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Great songs that were Top 40 hits that you never hear on the radio

Marathon Don said:
I'm not sure which is more disturbing, the songs you guys are digging up, or the fact that I have many of them in my collection.
Click to expand...

Yes and that's just the point, many people have these very same songs in their collections and they remember all of them, but find one station that plays them all now that's the disturbing part. All these songs should not be played on a "specialty show" only, but in regular rotation with all the other great songs that play.
 
How about..

That old Song/Ray Parker Jr.
Make A Move On Me/Olivia Newton-John
Think of Laura/Christopher Cross
No Time For Talk/Christoper Cross
All Right/Christopher Cross
Say You'll Be Mine/Christopher Cross
Never Be The Same/Christopher Cross
Find A Way/Amy Grant
Honesty/Billy Joel
Sometimes A Fantasy/Billy Joel
A Little In Love/Cliff Richard
Who's Holding Donna Now?/DeBarge
Who Is Johnny?/DeBarge
Desert Moon/Dennis DeYoung
I.G.Y./Donald Fagen
In Neon/Elton John
That Girl Could Sing/Jackson Browne
Boulevard/Jackson Browne
Roush Hour/Jane Wiedlin
More Than I Can Say/Leo Sayer
Living In A Fantasy/Leo Sayer
Fantasy/Aldo Nova
You Better You Bet/The Who
Who Are You/The Who
Athena/The Who
Toy Soldiers/Martika
Be Good Johnny/Men At Work
OverKill/Men At Work
It's A Mistake/Men At Work
I KNow You're Out There Somewhere/The Moody Blues
The Next Time I Fall/Peter Cetera
Glory of Love/Peter Cetera
I Can't Stand It No More/Peter Frampton
I Was Made For Loving You/Kiss
Heart Of The Night/Poco
Crazy Love/Poco
Find Another Fool/Quarterflash
Take Me To Heart/Quarterflash
I've Done Everything for You/Rick Springfield
Love is Alright Tonite/Rick Springfield
Tired of Toein' The Line/Rocky Burnette
Ashes By Now/Rodney Crowell
You're The Love/Seals and Crofts
I'm Alive/ELO
All Over The World/ELO
Confusion/ELO
Don't Bring Me Down/ELO
Shine A Little Love/ELO

There's still more to come.....
 
Jackson Browne "Boulevard" and The Who "Who Are You" I hear a LOT on the radio. Especially the Who cut.

The Jackson Browne one I think is one of those songs 100.7 likes to wear out.
 
In Neon-Elton John
I'm Leavin'-Elvis
Don't Forget To Dance-Kinks
Why Not Me-Fred Knoblock
Happy Anniversary-Little River Band
Hold On-Santana
Heart Of The Night-Poco
Missing You-Dan Fogelberg
Shakedown Cruise-Jay Furgerson
Almost Over You-Sheena Easton
Jones vs Jones-Kool & The Gang
 
The Way I Feel Tonight-Bay City Rollers
Do It Or Die-ARS
Daddy's Little Man-OC Smith
Bobby Goldsboro
Midnight Wind-John Stewart
 
Home and Dry-Gerry Rafferty
Days Gone Down-Gerry Rafferty
Get It Right Next Time-Gerry Rafferty
Rotation-Herb Alpert
Romeo's Tune-Steve Forbert
All Dan Fogelberg songs
Rubber Biscuit-Blues Brothers
Run Runaway-Slade
The Seduction-The James Last Band
Send One Your Love-Stevie Wonder
Feels So Good-Chuck Mangione
Give It All You Got-Chuck Mangione
Superman-Herbie Mann
All the Top 40 Crossover hits Ronnie Milsap had
 
Damn John,
How about a liner that says here's one nobody else plays because we're smarter than your average station(insert you know who here) DP the list just gets better and better!!!

Allen
 
The Belle Of St. Mark-Shelia E
Yo Mo Be There-James Ingram/Michael McDonald
Old fashioned Love-Smokey Robinson
Sad Sweet Dreamer-Sweet Sensation
Wait For Me-Hall & Oates
Its A laugh-Hall & Oates

BTW You Can Hear All These Tunes & More on Magic 95.9 in Plymouth NC
because Bill Benjamin has the grapefruits to play them!!!! Hey BB I take checks,cash,
master card.visa etc... Seriously Magic is a great station

Allen
 
I used to consider myself pretty knowledgeable on pop music until I met BB. The man's a walking top 40 encyclopedia. A true radio man, his heartbeat is measured in megacycles.
 
You guys are programming a station with a .3 share. Fun to remember these songs,
but only old DJs remember most of these songs (I'm one of them).

But with a few exceptions. 90% of those songs would be unfamiliar to at least 50% of a classic
hits station's audience. And, half of the ones that knew them...wouldn't want to hear them!

Many of those songs listed on this thread were NOT played on major market top 40 stations.
 
Hey Surf,
I agree with you when you say we old DJ's remember these songs.I agree that you need to program like a listener and not a radio person.Most of these songs were played quite a bit on Top 40,AC,Urban & Rock stations.I heard alot of these tunes an awful lot before I got into radio. I can't tellyou the hundreds of people I talk to on the phone,meet at remotes and ask me for copies of some of these songs.I know they can't be the core of a playlist but what they can do is keep a station from playing My Girl & Respect until people are sick to death of them. A great example for a large city is a show called the Lost 45's in Boston with Barry Scott.
It is the top rated show in Boston or has been on many occasions. My opinion is a person's memory for music is much deeper than any so called research shows.
It is a simple matter of being different.I want a listener to say.More is better but when a person has their choices limited by the same old stuff on radio they turn to other sources for music. There are certainly alot of sources out there today. I simply feel a station with a huge playlist would set itself apart and maybe just maybe, stand out and reignite a persons passion for great music. If it was a top 40
or 30 or 20 alot of people bought it.Another great gauge of a person's passion for music is youtube.Look up some of these songs they you see on the list and read the comments. It shows people still care.Look at the number of views for some of this stuff.Alot of people have not forgotten them. Thanks for reading and again these are simply opinions.

Allen
 
surfdude said:
Many of those songs listed on this thread were NOT played on major market top 40 stations.
Click to expand...

I would disagree, IF any station played Casey Kasem's American Top 40 back then, they ALL would have been played. Every song I have listed comes DIRECTLY from The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (7th Edition) By Joel Whitburn. Now whether a particular market played them in their regular rotation outside of Casey's show would be debateable, but I believe they did . Some may not remember them, but I would guess most of the people in their early to mid 40s would remember most of them. And to your kids they would all be new songs. All of these songs deserve to be played again on the radio in a regular rotation and not be relegated to a "specialty" show. I also think that a station that would play all these songs in addition to the normal songs that are played it would get a higher ranking than a .3 share especially if done right. I could be wrong, but I don't think so.

I have to agree with Allen's comment as well.
 
surfdude said:
You guys are programming a station with a .3 share. Fun to remember these songs,
but only old DJs remember most of these songs (I'm one of them).

But with a few exceptions. 90% of those songs would be unfamiliar to at least 50% of a classic
hits station's audience. And, half of the ones that knew them...wouldn't want to hear them!

Many of those songs listed on this thread were NOT played on major market top 40 stations.
Click to expand...

Actually, "fun" is the reason I thought the thread was supposed to be. The thread is titled, " Great songs that were Top 40 hits that you never hear on the radio"...not "Great songs that would comprise the playlist of a successful, major market Top 40 radio station". Everyone is just thinking out loud, bro, lighten up. We get enough of that "stream of consciousness" attitude from consultants.

And, while "many" songs weren't played on "some" major market Top 40 stations, "all" of these were played on many major market Top 40 stations. It bears mentioning that no song was ever played on every radio station.
 
These songs would be that special spice to make my sauce stand out.They are just a piece of the radio puzzle. It would be fun to see just what might happen.
Hey, I admit it I'm a music and radio geek.Its my hobby. I just love reading and hearing what others have to say.I'm not very bright but compared to some of the things I had seen done in radio since 7-30-83. I am NASA candidate.

Allen
 
It's a fun thread. No bashing intended. If these songs were on on internet radio station, I would listen
to it, for old times sake. I don't know how often I'd want to hear MAKE A MOVE ON ME by O N-J, though.
Most of them are just not mass appeal (familiar) enough to acheive ratings in a competitive
market.

Some of the songs on the lists are played on Y102 in Raleigh, though.
 
I've never heard a major market top 40 station on any regular basis.
I've only heard the ones in central and eastern NC mostly, so that's where my list came from yall!
I got to think that somebody else from NC remembers them songs too!
Feh maybe it wouldn't get a 50 share or impress some major market top 40 programmer-types (all 10 of them), but it would be fun at least. ;D
 
Of course these songs would not comprise your main playlist, but be in addition to your regular "limited" playlist. Heck one or two an hour wouldn't hurt in fact it may actually help.

Quote "..If these songs were on on internet radio station, I would listen to it,..."

Why does it have to be on an internet radio station for you to listen to them? It's thinking like that that will make this industry die. The point here is open up those tight playlists and play some song that people are dying to hear on the radio again. They heard them on the radio back then and they should be able to hear them there today.

Quote "...Most of them are just not mass appeal (familiar) enough to acheive ratings in a competitive
market..."

Just as Allen pointed out, there are lots of people who remember these songs and are wanting to hear them again. If you use the consultant's view that may be true with their very small test audience as a "guage" for what everyone in America wants to hear, but just ask as many people that are in this target audience what they want to hear and I'd almost guarantee you that most of the songs on these lists would be mentioned. The reason why the're not "familiar" is because stations "abandoned" these songs long ago. I remember practically every one of them playing on stations here in Eastern North Carolina. In fact that's how and why I have some of them as 45s simply because I heard them on the radio. Also look at it from the artists' point of view, you make a record and it gets some mass appeal but then drops off to oblivion because consultant's think that their songs aren't mass appeal enough anymore you (the artist) certainly would want your song to continue to make you SOME money so these artists are just itching to have their music played on the radio again. Look at artists like Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond they STILL sell out areans or whereever they play. If that's any indication that their songs aren't "mass appeal" then I don't know what is. Heck just look at Elvis, he's worth more dead than he was alive. People are passionate about their music and the people who make the music. I don't care what the consutant's say, the American public is getting tired of these "limited" playlists and they want more from their local (note the word LOCAL) radio station. They're not getting it from their local stations so they're turning to the alternative formats (i.e. Satellite radio, internet) to get what they want.
 
Double J,

I've been in the radio business long enough..that I played most of the songs that have
been listed in your previous posts. I love your lists!

In 1979-80 I was at a light AC station that played, in this order:
* an uptempo current
* a slow current
* an oldie

This was an AM station with a fairly weak signal and it had over a 4 share.**

So when I stumbled into this thread I just had to give you guys a shout out!!

I'm in North Florida and am building a low power AM that plays exactly the songs you are mentioning.
Maybe I'll be able to stream it in the future if the royalty thing doesn't prevent it.

After two decades in terrestrial radio, I opted to retire in 2004. The first thing I did was get involved in
online radio. I'm listening to a Christian station from PA right now (shineradio.us). I have not listened to
local radio since the day I retired. I listen a little when we're traveling.

**In looking at local ratings, there's a number of shares under a 1..around here a .3 would be an improvement for a number of stations!
 
Alan McCall said:
Double J,

I've been in the radio business long enough..that I played most of the songs that have
been listed in your previous posts. I love your lists!

In 1979-80 I was at a light AC station that played, in this order:
* an uptempo current
* a slow current
* an oldie

This was an AM station with a fairly weak signal and it had over a 4 share.**

So when I stumbled into this thread I just had to give you guys a shout out!!

I'm in North Florida and am building a low power AM that plays exactly the songs you are mentioning.
Maybe I'll be able to stream it in the future if the royalty thing doesn't prevent it.

After two decades in terrestrial radio, I opted to retire in 2004. The first thing I did was get involved in
online radio. I'm listening to a Christian station from PA right now (shineradio.us). I have not listened to
local radio since the day I retired. I listen a little when we're traveling.

**In looking at local ratings, there's a number of shares under a 1..around here a .3 would be an improvement for a number of stations!
Click to expand...

Alan,

Thanks for the comments. I really believe terrestrial radio can be great and fun again if people in the industry stop overanalizing every song and trying not to offend anyone. As I've said, it's not rocket science.
 
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