1974 Is the Land of the Lost Factor

Eighteen months ago, a Facebook friend commented on a posting of a WLS Chicago survey from February 1974. The No. 1 song was Terry Jacks, “Seasons in the Sun.” The No. 2 song was the theme from The Way We Were by Barbra Streisand. The two songs at the top of that list went on, in reverse order, to become Billboard’s top two songs of the year. “This, in my opinion, is the playlist that killed AM Top 40 radio,” wrote veteran PD/station owner Pat “Martin” Lopeman.

Whatever your feelings about the hits of the ‘70s, 1974 is often considered their epicenter. “Seasons in the Sun” is always the first and most galvanizing reference. It’s practically the song that Barry Scott’s “The Lost 45s!” specialty show was invented for. Before “Reservoir Dogs,” Rhino Records’ ‘70s compilations, or SiriusXM’s ‘70s on 7. “The Lost 45s!” was the first place to address ‘70s pop as an entity in any way other than “thank God it’s gone.” Jacks was Scott’s first guest, and “Seasons” is still the all-time champ on the show’s Labor Day Weekend Top 100. It has also made other appearances in this column.

1974 is a year of oddball provocations, from “Annie’s Song” to “The Night Chicago Died” to the debut of “Abra-Ca-Dabra” by the DeFranco Family; (the latter didn’t make Billboard’s Top 100 of the year, but it is in the top 10 at WLS). But 1974 is also a great year for R&B (“For the Love of Money,” “Hollywood Swingin’,” “Tell Me Something Good,” “Mighty Love”) and the year in rock that gave us “The Joker,” “Band on the Run,” and “Sweet Home Alabama.” And if you’re one of those people nostalgic for a time when “Top 40 played it all,” it’s definitely one of those years.

1974 produced dozens of hits that should have found a place when the “good time oldies” format moved from the ‘60s to the ‘70s–“Come and Get Your Love,” “Waterloo,” “Dancing Machine,” “Rock On,” “Smokin’ in the Boys Room,” “Rock Your Baby,” “Rock the Boat.” Only a few of those found a home even at the format’s fringes; now Classic Hits is mostly living in the ‘80s anyway. Scott says this year’s “Lost 45s!” countdown will evenly split between ‘70s and ‘80s, but 1974 will maintain a strong presence, given the iconic nature of many of that year’s hits.

In a year that stretched from “Eres Tu” to “Radar Love,” the rockin’ pop records of mid-‘70s screaming Top 40 aren’t the songs with 1974’s highest “Lost Factor”—our calculation of which songs traveled the furthest between saturation airplay then and negligible airplay today. Even “Seasons in the Sun” only finishes at No. 36 in our calculations. “The Night Chicago Died,” another one of the year’s top provocations, is No. 48. The Blue Swede version of “Hooked on a Feeling” is actually the No. 21 most-played song of the year’s Billboard Top 100 hits.

The two songs that do have the highest “Lost Factor” of the year are songs that would undoubtedly be controversial lyrically today, in part because they were controversial in 1974. “(You’re) Having My Baby” by Paul Anka is No. 1 with a Lost Factor of 73, higher than any “Lost Factor” number from the 1980s, although still short of the perfect 100 score for 1960’s “Theme From A Summer Place.” We haven’t announced rankings for the entire ‘70s yet, but when we do, Anka’s hit will be the newest song in a top 10 otherwise dominated by 1970-72 titles. Mac Davis’s “One Hell of a Woman,” a song that drew similar accusations of chauvinism, is second with a 46 score.

Here are the top “lost factor” hits of 1974, 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 in the U.S. and Canada according to BDS in the week prior to my calculations.

1. Paul Anka, “(You’re) Having My Baby” (lost factor 73, spins for the week 1)
2. Mac Davis, “One Hell of a Woman” (46, 2)
3. Jim Stafford, “Spiders and Snakes” (43, 2)
4. Cher, “Dark Lady” (34, 2)
5. O’Jays, “Put Your Hands Together” (33, 0)
6. Helen Reddy, “Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)” (30, 1)
7. Ray Stevens, “The Streak” (23, 4)
8. Mike Oldfield, “Tubular Bells (Theme From ‘The Exorcist)” (22, 0)
9. Donny & Marie Osmond, “I’m Leaving It (All) Up to You” (20, 0)
10. Bo Donaldson & Heywoods, “Billy Don’t Be a Hero” (20, 4)
11. Sister Janet Mead, “The Lord’s Prayer” (15, 0)
12. Lamont Dozier, “Trying to Hold On to My Woman” (14, 0)
13. Ringo Starr, “Oh My My” (14, 2)
14. Marvin Hamlisch, “The Entertainer (Music From The Sting)” (13, 4)
15. Barbra Streisand, “The Way We Were” (11, 9)

Streisand, like other ‘70s MOR artists, is becoming a familiar presence in our “Lost Factor” articles. When we looked at the Lost Factor for 1977 songs, “Evergreen” was a rare exception of a megahit now lost to time. It was the No. 4 song of 1977, but still made our top 15 most lost. But “The Way We Were” was the No. 1 song of its year.

The rest of the top 15 fits with established themes among songs with high lost factors: novelties (“Spiders And Snakes,” “The Streak”); teen acts (Donny & Marie, “Billy Don’t Be a Hero,” the latter of which sort of ticks the novelty box as well); instrumental movie themes from The Exorcist and The Sting); female pop/MOR acts (Cher, Helen Reddy, Streisand, although Lost Factor perennial Olivia Newton-John doesn’t make her first appearance this year until No. 39).

As is also the case in most of the early ‘70s calculations I’ve done, there are also a couple of R&B titles among the top 15 — “Put Your Hands Together” and “Tryin’ to Hold on to My Woman” — that I don’t regard as in any way risible. Both were songs that didn’t cross over in every market. Where they did, neither typically reached power rotation — another distinguishing factor of many of the songs that are the most lost now. The former also had the issue of being overshadowed by the O’Jays single that followed, “For the Love of Money.”

Here are the songs with more than 100 spins for the previous week that now punch above their weight — getting the most monitored spins at broadcast radio, compared to their year-end placing for 1974. (Incredibly, “Sweet Home Alabama,” a fall release, falls between the cracks and does not make the year-end chart for either 1974 or 1975, joining 1977’s “Brick House” and 1970’s “I Think I Love You” among the most flagrant omissions.)

1. Steve Miller Band, “The Joker”
2. Bachman-Turner Overdrive, “Takin’ Care of Business”
3. Elton John, “Bennie and the Jets”
4. Golden Earring, “Radar Love”
5. Elton John, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”

Just for fun, I created my own 1974 playlist without many of the most flagrant provocations (although your mileage may differ). Check out “1974 Without Apologies.”