"Street Of Dreams" by Nia Peeples

1991 / #12

Rate Your Music score: 3.05 out of 5!

Is a hit record truly lost if you don't even remember that it existed?

There was a period of over 8 years when I listened to American Top 40 so religiously that there were very, very few top 40 hits that I simply couldn't remember even when I heard them on AT40 rebroadcasts years later. These included the now-lost hit "Jam Tonight" by Freddie Jackson and New Edition's remake of "Earth Angel." Nothing against these tunes, but for some reason, I simply could not recall them - even though each of them was in the top 40 for weeks. I had no recollection of them whatsoever. I couldn't remember them even existing.

There's also maybe 3 or 4 sleepy ballads that just barely scraped into the top 40 back then that I can't place how they sounded, but I remember them existing.

Now I've found an action-packed dance-pop number that made it all the way up to #12 during that 8-year timeframe that I simply don't remember at all - even though it charted much higher than the aforementioned tunes. I was looking at a chart for the last week before Billboard switched to its new Hot 100 formula in 1991. I got to #12 and I said to myself, "What?????"

I'm talking about "Street Of Dreams" by Nia Peeples. Again, I have nothing against this record. I simply don't even remember that it existed. I'm drawing a complete blank.

There was nothing in my personal life at the time that was any worse than what was usually going on. In fact, things were actually much better than they were a couple years before. So it's not like there's a big chunk of my memory that was wiped out by a crisis. And I know I heard Nia's tune, because it would have appeared on AT40 for weeks during the Shadoe Stevens era before the chart switchover.

When I saw Nia Peeples on the chart, I thought that might be the song that began, "I know you can control it, baby, know you can control it, baby, know you can control it, baby." I'm drawing a blank as to what that was, but I remember hearing it during a little Saturday drive in which I was angry about something.

Some folks say the change to the Hot 100 methodology made the chart more accurate. They may have had a case, except perhaps in one aspect: The new formula disproportionately reduced the influence of smaller cities. After that, the chart included less heartland rock, which was more popular among small-town venues. Heartland rockers were among our bread and butter at the time. Most of my pals lived in urban areas but enjoyed rural activities. In a recent interview, John Mellencamp backed up the claim that the new formula was weighted toward very large cities more than it should have been.

That change also the marks the start of what I call the second generation of lost hits, which accounts for some entries on this blog that cover music at least into the 2000s.

"The Only Way Out" by Cliff Richard

1982 / #64

Rate Your Music score: 3.22 out of 5!

Let me introduce you to a countdown show that I now call the "yacht rock 30."

This was a weekly top 30 countdown hosted by Bob Leonard that I heard back in 1982. It was almost wall-to-wall "yacht rock" - plenty of Michael McDonald, Hall & Oates, and Toto - plus some "yacht R&B" like Jeffrey Osborne. I don't remember it having any of the Human League or Men At Work that was conquering the Hot 100, as those acts were probably considered too dangerous for poor Bob.

Another name for "yacht rock" is Horizon music. I call it that because the oldsters always listened to this music in our flailing Plymouth Horizon. For several years, that was about the upper limit of what most AM stations in Cincinnati would play.

In the early rock 'n' roll era, Cliff Richard was marketed as Britain's version of Elvis Presley. But by the time the "yacht rock 30" aired, Cliff was as yacht as anyone else. This made the lost hit featured in this entry eligible to appear on Bob's countdown. Halloween fell on a Sunday that year, and I have a vague memory of hearing Cliff's hit on the countdown that day.

It turned out that Cliff is very religious. Even the lyrics to "The Only Way Out" sound somewhat religious. This brings us to a funny story about Cliff. For years, British TV hosts shared one goal in life: They wanted to get Cliff Richard to say the F-word on TV. The idea of someone as religious as him cussing on TV was considered too funny for words. Finally, they got him to say it. The clip used to be on YouTube, but I can't find it anymore.

There are recent reports that Cliff appeared on The View and got in a profanity-laced argument with Joy Behar, but that seems to be just a myth. I don't watch The View, so I wouldn't know. I have a life. But if this didn't happen, where did the story come from?

But I ain't losin' sleep. And I ain't countin' sheep.

"Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover" by Sophie B. Hawkins

1992 / #5

Rate Your Music score: 3.55 out of 5!

This is another top 10 hit that seems to have completely faded from major venues. I haven't heard it on regular radio in about 30 years.

And it's a late example of Electric Company music - a characteristic that was otherwise almost nonexistent outside the 1970s.

The Electric Companying in this record begins in the second verse. Make no mistake, that's Electric Company music. If Dick Clark had put together a compilation album called That's Electric Company Music!, this song might be included.

However, Sophie's record - since it was in the space-age '90s - might use different instruments for Electric Companying than Elton John or Chuck Mangione used.

I have a funny story about this song that involves Power 94½ - or rather, the downfall of Power 94½. One evening, we were in Lexington for some reason. Power 94½ had just abandoned its successful format that it had for years, leaving its main competitor alone in the format. We couldn't pick up its competitor at home. As Billy Ray Cyrus would say, I got no invitation. I guess the FCC didn't bring it to me.

This competing station also didn't last much longer in the format, and Lexington actually didn't have another top 40 station for 4 years. That was the king of mass appeal formats, and for 4 years, about the only people satisfied by Lexington radio were those whose musical tastes were narrow enough to be served by niche formats. Cincinnati had the same problem to an extent, as Q-102 had softened so much.

During our trek through Lexington, we parked on the Power 94½ lot and tuned the car radio to its competitor. Then we blared it loudly enough for the Power peeps to hear us. The song on the radio was Sophie's now-lost hit that we're profiling in this entry.

I bet the Power peeps pooped their pantaloons!

This may have been the same day I set the VCR to tape a heavily promoted 2-hour Cops marathon off the TV because I wouldn't be home that evening, and I discovered it didn't tape because someone had toyed with the VCR settings.

"Mama Can't Buy You Love" by Elton John

1979 / #9

Rate Your Music score: 3.24 out of 5!

Ready for some Electric Company music?

That's what I call a certain sound that was all over the airwaves in the 1970s. I call it that because the same sound was used in the music beds on The Electric Company. It can best be described as a "wokka" sound. I didn't know how to spell that until a hilarious online troll posted about it some years ago. I'm not even sure what instruments create that sound. In fact, I think different instances of it used different instruments. It's not just a sound but a genre.

It should be a whole radio format! In the mid-1990s, WUBE-AM briefly had a format of old pop standards remade by then-current artists. A format of Electric Company music is no more niche than that.

Elton John came through on the Electric Company front. Listen to his lost hit we're profiling today. The Electric Companying begins about 21 seconds in. Wokka!

This song was big while I attended my enlightening summer class just before 1st grade. I remember hearing it on the radio in the Horizon as we were tooling up U.S. 27 near NKU. This was around the same time and same spot where I burst out laughing because we were behind a TANK bus where a passenger blew a humongous bubble with bubble gum.

As soon as the '80s came, that was the end of Electric Company music. A blink of an eye, and it was suddenly gone. Just like that. Reruns of The Electric Company aired throughout the '80s, but in the decade of MTV and new wave, The Electric Company seemed dated because of its music beds.

But Electric Company music made a fleeting reappearance in the '90s, which we'll cover in our next entry - another top 10 hit, no less!

"Superbowl Shuffle" by the Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew

1986 / #41

Rate Your Music score: 2.39 out of 5!

During the 1985-86 NFL season, the Chicago Bears seemed to be trying to lay claim as "America's team." They ended the regular season with a smashing 15-1 record, and everyone knew they were well on their way to play in Super Bowl XX.

So, not long before the big game, the Bears recorded this charity single that had a hip-hop beat. The team had built such a strong national following that the record was played on the radio all over the country and managed to peak just one notch shy of the nationwide top 40. Profits from the record were donated to an organization that helped needy Chicago area families.

After "Superbowl Shuffle" was released, the Bears went on to destroy the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX at the Louisiana Superdome. That was the Super Bowl that had the Up with People halftime show where the guy wearing ridiculous clothes sang the Huey Lewis song "The Power Of Love"...

I had thought he also wore fluorescent suspenders, but I must have been thinking of someone else.

After that was when I started being forced to attend a terrible Catholic school for the rest of 7th grade. During the spring was the 8th graders' variety show. This was a live performance that the class gave for the entire school and community. One of the skits consisted of some of the 8th grade girls wearing football jerseys and dancing to "Superbowl Shuffle." The entire show was G-rated, yet somehow, it was too much for the ultraconservative citizenry of Cold Spring, Kentucky, to handle. A year later, when I was in 8th grade, the school refused to let us have a variety show. They said it was because spring was a time solely for reflection, and that the previous year's show had offended the community. It is believed that the "Superbowl Shuffle" segment provoked much of the outrage. I don't see how it was offensive at all.

When our show was canceled, some of my 8th grade classmates begged me to write a petition to have it reinstated. But the rest of the time, they kept harassing me. Oops, there went their petition. They harassed me, and they lost their variety show. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

In 2014 - almost 30 years after "Superbowl Shuffle" was recorded - some of the Bears players who performed on the record sued the company that held the license to the song, rightly saying the proceeds should continue to go to charity. It's sad that even charities are no longer safe from the greed of companies that try to rip them off.

"Winds Of Change" by Jefferson Starship

1983 / #38

Rate Your Music score: 3.4 out of 5!

Here's a lost hit from the band that was always changing corporation names: "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now." Just joking! If you don't understand why "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" shouldn't be on a lost hits blog, ask an adult.

Anyway, back in 1983, Jefferson Starship charted with the energetic rocker we're profiling in this entry: "Winds Of Change." The title was evocative of several other things that were going on at the time. It happened to be around the same time ABC aired the miniseries The Winds Of War. The title of the song and the miniseries both inspired a project I had at the time.

This was right when I started making up tasteless Sesame Street fanfic. At first, I came up with a storyline called "Sesame Street In Hell", in which all the characters were killed off pretty quickly. Then I came up with a new storyline called "The Winds Of Sesame Street." This storyline was much more elaborate, and it went on for at least a year. This was the one in which Big Bird's feathery tail was amputated and was found floating in outer space. Also in this storyline, Bert started a toilet paper factory. He-Man visited the show and was somehow chopped up into small pieces, prompting Gordon to put him back together with Scotch tape. Men At Work visited too, and they gave a concert where they used Grover's head as a drum.

I think I came up with the title for this storyline one windy day in early spring of that year when we were playing at the end of the street and found a pile of drywall someone had discarded. We used the drywall to draw pictures of Ernie and Bert on the street. We also wrote, "Mister Softee is a softhead," a reference to the ice cream truck that often came along.

Also around that time, a bratty neighborhood kid kept calling everyone an "Ernie-and-Bert-butt." I think he later went on to threaten to kill a local prosecutor and a judge.