**COVERS** of ONE-HIT WONDERS (heck, why not TWO-hit and THREE-hit wonders too!!)

Whacha got??

Please post links to Youtube clips or other streaming sources if you can. I want to HEAR some stuff as a result of this thread -- stuff most of us here were probably unaware of (I'm guessing).

How many can we come up with????

Take the definition of "one hit" and "two hit" wonders to be as inclusive as you like. Nobody's gonna bust your chops if the (original) band had some obscure 3rd hit that placed at the bottom of the hot-100. (Or heck, even real, honest to goodness "three hit" wonders are OK -- as I just amended the thread title to say.)

AND, to be a "HIT" - the tune need NOT have charted in the Top-40. COVERS of the biggest "almost hits" by artists with "little, but not entirely unknown careers" are fair game too.

The game here is to post COVERS of "hit"-ish (or "hit"-esque) material, (originally) by bands that really didn't have very many "hits" at all, or who only had a brush with greatness (even if just barely). The spirit of the law is far more important than the letter, in this thread.

 

Well, since I just saw them a few weeks ago, Tesla's cover of The Five Man Electrical Band's "Signs" comes immediately to mind.

You had the Beach Boys covering two hitter The Regents' "Barara-Ann"

Then you get technical one hit wonders that were actually very successful artists, like Lou Reed (check out Eddie Brickell and New Bohemians doing Take A Walk On The Wild Side)

And it's recently been mentioned that R.E.M. covered a song by one hitter, The Clique, but it wasn't even their hit.

 

REM covered "Superman" by the Clique. Their hit was "Sugar on Sunday", but I think their best song was "I'll Hold Out My Hand".

Actually, Tommy James and the Shondells did "Sugar on Sunday" as well.

 

Leaving Here - Eddie Holland
Leaving Here - The Who

Do You Love Me - The Contours
Do You Love Me - Dave Clark Five

Sukiyaki - Kyu Sakamoto
Sukiyaki - A Taste of Honey

 

Any more?

 

In the '80s, there was No More I Love You's by The Lover Speaks, later covered by the Eurythmics.

 

One of my favourites singles from the 1980's was by a band called Floy Joy. The song "Weak In The Presence of Beauty" was one of those radio turntable hits that never really dented the top range of the charts.

It was covered a few years later by Alison Moyet and was a suceess.

 

In the UK, Do You Love Me was a #1 for Bryan Poole & The Tremeloes.

 

This is one of three CDs of KTel covers I bought years ago. I'll let the official description inform:

Pravda's sequel to their first compilation of K-Tel cover songs has, like its predecessor, as many hits as misses. To be sure, some of the songs weren't all that great to begin with. The stronger numbers, however -- particularly those that have been covered with some degree of respect -- seem to fare the best. The Posies' "O-o-h Child" (the Five Stairsteps), for instance, is quite faithful to the original.

My favorite is "Magic" by J. Levine doing the old Pilot hit.

 

Great cover by Annie Lennox. Was it ever a hit for The Lover Speaks?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdNOCj_35Po

Annie remains true to the original.

 

"Funkytown" -- covered by Pseudo Echo. "Ring My Bell" -- covered by D.J. Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. "Grazing in the Grass" -- later covered by Friends of Distinction.

Probably the most famous cover of a one-hit wonder was Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes" -- covered by Elvis, Boyd Bennett, and later John Lennon as well as Johnny Rivers and manyothers.

 

Here's Doctor and the Medics doing Norman Greenbaum's Spirit In the Sky www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X2fdGEWOhA

And Joe Cocker covering Julie London's Cry Me A River: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMwXPueu-RM

 

Smashing Pumpkins - Jackie Blue

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYTKPHCS5JM

 

First one that came to mind. A one-hit wonder gets their one hit by covering the one hit by another one-hit wonder.

 

....and Bananarama did a cover of "Venus".

 

R.E.M. covered "Yellow River" by Christie.

 

Some new wave/goth bands have covered "In The Year 2525" but I'm afraid Youtube links aren't coming up readily.

I saw Phish cover "Ride Captain Ride" in 1998. Here is a more recent version.

 

Back in the earlier days of radio, it was not uncommon to have multiple covers of a hot song competing for chart position at the same time.

Here's two competing covers of The Hollywood Argyles' Alley Oop.

The Dyno-sores http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eriFFSzNp_E
Dante and the Evergreens http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8-lpTKw2mo



And I believe Fess Parker was a one hit wonder with The Ballad of Davy Crockett. He was forced to compete with three charting versions, two of which were more successful than his original.

Bill Hayes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak1ZBnkjNTo
Tennessee Ernie Ford: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ACYcD1ce5E

and I'm not finding a link for Mac Wiseman's version.

 

J Frank Wilson- Last Kiss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh4se9YMV3A
Pearl Jam- Last Kiss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0B-hJ_gotc

 

The Sirens covering Crabby Appleton's "Go Back"

http://www.reverbnation.com/artist/song_details/11984



and same song by Phil Jones:

http://www.reverbnation.com/artist/song_details/11361904

 

Hidden In Plain View - I Ran
http://youtu.be/TJXQEoIJjXk

Sweet & Hoffs - I See The Rain
http://youtu.be/sXvOXaFiWY8

 

"Der Kommisar" by Falco & After the Fire.

 

One of my favorites...Adrenalin's cover of Crazy Elephant's 'Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'"
http://youtu.be/n6QiC57tzhU

 

I think this qualifies...

Monster Magnet - There's No Way Out Of Here (originally by Unicorn, but best known (I think) from David Gilmour covering it on his (Gilmour's) first solo album -- Gilmour produced the Unicorn album that the song originally came from)

 

I love Camper Van Beethoven's cover of Pictures of Matchstick Men by Status Quo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShWNLlz4Ic4

I think Status Quo had a lot of hits in Europe, but just this one here in the US.