One Hit Wonders

[Burke Strickland]

Lulu sang "To Sir With Love" -- title song for the movie with Sidney Poitier (movie is in my DVD collection)

Burke

[jimmyp58]

it is going strong!!!

[dave]

Mine too Burke!!!!!!!!!!!!
Check this out, Now it's been ten thousand years man has cried a billion tears for what he never knew, now mans reign is through but through eternal light the twinkling of starlight so very far away,,,,, Maybe it's only Yesterday,,,,,,,,,In the year 25/25 if man is still alive if woman can survive they may find,,,,,,,,,,,

or you may prefer,,, I was just 16 when I had to leave home knew I could'nt stick around I had to run,,, Ain't good lookin but you know I ain't shy ain't afraid of lookin now hear me out cause I've got to ramble (ramblin' man) cause I've got to Gamble
(gamblin man) Yeah!!!!!

Who did them Guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jimmyp58]

I got Zager & Evans on the first one!!!!

[dave]

yeah You got it Jim!!!!
it's the second one that throws people however if you were listening to the song you would know the artist right away!!!

I looked back and saw that 96 tears had'nt been answered yet (im gonna cry 96 tears im gonna cry cry cry cry now) let's give it a bit more time it was too big of a hit!!!

[jimmyp58]

I think this one qualifies....Wild Cherry doing 'Play That Funky Music'!!!

[jimmyp58]

I just stumbled across this one. perhaps he's had more than one hit but to me, he only had one. Slim Whitman doing Una Paloma Blanca.

[jimmyp58]

Oh, how about this one....Johnny Wakelin & the Kinshasa Band doing 'Black Superman - Muhammad Ali'!!!!!!!!!!

[dave]

Jim, I know Play that funky music white boy!!!
and I've heard Black Superman, however I have'nt heard the Slim Whitman track before....

[DelRay]

Ramblin Gamblin man was Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band.
Lines form on my face and hands. Lines form from the ups and downs. I'm in the middle without any plans. I'm a boy and i'm a man.

[jimmyp58]

That Slim Whitman tune is a beaut............ :E

[jimmyp58]

This one has to qualify (something for the 90's crowd) 'MMM MMM MMM MMM' by the Crash Test Dummies!!!

[dave]

DelRay,,, You are very close the "Silver Band" came after the band that called themselves "The Bob Seger System"!!! and they only had one hit!!!

Hmm... Frampton comes to mind with the writing that you've got there.....
Regards,

[Foxman]

I havent seen this one mentioned:

If you want it here it is "come and get it."

Writen by:

[Burke Strickland]

"Come and Get It" Sung by Badfinger Theme from the movie "The Magic Christian" Song Written by Paul McCartney (which may explain why it sounds so much like the Beatles)

The movie "The Magic Christian" was a really campy satire, set mostly onboard the ship with the same name as the movie, with Peter Sellers' character teaching Ringo Starr's character that people will do anything for money and to prove it they have Yul Brynner singing in drag, Laurence Harvey doing a strip tease to the "To be or not to be" soliloquey in "Hamlet", plus Christopher Lee as the ship's vampire, Raquel Welch as a whip-bearing dominatrix in a galley slave scene reminscent of Ben Hur, and on and on. I thought the movie was hilarious when I saw it during its initial theatrical run. I''m not so sure it would hold up as well today.

Burke

[Foxman]

"Come and Get It" Sung by Badfinger Theme from the movie "The Magic Christian" Song Written by Paul McCartney (which may explain why it sounds so much like the Beatles)

You are good.

[Foxman]

How about this one from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.....OoooooH Yeah

[ajpoe]

Seems like all the one hit wonders are from the 60's and 70's. We are way too old.

Here are some that aren't from the 60s and 70s...

Blind Melon - No Rain
Digital Underground - Humpty Dance
Sir Mix A Lot - Baby Got Back
House of Pain - Jump Around
Paperboy - Ditty
Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby
Crazytown - Butterfly

Those are just ones that pop into my head... I'll have to raid my collection to see what else I can find.

AJ

[jimmyp58]

Good ones....

Badfinger, if my memory serves me correctly, was a Beatles project. In fact, I believe they recorded on Apple. Besides 'Come And Get It', they had a few others to include 'Baby Blue' and probably (arguably) their top hit, 'No Matter What' (my favorite).

Keep 'em coming fellas.....

Sir-Mix-A-Lot...Baby Got Back is a dandy!!!

[Bent]

How about this one from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.....OoooooH Yeah

would that be from Yello?

[Foxman]

would that be from Yello?

Bingo! :T

[dave]

Medicine Man, Was done by "The Buchanan Brothers" the single made it to #22 nationally.

And Suddenly, was done by the "Cherry People" in 1968 the it had an eleven week run
however it only peak at #43 incidently this was a Left Banke original

96 Tears, was done by Question Mark and the Mysterians.

back later with a big list of One Hit Wonders!!!

[DelRay]

Ok, Answer to my post Alice Cooper's Eighteen. ajpoe, you're right ,there are one hit wonders from every decade. How about the song Safety Dance.

[dave]

Delray, how did I ever get Frampton out of those lyrics!!! I read it at 6:15 AM while getting ready for work!!! wish I had read them this afternoon

[kmak]

Safety Dance = Men Without Hats

Who did "Come on Eileen" and one more "Life is Life"

Ken

[Bent]

come on eileen (or the celebration of the armpit - as they called it on Pop Up Video) was Dexies Midnight Runner,
Life Is Life was....I can't remember... La La lalala.

[DelRay]

Jimmyp, You mentioned Melanie, It got me thinking. Didn't she do a song called "Lay Down"

[jimmyp58]

Yep she did....she was quite the flower child!!!

[ajpoe]

Does anyone dare mention The Macarena... :rofl:

How about some Sex and Candy? That's easy, but I'll play along with the trivia theme.

Or... Pump Up The Volume!!! I remember jammin to that one on the roller rink when I was growing up!

AJ

[jimmyp58]

Good ones AJ!!!

[dave]

DelRay, as I mentioned earlier Melanies tribute to Woodstock was a song called,
Candles In The Rain.........

"Rock Me Gently" by Andy Kim was his last hit and his biggest, he had 2 other minor hits called "Baby I Love You" and "Be My Baby" and on those 2 songs his vocal track was sped up to resemble a young teenage idol! anyway "Rock Me Gently" is the song
that most people relate as being the One Hit Wonder!!!

Speaking briefly about Badfinger,,, The bands biggest out of the four hits was a track titled "Day After Day" the song writing team of Pete Ham and Tom Evans Wrote another song that was on thier second Lp "No Dice" called "Without You" and that song
bested anything that they had ever written and of coarse as everyone knows the great Harry Nilson redid it and included it on his Nilson Schmillson Lp. It went all the way to the #1 slot..... Two more pieces of imfo. When Badfinger were recording "Day After Day" the late George Harrison came into the recording studio and asked if the group would mind if he played Slide Guitar
on the song and the band excitedly said, YES!!! so what we are hearing is Pete and George playing together on the tune. Also, the piano genius of
Leon Russell was used on the track!!!

[jimmyp58]

How could I forget 'Day After Day'....duh!!!

That was a great tune too.

[Burke Strickland]

ajpoe -- isn't macarena the name of a chewy coconut cookie? :>) (just kidding)

The category of dance craze "one hit wonders" is another unmined treasure field (or treacherous mine field, depending on your POV). :>) In some cases, stars with more than one other hit to their credit did a one song "dance craze" hit and in other cases, an unknown started a "dance craze" with one hit that had no meaningful follow-on.

For instance, who did "The Peppermint Twist"? How about "The Mashed Potato" or "Peanut Butter"? While Chubby Checker had multiple "twist" hits, including "The Twist" itself, which was a remake of a Hank Ballard tune and is the only song to have ever risen TWICE to number one on the BIllboard charts in different years, he also did "The Huckabuck" , the Pony ("Pony Time"), "The Fly"" and the Limbo (although he managed to squeeze at least two hits out of ihat test of limberness.)

Burke

[H.Donald]

Has anyone brought up these...
"Wooly Bully" by the immortal Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs...or
Bobby McFerrin's "don't worry be happy"...McFerrin an accomplished jazz musician had the one big crossover "hit"...which after the first 100 times you heard it you hated it.
Funny...earlier someone brought Evelyn"champange"King and Edwin Starr and both belong in this thread but each has a "best of" cd out.

[jimmyp58]

Well unless you hung out at every nightclub Edwin Starr or Evelyn "Champagne" King sang at, most folks would be hard-pressed to say they had more than one hit. :rofl: But I guess if they think they had more than one, God bless them!!!

Good pick up on the new ones you added!

[kmak]

Either everyone was stumped or nobody cared. Ranking very highly on the One Hit Wonders List......Life is Life, by Opus. No I'm not a fan!

Ken

[jimmyp58]

I never heard this on (unless I have and don't know it by name). Should I run out and get a copy? :W

[H.Donald]

I just looked at the ''best of Edwin Starr"...lo and behold there was the cut...
"Agent Double-o-Soul"...it was one of the first 45s that I ever purchased way back
in 19...ugh... nevermind.Anyway...how soon we forget.
Also the king of one hit wonders...LOUIE,LOUIE...was that the Kingsmen? I believe...

[dave]

Did'nt Edwin Star do 26 Miles in the Mid to Late 60s? Now I,ve got to go and dig through those records.

Lets see Louie, Louie, The Kingsman were the 1st although The Original Wailers claim that they did it 1st, them Paul Revere and the Raiders did it,,, am I missing anyone here?

[jimmyp58]

I forgot about 26 miles....good call! O.K., I take my comment back about Edwin Starr. ops:

[dave]

Sometimes were hard pressed to remember that far back!!! at least I know that I am,
this thread has had me going through stacks of records 45s and Lps and Cds I've got enough to keep us in one hit wonders for a long long time!!!

[jimmyp58]

This thread is like the Eveready bunny...it keeps going, and going, and going...

[Spearmint]

A couple of others for the list...

The Tornadoes - "Telstar"

The Penguins - "Earth Angel"

Pipkins - "Gimme Dat Ding"

Tin Tin - "Toast And Marmalade For Tea"

Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen - "Hot Rod Lincoln"

Sorry if any have been mentioned earlier, the list is getting rather large :T

[jimmyp58]

How about Bobby Bloom doing 'Montego Bay'?

[jimmyp58]

Good ones Spearmint!!!