If it’s hard to decide which hits of the mid-‘70s should stay lost, it’s because it was hard to decide in the mid-‘70s which songs of a previous generation should stay lost as well.
Even among the nostalgia and remake boom of the American Graffiti era, there was something willful about the MOR-flavored remake choices made for Donny Osmond (“Puppy Love,” “Go Away Little Girl”), Marie Osmond (“Paper Roses”), and particularly for Donny & Marie together.
After their short-lived R&B/bubblegum faceoff with the Jackson 5, the Osmonds made a string of good-to-really-good power-pop records (“Down by the Lazy River,” “He’s the Light of the World,” “Crazy Horses,” “Goin’ Home”). I never use the word “bubblegum” as a pejorative, but if you do, those songs are bubblegum mostly by dint of being by the Osmonds. Their streak ran its course about the time that Donny & Marie began to have hits together, taking their cues on material from their previous solo hits.
You can make a case for the Dale & Grace hit version of “I’m Leaving It Up to You” as swamp pop and not part of the vapor trail of Paul & Paula, but the Donny & Marie remake is No. 20 among the hits of the year when we calculate 1974’s “Lost Factor” — our ongoing look at which songs have the widest gap between hit status then and a lack of airplay today.
It’s harder to find any cool factor in another hit from roughly the same time as Dale & Grace, the Nino Tempo & April Stevens version of 1939’s “Deep Purple.” The Donny & Marie 1976 remake is the song with the highest “Lost Factor” for the years 1975-79. “Deep Purple” has a “Lost Factor” of 59 — it was the No. 42 song of the year (netting it 59 points out of a possible 100) and it received no airplay for the seven previous days from the U.S. and Canadian stations monitored by BDS Radio. By comparison, the “Lost Factor” for the Nino & April version is less than 2.0, a low number for a pre-1964 song of its type.
Donny & Marie also manage the No. 12 song on our 1975-79 tally with another remake, “Morning Side of the Mountain.” That song was a throwback in 1959 when Tommy Edwards charted with a remake of a song that had originally been a hit for him in the pre-rock-era days of 1951. In other words, that song’s own “Lost Factor” would have likely been pretty high when Donny & Marie remade it in early 1975.
Thus far, we’ve published some Lost Factor tallies from 1960 to 1994, including the years 1974, 1977, 1978, and 1979. In the next installment, we’ll look at the Lost Factor of the hits of 1970-74. Also on the way: the Lost 100 of the 1970s, and finally the highest Lost Factor songs covering the entire 35-year span we’ve measured so far.
There were 17 songs among the top 100 that got no spins in their measurement week. There were also a few in the bottom reaches that got more than 20 spins but still sported high lost factors because they’d placed so high on the year-end chart.
As usual, our Lost Factor calculations have various footnotes, many of them being a function of the way this project was calculated, a year’s worth of songs at a time, done in batches between April and now. You can read about that here.
These are the hundred songs from 1975-79 with the highest Lost Factor:
RANK | ARTIST | TITLE | YEAR | LOST FACTOR | SPINS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Donny & Marie Osmond | Deep Purple | 1976 | 59 | 0 |
2 | Shaun Cassidy | Da Doo Ron Ron | 1977 | 56 | 1 |
3 | Alice Cooper | You and Me | 1977 | 53 | 0 |
4 | Bazuka | Dynomite | 1975 | 49 | 0 |
5 | Helen Reddy | You're My World | 1977 | 45 | 0 |
6 | Melissa Manchester | Don't Cry Out Loud | 1979 | 38 | 2 |
7 | Wing and a Prayer Fife and Drum Corps | Baby Face | 1976 | 33 | 0 |
8 | Shaun Cassidy | Hey Deanie | 1978 | 33 | 1 |
9 | Dean Friedman | Ariel | 1977 | 32 | 0 |
10 | Silver | Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang | 1976 | 30 | 0 |
11 | Dr. Hook | A Little Bit More | 1976 | 28 | 2 |
12 | Donny & Marie Osmond | Morning Side of the Mountain | 1975 | 27 | 0 |
13 | John Travolta | Let Her In | 1976 | 26 | 0 |
14 | Joe Simon | Get Down, Get Down (Get on the Floor) | 1975 | 25 | 0 |
15 | Bay City Rollers | You Made Me Believe in Magic | 1977 | 25 | 0 |
16 | Mary MacGregor | Torn Between Two Lovers | 1977 | 23 | 4 |
17 | Eddie Kendricks | Shoeshine Boy | 1975 | 22 | 0 |
18 | Peter McCann | Do You Wanna Make Love | 1977 | 21 | 4 |
19 | Captain & Tennille | Lonely Night (Angel Face) | 1976 | 21 | 3 |
20 | Jessi Colter | I'm Not Lisa | 1975 | 20 | 3 |
21 | Bill Conti | Gonna Fly Now (Theme From "Rocky") | 1977 | 20 | 4 |
22 | Alice Cooper | I Never Cry | 1977 | 19 | 0 |
23 | Elvis Presley | Way Down | 1977 | 19 | 2 |
24 | Rhythm Heritage | Theme from S.W.A.T. | 1976 | 18 | 4 |
25 | Roger Voudouris | Get Used to It | 1979 | 18 | 0 |
26 | Paul Anka & Odia Coates | One Man Woman/One Woman Man | 1975 | 18 | 2 |
27 | Sylvers | High School Dance | 1977 | 17 | 0 |
28 | Kenny Nolan | Love's Grown Deep | 1977 | 16 | 0 |
29 | Leif Garrett | I Was Made for Dancin' | 1979 | 16 | 4 |
30 | Barbra Streisand & Donna Summer | No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) | 1979 | 16 | 4 |
31 | Randy Newman | Short People | 1978 | 15 | 4 |
32 | Cher | Take Me Home | 1979 | 15 | 3 |
33 | Keith Carradine | I'm Easy | 1976 | 15 | 2 |
34 | David Naughton | Makin' It | 1979 | 15 | 6 |
35 | David Dundas | Jeans On | 1977 | 14 | 2 |
36 | Alice Cooper | How You Gonna See Me Now | 1979 | 14 | 0 |
37 | Morris Albert | Feelings | 1975 | 14 | 4 |
38 | Dr. Hook | Only Sixteen | 1976 | 13 | 5 |
39 | Barbra Streisand | The Main Event/Fight | 1979 | 13 | 5 |
40 | Sylvers | Hot Line | 1977 | 13 | 6 |
41 | Barbra Streisand | Evergreen (Love Theme from "A Star Is Born") | 1977 | 12 | 8 |
42 | John Denver | I'm Sorry | 1975 | 12 | 2 |
43 | Hot | Angel in Your Arms | 1977 | 12 | 8 |
44 | David Soul | Don't Give Up on Us | 1977 | 12 | 6 |
45 | Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band | A Fifth of Beethoven | 1976 | 11 | 8 |
46 | Helen Reddy | Angie Baby | 1975 | 11 | 7 |
47 | Kenny Nolan | I Like Dreamin' | 1977 | 11 | 9 |
48 | Barry Manilow | Could It Be Magic | 1975 | 11 | 6 |
49 | B.T. Express | Express | 1975 | 11 | 4 |
50 | Olivia Newton-John | A Little More Love | 1979 | 11 | 8 |
51 | Average White Band | Cut the Cake | 1975 | 10 | 3 |
52 | Meco | Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band | 1977 | 10 | 3 |
53 | Donna Summer | MacArthur Park | 1979 | 10 | 9 |
54 | Beach Boys | Rock and Roll Music | 1976 | 10 | 4 |
55 | Carpenters | Please Mr. Postman | 1975 | 10 | 7 |
56 | Toby Beau | My Angel Baby | 1978 | 10 | 5 |
57 | Alice Cooper | Only Women Bleed | 1975 | 10 | 4 |
58 | Captain & Tennille | Shop Around | 1976 | 10 | 4 |
59 | Paul Anka & Odia Coates | I Don't Like to Sleep Alone | 1975 | 9 | 3 |
60 | Ian Matthews | Shake It | 1979 | 9 | 3 |
61 | Janis Ian | At Seventeen | 1975 | 9 | 9 |
62 | Neil Diamond & Barbra Streisand | You Don't Bring Me Flowers | 1979 | 9 | 9 |
63 | Electric Light Orchestra | Telephone Line | 1977 | 8 | 11 |
64 | Shaun Cassidy | That's Rock 'n' Roll | 1977 | 7 | 3 |
65 | Silver Convention | Get Up and Boogie | 1976 | 7 | 11 |
66 | Larry Groce | Junk Food Junkie | 1976 | 7 | 1 |
67 | Maxine Nightingale | Lead Me On | 1979 | 7 | 11 |
68 | Barbra Streisand | My Heart Belongs to Me | 1977 | 7 | 6 |
69 | Paul Anka | Times of Your Life | 1976 | 7 | 7 |
70 | Donna Summer | Love to Love You Baby | 1976 | 7 | 9 |
71 | Miracles | Love Machine | 1976 | 6 | 15 |
72 | Player | This Time I'm in It for Love | 1978 | 6 | 7 |
73 | Debby Boone | You Light Up My Life | 1978 | 6 | 16 |
74 | High Inergy | You Can't Turn Me Off (In The Middle Of Turning Me On) | 1978 | 6 | 2 |
75 | Randy Vanwarmer | Just When I Needed You Most | 1979 | 6 | 12 |
76 | Tony Orlando & Dawn | He Don't Love You (Like I Love You) | 1975 | 6 | 14 |
77 | Andy Gibb | (Love Is) Thicker Than Water | 1978 | 6 | 16 |
78 | Engelbert Humperdinck | After the Lovin' | 1977 | 6 | 7 |
79 | Leo Sayer | Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance) | 1975 | 6 | 2 |
80 | Johnnie Taylor | Disco Lady | 1976 | 5 | 18 |
81 | Henry Gross | Shannon | 1976 | 5 | 10 |
82 | Mike Post | "The Rockford Files" Theme | 1975 | 5 | 3 |
83 | Village People | In the Navy | 1979 | 5 | 10 |
84 | Gladys Knight & the Pips | The Way We Were/Try to Remember | 1975 | 5 | 9 |
85 | Sweet | Love Is Like Oxygen | 1978 | 5 | 15 |
86 | Peter Brown | Dance With Me | 1978 | 5 | 14 |
87 | Melissa Manchester | Midnight Blue | 1975 | 5 | 9 |
88 | Alan O'Day | Undercover Angel | 1977 | 5 | 18 |
89 | Raydio | Jack And Jill | 1978 | 5 | 14 |
90 | Rex Smith | You Take My Breath Away | 1979 | 5 | 3 |
91 | Nigel Olsson | Dancin' Shoes | 1979 | 5 | 1 |
92 | Bonnie Pointer | Heaven Must Have Sent You | 1979 | 5 | 12 |
93 | Frank Mills | Music Box Dancer | 1979 | 5 | 11 |
94 | Ringo Starr | No No Song | 1975 | 5 | 3 |
95 | Silver Convention | Fly, Robin, Fly | 1976 | 5 | 19 |
96 | Dorothy Moore | Misty Blue | 1976 | 5 | 18 |
97 | Freddy Fender | Before the Next Teardrop Falls | 1975 | 4 | 22 |
98 | Phoebe Snow | Poetry Man | 1975 | 4 | 10 |
99 | Jacksons | Enjoy Yourself | 1977 | 4 | 14 |
100 | Commodores | Sweet Love | 1976 | 4 | 17 |
Songs with high Lost Factors, especially from the ‘70s, have fit a number of patterns. This time I quantified them. Among the top 100 songs, there were:
- 35 songs that would now be thought of as MOR — older and softer than even the Soft AC recently brought back by a number of stations in recent years. The list includes five titles from Barbra Streisand (including two duets), three from Paul Anka (not including 1974’s champion, “[You’re] Having My Baby”), as well as Helen Reddy, Melissa Manchester, the Captain & Tennille, and two of the most derided hits of all-time, “Feelings” and “You Light Up My Life.”
- 20 songs that could be classified as disco, although that ranges from the pop/MOR of Cher, Meco, and Leif Garrett to up-tempo funk from B.T. Express and Johnnie Taylor that just happened to be danceable.
- 16 songs from teen idols, including all three Shaun Cassidy songs that made the year-end Hot 100. As with any of the other benchmarks here, some songs ticked multiple boxes.
- 15 songs that had retro/nostalgic elements, even when they were new. Most of these were remakes, but Toby Beau’s doowop homage “My Angel Baby” counts too. So does Electric Light Orchestra’s “Telephone Line,” although you can certainly hear echoes of that song in Dan + Shay’s current “I Should Probably Go to Bed.”
Streisand is represented here with the most songs. Her five are followed by Alice Cooper (his four ballads, each of them charting between 1975 and 1978), Donna Summer (also including her duet with Barbra Streisand) with three, and Shaun Cassidy’s three.
As has particularly been the case as we delve into the ‘60s and ‘70s, there are songs that deserve to be lost but a handful of songs I don’t find to be goofy or have aged poorly in any way. Some I’ve already gone to bat for (“Love Is Like Oxygen”); many are R&B (“Heaven Must Have Sent You,” “Disco Lady,” “Misty Blue”). I couldn’t argue Joe Simon’s “Get Down, Get Down (Get on the Floor)” with you, given its exhortations to dance the kung-fu bump. But I still enjoy hearing it. Look for an article soon on the “Most Undeservedly Lost Songs.”
And here are the songs, all but one of them Classic Rock, that receive airplay disproportionate to their year-end finishes of the time. In the past I’ve called them the “Turboed Ten.” But I’ve come up with a better name for them—even those that were hits on some level at the time, “Lucky Stiffs.”
RANK | ARTIST | TITLE | YEAR | SPINS |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Kiss | Rock and Roll All Nite | 1976 | 1518 |
2 | Steve Miller Band | Take The Money And Run | 1976 | 788 |
3 | Bachman-Turner Overdrive | You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet | 1974 | 778 |
4 | Fleetwood Mac | Go Your Own Way | 1977 | 1417 |
5 | Bob Seger& the Silver Bullet Band | Hollywood Nights | 1978 | 369 |
6 | Aerosmith | Walk This Way | 1977 | 1434 |
7 | Queen | Somebody To Love | 1977 | 1169 |
8 | Thin Lizzy | The Boys Are Back In Town | 1976 | 979 |
9 | Michael Jackson | Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough | 1979 | 695 |
10 | Van Halen | Dance The Night Away | 1979 | 353 |
I’m surprised that this music isn’t played today.
Today’s “classic hits” formatted station rely too heavily on the former AOR/rock music and tend to ignore so much R&B that comprises many of the actual greatest hits of the 70’s and 80’s. When did programmers decide not only to bump the 60’s off (taking arguably music’s greatest decade with it), but also lets get rid of 95% of that rhythmic stuff. Instead they grind the same old songs from the same core artists into the ground.
These fascinating pieces illustrate that.
All the songs you list as having the highest lost factor look like the daily playlist for 70’s on 7.
What I expected to be in the top five of this list I just realized hit too late in 76 to make the Top 100 of the year, the much mocked “Muskrat Love” by Captain & Tennille. I wonder what spin count that’s getting these days?
I do know the number one on this list was being mocked openly by Donny & Marie in their Vegas residency a few years back. They mentioned Mike Curb had them record it because Donny was known for wearing purple socks.
I will admit to liking those 3 Paul Anka/Odia Coates duets on the list from 75-76. She just elevates them from being bland MOR numbers. Her cover of ELO’s Showdown deserved a better fate in 75 as well. A shame she left us way too early back in 1991.
I’ll also be curious to see how Helen Reddy & Carpenters fare in your 70-74 analysis. Both were at their tail end of constant top 40 hits in this period. I suspect we will see Streisand like results.
Sorry not to answer this sooner, but “Muskrat Love” actually got seven spins last week, including two at eclectic WPTK Raleigh, N.C., and two at standards/soft KVRE Hot Springs Ark.
Where on God’s green earth did Morris Albert’s “Feelings” get 4 spins?
Palm Springs–the last home of Beautiful Music radio.