I've got some issues with that list myself. Granted, some songs got more
play in non-U.S. markets, but it's a U.S. radio station, so I can let them
focus on U.S. hits. From a wide perspective, you could look at top-40 hits,
and define a one-hit wonder as any group that only had one top 40 hit. If
you do that, only 13 of the 31 artist qualify (and that's letting Ace slide
in, even tough Paul Carrack would have later hits with Mike + the
Mechanics): Sir Mix-A-Lot, Bobby McFerrin, Right Said Fred, Nena, M,
Proclaimers, Deep Blue Something, Ace*, Nick Gilder, Marcy Playground, Crash
Test Dummies, Minnie Ripperton, and Rembrants.
However, looking at the bands' other songs that charted, many of them were
in the lower half of the chart, and I haven't heard a lot of them. So, I'd
be willing to broaden the criteria and say any band with only one top-ten
hit could qualify, which would add the following artists to the list: Tommy
Tutone, Chirs DeBurgh, Paula Cole, Snow, Mr. Big, Alannah Miles, Bob Welch,
Matthew Wilder, and Men Without Hats (sorry!), which lets in 22 of their 31
artists. Of course, by that measure, the Rembrants should fall out, because
their song only reached #17, but, whatever.
The real issues come in with the other 9 artists. First of all, two of them
(Weather Girls and Trio) never charted in the top 40 at all. "Raining Men"
peaked at # 46, and I can't find any information that "Da Da Da" charted in
the U.S. at all. Of course, you could argue that "Raining Men" was a big
dance number, or that everyone knows "Da Da Da" from that commercial, but
somehow a hit has to be a hit.
Even worse, the remaining seven bands not only had other charting hits, they
had more than one top ten hit: Nelson, Kris Kross, Jesus Jones, Escape Club,
Cutting Crew, C&C Music Factory, and Martika.
It's clear to me that WRAL's list is purely arbitrary. I guess it attempts
to be a list of bands that most people will only remember one song from, but
it's imprecise and faulty even to that end. I know the hits by Nelson &
Cutting Crew, even though I don't much care for them.
The ultimate irony in WRALs list, though, is that one artist is actually on
their one-hit-wonders list TWICE: Martha Wash sings on both C&C Music
Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat" and on Weather Girls' "Raining Men." If
that doesn't sum up the inadequacies of their list, I don't know what does.
Here's all the gritty details, if anyone cares to look them over: Except
where noted, all information is from the 7th Edition of Joel Whitburn's _The
Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits_, which is current up to 1999 (and a great
book to own
Ive had an edition of the book on my shelf since 1987).
1. Tommy Tutone is listed for "867-5309/Jenny" (#4 1982); they had
previously charted with "Angel Say No" (#38 1980).
2. Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back" (#1 1992) is his only top 40 hit.
3. Paula Cole is listed for "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" (#8 1997);
she also charted with "I Don't Want To Wait" (# 11 1998) and "Me" (#35
1998).
4. Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry Be Happy" (#1 1988) is his only top 40 hit.
5. Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy" (# 1 1992) is their only top 40 hit.
6. Chris DeBurgh is listed for "The Lady In Red" (#3 1987); he previously
charted with "Don't Pay the Ferryman" (#34 1983).
7. Nena's "99 Luftballons" (#2 1984) is their only top 40 hit.
8. Nelson is listed for "Love and Affection" (#1 1990); they also charted
with "After the Rain" (#6 1991).
9. M's "Pop Muzik" (#1 1979) is his only top 40 hit.
10. Kris Kross is listed for "Jump" (#1 1992); they also charted with "Warm
It Up" (#13 1992), "Alright" (#19 1993), and "Tonite's Tha Night" (#12 1996)
11. The Rembrandts are listed for "I'll Be There For You" (#17 1995); they
had previously charted with "Just The Way It Is, Baby" (#14 1991)
12. The Proclaimers' "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" (#3 1993) is their only top
40 hit.
13. Jesus Jones is listed for "Right Here, Right Now" (#2 1991); they also
charted with "Real, Real, Real" (#4 1991).
14. The Escape Club is listed for "Wild, Wild West" (#1 1988); they also
charted with "Shake for the Sheik" (#28 1989) and "I'll Be There" (#8 1991)
15. Deep Blue Something's "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (#5 1996) is their only
top 40 hit.
16. Cutting Crew is listed for "I Just Died In Your Arms" (#1 1987); they
also charted with "One for the Mockingbird" (#38 1987) and "I've Been in
Love Before" (#9 1987).
17. C&C Music Factory is listed for "Make You Sweat" (#1 1991); they also
charted with "Here We Go (#3 1991), "Things That Make You Go Hmmm" (#4
1991), and "Do You Wanna Get Funky" (#40 1994).
18. Ace's "How Long" (#3 1975) is the band's only top-40 hit; vocalist Paul
Carrack would later chart 4 times (including 3 top tens) with Mike + The
Mechanics.
19. Snow is listed for "The Informer" (#1 1993); he also charted with "Girl,
I've Been Hurt" (#19 1993)
20. Mr. Big is listed for "To Be With You" (#1 1992); they also charted with
"Just Take My Heart" (#16 1992) and "Wild World" (#27 1993).
21. Nick Gilder's "Hot Child In the City" (#1 1978) is his only top 40 hit.
22. Alannah Miles is listed for "Black Velvet" (#1 1990); she also charted
with "Love Is" (#36 1990)
23. Marcy Playground's "Sex and Candy" (#8 1998) is their only top 40 hit.
24. Crash Test Dummies' "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" (#4 1994) is their only top 40
hit.
25. Bob Welch is listed for "Sentimental Lady" (#8 1978); he also charted
with "Ebony Eyes" (#14 1978), "Hot Love, Cold World" (#31 1978), and
"Precious Love" (#19 1979).
26. The Weather Girls' "It's Raining Men" did not make the top 40 (according
to Wikipedia, it peaked at #46 1982).
27. Matthew Wilder's is listed for "Break My Stride" (#5 1984); he also
charted with "The Kid's American" (#33 1984).
28. Men Without Hats are listed for "Safety Dance" (#3 1983); they also
charted with "Pop Goes the World" (#20 1988).
29. Trio's "Da Da Da" does not seem to have made the top 40 in the U.S.
(according to Wikipedia it was a chart hit in the U.K. and Germany in the
1980s, and was "popular" in the U.S. in 1997 after its inclusion in a
commercial).
30. Minnie Ripperton's "Lovin' You" (#1 1975) is her only top 40 hit.
31. Martika is listed for "Toy Soldiers" (#1 1989); she also charted with
"More Than You Know" (#18 1989), "I Feel The Earth Move" (#25 1989), and
"Love... Thy Will Be Done" (#10 1991).
-
Kevin Lentz
(859) 948-5159
http://www.toymania.com/334archives/ojshut
>From: Andrew <awerling@???>
>Reply-To: "You can dance,if you want to."
><men-without-hats@???>
>To: "You can dance, if you want to."
><men-without-hats@???>
>Subject: Re: [Men Without Hats] local tv station's "weekend list" ...
>Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 11:02:59 -0600
>
>Maybe we can just blame MtV and everything will be okay again! LOL
>
>On 7/23/06, moose <moose@???> wrote:
>>On 22/7/06 10:19 PM, "Andrew" <awerling@???> wrote:
>>
>> > Of course, Men Without Hats wasn't a "one-hit wonder." "Pop Goes the
>> > World" made it into the top thirty in the U.S. anyway.
>> >
>> > Pet peeve I guess.
>>
>>it amazes me who are classed as 'one hit wonders'... the biggest one that
>>annoys me is gary numan. maybe he had one big hit over here in the US but
>>has had 20+ albums in europe and a bucket full of chart singles... and is
>>still going 28 years later!
>>
>>'right said fred' on this list had 4 or 5 uk hits... cant remember any
>>others.
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Men-Without-Hats mailing list
>>Men-Without-Hats@???
>>http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/men-without-hats
>>Report list abuse to list-abuse at studio-nibble.com
>>
>
>
>--
>Andrew Werling
>http://blog.myspace.com/nitesead
>
>_______________________________________________
>Men-Without-Hats mailing list
>Men-Without-Hats@???
>http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/men-without-hats
>Report list abuse to list-abuse at studio-nibble.com
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