It Was a Hit! Or was it?

Ok, think about that moment. That moment when it is the first time you hear a song on the radio, and it just grabbed you! Maybe you were anticipating the group or singer that you already loved putting out something new. Back in the 70’s and 80’s there was no internet to leak it to. Sometimes you could go early to the record (CD) store and get your copy early before anyone else.

But typically, you heard it first on the radio. In 1979, I knew the Bee Gees were working on a new song, but when I heard “Too Much Heaven” on WABC, I nearly passed out!! I just knew it would be a hit! It went all the way to #1!

Or in 1987, we knew Michael Jackson had the task of following up “Thriller”, but it wasn’t until a late morning on Z100 that Scott Shannon interrupted the mid-day show to play the world premiere of “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”. Goosebumps!! Another #1 hit!! I can go on…but I want to talk about those songs we first heard, had that same feeling that this is going to be a big hit…but it wasn’t! Ok here are a few from the 80’s:

“Promise Me” by the Cover Girls…I loved everything about this song! But my wife and other friends at the time said it was boring. No!! But…I was wrong…it peaked at #40 on the hot 100, then dropped off…grand opening, grand closing.

Ok…how about “Sugar Free” by the group Wa Wa Nee? The beginning of that pulsating song caught me right away! A Top 10 hit indeed!! Well…it peaked at #35 on the hot 100…I have no idea why.

Ok…a big head scratcher here. A song that is still played today. It was from the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack, huge movie! And Patti LaBelle was a huge star. A positive message, a great video and a great beat…all the ingredients for a top 10 smash. I’m talking about “Stir it Up”…that peaked at #41!! How could that be?? I also first heard that on z100, but only once or twice more.

There can be so many behind the scenes reasons that a song either is not a hit, or a moderate hit, when we expect the song to be huge. I’ll get more into that in future posts. But I’m anxious to hear from you…hit me in the comments…what song (s) that you heard for the first time on the radio, and was surprised that it wasn’t a huge hit?

If you haven’t heard these before, here are the links to the songs/videos on Youtube: