It was meant as a diversion for a stir-crazy world. It was a way of codifying my longtime interest in why some songs endured on the radio and some did not. I created a formula that looked at how many year-end chart points a song accumulated at its peak vs. how much airplay it receives now. “The Lost Factor” instantly became one of the best-received topics in the 20-plus-year history of the Ross On Radio column.
There are a lot of hit songs that you don’t hear on the radio anymore, in part because there are only 500-600 still in meaningful rotation at commercial FM radio, but “The Lost Factor” specifically tracks the arc from ubiquity to obscurity for hits of a certain magnitude. I’ve been working my way back and forth across most of the era covered by Oldies, Classic Hits, and other gold-based radio formats, from 1960 to 1994, with a few articles each month. People have been discovering the series as I go along — often because of spotlights on podcasts or other radio shows — so here are all of the articles in one place.
There’s an article that explains the methodology at greater length below, but the “Lost Factor” formula is based on the top 100 songs according to Billboard for each chart year in 1960-94. The No. 1 song gets 100 points; the No. 100 song gets one point. Those are divided by the number of spins monitored at U.S. and Canada radio for the previous seven days. Anything that has a “Lost Factor” higher than 1.0 is generally not receiving airplay proportionate to how big a hit it was at the time. The highest scores are those songs that were big enough hits to get significant year-end points, but don’t get airplay now.
We’ll update this page as we go along, but if you want to see each new “Lost Factor” article as it’s published, the best way is to subscribe to my free, weekly Ross On Radio newsletter. I’ve written ROR in some form since the late ‘90s in Billboard and other trade publications. It’s written for the radio and music industry, but if you’re just a music fan, there’s probably at least one article you’ll enjoy every week.
Much of my writing appears on this Website, Radioinsight.com, which is also a great place to follow and discuss breaking developments in radio, particularly at this time of sea change in our business. A lot of my tweets are also music- and oldies-related, and I appreciate your follow.
Here are the “Lost Factor” articles grouped by era and topic:
About The Lost Factor
Why Songs Become Lost: This story isn’t about methodology, as much as why songs fade from the radio in the first place, and a few become “lucky stiffs,” becoming more popular in gold libraries than they were on the radio. Some songs were never quite real hits in the first place. Others are the lower-priority choices in a major act’s catalog. Very few were true megahits about which listeners eventually became indifferent (“Shadow Dancing”) or derisive (“You Light Up My Life”). Much of the Ross On Radio column is about why songs remain on the radio, but if you’re new to it, this is a great place to start. (Originally published June 16, 2020)
How I Found “Lost”: This is the methodology story, explaining both how the “Lost Factor” is calculated and certain contextual things that readers need to know about. Calculations are based on a week’s airplay, and not every year was based on the same week. For example, in a few cases, an artist’s death or a song’s sudden topicality seemed to affect its scores. It also explains the type of stations that factored into our calculations, and why their version of the ‘70s and ‘80s might seem different from what you hear on satellite radio. And I answer readers’ most-asked question about how Laura Branigan’s “Gloria” managed to avoid being lost (no, it’s not only because of hockey). (May 22, 2020)
The 1980s and 1990s
The 100 Most Lost Songs of the 1980s: I’ve written about some years in the 1980s individually, particularly when they represent either the highs (1984), lows (1980-82), or polarizing years (1989) of hit music. This tallies the top 100 “Lost Factor” songs of 1980-89, but because so many of them are from the first few years of the decade, it also features a separate Top 65 for hits from 1985-89. Like many of the “Lost Factor” articles for individual years, it also highlights the top 10 songs that are bigger in the Oldies/Classic Hits universe than they were as currents. You’ll also want to check out the comment thread. (May 22, 2020)
Lost Hits of 1982: This is the article that began it all, under the title “How Lost Are Pop Music’s Lost Hits?” I chose 1982 because it contained both a megahit that you barely hear on the radio anymore in Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical” and a lesser hit in Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” that went on to become the seeming No. 1 hit on Earth for a while. It was also the year that Top 40 radio and pop music emerged from the doldrums and headed into a new golden age. (April 7, 2020)
AT40 vs. The Lost Factor (1983): Every week, music fans live tweet during the replay of vintage American Top 40 episodes. Every week somebody asks “I was listening to radio this week. Why don’t I know this song?” That one’s pretty easy, since radio stations tended to play about 25-30 current songs. Only an AT40 listener would expect to know them all, and only a certain type of listener would seek them all out to begin with. But I took a chart from CHR’s well-loved comeback year of 1983, looked at Lost Factor, and then asked readers what they remembered. (May 13, 2021)
The Return of the Lost Factor (1983): Two years after the original Lost Factor article, I reran the stats for 1983 (chosen because it was such a beloved year for radio and pop music) based on current airplay. The numbers were surprisingly stable, but there was a certain type of song more likely to be lost to time. (June 30, 2022)
Lost Hits of 1984: The actual title of this article was “In a Beloved CHR Year, What Songs Got Left Behind?” Many people consider 1984 the epicenter of Top 40’s mid-‘80s comeback, driven by a wide range of superstar artists (Madonna, Lionel Richie, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson). Compared to 1980 and 1982, the “Lost Factor” is relatively low here — even the now-obscure songs have more of a presence than some of the early-‘80s hits (before the sound of pop music became more new wave/MTV-influenced) or, as it turns out, some late-‘80s hits. If you’re a fan of this era, you might also enjoy a memoir I wrote of pop music in the summer of 1983. (April 27, 2020)
Lost Hits of 1989: In general, recency is a key factor in why songs endure, so there should be more songs from 1989 on the radio today than from the early ‘80s. In fact, “Lost Factor” is particularly high in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, a period ruled by hair bands and the novelty rap and rhythmic pop that represented Top 40’s coming-to-grips with Hip-Hop. And this was the year of New Kids on the Block mania, a phenomenon single-handedly blamed for Top 40’s later malaise (at least until Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync saved the genre again). (May 11, 2020)
Lost Hits of the ‘80s: Year by Year: This was published as a companion piece to the Top 100 of the decade. It includes the top 10 “Lost Factor” songs of each year both for those years already covered and for those years that I didn’t publish separately. It’s a good place to look up your senior year of high school or college. If you’re a product of the ‘90s or later, it’s also interesting to figure out which songs you know by name, which songs you know once you hear them, and which had already been sanitized for your protection by the time you began listening to the radio. (May 22, 2020)
The 100 Most Lost Songs of the 1990s: Since we’ve begun covering the “Lost Factor,” the ’90s have more presence on the radio, but not all of them. Backstreet’s back, but a lot of teen pop acts are not. There are also a lot of “Lost Hits” from ’80s superstars whose chart momentum carried them into the ’90s, but didn’t create enduring hits. With the publication of this top 100, we’ve now covered every year from 1960-99. (Jan. 21, 2022)
Lost Hits of 1990-94: You’d think that the “lost” years of this era would be 1993-94, when Top 40 radio nearly fell off the face of the earth. But 1990-94 was the year that Billboard switched to monitored airplay and point-of-sale data collection, ending self-reporting. It didn’t end chart hype — people began looking for new ways to game the system — but it reduced it significantly. It’s also interesting that the biggest hits of all four years are R&B and Hip-Hop-driven, but as rhythmic pop gives way to Hip-Hop, the hits become more legit. (July 1, 2020)
Lost Hits of 1995-99: The second half of the ’90s is a great time for radio and music, but confounding for chart fans. Until late 1998, many of the biggest hits (and some of those that would have qualified for Lost Factor) weren’t commercial singles, thus never charted. Those songs that did chart did so primarily on sales (and may have been timed for the peak of their run in hopes of debuting high). Then there was the question of “can a song that was never really on the radio to begin with be lost?”–that one starts with our No. 1 song. (Jan 6, 2022)
Lost Factor vs. Country 1993: It was the Country format’s watershed, mass-appeal year. It was after the Country charts made the transition to real monitored airplay, rather than self-reported playlists. There are Classic Country stations playing the ’90s. So what artists do you not hear now? Hint: you may or not remember the song at No. 1, but you’ll definitely remember the haircut. (February 11, 2020)
Lost Hits of 1995: I first delved into the second half of the ’90s in early 2021. Just before Christmas, I redid the year’s data, which had been inconsistent with previous years for not including Canadian airplay. (Only one song changed significantly, because U2’s seemingly forgotten “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” endures on French-language Canadian radio!) This allowed us to finish 1995-99, then the Top 100 for the decade. (Updated January 6, 2022)
Lost Hits of 1997: I’m still planning a full look at 1995-99. Those charts are affected both by those big hits not released as singles (“Killing Me Softly,” “When I Come Around,” and many others) and by those released late in their radio runs to engineer high debuts. For now, here’s a look at Top 40’s comeback year, from which many songs endure, but others have flickered out. (P.S. If you’re wondering about a previous look at 1995, it’s going to be reissued shortly.) (June 18, 2021)
Lost Hits of 1999: Many of 1999’s biggest hits were missing from the radio just a few years ago. Now, Britney and Backstreet are AC staples and a few all-’90s/’90s-based gold outlets have launched. But not every teen act is back. A look at another one of pop music’s strongest years. (August 26, 2021)
Lost Hits of 2000: By 2000, the teen pop boom was in full effect, creating lots of potential Lost Factor candidates. There’s also a No. 1 song represented from a superstar artist. It’s “Lost Factor” in a new century. (Sept. 8, 2022)
The 1970s and 1960s
The Top 100 Lost Songs Of The ’70s: After taking a separate look (below) at the two halves of the ’70s, I finally calculated the top 100 highest “Lost Factor” songs of the entire decade. They are, as you’d expect, dominated by songs from 1974 and earlier (by a 2:1 ratio). Shortly after this article ran, I heard from a number of readers asking where “You Light Up My Life” was. “Love Will Keep Us Together”? David Soul’s “Don’t Give Up On Us.” They’re all songs with high “Lost Factors” and you can find them in the countdowns for individual years or halves of the decade below. But they didn’t make the top 100 for the decade. These are the most lost of the lost. (December 17, 2020)
The 100 Most Lost Songs Of 1970-74: I’ve broken the ‘70s into two eras, in part because the late ‘70s still have some presence at Classic Hits/Oldies stations, while the early ‘70s are down to a few songs (“Rocket Man,” “The Joker,” etc.) But there was a lot more happening than Classic Rock–there were teen idols (the name “Osmond” appears a lot on these charts); Jesus rock; lots of “songs about something” from “You’re Having My Baby” to “Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)” that still come off now as dated, not timeless. There’s also a lot of R&B that, frankly, isn’t in any way risible and deserves to be rediscovered. (December 10, 2020)
The 100 Most Lost Songs Of 1975-79: By the time I began chronicling the ‘70s, certain trends had emerged, so it wasn’t surprising by the time I wrote this that the list included 35 songs from Vegas/MOR artists that were too soft even for stations that play Air Supply and Christopher Cross, 20 “disco” songs (although that covers a wide swath from Johnnie Taylor to Leif Garrett), and 16 songs by teen idols. (August 18, 2020)
Lost Hits of 1979: Not surprisingly, a lot of that lost “disco” comes from the genre’s peak year, just ahead of a “disco backlash.” Often, though, it’s the hits from bandwagon-jumping pop acts (Barbra Streisand, Cher, the aforementioned Garrett) that are lost now, which makes it seem extra unfair that many of those acts just changed genres and had hits again, while the genre’s R&B practitioners had a hard time getting on the radio for the next three years. Like most years of the ‘70s, the top 15 also has a few records that I don’t find in any way dated or risible — but this was also the year I graduated high-school. (June 10, 2020)
Lost Hits of 1978: Billboard’s measurement for the Top 100 of the year actually begins late in the previous year, so 1978 is the chart year in which you find both “We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions” and “Stayin’ Alive,” but also “You Light Up My Life.” That much-reviled song is a rare example of a true megahit at the time that makes our “Lost Factor” top five, but it’s not the highest “Lost Factor” of the year. That goes, as is often the case in the ‘70s, to a teen idol. In general, “Lost Factors” for 1978 are relatively low. (May 13, 2020)
Lost Hits of 1977: The top 15 are led by the same teen idol doing a remake of a pre-Beatles hit (also no surprise). Barbra Streisand is here. Movie themes and instrumentals are here. Elvis leaves the building and takes his last hit with him. The song most heard now disproportionate to its year-end placement is thought of as one of the all-time hits, but it was only the No. 94 hit of the year. (July 17, 2020)
Lost Hits of 1974: It’s a year I remember fondly for “Come and Get Your Love,” “Rock On,” “Rock Your Baby,” and “For the Love of Money.” It’s a year derided by others as the year that killed AM Top 40 radio (and now that I think about it, that was the year that a lot of my peers switched to FM and rock radio). The song with the highest lost factor isn’t “Seasons in the Sun” or “The Night Chicago Died.” Instead, the “winner” is an MOR veteran with a controversial (even then) salvo in 1974’s battle-of-the-sexes, and so is the song right behind it. I also created a Spotify playlist to emphasize the best songs of the year. (August 16, 2020)
Lost Hits of 1971: Five of the highest “Lost Factor” songs of 1971 are by teen idols–four are by somebody with the last name Osmond. 1971 was a year when Top 40 radio finally began to grapple again with what Album Rock radio was sending. It was also the year of “Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep” and a continued supply of soft rock and MOR. It was also a great time for some now-neglected R&B titles. (September 21, 2020)
Lost Hits of the 1960s: The headline was “The Most Lost Songs of All.” Of course, some of those songs are 60 years old. The second half of the ‘60s has been reduced to a handful of songs at the big city FMs that play Classic Hits or Classic Rock (which is a little more comfortable with some of the era’s timeless music than Classic Hits is). At some Classic Hits stations, it’s just “Brown Eyed Girl.” Maybe “Come Together,” maybe no Beatles at all. But there are a handful of stations, mostly AMs and small suburban signals, specializing in the late ‘60s. The “Most Lost Songs of All” are typically early ‘60s, with a few exceptions for late-‘60s instrumentals. And at least one song is perfectly lost, a No. 1 song for the year that radio didn’t play at all in the week measured. (June 11, 2020)
The 100 Most Lost Songs Of The ’60s: Nearly a year later, we went back and expanded our ’60s rankings. The difference between the early and late ’60s (not just pre- and post-Beatles) is even more stark. Many of the highest Lost Factor songs were hits that I had to go back and relearn when I became a chart fan/record collector. Join me for “A Walk In The Black Forest.” (May 20, 2020)
Lost 1967: “Everything But The (Brown Eyed) Girl: Speaking of “Brown Eyed Girl,” while it was always a staple at the Oldies format, for many years it was just one more hit record from 1967 (and not even one of the biggest of its time). With “Brown Eyed Girl” now one of the few ’60s songs heard on major-market Classic Hits and AC radio, we look at some of the other format warhorses from that year and their current Lost Factor. (October 15, 2020)
Bob Dylan vs. Paul Simon: It was a short-lived Twitter controversy. Would listeners in 2100 prefer Bob Dylan, voice of a generation, or Paul Simon, the people’s poet? Fortunately, we were able to look at both current airplay and Lost Factor to shed some light on that. And the real survivor may be, well, the group Survivor, at least compared to any ’60s singer/songwriter music. (May 8, 2021)
Multi-Era
The Top 10 “Lost” Artists, 1960-1994: You may not be surprised by the artist who put the most songs in our Lost Factor tallies. He has lost hits by himself, with his sister, and with his brothers. But beyond Donny Osmond, there are some major artists who have a collection of high Lost Factor songs as well, from Hall & Oates to Madonna. Nobody can have all their songs on the radio. And there’s always a moment near the end of the career where the hits aren’t quite as real. (March 25, 2021)
Lost Factor’s Top One-Hit Wonders: In a similar spirit, we commemorated One-Hit Wonders day this year with a look at the top true one-hit wonders whose songs were now lost to time. (And as you spend more time with Ross On Radio, you’ll come to realize that every day is One-Hit Wonder Day here.) (Sept. 29. 2022)
The Best & Worst of What’s Lost: In a Facebook dialogue, a reader and a friend took on the question of which “Lost Factor” songs stood up as truly good songs now, vs. those that people never wanted to be hits in the first place. We delved into those questions. Then we asked you to choose.
Your Lost Factor Favorites: Listeners submitted their top five favorites among the most lost songs of 1970-94. And then…
My Lost Factor Favorites: I made a list too. We largely agreed.
The Lost Factor vs. Streaming: From Kate Bush to Edison Lighthouse, TV and streaming have propelled a lot of unlikely songs back into prominence. So have they changed what we considered lost? For the first time, we looked at what happened when you compared a song’s hit status at the time to streaming data now. The results are good news for “yacht rock” and not so good for some songs that are still fun to encounter on-air. (July 7, 2022)
You May Also Like: The formula for “The Lost Factor” assumes that a big hit will have made the Billboard Top 100 of the year. But a few big hits did not, especially if they were hits during the fall when chart points could be divided over two chart years, thus orphaning a few surprisingly big hits like “Start Me Up” and “Rock’n Me.” Then there were those songs that didn’t make the year-end because they were only middling hits at the time (“In Your Eyes,” “In The Air Tonight”) or because they weren’t hits at all (“What I Like About You,” “I Melt With You”). I’ve written about those songs, too, and I’ve dubbed them “Lucky Stiffs” (September 10, 2020)
At the beginning of 2020, I wrote another series of articles I’m proud of, “Music on the Zeroes.” With so many of the decades of pop music beginning in a doldrums, I took a look at the hits on the first January chart of each decade from 1960 to 2020. Like the “Lost Factor” series, it will trigger a lot of musical memories, as well as explaining some of the evolution of pop music that leads to songs being lost. You can start at the beginning, or see a link to all of the articles at the bottom of this page.
