RadioActive wrote:

The satellite's "60s Gold" channel is looking for votes on the all time One Hit Wonder of the rock era. And you don't even have to subscribe to the service to take part.

They've listed a few dozen possibilities on their website and invite people to vote for 15 of the tunes they think deserve the title. Called "The Transistor Radio Era [of] One Hit Wonders," the songs listed span the years 1958-1972. Among the choices: 

"Fire" by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown,
"Little Star" by The Elegants,
The Singing Nun's "Dominique",
"In The Summertime" by Mungo Jerry and 
"Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)" by the studio group Reunion.  

The story behind that last one, "Life Is a Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me) by the studio group Reunion, is an interesting one. It features vocalist Joey Levine rhyming off names of groups and lyrics at a rapid pace, before launching into the chorus of "Life Is A Rock But The Radio Rolled Me." 

If you listen to the song, you'd might think he had to rehearse it a dozen times or more in order to get the complicated pattern right. But that's not what happened at all. 

“The machine-gun vocal delivery is a result of no rehearsing whatsoever,” [co-writer Paul DiFranco] shared. “The key was to read the lines rapidly and not to memorize them at all.”

For his part, Levine, a veteran jingle writer, believes the novelty tune helped inspire some later hits. 

Not sure if he's right, but you can definitely hear the similarities. 

“That song is imitated a lot, I think, by people like REM, with ‘The End of The World’ and Billy Joel with ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire,’” he said in an interview posted by WFMU. “Not directly, but a lot of songs are based on people’s memory of our song.”

One of the things I loved about this song was that they cut individual lyrics for some Top 40 radio stations, and they played those exclusively. The one for WCFL in Chicago, for instance, went "Life Is A Rock, But CFL Rolled Me." There aren't too many other songs that were able to incorporate specific call letters into the lyrics without missing a beat. 

Sugar, Sugar by the Archies.

Last edited by Leslieville Bill (March 17, 2026 10:19 am)

RadioActive wrote:

For his part, Levine, a veteran jingle writer, believes the novelty tune helped inspire some later hits. 

Not sure if he's right, but you can definitely hear the similarities. 

“That song is imitated a lot, I think, by people like REM, with ‘The End of The World’ and Billy Joel with ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire,’” he said in an interview posted by WFMU. “Not directly, but a lot of songs are based on people’s memory of our song.”

Fellow needs a talk show on 1010 or 640.  Doesn't think too much of himself. 🤨

The Archies had a total of six songs on the Hot 100, and in addition to Sugar, Sugar one other made the top 10 and two more made the top 40. In chronological order, they were as follows:
#22 Bang-Shang-A-Lang
#53 Feelin' So Good
#1 Sugar, Sugar
#10 Jingle Jangle
#40 Who's Your Baby?
#57 Sunshine

Hi Lorne,

Thanks for correcting me! I did not know they had other hits. I about 10 years old at the time so I won't be too hard on myself. LOL

Best,

Bill

Lorne wrote:

The Archies had a total of six songs on the Hot 100, and in addition to Sugar, Sugar one other made the top 10 and two more made the top 40. In chronological order, they were as follows:
#22 Bang-Shang-A-Lang
#53 Feelin' So Good
#1 Sugar, Sugar
#10 Jingle Jangle
#40 Who's Your Baby?
#57 Sunshine

Last edited by Leslieville Bill (March 18, 2026 4:11 pm)

Always considered Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" to be the de facto one-hit-wonder tune .. 

g121 wrote:

Always considered Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" to be the de facto one-hit-wonder tune .. 

Inspired by a greeting card and a Porter Wagner TV performance, it only too him 15 minutes to write the whole thing.  

Norman Greenbaum On Spirit In The Sky: "The Interest In It Just Doesn't Wane"

RadioActive wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

The satellite's "60s Gold" channel is looking for votes on the all time One Hit Wonder of the rock era. And you don't even have to subscribe to the service to take part.

They've listed a few dozen possibilities on their website and invite people to vote for 15 of the tunes they think deserve the title. Called "The Transistor Radio Era [of] One Hit Wonders," the songs listed span the years 1958-1972. Among the choices: 

"Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)" by the studio group Reunion.  

The story behind that last one, "Life Is a Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me) by the studio group Reunion, is an interesting one. It features vocalist Joey Levine rhyming off names of groups and lyrics at a rapid pace, before launching into the chorus of "Life Is A Rock But The Radio Rolled Me”.

One of the things I loved about this song was that they cut individual lyrics for some Top 40 radio stations, and they played those exclusively. The one for WCFL in Chicago, for instance, went "Life Is A Rock, But CFL Rolled Me." There aren't too many other songs that were able to incorporate specific call letters into the lyrics without missing a beat. 

Huey Lewis and the News did a similar thing when they cut individual lyrics for “The Heart of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, adding various city names during the tail of the song. AM740 actually plays the versions which mentions Toronto, which I still think is kind of cool some forty years later!

 

mace wrote:

One of my favourite almost one hit wonders was Timothy by The Buoys which peaked at #17 in the spring of 1971. Their second and final release Give Up Your Guns stiffed at #84 in June 1971.

Great song, and one that you don't hear often.  Timothy reached #9 in Canada, and was popular on CHUM getting to the #2 position for two weeks.  Three Dog Night's Joy To The World was in first spot.

Another song I always liked and I believe was a one hit wonder was Ride Captain Ride by Blues Image.  It got to #4 in Canada and US and #8 on CHUM in May 1970. 

Last edited by paterson1 (March 21, 2026 1:23 pm)

Looks like both Games and Go Back made the CHUM chart, and both peaking at #10.  Redeye's Games got in the top 10 in January 1971, and Crabby Appleton with Go back in October 1970.  Here's the chart for Redeye, lots of great songs on the CHUM 30!

George Baker Selection (who were from the Netherlands) did have a second North American hit in 1975-76 with "Paloma Blanca". It reached #26 on Billboard and #5 on CHUM. 

I borrowed the photo below from my More Hot Rocks post. Have a look at the one hit wonders on the track list. I know a number of them are just studio concoctions but the Jaggerz with Donnie Iris were a real band and incidently a good piece of rock trivia the lead singer for Crazy Elephant  was Robert Spencer who had been with the Cadillacs of Speedo fame.

 Also note the funny first para beginning with "During the 1960's, while hippies by the van full were..." That brings me to one of the silliest things I have done in my life and that is deliberately scratch my copy of a Monkees 45 bc of feeling too hip. Was beginning to identify more with the hippie side of the ledger in posture if not in practice. ( The practice part came later). Anyway post punk and new wave I was buying Monkees records again and came to realize that in the late 60's there was a lot of good commercial music. Can't necessarily say the same for subsequent years.

Last edited by Fitz (March 22, 2026 6:07 am)

Fleadh wrote:

The Horse by Cliff Nobles.
Hard to prove, but some say it's the only top 10 hit - was No. 2 - where the credited person, as opposed to something like the Archies, doesn't actually appear on the track. (It was a B-side, instrumental version by his backing group of the A-side)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7g-b1ZaCPA

There is also the case of All American boy by Bobby Bare which was originally credited to Bill Parsons. Not sure of the chart position though.

Lorne wrote:

Fitz wrote:

Fleadh wrote:

The Horse by Cliff Nobles.
Hard to prove, but some say it's the only top 10 hit - was No. 2 - where the credited person, as opposed to something like the Archies, doesn't actually appear on the track. (It was a B-side, instrumental version by his backing group of the A-side)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7g-b1ZaCPA

There is also the case of All American boy by Bobby Bare which was originally credited to Bill Parsons. Not sure of the chart position though.

It also peaked at #2. I had noticed that it was on Sirius' list, and in my opinion it shouldn't be since the real artist was far from being a one-hit wonder. I've seen a lot of one-hit wonder lists over the years, and I don't ever recall seeing this song included on one before. 

I just looked at the SXM link and by their logic Bill Parsons is a no hit wonder bc he did not have the one hit they credit him for.

Also The Edwin Hawkins Singers are a 1.5 hit wonder bc in addition to Oh Happy Day, they did get billing on this:



 

Last edited by Fitz (March 23, 2026 8:47 pm)