Insular: “Ignorant of or uninterested in cultures, ideas, or peoples outside one’s own experience.”
When Kate Bush was elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023, I remember having a discussion with a friend who was reasonably knowledgeable about most things musical. His contention was that Bush got recognized because she was fortunate enough to have one of her songs featured in an episode of Stranger Things.
While it is true that the 2022 re-release of “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” - the Stranger Things song - did lead to the reclusive singer’s only top 20 hit in the USA, I tried to point out that Kate Bush that the original release in 1985 had climbed all the way to number three in the U.K.
These one-hit wonders were highly successful, just not in the USA
It was one of over a dozen top-twenty singles Bush released in her home country, including six in the top five and one number one.
Hardly a one-hit wonder. Still, you will find Kate Bush’s name on plenty of one-hit-wonder lists because here in the States, we consider the Billboard pop chart the one accurate barometer of success.
It’s certainly true that for much of the rock era, hitting it big in the USA has led to greater income. The USA is big and rich, and its marketing arms wrap around the globe several times.
But to deny the global impact of bands from the rest of the world – particularly from the U.K. and Ireland – is ludicrous. It ignores the seminal role British and Irish musicians have played as well as the natural cultural ties they have to the rest of Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
Last year, Forbes Magazine ranked the greatest rock bands of all time. Thirteen of the top 20 artists hailed from outside the USA. Most came from England, but Ireland, Australia, and Canada were represented. British bands ruled the top of the list.
The first four were from the U.K. It would have been the top six if you count the Jimi Hendrix Experience, a band launched and initially championed in England.
So I’d like to briefly address that the following bands, regardless of what Wikipedia or your older brother might say, are decidedly not one-hit wonders. Only the most parochial use of that term would make them so.
And here at Audiophix, we pride ourselves on not even knowing the meaning of “parochial.”
Free – “All Right Now” (1970)
It’s easy to understand why Free is considered an OHW. They weren’t around long enough to accumulate a bunch of hits. Over five years, Paul Rodgers, Paul Kossoff, Andy Fraser, and Simon Kirke cranked out six albums, and only “All Right Now,” from Fire and Water, scored in the USA.
But the epic blues ballad “Wishing Well” and the piano-driven “My Brother Jake” were both top ten hits in the U.K., while the rocker “Little Bit of Love” made it into the top 20. The band broke up in 1972, with Rodgers and Kirke forming the new RRHOF inductees Bad Company. Any chance for a proper reunion was quashed by guitarist Kossoff’s death in 1976, at age 25.
Kraftwerk – “Autobahn” (1975)
The revolutionary electronic, slimmed-down version of “Autobahn” was an unlikely club hit in the early days of disco. As one of the progenitors of krautrock, the German band’s influence on electronic, synth-pop, and EDM would be immense.
Even though “Autobahn” would prove to be their only top forty hit in the USA, Kraftwerk would have five other top forty singles in Germany as well as a bunch in the U.K. “Computer Love,” from 1981, climbed to the top of the charts in Britain. Not bad for a group that was about as far removed from a “singles band” as you could be.
Thin Lizzy – “The Boys are Back in Town” (1976)
My campaign to get one of the best Irish bands of the ‘70s into the RRHOF hasn’t really picked up steam yet. American ears only recognize the catchy pop of “The Boys Are Back in Town,” which hit number 12 in ’76 and was their only significant success in the USA.
In the U.K., they scored 15 top 40 singles, four of which reached the top ten. In Ireland, six of their songs landed in the top five. If all you know is the pop rock of “Boys…” or perhaps “Jailbreak,” give a listen to the harder-driving guitar songs like “Waiting for an Alibi” or “Whiskey in the Jar,” which were popular hits across the pond.
Nick Lowe – “Cruel to Be Kind” (1979)
Nick Lowe never had great success on the singles charts. Even in his native England, he has only scored a few genuine hits. I can’t attribute it to his jumping around from band to band. He still put out a fair number of solo albums. And those albums always fared pretty well. There’s no question about their influence on pop music or Lowe’s footprint as a producer.
But we’re not talking about influence or critical acclaim here. To not be considered a one-hit wonder, you need to have hits. And Lowe did have more than one in the U.K. “I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass” actually outperformed “Cruel to be Kind” in the U.K., and “Cracking Up” also sneaked into the top forty.
That’s three hits by my reckoning. Which, if I’m remembering my math correctly, is more than one.
David Essex – “Rock On” (1973)
All right – if you think my Nick Lowe argument was iffy, here’s one of the most obvious examples. David Essex had a massive hit in the USA with “Rock On.” It made it to number five in 1973. (The fact that a lifeless cover climbed to number one in the following decade is one of the true travesties of Billboard chart history.
But we’re not talking about that.) A few follow-ups from Essex sneaked onto the charts, none even making it as high as number 70.
But in the U.K., where Essex was also a sex symbol film star, “Rock On” was just the beginning of a career that saw him reach the top ten a dozen times, with two of the songs going all the way to the top. From the glammy rock of “Gonna Make You a Star” to the traditional bubblegum pop of “Hold Me Close,” David Essex was a massive star in the U.K.
Suzy Quatro – “Stumbin’ In" (1978)
Suzy Quatro should have been a star in the USA. If they weren’t several decades ahead of their time, the Qautro sister act – the Pleasure Seekers – would have been one of the most essential proto punk acts of the 1960s. The USA was not ready for girls playing hard rock at that point. Like Jimi Hendrix, Quatro had to go to England to be discovered.
Her glam hits never seemed to catch on in the States. Over here, she was only known for her guest spots as Leather Tuscadero, the fictionalized version of herself that she played on the hit sitcom Happy Days. She parlayed that into a soft rock hit with Chris Norman that hit the top ten on Billboard.
Over the previous five years, working with glam gurus Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, Quatro had a string of major hits globally, highlighting the glam knockouts “Can the Can” and “Devil Gate Drive,” number one hits in the UK and beyond.
Gary Glitter – “Rock and Roll Part 2” (1972)
Perhaps the less said about Gary Glitter, the better. Revelations about his repugnant sex offenses involving underage girls have landed him in and out of prison over the past quarter century.
As a historical fact, there’s no doubt about his success as a musician. Between 1972 and 1974 alone, Glitter released nine consecutive top-five singles in the U.K. Though he would fall from that lofty peak, he would continue releasing charting singles for years to come. More’s the tragedy.
It was his success that granted him access to naïve fans. Gary Glitter (real name: Paul Francis Gadd) was not a one-hit wonder, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t a monster.
Mott the Hoople – “All the Young Dudes” (1972)
David Bowie gave Mott “All the Young Dudes” and it put them on a path to glam success, however brief. “Dudes” cracked the top 40 in the USA but Ian Hunter and Mick Ralphs were not able to build on that success. Ralphs would soon leave to join up with half of Free in Bad Company.
Even so, Hunter did write four more songs that got Mott back into the top 20 in the U.K. over the next few years before Hunter also left and the band gradually fizzled away.
Roxy Music – “Love is the Drug” (1975)
“Love is the Drug” reached number 30 in the USA. But in the States, Roxy was often known more for the glamor of its album covers than for its music.
Not so in the U.K. or the rest of the world, for that matter. In the U.K., Bryan Ferry and mates had a remarkable 14 top-20 hits, half of which reached the top five. All in the space of a broken-up decade.
T Rex – “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” (1971)
We’re ending with one of the most obvious examples of this particular brand of provincialism. “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” was just called “Get It On” in the U.K., but it had to be renamed because a song with that title was already making some noise in the States in 1971. “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” was a top-ten hit in the USA.
It was number one in the U.K. and Ireland and charted across Europe. Whereas T Rex would never crack the top 40 in the States again, they would have eight singles get as high as number one or two (split evenly, four and four) in the U.K. from 1970 to 1972. T Rextasy was massive and the band was anything but a one-hit wonder.
Plenty of other bands fall just outside the parameters of one-hit-wonder status and are still not properly appreciated because of their relative lack of success in the USA. From the glam gods Slade to the metal giants Iron Maiden, some bands were huge worldwide but didn’t register as big in the USA.
Iron Maiden announced they no longer want to be considered for inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's hard to blame them. When you have a couple of dozen songs that have been major hits worldwide and a string of hugely successful albums but still fail to win recognition from an institution that purports to honor rock music regardless of origin, I think your disgust is understandable.
At least the Hall finally got around to putting Kate Bush in.