for both charts. Then the comparison begins to go offkey somewhat.

“Why Me,” the first total miss between the charts since 1966, shows the power of Billboard emphasizing the number of weeks a single had on the charts in its compilation. Even though it peaked at a relatively unimpressive #16 during its chart run, its 38 weeks on the Hot 100–a record at the time, not broken until “I Go Crazy” in 1978–gave it a high showing there.
With Cash Box, the questionable inclusion of “Shambala” (even though it did hit #1 there for 1 week) gave Three Dog Night its third different year-end top 10 entry. That tied them with the Supremes at this point and only behind Elvis and the Beatles with more than that. Never would’ve guessed that.

1974

Billboard

1. Barbara Streisand
“The Way We Were” (#5 CB)

2. Terry Jacks “Seasons in the Sun” (#9 CB)
3. Love Unlimited Orchestra “Love’s Theme” (#14 CB)
4.Redbone “Come and Get Your Love” (#2 CB)
5. The Jackson 5 “Dancing Machine” (#52 CB)
6. Grand Funk Railroad “The Loco-Motion” (#13 CB)
7. MFSB “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)” (#17 CB)
8. Ray Stevens “The Streak” (#29 CB)
9. Elton John “Bennie and the Jets” (#12 CB)
10. Mac Davis “One Hell of a Woman” (#85 CB)

Cash Box

1.Al Wilson
“Show and Tell” (#15 BB)

2. Redbone “Come and Get Your Love” (#4 BB)
3. Charlie Rich “The Most Beautiful Girl” (#23 BB)
4. Andy Kim “Rock Me Gently” (#29 BB)
5. Barbara Streisand “The Way We Were” (#1 BB)
6. John Denver “Sunshine on My Shoulders” (#18 BB)
7. The Stylistics “You Make Me Feel Brand New” (#14 BB)
8. David Essex “Rock On” (#17 BB)
8. Terry Jacks “Seasons in the Sun” (#2 BB)
10. The Steve Miller Band “The Joker” (#40 BB)

Except for “The Way We Were,” “Seasons in the Sun” and “Come and Get Your Love,” it seems like these charts were covering different years.

Each has three songs that finished outside the top 20 in the other’s listing.
And there’s no shared position in the top 10 for any entry, the first such situation since 1966.
Incidentally, “One Hell of a Woman” (#10 BB) is having one hell of a time on Spotify trying to get just a million streams–it’s currently at less than 804,000. But an upcoming year will have entries that fare even worse. How it made the list with a peak of only #11 in Billboard during its run is just another curiosity about the 1974 charts.

1975

Billboard

1. The Captain and Tennille
“Love Will Keep Us Together”

2. Glen Campbell “Rhinestone Cowboy”
3. Elton John “Philadelphia Freedom” (#22 CB)
4. Freddy Fender “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” (#40 CB)
5. Frankie Vaill “My Eyes Adored You” (#12 CB)
6. Bad Company “Some Kind of Wonderful” (#80 CB)
7. Earth, Wind and Fire “Shining Star”
8. David Bowie “Fame” (#5 CB)
9. Neil Sedaka “Laughter in the Rain” (#20 CB)
10. The Eagles “One of These Nights” (#15 CB)

Cash Box

1. The Captain and Tennille “Love Will Keep Us Together”
2. Glen Campbell “Rhinestone Cowboy”
3. Stevie Wonder “Boogie on Reggae Woman” (#26 BB)
4. The Average White Band “Pick Up the Pieces” (#21 BB)
5. David Bowie “Fame” (#8 BB)
6. Janis Ian “At Seventeen” (#20 BB)
7. Earth, Wind and Fire “Shining Star”
8. John Denver “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” (#11 BB)
9. LaBelle “Lady Marmalade” (#23 BB)
10. Elton John “Island Girl” (no BB)

I thought Billboard having 35 different #1 songs in 1975 was a big deal – until I realized researching this that Cash Box had 44 that year (!).

All the latter’s year-end top 10 were from that 44, and 11 of the 44 never topped Billboard. I guess we’re lucky in that somehow three songs had the same placement despite such discrepancies.
“Some Kind of Wonderful” (#6 BB) seems like some kind of mistake in Billboard, given that it was the only non-chart topper there, peaking at #3 for a week.
Regarding the other Billboard outlier, Cash Box ranked Freddy Fender’s follow-up to “Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights,” higher than the former for the year at #16. Billboard ranked that at #27 for the year.
The absence of “Island Girl” in Billboard is easily explained. The publication calculated the year’s hits only through the start of November, when the song began its three-week run there. It came in at #65 for the 1976 year-end survey.

1976

Billboard

1. Paul McCartney
“Silly Love Songs” (#9 CB)

2. Elton John and Kiki Dee “Don’t Go Breakin’ My Heart” (#5 CB)
3. Johnny Taylor “Disco Lady” (#1 CB)
4. The Four Seasons “December, 1963 (Oh What a Night)” (#21 CB)
5. Wild Cherry “Play That Funky Music” (#2 CB)
6. The Manhattans “Kiss and Say Goodbye” (#3 CB)
7. The Miracles “Love Machine” (#11 CB)
8. Paul Simon “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” (#12 CB)
o. Gary Wright “Love is Alive” (no CB)
10. Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band “A Fifth of Beethoven” (#6 CB)

Cash Box

1.Johnny Taylor
“Disco Lady” (#3 BB)

2. Wild Cherry “Play That Funky Music” (#5 BB)
3. The Manhattans “Kiss and Say Goodbye” (#6 BB)
4. Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots “Disco Duck” (#97 BB)
5. Elton John and Kiki Dee “Don’t Go Breakin’ My Heart” (#2 BB)
6. Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band “A Fifth of Beethoven” (#10 BB)
7. The Starland Vocal Band “Afternoon Delight” (#12 BB)
8. Rod Stewart “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)” (no BB)
9. Paul McCartney “Silly Love Songs” (#1 BB)
10. KC and the Sunshine Band “(Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty” (#26 BB)

The “no BB” designation for “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)” (#8 CB) is very misleading, as the song will top Billboard’s year-end chart for 1977.

I do wish Cash Box had done like Billboard and virtually ignored “Disco Duck” for the year.
In the other direction, while ignoring Gary Wright’s “Love is Alive,” Cash Box did put its predecessor “Dream Weaver” at #17 for the year (it finished #37 overall in Billboard).
And having become the first ex-Beatle to make both year-end charts in 1973 with “My Love,” Paul McCartney does it again with “Silly Love Songs.” The latter made him the first songwriter credited with three year-end chart toppers on Billboard after “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Hey Jude.”

1977

Billboard

1. Rod Stewart
“Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)” (#8 CB 1976)

2. Andy Gibb “I Just Want to Be Your Everything”
3. The Emotions “Best of My Love” (#13 CB)
4. Barbra Streisand “Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star is Born)” (#6 CB)
5. Hot “Angel in Your Arms” (#18 CB)
6. Kenny Nolan “I Like Dreamin'” (#7 CB)
7. Thelma Houston “Don’t Leave Me This Way” (#17 CB)
8. Rita Coolidge “(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher”
9. Alan O’Day “Undercover Angel” (#4 CB)
10. Mary MacGregor “Torn Between Two Lovers” (#5 CB)

Cash Box

1. Debby Boone
“You Light Up My Life” (no BB)

2. Andy Gibb “I Just Want to Be Your Everything”
3. ABBA “Dancing Queen” (#12 BB)
4. Alan O’Day “Undercover Angel” (#9 BB)
5. Mary MacGregor “Torn Between Two Lovers” (#10 BB)
6. Barbra Streisand “Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star is Born)” (#4 BB)
7. Kenny Nolan “I Like Dreamin'” (#6 BB)
8. Rita Coolidge “(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher”
9. Johnny Rivers “Swayin’ to the Music (Slow Dancing)” (#49 BB)
10. Meco “Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band” (#71 BB)

Another list where the difference lies primarily with the period surveyed by the publications.

By ending its survey at the end of October 1977, Billboard cut off “You Light Up My Life” dominating the top spot for 10 weeks in November and December. The song would show up very strong the next year with those two months included as part of the ranking. Even so, the matchings are strong here, with eight songs appearing on both lists.

Interestingly, several of these entries are doing surprisingly poorly on Spotify.

Hot’s “Angel in Your Arms” (#6 BB) isn’t hot at all. It has less than 515,000 Spotify streams, a record low among all the 1970s year-end hits.
Not much better is “I Like Dreamin'” at around 544,000 streams. And Johnny Rivers’ version of “Swayin’ to the Music (Slow Dancing)” isn’t even on Spotify.

1978

Billboard

1. Andy Gibb
“Shadow Dancing” (#3 CB)

2. The Bee Gees “Night Fever” (#1 CB)
3. Debby Boone “You Light Up My Life” (#56 CB)
4. The Bee Gees “Stayin’ Alive” (#2 CB)
5. Exile “Kiss You All Over” (#4 CB)
6. The Bee Gees “How Deep is Your Love” (#24 CB)
7. Player “Baby Come Back” (#14 CB)
8. Andy Gibb “(Love Is) Thicker Than Water” (#22 CB)
9. A Taste of Honey “Boogie Oogie Oogie” (#7 CB)
1o. The Commodores “Three Times a Lady” (#5 CB)

Cash Box

1. The Bee Gees
“Night Fever” (#2 BB)

2. The Bee Gees “Stayin’ Alive” (#4 BB)
3. Andy Gibb “Shadow Dancing” (#1 BB)
4. Exile “Kiss You All Over” (#5 BB)
5. The Commodores “Three Times a Lady” (#10 BB)
6. Nick Gilder “Hot Child in the City” (#22 BB)
7. A Taste of Honey “Boogie Oogie Oogie” (#9 BB)
8. Samantha Sang “Emotion” (#14 BB)
9. Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta “You’re the One That I Want” (#13 BB)
10. The Rolling Stones “Miss You” (#16 BB)

The Bee Gees – or rather singer/writer/producer Barry Gibb – dominate this year’s listings in a way even the Beatles failed to achieve with their big splash in 1964.

Barry had a hand in five songs on the Billboard list and four in Cash Box, including writing the hits for Andy Gibb and Samantha Sang. In addition, three of them were among the Top four in both lists. Quite impressive.
If that’s not enough to wow you, consider that like the Bee Gees and Andy Gibb, Player was signed to RSO Records. That means that label had six of the top eight year-end songs on Billboard, an unprecedented accomplishment.
Another minor surprise: “Miss You” marks the third and final time that a Rolling Stones song makes any year-end top 10, after “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and “Honky Tonk Women.”

1979

Billboard

1. The Knack
“My Sharona” (#2 CB)

2. Donna Summer “Bad Girls” (#7 CB)
3. Chic “Le Freak” (#1 CB)
4. Rod Stewart “Do You Think I’m Sexy?” (#3 CB)
5. Peaches and Herb “Reunited” (#9 CB)
6. Gloria Gaynor “I Will Survive” (#10 CB)
7. Donna Summer “Hot Stuff” (#14 CB)
8. The Village People “YMCA” (#4 CB)
9. Anita Ward “Ring My Bell” (#6 CB)
10. Robert John “Sad Eyes” (#13 CB)

Cash Box

1. Chic
“Le Freak” (#3 BB)

2. The Knack “My Sharona” (#1 BB)
3. Rod Stewart “Do You Think I’m Sexy?” (#4 BB)
4. The Village People “YMCA” (#8 BB)
5. The Doobie Brothers “What a Fool Believes” (#19 BB)
6. Anita Ward “Ring My Bell” (#9 BB)
7, Donna Summer “Bad Girls” (#2 BB)
8, The Bee Gees “Too Much Heaven” (#11 BB)
9. Peaches and Herb “Reunited” (#5 BB)
10. Gloria Gaynor “I Will Survive” (#6 BB)

Pretty good correlations here, even with the slight differences at the top spot.

Both have a disco-heavy lineup but slightly more so in Billboard (seven versus six songs).
And “What a Fool Believes” might have been the lowest entry listed per the latter publication…
It’s certainly held up better than “Sad Eyes.”