# Hit songs of the '60s through the '80s that didn't endure - and do you think they should have? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [December 14, 2022, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509 "2022-12-14T14:00:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/61 "2022-12-14T22:00:27Z")
I heard a deep cut on the 70’s station yesterday, [Angel in Your Arms](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bku5VetnNvc), by Hot. Then it was stuck in my brain for hours and hours! But I thought it was pretty great, because I probably haven’t heard it since at least 1980. Also, these lyrics: When I first found out I hurt all over I felt so left out till I got to know her So I tried the way that she got over And I became just like her Interesting. 🤔 ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/62 "2022-12-14T22:14:18Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > I kind of think of a-ha as the band that just won’t go away. It’s a bit of a mystery to me. Not really sure what they ever had; don’t know why they’re still here. > > j I dunno, I’m kind of glad they didn’t go away, they have some great pop songs, they did a beautiful cover of the Everly Brothers’ “Crying In The Rain” which was even a hit single, and Morten Harket has an exceptional voice. ---
**Author:** ![cieskokid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cieskokid/32/5374_2.png) [@cieskokid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cieskokid)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/63 "2022-12-15T00:06:01Z")
One of the greatest pop songs of 1969, we heard it played ALL the time & simply had to dance around to it every time, such a positive vibe [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HRNPppaIW6I/hqdefault.jpg "The Spiral Starecase - More Today Than Yesterday") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRNPppaIW6I) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/64 "2022-12-15T00:09:26Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > A lobster dinner at Scott’s the next time I’m in London if you can sing this one! Hah! I know most of the verse, but my singing voice is not so good. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/65 "2022-12-15T00:11:22Z")
It was my favorite song in sixth grade. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/66 "2022-12-15T00:24:08Z")
That’s another one I still hear all the time on regular radio and who knows where else. Shows you how different programming can be in different markets (despite the fact that playlists seem to have narrowed down to about six songs.) I am nowhere near the heyday of when the song came out, but that also rings to me as “oldies standard.” Never knew the name of the band. though. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/67 "2022-12-15T01:35:45Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > About the only song by Traffic you hear these days is “Low Spark.” They have plenty of other options (including “Feelin’ Alright” which you only hear in the Joe Cocker version). I don’t know if I’ve ever heard “Low Spark” on the radio, but I’ve heard “Dear Mr. Fantasy” quite a few times (both the original and the cover version by Big Sugar). ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/68 "2022-12-15T02:17:13Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > Seems like virtually any adult contemporary hit from those decades gets no air time these days. The Carpenters, Neil Diamond, Dionne Warwick, Barry Manilow and surely many other chart busters get little or no play on any oldies stations I’ve heard. This. Sixties nostalgia seems to focus on bands whose material and persona was more cutting-edge. The young Baby Boomer kids outnumbered the grownups. So lots of excellent material isn’t as well remembered. A good example from 1969: [Undun (The Guess Who)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHKqPSAchcU). Except for Burton Cummings’ virtuoso high vocals, it would have fitted in a decade earlier. I always liked this one from a couple decades later: [Something About You (Level 42)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHKqPSAchcU). I associate it with The Captain of Her Heart (Double), which is mentioned upthread. Both songs stood out from the gimmicky tech crap of the time with their excellent melodies. Disclaimer: As others have said, I don’t listen to radio enough to know how forgotten these songs are. Apologies if they’re more enduring than I know. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/69 "2022-12-15T02:23:49Z")
Speaking of instrumentals, this was a pretty big hit back in the day: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/S1_xDytEB1Q/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AG-AoAC8AGKAgwIABABGGUgZShlMA8=&rs=AOn4CLCmwoa0JQiSwnB2k3Kfigd1SqTs7g "Henry Mancini - Nadia's Theme") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1_xDytEB1Q) ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/70 "2022-12-15T02:27:16Z")
One factor, and I don’t know how big it is, is that a lot of classic rock music was re-introduced to new generations through Guitar Hero/Rock Band, and that’s biased towards songs that are guitar heavy. So mediocre bands like the Scorpions or Bon Jovi are still well remembered and getting airplay, while great bands that weren’t guitar focused fade a bit more. Supertramp had a lot of great songs that are not well remembered (‘Fool’s Overture’, ‘Rudy’, ‘Goodbye Stranger’). The same goes for other synth/piano prog rock, along with a lot of singer/songwriter stuff. Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/71 "2022-12-15T02:40:11Z")
I wasn’t familiar with this song so I looked into it. Man, does it have [a weird history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadia%27s_Theme). > “Nadia’s Theme”, originally titled “Cotton’s Dream”, is a piece of music composed by Barry De Vorzon and Perry Botkin Jr. in 1971. It was originally used as incidental music for the 1971 film _Bless the Beasts and Children,_ and is better known as the theme music to the television soap opera _The Young and the Restless_ since the series premiered in 1973. “Cotton’s Dream” was renamed “Nadia’s Theme” after it became associated with Olympic gymnast Nadia Comăneci during and after the 1976 Summer Olympics. > > The piece was originally released on the original 1971 _Bless the Beasts and Children_ soundtrack, then a 1974 cover version by easy listening group Sounds of Sunshine was produced. After it became associated with Comăneci during the 1976 Olympics, the piece was later released as a single in August of that year. Other versions of “Nadia’s Theme” have since been recorded. The piece has also been sampled by other artists, and has been used regularly by other radio and television programs. Although YouTube is filled with videos attributing the song to Mancini, there seem to be no evidence that he ever recorded it. If he did, it certainly wasn’t the version that went top ten. ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/72 "2022-12-15T02:48:39Z")
Song: Wildflower Artist: Skylark Year: 1972 I’ve read that this song has been covered and sampled repeatedly over the years; howevever, I’ve no experience with any of that and I can’t remember that last time I heard the original on the radio. I think the reason it slipped through the cracks is the title. Wildflower is not in the lyrics. Most folks probably think the song is titled “Let Her Cry (for she’s a lady)”. ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/73 "2022-12-15T02:58:33Z")
Addressing the OPs question about enduring, I don’t really know what has and hasn’t, because the only radio I listen to is college radio. In the car. And I don’t drive much. But, enduring or not, with the exception of 2 or 3 songs mentioned in this thread, the whole lot of them should be taken over to that other thread about smashing them with a sledgehammer. Good lord! Do you really need to hear “Brandy” more than once a year? Or Louis Armstrong singing a show tune? Or Barry Manilow singing _anything_? Almost any song you want to hear can be found somewhere on the internet or in your own music collection. There’s no need to worry about anything being lost to the ages So be your own DJ and spin some tunes on that dusty old turntable/cassette player/CD machine and enjoy yourself! Life’s too short to wade through the muck waiting for good music. And just to give you something to be specific to the OP, here’s one that I had a hard time remembering with nothing but a few lyrics and the SD came to the rescue a while back. It certainly endured with me. [Little Richard - Freedom Blues - 1970 - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRNLyACJcSk) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/74 "2022-12-15T04:15:33Z")
Eh, what’s important is not availability but its place in public memory. You may not think that’s no big deal but it is vital. There was just a piece in the _New York Times_ about the Sight and Sound best films ever ranking for 2022. The new number one film is Chantal Akerman’s _Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles_. Most people have never heard of this slow, 200-minute 1975 movie, let alone seen it. But it has apparently entered the minds of the expanded number of judges since it was ranked 36 in 2012 because it is now on streaming services and is otherwise easily available. That’s the difference between knowing something exists and being able to search for it and knowing something that is so good it needs to be shared with the world. The latter is the reason that many of the threads on the Dope exist. Nobody cares if you’re too cool for school with your playlist. Most of the world want to know about good stuff and talk about it with others, meaning that it maintains a public life as well as a private one. Having public life is the difference between civilization and elitist self-congratulations. I’m for civilization. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/75 "2022-12-15T06:08:06Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > a-ha should be a two-hit wonder in the U.S They also did a great Bond theme. And I can attest they are still a phenomenal live act. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/76 "2022-12-15T06:19:19Z")
I have a friend who owns the entire a-ha discography and highly touts them at every chance. God struck him down with ALS as a result. At least that is the only justification I can come up with in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/77 "2022-12-15T06:32:45Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > _Tubular Bells_ enjoyed a short heyday too, but nothing like _CG_ did. Short in the US. In England the album was #1 for about a year. There was also “Telstar” from the early '60s. Very popular back then, I haven’t heard it much lately. ---
**Author:** ![TheTooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/919ad9/32.png) [@TheTooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheTooth)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/78 "2022-12-15T07:02:36Z")
I listened to Tubular Bells in its entirety last night. I do not think it should have endured. It’s a well-produced curiosity but not an anthem for the ages. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/79 "2022-12-15T07:10:58Z")
I think the TB theme is going to be recognized by many for quite a while. It’s hard to compare the whole album which is more unified like a classical work to singles. Mike was never satisfied with the roughness of the production - it is amazing for its time. They almost wore out the tapes in overdubbing all the parts. Tubular Bells 2 is better, both in my opinion and in that of the MIke Oldfield mailing list I was on in the '90s. Mike remade the original with better equipment later but it was a failure. ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2022, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509/80 "2022-12-15T08:48:36Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > > [@bordelond](#): > > > > a-ha should be a two-hit wonder in the U.S > > They also did a great Bond theme. > > And I can attest they are still a phenomenal live act. [Hunting High and Low](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6VaeFCxta8). A really good and catchy song that is also more challenging to sing than it sounds. **A-ha** actually had quite a few nice hits in the mid-to-late 80s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hit-songs-of-the-60s-through-the-80s-that-didnt-endure-and-do-you-think-they-should-have/976509.md?page=5)