Finding 1986 Radio Non-Hot 100 Hits

Richie,

While I can't comment nationally, I can help with songs
that were played in the NY Tri-State Area in 1986 but did
not chart on the Hot 100.

I own all of the WPLJ Power Hit Weekly Survey's and I
went through them and found the following songs made
PLJ's weekly charts but did not make the Hot 100:

Affection - Ta Mara & The Seen
Guilty - Yarbrough & Peoples
I'm Not Gonna Let - Colonel Abrams
Love Can Take Us All The Way - Jack Wagner
If You Should Ever Be Lonely - Val Young
Sweetheart - Rainy Davis
Respect The Power Of Love - Stephanie Mills
All At Once - Whitney Houston
Jump Back (Set Me Free) - Dhar Braxton
Let's Go Mets! - Dream Team

Some of these I personally remember extremely well and
others I don't recall at all.

I also have the Z-100 and Hot 103 Survey's but I need to
dig those out.

Hope this is a helpful start.

-Jeff
                                                                                                 
  

Edited by Fetta

[/QUOTE]

In compiling the Gavin Report research, I'm seeing a lot
of songs that fit into this category.

I would suggest perusing the charts posted at ARSA.
You'll find a lot of "non Hot 100" songs there. For
example, KDWB in Minneapolis was charting a lot of album
cuts, especially after they went rock-leaning in 1979-80.
In the late summer/early fall of 1979 they were playing
the studio version of "Breakfast In America" so often,
that I thought for sure it would be the third single
release from Supertramp's album. Instead, we got "Take
The Long Way Home."[/QUOTE]

Yeah, Paul, that's exactly the type of documentation I'm
looking for - I can't wait 'til your distillation of the
Gavin Report comes to light if it contains this sort of
info!

Andy

Edit to add: Something went wrong with the formatting of
my quote of Paul Haney..

Edited by AndrewChouffi

Agreed Paul.   I think it will definitely vary market by
market.

That being said, as I look at just these 10 songs from
'86 that WPLJ played, I remember hearing several of them
constantly (I will be curious if Z100 and Hot 103 also
played them....when I pull those survey's I will post).

As Richie mentioned, "All At Once" was really big in NY.
To this day it amazes me that it never made the Hot 100.
Another one is "If You Should Ever Be Lonely". I also
remember hearing that constantly.

But I do agree, there is no threshold to define "huge
radio hits" on a national scale.   

Paul Haney wrote: The Gavin Report research will include quite a few album cuts from the 1960s. One example is "Michelle" by The Beatles. It peaked at #1 on January 7, 1966.

Paul Haney wrote: It still seems to me you'd have to establish some sort of "minimum airplay" threshold. There are literally thousands of songs that may have been played a few times on a few stations. If that's what you're after, then it seems like a never-ending quest.

Not to mention almost impossible to document. With the exception of Beatles songs (in a category all by themselves) and a handful of
others (Monkees theme is one), it was rare for LP cuts to be listed on a station's surveys, or at least the surveys of any stations I'm
familiar with. Even WRKO in Boston, which around '71-72
played quite a few album cuts, but you'd never know it going by their surveys. They were just "extras", maybe reported to the trades,
maybe not.
"Michelle" was a legitimate hit song, just one that for whatever reason wasn't released as a single. I NEVER heard the David & Jonathan
version on the radio...I'm
sure its chart position was sales from people thinking it was the Beatles using a pseudonym (D&J were also on Capitol).

And, as I mentioned before, it was largely market (and sometimes station) specific. Of the songs Fetta listed as being big in NYC, the
only one I might have heard on Boston radio was the Whitney Houston song, and I don't think it was on top 40. The rest are completely
unfamiliar.

Edited by Hykker

Andrew:

You can fix the HTML by having only one QUOTE without the backslash to start and leave the one with the backslash. Then delete the one after the ..dots after Paul Haney.

Edited by PopArchivist