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Post by woolebull on Oct 6, 2012 10:51:39 GMT -5
If obscurity is being defined as inconspicuous, which seems to be the only sensible definition to use for this subject, then this is not a matter of opinion of song quality - it is a question of "how many times have these songs been played and heard since they were hits?" So this thread is really speculation about the answer to that question, rather than being about what #1 songs we do and don't like. At least I believe that was the intent of the thread. I think it's a really interesting subject. It's also interesting, I think, to speculate about which #1 songs have been played and heard the most. How many of us at the end of 1964, for example, would have predicted that Oh Pretty Woman would be the most-heard #1 song (possibly of the entire decade?) over the next 48 years? (Of course maybe you think there are others that have been heard more than that one and again I think it is a fascinating topic - what about the #1 songs of the 70s and 80s in that respect as well?) Yes, the intent was to talk about obscure...however I loved where this has gone. Particularly stretching past 1988 and getting Timmy T in the conversation! The most-heard #1? There are quite a few that stick out in my mind but I'm going to go, just because of sports, "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" by Steam. It is probably as well known to kids in 2012 than most number one songs from the 90's are to this generation. At least the last part of the song I'd also throw, "Another One Bites The Dust". Don't know too many people (young or old) who do not know that bass line.
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Post by mstgator on Oct 6, 2012 13:49:36 GMT -5
One I haven't seen mentioned (possibly because it gets more airplay elsewhere) is "Island Girl" by Elton John from 1975. Aside from classic AT40 and some local station specialty weekends, I haven't heard radio play this song in years. I assume it's due to the questionable lyrics since the song itself is extremely catchy.
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Post by woolebull on Oct 6, 2012 13:58:56 GMT -5
One I haven't seen mentioned (possibly because it gets more airplay elsewhere) is "Island Girl" by Elton John from 1975. Aside from classic AT40 and some local station specialty weekends, I haven't heard radio play this song in years. I assume it's due to the questionable lyrics since the song itself is extremely catchy. That is a good one as well. I saw him in concert a few months ago, and it seemed he played every big song he ever had except that one and "Lucy"... BTW, how about a number one that went from being one of the most obscure to probably the best known number one from the 1980's. All in a matter of a couple of months a few years back that continues to this day...Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up".
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Post by bestmusicexpert on Oct 6, 2012 15:10:49 GMT -5
Where Elton is concerned, most Jack FM stations do play Island Girl. Not sure why he doesn't play it live, maybe hard to play live and make it sound enough like the album version.
As for Lucy, he won't play that or Empty Garden because it reminds him of lennon and makes him sad. OCCASIONALLY at MSG, he'll play Empty Garden but not Lucy as much.
I agree with alot of the comments here. Africa by Toto is played by stations a bit. Plus Family Guy used it recently which I noticed upped its airplay on stations.
Personally, I feel that if a station plays a specific decade, they need to play EVERY number one hit of that decade AT THE LEAST, no matter how hokey, goofy or otherwise... I'd go as far as to say if a song hit the top 40, it should be played at least occasionally. Certainly if it hit the top 10!
Other big hits of the 70's and 80's (top 10's) that I never hear get recurrent airplay:
Chicago: You're Not Alone Mouth & MacNeil: How Do You Do Guess Who: Clap For The Wolfman Lou Gramm: Just Between You & Me
Just a few I enjoy that is never played, though the Guess Who tune my station plays VERY occasionally.... (read: When I insert it into the playlist)
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Post by 80sat40fan on Oct 6, 2012 15:46:29 GMT -5
I agree with the original poster that Stars On 45 has to be the most obscure song to hit #1. My #2 pick is from the same year... "Rapture" by Blondie. That song received no airplay where I lived in 1981, and in living in other cities, I only heard this song played one time, and that was during a Time Warp show on an alternative radio station. I never understood how this song hit #1... it seemed to go on and on and on without a real "hook".
I'm also noticing how many songs named by others are ballads. It seems if a song was an adult contemporary ballad in the 70s or 80s that PDs today consider these songs taboo to play. I wouldn't want to hear some of the songs named ad nauseum today but every once in awhile would be fun.
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Post by woolebull on Oct 6, 2012 17:58:33 GMT -5
I agree with the original poster that Stars On 45 has to be the most obscure song to hit #1. My #2 pick is from the same year... "Rapture" by Blondie. That song received no airplay where I lived in 1981, and in living in other cities, I only heard this song played one time, and that was during a Time Warp show on an alternative radio station. I never understood how this song hit #1... it seemed to go on and on and on without a real "hook". I'm also noticing how many songs named by others are ballads. It seems if a song was an adult contemporary ballad in the 70s or 80s that PDs today consider these songs taboo to play. I wouldn't want to hear some of the songs named ad nauseum today but every once in awhile would be fun. Going back to my original post, I said that I had not, as of 1989 (again, I never knew what Top 40 radio was until 1982) I had never heard "Medley" and "Woman In Love". "Rapture" was almost on the list, but I actually heard it on May 26, 1989...I didn't include that one because as I've become older, it's one I have in heavy rotation so my "hearing" the song is skewed, but you are probably right. It did seem to catch a niche with people my age as we were in college as a lost 80's song.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2012 18:10:24 GMT -5
I heard Stars on 45 in 89/90 for the first time. Ironically because I got the 45 of it from someone.
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Post by wiseguy182 on Oct 8, 2012 1:52:26 GMT -5
I've lived in the Lansing, Michigan market for 23 years and the playlists around here have always been extremely small. Even the local "jack" station (called "Mike" here) sticks to their safe hits. Although I think the list of obscure #1's is sort of subjective depending on where you live, for me, the list would be also very long. Can't tell you how many #1's I've never heard even once on the radio.
A few random musings...
I agree with the poster that said Peter Cetera and Amy Grant's "Next Time I Fall" was a bit of an oddity. Heck, it would be another 5 years before Grant would fully make the transition from Christian to pop star. Speaking of which, did she go back to Christian because she hasn't had a pop hit in at least a decade and a half despite having quite a bit of success on the hot 100 in the early-mid 90's.
Tommy Page - "I'll Be Your Everything" I can hazard a guess why this went #1, although I don't believe it should have because Jane Child's "Don't Wanna Fall In Love" was a million times better and deserved the top spot. Anyways, I read that New Kids on the Block had something to do with this single, though I can't remember exactly what. I think a few of them might have been the back-up vocalists, but I'm sure they had a hand on this and they were d**n huge back in the day, having a #1 hit in their own right that year. I also know that Tommy Page was on an episode of Full House around this time, playing Stephanie's crush and idol, so that could have boosted it up a bit. I also read that radio stations stopped playing this song immediately after it fell off the charts, deservedly so.
Expose - "Seasons Change". Expose had quite the string of hits in the late 80's and early 90's. They haven't been played on the radio here in years and years.
Boston - "Amanda". Kept my all time favorite out of #1. (I Didn't Mean To Turn You On. Robert Palmer.) For that, it deserves to go to hell.
Boys II Men - Their #1's spent a combined bazillion weeks at the top spot in the 90's, and I only hear them once in a great while. Deservedly so because their ballads are painful to listen to. One of their few decent songs is "Motownphilly", which is the last song of theirs I heard on the radio, and that didn't go to #1.
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Post by OldSchoolAT40Fan on Oct 8, 2012 7:37:46 GMT -5
Welcome aboard, wiseguy182. Nice to hear that someone who is a die-hard fan of the game show Press Your Luck is also a fan of American Top 40, from what it seems. Boys II Men - Their #1's spent a combined bazillion weeks at the top spot in the 90's, and I only hear them once in a great while. Deservedly so because their ballads are painful to listen to. One of their few decent songs is "Motownphilly", which is the last song of theirs I heard on the radio, and that didn't go to #1. Ugh! I hate Boyz II Men! They were a group that was off to a good start with an upbeat hit called "Motownphilly", but after that, it was nothing but ballads by that group. "Motownphilly" was the only song I liked by that group, and that's it. If I liked Boyz II Men, I may as well listen to Air Supply as well. I never will like Air Supply for anything in the world - which is why I don't intend to listen to this coming weekend's rebroadcast of 1981. Not to mention that "On Bended Knee", to me, is a sad reminder of the original run of AT40 getting cancelled in January 1995. Words cannot express how sad I was when I heard the news by Shadoe. I didn't know it was coming, until Shadoe mentioned it at the beginning of such finale. If I had access to the Internet in early 1995, I would have been prepared for sure. Unfortunately, hardly anyone had the Internet that early in 1995.
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Post by woolebull on Oct 8, 2012 10:30:40 GMT -5
Indeed, welcome aboard wiseguy. "Next Time I Fall" has gotten a lot of comments on here (I don't think it has reached Timmy T and Stars On status, but still). I agree with the obscurity of the song, and as painful as Amy Grant's pop music is to me personally (exception "Find A Way"), I don't think she ever left Christian music all together. In fact, she had three Christian number one singles in the mid 1990's. Now you could say that they were crossovers, but an amazing thing about Amy Grant is for all of her pop hits, and her many many Christian hits, only ONE single of hers ever crossed over on both charts: her first Top 40 hit, "Find A Way". Some hit the AC chart and Christian chart, but only one was a hit on the Pop and Christian. To be able to have two groups of listeners and put out music that both would listen to shows an impressive knowledge of both of her audiences.
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Post by wiseguy182 on Oct 9, 2012 2:06:24 GMT -5
thanks to both of you. how did you know I'm a PYL fan oldschoolat40? btw, did you hear PYL is coming back to GSN and they are starting with episode #1? Wild.
I'm a Huey fan, although I will admit it was weird "Jacob's Ladder" hit #1. Now here's something I can't understand: The "Sports" Album was one of the biggest albums of the 80's. Singles-wise, you had 4 top 10's, but none of them made top 5. Now with "Fore!", you had 5 top 10's, including 2 #1's and a #3. Wild. Now I"m not saying "Fore!" is a bad album, it definitely is not (the album's in my collection as a matter of fact), but I don't think it could possibly compete on the level of "Sports"
One #1 that gets a surprising amount of airplay is "Ice Ice Baby", which is weird considering Vanilla has been a joke of the industry for many years. Sticking with 1990, the same could be said for Sinead, which is weird considering she is persona non grata these days.
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Post by kahunaburger61 on Oct 9, 2012 2:21:24 GMT -5
"Hey Won't You Play Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" by BJ Thomas
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Post by PapaVanTwee on Oct 9, 2012 7:26:05 GMT -5
I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned, but Billy Vera and the Beaters 1986 #1, "At This Moment". I don't hear it played anymore. It got it's boost from being on Family Ties, and fell into obscurity.
And like Tommy Page's song (written and produced by New Kids On The Block) keeping Jane Child out of the number one spot, this song, along with Gregory Abbot's "Shake You Down" also kept Robbie Nevil's "C'est la Vie" out of the number one spot. So I may be a little biased here, too.
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Post by briguy52748 on Oct 9, 2012 8:21:40 GMT -5
If I liked Boyz II Men, I may as well listen to Air Supply as well. I never will like Air Supply for anything in the world - which is why I don't intend to listen to this coming weekend's rebroadcast of 1981. Except that Air Supply has but one song this week ... "Here I Am," at No. 23. Unless you're not a fan of 1981 in general, I'd just tune out for that segment and then return to the radio after the hour is up and they go into the first segment of Hour 3 -- no sense dissing a whole year of good music for one song you strongly dislike. Brian
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Post by marv101 on Oct 9, 2012 17:02:36 GMT -5
If we all had the access to many more charts from Mediabase that we used to have until 3-4 years ago, we'd all know that most of Toto's songs still get plenty of airplay on Classic Hits/Oldies & AC stations nationwide, and especially 'Africa', 'Rosanna' & 'Hold The Line'.
Insofar as Elton goes, 'Island Girl' rarely gets played on KRTH, and I haven't heard 'Bad Blood' in well over THIRTY years!!!!
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