One Hit Wonders - Your Favorite
 

I was sure someone had asked, but my search came up empty.

So what is your favorite?

I'll say "Oh Babe, What Would You Say" - Hurricane Smith. His wife wrote the song.

Working on a solo guitar arrangement now.

No links necessary but I will probably watch and listen.

99 Red Balloons by Nena

It was the Summer of 74 and I had just turned 11. I was a big Bruce Lee fan and my dad offered to take me to the local Dojo for martial arts training. That’s the summer that Kung Fo Fighting came out, by Carl Douglas. That song will always have a place in my heart

I really like the Cee LO Green and Jack Black version from the Kung Fo Panda movie

Pipeline - The Chantays

One of mine is Smoke From a Distant Fire by the Sanford - Townsend Band.

https://youtu.be/wCWVuCCWqzQ

98.6 ... Spirit in The Sky ... Alone Again, Naturally ...

But one? OK ... One Tin Soldier

Also ... "Hurricane" Smith engineered early Beatles and Pink Floyd records and had a 2nd top 10 hit in the UK.

This one:

I think I'd say, "It's a Beautiful Day," David LaFlamme's group born in San Fran in the late '60s. They've been together for many years, but I believe their only hit was, "White Bird," in 1969 on their debut album.

Boring video... just the album cover. LaFlamme was the violinist/vocalist.

Lemon Pipers - Green Tamborine
 

The song was somewhat meh but the Pipers were personal friends at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Steve Wamsley, Bob Nave, Bill Albaugh, Ivan Brown, and of course Bill Bartlett (Bill had another another one-hit wonder with Ram Jam's Black Betty). Nave, Wamsley and Albaugh were DKEs at Miami with me. The DKE house was one of the fraternity models for the movie Animal House and P. J. O'Rourke hung out there a good deal.

The Lemon Pipers signed with Buddha Records who forced Green Tamborine on them and had them pegged as a "bubblegum" act (think 1910 Fruitgum Company). For those of us who sat in on their regular local shows they were anything but a bubblegum act. They were a psychedelic jam band covering artists from Mose Allison to Carol King (Wasn't born to Follow also covered by the Byrds). They bristled at the direction that Buddha had for them. Green Tamborine hit #1, they recorded two albums and the dispute with Buddha led to them giving up the Piper name and some assets to get out of the contract. They formed a couple of bands with regional success afterwards and began covering Leadbelly's Black Betty which drew the attention of LA producers who put Ram Jam together behind Bartlett and recorded the classic.

Magic by Pilot

Elvin Bishop - Fooled Around and Fell in Love would be right up there.

I could easily list 40 or 50 though - that's just the first that came to mind.;)

Mine would be Dancing in the Moonlight by King Harvest. Released in 1972, reaching number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.

I was a freshman in high school, and we would blare this tune every time in came on the radio.

I was recently reminded of it when I heard a great young musician in his 20's do a solo acoustic version. Great for a sing along, too. No bridge, and the same progression for the melody and the verse if I am remembering it correctly. Must be the melody, it usually is :)

Difficult to pick a favourite, but Dexy's Midnight Runners is a contender for me.

"I Can See Clearly Now" Johnny Nash

wheres a one-hitter for ya.... I can Help. by Billy Swan

"Major Tom" by Peter Schilling.

What's up? - 4 Non blondes



San Francisco - Scott McKenzie

A toss up between Edie Brickell's "What I am" and Spacehog's "In the Meantime"

Oh, and "Ooh Child" by the Five Stairsteps

Many of mine have already been listed but frankly as a child/adolescent of the 60s I couldn't narrow my choices to a dozen let alone just a single tune....

Here you go:

I've been hearing this one a lot this summer, plus David Bowie's "Space Oddity" given the recent 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. I mostly listen to 70's and 80's radio stations, or my own CD collection.

One of my personal favorites which I still play regularly is "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray, probably the first or second vinyl LP that I ever bought. I cannot remember any other songs from the album, but haven;t played it many years.

This is just one of several examples, in this thread, of folks not understanding what a one hit wonder signifies.

Johnny Nash had two additional top 15 US Billboard songs: Hold Me Tight (#5 US Billboard, 1968); and Stir It Up--#12 US Billboard, 1973.

(Nah Nah Hey Hey) Kiss Him Goodbye
Steam

OK, correction
You Were On My Mind by We Five

Howard Jones - No one is to blame



I don't really have a favorite, but this was pretty good.

Tony

Here is one for the teeny bopper crowd...



Tony

Neither Pilot, nor Gilbert O'sullivan, nor Howard Jones were one hit wonders, at least in UK.

Chevy Van from Sammy Johns

Little Girl by The Syndicate Of Sound.

96 Tears - ? and the Mysterians:

https://youtu.be/bOCOMYGIfUQ


Lover (You Don’t Treat Me No Good No More) - Sonia Dada:

https://youtu.be/D9WH8AfakFs


In the Summertime - Mungo Jerry: (One hit in the US, looks like they did well in the U.K.)


https://youtu.be/wvUQcnfwUUM

And a favorite of mine from my senior year in high school. For me, the attraction and the hook is the guitar work by Reggie Young throughout the song starting with the intro. Reggie was a studio musician and a part of the house band at American Sound Studio in Memphis. They were called the Memphis Boys. You can hear Reggie's guitar work on countless recordings that came out of that Memphis studio.