Song as gold that was originally ignored by station?

[gr8oldies]

The one that sticks in my mind is George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" from 1987. There were quite a few small town stations down here that wouldn't spin it. Went so far as to edit the song out of the AT40 weekend countdown, replacing it with something in-house, until the countdown had moved forward to the next charted hit. It took until the early 2000s for some stations to play it, some twenty years after it charted. Seems like Casey Kasem even felt uncomfortable with it, as I can't think of one instance where he would mention the title of the song. It always went something like "Here's George Michael with his latest hit, creeping up the countdown to #17."

I remember working at an A/C station when Cheap Trick's ballad "The Flame" charted, and we weren't allowed to say the band's name.

 

[ixnay]

A friend of mine tells me that he and his wife are planning to see [Oliver Anthony] at the Ryman in Nashville in the near future, so the interest is still there even though radio has moved on.

Find out from them their and the audience's reaction to OA and let us know, please.

 

[kevtronics]

I remember working at an A/C station when Cheap Trick's ballad "The Flame" charted, and we weren't allowed to say the band's name.

But no such problem with the Doobie Brothers? Or 10cc (if you look up what it's a reference to)?

 

[CTListener]

But no such problem with the Doobie Brothers? Or 10cc (if you look up what it's a reference to)?

Same thing that Lovin' Spoonful refers to.

 

[gr8oldies]

But no such problem with the Doobie Brothers? Or 10cc (if you look up what it's a reference to)?

Nope.Never had issues with those.

 

[firepoint525]

The one that sticks in my mind is George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" from 1987. There were quite a few small town stations down here that wouldn't spin it. Went so far as to edit the song out of the AT40 weekend countdown, replacing it with something in-house, until the countdown had moved forward to the next charted hit. It took until the early 2000s for some stations to play it, some twenty years after it charted. Seems like Casey Kasem even felt uncomfortable with it, as I can't think of one instance where he would mention the title of the song. It always went something like "Here's George Michael with his latest hit, creeping up the countdown to #17."

Not entirely true. Casey did indeed say the title on some occasions, while ignoring it, like you said, on others. (Casey even said the title on the countdown on the week that it dropped off, along with the five or six others that also dropped off that same week. He could have easily avoided this by not mentioning ANY of the titles that left the countdown that week.) My local station at the time, as far as I know, never censored the song from the countdown, but at the same time, didn't really go out of their way to play it, either.

I haven't heard it played since its days as a hit, but I am also not aware of any stations that carry the retro American Top 40 countdowns intentionally avoiding airing any old '80s countdowns that happen to contain the song.

 

[CentralFL]

Minor hits, like Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" barely got airplay on CHR's in the 80s. When it came back 2 years ago, as a big hit, any CHR's remaining from the mid 80s were playing it.

 

[michael hagerty]

Minor hits, like Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" barely got airplay on CHR's in the 80s. When it came back 2 years ago, as a big hit, any CHR's remaining from the mid 80s were playing it.

...and their audiences, from then or now, would never know.

 

[CTListener]

Why do songs like "Running Up That Hill" keep coming up in threads like these? Chart stiffs and aged-out songs that suddenly become popular do so either because of exposure in movies or on television (OTA, cable or streaming) or because the artist who performed them has died. Otherwise, songs that never had a life after their initial chart run generally stay dead.

 

[Superdave2351]

The one that sticks in my mind is George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" from 1987. There were quite a few small town stations down here that wouldn't spin it. Went so far as to edit the song out of the AT40 weekend countdown, replacing it with something in-house, until the countdown had moved forward to the next charted hit. It took until the early 2000s for some stations to play it, some twenty years after it charted. Seems like Casey Kasem even felt uncomfortable with it, as I can't think of one instance where he would mention the title of the song. It always went something like "Here's George Michael with his latest hit, creeping up the countdown to #17."

I recall Casey also not mentioning the "latest hit from the 2 Live Crew" as he sold it instead of the title, "Me So Horny."

 

[tall_guy1]

Not entirely true. Casey did indeed say the title on some occasions, while ignoring it, like you said, on others. (Casey even said the title on the countdown on the week that it dropped off, along with the five or six others that also dropped off that same week. He could have easily avoided this by not mentioning ANY of the titles that left the countdown that week.) My local station at the time, as far as I know, never censored the song from the countdown, but at the same time, didn't really go out of their way to play it, either.

I haven't heard it played since its days as a hit, but I am also not aware of any stations that carry the retro American Top 40 countdowns intentionally avoiding airing any old '80s countdowns that happen to contain the song.

I have heard I Want Your Sex on KCKC years ago in KC. That station definitely has proven to be an anomoly though. I think they have focused their playlist from a few years ago, though as there were much more songs like that a few years ago.

 

[rparky54]

Why do songs like "Running Up That Hill" keep coming up in threads like these? Chart stiffs and aged-out songs that suddenly become popular do so either because of exposure in movies or on television (OTA, cable or streaming) or because the artist who performed them has died. Otherwise, songs that never had a life after their initial chart run generally stay dead.

What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong was a stiff until Good Morning Vietnam was released a couple decades later, then just like that it wasn't one!

 

[firepoint525]

I recall Casey also not mentioning the "latest hit from the 2 Live Crew" as he sold it instead of the title, "Me So Horny."

He would have been on Casey's Top 40 by then, so I likely never heard it anyway.

 

[firepoint525]

What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong was a stiff until Good Morning Vietnam was released a couple decades later, then just like that it wasn't one!

A LOT of revisionist history on that one. The movie was supposedly set in 1965, and that song didn't come out until somewhere around 1968.

 

[golden eagles97]

The one that sticks in my mind is George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" from 1987. There were quite a few small town stations down here that wouldn't spin it. Went so far as to edit the song out of the AT40 weekend countdown, replacing it with something in-house, until the countdown had moved forward to the next charted hit. It took until the early 2000s for some stations to play it, some twenty years after it charted. Seems like Casey Kasem even felt uncomfortable with it, as I can't think of one instance where he would mention the title of the song. It always went something like "Here's George Michael with his latest hit, creeping up the countdown to #17."

I remember Shadoe Stevens doing the same thing when Me So Horny charted in 1989.

A number of stations did ban I Want Your Sex. I bet it would’ve gone to #1 instead of #2 if it weren’t for the ban.