top 10 hits that no one remembers

It’s just called “Where Are You Now”, even. I must’ve invented the (My Love).

Justin Timberlake is haunting these recent posts

don’t remember the David Jordan song. can’t say I’m sure it totally works (it probably doesn’t), but it would have made sense as a Eurovision entry for any of the participating countries in any of the past ten or so years. (Bosnia? sure. Switzerland? hell, why not?)

Tanita Tikaram - Twist in my sobriety (1989)

I never see mentioned this one anywhere and it was fairly succesful worldwide.

VH-1 loved it at the time.

Yes indeed

Over 30M views on this fwiw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s8glZ-efMg

50.4M plays on Spotify

compared to e.g. 5.7M for Timbuk 3's "The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades", which charted higher

in the US, sure, and in the Western Anglosphere. “Twist In My Sobriety” was much bigger in the rest if the world tho, which probably goes a long way to explain the discrepancy.

the Spotify streaming numbers you see are global, not country-specific, and the US is a country too.

But you were aware of that already, right?

Looking at old cds and I got another one that I never see in any 90’s playlist or have overheard anywhere for decades. 18M global streams on spotify, 16M views on yt:

Billie Myers - Kiss the Rain

Top 10 hit in Ireland, UK, Canada, Netherlands and #15 on the US charts.

My station played it to death. Ugh.

It was played to death in Mexico when it came out for a couple of years. I don’t think I’ve heard it played anywhere nowadays. Canada might still give it airplay.

Other 90’s top 10 hits looking at some mixtapes… not saying any of these are necessarily good:

Bryan Adams - When You’re Gone (feat. Melanie C)

Didn’t chart in the US? Top 10 hit in UK, sweden, scotland, norway, canada, australia…

Another one:

Roxette - wish I could fly

A top 10 hit in several European charts. Almost made it into the uk charts (#11). Music video was played to death on MTV latinamerica… don’t think most people would mention it as one of Roxette’s famous singles.

I love Twist in My Sobriety - the lyrics are maybe a bit heavy-handed but then I had no idea until a few years ago she was 18 when she sang it. The oboe bits are wonderfully gothic.

It’s a real oboe afaik! And yeah there’s a goth vibe to it.

The Mel C hits remembered in the UK now are Never Be the Same Again (I'm guessing this is a Heart FM staple) and maybe I Turn to You (even though the version that was a hit is a really flashy trance remix that would stick out on e.g. Radio 2 for being rather noisy).

The first two singles from her incredibly strange Northern Star campaign were Goin' Down - her 'punk'/noise pop debut - and the title track, both reaching #4. French and Saunders did a parody of Goin' Down/Mel's punk phase which I saw quite a lot in the early 10s on Gold and each time I'd think 'this makes no sense now, no one remembers this song'.

I remember Going Down, Northern Star and that song she did with Bryan Adams AMA

Kiss the Rain was big on whatever radio I listened to in the UK at the time - probably Atlantic 252!

in the US, sure, and in the Western Anglosphere. “Twist In My Sobriety” was much bigger in the rest if the world tho, which probably goes a long way to explain the discrepancy.

the Spotify streaming numbers you see are global, not country-specific, and the US is a country too.

But you were aware of that already, right?

Not sure what you're trying to say but my point was that "Twist" has not been forgotten.

eta my reply: I had Northern Star on this compilation, there’s stuff on there I haven’t listened to in 23 years but I don’t think I even forget the filler on it

Another forgotten UK top 5 hit, from 1990
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpO0Ey7lha8

Outcharting both the Shocking Blue and Bananarama versions but probably not touched by radio since it was a hit. It's not very good - it retains some of the instrumental but isn't really a cover otherwise, more a stock 1990 dance soundscape with very obvious samples for decoration. That said I don't mind it listening to it at all because there are very few commercial dance hits from the 90s I wouldn't.

haha that's enjoyably silly

Twist in My Sobriety was on MTV a lot. Sometimes video airplay and US charts seemed to be in different worlds.

This is my copy of Don Pablo's Animals' version of "Venus" (and the only one o knew for a few years)

Don Pablo's Animals with a pointless but quite fun version of Venus. I have this single in the form of a flexi-disc stuck to the front of a packet of frosties. See - pic.twitter.com/Owv4xlhWW2

— Centuries of Sound (@Centuries_Sound) December 18, 2020

"Twist in My Sobriety" has some of my favorite oboe solos in pop.

xp ha amazing! I do love odd music/food and drink promotions like that - I'm in the process of compiling releases for a thing I'm doing about sponsored 90s compilations.

re:Now 44, I was listening to some of Now 42 only last night and thinking about the inclusion of Fool Boona's Popped, a dance version of The Passenger which they pre-emptively included ahead of its commercial release but which only reached #52. Those sort of failed predictions about dance records are more typical of mid-90s Now albums so it may be the last.

To think they could have included the awesome Mint Royale-esque 'Hazel' by Loop da Loop (#20 in Jan 99!)

xxp here's the other one I have

pic.twitter.com/WEqNqYnhXt

— Centuries of Sound (@Centuries_Sound) December 18, 2020

Many xposts, but the Bryan Adams & Melanie C track is huge with queer folks, in my experience. My experience being having to suffer through it while everyone else goes wild for it.

Here's a forgotten American top hit that popped into my head on my Saturday morning walk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcey8LY01t4

Demi-related -- good Bridge Hit Parade episode, though you'll need to subscribe

On a new #HitParadePod—The Bridge radio pro @RossOnRadio compares Legacy Hits to Lost Hits—smashes like “Physical”w/few spins today. In the streaming era Sean says bringbacks are random. (Englebert Humperdink?!) Plus trivia & a preview that’ll funk you up. https://t.co/42EyJ3gXXo

— Chris Molanphy (@cmolanphy) October 1, 2022

(Though as I noted to Chris, the Engelbert revive almost certainly had a spark in the use of "A Man Without Love" in Moon Knight)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpIHoS1yMAU

Jimmy Harnen and Synch "Where Are You Now?"

I would argue that the Debby Boone #1 "You Light Up My Life" is essentially forgotten, based only on the fact that I haven't heard it on an oldies station or in a supermarket in 30 year.

every non-Underwood/Clarkson American Idol leadoff single ever

re:Now 44, I was listening to some of Now 42 only last night and thinking about the inclusion of Fool Boona's Popped, a dance version of The Passenger which they pre-emptively included ahead of its commercial release but which only reached #52. Those sort of failed predictions about dance records are more typical of mid-90s Now albums so it may be the last.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c44JQWLqrCY

#4 UK, #9 US. I was driving through central Illinois a few years back desperate for non-talk radio and this popped up, first time I'd heard it since 1974.

that hair my god

I can’t remember if I posted this yet, but the other day I heard that on the radio and it seemed to me he was doing a Loudon Wainwright III imitation.

Same like another (ex-)ILX0r made the same observation.

Yeah there’s some weird wild card picks on the 90s albums looking back, though I’d put the second half off this non-Now early noughties album for your consideration.

I have that one! The first six songs on CD2 are all compilation staples even now (note how Touch Me is appearing ahead of its commercial release) but then of the remaining songs Dooms Night (masterpiece btw) is the only other one. And then it really is the wilderness. A lot of Telstar/BMG hits comps from the 90s/00s are good at hoovering up the real odds and ends that Virgin/EMI either couldn't license or wouldn't.

Da Muttz (nee Shaft)'s Wassuup! was one of two hits riffing on the Bud advert, which is very strange to think about. Tweenies' No. 1 at least was an early childhood favourite of mine. The key change is like CCS's Tap Turns on the Water.

Also missed opportunity not putting Operation Blade and Phatt Bass next to each other (as per Clubber's Guide to 2001 and Dance Masters.

Who here can confidently hum Mungo Jerry's second UK number one, Baby Jump?

The 'alrigh-alrigh-alrigh-alriiiiiight' bit where the song inexplicably starts again.

A few Popular threads have "the Baby Jump of the [time period]" to denote number ones which are just as forgotten

I think someone gives Celine Dion's Think Twice the accolade on that one's Popular thread.

My Camera Never Lies is definitely one. And probably loads after about 95 or so when first week peaks/fanbase-propelled sales for fourth singles off an album become much more common.

In terms of mega (i.e. number one for at least a month or so) number ones, KWS' Please Don't Go seems to have disappeared from public memory.

Xps to westbury white horse - I can’t recall why but a while ago I suddenly recalled Fused’s Saving Mary, a song that stumped even my better half* and that I have never knowingly heard anyone bring up in conversation, and remembered this album and…what a strange pick to fill the quota, right? Was it even top 40? I’ve never heard it on anything. That Beatchuggers song on that side used to be a staple of Sky Ibiza series and the like.


*we share interest in a lot of obscure/underrated/quite simply bad and otherwise unbeloved stuff (especially pop).I remembered bringing this MTV European top 20 “classic” up in conversation and then getting a parcel in the post - his copy of their album. Reader, I married him.

OCC has nothing for Saving Mary so nope, a non-charter at least within the top 100. Good track tho, feels quite modern. There's definitely more examples of the Hits series (not only in the Telstar BMG era) including some outright non-charters that I've spotted but I can't think what those are atm. Now albums only do it when its album tracks used to represent a best-selling album (or, in the case of Now 42, a non-reissued You Don't Have to Say You Loved Me in memoriam to Dusty) (or import singles, like Coldplay's no. 130 smash Don't Panic).

Popsie's is a new one on me. Very undistinctive except for its distinctive 1998ness.

Leo Sayer was an answer in yesterday's New York Times crossword puzzle (sorry if that's a spoiler for anyone).

Plate of shrimp.

Leo's second best single Why Is Everybody Going Home didn't even chart. His actual best Thunder in My Heart only reached no. 22 (not counting chart-topping remix three decades later). His third best Orchard Road reached no. 16.

In other words I don't feel the charts have served him as well as others might.

Four songs that recently turned up on shuffle that I hadn't heard in ages:

Grace Jones - I've Seen That Face Before (1981)
June Lodge - Someone Loves You Honey (1982)
UB40 - Our Own Song (1986)
Wee Papa Girl Rappers - Wee Rule (1988)

Just me or are these 'forgotten' elsewhere too?

I was thinking about Venus by Don Pablo's Animals only yesterday. I still have it on 7", one of the first singles I ever bought at 9 years old. I assume it was made by one of those Italian Eurodance super-producers under an alias but can't find much info about it at all.

Out of curiosity I researched the Billboard top 10 for each year since I started listening to radio (being really old that would be 1966.) It took me until 1986 to find one I have no recollection of: "I Miss You" by Klymaxx. By 1991 it's 4 of the top 10. By 2001 I can't recall any of them.

"I Miss You" got A/C play well into the '90s. It may be gone now.

Chances are if I heard it I would remember. Ringing no bells. Love "Meeting in the Ladies Room" though.

There's a little two-note percussion motif/hook in "I Miss You" that has stuck in my head all these years.

Imagine the R&B sonic inverse of 'Meeting in the Ladies Room' and you have 'I Miss You'. There's no other way to say it, and I can't deny it.

Okay, listening now and I have never heard "I Miss You." In 1986 my consumption of pop radio/MTV/VH1 was pretty much nil though, and my limited exposure to R&B was via dancefloor bangers rather than quiet storm stuff.

I don’t recall that song either. There was a period where some R&B songs hit the top even though MTV barely played the videos for them.

It hit #3 on the adult contemp chart, so it was pretty huge. Maybe I heard it in a dentist's office...

Klymaxx earned their own Behind the Music where the success of "I Miss You" led to precisely the kind of intragroup conflict you'd expect.

I remember it. and years later it wound up on a "worst breakup songs ever" countdown on VH-1

First time hearing “kite”

Gorgeous

yikes - did not know about this!

https://www.stereogum.com/2152457/klymaxx-say-the-wrong-klymaxx-was-inducted-into-women-songwriters-hall-of-fame/news/

Is Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr's Theme from Mission Impossible the only 90s worldwide top 10 hit - including in the US! - to not be on Spotify? Sometimes feels that way.

Such was its significance at the time that Orbital and Moby were also commissioned to put spy themes through the big beat blender and achieve some of their best single sales ever.

It's available where I am in Canada:
https://open.spotify.com/album/62qBtOk1Nzn6y8h4gE0t72?si=cMlaskP4QZyEdJbNDdUl8Q

It took me until 1986 to find one I have no recollection of: "I Miss You" by Klymaxx.

Being very honest here: this was the song that permanently drove me from top 40 listening. Which is pretty weird in retrospect, but something about hearing it a fair amount in 1986 got under my skin in a bad way; given I was a nerdy 15 year old I am not sure why, but I think I was finally done with a certain kind of easy listening/adult top 40 glop that had just gotten worse throughout the decade. Keep in mind I had been essentially listening to top 40 actively and regularly since 1980/1981 so this was a big move for me at the time! A logical sidestep given the time and place (Southern California_ might have been KROQ or rather 91X given I was in San Diego, but I was unsure about all that too as yet. I essentially took a year away from anything beyond random MTV viewings and things I overheard in favor of a lot of books and some random vinyl purchases, then moved into my classic rock phase in 1987 for a year (all while taking in other things as I did), got my first CD player, went to college in 1988, joined the radio station there and started reading alt-weeklies etc. etc. But "I Miss You" really was the catalyst that shocked me out of where I was at! So call it my weird origin story I guess?

It's available where I am in Canada:

Hmmm, strange it isn't worldwide

(I'm in the UK and it isn't here)

Ned, that's marvelous.

^^^ seconded. Just came here to post that one person's song they've never heard in their life is another's straw that broke the camel's back.

one main's ceiling is another man's floor

Truly one of the most strangely influential songs of my life. (And if I had only heard it once or twice I doubt I would have cared but it got a LOT of play and I was so sick of it. Just thinking about the chorus causes a Pavlovian shudder response.)

Yeah, that Klymaxx song eclipsed their two other hits, none of which I remember:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiMUVPWE7ec

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHg_8-1EBPI

My trajectory is probably similar to Ned's. Top 40 > Classic Rock > the good stuff that defined what I listened to for the rest of my adult life.

The song that I remember singularly responsible for driving me down the radio dial from the top 40 station to the Classic Rock station was... Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name" (a song I don't have strong feelings about today, but I think it was extremely over-played on my chosen top 40 station, and for some reason it just drove my 13 year-old self crazy). The song has probably been in "classic rock" circulation for decades by now.

I didn't mind "I Miss You" specifically but there was something about 1986 that broke me too -- the combination of shlocky ballads, horrible Prince copycats, and somnambulant AOR drove me away from following music for about 2.5 years, which is an eternity for a 12-14 year old kid.

Neither you nor Ned are wrong (esp about the categories you cited), but I'll insist 1986 was a wonderful year for pop in every genre.

That's intriguingly counterintuitive from my personal experience but yeah, 1986 feels like a 'problem' year in my head still, just thanks to the personal vector. I figure a lot of it is down to the quality of local stations (or lack thereof) depending on where you were at, compounded by an MTV that was starting to calcify the more it was ingrained. Essentially you had to make your own steps, and mine were ultimately backward for a while. It was never completely the case -- that same top 40 station had a Saturday night dance party block that avoided DJ chatter much and was also where I first heard "Blue Monday" -- random overhearings of "Bizarre Love Triangle" soon after helped tie the two together and so forth. But these were examples of me hearing something in specific and with intent more than not, where before I just had top 40 on by default.