Some years back I referred to my collection of ‘Too 40’ charts I used to get at the record shops. I had dozens of them lasting many years through the 1980s, and wish I still had them.
Recently I found some scanned in a historical website of Australian music. The scans were a little low-resolution, but the charts are still readable. Here’s one from March 1984:
Some iconic songs in that top 10! Also note that Thriller is at week 67 in the top 40 but a Midnight Oil album is at week 69! Incidentally I love how this scan is obviously of a copy once owned by a kid who wrote on it.
Here’s the back of the same chart:
These were about A4 size, always printed in two different colours, and usually sat in piles on a counter free for the taking. The fronts always showed the singles/album chart and the back was usually an ad that often contained lyrics. It was a particularly great week when a band I liked was featured on the back 🙂
Here’s the front and back of another from 1984:
99 Luftballoons spent at least two weeks at number 1 in Australia? I wouldn’t have remembered that, even though I did buy the single (and I believe own it to this day). Since I was a big fan of Nik Kershaw in those days, I’m sure I was thrilled to see him featured on the back.
Here’s one from 1985, in which we see the Countdown (a very famous Oz music TV show) promotion had ended:
And lastly the fronts only of two more:
That’s all I was able to find online, and since it was years ago I no longer remember where. If anything this dip into nostalgia makes me want to get my hands on one even more. Years back I saw one (in so-so condition) for sale in an antique store for some silly price and passed. Next time I may reach for my wallet, especially if it’s got a good band on the back 🙂
These were very important back in the day. They were often the only way to get song lyrics for singles. And it could be used to defend your favorite song as it rose in the charts above the favorites of others. Of course, if it didn’t move high or didn’t appear in the charts at all then the charts were all rubbish and didn’t pertain to good music.
We used to commonly get the radio station specific ones: 2NX and 2KO.
2NX as I remember it was more music and less talk and they were open to taking song requests over the phone. They would generally play much newer music, whereas 2KO had more boring news and talk and slightly older music.
The top 40 charts were mostly the same between 2NX and 2KO. The featured song lyrics were different each week so it was worth grabbing both charts. They were printed in a way that enabled folding in half, or thirds, I think.