Several stations in KC and around the country I have noticed mix in songs that weren't really big "hits," or even well-known as recurrents or golds. For example, our CHR Mix 93.3 has been spinning "Take Me Home" by Cash Cash/Bebe Rexa and "Company" by Justin Bieber, both of which were not huge hits. Also, my alternative station 96.5 The Buzz also does this, as do many Entercom alternative stations, spinning deeper cuts of groups, especially during specialty hours. For example, this morning, they played Sublime's "Same in the End" and "KRS One." I've heard others around the country do this as well, spinning songs like Kiesha's "Hideaway." What are your thoughts of this practice and does it work?
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Do lower charting songs make good recurrents/golds?
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
It really depends on if the songs test. There are occasionally songs that may have been "regional" hits and test in certain markets, or some that throw in these songs once in a great while (but not regularly), but mostly, it's gotta test at least somewhat well to have it hit the airwaves.
(96.5 the Buzz always seems like the outlier, as an Alternative that's always been somewhat adventurous, but Alternative can sometimes lend itself to dig a little deeper in general.)
(96.5 the Buzz always seems like the outlier, as an Alternative that's always been somewhat adventurous, but Alternative can sometimes lend itself to dig a little deeper in general.)
Things change. Just because a song was a #1 doesn't mean people want to hear it after its chart run. Conversely, just because a song wasn't a big hit during its chart run doesn't mean it won't test better a few years later. That's why you continually test songs. There are no easy rules. An artist's popularity might influence the popularity of his catalog. He might do the song on a TV show or in a movie, and that boosts the song's popularity years after its release. The song might get used in a commercial. All of a sudden, people search it, and it starts showing up in data. Lots of reasons. That's why music selection in radio is a job, not a hobby.
While it is rare now, in the past there were songs we used to call sleepers because they were simply not added by enough stations at once to make the song climb the charts to the position the song that was added all at once was. Such songs never seemed to go that high on the charts but tended to stay on the chart a long time as areas of the country seemed to region by region pick up the song. Although I cannot recall the song, my memory says it never got past about 30 on the charts, was a huge hit locally and had almost zero burn factor for at least a couple of years. In fact, I recall pulling it out for the first listen, finding better adds for that week but there was enough there to keep it in the stack. After a few weeks I added it. It was sometime in the early 1980s when this happened.
An artist's death, too, at least short-term. Classic rock stations dug out a lot of Tom Petty tracks they hadn't played in years for a week or two after he died, then put them back in cold storage.
That's something like AWOLnation's 2011 release "Sail." It floundered around the charts for nearly 2 years (eventually peaking at #5 on Alt, and #17 on the Hot 100). Was it ever a huge #1 hit? Nah. But at some point, basically everyone played it. And it may test back into stations' gold libraries in time.
Last year for that Samsung TV ad during the MLB postseason, 1949's "Simalou" by Peggy Lee was sampled. I downloaded it in mid November and noticed it was the most popular download for Peggy Lee, even though that song is nearly 70 years old!
It was nice to hear "You Got Lucky" a few times.......That could be his best song overall.
"I Melt With You" seems to be one of those. The highest peak position that I ever saw for it was #76, and even that was for the 1989-ish reissue/remix. I never heard it until it was used in Burger King and Taco Bell commercials. History revisionists seem to forget that there were those of us who lived in rural areas at the time and did not have access to cable TV, thus never saw MTV back in those early days.
It doesn't matter. The song tests well now, so it gets played. Airplay today isn't based on original chart position, or how people heard music when it was new.
The old country crossovers that were forced on us back in the day almost never see the light of day anymore. That is mainly because they were only there to appease our parents' generation, and since that generation is "out of the demo" now, we don't have the likes of "Elvira" forced on us anymore!
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Groove1670
Guest
it depends on the market for example, Kungs vs Cookin' on 3 Burners - This Girl was a big song on our station and has gold status, but I think barely cracked the top 30 on the National Charts. It was also a million single seller (totally unrelated to the topic).
I don't care that it gets played. Just don't anyone ever tell me that it was a "hit," because it wasn't. Although it was my understanding that it was in heavy rotation on MTV there for a while.
Who is telling you it was a hit?
Folks on this board, for one.
I suppose it was briefly in 1983 on MTV, but you are right, it was not a hit whatsoever. In fact, I don't even remember it played on the radio back then, unlike mega hits "Billie Jean" or "All Night Long". Same thing has happened to "What I Like About You". Both non hits.
Always liked the Michael Morales version of that one. It was a minor hit (peaked in the 20s, I think) in 1989. His version probably prevented the Romantics' version from being re-released, but his version probably also renewed interest in theirs, for those who remembered it. I didn't. No one in rural west TN was playing it in the early '80s.
While you'll never hear Fleetwood Mac on the gold or recurrent list for a CHR, the most popular of that group's songs today were mostly relative stiffs when new. While Fleetwood Mac had a couple of number ones, the vast majority of its hits peaked in the 20's and likely get more play on classic hits and classic rock stations than they ever got new.
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Groove1670
Guest
"I Melt With You" was big with MTV. We never played it in South Florida (or any stations I worked for in the South for that matter). It is a IHeart AC staple and the only time I hear it here is during a Premium Choice Daypart in my locale.
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