Re: Offspring. Did everyone just black out their execrable Ob-La-Di ripoff “Get a Job”? I think it may have been more popular than any of the songs mentioned. (“Self-Esteem” is the one I associate most with them.")
And as for Beck, there’s just so many. The one I hear all the time on the radio these days is “Girl.,” though " Where It’s At" is pretty close, too.
Sorry, I meant " Pretty Fly for a White Guy" as being perhaps the most well known of the Offspring bunch.
Have you ever heard of “Walk Don’t Run”?
The ventures are almost synonymous with every instrumental from the era: Telstar, Apache, on and on. They covered it all and for most of them the ventures is the only name I associate with them even when they weren’t the original artist.
And when I think of Hawaii 5-0 I just think TV. I’m not even sure the ventures did the theme from the show.
I actually did not realize the Ventures did the Hawaii 5-0 theme. When I think Ventures, I think “Walk Don’t Run,” “Pipeline,” perhaps “Wipeout” (although the Surfaris version is the one that usually got played round here.)
My point about the Ventures is that the songs are never played on the air today (other than "Hawaii 5-0). If you ask any music fan under 50, they would only know the one song.
As for associations, “Telstar” is the Tornadoes, “Pipeline” is the Chantays, and “Wipeout” is the Surfaris. The most popular version of “Apache” was by the Shadows, and didn’t even chart for the Ventures. Hell, more people probably associate Herb Alpert with “Walk Don’t Run” than the Ventures. Yes, they did them, but only Ventures fans recognize it. For the average music fan, “Hawaii 5-0” is all they know.
According to Wikipedia, only “Walk Don’t Run” and “Hawaii 5-0” made the top ten (none of the other ones mentioned made the top 40). Only two other songs made the top 40. No one under 50 has ever heard of them.
They are great musicians, but no one under 50 has ever heard of them, and the only song that they’d be familiar with is “Hawaii 5-0.” Given the fact they have put out hundreds of albums, most people know nothing about their work.
I’m definitely under 50 and I know all those songs. I bet my music fan friends do, as well. They are a legendary band. Like I said, I had no idea they even did the Hawaii Five-0 theme song. (Heck, just searching my Facebook feed, I see one post from the last two months specifically about the Ventures version of Tel-Star from one of my friends, also 42.)
I see they were briefly brought up on the first page, but Phish is worth another mention. They just finished a run of 13 nights at Madison Square Garden to nearly sold out crowds and never repeated a song. I would argue that they aren’t known for only one song - they aren’t known for any songs. A minority of people could probably come up with a Phish song if they really thought about it, but most people wouldn’t be able to. They’ve never really had a radio hit in the 35 years they’ve been around.
Here’s a spreadsheet with every song Phish has ever performed along with what was played at the recent MSG shows.
Phish – excellent choice. I think of their 1994 album Hoist as sort of the equivalent of Radiohead’s OK Computer or Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, or maybe Frank Sappa’s Apostrophe – that one album that even many non-fans might like, and that came closest to having a few songs enter the general consciousness, but other than that, the band is appreciated more for what they represent musically and artistically rather than for any song (Pink Floyd does have some actual songs in the general consciousness, that’s true.)
I’ve heard of Phish and know they have a traveling, rabid fan base similar to what Grateful Dead had years ago. But I don’t know a single song of theirs.
I just did a web search and listened to snippets of their “best known” songs. I don’t know any of them, and don’t understand the appeal. But, whatever floats your boat.
Selling out 13 shows in one city, even NYC, is insane. Particularly for a band with no hits or singles.
The songs are vehicles for exploration and transitions between songs.
I am not a jam band guy, and I can’t handle the poor vocal work that goes along with the music, but there is nothing like the musicianship at a Phish concert. Interesting and impressive.
I totally get why they don’t have songs out there in the public consciousness. They are very different from the Dead, but both are more about the experience than the music.
Albert Hammond is best known for a song that didn’t chart: It Never Rains in Southern California.
Hoist is actually when I first learned of Phish. Freshman year college, 1993. I’m struggling to think what song the average radio listener might know. The local modern rock station (WXRT) would play “Backwards Down the Number Line” fairly regularly a few years back. Also, “Heavy Things.”
It made #5 in the US.
It just didn’t hit in britain.
Thanks for that. I wasn’t worried enough to actually look it up, but I was pretty sure that song had to have charted pretty high. It was everywhere for a year or two. And I hated it… then and now.
I just remember it never stopped playing. There was no way that wasn’t on some chart.
I’m not sure if you were referring to my comment on Chicago’s “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” or what I said about The Eagles. In terms of the first, it appears I’m an outlier in this thread (which is why I originally mentioned it), no idea about the world in general. For the second, I personally like The Eagles and can name several of their hits, I was suggesting that in the UK, the average ‘man in the street’ would struggle to come up with anything other than “Hotel California”.
That’s fair comment, I was interpreting the OP as bands that are now only known for one song, rather than how many hits they had in their prime. Among music fans (i.e. people that actually buy singles/albums), I agree The Eagles are not the best answer to the OP in any location. I just thought they fit the criteria as I saw them.
I agree. I would think people may gave heard “Lawyers, Guns and Money” at some point but probably didn’t know who the artist was.
“Werewolves” isn’t anywhere near Zevon’s best work. Personally, my favorite is “Desperadoes Under the Eaves.”
“Poor Poor Pitiful Me”,“The French Inhaler”, “Mohammed’s Radio”, “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead”, “Carmelita”, “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner”, “Excitable Boy”, “Accidentally Like a Martyr”, “Play It All Night Long”…the list goes on.
Actually, the 14th anniversary of his death will be September 7th of this year.
That would be very close to my list as well. But the quality of his music never diminished. “Life’ll Kill Ya” is a great album.
Accidental Martyr: Here is a shot of one of my motos. Pay attention to the sticker on the top box. 
Cool! 
