Welcome to The Lost Songs Project, where we remember, replay, and go really deep on forgotten hit songs.

The Lost Songs Project is run by Mark Blankenship. That’s me! (And here’s my website!)

I’m a culture journalist whose obsession with pop music started in seventh grade, when I tracked the weekly Billboard charts that were printed in my local paper. I also love recommending songs to people, because it truly brings me joy to share music.

Plus, I’m fascinated by songs that were big hits for a moment and then pretty much disappeared. Where did they go? Why did they go? And isn’t it possible they’re fantastic, or at least have fantastic back stories?

And what makes a song lost? Around here, a song is considered lost when it has fewer than 10 million streams on Spotify.

In my experience, lost songs can be the most interesting, because they’re both entertaining and instructive. As we’re tapping our toes or shaking our groove things, we also can get a window into particular moments in time. Or to put it another way: When we rediscover lost songs, we rediscover part of ourselves.

Subscribers receive two write-ups per week: On Mondays, we’ll explore a forgotten hit that reached the top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100. On Wednesdays, it’ll be a song that peaked below the top 10 but is still worth remembering.

Paid subscribers get even more: For $5 a month or $55 a year, you get…

* access to our entire archive, which explore hundreds of songs (all posts become subscriber-only after seven days)

*permission to comment on posts

* exclusive access to bonus content, including interviews with the artists behind lost hits.

The Lost Songs Project is solely supported by subscribers like you (though if you’d like to purchase advertising, feel free to email me at lostsongs@substack.com.)

Without your support, the project can’t exist, so subscribe today!

What makes a song “lost?”

We’re calling a song is “lost” if it has fewer than 10 million streams on Spotify.

What’s this I hear about an LSP community?

The rumors are true! Half the fun of doing this is talking to each other about the music, so we’re going to keep discussion threads going about everything from current entries to overlooked subgenres to weird high school memories that get sparked by hearing “Just Another Dream” by Cathy Dennis.

Meanwhile, you can follow me on Twitter or Instagram or Bluesky.