That Thing You Do
~ The Wonders ~
From the soundtrack to the Tom Hanks-written and directed movie about a fictional rock & roll band from Erie, Pennsylvania who luck into their one and only hit record in 1964, this title track reached # 21 on real-life Billboard Charts in 1996! Both the movie and the song are favorites of mine.
Lies
~ The Knickerbockers ~
In early 1966, the Knickerbockers hit the Top 20 with "Lies," the best and most accurate early Beatle imitation ever recorded; the lead vocals were a dead ringer for John Lennon and the whole production could have fit in snugly on the second side of A Hard Day's Night. Actually a frat rock band from New Jersey who didn't write much of their own material, they never made anything else as successful. A couple decent follow-ups — "One Track Mind" and the similarly mock-British Invasion "High on Love" — were small regional hits, but their albums were even blander than many of the era's other one-shot artists. Drummer and singer Jimmy Walker briefly replaced Bill Medley in the Righteous Brothers.
The classic structure and the distinctive "bridge" section ("Someday you're gonna be lonely") seems to my ear to be the note-for-note inspiration for "That Thing You Do" by The Wonders and the Knickerbockers story could be the prototype of the movie.
