Record World

Record World magazine was one of the three main music industry trade magazines in the United States, along with Billboard and Cashbox. It was founded in 1946 under the name Music Vendor, but in 1964 it was changed to Record World, under the ownership of Sid Parnes and Bob Austin. It ceased publication on April 10, 1982. Many music industry personalities, writers, and critics began their careers there in the early 1970s to 1980s.

Growth
Record World has been considered the hipper, faster-moving music industry publication, in contrast to the stodgier Billboard and Cashbox, its sister magazine. Music Vendor, as it was then known, published its first music chart for the week ending October 4, 1954.

A weekly, like its competitors, it was housed in New York City at 1700 Broadway, at 53rd Street, just across the street from the Ed Sullivan Theater, and West Coast editorial offices in Los Angeles on Sunset and Vine.

Peak
Record World showed musical diversity by printing a "Non-Rock" survey, comparable to Billboard's "Easy Listening" / "Adult Contemporary" chart. This chart began in the February 2, 1967 issue, and ended on April 1, 1972, having morphed to the name "The MOR Chart" by 1971. Several titles of interest appeared on this 40-position list without making the Billboard Easy Listening survey. The chart returned with a weekly top-50 "A/C Chart" on February 16, 1980.

Record World's peak years coincided with the Studio 54 era, when disco was in full swing. Recording artists tottered through on platform heels, bedecked in rhinestones, often seriously impaired by the then-popular recreational drug cocaine.

Contributors
Young writers laboured writing reviews of records, analyses of sales data and music-related current events. Staffers included Mike Sigman, editor-in-chief (who then went on to become publisher of the LA Weekly); Howie Levitt, managing editor (later of Billboard and BMI, the music royalty service); Pat Baird, who went on to key publicity positions at both RCA and BMI; associate editor Allen Levy, who went to become a public relations person for United Artists Records, ASCAP and A&M, and who is now a professor of mass communication at Chapman University.

Dede Dabney was from Philadelphia. She was the daughter of a pharmacist who came on board in 1972. She had a weekly column called "Soul Truth". She communicated weekly via phone to major figures in radio programming to get and give info. These figures included Frankie Crocker of WBLS-FM, New York, E. Rodney Jones of WVON, Chicago, and Joe "Butterball" Tamburro of WDAS, Philadelphia. When an artist or group's record was mentioned in "Dede's Ditties to Watch", it was one that was watched.

Other staff included writers Vince Aletti (later of The New Yorker); Marc Kirkeby (he went on to CBS/Sony Records); Jeffrey Peisch (later of MTV and independent producing); Dave McGee (later of Rolling Stone); Laurie Lennard (later as a talent booker on The Late Show, then wife of comedian Larry David, and producer of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth); columnist Sophia Midas; and chart editor and assistant editor Fred Goodman (later editor of Cash Box and current managing editor of Pro Sound News and a songwriter/music publisher.

Demise
Record World's collapse was the result of discord between the two owners, and a sudden downturn in record sales in the early 1980s. However, the new owners and management have revived Record World once again as an online magazine and feature story magazine known as Record World Magazine.

Charts
In 1978, Record World changed the R&B title to Black-Oriented.

List of number-one singles
Here is a list of all the songs that reached #1 on the Music Vendor/Record World chart, obtained from the following cited sources. There were a total of 658 songs that reached #1 on the chart. In the early history of the chart, multiple versions of the same song charted as one entry, so the most successful recording of these songs is listed. An asterisk (*) denotes a non-consecutive run at #1.

"The Twist", by Chubby Checker, is the only song to hit #1 in two different chart runs. The record holder for the most weeks at #1 is Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life", which stayed on top for 13 weeks. "I Love Rock 'n Roll", by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, was the last song to top the chart before the magazine ceased publication.

List of number-one albums
=== RECORD WORLD #1 POP ALBUMS: 1964–1973 ===