For the past three months, we’ve been looking at the “lost factor” of songs that were hits in the ‘80s (and a few from the ‘70s and even ‘60s). We’ve been calculating which songs have traveled the greatest distance between unavoidable at the time and unheard today. Now we’re delving into the early ‘90s. You can see the entire top 50 for 1990-94 here, but we’ve also calculated the top 15 songs for each year between 1990 and 1994 that are the most lost today.

Overall, the early ‘90s tell a different story in terms of what endures. For today’s FM radio, the enduring ‘80s hits default to pop/rock. Classic Rock, Classic Hits, Adult Hits, and some AC stations combine to give a perfectly neutral record like Cutting Crew’s “(I Just) Died in Your Arms” an advantage over Janet Jackson’s hits of the same era. In the early ‘90s, Mainstream Top 40 radio withers, there are few new contributions to the Classic Rock canon, and you can find “I Wanna Be Down” by Brandy or “O.P.P.” by Naughty By Nature among the songs that are now played disproportionately to their year-end finishes at the time.

But for individual titles in each year’s top 15, a lot of the pattern of “what’s lost” will look familiar if you’ve been following our Lost Factor articles so far. Many of the top 15 tick one or several of the following boxes for “Why Songs Become Lost”:

• Teen pop acts;
• Hits that were the softest of the CHR’s soft end — songs not retrieved by even the current wave of new Soft AC stations;
• Second, third, and fourth singles by superstar acts — particularly at a time after Michael Jackson’s “Bad,” when every label, artist and manager felt the need to go deep;
• First (or subsequent) singles from disappointing superstar follow-ups. George Michael’s “Freedom ‘90” is actually a song with a low “lost factor,” but not his other ‘90s hits.
• Songs on the cusp of pop and R&B — whether it’s pop acts gone “new jack swing” or R&B with guitars like Janet Jackson’s “If.”

There’s one significant difference. 1994’s top 15 contains two songs by R. Kelly: “Your Body’s Calling” and “Bump n’ Grind.” Both of those songs were still readily found on the radio two years ago, before listeners and broadcasters finally decided they were no longer comfortable hearing Kelly. They’re the first instance thus far of artists themselves being a significant contributor to their Lost Factor.

Here are the highest Lost Factors of 1990-94, year-by-year

1990 – Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You?

1. Glenn Medeiros & Bobby Brown, “She Ain’t Worth It” (lost factor 77, spins for the week 1)
2. Sweet Sensation, “If Wishes Came True” (76, 1)
3. Tommy Page, “I’ll Be Your Everything” (62, 0)
4. MC Hammer, “Have You Seen Her” (54, 1)
5. Bad English, “Price of Love” (33, 0)
6. Tyler Collins, “Girls Nite Out” (32, 0)
7. Milli Vanilli, “All or Nothing” (22, 0)
8. Dino, “Romeo” (21, 0)
9. Wilson Phillips, “Release Me” (21, 4)
10. George Michael, “Praying for Time” (17, 3)
11. Phil Collins, “Do You Remember” (16, 3)
12. Cover Girls, “We Can’t Go Wrong” (14, 0)
13. Michael Bolton, “When I’m Back on My Feet Again” (13, 0)
14. New Kids on the Block, “This One’s for the Children” (11, 0)
15. Chicago, “What Kind of Man Would I Be?” (10, 3)

1991 – Losing P.A.S.S.I.O.N. for Rhythmic Pop

1. Natural Selection, “Do Anything” (69, 0)
2. Rythm Syndicate, “P.A.S.S.I.O.N.” (61, 1)
3. Vanilla Ice, “Play That Funky Music” (44, 0)
4. Michael Bolton, “Time, Love and Tenderness” (39, 0)
5. Escape Club, “I’ll Be There” (36, 1)
6. Paula Abdul, “The Promise of a New Day” (30, 2)
7. Tracie Spencer, “This House” (28, 2)
8. Madonna, “Justify My Love” (27, 3)
9. Wilson Phillips, “Impulsive” (27, 2)
10. Amy Grant, “Every Heartbeat” (24, 3)
11. Surface, “The First Time” (18, 5)
12. Tara Kemp, “Piece of My Heart” (17, 0)
13. Gloria Estefan, “Coming Out of the Dark” (17, 4)
14. C+C Music Factory, “Here We Go (Let’s Rock and Roll)” (16, 4)
15. Jesus Jones, “Real Real Real” (16, 0)

1992 – “Stay” Is Lost

1. Shakespears Sister, “Stay” (56, 1)
2. Cover Girls, “Wishing on a Star” (52, 0)
3. Madonna, “This Used to Be My Playground” (40, 2)
4. Michael Jackson, “In the Closet” (35, 1)
5. Genesis, “No Son of Mine” (33, 0)
6. Marky Mark & Funky Bunch, “Wildside” (32, 0)
7. Paula Abdul, “Blowing Kisses in the Wind” (28, 0)
8. Bryan Adams, “Thought I’d Died and Gone To Heaven” (27, 1)
9. Hammer, “Addams Groove” (25, 1)
10. George Michael, “Too Funky” (22, 2)
11. Richard Marx, “Take This Heart” (20, 1)
12. Elton John, “The One” (19, 3)
13. Firehouse, “When I Look Into Your Eyes” (19, 1)
14. Karyn White, “The Way I Feel About You” (19, 2)
15. Amy Grant, “Good for Me” (16, 3)

1993 – “Forever” Didn’t Last

1. Shanice, “Saving Forever for You” (68, 0)
2. Madonna, “Deeper and Deeper” (35, 1)
3. Jeremy Jordan, “The Right Kind of Love” (33, 0)
4. P.M. Dawn, “Looking Through Patient Eyes” (32, 2)
5. 95 South,”Whoot, There It Is” (29, 2)
6. Janet Jackson, “If” (21, 4)
7. Boyz II Men, “In the Still of the Nite” (15, 6)
8. Shai, “Baby I’m Yours” (12, 5)
9. Bobby Brown, “Good Enough” (10, 5)
10. Boy Krazy, “That’s What Love Can Do” (10, 3)
11. Joey Lawrence, “Nothin’ My Love Can’t Fix” (9, 0)
12. Vanessa Williams & Brian McKnight, “Love Is” (9, 9)
13. DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince, “Boom! Shake the Room” (9, 3)
14. Madonna, “Rain” (9, 4)
15. Kris Kross, “Alright” (8, 2)

1994– Rock And Roll Dreams Fall Through

1. Janet Jackson, “Because of Love” (53, 0)
2. Immature, “Never Lie” (48, 1)
3. Meat Loaf, “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through” (30, 0)
4. Erasure, “Always” (28, 1)
5. Eternal, “Stay” (21, 0)
6. DRS, “Gangsta Lean” (21, 3)
7. Mariah Carey, “Anytime You Need a Friend” (18, 3)
8. Phil Collins, “Everyday” (15, 1)
9. Gabrielle, “Dreams” (26, 2)
10. Jon Secada, “If You Go” (13,6)
11. R. Kelly, “Bump n’ Grind” (11, 8)
12. Janet Jackson, “Again” (8, 11)
13. Joshua Kadison, “Beautiful in My Eyes” (7, 3)
14. Enigma, “Return to Innocence” (7, 10)
15. R. Kelly, “Your Body’s Callin’” (6, 6)

When we published the lost hits of the early ‘80s, there were a lot of comments from people who didn’t live through the CHR doldrums of 1980-82. Many of those readers searched out some of the songs they hadn’t heard before and came to the conclusion that many of them were lost for good reason. I’m expecting this one to be the inverse. We already know that there are a lot of Ross On Radio readers with ties to that era who would be happy to hear “Piece of My Heart” by Tara Kemp again. If your formative years are pre-1987, you probably don’t know it.

It is also the case that you don’t have to feel terrible for every artist who put a song in the year’s top 15. Wilson Phillips, Mariah Carey, Hammer, Meat Loaf, and even Vanilla Ice are artists proving to have durable songs as the listeners on their side of the generational divide described here have greater influence at Classic Hits, AC, and Adult R&B. But with so few artists having a robust ‘80s catalog, it’s even rarer to see a ‘90s act with more than 1-2 titles in play.