I suspect Umpire may be British - I am, and I recognise all but the first two (which I might recognise if I heard them) They were all hits to varying degrees here.
I’d nominate Redbone - their Witch Queen of New Orleans was a big hit here but gets effectively no airplay, and Come and Get Your Love is only recognised now since it was used in the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Great song, but unfortunately the only one on the album that was any good MHO.
Here’s what a professor of classical music has to say about “Hocus Pocus.” I will add that he takes a few rips off a bong if anyone’s offended or triggered.
For a long time when I was a kid, I thought this song was by Grand Funk Railroad. Interesting that I would, because it turns out Mark Farner and Mike Pinera, the singer, were born on the same day.
This was a staple on the oldies station when I was a data entry operator with a Walkman, in the late 1980s.
I also looked up a-ha’s “The Sun Always Shines on TV” and didn’t remember the video, but did remember the song.
I think it would be interesting for the lost hits algorithm be rerun, but using Spotify plays. To me, that would represent more which music is in the public’s mind, versus program director’s mind.
For example, the Debby Boone version of You Light Up My Life was #3 in 1977, and has 28 million plays. That ain’t nothin, but’s far from a monster hit. The #25 song of that year was We Will Rock You which has 966 million Spotify plays, so a few more.
I always find it fascinating which art becomes a cultural touch stone, and what just fades away.
My junior high health class was right over the girls’ locker room, and one day, we could hear the girls beating on the lockers. Who’da thunk people would still be doing that more than 40 years later?
One song I remember topping the charts, but getting very little airplay (in my area anyway) was a song called “Float On” by the Floaters, a hit around that same time. Until now, I didn’t know it had a video. Never heard it on any station since, either.
ETA: This is not the same song that was also a big hit by Modest Mouse.
I propose this:
I loved it when it came out, but diget the recording. Didn’t hear it again until the ex got it on CD 20+ years later. Lost it again when we broke up, and had to go search for it.
I still haven’t heard it on the radio and I listen to a station that pulls all sorts of less played oldies
Here are some that I think have largely fallen out of public consciousness:
Mais Que Nada by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66:
Hello, Stranger by Barbara Lewis:
Botte of Wine by The Fireballs:
The Son of Hickory Holler’s Tramp by O.C. Smith:
The Show Must Go On by Leo Sayer (the cover by Three Dog Night is better known, but Leo Sayer wrote it):
Cry by Godley and Creme:
Just_Asking_Questions brought up Grazing in the Grass by Friends of Distinction. The original by Hugh Masakela actually is an instrumental:
@Zyada , thank you! That a capella version of “After the Goldrush” is one I remember, but I haven’t heard in decades–not since I played it on my own record player, off one of those K-Tel compilation albums.
A much better version than Neil Young did, IMHO. Thanks again for posting it. It was nice to hear again.
what about whole groups that were big but they just faded off the charts …i mean, other than those 20 song records that they sold on tv (until the time life licensors took it over), who still buys air supply albums or leo sayer ?
It’s been a long time since I heard any Steve Forbert songs:
Also a lot of bands from the Punk/New Wave era. I haven’t heard any Buzzcocks or Stranglers in a long time. I’m sure there’s a relevant Sirius channel, though.
If she’s the Queen, the King was definitely Morris Albert, who had a monster hit with an insipid balled called “Feelings” in 1975. Not as big as YLUML, but close.
“Feeeelings. Whoa whoa whoa Feeeelings. Whoa whoa whoa Feeeelings”… and on and on.
Albert “wrote” the song but it was later revealed he’d “borrowed” some of it from an obscure 1957 French recording.
The 1970s produced a lot of awful stuff like that. I should know. I had to play them on the radio. Fortunately, songs like that had a way of disappearing from station playlists after their chart run. I don’t remember playing either one of them later.
I’m a little more familiar with the parody version
It was featured on network TV:
The video starts at the appropriate moment.
The song got to #2 but I barely remember hearing it either. It also never got any airplay on oldies stations. I suspect the astrology/“What’s your sign?” theme quickly turned the song into an overripe piece of '70s cheese.
If you want to know more, here’s a link to Todd In the Shadow’s “One-Hit Wonderland” profile of the song and group.
Most famously made it into one of those clever VW cult ads:
My brother loves to tell the story about being at the local food co-op a few years ago, and hearing the Buzzcocks’ “Orgasm Addict” over the P.A. He likes to tell that story almost as much as I enjoy relating the time that I opened the grocery store pharmacy at 7:55AM to the tune of King Crimson’s “In The Court of the Crimson King.”
Now that I think about it, I heard “Romeo’s Tune” recently on an overhead speaker, although I don’t remember where.
I thought of that song instantly when I saw Steve Forbert’s name. Good song.
For some reason it made me think of Ian Gomm’s “Hold On,” maybe because they both came out in 1979. Unlike some of the other song’s mentioned, that made the top twenty in America.
Santana had a song also called “Hold On” in 1982, which is one of my favorites from them. Never hear that one anymore either, even though it also went top twenty.
In fact you could fill a best-selling album or a dozen of them just with songs titled “Hold On”.
Twice, we’ve had two songs in the Top 40 called “Hold On.” The first was indeed in 1979, with Ian Gomm and Triumph, and in 1991, with Wilson Phillips and En Vogue.
Until a few years ago, it seemed that I could not go out in public and NOT hear the Wilson Phillips song. Yeah, I know it’s meant to be uplifting, but after about 25 years and 300,000 hearings, it gets old.
So, I’ve now looked through this site a bit, and it’s been very informative. Admittedly, it’s got what songs still get played in that particular mainstream capacity now (or at least when each article written) rather than those that lasted 30 years, but then faded out, but that in and of itself is still extremely interesting reading.