Who is an artist that is generally considered to be a “one hit wonder” that you believe to be much more talented/deep than most people presume?

Just something that crossed my mind and I thought would make for good discussion Just to clarify, one hit wonder in these terms could mean just one song or an entire album that seems to be touted far above the rest of the artist’s discography.

My pick would be Bobby McFerrin, who is known by most as the 'Don't Worry Be Happy' guy. In not-so-mainstream circuits, he is touted as being a phenomenal vocalist and I've always thought it was a shame he didn't get the wide recognition he deserved. Being know as the 'Don't Worry Be Happy Guy' must suck when the vast majority of your output is miles ahead of that. I bet his bank account thanks him for writing that one song though, at least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbfB62AAE5Y

Surfaris - Wipe Out

for what it's worth - buffalo springfield

and my favorite:

Roger Whittaker -

The Last Farewell

...Deb

Huh? They are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. How much more recognition is there?

Fergal sharkey.............. A Good Heart !!

I'd throw Spirit In The Sky out for consideration. Prolly just the times though.

Bud

I am not following the question. How much recognition do you get if you only have one good song in you?

In the case of the OP, Bobby McFerrin was mentioned in the original post. How much more recognition could he have gotten? At the 1989 Grammy Awards, "Don't Worry, Be Happy" won the awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. There is not more recognition than 3 Grammys, is there? Plus, Bobby is 70 now, and that song has been huge since it came out over 30 years ago. I'd say he got plenty of recognition. That song is used over and over and over in soundtracks, for commercials....

This bears me asking the question of Deryk. Aren't you like 20 years old? So his recognition would have been like 10 years before you were born? I get what you are asking but McFerrin got a lot of notoriety for this song.

Isn't this thread about ARTISTS? Everybody is naming a song.

In most cases, the songs you are naming got TONS of recognition. The artists then has to follow it up with more hits to keep hearing their name. For a great example, 2 years ago someone asked if I want to go see hometown hero Mark Cohn when he played here. My reply was "What is going to do? Play Walking in Memphis for 2 hours? Nobody knows anything else he ever did." (I passed.) That one song was huge, but he never followed it up with anything as impactful, so he got exactly the recognition he deserved.

PS. He played 17 songs. 9 of his and EIGHT COVERS!!! Held out Memphis for the 2 song encore and closed with it (of course).

Been a lot of great bands that had NO hits too!! Some led players to other bands that were bigger scale, some were players who just faded away.

Bobby McFerrin has more than done it all. What interested me about the question is that the song you cite represents a change away from what many of us knew him for. He had that monster hit, then changed direction entirely to direct a symphony orchestra.

Wasn't Robert McFarrin senior a symphony director?

But the question is what other song did these folks do that made it as well known as say "wipeout?"

Getting into the Rock Hall I think is different than having a string of well known hits throughout your career.

...Deb

Here are a few - 'scuse me if they had more than one

Some may be more successful overseas, but my pop reference is USA. Some had a few songs we know, or a few albums, but really only one hit.

After I hit "Submit" I'll think of a lot more. Gigging for a living, I've played a few of these...

Group: Ides Of March
Hit: Vehicle

Group: Flamingos
Hit: I Only Have Eyes For You

Group: Knack
Hit: My Sharona

Artist: Alan O'Day
Hit: Undercover Angel

Group: Wild Cherry
Hit: Play That Funky Music

Group: Baltimora
Hit: Tarzan Boy

Group: Dexy's Midnight Runners
Hit: Come On Eileen

Artist: Frankie Ford
Hit: Sea Cruise

Artist: Curtis Lee
Hit: Pretty Little Angel Eyes

Artist: Nick Lowe
Hit: Cruel To Be Kind

Group: Knickerbockers
Hit: Lies

Artist: Thunderclap Newman
Hit: Something In The Air

Group: Tee Set
Hit: My Belle Amie

Group: Golden Earring
Hit: Radar Love

Group: Looking Glass
Hit: Brandy

Artist: Robbie Dupree
Hit: Steal Away

Group: Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Hit: Relax

Group: Swing Out Sister
Hit: Breakout

Group: Don & Juan
Hit: What's Your Name

Artist: Billy Vera
Hit: At This Moment

Artist: Allanah Miles
Hit: Black Velvet

Group: Spiral Staircase
Hit: More Today Than Yesterday

Insights and incites by Notes

Although individual artists in this group made it big I think The Notorious Cherry Bombs should be included in this list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjkLf_X88WM&feature=emb_title

While reading stuff like this AMAZING thread, do you guys ever go out to Wiki and follow the trails? Notes mentioned The Ideas Of March. I never knew Jim Peterik was in that band and that was the path that took him to Survivor. And then you keep following names that you recognize from THAT page and that takes you to someone else and THIER journey, like Frankie Sullivan who took over the guitar spot in Survivor when Peterik moved to keyboards. And you see where the new pieces came from and where they went after. It's a fascinating web of musicians.

I'm not sure I'd call Nick Lowe a one-hit wonder:

• So It Goes
• I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass
• Cruel to Be Kind
• (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding
• I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock ’n’ Roll)

OK, so one of them was a hit for Elvis Costello. I'm going to claim it still counts.

I saw him open for Elvis Costello way back when. I can't remember much of the show, other than thinking how short it was when he had so many songs I wanted to hear!

I saw him do a couple shows in town around 2014 - one solo, the other with Los Straightjackets. It wasn't an "oldies" tour, either - more a country/Americana sound, a bunch of new stuff from recent albums. He brought an lot of energy to those shows!

Re: Nick Lowe

Rockpile was REALLY popular. Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Billy Bremner..... solid group. Saw them open for Blondie in 1979.

I'm going to go slightly off the topic and list a one-hit wonder song that I haven't been able to stop humming to myself for decades. It's got a strong McCartney sound to it but it is right up there with any Beatles song I can name. The song is Alone Again, Naturally. I'll leave it up to you guys to tell me if this guy was an underrated musician or not. In fact, I could have listed this one in the 'sad songs' section too : )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_P-v1BVQn8

Gilbert O'Sullivan had several hits but early in his career he dressed as a northern waif - flat cap and tweed jacket - a bit like angus young wearing a school uniform. a gimmick he had discarded by the time this video was made.

Yes, Gilbert O'Sullivan (real name I think is Ray O'Sullivan?) had multiple hits including "Alone Again, Naturally". Others were "Clair" and another zany one called "Ooh—wakka—doo—wakka—day", and "Get Down".

His music is memorable. No question.

I always heard the name 'Survivor' had to do with Peterik's involvement with Chase .. he had just recently started to be involved with the band when the plane crash happened.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chase_(band)
Ides of March was very cool at the time.

But yeah, WIKI can be fun to learn about musicians and who they played with.
Example: Adrian Belew, not very well known but has played with a lot of legends. King Crimson, David Bowie, Frank Zappa, etc.
He's on my 'want to meet someday' list. I bet there are a few stories to hear there.

Saga-On The Loose

Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show - On The Cover Of Rolling Stone

Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen - Hot Rod Lincoln

Sade - Smooth Operator

The Turtles - Happy Together

Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild

Warren Zevon - Werewolves Of London

Lighthouse - One Fine Morning

Orleans - Dance With Me

America - Horse With No Name

Desmond Dekker and The Aces - Israelites

Procol Harem - Whiter Shade Of Pale

Maybe I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure that the America album wouldn't be in the 'one hit wonder' category? The America album also featured "Sandman" and "I need you" which I think were fairly good hits, well, over here anyway.

This has been a very interesting thread, but what gives a band recognition beyond that one hit is stability and longevity. Some of these bands are in the Hall of Fame and many have won Grammys. How much more recognition is there?

Also noteworthy is how "my taste" centric this has been. As well as each poster's opinion of what recognition is. I have seen so many bands listed that were hugely popular, and again, what is recognition if snot sold out arenas?

Jim's recent post included America, The Turtles, Commander Cody, Sade, Steppenwolf and Warren Zevon. That acts were all considered heavyweights and again I make the refrain, what is it that you consider recognition that they didn't get? I played a show with George Frayne (Commander Cody) and he talked about arrivals and departures and how hard it is to sustain momentum when members keep coming and going. This is also why I research the bands in Wiki to look at that very thing.

The band on Jim's post that makes this point is Lighthouse. For me personally, with my tastes at the time being Chicago and Blood Sweat and Tears, Lighthouse was the Canadian equivalent and I LOVED them. But if you look them up on Wiki, my god they must have had 50 people pass through that band. 25 in just the horn players. They did pioneer symphonic rock, which gave us ELO soon after. The Thoughts of Movin' On and their live album I still play. And Howard Shore moved on after disbanding to take the Saturday Night Live music director and score for film, winning 3 Academy Awards for Lord Of The Rings.

And Sade... MORE recognition? An OBE which was advance to a CBE? Sade was huge! She took a self imposed hiatus three times but her career was wide ranging and very successful.

So a lot of "Who didn't get enough" is SO relative. Somebody out there likes Rick Astley, so.....

One thing working against bands today is that they rarely stay together beyond a few releases. Old school bands kept their lineup for 10-12 albums or more. Now they make so much money early that they put out 2 albums and part ways to go solo or form new bands. Or retire! So from those 2 albums, there may be just ONE monster hit that everybody remembers, thus they are one hit wonders. Surviving member continue on with one original guy who used that wealth to buy the name, and that's the state of the band world anymore.

I remember in the early 90s I did some shows where we opened for The Vogues. In talking to the members, none of them were in any way connected to any of the original guys. They just bought the name. We opened for them 4 times, and we saw 3 different lineups. Our little Motown band had the same lineup for 3 years before I quit playing to go back to college so I could get a big boy job. Longevity plays into this formula.

Your story of the Vogues brings to mind groups that were together for a while but had run their course by the time their 'breakout' hit came. Spiral Staircase "Love you more today than yesterday" and the Casinos doing the same with "Then you can tell me goodbye".

Funny thing Charlie is that their label demanded that they spell their name Spiral STAREcase. Pat Upton was a GREAT singer. His story is one of good fortune that found him pretty much ascending that "starecase" of success until late in life when he died after what is only referred to as "a lengthy illness", which may or may not have been cancer. All built on that ONE song.

Did you know he sang backup for Ricky Nelson and was supposed to be on the plane that crashed and killed Nelson and everyone on board?

The Casinos... Cincinnati's own!! Until I looked to see, I didn't know that they didn't write their hit. JD Loudermilk wrote it. I just love following these spiderweb connections between bands and writers and all.

One band I can't believe I missed is The Brooklyn Bridge. Led by the lead singer of The Crests, Johnny Maestro, they had their huge hit with Jimmy Webb's The Worst That Could Happen, and followed that up with Blessed Is The Rain, but curiously, I always thought the better song was on the B side of that, Welcome Me Love. Check out the latter on youtube and listen to that singing. They were in my jam zone with all the harmony and the horn section. They just didn't last all that long relatively speaking. They did a few albums but went right into "nostalgia tour" mode within a few years. And Welcome Me Love was written by Tony Romeo, who wrote a lot of hits. I'm Gonna Make You Mine, Indian Lake, I Think I Love You (He did a lot of the bubble gun stuff) to name a few. Writing is still the thing that trips my trigger way more than performing and will probably always be.

Funny thing I had wrong about the Casinos. There was a regional band that also had the name "The Casinos" that alternated home base between Charlotte, NC and Charleston, SC as for a period of time because they had a local Saturday morning TV show and would base themselves in whichever market was broadcasting their program. I thought for years they were 'the' Casinos with the hit record....

Yes, I knew Pat Upton was with Rick Nelson's Stone Canyon Band but didn't know his connection with Spiral Starecase until recently. I was a big fan and follower of SCB.

But probably the biggest 'One Hit Wonder' artist that's received more recognition than he deserves is Meadowlark Lemon of the Harlem Globetrotters. Trying to cash in on the music success of other Saturday morning cartoon series like "The Archies" and "Josie and the Pussycats", a Globetrotters cartoon was created. An album was released along with several singles, including "Rainy Day Bells" written by Neil Sedaka and Howie Greenfield. Commercially, the release crashed and burned - except - for the Carolina Beach Music market - it was a HUGE hit and is still played on CBM radio stations regularly today and nightly at Beach Clubs up and down the east coast. It's ranked #14 on the top 100 all-time Beach songs. LOL, On the beach circuit and on radio broadcasts, I've heard it told for years, it's him singing vocals and only learned yesterday that he really only sang backing vocals... The attached link clears that misconception.

http://www.rebeatmag.com/the-brief-unknown-recording-career-of-the-late-meadowlark-lemon/

It's a tangent to this thread.

When all the members of the band that made the hit record have been replaced and there are no 'original' members left, and they still tour with the same name, is the audience being cheated into seeing a "tribute band" but paying higher prices?

A couple of years ago, a friend went to see "The Kingston Trio". All 3 members of the trio are deceased. None of the present members made any of the hit recordings. I didn't have the heart to tell her she paid premium prices for a tribute band.

Often either a non-member who purchased the name or the Record Label company may own the name. Motown owned all the group names and sometimes had 3 or 4 groups touring the country with the same name. I know this for a fact because I gigged for Motown for a while.

Back on thread.

If a band has one hit, but is alive and prosperous for years they are still a 'one hit wonder'. A single #1 hit on Billboard can give you headliner work for up to 10 years and nostalgia work for years after that.

Also a one hit wonder in the USA might be a multi-hit star in non US countries like the UK, Canada, Australia, France, etc. but in the US they are still considered one-hit-wonders.

I wonder if the opposite is also true. A band or single with numerous hits in the USA are for all practical purposes one-hit-wonders elsewhere.

Here's another one-hit-wonder with a very well recorded and produced hit "Killer Joe" by the Rocky Fellers

Insights and incites by Notes

Absolutely yes. I go one step further. When the member who was "the band" is gone, even if the other original members remain, I consider them a tribute to themselves. Journey WAS Steve Perry. However well the Asian guy plays Steve's part, they are not Journey without that recognizable voice. Queen WAS Freddie Mercury. Again, however good Adam lambert is, they are not Queen without Freddie. Van Halen's face was Roth, not Eddie. Musically they were BETTER with Hagar because he brought a playing piece to the dance, but they weren't Van Halen. The reverse is true as well. Frankie Valli had SO MANY backing groups but as long as he was out front they were still The Four Seasons.

On topic, yes, the foundational piece is "the hit". You can have a band with a long string of lesser hits that didn't get known in Fitzgerald Alberta or in Puerto Deseado Argentina and to those people who don't have the opportunity to hear the whole catalog they can be a one hit wonder. I am a perfect example of this. In my youth, I had ZERO exposure to country music. I had no idea who Hank Williams was until I was in my early teens and that was because people were covering his songs. In our house we listened to Glenn Miller, the Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman.... I knew big band music in my early years like southerners knew country. So for a time, Hank Williams was a one hit wonder to me. Same for Johnny Cash. I mean Hank died when I was 18 months old. As songs passed through my ears and I looked into them (Move It On Over, I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You, Cold Cold Heart...) I found out who Hank Sr was and delved into his catalog, but at one point he was just some dead guy from the south to me. Likewise, I grew up with the O'Jays in my back yard. They were instrumental in my music education. I didn't know about Hank Williams, but I knew about Walter Williams!!

As funny as it is that this quote came from a place as trite and banal as Smokey and the Bandit, it's true. "When you say something, it depends on what part of the country you are standing as to how dumb you are." Common knowledge in Ohio is not the same as common knowledge in Alabama.

I check a list of "weird holidays" every day. And today, yes it is, is National One Hit Wonder Day.

Eddie, I totally agree with you on the lead of the group leaving leaves a tribute band.

I'll add The Beach Boys were a tribute band when Brian Wilson was out.

Jay And The Americans had 3 lead singers named Jay, but the second one, whose name is really Dave is the voice of the band.

To me a one-hit-wonder in the US needs to have only one hit on Billboard and not more than that. It simplifies it.

My dad who played trumpet, violin, ukulele and later in life organ, he was a big band fan and he had a 'linen closet' full of LPs. When he quit smoking he bought one LP per week, so we had the Dorseys, Artie Shaw, Count Basie (one of my youthful favorites), Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Harry James, Benny Goodman, and associated acts like Frank Sinatra, Louis Prima (with Keely, Sam & The Witnesses), and the Andrews Sisters (who I respect to this day).

My mom liked Broadway, my big sister was an Elvis and early rock fan.

When we moved to Florida (I was 10) I was exposed to country as well as Salsa and other Caribbean forms of music. This opened up a whole new world for me.

I got in the school band and went head over heels to classical music, especially from the Romantic period to the Contemporary. It's still my 'desert island' genre.

I still seek out different kinds of music. Some of the forms I couldn't make a steady of diet of, and in most genres there are songs I like and those I don't care for (they are for other ears), but different forms of music say things in different and often interesting ways.

I want the music to make me emotional, love it, question it, be passionate about it, or even hate it. Just don't bore me.

Here is a one-hit-wonder that is actually a pretty awful song, it's so bad it's fun, and when we play it, if I play it at the right time for the right crowd, our audience loves it.

I usually announce it as being consistently in the top 10 worst rock and roll song lists...

"Surfin' Bird" by The Trashmen. And no, they don't deserve greater recognition

Insights and incites by Notes

Look at that... September 25th is "National One-Hit Wonder Day"

https://www.checkiday.com/29dcf5076dcd976bdb0812c2b6f750f4/national-one-hit-wonder-day

there's a day for everything... you just have to know where to look

The Tokens may have been two hit wonders but the soprano on "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" raises the hairs on the nape of my neck.

America charted with a ton of songs on their early albums:

• A Horse with No Name
• I Need You
• Sandman
• Ventura Highway
• Don't Cross the River
• Only in Your Heart
• Muskrat Love
• Tin Man
• Lonely People
• Sister Golden Hair
• Daisy Jane
• Woman Tonight
• You Can Do Magic
• Right Before Your Eyes
• The Border

Warren Zevon had a fair number of hits, although Linda Ronstadt seems to have done better with some of his songs ("Hasten Down the Wind", "Poor Poor Pitiful Me")than he did. Then again, Linda probably scored better with Karl Bonoff's songs that Karla did.

I'm going to claim he's not a one hit wonder if other people had hits with songs he's released.

• Carmelita
• Desperados Under the Eaves
• Hasten Down the Wind
• Lawyers, Guns and Money
• Life'll Kill Ya
• Mohammed's Radio
• Mr. Bad Example
• Poor Poor Pitiful Me
• Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner
• Trouble Waiting to Happen
• Werewolves of London
• A Certain Girl
• Reconsider Me

Hey, the Grateful Dead were NO hit wonders but people followed them all over the world!!! WHAT did those people find so exciting about that musical equivalent of quaaludes?

I also love the vocal! The guy's name is Jay Siegal, and he sounds great on their other hit too,
"Tonight I Fell In Love".

I heard Neil Sedaka (now 80) last week on Sirius-XM rave about Jay Siegal's vocal ability.

(Neil started the group, called the "Linc-Tones", named after their (Lincoln) high school in
Brooklyn. They changed their name to the "Tokens", after subway tokens were introduced. Jay Siegal
joined the group in 1956. Sedaka sang lead, and the only thing unusual about the group was that
they recorded only original songs written by Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, and that Sedaka always
played piano (duh) with the session musicians. Sedaka left the group in 1957. BTW, Greenfield lived
in Sedaka's apartment building, and Neil Diamond lived across the street and also went to Lincoln High!)

Is that really a male vocalist? I looked at the liner notes for a female vocalist and came up empty. This would explain it. Thank you. Wow, what a range he had ( presuming he's left the stage ).

The Tokens sing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"

https://youtu.be/OQlByoPdG6c

The story behind the song: https://youtu.be/4llIwk0BK8A