# Artists with a big volume of works who are only known for one or two **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2010, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778 "2010-06-28T13:25:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/61 "2010-07-01T13:16:50Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > Is there room for Loudon Wainwright III on that poster? > [@Mahaloth](#): > > What’s his famous song? Dead Snunk By the Side of the Road. Alice Walker wrote other things besides The Color Purple. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/62 "2010-07-01T14:05:14Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Rush? 36 years, 18 studio albums, and most people can name “Tom Sawyer” and probably nothing else. Yet Rush has had only one Top 40 hit, and that wasn’t it–it was “New World Man.” ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/63 "2010-07-02T17:35:35Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Yet Rush has had only one Top 40 hit, and that wasn’t it–it was “New World Man.” And _that_ only made it to something like #22. ---
**Author:** ![Labtrash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/labtrash/32/528_2.png) [@Labtrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labtrash)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/64 "2010-07-02T17:51:23Z")
Rupert Holmes – Escape (The Piña Colada Song) -From Wiki “While Holmes has since had a successful career as a playwright and novelist, and fans feel affection for his other musical works, this song remains his most recognizable trademark” ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/65 "2010-07-02T20:19:28Z")
Stephen Sondheim has had an exraordinary career, yet people outside of theatre buffs may know he wrote West Side Story. Similarly, Sholem Aleichem is known as “the guy who wrote the Fiddler on the Roof” stories. He wrote a bunch of very hard-biting tories of Jewish culture that were used as the basis for the musical. Not to knock the musical, but the stories have much more depth and are a fantastic read. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/66 "2010-07-02T21:05:27Z")
[O. Henry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._Henry) produced volume upon volume of short stories and was enormously popular in his day, but these days is remembered (if at all) for [The Gift of the Magi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gift_of_the_Magi). ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/67 "2010-07-02T21:25:39Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > [O. Henry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._Henry) produced volume upon volume of short stories and was enormously popular in his day, but these days is remembered (if at all) for [The Gift of the Magi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gift_of_the_Magi). I would think that The Ransom Of Red Chief is as well known as Magi is… ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/68 "2010-07-02T21:40:29Z")
A. A. Milne was a contributing editor to _Punch_ magazine for almost 20 years and a successful playwright with over 25 plays to his credit, yet today is only known for writing the 2 **Winnie-the-Pooh** books ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/69 "2010-07-03T00:03:39Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > I would think that The Ransom Of Red Chief is as well known as Magi is… Never heard of it, and I doubt many others have. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/70 "2010-07-03T00:42:19Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Never heard of it, and I doubt many others have. 🙂 I have always considered The Ransom Of Red Chief as THE signature O. Henry short story, with a classic example of his trademark surprise ending. I assume that anyone who knows his writing has read “Red Chief”… ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/71 "2010-07-03T01:04:21Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > I have always considered The Ransom Of Red Chief as THE signature O. Henry short story, with a classic example of his trademark surprise ending. > > I assume that anyone who knows his writing has read “Red Chief”… Let almighty Google be the judge… “Ransom of the Red Chief” gets 7,520 hits “Gift of the Magi” gets 159,000 hits ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/72 "2010-07-03T02:17:08Z")
Erle Stanley Gardner is known mostly for his Perry Mason novels, but he was a a terrifically prolific writer of other stories as well and published under a variety of pseudonyms, such as A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray and Robert Parr. Among his other works was a series of books where the DA was the good guy and the lawyer was not. This from Wiki: \*"Under the pen name A. A. Fair, he also wrote a series of novels about the private detective firm of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. He also wrote another noteworthy series of novels about District Attorney Doug Selby and his opponent, the rascally Alphonse Baker Carr. This series is interesting in that it is an inversion of the motif of the Perry Mason novels, with prosecutor Selby being portrayed as the courageous and imaginative crime solver and his perennial antagonist A.B. Carr being a wily shyster whose clients are always “as guilty as hell”. \* [Wiki Link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erle_Stanley_Gardner) ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/73 "2010-07-03T02:44:45Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Let almighty Google be the judge… > > “Ransom of the Red Chief” gets 7,520 hits > > “Gift of the Magi” gets 159,000 hits “The Ransom of Red Chief” gets 246,000 hits. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/74 "2010-07-03T04:32:57Z")
oopsie ---
**Author:** ![BlackNGold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BlackNGold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackNGold)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/75 "2010-07-03T21:56:22Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > MUSIC > > Golden Earring and Status Quo have been among the most popular hard rock bands in Europe for decades, but in the USA, they’re regarded as “one-hit wonders,” and remembered solely for “Radar Love” and “Pictures of Matchstick Men,” respectively. Disagree on Golden Earring, “Twilight Zone” is also well-known and often on the airways in the US. But I don’t know that most people would associate them with the same band. I think most would recognize both songs, but not remember who recorded either. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/76 "2010-07-04T03:05:10Z")
> [@BlackNGold](#): > > Disagree on Golden Earring, “Twilight Zone” is also well-known and often on the airways in the US. But I don’t know that most people would associate them with the same band. I think most would recognize both songs, but not remember who recorded either. I know _Twilight Zone_ was them, mainly because the video was one of the first videos I ever saw (my family didn’t have a TV - so after seeing the video at a friend’s house it didn’t get lost in a crowd of other videos). Years later I heard _Radar Love_ and found out it was them. I’ve never even heard of _Pictures of Matchstick Men_, though. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/77 "2010-07-06T17:04:21Z")
To go with Shelly & Stoker, Gaston LeRoux. Not remembered for any work but Phantom of the Opera. ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/78 "2010-07-07T01:45:56Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Jazz buffs, of course, know that Dave Brubeck has been a remarkably prolific composer and musician over his astonishingly long career, but I’d wager "Take Five"is the only Brubeck piece 99% of the population could name. WORD!.. was that too square? maybe I should hold an unsquare dance 😉 From a previous thread…Most (but we do) don’t get or know John Prine. tsfr ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/79 "2010-07-07T05:40:25Z")
Another shout-out for Rush. I swear around here if you mention “The Body Electric,” “Half The World,” or even their new song “Caravan,” people will look at you like you’re batty. Mention “Tom Sawyer” and people go nuts. Oh well. Their loss. More Rush goodness for us folks, yes? ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778/80 "2010-07-07T06:35:31Z")
Science fiction fans only know Alfred Bester due to two novels: _The Stars my Destination_ and _The Demolished Man_. He wrote dozens of others in many genres and also worked on comic books. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-with-a-big-volume-of-works-who-are-only-known-for-one-or-two/544778.md?page=5)