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What’s your favorite one hit wonder?

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For me would probably be Norman Greenbaum’s

Spirit in the Sky

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cXrEPNvRO8

followed by

Zager and Evans In the Year 2525

Our Norm’s song wins my vote by virtue of its being a one-hit wonder I think three times while poor old Zager and Evans ran out of rhymes for five sometime in the 94th century

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Comments

    • Have to say, I’d never heard of this song until I went to see the Hooters play in Hamburg, while the G8 was in town. They opened the show with a quick verse or two of this. Superb gig.

  2. Love SITS ,played it yesterday. Goldfrapp had a song that was a complete lift. Can’t remember what it is.
    Anyhoo I was going to nominate Little Green Bag by the George Baker Selection and it turns out they had quite a few songs and a Best of Album that DOESN’T include LGB.

    Here’s an apparent “hit”. Can’t think of another song that opens with a recorder apart from the Oz 70’s classic Seasons of Change featuring Bon Scott on vocals and err recorder.

  5. So many to choose from!

    But as I am bingeing on reggae this week, here, “in their khaki suit and ting”, are Althea and Donna.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7aySZ6xVp8

    Few songs have better captured the joys of being out on the razzle on a Saturday night.

    And something more modern from Iceland….

    Few songs have better captured the joys of flying thought the sky in a magic Viking longship.

  6. I think Funkytown counts doesn’t it? Unless Lipps Inc had some other chart toppers that I’m not aware of. Anyway that’s my vote.

    I think M/A/R/R/S deserves a shout too.

    • I had a 70s playlist on the go at the weekend. The Dooleys, The Motors, Gibson Brothers, Jigsaw, Baccara. Ace were in there. It was wonderful but I’m choosing for my one hit wonder “Howzat” by Sherbert. It’ll be in your head for the rest of the day…

    • I once heard How Long described as a ‘great radio record’. I don’t think I’ve ever knowingly sought it out, but when it pops up on the radio I always think what a good song it is.

        • If you look at the charts in those days it’s often shocking how poorly records did that you thought were big hits.

          Making Plans For Nigel I think peaked at about number 17. And yet who remembers whatever Johnny Logan record was in the top 3 that week?

          • The “Light entertainment dept” of the BBC kept weirdy-beardy and seditious wannabe noise (and uppity darkies) in their place by having lots of novelty singles and end-of-the-pier dross to push out what people actually listened to. Wonderful Radio Fun was ubiquitous, as was crap TV variety, where, if you were lucky, Freddie Starr would do a Mick Jagger impression. I blame Wedgie-Benn trying to get rid of pirate radio stations for “Worker’s Playtime”.

      • Some time in late 1974 or early 1975, touring to support their debut album “Five-A-Side”, Ace played at Springfields, a restaurant/dancehall on the outskirts of my hometown in the Fens. I was a cub reporter on my local paper and got myself a ticket. They played a good, tight rhythm-and-blues/soul set, with guitarist Phil Harris and singer Paul Carrack [writer of the song] standing out. I seem to remember having two or three pints of lager and plucking up the courage to interview Carrack. Nice young man, IIRC – would have been about 23 at the time, to my 17 or 18. This, of course, seven years before Glenn Tilbrook tempted [boom-tish] him to replace Jools Holland in Squeeze.

          • I played for 2 years in Dino & the Dolphins in Belfast. Our singer’s brother was Chrissie Stewart, ex bass player with Eire Apparent, Spooky Tooth and others, and at that time a regular in Frankie Miller’s band . We opened for them on their Irish dates in Dec 1977. The other members of Frankie’s Band were BJ Thomas (ex Procul Harum drummer), Ray Russell (top session guitarist) and Paul Carrack on keyboards. He was very nice to us

  14. Spirit in the Sky was also a number 1 one hit wonder for the Kumars and Dr & the Medics. I know the latter had a follow up that might have charted but, y’know…if you see them, SITS is the only song that springs to mind.

    We’ve got a Fuzzbox and we’re going to use it also had a version which was only kept off the number one spot by about 100 other singles.

  22. Well the right answer is Groove is in the Heart, but SITS is maybe a tie.
    So, just to be awkward, here’s a seasonal one that I love – Monster Mash by Boris Pickett

      • There only was the one “Crazy World Of Arthur Brown” album released at the time. A second album was recorded and shelved as being too uncommercial. It was only released relatively recently, to little reaction. “Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come” released 3 albums but didn’t have anything like the same impact. Only that one single was a hit, but it was a pretty big one.

  25. As with many one hit wonders this was just a novelty hit, based on the popularity of a puppet, Flat Eric, from a jeans advert. But the tune still has the ability to set my fingers a-tapping jauntily on the steering wheel. I have also just realised that Flat Eric makes noises very similar to those my stomach makes these days.

  30. ‘Course, what counts as a one hit wonder depends on your territory. I enjoy several of this dude’s videos, where he takes a closer look at names which, to his audience, had only the briefest significance:

  39. The Pat Metheny Group only had one hit. But it was a beaut,

    Talking of Flashes and Pans….. This Aussie earworm is very agreeable.

    One UK hit for the Flashers. Down Under (and in Sweden) it was a different story.

    • Flash and the Pan may have just had the one hit, but also had this cracker a decade before, when the songwriting frontmen, Harry Vanda and George Young, were the Easybeats.

      George, as well has having a curiously evocative name, was the big bro of Angus and Malcolm and produced their first record. Always wonder how they got on with that start and ever made anything of it.

  43. You are all too tasteful on here. What about those magnificent euro disco songs that made an annual appearance in the UK charts every summer. None more mightier than the awesome Brother Louie by Modern Talking. Did a bit of research. Modern Talking were massive in pre glasnost Soviet Union. Make of that what you will.

    • I remember Modern Talking being interviewed by Smash Hits. “We are not a dodgy Europop band!” they protested. “Yes you are” said truth and the world.

      Falco blotted his copybook by having a much smaller follow-up hit with Vienna Calling.

      Oh, and being shit.

      • Modern Talking were (and to some, still are) VEEERY big in Germany and Eastern Europe.
        Their main man, songwriter and producer, Dieter Bohlen (probably Germany’s richest guy in the music biz), is on prime time TV here every other day (he’s hosted the deutsche version of »Pop Idol« for decades), and he apparently has a great sense of humour – his biopic was an animated cartoon movie (think »Rocketman« made by the Beavis & Butthead team). And he named his son Mark (geddit??).
        The other guy (the singer) has made a career out of either denying he’s gay, or being submissive to his manager/girlfriend/dominatrix. He also regularly sues Dieter before joining him for one »last« reunion tour.

  51. This is another Spirit in the Sky but a different song.
    It is of course Norway’s entry in 2019’s Eurovision.
    Give it a minute and it develops into a birrova banger.

    If the chorus isn’t brilliant enough to keep you interested- then stay for the virtuoso Vic Reeves club singer performance at about 2’10”.

  61. Swiss misses loved this exquisite hit from Double.

    George McRae really did have only one song.

    I read a review of one of his gigs: he sung it at least three times.

    It’s a corker so why bother with anything else?? Everyone there is clearly having a whale of a time!

    I am sorry! I now realise George does have another song. He really is Mr Showbusiness!

    • But not quite one-hit. The original release of Imagination made No. 50, follow-up single, Some People, made #33. Then the re-release of Imagination made #17.

      Thanks to Wikipedia, I now know he released three albums. Was his A&R man deaf?

  72. I know Seal had more hits, and Adamski had a (terrible) follow up that flopped, but this is a great one-off duet.

    And again, although they did a few albums this is what they are remembered for

    • Surely, as far as this thread is concerned, successful albums are irrelevant. “Hits” are singles that charted somewhere in the world at some time or other.
      Or, in fact, are “hits” in the ear of the beholder.
      There are a lot of choons in this thread that I have never knowingly heard or even heard of. About 50% of that is down to my ignorance but I reckon the other 50% is probably wishful thinking by the enthusiasts who’ve proposed them.

  75. What fun this thread is!

    How could we have trekked so far through the prairie without meeting the Lone Ranger?

    I’m sure Hindi Zahra has had other hits home in France, but this little gem is her only song I know…

  82. OHWs from the movies must surely be a significant sub-category..

    Here is one that is a splendid floorfiller for late-night parties.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-ov-vBxDuE

    A few OHWs from Scandinavia

    Nina Persson created A Camp while the Cardigans were on ice. What a tune this is!

    Barcelona my arse! Irresistibly catchy tune from a bunch of Swedes from Nina’s hometown, Jönköping

    This Stockholm band have had other minor hits, but nothing as ginormous as Young Folks.

    Same goes for these Teds. Superb live band. Great songs. But Cobra Style is the definitive floorfiller.

    It must be beyond your Ken, that I’m talking about Scandohits and have not mentioned Aqua.

    Mattel tried to sue the Danish popsters for defamation of Barbie’s character but lost in court!

    • While looking for Private Lives on Spotify, I found a compilation album called Lost and Found.: Volume 1 Imagination

      It included this gem.

      Kid Creole had several hits with his Coconuts. But some argue that August
      Darnell’s previous band was even better.

      And let’s not forget his sideman, Coati Mundi’s,solitary but rather excellent hit.

  86. I’m VERY surprised that no-one’s come up with “SHADDUP YA FACE” Joe Dolce -one hit wonder world wide.
    One hit wonder for Austen Tayshus “Oz-traliana” (Look It Up & get a lesson in OZ Speak).

    Did Steptoe & Son have a hit song with “Any Old Iron” ?

    Bernard Cribbins “Digging A Hole In The Ground”??? (So big & sort of Round)
    Los Bravos “Back In Black” (Apol’s if it has been named earlier)

      • The MedHeads, as no-one called them, had a few actual hits: I remember the fella touting all his long harmonicas on TOTP. (Van’s harp roadie could have popped it in one end and pulled it out the other!) Wiki tells me they had a 22, a 3, an 11 and another 22.
        I actually saw them in about 1974, creeping into the Eastbourne Winter Gardens for the last 30 minutes, probably the encore, as the staff had opened up the doors on account the heat.

        • The Head made several appearance on Pee’s show and were eventually signed to his label Dandelion. I
          rather liked them and this song was a favourite.

          When they signed with a larger label they did indeed have a few hits.

          Only one real hit for Anton Karas.

          It made him the talk of the town and an international celebrity. For a brief while he was hob-nobbing with the beautiful people.

          • I visited the Third Man museum in Vienna, the curator had a collection of various artists covering the Third Man the Beatles and the Band among them.
            I ‘donated’ the Martin Carthy version.

  88. One of my teachers worked part-time as a DJ (weddings, parties, etc.) and I used to help him out. For some reason, only the left channel of his deck worked so he used to blast out only half of the stereo image, although nobody ever noticed. But apparently “Spirit In The Sky” sounds particularly bad when you can only hear the left hand side of it, and for this reason he always refused to play it.

  90. Hmmm…. When I was looking for the Big Sound Authority video on YouTube yesterday, there was a “mix list” on the right of the screen, and all the videos listed here on this page were listed there.

    How do they know?

  91. Living outside the UK, it has really struck me that there have been singles which have been enormous in mainland Europe, but which haven’t troubled the lower levels of the British charts.

    One explanation is of course that these songs are crap, but this is not always the case.

    Tarkan’s 1997 sizzling, Turkish floorfiller, Simarik, is a case in point.

    If you have been on holiday in Turkey you haev heard t somewhere!

  93. I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned the archetypical one-hit-wonder yet – at least viewed from the UK.
    It’s of course »The Witch«:

    It had actually been the B-side of the previous single by The Rattles, and was sung (in that same high-pitched, screaming voice) by their keyboard player as a joke. When the label decided to make it the A-side and it became successful, they quickly hired a female singer for gigs and re-recorded the vocal.
    Here’s the original:

    The Rattles of course were the most popular German band in the sixties – their leader Achim Reichel learned to play guitar by hanging out with The Beatles in Hamburg – and they played support for the Fab Four in 1966. They had earlier toured the UK with The Rolling Stones…

  97. ‘How Long’ by Ace is my nomination. Beautifully sung by Paul Carrack, and just as good now than then. I see Amazon have been using it for Prime advertising recently.

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