I recently stumbled across a Substack called Can’t Get Much Higher, billed as “the intersection of music and data.” Now that sounds right up my alley, and I’m looking forward to receiving the weekly posts.

The one I discovered was an analysis of musical artists who’ve been forgotten over time. To come up with the ranked list, writer Chris Dalla Riva looked at the Spotify popularity score of artists with at least 10 Top 40 hits. The lower the popularity score, the more forgotten.

By that criteria, the most forgotten artist of the popular music era is singer Ronnie Dove, with 11 Top 40 hits and a popularity score of 37. This is the first I’ve heard of Dove, which certainly supports his placement atop this list.

The Virginia-born Dove started his singing career while enlisted in the Coast Guard, first with a group called The Belltones and then as a solo artist in the early 60s.

He released five Top 20 hits in his peak years of 1964-1966, including today’s SOTD, which reached #14.

When his pop success dried up, he shifted to country music in the early 70s and scored a few minor hits on those charts. He continued to record and perform live well into his golden years before retiring two years ago at 87.