Newhart and Numbers

American Masters just had a fine tribute to Bob Newhart. It may be repeated soon, so keep an eye out. A solid overview of his career, I don't have much to add. But there were a few interesting stats mentioned that I'd like to discuss.

First, they showed some TV ratings on the special. It's not said when they're from, or if it's weekly or yearly ratings, but it's got to be around 1974:

1. All In The Family
2. The Waltons
3. Sanford And Son
4. M*A*S*H
5. Hawaii Five-O
6. Maude
7. Kojak
The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour
9. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Cannon
11. The Six Million Dollar Man
12. The Bob Newhart Show
The Wonderful World of Disney
The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie

Even more interesting are the ratings. Ratings are percentages of all television households, not to be confused with shares, which are percentages of all televisions in use. The top-rated show, All In The Family, had a 31.2 rating. Number 14, The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie (which included Columbo) was 22.2 How things have changed in this age of cable. Now, if you manage a 10 rating, you're a hit, while anything over 15 makes you a huge hit. 22.2 on a regular basis might not be reachable any more.

Second, the special made an extravagant claim about his first LP, The Button-Down Mind Of Bob Newhart. It was a major hit, true, but they claim the "album outperformed every album made by Elvis Presley except Presley's Blue Hawaii album; it also outperformed, on the charts, every album made by the Beatles in the decade of the 1960s."

First, a little context. The album market wasn't nearly as big as it got with the growth of rock (thanks considerably to the Beatles). So an album could sell well for weeks and weeks and still not go gold (500,000 copies sold).

While rock music started taking over in the 50s, it sold mostly as singles until the Beatles came along. With the exception of Elvis, few rock acts were #1 on the album charts until 1964. What sold? Mitch Miller, the Kingston Trio, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis and lots of MOR stuff. Original cast albums and soundtracks were huge--the South Pacific soundtrack was #1 for 31 weeks and the West Side Story soundtrack was #1 for 54 weeks! Before the Beatles, even Frank Fontaine, better known as Crazy Guggenhiem, the drunk, on The Jackie Gleason Show, was at #1 for 5 weeks.

Yet when it comes to sales, the Beatles and other rock acts opened up the album market. More units were sold more quickly. When a Beatles' album came out, it was an event and would sell intensely the first week, unlike most previous #1 LPs.

But even if we don't take this into account, let's look at the chart numbers. In 1960, Newhart's first album was #1 for 14 weeks. Impressive, though not the best charting album of the year--that was the original cast recording of The Sound Of Music, #1 for 16 weeks. Newhart's next album in 1961 was #1 for a single week, and he never topped the charts again. (The next big charting comedy act was Allan Sherman, who had three #1 albums before The Beatles came along.)

It's true the only Elvis abum to chart better (not sell better) than Newhart's was the Blue Hawaii soundtrack, #1 for 20 weeks. But Elvis was primarily a singles artist, and there he dominated as no one else. Because people bought soundtracks in those days (when you're not otherwise inclined to buy albums, the free publicity a movie garners sure can help), his other two biggest charting albums, both #1 for 10 weeks, were the soundtracks to Loving You and G. I. Blues.

Now for the Beatles. They ruled the U.S. charts from '64 to '70, ushering in an era of rock dominance. In 1964 alone they were #1 for 30 weeks. (By the way, this was the first full year the mono and stereo album charts were combined.) Meet The Beatles was #1 for 11 consecutive weeks, followed by The Beatle's Second Album at #1 for 5 weeks. That's 16 weeks straight, more than Newhart held #1 for everything he did.

Then, later that year, with a soundtrack that wasn't even all Beatles--A Hard Day's Night--they were #1 for 14 consecutive weeks. It appears this Beatles' album was not outperformed by Newhart's. However, while they were at #1 an equal amount, the Newhart album was on the charts considerably longer--108 weeks to 51. So let's hold off for a while.

In 1965, the Beatles were #1 for 24 weeks. In 1966, 17 weeks. (From late '66 through '67, the Monkees' first two albums were #1 for 31 straight weeks.) In 1967, 15 weeks. In 1968, 17 weeks. In 1969, 11 weeks. In 1970, when they broke up, 4 weeks.

Were there any albums released during this time that charted better than Newhart's? Well, Abbey Road was on the charts 116 weeks, longer than Newhart's 108. But it was only #1 11 weeks, so maybe Newhart still wins. The Beatles (better known as "The White Album") was on the charts 144 weeks. But it was only #1 for 9 weeks, so maybe it loses, too. (I'm ignoring that the Beatles' albums continued to sell well in the 35 years since they split up.)

So is that it? Nope, there's one more: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was #1 for 15 straight weeks and on the charts for 168. So by any standard, the Newhart claim is simply wrong. (Sorry I wasted so much time getting to this paragraph.)

By the way, if you want to talk chart domination, starting in mid-1963 all the way to 1968, on the British charts, every #1 album was either The Sound Of Music soundtrack, or something by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan or the Monkees.