Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2015 April 30

= April 30 =

Is there a website that could tell me how popular the song La_Isla_Bonita was on a certain radio station about 15 years ago on it's top hit charts?
I know I asked about this song already. But I'm a huge Madonna fan. Bluestarcanada (talk) 01:23, 30 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Probably not. While the information may exist somewhere in a filing cabinet, music charts are normally published only on a national (and sometimes regional) level and rarely are at the level of granularity of an individual radio station.  While the radio station itself may keep the data, perhaps for archival purposes, I would find it highly unlikely that such information is published in a form for the public.  Stations do often run a local "top 5" or similar chart, often for new music, and you may be able to find some information about such historical charts (for example, Sirius XM's "Spectrum" channel has it's Baker's Dozen countdown, and you can find historical lists of those], those typically are not cumulative lists of number of plays, but rather a "top XXX list" based on nebulous criteria determined by the station (usually some vague combination of requests, sales, and whatever the the record companies are pushing that week).  It is very rare for older songs to be included in such countdowns.  Stations that feature primarily classic hits from earlier eras, like classic rock stations, rarely run countdowns of any type, and it would be basically impossible to find any published data on play frequency for any one song for such a situation.  The best you can do is to look on the published national charts from 15 years ago, and see if the song makes a resurgence during that time.  It isn't unheard of for older songs to suddenly reappear on the charts; for example Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, originally released in 1976, made a reappearance on the charts in 1992 after it's inclusion in the movie Wayne's World; notably it peaked at #9 in the U.S. in 1976, and the reissue peaked at #2 in 1992.  However, if you look at the charts you are interested in during the time period you are looking, and can't find "La Isla Bonita" there, I'm not sure you can find it anywhere.  -- Jayron 32 01:43, 30 April 2015 (UTC)


 * You could try contacting the station itself. The worst they could say is, "We don't know." ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 02:35, 30 April 2015 (UTC)


 * Or, more likely, "We could research it and find an answer for you, but we won't bother". If the OP offered to pay for their time, maybe they would. StuRat (talk) 17:29, 1 May 2015 (UTC)
 * My advice to the OP is what I myself would do if I couldn't find it on the internet. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 18:14, 2 May 2015 (UTC)