Post your favorite 70s/80's one hit wonders here.

[2HOTinPHX]

We can even allow a 2nd time one hit wonder...in this thread.

The Headboys were a Scottish power pop band, formed in 1977 in Edinburgh, Scotland, originally under the name of Badger.

The band is best known for single, "The Shape of Things to Come", which entered the UK Singles Chart on 22 September 1979. The track spent eight weeks on the chart, reaching number 45.
This secured the band an appearance on Top of the Pops on 11 October 1979; the debut show for host Andy Peebles.

The group released an album in 1979 on Robert Stigwood's RSO label, which was produced by Peter Ker (who also worked with The Motors, and Bram Tchaikovsky).

The lack of any other UK chart hit left them labelled as one-hit wonders.

In 2013, the band announced on their Facebook page that the ten tracks they had recorded for a follow-up album, but which remained unreleased, would be issued on CD under the title The Lost Album by the American record label, Pop Detective Records.The album, issued on 1 December that year, was dedicated to the memory of drummer Davy Ross, who died in 2010.

 

[Koolau]

Another great two-artist effort (pretty sure it was their only serious hit.)


Sanford - Townsend Band

 

[aja8888]

Eddie Kendricks....Keep on Truckin" - One of my favorite travelling sounds.

Boogie Down was another of his hits..

 

[jollystomper]

Perhaps another entry in the "One Hit Wonder Songs People Either Love or Hate" contest, from the 70's :

 

[jollystomper]

Among my favorite "two hit wonder" groups... "Hot Number" made it to #21 on the Billboard Pop Chart, but this one was a bigger crossover pop/soul/disco hit, and as a DJ I always used it after a slow set to get people moving on the dance floor:

 

[Gumby]

Perhaps another entry in the "One Hit Wonder Songs People Either Love or Hate" contest, from the 70's

In 1975, I was 16 and worked in the restaurant at the golf course. The bar had a juke box and people played "Feelings" almost non-stop. If I wanted to break someone to get the secrets, I'd lock them in a room and play Morris Albert for a couple days. They'd give up the information in a heartbeat.

 

[Car-Guy]

This one stuck in my head for years back in the day.

 

[ArmchairMillionaire]

There’s also Mah Nà Mah Nà and the Snowths, which reached 55th on the Billboard top 100

The cover version by Cake in the early 2000s was decent, too, if you like Cake and trumpets.

 

[jimbee]

Great vocals!

Who can rock a bell bottom jumpsuit better than Mickey?
Elvin Bishop had a great solo on that beautiful Gibson ES-345. Thanks for the link.

 

[ArmchairMillionaire]

I have a whole playlist of one-hit wonders, I'll list just a few from the 70's/80's with one I really like ready to watch.

American Pie - Don McLean

All The Young Dudes - Mott the Hoople

Low Rider - War

Lust for Life - Iggy Pop

https://youtu.be/63c7KL4RTiA?si=T9VAvbR6orJdOGX5 Battleship Chains - Georgia Satellites

I could go on for hours...

If you like Social Distortion, pick up their "Live At The Roxy" CD. I liked some of their stuff back in the day, but that CD is really them at their best.

 

[ArmchairMillionaire]

One of my favorite bands from the '80s. Black N' Blue.

According to Wikipedia, "The song was written by Jaime St. James and Tommy Thayer, and was the band's only single to chart,[1] reaching number 50 on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart."

Side note: Tommy Thayer has been the primary guitarist for the rock band Kiss for over 20 years. How time flies...

 

[someday soon]

Thank you for NOT sharing.

Wasn't the 'It's a Gas" single only available as a tear-out thin vinyl page from an issue of Mad -- which then fit onto your 45 player after you popped out the little hole in the middle?
That's the way I remember it anyway ...LOL

 

[ychuck46]

Everybody loves the cowbell.

Mountain was not a one hit wonder band.

 

[ychuck46]

Ozark Mountain Daredevils and "Jackie Blue"

 

[someday soon]

And let's not forget the sweetest song ever about a dead dog...

 

[someday soon]

It could easily be argued that Mr. Mister was a 2-hit wonder band in the mid-80s. So this might be a rule breaker, but I've always enjoyed the vocals and movement in "Kyrie"
Plus Richard Page is a killer singer who allegedly turned down the lead vocal jobs for Chicago and Toto.
This clip is not Mr. Mister -- it's Richard Page playing "Kyrie" with Steve Lukather, Gregg Rolie, Todd Rundgren, etc at a "Ringo's All-Starr Band" show a few years back. He's round about 60 yrs old in this clip and sounds just like the young guy he was in the original recording! ( skip to 0:45 for song start )

 

[zippy2020]

Johnny Nash singing "I Can See Clearly Now". Amazing voice, but had a subsequent but smaller hit with "Stir It Up" and then.....never heard about him again.

BTW, I don't want to go off-topic, but what about songs that DIDN'T become big hits until another artist picked it up?

Hardly anyone remembers that Gordon Lightfoot wrote and recorded "Me and Bobby McGee". It didn't become famous until Janis Joplin sang it. Afterwards Lightfoot saluted her version, saying hearing her sing his song "gave him chills up his spine."

In most cases I almost always prefer the original artists, but Joplin's version of Lightfoot's song is like a totally different world. Gordon's version is plaintive, but Janis put a ton of emotional anguish into it.

 

[CincyDave]

Lots of good sluff on here. I'll throw a few more out that I don't think I've seen mentioned.

Ride Captain Ride – Blues Image
All Right now - Free
Hot Rod Lincoln - Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
Spirit in the Sky - Norman Greenbaum
Ooh La La - Faces
Tempted - Squeeze

 

[Gumby]

Mountain was not a one hit wonder band.

That's the only one I know.

 

[jollystomper]

In 1975, I was 16 and worked in the restaurant at the golf course. The bar had a juke box and people played "Feelings" almost non-stop. If I wanted to break someone to get the secrets, I'd lock them in a room and play Morris Albert for a couple days. They'd give up the information in a heartbeat.

This was a hit my freshman year in college. A group of us would burst into the "<name of person>, whoa oh oh <name of person>" line when we encountered a classmate whose first or last last rhymed (or was close to rhyming) with the word "Feelings".

We had a linebacker on the football team whose last name rhymed with it. Anytime he made a play so that his name was announced over the stadium speakers, our group was able to get the student section to belt out that line for him . Fortunately, he had a good sense of humor and took in in stride (though he did catch me in a headlock a few times and threatened to choke me out as one of the instigators ). At our senior dinner, when he received an award, the entire room broke out in the line.

 

[jollystomper]

Many felt, when disco artists began recording classical songs, that the apocalypse was truly upon us :

 

[gumshoe]

This was playing in a recent dream.

I suppose Little River Band had other hits but I don’t remember them:

This was a band from Australia. I love this song. Very nice tune/music/lyrics. I saw or read somewhere that John Lennon (Beatles), while living in the U.S., heard this on the radio and really liked it, too.

 

[harley]

Mountain was not a one hit wonder band.

That's the only one I know.

Nantucket Sleighride actually charted higher than Mississippi Queen, reaching #16. It was probably the highest charting song about cannibalism ever, and was even more popular in the UK than here.

 

[gumshoe]

I just love Saturday Night Fever. It brings back fond memories of the late 70’s which was a special time for me.

Yvonne Elliman - If I Can’t Have You

https://youtu.be/gQ8O9SidZbs?si=OuY7z8UqeqkxfDNg

Yvonne Elliman - beautiful voice. She also did "Love Me" and a wonderful version of "Hello Stranger". She had moved from Hawaii to start singing at clubs in England. It was there that she was noticed by a talent agent who came up to her and shouted something to the effect: "You're my Mary Magdalene! You're my Mary Magdalene!" That's how she got starred in Jesus Christ Superstar with Ted Neeley in the title role.

 

[Helen]

Tempted - Squeeze

My favorite Squeeze tune is, "Another Nail for my Heart"