Growth

Record World has been considered^{[by whom?]} the hipper, faster-moving music industry publication,^{[citation needed]} 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.^[2]

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.^{[citation needed]}

Peak

Record World showed musical diversity by printing a "Non-Rock" survey, comparable to Billboard's "Easy Listening" chart. This chart appeared in April 1967 and disappeared essentially 5 years later in April 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.^{[citation needed]}

Record World's peak years coincided with the Studio 54 era,^{[according to whom?]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[3]

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.^{[citation needed]}

Demise

Record World's collapse was the result of discord between the two owners,^{[citation needed]} 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.

RECORD WORLD #1 POP ALBUMS: 1964–1973^[7]