Are They A One-Hit Wonder?

I only put them in the discussion because I realized that they qualify for the stiff strict cold and usually-unfair distinction of "only two top 40s, but do they feel subjectively like a OHW" label.

I've posted some artists I feel are not OHWs subjectively, but then had others post here saying they do feel like OHWs. Like Neneh Cherry.

And I've seen the opposite. Berlin feels like a OHW to me, but very very much not to others. Same with Dead Or Alive.

It's been eye-opening and interesting. I just think it makes good conversation. It's interesting to me that some people will say "I hear these guys all the time, at least a few songs" and others will say (about the same artist) "I only ever hear that one song anymore".
 
scotchandcigar said:
While I don't think that Squeeze is quite the new wave staple that The Cure is, they also have a ton of songs that get regular rotation. ... I don't know why they're in this discussion.
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They're in this discussion because people put them on OHW lists.
 
jbnv said:
They're in this discussion because people put them on OHW lists.
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Perhaps they are to those people. I don't think there is "one list" particularly since the only non-subjective way to judge is appearance on the AT40 which we all agree is not a reliable source. It is interesting discussion though.
 
Siouxsie & the Banshees: Had one big hit on pop radio ("Kiss Them for Me") but are quite popular in alternative and new-wave radio. OHW?
 
Technically a one hit wonder (obvs)

Subjectively, based on my exposure to their music over the last 20+ years (excluding SXM and new wave-specific channels/podcasts), a zero-hit wonder. If you walked into a college and asked 1000 students to hum a Siouxsie song, I'd be willing to bet only a few could (and they'd probably be wearing black lipstick and have webbed stockings on their arms). I'd forgotten they existed until First Wave. But this is only based on my personal experience, which isn't always accurate fer sher.
 
sadchild said:
If you walked into a college and asked 1000 students to hum a Siouxsie song, I'd be willing to bet only a few could (and they'd probably be wearing black lipstick and have webbed stockings on their arms).
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Today's college students are woefully undereducated on the classics.
 
sadchild said:
Subjectively, based on my exposure to their music over the last 20+ years (excluding SXM and new wave-specific channels/podcasts), a zero-hit wonder. If you walked into a college and asked 1000 students to hum a Siouxsie song, I'd be willing to bet only a few could (and they'd probably be wearing black lipstick and have webbed stockings on their arms). I'd forgotten they existed until First Wave. But this is only based on my personal experience, which isn't always accurate fer sher.
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Asking a 19 year old about a band that peaked 30 years ago seems like a poor metric. Before SXM, I remember hearing Kiss Them and occasionally Peek-a-Boo every so often on AC and Alt rock radio. But I'd say those are the only 2 songs in contention. They both hit #1 on the Alt chart. FWIW, I think Kiss Them is a brilliant song; I entered it into the Songs With a Great Groove thread.

jbnv said:
Today's college students are woefully undereducated on the classics.
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For a while, Guitar Hero was raising the awareness of 70's and 80's classic rock, among kids. I don't know if that's still true. I bet that when you talk to today's kids about, say, Crosby Stills & Nash, it's like when @Channel98 tells me that some song I like is a cover of something from the '30s.
 
All these songs are remakes of number-one hits of the 1930s: Alone by the Four Seasons, Puttin' On The Ritz by Taco, Red Sails In The Sunset by Fats Domino, Lullaby Of Broadway by Tony Bennett, All Of Me by Willie Nelson, These Foolish Things by Rod Stewart, Just A Gigolo by David Lee Roth, You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby by Bobby Darin, In The Chapel In The Moonlight by Dean Martin, Dream A Little Dream Of Me by the Mamas & The Papas, Sweet & Lovely by Nino Tempo & April Stevens, Let's Fall In Love by Peaches & Herb, Heart & Soul by Jan & Dean, Where Or When by Dion & The Belmonts, Blue Moon by the Marcels, Marie by the Bachelors, Once In A While by the Chimes and The Way You Look Tonight by the Lettermen.

Here is Harry Richman's number-one hit from February 1930 and the remake by Taco Ockerse which reached #4 in September 1983. (He changed the word "Harlem" to "fashion.")





 
Channel98 said:
All these songs are remakes of number-one hits of the 1930s: Alone by the Four Seasons, Puttin' On The Ritz by Taco, Red Sails In The Sunset by Fats Domino, Lullaby Of Broadway by Tony Bennett, All Of Me by Willie Nelson, These Foolish Things by Rod Stewart, Just A Gigolo by David Lee Roth, You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby by Bobby Darin, In The Chapel In The Moonlight by Dean Martin, Dream A Little Dream Of Me by the Mamas & The Papas, Sweet & Lovely by Nino Tempo & April Stevens, Let's Fall In Love by Peaches & Herb, Heart & Soul by Jan & Dean, Where Or When by Dion & The Belmonts, Blue Moon by the Marcels, Marie by the Bachelors, Once In A While by the Chimes and The Way You Look Tonight by the Lettermen.

Here is Harry Richman's number-one hit from February 1930 and the remake by Taco Ockerse which reached #4 in September 1983. (He changed the word "Harlem" to "fashion.")





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I guess I asked for this.
 
I know you're now wondering what is the oldest number-one song to become a number-one hit many years later for another artist. ("Many years later." This excludes Bedelia, Ma Tiger Lily, Shine On Harvest Moon, A Bird In A Gilded Cage, Blue Bell, Tell Me Pretty Maiden, Till We Meet Again, In The Good Old Summer Time, Love Me & The World Is Mine, Wait Till The Sun Shines Nellie and many other songs that were number one for two or three different artists within a short time span.) It was The Glow Worm by opera soprano Lucy Isabelle Marsh. The song is an English translation of Das Glühwürmchen from Paul Lincke's 1902 operetta Lysistrata and appeared in the 1907-08 Broadway musical The Girl Behind The Counter. Marsh's recording was number one for five weeks in June-July 1908. A version by the Mills Brothers (with additional lyrics by Johnny Mercer) was number one for three weeks in December 1952.





 
jbnv said:
Today's college students are woefully undereducated on the classics.
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scotchandcigar said:
Asking a 19 year old about a band that peaked 30 years ago seems like a poor metric
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Agreed. But at the same time, they are exposed at home, at school and in public (dance clubs, supermarkets, FM, etc) to old (to them) songs. So I think it's one way to see if a song has had lasting power.

Play these 1970s #1s to 1000 college students and see how many recognize them:

"Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head"
"Bridge Over Troubled Water"
"Let It Be"
"You've Got a Friend"
"American Pie"
"Lean On Me"
"I Can See Clearly Now"
"Sunshine on My Shoulders"
"Cat's in the Cradle"
"Play That Funky Music"
"Dancing Queen"
"Stayin' Alive"
"My Sharona"
"Escape (The Piña Colada Song)"

I bet more than 2/3rds of them recognize every song

Then play these #1s:

"Everything Is Beautiful"
"I Think I Love You"
"One Bad Apple"
"Indian Reservation"
"Go Away Little Girl"
"Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves"
"Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me"
"The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"
"Show and Tell"
"He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)"
"You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)"
"Undercover Angel"
"MacArthur Park"

They were just as popular in their prime, but I think most college kids would only know a couple, if that.

So it's a metric in one way, but not a sole and perfect measuring stick.

And often this gets thrown off as soon as an old song ends up in the new commercial, like Pet Shop Boys "Opportunities" for example. It goes from largely forgotten (mainstream world/today's 20 year olds, not to music aficionados like us) to everyone suddenly knows it.
 
sadchild said:
Agreed. But at the same time, they are exposed at home, at school and in public (dance clubs, supermarkets, FM, etc) to old (to them) songs. So I think it's one way to see if a song has had lasting power.

Play these 1970s #1s to 1000 college students and see how many recognize them:

"Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head"
"Bridge Over Troubled Water"
"Let It Be"
"You've Got a Friend"
"American Pie"
"Lean On Me"
"I Can See Clearly Now"
"Sunshine on My Shoulders"
"Cat's in the Cradle"
"Play That Funky Music"
"Dancing Queen"
"Stayin' Alive"
"My Sharona"
"Escape (The Piña Colada Song)"

I bet more than 2/3rds of them recognize every song

Then play these #1s:

"Everything Is Beautiful"
"I Think I Love You"
"One Bad Apple"
"Indian Reservation"
"Go Away Little Girl"
"Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves"
"Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me"
"The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"
"Show and Tell"
"He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)"
"You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)"
"Undercover Angel"
"MacArthur Park"

They were just as popular in their prime, but I think most college kids would only know a couple, if that.

So it's a metric in one way, but not a sole and perfect measuring stick.

And often this gets thrown off as soon as an old song ends up in the new commercial, like Pet Shop Boys "Opportunities" for example. It goes from largely forgotten (mainstream world/today's 20 year olds, not to music aficionados like us) to everyone suddenly knows it.
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That's an interesting theory. Unfortunately, if I hung out on a college campus taking surveys, someone would have me arrested.

To me, the beauty of this thread is that we're evaluating songs that each of us witnessed firsthand, so we're eliminating the buzz factor you're referring to. Instead of merely observing how often SXM First Wave plays a song, we can recall how much airplay a song got when it was new. And that gives us a better perspective than a 21 year old who writes an article about OHWs for an internet site.
 
Having heard these songs when they first came out also gives us the advantage of knowing if the lesser hit was actually a hit on its own merit, like a-ha, Escape Club, Skid Row, Spin Doctors, Tone Loc. Or if the lesser hit just got caught up in the wake of the bigger one's buzz (got airplay because it was the follow-up to the big hit) like Gerardo, Johnny Hates Jazz, Michael Sembello, Snow, Young MC.
 
sadchild said:
Having heard these songs when they first came out also gives us the advantage of knowing if the lesser hit was actually a hit on its own merit, like a-ha, Escape Club, Skid Row, Spin Doctors, Tone Loc. Or if the lesser hit just got caught up in the wake of the bigger one's buzz (got airplay because it was the follow-up to the big hit) like Gerardo, Johnny Hates Jazz, Michael Sembello, Snow, Young MC.
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Exactly. For example, when Squeeze blew-up in the US, it was with their 3rd album, Argybargy. Three songs - Another Nail in My Heart, If I Didn't Love You, and Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) - were all over the radio, and I occasionally hear all 3 today. Once that album established them in the US, they started playing their previous UK hits from the albums Squeeze and Cool for Cats: Take Me, I'm Yours, Goodbye Girl, Cool for Cats, Up the Junction, and Slap and Tickle. Again, I occasionally hear all these on the radio today.

When East Side Story came out, Tempted got played to death. They also played Is That Love, Messed Around, In Quintessence, and Piccadilly. Now Tempted is a standard in radio playlists, and the other songs are only played as "deep tracks". The album Sweets from a Stranger had the popular single Black Coffee in Bed, which is still played today.

The new track on their Singles compilation album, Annie Get Your Gun, was in big rotation at that time, and I still hear it today. And then Babylon and On gave us Hourglass and 853-5937. I still hear Hourglass a lot. I was there during all of it.
 
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