All this moder soul makes me wanna post up what I'm jammin to as I'm typin this. Doesn't really count as a one-hit wonder though, and it's from 1980.
Al Johnson - Tonight's The Night For Love (maybe "I've Got My Second Wind" would count as a one-hit wonder? Peaceful excluded b/c of only-a-hit-for-nerds status)
Big_Stacks"I don't worry about hittin' power, cause I don't give 'em nuttin' to hit." 4,670 Posts
Hey,
I think this is from 1980, but F*ck it:
"Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll"-Vaughn Mason & Crew.
I tried to find the "We Wanna Funk You Up" song from the album (my fave actually), to no avail. I wanted to play it since it was the 1st song I ever sampled (in 1986). Man, this shit brings back some fond memories. My and my brother in our (shared ) bedroom as kids, jammin' to our records on old Sears stereo system.
Surprised also to learn that Free - one of the greatest British rock bands of all time - are considered one-hit wonders in the US. I mean, I know "All Right Now" is the song everybody knows, but man, they had joints. Was that really the only record of note they had in America?
Free had their moment in the spotlight, but the one thing you have to understand is that they sold ALBUMS. Not SINGLES. They just were not an AM Gold-type band; their main airplay came from FM album rock stations. "All Right Now," #4 in Billboard's pop singles chart, was basically a fluke, so you can't really judge them by how many 7" records they sold. It was all about the LP.
You could say the same thing for Ted Nugent, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, the Allman Brothers Band, Lou Reed, Jefferson Airplane, Miles Davis, Deep Purple - all their fame came from the albums. But if you had to judge them by the singles, you'd think they were one-, two-, and (in Deep Purple's case) three-hit wonders. Hell, in the US Black Sabbath and Humble Pie had no hit 45's at all.
Some good stuff in this thread, quite a bit of which I've never even heard of. Surprised that nobody posted this, though. I've never not loved this song. You need to check the "Freeway's Month of Madness" thread, where Herm has posted a cut which features Free rhyming on this.
...and the funny part is, Rickie Lee Jones had a followup hit, too ("Youngblood," #40 in 1979 - and no, I don't remember it, but evidently some station somewhere spun that joker before it faded).
...and the funny part is, Rickie Lee Jones had a followup hit, too ("Youngblood," #40 in 1979 - and no, I don't remember it, but evidently some station somewhere spun that joker before it faded).
Yeah, I saw that...but it's pretty tenuous to call something a "hit" if it just barely scrapes the top 40 so I bent the rules a little bit. It was probably the kind of thing where the followup to a big hit song gets some play just because it's the followup to a big hit song, but quickly fades when people realize they don't like it nearly as much. I dunno, I'm just making excuses.
...and the funny part is, Rickie Lee Jones had a followup hit, too ("Youngblood," #40 in 1979 - and no, I don't remember it, but evidently some station somewhere spun that joker before it faded).
Yeah, I saw that...but it's pretty tenuous to call something a "hit" if it just barely scrapes the top 40 so I bent the rules a little bit.
I'd call it a hit.
I used to hear Night Ranger's shitty "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" like clockwork on the radio every day (it was their first hit, at that). But then years later I see (via these Billboard chart books) that it, too, stiffed out at #40! And most folk who were around in the eighties remember that as being one of their significant hits, so who's to say?
If it made the Top 40, in my opinion I'd call it a hit, even it was only at #39 for a week.
It was probably the kind of thing where the followup to a big hit song gets some play just because it's the followup to a big hit song, but quickly fades when people realize they don't like it nearly as much. I dunno, I'm just making excuses.
No, you're right. When I was younger and listened to the radio more, that kind of thing used to happen all the time. "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas was hard to avoid, but then "Dance The Kung Fu" would get played for three weeks and then disappear...Top 10 R&B, too, but by December no one was gonna remember that shit.
I used to hear Night Ranger's shitty "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" like clockwork on the radio every day (it was their first hit, at that). But then years later I see (via these Billboard chart books) that it, too, stiffed out at #40! And most folk who were around in the eighties remember that as being one of their significant hits, so who's to say?
If it made the Top 40, in my opinion I'd call it a hit, even it was only at #39 for a week.
I dunno, the thing to me is I've heard "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" before...in all my years I've never once heard that other Rickie Lee Jones song. Maybe partly it's from having grown up in the MTV era and maybe I was aware of the Night Ranger song because of the video, but I honestly can't think of a single time on any radio station I've ever heard that Rickie Lee Jones song. Of course, I was 5 when it came out so I can't say I was listening to the radio back then to know how much it got played.
Also, I think the Night Ranger song probably got played on AOR stations, and I was listening to stations like that back in the 80's. My view of some music from the 70's and 80's is skewed from listening to AOR stations after I'd stopped listening to Top 40 stations in high school. Based on how much the AOR station I listened to played it I'd have figured "Flirtin' With Disaster" by Molly Hatchet was a big hit, but it didn't even crack the Top 40!
I used to hear Night Ranger's shitty "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" like clockwork on the radio every day (it was their first hit, at that). But then years later I see (via these Billboard chart books) that it, too, stiffed out at #40! And most folk who were around in the eighties remember that as being one of their significant hits, so who's to say?
If it made the Top 40, in my opinion I'd call it a hit, even it was only at #39 for a week.
I dunno, the thing to me is I've heard "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" before...in all my years I've never once heard that other Rickie Lee Jones song. Maybe partly it's from having grown up in the MTV era and maybe I was aware of the Night Ranger song because of the video, but I honestly can't think of a single time on any radio station I've ever heard that Rickie Lee Jones song. Of course, I was 5 when it came out so I can't say I was listening to the radio back then to know how much it got played.
I was twelve when Rickie Lee Jones was the big sensation of the summer (next to the Knack). You couldn't turn on a radio without flipping past "Chuck E.'s In Love" - even a few of the black stations were playing that thing (at least where I grew up). Like you, I don't recall ever hearing "Youngblood" any place at any time.
But I'll cut RLJ a little slack and say it was a minor hit. A good friend of mine is a few years older than me and spent half of the '70s growing up in Texas. We're always comparing notes on what got played in each other's cities. Nine times out of ten, there'll be some record he heard down south that I didn't get in the Midwest (and vice versa). And those turned out to be the songs that stopped in the bottom 40, 'cause certain parts of the country weren't playing that record.
Besides, as a kid going on road trips with the family, there'd always be some record I heard on the road on some out-of-town station that I didn't hear once I got back home. For some other kid, that could have been "Youngblood."
Also, I think the Night Ranger song probably got played on AOR stations, and I was listening to stations like that back in the 80's. My view of some music from the 70's and 80's is skewed from listening to AOR stations after I'd stopped listening to Top 40 stations in high school. Based on how much the AOR station I listened to played it I'd have figured "Flirtin' With Disaster" by Molly Hatchet was a big hit, but it didn't even crack the Top 40!
Yeah, same thing with "This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide" by the Kings! Where I live, both the AOR and Top 40 stations were all over that bad boy. I still can't hear that song without flashing back to the fall of 1980. And that song didn't crack the national Top 40 either!
Of course, AOR radio in its' prime was all about albums, not singles, so it's easy to think that some records were bigger than they were.
But I'll cut RLJ a little slack and say it was a minor hit. A good friend of mine is a few years older than me and spent half of the '70s growing up in Texas. We're always comparing notes on what got played in each other's cities. Nine times out of ten, there'll be some record he heard down south that I didn't get in the Midwest (and vice versa). And those turned out to be the songs that stopped in the bottom 40, 'cause certain parts of the country weren't playing that record.
Besides, as a kid going on road trips with the family, there'd always be some record I heard on the road on some out-of-town station that I didn't hear once I got back home. For some other kid, that could have been "Youngblood."
Well, back in the day you could actually have regional hits because stations programmed their own music. These days thanks to the Clear Channelization of radio there's really no such thing. Playlists are determined at the national level with focus groups, payola and god knows what else.
Yeah, same thing with "This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide" by the Kings! Where I live, both the AOR and Top 40 stations were all over that bad boy. I still can't hear that song without flashing back to the fall of 1980. And that song didn't crack the national Top 40 either!
I'm really familiar with that Kings song because our local classic rock/AOR station always played it every Friday at 5pm to celebrate the start of the weekend. It was a tradition for years on there...it might still be, I honestly haven't listened to FM radio on a regular basis in ages, especially since I got satellite radio a couple years back. But that was the Friday tradition -- you heard that song and you knew the weekend was officially beginning! So yeah, that song's significance is vastly overstated in my memories because of that, and this was back in the late 80's not when the song originally came out. Until you mentioned it came out in 1980 I really had no idea when it came out, I just knew they played the hell out of it on my local station.
Yeah, same thing with "This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide" by the Kings! Where I live, both the AOR and Top 40 stations were all over that bad boy. I still can't hear that song without flashing back to the fall of 1980. And that song didn't crack the national Top 40 either!
I'm really familiar with that Kings song because our local classic rock/AOR station always played it every Friday at 5pm to celebrate the start of the weekend. It was a tradition for years on there...it might still be, I honestly haven't listened to FM radio on a regular basis in ages, especially since I got satellite radio a couple years back. But that was the Friday tradition -- you heard that song and you knew the weekend was officially beginning! So yeah, that song's significance is vastly overstated in my memories because of that, and this was back in the late 80's not when the song originally came out. Until you mentioned it came out in 1980 I really had no idea when it came out, I just knew they played the hell out of it on my local station. In Chicago, that song was in rotation a LONG time, even after the LP went out of print...by the end of the decade, after the "classic rock" format took off, that song was ALMOST a standard like "Stairway To Heaven." The hell of it is, I know a guy who saw a later version of the Kings play Chicago in the late '90s or early '00s and was surprised that there was hardly a soul in the place. Their song got so much play locally (the Kings are from Canada) we thought they'd be turning them away at the door!
Comments
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Al Johnson - Tonight's The Night For Love (maybe "I've Got My Second Wind" would count as a one-hit wonder? Peaceful excluded b/c of only-a-hit-for-nerds status)
I think this is from 1980, but F*ck it:
"Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll"-Vaughn Mason & Crew.
I tried to find the "We Wanna Funk You Up" song from the album (my fave actually), to no avail. I wanted to play it since it was the 1st song I ever sampled (in 1986). Man, this shit brings back some fond memories. My and my brother in our (shared
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Flute solo made the still.
4:30....
R.I.F.
Say
"A Fifth of Beethoven"-Walter Murphy & the Big Apple Band
Yo, I was a kid, cut me some slack (knowin' I'll get clowned-related). Even more clown-worthy is the fact that I still have my original 45.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Free had their moment in the spotlight, but the one thing you have to understand is that they sold ALBUMS. Not SINGLES. They just were not an AM Gold-type band; their main airplay came from FM album rock stations. "All Right Now," #4 in Billboard's pop singles chart, was basically a fluke, so you can't really judge them by how many 7" records they sold. It was all about the LP.
You could say the same thing for Ted Nugent, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, the Allman Brothers Band, Lou Reed, Jefferson Airplane, Miles Davis, Deep Purple - all their fame came from the albums. But if you had to judge them by the singles, you'd think they were one-, two-, and (in Deep Purple's case) three-hit wonders. Hell, in the US Black Sabbath and Humble Pie had no hit 45's at all.
Invisible Man's Band "All Night Thing"
Black Ivory "Mainline"
I was born in '80, though.
Here are a few more:
"One Fine Morning"-Lighthouse
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Here are yet some more:
"Shame, Shame, Shame"-Shirley & Company
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Yeah, I saw that...but it's pretty tenuous to call something a "hit" if it just barely scrapes the top 40 so I bent the rules a little bit. It was probably the kind of thing where the followup to a big hit song gets some play just because it's the followup to a big hit song, but quickly fades when people realize they don't like it nearly as much. I dunno, I'm just making excuses.
I'd call it a hit.
I used to hear Night Ranger's shitty "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" like clockwork on the radio every day (it was their first hit, at that). But then years later I see (via these Billboard chart books) that it, too, stiffed out at #40! And most folk who were around in the eighties remember that as being one of their significant hits, so who's to say?
If it made the Top 40, in my opinion I'd call it a hit, even it was only at #39 for a week.
No, you're right. When I was younger and listened to the radio more, that kind of thing used to happen all the time. "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas was hard to avoid, but then "Dance The Kung Fu" would get played for three weeks and then disappear...Top 10 R&B, too, but by December no one was gonna remember that shit.
I dunno, the thing to me is I've heard "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" before...in all my years I've never once heard that other Rickie Lee Jones song. Maybe partly it's from having grown up in the MTV era and maybe I was aware of the Night Ranger song because of the video, but I honestly can't think of a single time on any radio station I've ever heard that Rickie Lee Jones song. Of course, I was 5 when it came out so I can't say I was listening to the radio back then to know how much it got played.
Also, I think the Night Ranger song probably got played on AOR stations, and I was listening to stations like that back in the 80's. My view of some music from the 70's and 80's is skewed from listening to AOR stations after I'd stopped listening to Top 40 stations in high school. Based on how much the AOR station I listened to played it I'd have figured "Flirtin' With Disaster" by Molly Hatchet was a big hit, but it didn't even crack the Top 40!
I was twelve when Rickie Lee Jones was the big sensation of the summer (next to the Knack). You couldn't turn on a radio without flipping past "Chuck E.'s In Love" - even a few of the black stations were playing that thing (at least where I grew up). Like you, I don't recall ever hearing "Youngblood" any place at any time.
But I'll cut RLJ a little slack and say it was a minor hit. A good friend of mine is a few years older than me and spent half of the '70s growing up in Texas. We're always comparing notes on what got played in each other's cities. Nine times out of ten, there'll be some record he heard down south that I didn't get in the Midwest (and vice versa). And those turned out to be the songs that stopped in the bottom 40, 'cause certain parts of the country weren't playing that record.
Besides, as a kid going on road trips with the family, there'd always be some record I heard on the road on some out-of-town station that I didn't hear once I got back home. For some other kid, that could have been "Youngblood."
Yeah, same thing with "This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide" by the Kings! Where I live, both the AOR and Top 40 stations were all over that bad boy. I still can't hear that song without flashing back to the fall of 1980. And that song didn't crack the national Top 40 either!
Of course, AOR radio in its' prime was all about albums, not singles, so it's easy to think that some records were bigger than they were.
Well, back in the day you could actually have regional hits because stations programmed their own music. These days thanks to the Clear Channelization of radio there's really no such thing. Playlists are determined at the national level with focus groups, payola and god knows what else.
I'm really familiar with that Kings song because our local classic rock/AOR station always played it every Friday at 5pm to celebrate the start of the weekend. It was a tradition for years on there...it might still be, I honestly haven't listened to FM radio on a regular basis in ages, especially since I got satellite radio a couple years back. But that was the Friday tradition -- you heard that song and you knew the weekend was officially beginning! So yeah, that song's significance is vastly overstated in my memories because of that, and this was back in the late 80's not when the song originally came out. Until you mentioned it came out in 1980 I really had no idea when it came out, I just knew they played the hell out of it on my local station.
I'm really familiar with that Kings song because our local classic rock/AOR station always played it every Friday at 5pm to celebrate the start of the weekend. It was a tradition for years on there...it might still be, I honestly haven't listened to FM radio on a regular basis in ages, especially since I got satellite radio a couple years back. But that was the Friday tradition -- you heard that song and you knew the weekend was officially beginning! So yeah, that song's significance is vastly overstated in my memories because of that, and this was back in the late 80's not when the song originally came out. Until you mentioned it came out in 1980 I really had no idea when it came out, I just knew they played the hell out of it on my local station.
In Chicago, that song was in rotation a LONG time, even after the LP went out of print...by the end of the decade, after the "classic rock" format took off, that song was ALMOST a standard like "Stairway To Heaven." The hell of it is, I know a guy who saw a later version of the Kings play Chicago in the late '90s or early '00s and was surprised that there was hardly a soul in the place. Their song got so much play locally (the Kings are from Canada) we thought they'd be turning them away at the door!