Longtime Billboard contributor Fred Bronson spent more than a decade writing Billboard‘s Chart Beat column, chronicling the artists, songs and records making waves on the charts. Michael Ellis, meanwhile, spent years overseeing Billboard charts during his tenure as director of charts. Those two Billboard chart veterans are now putting their knowledge behind a microphone to share their expertise.
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Bronson and Ellis are among the hosts of A Heart for the Charts, a new podcast from music chart reference company Record Research Inc. that launched Tuesday (Oct. 6). The series brings together chart history and firsthand stories from the artists who lived it, with a rotating lineup of hosts and guests discussing the records that defined their careers.
The podcast’s first episode, “The Day I Went to Number One,” features Thelma Houston and The Fleetwoods’ Gretchen Christopher. Houston discusses the road to her 1977 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” while Christopher looks back at The Fleetwoods’ rise from their high school beginnings to the top of the Hot 100 with “Come Softly to Me” in 1959.
Bronson might be the most recognizable name in the lineup to longtime Billboard readers. He began writing Chart Beat in 1993, taking over the column that had been introduced by Paul Grein (Billboard‘s reigning Awards Editor) in 1981. Bronson is also the author of The Billboard Book of Number One Hits, among other books. Ellis brings a different perspective to the conversation. As Billboard‘s former director of charts, he was responsible for the publication’s weekly tallies, including the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200, both music industry standards.
They’re joined on A Heart for the Charts by Record Research Head Researcher Paul Haney, Second Disc founder Joe Marchese and Motown historian Andy Skurow.
The format leaves room for the hosts to get into the details behind famous chart runs, while also hearing directly from the people who experienced them. Judging from the first episode, the show is less about reciting peak positions and more focused on the stories surrounding those numbers.
Record Research Publisher Kim Bloxdorf is scheduled for the Oct. 20 episode to discuss her father, late chart historian and Record Research founder Joel Whitburn. Kim Carnes will follow on Nov. 3 to discuss her 1981 Hot 100-topping smash “Bette Davis Eyes,” while Rupert Holmes is set to appear Nov. 17 to relive when “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1979, making it the last Hot 100 No. 1 of that decade.
The first season is scheduled to conclude Dec. 1.
Listen to the first episode below.