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A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with only one hit single that overshadows their other work.
- Wikipedia
The strange thing about One Hit Wonders is how brightly they shone with their one hit at the time and then fizzled out, largely dropping from view.
Here are some.
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(I Just) Died in Your Arms Tonight
Artist:
Cutting Crew
Year:
1986
Video link:
About:
"(I Just) Died in Your Arms" was the debut single by the English pop rock band Cutting Crew, released on 25 July 1986 as a single from their debut studio album, Broadcast.
The song was written by frontman Nick Van Eede,
According to Nick Van Eede, he wrote down a lot of song titles and ideas on a sheet of wallpaper, and one of the lines written there was "I just died in your arms tonight". The line came to Van Eede while he was having sex with his girlfriend; Van Eede said: "I actually remember saying that", and wrote it down. He woke up in the morning, wrote the song, and recorded a demo in three days.
He first added some chords to the line, singing it phonetically, before adding other lines from the wallpaper to construct a song. He wrote for three or four hours before realising what he was singing about. He said: "We got back together for one night after a year apart, and I guess there were some fireworks but all the time tinged with a feeling of, 'Should I really be doing this?' ”
When the song was released, the record label questioned the use of brackets for "I Just" in the title, but relented when it was pointed out such similar use in "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones.
First released in Britain, the song peaked at No. 4 on the UK charts. Upon its release in the United States, the previously-unknown band's debut single shot to No. 1 and stayed there for two weeks. The song spent three weeks at number one in Canada.
With success came pressure. Cracks began to surface when none of their follow-up singles met commercial expectations. A battle with management kept the band’s follow up album from coming out until 1989. It bombed, and by 1993 the group had disbanded.
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Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye
Artists:
Written and recorded by Paul Leka, Gary DeCarlo and Dale Frashuer, attributed to the fictitious band ‘Steam’
Year:
1969
Video link:
About:
Studio musicians Gary DeCarlo, Dale Frashuer and Paul Leka had worked together on various projects for a few years. In 1969, DeCarlo was recording songs with Leka producing when they decided to revisit an old idea. "I started writing while I was sitting at the piano going 'Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na.' ... Everything was 'na na' when you didn't have a lyric,” Leka recalled.
The result was "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye," which they planned to use as a B-side to DeCarlo’s next single, but the record label loved it so much they wanted to make it the favored track.
Due to contractual obligations, the single was released under the band name Steam, even though there wasn't a real group at the time.
"Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" reached number one in the United States for two weeks, on December 6 1969, displacing "Come Together" by the Beatles.
With the success of the single, there were demands for Steam to perform live and make TV appearances to support the hit single. But since “Steam” was a fictional group at that time, Leka put together a touring group which toured for much of 1970.
A debut album and a handful of other Steam singles followed, none of which made the same commercial impact as “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.”
To date, the now oldies classic single has sold a total of over six million.
In 1977, Chicago White Sox organist Nancy Faust began playing the song. It had previously been sung spontaneously by fans in the stands, possibly beginning in a series with the Minnesota Twins July 1–3, 1977, a four-game series swept by the White Sox. The fan version went "Minnesota, Minnesota, Hey Hey Good Bye". Nancy Faust began playing it regularly on the organ later that month. It is generally directed at the losing side in an elimination contest when the outcome is all but certain or when an individual player is ejected, disqualified, or more often in baseball games, a pitching change is made during an inning (which is when Faust would play it). It has also been sung by crowds in political rallies, to taunt political opponents or to drown out and mock disruptive counter-protesters.
Jubilant Biden supporters sang this in the streets when Biden defeated Trump in the US election. I imagine Trump supporters sang it to say goodbye to Biden, Harris and their suppporters.
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Black Betty
Artists:
Ram Jam
Year:
1977
Video link:
About:
"Black Betty" is a 20th-century African-American work song often credited to Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter as the author, though the earliest recordings are not by him. Some sources say it is one of Lead Belly's many adaptations of earlier folk material.
There are numerous recorded versions, including a cappella and folk. The song was eventually, with modified lyrics, remade as a rock song by the American band Ram Jam in 1977. Subsequent recordings, including hits by Tom Jones and Spiderbait, retain the structure of this version.
Historically, the "Black Betty" of the title may refer to the nickname given to a number of objects: a bottle of whiskey, a whip, or a penitentiary transfer wagon. "Black Betty" was a common term for a bottle of whisky in the borderlands between northern England and southern Scotland; it later became a euphemism in the backcountry areas of the eastern United States. However, in more modern song references, the term "Black Betty" alludes to a fast car or motorcycle.
Bill Bartlett had been in the Lemon Pipers and then formed a group called Starstruck. While in Starstruck, Bartlett took Lead Belly's 59-second long "Black Betty" and arranged, recorded and released it on the group's own TruckStar label. "Black Betty" became a regional hit. Producers in New York formed a group around Bartlett called Ram Jam. They re-released the song, and it became a hit nationally. The song became an instant hit and reached number 18 on the singles charts in the United States; in the UK and Australia reaching the top ten.
Ram Jam wasn’t able to keep the momentum rolling, as band turmoil quickly brought the group to an end. They broke up in 1978, roughly a year after “Black Betty” was released. Their follow up album "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ram" had achieved little success,
In 2004, Australian alternative rock band Spiderbait released their version, video link:
Worth looking at.
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