And before anyone corrects me… Van Morrison had several hits. “Moondance” and “Brown Eyed Girl” come immediately to mind.
Well, you beat me to it, but Morrison had 16 charting singles, with “Domino” placing highest at #9. “Moondance,” surprisingly enough, only got as high as #92 on the pop Singles Charts. As for albums, there’s too many on the Billboard Hot 200 to even bother counting. Needless to say, saying Van Morrison lacks “lasting popularity” is a bit wrong (considering that in 2004 his What’s Wrong With this Picture made Billboard’s Top 40, seems he’s still popular enough.)
Don McLean, on the other hand, I will somewhat agree. I don’t know how much of a critical success he is, though. Not that I’m an expert in his work, but anything outside Don McLean and American Pie I’ve heard is pretty average.
Alas, it seems all his “songs” are badly covered rip-offs of legit artists. His punk-ass doesn’t warrant even a mention in a thread concerning actual musicians. :mad:
I’ve heard it said about Combs that he takes hit songs and makes them into hit songs. 
Vincent(Starry Starry Night) is a pretty good tune. A tribute to Vincent Van Gogh and it moved Roberta Flack to write a tribute to McLean called Killing Me Softly.
From what I can tell, McLean is a “musician’s musician”. One of those individuals whose prodigious talent is really appreciated the most among those who know just how damn hard it is to do what he makes look effortless. Oftentimes these types of artists are not well respected outside of their peer group and may be considered bland or otherwise unremarkable, but their talent is still impressive.
Enjoy,
Steven
I watched a Warren Miller snow-sports film recently (don’t ask), and they had Nelly Furtado’s “Turn Out the Light” on the soundtrack. It had been a while since I heard it, so I couldn’t remember immediately who it was; instead, I was thinking, Oh yeah, this song, this was a pretty good song, who was this again? About halfway through, I remembered, and I was thrown for something of a loop, because it all flooded back: I remembered that I liked that one song a lot, so I went and checked out the rest of her catalogue, and found nothing else even comparable. I wouldn’t classify her as a one-hit wonder, because she’s charted with other stuff, but that’s really the one song of hers I find not just tolerable but actually pretty sharp.
(IIRC, the Warren Miller film also used a Brak song, which was… interesting.)
Some great songs, in fact:
The Broadway Hotel
Sand in Your Shoes
Delia’s Gone
On the Border
The World Goes to Rhiyad
Merlin’s Time
In Brooklyn
:rolleyes:
You are aware that they were offered $1000000000.00 to reunite for a concert right? They must have made something that someone considered good somewhere along the way.
In the documentary The Winner Takes It All Bjorn Ulvaeus noted that he and Benny Andersson have made more money with their Broadway and other stage shows (Mamma Mia, Chess, etc) than they ever did with ABBA. From what I’ve read, ABBA has sold more than 250 million records worldwide. At one time they were second only to the Beatles in that respect.
Yes, I know that popular doesn’t always mean good (Britney Spears is a prime example of that).
I believe that most all of us can agree that Limp Bizkit approaches a curse upon the world of music, particularily apparent in Fred Durst.
However, I find that ‘My Way’ is not a half-bad tune, actually. Maybe it’s just early nostalgia. (Yes, I’m young.)
Remove Melanie - She was popular with the hippy crowd, along with Joni and Buffy and Joanie…
Amen my brother. Melianie rocked.
Gilbert O’Sullivan…Come on!
Get Down?Clair?O ye of little taste
And there’s a fan web site that lists about 20 or more albums. She’s definitely had a full career.
ABBA? ABBA?
Ring, Ring
Waterloo
Fernando
S.O.S.
Dancing Queen
The Name of the Game
Take a Chance on Me
Thank You For the Music
Voulez-Vous
Does Your Mother Know?
Super Trooper
Melanie also had a hit with the classic Woodstock anthem “Lay Down” (Candles in the Rain)", released before “Brand New Key”, so she is at worst a 2 hit wonder.
The Smiths: “How Soon Is Now?”
R.E.M.: “Radio Free Europe”
Somehow both of these bands managed to convince snobby critics that they don’t suck. But they did get it together for one track each. 