Name songs that are flogged by commercial radio but you still like

What about this version, flogged by New FM circa 2002?:

I love how they spontaneously sing the final verse in German, making a Royal hash of it in the process (enter in the “so bad, it’s good” file).

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The Breeze plays 99 Luft Balloons occasionally :slight_smile:

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I love it. I’ve also heard the track on the Cold 30 countdown on 104.5 Triple M Brisbane & the 20-20 Retro countdowns via River 949 Ipswich & Zinc 96.1 Noosa/Gympie.

Absolute 80s (the Absolute Radio 80s channel broadcasting on DAB in the UK as well as worldwide streaming) plays the English version 90 Red Balloons. It does seem to fall into the ‘heavily flogged’ category on European radio, which unsurprisingly favours the original German version!

The Police,"Every Breath You Take"
Dexy’s Midnight Runners ,"Come on Eileen"
Chris Isaak,“Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing”

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Hmmm KC I can only agree with the Dexy’s Midnight Runners / Come on Eileen.
The other two are instant station-changers for me :slight_smile:

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In the interests of balance, “Come On Eileen” is one of the most bile-inducing specimens of high rotation out there. I wish they would take all copies of the song “to Leura” and throw them off the cliffs there.

As for The Police’s ode to stalking and voyeurism, that almost makes my list (sorry egg-man).

A couple of others on mine:

Billy Joel- Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)
Electric Light Orchestra- Sweet Talkin’ Woman
The Sweet- Fox On The Run

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Have to agree with Mr Nerd on Dexy’s - can’t stand it!

While I think of it, I should add a couple of Dire Straits tracks to this, like Sultans of Swing and So Far Away. Mind you, some others (like Walk of Life and even sometimes Money for Nothing) make me reach for the channel very quickly

Is Sweet Talkin’ Woman played that often on radio these days?

I recall it certainly was played ad nauseum on WSFM in Sydney up until a few (4 to 6?) years ago.

In the school holidays when my dad took me along to his work (dad’s car radio was where I got most of my musical taste from, we’re talking around 12-16 years ago), it was very much overflogged and I got sick of it.

Now it gets very little air time and I really enjoy it.

Agree with you on the other two, though.

WS doesn’t play very much 70s in general these days, as their playlist is now more skewed towards the 80s.

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Personally, I think that “Evil Woman” or “Livin’ Thing” are better ELO songs than “Sweet Talkin’ Woman” but maybe that’s just me.

I agree. These days, WSFM love their '80s music so much that every music marathon over holiday long weekends is guaranteed to be dedicated to popular music which was first released in the penultimate decade of the 20th Century! :wink:

The Break Up Song - Greg Khin Band

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Agree with this - never sick of hearing it.

I reckon a few Paul Kelly numbers could be added to my list too: still not sick of To Her Door, Leaps and Bounds or even Dumb Things

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Just shows you how much I listen to WS nowadays…

Anyway, ELO were thrashed to high heaven on WS several years ago as has been mentioned and are still regularly heard on stations like 2CH, 2CA and Classic Rock Digital. I still enjoy most of their tunes, though.

Agree with the Paul Kelly suggestions, though Leaps and Bounds isn’t played regularly in Sydney at least (we don’t have The G or the Nylex silo, nor is it 11 degrees all that often).

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@NRN11
Yes agree with The Break Up Song. When I hear it, it always reminds me of a movie called ‘Beautiful Girls’ from the 90s where the guy who is a snow-plow driver is piling the snow on his ex-girlfriend’s driveway for revenge :slight_smile:

As for ELO, they might not play them on WS anymore, but on 4KQ they still play them quite a bit.

Also agree Movin’ Out / Billy Joel never gets tired for me. Actually a few other Billy Joel songs would fall into that category for me too.

A few more:

Bruce Hornsby and the Range- The Way It Is
America- Ventura Highway
Mike and the Mechanics- All I Need Is A Miracle

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I agree with that particular selection. It’s another song that’s now hardly played on any Sydney commercial FM stations, even WS, which used to play it a lot a few years ago. Smooth plays “A Horse With No Name” & “Sister Golden Hair” quite often (especially the latter), but I don’t recall them ever playing “Ventura Highway”, at least over the last few months. In fact, “Stairway To Heaven” by Led Zeppelin & “Money” by Pink Floyd are other songs that used to be played quite a lot on WS & the former Vega/Classic Rock station, but is now only occasionally heard on Triple M, with WS not even playing either of those songs these days.

When you think about it, Sydney is a pretty boring place for commercial FM radio musically, especially if one’s not into Top 40, a format in which the city & its surrounding areas (ie. Campbelltown, Wollongong & Central Coast) have endless amounts of, to the point that having a DAB+ radio is almost a requirement to get a decent amount of ‘pre-80s’ music that the local & semi-local commercial FM stations hardly play.

Brisbane & SEQ is where the ‘action’ is, thanks to the likes of Rebel, Breeze, River 94.9 & 4KQ (yes, I know it’s an AM station). :wink:

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Yes good additions. ‘Ventura Highway’ is really the only of the well-played America songs I do enjoy. You could add ‘Silent Running’ if you’re talking M&TM songs as well

Also, I can’t believe I haven’t added this yet, but surely Boston’s ‘More Than A Feeling’ must be the king of this category? Great tune even if it’s always getting played. Sure there’s many others of theirs that deserve to be played more, but this track still rocks and always will

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I much prefer Silent Running- one of the best pop songs of the 80s imo, but I’m under the impression that it doesn’t get thrashed on the level of The Living Years or …Miracle. Nik Kershaw’s Wouldn’t It Be Good, mentioned earlier in the thread, is on the same level but played much more heavily.

As for More Than A Feeling, I’m personally over it, but as you say it would be on a lot of folks’ lists. I would prefer to hear Don’t Look Back, Smokin’, or even Amanda.

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I still like “More Than a Feeling” by Boston too even though Triple M play it about once a week

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In a similar vein to the Boston song, I still like hearing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”