Relatively Obscure Bands With One or Two Instantly Recognizable Hits

Cafe Society
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These can be bands you like and aren’t as well known as their big hits would imply, or simply what it says in the thread title. I think you’ll get the idea…

Barenaked Ladies - If I had $1,000,000 and One Week are instantly recognized by near anyone. However, almost no one has even HEARD most of their other songs. They’re my second favorite band and after people spend a while in my car listening to some of my favorites such as Upside Down, Brian Wilson, and Box Set I inevitably tell them what the band is… and they request one of those two songs. It’s like a goddamn script has been cosmically drafted for that particular scenario and I am required to play it out every time. (Not that I dislike those two songs, it’s just so inevitable it’s funny)

Plain White T’s-
“Who?”
“The guys that did ‘Hey There Delilah’”
“Oh”
I don’t know any of their other songs, do you? I mean really, have these guys done ANYTHING other than that song (rhetorical)? I’m convinced the band could change their name to “Hey, We’re That Band That Wrote Hey There Delilah” and no one would bat an eye.

This may be stretching it buuuuuuut… They Might Be Giants, I don’t think THAT many people know Istanbul (Not Constantinople) but I think it’s enough that I can put it here.

Eiffel 65 - Blue… just, Blue.

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I think they’re better known for “Birdhouse in Your Soul” and “I Palindrome I.”

How about Smash Mouth? He started out as a hardcore punk rocker, had a hit with “Walking On the Sun” and now he’s best known for “All Star.” Life is so unfair!

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You’re right about TMBG, and now that I think about it Istanbul was a cover anyway. :smack:

Smash Mouth is a good one, and one I originally intended to put in there until I lost my train of thought mid list. But SM just totally fell off the map what had to be little more than half a year after peak popularity with All-Star.

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Peter Sarstedt – at least around here, few have even ever heard of the name, but almost everybody knows Where Do You Go To (My Lovely) (YouTube link).

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How 'bout Chumbawumba, at least in the US? Bet nearly everybody sings along with “Pissing the Night Away” but can’t name the singers.

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Good ones.

I thought of another. Who hear has heard Harvey Danger? That’s what I thought. Who here recognizes Flagpole Sitta. Thought so.

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Missed Edit: That video has an odd censoring of the word “God” and it kind of breaks the meter.
Here’s an uncensored version, albeit way lower quality and with an annoying amplified Bass:

ETA: Also that entire last post was just entirely WRONG in every sense of the word.
Should be:
“Who here has heard of Harvey Danger? That’s what I thought. Who here recognizes Flagpole Sitta? Thought so.”

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Who is Murray Head? Well, he did the original recordng of “Superstar” from Jesus Christ Superstar and decades later “One Night In Bangkok” from Chess.

BTW, he was the only singer to take a percentage of the profits from the record instead of the flat out $2500 payment. A decision that made him a millionaire.

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And most won’t probably recognize the song from its official title, Tubthumping.

Edit to add: Rupert Holmes (who?) and Escape or The Pina Colada Song.

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Me.

I would include Snow Patrol in this list. I doubt many top-40 listening types know their name, but I’m sure they all know Chasing Cars.

Woman by Wolfmother might count, too, since it was used so heavily on the guitar queero commercials.

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I never heard that song until it was resurrected for The Darjeeling Limited. Since I was only seven years old when that song came out, I’m not surprised. Maybe it’s more well known by baby boomers.

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Whenever I see someone singing along with the 1972 hit ‘Brandy’ (which many can do) I ask them ‘Who sings this song?’

Maybe 1 out of 20 can answer ‘Looking Glass’.

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Really? Over here (over here being Germany), the song is one of those instantly-recognizable ‘classics’, that just have kind of been around for seemingly ever… You know, the kind you hear in commercials to ‘Super-Hits of the 60s’-compilations and the like.
I’ve pretty much always known the song, and I wasn’t to come around for thirteen years when it was recorded.

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<Armageddon>You know what really bugs me? When people think Jethro Tull is just someone in the band <Armageddon>

Smash Mouth is a band, not a “he”.

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Wow, and here I thought I was an old fogey. Bare Naked Ladies are an institution in Canada, so it’s not surprising that I know them extremely well. But Smash Mouth and They Might Be Giants are relatively unknown?!? Colour me stunned.

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The now defunct Timbuk 3. I had several of their albums and they had a lot of good songs. But the only one most people knew was “The Future’s So Bright (I Gotta Wear Shades)”.

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There are lots of one (or two) hit wonders where people know the tune but many would be hard pressed to name the artist.

Taco - Puttin on the Ritz (cover)
Wall of Voodoo - Mexican Radio
M - Pop Muzik
Baltimora - Tarzan Boy
Reflex - Politics of Dancing
The Call - I Still Believe
Aztec Camera - Oblivious
The Stranglers - Always the Sun
Icehouse - Crazy
Alphaville - Forever Young
Godley & Creme - Cry
Mister Mister - Kyrie

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Quick challenge for US Dopers …

Name a song by Aha that’s not “Take on me”.

Yeah, I thought so. Me, neither. I hear they’re huge elsewhere.

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a-ha did the theme song to “The Living Daylights”

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The Sun Always Shines On TV.

Forgotten song, but it did get a bit of airplay back in the day (being the follow-up to “Take On Me”, of course.)
How about Gin Blossoms? Came out with “Hey Jealousy” circa 1993 (?), and for about a year and a half, it seems like they had a new song on the radio every other month. No monster hits, but “I Found Out About You”, “Allison Road”, “Mrs. Rita”, “Follow You Down” all got played on the radio.