I started listening to pop radio in 1967, around the time that Top 40 radio started playing oldies in a more regular way. But by then, many of the ‘60s songs with the highest “Lost Factor” were already gone from the radio. In fact, less than half are songs I grew up hearing on the radio on any regular basis.
“Lost Factor” mathematically calculates whether songs are currently receiving airplay proportionate to their hit status at the time by awarding points for year-end chart placement and dividing them by the number of weekly broadcast radio spins they get today. Of the top 102 Lost Factor songs (including a three-way tie for No. 100), only about 40% are songs that I heard on a regular basis.
- There are only 10 songs that I remember hearing as current hits on the radio, not surprising since 71% of the songs in question are from the pre-Beatles years, 1960-63; 22% are from the year 1960 alone.
- There are another six that I remember hearing either as gold or in other settings (e.g., hearing Bent Fabric’s “Alley Cat” in gym class).
- There are another 20 that were a regular part of the Oldies stations that I listened to during the nostalgia craze of the early ‘70s. All of those songs were long gone from the “safe list” that emerged when Oldies had its late ‘80s/early ‘90s format resurgence.
- There are five songs, from “Mockingbird” to “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own,” that I learned because they were remade over the next decade or so.
The top 100 of the 1960s is an expanded version of a top 15 list that ran last July, a few months after we began our Lost Factor calculations. Even that list was full of instrumentals, early ‘60s titles, and one early ‘60s instrumental, “Theme from ‘A Summer Place,’” that had a perfect 100 score — a No. 1 song of the year that had gotten no plays at BDSRadio-monitored stations in the previous week.
Now that we’ve expanded to 102 songs, they include:
- 25 instrumental hits;
- 24 artists that would now be considered MOR acts, not including instrumentals;
- 17 artists that were considered teen idols (in general, the likes of Steve Lawrence and Connie Francis were classified MOR, even though you could have made a case for them as either);
- Six folky songs from the early ‘60s hootenanny era of pop music;
- Three songs that would be considered bubblegum; a lot of late ‘60s bubblegum is scarce on the radio now, but the Lost Factor scores are generally lower than the early ‘60s MOR, not surprising when we’re talking about 60-year-old songs.
Connie Francis is the artist who makes the most appearances among the 102 songs (with three titles). Those with two range from Chubby Checker and Gary “U.S.” Bonds to piano duo Ferrante & Teicher to bubblegum’s 1910 Fruitgum Company, the only late ’60s act with more than one title.
The Lost Factor within the top 102 songs stretches from the 100 score for “Theme From ‘A Summer Place’” to a 45 score for the last three songs. By comparison, the ‘70s’ top 100 ranges between 91 at the top and 14 at the bottom. As the passage of time would suggest, the ‘60s songs are a lot more gone from broadcast radio.
Here are the Top 100 Lost Factor Hits of the ‘60s. None received more than two spins for the week we calculated. (BDSRadio monitors mostly large- and medium-market stations. It does not include SiriusXM’s 60s on 6, although many of these would be “oh wow” songs even there.)
RANK | ARTIST | TITLE | YEAR | SPINS |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Percy Faith | Theme From A Summer Place | 1960 | 0 |
2 | Paul Mauriat | Love Is Blue | 1968 | 0 |
3 | Highwaymen | Michael | 1961 | 0 |
4 | Chubby Checker | Pony Time | 1961 | 0 |
5 | Hugo Montenegro | The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | 1968 | 0 |
6 | Sensations | Let Me In | 1962 | 0 |
7 | String-A-Longs | Wheels | 1961 | 1 |
8 | S/Sgt. Barry Sadler | Ballad of the Green Berets | 1966 | 0 |
9 | Connie Francis | Everybody's Somebody's Fool | 1960 | 0 |
10 | Brothers Four | Greenfields | 1960 | 0 |
11 | Jack Scott | What In The World's Come Over You | 1960 | 0 |
12 | Al Martino | I Love You Because | 1963 | 0 |
13 | Mar-Keys | Last Night | 1961 | 1 |
14 | Rebels | Wild Weekend | 1963 | 0 |
15 | Connie Francis | My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own | 1960 | 0 |
15 | Ferrante & Teicher | Exodus | 1961 | 0 |
15 | Chubby Checker & Dee Dee Sharp | Slow Twistin' | 1962 | 0 |
15 | Bobby Darin | You're the Reason I'm Living | 1963 | 0 |
19 | Johnny Tillotson | It Keeps Right On a-Hurtin' | 1962 | 0 |
19 | Billy J. Kramer & Dakotas | Little Children | 1964 | 0 |
21 | Inez & Charlie Foxx | Mockingbird | 1963 | 0 |
21 | Ray Charles Singers | Love Me With All Your Heart | 1964 | 0 |
23 | Sue Thompson | Sad Movies (Make Me Cry) | 1961 | 0 |
24 | Chantays | Pipeline | 1963 | 0 |
25 | Connie Stevens | Sixteen Reasons | 1960 | 0 |
26 | Sandy Posey | Born a Woman | 1966 | 0 |
27 | Frankie Avalon | Why | 1960 | 0 |
28 | Brook Benton | The Boll Weevil Song | 1961 | 0 |
28 | Vikki Carr | It Must Be Him | 1967 | 0 |
30 | Sounds Orchestral | Cast Your Fate to the Wind | 1965 | 0 |
30 | Roger Williams | Born Free | 1966 | 0 |
32 | Dick & Dee Dee | The Mountain's High | 1961 | 0 |
33 | Floyd Cramer | On the Rebound | 1961 | 0 |
34 | Georgie Fame | The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde | 1968 | 1 |
35 | Steve Lawrence | Portrait of My Love | 1961 | 0 |
35 | Jay & Americans | She Cried | 1962 | 0 |
35 | Trini Lopez | If I Had a Hammer | 1963 | 0 |
38 | Jimmy Jones | Good Timin' | 1960 | 0 |
38 | Connie Francis | Don't Break the Heart That Loves You | 1962 | 0 |
40 | Gary U.S. Bonds | Dear Lady Twist | 1962 | 0 |
40 | Serendipity Singers | Don't Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man) | 1964 | 0 |
40 | Bert Kaempfert | Red Roses for a Blue Lady | 1965 | 0 |
43 | Jimmy Clanton | Go, Jimmy, Go | 1960 | 0 |
43 | Sue Thompson | Norman | 1962 | 0 |
43 | 1910 Fruitgum Company | Simon Says | 1968 | 0 |
46 | Jackie Wilson | Night | 1960 | 0 |
46 | Betty Everett & Jerry Butler | Let It Be Me | 1964 | 0 |
48 | Jack Scott | Burning Bridges | 1960 | 1 |
48 | Jørgen Ingmann | Apache | 1961 | 1 |
50 | Linda Scott | Don't Bet Money Honey | 1961 | 0 |
50 | Highwaymen | Cotton Fields | 1962 | 0 |
52 | Duane Eddy | Because They're Young | 1960 | 0 |
52 | Johnny Tillotson | Without You | 1961 | 0 |
52 | Henry Mancini | Days of Wine and Roses | 1963 | 0 |
55 | Bent Fabric | Alley Cat | 1962 | 1 |
56 | Conway Twitty | Lonely Blue Boy | 1960 | 0 |
57 | Steve Lawrence | Pretty Blue Eyes | 1960 | 0 |
57 | Richard Chamberlain | Theme From "Dr. Kildare" | 1962 | 0 |
59 | Ace Cannon | Tuff | 1962 | 0 |
60 | Patti Page | Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte | 1965 | 1 |
61 | Anita Bryant | Paper Roses | 1960 | 0 |
61 | Clyde McPhatter | Lover Please | 1962 | 0 |
61 | Bill Anderson | Still | 1963 | 0 |
61 | Gene & Debbe | Playboy | 1968 | 0 |
61 | Bobby Sherman | Little Woman | 1969 | 0 |
66 | Larry Verne | Mr. Custer | 1960 | 0 |
66 | Troy Shondell | This Time | 1961 | 0 |
66 | Danny Williams | White on White | 1964 | 0 |
66 | Freddie & Dreamers | I'm Telling You Now | 1965 | 0 |
70 | Bobby Vinton | Please Love Me Forever | 1967 | 0 |
71 | Ricky Nelson | Young World | 1962 | 1 |
72 | Kokomo | Asia Minor | 1961 | 0 |
72 | Tommy Roe | Hooray for Hazel | 1966 | 0 |
72 | Dionne Warwick | Alfie | 1967 | 0 |
75 | Fendermen | Mule Skinner Blues | 1960 | 1 |
76 | Pat Boone | Speedy Gonzales | 1962 | 0 |
77 | Burl Ives | A Little Bitty Tear | 1962 | 0 |
77 | Ed Ames | My Cup Runneth Over | 1967 | 0 |
79 | Arthur Lyman | Yellow Bird | 1961 | 0 |
79 | Horst Jankowski | A Walk in the Black Forest | 1965 | 0 |
79 | Charles Wright & Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band | Do Your Thing | 1969 | 0 |
82 | Ron Holden | Love You So | 1960 | 0 |
82 | Timi Yuro | Hurt | 1961 | 0 |
82 | Emilio Pericoli | Al di Là | 1962 | 0 |
82 | Lonnie Mack | Memphis | 1963 | 0 |
82 | 1910 Fruitgum Company | 1, 2, 3, Red Light | 1968 | 0 |
87 | Ernie Maresca | Shout! Shout! (Knock Yourself Out) | 1962 | 0 |
88 | Don & Juan | What's Your Name | 1962 | 0 |
88 | Kai Winding | More | 1963 | 0 |
90 | Platters | Harbor Lights | 1960 | 1 |
91 | Corsairs | Smoky Places | 1962 | 0 |
91 | Sammy Davis Jr. | I've Gotta Be Me | 1969 | 0 |
91 | Jeanne Black | He'll Have to Stay | 1960 | 0 |
94 | Ferrante & Teicher | Theme from "The Apartment" | 1960 | 0 |
94 | People | I Love You | 1968 | 0 |
96 | Gary U.S. Bonds | School Is Out | 1961 | 0 |
96 | Bill Pursell | Our Winter Love | 1963 | 0 |
96 | Percy Sledge | Take Time to Know Her | 1968 | 0 |
99 | Elvis Presley | Crying in the Chapel | 1965 | 2 |
100 | Joanie Sommers | Johnny Get Angry | 1962 | 0 |
100 | Ral Donner | You Don't Know What You've Got (Until You Lose It) | 1961 | 0 |
100 | Andy Williams | The Village of St. Bernadette | 1960 | 0 |
We also looked at which songs overperform their year-end chart placing. These are songs with the lowest “Lost Factors” that now receive more than 100 spins a week at radio. These calculations were revised on April 17 from our initial tabulation. Thanks to an e-mail from reader Daniel O’Connor, we realized that not all eligible songs had been included; (this did not in any way impact the Top 100 Lost Factor songs above).
RANK | ARTIST | TITLE | YEAR | SPINS |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Beatles | Come Together | 1969 | 770 |
2 | Steppenwolf | Magic Carpet Ride | 1968 | 793 |
3 | Beatles | Revolution | 1968 | 428 |
4 | Cream | White Room | 1968 | 337 |
5 | Monkees | Daydream Believer | 1967 | 103 |
6 | Van Morrison | Brown Eyed Girl | 1967 | 965 |
7 | Steppenwolf | Born to Be Wild | 1968 | 767 |
8 | Rolling Stones | Paint It Black | 1966 | 727 |
9 | Marvin Gaye | I Heard It Through the Grapevine | 1969 | 111 |
10 | Rolling Stones | Jumpin' Jack Flash | 1968 | 404 |
11 | Rolling Stones | (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction | 1965 | 760 |
12 | Beatles | Something | 1969 | 103 |
13 | Kinks | You Really Got Me | 1964 | 122 |
14 | Ben E. King | Stand by Me | 1961 | 198 |
15 | Creedence Clearwater Revival | Bad Moon Rising | 1969 | 393 |
I bought some British (public-domain) anthologies a while back that purportedly contained every record to hit the US Top 10 in their given years/volumes, and was surprised to hear so many Connie Francis records, including some I didn’t remember at all. (There also were oddities for the UK market I didn’t expect, like “Wooden Heart” with the German verse replaced by a sax solo, and a BBC-friendly “Beep Beep” that turned the Cadillac and Nash Rambler into a “limousine” and “bubble car.”)
A number of these lost tracks today would seem to be the domain of Country radio, which didn’t exist as we know it to any great extent until 1964-65. Before then, Country was a more vital ingredient of Top 40.
And it should go without saying that there’s little justification today for playing things like “Mr. Custer,” “Speedy Gonzales” and, despite its absence from this list, “Ahab the Arab.”
I remember about 2/3 of the lost songs and every one of the overplays. I was in Albany, NY, in the 60’s. WTRY 980, WPTR 1540, WABY 1400, and later WFLY 92.3. I agree with WTK that a lot of the lost songs would never get airplay today and are lost for a variety of reasons….
Some internet station will start playing this list tomorrow LOL. I caught up with a lot of those titles during the nostalgia craze, and from listening to a Drake-Chenault “Solid Gold” station which played a mix of currents and gold. Later I worked in oldies radio, but even then, there weren’t that many of those oldies titles. I had heard music on the radio (WOWO Fort Wayne) going back to 1962 give or take, but I caught the new sound of the brand new Big 8 (with a month of Fun Radio 8 CKLW at the pool that summer. I’ve loved Motown and R&B ever since.