The internet can’t seem to decide who is and isn’t a one-hit wonder. The primary factor in the confusion derives from a Billboard-centric view of the music industry. The reasoning essentially says that if you don’t have a hit in the USA, you don’t have a hit. That is why a band like Madness shows up on plenty of “one-hit wonders” lists.
Madness scored a top-ten Billboard hit in 1982 with “Our House.” In terms of major hits, that was it in the USA. However, in the UK, between 1979 and 1983, the ska/pop Londoners placed 15 singles in the top ten. 15! Top ten! “Our House” wasn’t even close to their highest-charting song.
And you can basically double the number of their “hits” if you broaden the definition out to the commonly accepted top-40 threshold.
How close did these 12 classic 1970s rockers get to achieving a second top-40 hit?
That’s kind of what I want to look at today. How close did a bunch of classic 1970’s one-hit wonder acts come to having a second single crack the top-40 on Billboard, which would thus remove the OHW stigma from their resume?
I’ll caution you in advance – I’ve seen reputable websites identify artists like Dave Mason and the Ozark Mountain Daredevils as OHWs. Neither was, provided you count top-40 releases as hits. Hell, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils weren’t even close. Their second highest-charting, “If You Wanna Get to Heaven,” made it to 25 in 1973. (“Jackie Blue” was a number-three hit a couple of years later.)
We’ll go chronologically.
Free
The British rockers scored a major hit on both sides of the Atlantic with “All Right Now” in 1970. It was number two in the U.K. and number four on Billboard. Despite having a few follow-up top 20s in the UK, nothing else cracked the Top 40 in the States. The closest they came was “The Stealer,” the single that followed “All Right Now.” It topped out at number 49.
I can kind of see why one of their subsequent UK hits, “My Brother Jake,” didn’t register on Billboard. It sounds decidedly British to me. But their final hit, “Wishing Well,” a potent blues rocker that didn’t even crack the top 100 on Billboard, really should have been a hit. Perhaps the fact that they were about to disband and morph into Bad Company dampened enthusiasm.
T. Rex
This is a much clearer example of Billboard bias. To call T. Rex a one-hit wonder has to ignore the four number ones and six other top five singles the band had in the UK. Ten top five hits in a relatively compressed period does not equal OHW. For a brief moment in the early ‘70s, Mark Bolan was as big as Bowie, and T. Rex was the glammiest of all hitmakers at the height of glam.
But in the States, only “Get it On” (renamed as “Bang a Gong (Get it On)”) scored. It climbed to number ten in 1972. Their next highest-charting was “Telegram Sam,” from the follow-up album, which peaked at 67. Other glam glories like “Jeepster,” “Metal Guru,” and “Children of the Revolution” never made a dent despite being massive UK hits.
Sadly, after some setbacks in the mid-‘70s, Bolan died in a car crash in 1977 just as it appeared he might be on the verge of a comeback.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
ELP were probably a little too prog rock to score big in the USA in the early ‘70s. They were a staple on FM radio back in the day, but they barely cracked the top 40 with Greg Lake’s “From the Beginning” in 1972.
Another Lake tune – written when he was 12 years old – came close. “Lucky Man” was their very first single released on their debut album in 1970. It made it to 48, the closest they ever came to the top 40 with the exception of “From the Beginning.”
They were even less successful in their homeland, save for Keith Emerson’s take on Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” an instrumental number that soared to number two in the UK in 1977.
Mott the Hoople
Mott the Hoople had a string of decent hits in the UK in the early 1970s, including “Roll Away the Stone,” “All the Way From Memphis,” and “Honaloochie Boogie,” all penned by Ian Hunter. The biggest of them was also a hit in the USA, albeit a much more modest one. “All the Young Dudes,” gifted to Mott by David Bowie, hit number three in the UK and number 37 in the USA.
The only other time they even breached the top 100 on Billboard was 1973’s “One of the Boys,” and 1974’s “The Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” both of which sneaked on at number 96. By then, guitarist Mick Ralphs had already left to join Free’s Paul Rodgers in Bad Company, and Hunter was on the verge of going solo.
David Essex
Essex may be the starkest example of the USA/UK divide – even more so than Madness or T. Rex. His first successful single, “Rock On,” was massively successful on both sides of the Atlantic. After that in the USA … crickets. That has led to the very popular actor/singer’s designation as an OHW. That ignores nine other top ten hits in the UK, as well as another ten or so that cracked the top 40.
But in the USA, the only other time he even reached the top 100 was with the “Rock On” follow-up, “Lamplight,” a slinky, bluesy tune in the style of Leon Russell’s “Tightrope.” Russell’s number was a top 20 hit in 1972, but “Lamplight” topped out at number 71. Essex’s biggest UK hits had more of a theatrical, music hall vibe that never played particularly well in the USA.
Lou Reed
This always stuns me whenever I encounter it. It bothers me so much I have to check back and reconfirm what I know to be true. Lou Reed, quite possibly the best rock and roll songwriter who ever lived, had one – and only one – charting single in the USA.
He lamented that the first line of his obituary would identify him as the singer of “Walk on the Wild Side,” which was a top 20 hit in 1973. After that, nothing.
Not “Vicious,” from the same Bowie-produced album that gave the world “Walk on the Wild Side.” Not the effervescent “I Love You, Suzanne,” a decade later. Not the sensational “Dirty Boulevard,” from the magnificent New York in 1989. A recording of 1972’s “Perfect Day” for a charity project in 25 years later did give him his only number one hit in the UK. But in his native country, nothing.
Roxy Music
The tension between the Brians – Ferry and Eno – resulted in some stunning music from Roxy. But despite ten top-tens in the UK, 1975’s “Love is the Drug” was their only top 40 hit on Billboard. And it only made it to number 30.
“Dance Away,” from 1979, came close but stalled at number 44. Eno was gone by that point, and Ferry was in charge. A young Luther Vandross contributed to the vocals. For some reason, their 1982 hit “More Than This” did not even make the top 100 in the USA.
Thin Lizzy
“The Boys are Back in Town” made it to number 12 in the USA in 1975. Thin Lizzy, the Irish rockers fronted by the sensationally talented Phil Lynott, were transitioning from a blues-heavy guitar band that had scored with “Whiskey in the Jar” a few years earlier into more of a pop-rock outfit. But they maintained a great guitar attack.
Even so, solid rockers like “Jailbreak” and “Waiting for an Alibi” never scored in the USA. The western-tinged “Cowboy Song” was the closest they came to another Billboard hit. It made it to number 77 in 1976. Thin Lizzy split up in the early ‘80s, and Lynott, suffering from heroin addiction, died a few years later.
Randy Newman
“Short People” was a smash hit in 1977. It climbed all the way to number two on the Billboard chart. I hardly ever hear it today. It seems that Newman’s well-known sarcasm doesn’t sit well in today’s hyper-sensitive atmosphere.
Another satiric number – “The Blues,” with vocal assistance from Paul Simon – reached number 51 in 1983. The better-known single from that album, “I Love L.A.,” didn’t even make the top 100. Of course, with Newman, there is a caveat.
His song for the movie Toy Story, “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” has been certified as triple platinum, but in part because of its odd identification with a beloved movie franchise, it has continued to sell without ever technically charting.
Warren Zevon
Zevon’s relationship to “Werewolves of London” was not unlike the one between Lou Reed and “Walk on the Wild Side.” Both artists wrote and performed countless excellent songs and were frustrated by the fact that they were continually associated with something that they considered a bit of a novelty. “Werewolves of London” hit Number 21 in 1978, but none of the other four singles from Zevon’s top-ten album Excitable Boy charted.
The only other number in his extensive discography that even made the top 100 was the excellent “A Certain Girl,” from 1980’s Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School. And I have a theory about why.
For reasons that baffle me, the single that was released after “Werewolves of London” was “Nighttime in the Switching Yard,” arguably the weakest track on Excitable Boy. Had Asylum chosen to make “Lawyers, Guns and Money” the follow-up single, I believe history would have been altered.
Patti Smith
Smith’s debut album Horses had wowed critics in 1976, but its only single, a magnificent cover of Van Morrison’s “Gloria,” failed to find popular support. A few years later, she took hold of a tune that Bruce Springsteen had begun but couldn’t finish. Smith finished it, and “Because the Night” made it all the way to number 13 in 1978.
After that, she returned to her role as a critical darling who did not score hit singles. “Frederick,” written for her future husband – guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith – was her only other charting single, number 90 in 1979. “Dancing Barefoot” should have been at least a minor hit, but it only charted in the Netherlands.
Nick Lowe
Nick Lowe had a number 12 hit in 1979 with “Cruel to Be Kind.” His top ten UK hit “I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass” did not register in the States, nor did several other perfect power pop gems from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.
In 1986, “I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock ‘n’ Roll”) hit number 77. That song had also been recorded by Dave Edmunds, with whom Lowe formed the sensational Rockpile in 1980. And it should be noted that the Rockpile song “Teacher, Teacher,” with Lowe singing, did make it to 51 in 1981.
If you would like a bonus …
Steve Martin had a top 20 hit with “King Tut” in 1978. It was his only top 40 hit, but he did have one charting single before it – “Grandmother’s Song” (number 72 in 1977) and another after, “Cruel Shoes” (number 91 in 1979). “Grandmother’s Song” features the timeless lyric “put a live chicken in your underwear.” For the record, I do not endorse that suggestion.
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