Hits That Never Get Played on Radio Any More

[Debaser]

I can remember having to (figuratively) fight with Bertha Porter to play the long version of Light My Fire on WDRC FM in 1967 (I won).

Th Guess Who had many up tempo and fun (but meaningful) hits like Bus Rider and Albert Flasher (who may have been the bus rider )

Also though of while driving today: Buffalo Springfield_Mr Soul, Rock and Roll Woman, On The Way Home.
And The Springfields-Silver Threads and Golden Needles.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Another great song that never gets played: "Cinnamon Girl" by Neil Young

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAdtUDaBfRA

 

[Debaser]

The Sutherland Brothers and Quiver-You Got Me Anyway

 

[chas108]

First Class - "Beach Baby". Long version only...I hate songus interruptus.

Ok...it's June 1982, and a friend, PD at a station where I once worked, asks me if I'd heard the brand-new Chicago single "Hard to Say I'm Sorry". It had been a good couple years since they had a hit and heck, it was their first release on Full Moon/WB. So we're listening as my friend points out how the song builds and builds but never reaches a climax...just that keyboard-and-strings interlude. Just weird, like there should be something else there and it just got lopped off. Not long after, Chicago 16 was released and me, my friend and the whole rest of the world learned the truth. THAT version, with "Get Away" still sounds cool.
Also, I believe the 1971 single release of "Layla" faded out before the piano interlude. And only when the entire 7:10 album cut was squeezed onto a 45 the following year did it become a hit.

 

[Savage]

And Moody Blues' 1967 "Nights In White Satin" ("musta been a bunch of sissy nights!" - Dan Ingraham) from the groundbreaker LP "Days Of Future Passed" didn't become a single hit until 5 years later. There was a hideous 45 rpm single edit which hacked the entire dramatic symphonic-and-poetry back half of the song off. It was deservedly ignored.

Once (mostly AM) Top 40 stations started playing the entire song it took off in 1972. It also renewed interest in the whole LP.

 

[chas108]

And Moody Blues' 1967 "Nights In White Satin" ("musta been a bunch of sissy nights!" - Dan Ingraham) from the groundbreaker LP "Days Of Future Passed" didn't become a single hit until 5 years later. There was a hideous 45 rpm single edit which hacked the entire dramatic symphonic-and-poetry back half of the song off. It was deservedly ignored.

Once (mostly AM) Top 40 stations started playing the entire song it took off in 1972. It also renewed interest in the whole LP.

I remember that well. When it became a hit at 'KB (and I think they had both versions, the long version played at night) I recall Debaser doing a bit about it being several years old. Almost as bad...no actually - worse than the single edit IMO - was the version that faded out before the "Late Lament" spoken word interlude.

There have truly been a few songs out there - only a few - "Purple Rain" is example A - where you could edit out two minutes and no one would miss it (the ending after the guitar solo is almost two minutes!) - but everybody knows what comes after the string decrescendo at 6:00 in "Nights In White Satin". Why ruin it?!

While we're on the Moody Blues - "I'm Just A Singer" (In A Rock & Roll Band), and "The Voice" (Long Version only)

 

[heydaybegone]

Whatever happened to "I'm Doing Fine Now"? (New York City - IIRC)
(Thread compliance-LOL)

 

[scottcleveland]

[
How about anything at all by John Denver. Remember how huge he was in both country and AC? I recall seeing him in a concert at the Aud about the time "Back Home Again" was out.

"Back Home Again" and Thank God I'm a Country Boy" are both in WXRL's gold rotation. Each comes up about once a week or so during the day, and "bonus plays" overnight...

 

[chas108]

Whatever happened to "I'm Doing Fine Now"? (New York City - IIRC)
(Thread compliance-LOL)

It was indeed New York City, on the Chelsea imprint manufactured/distributed by RCA. Spring 1973.
My Whitburn sez it peaked at #17. I thought it was a lot bigger.

 

[chas108]

[
How about anything at all by John Denver. Remember how huge he was in both country and AC? I recall seeing him in a concert at the Aud about the time "Back Home Again" was out.

"Back Home Again" and Thank God I'm a Country Boy" are both in WXRL's gold rotation. Each comes up about once a week or so during the day, and "bonus plays" overnight...

One of his best IMO was the oft-overlooked "I'd Rather Be A Cowboy" from Summer '73. Unfortunately it didn't even crack the top 40...btw the B-side was an all-acoustic 5:00 version of "Sunshine On My Shoulders".

Artists like Denver, sadly, have now become today's equivalent of MOR. Reading Sean Ross's "Ross On Radio" today presented a stark reminder of how time marches on...citing Celine Dion's "Because You Love Me" as an example of a song that Mainstream A/C's "now grapple with"...guess when you can hear Black-Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feeling" in that format now...Celine Dion may be a stretch. How much more so the mellow rock stars of the 70's.

Back at my first job, at an AM MOR station in tiny Brattleboro VT in 1973...I was filling in for the night jock, playing John Denver, Carpenters, Bee Gees (before "Jive Talkin' - that was '75, and not the harder edged "Lonely Days"), Carly Simon, Seals & Crofts, Streisand et.al. right out of the stack in the studio. It earned me phone calls from blue-haired post-menopausal old farts asking "Why do you play such awful music?!", "quit playing that acid rock!!!" and the like.

 

[heydaybegone]

Back at my first job, at an AM MOR station in tiny Brattleboro VT in 1973...I was filling in for the night jock, playing John Denver, Carpenters, Bee Gees (before "Jive Talkin' - that was '75, and not the harder edged "Lonely Days"), Carly Simon, Seals & Crofts, Streisand et.al. right out of the stack in the studio. It earned me phone calls from blue-haired post-menopausal old farts asking "Why do you play such awful music?!", "quit playing that acid rock!!!" and the like.

Was that a bad thing? Just asking...cause I think we've all been there!
(Ok it pretty much sucked at the time- but dang you got to know your market:::r at least the most vocal part!!)

HDBG

BTW - I'd love to hit up Brattleboro...or Vermont for that matter....but for a vacation (heck WNY get too much snow as it is!!)

 

[John C]

Not sure how high this charted but "I am the morning DJ at WOLD D D D D..." RIP Harry Chapin

 

[heydaybegone]

Not sure how high this charted but "I am the morning DJ at WOLD D D D D..."

Charting doesn't matter here on "Hits That Never Get Played on Radio Any More"

But dang....the list is growing for one hell of a lunar category!!

 

[chas108]

Back at my first job, at an AM MOR station in tiny Brattleboro VT in 1973...I was filling in for the night jock, playing John Denver, Carpenters, Bee Gees (before "Jive Talkin' - that was '75, and not the harder edged "Lonely Days"), Carly Simon, Seals & Crofts, Streisand et.al. right out of the stack in the studio. It earned me phone calls from blue-haired post-menopausal old farts asking "Why do you play such awful music?!", "quit playing that acid rock!!!" and the like.

Was that a bad thing? Just asking...cause I think we've all been there!
(Ok it pretty much sucked at the time- but dang you got to know your market:::r at least the most vocal part!!)

HDBG

BTW - I'd love to hit up Brattleboro...or Vermont for that matter....but for a vacation (heck WNY get too much snow as it is!!)

True Heyday...naahh I'm not complaining...just noting how time changes how we perceive music.
Did anyone think the day would come when Nirvana/Pearl Jam would play in ANY A/C format? But the grunge revolution's 18, almost 19 years old...the teens of that day are late 30's now. I don't see any Hot A/C ever spinning "Heart-Shaped Box", any more than they'd have played The Beatles' "Revolution" or Stones' "Sympathy For The Devil" 30 years ago. But "Come As You Are"? "Better Man"? "1979"? It's easy to forget that Hootie originally came out of Alternative.

Brattleboro and Southern Vermont's a beautiful visit...an easy drive from WNY since NY Rt. 7 in Troy becomes VT Rt. 9 at the border and takes you across two mountain ranges, a National Forest, past Grandma Moses' gallery, Hemmings' Motor Museum and all the maple syrup you could ever want. Some of the best-executed small-market radio can be heard on 96.7 WTSA where my high school buddy Tim Johnson is longtime news director. He, too, grew up on 'KB.

As far as living there again...I'd miss Pittsburgh too much. Even though I grew up all over the Northeast, Pittsburgh's home. That said, to hear Boston/NYC/Albany/'KB on a daily basis back in high school was a great way to learn radio. The small markets around Pittsburgh are generally awful or worse. In contrast, the small markets in New England...at least the ones I was familiar with...all had at least one well-executed station that prepared you for much bigger things if that's what you wanted.

John C, "WOLD" peaked at #36. "Taxi" (which I think I brought up a few posts ago) went to #24. But I'm with Heyday...charting doesn't matter here. Besides, I'm sure most Chapin fans bought the albums.

 

[heydaybegone]

NY Rt. 7 in Troy becomes VT Rt. 9 at the border

Been there several times! No one knows about Troy, NY...unless your parents are from there... which mine are. Many trips made to the tri-cities growing up!! Everyone has their small market stories...and yours was good to read..thanks.

 

[qman]

How about The Ballerina Suite by Chicago? That medley featured Make Me Smile, Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?, and Color My World. WBBF in Rochester played it now and again when it was fashionable to play extended versions of hits on the radio. Now except for Classic Hits or Classic Rock stations that doesn't happen any more!

 

[SirRoxalot]

Since the title of the thread is "HITS That Never Get Played on the Radio Any More", I think that chart position does come into play on this thread. Some of the songs quoted more properly belong on a resurrected "Stiffs" thread.

Now, to add to the list, it seems to me that "Lotta Love" by Nicolette Larson is a rarity these days...

 

[chas108]

Since the title of the thread is "HITS That Never Get Played on the Radio Any More", I think that chart position does come into play on this thread. Some of the songs quoted more properly belong on a resurrected "Stiffs" thread.

Now, to add to the list, it seems to me that "Lotta Love" by Nicolette Larson is a rarity these days...

Especially the remix version, haven't heard that since 1979.

Here's the issue with strictly going by Billboard chart position:

The popularity of many Top 40 Hits - from the early 70's forward to the current BDS/Mediabase era - was not, indeed, could not be reflected by their Billboard chart position, since the Hot 100 was a singles sales chart and people were buying albums. This is precisely how Billboard lost credibility in the 70's and Radio & Records became preeminent, as R&R measured reported airplay. Once Billboard rolled out some different methodology and began using BDS - both after 1990 - they once again became the standard and R&R eventually folded. But for many years it was quite possible to have a bona fide hit (Elton John's "Pinball Wizard" was never a single. Neither was "Bad Company" by Bad Company) without a strong showing in Billboard. Especially if you're talking about a rock-leaning song or AOR crossover.

 

[Debaser]

NY Rt. 7 in Troy becomes VT Rt. 9 at the border

Been there several times! No one knows about Troy, NY...unless your parents are from there... which mine are. Many trips made to the tri-cities growing up!! Everyone has their small market stories...and yours was good to read..thanks.

Hey-I know about Troy, NY. I worked at WTRY before coming to KB. Thanks, Jeff Kaye, for getting me out of that hellhole. ;D

 

[chas108]

NY Rt. 7 in Troy becomes VT Rt. 9 at the border

Been there several times! No one knows about Troy, NY...unless your parents are from there... which mine are. Many trips made to the tri-cities growing up!! Everyone has their small market stories...and yours was good to read..thanks.

Hey-I know about Troy, NY. I worked at WTRY before coming to KB. Thanks, Jeff Kaye, for getting me out of that hellhole. ;D

Now there's a station I've never heard. Listened to 'PTR here and there...I remember someone named Boom Boom Brannigan...and ID's that went "REEEAL ROCK AT (insert time here) O'CLOCK, AT WPTR ALBANY!"...but absolutely nothing else. Always loved "The Great Northeast" image line for WGY, however.

Driving thru in 1993...listening to WGNA, playing Barbara Mandrell/George Jones' then 13-year-old classic "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool"...and the jock backsell - loud 'n' proud - begins:

"TODAY'S HOT NEW COUNTRY"!

I about drove off the Thruway.

Since we were talking Capital District, I just had to get that one off my chest...it's been 17 years. Now back to the thread with Abba's "Waterloo". Followed by The Raiders' "Indian Reservation".