Posted on 01/19/2014 6:15:37 AM PST by ken5050
BTW, I interviewed Blues Image guitarist Mike Pinera for one of my books.
I look at “one hit wonders” more at the album level than individual songs. I’ve seen cases where a band or artist has an album with many good songs, then they seem to vanish.
The ‘pop’ music scene of today seems to be full of them. It usually involves a solo vocalist(most of the time a female). In most cases, I don’t believe they even write their own music, and they can just halfway sing with ‘studio magic’ doing the rest to the tune of electronically generated sounds and drum machines. They’ll be popular for long enough to go on a two or three month tour, sell some albums, and then they’re ‘gone’ - only to be replaced with another one. I have a theory that there is a small group of record companies that manufacture and turn them out as if done on an assembly line. They get as much profit as they can from the ‘flavor of the month’, rinse/repeat, and keep the cash flowing.
The kids that are buying this crap are so shallow, they probably couldn’t care less about the “artists”, they just get into the imagery and coolness of it all. Virtually every song is about partying, dancing in clubs, and sex - if any meaning can be derived from it at all.
And who could forget “Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida”?
Here’s Ted’s first hit with the Amboy Dukes:
Journey to the Center of the Mind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z88ddt8fiho
Their follow-up album was actually quite good, but never got any traction...
Argent only had one US hit but he was huge in England.
That said, there ARE actually one-hit-wonders, just a lot fewer of them than a lot of writers imagine.
I hated that song when it was a hit. But a funny thing happened. I bought that actual vinyl LP at an estate sale a couple of years ago and discovered they were actually a folk duet, and darned good at that genre. It’s a great album, except for that ridiculous “hit”.
Oh, and the Rooftop Singers’ “Walk Right In”.
This has been covered by a country /soft rock band and is also very good,
Transfusion....Nervous Norvis
Well THAT really took me back... into another world.
Cool Cool Baby Lafayette Yarbrough
I didn’t see “Suspicion” by Terry Stafford (1964). Shouldn’t it be there?
Yep.
I’d say those ARE real OHWs.
Erik Darling, BTW, did have a bit of a career otherwise.
Ironically, I think that song is largely responsible for their one hit wonder status. It is a near perfect earworm, such that only after hearing it one or two times on the radio, it repeats itself over and over again in the mind of the listener to the point where the song defines the band.
I don't think they ever had any chance of recovering from that....
But for me ... Earth Angel.
The Penquins or The Vogues?
Of course, Rod Argent was with The Zombies, along with Colin Blunstone, who had several hits in the States, a fantastic group IMHO.
She had 11 top 100 singles so I don't think she belongs on this list.
Warren Zevon. Werewolves of London.
He may be a one hit wonder in terms of chart singles but in terms of albums he is considered one of the best singer-songwriter’s of the 70s and 80s
Unit 4+2 did Concrete and Clay
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