IF YOU LIKED THE SINGLE, YOU’LL LOVE THE ALBUM ...
While I was putting together the “Albums You Probably Haven’t Heard” list, I kept coming across albums that weren’t necessarily obscure or overlooked per se, but were well-known only because of the one hit song on it.
Which got me to thinking about one-hit wonders, and the baggage that accompanies this label. Lots of people equate “one hit wonder” with “bands that only had that one good song in them” - which is of course sometimes the case. But sometimes it’s not.
For a start, the term “one-hit wonder” is a strikingly US-centric one - for example, a lot of “one hit wonders” in the 80s were actually quite successful in their native country and had a string of hit songs.
More to the point, charts are by definition a measure of popularity, not quality, although we can argue all the live-long day about the quality of the average Top 10 hit. The point is that a song doesn’t have to be a chart hit to be a good song.
And as it happens, a lot of “one hit wonders” come from albums that do have lots of other good tracks on them. The albums themselves may not be essential 5-star masterpieces, but at the very least they offer a lot of other tracks worth checking out.
So I made a list of 20 such albums.
PRODUCTION NOTE: The objective isn't to convince people that these albums are underrated - lots of people like these albums already. The objective is to curate evidence that one-hit wonders also make good albums. Indeed, some of them went on to make even better albums than the ones I've selected.
METHODOLOGY:
The obvious challenge of a list like this is: what counts as a one-hit wonder?
Chart performance is the obvious metric - the problem is that even for designated one-hit wonders, the criteria varies. Up to around the 90s, you were considered a one-hit wonder if your song made the Hot 100 or the Top 40, but some bands are considered a one-hit wonder if that hit made the Top 40 but other singles made the Hot 100.
Then you have crossover hits, where an artist might have several hits on a genre chart (say, R&B or C&W) but only one on the pop chart. This seems especially true after the 1990s, when Billboard created more charts to mirror radio formats (alternative rock, modern rock, urban, dance, etc).
And then there are bands (especially in the early 80s) that didn’t chart that highly in the US, but were in constant rotation on MTV …
At which point I decided to hell with it and established my own simplified criteria:
1. Any band/artist that gets consistently pegged as a one-hit wonder.
2. The “one hit” in question comes from an album (as some one-hit wonders released singles only).
20 GOOD ALBUMS THAT PRODUCED ONE-HIT WONDERS
1. A Flock of Seagulls, A Flock of Seagulls
A Flock of Seagulls were one of those 80s New Wave bands possibly more famous their haircuts than their music (not coincidentally, lead singer Mike Score was working as a hairdresser when he started the band in 1979). That said, their song “I Ran (So Far Away)” was a huge hit (and probably the biggest hit song about alien abduction). But the rest of their eponymous debut album is just as good, for the most part - some filler, but lots of great tracks with that almost perfect mix of cheap synths, guitar echo and space-age tech lyrics.
2. Wild Cherry, Wild Cherry
The funkiest band ever to emerge from Mingo Junction, Ohio. Wild Cherry started off as a rock band, but eventually turned to funk in the mid-70s after audiences kept requesting more dance music. One such request famously led to lead singer Rob Parissi writing “Play That Funky Music”, which is undoubtedly funky. But so is the whole debut album it comes from - it even sports a decent cover version of the Commodores’ “I Feel Satisfied” (which was originally supposed to be an A-side, with “Play That Funky Music” as the B-side, and the former noticeably serves as a formula for the latter). It never got that good for Wild Cherry again, but it was good while it lasted. Wild Cherry is a minor but highly danceable funk classic.
3. Missing Persons, Spring Session M
This is one of my go-to albums when people ask me to name one-hit wonders that were better than people think. Technically Missing Persons had a few MTV hits off this album, but none of them ever cracked the Top 40, and really everything is good here. Missing Persons had just the right mix of guitars, cheap synths and satirical humor, and of course they had an ace drummer in Terry Bozzio (who was good enough to play in Frank Zappa’s band - as was guitarist Warren Cuccurullo).
4. Katrina and The Waves, Katrina and The Waves
“Walking On Sunshine” has been ubiquitous for over 30 years now, so I can understand if you’re sick of hearing it. But I have to go to bat for the album it comes from - their major label debut featuring re-recordings of songs from their earlier indie releases - because it’s one of the better pop-rock albums from the 80s. I bought a copy while I was stationed in West Germany - it was so new that “Walking On Sunshine” wasn’t yet a hit single, and I thought it was a pretty solid album. I still do. Their secret weapon was guitarist and songwriter Kimberly Rew (formerly of The Soft Boys), who also wrote “Going Down To Liverpool”, which the Bangles covered before KotW went large. Their second album (on which Rew only wrote a couple of songs) tanked, but they stayed active and then staged an improbable comeback in 1997 by winning the Eurovision Song Contest with “Love Shine A Light” - after which they broke up. Anyway, the US was pretty much the only country where it didn’t chart, so they still qualify for this list.
5. The Jimmy Castor Bunch, It’s Just Begun
Percussionist Jimmy Castor tends to get lumped into the novelty-record category with songs like “Bertha Butt Boogie” and “Troglodyte (Caveman)”, the latter of which was his most successful single with The Jimmy Castor Bunch. But Castor was no novelty comedian - he was a brilliant percussionist and songwriter, and the album “Troglodyte (Caveman)” comes from is an underrated funk masterpiece. Bookended by two orchestral themes, It’s Just Begun is one killer funk tune after another.
6. The Trashmen, Surfin’ Bird
You knew that the Bird Is The Word, but you may not know that The Trashmen were actually one of the better surf-rock bands of the early 60s - which in itself is an accomplishment, since they were from Minneapolis and not Southern California. Most of the songs here aren’t as weird as the famous title track (which in itself was a mash-up of two songs by The Rivingtons) - it’s mostly the usual types of cover songs you’d expect to hear on a surf album. That said, their taste in song selection is admirable and their musical chops a lot better than you might think.
7. Shocking Blue, At Home
Shocking Blue were a psychedelic band from the Netherlands, and sold 13 million records in their seven years together, but they only had the one hit song in the US: “Venus”. It’s a great song, of course - just ask Bananarama, whose cover version was nearly as successful globally as the original. But Shocking Blue were actually one of the better pop-psychedelic bands of their time - especially once they recruited lead singer Mariska Veres as their version of Grace Slick. At Home is their second album and their first with Veres, and while the original album didn’t include “Venus” (which was released as a single only), later pressings included it to capitalize on its success and lead off Side 2, so I’m counting it because really, you ought to hear this.
8. Yello, Stella
Swiss synth-pop duo Yello have racked up quite a few hits in their career, but they’ve only had one hit in the US - and chartwise it’s not actually “Oh Yeah” from their fourth album Stella, but “Vicious Games” from the same album. But weirdly, “Oh Yeah” is their most famous song thanks to its appearance not only in a Twix TV commercial, but also on the soundtrack for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Uncle Buck, The Secret Of My Success and just about every other mid-80s comedy. In fact, I know lots of people who absolutely hated Yello in the 80s because this song was so ubiquitous. Their loss - I think Yello is one of the more inventive and weird synth-pop duos then and now, and Stella is good a showcase of their talent. Who else would sample barnyard animals for a dance song?
9. Ozark Mountain Daredevils, It’ll Shine When It Shines
“Jackie Blue” was probably the first 45 single I bought with my own money, and one thing I found interesting about it was that the B-side, “Better Days”, was a country-rock song that sounded nothing like the A-side. I found out later that pretty much nothing else on the album It’ll Shine When It Shines - or indeed any OMD album before or since - sounded like “Jackie Blue”, and that “Better Days” was more representative of their general early-mid 70s output. Indeed, OMD were signed to A&M by David Anderle who wanted a country-rock band in the same ballpark as the Eagles on the label. That said, OMD were more versatile and loose than the Eagles, and had more of a sense of humor. Anyway, if 70s country rock is your jam, It’ll Shine When It Shines is a good place to start with OMD. Then again, if 70s country rock is your jam, odds are you already know all this.
10. Modern English, After The Snow
This may be the most difficult entry of the series, if only because so many people of a certain age became so emotionally invested in “I Melt With You” that no other song in the band’s repertoire can ever hope to live up to it. I know people who were furious when the song started appearing in Burger King ads - it was like their precious teenage memories had just been sold off to Corporate America like a crate of apple juice. On the other hand, if you're kind of sick of hearing that one song by Modern English, the good news is that they were actually one of the better (if slightly poppier) bands on 4AD. You wouldn't know it from “I Melt With You”, but Modern English started off musically somewhat closer to Joy Division. Their second album After The Snow (where that song comes from) sees them making a transition away from that to something closer to Psychedelic Furs and Duran Duran. If that interests you, I recommend checking it out.
11. The Buggles, The Age of Plastic
In a way The Buggles are the poster child for 80s one-hit wonders - it’s tough to find a 1HW list that doesn’t include “Video Killed The Radio Star”. And of course, the video was perfect for MTV even before MTV went on the air. The Buggles was a project by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes - both of whom would go on to join Yes, after which Horn became a top producer and Downes would form supergroup Asia. Which is interesting since musically the Buggles were almost the opposite of those bands, and was conceived as being a “plastic” group, with inspiration ranging from Kraftwerk to JG Ballard. “Video Killed The Radio Star” comes across to a lot of people like an 80s novelty song, but it’s part of a concept album about anxieties over modern technology and its impact on humanity. It’s a bit too polite and nostalgic to qualify as proto-cyberpunk - but it’s a good album in its own right.
12. The Knack, Get The Knack
For me, this is almost too obvious a choice, since The Knack’s debut has long since been re-evaluated as a power-pop classic. But they still make just about every “one-hit wonder” list that covers the 70s/80s, which for my money distracts from the fact that almost every song on here is a stripped-down rock’n’roll gem. Are any of them as good as “My Sharona”? Maybe not, but it’s not like there’s a huge drop-off between that song and the second-best song on here. Anyway, the album is so good that The Knack never managed to make another one quite as solid, but tons of bands wish they could make just one album as good as this.
13. Zebra, Zebra
Does anyone even still remember these guys? Zebra were a New Orleans prog-power trio who formed in 1975, but it wasn’t until the early 80s that they got a record deal and released their debut eponymous album. The single “Who’s Behind The Door” got a lot of airplay on MTV and made it on the Hot 100, and the album not only went gold, but was also one of Atlantic’s fastest-selling debuts ever. They released a few more albums after that, but it never got that good again, saleswise. I remember liking it at the time, and listening to it now, I feel it actually holds up as pretty strong album - you know, for early 80s prog-rock with falsetto vocals and laser effects. But it works in large part because Zebra didn’t come across as pretentious - they also did quite a new straight rock numbers too. Anyway, it’s worth checking out if you dig “Who’s Behind The Door”.
14. Blues Magoos, Psychedelic Lollipop
Mid/late 60s America was swamped in psychedelic garage bands churning out one-hit wonders then disappearing into obscurity. The wonderfully named Blues Magoos were no different in that sense - their debut single “(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet” was a Top 5 hit and its host album Psychedelic Lollipop just missed the Top 20, and though they lasted for five albums, they’d already peaked chartwise. That said, unlike a lot of their psych-garage peers, their debut was more killer than filler, and more garage than psych.
15. Thin Lizzy, Jailbreak
Unlike a lot of bands on this list, Thin Lizzy have received their due as one of the great 70s rock bands - so much so that it’s easy to forget that they only ever had one hit song in the US - you know, the one that every movie trailer uses for a sequel when favorite characters return for another film. Yes, Thin Lizzy had quite a few hits in the UK, but “The Boys Are Back In Town” is the only song by them most people can name. Which is a shame, because they actually made several great records, and Jailbreak (the album that song comes from) is one of their best.
16. Nazareth, Hair Of The Dog
Nazareth is one of those 70s hard-rock bands I always assumed were more successful than they actually were, at least chart-wise. To be sure, Nazareth had a decent fanbase and a string of good albums (or at least good singles), but that was mainly in the UK. In the US, their only chart hit was their cover of Boudleaux Bryant’s “Love Hurts”, which is actually the closing track of their sixth album Hair Of The Dog. Sure, classic rock stations play the title track fairly regularly these days, but “Love Hurts” is still the one song everyone knows. (Which is strange, given Dan McCafferty’s voice isn’t exactly Top 40 material. Then again, his voice is a good fit for that song - he sounds like his heart has been broken so badly he’s howling in pain.) Anyway, if you like either of those songs, I recommend checking out the whole album, which features gritty originals and covers of songs by Crazy Horse and - no, really - Randy Newman.
17. Falco, 3
A huge star in his native Austria (and across Europe), Falco was the pop star’s pop star - preposterously larger than life and born to entertain, whether because he wanted to do nothing else or because he wasn’t suited for any other occupation. Anyway, he came to America’s attention via After The Fire’s cover of “Der Kommisar” (after which MTV played Falco’s original version, while - bizarrely - radio stations played a hybrid version with bits from both versions spliced together). Falco followed that up with “Rock Me Amadeus” and became the international pop star he’d always wanted to be - for a while, anyway. He never hit that big in America again, but “Rock Me Amadeus” is a hell of a legacy that remains part of the US pop culture landscape (albeit sometimes ironically). Meanwhile, the album it comes from is a fine showcase of Falco’s particular blend of 80s hip-hop and slightly overbaked Eurocheese pop.
18. Jeannie C Riley, Harper Valley PTA
Thanks in part to the Barbara Eden TV movie of the same name, Jeannie C Riley’s “Harper Valley PTA” got a lot of airplay in the late 70s when I was a kid. But of course it was originally a hit in 1968, when Tom T Hall wrote it for Margie Singleton who wanted something along the lines of Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode To Billie Joe”. Although both she and Billie Jo Spears recorded versions of it, it was Riley’s version that became a #1 crossover hit. It launched Riley’s country music career, and while she had quite a few hits on country music stations, she never topped the pop charts again. Anyway, when the song was a hit she recorded an album to go with it, and it’s actually pretty good - although the title track is the only one written by Tom T Hall, the album is practically a concept album about small-town hypocrisy with a few recurring characters (to say nothing of that opening twangy guitar riff). Even with oddities like “Satan Place” (a play on “Peyton Place”), which is practically the same song with different characters, it’s an album that deserves as much attention as the single.
19. Warren Zevon, Excitable Boy
It took until close to the end of his life for Warren Zevon to get the respect he deserved as a singer/songwriter, but outside of his dedicated fanbase (and probably groups like this), Zevon mainly remains known for “Werewolves Of London”, which was his only Top 40 hit and still gets written off as a novelty song. Which is just wrong. Zevon’s whole body of work is worth exploring, and while he made better albums afterwards, his 1978 album Excitable Boy (where “Werewolves” comes from) is still a good place to start, not least because it includes “Lawyers, Guns and Money”, arguably Zevon’s second-most well-known song, which got some airplay on AOR stations and is a classic-rock staple now.
20. Spacehog, Resident Alien
Some of you may remember Spacehog. Or not. They were one of dozens of bands in the 90s that had “that one hit” on alternative rock radio or 120 Minutes and then faded away. But I’ve always had a soft spot for Spacehog - in an era dominated by post-grunge Alternative™ bands and Britpop, they were the oddballs obsessed with 70s concept glam rock. Their appropriately epic debut Resident Alien yielded a hit with “In The Meantime”, but it was diminishing returns after that, chartwise. Maybe they were a little too derivative at a time when they should have (and arguably could have) taken 70s sci-fi concept glam rock to new levels. Maybe that’s asking too much of a band that seemed to have a pretty good sense of who they wanted to be. Either way, I keep coming back to them. There’s just something about this album that works for me and makes me think these guys should have been bigger than they were. Even if you write them off as a Ziggy tribute band, the point is that they were a really good Ziggy tribute band.
Inevitably, here’s the Spotify playlist for this series, featuring tracks from these 20 albums.
One for the money,
This is dF
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