The Knack are often considered to be the quintessential one hit wonders. Who doesn’t know “My Sharona” but then draws a blank trying to name any other hits they might have had? Well, I happen to be a Knack fan, and I think “Good Girls Don’t” which is also from their debut album “Get The Knack” is a better song than “My Sharona”, but the latter is still the only song they’re famous for.
Does anyone else have any examples of one hit wonders that actually had other good songs that were never as successful?
Not really what you’re asking for, but I want to mention a 24-year-old song I just recently heard for the first time: “Superman” by one-hit-wonders the Ides of March (of “Vehicle” fame). The freaking thing is roll-on-the-floor hilarious, combining a knowingly ludicrous extended Superman metaphor with a blatant attempt to repeat the formula of the hit. So it’s got exactly the same faux-Blood Sweat & Tears sound with swaggering lead vocal, complete with the break at the end of each chorus where the band stops and the singer shouts out the hook–only instead of “Great God in Heaven, you know I love you!” he bellows “Great Caesar’s ghost, I’m Superman!”
In America, the band Nena had, to the best of my knowledge, only one popular hit – ‘99 Red Balloons/99 Luftballoons.’ (They may have had more in their native Germany.) On the album of the same name there are a bunch of other songs that are great! Going from memory some songs were ‘I Want to Be Your Pirate’, ‘?’ and a couple of others I can’t remember. It’s an album I still enjoy listening to, but I’ve never heard any of the other songs get any air-play.
And Mycroft, I like the other songs by The Knack as well. (Now I’ve got ‘Good Girls Don’t’ playing in my head. Oh well, good song - I won’t complain.)
Can’t think of an example right now…but I wanted to say thank you for correctly defining “one hit wonder” as a band that doesn’t have another song you can even name - and not the VH1 definition: a band that only had one song reach the no. 1 on the charts. :smack:
BTW - I agree with you about The Knack. They are not a one hit wonder. I remember “Good Girls Don’t” getting tons of airplay when it came out. And it is a better song.
I feel like I’m becoming schizophrenic. I mean Mycroft H. responding to a thread from Mycroft Holmes? I feel a headache coming on.
Seriously now, I’m kidding. I think I already mentioned once that there is no need for you to change your name. It still looks strange though.
As to Nena, the band is named after the lead singer Nena Kerner (who is still quite a babe at 45 by the way). They aren’t really one-hit wonders in Germany, because they had quite a few other hits like “Nur geträumt” (I think that’s “Just a Dream” on their U.S. album), “Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann” (I think she did an English version with Kim Wilde a few years ago), and “Wunder geschehen”. In fact she had another number one hit in Germany just a few weeks ago with “Liebe ist”.
Similiar to the case with “The Knack” though, I actually prefer “Nur geträumt” to “99 Luftballons”, so I guess it’s a pretty good example anyway.
Ah, Mycroft musically you are correct but really what a misogynist piece you have chosen -
You’re alone with her at last,
And you’re waiting til you think the time is right.
Cause you’ve heard she’s pretty fast.
And you’re hoping that she’ll give you some tonight.
So, you start to make your play,
Cause you could’ve sworn you thought you heard her saying…
Good girls don’t,
Good girls don’t,
Good girls don’t, but I do.
And it’s a teenage sadness
Everyone has got to taste.
An in-between age madness
That you know you can’t erase
Til she’s sitting on your face.
I can count myself among the few people who have seen The Knack live - at the Manly Flicks.
Yeah, but how is that worse than this:
Never gonna stop, give it up.
Such a dirty mind. Always get it up for the touch
of the younger kind.
and:
Come a little closer huh, ah will ya huh.
Close enough to look in my eyes, Sharona.
Keeping it a mystery gets to me
Running down the length of my thighs, Sharona
Man, “The Knack” were definitely not PC.
I envy you. But then again, I got to see “Tubeway Army” at the Ontario Theatre in Washington D.C, in 1980 along with about a hundred other people. If you’re wondering who the hell “Tubeway Army” are: their lead singer was some guy called Gary Numan, and they had just had a big hit with a song about automobiles.
Great, now I’m gonna have:
Here in my car
I feel safest of all
I can lock all my doors
It’s the only way to live
In cars
Mycroft Holmes – I agree, it did seem strange posting to your thread. But you brought up The Knack… My head won’t explode unless Holmes joins in on the conversation. (BTW – Thanks for the OK before. I would have changed my name if you felt bad about it. And “Seriously now, I’m kidding” is a great phrase!)
Thank you as well for the information about Nena Kerner. I will have to see if I can get some of her European releases. It should be possible given the Internet, although I am traveling to the UK this summer and will have to see if she is in the London shops. That might save shipping charges.
Another possible one or two hit wonder for the US mainstream is Chris Rea. I know of his popularity in Europe, but in the States he only had, IIRC, ‘Fool If You Think It’s Over’ and ‘Road to Hell.’ However, I got hooked on him (he was from the area where I used to live in England and used to know some friends of mine) and have the rest of his CD and album releases.
don’t ask (with sincere honour and respect ) is the song misogynistic or about the deluded hope of a teenager in lust? I remember when it came out thinking “Why can’t I meet someone like that?” But yeah, you’re right – misogynistic or at least not very respectful.
In preview I see Mycroft Holmes commented on this as well. It was some pretty risque/naughty stuff for the time. And I also envy you having seen them.
The Knack was really a three-hit wonder. Besides “My Sharona” and “Good Girls Don’t” (which I actually heard at the time much more than “My Sharona”), “Baby Talks Dirty” also had a very respectable chart placing. (And that’s the only place you’ll see the words “respectable” and “The Knack” together!) “My Sharona” was the only one to reach #1, though.
“Good Girls Don’t” got lots of airplay back when I was in Top 40. They had to go back into the studio and re-sing the line “‘til she’s sittin’ on your face” with “'til she puts you in your place” for the single. This version has not, to the best of my knowledge, ever been reissued on CD. But the best part of that record is on the LP version, after the second time they come to “she’s sittin’ on your face” - somebody shouts out “and it hurts!” It always provoked gales of laughter.
The BoDeans finally broke through and got a hit with the sappy Party of Five theme song “Closer to Free.”
It’s a damn shame that they weren’t discovered by commercial radio when they released their first album Love and Hope and Sex and Dreams. Any one of the songs from that record would have been head and shoulders above their hit single.
My picks would be “Fadeaway” or “Say You Will,” both of which would have been hits had the album been released in the post-Nirvana, alternative-ascendant world instead of being released in 1986 (back when “alternative” still really meant “alternative”).
Waaaait a minute … I thought “One Night in Bangkok” was part of the musical Chess (by Benny Andersson of ABBA fame), while Jesus Christ Superstar was by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice.
Annie-Xmas means that Murray Head sang the hit versions of both “One Night in Bangkok” (from Chess) and “Superstar” (from Jesus Christ Superstar), not that he wrote either one.
