One hit wonders and Tony Blackburn - surely a winning a combination.
Tone is counting down the top 40 one hit wonders on Radio 2 tomorrow at 4pm.
What do you think will be number one?
And what are your favourite - if that's the right word - one hit/novelty singles?
|
I've always liked Zager and Evans's 'In the year 2525'. It talks of test tube babies years before they ever happened and it's a thought provoking tune with a great beat.
No idea where it'll come on the list though.
|
I doubt it will, but "Spirit in the Sky" deserves to be no1 "One Hit Wonder" by Norman Greenbaum.
Most OHW are jokes, of the moment spin-offs, and subsequently crap, but Spirit in the Sky still stands the test of time now, and provided musical direction subsequently used later, such as high-pitched backing vocals, a prominent shuffle rhythm and its use of synthesizer technology.
In short, its genuine music worthy of ear time.
Last edited by: Zero on Sun 1 May 11 at 09:01
|
|
Your idol was on Top of The Pops 1976 last night....a couple of good acts on it "ELO", Bellemy Brothers but not Laurie and the Dipsticks.....
|
>> Your idol was on Top of The Pops 1976 last night....a couple of good acts
>> on it "ELO", Bellemy Brothers but not Laurie and the Dipsticks.....
I saw it, expecting to see some top notch 70's hits. What a load of tosh. Watching Blackburn again reminds me how detestable he is. Devoid of any character, Mr Commercial to the last. His facial expression never changes.
I can see why Peely and Blackburn never saw eye to eye, very different characters.
|
>>>"Spirit in the Sky" deserves to be no1 "One Hit Wonder" by Norman Greenbaum.
Agreed... a few seconds of it was on tv last night and I said to my 15yr old daughter it's one of those tracks everyone should know within seconds of it starting.
|
Interesting excerpt from the BBC's preview:
"Expect music from across five decades, with a number of charity singles and a few festive tunes cropping up during the show."
I wonder which charity singles qualify as one hit wonders?
If they all do, then the number one must be Do They Know It's Christmas? by Bandaid.
I imagine Bandaid will not qualify because the members had lots of hits as solo artists.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010mwjb
|
Urban Spaceman might be in there. Not sure whether Neil Innes has had other hits since then as he had his finger in lots of pies.
Spirit in the Sky was covered in the 80s so isn't technically a one hit wonder... might also exclude 'Monster Mash' as I think that's been released and a hit more than once.
Quite liked Nigel Planer's "Hole in My Shoe". I'd guess 'Living Doll' with the young ones would be high up there. Anyone that belts Cliff Richard over the head with a hammer has to be.
|
|
Captain Sensible and that song from South Pacific for me !!
|
>> Captain Sensible and that song from South Pacific for me !!
Shud upaya Face.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFacWGBJ_cs
|
Captain Sensible - aka Raymond Burns - had a lot of other hits.
Happy Talk was the big no1, but Glad its all over was a better track, IMHO.
|
|
Captain Sensible has indeed other hits, MANY other hits! I love them all (have over 60 of them on my iPod), it's weird how the cover chosen randomly from his parent's records, got him on TOTP, I doubt he'd go back in time to change it though. He's my idol! Also he's doing some solo gigs this year, I'm going to one in York on Sunday, yay! There's also a website dedicated to him (by moi): www.sensibleanimation.com ;)
|
Welcome aboard you absolute mental case.
I watched a couple of your animations. That's the worst Tom Jones look-a-like I have ever seen but it made me laugh. What's with his eyes?
Enjoyed Slade right up until Noddy started making out with Santa.
I'll watch the others when I get a mo. Seek help.
|
Conveniently mixing up your criteria for one hit wonder there TB, you have used song title and/or artist in your examples. Cant have it both ways.
|
Pappa Piccolino (from sunny Italy)... God it was annoying...
She
Wore
An
Itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini...
That one was a bit better
|
>> Pappa Piccolino (from sunny Italy)... God it was annoying...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nRtM1jcs70
Jesus wept, that's awful with a capital A!
Last edited by: Zero on Sun 1 May 11 at 11:29
|
A Whiter Shade of Pale
My Boy Lollipop
(courtesy of Ms Coussine)
|
>> My Boy Lollipop
>>
>> (courtesy of Ms Coussine)
Bad taste in music runs in the family then
|
Ah shaddapa your face Zero... no approval was implied. Poor little Millie, an exploited Jamaican teenager... disappeared without trace.
Unlike that Scottish girl with 'Shout' when she was 15 ('Bags of attack,' I remember someone saying snootily)... never had another proper hit but is still a minor celeb. Her name escapes me though.
|
|
Lulu now looks amazingly good for her age; another one from that era who got better looking with age is Twiggy.
|
I love her 'To sir with love' - it's in my singles collection. Can't beat a good string arrangement.
www.we7.com/#/song/Lulu/To-Sir-With-Love
|
The cruel empty sham of Tin Pan Alley... Real struggling artists ripped off and chucked away on the trashpile in large numbers. While others who aren't even musicians are assembled into me-too simulacra of pop bands and go on to carve out long careers becoming in some cases rich and powerful...
Anyone remember the Monkees, invented for TV and shoved down everyone's throats? What a load of cobblers... yet at least one of them is a big player in the business to this day.
|
|
People's girlfriends... some of them stay the course though. Mary Hopkin didn't but Marianne Faithfull not only became a better singer as she matured, but became a better and better actress too. Please don't mention the appalling 'Girl on a Motorcycle', but I did see her in a movie recently playing a frumpy middle-aged, middle-class housewife who sidles accidentally into the Soho sex trade. She was absolutely brilliant in it and the movie was quite amusing too.
|
Ah yes! Marianne Evelyn Faithfull. Such a great breeding line!
Stolen from iffipedia:
Faithfull was born in Hampstead, London. Her father, Major Robert Glynn Faithfull, was a British military officer and college professor in psychology.[2] Her mother, Eva von Sacher-Masoch, Baroness Erisso, was originally from Vienna, with aristocratic roots in the Hapsburg Dynasty and Jewish ancestry on her maternal side.[3] Erisso was a ballerina for the Max Reinhardt Company during her early years, and danced in productions of works by the German theatrical duo Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.[4] Faithfull's maternal great great uncle was Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the 19th century Austrian nobleman whose erotic novel, Venus in Furs, spawned the word "masochism".[5] In regard to her roots in nobility, Faithfull commented in March 2007 prior to beginning the European leg of her tour, "I'm even going to Budapest, which is nice because I'm half English and half Austro Hungarian. I've inherited the title Baroness Sacher-Masoch—it comes from one of my great uncles who gave his name to masochism."[6]
The film you mention BTW was a 1997 production called Irina Palm.
|
>> a 1997 production called Irina Palm.
Have you seen it Zeddo? Really quite amusing. Very much BBD's sort of thing too.
|
|
I haven't no, but I fully intend to do so now, its arriving in bits and bytes as we speak.
Last edited by: Zero on Sun 1 May 11 at 13:08
|
Mary Hopkin's music had something of a renaissance recently - a very, very pure voice. There was some talk of a come back a few years ago. She was interviewed on the TV and her reasons for quitting "show business" (as it used to be called) were well documented at the time. She has recorded stuff in most decades including 2010
|
>> Mary Hopkin's music had something of a renaissance recently - a very, very pure voice.
You really have caught the "everything that's Welsh is wonderful" bug haven't you.
|
She was the subject of my first crush - it knows no national/racial boundaries.
|
You should get a copy of Under Milkwood, Pug......The Anthony Hopkins version.
Every one performing is Welsh...apart from a brief desgription of the town, voiced by Alan Bennett.
This version has some songs, performed by Mary Hopkin, Bonnie Tyler and Tom Jones.
Other voices include Harry Secombe, Freddie Jones, Windsor Davies,Ruth Madoc and her ex.
Amongst many others.
Ted
|
>> a very, very pure voice.
But a smallish one with a narrow range and a slightly doleful tone. She was a pretty girl too but in an ethereal, insipid, pre-Raphaelite way without any real oomph or what the French call 'chien'. Perhaps though a bit more, er, Welsh in private.
The matter of looks has become the first, almost the only, consideration in pop music. It's because of TV of course, been like that for ages. Fortunately though in this post-modern age ugly is almost as good as beautiful. If you can't pretend to be one you may be able to simulate the other.
Although he sold a lot of albums (showing reassuringly that the market isn't entirely half-witted) I'm not sure the great poet and musician Ian Dury ever had a real hit single... Hit me with your Rhythm Stick perhaps. But he hardly made a bad song... what about Billericay Dickie for example, superb stuff. Although my favourite, Plaistow Patricia, still couldn't be broadcast, not too early in the evening anyway.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 1 May 11 at 17:01
|
>> The matter of looks has become the first, almost the only, consideration in pop music.
Not wanting to insult anyone but Adele is doing fantastically well on both sides of the pond at the moment - talent can still help.
Last edited by: Focus on Sun 1 May 11 at 17:05
|
|
Adele has a big personality, to match the rest of her.
|
>> Adele has a big personality, to match the rest of her.>>
She also comes across as pretty level-headed as well...
|
>> >> Adele has a big personality, to match the rest of her.>>
>>
>> She also comes across as pretty level-headed as well...
To anyone who's interested, Adele is on Later with Jools tonight at 10pm BBC2.
|
>>To anyone who's interested, Adele is on Later with Jools tonight at 10pm BBC2.>>
Thanks for that...:-)
|
>> talent can still help.
Sure can. Who was that girl from Galveston who sang the blues so well for a white Texan and drank all the Southern Comfort slowly dissolving herself from the stomach outwards... But there's pop music as such, and more serious stuff. The looks become more predominant at the bubblegum end of the spectrum.
|
|
Alison Moyet sang better in "big" mode than her latter "thin" mode.
|
>> Alison Moyet sang better in "big" mode
Helped by Vince Clarke's top tunes.
|
>> >> Alison Moyet sang better in "big" mode
>>
>> Helped by Vince Clarke's top tunes.
I'm doing her a disservice - she did pretty well on her own after Yazoo as well.
|
Another distinctive female one hit wonder (also in my collection):
www.we7.com/#/song/Janet-Kay/Silly-Games
|
>>>Ian Dury... hardly made a bad song... what about Billericay Dickie for example, superb stuff. Although my favourite, Plaistow Patricia, still couldn't be broadcast, not too early in the evening anyway
Spot on there AC. After some years in semi-retirement my record deck has been in use recently encouraging old albums to be re-visited. New boots and panties is in the pile I'm listening to this weekend... together with Kate Bush, Eurythmics, Thompson Twins, ZZ Top and other stuff you probably don't rate.
|
>> together with Kate Bush, Eurythmics, Thompson Twins, ZZ Top and other stuff you probably don't rate.
Was Kate Bush the Big Yellow Taxi person?
... Don't it always seem to go
You don't know what you've got till it's gone
You take Paradise, put in a parking lot...
Memorable song anyway because I've remembered a bit of it. Whether it was her or not.
Thing about pop music is that it's been the wallpaper all one's life. Sometimes you can identify chapter, verse and author, sometimes not. The names and tunes come and go in one's head.
I know nothing about music. But I know what I like.
Sometimes these days though tunes or lyrics I don't even like scroll through my brain when I'm trying to go to sleep. I sometimes wonder if this happens to anyone else.
|
Don't it always seem to go
You don't know what you've got till it's gone
You take Paradise, put in a parking lot...
Joni Mitchell, as well yu kno AC. You might aspire to be a high court judge, but, you're fooling no-one!
|
>> Joni Mitchell, as well yu kno
Damn! I have been embarrassed before by the very same confusion between those two.
There are things one gets mostly right, and there are mistakes one makes always or often. For example I have great difficulty remembering the name of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, frequently mentioned in the piece of work I am doing at present. Why should this be? Why do I usually think Joni Mitchell's name is Kate Bush? Nothing to do with Alzheimer's unless I've had it for twenty years or more. Someone should do a study of the standard or habitual error.
Nice to meet you in this thread N_C.
|
|
.
Last edited by: AnotherJohnH on Mon 2 May 11 at 04:01
|
>> a very, very pure voice.
But a smallish one with a narrow range and a slightly doleful tone. She was a pretty girl too but in an ethereal, insipid, pre-Raphaelite way without any real oomph or what the French call 'chien'. Perhaps though a bit more, er, Welsh in private. >>
Alison Krauss has a superb voice, the looks and is supremely versatile - great backing group as well in Union Station.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kClAZAYK3M&feature=related (supporting Shania Twain, another excellent artiste)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvKtxTsVoMo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bNfay6HiUo&feature=related
Others who match Alison's quality are Emmylou Harris and Linda Rondstat.
|
>> Anyone remember the Monkees, invented for TV and shoved down everyone's throats?
>> What a load of cobblers...
10 date UK tour later this month:
www.newsquod.com/641541/the-monkees-reunite-for-uk-tour-2011/
Another report (in the Mail) states they're getting £1M for it. Saw them on The One Show a few weeks ago - can't say they looked completely comfortable together...
Last edited by: Focus on Sun 1 May 11 at 13:47
|
>> UK tour later this month:
>> can't say they looked completely comfortable together...
So the tour will be torture for the three who will be on it. But not nearly such hideous torture as the audiences will suffer for the price (high no doubt) of their tickets.
|
>> A Whiter Shade of Pale
Procul Harum were not OHW's; they had a total of six single entries in the British Top 50.
Nor was Millie; she had a couple of other (forgettable) Top 50 singles to her name.
|
>> Procul Harum were not OHW's
>> Nor was Millie
OK Harleyman, I'm no expert really, just remember some songs and some names... I tend to think of real hits as top 10 though. There's been plenty of awful carp in the top slot after all over the years.
My abiding memory of pop music from when some of it was all right (hardly any is now, perhaps because I'm going deaf and curmudgeonly) was the relentless hyping by deeply distasteful and sinister characters like that nasty old woman in the blonde frightwig, uhUHuhUHuhUHuhUH ow's about that then, yuck! what a carphound, pseudoyouthgarbage...
|
"nasty old woman in the blonde frightwig"
Still alive and probably still living with the carcass of his dead mother.
Poly Styrene died last week, aged 52. A great shame. I wasn't a great fan of X-ray Specs particularly but I remember like it was yesterday when she was singing (wailing) to Germ-free Adolescent on TOTP and my old man shot up from his arm chair and turned it over. The look of anger, disgust and incomprehension on his face was priceless and it's been one of my favourite tunes ever since. I can't imagine anything these days would have the same effect, he might turn the volume down but there's nothing with that dangerous edge to it.
He did the same in the car when Jilted John came on once. Gordon is a moron.
|
This is what we would have been watching.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGROSJbCPV8
|
>> This is what we would have been watching.
>>
>> www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGROSJbCPV8
But that's a good tune!
|
|
Yeah, show's you what a square my old man is. If it's not Elaine Page or Johnny Cash, it's crap.
|
>> If it's not Elaine Page
>> or Johnny Cash, it's crap.
Lucky you didn't end up being called BigBadSue then.
|
>> But that's a good tune!
Yes it is, although not my genre really. She's a winsome girl too with the tooth brace, and the stage name is excellent as well. Sad she's gone so young.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 1 May 11 at 14:30
|
Yes she's just my type, mixed race and cute as hell.
That was posted by a guy called BlueVelvetGlove. Check out some of the other videos he's posted from TOTP in the 70s. Some absolute classic stuff there and all seem to be great quality.
|
...Poly Styrene died last week, aged 52...
Sorry to hear that.
I bought what I think was X-Ray Spex' first single: Oh Bondage! Up Yours!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogypBUCb7DA
Not complete tosh by any means, like a lot of her stuff.
I also have The World Turned Dayglo on orange vinyl.
|
"Oh Bondage! Up Yours!"
Odd isn't it, seeing a punk band with a sax player?
|
...Odd isn't it, seeing a punk band with a sax player?...
My first experience of sax was Gary Glitter's band.
|
>>That one was a bit better >>
Wasn't that Brian Hyland?
One of my all time favourite one hit wonders was Here Comes Summer by Jerry Keller - massive hit back in the 1960s.
Last edited by: Stuartli on Sun 1 May 11 at 13:22
|
"Exerts From A Teenage Opera" by Keith West was one of my favourite one hit wonders, as was Richard Harris's Macarthur Park.
God knows why in either case, but I liked 'em.
|
|
"Little Arrows" by the mincing, long haired, toothy person.
|
I liked the teenage opera at the time.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rExhxkX-Ic
Also like Randy Edelman...Uptown, uptempo woman...Got both on me Empy3.
Ted
Last edited by: Ted on Sun 1 May 11 at 15:24
|
|
Watching that brought back memories of listening to Junior Choice in the mid-late 60's !
|
|
Jilted John, Gordon is a Moron has to be one, not sure if it was ever actually a hit though!
|
Gordon is a Moron, like so many punk singles, was first released on a small label, played by John Peel, picked up by a big label (EMI), and was a big hit, reaching number four - according to wiki.
I thought it reached number two.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Fellows
|
One from the fifties. Jerry Keller's "Here Comes Summer"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ijjDlbcI9w
|
|
The Piglets Johnny Reggae was one which has always stuck in my mind - wouldn't say I like it though, tolerate would be a better description. ISTR Jonathan King had something to do with it, as he did with a lot of odd singles around the same period.
|
|
Oh, and what about Serge and Jane Je T'aime. Wasn't allowed on the radio then but maybe now...?
|
>> One from the fifties. Jerry Keller's "Here Comes Summer"
>> www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ijjDlbcI9w>>
See my 13-20 post..:-)
|
Homourous:
- Monster Mash
- Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
Likeable and catchy:
- Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of…)
- Axel F
Irritatingly moronic:
- 99 Red Balloons
- Who Let the Dogs Out
- Pump Up the Volume
- Shaddap You Face
|
|
Sorry - missed your post. No 1,somewhat ironically, in Autumn of 1959
|
>> Sorry - missed your post. No 1,somewhat ironically, in Autumn of 1959 >>
That was my second year working in the local newspaper's editorial department - I tipped off the record reviewer that it was a cert hit and he took all the credit for the prediction...:-)
homepage.ntlworld.com/gary.hart/lyricsk/keller.html
|
Ok hows this
One hit wonder, caused by a TV advert
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIVqLa8xooU
Called "Make Love" by room 5. - catchy little number
Aha BUT
Its basically this one, Saturday Night by Oliver Cheatham but speeded up.
The long Oliver Cheatham original is some of the finest funk I have heard, with superb vocals.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DashlUC2y8g
|
Running down this list, in my MP3 library I have
In the year 2525
Spirit in the sky
Do they know its christmas
captain sensible
My boy Lollipop
Whiter shade of pale
Shout
to sir with love
All the Monkees
mary Hopkins (those were the days)
Marianne Faithful (balad of lucy Jordon
Bonnie tyler
All of tom jones
Some harry secome
some Ian Dury
Adele (19 and 21)
Alison Moyet (most of)
janet kay
Kate Bush,
Eurythmics,
Thompson Twins,
ZZ Top
Alison Kraus (with kenny rogers and Billy dean)
Some Emmylou Harris
A lot of Linda Rondstadt
1 x-ray specs
Bryan Hyland Itsy bitsy & Sealed with a kiss
Little Arrows
Richard Harris
Monster Mash by Bobby "Boris" Picket and the Crypt Kicker 5
Always look ont he bright side of life
mambo no5
99 Red Balloons
Who Let the Dogs Out
Pump Up the Volume
|
|
On the "one hit wonder" basis, Bonnie Tyler cannot be ranked in that class...:-)
|
Surprisngly fewer hits than you think tho - 4
|
Only one really dodgy record so far - Grandma by St Winnifred's School Choir.
Couple of instrumentals, and we've already had Sprit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum.
The old maestro is going to have to keep his foot down to fit 40 songs in two hours.
|
>> The old maestro is going to have to keep his foot down to fit 40
>> songs in two hours.
>>
Flew through a few just now.... just played the 1st 2-3 lines....
|
>> >> The old maestro is going to have to keep his foot down to fit
>> 40
>> >> songs in two hours.
>> >>
>> Flew through a few just now.... just played the 1st 2-3 lines....
of course, cant let the music interfere with Tone Time
|
...of course, cant let the music interfere with Tone Time...
You can't bear the thought of someone being good at something, can you?
|
>> Surprisingly fewer hits than you think tho - 4>>
I knew how many she'd had, hence the comment.
But still three more than the one hit wonder artistes...:-)
|
trawl this thread and tell me where I said she was a one hit wonder? In fact trawl through this thread and tell me who mentioned her first?
|
|
In your MP3 list it includes a considerable number of "one hit wonders", so seemingly incorrectly assumed you included Bonnie in that category...:-)
|
Nope merely listing all those that had been mentioned that also appeared int he bottomless pit that is my music library.
Surprised however by the number that dont!
|
|
I always liked Feargal Sharkey's "A Good Love is Hard to Find" It did well, it may have made Number 1, and I don't think he ever had another hit.
|
>>..and I don't think he ever had another hit.>>
See:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feargal_Sharkey
|
|
Thanks Stuart. I have personally not heard the other hits but you are right. What an amazing career progression the man has had, your link was very interesting.
|
>>..bottomless pit that is my music library. >>
I have a pretty massive collection from working on the basis that when I retired I would enjoy having the time to listen to it all.
However, I'm always finding great new music, recording it and then continually discovering something that seems even better...:-)
|
|
Is it over? What was No. 1?
|
...What was No. 1?...
As exclusively half-predicted, Do They Know It's Christmas? by Bandaid.
For Tone, it's never over.
|
"As exclusively half-predicted, Do They Know It's Christmas? by Bandaid."
I'm not having it. I declare this result null and void, it doesn't fit the true spirit of a one hit wonder - a person or act known mainly for a single success and never again charting inside the top 40.
Everyone in that studio was well known for something other than that single and I bet they all went on to chart again inside the top 40. With the exception of Marylin who went on to be a junkie and is now back home with his mum. Does he know it's Christmas? Probably not.
Rematch.
|
>> Everyone in that studio was well known for something other than that single and I
>> bet they all went on to chart again inside the top 40. With the exception
>> of Marylin
...and IIRC Jody Watley from Shalamar, last seen being ogled by the Status Quo boys.
|
Long John Baldry had a few hits good singer.
The only band we had in Holland with one big hit where the Golden Earrings.
Radar Love.
|
I heard Ghandi described as a one-hit wonder.
"He only made the one film, then you never heard of him again"
|
Born to be wild.Steppen Wolf.
Best bands in the sixties.:)
|
>> I heard Ghandi described as a one-hit wonder.
>> "He only made the one film, then you never heard of him again"
Have you been watching re-runs of Only Fools & Horses on UK Gold?
Or are you Trigger, and can I claim my £5?
|
*smiles*
No - not Trigger, and I haven't watched "Only Fools & Horses" for over 10 years.
I got the quote from a workmate. Maybe he's a fan?
|
One hit wonders - BiggerBadderDave
