"One Hit Wonders" Daily Trivia

Gold Star I'm nearly sure. Think I had a compilation with both The Music Machine "Talk Talk" and this on it. If im right they were also the subject of a nice work of fiction.

 

Silver Star. Had a good guess on the answer and looked it up to be sure.

 

Shows the mystery of how some great songs are top hits while others by the same artist are considered the same but never get near the success of the "big hit". I remember auditioning a few new releases that I thought would be sure hits that never made the Hot 100. Go figure. I think it was because, in those days, record company promotion departments were more active and aggressive coupled with the fact that radio stations were playing a wider variety of music styles thus each week hundreds of new songs were in competition with each other forcing many releases to be left out in the cold.

 

Silver Star on #43. Nothing occurred to me at first, and then the likely answer popped into my head out of nowhere. Found photos to verify, which I had to do because the cover photo of their lone album does not show them attired in that way.

 

I've posted a picture of the question #43 band elsewhere in this forum, dressed in their vampire garb in front of a landmark in their home city (the city where I spent most of my life).

 

I admit that I looked up a photo just to make sure too. Silver Star.

 

ANSWER TO YESTERDAY'S QUESTION........

#43

10/31/18

These guys were known for wearing Dracula costumes onstage.

"Psychotic Reaction" / Count Five
Double Shot Records #5 1966





The lead guitarist, Johnny (Mouse) Michalski, was still in high school but the others came out of college in San Jose and were from all parts of the country. The rhythm player was from Dublin, Ireland. As in many other cases, they were discovered by a local DJ who put them in touch with Irwin Zucker of the new Double Shot label. You should have a good reason for not liking this early psychedelic hit.


What I found recently after starting this thread was that if someone correctly answers the question soon after it's posting, it takes away the incentive for others to participate. I don't want that to happen since this is a forum. So, let me describe how I think this can work successfully. You have five choices for initial answers...

1. If you absolutely know the answer, simply post "GOLD STAR", and leave a comment, if you like, about the song that doesn't hint or giveaway the answer. Please come back and post your full comments and memories about the song after the answer has been posted. This is what I want to encourage the most since this is a forum.

2. If you want to confirm your initial thought and look it up, post a SILVER STAR , with the same criteria as in #1.

3. If you want to take the time to research the answer, post a TIN STAR. Same criteria as #1.

4. Post your guesses. But let us know it's a guess, meaning it may or may not be correct. Comments would be welcomed.

5. Simply post "I don't know" and leave any comments you might have.

With these choices, it gives everyone a chance to correctly answer the question early and still leave room for everyone to participate until the official answer is posted. Again, I really want to hear your comments and memories about the song/artist. So let's start again........

It has always puzzled me how an artist or group could sometimes have a megahit and we never hear from them again. Especially if they wrote it. As a final authority I'll use the Billboard Top 40 charts because that should narrow the field to songs most everyone is familiar with. In some cases, an artist could have had another minor regional hit that no one ever heard of. I know of a One Hit Wonder where the group had two other hits in the South but people on the west coast would have never heard them. I will try to make the questions somewhat difficult to attract multiple answers or guesses. Each day I will update this thread with the previous day's answer and a new question. Correct answers should contain the correct title and artist as it appeared on the record or chart. Give yourself a gold star if you know it and a silver star if you want to take the time to research it. Good luck and have fun!

NEW QUESTION........


#44

11/1/18


When this one was recorded, all of the musicians were pretty drunk and the singer had to be held up to sing by a friend. The song was written by the guy who later wrote and recorded the original "Elvira".


Please choose from the NEW options above....

 

Tin Star on 44.

 

Dang it! After staring at the clue umpteen times, Count 5 came to me but I didn't see any videos of them in Dracula costumes.

 

Think I got #44. Tin star......again.

 

Damn! I love this thread, but as I was born in 1965....in England....I'm not getting many stars!

 

only Dracula picture I could find were variations of the same photo



only picture I remember

 

Re Count Five:

The name of the group gave it to me. All I had to do was confirm.

I didn't want to say it because I thought it might give it away, but the title of their big hit was given to one of the band members when he was in a college Health Education class. The class was studying neuroses and psychoses, and a friend of his told him that "Psychotic Reaction" would be a great name for a song.

 

Silver Star. Again, had a good idea and used the Internet to confirm.

There aren't many songs that make two different artists into One-Hit Wonders, but this one does.

 

Born much earlier, and in Canada, but not getting many either. But enjoying lots of interesting trivia.

Psychotic Reaction is one of those great nuggets that I remember from the 60s. Never came across the Dracula linkage though, but hey, yesterday was Halloween.

 

Thanks for catching the Dracula/Halloween connection.

 

This is not a good reason for disliking it, and in fact, I don't dislike it at all. But "Psychotic Reaction" is about as blatant a cop from The Yardbirds as there ever was. Not just the fuzz guitar and the harmonica, but the bit during the solo and playout of muting the rhythm guitar strings and playing a chunky, percussive pattern on them. Yardbirds 101!

But I liked the song quite well — well enough that I remember the exact circumstances under which I bought the single in August of 1966. Their follow-up single "Peace of Mind" got a very small bit of airplay, and I liked it too. But it died a pretty quick death, and that was the end of Count Five.

 

Lester Bangs made up a fictional 5 album career for The Count Five in his article "Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung".

 

As you point out the Yardbirds "sound", it should be noted that most of their live set included many Yardbirds and Stones songs.

 

I found a copy of the album at Salvation Army circa the late 1980's. It sort of started me on my way towards being a huge fan of 60's garage.

 

Not long ago I listened to the Psychotic Reunion CD, which I assume features the band as shown in some of the photos above, years after the fact (1990s, maybe? I'd have to check).

It purports to be a live album, but sounds kind of phony to me in spots in that regard. But as I recall, there were a ton of Yardbirds tracks on it, indicating that they were indeed a part of their live shows back in the day.

 

I'm giving myself a provisional Tin Star for #44.

 

Tin Star for #44. Looked up the answer based on the songwriting clue.

 

ANSWER TO YESTERDAY'S QUESTION.....


#44

11/1/18


When this one was recorded, all of the musicians were pretty drunk and the singer had to be held up to sing by a friend. The song was written by the guy who later wrote and recorded the original "Elvira".

"Alley-Oop" / Hollywood Argyles
Lute Records #1 1960





Gary S. Paxton was the "Flip" half of Skip and Flip and decided to move from Arizona to Hollywood. When he arrived it was 2:00AM and the first gas station he stopped at was manned by Dallas Frazier. He mentioned to Gary that he was a songwriter and Gary promised to look him up next time he needed a tune. Once settled in Hollywood, Gary met up with Al Kavlin, head of the Lute label, and they formed a publishing company. Gary remembered Dallas and called on him for a song. He assembled some musicians, they got a little too sloshed and recorded this song about a caveman. Gary's first release on Lute was "You're Ruining My Gladness". It bombed and before he released "Alley" some one reminded him that he and Skip were still under contract to Brent records and he should not use his name. Searching for a name, he went outside and saw that the recording studio was on the corner of Hollywood Blvd. and Argyle St. Simple enough. Paxton went of to form a couple of labels, Paxley and Garpax, which featured "Monster Mash". (Skip Battin went on to play bass for the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and New Riders of the Purple Sage. Gary Paxton became a Christian and released a couple of albums and was once romantically linked to Tammy Faye Bakker.

What I found recently after starting this thread was that if someone correctly answers the question soon after it's posting, it takes away the incentive for others to participate. I don't want that to happen since this is a forum. So, let me describe how I think this can work successfully. You have five choices for initial answers...

1. If you absolutely know the answer, simply post "GOLD STAR", and leave a comment, if you like, about the song that doesn't hint or giveaway the answer. Please come back and post your full comments and memories about the song after the answer has been posted. This is what I want to encourage the most since this is a forum.

2. If you want to confirm your initial thought and look it up, post a SILVER STAR , with the same criteria as in #1.

3. If you want to take the time to research the answer, post a TIN STAR. Same criteria as #1.

4. Post your guesses. But let us know it's a guess, meaning it may or may not be correct. Comments would be welcomed.

5. Simply post "I don't know" and leave any comments you might have.

With these choices, it gives everyone a chance to correctly answer the question early and still leave room for everyone to participate until the official answer is posted. Again, I really want to hear your comments and memories about the song/artist. So let's start again........

It has always puzzled me how an artist or group could sometimes have a megahit and we never hear from them again. Especially if they wrote it. As a final authority I'll use the Billboard Top 40 charts because that should narrow the field to songs most everyone is familiar with. In some cases, an artist could have had another minor regional hit that no one ever heard of. I know of a One Hit Wonder where the group had two other hits in the South but people on the west coast would have never heard them. I will try to make the questions somewhat difficult to attract multiple answers or guesses. Each day I will update this thread with the previous day's answer and a new question. Correct answers should contain the correct title and artist as it appeared on the record or chart. Give yourself a gold star if you know it and a silver star if you want to take the time to research it. Good luck and have fun!


NEW QUESTION.....

#45

11/2/18


This Latino groups hit also featured inebriated people in the studio.


Please choose from the answer options above........