I have been watching “The Professor of Rock” on YouTube recently, and I heard the Prof mention something about one-hit wonders. You know, a musical artist who has a single monster hit, only to have the song fade away, taking the artist with it.
But there are just as many two-hit wonders, and I wanted to explore them. So I searched through sites ranging from Rolling Stone to Listverse to Rebeat Magazine in order to share a taste of what it must have been like getting two bites of the apple, musically speaking. And I would like to share a few with you, Dear Reader.
While the group The Rembrandts had a smash on their hands in 1995 with the theme song to “Friends” (“I’ll be there for you”), their first hit entered the charts five years earlier, with 1990’s “Just the Way it is, Baby.”
Before rising the ranks of movie stardom, Mark Wahlberg was the younger brother of New Kids on the Block singer Donnie. Mark, known at that time as Marky Mark, and his band the Funky Bunch had a pair of hits in 1991, “Good Vibrations,’ which topped the charts, and “Wild Side,” which cracked the top ten. It was easy to pick out Mark in the band. His high-rising tighty whities were most conspicuous.
As the lead singer of Dru Hill, Sisqó saw some chart success. But when he struck out on a solo career, he burned bright – if only for a short time. The in-your-face lyrics of “Thong Song” went to number three in 2000, followed by the tamer “Incomplete,” which took the top spot later that year.
The only reason I mention Ugly Kid Joe is because one of their two hits was a song I derided not 24 hours ago. In 1992, the tune “Everything About You” climbed to number nine, while the remake of the Harry Chapin perpetrated “Cat’s in the Cradle” hit number six a year later. There is no accounting for taste.
Next up is the band Cutting Crew, who got the radio-listening world to try and guess the meaning of the 1986 number one “(I Just) Died in Your Arms,” followed the next year by “I’ve Been in Love Before.” And, in an effort to have full transparency, I’m pretty sure what their number one hit meant. I’m just not sharing.
One of the most memorable music videos was from Norwegian trio A-ha, who shot to number one in 1985 with “Take on Me.” The album, “Hunting High and Low,” would produce one more hit before the group faded off the US charts, with “The Sun Always Shines on TV later that year. And, in case you are wondering, lead singer Morten Harket still has that stratospheric falsetto that grabbed listeners in the first place.
This one surprised me. When I think of ? and the Mysterians, thoughts go to their 1966 number one hit “96 Tears.” What I did not know, however, is that a year later, they reached 22 on the charts with the song “I Need Somebody.” Fun Fact: ?’s real name is Rudy Martinez. Bonus Fun Fact: “Can’t Get Enough of You Baby” should have been a three-peat for the group, but it just didn’t click. Not until Smash Mouth did a cover of it in the nineties.
That’s enough fun musical facts for today. Have a safe Labor Day weekend, and I’ll talk to you next week!
