# Bands with the most material, known only for one song **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 28, 2017, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324 "2017-07-28T14:27:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/201 "2017-08-02T23:22:34Z")
> [@Temper70](#): > > Did I miss any mention of **DEVO**? Although I’m a huge fan and listen to their entire collection, I’d find it hard to believe most people would know anything other than their hit song “ **Whip It** ”. . . they released 9 studio albums. . . > > . . . Weird Al included part of “Jocko Homo” (the song with “Are we not men? We are Devo”) in one of his polkas medleys. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2017, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/202 "2017-08-02T23:40:21Z")
> [@divemaster](#): > > Ha. This is what came to mind when I saw the thread. I’ve always wondered how \*\*Yes \*\*could be in the Rock HOF with only 3 songs. 🙂 Because it’s been the Hall of Fairly Well Known, Half-Decent Bands for years now. Wonder what mediocrities they’ll admit next year? Say what you will about the Baseball HOF’s erratic entry standards (and I’ve long agreed with most of the criticisms), the Rock n’ Roll HOF makes Cooperstown look rigorous and exacting by comparison. Hell, there are artists and bands _that I’m a fan of_, that I think they have to have had to cast a pretty wide net to include. ABBA. Blondie. Crosby, Stills & Nash. (No Young.) Donovan. And I haven’t gotten out of the D’s yet. ---
**Author:** ![SpeedwayRyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@SpeedwayRyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpeedwayRyan)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2017, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/203 "2017-08-03T12:53:37Z")
> [@x-ray\_vision](#): > > It was their biggest hit, but the Grateful Dead are almost synonymous with the 60s and “Touch of Grey” was released in ‘87. Us old farts will probably first associate them with a lot of older songs such as “Friend of the Devil”, "Truckin’", “Fire on the Mountain”, “Casey Jones” and a few others. For a band “almost synonymous with the 60s,” every song you mention after “Touch of Grey” was released in the 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2017, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/204 "2017-08-03T13:07:14Z")
> [@SpeedwayRyan](#): > > For a band “almost synonymous with the 60s,” every song you mention after “Touch of Grey” was released in the 1970s. Change that to 70s. All songs I mentioned were released in 1970 except for “Fire on the Mountain.” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2017, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/205 "2017-08-03T15:15:30Z")
> [@x-ray\_vision](#): > > Change that to 70s. All songs I mentioned were released in 1970 except for “Fire on the Mountain.” Plus you can say you were using the cultural use of the term “the Sixties,” which is often listed as Kennedy assassination(1963) to Watergate (1972). (I seem to remember we had a poll about what years constituted “the 60s” here.) ETA: Ah, yes, [here we go](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=827179). ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2017, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/206 "2017-08-03T15:20:47Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Plus you can say you were using the cultural use of the term “the Sixties,” which is often listed as Kennedy assassination(1963) to Watergate (1972). (I seem to remember we had a poll about what years constituted “the 60s” here.) I was actually going to say that the 60s ended in 1973. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2017, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/207 "2017-08-03T21:04:12Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > Admittedly I’m a Brit with very little music knowledge, but the only _Chicago_ song I know is “Hard to Say I’m Sorry”. > > Not the most prolific, but in terms of apparent discrepancy between one hit and overall success, from a UK point of view The Eagles are only really known here for “Hotel California”. Do you think you’re mainstream in this or an outlier? ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2017, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/208 "2017-08-05T09:28:59Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > Literally the only song by Chicago I’ve ever heard or know of is _Saturday In The Park_. I’ll lend you all my albums 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2017, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/209 "2017-08-05T09:32:50Z")
Two bands extremely well known spring to mind. First The Rolling Stones. Everyone knows one of their songs but given they have been around for 400 years and their fame I would think most people should be able to rattle off a long list. The second would be Blood Sweat and Tears. Ditto. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2017, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/210 "2017-08-05T10:38:29Z")
And one of course, is The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2017, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/211 "2017-08-05T11:01:07Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > Two bands extremely well known spring to mind. > > First The Rolling Stones. Everyone knows one of their songs but given they have been around for 400 years and their fame I would think most people should be able to rattle off a long list. > > The second would be Blood Sweat and Tears. Ditto. Dude, my kids’ friends who listen to music in an active way are all huge Stones fans, and listen to whole albums like Exile. Start Me Up is sports arena fodder. The kids know Gimme Shelter because it’s used as the soundtrack in all the 60’s documentaries to illustrate the darkening mood of the country. And because it still contains the best goddamn backing vocal ever recorded, thank you Merry Clayton. And all of that is before Satisfaction. The Stones?! Blood, Sweat and Tears, yes. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2017, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/212 "2017-08-06T10:16:00Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Dude, my kids’ friends who listen to music in an active way are all huge Stones fans, and listen to whole albums like Exile. Start Me Up is sports arena fodder. The kids know Gimme Shelter because it’s used as the soundtrack in all the 60’s documentaries to illustrate the darkening mood of the country. And because it still contains the best goddamn backing vocal ever recorded, thank you Merry Clayton. And all of that is before Satisfaction. > > The Stones?! > > Blood, Sweat and Tears, yes. Meh- you only joined in April 2001, how can you possibly argue with me? 🙂 When I mentioned the Stones, I think people can recall one song (maybe each a different song) but overall they have a limited list of well known songs compared to the Beatles (who doesn’t?) or the Beach Boys. However, I guess it depends what genre you follow and what music appeals to you. I don’t think ABBA could ever be accused of being known for only one song (then again, they were huge here). ---
**Author:** ![Lorne\_Armstrong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@Lorne\_Armstrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorne_Armstrong)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2017, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/213 "2017-08-06T11:16:39Z")
The Moody Blues - Nights In White Satin The Fixx - One Thing Leads To Another Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science Quiet Riot - Cum On Feel The Noize Twisted Sister - We’re Not Gonna Take It Philip Bailey - Easy Lover B-52s - Love Shack Sammy Davis, Jr. - Candy Man The Brady Six - Time To Change Lorne Armstrong - I Loved Her First (Kayla edit) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2017, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/214 "2017-08-06T12:16:46Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > Two bands extremely well known spring to mind. > > First The Rolling Stones. Everyone knows one of their songs but given they have been around for 400 years and their fame I would think most people should be able to rattle off a long list. > > The second would be Blood Sweat and Tears. Ditto. Well, what would you expect? Both bands’ glory days were a long time ago (and BS&T’s only lasted a few years). Over time, a lot of lesser details drop out of one’s memory. (And as I’ve already mentioned, out of ‘classic rock’ playlists as well.) Nonetheless, even though I’m not a big Stones fan, I can rattle off a bunch of their hits from just the 1960s. And even though I haven’t listened to the David Clayton-Thomas incarnation of BS&T in forever, I can remember a half-dozen of their hits, as well as a number of their songs that didn’t get airplay. (I remember _Child Is Father To the Man_, the one album from the Al Kooper incarnation of BS&T, quite well: it’s on one of my regular playlists, and I listened to it just last week.) ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2017, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/215 "2017-08-06T13:26:45Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > Meh- you only joined in April 2001, how can you possibly argue with me? 🙂 > > When I mentioned the Stones, I think people can recall one song (maybe each a different song) but overall they have a limited list of well known songs compared to the Beatles (who doesn’t?) or the Beach Boys. > > However, I guess it depends what genre you follow and what music appeals to you. I don’t think ABBA could ever be accused of being known for only one song (then again, they were huge here). I come at it differently. With my kids, they think that all the stadium rock songs are…historically equivalent? So Kernkraft 400 and Start Me Up were part of the same group. But the point is that they knew Start Me Up, Satisfaction, and Gimme Shelter before they got turned on to the Stones, because the songs are part of the cultural fabric. I face you in debate, **Cicero** , with your seniority accorded the respect it deserves. 😉 :D. The Stones, to a smaller degree vs the Beatles, but still, transitioned from hugely popular to enduring pretty easily. This thread is more about the “historification” of rock music. When it’s not steeped in the atmosphere, what gross oversimplification will later generations fall victim to? By the same token, who will be held higher, e.g., Bowie and Queen? ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2017, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/216 "2017-08-06T16:12:53Z")
Love Shack? B-52s are known for 4 or 5 songs at least, all coming a decade before that. Rock Lobster, Planet Claire, and on and on ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2017, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/217 "2017-08-06T16:47:20Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > Love Shack? > > B-52s are known for 4 or 5 songs at least, all coming a decade before that. > > Rock Lobster, Planet Claire, and on and on Roam, from the same Love Shack era, also got quite a lot of play in the day (and I still here it on the radio, though not as often as Love Shack.) Also, Channel Z to a much smaller extent. Rock Lobster and Planet Claire was more for people who were already into college/alternative music. I don’t think I heard them until I was in my 20s (the late 90s, early 00s.) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2017, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/218 "2017-08-06T18:05:18Z")
> [@Lorne\_Armstrong](#): > > The Moody Blues - Nights In White Satin The funny thing is, there was a long stretch of time in the 80s or 90s when, if there was a Moodies song on the radio, 3:1 it was “The Story In Your Eyes.” In a way, it was the perfect Moodies song for classic rock, being almost pure Essence of Moody Blues, while not really demanding your attention - terrific background music, but a half hour later, you might not remember it was one of the songs the station had played while you were listening. So even though it got played a lot, the Moodies would have never been remembered for that particular song. But again, this goes back to: are we talking about whether the Moodies were known mainly for just one song back in 1973, when “Isn’t Life Strange” and “I’m Just a Singer In a Rock N’ Roll Band” had just been on the airwaves, or whether they’re remembered for just one song now, nearly four and a half decades later? Time drops a great many things out of our memory banks, and compactifies a great many others. The great philosopher Thomas Hobbes is largely remembered now for that “nasty, brutish, and short” line; a few centuries of water under the bridge will work that sort of reductionism on more notable figures than BS&T or the Moody Blues. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2017, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/219 "2017-08-06T23:06:13Z")
> [@Lorne\_Armstrong](#): > > The Moody Blues - Nights In White Satin > The Fixx - One Thing Leads To Another > Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science > Quiet Riot - Cum On Feel The Noize > Twisted Sister - We’re Not Gonna Take It > Philip Bailey - Easy Lover > B-52s - Love Shack > Sammy Davis, Jr. - Candy Man > The Brady Six - Time To Change > Lorne Armstrong - I Loved Her First (Kayla edit) Quiet Riot had two other hits: _Ma MAma We’re All Crazee Now_ and _Bang Your Head(Metal Health will drive you wild)_. Frankly, I remember them more for _Bang Your Head_. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324/220 "2017-08-07T01:01:27Z")
I wouldn’t count Philip Bailey – a brief solo career after being part of a major group act should be exempt from “one-hit wonder,” I think. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bands-with-the-most-material-known-only-for-one-song/792324.md?page=12)