This is a ten year old post and still the most viewed one on this blog. Revised and reedited with broken links fixed. These songs actually cover a period of less than four years - the first released in fall of 1964; the last in early 1968.
The Rules
- This is not trying to be a definitive list of one-hit wonders. I have to like the song. There are a lot of one-hit wonders which I don't care for so you won't see songs like Keep On Dancin' by The Gentrys, Five O'Clock World by The Vogues or Psychotic Reaction by Count Five.
- Excludes bands or artists with successful album careers who happened to only have one hit single, though some on this list had longer-term successful performing careers.
- In some cases I've included artists who had two minor hits (like The Merry Go Round) or one huge hit and a minor hit (like Percy Sledge).
- If you don't like the rules, too bad. It's my blog.
Away we go (in rough chronological order):
Let's start with two from The Beau Brummels, the first American band to emulate the British Invasion sound with two top twenty songs - the first released in the fall of 1964, the second in early 1965, after which they disbanded.
Laugh, Laugh
Just A Little (produced by Sylvester Stewart who later gained fame as Sly Stone of Sly & The Family Stone).
She's About A Mover (1965) by The Sir Douglas Quintet.
This band, fronted by Doug Sahm, came out of Texas and had a minor hit
which mixed a lot of musical styles. The band had another hit, Mendocino, around
1970. Doug Sahm was still the front man but the rest of the band had
changed and it was a California hippie song so I'm ignoring it.
Rescue Me (1965) by Fontella Bass. Top 5 hit. Great vocal and bass line. A Motown single. She should have had more hits.
Pushin' Too Hard (1965) by The Seeds. An LA band with kind of a punk sound and attitude - "you're pushin' to hard on what you want me to be, you're pushin' too hard on me!". A similar sentiment was conveyed a couple of years later by Jimi Hendrix - "let me live my life, the way I want to". Really terrible lead guitar solo - by The Seeds, not Hendrix.
You Were On My Mind (1965) by We Five.
A San Francisco based folk band (you can tell they're folk music people
from the video since they are wearing turtlenecks, they are all singing
and they all seem cheerful). Terrific lead vocal, good use of dynamic sound variation to
build tension. The song is a remake of an original by Ian & Sylvia
(which was not very good) and made it into the Top 3.
Gloria (1966) by The Shadows of Knight (get it?). Top 10 song. A remake of an Irish original
by Them (featuring Van Morrison, who wrote the song) and
another great punk sounding vocal (the vocalist is trying to imitate Morrison). The lyric was considered very racy
for the time. Two finger organ part. I liked it cause it was simple enough for our band to
play. G-L-O-R-I-A!!!
Lies (1966) by The Knickerbockers.
Some folks thought it was The Beatles when first released
as it certainly captured their sound and melodic hooks, but they were
actually a bunch of guys from New Jersey. And listen to how the lead
singer says "gurls" instead of "girls" so he can sound just like John Lennon. Something similar happened with the Bee Gees first single in 1967, New York Mining Disaster 1941, which many thought was The Beatles.
This tune always reminds me of the best One Hit Wonders movie - That Thing You Do, produced by Tom Hanks, which captures this period perfectly, and features a song with the same title. The song was written by a member of the 90s band, Fountains of Wayne.
Dirty Water (1966) by The Standells. "I love that dirty water, ah Boston you're my home".
For those of you who remember the state of the Charles River back then,
a very appropriate sentiment. Strong lyric and cool vocal from start
to finish. Well produced, a rarity for garage bands.
When A Man Loves A Woman (1966) by Percy Sledge. You all know this one. Monster #1 hit, amazing vocal and great production. Perfectomundo.
Hey Little Girl (1966) by The Syndicate Of Sound.
Interesting sound (no back beat on the drums). Another vocal with
attitude. A Top 10 song, it was covered by a lot of late 70s punk
bands. Watch the video - nice suits and that lead singer can sure clap
his hands!
Talk Talk (1966) by The Music Machine. Wild instrumentation and production, and then there are the lyrics:
"I got me a complication and it's an only child
Concernin' my reputation as something more than wild
I know it serves me right but I can't sleep at night
Have to hide my face or go some other place
I won't cry out for justice, admit that I was wrong
I'll stay in hibernation till the talk subsides to gone
My social life's a dud, my name is really mud
I'm up to here in lies, guess I'm down to size, to size
Can't seem to talk about the things that bother me
Seems to be what everybody has against me
Here's the situation and how it really stands
I'm out of circulation, I've all but washed my hands
My social life's a dud, my name is really mud
I'm up to here in lies, guess I'm down to size, to size
Talk talk, talk talk, talk talk, talk talk"
And it's all jammed into one minute and fifty-six seconds. This might be my favorite 60s one-hit wonder.
Walk Away Renee (1966) by The Left Banke,
Reached #2, part of the short-lived baroque rock period (see also A Whiter Shade Of Pale by Procol Harum, released in early 1967, for the biggest hit of this
genre). The first in this genre was Lover's Concerto by The Toys, which topped the charts in 1965. If you understand the words please let me know - did they say something about Foster Grant sunglasses in the second verse? The Four Tops
charted with a cover in 1968.
I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) (1967) by The Electric Prunes
(yes, you read that right). Psychedelia begins to enter the field and
the song hit the Top 20. Horrible production but I thought it was
pretty cool. For some reason this band had a lot of success in Sweden.Subject of a recent THC post with more background on the song.
Pretty Ballerina (1967) by The Left Banke.
The follow-up to Walk Away Renee, it charted weakly and then the band
faded away. Was I surprised? No, not at all. Features one of the few
oboe solos in rock.
Live (1967) by The Merry Go Round. The first of two minor hits by this LA band, both from their one and only album.
You're A Very Lovely Woman (1967) by The Merry Go Round. Very odd lyric, particularly when you realize it's written and sung by 17 year old guitarist Emitt Rhodes.
Time Has Come Today (1968) by The Chambers Brothers.
This is an oddity and an appropriate tune to end on. The song has a
long and complex history. The four Chambers Brothers were from
Mississippi, starting out as folk musicians before electrifying their
sound in the mid-60s. Time Has Come Today was recorded in 1966 for
their album, The Time Has Come, which was released in November
1967. It contained an 11 minute version of Time, a song which contained
elements of gospel, blues, rock and psychedelia and used reverb, guitar
fuzz and lots of cowbell. For the next 18 months if you
listened to FM radio you were guaranteed to hear the song at least once a
day in its entirety.
During 1968 there were two different edited versions of the song
released as singles with one version hitting #11 on the charts. A
mixture of some wonderful off the wall lyrics ("and my soul has been psychodelicized") with possibly the most
annoying mid-section of any song ever (in the unedited original version
that section goes on for about 6 minutes), this song IS 1968 in
all its coolness, craziness and excess. I've linked above to the
closest clip I can find to one of the single versions. This is an abbreviated version from the Ed Sullivan Show. For the
masochists out there here's the full length version.
Well, I think I'm done for a while.
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