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One-Hit Wonders of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s
I don’t think we’ve had enough arguing recently on Ricochet. So here are my picks for best one-hit wonders for three decades. I’m sure you will all agree. Or not.
1960s
Talk Talk by The Music Machine. One minute and fifty-six seconds of attitude. This was a very competitive decade (see, for instance, Gloria by The Shadows of Knight, Hey Little Girl by The Syndicate of Sound, Tighten Up by Archie Bell & The Drells, Rescue Me by Fontella Bass, Dirty Water by The Standells, 96 Tears by ? & The Mysterians and, of course, I Had Too Much To Dream by The Electric Prunes).
My social life’s a dud/My name is really mud
1970s
Patti Smith has a long and successful career but only one hit single, Because The Night, and it is magnificent. She took a song originally written by Bruce Springsteen and rewrote the verse lyrics while waiting for a call from her boyfriend. Admittedly, my choice raises serious metaphysical issues – can someone be a one-hit wonder if they’ve had a long and successful career? Some may dispute whether my choice is correct but since I believe we can all self-identify with our own truth and declare our pronouns, I’m saying it is.
1980s
Jenny/867-5309 by Tommy Tutone. Perhaps the greatest one-hit wonder of them all.
I tried to call you before, but I lost my nerve/I tried my imagination, but I was disturbed
.
Published in General
All great songs, here is another for your list – ok its a little odd – but its fun:
80’s:
“Toy Soldiers” by Martika
“Black Velvet” by, um, hang on…
Oh yeah – Black Velvet by Alanah Myles
Plus “Come On Eileen” by Dexi and the Midnight Runners (I think)
Alannah Myles is a one hit wonder? That’s a bit harsh.
1960s
1970s
1980s
Perhaps a regional hit.
The Prize by The Blend.
I think it was ‘easier’ for a 1 hit wonder to happen in the 60s-70s era, because the music industry was fairly fragmented, there where lots of smaller companies out there looking to “swing for the fences” with new acts. Today, it seems that if the band wasnt on the radio in 1995 they’re not on the radio now. It seems that the airwaves are locked up with corporately controlled music – new acts just arent breaking in as much. Maybe online is the place to find new music – because the cost of distribution online is near zero, they dont need corporate backers to fund a band…
The ultimate one-hit wonder of the 70s has to be American Pie.
Sure, Don McLean had a long and successful music career. But it was solely due to that one (dreadful) song.
Another data point that Springsteen is good as long as it isn’t him performing.
It was awful and his career due to it but he did have two other top ten singles.
Dexy’s Midnight Runners, of course.
But, but, but I like American Pie. Bet you hate another one hit wonder – MacArthur Park. It shares that wondrously overwrought thingy.
Lots of great one hit wonders. Too many to recount. Great comments though.
Norman Greenbaum and his Spirit in the Sky.
Can’t speak for Mendel, but I do like MacArthur Park.
My nominee for worst one-hit wonder of the 60s (and it hit #1!) is In The Year 2525 by Zager & Evans.
This band belongs there somewhere. I think it was the late 1970s.
The 80s was the last great decade of music. It’s been all downhill ever since.
Timbuk 3 – The Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades
Nu Shooz – I Can’t Wait
Til Tuesday – Voices Carry
After the Fire – Der Kommisar
Quarterflash – Harden My Heart
Madness – Our House
Cutting Crew – I Just Died In Your Arms
Edie Brickell – What I Am
Dead Or Alive – You Spin Me Round
Men Without Hats – The Safety Dance
Modern English – Melt with You
A-Ha – Take On Me
Some great ones in there.
Great idea. Off the top of my head I’ve got this one from the 80s.
Telephone Man
I don’t think anyone has mentioned “Mexican Radio” by Wall of Voodoo yet.
Maybe too obscure, but this one’s definitely their best known song. Not sure how much of a “hit” it was, but I love it.
Quarterflash – Harden My Heart
Nothing from The Fixx?
Sounds like a dementoid.
Didn’t come to mind. But “One Thing Leads to Another” and possibly “Saved by Zero” makes them one of many “two-hit wonders.”
Same with A Flock of Seagulls. Arguably, they had more than one hit with “I Ran” . . . there’s also “Wishing (If I had a Photograph of You)” and “Space Age Love Song.” Although “I Ran” is clearly the standout.
Men without Hats may have only had the one hit, but they produced one of *the* truly great synth-pop albums of the 1980s with Pop Goes The World.
A joke from college:
Q: What’s more disgusting than Grease on Olivia Newton John?
One of my co-workers from the mid-1980s — the one who was crazy about The Rocky Horror Picture Show — listened to Frankie Goes to Hollywood all the time. All I remember is Relax.