Old Top 40 Music that isn't played anymore

[RADIO TRUTH]

There are reasons that 1968 is in the second group and not with 1964-67.  There were 190 and 195 top twenty hits in 1966 and 1967.  These were the two most competitive years in the history of rock n' roll.  There was a significant drop off in the amount of top twenty hits in 1968.  There is also another reason.  1968 was the first year that the amount of personality on radio diminished.  1968 was the first year for shorter jingles.  Cousin Brucie was once quoted as saying the last good year for personality was 1966.  I would say 1967.  Starting in 1968, personality radio and jingles started their downhill decline culminating in the mindless toilet radio has evolved to in current times.  I also left out a few years that deserve mention 1958 and 1959.  1958 should be in group one with 1964-67 if you eliminate the pop hits.  1959 should be in group three with 1963.  The reason 1959 is in group three is because of the payola scandals and the record companies were running scared and there was no Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard in 1959 after the payola scandal.  1959 was the year of the sanitized pretty boys such as Bobby Rydell, Frankie Avalon and Paul Anka.  Even with 1959's problems, it is still light years better than 1980 because at least the music of 1980 was made for teens of both genders versus all the hits from 1980 being only targeted to people with vaginas.  Somebody commented that 1960-63 had little validity.  This is very wrong.  While record sales were down and music was a little mellower than before the payola scandals, there were still a number of significant things in music that were great.  A few examples would be a resurgence of doo wop music, the evolution of Motown, the Phil Spector wall of sound, surf music like the Beach Boys, the Four Seasons and a few dance crazes brought on by Chubby Checker and all the other hits on Cameo-Parkway, rock-a-billy like the Everly Brothers and Johnny Burnette, a bunch of great Brill Building hits like Locomotion.  These are just a few examples of new exciting music that started in the 1960-63 era.  The best part of 1960-63 music versus 1980 is that you didn't have to have a vagina to enjoy it.

[RADIO TRUTH]

I'd like to correct one typo in what I wrote above.  It should be.....


Even with 1959's problems, it is still light years better than 1980 because at least the music of 1959 was made for teens of both genders versus all the hits from 1980 being only targeted to people with vaginas.

[firepoint525]

As for "Elvira"...gotta watch that "most of us"...#1 Country, #5 on the Hot 100, #8 Adult Contemporary.

Well, again, I was in high school at the time, and I don't remember anyone who would admit to actually liking the song, although there was no shortage of those of us who just felt like radio forced it on us.  Yeah, I know the stats that it racked up at the time, but very few stations, other than perhaps classic country, will touch it now.  It's like I said earlier, chart stats back then mean nothing now.  Play it at your class of '81 reunion party, and just wait for everyone to start groaning and rolling their eyes.    Even AC radio won't go near it now, and they still play plenty of '80s.

[jfrancispastirchak]

There are reasons that 1968 is in the second group and not with 1964-67.  There were 190 and 195 top twenty hits in 1966 and 1967.  These were the two most competitive years in the history of rock n' roll.  There was a significant drop off in the amount of top twenty hits in 1968.  There is also another reason.  1968 was the first year that the amount of personality on radio diminished.  1968 was the first year for shorter jingles.  Cousin Brucie was once quoted as saying the last good year for personality was 1966.  I would say 1967.  Starting in 1968, personality radio and jingles started their downhill decline culminating in the mindless toilet radio has evolved to in current times.  I also left out a few years that deserve mention 1958 and 1959.  1958 should be in group one with 1964-67 if you eliminate the pop hits.  1959 should be in group three with 1963.  The reason 1959 is in group three is because of the payola scandals and the record companies were running scared and there was no Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard in 1959 after the payola scandal.  1959 was the year of the sanitized pretty boys such as Bobby Rydell, Frankie Avalon and Paul Anka.  Even with 1959's problems, it is still light years better than 1980 because at least the music of 1980 was made for teens of both genders versus all the hits from 1980 being only targeted to people with vaginas.  Somebody commented that 1960-63 had little validity.  This is very wrong.  While record sales were down and music was a little mellower than before the payola scandals, there were still a number of significant things in music that were great.  A few examples would be a resurgence of doo wop music, the evolution of Motown, the Phil Spector wall of sound, surf music like the Beach Boys, the Four Seasons and a few dance crazes brought on by Chubby Checker and all the other hits on Cameo-Parkway, rock-a-billy like the Everly Brothers and Johnny Burnette, a bunch of great Brill Building hits like Locomotion.  These are just a few examples of new exciting music that started in the 1960-63 era.  The best part of 1960-63 music versus 1980 is that you didn't have to have a vagina to enjoy it.

Not that I would not enjoy--- uh--- ok, never mind.  But seriously, you've clearly done your homework.  Thanks for a great assessment of 30+ years of music on the radio, and it's timeline of  linear decline. Hades to the '80s!

[michael hagerty]

Without getting too.......gynecological...it should be said that Top 40 skewed female in 1980. It wasn't that records weren't being made with male appeal, it's that Top 40 realized most of their male audience had left them during the late 70s.

Album rock listeners had it pretty good that year, with Pink Floyd's "The Wall", Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "Damn The Torpedoes", Bob Seger's "Against The Wind", Pat Benatar's "In The Heat of The Night", Blondie's "Eat To The Beat", Led Zeppelin's "In Through The Out Door", Styx's "Cornerstone", the Pretenders' debut album, Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk", Supertramp's "Breakfast in America", Molly Hatchet's "Flirting With Disaster", J. Geils' "Love Stinks", The B-52's debut LP, Foreigner's "Head Games", The Cars' "Candy-O", Journey's "Departure", The Rolling Stones' "Emotional Rescue" and ZZ Top's "Deguello" all making the list of the 40 best-selling albums of the year.

And given that singles sales had been declining since 1967, it's quite possible that Top 40's problem in 1980 (and the years leading up to it) was that they weren't including album sales in their decisions about what to play.  Tom Petty's "Refugee" was passed on by softer-skewing Top 40s, and only made it to #15 on the singles charts, but the "Damn The Torpedoes" album was the #5 album for the year. Had they been factoring in how many people were spending $8.98 for an album as opposed to buying the single, a lot of song choices might have been very different.

[firepoint525]

Album rock listeners had it pretty good that year, with Pink Floyd's "The Wall", Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "Damn The Torpedoes", Bob Seger's "Against The Wind", Pat Benatar's "In The Heat of The Night", Blondie's "Eat To The Beat", Led Zeppelin's "In Through The Out Door", Styx's "Cornerstone", the Pretenders' debut album, Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk", Supertramp's "Breakfast in America", Molly Hatchet's "Flirting With Disaster", J. Geils' "Love Stinks", The B-52's debut LP, Foreigner's "Head Games", The Cars' "Candy-O", Journey's "Departure", The Rolling Stones' "Emotional Rescue" and ZZ Top's "Deguello" all making the list of the 40 best-selling albums of the year.

I'm glad that someone finally said that!  I remember the rock being out there back in 1980.  It was out there, but you had to dig a little to find it, especially if you were limited to top 40 radio.  And nearly all the albums that you mentioned here charted at least a single or two, although some of these albums were indeed carryovers from 1979. 

I think Fleetwood Mac got kind of a raw deal here, especially in this thread, because "Think About Me" was the only song by them mentioned on this list, and it only reached #20, as you said.  But it was the third single from an album which saw its first two singles reach the top 10.  "Sara," the immediate predecessor to "Think About Me" as the second single from Tusk, reached #7 in the winter of 1980, and would have been a better candidate for this list, because it was a Stevie Nicks song, and her songs tended to be their biggest and most enduring hits.  (Her song "Dreams" was their only #1.)  At the same time, though, the Mac really didn't help their own cause, because Tusk was two years in the making, it was a double album, and that leadoff single (the title song) was a bit of a head-scratcher.  All this coming on the heels of an album that had been one of the biggest sellers of all time, up to its time.

[Tim from Springfield, IL]

32) Dan Fogelberg - Same Old Lang Syne (December 1980)

It's a mainstay for all-Christmas formats--even though it's a New Year's song and most stations shut down the holiday music at 12:01AM Dec. 26 (even the New Years/"winter" songs like Jingle Bells, Winter Wonderland).  I've also heard it occasionally on New Year's Eve/Day--but not much outside the holidays.