Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - One Hit Wonders

Breeze · 06-18-2019, 07:34 AM

90. Ace – How Long (1975)

Total Points – 555
Charts – 3
Top 40 – 0
Top 20 – 0
Top 10 – 0
Highest Ranking – 42

While this song is often interpreted as being about adultery, it was actually written by lead singer Paul Carrack when he learned that bassist Terry Comer has been secretly working for the Sutherland Brothers band and Quiver. This song reached #20 in this British band’s home country, but it climbed to #3 in the US and Canada. While Ace was a OHW band, Carrack the singer of this song (though not the only singer in the band) was not. When Ace broke up, he ended up in Squeeze and was the lead singer for the alt-classic “Tempted”, and later he was one of the original members and one of the lead singers of Mike Rutherford’s side project, Mike and the Mechanics, and they had 3 top 10 Hot 100 singles.

89. David Soul - Don't Give Up On Us (1977)

Total Points – 554
Charts – 3
Top 40 – 0
Top 20 – 0
Top 10 – 0
Highest Ranking – 60

Detective Kenneth “Hutch” Hutchinson from Starsky & Hutch comes in at 89 on the countdown. Soul, actually got his start in 1966 as the “Covered Man”, singing with a mask on during the Merv Griffin Show. In 1967, he made his TV debut in Flipper. He had numerous parts in shows for the next several years before his breakthrough role as Hutch in 1975. Riding high on the success of the show, he elected to return to music, and this song was the lead single on his debut album. It spent 4 weeks at #1 in the UK, and 1 week at #1 here. While Soul managed to have a few additional hits in the UK, here he only managed to get a couple other singles in the 50s of the Hot 100.

88. Gerardo - Rico Suave (1991)

Total Points – 553
Charts – 2
Top 40 – 0
Top 20 – 0
Top 10 – 1
Highest Ranking – 9

Gerardo calls himself the Latin Elvis and/or the Latin Sinatra…I should probably stop right there. His first major appearance in show biz was in the ’87 film Can’t Buy Me Love. He was also in the film Colors, where he showcased some of his dance moves. However, he’s only here because of this hit, which climbed to #7 on the US Hot 100. His follow up single, “We Want the Funk”, which is a semi-remake of Parliament’s “Give Up the Funk”, climbed all the way to #16, but it was only 2 months later so it doesn’t exclude him from this list. In fact, he’s viewed as a OHW by many including MTV, VH1, Synthesis, and Gerado himself. This song was ranked #100 on VH1s Greatest Songs of the 90s, it was also #37 on Blender Magazine’s list of the 50 Worst Songs Ever.

87. Vicki Lawrence - The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (1973)

Total Points – 553
Charts – 3
Top 40 – 0
Top 20 – 0
Top 10 – 0
Highest Ranking – 60

The Carol Burnett Show star, has received multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations, winning one Emmy in 1976. Her famous character Mama lived on after The Carol Burnett Show went off the air, with the show Mama’s Family, and in numerous appearances in that role on other sitcoms. However, she’s in our list because of this southern gothic, murder ballad tune. The song was written by Bobby Russell, her husband at the time, but he didn’t like the song, and refused to even record a demo. Lawrence thought the song was destined to be a hit, so she recorded the demo herself. The label liked the song but couldn’t figure out how to position it – it wasn’t country and it wasn’t pop. The label thought about offering it to Liza Minnelli, but eventually gave it to Cher, but Sonny refused stating it might offend her southern fans. Without anyone to sing the song, Lawrence went into a studio and recorded it for real with the Wrecking Crew (mentioned earlier in #238) as the musicians. The song went on to be a #1 hit for two weeks, replaced by Tony Orlando and Dawn’s “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree”. The song was ranked as the #11 song for 1973.

86. Vangelis - Chariots of Fire (1982)

Total Points – 552
Charts – 2
Top 40 – 1
Top 20 – 0
Top 10 – 0
Highest Ranking – 32

While definitely a OHW, Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou, who goes by Vangelis for some strange reason, has an extensive history is music. He started in the 60s with bands Forminx and Aphrodite’s Child. From there he moved to music scores for several documentaries, which brought him to the attention of movie studios. In the early 80s he teamed with Jon Anderson of Yes to release several albums under the name Jon & Vangelis. Then in ’81 he produced this song, and it reached the top of the Billboard chart and earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Score. This song was used as the background music for medal presentations at London Games in 2012. Vangelis has also done music scores for Blade Runner, Missing, Antarctica, The Bounty, 1492, Conquest of Paradise, and Alexander. With over 50 years composing music and more than 50 albums created, Vangelis is considered one of the most influential figures in modern electronic music.

85. Billy Ray Cyrus - Achy Breaky Heart (1992)

Total Points – 551
Charts – 2
Top 40 – 0
Top 20 – 1
Top 10 – 0
Highest Ranking – 14

Mea Culpa, this one should have been eliminated from the countdown. Despite the fact that 2 of the seeding lists include this song in their countdown, it needs to be removed. In my weeding out process, I somehow missed this one. Cyrus, has had 3 top 40 hits. This song was his only real solo hit, but his duet with Miley, “Ready, Set, Don’t Go”, in 2008 got inside the top 40, peaking at #37, and recently his song with Lil Nas, “Old Town Road” peaked at #1. Thus he should be removed, but given that it would screw up all the previous rankings by 1, I beg your forgiveness, ask that you simply ignore this one and move the numbers of all previous songs up 1 spot….

84. Eagle-Eye Cherry – Save Tonight (1999)

Total Points – 549
Charts – 3
Top 40 – 0
Top 20 – 0
Top 10 – 0
Highest Ranking – 55

This Swedish singer pursued acting during high school and ended up taking classing alongside Jennifer Aniston and Chaz Bono, but when his musical career started gaining momentum he changed his focus. This song was the lead single off his debut album, and it was an international hit. The song reached #5 here, #6 in the UK, and #2 in Sweden. It was voted the song of the year in New Zealand and Sweden. Cherry also happens to be the half brother of Neneh Cherry, who is often included in lists of OHW, and based on the criteria for our countdown would be eligible for consideration, with her 1 hit being “Buffalo Stance”, she did have 1 follow up hit make the top 40, but it was only 3 months later.

83. EMF – Unbelievable (1991)

Total Points – 549
Charts – 3
Top 40 – 1
Top 20 – 0
Top 10 – 0
Highest Ranking – 31

EMF started out as part of the rave influence Madchester dance scene in the UK, which was heavily influenced by drugs, especially ecstasy. This period was so significant that in the UK the years of 1988 and 1989 are known as the Second Summer of Love. In 1990 the band’s debut single off their debut album was this song, and it was a huge hit reaching the top 10 in numerous countries and hitting #1 on the US Hot 100. In the UK the song peaked at #3, but it was also the 32nd best selling single of 1990. The “oh” that’s repeated at the start of each chorus is a sample of comedian Andrew Dice Clay. The album title, Schubert Dip actually has meaning for the band. Songwriter Ian Dench stated, “If I’m ever short of a chord sequence, I nick one from Schubert.”

82. Merril Bainbridge - Mouth (1996)

Total Points – 545
Charts – 2
Top 40 – 0
Top 20 – 0
Top 10 – 0
Highest Ranking – 44

Another lead single off a debut album. Bainbridge an Australian pop music singer/songwriter originally released this album and song in the fall of ’94, but it was re-issued 5 months later, and the second time around was the charm. The song peaked at #1 in her home country and stayed there for 6 weeks, which earned her the accolade of being the female with the longest running number 1 in Australia during the 90s. In the US, it climbed to #4, which was a surprise to everyone involved. Ross Fraser, co-founder of Gotham Records stated he thought the song had a chance to do well in Europe, but when it debuted in the Hot 100 at #67, he realized they had underestimated it. The song stayed on the US charts for 30 weeks and was the 37th best-selling single of 1996. The success in the United States made Bainbridge a superstar in her home country for a while. Interestingly, the song only managed to reach #51 in the UK.

81. The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony (1998)

Total Points – 544
Charts – 2
Top 40 – 0
Top 20 – 0
Top 10 – 0
Highest Ranking – 39

The Verve started out around 1990, signed their first record contract in ’91 and released the first studio songs in ’92. They even had one of those songs reach #75 on the UK chart. The band had 2 indie chart hits off their first album in ‘93, which earned them the opportunity to open for Oasis (pre-breakout) and The Smashing Pumpkins (during the Siamese Dream tour). They then had a couple top 40 UK hits off of their ’95 album, but it wasn’t until the release of this single that the band earned worldwide acclaim. The only problem was they didn’t get explicit permission to sample an orchestral version of the Rolling Stones’ “The Last Time” before releasing the single, which ultimately required them to forfeit 100% of the profits. While the band lost out on a lot of money, they did receive numerous accolades, including: A Grammy Award Nomination for Best Rock Song, NME (a British music magazine) and Rolling Stone Magazine’s 1997 single of the year, BBC Radio Listeners Poll’s 3rd best song ever, NYC weekly The Village Voice’s critics poll had this as the 3rd best song of 1997. In 2007, NME place the song at #18 of their 50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever. Also in 2007, Q Magazine’s songwriters poll placed this song in the Top 10 Greatest Tracks, and Australian Triple J Hottest 100 All Time the song ranked #14. Rolling Stone also included it in their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list - #392. During the tour for this album the band began to splinter and by 1999 they were broken up.

06-18-2019, 07:34 AM	#106
Breeze Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Northern Suburbs of ATL	90. Ace – How Long (1975) Total Points – 555 Charts – 3 Top 40 – 0 Top 20 – 0 Top 10 – 0 Highest Ranking – 42 While this song is often interpreted as being about adultery, it was actually written by lead singer Paul Carrack when he learned that bassist Terry Comer has been secretly working for the Sutherland Brothers band and Quiver. This song reached #20 in this British band’s home country, but it climbed to #3 in the US and Canada. While Ace was a OHW band, Carrack the singer of this song (though not the only singer in the band) was not. When Ace broke up, he ended up in Squeeze and was the lead singer for the alt-classic “Tempted”, and later he was one of the original members and one of the lead singers of Mike Rutherford’s side project, Mike and the Mechanics, and they had 3 top 10 Hot 100 singles. 89. David Soul - Don't Give Up On Us (1977) Total Points – 554 Charts – 3 Top 40 – 0 Top 20 – 0 Top 10 – 0 Highest Ranking – 60 Detective Kenneth “Hutch” Hutchinson from Starsky & Hutch comes in at 89 on the countdown. Soul, actually got his start in 1966 as the “Covered Man”, singing with a mask on during the Merv Griffin Show. In 1967, he made his TV debut in Flipper. He had numerous parts in shows for the next several years before his breakthrough role as Hutch in 1975. Riding high on the success of the show, he elected to return to music, and this song was the lead single on his debut album. It spent 4 weeks at #1 in the UK, and 1 week at #1 here. While Soul managed to have a few additional hits in the UK, here he only managed to get a couple other singles in the 50s of the Hot 100. 88. Gerardo - Rico Suave (1991) Total Points – 553 Charts – 2 Top 40 – 0 Top 20 – 0 Top 10 – 1 Highest Ranking – 9 Gerardo calls himself the Latin Elvis and/or the Latin Sinatra…I should probably stop right there. His first major appearance in show biz was in the ’87 film Can’t Buy Me Love. He was also in the film Colors, where he showcased some of his dance moves. However, he’s only here because of this hit, which climbed to #7 on the US Hot 100. His follow up single, “We Want the Funk”, which is a semi-remake of Parliament’s “Give Up the Funk”, climbed all the way to #16, but it was only 2 months later so it doesn’t exclude him from this list. In fact, he’s viewed as a OHW by many including MTV, VH1, Synthesis, and Gerado himself. This song was ranked #100 on VH1s Greatest Songs of the 90s, it was also #37 on Blender Magazine’s list of the 50 Worst Songs Ever. 87. Vicki Lawrence - The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (1973) Total Points – 553 Charts – 3 Top 40 – 0 Top 20 – 0 Top 10 – 0 Highest Ranking – 60 The Carol Burnett Show star, has received multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations, winning one Emmy in 1976. Her famous character Mama lived on after The Carol Burnett Show went off the air, with the show Mama’s Family, and in numerous appearances in that role on other sitcoms. However, she’s in our list because of this southern gothic, murder ballad tune. The song was written by Bobby Russell, her husband at the time, but he didn’t like the song, and refused to even record a demo. Lawrence thought the song was destined to be a hit, so she recorded the demo herself. The label liked the song but couldn’t figure out how to position it – it wasn’t country and it wasn’t pop. The label thought about offering it to Liza Minnelli, but eventually gave it to Cher, but Sonny refused stating it might offend her southern fans. Without anyone to sing the song, Lawrence went into a studio and recorded it for real with the Wrecking Crew (mentioned earlier in #238) as the musicians. The song went on to be a #1 hit for two weeks, replaced by Tony Orlando and Dawn’s “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree”. The song was ranked as the #11 song for 1973. 86. Vangelis - Chariots of Fire (1982) Total Points – 552 Charts – 2 Top 40 – 1 Top 20 – 0 Top 10 – 0 Highest Ranking – 32 While definitely a OHW, Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou, who goes by Vangelis for some strange reason, has an extensive history is music. He started in the 60s with bands Forminx and Aphrodite’s Child. From there he moved to music scores for several documentaries, which brought him to the attention of movie studios. In the early 80s he teamed with Jon Anderson of Yes to release several albums under the name Jon & Vangelis. Then in ’81 he produced this song, and it reached the top of the Billboard chart and earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Score. This song was used as the background music for medal presentations at London Games in 2012. Vangelis has also done music scores for Blade Runner, Missing, Antarctica, The Bounty, 1492, Conquest of Paradise, and Alexander. With over 50 years composing music and more than 50 albums created, Vangelis is considered one of the most influential figures in modern electronic music. 85. Billy Ray Cyrus - Achy Breaky Heart (1992) Total Points – 551 Charts – 2 Top 40 – 0 Top 20 – 1 Top 10 – 0 Highest Ranking – 14 Mea Culpa, this one should have been eliminated from the countdown. Despite the fact that 2 of the seeding lists include this song in their countdown, it needs to be removed. In my weeding out process, I somehow missed this one. Cyrus, has had 3 top 40 hits. This song was his only real solo hit, but his duet with Miley, “Ready, Set, Don’t Go”, in 2008 got inside the top 40, peaking at #37, and recently his song with Lil Nas, “Old Town Road” peaked at #1. Thus he should be removed, but given that it would screw up all the previous rankings by 1, I beg your forgiveness, ask that you simply ignore this one and move the numbers of all previous songs up 1 spot…. 84. Eagle-Eye Cherry – Save Tonight (1999) Total Points – 549 Charts – 3 Top 40 – 0 Top 20 – 0 Top 10 – 0 Highest Ranking – 55 This Swedish singer pursued acting during high school and ended up taking classing alongside Jennifer Aniston and Chaz Bono, but when his musical career started gaining momentum he changed his focus. This song was the lead single off his debut album, and it was an international hit. The song reached #5 here, #6 in the UK, and #2 in Sweden. It was voted the song of the year in New Zealand and Sweden. Cherry also happens to be the half brother of Neneh Cherry, who is often included in lists of OHW, and based on the criteria for our countdown would be eligible for consideration, with her 1 hit being “Buffalo Stance”, she did have 1 follow up hit make the top 40, but it was only 3 months later. 83. EMF – Unbelievable (1991) Total Points – 549 Charts – 3 Top 40 – 1 Top 20 – 0 Top 10 – 0 Highest Ranking – 31 EMF started out as part of the rave influence Madchester dance scene in the UK, which was heavily influenced by drugs, especially ecstasy. This period was so significant that in the UK the years of 1988 and 1989 are known as the Second Summer of Love. In 1990 the band’s debut single off their debut album was this song, and it was a huge hit reaching the top 10 in numerous countries and hitting #1 on the US Hot 100. In the UK the song peaked at #3, but it was also the 32nd best selling single of 1990. The “oh” that’s repeated at the start of each chorus is a sample of comedian Andrew Dice Clay. The album title, Schubert Dip actually has meaning for the band. Songwriter Ian Dench stated, “If I’m ever short of a chord sequence, I nick one from Schubert.” 82. Merril Bainbridge - Mouth (1996) Total Points – 545 Charts – 2 Top 40 – 0 Top 20 – 0 Top 10 – 0 Highest Ranking – 44 Another lead single off a debut album. Bainbridge an Australian pop music singer/songwriter originally released this album and song in the fall of ’94, but it was re-issued 5 months later, and the second time around was the charm. The song peaked at #1 in her home country and stayed there for 6 weeks, which earned her the accolade of being the female with the longest running number 1 in Australia during the 90s. In the US, it climbed to #4, which was a surprise to everyone involved. Ross Fraser, co-founder of Gotham Records stated he thought the song had a chance to do well in Europe, but when it debuted in the Hot 100 at #67, he realized they had underestimated it. The song stayed on the US charts for 30 weeks and was the 37th best-selling single of 1996. The success in the United States made Bainbridge a superstar in her home country for a while. Interestingly, the song only managed to reach #51 in the UK. 81. The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony (1998) Total Points – 544 Charts – 2 Top 40 – 0 Top 20 – 0 Top 10 – 0 Highest Ranking – 39 The Verve started out around 1990, signed their first record contract in ’91 and released the first studio songs in ’92. They even had one of those songs reach #75 on the UK chart. The band had 2 indie chart hits off their first album in ‘93, which earned them the opportunity to open for Oasis (pre-breakout) and The Smashing Pumpkins (during the Siamese Dream tour). They then had a couple top 40 UK hits off of their ’95 album, but it wasn’t until the release of this single that the band earned worldwide acclaim. The only problem was they didn’t get explicit permission to sample an orchestral version of the Rolling Stones’ “The Last Time” before releasing the single, which ultimately required them to forfeit 100% of the profits. While the band lost out on a lot of money, they did receive numerous accolades, including: A Grammy Award Nomination for Best Rock Song, NME (a British music magazine) and Rolling Stone Magazine’s 1997 single of the year, BBC Radio Listeners Poll’s 3rd best song ever, NYC weekly The Village Voice’s critics poll had this as the 3rd best song of 1997. In 2007, NME place the song at #18 of their 50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever. Also in 2007, Q Magazine’s songwriters poll placed this song in the Top 10 Greatest Tracks, and Australian Triple J Hottest 100 All Time the song ranked #14. Rolling Stone also included it in their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list - #392. During the tour for this album the band began to splinter and by 1999 they were broken up.