March 5, 2013 • 27 mins
The term "one-hit wonder" gets thrown around a lot, and - yes - you probably are using it correctly, but Chuck Bryant went to the trouble to really define what makes a one-hit wonder in the article this episode is based on. Join him and Josh as they get to the bottom of this disparaging term.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.
There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Say something. Um, yeah, I
didn't even say say something funny. I just said say
(00:22):
something for us. Yeah, it's all right, man. That's good
quality in a broadcaster to freeze up on the air
and a professional talker. Yeah, yeah, how you doing. I'm great? Um,
I'm good man. This is a fun, goofy little topic
and we haven't done one like that in a while.
This was a fun article written by a guy named
Charles W. Bryant, a writer for the site. Yeah. I
(00:44):
will go ahead and say one thing I was disappointed
in this article, and I would still like to see
someone tackle this in documentary style. Maybe is the psychology
of being a one hit wonder? Oh? Like what it
does to your psyche? Yeah? Is it better to have
that one hit and fade away and at least you
had that? Or is it better to have never? You know?
(01:05):
I just I would be real curious to see a
series of interviews with one hit wonders to see, like
how they feel about it. You're saying, is it better
to have hit and lost than never to have hit
at all exactly, And I couldn't really find anything on that.
So I'm sure there's one or two who like listen
to the podcast and if you do, right in, let
us know how it is. We're interested. Blue Vega, Yeah,
(01:27):
least um the fake Loue Vega. So, Chuck, I wanted
to commend you for this article because you really like
this is a tough one for With how stuff works articles,
we typically take a topic that is, you know, has
a lot of research done on it, it's very well defined,
and then we deconstruct it. This one is like I
(01:49):
looked on the internet and if you type in one
Hit Wonder, there is like zero scholarly work done on it,
and for good reason. Yeah. Well, I mean it's interesting
though too, Like you brought up the psychology of being
a one. Yeah, they're shouldn't been anyone ever done a
study like that. There is nothing. It's all just lists.
And I actually did find one good website. It's called
um one Hit Wonder central dot com and they have
(02:10):
everything and you can play like every song they have
it by year. Who the one hit Wonder was from
like the sixties to the two thousands, maybe fifties. There
are some of the greatest songs to me, or some
of the one hit wonders. And I mean that's the points, Like,
you know, one hit wonder is just something that everybody
liked at one time. We just didn't like whatever else
they were making, right, Um, at least as it's a
(02:32):
large collective group. Anyway, back to me commending you, Um,
you had to take something that was really amorphous that
everybody knew and we knew if you got wrong, and
whipping into shape like a definable shape, and you got
it right. I think you did a great job. So Um.
The first thing you pointed out was that no one
is certain of the origin of this phrase. That's right,
(02:54):
but we figured out that it was. It first came
in print nine seven, right. Well that's what phrases done
work says, and I couldn't find anything to dispute it.
But a writer there wrote the sentence in July seventy
about abba instead of becoming what everyone expected a one
hit wonder, they soon had a string of hits behind them.
And although the website phrase dot org does say it
(03:17):
appears to have already been a used phrase, but this
is the first time they've seen it in print, right,
and and so, and there actually is like a definition
for one hit wonder, like there's well, a hit, I
guess you can find a hit, and then it's got
to be on the because we're so American centric, has
to be on the billboard top and then specifically in
(03:40):
the top forty to be considered a hit. Right, Yeah,
technically for like when most people like there have been
books written about one hit wonders and that's usually what
what they say. Okay, so that wasn't just you or
anything saying. And I thought it was a great definition. No,
it's a good definition. But that's the generally held definition.
But then that's where it gets really blurry, as we're
about to find out, right, well, in many ways, I mean, yeah,
(04:03):
you make a point that there's a lot of one
hit wonders by that definition. Who are legendary musicians like
Jimi Hendrix one hit, Janis Joplin one hit, Garth Brooks
as Chris Gaines. Yeah, that's this only billboard hit. Yeah,
this is only Billboard top forty hit. Yeah, but he
(04:24):
had country hits. It just lived on the country top ten.
But yeah, as in the mainstream top forty. His only
hit was as Chris Kaines with the Haircut and the
Soul patch Man. That was Yeah, I don't know what
song that was even I don't need um Beck Yeah,
(04:45):
the Dead, The Dead, the White Stripes, lou Reid, Iggy
Pop Divo, some like iconic bands and musicians that have
only had one hit. Um. And then you've got artists
who never had that hit but are still considered one
hit wonders. Because what you end up realizing is, despite
the definition of what a hit is, a one hit
(05:07):
wonder is something different. It's just an artist and a
song who captured something for a moment in time. It
doesn't matter if it was a top forty hit, right
like you you say, Um, Wallavoodoo's Mexican Radio. Absolutely, it's
not a top forty hit. No, but that's definitely a
hit in the zeitgeist. Did you put it? Absolutely? Who else?
(05:30):
I'll melt with you Modern English, the Weather Girls, it's
raining men Like you would say, all of these are
definitely one hit wonders and none of them had top
forty hits. Right. So, but sticking to the strict definition,
um that I mean that still works too. Write like
the Penguins, Earth Angel. Yeah, in the fifties, right, Um,
(05:51):
in the sixties you had um Summertime Blues by Blue Cheer,
but they really spent blue on like there one there
one thing there, one shot was covered in blue Blue Cheer.
Did Summertime Blues? Green Tambourine? Remember that song? No, I
didn't mean tambourine. It was very like psychedelic No and
(06:12):
the Lemon Pipers. You know, it's one of those songs
where sort of like h in the seventies Argents hold
your head up, like everybody knows that song. But I
bet ninety nine people out of a hundred I've never
heard of the vand Argent. No, they probably think, oh,
wasn't that the guests who? Or wasn't that Joe Dirt?
Or yes, that was it? Yeah, I really I never
(06:34):
saw that movie. What I never saw Joe Dirt? Oh man,
such a great like keep your Chin up movie is
so good. Like I really can hate David Spade, you
can hate all of that kind of comedy, but that
movie has such like it's got heart, It's a cute movie. Well,
(06:54):
I had friends it's on Netflix streaming. Yeah, I had
friends that worked on it, and that's where I had
my Gary Busey insider story. Oh yeah, yeah, I think
I told you. You You know, he was He was supposed
to play the father and if you'll notice in the
film he does not play the father. No, it's done
by one Fred Ward. Yeah. So Gary Busey was on
set for a day and it didn't work out. He
made it. Wish I could tell the whole story. He
made it into Black Sheep with Chris Farley and um,
(07:17):
David Spade. Yeah, he was like the crazy guy who
lived in a school bus in the woods. It was
the part he was born to play exactly. Please don't
come to our office, Gary buy um. All right. So
(07:59):
that was the fifty and that's generally when the rock
era in the fifties is when you people say you
can start talking about things like one hit wonders, like
not some guy who had one big band hit in
the nineteen thirties, although I'm sure they were there, you
know that's true. Uh, there's been one song that was
a one hit wonder for two bands, which is interesting.
(08:20):
Oh yeah, let's here Funky Town really yeah, Lips incorporated
eighty and then I don't know if you remember Pseudo Echo.
They did a version of that in six It was
a little more electric and upbeat, and that was a
bona fide top forty hit as well. Seems can't people
couldn't get enough of Funky Town. I hope whoever wrote
(08:40):
that like really cast in. Yeah. So the sixties all right, Now,
the sixties was the green tambour in seventies songs like
Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum. That's a good song. Uh,
it was in Apollo thirteen one took over the line.
I I literally wrote Shuggar next to that, what like,
(09:04):
oh you hate that song? It's pretty bad? Brewer and
Shipley and then Seasons in the Sun, great song, Terry
Jack's never heard of the guy No No, no Revy,
no rev um. And you also make the point that
the seventies were lousy with disco one hit wonders, And
in our disco episode we talked about why because it
was all producer driven rather than artist drive. Exactly. I
(09:26):
didn't even bother to like list any in here. You know,
it's you can just name a disco song and there
you have. The eighties, of course, you had bands like
Soft Cells, Tainted Love and Oh Mickey You're So Fine,
Tony Basil, Uh, I want Candy by Bow Wow Wow Kajau.
Remember what song I don't remember is that who was? Yeah?
(09:48):
Uh so the eighties was lousy with it, but a
lot of those songs are great songs, and a lot
of the artists in the eighties were popular in other countries. Yeah,
and are known as one hit wonder here in the US.
Like I was reading an article on I think Cracked
maybe about one hit wonders and they were saying, like,
(10:09):
Aha had Take on Me, which was a hit here
in the United States, but that was it. But they're
like one of the top fifty grossing bands of all
time worldwide. Yeah. Well, and Aha falls into another weird category,
which is a band that's known as a one hit
wonder who actually had a quieter second hit. Oh really Yeah,
they had a song called the Sun Always Shines on
(10:30):
TV that was like a top twenty hit. I think, Wow,
I don't remember that one. Nobody does. They're good though,
now they're awesome. Um And then remember right said fred
I'm Too Sexy huge in England. Yes, like there, I'm
Too Sexy was actually only hit number two in England.
They had another one that hit number one, but here
in the States. I think it hit number one here
(10:53):
and then that was it for right, said Fred. Uh
the same with Frankie Goes to Hollywood and uh yeah,
they were really big in Europe and Gary Newman. Yeah
that was a good song though, that song holds up
the car back and listen to cars. Yeah, that dude
was a good musician. Well, and he was hugely popular
and still like tours today. Yeah, so he's he's one
of those guys that's like, please don't call me one.
(11:14):
I wonder I had a long successful career. Look at
my house. You know it's a car. No, I think
it's like a mansion. He lives in his car. It's
pread feels safest, he can lock all his doors. Uh.
Falco and oh yeah, Nina, we're really big in German
speaking countries. Yeah, yeah, I can see that. But you
(11:36):
know had the ninety nine red balloons Balloons and then
Falco's rock Me on My Dais. Yeah, huge hit here.
Like it didn't occur to my young brain that that
wasn't from the Ama Dais soundtrack, because remember it came
out at about the same time as the movie, and um, like,
(11:56):
I just thought it was part of the soundtrack, yeah,
the movie sound Well the point with this though, is
that one hit wonder it's sort of a sort of
a derogatory term to throw on unearnest. So a lot
of these people are like in America, like you jerks,
I was huge in Europe or maybe some other country,
and uh yeah, who cares so much for you? One
(12:20):
hit the nineties crash Test Dummies, remember those dudes? Well
that was the song. Oh yeah, yeah, that's right, the macarena,
even though I don't even like to count that. Um,
what about Faith No More is epic? Yeah, see that's
a band that hugely critically popular and had a big
cult following. But yeah, just the one hit, the epic
(12:46):
the name of it, right, you want it all, but
you can't have it? That was I remember here that
song on the first time. This is the coolest thing
I've ever heard. Yeah, and that lead singer what's his name,
Mike something. He's like super respected. He's been another band
like Mr Uncle. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's a big like
has a big cult following, and not not among cults,
even like among people who aren't in cults. All right,
(13:09):
So that's music. That's an overview. Yeah, you make a
really good point in this article that, like one hit wonder,
that derogatory term isn't just um aimed at people only
in the music industry, although that's where the lion's share
of it is, but it shows up in sports. You
pointed out a couple of them, a couple of instances. Yeah. Well,
if you have one hit in baseball, then you've been
(13:29):
a complete and utter failure. But a couple of guys
have had one hit and that one hit was a
home run, which is pretty cool, which is pretty interesting.
Who was that? There was a guy named um Chris
Jellic whose name might recognize for some reason. Yeah, and
I don't follow the Mets or anything, but I guess
I just saw that that bit of trivia before that
he had one hit and it was a home run. Yeah. Maybe.
(13:51):
So there's a guy who didn't have a hit UM
named Eddie Goodell. He had one plate appearance in a
nineteen fifty one game for the Yankees, and he was
a little person. Oh yeah, and they put him in
against the St. Louis Browns and he drew four consecutive
um uh balls and got a walk. Yeah, and his
(14:14):
jerseys in the Hall of Fame, and it's you can't
see me doing this right now. I'm rubbing my face.
His number was one eight. Really yeah, but he was
I guess you could say a one hit sports wonder.
It was kind of a fun story until then. Yeah,
but I mean that's that was his jam, that's what
he got paid for, and that's I mean, he was
aware that he was a little person. So off. What
(14:37):
about the art world, design world. There's a very famous person,
Harvey Belle, who has the perfect name for what he did.
Why is it the perfect name, Harvey bell It sounds
like the creator of the smiley face. Yeah, the iconic
seventy smiley face. He created that as a marketing campaign. UM.
It sounded like an internal um morale campaign for State
(15:01):
UH mutual Life Assurance company UM and it took off.
I don't know if the company made the money or what.
But he was paid two forty bucks for it. And
he never had another artistic no hit. And I looked
to see if there were any other artists who were
considered one hit wondering. I found some, but I didn't
recognize any of them. I did recognize one Grant would
(15:23):
the painter of American Gothic. Oh yeah, he painted that
and was he won all sorts of prizes, became like
this like caused celeb like all over the art world,
and the media started digging into his life and realized
that he was a middle aged bachelor who lived at
home with his mother and sister and like wanted to
know more about that, and all of a sudden he
(15:44):
like just really couldn't handle the the limelight. And it's
it's a pretty sad story. I think I read an
article about it on Mental flass. It was worth reading.
So he never painted again, or I don't think he
ever kind of went for the Gusto if he didn't
just stop painting altogether. I don't remember that to the article. Well,
the art world certainly has a lot of people famous,
super famous for a single painting, but they may have been,
(16:06):
you know, very revered in other areas like faith no more.
That's right, the faith no more of the art world.
I told just all the scream this last trip to
New York. Oh yeah, and you were like, yeah, this
was like I can see what you're talking. I mean,
like you build something like that up in your head
see it everywhere, and then just to see the real one.
(16:27):
It's either going to go one of two ways. You're
gonna be underwhelmed or amazed. You know, I completely agree,
And that's been my uh, that's been what's happened to
me with art, because you know how I feel about art.
I know, how do you feel about art? I love it?
What about books? Yeah, um, To Kill a Mockingbird. Yeah,
that's the one most often cited as the one hit
(16:50):
wonder because Harperly wrote one book. That's some one of
those rare ones where I actually think the movie is
better than the book. And I love the book. It's
one of my favorite books of all time. And I
hadn't read it in a while, and I went back
and read it, and then I watched the movie shortly after.
I was like, holy cow, the movies better than the book. Yeah, man,
Gregory Peck, I mean yeah, talk about one of the
(17:10):
best casting but everybody, like, all of those actors were amazing,
every single one of them. Yeah. Yeah, that's good stuff.
She wrote, um, the one book, and she worked on
a second for a while called The Long Good Vibe,
but shelved it. Then in the nineteen eighties, she started
another book and never finished that one either, And I
guess she just procrastinated. I think she just I don't know.
(17:32):
I don't know if anyone has an answer why she
never wrote again. Same with the Sallenger, Yeah, Catching the Rye.
That was it, except he wrote short stories too, But
I mean, I think he never published another novel and
I will never know. And John Kennedy Toole, sure, Confederacy
dunce is, how often do you think about that book
just in your normal life? How? I don't know, Almost never? Maybe, yeah,
(17:57):
a couple of times a year, maybe when it's like
a movie be in the works that never happens. I
was thinking about that movie or that book yesterday and
I hadn't read this article yet. Have you read it? No? Yeah,
it's good. It's like I think a lot of people
have these expectations because it's known as his like genius
work after this guy committed suicide, and it is really good.
(18:19):
But um, I don't think it's like one of the
greatest books of all time or anything. Yeah, so what
happened to him? Do you know? No? I I just
I've never read the book. I don't know much about it.
I know it's kind of like a wacky Southern gothic Yeah, yeah,
um kind of novel he lived with his aunts, I think,
or something like yeah, this crazy character in Louisiana that
it's always grabbed my attention because it's just like a
(18:41):
perfect title. And then the guy's name is perfect as well,
John Kennedy tool yea or the character his the author
got you, well, he killed himself. He was clearly now
suffered some sort of mental illness and um, could not
get published and that drove him to eventually commits suicide
(19:01):
in nineteen nine. And then his mother made it her
life's work to get it published and did so. And
then his second book was published in the On Bible
I think in six and that was made to a movie.
So he's not a one hit wonder then, well Neon
Bible wasn't a huge hit, but but yeah, I would
say he's a one hit wonder. Um. And you also
(19:23):
bring up movies too, man. Yeah, and on books again.
Sylvia Plath is on here for the bell Jar. I
kind of wish I hadn't put that in here because
she was a well known poet. That's why I hadn't
mentioned it, you know. But she did write the one book,
and then would she do stick her head in the
oven or something. I don't know how she killed herself.
I think Virginia Wolf drowned herself, right, Sylvia Plath on
(19:45):
herself on herself? I think did she? That sounds right.
I remember that scene in Wonder Boys where Toby McGuire
rattles off the famous celebrity suicides. It was really great.
That was a great movie. Joseph Heller with Catch twenty two. Yeah,
that's certainly a one hit wonder um. So yeah, movies, um,
I mean there more directors and actors that you could
(20:07):
even mention that had one hit, but legit super super hits,
people like Michael is it Chimino or Samino? Samino? I think,
although if it's if you're speaking in the Italian, it
would be Chimino. Uh. He did The Deer Hunter, of course,
one Best Picture in four other Academy Awards. Did he? Huh?
(20:28):
Did he? Mal? That's what they tell him when they're
like making them play Russian Roulette? Did he? Yeah, except
they probably scream it. Yeah. Yeah, that scene was so intent.
I saw that very young, really young to be seeing
that movie in retrospect it made an impression on you. Yeah, huge?
Um but yeah. He famously made Heaven's Gate Um as
(20:49):
his follow up, which was one of the notorious disasters
along with Ishtar. Was it like water World Skate Warren
Baby movie too? Or is that Heven Can Wait? He
was in Heaven Ken Waite and his Star, So what
about Heavens? What was that about? Yeah? I think it
was a western if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, and it
(21:11):
was just a notorious failure and a very expensive one.
And then Tomino never He made a few other movies,
but you haven't heard of many of them. He did
Year of the Dragon was like with Mickey Rourke, which
the only other like notable movie that was supposed to
be a good one. Yeah, but it was far from
a hit, you know what I'm saying. And then my favorite, uh,
Steve Gordon one of my favorite movies of all time.
(21:34):
I have not seen it. You didn't see Arthur. Not
only have I not seen the original Arthur, I haven't
seen the remake that includes our friend Hodgeman as a
candy store manager believer. That was terrible, by the way,
not Hosman's bit, not Hodgement was great, but the remake
was really bad, and it was so sad because Arthur
is one of the movies that I hold very very
(21:55):
dear to me. And Steve Gordon wrote and directed it
and then died after when it was the only movie
he ever made by his own hand. No, I think
he had a heart attack or something and died young
but young ish. Uh. And it was just so like
it was a gut wrenching experience watching the remake for me.
(22:15):
Why did you watch it? Like, for example, I think
Red Dawn is one of my favorite movies of all time.
There's not a chance that I will ever see the
remake of Red Dawn. Well, I'm not either, And I
learned after Arthur. So yeah, so that's the one that
taught you the lesson. Yeah, I'm not gonna watch anything
that was really precious to me if they rebooted or
remake it again. Never again. It sounds like Hodgeman tell
(22:35):
you a valuable lesson. Yeah. And I like Russell Brand,
you know, and I thought, you know, they made Helen
Mirre and John Gielgood's character and was just enough of
a spin and I was like, well, that's could be interesting.
But then everything about the movie was just some new
little spin to make it different. And it was like, hey,
let's make the man a woman. Let's make the the
(22:56):
white guy Puerto Rican, you know, and it was like
Louis Guzman. It was just it was bad, so bad.
I got you. Yeah, Well that's it for Arthur. Yeah. Um,
if you want to learn more about Arthur, you can
type that word in this search part. Isn't that what
this podcast is about? I forgot it? Arthur One hit wonders,
(23:18):
study more. That's what it was. You should read this
article by Chuck. It's a good one. Um. You can
type one hit wonders in the search bar how stuff
works dot Com and it will bring up this article again. Uh,
commendable article. Thanks uh and I said commendable. So it's
time for word from our sponsor. Just starts so much star.
(23:59):
Now it's time for listening her mail Josh, I'm gonna
call this. Uh, We're gonna give this guy's wife a
tongue of my shoe. Oh jeez, what you do you'll see? Uh.
Dudes have been an avid listener since shortly after its inception.
I'm a huge fan, especially enjoy listening to it while
I'm stressed out. That always assumes the my nerves tack
her your banter. Over the years, I've tried to convince
(24:20):
my now wife Elizabeth to listen. Unfortunately, she's always insists
that you two are stoners and that you're ritty repartee
is contrived, that's so far off. She makes me change
over to this American life for radio lab great shows.
What's your podcast? I download to fill the time between
stuff you should know releases. I've repeatedly informed her that
(24:42):
you guys are not stoners. You've done frequent podcasts on
the ill effects of drugs, and this is not convinced her.
Still listen within me. When you read letters during listener
mail about couples who enjoy listening together, that's so sad.
If I'm not mistaken, one pair even became engaged during
a listener mail segment. Yeah, we don't know about that yet.
(25:02):
I'm not vouching for that. Um. It recently struck me
that perhaps if you were to give Elizabeth a shout
out at the end of the show, she might be
impressed enough to become a fan as well. You could
say hi to Elizabeth at the end of the show.
You'd be contributing to my marital bliss. So wait a second, way, second,
you realize what's going on here. We're being manipulated, Yeah,
(25:24):
to to say hey to somebody who doesn't even like us.
I know, I feel like there should be some money
exchange for this. Well, no, I feel instead of saying
hi to Elizabeth, she needs to get a tongue lashing
for these baseless accusations of us sitting around like in
a garage, smoking marijuana, woking marijuana and just like talking. Yeah,
(25:46):
that's b s. That's someone who's never listened to the show.
We have banter. We might go off on tangents and
we might say like five million times in a sentence,
but we're not sitting around smoking weed just rambling. Yeah,
we're just relaxed. A lot of work goes into the show.
So Elizabeth mellow out, dude, Yeah, seriously, maybe you need
(26:06):
to go in the garage. Not maybe. So Anyway, this
guy's a neurologist and he said the alien hand syndrome
part struck close to his heart. Awesome and devon. If
this doesn't do it, then Elizabeth, you can just go
listen to this American Life and Radio. Let her hang
out with ire A Glass, and I'm sorry for your
(26:27):
marriage because it is clearly clearly headed in the wrong direction.
I think we had her until just that last things
right there. No, she's great on Churchill partial to man Um.
We'll find out. Let us know, Devon, will you if
you want us to say something specific to somebody you know? Um,
we very well might do it if you ask it.
Might we have before? Um. You can tweet to us
(26:51):
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For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
(27:12):
how Stuff Works dot com. H
Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.
There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Say something. Um, yeah, I
didn't even say say something funny. I just said say
(00:22):
something for us. Yeah, it's all right, man. That's good
quality in a broadcaster to freeze up on the air
and a professional talker. Yeah, yeah, how you doing. I'm great? Um,
I'm good man. This is a fun, goofy little topic
and we haven't done one like that in a while.
This was a fun article written by a guy named
Charles W. Bryant, a writer for the site. Yeah. I
(00:44):
will go ahead and say one thing I was disappointed
in this article, and I would still like to see
someone tackle this in documentary style. Maybe is the psychology
of being a one hit wonder? Oh? Like what it
does to your psyche? Yeah? Is it better to have
that one hit and fade away and at least you
had that? Or is it better to have never? You know?
(01:05):
I just I would be real curious to see a
series of interviews with one hit wonders to see, like
how they feel about it. You're saying, is it better
to have hit and lost than never to have hit
at all exactly, And I couldn't really find anything on that.
So I'm sure there's one or two who like listen
to the podcast and if you do, right in, let
us know how it is. We're interested. Blue Vega, Yeah,
(01:27):
least um the fake Loue Vega. So, Chuck, I wanted
to commend you for this article because you really like
this is a tough one for With how stuff works articles,
we typically take a topic that is, you know, has
a lot of research done on it, it's very well defined,
and then we deconstruct it. This one is like I
(01:49):
looked on the internet and if you type in one
Hit Wonder, there is like zero scholarly work done on it,
and for good reason. Yeah. Well, I mean it's interesting
though too, Like you brought up the psychology of being
a one. Yeah, they're shouldn't been anyone ever done a
study like that. There is nothing. It's all just lists.
And I actually did find one good website. It's called
um one Hit Wonder central dot com and they have
(02:10):
everything and you can play like every song they have
it by year. Who the one hit Wonder was from
like the sixties to the two thousands, maybe fifties. There
are some of the greatest songs to me, or some
of the one hit wonders. And I mean that's the points, Like,
you know, one hit wonder is just something that everybody
liked at one time. We just didn't like whatever else
they were making, right, Um, at least as it's a
(02:32):
large collective group. Anyway, back to me commending you, Um,
you had to take something that was really amorphous that
everybody knew and we knew if you got wrong, and
whipping into shape like a definable shape, and you got
it right. I think you did a great job. So Um.
The first thing you pointed out was that no one
is certain of the origin of this phrase. That's right,
(02:54):
but we figured out that it was. It first came
in print nine seven, right. Well that's what phrases done
work says, and I couldn't find anything to dispute it.
But a writer there wrote the sentence in July seventy
about abba instead of becoming what everyone expected a one
hit wonder, they soon had a string of hits behind them.
And although the website phrase dot org does say it
(03:17):
appears to have already been a used phrase, but this
is the first time they've seen it in print, right,
and and so, and there actually is like a definition
for one hit wonder, like there's well, a hit, I
guess you can find a hit, and then it's got
to be on the because we're so American centric, has
to be on the billboard top and then specifically in
(03:40):
the top forty to be considered a hit. Right, Yeah,
technically for like when most people like there have been
books written about one hit wonders and that's usually what
what they say. Okay, so that wasn't just you or
anything saying. And I thought it was a great definition. No,
it's a good definition. But that's the generally held definition.
But then that's where it gets really blurry, as we're
about to find out, right, well, in many ways, I mean, yeah,
(04:03):
you make a point that there's a lot of one
hit wonders by that definition. Who are legendary musicians like
Jimi Hendrix one hit, Janis Joplin one hit, Garth Brooks
as Chris Gaines. Yeah, that's this only billboard hit. Yeah,
this is only Billboard top forty hit. Yeah, but he
(04:24):
had country hits. It just lived on the country top ten.
But yeah, as in the mainstream top forty. His only
hit was as Chris Kaines with the Haircut and the
Soul patch Man. That was Yeah, I don't know what
song that was even I don't need um Beck Yeah,
(04:45):
the Dead, The Dead, the White Stripes, lou Reid, Iggy
Pop Divo, some like iconic bands and musicians that have
only had one hit. Um. And then you've got artists
who never had that hit but are still considered one
hit wonders. Because what you end up realizing is, despite
the definition of what a hit is, a one hit
(05:07):
wonder is something different. It's just an artist and a
song who captured something for a moment in time. It
doesn't matter if it was a top forty hit, right
like you you say, Um, Wallavoodoo's Mexican Radio. Absolutely, it's
not a top forty hit. No, but that's definitely a
hit in the zeitgeist. Did you put it? Absolutely? Who else?
(05:30):
I'll melt with you Modern English, the Weather Girls, it's
raining men Like you would say, all of these are
definitely one hit wonders and none of them had top
forty hits. Right. So, but sticking to the strict definition,
um that I mean that still works too. Write like
the Penguins, Earth Angel. Yeah, in the fifties, right, Um,
(05:51):
in the sixties you had um Summertime Blues by Blue Cheer,
but they really spent blue on like there one there
one thing there, one shot was covered in blue Blue Cheer.
Did Summertime Blues? Green Tambourine? Remember that song? No, I
didn't mean tambourine. It was very like psychedelic No and
(06:12):
the Lemon Pipers. You know, it's one of those songs
where sort of like h in the seventies Argents hold
your head up, like everybody knows that song. But I
bet ninety nine people out of a hundred I've never
heard of the vand Argent. No, they probably think, oh,
wasn't that the guests who? Or wasn't that Joe Dirt?
Or yes, that was it? Yeah, I really I never
(06:34):
saw that movie. What I never saw Joe Dirt? Oh man,
such a great like keep your Chin up movie is
so good. Like I really can hate David Spade, you
can hate all of that kind of comedy, but that
movie has such like it's got heart, It's a cute movie. Well,
(06:54):
I had friends it's on Netflix streaming. Yeah, I had
friends that worked on it, and that's where I had
my Gary Busey insider story. Oh yeah, yeah, I think
I told you. You You know, he was He was supposed
to play the father and if you'll notice in the
film he does not play the father. No, it's done
by one Fred Ward. Yeah. So Gary Busey was on
set for a day and it didn't work out. He
made it. Wish I could tell the whole story. He
made it into Black Sheep with Chris Farley and um,
(07:17):
David Spade. Yeah, he was like the crazy guy who
lived in a school bus in the woods. It was
the part he was born to play exactly. Please don't
come to our office, Gary buy um. All right. So
(07:59):
that was the fifty and that's generally when the rock
era in the fifties is when you people say you
can start talking about things like one hit wonders, like
not some guy who had one big band hit in
the nineteen thirties, although I'm sure they were there, you
know that's true. Uh, there's been one song that was
a one hit wonder for two bands, which is interesting.
(08:20):
Oh yeah, let's here Funky Town really yeah, Lips incorporated
eighty and then I don't know if you remember Pseudo Echo.
They did a version of that in six It was
a little more electric and upbeat, and that was a
bona fide top forty hit as well. Seems can't people
couldn't get enough of Funky Town. I hope whoever wrote
(08:40):
that like really cast in. Yeah. So the sixties all right, Now,
the sixties was the green tambour in seventies songs like
Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum. That's a good song. Uh,
it was in Apollo thirteen one took over the line.
I I literally wrote Shuggar next to that, what like,
(09:04):
oh you hate that song? It's pretty bad? Brewer and
Shipley and then Seasons in the Sun, great song, Terry
Jack's never heard of the guy No No, no Revy,
no rev um. And you also make the point that
the seventies were lousy with disco one hit wonders, And
in our disco episode we talked about why because it
was all producer driven rather than artist drive. Exactly. I
(09:26):
didn't even bother to like list any in here. You know,
it's you can just name a disco song and there
you have. The eighties, of course, you had bands like
Soft Cells, Tainted Love and Oh Mickey You're So Fine,
Tony Basil, Uh, I want Candy by Bow Wow Wow Kajau.
Remember what song I don't remember is that who was? Yeah?
(09:48):
Uh so the eighties was lousy with it, but a
lot of those songs are great songs, and a lot
of the artists in the eighties were popular in other countries. Yeah,
and are known as one hit wonder here in the US.
Like I was reading an article on I think Cracked
maybe about one hit wonders and they were saying, like,
(10:09):
Aha had Take on Me, which was a hit here
in the United States, but that was it. But they're
like one of the top fifty grossing bands of all
time worldwide. Yeah. Well, and Aha falls into another weird category,
which is a band that's known as a one hit
wonder who actually had a quieter second hit. Oh really Yeah,
they had a song called the Sun Always Shines on
(10:30):
TV that was like a top twenty hit. I think, Wow,
I don't remember that one. Nobody does. They're good though,
now they're awesome. Um And then remember right said fred
I'm Too Sexy huge in England. Yes, like there, I'm
Too Sexy was actually only hit number two in England.
They had another one that hit number one, but here
in the States. I think it hit number one here
(10:53):
and then that was it for right, said Fred. Uh
the same with Frankie Goes to Hollywood and uh yeah,
they were really big in Europe and Gary Newman. Yeah
that was a good song though, that song holds up
the car back and listen to cars. Yeah, that dude
was a good musician. Well, and he was hugely popular
and still like tours today. Yeah, so he's he's one
of those guys that's like, please don't call me one.
(11:14):
I wonder I had a long successful career. Look at
my house. You know it's a car. No, I think
it's like a mansion. He lives in his car. It's
pread feels safest, he can lock all his doors. Uh.
Falco and oh yeah, Nina, we're really big in German
speaking countries. Yeah, yeah, I can see that. But you
(11:36):
know had the ninety nine red balloons Balloons and then
Falco's rock Me on My Dais. Yeah, huge hit here.
Like it didn't occur to my young brain that that
wasn't from the Ama Dais soundtrack, because remember it came
out at about the same time as the movie, and um, like,
(11:56):
I just thought it was part of the soundtrack, yeah,
the movie sound Well the point with this though, is
that one hit wonder it's sort of a sort of
a derogatory term to throw on unearnest. So a lot
of these people are like in America, like you jerks,
I was huge in Europe or maybe some other country,
and uh yeah, who cares so much for you? One
(12:20):
hit the nineties crash Test Dummies, remember those dudes? Well
that was the song. Oh yeah, yeah, that's right, the macarena,
even though I don't even like to count that. Um,
what about Faith No More is epic? Yeah, see that's
a band that hugely critically popular and had a big
cult following. But yeah, just the one hit, the epic
(12:46):
the name of it, right, you want it all, but
you can't have it? That was I remember here that
song on the first time. This is the coolest thing
I've ever heard. Yeah, and that lead singer what's his name,
Mike something. He's like super respected. He's been another band
like Mr Uncle. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's a big like
has a big cult following, and not not among cults,
even like among people who aren't in cults. All right,
(13:09):
So that's music. That's an overview. Yeah, you make a
really good point in this article that, like one hit wonder,
that derogatory term isn't just um aimed at people only
in the music industry, although that's where the lion's share
of it is, but it shows up in sports. You
pointed out a couple of them, a couple of instances. Yeah. Well,
if you have one hit in baseball, then you've been
(13:29):
a complete and utter failure. But a couple of guys
have had one hit and that one hit was a
home run, which is pretty cool, which is pretty interesting.
Who was that? There was a guy named um Chris
Jellic whose name might recognize for some reason. Yeah, and
I don't follow the Mets or anything, but I guess
I just saw that that bit of trivia before that
he had one hit and it was a home run. Yeah. Maybe.
(13:51):
So there's a guy who didn't have a hit UM
named Eddie Goodell. He had one plate appearance in a
nineteen fifty one game for the Yankees, and he was
a little person. Oh yeah, and they put him in
against the St. Louis Browns and he drew four consecutive
um uh balls and got a walk. Yeah, and his
(14:14):
jerseys in the Hall of Fame, and it's you can't
see me doing this right now. I'm rubbing my face.
His number was one eight. Really yeah, but he was
I guess you could say a one hit sports wonder.
It was kind of a fun story until then. Yeah,
but I mean that's that was his jam, that's what
he got paid for, and that's I mean, he was
aware that he was a little person. So off. What
(14:37):
about the art world, design world. There's a very famous person,
Harvey Belle, who has the perfect name for what he did.
Why is it the perfect name, Harvey bell It sounds
like the creator of the smiley face. Yeah, the iconic
seventy smiley face. He created that as a marketing campaign. UM.
It sounded like an internal um morale campaign for State
(15:01):
UH mutual Life Assurance company UM and it took off.
I don't know if the company made the money or what.
But he was paid two forty bucks for it. And
he never had another artistic no hit. And I looked
to see if there were any other artists who were
considered one hit wondering. I found some, but I didn't
recognize any of them. I did recognize one Grant would
(15:23):
the painter of American Gothic. Oh yeah, he painted that
and was he won all sorts of prizes, became like
this like caused celeb like all over the art world,
and the media started digging into his life and realized
that he was a middle aged bachelor who lived at
home with his mother and sister and like wanted to
know more about that, and all of a sudden he
(15:44):
like just really couldn't handle the the limelight. And it's
it's a pretty sad story. I think I read an
article about it on Mental flass. It was worth reading.
So he never painted again, or I don't think he
ever kind of went for the Gusto if he didn't
just stop painting altogether. I don't remember that to the article. Well,
the art world certainly has a lot of people famous,
super famous for a single painting, but they may have been,
(16:06):
you know, very revered in other areas like faith no more.
That's right, the faith no more of the art world.
I told just all the scream this last trip to
New York. Oh yeah, and you were like, yeah, this
was like I can see what you're talking. I mean,
like you build something like that up in your head
see it everywhere, and then just to see the real one.
(16:27):
It's either going to go one of two ways. You're
gonna be underwhelmed or amazed. You know, I completely agree,
And that's been my uh, that's been what's happened to
me with art, because you know how I feel about art.
I know, how do you feel about art? I love it?
What about books? Yeah, um, To Kill a Mockingbird. Yeah,
that's the one most often cited as the one hit
(16:50):
wonder because Harperly wrote one book. That's some one of
those rare ones where I actually think the movie is
better than the book. And I love the book. It's
one of my favorite books of all time. And I
hadn't read it in a while, and I went back
and read it, and then I watched the movie shortly after.
I was like, holy cow, the movies better than the book. Yeah, man,
Gregory Peck, I mean yeah, talk about one of the
(17:10):
best casting but everybody, like, all of those actors were amazing,
every single one of them. Yeah. Yeah, that's good stuff.
She wrote, um, the one book, and she worked on
a second for a while called The Long Good Vibe,
but shelved it. Then in the nineteen eighties, she started
another book and never finished that one either, And I
guess she just procrastinated. I think she just I don't know.
(17:32):
I don't know if anyone has an answer why she
never wrote again. Same with the Sallenger, Yeah, Catching the Rye.
That was it, except he wrote short stories too, But
I mean, I think he never published another novel and
I will never know. And John Kennedy Toole, sure, Confederacy
dunce is, how often do you think about that book
just in your normal life? How? I don't know, Almost never? Maybe, yeah,
(17:57):
a couple of times a year, maybe when it's like
a movie be in the works that never happens. I
was thinking about that movie or that book yesterday and
I hadn't read this article yet. Have you read it? No? Yeah,
it's good. It's like I think a lot of people
have these expectations because it's known as his like genius
work after this guy committed suicide, and it is really good.
(18:19):
But um, I don't think it's like one of the
greatest books of all time or anything. Yeah, so what
happened to him? Do you know? No? I I just
I've never read the book. I don't know much about it.
I know it's kind of like a wacky Southern gothic Yeah, yeah,
um kind of novel he lived with his aunts, I think,
or something like yeah, this crazy character in Louisiana that
it's always grabbed my attention because it's just like a
(18:41):
perfect title. And then the guy's name is perfect as well,
John Kennedy tool yea or the character his the author
got you, well, he killed himself. He was clearly now
suffered some sort of mental illness and um, could not
get published and that drove him to eventually commits suicide
(19:01):
in nineteen nine. And then his mother made it her
life's work to get it published and did so. And
then his second book was published in the On Bible
I think in six and that was made to a movie.
So he's not a one hit wonder then, well Neon
Bible wasn't a huge hit, but but yeah, I would
say he's a one hit wonder. Um. And you also
(19:23):
bring up movies too, man. Yeah, and on books again.
Sylvia Plath is on here for the bell Jar. I
kind of wish I hadn't put that in here because
she was a well known poet. That's why I hadn't
mentioned it, you know. But she did write the one book,
and then would she do stick her head in the
oven or something. I don't know how she killed herself.
I think Virginia Wolf drowned herself, right, Sylvia Plath on
(19:45):
herself on herself? I think did she? That sounds right.
I remember that scene in Wonder Boys where Toby McGuire
rattles off the famous celebrity suicides. It was really great.
That was a great movie. Joseph Heller with Catch twenty two. Yeah,
that's certainly a one hit wonder um. So yeah, movies, um,
I mean there more directors and actors that you could
(20:07):
even mention that had one hit, but legit super super hits,
people like Michael is it Chimino or Samino? Samino? I think,
although if it's if you're speaking in the Italian, it
would be Chimino. Uh. He did The Deer Hunter, of course,
one Best Picture in four other Academy Awards. Did he? Huh?
(20:28):
Did he? Mal? That's what they tell him when they're
like making them play Russian Roulette? Did he? Yeah, except
they probably scream it. Yeah. Yeah, that scene was so intent.
I saw that very young, really young to be seeing
that movie in retrospect it made an impression on you. Yeah, huge?
Um but yeah. He famously made Heaven's Gate Um as
(20:49):
his follow up, which was one of the notorious disasters
along with Ishtar. Was it like water World Skate Warren
Baby movie too? Or is that Heven Can Wait? He
was in Heaven Ken Waite and his Star, So what
about Heavens? What was that about? Yeah? I think it
was a western if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, and it
(21:11):
was just a notorious failure and a very expensive one.
And then Tomino never He made a few other movies,
but you haven't heard of many of them. He did
Year of the Dragon was like with Mickey Rourke, which
the only other like notable movie that was supposed to
be a good one. Yeah, but it was far from
a hit, you know what I'm saying. And then my favorite, uh,
Steve Gordon one of my favorite movies of all time.
(21:34):
I have not seen it. You didn't see Arthur. Not
only have I not seen the original Arthur, I haven't
seen the remake that includes our friend Hodgeman as a
candy store manager believer. That was terrible, by the way,
not Hosman's bit, not Hodgement was great, but the remake
was really bad, and it was so sad because Arthur
is one of the movies that I hold very very
(21:55):
dear to me. And Steve Gordon wrote and directed it
and then died after when it was the only movie
he ever made by his own hand. No, I think
he had a heart attack or something and died young
but young ish. Uh. And it was just so like
it was a gut wrenching experience watching the remake for me.
(22:15):
Why did you watch it? Like, for example, I think
Red Dawn is one of my favorite movies of all time.
There's not a chance that I will ever see the
remake of Red Dawn. Well, I'm not either, And I
learned after Arthur. So yeah, so that's the one that
taught you the lesson. Yeah, I'm not gonna watch anything
that was really precious to me if they rebooted or
remake it again. Never again. It sounds like Hodgeman tell
(22:35):
you a valuable lesson. Yeah. And I like Russell Brand,
you know, and I thought, you know, they made Helen
Mirre and John Gielgood's character and was just enough of
a spin and I was like, well, that's could be interesting.
But then everything about the movie was just some new
little spin to make it different. And it was like, hey,
let's make the man a woman. Let's make the the
(22:56):
white guy Puerto Rican, you know, and it was like
Louis Guzman. It was just it was bad, so bad.
I got you. Yeah, Well that's it for Arthur. Yeah. Um,
if you want to learn more about Arthur, you can
type that word in this search part. Isn't that what
this podcast is about? I forgot it? Arthur One hit wonders,
(23:18):
study more. That's what it was. You should read this
article by Chuck. It's a good one. Um. You can
type one hit wonders in the search bar how stuff
works dot Com and it will bring up this article again. Uh,
commendable article. Thanks uh and I said commendable. So it's
time for word from our sponsor. Just starts so much star.
(23:59):
Now it's time for listening her mail Josh, I'm gonna
call this. Uh, We're gonna give this guy's wife a
tongue of my shoe. Oh jeez, what you do you'll see? Uh.
Dudes have been an avid listener since shortly after its inception.
I'm a huge fan, especially enjoy listening to it while
I'm stressed out. That always assumes the my nerves tack
her your banter. Over the years, I've tried to convince
(24:20):
my now wife Elizabeth to listen. Unfortunately, she's always insists
that you two are stoners and that you're ritty repartee
is contrived, that's so far off. She makes me change
over to this American life for radio lab great shows.
What's your podcast? I download to fill the time between
stuff you should know releases. I've repeatedly informed her that
(24:42):
you guys are not stoners. You've done frequent podcasts on
the ill effects of drugs, and this is not convinced her.
Still listen within me. When you read letters during listener
mail about couples who enjoy listening together, that's so sad.
If I'm not mistaken, one pair even became engaged during
a listener mail segment. Yeah, we don't know about that yet.
(25:02):
I'm not vouching for that. Um. It recently struck me
that perhaps if you were to give Elizabeth a shout
out at the end of the show, she might be
impressed enough to become a fan as well. You could
say hi to Elizabeth at the end of the show.
You'd be contributing to my marital bliss. So wait a second, way, second,
you realize what's going on here. We're being manipulated, Yeah,
(25:24):
to to say hey to somebody who doesn't even like us.
I know, I feel like there should be some money
exchange for this. Well, no, I feel instead of saying
hi to Elizabeth, she needs to get a tongue lashing
for these baseless accusations of us sitting around like in
a garage, smoking marijuana, woking marijuana and just like talking. Yeah,
(25:46):
that's b s. That's someone who's never listened to the show.
We have banter. We might go off on tangents and
we might say like five million times in a sentence,
but we're not sitting around smoking weed just rambling. Yeah,
we're just relaxed. A lot of work goes into the show.
So Elizabeth mellow out, dude, Yeah, seriously, maybe you need
(26:06):
to go in the garage. Not maybe. So Anyway, this
guy's a neurologist and he said the alien hand syndrome
part struck close to his heart. Awesome and devon. If
this doesn't do it, then Elizabeth, you can just go
listen to this American Life and Radio. Let her hang
out with ire A Glass, and I'm sorry for your
(26:27):
marriage because it is clearly clearly headed in the wrong direction.
I think we had her until just that last things
right there. No, she's great on Churchill partial to man Um.
We'll find out. Let us know, Devon, will you if
you want us to say something specific to somebody you know? Um,
we very well might do it if you ask it.
Might we have before? Um. You can tweet to us
(26:51):
at s Y s K podcast. You can join us
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You can send us an email to Stuff Podcasts at
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For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
(27:12):
how Stuff Works dot com. H
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