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Author Topic: Who in your opinion could better have been a one-hit wonder?  (Read 12512 times)
JK
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« on: September 22, 2015, 10:45:51 AM »

Ever felt that an artist or group shot their bolt with one excellent and memorable song and should have left it at that? I have. Here are eight who in my jaded view of things would have made wonderful one-hit wonders, with their one hit (taken from the obligatory album comprising the hit, the flip and mucho filler):

Africa---Toto
1999----Prince
Wonderwall----Oasis
Dancing Queen----ABBA
Black Night----Deep Purple
Whole Lotta Rosie----AC/DC
Rock The Casbah----The Clash
Like A Rolling Stone----Bob Dylan

How about you? Please be ruthless----this is Smiley after all, and there's far too much music in the world as it is...
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« Reply #1 on: September 22, 2015, 10:56:15 AM »

Out of the list that you provided, I would pick Oasis as my one-hit wonder. 

And I would probably switch out Wonderwall for Don't Look Back in Anger.  The band was comprised of two brothers who didn't much care for each other, so they weren't built to last.  Plus, as with many rock bands of the 1990s, had pretty limited range. 

The Clash is a close second.  I've never been into alternative/punk music, so I never could figure out the big deal about these guys.  To each their own. 

Deep Purple, on the other hand, is sometimes underfairly labelled as one hit wonders.  I applaud you for at least choosing Black Night over Smoke on the Water.  Both great songs.  But, these guys have been putting out great music for almost 50 years, with about eight different lineups. 

AC/DC - OK, you can use the limited range argument for these guys.  But I can't think of another band that has gotten more mileage from the same three chords.  They can just put really good songs together. 
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Outtasight!
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« Reply #2 on: September 22, 2015, 12:16:56 PM »

Bob Dylan, you on crack?
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JK
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« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2015, 12:41:08 PM »

Bob Dylan, you on crack?

Don't get me wrong. Dylan to my mind is one of the greatest songwriters of our or any time.

I'd never put down his compositions! It's just that I prefer to hear other people performing them. Grin 
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« Reply #4 on: September 22, 2015, 12:48:27 PM »

Bob Dylan, you on crack?

Don't get me wrong. Dylan to my mind is one of the greatest songwriters of our or any time.

I'd never put down his compositions! It's just that I prefer to hear other people performing them. Grin 

I'm with you there Mr. K.  I'm not a fan of Bob Dylan's voice, and have mostly preferred cover versions of his songs. 
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the captain
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« Reply #5 on: September 22, 2015, 06:54:14 PM »

Having sat--or rather, awkwardly, middle-agedly whitely danced--through several Prince shows over the years, I can say that never in my life did I think he should have called it a day with "1999." (If I'm not mistaken, that would already exclude several hits that preceded it, including "Little Red Corvette" and "Controversy.") In fact, while watching him on his Musicology tour, I kept thinking about some Beach Boys quote of Bob Dylan saying, as they played hit after hit, "they're fucking good, man." Or something. But you get the idea: just hit after hit after hit. You forget some of them until you're listening live, one after the other.

Let's just name a few.

I Wanna Be Your Lover
Uptown
Controversy
Little Red Corvette
1999
Delirious
When Doves Cry
Let's Go Crazy
Purple Rain
I Would Die 4 U
Take Me With U
Raspberry Beret
Kiss
If I Was Your Girlfriend
U Got the Look
I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
Alphabet St.
Glam Slam
Batdance
Partyman
Get Off
Cream
Diamonds and Pearls
Money Don't Matter 2 Nite
Sexzy MF
My Name is Prince
7
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

That's a sample of the higher-charting singles from his "golden era" of roughly '80 to the mid '90s. I'd say it makes him far, far overqualified to have been better off as a one-hit wonder. I'd say he's one of the best artists of the past three decades or so, with a stronger collection of hits than almost anyone else. So really, you could take almost anyone else and fit them more easily into this thread.
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« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2015, 02:31:25 AM »

I'm not making value judgements (heaven forbid). I've heard a lot of Prince over the years and it has made little or no impression on me----I simply don't "get" him.

As for the others: Toto, AC/DC and Deep Purple are too much of a muchness----one great song apiece is quite enough for me.
I've never warmed to Oasis, although "Wonderwall" is a brilliant song, also in the version by The Mike Flowers Pops.
Same for The Clash----I've never understood what all the fuss was about.
As for ABBA, "Dancing Queen" is ABBA and vice versa, just as "Louie Louie" is The Kingsmen and vice versa...
Eek! I've just thought of another band I don't get with one wonderful song: Coldplay and "Clocks".

Anyway, so long as this thread elicits quality posts by the likes of KDS and the captain, that's enough to justify it being here.
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« Reply #7 on: September 23, 2015, 02:39:25 AM »

Coldplay - Yellow
Rolling Stones - Satisfaction
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« Reply #8 on: September 23, 2015, 05:54:38 AM »

I'm not making value judgements (heaven forbid). I've heard a lot of Prince over the years and it has made little or no impression on me----I simply don't "get" him.

As for the others: Toto, AC/DC and Deep Purple are too much of a muchness----one great song apiece is quite enough for me.
I've never warmed to Oasis, although "Wonderwall" is a brilliant song, also in the version by The Mike Flowers Pops.
Same for The Clash----I've never understood what all the fuss was about.
As for ABBA, "Dancing Queen" is ABBA and vice versa, just as "Louie Louie" is The Kingsmen and vice versa...
Eek! I've just thought of another band I don't get with one wonderful song: Coldplay and "Clocks".

Anyway, so long as this thread elicits quality posts by the likes of KDS and the captain, that's enough to justify it being here.


Couldn't agree more with Coldplay.  I like Clocks, but everything else I've heard just sounds like a bad impression of 2000s U2.

Here's another great one - Alanis Morrisette "You Oughta Know" - a rarity in the mid 90s, a great rock song.  The rest of the album was typical 90s blandness. 
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JK
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« Reply #9 on: September 23, 2015, 06:22:40 AM »

Couldn't agree more with Coldplay.  I like Clocks, but everything else I've heard just sounds like a bad impression of 2000s U2.

I remember seeing a YouTube comment about Coldplay not being fit to wipe U2's ass. LOL 
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« Reply #10 on: September 23, 2015, 12:46:27 PM »

Whitney Houston - Saving All My Love For You

Any glam rock band of the 80s
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the captain
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« Reply #11 on: September 23, 2015, 03:29:31 PM »

I'm not making value judgements (heaven forbid). I've heard a lot of Prince over the years and it has made little or no impression on me----I simply don't "get" him.


Fair enough. Certainly no single act is everyone's cup of tea. (But yeah, I'd still argue he's far from someone who should have stopped at one hit.)

What about Hootie and the Blowfish? I recall them having several hits during my college years ... but to me it was all just one hit. One thing, over and over. (Same as Aerosmith around the same era, actually, but at least they had a bigger, more interesting back catalogue.)
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« Reply #12 on: September 24, 2015, 02:07:04 AM »

It's all so subjective. My main fear is that this will be lumped with the negative threads, of which there are far too many as it is. Luckliy it's been quite civilized so far. Grin

Taking the opposite tack, Lester Bangs wrote an essay about one-hit wonders Count Five that sees them turning out a string of pioneering albums! Most, but not all of it, is here...
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« Reply #13 on: September 24, 2015, 04:20:09 AM »

Coldplay - Yellow
Rolling Stones - Satisfaction


  Rolling Stones under consideration here???
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KDS
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« Reply #14 on: September 24, 2015, 05:11:42 AM »

I'm going to flip the script a little bit here. 

For many casual hard rock fans, Y&T had one smash hit "Summertime Girls."  However, the band released a ton of great songs in the first half of the 80s.  Dirty Girl, Forever (different from the BB), Midnight in Tokyo, I Believe in You, Rescue Me, Hurricane, Meanstreak, Contagious, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.   

Another one is Maryland's own KIX.  Known by many for their mega hit power ballad "Don't Close Your Eyes."  But these guys were never glam.  They were, and still are, a kick a$$ straight up hard rock band, and one of the best live bands on the planet. 
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the captain
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« Reply #15 on: September 24, 2015, 05:50:10 AM »


Another one is Maryland's own KIX.  Known by many for their mega hit power ballad "Don't Close Your Eyes."  But these guys were never glam.  They were, and still are, a kick a$$ straight up hard rock band, and one of the best live bands on the planet. 

Oh my god, I haven't thought of Kix (or is it really KIX?) in forever. I had Blow My Fuse on cassette in the late '80s. Loved it.

And John k, I know where you're coming from and agree. I'm a huge fan of discussion and debate and am not one for sugary hand-holding, but the nasty ad hominem attacks and such are a waste of time and life. So more power to you.
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« Reply #16 on: September 24, 2015, 05:56:57 AM »


Another one is Maryland's own KIX.  Known by many for their mega hit power ballad "Don't Close Your Eyes."  But these guys were never glam.  They were, and still are, a kick a$$ straight up hard rock band, and one of the best live bands on the planet. 

Oh my god, I haven't thought of Kix (or is it really KIX?) in forever. I had Blow My Fuse on cassette in the late '80s. Loved it.

And John k, I know where you're coming from and agree. I'm a huge fan of discussion and debate and am not one for sugary hand-holding, but the nasty ad hominem attacks and such are a waste of time and life. So more power to you.

I've seen KIX (I think that's correct) about eight times or so in the last ten years, and will be seeing them again on Saturday night.  They are an incredible band.  Blow My Fuse and Midnight Dynamite are two of the best hard rock records of the 1980s. 
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« Reply #17 on: September 24, 2015, 07:57:14 AM »

  Rolling Stones under consideration here???

Well, in a thread where Dylan's under consideration, why not?  I own a few Stones CDs.  I play them sometimes.  I'm groovin' just fine to the first track, but about four tracks in and I'm boooorrrred.  After eight tracks or so, I'm like 'I fucking hate the Rolling Stones' and I wonder, yet again, why I keep their albums.  So, for me, you could pile many of their tunes into just one track and that'll do just fine.
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« Reply #18 on: September 24, 2015, 07:59:56 AM »

  Rolling Stones under consideration here???

Well, in a thread where Dylan's under consideration, why not?  I own a few Stones CDs.  I play them sometimes.  I'm groovin' just fine to the first track, but about four tracks in and I'm boooorrrred.  After eight tracks or so, I'm like 'I fucking hate the Rolling Stones' and I wonder, yet again, why I keep their albums.  So, for me, you could pile many of their tunes into just one track and that'll do just fine.

The Stones are one of those bands that have a ton of great songs, but are light on great albums IMO.  Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers are really good, but other than that, I'll stick to compilations when I listen to them. 
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« Reply #19 on: September 24, 2015, 08:34:36 AM »

Phil Collins. I wish he'd just put out In the Air Tonight, gone back to his day job and spared us a decade of sludge.
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« Reply #20 on: September 24, 2015, 08:17:42 PM »

Van Halen- Jamie's Crying. I love that record, so glam, but I really don't much care for their output.
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« Reply #21 on: September 25, 2015, 12:59:32 AM »

Right Said Fred
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JK
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« Reply #22 on: September 25, 2015, 02:06:43 AM »

Right Said Fred

The Bernard Cribbins song of that name or "I'm too Sexy?" Grin
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« Reply #23 on: September 25, 2015, 02:30:10 AM »

Right Said Fred

The Bernard Cribbins song of that name or "I'm too Sexy?" Grin

The latter. Bernard Cribbins should have had as many hits as possible.
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« Reply #24 on: September 25, 2015, 05:44:19 AM »

Extreme is another band that unfairly gets the one hit wonder label for More Than Words.  They came out at the tail end of glam, but they were not a glam band.  They had a brief, but very memorable catalog, and even released a good (albeit patchy at times) comeback album in 2008.

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