Number one singles that have been (almost) completely forgotten

I guess it depends on how we're defining "forgotten". I think that if a song is known/remembered, it shouldn't matter why. Would "Stuck in the Middle With You" be as well remembered as it is without "Reservoir Dogs"? Probably not, but that's still a reason it's remembered.

I think the best gauge of what's truly "forgotten" is to ask people too young to have known the songs when they were hits. If you weren't alive or were too young to hear a song when it was big and you don't know it, that seems to be a good measure of it being "forgotten".

Of course, if you were old enough to know the song when it hit #1 and you don't remember it, that's an even better measure of being "forgotten"!

 

Two words - Crazy Frog.

But some of us will never forget...


(I won't link to it here as hearing it will make you want to go out and kill)

 

There's an AM radio station in Melbourne (Magic 1278)that seems to take the charts into consideration when putting together a playlist. They play Muskrat Love, You're Having My Baby, Just When I Needed You Most, I Raally Want To See You Tonight etc etc without a hint of shame.

 

My favorite old-guy trick is to play them "Hot Child In The City" (#1, U. S., 1978) on YouTube and show them the singer is really a guy.

Yes, I have lived long enough to acquire magic powers. I can even do the same thing with "It's A Heartache" in the other direction.

 

Purple People Eater reached #1 in the Billboard pop charts in 1958

 

A Boy Named Sue

 

UK/US/Aust/Canadian/Other - as long as it was a number one

This one was a number one in Australia in 1982 ,and I reckon it hasn't been heard on radio since 1982...in Australia anyway.

Shoop shoop diddy wop cumma cumma wang dang

 

This is a GREAT example. I NEVER hear this anywhere except for in my music room when I pull out the 12" just to remember how bad it is!

 

There was some obscure copyright reason it wasn't on Hits. One of the songs on the B Sides disc is supposed to be what Bat Dance is based on.

 

That's fine. My question was whether all the songs listed in the post I quoted actually did make #1 on any kind of national chart in Canada, as was claimed. And if so, what was that chart?

In the 60s at least, there were many regional hits, and thus plenty of songs that might have made it to #1 on an individual radio station's weekly chart without doing nearly so well nationally.

 

I actually played this 10" the other day! Definitely not the greatest song ever but I kind of dig it for some reason!

 

You never hear any of those Batman soundtrack songs at all. I remember when Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey used to play "Partyman" non-stop while you waited in line to ride the Batman roller coaster. Arms of Orion was a single as well which I never heard on the radio.

 

I think I've heard that looooooong mix of Scandalous once this century.

 

Forgot about that one! Coolest thing about it was the pic of Prince on the sleeve!

 

"200 Balloons." It contains a linked lyric: "Who can stop 200 balloons? Nobody!" It really sounds like it was created from the shavings on the editing room floor after "Batdance," and I don't mean it in a bad way.

 

I would argue "Jacob's Ladder" by Huey Lewis and the News. They had many hits in the '80s but for some reason when I mention this song, people look at me puzzled.

 

The RPM Chart
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_singles_(Canada)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPM_(magazine)
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/index-e.html

 

I believe something called Lo Mucho Que Te Quiero by Rene & Rene got to #1 on CHUM and/or CKOC in 1968. It deserves to be forgotten, although so do some that aren't.

 

Physical - Olivia Newton-John

Don't hear it on my local adult contemporary, 80s hits, or "greatest hits of all time" stations at all. Given that this was a #1 song on the Billboard singles chart for 10 weeks, I can't believe no one is playing this song on the radio.

 

"Physical" may not be played a lot, but it's certainly not forgotten. The term "Let's get physical" has entered the American jargon to the point where headline writers pull it out from time to time, and people still talk about that video.

Olivia may just have too many other singles programmers would rather play, like the hits from Grease and Totally Hot, not to mention the follow-up single to "Physical," "Make A Move On Me." I seem to hear those fairly often. I think "Physical" is a bit annoying by comparison, and may have become one of those songs that gets played as a joke, like when the fat guy gets up to dance at the wedding.

 

For me, an example of this would be "Mississippi" by Pussycat, a #1 in the UK when I was 7 years old, yet I don't remember it at all. I heard it quite recently when BBC were doing repeats of Top of the Pops 1976. I do remember hearing songs like "Billy, Don't Be A Hero", which was even earlier I think.

 

I haven't heard Debby Boone's You Light Up My Life in forever. That song as well as the movie have completely disappeared from the popular consciousness. The amazing thing about You Light Up My Life is that it was the most successful song of the 1970s in the US!

 

' We Do It' by R & J Stone.

 

Obviously, what qualifies as a #1 single will vary among countries. Here in the U.S., this song was bigger by Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods, but I don't recall ever hearing it on oldies radio. But, it's not forgotten!

 

Good song! I also have their first album "Sincerely Yours" on CD.

Another group, a family group also named Sweet Sensation, came out with a top 10 hit in 1975 called "Sad Sweet Dreamer", on the PYE label, that one never hears on the radio. But, it was not a #1 hit.