Which is just as well, as “Cum On Feel The Noize” and “Mama Weer All Crazee Now” are unremarkable covers of Slade songs.
Slade themselves are best known in the UK for their perpetually-played holiday hit “Merry Xmas Everybody” but their version of “Cum On Feel the Noize” is also well enough known to save them from one-hit wonderdom. 15 albums of various sorts.
Rock Lobster was a huge radio and club song. They weren’t that alternative as I recall. They were more like a cartoon band really. But I’m not surprised that you didn’t hear them when you were 0.
I would have been 3, but had no idea that song was that old. I thought early mid 80s.
Also, FWIW, Rock Lobster didn’t even make the US top 40. Not even top 50. #56 was its peak. Planet Claire didn’t hit the Hot 100. Love Shack was #3. (And #1 on the “Modern Rock Tracks” chart) and Roam also hit #3. I totally also forget that Deadbeat Club from that album charted, too, peaking at #30.
The top 40 of that time, 1979-80 didn’t reflect anyone’s taste really though. It was an industry holdover that made no difference to lived culture, unless you mean school kids.
It makes perfect sense to me that they had bigger hits later on. Because it’s not a measure of anything but fame already attained, the industry knowing who you are and what to do with you, etc. This happens to tons of artists. But Love Shack being more well known than rock lobster, 52 girls, Give me back my man, private idaho? I don’t know.
I think there’s absolutely no question that “Love Shack” is more well known than any of those songs. (I’ve never even heard of “52 Girls” and “Give Me Back My Man.”) Put it this way, my parents, who were born in Poland and don’t listen to Top 40 radio at all, probably recognize “Love Shack.” It’s one of those culturally significant songs, for whatever reason. Go to a wedding, and there’s a 1/4 chance it’s on the playlist (I’ve been to about 300 weddings, and I’ve heard “Love Shack” at I’m guessing nearly a quarter of them. Never heard “Rock Lobster” or any other B-52s song.)
You damn with faint praise.
Slade are probably best known NOW for Merry Xmas Everybody but it is unfair to suggest they WERE anything like mere one hit wonders.
Almost anyone (in the UK) growing up in their early 1970s heyday will know several of their songs. For a while they were the biggest selling pop band out there before fading away following misguided attempts at making a serious film and cracking America.
But they made a return to chart success in the 1980s and the hits sporadically resumed into the 1990s until the lead singer (Noddy Holder) and the main song writer (Jim Lea) both left.
TCMF-2L
Garth Brooks had dozens of hit songs, but I’d bet you the only song non-country fans could tell you is “Friends In Low Places”.
Falco had a lot of studio albums, but most outside Austria will only really know “Rock Me Amadeus.” Maybe “Der Kommissar” as well, but that’s likely to be the After The Fire cover.
I’ll nominate T.Rex and, as you probably guess, Bang a Gong. They don’t have a huge catalog of recorded material (8 studio albums) but that’s the song you are likely to hear on a classic rock station.
The Offspring: sucker with no self esteem.
Beck: Loser
I would say that Come Out and Play (Offspring) and Devil’s Haircut (Beck) both got quite a bit of airplay.
Just heard one on the radio this morning.
Most people have heard of Black Sabbath, and certainly Ozzy Osbourne. 19 albums over 4 decades. And yet, when was the last time you heard anything other than “Paranoid” (which inspired this post) or “Iron Man” on the radio? Maybe "The Mob Rules"or “War Pigs” back in the 80s.
I don’t listen to the radio much, but “Crazy Train” is the one song I think of when I think of Ozzy.
I have seen both bands multiple times and have never heard of these songs.
That’s more than one song. What about sweet leaf?
No more Tears, Suicide solution, Mr. Crowley, Bark at the moon, Shot in the dark, Mama I’m coming home,
Yeah, more than one.
I was about to amend my post to mention this being his only solo hit that still gets any airplay, but decided against it because I remember he had quite a few hits back in the day. (“No More Tears”, “Bark at the Moon”, “Flying High Again”). It’s just that they’ve all faded from memory as the classic rock playlists get reduced and homogenized. To today’s generation he’s probably best known as a reality show guy, then maybe “Crazy Train”, and then the bat head-biting incident.
The Ventures.
They are known today for one song – the Hawaii 5-0 theme.
According to Wikipedia, they’ve released over 200 albums and over 60 singles in their career and claim to be the best selling instrumental group of all time. They pretty much invented surf music, but they only had the two hits, and only one is known to most people today. Versions of the group are still touring, though only one original member seems to be involved. They’re still massively influential among musicians.
Warren Zevon. Most people only know him for Werewolves of London. But he was putting out great records from the 1970’s until the day he died. Most Zevon fans would not say Werewolves was his best work, or even in their personal top 5 favorite Zevon songs.
Btw, we just passed the 10th anniversary of his death.
This didn’t sound right to me, so I looked it up. Eagles have had seven top 40 hits in the UK, their songs have spent 37 weeks in the top 40, and they have NINE albums that hit the top 10 in the UK. In fact, only three of their original albums DIDN’T make the top 10 in the UK (On the Border, Desperado, and Hell Freezes Over).
The first album to hit the UK top 10 was “One of These Nights” in 1975. The last album they made, “Long Road out of Eden” in 2007, went to #1 in the UK.
That’s about as far from a one-hit wonder as you can get.
“You gotta keep 'em separated” doesn’t ring any bells at all???
If they aren’t playing it at their concert, it’s because they are tired of playing it. Not because it is an obscure b-side track.
Check out the ratings for Come out and Play vs Esteem (note which is higher on the US Radio Songs listing:
Now, I will give you that Beck’s Loser was more popular than Devil’s Haircut, but it was on the radio in my neck of the woods.