The Top 500 One-Hit Wonders of the Rock Era Revisited: #470-461

These artists include child prodigies, have studied classical music and opera, played in famous bands, written hundreds and thousands of songs for other artists, and won scholarships to prestigious universities and famous music schools such as Julliard and Berklee College of Music, yet some media organizations, such as VH-1, make fun of them.  That tells you a lot.  Who has the talent--the artist, or the talking head who you've never heard of who has had no success themselves?   We've heard 30 big hits by The Top One-Hit Wonders*, and today we unveil 10 more...

Our next featured artist lost his eyesight at age one:

#470:  Jeff Healey Band--"Angel Eyes" 

Jeff Healey lost his eyes to toretinoblastoma, a rare cancer.  His eyes were surgically removed and he was given artificial replacements.  Healey began playing guitar at age three.  He formed the group Blue Direction at age 17 and played in various local clubs in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Healey began hosting a jazz and blues show on radio station CIUT-FM.  Shortly afterwards, Healey formed the Jeff Healey Band with bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen.  The group performed nightly in local clubs such as Grossman's Tavern and Albert's Hall, where they were discovered by guitarists Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert Collins.

In 1988, the group signed a contract with Arista Records and released the album See the Light, which featured "Angel Eyes" and "Hideaway".  The latter was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, while "Angel Eyes" reached #7.  The Jeff Healey Band was the house cover band for the bar featured in the movie Road House.  In 1990, the group won the Juno Award for Canadian Entertainer of the Year.  

The albums Hell to Pay and Feel This gave Healey 10 charted hits in Canada between 1990 and 1994, including a cover of the Beatles' While My Guitar Gently Weeps, which featured George Harrison and Jeff Lynne on backing vocals and acoustic guitar.

Healey toured throughout North America and Europe and performed at his club, Healey's in Toronto.  Healey toured and played guitar with artists such as Eric Clapton, Dire Straits, BB King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, ZZ Top and Steve Lukather.  In 2009, Healey's album Mess of Blues won Best Blues Album at the Independent Music Awards.  

Healey recorded five albums as the Jeff Healey band and six solo studio albums and released 17 singles.  Despite all this, Healey could never match the worldwide success of "Angel Eyes".

The next One Hit Wonder was a talented producer, songwriter, performer, and record company and recording studio owner:

#469:  Georgio Moroder--"Chase"

Hansjörg "Giorgio" Moroder began his own label in the 70's in Munich, Germany, Oasis Records, which later became a subdivision of Casablanca Records. He collaborated with Donna Summer on songs like "I Feel Love" and produced many of Donna's other hits including "On the Radio".

In 1979, Moroder's full film score for the movie Midnight Express won him his first Academy Award for Best Film Score.  The movie featured his only major chart success, "Chase", which reached #33.  The next best song he did was "Son of My Father", his first release in 1972.  Moroder also produced the soundtrack album to American Gigolo, which included one of The Top 100 Songs of the Rock Era*, "Call Me" by Blondie.  

Moroder has also produced soundtracks for movies such as Scarface, Metropolis, Flashdance, The Never Ending Story and Cat People.  

Moroder was the founder of Musicland Studios in Munich, which was used to record albums by Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Queen and ELO. In addition to producing for Summer, Moroder also produced songs for Melissa Manchester, Blondie, David Bowie, Irene Cara, the Three Degrees, Bonnie Tyler and France Joli (another One Hit Wonder).

In 2004, Moroder was honored at the Dance Music Hall of Fame ceremony in New York City, where he was inducted for his many outstanding achievements and contributions as producer.  In 2005, Georgio was given the title of Commendatore by then President of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.  In 2010, Moroder received the Great Order of Merit of the South Tyrol.  

One of the big hits from the spring of 1976 is next:

#468: Andrea True Connection--"More, More, More"

True was an adult film star, who tried her hand at recording to take advantage of the Disco craze. Her single "More, More, More" reached #4 in the United States and #5 in the U.K. in 1976

True released three other singles, with "N.Y., You Got Me Dancing" in 1977 (#27) her next-best song.

At #467, one of the top Easy Listening songs of the Rock Era:

#467:  Gale Garnett--"We'll Sing In The Sunshine" 

At age 11, Garnett and her family moved from Auckland, New Zealand to Canada.  Gale made her public singing debut in 1960 and pursued an acting career, making guest appearances on television shows such as 77 Sunset Strip.

In 1963, Garnett performed in a New York City nightclub for the first time and was signed to RCA Records.  The following year, she wrote "We'll Sing in the Sunshine", which reached #4 on the popular chart in the United States, hit #1 for seven weeks on the Easy Listening chart and won a Grammy for Best Folk Recording.  

Garnett recorded her debut album, My Kind of Folk Songs and continued to record through the 1960's.  Although "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" would forever be her only major singing success, Garnett appeared in several movies into the new millennium, including My Big Fat Greek Wedding in 2002.

Up next, another Country artist who had one big crossover:

#466:  Sammi Smith--"Help Me Make It Through The Night"

Smith dropped out of school at age eleven (don't try this at home) and began to sing professionally in nightclubs.  She married at 15 (something else not to try).  In 1967, she divorced and moved to Nashville, Tennessee.  Johnny Cash discovered her, leading to Sammi signing a recording contract with Columbia Records.

Smith produced her first minor country hit in 1968--"So Long, Charlie Brown, Don't Look for Me Around".  In 1970, Smith signed with Mega Records, then the following year, she finally hit paydirt with a song written by Kris Kristofferson--"Help Me Make It Through the Night".  The song reached #8 and sold over two million copies.  Smith won a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Kristofferson won an award for songwriting. 

Smith released 13 albums and 43 singles, but could never break out of the country market after that, leaving "Help Me Make It Through the Night" as her One-Hit Wonder.

We turn to another instrumental in this One Hit Wonder:

#465: Jan Hammer--"Miami Vice Theme"

Hammer began playing piano at age four and formed a jazz trio in high school, performing throughout Eastern Europe. Jan completed many classes at the Prague (Czechoslovakia) Academy of Musical Arts. But when the Soviet Union invaded his country in 1968, Hammer moved to the United States and became a citizen after being accepted at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

After graduation, Hammer toured with Sarah Vaughn for a year and he became known when he played keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 1970's. Hammer released his first solo album, The First Seven Days, in 1975. The Jan Hammer Group was formed in 1976 and the group recorded three albums the following year and one in 1977.

He worked with elite guitarist Jeff Beck often during this period, playing on the albums Wired and There and Back.  Hammer than collaborated first with Al Di Meola then Neal Schon, recording albums and performing live.  

In the fall of 1984, Hammer agreed to score the weekly television series Miami Vice.  The Soundtrack hit #1 on the albums chart in 1985 and sold over four million copies.  Hammer won Grammys for Best Pop Instrumental Performance and Best Instrumental Composition for "Miami Vice Theme".  He won Keyboard Magazine's poll as Best Studio Synthesist for the second straight year.

Hammer did movie and television soundtracks over the next decade and released an album of non-soundtrack material in 1994 called Drive.  In 1996, Hammer wrote all the original music for TV Nova, the first commercial television network in Eastern Europe.  He composed the themes for 23 original shows, 50 separate station I.D.'s, music for all the special broadcasts and all the music for the news, sports and weather programs.

Hammer has collaborated with some of the most influential jazz and rock musicians of our time such as Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana, Steve Lukather, Neal Schon, Tommy Bolin, Al DiMeola, Mick Jagger and Stanley Clarke.  He has written and produced 14 motion picture soundtracks, the music for 90 episodes of Miami Vice and 20 episodes of the British television series Chancer.

Hammer has worked on numerous collaborations, and he's released 24 albums of his own.  And yet he's never come close to matching the success of "Miami Vice Theme".

The next group was kept down by industry insiders, which doomed them to One Hit Wonder status:

#464:  People--"I Love You"

This group formed in San Jose, California in 1965.  Their one hit was first recorded by the Zombies but that version never hit.  People's version was #1 in Australia, Italy, Japan, Israel, South Africa and the Philippines and reached #14 in the United States.  The group hired key songwriter Larry Norman after Norman opened for them at a concert in Pacific Grove, California, and also hired Gene Mason, whom Norman had worked with.  Both shared lead vocals beginning in 1966.  

People started out with gigs at schools, churches, etc. and began attracting large crowds.  It wasn't long before they performed at major concerts and festivals on the West Coast, appearing with the Who, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, Paul Revere & the Raiders and the Dave Clark Five.  Carl Engleman, head of A&R at Capitol Records, signed People after hearing them play at the Whatsit Club.

People always opened their show with a 13-minute rock opera.  After 27 shows with the Who, Pete Townshend was inspired to write Tommy, and released it 18 months later.

People recorded their first two albums with little success.  Meanwhile, Cathy Stashuk, president of their fan club, suggested the group record the Zombies' 1965 song "I Love You".  People added the song to their live performances with good results and in 1968, Capitol released it as their second single.  The group created a promotional film of the song for American Bandstand and the song became a hit, peaking at #14 in the United States and selling over a million copies.  The song reached #1 in Japan, Italy and Israel.  People toured extensively to promote the song.

There are numerous reasons why an artist is a One Hit Wonder and many of them relate to problems within the industry, not the quality of the group, unfortunately.  In People's case, it was jealousy.  Their albums were produced by Mikel Hunter, one who broke all the rules of AM Radio and could predict accurately what was going to be a hit.  Bill Gavin and Bill Drake, meanwhile, had created companies that would, for a price, tell radio stations what songs would be popular and what to add to their playlists.  Hunter, of course, merely had to be followed for free because he was so spot-on.  Gavin and Drake decided to bury Hunter and told their clients not to play "I Love You"; it wasn't going to be a hit.  This practice limited the success of the song and largely led to People being a One Hit Wonder.  A sad but all too common story.

Geoff Levin of the group has provided music for the television shows Friends, Saturday Night Live, All My Children, Good Morning America and 20/20.  Another member, John Tristao, is the frontman for Creedence Clearwater Revisted, the group with original CCR members Stu Cook and Doug Clifford that plays the music of the supergroup.  

This next artist is now helping his daughters with their music careers:

#463:  Oran "Juice" Jones--"The Rain"                

Jones graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1981, the second African-American Brigade Commander in Naval Academy history.  Jones served in the United States Marine Corps until 1986.

Jones was the first artist signed to OBR Records in 1986.  He released his debut album Juice and the single "The Rain" peaked at #9 overall and was a #1 R&B hit in the United States and reached #4 in the U.K and was nominated for two Grammy Awards.

Future releases were not successful, but Jones turned to producing and scoring music for commercials and independent movies.

This next One-Hit Wonder may have enjoyed a hit with this in 1975, but was never able to score again:

(Click on link below to listen...)

#462:  Morris Albert--"Feelings"    

In 1973, Sao Paulo, Brazil's Albert signed with Copacabana Records.  In 1974, he recorded his first album and "Feelings" reached #1 in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and his native Brazil.  Albert received four Grammy nominations for the song.  In 1976, he won the Grand Prize at the International Song Festival of Palma de Mallorca with the song "So Nice".

In 1977, Morris was recognized by ASCAP as the owner of the new most-recorded song in music history, displacing Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" ("Yesterday" by the Beatles soon topped both.)  Artists such as Frank Sinatra, Glen Campbell, the O'Jays, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Shirley Bassey, Percy Faith, Ferrante & Teicher and Dobie Gray are among those who have recorded "Feelings".  In 1980, Albert began writing scripts and soundtracks for movies and television.  Later in the decade, Albert built a state of the art recording studio, the first of its kind in the Philippines.  

Alpert released two albums and another single besides "Feelings", but was never able to match its worldwide success.

The next One Hit Wonder is by a group whose members are better known for their work outside the band:

#461:  Spider--"New Romance (It's A Mystery)"

This New York City group formed in 1977 and released two albums on Dreamland Records.  "New Romance" reached #39, far too low for the quality of the song, and thus Spider never made it.

But they should have.  Besides exhibiting great musicianship, the band also contained a great songwriter, Holly Knight (also Spider's lead singer).  Knight's songs include "Better Be Good to Me", which was a smash on Tina Turner's comeback album, Private Dancer, "The Warrior" for Scandall", "Obsession" for Animotion, "Never" and "There's The Girl" for Heart, "Love Touch" for Rod Stewart, "Love Is A Battlefield" and "Invincible" for Pat Benatar and "Rag Doll" for Aerosmith .  Two members of Spider, Anton Fig and Jim Lowell, toured with elite guitarist Link Wray.  Fig played for several different bands throughout the decade, and later went on to play drums for Paul Shaffer's band on Late Night with David Letterman.

Join us tomorrow for another great segment of The Top 500 One-Hit Wonders*, exclusively on Inside The Rock Era!