Looking at comments so far, I would never describe Wall of Voodoo, Procul Harum, or the Byrds as “One-hit wonder” bands.
Not sure about Yellow Submarine, who wrote that one? /s
By the way, does anyone know who came up with the term “One-hit wonder”? Did that person come up with any other memorable phrases?
“By the way, does anyone know who came up with the term “One-hit wonder”?”
I’d guess Dick Clark was the originator. I seem to remember him using it.
It’s obcure:
‘this term doesn’t appear in print until surprisingly late. The earliest I can find is from the Winnipeg Free Press, in July 1977, in a piece about Abba:
“Instead of becoming what everyone expected [after winning the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo], a one-hit wonder, they soon had a string of hits behind them.”
The use of the phrase there suggests that it was already known. It would certainly be ironic if the first use ‘one-hit wonder’ was in an article about Abba - one of the most successful groups in pop history.
There were many one-hit wonders in the 1950s and 1960s, although whether they were called that at the time seems in doubt.
The phrase was used long before 1977 in another context. In baseball a one-hit wonder is a pitcher who restricts the opposing team to a single base-hit by virtue of outstanding pitching. This goes back to at least 1914, as here from the New York newspaper The Middletown Daily Times-Press, July 1914 - in a piece entitled One-hit wonder fails to hold locals down:
“The Middies trimmed Newburgh by a score of 6 to 1, although Newburgh were aided and abetted by ‘Let-er-go’ Gallagher, their one hit pitcher.”
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/one-hit-wonder.html
Name another song by
Wall of Voodoo??
ProcoharHaram....whatever...
Sheesh ...have fun with it.