Lost Factor’s Top 10 Artists: 1970-94

It’s probably no surprise to anybody who’s been following this last year of articles on the Lost Factor that Donny Osmond is the artist who appeared in its yearly top 15 measurements most often. Osmond had a wide variety of hits that spanned nearly 20 years, thanks to a surprise comeback. Whether they’re his gushy ballad hits, his best bubblegum and power-pop hits with the Osmonds, his duets with sister Marie, or that late ‘80s Peter Gabriel-soundalike comeback, they’re all songs that placed well in the Billboard Top 100 of the year, but get almost no airplay now, according to BDSradio.

We tallied the number of appearances artists made in our annual Lost Factor rankings between 1970-94, a 25-year span. Osmond has four of his own, three with the Osmonds, three with Donny & Marie Osmond. Those 10 songs touch on a few of the recurring reasons songs don’t endure — being by teen idols (with a few recent exceptions) or having sounded old at the time (such as his solo remakes and Marie duets).

More startling are the artists who are tied for No. 2. Daryl Hall is represented by seven songs, six of them as half of Daryl Hall & John Oates. Madonna placed seven songs on the list all by herself.

We’ve devoted an entire column to why Hall & Oates had so many hits, but also so many songs with high Lost Factors. Those range from a huge catalog, from which not everything could endure, to a radio bias toward pop/rock. Lost Factor isn’t just the province of the one-hit wonder or the artist who becomes unhip; it’s also populated by superstar artists whose late-career songs were carried up the charts by career momentum or industry hype, but never went to stations’ gold libraries.

There’ve been a number of constants among the types of songs with high Lost Factors — teen idols, female pop, instrumentals, even R&B titles that didn’t entirely cross over at the time. Some of the artists who racked up those songs won’t surprise anybody. But Lost Factor includes a lot of those songs that weren’t quite really hits at the time, and those often came from a superstar artist whose label nudged their hit to No. 8 or 9. Even the illustrious often had two or three Lost Factor titles. 

These are the top 14 Lost Factor artists (that seemingly random number is the result of an eight-way tie for No. 7). Of those 14, six are artists still represented at Classic Hits or AC radio, sometimes amply, by more enduring songs. Readers may well have alternate ideas on calculating artist rankings — should we be calculating spins against chart points for an entire career, for instance? But the largest piece of the ranker belongs to unsurprising artists who we’ve been writing about steadily for the last year.  

Here are the top 10 Lost Factor artists of the ‘70s and ‘80s.

1 – Donny Osmond/Osmonds/Donny & Marie Osmond – 10 titles, including the breakthrough “One Bad Apple” and then a sampling of everything the three different “acts” did from “Go Away Little Girl” to “Down by the Lazy River” to “Deep Purple.” Osmond solo accounted for four songs; each of the other entities for three.

2 – Hall & Oates/Daryl Hall – Seven titles, including Hall’s “Dreamtime”). Their entries are a reminder that even successful acts have a second tier (“Did It in a Minute,” “Adult Education,” “Family Man”) and third (“Wait for Me,” “Everything Your Heart Desires”).

3 – Madonna – Seven titles, mostly from the early ‘90s period after “Vogue” where she became more polarizing (“Justify My Love”) and CHR became weaker overall (“Deeper and Deeper,” “Rain”). But the list also includes “Angel,” part of her 1984-85 hot streak; that song has a relatively low Lost Factor, but still made the 1985 top 15 because so many songs from that year are so enduring.

4 – Helen Reddy – Six titles. Both female pop acts and super-soft pop are often among our highest Lost Factor songs. Contains her entire distaff story-song trio — “Delta Dawn,” “Angie Baby,” and “Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)” — but not “I Am Woman.”

5T – Barbara Streisand – Five titles. Her placing is driven by two of the biggest disappearing songs: “Love Theme From A Star Is Born (Evergreen)” and “The Way We Were.” The tally also includes her duets with Donna Summer and Neil Diamond.

5T – George Michael/Wham – Five titles, including Wham’s “I’m Your Man.” Also includes the pre-“Faith” solo single, “A Different Corner,” and the 1990s’ “Praying for Time” and “Too Funky.”

The following artists are tied for No. 7 with four songs each:

Alice Cooper – The rocker/radio host is here on the strength of his four ballad hits that eventually got lost between two constituencies: “Only Women,” “I Never Cry” “You and Me,” “How You Gonna See Me Now.” 

Cher/Sonny & Cher – The duet hit is “A Cowboy’s Work Is Never Done.” The solo hits are “Half Breed,” “Dark Lady,” and “Take Me Home.”

Dr. Hook – They had multiple chart peaks and valleys in the ‘70s and early ‘80s. The songs represented here include their moments of “yacht disco” (“Sexy Eyes,” “Better Love Next Time”), but also the type of mid-’70s pop you expect to see here (“A Little Bit More”) and the sort of throwback/remake that often populates these articles (“Only Sixteen”).

Michael Jackson/Jacksons – Two of his four are celebrity duets, “The Girl Is Mine” with Paul McCartney and “State of Shock,” which is credited to the Jacksons, but is really a Jackson & Mick Jagger record. They’re bookended by an early hit (“Ben”) and a later near-hit (“In the Closet”).

Olivia Newton-John – “Physical” isn’t represented among her four titles, which include “Twist of Fate” and “Make a Move on Me.” The list does include her duet with Cliff Richard, “Suddenly,” which certainly reads as her record as well. 

Paul Anka – He was a teen idol in the late ‘50s. He wrote “Puppy Love,” which helped Donny Osmond cement his spot at the top. But Anka is included here only on his ‘70s MOR hits with Odia Coates, including 1974’s “(You’re) Having My Baby,” another huge, now-reviled record. Besides the MOR factor, there’s also the throwback element which has been a constant in our discussions.

Paul McCartney – In the ‘80s, his chart momentum was slowing down, but not before he was able to score briefly with soundtrack hits “No More Lonely Nights” and “Spies Like Us.” (“Take It Away” is better-regarded, but also less-remembered.) The fourth hit is “The Girl Is Mine.” 

Phil Collins/Genesis – Collins’ place in pop culture has gotten a boost lately. On radio, his catalog, which was down to a few titles, has been expanded, in part due to the new Soft AC stations. He’s here because of Genesis’s “No Son of Mine,” the Marilyn Martin duet “Separate Lives,” and his own “Do You Remember” and “Everyday.” 

Other artists with three include Andy Gibb, Billy Ocean, Donna Summer (including the Streisand duet), Janet Jackson, Kool & the Gang, Milli Vanilli, New Kids on the Block, Ray Parker Jr./Raydio, and Sheena Easton. Duran Duran has two, but Arcadia’s “Election Day” gives the group a third, if you count it.

Three of our top 10 artists had Lost Factor entries in 1982, the first year we looked at. Three other acts from that era are on our list of artists with three top 15 Lost Factor entries, although none spanned two decades of Lost Factor quite as spectacularly as the Osmond family. 

Lost Factor has been one of the best-received series in the decade-plus history of the Ross On Radio newsletter. We’re very glad that we were able to provide a diversion in a year that most people will be far more eager to forget than any song or artist. Look for a few more Lost Factor articles coming — the rest of the ‘90s/early ‘00s and our 40-year tally of the top Lost Factor songs of all time. So save just a little time in better times for your forgotten faves as well.