For a lot of artists, "one-hit wonder" is their main claim to fame. For Jimi, Janis, Lou Reed and Randy Newman, it's a additional point of curiosity on their resumes.
Yeah, I would never think of USA for Africa or Band Aid as "one-hit wonders". I guess you could make that technical argument, but as you note, they were created as one-offs, so they shouldn't be seen as OHWs...
It remains stunning that "I Love LA" only got to #110 in the US! It's such an iconic song, and I know it felt like a hit back in 1983, as the video got a lot of play...
LOL! Looks like you're right. I always assumed "one-hit wonder" meant Hot 100, but the standard definition is acts who made the Top 40 just once. Blame my way of thinking on a man named Joe Donovan. He was a fantastic disc jockey who had this great overnight oldies show in the 1980s and 1990s that was broadcast on WHAS-AM out of Kentucky. Donovan had a massive collection of singles and played anything that hit the Hot 100. I bought the Joel Whitburn "Top Pop Singles" book to explore that and started seeing things in terms of the Hot 100. I'm mostly writing this to see if there are other Donovan-heads on here. I still have tapes of his old show.
A lot of times it’s the record company pushing for a derivative song rather than the artist. “we need another...”
I knew/know about Donovan . This may or may not interest you (or others), but for older and obscure and musically historic stuff, you might check out thehoundnyc.com , James Marshall, irascible former dj, club owner and music writer now running a Sunday music show out of his house. He venerates and likes to play (all from his own infinite record collection) the forgotten, the ignored, the one-hitters, the weird, all the lesser-known fabric of music; blues, rock and roll, roots, indefinable, and relates the stories of artists and songs when he can. A walking encyclopedia and a jolly good show.
The 12" (Tourist Version) is one of my all-time fav extended mixes - excellent idea and arrangements as you tour around Vienna with Falco!
Ah - you know my feelings about this one Alan!! A fantastic single / album track, with so much energy and a really unusual arrangement. Great vocals too by Natasha
Both EMF and Jesus Jones were supposed to be the next big thing from England after they both had a top 3 hit in the US. Their second singles were completely forgotten
I liked a lot of M's stuff even if it straddled new wave/novelty a bit much- this was the followup to "Pop Muzik" and went nowhere in the US
Exactly, however I would say he went from sounding like the best song Sting had written in decades to a s0-so Winwood sounding song...
"Wildflower". I'd managed, until now, to consign that firmly to the bottom of the dustbin of my memory, under a heap of other, uh, stuff.
I can certainly understand why this wasn't a hit. Unlike the hook-filled classic it followed, there's nothing particularly unique about it. Quite forgettable:
A true One-and-done Hit Wonder. According to Wikipedia, regarding the single "To Know Him is to Love Him", the groups first single: It went on to become a global hit. The record stayed in the Billboard Hot 100 for 23 weeks, in the Top Ten for 11 of those weeks, and commanded the number 1 chart position for three weeks. It also reached #2 in the UK. It sold over two and a half million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA. At 19 years old, Spector had written, arranged, played, sung, and produced the best-selling record in the country. Although subsequent releases by the Teddy Bears on the Imperial label were well-recorded soft pop, they did not sell, and within a year of the debut, Spector disbanded the group. Their follow-up single the same year: "If You Only Knew (The Love I Have for You)" - The Teddy Bears 1958.
I've always liked this tune, which was recorded by a lot of different acts. The musical inspiration was obviously "Wouldn't It Be Nice."
Lyrically, this was an attempt at continuing the narrative of the hit, although musically, it's quite different:
I feel exactly the same---i was writing an article for a magazine about Randy once and had to factcheck I Love LA's hit status, and i too was guessing it was a ding-dang top 10 single, both from video and, unless i'm nuts, my aor rock station in florida playing heck out of it. It FELT like a big hit, and also seemed like a song 'everyone knew.' Really weird.
It's possible that its use in the 1984 Olympics skews views of it. It was the unofficial theme of the LA games, so maybe that makes it seem like a bigger hit. That wouldn't explain why I saw the music video so much, though!
