Looking at the top 100 songs of 1982 and determining which songs were most lost to time — based on their strength at the time vs. their radio availability now — turned out to be just the act of geekery that housebound Ross on Radio readers needed. It was also a formula readers found surprisingly reasonable. Do another year, they said. And it was easy to decide what year should be next.
1982 was a rebound year for Top 40. The most forgotten songs were largely from the first, more AC’ish half of the year, with even the relatively rockin’ highlights (“The Other Woman,” “Make a Move on Me,” “Pac Man Fever”) forgotten once “Don’t You Want Me,” “Tainted Love,” and “Abracadabra” kicked in. Other truly lost 1982 songs are thought of more as ‘70s soft-rock holdovers — “I’ve Never Been to Me” was literally a reissued 1977 obscurity.
But 1984 was a banner year for the CHR revival — remembered as the strongest, most-balanced year in a golden era that lasted until roughly late 1985. It was a year that launched multiple “hot-rockin’, flamethrowin’” clones of WHTZ (Z100) New York. Playlists went from 30 to 40 records, because even the stiffs were thought to be pretty good. There were plenty of major-artist smashes — “When Doves Cry,” “Dancing in the Dark,” “Footloose,” “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” — but Corey Hart or Scandal could as easily have a real hit. So what would the “lost songs” look like?
It’s not surprising that the hits of 1984 were more durable overall. There are 23 songs from 1982 that got fewer than 10 spins a week in the large- and medium-market radio stations that are typically monitored by BDSRadio; in 1984, there were only 12. In 1982, there were 43 songs that had a 1.0 “lost factor” or higher (meaning that its year-end points then were most disproportionate to spins now), compared to only 27 songs from 1984.
Those differences both reflect the differing cachet of songs from the two eras, as well as the effect of recency. How radio played those songs at the time also made a difference. Libraries were tighter during the excitement of 1983-84, meaning that a song such as “Make a Move on Me” disappeared quickly. In the late ‘80s, with CHR diluted by rhythmic radio and enthusiasm about available product waning, many of the biggest hits of 1984 stayed on the radio longer.
Here are the 15 “most lost” hits of 1984, based on points for their standing for the year divided by the number of plays they receive now. In parenthesis is the “lost factor,” followed by the number of spins the songs received last week in the U.S. and Canada according to NielsenBDS.
- Olivia Newton-John, “Twist of Fate” (lost factor: 59, spins last week: zero)
- Irene Cara, “Breakdance” (32, 0)
- Ray Parker, Jr., “I Still Can’t Get Over Loving You” (12, 2)
- Christopher Cross, “Think of Laura” (9, 2)
- Jacksons, “State of Shock” (8, 5)
- Billy Joel, “An Innocent Man” (7, 4)
- Daryl Hall & John Oates, “Adult Education” (5, 6)
- Tracey Ullman, “They Don’t Know” (4, 7)
- Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson, “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before” (4, 13)
- Rick Springfield, “Love Somebody” (4, 10)
- Culture Club, “Miss Me Blind” (3, 13)
- Duran Duran, “Union of the Snake” (3, 20)
- Kool & the Gang, “Tonight” (3, 4)
- Ollie & Jerry, “Breakin’ (There’s No Stopping Us)” (3, 8)
- Rod Stewart, “Infatuation” (3, 17)
There are a few repeat names from the 1982 list here — Olivia Newton-John, just about to be replaced as pop’s reigning siren by Madonna; Ray Parker, Jr., whose much bigger 1984 hit, “Ghostbusters,” holds up surprisingly well in radio-station research, but is saved for annual Halloween play nonetheless. There are other early ‘80s AC holdovers — Christopher Cross, Willie & Julio.
The top 15 contains one well-loved nugget in Tracey Ullman’s “They Don’t Know,” the sort of song that always finds its audience in specialty show countdowns. It’s a perennial on “The Lost 45s with Barry Scott” and the No. 15 song on this year’s “That Thing With Rich Appel WOW! 100.” There are also songs from the hitmaking streaks of Daryl Hall & John Oates, Duran Duran, Rick Springfield, Kool & the Gang, Rod Stewart, Culture Club, and Michael Jackson that are fun enough to hear, but aren’t the songs that represent those acts at Classic Hits now.
The softer titles of 1984 are often those that have become center-lane songs for the major-market Soft ACs that have proliferated in recent years. If this story had been written a few years ago, I would’ve expected to find “If Ever You’re in My Arms Again” by Peabo Bryson, “I Just Called to Say I Love You” by Stevie Wonder, or “Hello” by Lionel Richie among the lost, but they’re easier to find on the radio this year. Even up-tempo R&B songs such as “The Glamorous Life” and “Let the Music Play” have less than a 1.0 score.
Billy Joel’s “An Innocent Man” and “The Longest Time” both pushed the boundaries of the CHR format in 1984, propelled by the momentum of two up-tempo smashes. “An Innocent Man” is one of the year’s most lost songs. “The Longest Time,” slightly bouncier, has become one of Soft AC’s signature songs, far outperforming its airplay at the time.
Meanwhile, here are the top five songs that are punching above their weight proportionate to their year-end ranking at the time.
- Cars, “Magic” (0.011, 346 spins)
- Billy Joel, “The Longest Time” (0.012, 935 spins)
- Ratt, “Round and Round” (0.017, 797 spins)
- Peter Schilling, “Major Tom (Coming Home)” (0.017, 282 spins)
- John Cafferty & Beaver Brown Band, “On the Dark Side” (0.025, 341 spins)
The 1982 ranking contained a few songs that had just scraped power rotation at the time, but had emerged as some of the biggest, most enduring songs of the era: “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Edge of Seventeen,” “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.” With the exception of Joel, the top 5 songs here are the mid-pack but up-tempo pop/rock nuggets that Adult Hits program directors like to play, somewhere between trifle and truffle. A top 10 would have included “Sunglasses at Night” and “Cum On Feel the Noize.”
We looked at 1982 the week after Kenny Rogers’ death, which had propelled a few of his previously lost titles (“Through the Years,” “Love Will Turn You Around”) to stronger airplay ratios. For 1984, the surprisingly strong title was “Nobody Told Me” by John Lennon, which had only a few chart points as the year’s No. 81 song, but was getting about 50 spins from stations who likely found that the song’s chorus was resonating in these “strange days indeed.”
Duran Duran, “Union of the Snake” (3, 20)
Ollie & Jerry, “Breakin’ (There’s No Stopping Us)” (3, 8)
These two, frankly, leave me quite surprised.
The fist one mainly because of how big it was on MTV back then – and let’ face it, some actual “non-hits” (Modern English, The Waitresses, etc.) that do get substantial airplay to this day do because of MTV’s cultural cache at the time.
The second one wasn’t so big on MTV, but it came attached to a movie that’s still remembered to this day, if only on the back of its infamous sequel. Besides, both (song and movie) caught a culture still in its (relative) infancy, so that has to count for something, even if it’s a song that doesn’t really reflect what that culture became in the eyes of the hoi polloi.
I was really surprised to see State of Shock on this list. Then I listened to it for the first time in years and it doesn’t compare to the Quincy Jones project Michael Jackson hits.
I’m curious how much classic rock radio factors into the survival of many of these hits. I see 1983-1984 as the end of the main era, though GnR, Tom Petty and others produced hits for years to come.
I can’t remember, does Billboard rank yearly hits from December to November? Both Major Tom & Cum on Feel the Noize had fallen out of the T40 by Jan 21.
Thanks Sean!
** Quincy Jones produced
“Union of the Snake” is like a number of other songs in the pile–especially Rick Springfield’s “Love Somebody.” It’s the first song from an album by a hot artist. It had enough momentum to scale the charts, but not enough to endure. That would be “The Reflex,” from that album, and even that song doesn’t do as well as Classic Hits as you would think for being so totemic of the era.
Fair enough.
What do you put Ollie & Jerry’s “lost” factor down to, on the other hand?
Maybe it tracks with Jerry’s former bandmate Ray Parker, Jr., in that “too pop for Adult R&B stations, too R&B for pop” netherworld. You would think it might endure more because of the movie.
There are a few key factors that must not be overlooked when discussing ‘lost hits”. MTV exploded onto the scene in 1981 and became the driving force in music. Its programming changed popular music. From the start MTV was focused on rock and much of it dance rock, meaning rock with beats. Club DJs immediately began shifting their programming to the new format which we called DOR, dance oriented rock. DOR was immensely popular in clubs throughout the 1980s; until Hip Hop, unfortunately, came to dominate. I say unfortunately because with its popularity came a major shift in the clientele attending clubs. Older adults fled the club scene as Yo’ MTV Raps wannabes took over the dance floor. The club business would never be the same.
It’s important to note that CHR Radio in the 1980s, much to its detriment, was not quick to play the MTV sound. Just as current CHR stations are slow to pick up huge streaming hits. Radio music programmers have always been out of touch with the street and arrogant in their belief that they could make hits happen. Bogus research, and payola abuse, too, have always been factors in which songs are played on radio stations. In fact, in 2020 is it even possible to get a song on the radio without paying a lot of money for the privilege? I doubt it.
Lost hits are lost for good reason. Times change, people get older, and their memories of the soundtrack of their lives from 40 years ago becomes more focused to only include the music that has remained in the public consciousness. How big the hit was forty years ago is no longer the dominate factor. Its easy to see this play out when event DJs play to live audiences. Some eighties dance songs still evoke a huge response while others clear the dance floor even though they once packed a dance floor as a power hit. Dan Hartman’s Vertigo/Relight My Fire is one such example. Thought of by many club DJs as the greatest dance hit ever produced and the biggest club hit of 1980, no smart DJ would now play this song because it long ago left the public consciousness. The same phenomenon applies to radio hits of the eighties or any decade, and is precisely why major hits become forgotten.
For those of us who programmed music for radio and clubs, these issues are easily identified. I, personally, have always believed that most radio music programmers live in a very isolated universe and are out of touch. Especially in the age of cell programming, the music played on the radio just plain sucks.
Just my opinion.
Hi Sean! Your most recent column reminded me that the early 80s were still an era when deejays could break songs and help them to become hits. I keep thinking of a long-forgotten dance music hit, “Glad to Know You” by Chaz Jankel– still sounds good, by the way. I was consulting several urban/dance stations, including Kiss 96 in the Norfolk VA market, and we did really well with that song. In fact, it did well wherever it was played. I still remember that whenever our deejays got behind a song, “Glad to Know You” included, that support definitely had an impact. People trusted their favorite deejay, and contrary to the more cynical views that payola must have been a factor, the deejays I worked with genuinely liked certain songs and got behind them because they wanted to see them succeed.
And yes, it’s true that sometimes we genuinely despised certain songs; but the audience wanted to hear them, so what could we do? “Mickey” by Toni Basil did not wear very well on many of us, and yes, “I’ve Never Been to Me” was quite cringe-worthy … however, research showed that women in conservative markets really identified with it: it was a “culture wars” song that was perceived as critical of feminists (or the stereotype of feminists), so it absolutely had to be played. Ditto for really long songs like “Total Eclipse of the Heart”– some jocks hated it or got tired of it very quickly, but it was such a huge hit that it had to be played… and we always tried to play the long album version.
Anyway, I’m curious about whether your readers, many of whom were in the biz, recall local hits from back then that may not have become huge nationally but really fit a given market. Remember Jim Steinman’s “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through”? One of my faves, and I had no idea Rory Dodd actually did the vocals… Or how about “No Turning Back” by the Sherbs– huge in some markets, but died a painful death in others. And then, there were special versions of hits: in Boston, Kiss 108 played the Canadian mix of Falco’s “Rock Me Amadeus,” for example– very different from the other versions, but I always thought it was the best one, even after hearing all the others.
And at some point, I’d love to see a list of “turntable hits”– songs we deejays were CERTAIN would become hits, and much to our surprise, the songs were total stiffs…;-) Hope you are staying well & safe. Thanks for all you do to keep the memories alive!
Donna L. Halper (friendly media historian; former deejay, music director, and radio consultant)
Hi Donna, St. Louis was a town where “No Turning Back” was huge and remained in AOR rotation throughout the 80s. I asked a friend in school if he had heard it and he replied “oh that’s a great song. I wonder if it’s by the singer from Santana”.
Our CHR station KHTR’s top 30, published in the Friday paper, was always very closely aligned to Billboard/ Casey Kasem’s AT40. It really stood out to me when KHTR had “I Eat Cannibals” at #1 for four weeks while the song completely missed Billboard’s Top 40.
Appreciated your comment, and have to agree with you about some of the songs that got tons of radio airplay but were brutal. To submit an example of a regional hit: I seem to recall “Whirly Girl” from a group named Oxo as a regional hit in parts of the west, back around 1983 or so. Conversely, around that same time (I was in college in CT), “Candy Girl” by New Edition was a fairly bit hit elsewhere was seemingly NEVER played on Top 40 radio stations in the Hartford/New Haven/Springfield markets. That summer I returned to the Washington area and it was all over the radio. I was the only one around who hadn’t heard it!
I feel like Oxo was one of those songs that was played a little everywhere, but a real hit nowhere. I mostly experienced it on Detroit radio that spring, but also on San Diego’s Mighty 690, where it seemed odd to hear on a station that had played 13 currents just a few months earlier.
“Candy GIrl” landed just as Top 40 was starting to play R&B again in any significant way. Z100 NYC was a big New Edition supporter at its launch and that probably had something to do with it being a hit in D.C. It still endures in some places, especially with New Edition and their spinoffs having become bigger in the last few years.
Ray Parker’s catalogue may be one of the most neglected.
Barely a pulse even at the Jack formats.
I don’t get it.
Marty Bender
I’m with you. “You Can’t Change That” is the kind of record that Classic Hits PDs usually love–a late ’70s song that sounds like a ’60s song.
I agree. We play plenty of Ray, and Raydio, on our variety format here in Richmond, VA.
It’s amazing how 1982 and 1984 had some many big hits that have over time gotten lost in the shuffle. Olivia Newton-John seems to have become one of those artists who now down to just a handful of hits, which are mainly “Physical” and anything from the “Grease” movie.
I should also add that 1985 seems to be a year of lost hits as well. You have some songs that are still heard on the radio from that year from Madonna, Prince, Phil Collins, Bryan Adams, Dire Straits, George Michael with Wham!, Starship, and even those one-hit wonders from a-ha, Animotion, Katrina and the Waves.
However, a lot of hits from that year seem to be disappearing. You don’t hear Sheena Easton’s “Sugar Walls,” Sheila E.’s “Love Bizarre,” Billy Ocean’s “Loverboy,” Teena Marie’s “Lovergirl,” Sting’s “If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free,” Stevie Nicks’ “Talk To Me,” and Aretha Franklin’s “Freeway of Love” much on the radio anymore. Heck, you’ll hear Meg Myers’ version of “Running Up That Hill,” but the original one from Kate Bush.
I will add that ’85 was an interesting follow-up to ’84 in terms of seeing artists like Bush and even Amy Grant cracking the Top 40. (Grant had hers with “Find a Way”) Yet, at the end of the day, it seems that so many hits came out that year, it’s hard to see now which ones can hold up and stay on the radio.
“Talk To Me” is one of those big songs that now feels like it never existed. “I Can’t Wait,” too.
It seems that anything came out after “Stand Back” for Stevie Nick’s no longer exist. Only that song and the “Bella Donna” album still get played on the radio.
The unfortunate timing for Nicks’ “I Can’t Wait” was that it came out around the same time in 1986 as the unrelated version with the same title from Nu Shooz.
“I Can’t Wait” in my circles has bigger name recognition, in part thanks to a video that symbolizes the era’s excesses (and got a few mentions in the 2011 MTV oral history).