Why the Weeknd needed Ariana Grande to send "Save Your Tears" to No. 1 on the Hot 100.
Stories about how DJs have turned underdog records into smash hits are legion, but few hitmaking radio pros have as long a legacy as Gary Guthrie. In 1978, when Guthrie was the program director for Louisville pop station WAKY, he noticed something uncanny: Two ’70s superstars, Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand, had each recorded a version of “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” and issued them on their own separate LPs, six months apart. But “Flowers,” a lament for a fading romance that Diamond himself co-wrote, wasn’t issued as a single, by him or by Streisand. So Guthrie created his o...
Source: slate.com
