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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
What? Midnight At The Oasis didn’t make the list?
I’m inclined to defend the 90s, but I’ll grant that pop music was probably at its prime in the 80s.
Heck! Why stop at the 80s….
Oh, Gumby. That Thing You Do…
How about one for the ’90’s?
Okay, it was the 1690’s, but still.
60s
70s (Deleted Video Killed The Radio Star–didn’t notice Mr. Block beat me to it)
So, the ubiquitous tribute to Clyde’s Restaurant of Georgetown, Afternoon Delight–and the video won’t embed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu1UXCdyNo0
80s
I’ve seen the Proclaimers in concert! Sunshine on Leith was a great album.
Their Christmas song gets some airplay . . .
Update: I had The Waitresses highlighted. Guess it didn’t take.
Brandy, by Looking Glass.
I forgot this one from my list of 60s contenders. Great tune and easy to play which is why our band played it in the 60s. Our guitarist could even do the solo!
And here’s another 80s contender and one of my favorite songs of the decade.
I don’t think that these are on the list yet:
Walking on Sunshine, Katrina and the Waves
99 Red Balloons, Nena
High Enough, Damn Yankees
Good picks, particularly The Cardigans. But if we’re doing the 90s we must not forget the Divinyls!
Culling the herd on the 60s is really tough because of songs like this. And
I Had Too Much to Dream
Gloria
Tobacco Road
Psychotic Reaction
One (American) hit wonder: Venus by Shocking Blue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPEhQugz-Ew
I’d forgotten Tobacco Road – good one!
Talk Talk was a great one-hit wonder. When it came on Sirius radio the other day in the car, my wife said “this was good song” and I was surprised, because she was a Beatles/Dave Clark Five fan.
I remember 96 Tears clearly because a kid lip-synced it for a high school talent show 50+ years ago.
Nice! I haven’t that one in years.
A giant one-hit wonder from the 70s was You Light Up My Life by Debby Boone, a song I didn’t care for until hearing this version from Patti Smith!!
Andy Pratt Avenging Annie
From the 1970’s: Afternoon Delight by Starland Vocal Band. This song was so big they were given a TV show. I once listened to the samples of the rest of their songs from the same album, thinking surely there must be another decent one. Nope, the rest were just awful. Until I looked for this video I never knew what they looked like. Yikes, one of the guys looks like Sean Hannity’s former co-host, Alan Colmes.
She has recorded a lot of albums/CDs, but I don’t know any songs other than this:
I probably know more about this group (see #36, above) than is healthy, but I went to school with the Alan Colmes-looking guy. I think they really epitomize the one-hit wonder because that song was everywhere (1976 Grammy, Best Song) and they never came remotely close again. The double-entendre helped but it was really about Sunday brunch. The singer and the blonde woman (married) wrote “Take Me Home Country Roads” for Denver and made out pretty well on that one.
Arahant,
I believe J Pachelbel was also a one hit wonder. Canon in D was light years ahead of it’s time and don’t think well appreciated in those 90’s. I think the only thing we know about him was that he was Bach’s older brother’s piano teacher or something. Canon in D was structured in a multi-level way with a beat not to dissimilar to a lot of songs of today. Way too out there for those 90’s. It was resurrected and rediscovered by a bad French rock band in the sixties and then picked up by a lot of classical people or otherwise it would have been totally forgotten and unknown.
So probably greatest one-hit wonder ever. Probably had a bad deal with the record company and lost the publishing rights so no royalties.
T-Rex. Enormously influential. Only one real hit.
If Marc Bolan hadn’t died so young …
And in a further one-hit wonder connection, the driver of the car when Bolan died in the accident was singer Gloria Jones with whom he had a child. In 1964 Gloria recorded this song which in the 80s became a hit for the one-hit wonders Soft Cell.
Unsk,
It was a joke. In his time, JP was closer to the Beatles than a one-hit wonder. But for anyone who is not willing to go for Baroque, that is probably his only composition they have heard of. Still, to have even one of his compositions achieve a revival close to 300 years after it was composed is a pretty good thing. But it is not his only work to survive, nor should it be. When you have eight minutes and want to relax, take a listen to this one.