top 50 forgotten/"lost" US hits of the late '80s

Just listened to "Who's Johnny" for the first time in eons. The yuge gated drums! The production reminds me of "Wood Beez," which is odd because the Scritti song came first. I always thought it borrowed from De Barge a bit.

Rocket 2 U

― trapped out the barndo (crüt), Thursday, July 16, 2020 3:50 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh man i don't think i've heard "rocket 2 u" since i was a kid. i've got to vote for it. i have a major attachment to the jets. they were sort of well-known in utah because they were mormon - it's a weird story involving uncomfortable colonial and religious energy i don't exactly know how to explain. one of the few positive contributions to the general culture mormonism is at least partially responsible for. the sets for these videos ("rocket 2 u" and "cross my broken heart") look a lot like the tv show "kids incorporated" which i was obsessed with. i love how cornball and innocent they were, but catchy af and disarmingly substantial in moments.

"crush on you" is obviously their masterpiece though

Batdance is one of the greatest songs of all time, so voted that. A lot of these songs are lesser-known hits from people who are either only associated with one song (Rick Astley, Milli Vanilli) or songs that for whatever reason do not rise to the level of their most important work (Duran Duran, Madonna, and yes, Prince in the eyes of everyone but me) - if I'm only going to remember five Duran Duran songs, none of them are going to be "I Don't Want Your Love". Sort of the '80s equivalent of "The Ballad of John and Yoko" of all fucking things becoming a #1 hit - if that record didn't have the Beatles' name on it no way that would have made #1.

I'll also say that while there are a lot of these songs I can't remember, even though they were totally on the radio and stuff, but I do still remember "Look Away", and I fucking hate it.

A decent number of CVS Jams on those 'Lost' lists.

If post-Cetera Chicago
Is playing on your radio
Look away
Baby, look away

re: The Jets, I have been and always will be a "Curiosity" partisan

if I'm only going to remember five Duran Duran songs, none of them are going to be "I Don't Want Your Love".

"I Don't Want Your Love" and "Notorious" are the only Duran Duran songs I go out of my way to listen to these days

I've played "Rocket 2 U" on a jukebox as recently as this year, so that one. I like the Regina one also, I own the 12" single.

All She Wants Is >>> IDWYL

agreed! I really love All She Wants Is

Not only have I never heard "I Like It" before, I have no memory of the career/existence of Dino. (I think the later in the 80s, the more gaps in my knowledge.)

He's kinda shit, I guess, but I have a massive soft spot in my heart for him.

S-S-SUMMERGURLS

"All She Wants Is" is garbage

I was confused to see Miami Vice Theme on there too, but was getting it mixed up with Crockett's Theme, which I think is much more popular. I have no memory of ever hearing the actual Miami Vice Theme before today.

29. Regina - Baby Love

Aww, I love this song!! Think it was actually originally written for Madonna, but when she rejected it Regina sung it herself. Co-writer was Stephen Bray who also wrote Angel, Over & Over and True Blue with Madonna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4IwsyBFoS0

I bought Election Day and Spies Like Us not because they were good songs but for the Fairlight enhanced bits. I bought C'Est La Vie because it was a CD single and there weren't that many. The El DeBarge might be the pick here without actually listening to any of them.

wow platonic ideal 80s sax solo in "baby love"

david sanborn, no less!

I love Taylor Dane. There, I said it.

*Dayne

"Don't Rush Me" is my favorite Taylor Dayne single.

Because he coded as freestyle fellow traveler, Dino got LOTS of SoFla airplay ("I Like It," "Romeo," "Summer Girls").

crockett's theme is one of the greatest pieces of recorded music in history.

xp

"Who's Johnny"

yeah, I also noted how "Who's Johnny" sounds like second-rate Scritti but with a first-rate vocalist.

Y'all can shoot me, but I'll take David Gilmour's solo in "No More Lonely Nights" -- scrappy, impatient -- over most of his Floyd contributions. It's one of McCartney's best ballads.

Day or night, it's always there

can we talk about how absurd Milli Vanilli were
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhyzGDPwmYU

^^^ their best single!

the ridiculous dance at the "i've been searching high!" part kills me

'Girl I'm Gonna Miss You' still a radio staple this side of the ocean, nowhere near forgotten imo. But then it was a *huge* hit here.

My fav

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbUENJ5FjBk

Xpost dammit

think I have written elsewhere about the unfathomable emotional heft of "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You"

“You Got It All” is the best Jets song. On this subject there can be no debate.

Somebody please do this same list for the Soundscan era (especially 2000-2005). Like, does anybody remember Clay Aiken’s “This Is the Night”? Or Britney’s awful “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” or “Don’t Let Me Be the Last to Know”?

By that time I was completely and totally checked out of pop radio hits.

the Fuel era

no idea where to put this observation, but I last listened to BBC Radio 1 in 2001 when it was played in my office and I HAAAAAAAAATED it, they had Nickelback and Robbie Williams on heavy rotation and Chris Moyles presenting.

I have had Radio 1 on in the car over the last week and it is 100% better, music, shows, presenters, features, everything.

on a big Jets kick this evening thanks to this thread. was familiar with them through an American ex-boyfriend who was a big fan (they never crossed over to the Netherlands), but that was a long time ago. hard to pick a favourite, but I played “Curiosity” five times in a row, so I guess that one (and possibly “Rocket 2 U” for this poll, but there are other contenders - that ex would have a field day)

Let me put in a good word for Sheena Easton’s “The Lover In Me”. Prime L.A./Babyface.

i have never knowingly heard a single song on this list.

part of me once to go through them and see how many i recognize, or which one i recognize first (if any), but i wonder if it would be more interesting to start at 1 or 50 and work backwards.

i feel like the doctor casino of late eighties forgotten hits

"Who's That Girl."

I know about half of these. I had the Sheena Easton song on a year-end Top 10 for whatever year it was; looked it up and it still sounds pretty good. Typically ridiculous video.

I am positive I have heard these songs 20+ times, some a good deal more

3. New Kids On The Block - I'll Be Loving You (Forever)
5. Prince - Batdance
6. Milli Vanilli - Girl I'm Gonna Miss You
17. New Kids On The Block - Cover Girl
19. Jan Hammer - Miami Vice Theme
27. Bangles - In Your Room
35. Paul McCartney - No More Lonely Nights
44. The Pointer Sisters - Neutron Dance

Also, was Samantha Fox really having hits in the USA?

Oh also

31. Madonna - Who's That Girl

Hey Ducky
Let me stick the 7 inch in the computer

I think I'm familiar with four of these (Batdance, Jacob's Ladder, Miami Vice theme, Who's Johnny). The two from film/television I couldn't sing you a note, Who's Johnny I know from the Weird Al parody, and Jacob's Ladder is one of Huey Lewis' all time classics, so this was an easy vote once I got down that far.

Why do I have to share my baby with a monkey?

One of the "Who's..." maybe? "...Johnny" vid is pretty dreamy, "...That Girl" seemed like as big a deal as any Madonna hit when I was a kid. Still mad it's not on Immaculate Collection.

while it is true that pop playlists had more regional variation then than they do these days, it is likely that a good number of these were indeed "fake hits" -- not to say they didn't do well at all, but that they weren't really getting played as much as you'd think from looking at the charts. in sean ross's followup blog on why hits fade, he explains:

But many of the lost hits on this list are songs that never spent a sustained amount of time in “power rotation” at radio in the first place. There’s not as much chance for listeners to remember them, much less fondly. One industry reader astutely commented that many of these songs were lesser titles from major artists "forced up the charts by promotion. [There are] a lot of follow-up cuts and duds by superstars." Many of the "Lost 100" titles were the first single by an act from a new project following a major hit album. Radio considered them disappointments, and didn’t play them in power rotation, but you can’t often tell from the charts.

he names 8 examples, most of which were top 3 hits, including one that topped the hot 100

Great list. Probably could’ve expanded it out to 100 easily.

it's actually a top 65 ranking on the link! 51-65 are:

51. Martika - Toy Soldiers
52. Exposé - Seasons Change
53. Natalie Cole - Pink Cadillac
54. Thompson Twins - King For A Day
55. Tina Turner - Typical Male
56. Sa-Fire - Thinking Of You
57. Richard Marx - Satisfied
58. Kool & The Gang - Misled
59. Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram - Somewhere Out There
60. Taylor Dayne - With Every Beat Of My Heart
61. Billy Ocean - There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)
62. Rod Stewart - My Heart Can't Tell You No
63. Debbie Gibson - Lost In Your Eyes
64. Suzanne Vega - Luka
65. Stevie Nicks - Talk To Me

Somebody please do this same list for the Soundscan era (especially 2000-2005)

he also did an early 90s ('90-'94) list (which i'm thinking of polling next ;P ) that spans the very beginning of the soundscan era. i don't think he's likely to do late '90s/early '00s equivalents yet tho, since classic hits stations are currently extremely '80s-centric and have not really started to go deep on the late '90s or later at all

Did not realize that Consolidated song was a Tina Turner cover

ahahahahahahahaha classic

I also prefer the bullshit beer commercial version of After Midnight, though it's extremely tacky that Eric Clapton of all people, with his infamous struggles with substance abuse, should do a beer commercial at all. The Genesis beer commercial, on the other hand, Tonight Tonight Tonight is a song literally about addiction, which makes its usage in a beer ad almost as wrong-headed as Reagan and Born in the USA.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Those results are just burnin'!

Lol, I'm glad I could help take the Bangles to #2.

heh, those results scan like someone just shuffled the song order

listened to the top 5 and didn't recognize anything. the el debarge song sounds like "stand" by REM

It's remarkable to me that someone wouldn't know "Neutron Dance," but then, I'm not going to assume that "Beverly Hills Cop" has filtered down through the generations and/or across borders.

xp oh this is that song from Short Circuit! I was not an especially idiotic child, just normal idiotic, but I always thought Johnny 5 was singing "who is Downey"

xp Do you think I could credibly pull off the "banana in the tailpipe" routine on a Zoomer?

xp The music video features El DeBarge singing in a courtroom, where a judge is presiding over the trial of Johnny 5 (the robotic protagonist of Short Circuit). A representative of NOVA, the government defense contractor that created Johnny, sits at the prosecutor's table as El DeBarge sings his testimony from the witness stand. Stephanie Speck (Ally Sheedy) and a cardboard cutout of Newton Graham Crosby, Ph.D. (Steve Guttenberg) are also in attendance as adversarial witnesses for the prosecution, implying that El Debarge is playing the co-lead role of Ben Jabituya, played by Fisher Stevens in the film. The prosecutor's sole question during these examinations is the titular line of the song "Who's Johnny?" She plays a VHS tape, labeled "Short Circuit," containing various clips from the movie. Meanwhile, Number 5 wreaks havoc in the courtroom (only his robotic hand is visible to the viewer) with various hijinks, including giving the prosecuting attorney a pair of funny nose glasses, turning up the ceiling fan to create a windstorm of papers, swapping the judge's gavel for an exploding one and calling the fire department, resulting in the judge being sprayed with water. Stephanie and El DeBarge sneak out of the courtroom at the end, covering the camera with a slate on their way out. The prosecutor, still wearing the trick glasses, pops up to deliver the last "Who's Johnny?"

The top two finishers are worthy. "Batdance"--eh, I don't really get it. It mostly reminds me of those obnoxious remixes that played over the end credits of a lot of films from that era, where dialogue from the film is mixed into the film's novelty-ish theme song (we could do a whole thread of these). The rest of the Batman album is solid, though, and occasionally even better than that; "Electric Chair" would likely make my list of top ten Prince tracks.

I don't even like "Neutron Dance" much.

more votes than i would have expected for "c'est la vie"!

heh, those results scan like someone just shuffled the song order

such is the genius of this poll