uhhh… “Broken Wings” was just as big a hit… (sorry)
Oh dude… this might sting
“I Touch Roses” was a hit in the clubs… you could challenge me on that…
This is a hard call: No, they never really caught on in North America, BUT they were huge enough to merit a (genuine) “best of” CD which included the remake of “Could It Be Magic”, among others that topped charts for years in the UK over their (what? Six? Seven years?)
…and “Talk To Ya Later”
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
y-DA’OH!
“Spin Spin Sugar” was also a Sneaker Pimps hit
Golden Ear®ing also had “Twilight Zone”
I forgot who mentioned it, but Martha and the Muffins also had “Danceparc” as a hit on top of “Echo Beach”
Well, sorry if I stepped on people’s toes, I see that many caught the mistakes that I mentioned, but in my mind there were just so MANY, I didn’t take the time to go through the list twice and write everything down. Many even caught the ones that I missed (I’m SO ashamed)
Anyway, hopefully these tunes I mentioned will also bring fond memories and keep your Naps—you know days filled with joy.
Now, I’m sure SOMEbody’s thinking “Oh yeah, Hotshot? Where’s YOUR list?”
Well, a lot of people covered quite a lot… but here’s my list with an eighties specialty (Also up for challenges and ready to be torn apart-I can get as well as I give :))
“The Gamourous Life” Sheila E.
“Holiday Rap” MC Miker & DJ Sven
“Black Cars” Gino Vanelli (I could be wrong on that one)
“Election Day” Arcadia
“I Want Candy” Bow Wow Wow
“I Can’t Break Away” Big Pig
“The Politics Of Dancing” Re-Flex
“I Can’t Wait” Nu Shooz
“Whisper To A Scream” Icicle Works
“The Honeythief” Hipsway
“Dancing With Tears In My Eyes” Ultravox (Could be wrong on that too)
“Ca Plane Pour Moi” Plastic Bertrand
and it’s English version:
“Jet Boy Jet Girl” Elton Motello
Jan Hammer, IIRC, never had another top 40 hit beyond the theme to “Miami Vice”
“Theme from S-express” S-Express
“Living In A Box” Living In a Box
“Some People” Belouisome
“Warm Leatherette” The Normal
and somebody help me here, did the Flying Lizards have anything beyond their bitchy version of “Money (That’s What I Want)”?
and how about those tunes by ACTORS who THOUGHT they could sing:
“Party All The Time” Eddie Murphy
“Heartbeat” Don Johnson
“Searching For Freedom” David Hasselhoff
“Respect Yourself” Bruce Willis
The problem with these “one hit wonder” lists is that people don’t all use the same standards, so you get things like “I only remember one of their five million-selling songs, so that makes them a one hit wonder”, to “This song only sold 10 copies, but my local club played it a lot, so it was a hit”. (I generally use the standard that, for the U.S., a “one hit wonder” is a group which had exactly one song appear in the Top 40 section of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart).
Also, different countries have different hit records–so many of Darqangelle references seem to be true for Europe, but not the United States. Based on the Billboard U.S. Hot 100 chart, following are my comments:
"The Gamourous Life" Sheila E. Was followed by The Belle of St. Mark (#34) and A Love Bizarre (#11)
"Holiday Rap" MC Miker & DJ Sven Who???
"Black Cars" Gino Vanelli (I could be wrong on that one) This only got to #42 in the U.S.–his biggest hits were I Just Wanna Stop (#4), Living Inside Myself (#6), and People Gotta Move (#22)
"Election Day" Arcadia Got to #6 in the U.S., followed by Goodbye is Forever (#33)
"I Want Candy" Bow Wow Wow Only got to #62 in the U.S., Do You Wanna Hold Me? later got to #77.
"I Can’t Break Away" Big Pig only got to #60 in the U.S., nothing else charted.
"The Politics Of Dancing" Re-Flex #24 in the U.S., only other song was Hurt (#82)
"I Can’t Wait" Nu Shooz Followed by Point of No Return (#28) and Should I Say Yes? (#41)
"Whisper To A Scream" Icicle Works made it to #37, never again heard from…
"The Honeythief" Hipsway peaked at #19, where are they now?
"Dancing With Tears In My Eyes" Ultravox (Could be wrong on that too) The only Ultravox song to make the U.S. Hot 100 was Reap the Wild Wind (#71)
"Ca Plane Pour Moi" Plastic Bertrand Never made the Hot 100.
and it’s English version:
“Jet Boy Jet Girl” Elton Motello Who?
Jan Hammer, IIRC, never had another top 40 hit beyond the theme to “Miami Vice” Correct–one the the select few to reach #1, and then never chart again.
"Theme from S-express" S-Express Only got to #91 in the U.S.
"Living In A Box" Living In a Box So the Story Goes later reached #81
"Some People" Belouisome Who?
"Warm Leatherette" The Normal Cult hit only.
and somebody help me here, did the Flying Lizards have anything beyond their bitchy version of “Money (That’s What I Want)”? Made it to #50 in the U.S., and although they didn’t have any other charted songs, I remember their Summertime Blues getting a fair amount of airplay.
and how about those tunes by ACTORS who THOUGHT they could sing:
"Party All The Time" Eddie Murphy #1 hit, followed by Put Your Mouth on Me (#27)
"Heartbeat" Don Johnson his later duet with Barbra Streisand, Till I Loved You, got to #25
"Searching For Freedom" David Hasselhoff Europe-only hit. (so much for their “greater sophistication”…)
"Respect Yourself" Bruce Willis Young Blood made it to #68, followed by Under the Boardwalk (#59)
Pseudo Echo, ‘Funky Town’
Tom Cochrane, ‘Life is a Highway’
The Proclaimers, ‘500 Miles’
Deep Blue Something, ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’
While Godley & Creme qualify as one-hit wonders on their own, they were also half of British band 10cc, who scored a number of UK hits and at least one American top ten with “I’m Not In Love”.
whitetho:
Ooooh! Ouch! Ya got me (Drawn-out death scene)
It IS tough to measure OHW, though, as you said, seeing as you’re dealing with different countries and those countries bring out differents tastes, so it makes judging some of these tunes very hard.
One good example is a band called the Tragically Hip. Americans have hardly (if at all) heard of them despite their legendary status in Canada.
And I don’t know how Robbie Williams has caught on since “Millenium” (I moved away at that point), but he’s HUGE throughout Europe with a long string of hits.
So, in short, I agree.
I guess the best thing to do at this point is just state to people (Well, yeah… there’s THAT, but did you ever hear THESE tunes? They were also big in one sense or another)
BTW: Where did you get the info regarding chart positions for each? I tried Billboard.com, but found no way to nail down specific songs or artists…
Mr. Cochrane, after leaving Red Rider, also released “Big League” and “Boy Inside The Man”.
The Proclaimers also had “I’m On My Way” and a rather hilarious version of “King Of The Road”, although I’m not certain of their chart success on the last one.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Darqangelle *
**
I guess you don’t remember a little tune called “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Head did the original version, for Chrissake!
I doubt very much if this info is posted online anywhere–I have a copy of Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles: 1955-1996. (The company’s website is at http://www.recordresearch.com )
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Annie-Xmas *
**
Yup. He was the original Judas, before it became “traditional” to cast a black man in the role.
He also was “The American” on the original concept album of “Chess” back in 1984/5, and charted with “One Night in Bangkok” – so he’s no one-hit wonder.
He’s also the brother of Anthony Stewart Head, “Giles” on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.
(This has been your useless trivia moment for the day.)
– Bob
That’s funny. Was that meant to be funny? I thought it was funny. Not gut-wrenching funny, but more of a bad-pun-that-may-not-have-meant-to-be-there funny.
Okay, I didn’t know about that.
But, besides that (ignoring JCS for a mo’)… if Murray had only “ONIB” as a hit, I don’t think you can qualify it as a Doublehit just because he re-released it. He’d still be classified as a one-trick pony; hence, OHW.
I think Leslie Gore tried that.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Darqangelle *
**
Yes, typical Annie-Xmas ha-ha. The weird way I have with words.
How can you ignore Superstar. That was a bigger hit than “Bangkok.” I mean, it’s been covered and translated into more languages than most songs ever have (my collection includes Japanese (two), Swedish, Czech (three), Spanish (two), Hungarian, Russian (!), and soon German.
Head did the original, which charted in the top ten. Superstar and ONIB are his only hits; two hit wonder.