Okay, lessee… I was making a list as I read this thread and kept crossing things off as other folks mentioned them. What I have left – although I’m sure I’ll think of others later:
Spiders and Snakes – Jim Stafford Midnight at the Oasis – Maria Muldaur Heart and Soul – T’Pau Stuck in the Middle With You – Stealer’s Wheel Hooked on a Feeling – Blue Swede (Ooga-chaka, ooga-chaka!) I Think We’re Alone Now – Tiffany Seasons in the Sun – Terry Jacks (I Just) Died In Your Arms – Cutting Crew Beach Baby – First Class (The summer song, in my opinion, btw.) Rock and Roll Hootchie-Koo – Rick Derringer Undercover Angel – Alan O’Day (or something like that)
Songs for which I don’t remember the performers:
Eres Tu Ariel: “Away on the other side of the Hudson/Deep in the bosom of suburbia,/I met a young girl, she sang mighty fine,/‘Tears on My Pillow’ and ‘Ave Maria’…” Billy, Don’t Be A Hero Life Is A Rock and the Radio Rolled Me My Girl Bill – an early 70s sniggering, “look, we sound like we’re talking about two gay guys” song with a lame trick ending.
Did a little research – Billy, Don’t Be A Hero was by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, and after digging through my little sister’s old 45 collection (which for some inexplicable reason I now own) to find it, I found that its B-side was a version of Paper Lace’s The Night Chicago Died, oddly enough.
“Indiana Wants Me” by R. Dean Taylor. A parody regarding Timothy McVeigh’s execution keeps running through my head, and I cannot stop it. Damn this stupid brain of mine!
Speaking of parodies, I first heard Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Viva the Beautiful Game” during the Subway Series. That became “Viva the Yankees and Mets” with very little effort.
Bob, I’m not positive, but didn’t she have another fairly popular song, something about “I’ve got a brand new pair of roller skates, you’ve got a brand new key?”
No, that would be the immortal Melanie, whose “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)” with the Edwin Hawkins Singers went to number 6 in the US in 1970, a year or so before “Brand New Key”, and who eventually did the theme music for the TV series The Beauty and the Beast in one of her many comebacks.
Just as a side note, I’m pretty fond of “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)” – it’s one of those songs that came out of Woodstock, written about what she saw from the stage on the rainy night she performed there…
In the Year 2525 has already been mentioned, but I am deeply ashamed to say that I learned from Casey Kasem that they were the greatest one hit wonders in rock history.
The above pretentious, “heavy” piece of dreck spent like 20 weeks at number 1. They never cracked the top 100 again.
I really liked Relax, by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. It was in the movie Body Double, and made a very 70s glam rock video.
They´re coming to take me away,
Haha, they´re coming to take me away,
Ho ho, hee hee, ha ha,
To the happy home with trees and flowers
And chirping birds and basket weavers
Who sit and smile and
Twiddle their thumbs and toes
And they´re coming to take me away,
HAHAAAAAAAAA
I’m pretty sure no one’s mentioned “Welcome to the Boomtown” by David & David. There was also a song called “Cry,” though I can’t remember who did it. It got quite a lot of airplay in…1985? The video …never mind, it was by Godley & Creme (from which corner of my butt I pulled that name, I do not know)…anyhow, the video involved faces morphing into one another.
Michael Penn had moderate success with a follow-up to “No Myth” called “This and That,” which heartily sucked. He also has a song on the “Boogie Nights” soundtrack, which also sucked. It’s a shame…I love “No Myth.”
I don’t know if anyone’s mentioned “Right Here, Right Now” by Jesus Jones. I don’t know if that counts because of “Real, Real, Real,” which may have hit the charts.
Perhaps I should do any research at all before I post, wotwot?
“Life is a Rock But the Radio Rolled Me” is by Reunion.
I also put in a bid for “In the Summertime” by Jerry Mungo.
And I have to argue with the Tubes as one-hit wonders…yeah, “She’s a Beauty” did pretty well, but they also had success several years later with “White Punks on Dope.”
So can anybody dig up another hit by Christie of “Yellow River” fame?
Once when fella bilong missus flodnak and I were having supper at a Vietnamese restaurant, we heard a cover version of the song in what I assume was Vietnamese, with a female singer. If you think that song sounds weird in English, you should try listening to it in a language you don’t understand at all…
