Lost Factor 1995-99: Which Flames Flickered Out?

The late ‘90s were a great time for hit music. They were a challenge for chart fans. Many of the biggest hits of the era were never issued on commercial singles, meaning that they did not chart on Billboard’s Hot 100 until a methodology change in late 1998. The songs that did chart were often heavily discounted singles driven disproportionately by sales. Sometimes there were double-sided singles whose sales were driven primarily by the inclusion of a previously unavailable hit.

All those factors have made it a little daunting to finish our look at the Lost Factor — our calculations of the ongoing endurance of those songs that made Billboard’s year-end Top 100 charts. Lost Factor awards points for year-end chart placement divided by the number of spins for a seven-day period at the major- and medium-market stations monitored by BDSradio. The resulting number looks not just at how often (or seldom) songs are heard now on broadcast radio, but the trajectory from hit to obscurity.

Until the late ‘90s, “hit” had carried the implication of “song widely heard on the radio.” But the late ‘90s “Lost Factor” is led by a song disproportionately driven by sales, Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind 1997.” The No. 16 single, LeAnn Rimes’ “Looking Through Your Eyes,” was a soundtrack single that went gold at the height of Rimes’ stardom, but received minimal pop airplay. These days, Hot 100 leaders driven primarily by sales and streams are more common and fuel the debate about what a hit is.

Finishing the late ‘90s also meant having to redo the info for the Top 100 songs of 1995. We initially published those stats a year ago, shortly after a methodology change on the BDSradio website that led to our calculations being based on only U.S. airplay, rather than the previous combined numbers for U.S. and Canada. We redid 1995 to make those (and all late-‘90s numbers) consistent. Interestingly, the changes primarily affected one song, U2’s “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me,” whose LF rating was reduced sharply by airplay from French-language Canadian radio. (As you’ll see below, the change didn’t help another U2-related soundtrack single.)

Other methodology notes: There are more songs in the late ‘90s that make the year-end charts for two years in a row. I’ve counted those songs only once. Otherwise, “Candle in the Wind 1997,” which nearly topped the 1998 year-end as well, would have a Lost Factor of well over 100. In the case of double-sided singles that were boosted by the inclusion of a previous hit, or songs being worked to two different formats, I based Lost Factor on the more current title. I’m also not including the usual look at which songs endure disproportionately to chart points at the time, in part because that list would likely include so many songs that didn’t make the year-end Top 100 between 1995-98.

In the nearly two years since we published our first Lost Factor data in April 2020, the late ‘90s have become more present on the radio thanks to more airplay at AC, Hot AC, Classic Hits, and a handful of stations playing all-‘90s or heavily concentrated in that era. Those stations tend to include ‘N Sync, Backstreet Boys, and the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe,” a change from previous radio policy where the teen-pop hits of an era never returned to the radio.

That said, there are still teen acts well-represented among our Lost Factor top 60 of the late ‘90s, beginning with the No. 3, Az Yet. There are also a significant number of major acts represented by post-peak singles. Some are in the teen-act category (Boyz II Men, Color Me Badd), but the top 60 also includes Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Bon Jovi, another Elton John title, and Journey, all of whom have enough enduring radio songs that they can’t be too upset. The list also includes the final chart hit for Barbra Streisand, who has been a recurring presence in our Lost Factor tallies spanning the decades. In general, we found that more airplay for the ‘90s has been good for a handful of titles, but those songs that didn’t come back are now more lost than ever by contrast.

The late ‘90s also bring us into the period of the biggest multi-format radio stardom for R. Kelly. Of the five songs represented here, two were event singles that never received enduring airplay, but others were Adult R&B staples that have only come out of gold libraries in the last five years. One of our final planned Lost Factor columns will look at those songs that have disappeared from radio for reasons beyond their enduring musical validity. We’ll also publish a top 100 of the ‘90s and finally an all-time Lost Factor spanning 1960-99.

Here are the 60 songs from 1995-99 with the highest lost factor.