It makes sense that summer hits would be some of our most enduring. They are often the songs most indelibly linked to place memories. They were the songs that were shared experiences, especially if they turned out to be the Song of the Summer. They are typically among the biggest songs of the year overall. But there are exceptions.
Of the 62 songs that Billboard has designated Song of the Summer between 1958 and 2020, less than a third have any significant Lost Factor — our calculation of a hit song’s path to relative obscurity. Lost Factor awards points for placement on the year-end Top 100, then divides those by last week’s spins according to BDSradio. Very few hits after 1980 received fewer than 100 monitored spins last week, so only 20 songs have a Lost Factor over our dividing line of a 1.0–at least for now, while radio stations are reliving summer memories as well.
I’ve been writing about Song of the Summer since summer 2004. I’ve been calculating the Lost Factor of the hits between 1960 and 1999 for about 18 months now. It was inevitable that the two most-loved franchises in the RoRCU (Ross on Radio Column Universe) would ultimately meet.
My Summer Song rules have always been a little different than Billboard, and more subjective — it’s not just the biggest song over a 12-week-period. There has to be tempo or some sort of summer feeling. In the late ‘00s, as pop music and Top 40 radio lost their footing, I often made contrarian choices — “Ride” by 21 Pilots over “Can’t Stop the Feeling” or “One Dance” in 2016; “Boom Boom Pow” over “I Gotta Feeling” in 2009. In 2014, I declared that the ice-bucket challenge had been more of a summer crowd pleaser than either leading candidate, “Rude” by Magic! or “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea.
That’s why I went with Billboard’s list, although I augmented it with a few of mine — “I Like It” along with “In My Feelings,” for instance. Had I been available to regulate in the early ’60s, there would have been words exchanged about Billboard’s choice of “I’m Sorry” by Brenda Lee or “Roses Are Red (My Love)” by Bobby Vinton. In 2004, I chose “Turn Me On,” not the megahit that “We Belong Together” was. But Kevin Lyttle, not Mariah Carey, had the song that felt like summer. Because Billboard looked back to 1958, I did too, although Lost Factor’s regular calculations have spanned 1960-99 so far.
“Theme From A Summer Place,” the 61-year-old year-end chart-topper that scored a perfect 100 on Lost Factor, is not on this list. It wasn’t a summer hit. But not surprisingly, those early periods from Top 40’s first doldrums are the leaders, and yield one perfect score of their own. I am happy to report that Donna Summer did have at least one Song of the Summer with 1979’s “Bad Girls,” although “Hot Stuff” would have been even better thematically. “Butter” by BTS, controversial for its lack of radio, is not on this list. It doesn’t have a year-end number yet.
Using year-end rankings to determine the top number, I based spins on BDSradio monitored stations for Sept. 1–7, 2021, and for U.S. stations only, meaning that Lost Factor rankings may vary from some of the annual rankings I’ve been doing over the past 15 months (which include Canada). Not surprisingly, almost all of the songs in question were top 5 for their entire year or higher. Because the Labor Day weekend was involved, it’s likely that some songs were helped by Throwback Weekends, American Top 40 reruns and the like. Few of the findings are surprising, but I plan to revisit these numbers later.
These are the Billboard’s Songs of Summer with higher than a 1.0 score. Only six of the 15 are uptempo, and scores, except for No. 1, are relatively low. Only two are from 2000 or later.
1 – Domenico Modugno, “Volare” (1958) (100 points)
2 – Zager & Evans, “In the Year 2525” (1969) (11)
3 – Paul Anka, Lonely Boy” (1959) (10)
4 – Bobby Vinton, “Roses Are Red (My Love)” (1962) (7)
5 – Brenda Lee, “I’m Sorry” (1960) (7)
6 – Bobby Lewis, “Tossin’ and Turnin’” (1961) (15)
7 – John Denver, “Annie’s Song” (1974) (6)
8 – Herb Alpert, “This Guy’s in Love With You” (1968) (5)
9 – Gilbert O’ Sullivan, “Alone Again (Naturally) (1972) (4)
10 – Andy Gibb, “Shadow Dancing” (1978) (4)
11 – Carpenters, “(They Long to Be) Close to You” (1970) (4)
12 – Los del Rio, “Macarena” (1996) (4)
13 – Bee Gees, “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” (1971) (3)
14 – Stevie Wonder, “Fingertips Pt. II” (1963) (3)
15 – Matchbox Twenty, “Bent” (2000) (2)
16 – Donna Summer, “Bad Girls” (1979) (2)
17 – Supremes, “Where Did Our Love Go” (1964) (2)
18 – Jim Croce, “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” (1973) (1)
19 – Iggy Azalea, “Fancy” (2014) (1)
20 – Troggs, “Wild Thing” (1966) (1)
Even “Fancy,” the song that lost to the Ice Bucket Challenge, is not quite “lost.” It’s ironic that “This Guy’s in Love With You” and “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” are both Songs of Summer within a few years of each other. Only the strolling gait of those songs make them summery; it also makes them sound surprisingly like each other.
Here are the summer songs with the lowest Lost Factor scores. Notice the success of early ‘80s CHR titles, even going back to the doldrums summer of 1981. I didn’t rank my choices, if they differ from Billboard, here, but “Watermelon Sugar” and “Feel It Still” would have been No. 1 and 2. “Bad Guy” would be No. 5. Thanks both to being the song of last summer and still being a current for some Mainstream AC stations, “Watermelon Sugar” got more than 5,000 spins last week.
1 – Police, “Every Breath You Take” (1983)
2 – Survivor, “Eye of the Tiger” (1982)
3 – Prince, “When Doves Cry” (1984)
4 – Rick Springfield, “Jessie’s Girl” (1981)
5 – Tears for Fears, “Shout” (1985)
6 – TLC, “Waterfalls” (1995)
7 – Black Eyed Peas, “I Gotta Feeling” (2009)
8 – Rihanna, “Umbrella” (2007)
9 – Beyoncé, “Crazy in Love” (2003)
10 – DaBaby f/Roddy Ricch, “Rockstar” (2020)
