Ready 'n' Steady

"Ready 'n' Steady" is a song by the artist D.A. that appeared on Billboard magazine's Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart for three weeks in June 1979. The record, along with information about it or the artist, has been notoriously hard to find, leading many collectors to consider it a "phantom record".

Bubbling Under

The June 16, 1979 issue of Billboard listed 10 songs on its Bubbling Under chart, including "Ready 'n' Steady" by D.A. at number 106.^[1] The record, released on the Rascal label, moved up to 103 on June 23,^[2] then up to 102 the following week^[3] before dropping off the chart.

Joel Whitburn

Music historian Joel Whitburn, whose company Record Research Inc. specializes in analyzing the Billboard charts, has published various books containing chart data. He has collected tens of thousands of hit records, including all of the 45s ever to hit the Hot 100 or Bubbling Under charts—all except "Ready 'n' Steady".

In a 1995 interview, Whitburn said he had never actually seen or heard the record but added "We think—we think—that it's a girl's rock group from Chicago. Punk group, we think—1979. And we think that the Rascal label was out of a guy's home in Detroit." Whitburn found a small ad for the Rascal label (with a Detroit address) in a punk rock publication and had it checked out; unfortunately, the building was vacant, with no sign of the label or its only charted record.^[4] The entry in Billboard shows "Ready 'n' Steady" had a catalog number of 102; if there was a "Rascal 101" released, it too remains unknown to collectors.

A female-fronted punk rock group from Chicago called DA! were active in the early 1980s. The band released a single and an EP on the Autumn Records label in 1981–82. This is presumably the band that Whitburn thought (as of the 1995 interview) could have recorded "Ready 'n' Steady" in 1979. However, Whitburn no longer seems to accept this possibility, and the band has stated that they did not record the song.^[5]

Existence

The most recent edition of Jerry Osbourne's Official Price Guide to Records (16th Edition, published 2002) lists the record (and a value of $75–125), along with an unnamed LP on the Frontline label, dated 1985 or 1986 (this is actually the album Fearful Symmetry by the Christian rock band Daniel Amos).

In the fourth edition of Joel Whitburn's Bubbling Under the Hot 100 book, published in 2005, the entry for "D.A." was amended with a note stating "the existence of this record and artist is in question," and quotes a price of $150 as its value.

Finally, in 2009, Whitburn brought out his newest Top Pop Singles book, which includes both Hot 100 and Bubbling Under singles—but D.A. is not listed at all. In an interview with the website CelebrityAccess, Whitburn noted he still has not been able to find "Ready 'n' Steady" and said "I don't think it exists."^[6]

References

1. ↑ "Bubbling Under the Hot 100". Billboard. 1979-06-16. p. 38. Retrieved 2009-12-18. 
2. ↑ "Bubbling Under the Hot 100". Billboard. 1979-06-23. p. 28. Retrieved 2009-12-18. 
3. ↑ "Bubbling Under the Hot 100". Billboard. 1979-06-30. p. 23. Retrieved 2009-12-18. 
4. ↑ Horowitz, Rick (1995-06-30). "Listmania: Joel Whitburn Is on Top of the Charts". Deseret News (Salt Lake City). Retrieved 2009-12-18. 
5. ↑ "DA - Ready 'N' Steady (1979)". popbomb.com. December 3, 2013. Retrieved August 22, 2015. 
6. ↑ LeBlanc, Larry (2009). "Industry Profile: Joel Whitburn". CelebrityAccess. Gen-Den. Retrieved 2009-12-18.