Turntable Hits

[paul jh]

When Matt Monro Jnr was interviewed by Eric Hall, Matt Jnr referred to We're Gonna Change The World as a "turntable hit" for his father. I wondered what he meant, but didn't think too much about it.

Now I just read the following on the Radio 2 message board, where the writer refers to a turntable hit.

"My views exactly on Radio 2's daytime music, it's always the same predictable stuff. To be honest if I was a producer or DJ at the station I couldn't do it. I accept you have to play the odd favourite but not continuously. I see it as introducing people to different records now and again. When I go through my singles collection - some of them hits but mainly minor and turntable hits, it makes you realise how much good stuff is never heard."

We all (and especially Robert) know the definition of a huge hit and a major hit, but what exactly is a turntable hit?

[Lena & Harry Smith]

Paul, this is what we have seen and this is how a turntable hit has been described.
It is a song that gets a boatload of listeners requests to be played on the radio and becomes the one requested song every day for weeks----only to have low record sales that don't match up with it's seemingly hit state.

[paul jh]

Thanks Lena and Harry for the explanation of turntable hits. It makes perfect sense and I'll add that to my music vocabulary. I can see how that term applies to We're Gonna Change The World. It's very popular, but didn't chart high. And there are even turntable hits today.

[ROBERT M.]

Hi Paul, Lena and Harry and all. I would also say that a "turntable hit" is a song all the DJs seem to play on every show, whether requested or not, and it becomes popular that way, but bombs in the charts.

Were 2 other Matt songs "turntable hits" Born Free and On Days Like These ?? as they both failed to chart, but must have been popular when released in 66 and 69 respectively.