Someone mentioned Big Country. Aside from “In a Big Country” and “Fields of Fire”, they also had a single called “Look Away” that got some airplay.
Simple Minds also had a pretty successful single called “All the Things She Said” (In addition to “Don’t You Forget About Me” and “Alive and Kicking”.
There was a group called Talk Talk that had two hit singles I can remember. The first called “Talk Talk”, and the other called “It’s My Life” (which I recently heard in a cover version by I-don’t-know-who).
Real Life had “Send Me An Angel”, followed up by “Catch Me I’m Falling” (not the same as the single by Pretty Poison).
Haircut 100 had “Love Plus One” and “Boy Meets Girl”.
GTR had “When The Heart Rules The Mind” and “The Hunter”.
I have no backup to support the hit/not hit judgement on any of these. Only fond memories of MTV back before it took itself seriously.
Note: I just wanted to say that your forgetting the big ABC hit, “How to be a Millionaire” (well, big for ABC), which is the song I and my (mid-80s new waver) friends most associate with them
So they are at least a five-hit wonder, which is 5 more hits than I have.
Mr. Mister, did they have any other hits besides “Broken Wings” and “Is it Love?”. Don’t remember…
I think Procol Harem would qualify as a two-hit wonder. “A Whiter Shade of Pale” is their best known hit. Their second hit “Conquistador” is lesser known and played.
Corey Heart would also fit into this category. “Sunglasses at Night” was his first hit, followed by “Never Surrender.”
I was going to nominate Tears for Fears with “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and “Shout”, but as I thought about it I realized they’re actually a four-hit wonder. They also had “Head Over Heels” and “Sowing the Seeds of Love.” I don’t recall every hearing anything from them after this.
Well, most of these are getting shot down, but I’ll try The Zombies: Time of the Season and Tell Her No. Friends of Mine was an attempt at a hit, but I don’t think it was.
Hey, a couple of things. First off, I just thought about it, and I realized that since I’m an American, I’ve been only thinking in terms of the American charts. Are any of you British? Maybe the reason some of the bands that I or others have listed have hits credited to them that I, and some others haven’t heard of is because they were hit’s in the UK but not in the US? Just a theory.
Also, I thougth of a few others
*Breathe - How Can I fall and Hands to Heaven Johny Hates Jazz - Shattered Dreams and I Don’t wanna be a Hero
And finally, and I’m not sure about this… Swing Out Sister - Twilight World and Break Out
Although there’s one other song I’m thinking of, I can’t remeber the name, but it might be a third hit from them.
BTW, the cover of Talk Talk’s “It’s My Life” is by No Doubt.
Part of the problem here is that we are kind of comparing apples and oranges when we deal withmostly the US and UK pop charts. There are songs that are hit on one side of the Atlantic but not the other.
Slade had a long run of hits in the UK, but are only a two hit wonder in the US with “Run Run Away” and “My My Oh My”, both from relatively late in their career. The Status Quo’s only real US hit was “Pictures Of Matchstick Men”, but they also had a long series of hits in the UK.
I may be wrong but there are groups who hit it big in the US like Foghat that made little impact overseas (even though most of their members were Brits). Did people like Styx or Billy Squier ever have hit songs overseas?
Yeah, I kinda remember that after I posted, but as you know whatever you post on the SDMBn is carved in stone (or some fairly hard substance anyway).
I believe the problem here is that "back in the day"™ the opening notes of “Kyrie”, or Squeeze’s “Black Coffee in Bed”, or Thomas Dolby’s “Hyperactive”, or Cyndi Lauper’s “Time after Time”, or anything by Simply Red or Icehouse or Cory Hart … hell, any of a host of other “songs” would instinctively cause my finger to push the radio button for another station (which, unfortunately, may very well be have been playing Greg Khin or Rod Stewart or Rick Springfield :eek: - life was tricky and dangerous back then)
Actually you’re right… i made a mistake… but in further looking Falco wrote Der Kommissar in 1982 as a single. After the Fire released the english version in 1983.