30 Best One-Hit Wonders of the ’70s (Favorite Picks)

Midder ^ | 5/30/23 | Will Fenton

[DallasBiff]

20. “(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden” by Lynn Anderson

[dfwgator]

I think Eddy had already left by then.

[dfwgator]

The struggle is real.

[Albion Wilde]

Yes; another great song. He comes from quite a family, according to Wikipedia. His father was a doctor, but three Newman uncles were Hollywood film-score composers (Alfred, Lionel, and Emil); and four Newman cousins (Thomas, Maria, David, and Joey) also compose music for movies.

[kawhill]

Especially after a couple of glasses of wine and some blonde Lebanese hash? That was a long time ago.

[SamAdams76]

Driver's Seat by Sniff 'n' The Tears still sounds fresh today.

I do have the entire "Fickle Heart" album from that year (1979) which this cut was pulled from. While this band was lumped into the "new wave" category, it was really more of a straight up pub rock band.

That album also had some unique album art, painted by lead singer Paul Roberts, in which a women in high heels points a gun at a cat arching its back with the body of an apparent lover lying on the floor.

[Fiji Hill]

My favorite one-hit wonder from the Seventies is Whispering by Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band (1976). This counts as a one-hit wonder according to the article's criteria because the band s only other released only reached #80 on the Hot Hundred.

Nonetheless, it's a far, far cry from Paul Whiteman's original version of Whispering, a hit late in the year 1920.

[dfwgator]

it was really more of a straight up pub rock band.

I’ve really gotten into “Dr. Feelgood”, they were the ultimate British Pub Rock band. Nobody played the guitar like Wilko.

[Fiji Hill]

Both “Turn Down Day” and “Red Rubber Ball” were fixtures on KHJ’s playlist in the late summer of ‘66.

[dfwgator]

Having the KHJ sound checks now online is a godsend, I go to sleep with it playing, and it takes me back to my childhood.

[Albion Wilde]

Speak for yourself on that part. Lying on the sofa in my boyfriend’s arms and just listening was enough for me.

[Freee-dame]

Bands in the 70’ could sing. Bands today auto-tune.

Is this why the word was “singer” decades ago but now it’s “artist”?

[newfreep]

Elvin Bishop is a beast. Wrote a lot of songs.

"Fooled Around and Fell in Love" is a song written and performed by blues guitarist Elvin Bishop with future "Jefferson Starship" vocalist Mickey Thomas on lead vocals.

[newfreep]

That's painful to see the stylus/cantilever turned 90-degrees...

[cyclotic]

Probably 1969. The song was released October 29, 1968 and doesn’t appear to have charted by the end of the year.

BTW, BJ Thomas took it to Number 5 on Billboard. Blue Swede hit Number 1 in 1974.

I guess everyone loved the ukachakas.

This is a fun conversation.

[Fiji Hill]

The sailor she loved thought she was a fine girl, but his wife, his lover, his lady, was the sea.

The girl in this tune has a similar problem. To the sailor she loves, his home is the ocean, his friends are the stars over Bali, Shanghai, Lima, and Hawaii, his love is his ship and he is addicted to long voyages. Frustrated and ready to give up on him, she tells him not to think about her anymore.

Interestingly, this hit song comes from Austria, which has no seacoast.

Sailor, Your Home Is the Ocean--Lolita Ditta

[Exit148]

I was going to say that the 50s and 60s were best -— at least for me.

[lee martell]

How Long Has This Been Going On? by Ace 1974

Wildfire! by Micheal Martin Murphy 1975

Love Is the Drug by Roxy Music 1975

Somebody’s Watching You! by Little Sister (of Sly&Fam,Stone)
1970

[dfwgator]

Roxy Music??!?!?! Hardly.

Avalon is one of the best albums of the 80s.

[Responsibility2nd]

Kind of like “Pumped Up Kicks”. My wife was really enjoying the song, then I had to clue her on what the lyrics were.

_____________________________________

And yet that song is still in regular rotation on Alt Radio