One-Hit Wonders

An Oblique History of Popular Music

Sarah Hill

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781501368417
• eBook ISBN:
  9781501368424
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music & Business

The one-hit wonder has a long and storied history in popular music, exhorting listeners to dance, to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony, to ponder mortality, to get a job, to bask in the sunshine, or just to get up and dance again. Catchy, memorable, irritating, or simply ubiquitous, one-hit wonders capture something of the mood of a time. This collection provides a series of short, sharp chapters focusing on one-hit wonders from the 1950s to the present day, with a view toward understanding both the mechanics of success and the socio-musical contexts within which such songs became hits. Some artists included here might have aspired to success but only managed one hit, while others enjoyed lengthy, if unremarkable, careers after their initial chart success. Put together, these chapters provide not only a capsule history of popular music tastes, but also ruminations on the changing nature of the music industry and the mechanics of fame.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Dedication
• Title
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgments
• The Chart of the Book: One-Hit Wonders’ Top Hits
• Introduction
• 1 Buchanan and Goodman, “The Flying Saucer” Parts 1 & 2 (1956)
• 2 The Kingsmen, “Louie Louie” (1963)
• 3 ? and the Mysterians, “96 Tears” (1966)
• 4 The Easybeats, “Friday on My Mind” (1966)
• 5 Norman Greenbaum, “Spirit in the Sky” (1969)
• 6 The Archies, “Sugar Sugar” (1969)
• 7 Serge Gainsbourg, “Je t’aime moi non plus” (1969)
• 8 Blue Swede, “Hooked on a Feeling” (1974)
• 9 Wild Cherry, “Play That Funky Music” (1976)
• 10 Althea and Donna, “Uptown Top Ranking” (1977)
• 11 Plastic Bertrand, “Ça plane pour moi” (1977)
• 12 Nick Gilder, “Hot Child in the City” (1978)
• 13 The Vapors, “Turning Japanese” (1980)
• 14 Aneka, “Japanese Boy” (1981)
• 15 Toni Basil, “Mickey” (1981)
• 16 Trio, “Da Da Da” (1981)
• 17 Nena, “99 Luftballons/99 Red Balloons” (1983)
• 18 The Grateful Dead, “Touch of Grey” (1987)
• 19 A View from the Ground: Latin Quarter, “Radio Africa” (1986)
• 20 A View from the Desk: Product Management
• 21 Shakespear’s Sister, “Stay” (1992)
• 22 OMC, “How Bizarre” (1996)
• 23 The Butthole Surfers, “Pepper” (1996)
• 24 Chumbawamba, “Tubthumping” (1997)
• 25 Meredith Brooks, “Bitch” (1997)
• 26 New Radicals, “You Get What You Give” (1998)
• 27 Las Ketchup, “Aserejé” (2002)
• 28 Gotye ft. Kimbra, “Somebody That I Used To Know” (2011)
• Contributors
• Index
• Copyright