We’ve had a good response with a thread about songs that have hung around longer than most, so why not the flip side? That is, hit songs that totally vanished from the public consciousness? I’ll start it off with 1981’s “Stars on 45”. I have never, in the 30+ years since it came out, heard this even once on the radio. And you’d think you’d hear an a occasional reference of really bad pop music (like “Afternoon Delight”) or really misguided attempt to modernize the Beatles (a la the “Sgt. Pepper” movie). But it’s not mentioned at all. What’s your best pick?
Meco’s disco “Star Wars” (1977).
Vaughn Meader’s The First Family was a #1 album, but its popularity dropped off a cliff on November 22, 1962.
As for a song, there was the number 1 hit “Ringo” by Lorne Greene
There’s also “Washington Square” by the Village Stompers.
Of course, if you go back far enough, there are many. Glenn Miller’s “American Patrol,” for instance.
I think this might qualify, but before you hit the stop button, check out the lead guitarist virtuoso performance
RealityChuck made me think of another: Ballad of the Green Berets by SSGT Barry Sadler.
Thing is, it’s an expected consequence for “popular” music to be disposable, and once it’s had it’s time it goes away, forever.
But sure, if you turn on “Classic Rock” there are hundreds of songs that get played over and over that never seem to die. And then there are other songs that came out at the same time, that were possibly even more popular at the time, that really are utterly forgotten.
Which is kind of sad. Let’s face it, is there a human being on planet Earth who really needs to hear “Hotel California” again? Like, the first 9,999 times weren’t quite enough, we need that 10,000th playing? Couldn’t we listen to something else from 1977 instead?
^ Like THIS? (actually late '76):
Here is a previous thread from 2014 about a similar topic.
Oh, man, I had that on a K-Tel record! And look, I found the record. Oy, what a line-up. Never did hear that Meco song ever again, but some of the others are still around.
That one didn’t disappear. You may not hear it on the radio, but it is frequently referenced in discussions of American culture of the time. The fact that such a pro-military song ended up as #1 for 1966 on Billboard’s charts serves as an counterpoint to the erroneous notion that the entire nation was turning into a bunch of hippies en masse. While the culture as a whole was shifting left, there was a lot of variation out there.
Many obscure songs from the past 20-50 years or so can be found by going to www.archive.org. All you have to do is type: Crap From The Past into the search box. I also think typing CFTP will work as well.
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No, we can do without that very well, thank you.
Dropped off a cliff a year later. Nov 62 was vaughan meaders heyday.
I don’t know how the licensing was done for stars on 45. Maybe it was really expensive. Maybe it was a temporary license. maybe hearing a record of snippets just doesn’t appeal to any one at all now because it’s redundant.
Funny you should post this thread. I was listening to an Internet station in Dublin, Eire, late last night and heard this come out of my speakers:
I was instantly transported back in time to 1975! I knew it was the theme to a very good British sitcom, but having been in the US at the time I never knew it was also a pop song. (Never made it to that side of the Atlantic.)About a year later, I was living in England and used to fall asleep to this song every night when my favorite radio station (Radio Luxembourg?) went off the air:
God, I miss the '70s! :(“Timothy” by the Buoys. I guess cannibalism doesn’t sell as well anymore…
From the 80’s there was ‘Obsession’ by Animotion
From the 70’s the 1978 disco hit ‘Rasputin’ comes to mind
Yes, and could you dedicate it to Bobby?
I’ve always thought there’d be a viable niche for oldies stations that didn’t play the same old dreck in heavy rotation and instead sought out vintage stuff that vanished from the airwaves.
Then again, maybe there are people who so resented Daddy Dewdrop’s “Chick-A-Boom” and “Come On Down To My Boat” by Every Mother’s Son, that they’d storm the radio stations with torches and pickaxes if they were ever revived.
I will withdraw that record, with explanation (I kinda cheated). As Green Bean says, it’s not on the radio anymore, but, a): it was very popular–in Baltimore, at least–well into the '70s. A local radio station had a Top 300 (?) popular song marathon every Labor Day weekend and “…Green Berets” was always in the top 20-30. Probably because, b): I would bet 1000 quatloos that every jukebox in every VFW, AL, Moose, Elks, you-name-it, hall had that 45 in it, played regularly (and maybe still does). Not “disappeared” at all. I apologize.
Not to argue, but the song really isn’t as pro-military/anti- anti-establishment as it may seem. There’s nothing about We’re happy to kick Charlie’s ass, or We eat ROTC for breakfast, or You kids need to stop huffing and puffing and get yer butts back in school; compare to “Okie From Muskogee,” I gagged every time Mom played that POS record. So even though it may not seem so, Green Bean, I’m agreeing with you.
You’re countering Disco Dork with a Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods reference? Well played, my fine cat-fish, well played. 
SiriusXM has “Deep Tracks” for obscure album cuts, and their 60s channel often plays obscure songs. On weekends, there a top forty countdown for a date in the past, which includes plenty of songs that you never hear anywhere.
There’s a pretty new oldies station in Chicago (87.7 FM) that plays a lot of these songs that have disappeared (“Green Berets,” Carpenters, “Elusive Butterfly,” etc.) Every once in a while they play a well-known Beatles or Supremes song, but they focus mostly on the obscurities.
Sure, they play a lot of crap, but it’s refreshing to hear different crap rather than the same old crap like the Cars’ “Best Friend’s Girl” or Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’”.
I listen to that show all the time. The host, Ron “Boogiemonster” Gerber, refers to it as a graduate-level course in pop music. He also plays plenty of songs that were never hits to begin with.