One Hit Non-Wonders

This blogger, darn near glued to the AM radio in the 1960's, when this medium was devoted entirely to Top 40 hits and sports, was always fascinated by the highly unusual song that would turn up in a mix full of icons (from Elvis Presley to The Beatles to Sinatra). In other words, songs that elicited ????????



Love the icons, but also love the outliers, so it is admittedly facetious to term their hits "non-wonders." One all-time favorite song remains the wonderfully indescribable "Let It Out" a.k.a. Let It All Hang Out by the even more indescribable group from Memphis, The Hombres.



Some of these tunes were not novelty records at all, but hits by popular regional bands. . . no surprise there, as such popular regional groups as The Kingsmen and Paul Revere & The Raiders had #1 hits (both recorded Louie Louie).




Lousiana's own John Fred And His Playboy Band had one ridiculously catchy hit.



There were a slew of these records in 1965-1967. Some were profoundly influenced by r&b music, such as Philadelphia's Soul Survivors.



Others personified the sound of soul music!



Quite a few worthy 1960's rock groups, such as Love with Arthur Lee and the San Francisco Bay Area's Beau Brummels did not make it into this post because they actually had more than one Top 40 hit! Very much drawing from the influence of The Beau Brummels, The Beatles and the Pet Sounds era Beach Boys, as well as The Left Banke, a stylish Baroque Pop group which had TWO hits in 1966-1967, the one hit record by The Mojo Men is pure pop delight.



Other bands heard on the radio in the mid-1960's were less from state-of-the-art recording studios in the George Martin - Brian Wilson tradition than from their garages. Fun With Fender, Gibson and Silvertone electric guitars sometimes translated into massive garage band hits. As the cornerstones of Rhino Records' vinyl and CD compilations, Nuggets volumes 1 and 2: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968 + Original Artyfacts From The British Empire & Beyond, these tunes are also on Rhino's YouTube playlist.





A group that influenced later punk rock bands, San Jose's psychedelic rockers Count Five, their one album championed by Lester Bangs in his book Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, had just one national hit single, but made the most of their moment in the spotlight. Their hit Psychotic Reaction would later be a much covered garage rock classic, performed by bands ranging from The Cramps to Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.



The mid-1960's was a time in which Captain Beefheart, closer to the surrealist soundscapes of Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler in his records just a few years later (Trout Mask Replica and Lick My Decals Off, Baby) than anything in pop, actually appeared on Where The Action Is singing his one hit, Diddy Wah Diddy.



Getting back to that one hit wonder sideline, the novelty record, sometimes a true oddball piece of genius, such as the aforementioned Rubber Biscuit by The Chips, would make it into the Oldies But Goodies playlist.



The first song this music nut remembers hearing on Top 40 radio that was definitely a Dr. Demento style novelty number, besides Bobby "Boris" Pickett's The Monster Mash, was this ditty by Napoleon XIV.



There were others, not just the great comedy records by Stan Freberg and Allan Sherman but the following, the only hit record by Jim Backus & Friend (Hermione Gingold?), backed by Appleknocker & His Group! Don't remember hearing this on our AM stations, but it is so funny, Delicious merits inclusion here as an inspired novelty record.



The song that got the ball rolling in the novelty record field was the infamous Okeh Laughing Record, from the same label that brought the world King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Mamie Smith and Bix Beiderbecke.



Thirty years later, Tex Avery made a very funny and very diabolical cartoon based on this record.



Decades later, the 1-hit wonders captivated my imagination so much I was thrilled to see Tom Hanks' movie about a 1960's band, That Thing You Do.



Also absolutely love the Wonders' rather Dave Clark 5 like title song, their one hit.



As Mr. Hanks is now appearing in a 21st century movie about 20th century icon, educator, children's program mastermind and nice fellow Fred Rogers, ending on a reference to Tom's film strikes this writer as the best way to say adieu and wish all readers a good weekend.