What Classic Hits Added in 2023

What Classic Hits Added in 2023

Is “Ready or Not” by the Fugees a classic hit now?

Is “Sometimes” by Britney Spears?

Is “Lose Yourself” by Eminem?

Is “Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz?

Is “Raise Your Glass” by Pink?

The giveaway is in the asking itself. All of those songs, the oldest from 1997, are songs now being played by Classic Hits stations, among them WCBS-FM New York (Fugees, Britney), KRTH (K-Earth 101) Los Angeles (Gorillaz), KOLA San Bernardino, Calif. (Pink), and even KQQL (Kool 108) Minneapolis (Eminem).

Last year, Ross on Radio looked at the songs most recently added to significant rotation at more than a dozen major-market Classic Hits stations, most of them newer titles from the ’90s or beyond. Even then, there was airplay for Coldplay’s “Clocks,” Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak,” Creed’s “With Arms Wide Open,” Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You),” and 2pac’s “California Love.”

That move forward has, if anything, turboed over the last year based on a look at the most recently added titles getting significant airplay (a consistent 3-4x a week) on the Mediabase playlists of many of the same stations. 

At this point “ … and the ’90s” is a given part of most Classic Hits stations. Over the last few years, that ’90s music has changed from stylistic ’80s holdovers (Spin Doctors, Blues Traveler) and modern AC (Sheryl Crow, Hootie & the Blowfish) to music from CHR’s post-’97 comeback, whether Britney/Backstreet teen pop or crossover Hip-Hop. “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” and “Oops … I Did It Again” were already regularly heard titles last year, Now, there’s more depth; e.g., “Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely” on CBS-FM.

And then the question becomes how much further stations are pushing, in terms of the next era after late- ’90s CHR. The “extreme” early ’00s (Usher, Outkast, Linkin Park)? The late-’00s/early-’10s “turbopop” CHR revival (Black Eyed Peas, Pink, Katy Perry)? KOLA, usually the most aggressive major station in terms of era, has been in the late ’00s for a while, but now KXKL (Kool 105) Denver is catching up with it. In addition, there’s a little more depth among newer titles. 

For a lot of programmers, the surprise isn’t that this happened but that it took so long. For a decade, the success of Classic Hits and the all-ages appeal of the ’80s meant that radio paused its usual calculations about what 38-year-olds would have listened to in high school, even if “Livin’ on a Prayer” was almost as old as they were, and “I Love Rock and Roll” was older. Now, in online discussions about Classic Hits, hearing “In the End” by Linkin Park on K-Earth — 22 years old as a CHR hit — still prompts “can you believe?” but also plenty of “but do the math” as well.

Some Classic Hits stations are still filling out the ’90s category and haven’t ventured far into the ’00s yet. But some stations have reached the point where they now have at least a few years’ overlap with an increasingly gold-based CHR format. CBS-FM has always cheerfully taken aim at OM Jim Ryan’s former employer, WLTW (Lite FM). But there are now titles you can hear on both CBS-FM and WHTZ (Z100), including several Backstreet Boys titles, Jennifer Lopez’s “Love Don’t Cost a Thing,” and Notorious B.I.G.’s “Mo Money Mo Problems.”

Here’s a sampling of other songs that have been added to major Classic Hits stations over the last year — many going into the spring. It’s not a complete list, plus those songs that start as weekend or specialty-show songs are harder to spot than those songs that went from nowhere to 6-8x spins a week recently. But those titles identified are plenty telling. The titles cited are listed in rough chronological order to give a sense of how new each station has become.

KJEB (The Jet) Seattle

• Aerosmith, “Dude (Looks Like a Lady)”
• Will 2 Power, “Baby I Love Your Way/Free Bird”
• Extreme, “More Than Words”
• Jimmy Cliff, “I Can See Clearly Now”
• Alanis Morissette, “Hand in My Pocket”
• Green Day, “Time of Your Life”
• No Doubt, “It’s My Life”

KOLA San Bernardino

• Bob Marley & Wailers, “Could You Be Loved” — also one of two recent adds on WLS-FM Chicago, the other being Meat Loaf, “I’d Do Anything for Love”
• Roxette, “Listen to Your Heart”
• Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
• Montell Jordan, “This Is How We Do It”
• 2pac, “California Love”
• Ke$ha, “Tik Tok”

KONO San Antonio

• Christina Aguilera, “Genie in a Bottle”
• Enrique Iglesias, “Hero”

KQQL (Kool 108) Minneapolis

• Haddaway, “What Is Love”

• Melissa Etheridge, “I’m the Only One”
• Stone Temple Pilots, “Interstate Love Song”
• TLC, “Waterfalls”
• Eminem, “Lose Yourelf”

KRTH (K-Earth 101) Los Angeles 

• Queen, “Don’t Stop Me Now”
• Bob Marley & Wailers, “Is This Love”
• Mark Morrison, “Return of the Mack”
• Shaggy, “It Wasn’t Me”
• Incubus, “Drive”
• Linkin Park, “In the End”
• Outkast, “The Way You Move”
• Killers, “Somebody Told Me”

KXKL (Kool 105) Denver

• Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill” — one of the few Classic Hits stations still embracing the song after its initial comeback
• Verve, “Bittersweet Symphony”
• Shaggy, “Angel”
• Evanescence, “Bring Me to Life”
• Nickelback, “Photograph”
• Jet, “Are You Gonna Be My Girl”
• Gwen Stefani, “Hollaback Girl”
• Jason Mraz, “I’m Yours”
• Lady Gaga, “Bad Romance”

WCBS-FM New York

• Coolio, “Gangsta’s Paradise”
• En Vogue, “Don’t Let Go (Love)”
• Puff Daddy, “I’ll Be Missing You”
• Enrique Iglesias, “Be With You”
• K-Ci & Jojo, “All My Life”
• Britney Spears, “(You Drive Me) Crazy”
• Usher, “You Make Me Wanna”
• Destiny’s Child, “Say My Name”
• Black Eyed Peas, “I Gotta Feeling” — has spins going back to 2015, but the most-recent song in significant rotation

WKQC (K104.7) Charlotte, N.C.

• T. Rex, “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” — because K104.7 evolved from AC, most of its adds are older
• Pink Floyd, “Money” 
• Hot Chocolate, “You Sexy Thing”
• David Bowie, “Golden Years”
• Boz Scaggs, “Breakdown Dead Ahead”
• Debarge, “Rhythm of the Night”
• Georgia Satellites, “Keep Your Hands to Yourself”

WMJI (Majic 105.7) Cleveland

• ZZ Top, “Gimme All Your Lovin’” — with Adult Hits WLHK (The Lake) next door, Majic is still filling out the ’80s
• Billy Idol, “Rebel Yell”

WROR Boston

• Van Halen, “Right Now”



• Collective Soul, “Shine”
• Alanis Morissette, “Hand in My Pocket”
• New Radicals, “You Get What You Give”
• Semisonic, “Closing Time”
• Goo Goo Dolls, “Slide”
• Jimmy Eat World, “The Middle”
• Maroon 5, “This Love”
• Kid Rock, “All Summer Long” — but still playing “Sweet Home Alabama” heavily
• Train, “Hey! Soul Sister”

WROR was a station that made significant adds last year as well. It’s worth noting that when I listened to the 9 a.m. hour on June 7, I heard two ’90s and three ’70s. But that ratio was 1;4 for a lot of Classic Hits stations at the outset. Changes like we’re seeing often involve a change in the format clocks as well.

Stories like this embolden those Classic Hits stations that already wanted to move newer — sometimes for sales reasons, sometimes because programmers want to play the 25-year-old records they grew up with, and can’t believe they’re not “classics” yet. Should your station be playing these songs? More about that next week in “How to Play the ’90s and Beyond.”

Meanwhile, for those not ready to hear the ’90s and beyond, there’s always KOAI (The Lost Factor) Phoenix, which has flourished and become a reader favorite by playing a deeper list of the ’60s and ’70s no longer heard on most Classic Hits. Their three newest titles from the same exercise were:

• Elvis Presley, “Memories”
• Beach Boys, “Sail On Sailor”
• Doobie Brothers, “Rockin’ Down the Highway”