# Songs That Were Only Popular Locally **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 23, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654 "2009-11-23T16:37:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/1 "2009-11-23T16:37:43Z")
I remember growing up in the 70s and there were a few songs in Chicago that were very big here but not really elsewhere. For instance, Helen Reddy’s, _Gladiola_ and _Ariel_ by Dan Friedman were played all the time on Chicago radio when I grew up, but nationally not so much. \*Gladiola \* wasn’t even a single for Reddy, but it was played in Chicago a lot. I also remember in the 80s, Leslie Pearl’s, _If The Love Fits_ was played and my biggest example was Matthew Wilder’s, _Break My Stride_. Now that actually got play all over the country too, (it was like #3 nationwide but the song was much bigger in Chicago). I still recall the DJs at B96 in Chicago saying “and now for the SIXTH straight are number one song is…OH NO…_Break My Stride_” So my question is what songs did you hear in your area of the country and thought would be popular nationwide only to learn later on, that those songs weren’t really hits or big hits at all and they were only played on heavy rotation in your city ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/2 "2009-11-23T17:29:39Z")
Wouldn’t these mostly be local bands? I was happily surprised when people outside of New England that I’d introduced to Guster and Jeremiah Freed reported hearing their songs on the radio, but I’d known that they were in heavy rotation only because they were local - “local” meaning from ME to MA in my case. Same with Vacationland, Paranoid Social Club, C60, Dear Leader, Twisted Roots, Taxpayer, and Angry Salad. However, I’ve been downloading an internet radio site from Boston (Loudcaster), and was surprised to learn that Bleu, Tracy Bonham, and Mission of Burma are local. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/3 "2009-11-23T21:12:30Z")
I’ve always wondered if people outside the Chicago area know the Aliotta, Haynes, and Jeremiah song, _Lake Shore Drive_. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/4 "2009-11-23T21:23:12Z")
The Spin Doctors were very popular locally about a year before they became a national act, though the rest of the world caught up. Blotto was very big locally. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/5 "2009-11-23T21:48:22Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Wouldn’t these mostly be local bands? I was happily surprised when people outside of New England that I’d introduced to Guster and Jeremiah Freed reported hearing their songs on the radio, but I’d known that they were in heavy rotation only because they were local - “local” meaning from ME to MA in my case. Guster blew up big in Rochester, NY because of heavy airplay on local alternative/indie station 90.5 WBER. They’re so popular in Rochester that it was chosen as the location of one of only nine tour dates Guster played this year. Another artist that WBER was really big in supporting was Canada’s Sarah Slean. She even thanked the station in the liner notes to Night Bugs or Day One. I heard later that apparently she’s practically unknown in the US outside of Rochester and that most of her albums have never been officially released in the US. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/6 "2009-11-23T21:51:21Z")
I lived in the Bay Area most of my life, and throughout the '90s Faith No More always got quite a bit of radio airplay. I was quite surprised when they were included in a “One Hit Wonder” list on VH1 some years back. While talking about it with a friend of mine, from New York, I learned that apparently outside of the Bay Area FNM was exactly that - a One Hit Wonder. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/7 "2009-11-23T21:56:52Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > I’ve always wondered if people outside the Chicago area know the Aliotta, Haynes, and Jeremiah song, _Lake Shore Drive_. It was a KSHE Classic in St. Louis. That means it wasn’t a top 40 sorta hit, but the leading rock station played it occasionally for years and years. I’ve introduced it to my daughter and have played it on the iPod within the week. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/8 "2009-11-23T22:16:02Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > For instance, Helen Reddy’s, _Gladiola_ and\*\* _Ariel_ by Dan Friedman\*\* were played all the time on Chicago radio when I grew up, but nationally not so much. Nitpick - it’s Dean Friedman. And this song was also played a lot in the New York area, possibly because it references the Paramus Park mall in New Jersey ([Friedman is from Paramus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Friedman)). ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/9 "2009-11-23T22:31:40Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Guster blew up big in Rochester, NY because of heavy airplay on local alternative/indie station 90.5 WBER. They’re so popular in Rochester that it was chosen as the location of one of only nine tour dates Guster played this year. They’ve enjoyed national attention for the past 5-7 years (one of their songs was played on a FOX or WB show and they suddenly became a band other people had heard of after that. I want to say it was The O.C.), but they were already popular in New England 15 years ago. I first saw them in 1996, and at that point had already known about them through dormmates for quite a while; the girls across the hall had a poster from the Parachute cd on their walls when I met them in 1995. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/10 "2009-11-23T22:35:15Z")
Dispatch in DC Sparky’s Flaw/Parachutes in Charlottesville ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/11 "2009-11-23T22:45:42Z")
> [@GESancMan](#): > > I lived in the Bay Area most of my life, and throughout the '90s Faith No More always got quite a bit of radio airplay. I was quite surprised when they were included in a “One Hit Wonder” list on VH1 some years back. While talking about it with a friend of mine, from New York, I learned that apparently outside of the Bay Area FNM was exactly that - a One Hit Wonder. FNM were very big here for a while and had at least two hits 😉 . ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/12 "2009-11-24T01:03:24Z")
Back in the late 1980’s I lived in East Lansing Michigan. A local station played a novelty song by a Michigan group called The Yoopers. The song was titled “The Second Week of Deer Camp” I thought it was hilarious, but it was supposed to be just a one day novelty. But the darn song caught on and the station had to play it at least twice a day during the whole darn month of November, until hunting season was over. Next year folks asked for it _again_! I actually bought a Yoopers tape with the song, to give it to my cousin in Kansas, who is an avid hunter. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/13 "2009-11-24T01:10:20Z")
Having grown up and lived my entire life within a few hundred miles of Myrtle Beach, I’m often unsure just how familiar [beach music](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_music) is in the rest of the world. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/14 "2009-11-24T02:57:21Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > FNM were very big here for a while and had at least two hits 😉 . Yeah… Epic, We Care a Lot, then much later on Last Cup of Sorrow and one other song from the same album as LCoS the title of which escapes me were played quite often. OTOH, I \*only \*ever heard these four songs by them on the radio. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/15 "2009-11-24T03:12:56Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > _Ariel_ by Dan Friedman Ah, Jewish girls in peasant blouses! The forbidden fruit. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/16 "2009-11-24T03:23:50Z")
The Fools were really big in New England for awhile there in the 80s. Songs like “She Makes Me Feel Big,” “World Dance Party” and “Life Sucks…The You Die” were in heavy rotation on Boston radio. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/17 "2009-11-24T03:50:04Z")
[The Pittsburgh Steeler Polka](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UazJ0d-KmJU), circa 1978 or so. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t played much west of Washington ¶, south of Somerset, east of Altoona, or north of Erie… ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/18 "2009-11-24T07:55:50Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Back in the late 1980’s I lived in East Lansing Michigan. A local station played a novelty song by a Michigan group called The Yoopers. > > The song was titled “The Second Week of Deer Camp” I thought it was hilarious, but it was supposed to be just a one day novelty. But the darn song caught on and the station had to play it at least twice a day during the whole darn month of November, until hunting season was over. > > Next year folks asked for it _again_! I actually bought a Yoopers tape with the song, to give it to my cousin in Kansas, who is an avid hunter. I know that song (I live in Chicago) but only because Dr. Demento plays it every November…TRM ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/19 "2009-11-24T12:41:24Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > [The Pittsburgh Steeler Polka](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UazJ0d-KmJU), circa 1978 or so. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t played much west of Washington ¶, south of Somerset, east of Altoona, or north of Erie… In the same vein, The Super Bowl Shuffle, courtesy of Da Bears, 1986. Which I still occasionally play for my students if I’m eager to humiliate myself on a given day. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654/20 "2009-11-24T13:51:44Z")
_There’s No Surf in Cleveland_ by the Euclid Beach Band. That was a novelty, but for a real HIT song, we had _It’s Cold Outside_ by [the Choir](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Choir_(garage_rock)), a forerunner of the Raspberries before Eric Carmen showed up. #68 on the Billboard charts! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-that-were-only-popular-locally/518654.md?page=2)