I have heard the song "Africa" on the radio about a dozen times in the last week or so. Why? How on earth did that get on a playlist? Some of this is due to the Jack radio format, in which "we play everything" is defined as "we play lots of stuff from the 80s" which is fine with me, cause I like the 80s. But I've also been hearing it on random easy listening and kind-of-easy-but-kind-of-alternative-aimed-at-thirty-something stations (Hi, WBOS!)
How does a song like get back on the playlist? That happens every once in a while, some 15 to 20 year old song will start getting played again for no identifiable reason. There's some old songs you're always going to hear; I'm not going to go "huh, what's up with that?" if they put on, say "Born to Run." But Toto?
My first thought in situations like that is "oh, I bet the guy died."
On a completely unrelated note, one of the younguns in my office just revealed she has no idea who Duran Duran is. So I've spent the morning peppering her with 80s questions: The Cure? Depeche Mode? Genesis? (yes, no, sort of: she thought they sang "Groovy Kind of Love")
