Lost hits are supposed to be lost for a reason. If you enjoy encountering them again on a throwback weekend, in a supermarket aisle, or on AccuRadio’s Lost ‘90s channel, (curated by friend of ROR Rich Appel), your enjoyment isn’t really supposed to depend on whether songs are good. If they’re fun to hear once every 15 years, or if they conjure high-school endorphins, lost hits have done their job.
So when I rated the songs I heard over the course of a few hours, what I graded for (on a scale of 1-10) was mostly my enjoyment after not hearing most of these songs on the radio for a while. That exempted songs from having to stand the test of time, and yet I mostly found myself in the midrange anyway. But if the ‘90s were your school years, and you’re excited about hearing that era back on the radio, I fully expect you to score them differently.
This isn’t a typical “First Listen” to the Lost ‘90s channel itself. Instead, I decided to discuss the songs I heard alphabetically by artist, rather than in the order in which I heard them . It’s not a review of the channel, just an opportunity to have some fun discussing the songs, like they do on Facebook’s “Oh Damn …That Song!” group, devoted heavily to the ‘90s and early ‘00s. (It might also be the ongoing influence of Stereogum’s The Number Ones series.) I’ve also calculated the “Lost Factor” for these songs:
Ace of Base, “Living in Danger” (1994) – It was eagerly seized upon by CHR at a time when Ace of Base was one of the format’s few stars. But it felt like a fourth single. Also, seriousness wasn’t what people wanted from Ace of Base (even the next time on “Beautiful Life”). Hearing “Living in Danger” doesn’t quite pack an “oh wow” for me, in part because the first three singles are relatively available on ‘90s and Soft AC stations, and it sounds like those songs. LOST FACTOR: N/A (didn’t make the year-end Top 100); RATING: 4.
After 7, “Nights Like This” (1991) – They were coming off “Ready or Not,” “Can’t Stop,” and a reissued “Heat of the Moment.” Then they set aside Babyface’s sound-of-the-moment for this Five Heartbeats soundtrack exercise in ‘60s-style R&B, and their momentum never recovered. But it was a decent Temptations homage, considering that the Tempts were still active at the time (and still a year away from their final pop-chart appearance with Rod Stewart on “The Motown Song”). The song that endured from The Five Heartbeats turned out to be the R&B hit, “A Heart Is a House for Love,” which got nowhere at pop radio, but gave the Dells a well-deserved place in Adult R&B gold libraries for another 15 years. LOST FACTOR: N/A (didn’t make the year-end Top 100); RATING: 6.
Brian Setzer Orchestra, “Jump Jive an’ Wail” (1998) – I would never begrudge a Stray Cat a hit. I will always give Louis Prima his due proto-rocker respect. (His songs were, after all, successfully remade twice in the rock era.) I didn’t mind hearing “Jump Jive an’ Wail” this week, but it was “Mambo No. 5” in 1999 when the swing revival became something more than a genre exercise. LOST FACTOR: N/A (didn’t make the year-end Top 100); RATING: 5.
Britney Spears, “Sometimes” (1999) – It turned out to be three uptempo songs — “ … Baby One More Time,” “Oops! … I Did It Again,” and “Toxic” — that endured at radio. The ballads were never quite as big, but vulnerable Britney is particularly poignant now, and you wonder if “Sometimes” or “Every Time” would affect audiences more this time. LOST FACTOR: 0.9, made low by airplay at all-‘90s WMIA (Totally 93.9) Miami; RATING: 4 – At the time it reminded me too much of another international Max Martin hit I liked better, Jessica Folcker’s “How Will I Know (Who You Are).” But your mileage will differ, class of ’00. And I’m reconsidering.
Deadeye Dick, “New Age Girl” (1994) – One of a handful of novelty/reaction songs with which Top 40 tried to spur some excitement during its doldrums. I wanted it to be a hit, but it felt a little forced even at the time. On the verses, it was kinda cerebral for a novelty song, not unlike Dada’s “Dizz Knee Land,” but the punchline in the chorus was ZZ Top-meets-Beavis & Butthead. It was also never supported by Alternative radio, if I remember, which is why they didn’t become, say, Presidents of the United States of America (see below). LOST FACTOR: N/A (didn’t make the year-end Top 100, although on Josh Hosler’s alternate “Pop 100” computations, the Lost Factor would be a 10); RATING: 5, fun to hear every few years.
Hootie & the Blowfish, “I Go Blind” (1995) – Having worked with Canadian radio, this cover of the 54-40 hit never became lost for me. In America, it was enough of a secret weapon at the time for the stations that found it on a soundtrack that I figured it might endure here as well, their most-heard song after “I Only Wanna Be With You.” But this was never played quite enough at the time to become familiar here. LOST FACTOR: N/A (didn’t make the year-end Top 100); RATING: 6.
INXS, “Disappear” (1990) – It was the rush-released follow-up to “Suicide Blonde.” It was an easy enough song to like, and still sounds good to me now, but it didn’t have the kick of any of the Kick singles, and it was already “no longer what CHR plays” in the rhythmic pop era. LOST FACTOR: 1.1 (low because it was only big enough to reach No. 91 of the year, but gets just over 100 spins); RATING: 7, but you may view it as more of a throwaway.
LFO, “Summer Girls” (1999) –Among boy bands of the era, LFO had an unusual arc, starting out in the shadow of Backstreet Boys/’N Sync and finally finding a place as pop/rock successors to Hanson. Their big moment arrived about halfway in the process and also owed a little to “One Week” by Barenaked Ladies’ stream of pop culture references. LOST FACTOR: 5, but just wait for summer, especially if it’s a happier summer; RATING: 8, because it’s the kind of song you’d want to hear on a Lost ‘90s channel.
Lisa Stansfield, “This Is the Right Time” (1990) – In the UK, it was her first solo single. In the U.S., it was a year old and the second follow-up to “All Around the World.” In that context, it was pleasant enough, but not the hit she needed. It’s pleasant enough now. If I’d heard it on one of the U.K.’s many gold-based ACs, I probably would have really enjoyed it in a different context. (Think of it as hearing a song on the radio vs. hearing it on-demand on your phone.) LOST FACTOR: N/A (didn’t make the year-end Top 100); RATING: 5.
Mariah Carey, “Anytime You Need a Friend” (1994) – Radio never quite decided which Mariah to bring back: the Hip-Hop-tinged uptempo numbers or the early ‘90s ballads. Maybe that’s why the midtempo “Always Be My Baby” became the enduring song (at least for 11 months of the year), and less-remembered ballads like this one are indeed lost at radio. This got better to me as it went along. Carey’s sung ad-libs at the end are what I like about Classic Soul; Carey’s vocal runs at the end are what you either like or don’t like about Mariah. LOST FACTOR: 18; RATING: 4.
Monica, “Angel of Mine” (1999) – I’d already lived with the Eternal original as a hit on UK radio, and on WPOW (Power 96) Miami. I still like Monica’s version, which was Billboard’s No. 3 song of 1999; I still love theirs. The sort of old-school A&R cover choice that I wish still happened more. LOST FACTOR: 0.95; RATING: 6 (original gets an 8).
Nikki French, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (1995) – Exciting and badly needed at the time. By dint of being newer and uptempo, it should be the version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” that you hear most often on the radio. But Bonnie Tyler’s original gets about 75% of the airplay. Oddly, the dance version feels sort of dreary now, not enough of a relief from today’s hits; then again, at the time, it was one of a few minor-key dance records that I referred to as “bleak house.” LOST FACTOR: 0.5; RATING: 5.
Phil Collins, “You’ll Be in My Heart” (1999) – It was a hit on WHYI (Y100) Miami, then on the cusp of Hot AC and CHR, so it’s actually on the new WMIA. If this song and/or the movie Tarzan was part of your childhood, you’ll be considerably more attached to it than I am. Even at the time, I felt it was okay for what it was. LOST FACTOR: N/A (didn’t make the year-end Top 100); RATING: 5.
Presidents of the United States of America, “Peaches” (1996) – They arrived during the “new rock revolution.” “Peaches” followed “Lump”’s blast of punk anarchy. So their image was hip enough for Alternative, but listening 25 years later, this is really a Spin Doctors record. It’s not so different from the whimsy of “Cleopatra’s Cat,” the Spin Doctors song that quickly snapped their own hit streak in 1994. Kinda starts out like that Dada song, too. But if you were Class of ’96, you’re going to like this more. LOST FACTOR: N/A (didn’t make the year-end Top 100); RATING: 4.
Sting, “All This Time” (1991) – In the last moments before monitored airplay, this was a top 5 hit, but not a song I heard much on large-market Top 40. “All This Time” was mournful — about the death of the artist’s father; also, Sting was suddenly out of step on the rhythmic-leaning CHR at the time. He fared better in 1993 with the equally elegiac “Fields of Gold,” in part because only the adult-leaning CHRs were left in the format at the time. LOST FACTOR: 0.5 (low spins, but also low year-end points); RATING: 7.
2Pac, “Changes” (1998) – Never quite “lost,” it became a gold library staple for a while in the ‘00s, and resurfaced again in the turmoil of 2020. LOST FACTOR: N/A (didn’t make the year-end Top 100, but received 324 spins last week, so would be well under a 1.0, our dividing line for “lost,” even if it was the biggest song of 1999); RATING: 10.
Vengaboys, “We Like to Party” (1999) – Milli Vanilli were blamed for Top 40’s early ‘90s travails. As it turned out, they saved the format a few times over by paving the way for Euro-goofiness to make it in America without apologies. Without it, we probably couldn’t have had “Rhythm Is a Dancer,” “What Is Love,” and the other dance songs that buoyed the format until “Wannabe” came along. We probably couldn’t have had “Wannabe.” A cycle later, we wouldn’t have had the “turbo-pop” of the late ‘00s/early ‘10s. We definitely wouldn’t have had Aqua or the Vengaboys. I experienced this song as a current on UK radio, where it was barely goofy enough for the DJs to complain about at the time. LOST FACTOR: N/A (didn’t make the year-end Top 100; RATING: Beyond good and evil, but my enjoyment in hearing it again was a 7.
Wallflowers, “The Difference” (1997) – CHR goes through “Brigadoon” moments where the Triple-A or singer/songwriter acts that are usually “too good for radio” suddenly sound like pop stars. It happened with Steve Forbert in 1980. It happened with the Wallflowers in 1996-97, a relatively sustained period for acoustic crossovers, buoyed by the growth of Modern AC. I liked this more than “One Headlight.” I liked “Sleepwalker” even better a few years later, by which point there was no possibility of Top 40 being interested. Also, this sounds surprisingly like a Graham Parker song; certainly, “The only difference/That I see/Is you are exactly the same/As you used to be” would have been withering coming from Parker or Elvis Costello. LOST FACTOR: N/A (wasn’t a single and as such not on the Hot 100); RATING: 7.
