The Top 500 One-Hit Wonders of the Rock Era Revisited: #410-401

We've been presenting The Top 500 One-Hit Wonders of the Rock Era* for 10 days now, and you may not appreciate the number of great songs contributed by these artists who enjoyed just one big hit.  The quality goes up as the numbers get smaller:

It was a long road to having their one big hit for this southern band:

 

#410:  Fabulous Thunderbirds--" Tuff Enuff"  

This group performed for several years in the blues scene of Austin, Texas, then signed a recording contract with Chrysalis Records.  The group's first two albums were well received by critics but as is always the case, critics don't buy a lot of albums because they sold poorly.

The group continued on, opening for the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton, but that exposure didn't help either.  Chrysalis dropped the group after their fourth album due to poor sales and the group was without a contract for four years.  

In 1985, the Thunderbirds signed with Epic and the following year, released the album Gung Ho.  The album contained "Tuff Enuff", which was also featured in the movie Tough Guys.  The song reached #10, but they would never crack the Top 40 again despite 12 career albums.

 

   #409:  Shannon--"Let The Music Play"  

Shannon Greene went to York College and toured with the New York Jazz Ensemble.  She auditioned for producers Mark Liggett and Chris Barbosa, who introduced Shannon to the song "Fire and Ice".  That song would later evolve into "Let the Music Play".  

The song was released in 1983 and reached #8 in the United States.  Shannon was nominated for a Grammy Award and earned a gold record.  Shannon's follow-up single, "Give Me Tonight", hit #1 on the much-smaller R&B chart, but was unable to cross over to the mainstream.  Subsequent releases also found minor success on the R&B and Dance charts and some success in Europe.

This group broke up when producers wanted them to add more Country music:

    
#408:  Toby Beau--"My Angel Baby"  

Guitarists Danny McKenna, Balde Silva and Art Mendoza, bassist Steve Zipper and drummer Rob Young formed the group Toby Beau in the Rio Grande Valley.  After becoming regulars on the club circuit, the group moved to San Antonio, Texas and signed a deal with RCA Records.  Guitarist and banjo player Ron Rose replaced Mendoza.  

After recording their self-titled debut album, Toby Beau moved to New York City, and toured with acts such as the Doobie Brothers, Bob Seger and the Steve Miller Band.  The group released "My Angel Baby", which went to #13 in the United States and was a #1 Easy Listening song.  The song sold over one million copies and was certified by BMI as having over one million radio airplays.

The group moved first to Miami, Florida and then Tennessee.  Musicians and producers there tried to add a country flavor to the music, and members of Toby Beau felt insulted.  This led to the group's breakup.  McKenna left rather than sell out, and eventually, the band fizzled out.

Up next in the One-Hit Wonder spectacular, this unique group:

#407:  US3--"Cantaloop"

Here we have the unique US3, a jazz-rap group founded in London in 1991 by producer Geoff Wilkinson. The song "Where Will We Be In the 21st Century" in 1990 attracted enough attention that independent label Ninja Tune was  
interested.

This led to the US3 releasing "The Band Played the Boogie" in 1991. When Wilkinson was granted the rights to the archives of Blue Note Records, Wilkinson spearheaded the single "Cantaloop", featuring trumpeter Gerard Presencer. Two years later, the song was included on Us3's debut album Hand on the Torch. The song went to the Top 10 in the United States and the album sold over one million copies. 

In 1994, US3 worked on the Red Hot + Cool compilation album that helped raise funds for the AIDS epidemic. Time Magazine lauded the project as Album of the Year.

To date, US3 has released eight career albums, but their music has not caught on in the way that "Cantaloop" did.

This group had their one and only hit 28 years ago:

  #406:  Marcy Playground--"Sex And Candy"

This group is named after the Marcy Open grade school in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the school that lead singer and guitarist John Wozniak went to. Bassist Dylan Keefe and drummer Shlomi Lavie make up the rest of the trio. 

After attending Evergreen State College for two years, Wozniak moved to New York and worked with multi-instrumentalist Jared Kotler. After hearing John's music, Capitol Records became interested. Keefe and Wozniak became acquainted and Marcy Playground began performing in New York City. They signed a recording contract with Capitol but problems between Wozniak and Kotler arose and Dan Rieser was brought in to replace Jared.

With this lineup, the group released their self-titled album in 1997, which included "Sex and Candy". The song spent 15 weeks at #1 on the Modern Rock chart, which represents about 5-10% of the current music market. The single helped the album go Platinum. Overall, it was #8 in the United States, #2 in Canada and #29 in the U.K. 

Lavie eventually became the group's drummer but, although they enjoyed further success on the Modern and Mainstream Rock charts, they never could match "Sex and Candy".

Up next, one of the top-sellers of the Rock Era:

#405:  Millie Small--"My Boy Lollipop"

Small grew up in Jamaica and recorded with Roy Panton as Roy and Millie.  In 1963, Small went to London to make her fourth recording, an arrangement of "My Boy Lollipop".  The song was a huge hit, reaching #2 in the United States and the U.K. and #1 in Australia.  

The song has now sold over seven million copies, including singles, albums and compilations.  Small continued to perform until the early 1970's.  In 2011, the Governor-General of Jamaica awarded Millie the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander for her contribution to the Jamaican music industry.

Here's one of a few groups that was not able to carry on the magic after a key member left for a solo career:

#404:  Roxy Music--"Love Is The Drug"

This group was formed by lead singer and songwriter Bryan Ferry and bassist Graham Simpson in 1970.  The group soon added saxophonist and oboist Andy Mackay, Brian Eno on synthesizer, guitarist Phil Manzanera and drummer Paul Thompson.  The group King Crimson helped Roxy Music land a contract with E.G. Management.

Roxy Music released their debut album in 1972 on Island Records.  "Virginia Plain" was a #4 hit in their native England but the group was largely unheard of outside of Europe. 

Eno left the group shortly afterwards, and the bass guitarist for the group consisted of a revolving door of musicians.   Eno was replaced by 19-year-old multi-instrumentalist Eddie Jobson.  The group landed another Top 10 hit in their native land--"Street Life" but again it wasn't until a song from their fifth album, Siren, that their success spread worldwide.  "Love Is the Drug" reached #2 in the U.K., #3 in Canada and #30 in the United States.

After touring to support Siren, Roxy Music disbanded.  They reformed in 1978 and released a new album, but it was a much different group than either the one which started or the one which had just enjoyed success.  Roxy Music did continue to enjoy success in the U.K. and other countries in Europe and they influenced many other British bands.  But they would never match the worldwide popularity achieved with "Love Is the Drug".

At #404, an artist who unfortunately recently has made headlines in all the wrong ways:

   #403:  Ted Nugent--"Cat Scratch Fever"

Nugent attended St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights, Illinois and William Fremd High School in Palatine, Illinois.  He has performed since 1958 and toured annually since 1967.  

Nugent began playing with the Amboy Dukes, performing in dance clubs outside of Chicago while Nugent was at St. Viator.  After moving to Michigan in 1973, he signed a deal with DiscReet Records and recorded his first solo album.  In 1975, Nugent left the group and signed with Epic Records.  Nugent became a guitar hero during this time, and his album Cat Scratch Fever in 1977 produced his only big hit.

Nugent has released 13 albums in his career and in 1989, he joined the Damn Yankees with Jack Blades of Night Ranger, Tommy Shaw from Styx and drummer Michael Cartellone.  

Despite the talent and huge potential of this Canadian act, he too had just one big hit:

   

#402:  Aldo Nova--"Fantasy"  

Aldo Nova signed with Portrait Records and produced and released his self-titled debut album in 1981.  "Fantasy" climbed to #23.  He released five albums and six singles, but none could match his One Hit Wonder.  

So instead, Nova became a songwriter and musician for other artists.  He worked with Jon Bon Jovi in the 1980's and produced early albums by Celine Dion.  Nova wrote "A New Day Has Come" for Dion and played guitar, synthesizer and percussion on her albums.  Nova co-wrote "This is the Night" for Clay Aiken in 2003, which became the best-selling single of the year.

10cc not only gave us some great music in the 70's, but this duo that formed afterwards:

   #401:  Godley & Creme--"Cry"  

Kevin Godley and Lol Creme performed together in 1969 with Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman.  The group became the popular group 10cc ("I'm Not in Love" and "The Things We Do for Love") in the 1970's and Godley and Creme stayed together as a duo.  They also directed several music videos for artists such as the Police, Duran Duran and Wang Chung.  

Godley and Creme reached the Top 10 in their native England with "Under Your Thumb" and "Wedding Bells", but the duo could not achieve worldwide success.  

They continued on and in 1985, released The History Mix Volume 1, which celebrated 25 years of recording together.  In addition to remixes of previous songs, the album contained "Cry", which reached #16 in the United States and #19 in Britain.

Godley and Creme released their final album, Goodbye Blue Sky, in 1988.  But it was their direction of music videos where they achieved their greatest fame.  Godley and Creme created the landmark Police video "Every Breath You Take", as well as "Synchronicity II" and "Wrapped Around Your Finger" for the group.  They also directed "A View to a Kill" for Duran Duran, "Rockit" for Herbie Hancock" , videos for Sting "Fields of Gold" and "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" and Wang Chung ("Everybody Have Fun Tonight").

We've heard 100 great One-Hit Wonders but there's much more to come!