From that line-up I think I'll give the re-run a miss.

 

One hit wonders. How about these?

 

Partners in Kryme - Turtle Power (how to get a jobbing rap outfit to #1 - get them to rap about Teenage Mutant Ninja Tortoises)

Doop - Doop (how to get a jobbing dutch dance act to #1 - sample a Charleston record and let idiots like me buy it)

Baz Lurhmann - Everybody's Free (to wear Sunscreen) (how to get a jobbing, world-famous director, oh wait...)

I don't think we missed much by them not having another hit :lol:

 

Don't you like the Fern Kinney song then Suedy?

this weeks episode was pretty dire. D D Jacksons performance the the guy (or girl?) in that silver spaceman suit making funny noises was quite laughable! BBC special effects haha!!

 

One Hit Wonders. Gary Jules & Michael Andrews version of Mad World, probably one of the better OHW's. Can't think of any others..

We were spared Richard Myhill's doll this time. Wonder if he just fancied a change or if they'd had complaints.

Thanks for your one hit wonders so far, posters, next week I really will have lots of unsociable work obligations, so suedehead, I hope that you can do the honours this Thursday!

 

Ones that could be added include Renee and Renato, who I don't think had another hit after their atrocious "Save Your Love" . And also Joe Dolce, I think his name was, and "Shutup Your Face".

 

There was that banned record from the sixties, mentioned before on here, "Je 'taime" by Serge Gainsboro and Jane Birkin, and Althea and Donna's Uptown Top Ranking".

 

And then there is Norman Greenbaum, with Spirit In The Sky, Benny Hill may well have been a one hit wonder with his eulogy to a milkman!

 

Must be many more.

 

The most successful one hit wonder of all-time, in terms of the success of the two acts involved, has to be Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder's "Ebony And Ivory". Don't think they ever had another collaborative hit together again, so within the strick definitions of the term one hit wonder, I would say that Paul and Stevie are far better off than members of The Archies or any other "one hit wonder"!

 

Having said that, trying to think of the name of the guy who did "In The Summertime". Don't think he ever had another hit, think his band's name may have been Mungo Jerry. That must be quite a lucrative number one in terms of record royalties. It gets a lot of airplay come summertime each year.

 

It has to be said that most of these one hit wonders are cringe worthy efforts, though. Sad that they have topped the charts when so many talented acts out there - Bob Dylan, The Who, Bob Marley, many others - never had a number one single under their own names.

Edited April 21, 201312 yr by blackcat

Ones that could be added include Renee and Renato, who I don't think had another hit after their atrocious "Save Your Love" .

You are so wrong, it's really nice song. :heart:

 

Best one hit wonder for me : Aneka - Japanese Boy . Sad, that her "Little Lady" wasn't successful.

Edited April 21, 201312 yr by AlexRange

Nah Mungo Jerry weren't a one hit wonder, they had other hits.

 

I don't think Stiltskin had any other hits apart from their #1.

I've been cheating so I won't add any more to the tally but the absolute best one hit wonder has to be MARRS.

You are so wrong, it's really nice song. :heart:

 

Best one hit wonder for me : Aneka - Japanese Boy . Sad, that her "Little Lady" wasn't successful.

 

 

Yep, correction, Renee and Renato was a great song! :unsure:

 

And Grebo, yes, my mistake, Mungo Jerry did have other hits, having looked it up on the search engine, with Ray Dorset as their lead man. He must have made a bomb out of In The Summertime over the years.

 

 

 

 

No, Save Your Love was truly abysmal.

 

Benny Hill had a few minor hits before Ernie. I deliberately left out collaborations such as Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder where the individuals have charted separately. For the same reason I wouldn't count Elton John and Kiki Dee.

 

I should have remembered Norman Greenbaum and Althea and Donna, particularly as the latter have only just been on TOTP.

Spirit in the Sky is an interesting one - it's almost cursed - three different acts have taken it to number one and never hit the higher reaches of the chart again.

 

Norman Greenbaum (1970) - never scored another hit single

Dr and the Medics (1986) - managed a #29 then flopped on a cover of Abba with their spiritual Godfather Roy Wood.

Gareth Gates and the Kumars (2003) - Despite a debut number one, the Kumars never had a hit again :P (and Gareth's career quickly fizzled out too)

I am enjoying watching the TOTP episodes, they were ones I watched at the time in my youth, and did remember some of the 1977 ones I had recorded at the time. In 1978 I didn't record TOTP episodes. I did used to often tape from the top 20 countdown. That's all they counted down back then and the whole thing was packed into an hour which meant many songs were truncated to fit. And of course it was mono, had a DJs voice often over the intro and was in general poor quality. That's what home-taping was like and so buying the single was the option if you wanted the whole thing in better quality. Perhaps why there wasn't the outrage that occurred that subsequently happened in the download era.

 

TOTP played what was being charted at the time, and always had a policy of preferring artists who could perform "in the studio". Punk acts often did come to do just that, which is why we get a fair amount of it. Just because there was none in last week's episode didn't make it that bad. The full episode had "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty in it, and Suzi Quatro one more time, and Chic. And Genesis with "Follow You Follow Me", a good song and we saw what Phil Collins looked like in 1978 (yes he had hair).

 

I know you lot probably hate ballads but "Too Much Too Little Too Late" is a good song, and Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams were both great singers, especially the former. Automatic Lover is a good song, I don't care what people thought. "Do It Do It Again" is a fun song. I even quite like Matchstalk Men & Matchstalk Cats & Dogs.

 

Alan Price was ok. The only ones I really didn't like were Child's boring cover of the Searchers and that guy who did that disco song near the end with Legs & Co on stage dancing with him. Bonnie Tyler wasn't particularly good either.

 

Don't worry, there is a really golden era just around the corner BUT not all the music in it is great, and the Smurfs spent 6 weeks at #2.

 

this weeks episode was pretty dire. D D Jacksons performance the the guy (or girl?) in that silver spaceman suit making funny noises was quite laughable! BBC special effects haha!!

 

I'm not sure if it was the BBC who arranged the robot. The sound though, the monotonic voice of "I am your automatic lover, automatic lover" is on the record.

 

 

I am enjoying watching the TOTP episodes, they were ones I watched at the time in my youth, and did remember some of the 1977 ones I had recorded at the time. In 1978 I didn't record TOTP episodes. I did used to often tape from the top 20 countdown. That's all they counted down back then and the whole thing was packed into an hour which meant many songs were truncated to fit. And of course it was mono, had a DJs voice often over the intro and was in general poor quality. That's what home-taping was like and so buying the single was the option if you wanted the whole thing in better quality. Perhaps why there wasn't the outrage that occurred that subsequently happened in the download era.

 

TOTP played what was being charted at the time, and always had a policy of preferring artists who could perform "in the studio". Punk acts often did come to do just that, which is why we get a fair amount of it. Just because there was none in last week's episode didn't make it that bad. The full episode had "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty in it, and Suzi Quatro one more time, and Chic. And Genesis with "Follow You Follow Me", a good song and we saw what Phil Collins looked like in 1978 (yes he had hair).

 

I know you lot probably hate ballads but "Too Much Too Little Too Late" is a good song, and Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams were both great singers, especially the former. Automatic Lover is a good song, I don't care what people thought. "Do It Do It Again" is a fun song. I even quite like Matchstalk Men & Matchstalk Cats & Dogs.

 

Alan Price was ok. The only ones I really didn't like were Child's boring cover of the Searchers and that guy who did that disco song near the end with Legs & Co on stage dancing with him. Bonnie Tyler wasn't particularly good either.

 

Don't worry, there is a really golden era just around the corner BUT not all the music in it is great, and the Smurfs spent 6 weeks at #2.

 

Excellent post, Earl Purple, welcome to the thread, you obviously know your stuff! When all is said and done, I personally think that the 1978 editions have represented the best music over the two years or so this thread has been going, depending on your taste, of course. Certainly what I see as quality and original pop from acts like Gerry Rafferty, Kate Bush, and Blondie have provided '78 moments to savour.

 

I was only 16 at the time that these editions were first shown, so they are so meaningful to my growing up period and transition from puberty to a more complicated adult life!

 

As for taping them, such technology was rarely used in my household in 1978! Occasionally taped the charts off the radio, as many would have one at that time.

 

Now, of course, you have tivo, youtube, digial downloads, ipods, ipads, it is hard to AVOID recorded music, even if you wanted too! How times have changed.

 

Anyway, enough nostalgia from me, as I say,welcome to the hread, Earl Purple. :)

A bit of an improvement this week although last week did leave plenty of room for that.

 

 

Raydio over the rundown. Hasn’t really aged well.

 

Squeeze again. Hmm, red top and green trousers. Do you think he’s colour blind? And, of course, Jools plaing a different tune from the one he plays on Later every week.

 

Repeat showing of Dan Hill, the slimline Demis Roussos.

 

Oh god, the Bee Gees again and Legs & Co.

 

Bryan Ferry with a song that wasn’t a hit, stalling at number 67 in May. At least we know who inspired Richard Madeley’s haircut.

 

Sheila B Devotions Singing in the Rain cut but there’s always the repeat for people who liked it.

 

Graham Parker and the Rumour with this week’s nod towards punk-ish music. The best song of the week so far.

 

Andrew Gold with the follow-up to the superior Lonely Boy. This (Never Let Her Slip Away) was his only top ten hit.

 

Michael Zager Band - thanjfully somebody invented the mute button.

 

Richard Denton and Martin Cook with a TV theme tune which owes more than a little to Pink Floyd. Don’t remember this at all.

 

The Eurovision entry from Co-Co edited out. Also cut Boomtown Rats and Demis Roussos (the fat Dan Hill).

 

And Brian and Michael are still number one for their last week.

 

Eton John with one of his lesser hits over the closing credits.

 

We skip a week next week as Jimmy Savile presented the next one so some of these songs will probably appear again.

Thanks for the analysis, suedehead, just seen it on the interactive service. Not much more to say in terms of the songs on this week's programme, you said it so well!

 

But how about two bouts of Leg & Co?! To hell with the music, that makes the programme worthwhile all by itself as far as I am concerned. :heart:

 

Trivia question for this week - does anyone have the telephone number and address for any of these girls please? :P

 

No, seriously, I think I have a trivia question to keep you all occupied for a little while. The Saturday Night Fever song by The Bee Gees was on again, a film soundtrack song, of course, so how about a few more film soundtrack songs to have topped the UK charts over the years?

 

Should be a fair few.

 

All the best,

 

BC B-)

Wanderin' Star by Lee Marvin was the first one to come to mind followed by Hugo Montenegro's theme to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. There are others such as Unchained Melody which was the theme for a fairly unsuccessful film (Unchained) but nevertheless became a massive hit for the Righteous Brothers. The song was then used in the film Ghost and it topped the chart again. It is one of the ten highest-grossing songs of all time.

 

There are other songs that were not written specifically for a film but have got to number one after appearing on a soundtrack such as Ben E King's Stand By Me (great song, great film).

 

I'm sure I can think of more later, unless other people take the opportunity to beat me to it.

Take My Breath Away, Help!, My Heart Will Go On, Fame (belatedly), Who's That Girl, oodles of others...

I wondered why Unchained Melody was called Unchained Melody - thanks!

The usual mixed bag this week...

 

 

Good start with The Stranglers over the countdown.

 

Sadly, it couldn’t last with The Dooleys as the first studio act. It only got to number 60 so this performance should be a one-off.

 

Some soul from Ruby Winters - OK if you like that sort of thing.

 

Tonight - a bit of a porkie from David Jensen. The follow-up to Drummer Man was not “just outside the top 30”. It peaked at number 66 a few weeks later. Drummer Man was far better.

 

Donna Summer - nowhere near her best.

 

Hi Tension - the Doop Doop of their day, charting with an eponymous song. Has there ever been a good eponymous song? Talk Talk by Talk Talk is OK I suppose .

 

Darts - another entertaining performance from them.

 

Two decent songs in a row as we continue with Boomtown Rats. Bob Geldof’s hair still relatively neat and tidy. Not so sure about his choice of clothes.

 

John Paul Young - The FGrank & Walters used to do a wonderful version of Love Is In The Air in their live shows. I can only find a studio version

 

 

Manhattan Transfer reviving a Glenn Miller song from the 1930s.

 

Bee Gees at number one for the second week - the previous week’s Savile programme was skipped. Thankfully Stuart Hall never presented TOTP.

 

Playing out with yet another airing for Squeeze.