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

[Royal Pemberton]

I can think of a one-hit wonder who didn't record a 78 but whose hit 1974
single contained two songs which both dated from the 78 era:  Lena
Zavaroni's 'Ma! (He's making eyes at me)' b/w 'Rock-a-bye your baby with a
Dixie melody'; the former from 1921, the latter from 1918.

On Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 6:14 PM, Rockined1 <rockined1 at aol.com> wrote:

>
> the obvious one------Near You by Francis Craig on Bullet [1947]
> Open the Door Richard- Jack McVea BLACK & WHITE  1947
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
> To: 78L <78-L at 78online.com>
> Sent: Sun, Sep 25, 2011 10:24 am
> Subject: [78-L] It's One-Hit Wonder Day! (must be some 78s that qualify)
>
>
> National One-Hit Wonder Day Comes Sept. 25 (VIDEO)
> irst Posted: 9/23/11 01:07 PM ET   Updated: 9/23/11 11:28 PM ET
> ttp://
> www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/23/national-one-hit-day-sept-25_n_960605.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false
> share this story
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> earn More > Follow   Video , Afternoon Delight , Billy Vera At This Moment
> ,
> isco Duck , Looking Glass Brandy (You'Re A Fine Girl) , Los Del Rio , Marc
> ohn , National One-Hit Wonder Day , Starland Vocal Band , Tony Burrows ,
> unkytown , Macarena , One-Hit Wonder , Steve Rosen , Weird News
>
> ndy Warhol said everyone gets 15 minutes of fame, but if you ask one-hit
> onders, 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
> aster path to the peak of celebrity -- and no more direct route back to the
> epths of obscurity -- than being a one-hit wonder.
> Granted, there are probably good reasons why folks like Los Del Rio, the
> two
> iddle-aged Spanish guys who took "Macarena" to No. 1 in 1996, never
> followed
> p their big hit, and the world was surely okay with making C.W. McCall's
> 1976
> it "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
> ne-and-done novelty like "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees or annoyingly catchy and
> loying tune like Charlene's 1983 smash "I've Never Been To Me," there is a
> tone-cold classic like "Funkytown" by Lipps Inc. or "Sex And Candy" by
> Marcy
> layground.
> Music writer Steve Rosen thinks all of them have a place and deserve a
> special
> ay: Sept. 25 to be exact, which he declared as National One-Hit Wonder Day
> in
> 990.
> Rosen has a special love for those acts who came in, made their statement
> and
> idn'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
> hinking."
>
> hile many people associate the phrase "one-hit wonder" with what they were
> oing when songs like "Seasons In The Sun" by Terry Jacks (1974) or
> Unbelievable" by EMF (1991) were big on the charts, Rosen believes their
> eyday was the early years of rock.
> "Back in the 1950s and 60s, independent record labels ruled rock and there
> were
> ll sorts of avenues where a catchy song could get played on the radio,"
> Rosen
> aid. "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
> /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
> lso my birthday -- and I heard a disc jockey announce it was 'National
> One-Hit
> onder 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
> it and disappeared could count as a one-hit wonder. However, I've modified
> hat opinion. Take Looking Glass. They hit No. 1 in 1972 with 'Brandy
> (You're A
> ine Girl),' and while they had another hit, 'Jimmy Loves Mary Anne,' a year
> ater, it only went to No. 33.
> "So, no, the letter of the law says they weren't one-hit wonders, but the
> pirit of the law says they were because no one is calling a radio station
> sking to hear 'Jimmy Loves Mary Anne.' People don't remember the follow-up
> it, they remember the impact of the first song," said Rosen.
> Former Looking Glass leader Elliot Lurie, who wrote and sang "Brandy,"
> nderstands why he gets lumped into the one-hit wonder box, but has this
> hilosophy: "One is better than none."
> "If you know the technical definition of a one-hit wonder, we don't
> qualify,
> ut 'Brandy' just keeps coming back. I don't take offense to the term.
> 'Brandy'
> till has an impact and it worked. All the parts came together. If I knew
> how
> o do it again, I would," Lurie said.
> By the same token, Rosen doesn't consider the Grateful Dead or Jimi Hendrix
> to
> e one-hit wonders, even though they had only one song each that hit the top
> 40
> harts.
> And then there are those musicians who have recorded more than one one-hit
> onder. For instance, British singer Tony Burrows sang lead on five early
> 1970s
> op classics: Edison Lighthouse's "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes),"
> White
> lains' "My Baby Loves Lovin'," The Pipkins' novelty song "Gimme Dat Ding,"
> The
> irst 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
> ecause 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
> oment" was played on the popular sitcom "Family Ties" and hit it big. But
> he
> oesn'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
> pecial on VH-1 -- I make money," said Vera, who is able to look bemusedly
> at
> he one-hit wonder tag because he's had a long, varied career that has
> included
> riting hits for Dolly Parton, leading the house band on George Lopez's
> ecently 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
> f those one-hits were huge, and there is nothing harder to follow than a
> big
> it because expectations are so high. Sometimes, the follow-up is just a
> ewrite of that big hit."
> Steven Greenberg is another musician who knows the elusive joy of having
> that
> ne big moment. In 1980, he was the mastermind behind Lipps Inc., which gave
> he world one of the all-time great one-shots with "Funkytown," a dance hit
> hat 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
> t's allowed him "some creative freedom." For instance, he was able to
> produce
> nd direct a 1998 documentary called "Funkytown," which followed the careers
> of
> ive bands from his home town of Minneapolis.
> "[The song] is a nice calling card with a certain segment of the
> population,"
> reenberg acknowledged. "Everyone has a positive response to it. It opens
> oors."
> Pop culture historian Brent Mann worked in radio during the 1980s, a
> fertile
> eriod for one-hit wonders like Thomas Dolby, Dexys Midnight Runners and
> even
> ump 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,
> uthor of the 2003 book "99 Red Balloons And 100 Other All-Time Great
> One-Hit
> onders."
> Although Mann is a lifelong lover of one-hit wonders and considers Marc
> Cohn's
> 991 hit "Walking In Memphis" to be the pinnacle, he is pessimistic about
> the
> uture of this unique part of pop culture history.
> "If a radio station can break a song, it gives hope to indie labels, but
> the
> ormula for ranking has changed," he said. "Now a song can be a hit, but
> never
> e played on radio -- like Selena Gomez. She gets tons of downloads, but you
> on't hear her on the radio."
> So if one-hit wonders are a dying breed, Mann believes they should be
> enjoyed
> nd celebrated -- especially on Sept. 25.
> "I say go to YouTube -- it's now the world's largest jukebox -- and plug in
> homas Dolby's 'She Blinded Me With Science,' Katrina and the Waves'
> 'Walking
> n Sunshine' and even Rick Dees' 'Disco Duck,' and just enjoy."
>
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