As reported April 2, 2023, Seymour Stein, Sire Information co-founder who signed Madonna, The Ramones & different legendary artists, died at age 80. Stein started his storied profession within the music business as an adolescent at Billboard, the place, as an intern after faculty, he contributed to the founding of the Billboard Scorching 100 chart. The next interview was carried out and initially printed in 2015.
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“I take a look at my education as, partially, my early years at Billboard.”
That’s how Sire Information co-founder and Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame enshrinee Seymour Stein, who in January 2021 oversaw the relaunch of the Blue Horizon label in partnership with Fats Possum, recalled his business training.
That upbringing included the revealing of the Billboard Scorching 100 chart within the journal’s Aug. 4, 1958, situation. On the time, Stein was a highschool pupil wanting to be taught, and assist form, the music enterprise, absorbing data firsthand from inside Billboard’s workplaces.
The Scorching 100’s sizzling shot debut wasn’t front-page information, nevertheless it did make web page two, in an editorial succinctly headlined “The Billboard Scorching 100”: “On pages 36 and 37 of this situation, we’re proud to current The Billboard Scorching 100, the quickest, most full and most delicate index to the recognition of recorded music in America. This new chart function, which every week will record the 100 hottest recorded sides, is a information to potential, in addition to the present hits.”
When the rating premiered, dominated by Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Idiot,” it encompassed “such elements as [radio] disc jockey performs, jukebox exercise and report gross sales.” At present, airplay remains to be among the many Scorching 100’s knowledge combine, with downloads persevering with the type of report gross sales. Streaming is basically a modern-era, digital jukebox, with clicks of a mouse having changed the clicks of a mechanical arm deciding on and dropping a forty five completely into place.
On the coronary heart of the Scorching 100’s launch was then-head of charts Tom Noonan, together with music-radio-TV editor Paul Ackerman and Stein. “Tom and Paul had been nice mentors to me,” says Stein. “It was such an honor when Tom requested me to assist begin the Scorching 100.”
Much like in the present day, as Billboard wrote in its story unwrapping the primary Scorching 100, “Knowledge is obtained and tabulated proper as much as deadline time” (with Luminate knowledge figures having fueled the chart since 1991, and a number of streaming sources having joined in recent times). “Weighted elements within the carefully-designed formulation consequence [in] the quickest and most full information to the nationwide reputation of information.”
Whereas the Scorching 100 marks over six a long time because the chronicle of American hits, Stein’s legacy has likewise develop into legendary. Sire’s first signee? Steven Tallarico. Then in a band known as Chain Response, he’d change his identify to Steven Tyler as frontman for Aerosmith. In 1975, Sire signed the Ramones and Speaking Heads. The Pretenders adopted in 1980 and Madonna in 1982. (“I spotted, ‘This girl is smarter than all of us. Simply get out of her means,’” Stein mentioned of Madonna in 2012.) Different acts Sire signed in that formative period: Depeche Mode, The Treatment, The Smiths and Ice-T.
In 2005, Stein was inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame, in its lifetime-achievement class. In 2012, he was honored as Billboard’s first Icon Award recipient, introduced to him on the annual MIDEM business gathering in Cannes, France.
Right here, in Stein’s phrases (from an interview first printed in 2015), is his recollection of how the Scorching 100 originated, the way it helped pace up the measurement of hits, because of the inclusion of radio airplay knowledge, and the story of how the chart’s identify was (probably) chosen.
On the necessity for a then-new chart: “Again within the day, earlier than the Scorching 100, there have been many alternative charts in Billboard reflecting the success of singles within the market [including] Greatest-Promoting Pop Singles in Shops, Jukebox Favorites, Most-Heard on the Radio and Sheet Music.
“Then, there was an total chart which was known as the Honor Roll of Hits. This was a [composition, not singles] chart, as a result of again in these days, there have been a number of variations of nearly each tune. Generally three or 4 or extra had been profitable, like within the case of ‘Unchained Melody.’ To indicate the energy of the tune, the Honor Roll of Hits would record the factors of all variations to acquire a place.
“Again then, jukebox gross sales had been huge. If a sizzling artist, like Perry Como, Patti Web page or Nat ‘King’ Cole, with a profitable observe report put out a brand new single, report shops knew methods to order based mostly on their current gross sales. However, within the case of latest artists, and there have been numerous them in these early days of rock & roll, shops had no means of being guided. Extra urgently, jukebox operators wanted to know shortly to get these new information into their machines.
“It was the jukeboxes, specifically, that first instigated the necessity for a quicker means of creating the charts. Fortuitously, this was across the similar time because the daybreak of prime 40 radio, and the Scorching 100 used radio playlists from throughout the nation weighted by the dimensions of the market to assist compile this new chart.
“It wasn’t solely error-free or one hundred pc correct; keep in mind, this was [1958]. I used to be simply 16, working at Billboard after faculty. From the time I used to be 9 years outdated, I knew I needed to be within the music enterprise.”
On Billboard’s editorial impression: “As vital because the charts had been, the Billboard evaluate classes that picked highlight winners of the week had been much more vital. If a report was accorded a highlight evaluate, it may stir the gross sales upwards of 75,000 copies by jukebox operators alone within the first week. Earlier than the Scorching 100, the charts had been so gradual, the jukebox operators couldn’t watch for these information to show themselves and needed to go by the evaluations in Billboard.
“Paul Ackerman invited me to attend these music evaluate classes on Wednesday nights and even supplied me with a due-bill to remain at one of many motels near the Billboard workplaces and that means I may stand up and take the subway to Lafayette Excessive Faculty in Brooklyn. It was at these classes that I met individuals like Syd Nathan of King Information, Leonard Chess, George Goldner, Lew Chudd of Imperial, Herman Lubinksy of Savoy, Don Pierce of Starday and publishers like Freddy Bienstock and Al Gallico, to call a couple of.”
As for the identify Scorching 100? “I can solely think about that what the business was in search of was a warmer, faster means of getting chart data. Tom [Noonan] may have give you the identify. I definitely didn’t. It might need been one of many reporters, or Paul Ackerman. I simply don’t keep in mind. Then we added star performers to indicate fast motion upward, aka, bullets.
“Response was, in fact, optimistic from each nook of the music enterprise. These had been nonetheless the early days of rock & roll. Mitch Miller and Hugo Winterhalter had been nonetheless the heads of A&R of Columbia and RCA Victor, the 2 main majors, and rooting for rock & roll to not occur. Milt Gabler over at Decca was the primary of the majors to embrace rock & roll and it was Steve Sholes at RCA who organized to purchase Elvis Presley’s contract from Solar; however not with out first taking the recommendation of Paul Ackerman.
“Report shops definitely reacted favorably and radio stations, too.
“By way of the success of the chart, extra execs had been drawn as much as the Billboard workplaces, typically with their artists in tow, whether or not it was for a narrative or simply to say thanks for acknowledging their No. 1 place.”
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