[78-L] It's One-Hit Wonder Day! (must be some 78s that qualify)

[David Lennick]

National One-Hit Wonder Day Comes Sept. 25 (VIDEO)
First Posted: 9/23/11 01:07 PM ET   Updated: 9/23/11 11:28 PM ET
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/23/national-one-hit-day-sept-25_n_960605.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

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Learn More > Follow   Video , Afternoon Delight , Billy Vera At This Moment , 
Disco Duck , Looking Glass Brandy (You'Re A Fine Girl) , Los Del Rio , Marc 
Cohn , National One-Hit Wonder Day , Starland Vocal Band , Tony Burrows , 
Funkytown , Macarena , One-Hit Wonder , Steve Rosen , Weird News


Andy Warhol said everyone gets 15 minutes of fame, but if you ask one-hit 
wonders, they'll say you're lucky to get 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

Before reality TV started turning ordinary folks into stars, there was no 
faster path to the peak of celebrity -- and no more direct route back to the 
depths of obscurity -- than being a one-hit wonder.

Granted, there are probably good reasons why folks like Los Del Rio, the two 
middle-aged Spanish guys who took "Macarena" to No. 1 in 1996, never followed 
up their big hit, and the world was surely okay with making C.W. McCall's 1976 
hit "Convoy" the only No. 1 song dedicated to CB radio.

But we come here to praise one-hit wonders, not to bury them. For every 
one-and-done novelty like "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees or annoyingly catchy and 
cloying tune like Charlene's 1983 smash "I've Never Been To Me," there is a 
stone-cold classic like "Funkytown" by Lipps Inc. or "Sex And Candy" by Marcy 
Playground.

Music writer Steve Rosen thinks all of them have a place and deserve a special 
day: Sept. 25 to be exact, which he declared as National One-Hit Wonder Day in 
1990.

Rosen has a special love for those acts who came in, made their statement and 
didn't hang around -- even the embarrassing songs like the aforementioned 
"Macarena" or even "Afternoon Delight" by the Starland Vocal Band.

"You have to take the kitsch with the classics," he told HuffPost Weird News. 
"It's interesting to hear a song like 'Disco Duck' and wonder what people were 
thinking."


While many people associate the phrase "one-hit wonder" with what they were 
doing when songs like "Seasons In The Sun" by Terry Jacks (1974) or 
"Unbelievable" by EMF (1991) were big on the charts, Rosen believes their 
heyday was the early years of rock.

"Back in the 1950s and 60s, independent record labels ruled rock and there were 
all sorts of avenues where a catchy song could get played on the radio," Rosen 
said. "It left a lot of good music, more than we probably can catalog."

Rosen stopped openly promoting National One-Hit Wonder Day in 2001 after the 
9/11 attacks, but the day has lived on without him.

"I was driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas one time on Sept. 25 -- which is 
also my birthday -- and I heard a disc jockey announce it was 'National One-Hit 
Wonder Day,'" Rosen said proudly. "So it's taken a life of its own."

Early on, Rosen had rules about what constitutes a true one-hit wonder.

"I used to be a purist," he confessed. "To me, only a band that had one chart 
hit and disappeared could count as a one-hit wonder. However, I've modified 
that opinion. Take Looking Glass. They hit No. 1 in 1972 with 'Brandy (You're A 
Fine Girl),' and while they had another hit, 'Jimmy Loves Mary Anne,' a year 
later, it only went to No. 33.

"So, no, the letter of the law says they weren't one-hit wonders, but the 
spirit of the law says they were because no one is calling a radio station 
asking to hear 'Jimmy Loves Mary Anne.' People don't remember the follow-up 
hit, they remember the impact of the first song," said Rosen.

Former Looking Glass leader Elliot Lurie, who wrote and sang "Brandy," 
understands why he gets lumped into the one-hit wonder box, but has this 
philosophy: "One is better than none."

"If you know the technical definition of a one-hit wonder, we don't qualify, 
but 'Brandy' just keeps coming back. I don't take offense to the term. 'Brandy' 
still has an impact and it worked. All the parts came together. If I knew how 
to do it again, I would," Lurie said.

By the same token, Rosen doesn't consider the Grateful Dead or Jimi Hendrix to 
be one-hit wonders, even though they had only one song each that hit the top 40 
charts.

And then there are those musicians who have recorded more than one one-hit 
wonder. For instance, British singer Tony Burrows sang lead on five early 1970s 
pop classics: Edison Lighthouse's "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)," White 
Plains' "My Baby Loves Lovin'," The Pipkins' novelty song "Gimme Dat Ding," The 
First Class' "Beach Baby" and The Brotherhood of Man's "United We Stand."

Billy Vera is one artist who gets lumped into the one-hit wonder category 
because his 1986 No. 1 hit "At This Moment" looms so large in his career.

In truth, Vera had four top 40 hits in the 1960s and 1970s before "At This 
Moment" was played on the popular sitcom "Family Ties" and hit it big. But he 
doesn't mind being miscategorized as a one-hit wonder.

"It doesn't bother me. Every time it gets used -- even on a one-hit wonder 
special on VH-1 -- I make money," said Vera, who is able to look bemusedly at 
the one-hit wonder tag because he's had a long, varied career that has included 
writing hits for Dolly Parton, leading the house band on George Lopez's 
recently canceled talk show and producing reissue albums of his favorite bands.

Vera also doesn't think having just one hit is a bad thing.

"A lot of people only have one great hit in them," Vera said. "I suspect many 
of those one-hits were huge, and there is nothing harder to follow than a big 
hit because expectations are so high. Sometimes, the follow-up is just a 
rewrite of that big hit."

Steven Greenberg is another musician who knows the elusive joy of having that 
one big moment. In 1980, he was the mastermind behind Lipps Inc., which gave 
the world one of the all-time great one-shots with "Funkytown," a dance hit 
that is still played regularly all over the world.

"I don't mind having that one hit," he said. "I call it 'one-hit wonderful.'"

Greenberg won't discuss how much money he's earned from the song, except to say 
it's allowed him "some creative freedom." For instance, he was able to produce 
and direct a 1998 documentary called "Funkytown," which followed the careers of 
five bands from his home town of Minneapolis.

"[The song] is a nice calling card with a certain segment of the population," 
Greenberg acknowledged. "Everyone has a positive response to it. It opens doors."

Pop culture historian Brent Mann worked in radio during the 1980s, a fertile 
period for one-hit wonders like Thomas Dolby, Dexys Midnight Runners and even 
Jump N' The Saddle's Three Stooges-themed novelty "The Curly Shuffle."

"Every time I played a one-hit wonder, the phones would ring," said Mann, 
author of the 2003 book "99 Red Balloons And 100 Other All-Time Great One-Hit 
Wonders."

Although Mann is a lifelong lover of one-hit wonders and considers Marc Cohn's 
1991 hit "Walking In Memphis" to be the pinnacle, he is pessimistic about the 
future of this unique part of pop culture history.

"If a radio station can break a song, it gives hope to indie labels, but the 
formula for ranking has changed," he said. "Now a song can be a hit, but never 
be played on radio -- like Selena Gomez. She gets tons of downloads, but you 
won't hear her on the radio."

So if one-hit wonders are a dying breed, Mann believes they should be enjoyed 
and celebrated -- especially on Sept. 25.

"I say go to YouTube -- it's now the world's largest jukebox -- and plug in 
Thomas Dolby's 'She Blinded Me With Science,' Katrina and the Waves' 'Walking 
On Sunshine' and even Rick Dees' 'Disco Duck,' and just enjoy."