Ian Murray

Radioarbeit/Performance.

"The Top Song" consists of recordings of the first ten seconds of each of the top one hundred songs from the previous ten years.

"Keeping on Top of the Top Song" was a 17 minute live performance at Dalhousie University Student Union Auditorium on November 22, 1970 that was broadcast on Dalhousie University Radio, Halifax. "Keeping on Top of the Top Song" on this occasion was performed by drummer Tim Cohoon who was contracted to play along with the pre-recorded tape "The Top Song", which he had not previously heard. He was told that the tape went through a number of changes and that he should play continuously along with the music, always searching for a point of reference.

in 1973 both these works were published in LP form in an edition of 250. As the record jacket explains: "When you have over three hundred 45's coming in a week, you don't have ime to listen to them all, or even half of them. Generally a disc jockey will play about ten seconds, and he can usually tell if it is a good song or not"

(From: Selected Survey of Radio Art in Canada 1967 - 1992. Edited and compiled by Dan Lander. Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre for the Arts. 1994)

In 1984 Arno Niewenhuysen performed "On Top of The Top Song" in Amsterdam