Hey all.
Housekeeping: I added the car trips play list back in case you wanted to revisit it. I'm going to embed all my playlists to my actual blog post now so that my posts will be more easily referenced. Just make sure you click play now- they won't be on automatic start (so they don't all start playing at once).
I know I've been writing about my own personal stories more than I have about the music. So I'm going to take this post to dig deep and focus on the music.
One hit wonders...bands that have survived on only one big release to the extent that their one song name might as well be the band's name (I'm lookin' at you "Come on Eileen"). Honestly, does anyone really know who wrote that song? Well, I just had to look it up. It's Dexys Midnight Runners. Who knew.
Let's be honest, the 80's really cranked them out. Baby-Got-Back, Take On Me, Mickey. The list goes on.
So what makes them one hit wonders? I've noticed that a lot of them are up-beat, wedding-reception-esque dance music. For example, has it ever occurred to you that some band/artist actually wrote the Macarena? In my head I imagine some party committee sitting around a large table discussing the need for a new choreographed song a la electric slide.
Take "It's Raining Men." It resolves the awkwardness between you and your cousin's bride's maids that you don't really know for about 3 minutes on the dance floor. It's a DJ's secret weapon to revamp the energy on the dance floor. It's something we all love dancing to. But does anyone really have it on their iPods?
Or what about songs like Baby-Got-Back? After that song hit, who could really take Sir Mixalot seriously? or "Who Let the Dogs Out" by Ba-ha Men or "Whip It" by Devo? The video definitely doesn't help Devo out... Whip It! (I couldn't embed this link, sorry guys).
To avoid any more serious throw backs, I thought I'd mention a couple of the one hit wonders that have blessed our dancing years. I'm talkin' about "Mambo #5", "I'm Blue (Da Ba Dee)","Cha-Cha Slide" (the millennium Macarena), "Shake it" by Metro-Station, "Pop, Lock and Drop It" by Huey, "I love College" by Roth, and more recently, "Fireflies" by Owl City among countless others.
So why are these one hit wonders? It's because they have one of the three components:
a)humor
b)is a great song but has an unoriginal sound (suggesting that the rest of their songs have a common sound but none of them got as lucky)
c)is a great song and has a very original sound (suggesting that the rest of their songs have the same "new" sound but they couldn't pull it off).
See if you can figure out which songs I listed fit into which category. Fun game, I know.
I'm not including this as a criteria for a one hit wonder because I feel like it's not as common, but some times songs are just good because of the dance moves that go with it. Like the Cupid Shuffle (down down do yo' thing do yo' thing): so catchy, and if you cant keep up with that "line-dance" get off the dance floor! No matter how many times it repeats you still find yourself goin' "to the right, to the right. to the left to the left."
One hit wonders have a stigma of being kind of pathetic but when it comes down to it, they always seem to make people happy. After all, they did all made it into the top 40.
This just made my day. "Who Let the Dogs Out?" may be one of the absolute greatest songs ever. You are definitely right that the one hit wonders just seem to make people happy. I laugh every time I hear "Mambo No. 5" or "Whip It." It is just something about the mystique of a one-hit wonder. There seems to be no reason that the band could not recapture their success. However, they are doomed to be forgettable until their one song comes on. Who knows any other Eiffel 65 songs? No one, probably not even the band themselves.
ReplyDeleteHahahaha, I just watched the Whip It video. Every aspect of that is ridiculous. Why would someone ever think those costumes were a good look? Anyway, I loved the post. Especially reading through the songs and humming them all in my head as I went through.
ReplyDeleteHey, don't put Devo on that list! These guys were the weirdos of their day, indie before there was indie, and they've recently gotten back together. I played the cassette of their first album until it shredded in my car's player. You should hear their cover of "I Don't Get No Satisfaction" or "Are you Experienced"? And "Workin' in a Coal Mine" is genius.
ReplyDeleteAs for the costumes, they were hilarious and over the top even then, in the same that Lady Gaga makes you laugh. They looked like extras in a science fiction movie.
There should be a category for legit artists who did have one pop hit, but almost by accident, like Aimee Mann.
Okay. Old Guy Out.