After classic rock epics, including Elton John’s “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding,” Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain” and Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” stretched last year’s Memorial Day 500 countdown to almost 11 p.m. on Monday, classic rock radio station WDVE is taking some precautionary measures this year and starting it earlier than usual.
The 102.5 WDVE Memorial Day 500 — a weekend-long countdown of the best rock songs of all time — began in 1985, but after several years, the countdown took an almost two-decade-long hiatus. The 500 returned to the airwaves in 2019 and has been a staple of Memorial Day weekend in Pittsburgh ever since.
Last year, for the 40th anniversary of the countdown, ‘DVE elected to make the list listener-made. The station solicited top 10 lists from listeners in the month or so leading up to the May holiday weekend — and the listeners definitely shook things up, with 109 songs making their first appearance since the 500 returned in 2019.
This year, the listeners have the wheel again, with the chance to submit their top 10 songs starting in April and ending about a week and a half ago.
“Coming out of the (NFL) Draft, the amount of people who asked me about the countdown … I was like, ‘Yeah, we’re doing it this year. We’re letting you guys pick your top 10s,’” said Chad Tyson, afternoon drive host on WDVE. “People were telling me their stories about how they have dry-erase boards and spreadsheets, and they go back, way back to the countdown days back in the ’80s when we first started.”
Tyson was the one on the air for the marathon Monday last stretch of last year’s countdown.
“I just remember because I started a little after three, and it was like, I’m doing an eight-hour air shift right now,” he said.
Of course, it doesn’t help that so many of the staples of the top 10 — Derek and the Dominoes’ “Layla,” Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird” and, of course, Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” — all have runtimes of more than seven minutes.
Typically, number 500 will come on the air at 10 a.m. on Friday. This year, they’re diving into the race to at 8 a.m. Friday instead.
“Because it was ending so God-awful late, we’ve changed it and we switched it up to 8 a.m.,” said ‘DVE Electric Lunch’s Michele Michaels.
As always, the question on everyone’s mind is whether “Stairway to Heaven” will sit at the number one spot, as it has for the past three years.
“I don’t know if it’ll be number one again, because it’s not always number one,” Tyson said.
It’s true; since 2019, three other songs have sat at the top of the countdown. Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” was victorious in 2019; AC/DC’s “Back in Black” won in 2021; and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” was number one in 2022.
Michaels hopes that listeners give some of the newer tunes a chance, too.
“Bands like Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam was No. 100 last year with ‘Jeremy.’ That’s as high as they got,” she said.
But she also looks at it as proof of the power of really old-school tunes.
“When you’re talking about the classics of all time, I guess it just tells you how absolutely timeless these classic rock pieces are,” she said.
You won’t be getting any spoilers about the list from Chad Tyson — he doesn’t want to know what’s coming either.
“I don’t even look at it and then go all the way down until Monday when I get on the air because I like to be surprised like everybody,” he said.
Michaels loves the camaraderie amongst Pittsburghers that the Memorial Day tradition has attached to it.
“I love pulling up to a red light and the person next to me has their windows down — and they’re listening … like, right there with me.”
Arguing about the list is half the fun — especially now that fellow listeners are lending their input to the list.
“Look at the internet and our socials, people love lists … and this one is made by the ‘DVE listeners, so it’s just so much fun,” Michaels said.
Will any major upsets occur? Will another act beat out Led Zeppelin’s record of 27 songs on a single year’s countdown? Will the last track from “Led Zeppelin IV” that has never been on the list (“Four Sticks”) make its debut? How many songs by The Clarks will make it on? And did the powerful voting bloc that put 12 songs by Journey on last year’s list show up again this year?
We’ll all find out together starting tomorrow at 8 a.m.