What records were hits because of payola?

I hate to have to admit that it was Muskrat Susie, not Sally. Sorry to nitpick, but the mere reading of the name of that song sent me on a spontaneous WayBack® machine ride to the seventies and a woman I worked with named Susie, who was going to marry a guy named Sam, and who was making a list of ‘Susie and Sam’ songs for the wedding, songs which there seemed to be quite a bit of around that time (1976-78).

Yeah, Sally is a Mustang.

That’s easy, because it was a follow up song. Many follow up songs are not commercial but ride the success of the previous hit.

For instance

*Crimson and Clover * was popular because of I Love Rock And Roll

Freeze Fame was popular because of *Centerfold *

Muscrat Love wouldn’t have been a hit if it was a lead single

Yeah, an order of magnitude more rideable

Limp Bizkit bought thier way to the charts. Just marketing, nothing “subrosa”.

And smile…and looks…and personality.

Yup, I was smitten. :smiley:

If that’s true, that explains so much. I noticed when that song finally dropped off the charts, it seemed to disappear completely from radio playlists–nobody even wanted to acknowledge it’s existence let alone play it again. When a local Top 40 station did an annual recap of the top hits from that year a few months later, they just mentioned where it placed on the yearly countdown but didn’t bother to play the record because they no longer had a copy of the record. (Not that was a bad thing since listening to “I’ve Never Been to Me” is like being forced at gunpoint to read Danielle Steele.)


Sure. Payola’s a thing of the 50s. Suuuuure.

All I remember from that episode is Art Carlson jumping around yelling, “I’ve got a monkey on my foot!”

However, the image of Arthur Carlson trying to beat sensation back into his foot after using the cocaine as foot powder is priceless. “Help me Travis! I’ve got a monkey on my foot!”
ETA: That’s what I get for posting without looking at the entire thread. Great minds think alike.