I still hear Obsession from time to time. My nomination is You Light up my Life, by Debby Boone. The year it came out, you literally couldn’t get away from it. Now, I don’t even hear it in Muzak fashion.
I’ve been undressed by kings
And I’ve seen some things
That a woman ain’t s’posed to see
Baby, I’ve been to Paradise
But I’ve never been to me
How many of these songs can you honestly remember? I was going to pick one or two for my picks, but it’s easier for me to pick out the songs I have heard since then. (“How You Remind Me” by Nickelback and “Lose Yourself” by Eminem.) 2002 wasn’t a hugely bizarre year, it was average, and, therefore, not memorable. It might be memorable in a decade, after those songs have gone from being Old And Worthless Pop to New And Hot Classic Rock. For example, I know pretty much every song in the corresponding list from 1983, which wasn’t and isn’t known as a massively wonderful year for pop music.
Anyway, my contribution is “MMMBop” by Hanson. I remember it being inescapable until it left the radio entirely, and now it’s still too recent to be Classic Rock. (And, yes, if Duran Duran can become Classic Rock, so can Hanson.)
If you want to feel like you missed something, go watch Todd in the Shadows - particularly his 'Worst hits of (non-recent) year" and sometimes “One Hit Wonderland”.
For example, in his Top Worst Hits of 1991he discovers two hits that I had never heard of (neither had he) and don’t get any replay today at all:
Timmy T - “One more Try” Todd: I…um…I-I-I tend to think I’m a pretty knowledgeable guy about music, but I have literally no idea what I’m looking at here. I don’t know the singer, I don’t know the song. I’ve never heard this, or anything remotely… like it, like…Anybody? Anyone have any idea what the hell this is?..This was a #1 hit? That can’t be right. This can’t have been big enough to hit #1. I’ve never heard of it! How has history so thoroughly erased this?
Followed by:
Stevie B “Because I Love You (The Postman Song)”
Todd: “Is this not the same song as the last one? Like…ju…just with the drums removed? This is…I’ve never heard of this guy or this song either! And again, AllMusic almost tells me nothing except that this was also a #1 hit!”
Or that Blue Swede, of One-Hit-Wonder “Hooked on a Feeling” actually had a second hit in the top 10 with their cover of ‘Never My Love’. I had heard the original on an oldies station not long ago but I don’t think Ive ever heard the Blue Swede cover played since it was a hit.
(I linked the the CA transcripts of the shows rather than the videos as the videos may or may not be on Youtube due to imagined copyright violations).
OMG: Not only have I heard that pile of dung (“The Postman Song”), the duo I was in at that time had to PLAY it at a wedding reception :eek: !
I firmly believe Stevie B recorded himself singing it–sans any accompaniment–then overdubbed the instruments.
There is a subset of songs that I don’t hate and I appreciate as good solid songs, but really could never hear again and not miss them. Brown-Eyed Girl and Hotel California top the list.
Off to add “MMMBop” and “You Light Up My Life” to the iPod. 
I second your nomination. “You Light Up My Life” set a record (since broken) for staying at #1 the most weeks. Yet, once it fell off the charts, it was like it never existed. I haven’t even heard any oldies stations play it. I noticed the same thing happened to both “One Sweet Day” and “Macarena”
[QUOTE=Tom Tildrum]
I’ve been undressed by kings
And I’ve seen some things
That a woman ain’t s’posed to see
Baby, I’ve been to Paradise
But I’ve never been to me
[/QUOTE]
That’s another song that–thankfully–did a quick disappearing act. Incidentally, I recall reading some time ago that the success of “I’ve Never Been to Me” had a lot to do with some less-than-ethical actions by the recording industry and radio stations (which would explain a lot).
My local oldies station plays this occasionally.
I think part of it is the shift of charts from radio play (which, especially before satellite radio, cable TV, and the internet, was a shared experience) to Soundscan sales and - increasingly downloads - where a song can sell to an isolated fanbase without having a broader exposure.
You remember the songs from 1983 because, if you were remotely alive around that time, each of those songs was like a public utility, and you had to year it whether you wanted to or not. A typical teen from 1983 who liked Madonna had to also know who Motley Crue was. Can current dance-pop fans even name a current hard rock band?
With Youtube has anything really disappeared?
So far anything I’ve thought about and gone looking for, I’ve managed to find online.
When I was a kid they made us dance the macarena in huge groups. School. Church. Camp. For fun.
Some scars aren’t visible.
Remember there was a kid named Owl City? You didn’t dream that. He was huge for a little while.
You gotta admit, though, Helen Hunt doing the Macarena was sehr cute.
Was that the same time as “Electric Slide”? ::whoops my cookies smilie::
I remember “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” and “Achy Breaky Heart”, not to mention “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood (you know, "I’m proud to be an American… "). I spent the early 1990s in southern Illinois and southeast Missouri, home to fried catfish and radio stations that played both kinds of music: Country and Gospel. At least I was out of there by 9/11. Montana can be conservative, but it’s got nothing on the Bible Belt for Ostentatious Demonstrative Conservatism.
This is a good point, and it might be the case that we’ll never have another Michael Jackson for the same reasons we’ll never have another Johnny Carson. However, it’s also the case that a decade is a bit too soon for nostalgia to take hold, at least commercially, and too old for it to still be current pop as far as the Top 40 stations are concerned, so that explains my observation as well.
Additionally, the last year with multiple massive-selling albums (that is, more than one album released that year sold at least 20 million copies) was 2002, and that only had two such albums. The last with more than two albums in that category was, again, 2000, with four. 1984, 1987, and 1995 all had five each, making them the top years for top-selling albums.
It seems pretty reasonable to conclude that we’ll never see another 2000 in terms of raw sales, let alone another 1995.
Bryan Adams, “Everything I Do” (from that Robin Hood movie which similarly was a massive hit and then got completely forgotten). And that Elton John memorial song to Princess Diana.
All I remember:
“My friend the witchdoctor told me what to say:'he said ooh ee ooh ahh ahh…bing banhg walla walla bing bang”.
I’m sure it was a hit song.
^ Is this a whoosh? Just in case, it’s “Witch Doctor” by David Seville. (Proto-Alvin & The Chipmunks)
Someone mentioned Hanson’s Mmmwop and that made me thinking of the 90’s - not old enough for classic rock, but old enough to be forgotten - from Two Princes to Breakfast at Tiffany’s to Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm to Dyslexic Heart. If grunge and rock in general in the 90’s were Elvises, Fat Dominoes and Chuck Berries of the era, then the above hits were …Paul Anka, I guess.
Think of all the 90s grunge-lite songs that were all over MTV in the 90s and then sank without a trace. Some examples: “Runaway Train,” “D-A-M-N-A-T-I-O-N,” “My Sister,” “It’s a Shame About Ray,” “I Hate Everything About You,” “If You Don’t Love Me I’ll Kill Myself,” “Cannonball,” “Steal My Sunshine,” “Sex and Candy,” “Fly,” “Iris” (Goo Goo Dolls), “Today” (Smashing Pumpkins), “Mrs. Reader,” “Laid,” “Sit Down” and “No Rain.”