I think we can find a lot in those fluid bands that were created by producers to record one song, but whether or not they’re any good (as the OP wants) is open to debate. “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” by Edison Lighthouse is a good example. According to the band’s Wikipedia page, the lead singer was active in more than one band–indeed, he led other one-hit wonders:
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I was trying to think of this case. I didn’t read the Wiki entry, but does it mention when Burrows performed as lead singer for all four of those songs on one episode of Top Of The Pops? It really freaked out the producers of that show (which was broadcast live, IIRC), and confused the hell out of the audience.
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I tried to see Zevon in Seattle in the early 90s. Sadly his concert was cancelled for lack of interest, only 20 tickets were sold I was personally raving and recommending the concert to everyone I knew beforehand also, and everyone just said “who?”.
[/QUOTE] The kid next door was maybe 19 when I was going through some CDs to give to him and said, Do you have this Zevon? and he said he didn’t know who he was. This is a kid with a dad who prides himself on knowing rock and quirky alternative artists. It was unfathomable that he hadn’t heard of him. I forced the CD upon him!
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Not being religious helps. As a religious person, I hear “What if God was one of us?” and think “He was one of us, and we chose to torture and kill Him” and then switch the station. I admit this is an outlier reaction!
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Off topic, I love the parody version by Bob Rivers called “What If God Smoked Cannabis?”
As much as it pains me to say it, Warren Zevon qualifies as a one-hit wonder with Werewolves of London, which hit #21 on the Billboard singles chart.
If there was any justice, he would have had 10 other songs in the top 40. But Werewolves is a fine song.
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Yes, but wasn’t that song kind of a throwaway bit that ironically became the biggest hit of his career? I also seem to remember Zevon saying the success of “Werewolves” was like having a hit with “The One-Eyed One-Horned Flying Purple People Eater” in that it made people incorrectly assume he was just a novelty song performer.
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“Right Place, Wrong Time” (YouTube clip) - Dr. John
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I take it “Walk on Gilded Splinters” didn’t chart?
I can think of one, but the title escapes me, hmmmm, something from the early 80’s, about a phone number and Jenny. The worst part is I cannot think of the artist. Any help?
[QUOTE=TommyTutone]
I can think of one, but the title escapes me, hmmmm, something from the early 80’s, about a phone number and Jenny. The worst part is I cannot think of the artist. Any help?
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This would have been funnier if not for post #142.
Did Renaissance ever have another hit besides “Northern Lights” (~1978)? If not, they qualify.
[QUOTE=Team of Scientists]
Yoshimi charted? I never heard it on the radio or anything. I thought “She Don’t Use Jelly” was their most commercially successful track.
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I heard it a number of times on WRNR, the indie-rock station I listen to.
Forgot about “She Don’t Use Jelly” which IMHO totally reeks. Never heard it until after I’d heard “Yoshimi” a number of times, and it instantly took my opinion of the Flaming Lips way down.
I beg to differ, but I think it helps that I didn’t get obsessed with it. Getting obsessed with a good-but-not-great song just wears it out faster in the confines of your head, IME. Kinda the way nobody wanted to hear the Macarena for years after everyone went nuts over it during the summer of 1996.
OK, a tough one: Clarence Clemons and Jackson Browne duet “You’re a friend of mine”.
Browne had a few other hits, and while Clemons’ music playing is on perhaps hundreds of hits this is the only one I am aware of that he was singing anything besides accompanying stuff.
My Baby Grand by Billy Joel and Ray Charles
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Those gentleman, in case you were not aware, did have a small degree of success as solo artists.
It doesn’t count if two multi-hit artists only collaborate once.
Come on, we all know what a “one hit wonder” is. A one hit wonder is someone about whom you say “Whatever happened to that guy who did the song about Jenny and the phone number? It ws a guy, right? Or was that what they called the band?”
OMC (Otara Millionaires Club) is from New Zealand.
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Interesting (and brief) story: OMC was a joke - Otara being the very poor town where Pauly Fuemana grew up. But then the song charted in dozens of countries, turning Pauly into, ironically (or is it just a coincidence?) the one and only actual millionaire in Otara.
Back to the original post, does the band a-ha count? Apparently they charted in America with 2 songs (the second one being “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.”), but is there anyone in America who remembers them for anything other than “Take on Me?”
Back to the original post, does the band a-ha count? Apparently they charted in America with 2 songs (the second one being “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.”), but is there anyone in America who remembers them for anything other than “Take on Me?”
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That’s the thing that depresses me a little. A-ha has 7 albums or so, all excellent, they just didn’t hop the pond, as it were.
A lot of the bands mentioned here had music that was pretty damned good, they just didn’t chart. (Right Said Fred had a ‘cute little album’ that was better than you’d expect it to have been, based on I’m too sexy.)
Then there are others (Honeymoon Suite I’m lookin’ at you) that were just crap. The cassette card didn’t even have print on the back side. Although looking at the wiki page for 'em, I guess they’re like a-ha, SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE like’s 'em, as they have 11 albums, most recently in 2007.
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That’s the thing that depresses me a little. A-ha has 7 albums or so, all excellent, they just didn’t hop the pond, as it were.
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Think of how the Robbie Williams fans feel.
I was personally raving and recommending the concert to everyone I knew beforehand also, and everyone just said “who?”.